Chapter 305
Receiving the cotton candy, Erietta and Ilux then took their leave from the booth, leaving behind the target board littered with the remnants of burst balloons and the memories of reckless shooting.
They returned to walking along the main carnival road, once again absorbed by the crowd and the multicolored lights.
However, the atmosphere between them had changed.
Erietta's irritation had not fully subsided, while Ilux, on the contrary, had gained fresh material to exploit.
Along the way, Ilux continuously talked about his superiority.
He highlighted the fact that, despite his reckless method, he had still managed to pop more balloons than Erietta.
Every sentence that came out of his mouth was aimed at reinforcing his position as the more skilled party, repeatedly boasting about his six balloons while mocking Erietta's three with various playful yet biting jabs.
His words were like droplets of water constantly striking a heated stone, slowly but surely raising the emotional temperature on Erietta's side.
Erietta's boiling point was finally reached.
Ilux's nonstop words were no longer just jokes to her ears, but a provocation that steadily eroded her patience.
The irritation that had slightly faded now flared up again, reignited by every small cheer of victory from Ilux.
Without warning, her body reacted.
She no longer argued with words.
Instead, with a suddenly quickened pace, Erietta began running toward Ilux, who was walking ahead of her.
Her face flushed with a mixture of embarrassment, anger, and the desire to end the mockery physically.
Both of her hands, already feeling hot from gripping the toy gun earlier and perhaps from her boiling anger, clenched tightly.
The muscles in her arms tensed, positioning themselves for an attack with a clear intent.
"Wait, wait, I was just joking! That was only a game, Erietta! Don't take it so seriously!"
"STOP, ILUX, RIGHT NOW! If you don't stop this instant, I swear you'll regret it!"
"Innocence and overflowing energy. But doesn't this moment of chasing secretly drag you back into the past? To the time when you were still a child, sitting on the grass of the Heavenly Land, reaching out toward a butterfly dancing in the air?"
The chase unfolded in the middle of the bustling carnival, becoming a small spectacle that might catch only fleeting attention from other visitors before they returned to their own affairs.
Ilux ran with nimble steps, weaving through the crowd while occasionally glancing back with an expression that was half panic, half laughter.
He kept making excuses, shouting words that were either fake apologies or additional taunts, while his eyes searched for openings to evade the pursuit that was drawing closer.
Behind him, Erietta continued the chase with burning determination, her clenched fist still raised, her face showing resolve that would not fade until she obtained her small measure of physical justice.
The distance between them narrowed and widened like breathing, a dance of pursuit filled with youthful energy.
From afar, behind the protective layers of distance and the crowd, Aldraya observed the scene carefully.
His sharp eyes recorded every change in direction, every captured facial expression, and every cry that could be picked up amid the noise.
His analysis ran cold, categorizing this behavior as a form of human social interaction involving conflict, escape, and the possibility of reconciliation through light ritualistic violence.
However, in the midst of his objective observation, a voice cut through his concentration.
Theo's voice.
It came from beside him, calm yet carrying an unusual question, one that was not about data or observational strategy.
Theo posed a question that subtly connected the scene before them to Aldraya's distant past.
He asked whether the chasing behavior of Ilux and Erietta, with all its innocence and explosive emotional intensity, inadvertently reminded Aldraya of a certain time.
His brief childhood, before the age of four, in the Heavenly Land.
A memory that might be stored somewhere in his existential archives, of a small child sitting on soft heavenly grass, with tiny hands outstretched, trying to reach a teasing butterfly in flight.
The butterfly fluttered back and forth in the bright heavenly sky, always almost caught yet always slipping away, creating a natural game of chase between a curious little being and beauty that continually retreated.
"Perhaps so. But… is it possible for me to return to how I was before? Filled with pure curiosity?"
"Mmmmh!"
"Mmmmh!!"
"Let go of my cheek. What do you mean by treating me like a toy?"
"As I've already said, neither the past nor the future is what matters most, Aldraya.
What matters is who you are right now—here, in this moment—and the meaning of your existence at this very point in time.
At least, that's how I see it."
Aldraya's answer to Theo's profound question came without hesitation.
He nodded, a slow yet certain motion affirming the truth behind Theo's words.
Yes, the colorful and emotionally charged chase scene did indeed awaken echoes of a nearly forgotten time, fragments of memory about pure curiosity untouched by dogma or betrayal.
However, that confirmation was followed by a counter-question that emerged from Aldraya in a flat tone layered with complex meaning.
He asked about a possibility that might be both impossible and deeply desired, wondering whether he could return to how he once was, becoming someone filled with curiosity about everything, before the walls of absolute knowledge and existential bitterness shaped him into what he was now.
Theo did not answer immediately with words.
Instead, an entirely unexpected action came from him.
With a suddenly mischievous yet familiar demeanor, both of his hands moved forward.
His warm fingers touched the porcelain-cold skin of Aldraya's cheek.
Then, gently yet with full control, Theo pinched Aldraya's cheek.
It was not a rough pinch, but one more like a playful gesture, beginning with lifting the skin slightly upward before playing with it, pulling and stretching it with slow up-and-down movements.
It was a form of physical contact that was profoundly human, deeply childish, and sharply contrasted with Aldraya's cold and sacred essence.
The gesture seemed to aim not only at touching skin, but something deeper beneath it, attempting to draw Aldraya momentarily out of the rigid cage of his logic.
Only after the mischievous pinch did Theo finally give his answer.
His voice sounded calm yet full, flowing amid the carnival sounds that formed their backdrop.
He stated that the past and the future were not truly important.
To Theo, being trapped in nostalgia over who you once were, or anxious about who you might become, was a distraction.
What mattered most, in his view, was who Aldraya was at this very moment.
The meaning of his existence did not lie in his heavenly origins that had already passed, nor in an ultimate destination that remained unclear, but in the simple yet complex fact that he existed here, now, together with Theo, observing the human world with all its chaos and beauty.
His presence in this place, within this context, with all his current abilities and shortcomings, was what gave meaning.
'From the look in his eyes, I felt his hope—if only I had been born as one of the Twelve Supreme Angels, so that we could have grown together from the very beginning.'
Fooooh!
'There is no denying it, his feelings for me have surpassed anything he ever felt toward Quil-Hasa.
At first, I thought I could control this turmoil, but now the sharpness in his gaze is undeniable.
His desire to possess me completely is becoming increasingly clear.'
Fhhhhh!
'So, which path should I choose?
How do I calm his heart without letting his feelings sink deeper—or destroying them entirely?'
A dense and profound silence engulfed Aldraya after Theo finished speaking.
To be continued…