novelraw Chapter 182 : Chapter 182
Chapter 182 : Chapter 182
Chapter 182: King (5)
Elaine jerked her chin.
“What about them?”
She was pointing behind Harad.
It was where Jis, Balbebron, and Manoa were.
“They are allies.”
“All unfamiliar faces.”
“We met for the first time this time.”
Elaine, eyes shining, stepped over Harad.
“A Sword Master.”
Elaine recognized Balbebron’s level.
There was no other reaction. It seemed the three were unconscious.
“And the Mage who peeked at me.”
Elaine recognized Manoa.
She was the very person who broke the dream. Indeed. Elaine of the past life dwells within Ellen.
“The black one?”
“He is 5th Rank too.”
Elaine exclaimed.
Then rustling sounds followed.
“You mustn't kill them.”
“I won't kill them, you ungrateful bastard.”
Elaine grumbled quietly.
In the past life, if Harad wanted it, Elaine granted it.
Even if Harad said he disliked it, she granted it.
Even if asked to kill Jis and Manoa, Elaine wouldn't grant it.
Because Harad called them allies.
“It was a joke.”
“Should be.”
Elaine stepped back over Harad and returned.
She squatted in front of Harad’s face.
She looked like a toughie, but dignity was felt. Elaine was that kind of human.
“Fire.”
Elaine flicked the tobacco held in her mouth.
“……Where did you get it?”
“The black guy had it.”
It seemed Jis brought tobacco.
It must have been a bribe for Ellen, since she said she would kill him if they met again.
“Had a heart too.”
Even a bribe for Harad.
Harad drooled again.
Seeing that, Elaine narrowed her brow.
“Fire.”
“Don't have any.”
Harad was in a state where he couldn't move his body, let alone use magic.
“Tsk.”
Elaine disappeared from sight again.
Sizzle. The sound of lighting fire was heard.
Squatting in front of Harad again, Elaine was smoking tobacco.
“Did you light it with the Embers by any chance?”
“Tastes the same.”
“…….”
It is the Embers that would have changed Kandenkel’s Origin.
Elaine used it as a flint.
“Stay still.”
Elaine reached out her hand toward Harad’s face. It seemed she intended to wipe his saliva.
“I will wipe it.”
“Try it.”
“…….”
Harad groaned.
“Can't do it.”
“I know.”
Elaine wiped Harad’s saliva with her bare hand.
She didn't find it dirty.
Rather, she looked happy.
“Done.”
“Eh.”
“……No good.”
Saliva kept flowing down every time she wiped it.
“You are a foolish bastard.”
Elaine sighed, stood up, approached Kandenkel’s corpse, and pulled out the heart.
She rubbed the finished tobacco on the corpse to put it out.
“Eat.”
Returning, Elaine carefully placed the heart in front of Harad’s face like giving a snack to a puppy.
“Your mouth should move.”
True words.
Since he can speak, he can chew and swallow too.
But Harad looked up at Elaine.
“You aren't saying anything?”
“It's already too late. So you should gorge until you don't need to gorge anymore.”
Elaine was talking about the end of predation.
Predation stops when one becomes 6th Rank.
That certainty, the regressed Harad obtained through Jis.
“How do you know that, Your Highness?”
“Because it's me.”
“That's why I'm asking.”
“…….”
Harad of the past life only vaguely guessed.
So Elaine of the past life should be the same.
“There is such a thing.”
But for some reason, Elaine was certain like the regressed Harad.
‘Was she watching me? Or Ellen?’
It sounded plausible, but it was clearly a wrong answer.
Elaine called Manoa ‘the Mage who peeked.’
She didn't even recognize Balbebron and Jis.
‘She didn't recognize Kandenkel either.’
Evidence that she wasn't watching the regression.
“Stop rolling your brain and eat.”
“…….”
Elaine poked the heart placed in front of Harad’s face.
Saliva flowed down more as she did so.
But Harad held back.
“I told you to eat.”
“I will absorb it later. With fire.”
“Why? Instead of eating with your mouth.”
“Tastes bad.”
Eating is good for efficiency.
But I hate it.
Ellen was crazy to feed him directly, but Harad didn't want to be bound by efficiency specifically.
If it were a Magical Beast’s, maybe, but that is Kandenkel’s heart.
It is an act of a human eating a human.
“Unless it's an unavoidable situation, I won't eat with my mouth.”
Just as Elaine once ordered, Harad will remain human.
“Pass.”
Elaine smiled brightly.
Harad stared blankly for a moment, then shuddered.
“……What is fail?”
“Beasts only listen when beaten.”
* * *
It was when Elaine finished smoking her second tobacco.
Elaine, who was admiring the fallen Harad’s face while squatting, raised her body. She headed to where the Embers were.
“Smoking again?”
“Not smoking.”
Returning, Elaine held the Embers, not tobacco, in her hand.
Its size was about a fist. It was a vague sight. Elaine had detached a part of the Embers.
“Eat this first. Staying still is getting boring.”
Elaine seemed to want to see the moving Harad.
“I don't want to.”
Harad frowned.
If he eats it now, everything before becomes meaningless.
He ended up in this state because he didn't want to eat the Embers.
“This is the Boundary.”
“I know.”
“Because those Embers exist, the village is maintained.”
“Village? Ah, them.”
Elaine was aware of the villagers hiding somewhere.
“Fascinating. So?”
A village in the Boundary.
It was surprising to the regressed Harad, but it seemed trivial to Elaine of the past life.
Natural if natural.
Would a mere village be surprising to someone who experienced destruction?
‘What happened?’
Elaine of the past life was hit by a curse.
A curse where blood pours out from every hole in the body, which Harad also suffered.
A curse that inevitably kills if caught.
But that Elaine didn't seem like she would die.
‘She wouldn't have died. Then? How does regression work?’
What happens to the past life?
Since I regressed, does it become something that disappeared completely?
‘If she didn't die, did I kill her? By regressing?’
Harad’s face looking at Elaine became complicated.
“I told you to stop rolling your brain.”
“Yes.”
Harad answered for now.
But his brain kept rolling.
“Do my words not sound like words to you?”
Noticing, Elaine got annoyed.
“I'm doing this because they sound like words.”
“Fine. Eat and I will tell you.”
“I don't want to.”
“……I clearly ordered you to temper your temper.”
Elaine closed her eyes and sighed deeply. Signs of enduring were evident.
“You bastard getting stubborn only at important times like this.”
“Yes.”
“Do you wish for the village to be maintained?”
“Yes.”
“Eat this fire, and you scatter it again, that will do.”
“……?”
Elaine pointed somewhere.
“That. Isn't it the Divine Beast of the Sun.”
She seemed to be pointing at the Fireball.
Harad agreed readily.
“When that thing grows roughly, it scatters fire. That is this fire.”
Elaine said, molding the detached Embers.
Words heard from Manoa.
Divine Beast of the Sun. If the Fireball becomes an adult, the guy commands fire.
Scatters fire around when grown to a certain extent.
“There is no guarantee it will grow that much.”
The reason Harad gave up the Embers.
There was no guarantee the Fireball would grow that much just because he takes the Embers.
“It does.”
“Basis?”
“I guarantee it.”
Elaine was giving the same explanation Manoa quoted from some ancient record.
“This fire is not such a grand fire. Just fire the past King scattered to light up the Boundary.”
No, more specific than Manoa’s explanation.
Legacy left by the Sun for the next Sun.
The Embers Manoa explained so, Elaine treated as a torch lighting up a mine.
“The real legacy is in that place.”
Elaine pointed to the sky.
In that sky, Harad’s eyes see the smoke of the Watchtower. At the end is the Sun's Magical Item.
“Do you see it too, Your Highness?”
“Can't see it. Only visible to your eyes.”
Elaine knew about the Embers, the smoke of the Watchtower.
“It is something you must take.”
“……How do you know that, Your Highness?”
Things Harad of the past life didn't know.
Things she wouldn't have kept from Harad if she knew in the past life.
“You aren't Elaine.”
“…….”
“What kind of bitch are you?”
“Crazy.”
Elaine looked disgusted with incredulous eyes.
“Wait and see.”
Elaine mumbled into the empty air.
Then, narrowing her brow, she looked down at Harad again.
“Can't do it. There is such a thing. Know it like that for now.”
That act as if gauging something, Harad found terribly familiar.
‘Restriction.’
Just like Harad, a restriction of regression is placed on that Elaine too.
“Your Highness.”
“Why?”
“……How old are you right now?”
At those words, Elaine’s eyes widened.
Soon, she smiled bitterly.
“It is rude.”
Elaine shoved the Embers into Harad’s mouth.
* * *
Playing with fire the King committed in the Boundary.
Elaine treated the Embers like that.
Something merely like that had tremendous effects.
Harad raised his body immediately as if nothing happened.
Just absorbing fist-sized Embers filled the heart with magic power.
Absorbing even Kandenkel’s burning heart, the Origin existing in the Mindscape inflated its size.
Harad walked toward the Embers as if bewitched.
Meaning, it works.
‘Indeed. Meaning one knows only by trying.’
As Elaine said.
If eaten, the Fireball definitely grows roughly and will scatter fire. The intuition of the Mage named Harad was certain of that future.
“Eat later.”
It was then.
Elaine grabbed Harad walking as if bewitched.
“That is not urgent, and I am urgent, so.”
“Pardon?”
“There is no time.”
Must mean there is no way to extend the time further.
Harad realized this moment was unrelated to Manoa’s magic.
Elaine has a restriction.
“I want to hear your story, but let's do that next time.”
“What should I do?”
At that moment, Elaine leaned her head on Harad’s chest.
“I will feel you.”
With ears listening to the heart's beat, with skin feeling the warmth.
It was an unfamiliar, embarrassing moment.
To Harad, Elaine was still closer to a man. But he couldn't push her away. Not because of the difference in strength.
Elaine looked tired.
And she was missing him.
“You ask. Your head must be complicated. I will answer what I can.”
“How old……”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”
Must mean it's a question she cannot answer.
“The North was consistently ignorant.”
“Because it's the North.”
“But it might not be.”
The North of the past was ignorant.
Even now. But it might not be. Still being ignorant is just inertia.
“You are smarter than thought.”
Elaine of the past life advised not to fix and use.
Because it breaks if fixed, Harad should patch it up.
“Why did you say not to fix and use? Seems like it won't break.”
“Because that looks good.”
“To whom?”
“To me.”
“…….”
There are smart Knights.
They want to become ignorant. Inertia of the North.
Elaine likes that inertia.
Wants to protect it.
So leave the North ignorant, and wants Harad to hold the helm of the North and control it…….
‘Crazy bitch.’
Harad cursed inwardly.
“I can hear everything.”
“You heard wrong.”
“If told to peel, let's peel.”
“……Yes.”
Elaine wants the North to be ignorant.
Because she loves even that flaw. Perhaps she doesn't think it's a flaw.
The regressed Harad had to grant it.
“However, it will be less ignorant than before.”
“If ignorant, that's enough.”
Elaine knew compromise too.
“Now speak the main point.”
“Pardon?”
“You were always like that. Bringing up the main point later. I told you not to walk on eggshells so much, but you do.”
“…….”
“While failing to read the room when you actually should.”
Thump.
Elaine’s hand hit Harad’s chest.
That vibration knocked on Harad’s heart.
“That is why you are a cripple.”
“…….”
“So speak, since I know everything.”
Harad felt that voice was distant.
Elaine has no time.
“……Do I end up dreaming this too? Or am I dreaming?”
“Ellen, young me fell asleep.”
Elaine answered immediately as if expected.
This moment does not become Ellen’s dream.
“This is my dream. A very welcome nonsense dream.”
Elaine laughed softly.
Harad felt she was dry.
“Was this what you meant by regaining the past life?”
He thought memories would return gradually, and she would become aware of the regression.
But what is in front of his eyes now was Elaine of the past life herself.
It means he suffered pointlessly until now.
He did all sorts of things to live without regrets this time, but Elaine full of regrets popped out suddenly.
“Is that a complaint?”
“Yes.”
“Is that all?”
“…….”
Harad couldn't answer.
If awareness of the past life means this.
‘……What about Ellen?’
Elaine’s fist touching his chest opened.
Short fingernails dug into the chest.
“I am me.”
True words.
“This body, young mind, eventually me.”
Ellen too.
Whatever happened, Elaine is Elaine.
Same person.
“But Harad.”
It was so.
Harad knew well.
“Do you consider it so too?”
……He did.
Harad lowered his gaze.
Since when, Elaine was looking up at him.
“That's cheating, that.”
For some reason, she looked sad.
“It's a joke.”
Is it really?
Harad couldn't answer.
“Time is ending.”
Elaine seemed to make excuses that she was sad because of that.
“Harad.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“There is a Moon.”
Elaine said.
“Not the Tower, real Moon. Like you.”
Things unknown in the past life, Elaine before his eyes knows.
“I see.”
“You already know. As expected, it was right that you went.”
“……I still don't know.”
“I know.”
Elaine grabbed Harad’s collar and pulled him down.
“I, you.”
Like that, pressed lips together.
“This is proof.”
Smiling brightly.
“Proof that you are mine.”
……While disappearing.