#113

“Yes. Even Hiscleif couldn’t avoid the seizure. The ‘Butterflies’ eventually succeeded in creating a contagious drug.”

Ella muttered with a devastated expression. Hearing this, Cersia shivered for a completely different reason.

“That’s basically like zombies, isn’t it?”

“Zombies?”

“Yeah. Monsters that bite people.”

Cersia imagined a future she hadn’t lived through and felt a chill. The thought that the looming future might be worse than war—a full-blown pandemic—made her vision darken.

And beastmen who lost their reason and shot pheromones uncontrollably? That was even more terrifying than zombies.

If what Ella said was true, they had to be stopped before the drug production was complete. Ella spoke again.

“As soon as I opened my eyes, I headed to Hebel. I believed the secret lay in the one place where the drug didn’t work.”

“Then saving Isaac’s life too…”

“That’s right. I approached him deliberately. I needed a legitimate reason to move freely in and out of Hebel.”

“So that’s why you endured Isaac’s bullying so calmly.”

“Yes. At this rate, there’s no escaping the future I ran from. I needed to find any kind of clue.”

How hard must it have been, knowing the future all on her own?

While Cersia had spent a brutal winter as a weasel, Ella had clearly fought a lonely battle in Hebel.

It faintly occurred to her that her own possession might be related to Ella’s return in time.

Ella had once said it had been about a year since she arrived in Hebel, so the timeline more or less lined up.

None of this felt like coincidence. It felt like some grand fate was tying them together.

Cersia cautiously asked,

“Did you find any clues?”

“…Unfortunately not. I haven’t discovered anyone connected to the Butterflies yet. It seems the drug’s ineffectiveness is due to Hebel’s mist. But since the mist belongs to the Divine Beast’s domain…”

“I see.”

If the mist held the power of the Divine Beast, then there could very well be something special about it.

From the start, strong pheromone-wielding beastmen had always been weakened inside the mist.

And recalling the memories of the Divine Beast she’d seen during the Saintess trial, Cersia remembered that the original purpose of Hebel’s mist was to act as a barrier preventing beastmen from entering.

Only Larien, the one permitted by the Divine Beast, had been able to take on a human form, suggesting it had once been even more powerful.

If the mist was strong enough to prevent even the black lion from transforming, then it must have served well as a fortress in the future.

Since the mist belonged to the Divine Beast’s domain, analyzing it alone must’ve been a near-impossible task for Ella.

And considering she was only staying in Hebel temporarily, the restrictions must have been severe.

Ella glanced at her nervously and asked in a weak voice,

“Are you disappointed? Because I haven’t found anything?”

She seemed to think the long silence meant disappointment. Cersia quickly shook her head and clarified.

“No. If it were something that could be solved so easily, then the future you experienced wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

“Lady Cersia…”

“You must’ve suffered. It must have been really hard, carrying all of this alone.”

At her calm and sincere words of comfort, Ella’s expression crumpled with emotion.

“I just felt a little lonely. No one remembered me.”

“I understand. I felt the same. This place is so different from the world I lived in that it was hard to adjust at first.”

Unlike Ella, Cersia had come from a completely different world. From the moment she opened her eyes, she wasn’t even human anymore—she was a weasel. That alone was an overwhelming reality.

How many people could stay sane after turning into a weasel?

Of course, being a weasel beastman was a small mercy. If she’d actually been born a real weasel, that would’ve been terrifying in its own way.

Ella blinked in surprise. Though she must’ve known about the possession through the guardian’s contract, she clearly hadn’t expected Cersia to come from a completely different world.

Ella herself was a possessor born and raised in Amataras.

“The world you lived in, was it very different from here?”

“Yeah. In my world, there were no beastmen. If there were talking animals, they’d have been on TV a long time ago.”

“TV?”

“Mm, I meant it’s such a strange phenomenon that if it had existed in my world, everyone would’ve known about it.”

“I see…”

After that, Cersia and Ella spent quite a long time talking about things they couldn’t tell anyone else.

Just having the shared experience of knowing the future made them feel much closer than before.

After a moment, Cersia spoke.

“I heard from Naaman before. He said the reason you can leave Hebel unlike the other priests, even without pheromones, is because you lost them later in life. Does he know you’ve returned from the future?”

“No. Lord Naaman thinks I lost my pheromones because of an illness. You’re the first person I’ve told about my regression.”

“Well, there’s no need to tell the person who once tried to offer you up as a sacrifice.”

Cersia couldn’t help but feel a twist of bitterness when she thought about how Naaman had tried to sacrifice Ella.

Come to think of it, Naaman was the most enigmatic figure in all of Hebel.

He was the only priest in Hebel who still had pheromones, yet the mist didn’t affect him at all.

That was likely due to the protection he received from the ever-awake guardian, the Peridot of Eternity.

Of course, he couldn’t take even a single step outside of Hebel, but within its borders, he wielded absolute power.

If the world outside Hebel was completely devastated in the future, that power would have been even greater.

Then Ella spoke.

“I heard there was a divine revelation.”

“That revelation could have been something Naaman made up. He’s the only one who can read the holy texts or commune with the Divine Beast.”

What she said might have sounded irreverent, but Ella only gave a faint, bitter smile.

“At the very least, it probably helped calm the public’s anxiety.”

“If he turned you into a sacrifice for such a shallow reason, I have even more reason to dislike him.”

Cersia said it firmly, her expression hardening—as if to say, such a thing was absolutely unacceptable.

Ella, who had rolled up her sleeves, gazed at Cersia with a soft look in her eyes, touched by her defense.

“I’m all right. It’s all in the past now.”

“Ugh, you’re just too good for your own good. How are you supposed to survive in such a cruel world?”

Cersia let out deep sighs like a weary adult. Seeing her act like an older sister despite her petite, childlike appearance made Ella smile without meaning to.

Then Cersia said,

“Now that I think about it, the reason you were surprised by my pheromones must’ve been because of the time regression. That power was originally yours, wasn’t it?”

“Yes…”

As her pheromones came up, Ella naturally recalled the person who once gave her advice before she returned to the past.

‘If that power is too much to bear, there’s a way to let it go. You simply pass your fate onto someone else.’

Back then, she had grown sick and tired of her own power—so much so that she wanted to throw it away to anyone who would take it.

That was why she had so impulsively followed the advice of someone whose face she could no longer even remember.

As a result, Ella’s fate had been transferred to Cersia.

And Cersia, completely unaware of any of this, was now gazing at Ella with such warm eyes.

For a moment, Ella nearly confessed everything to those sincere, trusting eyes.

But if she did, it might ruin the relationship they had now.

The closer she grew to Cersia, the harder it became to speak the truth.

As she struggled with guilt, Ella’s eyes began to burn with heat. Just as she opened her mouth, ready to finally tell the truth—

“Actually…”

“This is bad. If you find out I have two sets of pheromones, you might faint from shock.”

Cersia’s completely unexpected confession made Ella freeze, the truth lodged in her throat.

She hadn’t considered this complication.

“What? You have two pheromones?”

“Yeah. I’ve got two.”

“But a beastman with two pheromones…”

“Isn’t supposed to exist. Which is why my body’s basically a ticking time bomb.”

Cersia gave an awkward smile. Ella couldn’t hide her growing panic.

She never imagined Cersia would have additional pheromones—let alone two.

As Ella opened her mouth and then faltered, unable to speak, Cersia continued.

“According to Tabby, once I reach adulthood and all my powers awaken, my body won’t be able to handle it.”

Thud.

At that moment, Ella’s heart sank like a stone to the floor.