novelraw Chapter 112 : Chapter 112
Chapter 112 : Chapter 112
Chapter 112: Departure (3)
“You should consider yourself lucky, Professor.”
Ernst opened his mouth as he took a step.
“What would you have done if I didn't know how to drive?”
“What would have changed?”
Abel said, tilting his head to the side.
“I only made one mistake. Don't underestimate my driving skills.”
“Please don't be ridiculous, Sensei.”
Monika let out a sigh.
“With what confidence did you grab the steering wheel?”
“We arrived safely anyway, didn't we? By the way, that seems like a pretty expensive mana stone vehicle……”
Roberta whispered with a grin.
“Can I take it apart later? I think I can make something cool.”
“Roberta, please just stay still.”
Demian muttered, carrying Roberta on his back.
“I'm begging you. I'm about to die from the weight of this fur.”
Hmm, it went.
Lizer wore a smile.
Abel and the students were walking in a single file line. Lizer, who was following at the very end, looked around. As a winter wind blew with moisture, a muddy current undulated under the causeway constructed through Lizer's spell.
A swamp next to the sea. What a grotesque environment.
Lizer thought, brandishing his magic wand. While the relief supplies to be delivered to Portsmouth were gliding through the air, gloomy, entangled giant trees were monopolizing the sunset light.
The surrounding environment was utterly alien. Whitishly dyed leaves, flying insects that had formed a single body, fish whose heads were covered in eyeballs. The ecosystem had been destroyed by the gloominess emitted by the monsters.
‘You must be in pain too.’
Lizer extended his index finger.
Tuk, it went. He touched a spirit that was hovering nearby.
A scream. The single shriek let out by the spirit reached Lizer's mouth. The taste of rotten meat. Lizer experienced the spirit's scream with his sense of taste.
‘By the way, it's about time we arrived…….’
Lizer's gaze shifted towards Abel.
Behind Abel, who was walking at the front, Lizer sensed the inner thoughts of the students as a spirit. A vague sense of elation, or a vague sense of tension. Monika seemed to be sad for some reason, and Ernst didn't seem to be concentrating on the practical evaluation. Demian held a tedious sense of goodwill within him, and Roberta was chattering away slyly while being afraid.
It didn't matter.
For they were feelings that would soon scatter.
‘……Let's begin, Professor.’
As Lizer was thinking,
“Everyone.”
Abel stopped.
He turned his back and looked at the students.
“It has been peaceful for a while.”
Peaceful?
A question flashed in the students' eyes.
Abel continued without paying it any mind.
“You all might think differently. But I think it was peaceful. I was only caught up in trivial problems, and they were resolved in the best possible way.”
A faint smile spread across Abel's lips.
A cold wind shook Abel's silver hair. As his dark, sunken hair fluttered, Abel just stared at the students, his dark blue eyes focused.
It was impossible to know. He was a person whose inner thoughts were completely unknowable. The students thought together. Lizer was the same. Even with the senses of a spirit, the texture of Abel's heart was dim. Like a thicket, for example. Like the thorny bush that spread out behind Abel, with its tough stems entangled, so that one could not see beyond it.
“Someone must have been sad for a while. They must have been busy thinking about the person they lost.”
Abel looked at Monika.
The child who would one day become the hero of Epezeria. The girl who had lost an arm in the ravages of war, and had tried to burn herself to confront the Demon King.
“Someone must be nervous. While fearing weapons, they will have to make them.”
Abel looked at Roberta.
The child who might become the heir to the Sinclair family. The girl who had a talent for making tools, but was wary of the tools themselves.
“Someone must be suffering from impatience. Because they will have to decide how to live in the future.”
Abel looked at Ernst.
The heir to the Tresckow family, stained with internal strife. The boy who had inherited his grandmother's talent, but did not want to live like his grandmother.
“Someone must be realizing their shortcomings. Like an innocent child struggling to know what they do not know.”
Abel looked at Demian.
The heir who would surely succeed the prestigious family of swordsmanship. The boy who had grown up so upright that he did not know the circumstances of places that were not upright.
“You all must have faced your own problems during this time, and may have come up with your own answers.”
But, he said.
Abel declared, drawing his beloved sword.
“As an adult, I will tell you. Whatever you have worried about, whatever you have reflected on……”
It will become useless.
It will ultimately become futile.
Whatever realization you may have gained, it will surely become meaningless.
“But it's fine.”
──Sreuk.
The blade of his beloved sword cut down through the empty air.
“You will be destroyed once, and you will be completed once.”
In a fleeting moment, it disappeared.
The thorny bush that had been entangled beyond Abel.
And so it was revealed. Though it was stained with the twilight, the coast was black. It undulated with a jet-black light as if it had reached the night one step ahead. The seaweed that poked its head out from between the seawater was like the claws of a demon, and the occasionally swirling currents were like the mouth of the sea.
Was that why? The sound of the waves sounded hungry. It was echoing stickily as if suffering from a hungry stomach. The scattered groups of monsters were a firm final stop. The scenery of Portsmouth, which had been holding on in the nearby sea, was as pitiful as a phrase that would soon be erased.
“Let's go, everyone.”
Abel moved forward.
With a stoic, hardened expression.
“From now on, the practical evaluation will commence.”
***
Somewhere underground.
Five sarcophagi were gathered together.
<──Gorgias of the Tree speaks.>
One of the five sarcophagi,
a voice echoed from the sarcophagus wrapped in tree branches.
It was the voice of a resolute man.
<──Paracelsus of the Water speaks.>
One of the five sarcophagi,
a voice echoed from the sarcophagus submerged in a puddle.
It was the voice of a sinister old man.
<──Kierkegaard of the Iron speaks.>
One of the five sarcophagi,
a voice echoed from the sarcophagus with a blade thrust into it.
It was the voice of a cold old woman.
<──Mumford of the Soil speaks.>
One of the five sarcophagi,
a voice echoed from the sarcophagus smeared with mud.
It was the voice of a languid woman.
One of the five sarcophagi,
the sarcophagus buried in flames, remained silent to the end.
It was not a problem. Countless believers were bowing to the altar where the sarcophagi were enshrined. They were men and women of all ages who had experienced tragedy and were immersed in sorrow, or who had sold their hearts to trivial desires, or who had lost their souls without realizing it. The city where they resided was prepared underground.
Though there was not a single ray of sunlight,
that too was not a problem.
Because there was a young saintess.
A girl curled up was in an eternal sleep.
Floating in the air like a mock sun, she emitted a radiance made of faith and illuminated the surroundings. Her soul was imprisoned in the past, and what was left in the present was just a body. And so, it would not be long.
With the souls of the five cardinals engraved,
The moment she would manifest as a false god.
***
Twilight, the sea near Portsmouth.
The sea sang and danced. The lightly crashing waves were the sea's instrument. The currents were reddish, dyed by the sunlight, and the kinsmen were harmonious in a group in the heart of the sea's surface. Therefore, it was a festival. The sea was adamantly insisting on a festival. A festival to commemorate what? Well, it must be commemorating birth. An infinite birthday celebration was in full swing in the sea.
Flapping six transparent wings,
The young kinsmen gliding with cute expressions.
He smiled watching them. A certain monster, born in the middle of the sea, raised in the middle of the sea, and thus decided to protect the sea.
The monster, Nodens, lifted his head.
Standing on the quietly undulating waves.
A voice was heard from the sky.
The voice of a gentle woman. But it was dark.
It was a tone that seemed to mock the world. Like stairs leading to jet-black, like the attic of a crushed castle, like a swarm of insects digging into a mouse hole. The voice of such an incomprehensible woman was etched into Nodens's ear.
“Do not command me.”
You are not my mother.
Nodens muttered so.
“──The Demon King.”
Though he did not know what it was, Nodens was certain by instinct. This ridiculously sweet voice belonged to the Demon King. The Demon King must be looking down on the world from beyond the sky. This woman who called herself his mother was just the Demon King. And so, there was none. Even if she was the monarch who ruled over evil, she did not possess the authority to command Nodens.
“I will protect the sea.”
Nodens lowered his body.
He knelt on one knee and sat up straight.
“However, it is not for your sake.”
Nodens extended his hand.
Black scales covered Nodens's body. The hardened outer shell on the scales resembled a conch shell, and barnacles were rampant on his palms.
“It is to keep this beautiful coast clean.”
Sreuk, it went.
Nodens touched the surface of the sea.
“It is to guarantee the peace of my kinsmen──.”
Bubbles swelling in the water.
Round water droplets shot up towards Nodens.
“──And to be with my lovely children.”
Small palms. The palms of countless boys and girls.
The boys and girls reached out to Nodens. Their soft hands tried to push through the water to reach Nodens, but it was ultimately impossible. It was because they could not extend beyond the surface of the water. Numerous boys and girls were staying in the sea. They could only live there.
“You don't have to worry.”
Nodens wore a smile.
“I will protect all of you.”
My children, and,
Our true parents.
That's right. You are the──,
“──The rightful owners of this sea.”