novelraw Chapter 187 : Chapter 187
Chapter 187 : Chapter 187
Chapter 187: Greed (5)
While I had been unable to eat properly or sleep because of my worries—
“What are you doing?”
“Resting.”
The very man who had caused all that worry stared blankly and answered shamelessly. His hand was still stroking Ellen’s head.
“Is there a problem?”
Harad tilted his head.
Manoa’s gaze was utterly flustered. It was the kind of look that made even the innocent feel guilty for no reason.
“Doing something improper outside like this…”
“What are you imagining? We are simply sitting like this.”
Harad thought Manoa was misunderstanding.
Ellen was merely lying down with her head on his thigh. Yet Manoa’s face was still beet-red.
“You are touching her.”
Manoa pointed at Harad’s hand on Ellen’s head.
“Wh-who touches a woman’s face outdoors?”
“…Are you serious?”
Now that he thought about it, Manoa was a fossil. Just like a witch who had lived for three hundred years.
‘Should it not be the other way around?’
After living that long, one would think she would be beyond embarrassment. She even had children.
A sinner of Paradise who had given birth to vermin and tried to protect them. That was how Kandenkel, Tower Master of Meteoric Iron, had described Manoa.
“All this over a face.”
Tsk. Clicking her tongue, Ellen sat up.
“Ellen, matters between men and women should be restrained in public.”
Manoa spoke like a stereotypical old fogey. Ellen snorted.
“These days, people do everything outside.”
“What?”
“All the things you are imagining right now. They do all of them. And more.”
“Wh-what are you—”
Manoa’s face turned even redder. Seeing that, Ellen smiled slyly.
“Is Manoa not the most improper one here?”
“Wh-what nonsense! I was not thinking anything at all.”
Manoa flailed her hands in protest.
“But have you decided already?”
Ellen looked regretful. Even a nine-point pillow seemed to be addictive.
“I have not decided yet.”
Manoa suddenly turned serious, as though nothing had happened. She was similar to Jis. She might look clumsy at times, but she was a mage who had lived for as long as a Sage.
“Before I decide, there is something I wish to ask.”
Harad straightened up. Manoa was serious, so he had to be as well. He was the one asking for a favor.
“Ask anything.”
He did not know what the question would be, but the answer would heavily influence Manoa’s decision.
“I will be as honest as I can.”
He did not want to put on airs.
“Harad, you suggested that the village relocate.”
“I did.”
“I thought it was out of concern. Is that correct?”
“It is. Our location was exposed.”
He did not know the Moon’s schemes, but it had already sent the Tower Master of Meteoric Iron. Believing this was the last time would be madness.
“I refused.”
Because relocation was more frightening than the Otherworld. It was not only Manoa. The village likely felt the same.
“You accepted my refusal.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
Was she being petty? Harad thought for a moment. It did not seem so.
“That is right. Why?” Ellen chimed in, pricking up her ears.
She seemed curious as well. Come to think of it, things had been too hectic to explain.
“You want to know whether I truly care about the village.”
“That is correct.”
“And would hearing that change anything?”
“It would.”
Manoa nodded readily. That guilelessness left Harad flustered.
What if he lied? For a witch, she had an oddly naïve side.
“What you like and what you are good at are different.”
“…Pardon?”
“Do not gamble. If someone asks you to guarantee them, kill them instead.”
“……”
“Remember that. Of course, you can trust me.”
Manoa’s eyes narrowed sleepily.
“That is true.”
Few people who ask for trust so openly are worth trusting.
“The reason I accepted your refusal is because the one behind this is the Moon.”
The fact that the Tower of Meteoric Iron had come was no longer important. What mattered was that the Moon had sent Kandenkel.
The Tower of Meteoric Iron had been used. At least this time, regardless of his past life.
“The Moon favors me.”
“…Were you not attacked?”
Manoa’s expression said, What nonsense.
“It attacked me because it favors me.”
Harad was already certain.
“When I first saw the Embers, the Moon bewitched me. It told me to take them.”
Only Harad had heard that voice, yet Manoa and Ellen nodded. They had already seen the Moon shatter the manifested sun through the crystal sphere.
Compared to that, manifesting a voice heard only by Harad was trivial.
“If killing me had been its goal, that consideration would have been meaningless.”
And Harad had not taken the Embers. That was likely why the Tower Master of Meteoric Iron had come.
“…?”
“There needed to be a reason for me to take the Embers.”
Embers. That was what Kandenkel wanted.
“Kandenkel’s objective was the Embers.”
They would have been material to transform his meteorite.
“But the Moon wanted me to absorb the Embers. The Meteoric Iron was merely used.”
Through the powerful enemy named Kandenkel, it sought to create a situation where Harad had no choice but to absorb the Embers.
“That is why the Moon interfered.”
Shattering the manifested sun followed the same logic.
-Excellent.
Instead of trying to kill Harad, the Moon had praised him. Previously it had warned him about Aquins; this time, it wanted him to take the Embers.
“Is that not reading too much into it?”
“No.”
Harad stated firmly.
“The Moon did not come in person. Even knowing that my Origin is the sun.”
Because it trusted Kandenkel? If that were so, the crystal sphere should have scolded Kandenkel, not praised Harad.
No, instead of manifesting such magic from afar, it should have come directly.
“…Harad. If it intended to kill the vessel that is you, that would make no sense.”
“Exactly.”
If it wanted him dead, the Moon would have acted far more decisively. It would have come in person long ago, not merely manifested magic from afar.
But it did not. Even though it knew Harad’s location through the crystal sphere.
“Moreover, the Moon did not reveal my existence to the Otherworld. That is also proof it did not intend to kill me.”
The sun belonged to a woman. The Moon had prophesied as much, yet the present Moon had no intention of realizing that prophecy yet.
“That does not sound like a reason to accept my refusal.”
Manoa returned to the main point. Harad was about to say the same.
“The Moon did not come in person. That is the reason.”
“…?”
“For reasons unknown, the Moon wanted me to absorb the Embers. So much so that it risked the life of the Tower Master of Meteoric Iron.”
If it wanted to feed me that badly, it would have come itself and forced it down my throat. At least, that was what Harad would have done.
“Yet the Moon did not come. Why do you think that is?”
“…I do not know.”
Manoa pondered for a long while before answering. Harad turned to Ellen.
“It accounted for the possibility of failure. There was something that made it hesitate to come in person.”
“What was that?”
“Serzila.”
Harad placed a hand on Ellen’s shoulder. Her raised eyes went wide.
“More precisely, Grand Duke Aratus.”
What could possibly make the Moon uncomfortable? Only one thing came to mind.
“His Grace has deep ties with the Moon Tower. I do not know what happened, but his obsession is considerable.”
There was no way the Moon Tower was unaware of that.
The Moon was conscious of Grand Duke Aratus. The spy Cassion was proof of that.
“The Moon must have agonized. What if it came in person and it was a trap? What if Grand Duke Aratus was nearby? After such thoughts, it sent Kandenkel instead.”
It was conscious of him. Whether it feared him or not was unclear, but it was certain that it found him troublesome.
“Of course, I am not bait. His Grace was not nearby. But that will not always be the case.”
Three days ago, the Moon should have come in person.
“The Moon missed its first and last chance.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I intend to connect this village with a path.”
Harad stamped the ground with his foot.
“I will dig a tunnel, connecting Serzila and the village.”
That tunnel would become the route Ellen used to meet Balbebron and Alena. It would become the channel through which Fireball managed the newly spread Embers.
“The village will become bait. But bait that will never be eaten.”
If the Moon acted directly, Grand Duke Aratus would cross the tunnel himself.
“Of course, relocating would still be the safest option, but you dislike it.”
The village might be destroyed faster than the Grand Duke could cross the tunnel. Even that concern had lessened somewhat.
“Staying here should not be a major problem now that we have Jis.”
Jis. That 5th Rank mage whose Origin was Shadow would not be constrained by something as limited as a tunnel. While others crawled, shadows would stretch swiftly forward.
‘Ellen and Balbebron went through as well.’
Jis’s shadow would certainly be useful.
“So you had thought it all through.”
Ellen murmured beside him. For some reason, she looked pleased.
“I told you. I dislike gambling.”
“…I see.”
Harad smiled faintly. Manoa was staring at him intently.
“I will trust you.”
“Then will you give it to me?”
Harad held out his palm.
“…I also understand that this is selfish.”
Manoa looked down at his palm, then turned her back.
“Follow me. I will give you the Embers.”
“Your legacy?”
“…It is merely a torch.”
***
“Then why does the Moon favor you?”
The Moon had wanted Harad not to be caught by Avery Aquins. This time, it wanted him to take the Embers.
Why?
“How would I know?”
“……”
“If I knew, I would be the Moon, not the sun.”
Leaving the temporary houses behind, the villagers had gathered.
The Embers were at their center. They seemed to have been moved from Manoa’s residence. Likely her magic. Dreams had many uses.
Harad passed through the villagers and stood before the Embers. The intermittent gazes instantly converged. The entire village was watching him.
To absorb them before everyone. That had been Manoa’s final condition.
So that he would feel responsibility. If Harad failed, this village would be finished.
‘Yet she still allows me to take them.’
It was an admirable village. They were all mages or knights.
A mage here did not merely mean one born with an Origin. The same applied to knights. They were not those without Aura, or with only a trace.
Excluding the elderly and children, each was a capable fighter. If necessary, they had the power to resist. That was how they had come this far.
‘Even without Balbebron.’
Excluding Kandenkel, Tower Master of Meteoric Iron, they had enough strength to oppose the Tower of Meteoric Iron that had attacked.
Yet amid the piercing stares, there was no hostility—only doubt and suspicion. Those with power were willingly offering up something more precious than their lives.
‘Just because we fought on the same side once.’
They had only fought together once for the village. That alone was enough for Manoa and the villagers to trust Harad, to stake the precious Embers.
They were naïve. Then again, that was why they had made it this far. Believing only the saying that the Otherworld was a paradise for mages.
‘It is not as though they have much else to trust.’
A continental mage had few choices. Harad wanted to increase those choices someday.
“Do you feel burdened?”
“It is a welcome burden.”
Harad smiled broadly. It was a sense of responsibility he had never felt in his past life. It was heavy. Elaine’s shoulders in his past life must have borne even more. To stand beside her, he would have to shoulder more.
Beside Manoa, Ellen was smiling comfortably. Unlike the village, she did not even consider failure.
Harad did. He always assumed failure. That could no longer be the case.
Though he had regressed, there was still far too much he did not know. Among those things were matters concerning Elaine and Ellen.
Therefore, he had to grow stronger. Only then could he prepare for whatever future came.
Harad quietly looked down at the Embers. Once the size of a bonfire, they had grown smaller than before. Because he had already absorbed part of them.
Even so, the Embers were still captivating. But… not to the point of bewitchment.
‘The sun.’
When he first saw the Embers, Harad had felt that they were the sun. Now, they were not. Perhaps because he had absorbed part of them, they no longer looked like the sun.
Harad realized that the subject had changed. He was not the one bewitched. The Embers were burning toward Harad, fluttering like flames in the wind. It was a very small acknowledgment. Yes, like the village.
‘This really is playing with fire.’
As Elaine had said, they were closer to a torch. Harad thought of Wimar. Set it alight first. That old man had said that.
The beginning might be play, but if the fire did not go out, it would inevitably spread. That was how the sun of the past had become a king.
“I promise.”
Harad felt that this was the beginning.
“From now on, I will take responsibility for this village.”
Whoosh—!
The Embers, once no larger than a human head, swelled in an instant and swallowed Harad whole.
-Kraaak!
In the sky, Fireball cried like a crow.
-Kraaaak!
As though announcing something.