Chapter 741: Fly [2]

Chapter 741: Fly [2]

“It looks like we’ll have a winner decided not long from now.”

Aoife’s face twisted as she heard her brother’s words.

Her lips parted, ready to protest, to refute him outright.

But…

“…..”

No sound came. She found herself unable to say a single word.

She looked at the projection in front of her.

Towards Julien, whose face was pale, and whose entire body was riddled with injuries.

He held a sword in his hand while trying his best to deflect the attacks.

His movements were good. So much so that Aoife found herself questioning the situation, ‘How is he so good at the sword? Why does it look like he’s getting better?’

But in spite of all the questions, there was still no denying the inevitable.

‘He’s going to lose.’

It was obvious. His mana was low, and he was surrounded on all sides.

Each second that passed, and he’d receive a new injury.

Aoife wasn’t the only one who thought this way.

The audience thought the same.

Even Leon, who was usually believed in Julien blindly, was frowning, his arms tense as he stared at the fight in the distance.

The Marquis, on the other hand, was smiling.

The same was for her brother.

Aoife gripped the side of her armrest while staring ahead.

Towards the lonesome figure ahead.

“See…?”

A certain voice drifted in her mind.

“He’s an arrogant failure. You should never have trusted him.”

***

‘I hate the sky.’

Pebble blankly stared at the sky.

It was blue. It was grand. And it was everything that the cat wanted to reach.

And yet…

The very same sky that Pebble wanted to reach rejected it at every turn.

It was sort of like a cage.

A cage that trapped it from reaching it.

‘…I really hate the sky.’

*

To fail.

What did it mean to fail?

Did failure come from not achieving a desired goal or outcome? Or did it simply mean to be not good enough?

In hindsight, it was both.

Failure was the outcome that came from not being good enough.

It was also a measure of worth.

Worth came from how much someone was able to achieve. The more one failed, the lower their worth.

Pebble was well aware of this. And… it was because Pebble was well aware of it that it hurt.

Pebble was simply… not good enough.

Worthless.

It had known this since the very beginning, from the moment of its birth, when a fragile, insignificant human girl had trapped it with ease, to every futile attempt afterward to seize a new vessel.

Had there ever been a time when it had succeeded in something?

Even Julien didn’t pay much attention to its skill, and always focused on other things.

Why was that…?

Because it wasn’t good enough.

Pebble had never really been bothered by any of this. There were many excuses for its failures. Why did it get trapped by a human? Well, it had just been born. It was young.

Why did Julien not learn its skill?

Well, he was busy. There were many other things he had to get done.

Why did it fail to evolve?

‘….’

Pebble had excuses for a lot of things.

But this time…?

Pebble couldn’t find an excuse.

The more it tried to look for an excuse to justify its failure, the more Pebble realized there didn’t exist one. There was no excuse. Just an explanation.

Not good enough.

Pebble…

Was simply not good enough.

Despite everything that Julien had gone through in order to help, Pebble had still failed.

Pebble watched as the owl managed to evolve, leaving its empty shell and finally blooming for the entire world to see.

Pebble yearned to have a moment like that. It yearned to finally get rid of its cursed shell and bloom before the entire world.

To reach the sky.

But…

Pebble was a failure.

No, it wasn’t a failure.

Pebble was just… not good enough.

To fail once could be forgiven. But to fail again and again, without end… that was enough proof of its worth.

Pebble had no worth.

…And what use was there for someone that was worthless?

Swoosh, swoosh—!

The space before them warped, and several arrows appeared.

Pebble raised its paw, locating the arrow as it pressed down.

The gravity shifted, and several of the arrows stopped. However…

Bang!

“Ukh…!”

Some still managed to pass through.

Julien’s groans resounded as he took several steps back, blood dripping down from the side of his mouth as he struggled to hold the sword in his hands.

*Hum*

A low humming sound echoed shortly after.

The space warped, and countless more arrows erupted from every direction. They pressed in without pause, relentlessly and in such a way that it felt suffocating, leaving no room to breathe.

‘No, I can’t let them in!’

Pebble could sense that the situation was turning even worse. Without hesitation, Pebble pressed its paw down once more, trying its best to make sure that no arrow passed.

So long as it did its job, then Julien wouldn’t have a problem.

The cat understood that it was the last defensive barrier that Julien needed.

Failure meant Julien’s failure.

It had to prove its worth!

‘I don’t want to fail. I can’t fail. I’ve already failed too many times. Something… Please. Let me be good at something!’

The cat roared in its mind.

Its roar was powerful.

It was grand.

It was majestic.

But it was also… in its mind.

Bang—!

“Akh—!”

A scream left Julien’s lips as his entire body started to tremble, and a couple of arrows lodged themselves in his body. His body shook, and blood seeped down from every part of his body.

“H-human…”

Pebble’s voice shook.

Pebble blankly stared at the sky.

Towards the cage that trapped it. If it could just fly…

Everything.

It was… its fault.

If it just wasn’t so incompetent

If it just… wasn’t such a failure.

“Kph!”

Groaning, Julien raised his head and stared ahead. With his sword lodged on the ground, he continued to glare at his three opponents.

He could see several orbs within their bodies. They were growing in size, and he could feel that they were rushing to end things. They, too, were running thin on mana.

His grip of the sword tightened.

‘I’m close. I’m almost done.’

Julien stared at the blood leaking onto the ground.

He forced a smile while staring at it.

At this moment, Julien could end things if he wanted. He could fully use the fifth level of emotive magic and fight on par with them.

But this wasn’t something that he wanted.

This wasn’t his stage.

It had never been.

‘Just a little more. I need to do a little more…’

The stage was almost set, but there was still something that he needed to do.

But…

“….”

Right as he began to move, he realized that his arms were heavy. So heavy that he was struggling to move them up. Was Pebble doing something?

Julien slowly turned his head and stared at the cat.

It was there that he noticed a couple of orbs.

A blue and a red one.

Sadness and anger.

Julien blinked slowly before looking at the cat. One look at its expression was all he needed to know what was happening.

In that moment, the weight that seemed to be pressing down on him from all sides seemed to vanish, and in its place was a smile as he looked back at his three opponents. All it took was one look for Julien to realize what Pebble was thinking.

‘What a silly cat…’

He couldn’t help but laugh as he looked ahead.

He was also reminded of a certain past. One involving a certain owl.

“Isn’t it strange…?”

He spoke softly, his words quietly reaching the cat.

Strange?

The cat slowly raised its head.

“What is strange?”

Instead of responding, Julien simply took in his surroundings. The rustle of the trees, the damp earth beneath his feet, the distant chirp of insects, the faint ripple of a nearby stream, and the whisper of wind through the branches. His eye flickered, and the world around him seemed to slow.

Pebble felt it too.

But only for a brief moment.

“How the world shifts when we shift how we look at it.”

The cat blinked its eyes slowly.

Julien’s smile turned even softer as he looked ahead.

It was time.

Swooosh!

An arrow materialized from thin air. Julien raised his hand, but it was useless as it pierced right at his shoulder. He didn’t make a sound.

He just accepted it. He could’ve avoided it, but decided not to.

He was using his body to build the stage.

To build…

The ramp.

Pebble’s face shook.

“Why…”

“Pain… can be suffering, or growth.”

The human spoke, his voice weaker than before. And yet, there was a certain firmness to it that prevented it from shaking.

His gaze remained firm as he looked ahead. Trying his best to raise his sword, he looked prepared for the next attack.

“Fire can be destruction or growth. A rainy day can bring forth gloom, or it can look like the most well-crafted painting. Silence… changes depending on how you feel. From peace to loneliness. All of it… just depends on how you see things.”

Pebble paused.

Where was the human going with this? What was he saying all of this nonsense for?

Now was not the time for this.

“What does this—”

“Cough…!”

Coughing, Julien’s body wobbled as he looked ahead. “Something shifts when you stop trying to prove yourself. When you stop measuring your worth by how much you give, fix, or achieve. Suddenly, you realize that there’s much more to the world than achievem—!”

Xiu! Xiu!

“Hum… Julien!”

Even more arrows appeared, stabbing at his back.

His face went considerably pale as he stumbled forward before smacking the sword down and using it to support himself.

“Haa… Haa…”

With his hand shaking, he smiled.

“You called me by my name for the first time.”

“I…”

Pebble’s face changed.

This wasn’t the first time the cat had seen the human’s stubbornness.

This was an all too familiar scene.

Even in the most desperate of times. Even in death. Even in… failure. He continued.

“Why…?”

Pebble looked at the distance. Towards the people. They were all looking at him with contempt and resignation.

It was over.

The cat could see it.

They could see it.

So why…?

Why was he still struggling in failure?

“L… life doesn’t change—!?”

Swoosh!

Julien’s face turned pale as he took a step back. Another arrow pierced his leg. Blood dripped down.

He was on the verge of losing.

The entire world seemed to feel it.

“…The only thing that changes is you.”

Thud!

Julien clutched onto his shirt as his knee buckled to the ground.

Pebble could see he was on his last leg.

And yet—

“You were just too busy thinking about success to notice.”

He continued to speak.

“But when you pause.”

Julien paused.

His eye flickered.

The world slowed down once more.

In that moment, it almost felt as though everything around them disappeared.

What was left behind was just the silence of the world.

“Breathe.”

He took a breath.

“…And look.”

He raised his head.

Not towards the incoming attacks. But towards the sky.

The big blue sky.

“The mundane becomes beautiful.”

A smile marred his lips.

And as he did, he mumbled,

“Isn’t it strange just how much beauty hides in plain sight? Waiting for us to look at it differently?”

Something changed when Pebble heard the human’s words.

It raised its head and looked up at the sky.

The big blue sky.

For once, it looked at the sky differently.

Not as a cage, but as something beautiful.

From the clouds that constantly shifted in the air to the sun that shone right beside it.

The cat’s mouth opened as its gaze grew blank.

Julien chuckled, his voice growing hoarse.

“…Beauty isn’t something you should be scared of.”

He raised his hand to display a certain egg.

“It’s something that you should embrace.”

Pebble’s mind stirred as Julien tossed the egg in the air.

“The sky isn’t a cage.”

He mumbled, his voice growing weaker.

“It’s the opposite.”

He took a deep breath.

“It’s freedom.”

Pebble’s mind grew blank.

It stared at the flying egg.

Freedom?

“Yes.”

But can I be free?

“Of course you can.”

Me? A failure?

“The greatest of failures.”

But…

“Just look.”

Pebble stared at the sky.

The big sky.

“Truly look at it. Not as a cage, but as something else.”

Something else…?

The cat’s eyes shook. For the first time, it stared at the sky properly.

From the pure azure sky to the golden sun shining over the clouds, carried along by the gentle breeze that followed…

Pebble truly looks at the sky for the first time.

And as it did, it couldn’t help but mumble,

“It’s… beautiful.”

Pebble’s gaze drifted towards the egg.

“Reach for it.”

Julien mumbled, pulling the egg closer to it.

By now, the cat didn’t seem to notice how the world appeared to have slowed down for the two of them, and how Julien’s face was paling by the second.

It just stared at the egg.

The source of its failure.

“…Stop measuring your worth by how much you achieve.”

“You don’t need to earn your place in this world through achievements.”

“You are already worthy.”

So…

“Fly.”

You are enough.

Julien paused. In that moment, staring at the little cat, a certain owl appeared in his mind. While the two were different, they were so similar. One wanted to bloom, and the other wanted to fly.

He was well aware of it.

And he took it upon himself to build a stage for the two of them.

To bloom, and to…

“Fly.”

…The world grew silent after that.

It was silence that lasted a split second before Pebble looked up at the sky. The blue cage that seemed to trap him was no longer there.

Instead, all it saw was an endless blue.

That’s when Pebble realized.

The sky…

It was no cage.

No.

It was something else.

It was…

Its area.

Yeah.

It’s territory.

No, more.

It’s…

Domain.

A change occurred from that point forward. Pebble faded, and the egg in the sky started to crack. A terrifying pressure emerged shortly after. One that seemed to completely take over the surroundings as everyone paused.

“What’s happening?”

“Where is this…!?”

Everyone’s face paled at the pressure.

How could they not?

After all, this was no simple pressure.

This was a dragon’s pressure.

“Roooooooooooar!”

A roar pierced the sky.

One that shook the entire world.

And one that marked the transformation of a cat into a dragon.

That day,

Julien reached the seventh tier.

But more importantly…

.

.

.

In the stage known as the sky.

A dragon flew.

A big and large dragon.

One whose entire presence consumed the world.

Fly.

This was the name of Pebble’s act.