Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1011 - 126: A Stronger Enemy

Chapter 1011: Chapter 126: A Stronger Enemy

The knight girl was very aware that, from any perspective, the past deeds of her best friend and partner were equally admirable. Although most of the participants from back then had not sacrificed their lives, every one of them had charged into Death’s Gate with the resolution to die. After a direct confrontation with the remnants of Danacus, it was almost as if they had already died once. Moreover, the pain Pannis endured was probably not any less than death itself. The girl remembered the first time she saw Pannis—filthy, numb, desperate, despondent—like a heap of rotting, stinking mud. It was hard to imagine what kind of heavy blow it would take to make someone who had once been nearly perfect end up in such a state. What on earth had happened back then? Why did none of the survivors know? For a moment, the knight girl felt that she had been infected by Lina’s curiosity, becoming as curious as her.

"Eh, what’s up?" Pannis asked with a puzzled expression, scratching his head as he looked at Catherine, "Why are you suddenly staring at me and laughing so weirdly? Why do I feel so uneasy all of a sudden? Could it be that you’ve found out about the two gold coins I secretly took from your purse before I left to buy some drinks? That can’t be right, I clearly put several pieces of metal of the same weight in there, and you haven’t had the chance to use money these past few days, so it’s impossible for you to have opened your purse and seen them. Ah, I get it, you’ve been secretly counting money again... Um, no, no, no, you heard wrong, I didn’t say anything, that was just noise from the Royal Palace just now, really, hey, hey, I really didn’t say anything, what are you drawing your sword for, calm down, this is the Elven Royal Court, where bloody conflicts are strictly forbidden... ah..."

Watching Pannis fall from the edge of the tree branch and looking down to see no trace of him, the girls all knew he must have taken the opportunity to hide again. Catherine’s smile grew wider; this fool always used the same tactic to change the subject, which was simply too dumb. But every time she saw him do such a foolish thing, a sweet feeling would wells up in her heart. Perhaps it was this clumsy tenderness that had touched her own heart. Could it be that Lady Nellie had fallen in the same way?

"Perhaps the most correct thing I’ve done in my life," Catherine reflected deep within herself, "was to reach out to him in Quinzel Town. I couldn’t stand to see a genuinely kind person perpetually sink into pain, so I decided to extend a hand of redemption to someone I had only known for a day, hoping to pull him out of the abyss of suffering and back to this normal world. But now, looking back, was he really the one being redeemed? In the end, who redeemed whom?"

"Nobody redeemed anybody." Suddenly, a hand patted Catherine’s waist from behind, waking her from her contemplation. It was Vivian’s voice, the Mage who could see through people’s hearts, knew her sister all too well and easily guessed her thoughts. Speaking softly, she said, "It’s just the process of several people struggling in the mire, supporting each other to climb out. There is no redeemer and no redeemed. You, me, Lina, including Freya, we’re really all the same."

"She’s right," Lina, familiar with the thoughts of her two loved ones, understood Vivian’s seemingly nonsensical words without needing to think about it: "Every one of us is actually the redeemed party, and many times I dare not imagine what our future—no, exactly our present would be like if we hadn’t received that quest to find the Life Force Potion. Or say, if we had received the task but hadn’t had the chance to meet him, what would have happened afterward?"

"Maybe we wouldn’t necessarily have died," Catherine pondered, biting her lip before speaking: "But we certainly wouldn’t have come this far so smoothly. Especially me. Although nominally it was me who reached out to him, it was actually him who pulled me forward all the way. I’ve received so much courage from his support behind me. Perhaps we really did pull him up from the pain, but what he gave back to us was far more than what we had given. Sometimes, I even feel a bit indebted and guilty."

"Actually, that kind of thinking isn’t correct," Flare suddenly interjected, startling the girls engrossed in their own world into nearly screaming—not out of fear, but embarrassment. They had momentarily forgotten that they were in the midst of strangers until they were brought back to reality by her words. However, when the girls automatically looked around, they were relieved to find that they weren’t standing on the branches of the World Tree, and there were no other people around. The place they were in was also within a forest, and in the center grew a distinct tree. It wasn’t tall or stout but filled with a gentle visual appeal, its branches tenderly drooping down, swaying lightly with the breeze. Beneath the tree, the Elf Queen Flare sat gently smiling by the trunk, telling the girls on the grass, "This tree is the image of my Companion Tree. What do you think, isn’t it beautiful?"

"Is this your Inherent Psychic Domain?" Catherine felt a sense of relief, "When did you pull us in?"

"It was probably from the moment Vivian spoke her first words to you, I felt that you needed me to do it then," Flare said in a gentle voice. "However, I didn’t pull in the little Triclops girl, um, actually, I couldn’t."

"Thank you so much, otherwise it would have been quite embarrassing," Catherine said sincerely, "But what did you just say? We shouldn’t think that way? Why?"

"Yes, you shouldn’t think that way," Flare said. "You haven’t seen Kyle before, so you can’t imagine how big a blow he took back then. Although I don’t know the reason, the blow that completely shattered him must not be so easily resolved. Yet, after all these years, only you have done it. Moreover, you are not Demigods, you don’t know how much change in his heart the appearance of an Inherent Psychic Domain signifies. Even just for that, he has every reason to repay you to any extent. Of course, these are not important, the most important thing is, if there is still a sense of distance between you similar to ’I gave more to you, and you gave less to me, so I owe you’, then I would be very pleased."

Catherine’s furrowed brow gradually smoothed out as she smiled elegantly like a noble, nodding and saying, "Indeed, we are family, we shouldn’t consider the matter of who owes whom anymore. But I do find it strange, we should be enemies, right? Why would you pull us in to say this?"

"Because I’ve recently had an increasingly strong premonition," Flare said, losing her confident smile for the first time, her voice filled with both grace and everything seemingly under control. "Perhaps we need to face a more powerful enemy together."

"What do you mean?" Catherine was startled, pressing for an answer, "A more powerful enemy?"

"It’s not certain yet, but I think you’ll know soon enough," Flare spoke softly, "When the time comes, you will naturally remember what I said today. It’s an enemy that neither you nor I would ever want to face."