Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Ghost City (14)
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-Whoosh!
I gripped Legion tightly and darted out through the attic window. Glancing back, I saw Ronan's scales writhing, spewing green gas from beneath them.
‘It’ll explode soon.’
Legion was still fidgeting, constantly opening its mouth as if desperate to breathe fire.
“Legion!”
Its mouth, just starting to flame, snapped shut with a puff. I grabbed it and reached toward the sky.
“Remember what we practiced?”
「Theo. Me. Remember.」
“Good. Just do it like we practiced.”
Legion let out a rumbling purr like it was grinning, then stretched its body straight. With a creaking *woodduk!* of bones and skin growing, its wings unfurled massively. It clutched me tightly with its toes—carefully checking multiple times to ensure its claws wouldn’t scratch me—and then soared powerfully into the air. My body floated lightly, and the mansion shrank away in an instant. The charred black mansion looked like a toy house.
“This is…”
And around that toy house, toy soldiers were gathering. The explosion was coming soon. I shouted toward the people.
“Run away! Get out of there!”
Did they not hear me, or did they not want to? A few looked up at the sky, but that was it. The villagers were approaching the mansion as if possessed by a demon, heedless of the green gas spilling out from it.
Soon, the flames left in Ronan’s throat would meet the gas. A massive explosion would follow, and this time, the mansion would be engulfed in unquenchable hellfire, burning forever. I screamed until I tasted blood in my throat. Run! Get away, you idiots!
-Hiss…
But human desire sometimes overwhelms even the survival instinct.
-BOOOM!!!!!!!!
It happened the moment the lead villagers turned the mansion’s doorknob. An unbelievable blaze erupted from the door, swallowing the first few outright. Some collapsed, others screamed. The explosion was faster than I’d expected. I hurriedly descended to the ground, tucked the shrunken Legion back into my arms, and ran toward the mansion…
“Gold! We need to get the gold out!”
“Hurry inside! Hurry!”
An absurd scene unfolded.
I’d been naive to think they’d flee the flames. Far from avoiding the fire, they were rushing into the burning mansion—for mere ‘gold.’
Their reason had long been devoured by desire and madness. They were no longer human. Just lumps of ugly greed.
“Stop! You’ll die if you go in there! Can’t you see those flames?!”
El was running around, desperately trying to stop the villagers from entering. She grabbed them, nearly in tears, screaming at them to stop, but they shoved her away ruthlessly and charged toward the blazing mansion.
“…”
I grabbed El’s shoulder as she tried to intervene again. She looked up at me in surprise, and I shook my head silently.
“B-But, Master, those people…”
“El.”
“They’ll die! They’ll all die if they keep this up!”
“I know.”
At my response, El stared at me with eyes full of incomprehension. I shook my head again.
“Let them go in.”
“…”
“We can’t stop their desires.”
“…”
“It’s not even the demon’s fault.”
“…”
“There’s ‘evil’ in the world that can’t be helped.”
“…”
“Even if we stop them this time, they’ll do it again.”
“…”
“So let them have their way.”
“…”
“Our role ends here.”
Her strength gave out, and El slumped to the ground. Ayla leaned her head on El’s shoulder as if to comfort her. El hugged Ayla’s head and sobbed. She couldn’t understand yet. Why people surrendered to desire, why they made foolish choices even at the cost of their lives.
I stood straight, watching the burning mansion and the villagers rushing in like they were entranced. They’d been consumed by madness for so long. To them, gold had become more important than life.
There’s a proverb: ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’ Even with good intentions, if the person doesn’t want help, it’s useless. Even if salvation is right there…
“…”
They can’t be saved.
In the end, it’s all about choices. The girl chose her family, and the villagers chose gold. Who gets saved is clear.
The villagers cried for gold as they threw themselves into the burning mansion—over and over, until the last one.
‘…In a way, you could say Ronan won.’
Of course, Ronan, who failed to descend and fell back to hell, wouldn’t be satisfied. But look at these people choosing to burn themselves alive. It wasn’t what he wanted, but he’d still claimed a small victory.
‘If I’d come a little sooner, would things have been different?’
Maybe the girl wouldn’t have died, maybe I could’ve saved the couple and the whole village. As self-recrimination started to creep in,
-Pat.
A heavy warmth settled on my shoulder. Lloyd’s hand. He patted my shoulder a couple of times without a word and gazed at the burning mansion.
“…”
The three of us stayed until the mansion collapsed completely into ashes. It burned until dawn the next day. The roof caved in, the upper floors crumbled, and even the first floor’s foundation burned away. Nothing remained but ashes.
Dawn light illuminated the desolate site. In the hazy piles of ash, there were no traces of the villagers—not even bone fragments.
As I took one more step beyond the gate, a wind blew from somewhere. The wind I’d asked the forest spirits for. A cool, clean breeze scattered the piled ashes, sweeping them away. The madness and desire that had ruled the villagers dispersed with it.
Something sparkled where the ashes had vanished.
“This is…”
It was the necklace I’d tied to an arrowhead and shot into Ronan’s maw. The first ‘golden’ necklace the Dawson couple had made for their daughter Rosalyn. I bent one knee to pick it up.
Thanks to this necklace’s special power, I’d defeated Ronan. I closed my eyes briefly and prayed for the girl.
“We should bury it with the Dawson couple’s bones.”
Lloyd, who had gathered the couple’s bones, nodded. We’d bury this family in the nearest forest. Burying them in this cursed village would be too cruel.
I stood. The sun was rising in the distance. Unlike before, the fog had lifted from the village, and brilliant light poured down. And…
“…Wait a minute.”
That light revealed the village’s secrets, hidden by darkness and fog.
“What the hell is this?”
* * *
Beneath the ashes where the mansion had stood was a massive spell covering the entire plot—practically the whole estate. Impossible to see up close, but clear as day from the sky with Legion.
A summoning circle.
The entire yard was the circle. Probably made to summon Ronan. Given its size, if they’d sacrificed the whole village as planned and Ronan had descended successfully, he’d have gained tremendous power.
‘But an unexpected event ruined it.’
Rosalyn Dawson. As the daughter of mage parents, she must have had magical talent too. Perhaps the summoning circle had affected her as well.
That Rosalyn Dawson and her dog Argos could remain as ghosts in this mansion might also be due to the circle.
“Legion, fly a bit lower.”
「Theo. Me. Fly low.」
“Yeah, perfect.”
I examined the summoning circle closely. It mixed ancient Angsar script and curses, hard to decipher, but thanks to my [Interpreter] trait, I could make it out.
-The day the underworld connects to the earthly plane
-We reclaim our mother’s legacy
-And usher in a new era of vengeance.
But reading it and grasping its true ‘meaning’ are different. I copied the circle’s inscription into an old book and descended.
“Did you figure it out?”
“No.”
“Too bad. I thought we’d finally found a real clue this time…”
“Well, a ‘clue’ is still a ‘clue.’”
I patted El’s head, then turned—and spotted a hazy figure standing by the fence, staring at me blankly. The ghost dog.
“Argos.”
I called its name. Argos slowly wagged its translucent tail, then bounded over happily. I stroked its head. It felt like touching a cold, dewy glass window.
-Woof! Whine!
Ayla bounced around excitedly too. Argos played with her awhile, then circled me as if it had something to say.
“What’s up?”
-Grrm. Grrm.
Following the grumbling Argos, it stopped at the center of where the mansion had been, sniffing the ground and pawing at it like it was digging. Ayla joined in, digging through the black, damp soil for a good while.
-Woof! Woof woof!!
Ayla, nose dusted with dirt, poked her head from the hole and barked. Had she found something? While she dug, I’d been planting seeds nearby, but now I approached and peered in. In the deep pit’s center…
“…!”
There was a small box made of gold.