Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 140 : Life Lantern Ignition(命燈導火) (1)

Life Lantern Ignition(命燈導火) (1)

"Humans seem a lot like me."

Looking out at the scenery beyond the windows of the Winter Castle, Yuria spoke.

"Living trapped in a narrow world, always dreaming of what lies outside."

His daughter had been frail since birth.

Despite being the daughter of one of the most powerful among the demons, it was hard to believe she was his child.

Her life had always been one of watching the same view from the ever-cold Winter Castle.

"We're not the same."

"No, I suppose not. Compared to them, I am actually very fortunate."

"If you undergo the coming-of-age ceremony, you'll grow stronger."

Ardan had already repeated those words to her several times.

To those words, Yuria gave a faint smile.

"Will you come back that day?"

"Maybe."

He said it like that, but he couldn't guarantee it.

The humans' sudden revolt was spreading like a raging inferno across the entire world.

'If I leave this time, who knows when I'll be able to come back.'

To be honest, he didn't know.

But he didn't care.

Frankly, Ardan had little interest in caring for his frail daughter.

Ardan's daughter had extraordinary talent as a top-rank demon, but she did not possess a strong enough body to properly utilize that power.

Because of this, Ardan was always dissatisfied with his daughter.

To one who had lived as a top-rank demon, strength was everything.

"Then I'll wait."

Leaving Yuria's smile behind, Ardan departed for the battlefield.

He considered it his duty to suppress the humans' revolt as quickly as possible.

***

Kwaaaang!!!

Ardan gritted his teeth as he took Jung-woo's punch, feeling an impact that seemed to buckle his knees.

'Death.'

That was a concept far too distant for Ardan.

As the Great Duke of the North, leaving out the demon lord's kin, there was only one demon who could even dream of victory against him.

And even that one could not easily defeat Ardan in the domain of winter.

'Have I truly grown weaker?'

Each time the ice encasing his demonic sword's blade clashed with Jung-woo's fists, it shattered to pieces, and both his feet sank into the ground.

'He's grown stronger.'

When he first saw Park Jung-woo, that human had not been particularly strong.

Granted, he was strong for a human.

A human who could use magic power even without a mana hall, and who handled demon blood as well.

No doubt, he must have undergone terrible surgeries at the hands of humans.

He hadn't known he was from another world, and only regretted not killing him when their group first met.

Kwaaaang!!

"Kugh!!"

Jung-woo's fist knocked Ardan's sword upwards, and then a kick slammed into his unguarded abdomen.

Although he reflexively formed a barrier of ice around his stomach to soften the blow, he still flew back several meters and crashed into the tower wall.

Had he not done that, he might have punched right through and out of the wall entirely.

'Ardan Bello.'

Before he grasped the demonic sword Tyrfing, Ardan had been at the lowest end among top-rank demons.

But after seizing Tyrfing and declaring the "Domain of Winter," he had instantly risen several levels in power.

At this level, there would be few on Earth who could oppose him.

But even that fell far short compared to Ardan at his prime.

Jung-woo asked,

"What happened in the last 300 years? You weren't this weak, were you?"

He was asking the reason why Ardan had grown so weakened.

"I lost my meaning."

"Meaning?"

"Yes. Many meanings."

Saying so, Ardan charged at Jung-woo.

The long blade of ice hanging from his white sword jabbed toward Jung-woo's chest.

Their fists and swords clashed in midair several times.

"I've even lost the value I should have protected."

He had lived for the king.

To ensure the prosperity of demons, he had fought countless times against humans and achieved peace in the North.

The place he belonged was always full of winter; spaces with warmth had never been allowed.

Even so, it didn't matter.

That, he thought, was his duty as a duke.

At least, until his daughter was murdered by humans.

Humans had revolted, fighting to drive out the demons.

While Ardan temporarily went to the frontlines, humans advanced into the lands of winter, and the mansion fell.

By the time he returned, everything was already over.

No demons had survived there.

His own daughter—who hadn't undergone the coming-of-age ceremony, frail and weak—had been killed without even being able to resist.

He had asked,

Had his daughter ever harmed a human?

So why did she have to die?

"Then what did my son do wrong, that he had to be killed by you?"

Just as Ardan's heart was about to be pierced by the sword, the man who murdered his daughter smirked as he spoke.

As if he were satisfied simply by seeing Ardan in agony.

"......"

Standing atop a heap of demon and human corpses, Ardan gazed at the burning winterlands.

The retainers who had served him, his family—nothing remained.

The place where he stood was atop the very karma he had amassed.

What do I fight for now?

Ardan repeated that to himself.

He had become a hero.

But what meaning was there in it?

His daughter, who always gazed out from the Winter Castle, would never return.

Nothing was left.

Thus Ardan secluded himself in the winterlands, all alone.

Guarding his daughter's grave for hundreds of years in solitude.

"Why didn't you seek revenge?"

"On whom?"

Ice shattered, and Ardan's wounds increased little by little.

His strength could not match Jung-woo's.

His breath came quick and ragged, and his knees felt as if they'd buckle at any moment.

"Are you saying I should avenge myself on all humans?"

The human who killed his daughter had already been slain.

What more was there for him to do?

"Or the demons?"

Years ago, demons had come to the frozen Winter Castle.

The demons who suddenly set foot on his land began excavating the graves of demons he'd buried with his own hands.

"If things remain as they are, the Demon Realm will wither away. We need to pioneer a new world."

It was under the banner of saving the Demon Realm.

As a titled demon, he was naturally obligated to comply.

Even if he refused, he was so weakened by then that he could no longer stop their actions.

He couldn't do a thing as he watched the graves of his retainers being unearthed and as they ripped the "heart" from his daughter's remains.

He was overcome with despair.

He had fought for the king, had given everything.

Yet all that remained for him was the misery of not even being able to protect his daughter's heart.

"So, in the end, there was only one thing I wanted."

To bury the heart back in the grave and close his eyes.

That alone was the reason Ardan Bello was still alive.

After saying that, Ardan took Jung-woo's punch and was knocked back several meters, falling to his knees.

He had already reached his limit.

Now, unable to properly wield even the power of winter, Ardan could never defeat Jung-woo.

"... I see."

Jung-woo realized that this was truly all there was to his purpose.

He had no hidden agenda, nor was there some other motive.

Truly, it was just that and only that.

"If I told you where your daughter's heart was, would you back down?"

There was one place that came to mind if it was Yuria's heart, Ardan's daughter.

A demon's heart capable of emitting cold and creating demonic domains—there was one perfectly fitting place.

If Ardan was truly willing to withdraw quietly, Jung-woo had no wish to prolong the fight.

"That's impossible."

He replied with a bitter smile.

"Damian wouldn't allow that."

"Damian?"

"I likely don't have much longer to speak rationally with you."

Jung-woo could feel Ardan's heart thumping ominously.

Something black and dark inside his heart was writhing the more they spoke.

It resembled, yet was somehow different from, the "Oath" of the demons.

'What I saw back at Relic Fiesta.'

The demon whose body exploded the moment he tried to speak.

The phenomena in Ardan's body showed similar signs as that time.

'Is it the blood of the king?'

The seal to subjugate demons.

Especially, for controlling the top-rank demons with immense power, it was an essential strength.

"Even if I die using this power, it's unavoidable."

If Jung-woo could draw out the Demon King's power or defeat him, Ardan would tell him where Yuria's heart was.

If he died here, Damian would find Yuria's heart himself and swear to return it to her grave.

At this point, Ardan had no choice but to trust in that promise.

Kwaaaang!!

Jung-woo sensed something black spreading from the core of Ardan's heart.

That ominous power was very familiar to Jung-woo.

He had confronted it before—when it stabbed through his body, when he was soaked from head to toe in blood.

"... Hah."

A blue glow rose in Ardan's exhausted eyes.

His battered body began to regenerate, and pure white ice began to cover his body like armor.

What came from his throat was no longer words, but wild, beastly howls.

'If this were the Ardan of his prime, he wouldn't be taken over so easily.'

Both in body and mind, he had grown too weak to resist the blood.

'I'm not even sure he has the will to resist.'

It was basically a form of complete resignation.

'What should I do?'

Using the Demon King's heart he possessed, he could draw out that black blood and resolve things, but unfortunately that was impossible.

After embedding the Demon King's heart inside his own, it had long been changed.

'Ardan cannot die here.'

It wasn't out of mere sympathy.

As a top-rank demon, Ardan was sure to have a vast amount of information about the demons.

Besides, with time, his powers would surely recover as well.

'There's no way he bears goodwill toward Damian, so, if things work out, he could be swayed.'

Jung-woo had a trump card that could make that possible.

But in order to use it, he first had to remove that black blood, free Ardan from the blood's constraint, and restore his sanity.

Whoooosh!!

That was when it happened.

The storm of cold enveloping the ice tower caught fire, and the tower began to slowly melt.

That flame wasn't simply melting the ice—it was burning away the surrounding magic power and demonic energy, even swallowing up the very winter Ardan had wrought.

"... Soo-ah?"

The power of winter Ardan Bello possessed.

The cold created from Ardan's demonic energy could not be penetrated by ordinary magic or physical force.

To burn it away, even as a top-rank demon, was something impossible.

"Wait."

If it was that blue flame, couldn't it solve this problem?

Soo-ah's flames embodied the very concept of "burning" itself.

If they burn both magic power and demonic energy, the king's blood would not be much different.

'Besides, Soo-ah met Ardan once before.'

So, she would likely read Jung-woo's intention and burn away the king's blood that had taken over Ardan.

'Good.'

Jung-woo organized his thoughts.

The one problem was that, at the moment, Soo-ah couldn't enter the ice tower.

No doubt the higher-ups hadn't given permission yet.

'In that case, the answer is simple.'

Jung-woo began to move his feet, quickening his pace as he clenched his fist toward the approaching Ardan.

'I'll just have to knock this guy outside.'

After that, Soo-ah would naturally take care of the rest.

Meanwhile, Jung-woo would focus on rescuing and evacuating the Mirae Guild's hunters still trapped in the melting ice tower.

A truly perfect plan.

At least Jung-woo thought so.

He didn't think of how Soo-ah might see Ardan flying out all by himself.

With full force, Jung-woo slammed Ardan with a punch.

Breaking through the tower wall, hard enough to send him flying outside.

***

Kwaaaang!!

"Huh?"

The hunters outside the tower looked up at the thunderous crash that suddenly sounded overhead.

"Th-there's something falling!!"

Something had burst through the outer wall of the tower and was falling.

The hunters hastily cleared the area, and whatever had crashed out of the tower plummeted to the ground.

Thud!!

Together with shards of ice, the falling figure was that of a man.

'A man? No, something's different.'

He looked human, with ashen hair, but his pointed ears and glowing blue eyes said he was anything but.

'Ardan?'

Soo-ah instantly recognized who had fallen from the ice tower and stopped burning the structure.

She had just managed to burn away the storm of cold and was about to enter when Ardan exited the tower first.

'... Where's the manager?'

Although Ardan had come out, Jung-woo was nowhere to be seen.

There was no way Jung-woo would let Ardan out first.

'No way.'

She tried not to believe it, but had something happened to Jung-woo?

At that thought, the fear she had felt before at Relic Fiesta returned.

The fear that she might lose something precious.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

I don't like Soo-ah's obsession, ngl.

Whenever it's related to Jung-woo, her brain turns smooth for some reason.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】