With the exception of Meyeri, Lionel and the leading party entered the space. They were all kneeling and standing side by side in front of the king's throne. A carriage then entered the palace room after that. The king declares
"Blooming lilac, you have brought the capital the greatest honor. Come out of that carriage."
Someone comes out of the carriage. An old lady with dark purple hair comes out of that carriage, walks through them, and then kneels in front of them. The party was shocked, especially Kairos.
King says, "I got a glimpse of it from the letter. Explain to me what happened."
Meyeri says, "During the war with Exadactylus, we had no hope left to fight the ancient monster. Chronos then came to me, and I made a contract."
All of the people, including the guards, were feeling chilled after hearing the name Chronos. But the king was calm.
King says, "You must have known that during ancient times, Chronos was mentioned in the book as being involved in the monster calamity. You have made a contract with Chronos, and what happened?"
Meyeri says, "Chronos sealed the ancient being into the Void Dimension. Exadactylus was sealed in exchange for my time. She also said, I'll claim the fruit of time after. During the sealing period, I need to be inside the barrier until the seal is broken, or else it will come out."
King frowns and says, "You got gray and old. Is there anything odd inside the barrier?"
Meyeri says, "Chronos said my time is standing still. I try to figure out what happened myself, but it's essentially a time warp. The speed of time will be ten times faster inside the barrier."
King replied, "While you're in there alone, you will be warped into the future, seeing your friends die while you're doing nothing. It's truly a punishment. You installed the barrier in your carriage, I suppose. Will the seal be held for a long time?"
Meyeri says, "Yes. The seal will be held for a long time. The seal will break somewhere around forty years in the future randomly, and with the fruit of time, I'll regain my youth, and I'll be ready to face it again."
*SLAM SLAM SLAM*
Kairos slammed his head repeatedly to the ground. Icarus and Lionel try to hold him to stop him from injuring himself.
Kairos is crying and says, "I'm useless. Even though I know I have a chance to fight it again, I would be useless by then."
It was the curse of time. Mentioned in the ancient books. It says that encounters with Chronos bring hopelessness and despair to short-lived creatures. That's why Chronos was despised by humans and other gods.
Meyeri then turned around, stood up, and said,
"Kairos..."
Kairos looks upward and sees Meyeri with wrinkles in her face. Kairos is even more disheartened and makes a big frowning face with tears in his eyes. Everyone knew they were childhood friends, even more like a couple, but looking at them now, their appearance is more like that of a mother and son.
*SPLAT*
The voice echoed in the room. Then silence came in. It was Meyeri, slapping the poor young knight who has been mourning his tragic fate.
Meyeri said, "You can always fight! Even if you can't, you can nurture people around you to prepare for the fight in forty years! There will always be a way to get revenge, and I don't want to hear anything gibberish again coming out of your mouth. I know you were always a crybaby, but old man Bernard didn't raise you to be somebody who would give up this easily."
After hearing the speech, Kairos stopped his tantrum and nodded in reply to Meyeri. Meyeri then turned around and kneeled.
Lionel said, "Sorry for the unsightly hassle, your Majesty."
King said, "It's fine. Their sight was cloudy since so many things happened at the same time. Hey, young leader of the knights, I would like you to be a trainer for a youngster twenty years from now, and you can't disobey my order."
Kairos eyes started getting teary while replying to him,
"Yes, of course, your majesty. Thank you very much for the opportunity."
King then said, "Aside from the gloomy things that have happened, I know that you've lost your loved ones and even been cursed by God. But in the end, all of your hard work has successfully wiped out the calamity. We, the royal nobles, are really grateful that the kingdom is now able to breathe freely in the air. Now I want to grant you each a satisfactory claim, a benefit, or a reward, you must say. Every one of you will be granted some monetary rewards exceeding the others in recognition of your bravery in sealing the ancient monster."
The royal arbiter then takes out five leather pouches filled with gold. Icarus eyes were gleaming looking at those. He was living a poor life for years, and that amount of money would suffice to actually live a proper life. Aside from Icarus, everyone else reacted indifferently.
The king then said, "Other than monetary rewards, I'll provide you with status equal to or even higher than that of the knight. I would give each of you the status of an S-class adventurer."
The owner of the adventurer guild then came in from the big door behind them, bringing a table with four adventurers' silver insignia. All of them, then take one of them and put it on their top attire. Cithrel was really happy, for that is an honor that would be recognized in her own kingdom. After all of those rewards, Meyeri then raised her voice.
"Excuse me, your Majesty, for my insolence. But would you be able to grant me a wish?"
King said, "Spell it out. I'll try my best to grant you anything within my power."
Meyeri said, "I would like to stay isolated for the time I'm guarding the seal."
King then said, "Royal arbiter, could you take a look at the forest of death we've mentioned in the meeting? I want you to build a house there."
The royal arbiter said, "But there have been bad rumors about that place."
King replied, "Therefore, people will not dare to come to that place. Everyone here will be the witness; even if I have died and my son becomes king, there will not be any construction work there until the seal is broken."
The King then looked at Meyeri and asked, "Will that be enough?"
Meyeri said, "Yes, your Majesty."
After that, the party was disbanded. Icarus was talking to Cithrel.
Icarus said, "I've decided that I'll be back with my grandpa. I'm going to apologize to him."
Cithrel said, "Then we're going to go back to the same place. Want to ride together?"
Icarus blushed and replied with a quiet voice, "If you insist."
Then they both went back to the Elven Kingdom while Kairos was visiting the Holy Church. Sister Imelda comes out of the church, seeing Kairos with a frown on his face. She put both of her hands together, closing her mouth, shocked, and then cried heavily, knowing that the bishop was long gone. Kairos then gave the necklace back to her. She held it tight near her chest while Kairos consoled her.
Meyeri then went to the forest of death in a carriage and found the isolated house made of wood that had been constructed there.
She then removed the barriers from the horse carriage and installed the barriers with the house as their center. Then she lived there. For the first ten years, the King and Kairos often come separately to visit the witch. But after 10 years, the King died of old age, and after another ten years, Kairos is starting to become busy since he has become the trainer for new young knights.