novelraw Chapter 181 : Chapter 181
Chapter 181 : Chapter 181
Chapter 181: King (4)
Harad simply looked up while lying down.
His body wouldn't move.
Rolling his eyes was the best he could do. It was due to the aftereffects of manifesting the Sun.
But…… was that really all?
His whole body felt stiff as stone.
His head was the same. What happened? Stimulation? Dream? Is it similar to Avery Aquins? Manoa’s magic? He couldn't think further. It felt like his thought process had stopped.
On the other hand, his heart beat wildly.
So violently that it was hard to believe it was a heart that had been burst open just moments ago.
“You’re moving.”
Ellen was looking down at him.
Those eyes, Harad found unfamiliar.
Not light. Lacking the unique vivacity. She wasn't looking down at Harad, but looking down at the world.
That arrogance was familiar.
And welcome.
“……Elaine.”
It was absurd, but Harad uttered that name.
That person is not Ellen.
His lord and closest friend.
“Is it you?”
Then Ellen, no, Elaine burst into laughter.
“Your speech has become informal while I haven't seen you.”
“…….”
“Since you ask, I shall ask too.”
Suddenly, Elaine became serious.
“Are you truly Harad?”
“…….”
“You are right. You absent-minded fool.”
Soon, the corners of her eyes curved beautifully.
If Ellen’s playfulness was refreshing, Elaine’s was sticky.
“Still small. Both body and fire.”
“…….”
“Looks good. The body.”
Elaine scanned Harad’s entire body with strange eyes.
“You once said the next one would be perfect.”
“It was a lie.”
“…….”
“Actually, anything is fine. Since it is you.”
Elaine laughed lightly.
Only then did Harad recognize reality.
However, it felt like being in a dream.
Because Elaine was standing before his eyes.
Elaine whom he followed in his past life.
“How…….”
Is that possible?
Harad’s voice trying to ask was buried.
-FIZZ.
The Moon’s Crystal Ball operated.
Harad intuitively sensed it intended to do something again.
There was nothing he could do.
His body wouldn't move. Even if it moved, it wasn't certain he could stop it.
That thing broke the manifested Sun.
The Moon is a Mage superior to Kandenkel.
-Ah.
The Crystal Ball spat out a beautiful voice.
……And broke.
“Shut up.”
CRUNCH!
Elaine, having stomped and shattered the Crystal Ball, growled.
“Am I not speaking?”
It was a simple gesture without Aura.
Just by stomping, the Crystal Ball, which had just started emitting magic power, shattered into pieces.
“Hah.”
Harad laughed hollowly anew.
Right, Elaine was that kind of human.
“Why? Was it something you cherished?”
“I was about to break it.”
Harad shook his head.
Elaine looked back and forth between Harad and the shattered Crystal Ball.
“Did you get beaten by something like this?”
“…….”
“Hah.”
Elaine clicked her tongue as if dumbfounded.
Then suddenly she touched her neck.
The hand touching her neck gradually went down and felt all over her body.
“Hmm?”
Elaine’s eyes widened as if surprised.
“This is Ellen.”
“…….”
Saying her own name with her own mouth.
Elaine’s eyes looking at Harad narrowed.
“That’s not what I mean, you fucker. My name is Elaine.”
Elaine knew what Harad was thinking just by looking at his face.
It had been like that for quite a long time.
“I suspected, but it was true. You were hanging out with Ellen.”
Just like Harad, that Grand Duke was distinguishing between Elaine and Ellen.
“It was a secret I told you to use when important, but it became futile.”
True words.
If young Elaine dismissed it as a dream until the end……
Elaine of the past life had revealed the secret of her gender, telling him to tell her then.
“It just happened that way.”
Harad couldn't help it either.
It was much easier to provoke Ellen than Elaine.
“I am not reprimanding you, since it seems to be going smoothly.”
Is that why Elaine came out?
Harad stared at Elaine’s face intently.
She didn't avoid his gaze. Instead, she flaunted her face.
“Mirror? Don't have one?”
“Would I have one?”
“Tsk. Unprepared fellow.”
“…….”
“Forget it. Must be the same.”
Is it the same?
Looking only at appearance, it's the same.
But the atmosphere was different.
Just with that, she became a completely different person.
“Right. How was I, this body?”
“It was like Your Highness.”
That Grand Duke distinguished between Elaine and Ellen, but to Harad, they were eventually the same person.
Elaine of the past life used to show sides similar to Ellen when with Harad.
“Really?”
“Pardon?”
“No. Not that.”
Elaine changed the subject.
“Isn't she beautiful?”
“……?”
“But I am more beautiful.”
Elaine smiled alluringly.
That smile is quite natural, Harad thought.
Much more than the smile he saw at the end of his past life.
“However, you are quiet.”
“……?”
“Am I the only one glad to see you?”
Elaine pouted.
That Grand Duke was whining unbecomingly of a Grand Duke.
“I also…….”
“Wench!”
At the interrupted voice, Elaine’s brow twitched.
Only then did Harad remember Kandenkel was still alive.
He forgot because he was captivated by Elaine.
Actually, he wasn't even visible.
Same for Jis, Balbebron, and Manoa.
It seemed as if only Elaine existed in this world.
It wasn't rose-tinted glasses for his lord, but truly felt that way.
That was the presence of the superhuman named Elaine.
Elaine turned half a step.
Only then could Harad see Kandenkel.
“What is it, this bug?”
Elaine called Kandenkel a bug.
“A bizarre face indeed.”
Kandenkel, his face ruined by the sun, was kneeling.
He was struggling to stand up somehow.
“Will you kill him? Or I will kill him.”
Because of who the opponent is.
The strongest on the continent.
Elaine Serzila was that kind of human.
“It is Kandenkel Lilldorf.”
“Who is that?”
“……Tower Master of Meteoric Iron.”
“Ah.”
Suddenly, the world became quiet.
As Elaine exhaled, it was a scene as if the world held its breath.
“I will kill him.”
In the past life, Tower Master of Meteoric Iron Kandenkel dropped a meteorite on Serzila.
“Calmly this time.”
And…… died by Elaine.
* * *
A scene of destruction.
Walls collapsed, and people died.
Mages, unknown where they popped out from, rampaged in the streets, and all kinds of magic fell from the sky.
Among them, the most prominent was the meteorite.
Assertively, that magic destroyed the most buildings and killed the most Northerners.
Grand Duke Elaine had no choice but to go crazy.
In the Great Territory of Serzila, Elaine rose to the sky alone. Her eyes chased only the meteorites and cut them down.
However, there were several more 6th Rank Mages.
Killing Kandenkel among them was a tremendous heroic tale, but it was a clear mistake that Elaine lost her reason amidst the destruction of Serzila.
No matter if it's Elaine, dealing with several 6th Rank Mages was impossible.
If Harad hadn't forcibly knocked her out and Great Warrior Gullen hadn't opened a path, Grand Duke Elaine would have died that day.
--You son of a bitch repaying kindness with enmity.
-Woof woof.
-…….
-If you came to your senses, draw your sword. Gullen who died for you becomes pitiful.
Elaine, who lost the North she loved more than her life and was enraged.
The scene of her soon forging that rage into her sword, the regressed Harad still vividly remembered.
Even Harad, who didn't love the North that much, felt so.
How much more for the newly returned Elaine of the past life.
“Now.”
“……?”
But unlike Harad’s expectation, Elaine looked quite calm.
“Go up.”
Elaine gestured.
Then Kandenkel jumped from his spot as if leaping.
Because whatever was binding him disappeared in an instant.
Kandenkel didn't go up but jumped backward to widen the distance.
A swarm of manifested meteorites floated before him.
“Why are you crawling? Not in the sky.”
Elaine frowned.
“……What happened, wench?”
Kandenkel looked like a wounded beast.
Signs of panic were evident.
Probably because the wench he easily toyed with earlier suddenly changed.
“What happened?”
Elaine turned the question to Harad.
Harad realized then.
It seemed Elaine intended to recreate the past life.
She intended to toy with Kandenkel calmly.
“Still 5th Rank.”
“What?”
Elaine, frowning more deeply, scanned Harad’s entire body.
You got beaten by a guy like that?
It was such a look.
“……His Highness is also not a Sword Master yet.”
“Me?”
Elaine snorted.
“That is Ellen.”
“Right now, Your Highness is Ellen though.”
“No.”
Elaine became serious at those words.
She seemed to feel it was an insult.
“Well, watch closely. Won't be fun though.”
Elaine beckoned to Kandenkel with her finger.
“Come.”
“…….”
“I won't move from this spot.”
Elaine said, rubbing the ground with the sole of her foot.
Grind. The sound of metal clashing came from Kandenkel’s mouth. He didn't rush in. Elaine tilted her head at such Kandenkel.
“Why? Ah.”
Elaine threw the sword she was holding toward Harad.
“Is that enough?”
Harad laughed hollowly at that arrogance.
It's Elaine, but the body belongs to Ellen.
Leaving aside how the stage of Aura works, there is only a handful of Aura left in Ellen’s body.
As evidence, only a single line of Aura remained in Elaine’s hand.
That jet-black was thin as a thread, fluttering precariously at the tip of her index finger.
“How dare you!”
Kandenkel seemed to feel similarly.
“Shut up and come. Time is precious.”
Elaine shook her index finger.
Then the meteorite vibrated.
Indeed, Kandenkel was a cautious Mage.
Even seeing the thread-like remaining Aura, he approached slowly as if probing. He must have not understood the kneeling phenomenon yet.
The meteorite swarm, having vibrated once, shot forward.
Harad, with only his mind remaining, couldn't see that speed. He only knew it was shot.
“Not that meteorite.”
Elaine tilted her head.
Only then did Harad realize all the shot meteorite swarm had been cut.
Countless meteorite fragments were rolling everywhere.
“……What are you, bitch?”
“Serzila. Try more.”
Elaine urged as if unsatisfied.
Thread-like jet-black was still swaying on her index finger.
The meteorites split in all directions gathered into one in the empty air.
“Now it resembles a little.”
Elaine quietly lifted her head and smiled thinly.
She seemed to finally like the form of that meteorite.
The meteorite Elaine was satisfied with fell.
Its speed was faster than before. Harad realized it was shot only after it split in half.
That Elaine cut it, he noticed only when her index finger came down toward the ground.
The thread-like jet-black swaying at the tip of the index finger.
That was Elaine’s sword.
For the current Kandenkel, that sword alone was enough…….
“Aratus……?”
Kandenkel muttered.
That jet-black seemed to feel like Grand Duke Aratus's to his eyes.
Harad sneered.
Turning his gaze, Elaine was doing the same.
“My father is insufficient.”
Grand Duke Aratus and any other Serzilas who existed in history are insufficient.
At least in front of Elaine Serzila.
“Now. Drop it from a higher place this time.”
Elaine spoke as if teaching.
Kandenkel, stiffened hard as stone, twitched.
As Elaine taught, the meteorite floated.
Kandenkel stepped on that meteorite like stairs and climbed.
The meteorite that became stairs went up again to become stairs, and soon gathered into one.
Kandenkel stood on a single meteorite.
“Yes, that is it.”
Only then did it resemble the past life.
Elaine smiled gladly.
“Drop it.”
The meteorite vibrated.
“Fucker.”
It was then that Elaine spat out a curse.
Harad lifted his gaze.
The meteorite and Kandenkel were falling, split exactly in half.
The location was farther than where they originally were.
It means Kandenkel chose escape instead of attack and died.
“…….”
As always, Harad skipped the process and saw only the result.
“Pathetic.”
Elaine shook her head as if disappointed.
Then she approached Harad.
“Any more? Ones who ruined you.”
“……None.”
A long way to go.
Harad realized that fact anew.
It was still a long way to stand side by side with Grand Duke Elaine.
“Then I shall ask again.”
Elaine said.
In Harad’s eyes, Kandenkel’s corpse split in half was visible.
The heart of the 5th Rank was pulsating small.
“Right now, am I the only one glad?”
“……I am glwad too.”
“Wad?”
Elaine’s eyes narrowed.
That gaze scanned Harad’s face.
He knew saliva was drooling, but Harad couldn't wipe it.
“Wad.”
Elaine, muttering, read Harad’s gaze and followed that direction.
At the end was Kandenkel’s corpse.
“You ate it.”
Elaine recited in a low voice.
“You ate the heart. Again.”
Harad met eyes with Elaine again.
Her face was grim.
“Son of a bitch.”
“Not a son of a bitch but a patient.”
“So what?”
Elaine looked ready to hit him once.
But she can't.
“If you hit me now, I die.”
“…….”
Elaine’s face only became grimmer.
“If you were annoyed, Your Highness should have come yourself.”
Harad really wanted to say those words.
“Crazy bastard.”
Slap.
Elaine slapped his cheek.
The intensity was not like Innate Strength at all.
It was infinitely weak. So Harad laughed.
“It was a joke.”
“I know.”
“I missed you.”
“Of course you should.”
“Yesh.”
“…….”
“Ah, saliva.”