Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

Tears welled up in his eyes, but Nero did not understand the meaning of those tears.

The rain was light that day, but it lasted for a long time, late at night, in the courtyard of the place where the emperor was temporarily staying.

The air and clothes gradually became damp. The blonde girl's wet hair clung to her face and neck, which must have been very uncomfortable, but she didn't care. She simply lifted her face, which had been buried in her knees, and looked up at the night sky, as countless cold water droplets hit her cheeks.

Upon learning that her teacher, Novia, had not actually poisoned her, and that she had been presumptuous in believing that she was not important enough to her, she realized that she... was still the same as before, and could be abandoned at any time.

In the midst of a tranquil cacophony, Nero felt that only his own breathing sounded particularly jarring.

The rain gradually intensified, and water droplets dripped from the soaked ends of hair and the hem of clothes.

It's so cold, incredibly cold. The girl hugged her shoulders, shrinking her body even tighter.

Why, why didn't you poison me? Teacher, do you hate me? Do you not want me anymore? Are you going to abandon me...?

Nero felt his heart shattering bit by bit, as if he had lost the meaning of living. Darkness seeped into the cracks in his heart that he had painstakingly repaired, and he felt it all alone.

In the days leading up to Nero's return to Rome, he would have incredible dreams whenever he fell asleep.

In the darkness, she picked up the cold dagger and stabbed it at her teacher.

Without expression or emotion, he simply and repeatedly thrust the blade toward Novia.

She revealed an empty expression, constantly stabbing him, "Why, why?" she seemed to hear her own murmured voice.

Because it was a dream, she silently and continuously killed him in this world where only she and her teacher existed.

It's so painful, but what should I do?

Nero was in so much pain when she woke up that she couldn't help but hug the Primal Flame that her teacher had given her tightly by her pillow.

When did I start to like it?

From a time so distant I can't even remember, it all began on that very day; he is special to me.

I acted this way because I like my teacher. In other words, if I didn't have any improper thoughts about my teacher, I wouldn't have acted this way.

Am I destined to be abandoned from birth?

When my mother was pregnant with me, she was filled with hope. She believed that if she poisoned me after I was born and then committed adultery, she could divorce my dissolute and alcoholic father. My mother's hope was my despair.

"I didn't choose to be born into this world full of mud..."

The girl felt a sudden surge of intense emotions welling up inside her.

It is precisely because we are surrounded by countless filth that we yearn even more intensely for stars that are so dazzling that they are hard to look directly at.

The blood in her body gradually turned into light cotton. It wasn't an illusion; if her wrist were actually cut, cotton might really flow out.

I am just a puppet, a puppet with no value.

No wonder I'm always abandoned. It's not that I'm not valued, but as someone who was forced into this world, being abandoned everywhere is my inevitable fate.

For Nero, living was like a boring cloud rolling across the sky from a very young age.

There was neither emotion nor lingering feeling; nothing remained in my heart. All that remained were the listed, meaningless and worthless words and jarring noises. I had no desire to look at them; I simply stared blankly at them.

Curled up in this disgusting world, I kept thinking that I wished this would end soon, but the world in front of me showed no sign of ending.

The content of life is probably different for everyone. It must be filled with vibrant colors, cheerful music, outstanding family members, and unparalleled joy. There must be people like that and people like that who certainly don't want life to end so quickly.

However, in her view, her own life was over, and it was tasteless and colorless. All that remained was a self crouching there with her head in her hands, carelessly abandoned. How could she possibly make anyone happy in such a world?

Even if I wanted to remember, there's no way to. I have no reason to live anymore. My past, as they say, should simply disappear completely, so I can finally relax.

Nero, his eyes dim, grasped the Primal Flame and murmured:

"What if I hadn't been born..."

The girl who uttered those words for the first time felt as if she were in a sea of ​​fire. Every minute, every second, she was tormented by the dense, real sensation, as if swimming in a crimson sea of ​​blood, constantly swallowing filth.

The sea of ​​blood was slowly eroding the world around her, and it had already soaked the girl's lower body. She would probably be completely submerged by the sea of ​​blood and eventually melt into that scorching, filthy sea.

Nero didn't know why she was there, but her body was filled with dark emotions that seemed to be giving up, pain, and sorrow, leaving her without the strength to even struggle or move. She wanted to disappear as soon as possible.

When the blonde girl came to her senses, she realized that the sea of ​​blood had risen to her chest, and she could no longer feel her legs and arms, which were swallowed by the dark sea of ​​blood.

Oh, I see. That makes things much easier.

She thought this way, but it was also an unventable anger.

It must be because I'm someone who shouldn't exist that I'm all alone.

"There's only one person left..."

Words flowed from her mouth unconsciously, and the girl cried, not in silent sobs, but in a wail like she did when she was a child.

"...But, even though I don't know why I'm alive, I feel pain when I'm about to disappear. Why is that? Tell me, teacher."

It's truly unbelievable. Even though the girl's brain has pathologically given up, this body, which has sustained her for over a decade, is defying its owner's will and still yearns to see that person again. Thus, Nero's body begins to move once more.

Six days later, Nero returned to Rome and immediately went to see his teacher, Novia.

"Teacher, I'm back..."

She slightly opened her translucent green eyes and made a weak sound.

"Welcome back, Nero, how are you...?"

Novia looked at the extremely haggard Nero, her eyes as blank as a puppet's, devoid of any emotion.

In his field of vision appeared overlapping figures: a petite, slender body holding something, a face very similar to Nero's, their postures strikingly similar as they overlapped.

"It's nothing, I'm just a little sleepy, I'll be fine after a nap..."

The girl's nasal voice clearly indicated she had been crying. Novia stood in the bright, dazzling sunlight, staring directly at her.

"Then you can rest here with me. After you've rested, I have something to tell you."

At this moment, Nero's mind was filled with the noise of someone calling out a certain name.

Ahh, I'm about to disappear, I'm about to lose myself.

It's so hot! Why am I here?

What am I again? What am I doing here? Who is Draco? Why does this Crimson Sea call me that?

Nero's consciousness was gradually enveloped by darkness, and she felt her body slowly collapsing; these were her last sensations.

In my mind, which was slowly losing everything, only one unfamiliar name and one sentence kept repeating—

"Teacher, please, don't abandon me..."

066: I can't do it, I can't do it...

"Watch out, Novia, Nero... she's turning into a dragon!"

Melusin, who was originally inside the gun, was waiting for Novia to call her out, but the moment Nero spoke, the strongest dragon realized that the enormous magical power surging from the depths of this human's body was transforming into a dragon in a way she had never heard before, distorting the surrounding space with its magic.

Moreover, this is not a simple phenomenon of evil dragons caused by extreme desires, but a return to some kind of origin, a source, as if Nero himself was a dragon, and his previous human identity was just a false image of living in the world.

That's not the anthropomorphism of humans; quite the opposite, it's the true nature of some kind of beast that descended to earth in a form that adapted to the human world.

"........I see."

Novia understood perfectly well that the dragon Melsin spoke of was undoubtedly the beast of Sodom. Just being swept by the ominous red magic emanating from her gave him the illusion that his spirit was being devoured.

Both Melusin and Novia realized in an instant that the blood-red sea, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers, was undoubtedly staring at them.

With the help of Melsin's magic and her own magical skills, Novia was able to teleport faster than a human and arrive in front of Nero.

"Don't come near... Yu!"

With one hand clutching his head and the other holding the Primal Flame, Nero saw Novia approaching and stumbled backward.

The girl's sword-wielding posture at this moment was so laughable, so different from Panno's posture on the battlefield in the past. Despite this, it carried an indescribable aura of danger, reminiscent of death. And the primordial fire, in Novia's eyes, was also bursting with the same ominous red magic.

"Nero, I don't understand why you think that way, but I will never abandon you, nor will I let go of your hand."

Novia spoke calmly.

"Hahaha, why, why, why won't you abandon me... What value do I have to you? Even the throne, even if it weren't me, to you... you could easily find someone else to replace me! Tell me! Tell me, what value do I have to you... I clearly have no value in living..."

The blonde girl, her vocal cords twitching, whispered intermittently.

"I don't want to be abandoned... I... did nothing wrong... I will never forgive—I will—burn—the world—I will... sink you into the mud, burn you to ashes..."

The crazed blonde girl's eyes were bloodshot, and her backward steps suddenly surged forward as she raised the Primal Flame and swung it down at Novia—

At that moment, Nero briefly returned to normal, releasing the Primal Flame from his hand, which fell to the ground.

"I can't do it, I can't... I don't want to kill you, I really don't. Teacher, please don't abandon me, okay? I'm very useful, I can do anything, I'm very valuable. Don't abandon me. Killing you, teacher, I... I really... can't do it... I was wrong, please don't be angry..."

Words flowed from her mouth involuntarily, and Nero cried, not in silent sobs, but in a wail like when she was a child, and the blood-red tears never stopped. Her last words were murmured softly as if she had lost her soul, while Novia, as if she didn't care, washed away her emotions with a steady but powerful voice.

I promise you, I will not abandon you.

Despite this, the girl continued to cry, even kneeling down on the spot, curling up into a ball and weeping uncontrollably.

'Novia, Nero's transformation is irreversible; it's a miracle now, but it won't be long before she's back to how she was before. And then, I'm afraid...'

'I know, Melosin, could you slow down the gathering of this magical energy within Nero for a few days?'

Novia, who is holding Nero who is crying incessantly and stroking her back to comfort her, is talking to Melsin.

"That's possible. There are already seven streams of magic gathering here, likely stored up for a long time specifically to deal with this kind of situation. As long as she doesn't resist, I can guide her a little, and it should be fine."

Upon learning of this, Novia wiped away Nero's tears, ran her hand across her face, and said to her:

"Next, Nero, you need to rest well. I don't want the flames that have burned to the end to go out here, understand?"

He stood up gently after saying in a voice as if soothing a child what a real mother would never say to her child.

"...I'm very obedient...so...don't abandon me..."

As Nero silently closed his eyes, Novia activated a spell following the telepathic message from Melsin.

In an instant, magical forces swirled violently in all directions, and almost at the same moment, seven hills on the east side of the Tiber River in the heart of Rome converged, with Mount Quirino as the center: Mount Palatine, Mount Aventino, Mount Capitoline, Mount Viminale, Mount Esquillino, and Mount Cyrio.

The seven hills that have existed since their inception, the overwhelming 'radiance' left behind by Romulus Quirinus, the supreme god who was made of man, which can be described as the ethereal light of the age of gods, created in this instant, along with the ethereal flower shadows that are paired with it, extend toward the place where Nero is, and at the same time, combine into a multi-layered structure of lightning, which spreads around this place.

These events happened in an instant; before the people of Rome could ask many questions, the fantastical scene vanished.

"...Romulus, huh?"

Novia murmured as she carried the unconscious Nero to the bed.

Then, the revealed Melosin asked.

"What should we do next? I really have no idea. And why did things turn out like this...?"

Novia replied to Melusin:

"There's no need to delve into the cause of the problem; let's just solve it first... Let's do as the prophecy in the Book of Revelation says."

The silver-haired man remained calm, having already decided what he needed to do in a short time.

“If Nero is destined to become a beast that burns the world, then as her teacher, I cannot stand idly by and allow her flames to harm innocent people. Moreover, this is all because of me, and I bear this responsibility….”

"Okay, I'll stay with you! Anyway, after everything's over, Novia, you can introduce me to Nero!"

067: Murder

The following morning in Rome, everything was so calm that it seemed as if the phenomena of the enormous light and shadow and the illusory flower shadows of the previous day were all an illusion.

The people of Rome said that it was the emperor's personal excavation of the canal that pleased the gods, and for those who had learned magic, it undoubtedly meant that the empire had used special methods to preserve the mystery of the past.

However, inside the Roman palace where Nero lived, Novia was writing something furiously at a table.

"Melushin, open the window for me and let some light in."

Upon hearing this, the silver-haired girl, who had been held in Novia's arms, jumped down and obeyed his command to open the locked window.

The red-themed bedroom was originally as quiet as a funeral, but as Melusin slowly opened the window, a breathtaking, dreamlike view unfolded before her eyes: the sky was filled with blue, stretching to who knows where, a truly magical scene.

"Novia, Novia, what are you writing?"

Melusin was somewhat puzzled. Ever since Novia brought Nero back to the palace yesterday, he hadn't done anything about the Revelation that Novia had mentioned. Instead, he had spent the whole night writing some strange things, saying that there was only one God or something.

Although she was also puzzled as to why Novia dared to say such a thing, after all, how could there only be one god? Melusin kept suppressing herself from asking too many questions to avoid causing trouble for Novia, but deep down she still wanted to know what Novia had written.