Chapter 103 :
Episode 23 : Noel Absolute (1)
"I'm not sorry for what I did at all." Coming out from the shadow with my chakram dagger on his neck, that person chuckled.
Once his appearance was becoming clearer as he walked up to me, my eyebrows wavered slightly with my eyes suddenly widening.
In spite of having a hood masking his face, I was able to recognize who he was. And my mind faintly felt like it was surfacing a memory I preferred not to be reminded of.
‘Why are you here..?’ My mind filling up with guilt, caused my hands to tremble a bit.
The boy in front of me expressed a smile on his cunning face, glancing at me in the eyes as he opened his lips to say this.
"Father."
"Noel." I spoke, dropping my guard down a little bit while clenching my hands to prevent myself from trembling.
Standing there with a shock expression, I called back the chakram that was on his neck. When I caught the flying chakram dagger, I let Lucifer morph himself to a katana, staring at Noel who was still snickering over there.
"Hasn't it been a while, father?" Noel asked, stepping closer to me.
"I'm no longer your father."
"Yes and no. But you are, aren't you?"
Upon getting beside me and standing there, I slid my katana at his neck and was ready to kill him if I had to.
As if I could do that, I would have done it in the past to stop this unending guilt from towering up in my subconsciousness.
‘But why is he here? Then is she here too?’ I thought while I stared at Noel.
Looking at him properly, Noel appeared to be a normal 12 years old boy, but that was just an illusion to fool everyone's eyes. Like how one's appearance cannot describe one's personality, it can't also determine one's true age.
"Ah ha. I'm sorry, I should be making you feel comfortable." Noel said, removing the hood that was covering his hair and ears.
As he took it off, his hair as blue as the cold sky was descending to the ground, wholly reaching down near his knees. Not only that, the one thing that could get anyone's attention, was his lengthy ears.
A whole different being compared to my comrades, the boy named Noel, had revealed himself as a winter elf.
"..." I shook my head from just thinking about the sight I was witnessing, by then I asked him. "How's your life?"
"Good. After you left us a few millenniums ago, we were thriving fine."
"So you brought me here using that ‘Winter’ bear over there." Poking my katana onto the fur of the bear, I gazed at it for a moment.
"Yes." A tone of voice that sounded as if it was a mix of forlorn and apoplectic feelings, was speaking behind me.
As clear as the sky, I knew exactly how Noel must feel being abandoned by the past me and was left behind to rot within this cold world.
"Do you want to relieve your anger on—"
Not letting me finish my sentence, I got punched in the face by Noel as he continued to pummel me to the ground, smacking me with his fists a lot of times.
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[Hidden Skill, ‘Simulation’ Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]
[Hidden Skill, ‘Simulation’ Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]
[Hidden Skill, ‘Simulation’ Lv. 2 has offset the pain.]
Hitting with all his might, his eyes became teary upon a few seconds of smacking me, but even so, he didn't cry nor shed a tear on my bruised face.
"You.. you! You could have at least visited us! Or depend on us while you arrive in this world!"
"But instead! You kept running away! Avoiding us as if we were young to live in a battlefield!" Noel resumed talking while punching me nonstop.
"You don't know.. how much me and Noelle had suffered by waiting for you to come to us for just one day! Even if it's just a second!"
"Why..!? Because of you.. Noelle.. and I became a monster.. a vessel!"
Enough of this, Noel wiped his teary eyes with his fists that seemed like they were bleeding after beating me up.
At that moment, I grabbed his hands, preventing him from injuring his fragile hands much further as well as putting a stop on hitting me again, since my HP would deplete until there was nothing left.
Anyways, I spoke with an unwavering voice even though I was hit by the throat and lips. I started looking at him in the eyes.
"Noel, I didn't raise you to be like this."
———
⟨ Two identical elf babies laying inside a basket on the cold snow of the snowy mountain, cried continuously while shivering through the chilly wind and snow piling up on their bodies.
The reason they were there was because they were abandoned by their parents, being left away in the snow to die without food and drink nor anyone to care for them.
As obvious as it was, there was a near 100 percent death sentence to these twins who were just infants. No hopes of praying for their own survival and no luck surviving through this ‘Winter’ world by themselves, they were destined to die.
But as if a miracle was blessing upon them, a man came across these twins, finding them by accident when he saw a bump of snow building up from the flat layer of snow.
Before he removed those snow, he wasn't expecting such a scene of babies on the snow. As a result, he was overcome with bewilderment and wrath while he laid his eyes on these poor twins.
That man who didn't receive his true memories until his last moment, was named Lucas Absolute, aka (Wang JoonChul) Satan's 505 life.
At that point, Lucas was somewhat a blessing to those twins since he took in those twins as his own, raising them as if they were his own childrens.
Not only that, he went as far as living inside Stage #13 forever to raise these twins by himself, avoiding all the possibilities of him entering a new stage.
Since Lucas's life was already great to have such carefree twins beside him, he and the twins thought they were enjoying the time of their lives.
However, because of the difference between a human's and a winter elf's lifespan were as large as Mount Everest, Lucas Absolute died before he could get to see the twins mature into adults much less teenagers.
Entirely leaving behind those twins by themselves, Lucas's guilt was built up inside Satan's subconsciousness as he continued to live more endless lives.
As a result of Lucas's guilt, Satan (JoonChul) throughout his lives didn't pay a single visit to those twins, but only spied on them to give them easy access to food, beverages and clothes to keep them alive.
As Satan resumed on doing this countless times, the twins not once had seen their father figure after his death.
With the only information from their father's last words which were mostly related to Satan's limitless reincarnation, the Absolute Twins did everything they could to find their father again, but their attempts were futile.
Because of this, the twins named Noel Absolute and Noelle Absolute who watched their father figure dying before them, witnessed the final sight of their dying father in front of them, not knowing that they could not ever see their father again from that moment on. ⟩
‘Until today.. That's the story.’ Lucifer talked inside my head while I was resting on the ‘Winter’ bear that I killed.
‘You don't have to remind me, I already knew subconsciously.’ Narrowing my eyes as I looked at my hands, I hovered my glance over to Noel.
Naturally, Noel was treating his hands after he sat himself down onto the ground. At the exact time, I was gazing at him with a slight guilt, suddenly looking at my hands and imagining that one moment where I carried those twins when they were babies with my own hands.
‘It was me but at the same time, Lucas wasn't me. He's just a fail that didn't recover his memories.’ I told myself, denying my 505's life and biting my lower lip.
Lucifer, noticing my mood, spoke to me. ‘Master. You're getting angry and sad.’
"I know." I mumbled while getting up from my spot to walk toward Noel.
Needless to say, Noel stood up immediately when he saw me walking up to him, completely hiding his hands behind him as though he didn't want me to see it.
I smiled bitterly as I extended my hand toward him. "Noel. Give me your hands."
"..." Noel didn't respond to me, but I still insisted on fixing his hands for him.
[Imitation of ‘Miracle Web’ Lv. 3 has activated.]
As a result, I reached out my hand to his, holding his hands before applying the web all over them, making the web seem like gloves.
Noel tried to shake off my hands while I was treating him, however I didn't let go and continued to aid his hands.
Thus, he was obviously mad. "Let go of my hands."
"I'm done already."
Removing my hands away from his, I backed away to treat myself as well, since my face was utterly ruined than its usual was.
[‘Noel Absolute’ has activated the Hidden Skill, ‘Cryokinesis’ Lv. ???.]
Out of the blue, my body came into a halt upon the spot, not moving an inch when I was attempting to walk. And lastly, I could feel a slight sense of freezing on my skin.
"Don't leave." Noel spoke, toning his voice in a daunting way.
Although it didn't intimidate me, I was a bit afraid of what he was supposed to do by trapping me within this cave.
Most likely, Noel was still upset at me and wasn't satisfied by just pummeling me to relieve his frustration.
In reality, I knew why he was preventing me from going outside and regrouping with my team.
Eventually, I let out a sigh before asking Noel. "You and Noelle agreed on being the vessels for the Ice Dragon, didn't you?"
As if I asked him a critical question, he unleashed a lot more of his power on freezing me, making me experience frostbite and feel the cold sensation decreasingly getting lower and lower.
"Noelle.. She and I desired to see you again. That was why we took a risk because of you, father."
His voice shaking from just telling me the truth, still talked to me in a calm manner, not once did he lose focus on keeping me at bay though.
"But since we took a risk, Noelle.. She was frozen in the center of the temple! Even if she is actually alive, it was awful to see my sister looking as if she was dead already!"
"..And.. it was suffocating to be alone without her.."
Soon enough, despite being in a cave that could echo the smallest noise, it became silence after Noel finished his sentence.
"..."
Because I didn't want myself to freeze to death, I took a deep breath to talk things through with Noel in a civil manner.
But out of the sudden, when I opened my lips to speak, the guilt within me uttered these words instead.
Sounding serene, I pleaded. "May you give me a second chance to redeem myself as a good father to you and Noelle?"