The Villainess Intends to Have It All - Chapter 53

Morning had come early to the temple, and before they knew it, half a day had passed and it was afternoon.

Although Raharta and Isahel suggested staying at the temple for a day, Erina decided to move to the tower right away.

She bid farewell to Raharta and Isahel, who wanted to see her off until the end, promising to meet again in front of the temple.

Erina headed towards the gate, receiving excessive escort from everyone.

Despite the unexpectedly long time that had passed, Tarshan and the sages at the gate were still busy studying it.

“Great Sage.”

“You’ve come.”

Tarshan’s face, which had been greeting Erina happily as she approached the gate, suddenly hardened.

Although the bright red scratches had all disappeared, healed by applying holy water, her haggard complexion could not be hidden.

Tarshan looked at the temple once and then at Erina, heaving a deep sigh.

“Countess, wouldn’t it be better to move tomorrow?”

“It’s fine to move right away.”

Seeing Erina’s resolute face, Tarshan sighed again and guided her to the gate that was still operating.

“The gate is still open?”

“The gate stays open for a full day once activated. It just requires an enormous amount of mana stones compared to other artifacts.”

As they walked towards the gate, Tarshan explained various things about it.

Meanwhile, they passed through the gate connected to the tower and encountered another scenery.

Unlike the white, single-story temple that was tall, the tower boasted an enormous height.

It was literally a very tall tower.

“It’s really high.”

“It’s a place that has existed since the Magical Era, originally a tower for magicians. There are 117 floors, and each floor houses one sage. It’s operated with the same system as the magician’s tower from the Magical Era.”

As they headed towards the tower together, Tarshan enthusiastically explained about it.

While the temple gave the impression of a place where priests lived together, the tower seemed like a place where they didn’t invade each other’s territories.

The inside of the tower was wider than expected.

The first floor was a hexagonal space, no less spacious than the reception hall of the imperial palace.

“The others will stay in the waiting room, and you, Countess, will move directly with me to where the Book of Wisdom is.”

Tarshan gestured to the sages to guide the knights to the waiting room.

However, Heila and Baroon frowned and asked Tarshan.

“Is it a place we cannot accompany you to?”

“We’re worried because you collapsed after visiting the Fountain of Wisdom at the temple.”

As Baroon and Heila asked in turn, Tarshan gently reassured them.

“It’s a place only the Countess and I can enter. It seems you’ve already seen a lot at the temple, so there shouldn’t be anything more to worry about.”

At Tarshan’s somewhat ambiguous words, Erina looked at him.

Somehow, he seemed to know what Erina had experienced at the Fountain of Wisdom.

“Heila, Lord Emkil, I’ll be back soon.”

When Erina spoke directly, the two couldn’t erase their worry, but they retreated, respecting her wishes.

After seeing Heila, Baroon, and the accompanying knights head to the waiting room, Erina moved with Tarshan.

“The Book of Wisdom is located on the topmost floor, so we’ll move using the lift.”

“Lift?”

“Think of it as a small gate that moves within the tower. Interestingly, it’s a gate that operates from the tower itself and doesn’t require mana stones.”

The lift Tarshan mentioned was an opaque cylinder large enough for about ten men to stand closely together.

As Erina entered the cylinder following Tarshan, he operated a button on one side.

Suddenly, the wall turned golden, flashed brightly, and then became opaque again.

Then the outside scenery changed.

“My goodness.”

Erina couldn’t hide her exclamation of surprise.

“This way.”

Tarshan led Erina out of the cylinder.

The place they arrived at was an empty space the same size as the first floor.

Thinking there was nothing there, suddenly something appeared in the center, though it wasn’t clear when it had appeared.

“This is where only the Book of Wisdom is kept. It’s also a place visible only to those permitted.”

At Tarshan’s gesture, Erina discovered a small table in the very center with a golden book floating above it.

As Erina approached closer with him, she stopped at Tarshan’s call.

“Countess, did you see everything at the temple?”

Indeed, Tarshan seemed to know everything.

“…Yes.”

At Erina’s answer, Tarshan smiled kindly and stood in front of Erina, facing her.

“Then before you look at the Book of Wisdom, I have something to tell you briefly.”

Looking at Tarshan reminded Erina of Raharta.

Tarshan’s infinitely warm gaze resembled Raharta, who had offered to become family.

But Tarshan had black hair and brown eyes.

Yet, it was a bit puzzling that she felt something similar to what she had felt with Raharta.

Perhaps Erina’s puzzlement showed on her face, because Tarshan answered without being asked.

“Ah, I see Raharta talked about the golden color. Do you perhaps feel something similar to Raharta?”

When Erina nodded, Tarshan continued.

“Actually, my eyes were originally golden. What the deity needed to turn back time was not just the central axis. A corresponding sacrifice was needed.”

“Sacrifice?”

“Yes. Something that hadn’t been directly touched by the deity’s hand, but still contained a faint trace of the deity’s power. That was my golden eyes.”

Erina covered her mouth with both hands in surprise.

“Don’t tell me, you can’t see…?”

“Hahaha, no. The deity just took away the power contained in my eyes. But seeing your reaction, it seems not all of it was taken.”

Erina understood why the Pope and the Great Sage, whom she was meeting for the first time, had treated her so intimately and kindly.

What had been vague when she first met them now felt certain.

Tarshan led Erina closer to the Book of Wisdom.

“Actually, the Book of Wisdom is not a book of prophecy as others believe. It’s just a book containing truth and knowledge.”

Strangely, the Book of Wisdom was floating above the table.

The book made of golden paper was open to the page with Erina’s name written on it, and in the middle of the book was attached an elegant golden feather.

“What I want to tell you is about the power called the deity’s power, mana, Melchytum.”

Erina was surprised.

What Tarshan was about to say seemed to be that the deity’s power mentioned in the temple and the mana mentioned in the tower were the same thing.

“Are you saying that the deity’s power and mana are the same?”

“Yes, that’s right. The power possessed by the deity’s child, Melchytum, opened the Magical Era, but when the deity saw many people dying due to human greed, they took back Melchytum. After that, the Magical Era ended. However, the deity, worried about humans, sends roots once in a while. The evidence of this is the golden color.”

“How do you know this so well?”

At Erina’s question, Tarshan’s face turned bitter, like Raharta when talking about the Risky family.

“Unlike Raharta, who was the axis of time, I was merely a sacrifice, so I don’t remember my previous life, but the content I saw in the Book of Wisdom remained.”

“Ah…”

As Erina didn’t know what to do, Tarshan comforted her, saying it was alright.

“It’s okay. Now, try grabbing the feather.”

Erina took a deep breath and carefully grasped the beautifully placed golden feather.

Then, a golden light emerged from the feather, circling Erina’s hand and climbing up her arm.

Strangely, where the golden light lingered, an inexplicable warm sensation remained.

The light that gradually climbed up reached Erina’s face and suddenly absorbed into her eyes.

“Gasp!”

Once again, as with the Goddess’s Fountain, her vision was tinged with gold.

[This is the timeline separator]

It felt exactly the same as before.

Her head felt hazy and light.

But unlike before, all her bodily sensations were intact.

She saw what happened after Rose stole Melchytum from her, which she had seen in the Goddess’s Fountain.

Rose used the Risky family heirloom [Lycatino Eblam] to steal Melchytum from Erina just before she died.

What happened after Erina died, which only Raharta knew about, followed.

The mana stone mines that were losing power became contaminated by the Melchytum Rose possessed.

It was because two powers that should never have mixed were combined.

Mana stones mixed with fairy power led people’s instincts, and as the golden color remaining in the human world disappeared one by one, the seeds of destruction sprouted.

Finally, the goddess, unable to watch anymore, spoke to Raharta and Tarshan.

[I will turn it back. But your sacrifice is needed.]

Raharta and Tarshan willingly agreed.

It was because their hearts ached watching those they cared for die one by one.

With their consent, the goddess detached a part of herself and turned back time to before Erina died.

The goddess, who watched Erina’s death more painfully than anyone else, whispered to Erina.

‘Do you wish to go back.’

With Erina’s breath barely remaining, the goddess urgently asked once more.

‘Child, do you want to go back?’

To those words, Erina herself answered in a desperate voice filled with resentment.

[I want to, I want to go back. To before I met that woman, to before I loved Peiron. Please, give me back everything.]

The goddess looked at Erina with pity and caressed her.

Then she left one word to Raharta and Tarshan and turned back time.

[Watch over that child.]