Free Web NovelChapter 281: LEON YOU CRAZY BASTARD!!
A bird chirped somewhere outside the cave.
The fire Irene lit crackled softly.
"...."
"...."
Leon’s eyes locked on Irene’s face. Then he felt something soft touching his lower part.
He looked at her crouched over his lower body, hands frozen on his half pulled down pants.
Irene’s brain completely stopped functioning.
Leon blinked slowly. His voice came out cracked and hoarse.
"...Irene?"
She did not respond.
She could not respond.
Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out.
"What... are you doing?"
This was something even Leon had not expected to witness. Irene’s face had become crimson red. Unable to make a single sound.
Leon swallowed dryly.
"...Is this." He rasped. "Irene, what are you up—"
"IT IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!!"
Irene shrieked so loudly that birds scattered from the trees outside the cave.
Anise jolted awake on the other side.
"Wha—what?! Enemy attack?! Where?!"
Anise scrambled up, half asleep, looking around frantically for danger.
But there was no danger.
There was only Irene, frozen in place with her hands on Leon’s pants, face glowing red like a lantern.
And Leon was awake. He was staring at the ceiling of the cave now. His expression was somewhere between exhaustion and confusion.
"...Leon?" Anise whispered.
Then her voice grew louder after she completely woke up.
"LEON!"
She crawled towards where Leon was. Irene moved to the side. The first thing Anise did was check his pulse. Holding his wrist, and then she checked his eyes.
There was nothing wrong. Leon was completely fine. He looked even healthier than before.
Leon just let it happen. He did not stop Anise, nor did he ask Irene anything.
Instead, he was trying to wake Rumi up.
’Rumi? Why are you not answering?’
He had tried many times, but he got no reply from her side.
Leon could feel Rumi’s consciousness inside of him. But for some reason it seemed to Leon as if she was still asleep.
Irene caught onto this.
"If you are trying to communicate with Rumi then do not bother."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Irene put the wet cloth inside the bucket and told Leon everything that had happened after he fell into a coma.
"...ten... years?"
Leon muttered.
He was not surprised because ten years seemed like a huge number, but rather because it was way less than he had imagined.
Freezing time for a Calamity would easily take half a century of his life.
It was all thanks to Rumi that he had woken up this soon.
Leon slightly smiled.
’Guess I have to treat her to her favourite food when she wakes up.’
But that smile soon faded as he got to know about all the people who had laid down their lives for him.
They trusted him that much? Enough that they put their lives on the line, in the hope for Leon to wake up one day and pull off some absurdly unimaginable miracle?
If it were someone else, someone who did not witness Leon freezing Dreamweaver that day, then no one could have believed it.
It was all thanks to that, and also to Rumi who had made the others believe that it could be possible. And that only Leon could pull this off.
But still...
Leon raised his head and glanced at both Irene and Anise. He looked around the small cave which had no proper bedding, and the clothes they had were all used for Leon’s comfort.
Anise had that shine in her eyes while she looked at Leon.
Of course, after she had lost her only daughter, and the city she had built, Leon must have looked like the only hope who could return everything back to her.
And Irene...
Leon’s eyes settled on her.
"Uh..."
There were tears in the corners of her eyes. But she was not crying at all. She was holding it in.
’These two were the only ones left...’ Leon felt his throat ache.
They had seen the others take their last breath.
Leon could not even imagine how they had felt all these years. How they had slept all these years.
So the only thing Leon could do for them was return everything they had lost.
He had the power to do it after all.
His voice still came out hoarse. But it was steady now.
"Anise. Irene."
Both of them looked at him.
"I am sorry." Leon said.
Anise lowered her gaze.
"You do not need to apologize." She said quietly, shaking her head. "It was not your faul—"
"No. It is my fault." Leon shook his head slowly. "I know all of it. And I know whose fault this is."
"Leon, do not—" Irene started.
"It is mine." Leon said firmly. "I miscalculated everything. I thought I could outsmart a Calamity. But I was wrong. And everyone paid the price for my mistake."
Irene wanted to argue, but she stayed quiet.
Because she knew Leon would not want to accept comfort.
"But." Leon said.
His golden eyes lifted.
He looked at his own hand. Flexed his fingers slowly.
"They were not wrong to believe in me."
Irene held her breath.
"Anise." Leon said. "You said Rumi told you to contact my sister. Well, good news. You have already done half of my work. And knowing her authority, she must have already started the preparations."
Leon lightly chuckled.
’I always knew, my dear sister... you have known this all this time...’
His expression grew tense.
’And just wait. I am going to squeeze out every last ounce of info you kept hidden from your own brother.’
’Just you wait...’
With that, Leon sat up straight.
"Listen to me carefully. Both of you."
The two women leaned in.
"Everything that was lost. Evana. The people. Ethan. Cyan. Will. Xuo. Lillian." Leon said each name slowly. "Everything.... I am going to bring all of it back."
Anise’s eyes widened.
"Leon... you are not going to use—?"
Leon grinned.
"I am saying exactly what it sounds like."
He looked at the cave ceiling. At the rough stone above them.
"I am going to rewind everything. Back to before my loops ever started. Back to before any of this happened." He looked at Irene. "Back to when we first met."
Irene’s hands clenched against her knees.
If that happened, then she could reunite with everyone else.
"You... you can really do that?" Anise whispered. "But.. what about your skill’s penalty?"
"Yes." Leon said. "I have already thought about the solution."
Irene glanced at Anise and Leon.
"What is this solution?"
Irene understood what they were discussing.
Whenever Leon used his [Creator], he fell into a long state of coma after the skill was done.
Now if Leon could rewind time, then he would fall into a coma for god knows how long right after he rewound everything.
And everything would be a waste.
"Before rewinding everything." Leon said. "I will use my Creator once. And tamper with the conditions of my own skill."
Anise’s brows furrowed.
"Tamper with the conditions?"
"Yes." Leon nodded. "Right now, the way my Creator works is simple. I give a command, and the skill executes it. Then the penalty falls on me afterward. That is the coma."
He flexed his fingers again.
"But if I use Creator on Creator itself, I can change that order. I can make the penalty take effect first. Before the skill executes the command."
Irene blinked.
"Huh... what?"
"It means." Leon said. "When I finally rewind time, the coma will hit me before the rewind happens, and not after. So when the world resets, I will already be done paying the price. I will wake up in the new timeline. Free from the penalty, with no coma waiting for me on the other side. For me, it would be as if nothing had ever happened."
Anise slowly understood. Her face went pale.
"But to do that." She said. "You would have to use Creator twice. Once to change the condition. And once to rewind time."
"Yes."
"Which means two penalties, and... and two comas."
"Yes."
The cave went silent.
Irene looked between the two of them. Her mind was racing to catch up. And so was her heart. It was racing insanely fast.
She clenched her chest tight.
It hurt so much. How could Leon just casually say this...
She slowly repeated Leon’s words. "For you... it would be like nothing had ever happened."
If Leon wanted to rewind time, the penalty for something that massive would be catastrophic.
Irene knew it well.
His solution was to use Creator first to change the rules. To make the penalty come before the command instead of after.
"So let me understand this correctly." Irene said slowly. Her voice was quiet now. She clenched her chest as she said this.
"You just woke up. After ten years. And your plan is to use your insane skill again. To tamper with its conditions. Which puts you in another coma. For months, or maybe for years?"
"Yes." Leon said.
"And then. After you wake up from that coma. You will use Creator a third time. To rewind time. Which puts you in a coma AGAIN." frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
"Exactly." Leon nodded. "Goodness, Irene. You understood this in one go. Most people would need me to explain it twice—"
"Ah."
Leon stopped.
Because this time, he saw tears flowing endlessly from both her eyes.
Her cheeks were drenched, and the tears dropped to the ground, making it wet. Irene raised both her hands to wipe them off like a small kid.
"Irene...?"
As Leon said that, Irene crawled forward to him. She grabbed Leon by the shoulders. And pushed him to the ground before tightly hugging him with both her hands.
Anise’s eyes widened. She raised her hand to cover her mouth.
"Are you crazy?!!"
Irene hissed at him.
