R4STWH - Chapter 124
Chapter 124
“There’s…… an urgent matter that came up……!”
It wasn't a lie.
People would be dying by the second in various places of the world right now.
“Is that so?”
Elias nodded without batting an eye.
“Then tell me everything after you’ve finished solving them.”
Even while knowing that it wasn’t right for me to avoid him like this, I couldn't help it.
With so many people listening, how could I ask, ‘Is it true that you contracted with the Gluttonous Monarch and destroyed this world?’
'Let’s ask him when we are alone.'
As I was rationalizing it like that, I walked towards the others.
Just as he had said that I didn't need to worry, the saintess, Gerent, and Clea were all perfectly fine without any injuries.
Also, as if he knew that he would get into big trouble if he ran away, Ermitar folded his wings and slowly approached us.
“Right now…….”
I had opened my mouth, but I was at a loss for what to say.
“Something similar to what happened in Tenaclad is happening all over the world.”
And so, I started talking while listing all the places that I knew among the places that the Gluttonous Monarch had shown me.
It was possible since I had traveled everywhere to close all of the dungeons.
“The level of the monsters is about A-rank? The problem is, no one knows when and where an SS-rank boss monster might appear.”
The saintess, who had listened to my story without making a sound, suddenly collapsed.
She had fainted with her eyes open, huh? Is this a new skill that she had obtained?
“I think it would be good if grandfather personally went there since I’ve already sent Crow to the Tenaclad and Lakdel knight orders.”
At my words, Elias nodded.
“Let’s have the minimum number of people stay to defend and have the rest sortie out.”
“Haa, okay. That’s probably the right thing to do.”
While grumbling that he had to deal with so much at his old age, Gerent quickly departed for Tenaclad castle.
“Let’s head for the gate right away.”
While saying that, I carried the saintess over my shoulder and climbed on top of Ermitar, and Elias followed behind me with Clea.
“Umm…… are we really going to go using that?”
Baeksa, with a troubled expression, was alternating his gaze between Ermitar’s resigned face and me.
“You know, there’s nothing faster than him.”
“No, it’s that…….”
After letting out a small sigh, Baeksa walked over while dragging his feet.
“I’ve always thought this, but you’re truly beyond my imagination.”
-I agree.
“……?”
Although I didn't know what he meant, it wasn't a bad thing. My methods were always the most efficient anyway.
Once everyone had boarded, Ermitar spread his wings and flew off.
'I shouldn’t wake up the saintess until we arrive.'
Although it felt a bit empty without her squawking, it would be better if she got some rest, even a little.
She would have been tired both physically and mentally.
When we arrived at the gate, what we witnessed was completely different from what we had expected.
“Is this even…… working properly?”
The mages had disappeared without a trace, and the gate was emitting a pillar of light on its own.
It meant that anyone, even monsters, could use the gate without knowing where it would lead to.
“It’s okay.”
I did my best to stay calm.
“Anyway, everywhere in the continent is chaotic. It doesn't matter where we go.”
“That’s true!”
Clea’s eyes sparkled as she clapped her hands.
As if knowing that Elias might know where the gate was headed, I glanced towards him, but he only smiled at me as soon as our eyes met.
'Ugh…… Elias really is handsome…….'
That was the only thing that I gained from that, so I stepped into the gate first with the saintess in one hand.
While holding the nape of Ermitar’s neck, who had polymorphed back into human form in my other hand.
-Krrk?
As soon as we passed through the random gate, we were immediately faced with swarms of monsters.
“Don’t make that weird noise.”
I grinned happily and took out my axe.
It was so fortunate that I had managed to hit our destination.
'She must have met ‘that being’.'
While swinging his sword impassively and cutting through dozens of monsters, Elias thought.
With Ilesha's ability, she should have been able to handle it in a blink of an eye, so he had a feeling that something was up when she was being oddly delayed.
That the being known by various nicknames, like the Gluttonous Monarch, the God of Bets, the Fallen Wanderer, had finally shown himself before her.
He was fully convinced when she relayed the things that were happening all over the world as if she had seen them with her own eyes.
Because there was no way that even the versatile Ilesha would possess such an ability.
Elias smiled, pretending that he didn’t know anything even while making eye contact with her, as if he had something to say or ask him.
Because he was a coward, who could only do that.
Elias recalled the moment when he had first met ‘that being’.
[My name is Neo. I'm a librarian who is in charge of the collection of dimensions.]
After introducing himself like that, he had reached out a hand to Elias. Whispering to him, if he didn't want to live?
At that time, he had been locked up somewhere while his limbs were torn to pieces.
It was the decision of the great Emperor of the Lucendria Empire, Leonard.
"I didn't want to kill you, who was once my friend, with my own hands."
Elias didn’t know how he had ended up like that.
It was because he had too many reasons for it.
"If you had only let my mother enter the castle…… she wouldn't have returned in such a horrible state……."
Perhaps it was because he had turned his back on Clea, who was crying while holding his mother’s torn apart corpse in the forest near Tenaclad.
He and Clea, who had become the Empress, were on such bad terms that they had never exchanged a word with each other despite being in the same place.
Or perhaps…….
"Are you saying that you won't even fulfill your duties as a couple?"
"I don’t think I need to ask such a thing from you. I made it so that your knights and servants can freely come and go. If that’s not enough for you, then I’ll bring you some prostitutes."
Perhaps it was because of the humiliation that he had given the 2nd Imperial Princess, who had barged into his office while treating her coldly.
"I will make you pay dearly for looking down on me."
Judging from how she had approached him while whispering that on the day he was being moved from the imperial prison to this place.
He had probably displeased Leonard by trying to dig up secrets related to his father's death. "Let's bury the past, there’s nothing good to be gained by digging it up."
When he had lost his consciousness after being caught in the trap, Leonard’s gaze was as cold as that of a stranger, when he had looked down at him with a click of his tongue.
Elias had many enemies in the first place.
He had spilled countless blood in order to take down his opponents as Leonard’s sword.
Also, his reputation wasn’t good at all since he was said to have killed his own relatives in the process of taking over Tenaclad, so no one would have felt sorry for his downfall.
If anything, they would be cheering.
In a space that was filled with darkness without even a speck of light where he couldn’t even tell the time, Elias had been lying down powerlessly.
It was as if someone occasionally slid a plate of food in, but he had never touched it even once.
Since he couldn't move his limbs, he would have to turn his body and crawl or try to eat by burying his face in the bowl, but he couldn't find the reason to try to stay alive to that extent.
'Is there any meaning to my life?'
In the space that was filled with darkness, Elias had thought that once in a while.
Maybe the things that his cousins had said during his childhood were all true.
That he was a sin and a curse from the moment he was born.
And so it was.
The reason why he hadn't taken the hand that Neo had offered him was because he had rejected it.
[You don’t want to live? Then what about revenge? Don't you want to take revenge on the ones who made you like this?]
At those words, he had considered it for a brief moment.
However, his conclusion was still the same.
The flame of revenge needed something to burn in the first place.
That was what had kept him going, starting from his childhood, until now, for almost his whole life.
However, now he didn’t have anything left. All of that had been emptied, and he didn't have anything to burn.
Perhaps his heart had been worn down and had disappeared completely. That was what he thought when he remained silent without replying to any of the offers that were given to him.
When he failed to persuade him, Neo seemed to be deep in thought.
[You need an opportunity, is that it……?]
After mumbling to himself, the last thing he had offered was something that Elias could never have expected.
[Okay. Then I’ll let you meet the woman you love.]
What a ridiculous statement, that was what Elias had thought.
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