North x Northwest

Chapter 367

Chapter 367

Epilogue Chapter 367

Epilogue 3: Preface by Professor Eloise Moussa

[ Three hundred years ago, the Empire.

An era in which women could not publish.

The preceding sentence may seem surprising, but that was the case when this book was written. It is known that the author, Liloa Obernyu, did not want to publish under a pseudonym, so she worked tirelessly to have her work officially published during her lifetime. However, this book was not published at the time, instead, it was secretly transcribed and circulated as a forbidden book until it was discovered a century later.

Following Liloa Obernyu’s death, countless manuscripts entered the world. Liloa Obernyu, who sharply presented the truth and demonstrated penetrating insight into providence in rough and unrefined language, was such a trailblazer that it is difficult to believe she lived 300 years ago. In particular, the ‘natural laws’ and ‘natural rights’ that she described were only refined by later generations and their meaning today is very similar to her early concepts.

But why bother recommending a book that is already famous?

Because surprisingly, the original manuscript was finally found. This is not a first edition but the original book, written in the author’s handwriting and discovered in the snowy mountains of Weissland. Since the point of discovery was the snowy mountains of Weissland, we cannot go on without mentioning another person…

…There is no one who does not know who Edgar Retiro was. However, not many people are aware that the famous Edgar Retiro was the companion of Liloa Obernyu. Naturally, associating these two people is unexpected given that they worked in fields vastly different from today’s divided studies.

Edgar Retiro discovered the secret of divine power in ancient artifacts and was the one who set loose those powers, thereby starting the era of magic. After the divine power contained in relics were shattered and spread throughout the world, magic soon came to dominate the sprouts and continents. Magic enabled people to cultivate fields, manufacture goods, wage wars, and establish countries. No longer through gold and power.

The term “genius” alone is not enough to describe a person who gave birth to a new era. However, when someone considered a genius calls not himself but someone else a genius, it can only leave us guessing how great of a mind Liloa Obernyu truly was.

Since Edgar Retiro’s vast achievements were accomplished in such a short period of time, only a few know what he was preoccupied with during his later years – the last years of his life.

The truth is that he spent his life after Liloa Obernyu’s death researching to preserve her works. In the end, as it was concluded, the original manuscript was enshrined in the snowy mountains to borrow the divine power of preservation, because, while he established the era of magic, humans at that time were unable to use it…

…In addition, Edgar Retiro created hundreds of works depicting Liloa Obernyu. But due to him not being active as an official painter and therefore made no significant contributions to the history of art, he has no reputation as a painter, nonetheless, thanks to his drawings, no one in the world is unfamiliar with the face of Liloa Obernyu, to the point where even someone who is not interested in history or ideology will recognize the face of the famous beauty hanging at the entrance to government offices and art museums. His refusal to further develop his style or paint other subjects demonstrates his hope that future generations would recognize the genius that his time erased. Because he had no idea whether future generations who supported Liloa Obernyu’s ideas would appear hundreds or thousands of years later, we can easily imagine his desire to preserve every single piece of it.

As a side note, there is only one painting in which Liloa Obernyu and Edgard Retiro appear together. This work of astronomical value can be viewed at the Sawa family art museum…

…Back to the main topic, < Rage >, which came out at a time when outrageous discrimination was rampant, is a book of thought as intense and passionate as its title. The essence of the thoughts encompassing races, continents, and countries that existed at the time, is actually a book written by Liloa Obernyu after losing her long-time friend, Empress Annette.

The first humanist movement, the so-called Anti-Imperial Revolution, singled out Empress Annette as the mastermind behind the luxury and hedonism of the imperial and aristocratic classes. Her label of widow who deceived the emperor into becoming the empress eventually became the noose that strangled her. As a result, Empress Annette’s life ended more miserable than any other royal family member or imperial courtier.

Liloa Obernyu, who was out on the ocean at the time, belatedly took notice of the empress’ death and harshly criticized the anti-imperial revolution. She particularly criticized the exclusion of women, minority races, and slaves from the definition of ‘human being’ declared by early humanism, and therefore argued that their revolution was a failure. From this time on, Liloa Obernyu lived in exile outside the eyes of the new government. However, it is said that Constance I, the Archduke of Obernyu at the time, took a strong stance and protected her, so much so that when she went into hiding in the southern archipelago, her traces were elusive and she did not face much difficulty…

…This book of thoughts discussed her most universal providence and yet could not help but be the most personal as well. Why is that so? Well, it is because readers can confirm that the accompanying excerpt was clearly written by a human being.

In the book’s introduction, the author constantly asks who is the most enraged. Is it the generation that comes a hundred years later? Two hundred years later? At the very least, the generation that came ‘three hundred years later’ now faces the grieving question of a thinker who could never experience this kind of future*.

We must now provide an answer to the woman who left her eternal voice through her writings.

Of course, we all know. In fact, the author had hoped that she would be the last, that she would be the most angry.

Perhaps she was right. Since Liloa Obernyu died just before the fall of the empire. No one can deny that the persecution of others was the most severe during the imperial era, which remains a stain on human history. This is because the magical power that appeared later played a significant role in breaking down class barriers and reorganizing the world. We can now name our proud heroes. However, it is also true that while magical power is stabilized and a new system is established, new anger is emerging.

So we can answer like this.

We are ‘still’ angry. ]

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Footnote:

‘Rage and anger’ = Lil has talked about this topic before, chapter 166 and 167, it was when both she and Cesar were tied to the pillar in Ed’s room on the Bell Rock, right before the Navy finds them. Lil and Cesar are fighting and Cesar gets more frustrated by Lil’s rising anger. Lil eventually counters that there will be people who will be much more angry then her and those people will unite and change the world.

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End of Epilogue 3: Preface by Professor Eloise Moussa

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End of Epilogue North x Northwest

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TN:

Hi Guys!

This was it! With chapter 367 we complete the epilogue and thereby the story!

This past 2,5 years have been a ride! To be honest, especially in the beginning, we would never have thought that we would actually complete the story. After only half a year we increased the number of chapters posted from 2 to 3 as the prospect of doing this for the next 3,5-4 years wasn’t something we calculated when we started this. But even so, if you told us that for 2,5 years our lives would be completely taken over by this story, we would probably deem you crazy, but the truth is, that is exactly what happened. We can only hope that with the hours we put in this project, we delivered something we can be proud of for the foreseeable future and something that will be and has been enjoyed by many. Especially seeing how this started as a much smaller ‘let’s clean the MTL’s’ type of story purely to satisfy our curiosity and need to finish this adventure when the webtoon fell short.

As always we want to thank all the readers from all over the world who laughed, cried, giggled, thrilled or felt any other emotion that this strong tidal ride that was NxNW offered. Because more than a romance-fantasy novel, it unfolded us to a story of human lives, specifically a story of a warrior fighting to live her life, as well as finding a genuine companion who supported her.

And hell, we even learned some things along the way, such as never taking your cotton shirt to a gunfight, but bringing your silk one instead. Or that it will be better for you to come to the water surface first when jumping from a high height instead of directly jumping deeper, that we can’t transfer blood from a dead person, that when a foreign object is logged into your body but you’re still breathing, you should never pull it out… the list goes on…

On a different note, we actually have a few surprises for you!

This preface speaks about only one painting being made depicting Ed and Lil together. In the past we have shown you pictures we found before, the most recent one was from the map of the empire. But included in the hardcopy book is a picture of a painting of Lil and Ed, and we found it! We had kept it hidden for a while as we knew that this last chapter, the preface, would be the best fitting opportunity to show it to you! It’s included below.

The end of this epilogue included a resource list (which we will dedicate a post to later) with all the study material used by the author in preparation for this fact-accurate story. Among them were books about Napoleon, human rights, sailing, the French Revolution, naval forces and mythology. The list ended with a fun little fact about our book title. Readers who may have ever searched for our story may have come across a movie from 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock named ‘North by Northwest’, the title of this novel is actually a homage to this thriller! How cool!

With that said, on to our last surprise! Last year, while browsing through blog after blog mentioning NorthxNorthwest, we, or more like Pru, came across the official blog of the author; Song Yun. And to our surprise, we found two pages dedicated to our beloved couple. They’re small little extra side stories before we truly have to say goodbye. We’ll translate those this weekend and you can expect them next week! We hope you’ll enjoy the last little adventures of Lil and Ed!

Happy reading and see you for the last and final time next week!

Love,

Pru and Formidable