Chapter 457: Meadow & Omm

Chapter 457: Chapter 457: Meadow & Omm

Chapter 457 – Meadow & Omm

The Second Meeting of the Sect ended soon after, this time with the prospect of welcoming two new members soon.

Meadow was not exactly thrilled about Diaila, but the fact that she would hold that woman’s soul put her at ease.

That was strange to Cassius.

After all, it was Meadow who had wanted Diaila on their team in the first place. However, one more thing that had become clearly noticeable since Meadow obtained the Dead God’s Characteristic and became Halfmortal was that she was now short on patience.

Little things could anger her now, and that was only the first change they had noticed.

Just what other changes was Meadow going through, or would she soon go through?

That question worried her friends, but all they could do was stand beside her, giving her the comfort of knowing she was not alone in this endeavor. One thing was certain: after what had happened, Meadow needed to find herself again. And she needed to do it before she lost herself completely.

Cassius believed it would be hard. Even Isolde believed the same. And they were both right.

However, Meadow had one thing, or rather one person, who could steady her in a way no one else, not even Cassius, could.

So when the Second Meeting ended, Meadow went to her small realm where her sheep wandered peacefully, and found Omm Min Jambar there, her very own Shepherd.

He was sitting on the ground, wearing mundane clothes befitting a poor commoner, his back against the big, immaculate sheep with pink stripes, and in his lap were two small ones that looked just like the big one.

Meadow realized that this was the pregnant sheep she had been worried about the past few days, along with her lambs.

Finding them safe put an unconscious smile on her face.

She then fixed her eye on Omm.

He was smiling faintly, his brown hair falling gently over his eyes. Lovingly stroking the sheep’s wool, he was whispering a calming song, gentle and warm, the sound so peaceful that the Halfmortal began to calm down.

Her presence, however, didn’t go unnoticed for long.

Omm noticed her the very next second. His eyes snapped to her, and he stood up hastily.

As he walked towards her, he noticed her eyepatch, but more than that, the young commoner could feel something different about his Miss.

That was why the first thing he said when he reached her, instinctively, was, "Are you okay, Meadow?" He said her name in an unfamiliar tone, still struggling to be casual with her.

Meadow looked at him with her one pink eye, closing her monster eye and telling Oeil to stay silent. She didn’t know why, but she felt a certain revulsion at the mere thought of looking at Omm through that eye.

She wanted to do it with her own.

"I am okay. Why?" She smiled faintly. "Do you find me strange with my eyepatch? Do you think," her heart shivered softly, "that it doesn’t suit me?"

"Oh, no." Omm immediately shook his head in a cute, awkward manner. "Of course it suits you, Meadow. I am just asking because you look... sad? I don’t know why I thought that. I am sorry if I have—!"

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Meadow cut him off, smiling more freely now. "I am happy you care enough to ask. I thought you only thought of Jeanne and... Georgina."

Omm’s hazel eyes darted nervously around the realm, avoiding Meadow’s. "It’s... it’s not what you think, Meadow."

"Ah, not what I think? Then tell me what I think. I am curious."

"Please," he whispered, lowering his head, embarrassed. "There is really nothing."

"That’s clearly not what Jeanne thinks." Meadow wanted to step closer, but suddenly felt self-conscious about what she had become. Her body could literally shift into worms now.

How could she touch Omm with her hands now? This young man who could hardly look at her without his eyes darting nervously?

Meadow stopped herself, bit the inside of her cheek, and spoke while keeping her distance. "Have you ever thought that Jeanne might love you?"

Omm’s eyes widened slightly at those words.

"Or even," she continued, "that other women might also... love you? Tell me, Omm."

"I admit that, to my great shame, I sometimes find myself wondering about those very questions," he said slowly. "But then I always ask myself why they would love me. I have nothing to offer on my own. I have been living off the help of those around me. Even my power..."

He lifted his hand, creating a small ball of frost.

"...was given to me."

’Not given, Commander,’ Rokia said instantly inside his mind, unhappy about her master belittling himself. ’It belongs to you. I beg you, master, don’t look down on yourself. No one is more worthy than you! No one! Please, you must remember! Remember who you are!’

Omm only smiled wryly at Rokia, unable to understand what she expected of him. But whatever it was, she was mistaken.

He was a simple man. A simple commoner with a loving family. A shepherd, even. And someone lucky enough to make it into the Academy.

That was all.

That was enough for him. But it might not be enough for others.

And after witnessing how much his father had suffered, not for himself, but for his mother, who had been suffering alongside him all those years, Omm had sworn never to put any woman through the same thing.

Just as his father had once told him.

"Love is wonderful, son," he had said, sitting in that cramped room, his eyes filled with tears as he looked at his wife, who was sleeping on her side to leave a little more space for her son. "But love alone doesn’t put food on the table, nor does it keep a roof over your head. I’ve been lucky, thank the Lord, to have a wife like your mother. My greatest blessing, I admit. A wife who chose to stay beside me through all this poverty, even though she had every right to seek a better life for herself. I’ve been lucky, son, and I pray that you’ll be just as lucky. But this is only my advice to you, and you can ignore it if you wish. It’s your life, after all, and I have no right to impose my own opinions on you. But..."

His father had turned to look at him then, tears streaming down his cheeks, and the sight had broken Omm’s heart.

"...Don’t marry a woman, don’t ask her to share your life, if you know you cannot take care of her and protect her. Don’t do it, son. Because you will hurt yourself, yes, but what will hurt you far more is watching her suffer beside you, knowing that she chose you, knowing that she could have had a better life, and knowing that you cannot give her the one she deserves. It’s pure agony, son. And it can break a man."

As these words replayed inside his mind, Meadow was unable to stop herself from drawing closer to Omm.

She silently asked for Omm’s forgiveness and got so close that he instinctively tried to back away, but she grasped his hand, stopping him.

She stared at him with her intense pink eye.

"M-Miss Meadow?" His words slipped back into formality in his nervousness.

"You have nothing to offer, you say?" Meadow narrowed her eye. "You do have things to offer, you fool. If you are thinking about money or things like that, why would you care about such things when I am with you?"

Only after saying these words did she realize what she had said, her eye widening in surprise.

But fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Omm didn’t respond the way she expected. "I can’t depend on you forever, Meadow. I need to start paying you back."

"You want to pay me back?"

"Yes, of course."

"Are you sure?" Meadow asked again, her tone serious. "What if I ask you for something you don’t want to do, or can’t do?"

Omm’s face slowly grew resolute. "I will do my best, as long as you don’t ask me for something against my principles. I promise you that."

"Then is loving a woman against your principles?"

"Hm?" Omm exclaimed, then shook his head. "No?"

"So you can do it? I mean, love romantically."

"I can, Miss Meadow," he said, then, with a difficult expression, "But I don’t want to burden myself, or the woman, with feelings I won’t be able to take proper responsibility for. I am... not ready for that."

"You will never be ready if you keep believing that you must first be ready for love, Omm," she said. "Because there is no point in life where you can say with absolute certainty that you are ready. You can always become stronger, wealthier, more mature, more resilient... there is no end to it, Omm. So tell me, why are you waiting to reach a point you may never reach before allowing yourself to experience something you could have right now?"

Omm was silenced by those words. He realized how true they were, but the image of his father crying at night was still fresh in his mind.

"I will think about it," he said, trying to smile but failing in his uncertainty, "when I am strong enough to protect myself and those around me in this world."

Meadow smiled wryly, realizing it was useless. This man would not listen to her.

Strong enough to protect himself in this world?

This world, where a god could be killed?

She bit her lip, swallowing her pain, and pulled Omm into her arms. "Tell me, then, Omm. Could you love someone... Halfmortal?"

He gently returned the hug. "Does a Halfmortal have a soul?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then yes," he said, trembling slightly from hugging a woman. "I can love a Halfmortal, Meadow."

Meadow let out a trembling smile. "Even if she has a talking eye and the ability to produce worms from her body?"

"I mean, yes. We fall in love with someone’s soul and character. Not their appearance or power."

The Halfmortal stayed silent for a while, then said in a low whisper, "Reassure me. You can’t be so dense that you don’t notice what I am doing, right?"

The commoner let out a nervous chuckle. "I am unworthy of it. Please, forgive me."

"Yet."

"Hm?"

"You do plan to be worthy, don’t you?"

Omm paused, thought about his whole life up until now, and said, "I do."

"Does that mean I have won?"

He tilted his head. "Won what?"

Meadow didn’t reply. But in her head, she mocked both Jeanne and Georgina.

In the end, no one could take her very own shepherd from her.

—End of Chapter 457—