Chapter 97 |
[EP.97] Stop Crying Already
The news of Balheim’s Sky-Piercing Knight Order defeating the 8-star erosion species Agares spread throughout the world.
As it was a matter that occurred in the Demonic Realm, naturally, every corner of the world paid attention to the situation there.
At the same time, people didn’t hold back their praise, saying it was indeed Balheim.
In particular, the evaluation of Lilish Balheim, a direct descendant of Balheim, rose even higher.
To catch an 8-star erosion species without a single death among the knight order.
No matter what anyone said, it was an incident that proved her abilities.
So much so that there were talks of her becoming one of the next generation’s Ten Strongest Under the Heavens.
However, behind the scenes, no one knew that there was one person who had desperately faced Agares more than anyone else.
Thanks to that, the Holy Kingdom was in an uproar.
Around the time when the commotion in the world died down, Kraush opened his eyes in the treatment room of the Holy Kingdom.
[You’re the kind of person who can’t be left alone. Stop sulking every day and come out for a bit. There’s a festival right in front. Let’s go see it together, just the two of us, ahem.]
Kraush stared at the ceiling of the treatment room for a moment.
The memory that had flashed by in his dream lingered for a while even after he opened his eyes.
The hair that shone brightly in the sunlight and the woman who couldn’t hide her embarrassment despite pretending otherwise.
[I know. Someone else came cursed again, right? I can tell just by looking at you. I know. But you can prioritize your own life for at least a day, can’t you?]
And even the sight of her trying hard to contain her disappointment on her face when he couldn’t go out that day.
After that, the two of them had fewer conversations with each other.
Kraush shook his head to erase the memories that had surfaced.
Then, as he slowly raised his body, the pain he had felt in his body had disappeared as if washed away.
This feeling, it must have been that person who healed him.
[You really made a mess.]
Kraush turned his head towards the voice he heard.
There, sitting by the window where the sunlight shone, was a crow.
It was Crimson Garden.
“It was a mess. I thought I was going to die.”
[You knew that, yet you pushed yourself to that extent?]
“We caught Agares, didn’t we?”
Kraush awkwardly scratched his head.
Having killed one of the harbingers of destruction, he felt completely refreshed.
[Let me ask you one thing.]
At that moment, Crimson Garden approached Kraush.
[Why are you so desperate?]
Crimson Garden clearly knew that Kraush was a regressor.
However, even in her eyes, Kraush’s tenacity was abnormal.
Kraush was desperately pursuing everything to the point of madness.
And he did so without sparing his own body in the slightest.
Crimson Garden didn’t know the process of how Kraush had regressed.
That’s why she had asked him.
What was the reason for going this far?
At that question, Kraush thought of Arthur.
In the past, someone had asked Arthur a similar question.
Of course, the reason he asked that question back then was different from Kraush’s case. It was because Arthur was too cold-hearted.
Anyway, the fact that they received the same question was the same.
There, Arthur had answered like this:
[Even if I tell you, do you think you’ll be able to understand?]
No one can perfectly understand something they haven’t experienced themselves.
That’s why Arthur said, what do you know, you who haven’t experienced destruction right before your eyes and haven’t regressed?
That’s why Arthur treated those around him as expendables.
He coldly used people as pawns and only filled his side with pawns who would never betray him.
Kraush wasn’t much different.
He, too, used people like chess pieces, just a little less than Arthur.
The only difference was that Kraush’s chess pieces included himself as well.
In the life Kraush had lived, he had never once put himself first.
Because he was also aware of being an expendable item that stole curses for others.
So even after regressing, Kraush was the same.
The thought of treating even himself as a chess piece was deeply ingrained in the life he had lived.
[You can prioritize your own life for at least a day, can’t you?]
The words from the dream came to mind again.
Kraush looked at Crimson Garden.
What would happen if he told her about the destruction?
Would she become desperate like him?
Or would she accept it calmly?
He didn’t know.
However, Kraush opened his mouth.
“It’s something I need to do to live as myself.”
There was only one time when Kraush could live for himself.
Only when preventing the destruction.
[……]
Crimson Garden didn’t say a word and quietly gazed at Kraush.
Soon, she silently sighed and spread her wings, flying towards the window.
[There’s less than half a year left until going to the academy.]
Crimson Garden’s words continued after the silence.
[I’ll train you to death until then, so keep that in mind.]
Before long, she went out the window.
Seeing that, Kraush smiled for a moment.
Indeed, those were words befitting Crimson Garden.
Clank-
At that moment, the door to the treatment room opened.
There stood Bianca, holding a wet towel and a bowl.
She quietly closed the door as if she hadn’t seen Kraush yet, then soon raised her head.
And as her eyes met Kraush’s,
Clang!
She dropped the iron bowl filled with water on the floor.
Seeing that, Kraush hesitated.
He had clearly told Bianca that he would return safely, but he had come back in the worst state yet.
He had nothing to say.
In the meantime, Bianca slowly approached.
Expressionless as usual, Bianca soon came in front of Kraush and stretched out both arms wide.
Realizing what that meant, Kraush smiled bitterly and extended his arms under Bianca’s.
Then he embraced Bianca’s back as it was.
Bianca, nestled in Kraush’s arms, quietly trembled.
“Sorry.”
As Kraush apologized, Bianca silently snuggled deeper into his embrace.
As he stroked Bianca’s hair, she spoke.
“Please introduce me to the teacher you mentioned, Mr. Kraush.”
So it comes to this in the end.
“Okay.”
It wouldn’t be bad to train together before going to the academy.
Creak-
At that moment, the door opened once more.
There stood a woman with peach-colored hair wearing a veil and Heavenly Dog Star Blavi.
“I told you I would just see him wake up and leave. You’re also responsible, young lady. Here, as a member of Sephira, oh, he’s awake!”
Serang, who seemed to have received a call from Sephira, was talking to a magical device in her hand and looked this way.
Then, as she put away the device and came over, she saw Bianca nestled in Kraush’s arms and smiled bitterly.
“She worried a lot and cried for you. You’ll have to comfort her quite a bit.”
“You’re the one who came in while I was comforting her.”
“The situation inside here can’t be seen even with astrology, you know.”
It was sincere, but Kraush took it as a joke.
“More importantly, isn’t it too much to hide that you’re a direct descendant of Balheim?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“Well, that’s…”
Serang closed her mouth.
Indeed, she hadn’t asked.
“Anyway, thank you for sending the guardian.”
Blavi had reached Agares before the Blue Sea Knight Order even left the Demonic Realm.
Just by that, one could tell how faithfully he had carried out Serang’s orders.
‘If we had waited for Blavi a bit, we might have caught it more easily.’
But that’s just a hindsight story.
When they didn’t even know when Blavi would arrive, they couldn’t waste more stamina.
“It’s fine. That was the deal. Even if it wasn’t a deal, I would have sent him if I had heard the news.”
She must have remembered what Mirvis had said, as she shuddered.
Kraush knew well what it was, so he didn’t particularly sympathize with her.
That was because she was the author of the erotic novels Ebelasque often read.
What was hidden in her third drawer were the erotic novels she had written.
Being a princess of Sephira while also being an erotic novel writer behind the scenes.
When he first searched her room and came out, he was dumbfounded.
‘I didn’t know it would be used like this.’
Anyway, Kraush decided to bring up the main topic now.
“So what about the other deal?”
As he asked while stroking Bianca’s hair, Serang fell silent.
Kraush knew a suspiciously large amount of information.
So even Serang knew that the death notice Kraush had mentioned about her wasn’t entirely false.
After pondering this and that, she soon let out a sigh.
“Alright. From the beginning, it was a deal with no loss on our side anyway.”
What Kraush wanted was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Just because one Heavenly Slaughter Star disappeared, Blavi’s ties with Serang and Sephira weren’t shallow enough for him to leave her side.
So she could readily give it away.
“More importantly, are you okay? Revealing so many facts to the young lady.”
Serang knew that Kraush possessed three skills.
Moreover, one of those skills was a skill that could steal other skills.
However, Kraush didn’t particularly care.
In the end, as they continued like this, those things would be revealed anyway.
“You wouldn’t want your secrets to be exposed either, would you?”
Serang flinched and stiffened her body.
From the moment Serang sent Blavi, she had acknowledged that it was her weakness.
So it meant she absolutely couldn’t go around revealing Kraush’s secrets to anyone.
“It sounds like we’re a secret society.”
Serang forced a smile.
At the word ‘society’, for some reason, it felt like Bianca was hugging him a bit more tightly, but Kraush left it be.
“Blavi.”
At Serang’s call, Blavi stepped forward.
“What should I do?”
“Just permit in your heart that you’ll give the Heavenly Slaughter Star.”
Blavi faithfully followed Kraush’s words.
Towards him, Kraush raised his hand.
The target was Blavi, and what he would steal was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Black Hood was activated on Kraush’s hand without a dial.
At that moment, Kraush’s body flinched and stiffened.
An absurd bloodlust immediately surged up from deep within.
‘So this is how it feels.’
In the past, the curse called the Demon of Slaughter was similar to this.
At the same time, following the Heavenly Slaughter Star, the effect of the Doll’s Eye also grew stronger.
It was because the Heavenly Slaughter Star increased the power of curses.
The surging bloodlust was instantly suppressed by the Doll’s Eye and disappeared.
Simultaneously, the madness that kept trying to seep out was also suppressed.
This time, he had absorbed so much world erosion that the control of madness was precarious.
Thanks to the Doll’s Eye being strengthened by the effect of the Heavenly Slaughter Star, all the problems were solved.
That wasn’t all.
‘The Heavenly Slaughter Star increases physical abilities in exchange for feeling bloodlust towards others.’
He was itching to use his body right away.
“No. They said you need to rest.”
However, Bianca, who had noticed Kraush’s thoughts, spoke with raised eyebrows.
Kraush knew well the saint’s abilities, so it was clearly a full recovery, but since he had wronged Bianca, he decided to endure it for a bit.
“Blavi, how is it?”
In the meantime, Serang turned to Blavi and asked.
Blavi clenched and unclenched his fist, then looked at Kraush with curious eyes.
“It feels like the shackles that bound my body have disappeared.”
“It sounds like a good feeling. That’s great.”
Serang smiled with satisfaction and turned around.
“Then I’ll get going. I don’t want to disturb your time together.”
“Yeah, I’ll go protect your life then.”
“I can protect my own life to some extent, young lady.”
She laughed as if snorting and turned to leave as it was.
But then, Serang, who had grabbed the doorknob, looked back.
“There’s one thing I’m curious about. Where will you be next year?”
She could find out with that astrology of hers.
Why was she asking?
Although he had questions, Kraush decided to answer this much in exchange for receiving the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
“Rahelrn Academy.”
“Hmm.”
Serang, who had a smile on the corner of her mouth, soon slightly raised the corners of her lips under the veil.
“I see. Enjoy your time at the academy. Ah, right. Let me tell you one thing before I go.”
She continued, saying it was a bonus.
“Is the fake saint who recently appeared in the Holy Kingdom really a fake?”
Hearing those words, Kraush soon let out a sigh.
“Are you testing whether I’m a prophet or not?”
“Well, it’s something unknown, right?”
Why do astrologers all like to show meaningful attitudes?
Kraush thought he really couldn’t understand and said,
“That one is not a fake.”
Let alone a real one.
However, there was one certain fact.
The fake saint was someone who would shake the foundation of the Holy Kingdom.
“That answer is enough.”
Only then did Serang grab the door and open it.
“Please help my friend Astria a bit.”
“What did you see with astrology?”
“Nothing.”
Kraush didn’t believe it, and she, who spat out an honest answer, left, fluttering her peach-colored hair.
Just one thing.
She hid the fact that suddenly, she couldn’t see anything about Astria, who she should have been able to see.
