Chapter 132: Until There Was No Tomorrow

Chapter 132. Until There Was No Tomorrow

I barely paid attention to their conversation. My eyes remained fixed on Theo. He was still cradling Elena’s body, gently stroking her hair while tears streamed down his cheeks.

Lord Veymont eventually noticed him. "Theo..." He approached cautiously, but one look at Elena’s lifeless body was enough for him to understand what had happened. His expression darkened. "Theo, you need to let her go."

"No."

"Theo—"

"I said no!" His voice cracked. And then something happened. Elena’s fingertips began turning gray. A faint crack spread across her skin.

Without the parasite’s magic preserving her body, the natural deterioration that had been delayed for years was finally catching up. Her fingers began crumbling into fine gray dust.

Theo stared. For a moment, he didn’t understand. Then his expression twisted into absolute horror. "No..." He grabbed her hand. "No, no, no... Elena?" More cracks spread across her arm. "Please..." He pulled her closer, desperately trying to hold the crumbling pieces together. "Please, don’t leave me. Not again. Elena, please!"

I looked away. But the sound of his crying followed me.

Somewhere deep inside my chest, something ached.

Pity?

Guilt?

Perhaps both.

No... That guilt wasn’t mine. It belonged to Rey Valen. The man who had once watched this same girl reach toward him from a bloodstained street. The man who had walked away because thousands of other lives depended on him. He’d made the right decision. Logically. Morally, even. Yet he’d never forgiven himself. And now that memory belonged to me.

I sighed and raised my hand.

[Abyssal Formation Creation]

A violet-black magic formation appeared beneath Elena’s body, its intricate runes spreading outward in a gentle circle.

"Preserve!"

The formation flared. The crumbling stopped. The remaining cracks ceased spreading.

Theo stared at the magic beneath her. Then he slowly looked up at me. "My lord...?"

I lowered my hand. "Don’t misunderstand. I can’t bring her back." My voice was quieter than usual. "But I can keep her body from disappearing."

At least long enough for him to say goodbye properly, until the first rays of sunlight appeared on the horizon. I looked at Elena’s peaceful face. It was the least I could do. For Theo. And perhaps... For Rey, too.

"Thank you..." Theo’s voice was barely audible beneath the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs. He looked up at me, his cheeks wet with tears. His arms remained wrapped around Elena, holding her as carefully as though she were merely sleeping.

I stared at him for a moment before lowering my gaze. "Don’t thank me yet. You only have until dawn. The preservation spell will collapse when the sun rises. I can’t maintain her body any longer than that."

I wished I could have offered him more time. Unfortunately, magic had its limitations, even for someone like me.

The formation was originally designed for preservation. In modern magical medicine, this formation was used to preserve freshly removed organs, tissues, and other biological materials until they could be transplanted or examined. They could maintain the condition of a fresh specimen for several hours, sometimes considerably longer with sufficient mana.

Under normal circumstances, Evan Veyr could have extended this spell for days. But Elena wasn’t a fresh specimen. She’d died years ago. The parasite had maintained her body through necromantic energy, artificially sustaining her tissues and preventing their natural deterioration. Once that creature was destroyed, all the years of delayed decay had begun catching up with her. I wasn’t preserving a body that had just died. I was holding together something that should have returned to dust long ago.

Theo lowered his head. His fingers moved through Elena’s hair, carefully brushing several strands away from her cheek. "I understand..."

I watched him for another moment. "If there’s something you want to do for her, or something you never had the chance to say, you’d better do it now." That was all I could offer.

Theo remained silent. Then, slowly, a bitter smile appeared on his face. "I love her..." His voice trembled. "I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember." He looked down at Elena, his thumb gently brushing her cold cheek. "Even when she forgot me, I still loved her. Even when she smiled at someone else... I couldn’t stop." His shoulders shook. "I thought I had time."

Those words. How many tragedies began with that simple assumption?

Tomorrow. Next month. Next year.

There would always be another opportunity to confess, another chance to make things right, another day to say what needed to be said. Until there wasn’t...

Theo drew a trembling breath and looked up. "My lord... Can I marry her?"

For several seconds, I couldn’t respond. I had expected him to ask for a funeral. Perhaps a grave overlooking the sea. Or permission to take her body somewhere peaceful. But marriage?

I slowly turned toward Lord Veymont. This wasn’t my territory, and I certainly wasn’t the person authorized to approve a marriage ceremony here.

The lord looked equally stunned. "Theo..."

"Please, my lord."

Lord Veymont approached them, his expression filled with sorrow. "I don’t think that’s—"

"You know us," Theo interrupted desperately. "You knew us when we were children. You watched us grow up together." His voice broke. "I promised her. I promised Elena that I would marry her someday. I told her that when we grew up, I’d become someone important enough to give her a beautiful home." He looked at her face. "I want to fulfill that promise."

Lord Veymont closed his eyes briefly. "I remember." His voice was heavy. "I remember that promise. You made it before Elena and her family left for the Holy City."

"Then the war happened. Her parents were killed, and when she eventually returned to Lumenford, she’d lost much of her memory." The lord sighed. "You were still in the capital, taking your official examination. You returned three months after she came back and became my assistant."

Theo’s fingers tightened around Elena’s hand.

"And by then..." Lord Veymont hesitated. "Adrian had already taken an interest in her." He paused. "You tried to remind her of your childhood together. But she couldn’t remember your promise."

Lord Veymont looked away. "She was fond of you once. I remember how she used to follow you around the town. Whenever you talked about becoming a great official, she would tell everyone that she was going to marry you."

Theo closed his eyes. A tear slipped down his cheek. For a moment, I wondered what he was remembering.

A little girl holding his hand beneath the evening lanterns?

A promise made without understanding how cruel the world could become?

Whatever it was, the memory seemed to hurt him more than anything else.

He looked at the lord again. "Then... Can I marry her?"

I exhaled slowly. "Theo... She’s dead." The words sounded cruel. But they were true.

He stared at me, his expression trembling. Then he said something that left me speechless. "But you told me that if there was something I wanted to do, I had to do it now."

I froze.

"This..." His voice faltered. "This is what I want to do." He lowered his forehead against Elena’s. "I know she can’t answer me. I know she won’t wake up. I know none of this will change what happened." His shoulders shook. "But I promised her once. And I couldn’t keep that promise when she was alive." He looked at me through his tears. "Please... Let me keep it now."

I opened my mouth. Then closed it. For once, all my knowledge of magic, history, and human behavior offered absolutely nothing useful. I could explain why Elena’s body had survived for years or even describe the exact process through which the parasite had controlled her nervous system. But I couldn’t explain how a man was supposed to bury a love he’d carried since childhood.

So I remained silent.

Lord Veymont stood beside us, his face troubled. I could practically see the conflict in his eyes. As the lord of Lumenford, he had responsibilities. There were laws, customs, and families to consider. Elena had been engaged to Adrian. Their wedding had been scheduled for today. And now Theo was asking to marry her lifeless body. It wasn’t a request any reasonable lord would approve without hesitation. Yet Theo continued looking at him.

Finally, Lord Veymont sighed. "Very well. I’ll give you my permission." His voice was quiet but firm. "But there’s something you must understand." The lord glanced toward the cave entrance. "We can’t bring her back into town for the ceremony. Adrian may oppose it, and I can’t promise how the others will react."

I remained silent.

Adrian?

That was only the beginning of the problem.

If the townspeople discovered that the Elena who had returned from the Holy City wasn’t truly alive, that the woman who had served them food, taught their children, and smiled at them for years was actually an undead creature controlled by a parasite...

What would happen?

Fear. Anger. Disgust. Perhaps even hatred. People who had once adored her might suddenly refuse to let her remains be buried among their loved ones. They might demand that her body be burned. And Theo would have to watch the entire town turn against the woman he loved.

I knew how people reacted to the undead. So I kept my mouth shut. There was no reason to make tonight even crueler.