Chapter 388 - 391: But the Snow Drifted into Her Eyes

Strange words came out of her mouth, and Aurelian froze in this graveyard.

She covered her mouth in shock, her pupils slowly shrinking as she stared straight ahead.

The old man's body seemed to shrink in the rain, growing more and more hunched.

As if in a single breath, he had aged several decades. It looked incredibly strange.

Only when his body stopped bending further did Aurelian finally feel a sense of familiarity as she looked at the old man in front of her.

That was her grandfather.

Festian Barlow.

Faint green flames were pierced by the torrential rain, and the icy rainwater struck her body.

Even in her undead state, she could still feel a chill that seeped deep into her bones.

A cold breeze swept through. Around this graveyard, a biting chill was always stirred up.

Her body trembled. From the cold, goosebumps covered her skin.

Even though, in her undead state, no one could see her.

Suddenly, the pouring rain stopped.

Aurelian looked up. The densely packed tombstones before her were still being battered by heavy rain, splashing chaotic droplets.

At the edge of her vision, the figure of the Grand Duke appeared.

The Grand Duke stood beside her, holding an umbrella, shielding Aurelian from the wind and rain.

His murky gaze was also directed toward the scene ahead.

"That is my daughter, Shelly, and also your mother."

"I know, you came here because of her."

Aurelian fell silent for a moment.

Indeed, she had come to the Kingdom of Cant to visit her deceased mother.

But her grandfather had never directly given her that chance.

Aurelian didn't even know where her mother had been buried after her body was sent back to the kingdom.

And now, she finally understood.

Why she had never been able to find her mother's grave.

That was because her mother's grave was right here, within this estate.

Existing within this empty, silent domain of the dead.

And now, she stood here, like a viewer, watching everything unfold.

She witnessed the coming together of her mother and father's love, and their painful separation.

Yet the one suffering the most was clearly right beside her.

The scene before her still lingered, but the Grand Duke Barlow standing before the grave, letting the torrential rain pour over him, was completely soaked.

That was Barlow as a father, personally placing his daughter's body into the grave.

Other than him, no one knew what kind of pain he had endured at that time.

The real Grand Duke Barlow beside her slowly spoke, "After she died, I used necromancy to summon Shelly's soul, to hear her final wish in life."

"That sentence just now was what she wanted to tell me in the end."

Don't blame him.

Shelly wanted to use her final wish to erase the resentment in Grand Duke Barlow's heart.

The kingdom and the empire had already gone to war once before.

She didn't want the two nations to fall into war again because of her.

"I agreed to her."

The Grand Duke's voice continued beside her.

Aurelian's heart trembled like shattered crystal.

Such a casually spoken agreement hid an unimaginable amount of pain behind it.

She couldn't even begin to picture it.

At that moment, the Barlow who represented the past disappeared from before the gravestone.

"Go and take a look at her."

The Grand Duke's voice sounded softly, like a gentle breeze.

So Aurelian dragged her heavy body forward step by step.

Standing before the gravestone, she carefully looked at the marker standing over the place where her mother was buried.

Carved on it was her mother's name.

Shelly Barlow.

Aurelian reached out and touched the cold gravestone.

Beneath it, buried in the soil, was her family, her biological mother, the one who brought her into this world.

At that moment, she felt a loneliness that cut deep into her bones.

In her undead state, she seemed to truly understand the solitude of death.

Then, an even deeper thought rose in her heart.

A longing surged straight into her mind.

Like a torrent bursting out between shattered cliffs after a landslide, it flooded her entire being.

She clearly knew her mother had long since rested here and should not be disturbed.

She also knew that the body beneath the gravestone had already decayed, perhaps even the bones had long turned to dust.

But she possessed necromancy, a power that stood above life and death.

At this moment, she desperately longed, longed to revive her mother, to hear with her own ears about her passing.

"The dead are destined not to return."

As if the path of her mind had been blurred by a deep canyon, the madness about to erupt was pulled back by the echo of Grand Duke Barlow's voice.

Aurelian suddenly lifted her head, as if waking from a dream.

Just now, she had almost stepped into madness, straying onto the wrong path of necromancy.

Like those necromancers buried beneath the lower levels of Guanta Prison.

Mad and blasphemous.

Yet she couldn't imagine it.

If even she, a daughter who had never met her, could have such a powerful urge, then as a father, Grand Duke Barlow...

When he looked at his daughter's grave, how shattered and how utterly despairing must he have been?

He was the most legendary necromancer in this world.

He had even personally admitted before

That necromancy was magic capable of reviving the dead.

Even so, he still restrained that raging despair.

All for the line in his heart, the resolve that life and death must never be desecrated.

Aurelian stood quietly where she was, looking at the gravestone washed by the rain, complicated emotions showing on her face.

Grief and reflection intertwined, flowing through her heart like a gentle stream.

She had never seen her biological mother. She didn't even know what her mother's eyes looked like.

Compared to that, never having received maternal love made it feel distant and unreal.

Yet she knew, beneath this silent land lay one of the two closest people in her life.

Aurelian lifted her head and took a deep breath.

Looking at Grand Duke Barlow, as if gathering courage, she asked, "Can I give her a gift?"

Grand Duke Barlow didn't say anything more. He simply nodded quietly, giving his consent.

So Aurelian took out a small gift box from her clothes.

She crouched down and took out the item inside.

It was a small crystal ball.

Inside the crystal ball, a tiny red-brick house was covered in thick white snow.

Around it stood several small but lush conifer trees, their branches also weighed down by snow.

Snowflakes drifted inside the crystal ball, as if reflecting a peaceful winter day.

Grand Duke Barlow looked at it, his cloudy eyes opening slightly.

Perhaps this was also something new he had never seen before.

Aurelian gently turned the winding key at the back of the crystal ball.

The next moment, snow began to fall slowly inside the sphere, and the base of the crystal ball emitted a glow.

Along with it, music like that of a music box began to tick and play.

Aurelian stood up again and turned to explain to Grand Duke Barlow, "This was a birthday gift Teacher Viktor had custom-made for me from a dwarf council member."

The crystal ball glowed brightly in the light, both eye-catching and precious.

Even though its value couldn't be measured, Aurelian cherished it deeply.

Because to her, it carried a warmth that could touch the heart.

The next second, gentle starlight bloomed from the crystal ball.

Like a blossoming flower of colored light, it flooded the surrounding space.

The thick green mist in the space was pierced by countless tiny glimmers, dissolving into the endless void in all directions.

The sky submerged in starlight became like a gently rippling lake. The light swayed softly, and soft white flakes fell, vast enough to cover the sky.

The gravestone before her also became illusory, and a massive red shadow flickered faintly in the center of the space.

Soon, within the vast graveyard, a warm red-brick house covered in snow appeared out of thin air, replacing those cold tombstones.

Around it, several conifer trees also grew into existence, their branches bent under the heavy snow.

Each snowflake that landed in her palm carried a unique warmth.

In an instant, the rain in the sky stopped, leaving only the snow that turned into a warm embrace, filling the sky and gently holding this space within it.

Aurelian lifted her head, looking at the sky, a trace of reluctance passing through her eyes.

She closed her eyes, carefully feeling the bits of warmth landing on her face.

"To me, this is the best gift."

———

The sky was still filled with softly falling snow carrying warmth, and a red-brick house stood at the center.

But standing before the house was only Grand Duke Barlow.

The warm snow covered his entire body. Aside from its gentle warmth, there was not a hint of cold.

Near this domain of the dead, light and gentle music rang out second by second.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Grand Duke Barlow looked at the small crystal ball placed on the windowsill of the house, closed his eyes, and seemed to listen to the delicate music.

Aurelian had already left, but here, she had left behind a gift.

It was a gift she gave to her mother.

Grand Duke Barlow raised his head, feeling the warmth falling on his face.

"You gave birth to a wonderful child."

"She is very much like you."

The sound of the wind rose within this warm domain of the dead, and the drifting snow in the sky gently swirled along with it.

As if responding to the Grand Duke's words.

As if he heard something, the Grand Duke spoke, "Do you want to see her one last time?"

He took a deep breath and remained silent for a long time.

As if making a difficult decision.

In the end, he opened his cloudy eyes, looked toward the house ahead, and lightly pressed his cane.

The next moment, a ghost-like shadow flew out from the house.

Snow drifted gently in the sky, falling onto the intangible body of the spirit, revealing the outline of a woman.

But her face could not be seen clearly.

She circled around Grand Duke Barlow's body a few times, then finally gave him a cold embrace.

Soon, the spirit drifted away toward the sky, until it left this domain of the dead.

Leaving this graveyard, leaving the sky full of heavy snow.

At this moment, the Grand Duke completely closed his eyes.

He stood in the wind and snow.

His hunched body seemed to have shed much of its burden, slowly straightening.

Letting himself merge into the swirling white flakes, he let out a heavy breath.

She had waited here for sixteen years. On the day Aurelian arrived, her sixteen-year-long attachment was finally released.

The heavy snow continued to fall, and the branches of the conifer trees bent even lower.

But the snow drifted into his eyes.

Blurring away even the slightest trace of peace.

[🎉 Shoutout to Ph4t0m for joining p@treon. Thank you very much.🤗]