A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 197: Kronia Vestra

Chapter 197: Kronia Vestra

"Nice to meet you Kronia."

"Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you too dear. Now, would you mind telling me something?" Kronia asked nicely.

I hesitated for a second, wondering why I would listen to her. Yes, she gave me some form of shelter for the night, and it was oddly warm here once I got over that hill, but I didn’t notice that till now as I was too preoccupied with the lady before me, who was currently still rocking in her rocking chair and smiling at me.

"What did you want to ask me?" I decided to ask this because I could maybe try and... I don’t know? I just hope she didn’t ask something I didn’t want to answer.

"Would you let me have a look at your past?" Instead of answering with a statement, she instead just asked me her question, answering mine.

And the question she asked was something that I wasn’t sure if I should say yes to.

"Take your time, I can wait. And don’t worry about your answer, I don’t mind if you say no."

With Kronia’s statement, I was given room to breathe and think about this. For one, how would she look into my past? She doesn’t have Clairvoyance, does she? No, she seems to have naturally greying hair now that I look at it.

Her appearance also feels a tad unnatural. Yes, she’s old, but something about the way her face is wrinkled just feels off, but I can’t quite tell what.

That didn’t matter right now though. What mattered was should I let her do this or not? And there was still the question of how? Thinking was getting me nowhere so I decided to ask her some more questions.

"Why and how?"

"Simple, I feel that it would be worth guiding you, and to do so, I need to have a look at your past. I don’t need you to tell me, I can look myself, but I need your approval first." She explained, but her explanation didn’t really help me.

I sat up on the chaise as it was getting a bit uncomfortable and asked another question, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

I will admit, it was rather weird why she was being so nice to me, and I didn’t want to take advantage of her despite the fact that it seemed very easy to do so. It just felt like a bad idea.

"Hmm..." Her smile finally faded for once before it returned as she spoke, "I suppose I just want to help you because I see someone I once knew in you. It’s not much, but a part of you reminds me of them... I wasn’t able to save them back then... And now I’ve dedicated my life to helping others like him..."

I could see the despondent look in her eyes as she smiled even then, remembering someone that must’ve been dear to her heart.

"Anyways, that’s why I do what I’m doing. I don’t want to see something like that happen again." She looked up at me with a bright smile, but there was something hidden behind it, sadness perhaps.

Either way, it didn’t matter as her words allowed me to come to a decision faster.

"O-Okay... Just... Just know it’s not pretty..." I accepted to let her look into my past, however she would do that, but I warned her that it wouldn’t be a pleasant thing to experience.

"Don’t worry, I’ve had my fair share of terrible experiences, I’ve also seen some horrible things in my time, so whatever it is, I’m sure I’ve seen something worse." She said reassuringly, though it did little to comfort me as she thought it would.

"Well." She said as she stood up from her rocking chair. "Time to get this done. If you could just lie on your back there, with your head on the arm of the chaise please, I can get started." She instructed as she walked over to the other side of the chaise’s arm and sat in her rocking chair.

I look back over at where she was just sitting and the rocking chair was indeed not there anymore.

Kronia chuckled at my confusion and said, "Don’t worry about that dear, just lie down and relax. I’ll do all the work, okay? Then I can figure out how I should help you."

Despite my concerns and suspicions about Kronia, I still felt that I should do as she says, so I lied down on my back with my head onto the arm of the chaise and waited for her to do her magic, be it literally or figuratively, whatever it was.

After resting my head upon the chaise’s arm and closing my eyes to relax, I felt a pair of hand on my head. This must be required for Kronia to work her magic so I let her do whatever else she needed but that seemed to be all.

And after a few seconds, I could hear her muttering something under her breath before a stream of magic flowed into my head. At first, I was resistant towards it, but dropped my guard even though I knew I shouldn’t, but I felt safe enough in her hands to do so.

The mana of the magic that flowed into my head then started to do... Something, and end up in my mind when I fell asleep soon after.

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When I woke up later, it was midday and I could feel a hand resting upon my head. When I opened my eyes, I could see that Kronia had moved from above my head to my side.

She was resting her hand on my forehead and was shedding a few tears. As soon as she felt me awaken, she took her hand off and spoke.

"You were right. That was indeed not pretty. I’m shocked that you’re still here even after all of that." She said with immense sorrow, but I didn’t understand what she was walking about.

She continued speaking, "I can see that you’re confused. That’s because I have sealed some of your memories. Most of the bad one’s mainly, and a few of the one’s that would lead to the seal on them breaking easily."

I look at her confused as I sit up once again. What was she talking about? I don’t have any bad memories.

She smiled sadly at me and said, "You may not notice now, but you will soon realise that there are gaps in your memory. Don’t focus on that though, just keep moving forward and everything should work out for you eventually."

"What? I don’t understand, what is that supposed to mean?" I finally responded.

"Don’t dwell on it. Just know that some of your memories have been sealed. I’ve done this for your own good, okay? So don’t try and break it if you find it. It’s best if you leave it be." She warned in a somewhat stern yet loving voice.

"Okay?" I replied in confusion, still not knowing what exactly she was talking about. All I remembered was resting my head on that armrest and then falling asleep, then I woke up with her hand on my head with tears in her eyes.

There was a silence upon us for a moment before I asked, "So... What now?"