novelraw Chapter 195 : Chapter 195
Chapter 195 : Chapter 195
Chapter 195: The Haunted House (1)
Fireball liked Jis.
It was not only because he was a star.
Jis’s shadow functioned both as a means of transportation and as storage.
-PEEP!
As long as Jis was present, Fireball could accompany Harad anywhere.
-PEEP?
From within the shadow, Fireball tilted his head in confusion.
Harad looked down at the shadow spread across the ground like a puddle.
Inside it, Fireball was tilting his head in front of Jis.
Between the two of them, something was scattered across the floor.
Looking closer, it was food.
Food had been spilled directly onto the ground, without a dish.
“If you want to eat it, you can.”
-PEEEEP!
Fireball did not even glance at it and burned the leftovers.
Amid the flames, Harad spotted mushrooms.
‘Last night’s dinner.’
The Prohibition Curse.
Jis could neither eat nor drink.
Yet yesterday, Jis had eaten the same menu as Shura and had forcibly swallowed the mushrooms Ellen gave him.
He could not refuse Shura when she asked him to eat together.
He must have pretended to chew, then manifested shadows in his mouth or throat to move the food away.
It was similar to how Harad burned alcohol the moment he drank it.
“Why is what you moved yesterday still there?”
Harad asked, pointing at the burning leftovers.
“I did not know where to throw it away.”
Jis scratched his chin and avoided his gaze.
He said he could not see a trash bin.
“Were you that conscientious about civic duty even on the continent?”
Jis shook his head side to side.
“I thought I would get scolded if I threw it anywhere. Serzila is a home.”
Jis behaved like a child watching his stepmother’s mood.
Ellen, who was looking down alongside them, let out a hollow laugh.
“Anyone would think I scold you all the time.”
“I am sorry.”
Jis lowered his head deeply.
Ellen, who had instantly become a stepmother, was left speechless.
“…Next time, tell us or Kubel.”
“Okay.”
Jis crouched beside Fireball and warmed himself by the flames burning the leftovers.
The longer he did so, the darker the shadows composing the space became.
‘So it strengthens even from Fireball’s flames.’
In the end, Fireball’s fire was also the fire of the sun.
As fire grew stronger, shadows grew deeper.
But to what extent?
Only Jis himself knew that vagueness.
As the one providing the fire, Harad could only vaguely guess.
‘It is getting faster too.’
The writhing speed increased.
The inner space widened as well.
‘If I cram them in, ten people could fit.’
The overall magic level of the mage named Jis seemed to be rising.
‘Its power will increase too. Even more so when it manifests.’
That was what a star was.
The larger the sun became, the stronger the star shining by its fire grew.
It was a connection difficult to explain in words.
One that only Harad, the sun, and Jis, the star, could fully feel.
The shadow spat out the ashes of the burned leftovers.
Harad roughly rubbed them away with his foot and started walking.
The shadow containing Jis and Fireball disguised itself as Harad’s shadow.
“If I earn merit too, do I get a reward?”
How long had they walked?
Jis, pretending to be Harad’s shadow, spoke up.
“You do. You are a citizen of Serzila too.”
“What kind of reward?”
A reward.
A word no child could resist.
“Anything. If the merit is sufficient, it can be exchanged for whatever you want.”
A fine mansion, money, status, troops.
If the merit was enough, Serzila would give anything.
“Hm.”
It did not seem like a particularly appealing reward to Jis.
He was a mage without greed for wealth or ambition.
What Jis wanted was Harad, friends, and the lifting of his curse.
“Can I give it to someone else?”
“You cannot give it directly, but you can use it for someone else.”
Harad had often used it that way himself.
“What is the difference?”
Jis tilted his head.
“You cannot give them meat, but you can receive the meat and feed it to them.”
Ellen, who had been listening quietly, explained as if speaking to a child.
The shadow pouted as if it understood.
“Then I will feed Harad and Shura.”
“I—”
Ellen shot the shadow a look.
“Ellen is a rich young lady.”
“What are you talking about? I am from a collateral line.”
“What is a collateral line?”
“When the Grand Heir becomes the Grand Duke, I will be completely ruined.”
“Really?”
“Maybe the Grand Duke will even kill me.”
“Gasp.”
The shadow rippled.
“So the Grand Heir is a bad person.”
“Huh?”
“I will try once. If you allow me.”
“Allow what?”
“You have to allow it for me to kill someone.”
Jis clearly remembered the promise that he had to receive permission before killing someone.
“…Why kill him?”
“He is a bad person. He will kill Ellen later.”
Ellen looked displeased.
“He will not kill me. The Grand Heir is a good person.”
“Lying is bad.”
“……”
“But I will forgive you. You are my friend.”
Harad barely managed to suppress his laughter.
“If any of you ever need me, say the word. I will work hard enough to die.”
The shadow clenched its fist.
Harad knew that Shura was included among the targets of that resolve.
Because Jis wanted to regain his true form.
And Shura had proven that true form still existed.
‘The 6th Rank.’
From Jis’s perspective as a star, staying by Harad’s side was the fastest path.
“You said you will not die.”
“Yeah.”
The shadow nodded against the ground.
‘Then die.’
Those words Jis had once spoken had meant exaggeration.
Jis had been forbidden from dying.
“How do you not die?”
Harad was curious about the mechanism of that prohibition.
“Do you not even get injured? That does not seem to be the case.”
Jis had suffered internal injuries at Kandenkel’s hands.
“Everything stops at being a wound.”
Even injuries that should be fatal were merely wounds to Jis.
Wounds that would eventually heal with time.
“But the recovery speed is the same. I just do not die.”
“Even if your heart is pierced?”
“Yeah. I am a Vessel.”
“Closer to a doll than a person, then.”
No matter how much a doll was torn apart, it could be stitched back together.
Because it had no life.
Jis was similar.
Like a doll, he did not die no matter what was done to him.
Time acted as thread and needle, repairing the Vessel.
“What happens if your head is cut off?”
“My head grows back. It takes a while. Three months?”
He realized his head had been cut off only when he came to his senses three months later.
“What if you are burned to ashes?”
“I grow from the largest pile of ashes. That takes much longer.”
Harad continued asking about various deaths as they came to mind.
“What if you are torn to pieces?”
“The same. I regenerate starting from the largest piece.”
“Drowning?”
“I do not die. It just hurts. I pass out, and sometimes regain consciousness.”
“Freezing to death?”
“I either recover, or if it continues, parts of my body fall off. Then I regenerate from there.”
Jis answered every question without hesitation.
As if he had experienced them all personally.
“Do not tell me you tried them yourself.”
“Some were done to me.”
“…….”
There was no need to ask who had cast the curse.
Only one mage could devise a curse like this.
‘It is her.’
The madwoman who had cursed Harad and Elaine, and Bahav, in his previous life.
That madwoman had cursed Jis as well.
“I promise you, Jis. I will kill her no matter what.”
“Because I am a star?”
Jis asked.
“No.”
At that moment, Ellen cut in.
Her face was filled with anger.
“Because we want to kill her. Not because you are a star.”
“Why?”
“You said we are friends.”
“That is right!”
The shadow was delighted.
***
The reason Harad of his previous life had been particularly close to the 1st Knights was not because that order was exceptional.
Among the knights, Gullen was the easiest to talk to, and aside from Elaine, he had been closest to him.
Gullen of his previous life had belonged to the 1st Knights and had succeeded his father Toremot as the 1st Knights Commander.
Excluding the near-reserve 6th Knights, there was no real hierarchy among the knight orders.
A veteran of the 1st Knights and a veteran of the 5th Knights were roughly the same.
That was because they were all stationed at the Wall.
Unlike rear units, knights stationed at the Wall and tasked with patrols were elite individuals.
However, separate from the members themselves, differences among commanders were inevitable.
Superhumans known as Sword Masters were exceedingly rare.
The reputation of a knight order was shaped by such commanders.
That was why the world tacitly regarded the 1st Knights as the best.
After the finest knight, Mores Palaz, retired, the strongest knight in the North by all accounts was 1st Knights Commander Toremot.
After the 1st Knights came the 4th Knights.
For the same reason: the 4th Knights Commander was also a Sword Master.
The 2nd Knights followed after that.
‘By this logic, he really was a spy.’
Cassion, known as a Sword Master, had lived more quietly than expected.
Because of that, he was pushed down to third place.
In public opinion, the 3rd Knights and the 5th Knights were roughly equal.
Neither commander was a Sword Master.
‘Kalinos keeps it secret.’
Serzila possessed Sword Masters enough to draw the Empire’s scrutiny, but when counted strictly, it still fell behind.
There might have been Sword Masters in the North unknown to the Empire or the continent, but as far as Harad knew from his previous life, there had been five Sword Masters in the North at this time.
For the regressed Harad, there were six.
Because Kalinos, the 3rd Knights Commander who had died in his previous life, had become a Sword Master.
‘Soon, seven.’
Within a few years, another Sword Master would be added to Serzila.
“Do you know the 5th Knights Commander?”
Ellen suddenly asked.
“I do.”
“Who is it?”
“Is it not Sir Kesera?”
“You really do know.”
Her eyes, which had narrowed, relaxed.
“I told you I do.”
“You did not know about Sir Kalinos.”
So that was why she asked.
Harad had thought the 3rd Knights Commander was Ahite.
In his previous life, Kalinos had died.
“There was a reason for that.”
The regressed Harad was ignorant of knights who had died before he became active.
Elaine of his previous life had been tight-lipped about deaths.
“What kind of reason… Ah. You are going to say it is a secret, right?”
“Exactly.”
Ellen no longer frowned when she heard the word “secret.”
She had grown used to it.
That did not mean she ignored it.
Ellen would remember everything Harad called a secret and question it.
That, too, would become stimulation.
Harad intended to encourage such stimulation.
He wanted both Elaine of his previous life and the Ellen before his eyes to be that way.
“You cannot make a mistake this time.”
“Of course.”
This was different from Kalinos’s case.
In his previous life, Harad had eaten and drunk together with Kesera, the 5th Knights Commander.
Someone was standing at the entrance of the garrison.
They seemed to have come to greet them, and Harad thought of Kalinos.
He had greeted them like that as well.
The knight who came to greet them was a woman as tall as Harad.
She was slightly bulkier than him, which made her undeniably attractive in the North.
“I am Kesera, the 5th Knights Commander.”
Kesera immediately grabbed Harad’s hand and shook it vigorously up and down.
A smile was on her face.
“I am Harad, 5th Rank.”
“I heard you were 4th Rank?”
“I became stronger.”
“As impressive as the rumors say.”
Kesera was friendlier than expected.
“I have heard much about you, especially from the 3rd Knights Commander.”
She seemed close to Kalinos.
That was only natural, as they were both commanders.
‘This is new.’
For the regressed Harad, this was the first time hearing it.
Because Kalinos had died in his previous life.
“It has been a while, Lady Ellen.”
“It has.”
Kesera seemed acquainted with Ellen as well.
They did not seem particularly close.
The Wall was not Ellen’s jurisdiction.
It was a place the Grand Heir Elaine frequented.
“As the rumors say, you truly travel together.”
Grand Duke Aratus often flew into a rage over it, but Kesera seemed unconcerned.
She likely knew Ellen as a collateral relative.
How a collateral lived was a trivial matter.
In truth, before meeting Harad, Ellen had done nothing but eat, drink, and play.
“Will I be a hindrance?”
“Not at all. It looks good. It reminds me of when I was courting.”
Kesera smiled fondly.
“That cannot be.”
Harad found it strange.
“You are not an old maid, are you?”
No.
The atmosphere turned cold.
Harad hastily added,
“That is what I heard.”
“From whom?”
Kesera’s expression twisted.
It was the face one might make when looking at the murderer of one’s husband or lover.
“The Grand Duke said it.”
Harad answered reflexively.
“…Who said that?”
This time, Ellen’s face turned fierce.