Glen had been deceived by many women before; it was a fact already stated and repeated countless times.
But Dolores had always been by his side, never once leaving him.
The story of Silverbell pushing him into the abyss and Dolores risking her life to save him was not an isolated case.
He had learned his lesson, but he could not completely ignore the trauma. Otherwise, Dolores would not have needed to constantly comfort and advise him.
Looking back, Glen even suspected he might have been controlled by something. ‘Was I possessed?’ he wondered. ‘How else could I have been so paranoid and willful?’
More than once, he had neglected Dolores for other women, even deceiving her emotionally to some extent. This, like the incident with Silverbell, resulted in Dolores being injured because of him.
Glen knew Dolores was a good person—capable and strong—and she certainly was not someone who could not survive without him. It should have been the other way around; it was Glen who truly would not be able to live if he left Dolores.
Purity, kindness, maternal love, and competence. These traits were carried by Dolores’s actions and displayed to him through every word and deed.
Glen had made many mistakes. Some costs he bore alone, but for others, it was Dolores who shouldered the burden for him.
The morality gained from his upbringing sometimes made it feel more painful to see someone else get hurt for him than to be hurt himself. She would always respond to his concerned inquiries by saying it was fine, it did not matter, or it was just a small thing. When one’s own responsibility is transferred to another and causes an accident, one cannot simply grit their teeth and say it is fine to gloss over it.
Aside from Glen himself, it was hard for anyone to understand his mental journey and thoughts. Setting aside those impulsive acts that might have been the result of a muddled head or outside influence, most of those impulses could be traced back to Dolores to some extent. They could even be attributed to her indulgence and doting.
Dolores felt and acted with a near-obsessive level of doting toward Glen. It was because she was by his side that Glen had the capital to remain willful without falling into despair.
“Why do you tolerate my mistakes time and time again?” Glen finally asked this question after Dolores was injured once more.
Glen had once again trusted a girl known as the Prophet, leading himself into a dangerous situation. And once again, Dolores paid the price for him.
Dolores did not blame or complain. Strangely, she would become paranoid when Glen refused to retaliate against the girls who wronged him, but she never complained about the consequences she suffered as collateral damage from the very start of the story.
“Glen, you will always meet girls who love you,” she said. “Beyond me, not just me…”
She would comfort him like this, appearing like a mother wanting to see her child grow up and start a family. But Dolores was Glen’s lawfully wedded wife.
From beginning to end, Glen never understood what Dolores was thinking; he was simply pampered by the goodness in her actions. This gentle paradise she created for him corroded Glen like poison.
Glen never expected that the question he had once asked Dolores would be asked by her instead in a scene like the present one. Glen could understand Dolores’s grief and her feelings, yet he could not understand her the way she had once understood him, nor could he replicate her answer.
Dolores looked at Vesserian, truly like a pitiful girl, feeling distressed and sorrowful over the scene. It was the same question, but the current Dolores and the past Glen were in almost completely opposite situations.
Now, Dolores grieved to herself; she did not expect to get an answer from Glen’s mouth. Both people present understood tacitly that this was more of a superficial, emotional comfort.
But in the past, Glen had hoped to receive an answer from Dolores.
Because of his status as the Hero, he had met the Prophet, Propheia, before he met the Saint, Silverbell. During their journey, Propheia — who did not always follow them — had given him much help without asking for anything in return. However, when he led his army to conquer the Kingdom of Vass, the Prophet made a request.
Propheia had deceived him.
Her hometown had been extinguished in the Mythical Era, and the lingering curse required a Legend-tier symbol to sacrifice their future to be eliminated. Propheia abandoned Glen and Dolores together in the undersea city of Melisglen.
The girl who had never asked for anything used his trust to trap him in a desperate situation that went against his will and could not be refused. The cost was Talent — according to the Prophet, it was a price that only a very few people could satisfy.
Glen did not pay the price; Dolores paid it for him.
At that moment, Glen realized that Dolores was not as ordinary as she seemed; she ought to have had Talent nearly equal to his own. Dolores did not blame him.
It was also at that time that Glen asked Dolores this question for the first time. The core of it being: ‘Why would Dolores, who has Talent nearly equal to mine — or perhaps far superior — sacrifice her future for me and face countless deadly dangers?’
When he discovered that Dolores had Talent nearly equal to his but had never shown it while by his side, Glen finally realized the truth. Dolores had given up many things for him. As always, it was true in the past, and it was true now.
—
In Glen’s memory, within the nearly blurred undersea city, he received Dolores’s reply.
He did not hear her mention the “lost Talent.” But it was not the “it’s okay” she claimed it was. The ritual truly operated, the disaster truly vanished, and everything was functioning exactly as it should.
His question met a rare moment of silence from Dolores. But her answer was still given in the gentle voice he was accustomed to:
“Because I love you, and because I like you… I have already said such things to you many times. I think you would not be satisfied with just that answer, and I do not want to repeat myself.”
“I do not care about my future, or rather, I do not care whether ‘power’ belongs to me. Hmm… I’ve broken my word. So now I’m going to repeat it: I love you. Since the reason is that I love you, I will not worry about anything in the future.”
“So, let me dispel your concerns and answer your question in the form of a request.”
Dolores’s eyes shimmered with tenderness as she replied to Glen in a tone like a breeze by a lake. She took Glen’s hand and pulled him down until he was kneeling on one knee before her.
Because only then could she slightly curl her arms and embrace Glen.
Like this, her petite body could transmit its limited warmth, and that glimmer of tenderness could pass through the embrace into Glen’s exhausted and bruised heart.
“Darling, I am living out a story of loving you, so I will love you forever and ever.”
“Don’t speak. Just listen to me. No matter what your feelings for me are in the future, or whether things involving me are good or bad, you just need to keep going. That is my only request.”
“Maybe I’ll keep a diary with the answer you want inside. But it will be written in a script you won’t understand. It will have square-shaped characters; they look complicated, but they’re beautiful.”
“Perhaps I will explain its meaning to you personally in the future. The answer you want is contained there.”
Holding Glen, Dolores called out to him softly, almost like a whisper.
“Darling.”
She did not know if Glen would still remember this brief conversation years later. But Dolores knew that, given her personality, when she felt lost and helpless, she would write in a diary to record the path she had taken, her anxieties, and… her fear.