The Regressor and the Blind Saint
chapter-261

Elia was blessed with another sunny day.

However, the atmosphere was frozen solid.

It wasn’t for any other reason.

“Is His Holiness grumbling again?”

It was because of Elia’s very own ‘former’ Holy Emperor, Vargo, and the mood that arose due to his reinstatement.

At Theresa’s question, Trevor smiled uneasily.

With a sigh, she watched him nod while scratching his own cheek.

“Honestly, have all these years been wasted on you? You’re utterly insensitive.”

Since his reinstatement half a year ago after Renee’s return and subsequent departure with Vera on a trip, his grumbling had only increased day after day.

It wasn’t impossible to understand.

Having spent his time happily tending to the gardens and his flowers, this situation obviously didn’t sit well with him.

However, even justified grumbling grew tiring as time dragged on.

Thud.

Thud.

Heavy footsteps echoed down the hall.

What came into view of the two who raised their heads was Vargo with a sullen expression.

Theresa’s eyes narrowed.

Seeing this, Vargo spoke.

“What’re you staring at?”

“How can you stumble around so indignantly at your age? Don’t you have any dignity?”

“Hah! Since when did I care about stuff like that?”

Vargo’s beard bristled aggressively.

What followed next was more grumbling.

“Does that punk plan to go on a lifelong trip? What the hell is he doing, not coming back for half a year already...?”

“Leave them be. They have finally reunited after being through so much, and they need time.”

“He’s basically telling me to stay put here till I kick the damn bucket.”

Vargo smacked his hips loudly.

“And why’s it gotta be me in the first place, huh? I don’t even have the stigma anymore. That means I’m not an Apostle.”

Trevor’s lips pursed tightly as he stood still.

As Vargo had said, the stigma on his arm had vanished shortly after Vera’s departure.

Not even Vera, who returned, knew the reason why.

He merely left these words.

- Though we didn’t exchange any words, their intent seemed to clearly grant permission. The Gods have fulfilled Your Holiness’ wish.

That the Heavenly Gods were watching over them.

Trevor, shaken by those words filled with the Love of God, had no rebuttal.

Meanwhile, Theresa looked at Vargo as if he were pathetic and spoke.

“Go do your work. The children will return when the time comes.”

Vargo clicked his tongue and turned away.

“Just let them try and come back! I’ll definitely...!”

Despite losing the stigma, the ever-robust Vargo still simmered with anger as he waited for Vera’s eventual return.

***

There were those who lived in a dreamlike moment.

They were the ones who had finally reached each other after overcoming countless adversities for far too long.

Vera and Renee left on a trip.

Simply holding each other’s hand tightly, they began revisiting all the places they had been to until now, one by one.

And so, they reminisced over their memories.

Amidst the happiness they had barely managed to gain, Vera became the chattiest person in the world.

Each time they arrived somewhere, he would endlessly talk about what this place was like back then, and how it differed now.

As they gazed at the lush greenery of the Great Woodlands and the mountain ranges in the Federation, went sightseeing the Foundation Day Festival in the Empire, visited the Academy, and even dropping by the Land of Orcs to spar and chat with Hodrick, who was now the King of the Cradle, Vera was constantly talking throughout the journey.

Renee listened to it all with a smile.

She engraved every detail of the voice she had wished to hear for so long. His lips that uttered those words, and each expression he made as he spoke.

Eventually, they reached a place of unforgettable memories.

The trading city of Eirene on the outskirts of Oben.

Vera and Renee walked along that very spot where the two had once crossed paths.

Lake Tennern, where winter broke, shone brilliantly as always today.

Hand in hand, the two boarded a boat and leisurely sailed towards the center of the lake.

Renee smiled as she gazed at the scenery spread before her.

“Oh, we were here before.”

Her sky-blue eyes took in the lake and the dazzling snowscape beyond. As she did that, memories of this scene came back.

- I… like you.

- Very much,

- Saint.

She recalled the sweet whispers he had told her.

Whether it due to the icy wind or the rush of emotions, the tip of Renee’s nose had turned red.

Vera engraved Renee’s appearance into his mind as he rowed the oars.

Half a year had passed. They had traveled together every single day since, yet something still felt surreal.

It was the reality of being reunited and together again.

‘...The stigma.’

Renee no longer had the stigma.

She was no longer the Apostle of the Lord, nor was she blind.

After all this time, the truth was finally revealed. Her lost vision had been the price for the Lord’s Power.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“No, I’m good.”

Renee stretched her hand out past the boat and flicked the water's surface with her finger.

“Look, it’s making ripples,” she said with a faint smile.

It still felt strange.

She had lived in the darkness since her childhood up to that long regression, so being able to see truly felt captivating to her.

‘Well, not in this regression though.’

Those memories now only remained as a vague recognition that ’something like that happened’, rather than anything concrete.

‘They were sealed...’

Vera had said that he sealed away all of her memories from that time in order to sharpen her worn mind.

He also mentioned that the new body she currently inhabited was forged from the divinity of heaven.

Renee looked at Vera.

His ashen eyes beneath his black hair and masculine features made him incredibly handsome.

Every glance was both awkward and thrilling for Renee.

Renee’s cheeks reddened.

‘So handso…’

Her lips shut tightly.

There was one fact she realized upon regaining her sight.

She was a woman susceptible to good looks.

That had to be the reason why her heart still skipped a beat whenever their eyes met, even half a year after first seeing Vera’s face.

To put it in words currently trending in the Academy’s Secondary School, Renee was a hardcore ‘sucker for a handsome face’.

Should it be considered a gift?

Vera gained the funny ability to defuse Renee’s anger merely by showing her his face.

...Of course, this was something Vera remained unaware of.

“Saint?”

Vera raised his head to look at her. As he saw her unfocused eyes and subtly flushing face with slightly parted lips, he grew worried.

‘Is she still adjusting to that body?’

It wasn’t the body of a human, but the body of a heavenly being.

Naturally, her body was extremely healthy with a lifespan and constitution that easily surpassed the human norm. However, that came with the risk of a disconnection with her soul.

Thus, the issue Vera worried most about over the past half year was whether her soul had safely settled, and it tore him on the inside whenever she became vacant like this.

“Oh, it’s nothing...!”

Renee subtly avoided Vera’s gaze, then she squeezed her eyes shut.

‘He’s so handsome...!’

Whoever’s boyfriend he is, he’s really handsome!

Too handsome!

No matter how I think about it, being handsome is the best!

That worried face looking at her, the talkative face happily laughing, that sleepy face about to pass out, and even the face with tears streaming down.

Thump thump.

Renee remembered the expression Vera had when she first opened her eyes.

It was something Vera hadn’t shown even once since that day.

The memory of his tears made her heart flutter.

Renee agonized.

‘...Can’t I see it just once more?’

She wanted to see Vera’s crying face.

Whenever she thought about that face, a naughty feeling would arise and wouldn’t leave her mind, to the point where she couldn’t stand not seeing it again.

However, that was an incredibly difficult task.

Vera was a knight at heart.

Moreover, even if his stomach were slashed open, he would vomit blood but he wouldn’t cry.

A frustrated noise escaped Renee’s tightly pursed lips as she agonized further.

“We’ve arrived,” Vera said.

Renee instantly raised her head and looked around.

They had already reached the center of the lake before she knew it.

The lake where frost crystals that couldn’t fully freeze glistened in the sunlight.

It was being dyed crimson.

“Ah... the sun is setting.”

The sun sank below the snowy mountains.

How had time passed so quickly?

As Renee absentmindedly expressed awe at the scenery, Vera said.

“It was this spot the last time as well.”

Thump.

Renee’s fingertips trembled.

She immediately realized what he meant by ’last time’.

‘The confession...’

The day he confessed.

It must have meant that she was standing at this very spot on that clumsy and therefore thrilling day of confession.

Renee’s gaze turned toward Vera.

His gently curved ashen eyes looked back at her.

Those eyes that seemed to draw her in made her body tense up for no reason.

“Do you remember the promise I made back then?”

Thump—

Renee’s heart skipped a beat.

Her eyes widened.

- …proposal.

The words engraved deeply in her mind made her thoughts come to a halt.

It took her breath away and ignited her body with heat.

There was a suggestive silence enveloping the two of them, which continued for quite some time.

The setting sun disappeared, and the world darkened.

The eyes looking at each other shifted from the color of the evening glow to the color of starlight.

“...You promised a magnificent proposal.”

Vera took a step forward and took out a small case from his pocket.

Click—

As the case opened, something with a powerful presence entered Renee’s view.

Her face contained a dazed look.

Vera smiled and moved his lips.

Worried he might mess up like last time if he just went in blindly, he shamelessly recited the words he had rehearsed while watching himself in the mirror.

“I want you for the rest of my life.”

It was a confession true to his style.

The corners of Vera’s mouth quirked up subtly.

“Will you allow me?”

Renee captured it all in her eyes.

In the middle of the lake underneath the night sky that seemed to melt away, a man was kneeling down on one knee and was extending a ring towards her.

His pale face shining in the moonlight, and a flush of red spreading across it.

Her trembling gaze soon found herself etched in the depths of his ashen eyes.

There was a woman with a foolish expression on her face.

What followed was an utterly cliché reaction.

Renee covered her mouth with one hand.

Her face went through all sorts of emotions as tears streamed down her face.

Then, she reached out her hand and gave her answer.

“Yes...”

It was fortunate.

The time of day Vera had chosen after much agonizing allowed the lake where winter broke to illuminate her tears with starlight as they fell over his body. The frigid air scattered those tears, transforming each one into another star in the sky.

Vera tried to calm his pounding heart but found it impossible.

As his long-awaited moment had arrived, she was so breathtakingly beautiful that Vera could not help but lose his composure and laugh like a little boy.

Vera picked up the ring, and slipped it onto her ring finger very slowly.

They didn't speak further.

Gazing at each other with their hands interlocked, their lips quietly overlapped.

As promised so very long ago.

After a long and arduous journey, the man and woman marked the conclusion of their lengthy tale with a cliché yet beautiful proposal.

『The Regressor and the Blind Saint <End>』