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Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?-Chapter 476 - 91: The Will
Chapter 476: Chapter 91: The Will
Eleanor returned to the Main Plane only to find Aske dozing off at the table.
Sigh, for everyone’s sake, it must have been tough for you too during this time.
She retrieved a blanket from the bed and draped it over Aske.
Then he woke up.
"Uh, the check is done?" Aske grabbed the blanket that slid off his shoulder and asked.
"Yes," Eleanor repeated the results.
"Four infected, that many?" Aske lamented.
"Including you, maybe there are five," Eleanor picked up the Ancient Book he had been using as a pillow, "Go back, get some sleep in bed after the check is done. I’ll take the book to Weisbach’s station, and leave with the team tonight. Be careful not to teleport out randomly to avoid exposure."
"Okay." Aske’s form disappeared as he teleported back to Fire Island.
Eleanor sat down by the desk, the chair still seemed to hold his warmth. She stared at the empty table for a long while, silent.
Then, she let out a deep sigh.
She pulled out paper, ink, and a quill from a drawer, flattened the paper on the desk, and began to write a letter.
The first one was to Nora:
"Dear Nora, by the time you read this letter, I have already..."
Elsewhere on Fire Island, Aske, who had just teleported in, was immediately caught in a pincer attack by Nora and Medea.
The two girls held onto his arms from both sides, fiercely debating with each other:
"I have experience with healing; if any harm comes during the check, I can save him in time!" Nora stated righteously.
"Heh, I have much more experience with mind reading than you, he won’t get hurt under my watch!" Medea retorted with a scoff, "Don’t think I don’t know that you just want to pry into his thoughts!"
"As if you haven’t spied on his thoughts before," Nora said somewhat angrily, "You’ve seen them, so why can’t I?"
Obviously accustomed to being gentle, the girl could not sound forceful even though she was clearly upset. Medea, a seasoned old hand, was not at all intimidated, and immediately glared and barked:
"Just because I’ve seen them I need to show you? If I get married someday, should my husband be shared with you too?"
Nora: ...
Thira, standing beside, helplessly held her forehead.
It was well known that Nora would never win an argument with Medea. If gentle Nora’s power level were 10, then the feisty Medea’s would be 1000, completely crushing her, leaving Nora no room to retort.
However, the outcome of the argument wouldn’t determine the ownership of the spoils.
Because these spoils were alive!
"What’s there to fight about?" Aske said, bewildered, "If you’re not comfortable with each other, then look together."
Nora immediately nodded desperately, while Medea trembled with fury, fiercely pinching Aske’s waist.
"What’s wrong with you now?" Aske grumbled.
"Can’t you be a little more reserved? It’s your own memory!" Medea was about to explode, "Do you get a kick out of showing others your memories? Are you a pervert?"
"It’s to prevent any hidden Mind Plague, isn’t it?" Aske spread his hands helplessly, "Besides, you’ve seen them already!"
Medea: ...
Ah, this man! That matter-of-fact tone is so unbearable!
Fuming, she tugged at the ends of her hair, while Nora suppressed the urge to cheer, looked at Medea calmly (though she couldn’t quite hide the triumph in her eyes), and said:
"So, Medea. Should I check Aske, or should we do it together?"
"Together!" Medea gritted her teeth.
What if the other planted a backdoor in Aske’s mind?
Although Medea was not capable of that now, she certainly wouldn’t feel secure letting Nora check alone, judging from her own perspective.
So, the two girls surrounded Aske and began to meticulously comb through his memories, with attitudes and precision incomparable to when they checked the other girls.
"Hmm, is this Aske’s elementary school?"
"Like I said, his world is pretty boring. Not only no Extraordinary Abilities, but the technology is quite backward too."
"Are elementary school classes in the Dragon Country always so crowded? Can the teacher manage?"
"The only virtue of his elementary school was that it prohibited puppy love."
"Speaking of which... it’s not likely for someone that young to have an early romance, right?"
The two Mind Mage girls murmured among themselves, while Aske sat in his chair, half-squinting, and gradually fell asleep again.
——————————
Real Plane.
After finishing the last stroke, Eleanor carefully folded the letter paper and then wrote "For Miel" on the outside.
Beside her were stacks of neatly folded letters.
She had written a letter to each girl in the squad.
Finally, she took out another piece of paper, Eleanor steadied herself, and then began to write:
"Dear Squad Leader Aske..."
That was perhaps too intimate. She crossed out "Dear" and hesitated once more.
Even after crossing it out, the position and length of the strikeout easily gave away what the word originally was.
So she took a new piece of paper and wrote:
"Squad Leader Aske, by the time you read this letter, I’m probably already dead..."
Eleanor suddenly stopped writing and fell silent.
She started every letter to the other girls with "Dear," but the address for Aske lacked any adjectives. Would that make him feel she was deliberately distancing herself from him?
Agonizingly, she crumpled up the paper and took out a fresh sheet, indecisive and uncertain about how to begin the letter...
Finally, as if giving up, she laid down her pen and buried her face deep in her arms.
"Aske..." she murmured, her eyes gradually moistening.
"I’m sorry."
......
In a daze, it was as if she had a very long dream.
Scenes from the past flickered through her mind like old, yellowed movie reels: sometimes clear, sometimes blurry, interspersed with the voices of myriad people:
"...Do you understand? I have nothing left...let me go..."
"...I only slaughtered a city, but you destroyed an entire country! What right do you have to blame me!"
"...Once war comes, it won’t leave any way out for the weaklings of this world..."
"...Give me release...kill me..."
"...Sending these civilians, who have never undergone any military training, to perish on the cruel battlefield as cannon fodder?"
"...When all is said and done, us folks are just like rootless duckweed, scattered at the first rush of the current..."
"...In the upcoming campaign where the Supreme Lord himself will personally lead the attack on Thira, the numbers of dead will multiply by tenfold! Hundredfold! Even a thousandfold!"
These overlapping voices, these sounds of despairing cries, mad roars, and whispers of utter sadness, eventually faded into a faint chorus of cries.
It was her own voice:
"The weak, do they truly have no right... to be heard in this world?"
...
"So it is."
"Therefore, grow up quickly, Ellie."
Eleanor suddenly woke up from the table.
"Aske!" she called out.
The tent was empty, the surroundings steeped in silence.
But she had clearly heard Aske’s voice just now.
Was it a dream? fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm
Eleanor lowered her head, staring blankly at the tear-soaked blank sheet on the table that had nothing written on it.
She sighed, folded this paper in the same style as the other letters, and wrote two words on the outside with great care.
For Aske.
She tucked all these letters into the pages of the "Absurd Dream," picked up the ancient book, and walked towards Weisbach’s encampment.
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