"Mm..."
Under everyone's curious gazes and Aether and Lumine's expectant eyes, Theresa set down the purified girl, Tirel, who groggily opened her eyes.
The light that greeted her eyes made the girl instinctively raise a hand to shield her vision.
Then she suddenly noticed something wrong. The furry, rough, black claws she knew so well and loathed had, at some point, become the fair, pink little hands that felt both familiar and unfamiliar to her.
Those fair, beautiful fingers left the girl stunned. She stared at her hands with wide eyes, then carefully touched her cheeks with slightly trembling hands.
The furry, rough texture and the hard wooden mask were both gone, replaced by the smooth, tender feel she had dreamed of-the delicate skin of her girlhood!
"I..."
"I've changed back? This isn't a dream?"
"I can see so clearly! The air is so fresh... I..."
"Waaah..."
Faced with such an enormous change, the girl could not find words for her feelings. All she could do was cover her face and weep with joy.
She had dreamed of regaining her human form. She deeply loathed herself as a Hilichurl.
"Tirel... do you still remember me?"
Aether wanted to reach out and try to comfort the crying girl, but he still did not dare actually touch her.
"You idiot, go for it!"
Seeing her brother being so slow, Lumine had no choice but to cheer him on. With everyone's encouragement, Aether cautiously reached out with both arms and embraced the crying girl.
Only when Aether's warm embrace surrounded her did that familiar, deeply reassuring feeling make Tirel lift her head, meeting the boy's guilt-filled gaze.
"My Savior..."
"I missed you so much!"
Tirel could no longer hold back five hundred years of longing and cried in Aether's arms. Rather than play