Free Web NovelChapter 36: A Beautiful Reunion
Alfric completely froze, his fist hovering mid-air as he refused to believe what he just heard. He slowly, disbelievingly turned his head back toward the mattress. He saw Liora looking at him with a long-closed opening.
The entire room instantly dropped into a vacuum-like silence as every single person froze on the spot.
They were looking at a literal impossibility.
An impossibility that Duke Alfric had spent vast fortunes trying to get; an impossibility that the loyal household workers had prayed for every single day; an impossibility that the entire duchy had been waiting three years straight.
Liora remained against the pillows as her head slightly turned toward her aged, terrified father and her thoroughly beaten-up older brother.
Her tired, misty blue eyes blinked, slowly adjusting to the light after years.
Alfric stood like his muscles had been locked in place. Even Emma, guards, and servants were paralyzed, completely failing to process the miraculous happening.
Eren wiped the blood from his lip and looked at his newfound sister, giving her a simple, genuinely warm, and incredibly soft welcome smile. "Good morning, my dear little sister. That was a long nap you took."
Liora’s lips trembled, her weak vocal cords straining as she called out once more. "Papa...? Brother? Is that... really you?"
She made a faint, desperate attempt to lift her fragile upper body, but had no energy after years of complete inactivity.
"Welcome back to the living world, kiddo," Norelia said softly. With care, the librarian gently supported the fragile girl to sit up against the headboard, revealing a strange device attached over her heart. It had the Astreus Stone glowing with a soft, pulsing crimson light
Liora looked down at her tiny, pale hands. Her fingers twitched. They were moving.
She was moving.
Her long-closed eyes were blinking, absorbing the ambient colors of the physical world. Her voice was actually working. It was as if a cruel, endless nightmare that had trapped her soul in a darkness for three years had suddenly ended.
Her vision began to blur as overwhelming tears flooded her eyes; they burned slightly from the sudden exposure to the light, yet she stubbornly forced herself to look at every single familiar face standing in the ruined room.
"I’m... I’m moving now," Liora whispered, a small sob breaking her words. "I can finally talk... I can see you all."
She tried to force a happy smile, but tears overflowed, falling down her thin cheeks as she began to cry out loud, her tiny shoulders shaking violently.
"I... I was so scared, Papa— It was so dark."
Alfric unconsciously released his grip on Eren’s collar, taking a single, trembling step toward his daughter. "Liora...? Is this... is this real?... am I trapped in an illusion? Am I dreaming?"
The powerful lord of the Volsver domain looked utterly terrified; he was hesitant, believing that if he dared to touch her, the beautiful dream would shatter back into painful reality.
But hearing her heartbreaking cries could no longer contain his pent-up desperation. He lunged forward and threw his arms completely around his fragile daughter to comfort her.
"I’m here, sweetheart! Papa is right here!" the Duke wept openly, his entire body shaking as he buried his face in her silver hair, entirely unbothered by the fact that everyone was watching their lord completely break down.
"It was so dark... I wanted to get up so badly..." Liora cried into his shoulder, her tiny fingers feebly clutching at his shirt.
"I know, I know... I’m so sorry, my girl," Alfric choked out, the heavy guilt pouring out of his soul as he tightly cradled her. "Forgive me... your father was too foolish, too weak to help you. I let you suffer in the dark for so long..."
Emma stood in the center of the ruined entryway, her storm-grey eyes visibly glistening with a wave of profound relief and pure happiness.
Liora wasn’t just the Duke’s precious heir for her; she was the only girl who had truly been a genuine friend to Emma since their childhood. For three agonizing years, Emma had watched her drift away into a permanent sleeping state.
And now... she was back. No—Eren had actually pulled her back from the void.
As the rest of the people respectfully looked on the weeping Duke and his resurrected daughter, Emma’s eyes slowly drifted away from the bed, scanning the debris until they locked onto a specific, isolated person slumped against the stone wall exactly where she had ruthlessly thrown him.
He was bleeding, loosely looping his arms around his knees to support his bruised rib cage. Yet, despite his utterly pathetic, beaten-up physical condition, he was just quietly watching the family reunion play out with a soft, genuinely cute smile that Emma could not deny.
[Ding!]
[Achievement Unlocked: Wake Up the Trapped Little Princess!]
[You have successfully overridden a legendary-tier terminal disease and changed a major family tragedy.]
[Fates changed: +5.]
[Reward: +700 Fate Points.]
[Current Total: 2050 FP]
[ALERT: Current Fate Point Balance has successfully breached the 2000-point threshold .]
[INITIATING Personalization And Custom Adaptation of the System. Please wait for the reboot layout...]
Honestly, he couldn’t care less about the system’s achievements or the update notification right now.
The only thing that actually mattered to him was the gentle crimson glow pulsing above Liora’s heart. It was proof that the impossible had become reality. Two weeks of intense manual labor, running blind calculations, dodging maid honey traps, handling sudden engagement, and dealing with a lazy librarian had officially paid off.
A sibling he had never even exchanged a single line with was finally talking again.
"Man... what an absolutely exhausting shift today," Eren muttered under his breath, a tired and satisfied sigh escaping his bloody lips.
The adrenaline spike that had kept him running for forty-eight hours with no sleep was finally dropping to zero, adding to the heavy throw from muscle mommy. His eyelids grew heavy, his vision instantly fading into a blurry, out-of-focus haze.
His head slowly lolloped to the side, and he went completely limp, slumping sideways.
"Eren!!"
A synchronised panicked scream of two girls he knew was the only thing he heard at that moment.
