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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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Chapter - 36: Cancer cells are living beings
“Mother! Wake up! It’s morning!”
“…What?”
When she woke from her long sleep, it was morning.
The warm sunlight tickled her cheek.
Perhaps because she had slept so long, her eyelids trembled, too weak to open properly.
“Mother, there’s drool on your cheek.”
“Mm. I’ve shown you something embarrassing.”
“I’m joking! Hehe.”
“……”
Just a moment ago, she had been taking a nap—Was it a dream?
Why is it morning? How many hours have passed?
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Let’s see? You fell asleep yesterday afternoon, so… around 18 hours? They say beautiful women are sleepyheads—maybe it’s true!”
“……”
“I cleaned the whole place! There weren’t any emergency patients among the ones who came, so you don’t need to worry. I took care of the basic first aid, too.”
“Ah. I’m sorry. I should have—”
“It’s okay. I’m your daughter and your student, aren’t I?”
“Ah… right. A daughter… yes.”
“You’re not trying to take it back, saying it was something you said half-asleep, are you?”
“Absolutely not. I meant it.”
“Hehe. Mom. I love you.”
She gently patted Charlotte’s head and headed to the bathroom.
While washing her face, she looked into the mirror.
Gigachad was staring back at her.
Still strong, still brimming with vitality and muscle.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?”
- “You fucking asshole, Noappy. I’m not an alarm clock.”
“Hoo… Didn’t Charlotte end up suffering needlessly because of me? You’re always nagging me to wake up early and stretch—so why not this time?”
- “I couldn’t take away my granddaughter’s joy.”
“…What?”
- “You idiot. You’re not the only one who finds joy in bearing others’ burdens. It’s not just your great and mighty Father’s power that can help people.”
“……”
- “Think about how happy that girl must have been, doing the work her mother always shouldered alone. You shouldn’t have said sorry—you should have said thank you.”
“Then why didn’t you butt in at the time?”
- “Oh, sure. ‘Now, this is when you say thank you’—gently guiding you from the side. Not a bad idea. My daughter.”
Nova glared at Gigachad.
She wasn’t glaring out of anger—
It was more like she was flustered and embarrassed, so she ended up glaring for no real reason.
“I know. If I don’t say it myself, it doesn’t mean anything. Because I’m that child’s mother…”
- “Yes, ma’am.”
“But the more I open my heart to her, the more I worry that her sorrow from losing me will only grow.”
The suffering of the world isn’t meant for just oneself—
That anyone who loves will inevitably suffer—
Even if one does not welcome that suffering, all suffering exists for the sake of oneself.
She had realized it far too late.
“I intend to return the suffering I stole from others. Because that suffering… was never mine to carry.”
The reason people are born with bodies that can feel pain is so they can save themselves.
Any doctor would know that simple truth.
She had been a fraud of a doctor.
Just as Gigachad once told her, she had been no different from a funeral director handing out the same death notice to everyone.
Now was the time to set everything right.
She had to correct the wrong diagnosis.
“Come to think of it, you knew from the beginning that I would make this choice… didn’t you?”
- “Nope.”
“…What?”
- “How could I predict something like that? Like I’ve always said—everything I know is only what you know. Only you can decide your future. I can’t foresee it, and I can’t change you.”
Nova stared blankly at Gigachad.
Her inner self.
Her disease.
Something whose nature she could never fully grasp— a parasite clinging to the soul.
“I didn’t know that I would end up making this choice.”
- “Right. The future’s unknowable.”
“Even if someone told the past me about this moment…I don’t think she would have believed it. Because this kind of happiness… was something I could never have imagined.”
- “Exactly. Back then, you were just a coward— afraid even of happiness.”
“Then how could you say such things to me?”
To Nova’s question, steeped in doubt, Gigachad answered with a laugh— so bold, it bordered on absurd.
- “Because you wished for it.”
“…What?”
- “The lowest lump of flesh stood among humans, because you wished to become a better person.”
Her first wish.
The only prayer whispered by the brain and heart born from the womb of an unfortunate girl.
She wanted to become a person.
She wanted to be a better person— to live not as a lump of flesh, but as a human being.
- “Noappy. The reason it’s important to set your sights high isn’t because the goal itself is noble. Even reaching it doesn’t suddenly make someone great.”
It was a wish far too grand for a mere tumor.
In the end, she could not become a person.
A tumor mass that parasitizes the world’s suffering—that was her true nature.
- “The journey toward that goal is what makes you a better person.”
But the fact that she failed does not mean that nothing changed.
- “There is no path to happiness. There is only happiness along the path.”
She learned love.
She learned happiness.
She learned how to favor someone.
She learned kindness.
- “It’s okay to fail. It’s okay not to trust yourself. It’s okay to doubt your goals. And sometimes, it’s okay to give up and collapse.”
She dreamed the impossible dream of saving the whole world.
Yet, along the way, she saved many people.
- “Because by now, you have already become a better person.”
She became a better person.
She lived as a human, not a tumor.
She strove to live as a human.
She lived. Has lived. Is living.
“Uh, that is…”
This is the truth.
An undeniable truth.
A truth she embraced gladly.
“……”
She cried.
No tears fell. Her voice did not falter.
But she was surely crying.
Only then did the reality of dying sink in.
The fear of death can only be truly felt while one is still alive.
“……Honestly, I don’t want to lose that child.”
She wants to live.
“I want that child not to lose me.”
She wants to live.
“I don’t want to grow weak. I don’t want to die.”
She wants to live.
“I want to remain a tumor of this world forever, feeding on the world’s suffering as I live.”
She wants to live.
“I want to live with that child for my whole life.”
She wants to live.
- “Then do just that. Serve just enough not to lose your power, swallow the suffering, and choose one day a week as a Sabbath to live for her. Only you can decide your life. Not every day needs to be a miracle.”
“No. That’s not what I mean.”
But sometimes, the noblest desires overcome the instinct to survive.
“If I remain a tumor of this world… If I do not give up consuming suffering…In the end, I will…”
That desire is called love.
“In the end, I will even swallow that child’s suffering.”
If tomorrow that child falls ill with a fatal disease.
If that child groans in pain.
If that child finds this world unbearably painful and wishes to die.
If that child faces death with a bright smile from their bed.
Then, she will surely feed that child the blood filled with this terrible malignant tumor.
It will seep into her cells, promising eternal life.
It will creep into her nerves, stealing all her pain.
It will tear through her brain—until only pure happiness remains.
“I know this fact. And you know it too, don’t you?”
Nova was certain.
It is not fate. It is not a choice. It is not the purpose. It is not a prediction.
It is a diagnosis.
This is an incurable disease. The only escape is death.
“I… will swallow that child. And I will surely bring about the world’s destruction.”
Nova was an excellent doctor.
She was cool-headed enough to examine herself.
“Therefore, I must do it now.”
She is the trigger of destruction. No one else can prevent destruction in her place.
Therefore, she had no choice but to do it.
- “Won’t you regret it?”
“I probably will regret it. I am regretting it even now. But this is my choice.”
- “Then I must say goodbye in advance. Farewell, My Daughter. To the Alpha who decides her fate… you no longer need this Gigachad.”
Nova suddenly recalled the day she first met Gigachad.
A patient burdened with a disease of the heart.
That patient once said they were tormented by a demon.
“I will treat you second to last.”
- “First is fine too. Even if you can’t see me, I will be closer to you than your own heart. What truly matters—”
“You can only see it with your heart.”
- “Good job.”
Well, patients are rarely correct in their diagnosis.
Where else would you find such a kind demon? Unless it’s an angel.
==============
“Does this mean the destruction caused by Nova has been stopped?”
“Yes. For now, all conditions are met. She will probably give up all her powers soon, live for a few days… and then die of cancer.”
“It’s still hard to believe that a disease became a person.”
“Well, think simply. There’s a saying that even cancer cells are living beings.”
“Really? Is there such a saying?”
There was. In my past life.
It was a legendary line.
“So that was her fate to die from a disease after all.”
“That’s how the world goes. Even if you chase eternal life in this world, you only end up miserable.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Kanaria, you have no interest in eternal life, do you?”
“If I died buried under gold coins, that would be a noble death, I suppose.”
“That’s not bad.”
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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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