Chapter 158
Chapter 158
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 158
Chapter Title: A Debt to Repay for Life
-----------------------------------------------------------------
As the light faded, there stood the Mad Duke, his heart pierced clean through by the Sword of Light.
His pupils dilated, he looked dead to anyone who saw him.
And staring blankly at the sight was one person.
None other than Haring Lagren.
The day the Lagren family's sky had been dyed yellow.
Trapped alone in a solitary room amid the World Erosion, she had lost her brother.
She had spent her days endlessly counting numbers, and before she knew it, she had grown into an adult.
"I didn't do it to save you. I was just trying to survive, and that's how it turned out. So... you're not at fault. Got it?"
But deep in her heart,
she could never forget her brother's final words.
The words that she was not at fault.
No matter how much she mulled them over, she could never accept them.
If she hadn't screamed that day, her brother might not have died.
If only she had been even a little stronger, she could have protected him.
Such thoughts had always filled her mind.
It felt like everything was her fault.
The scar refused to heal, no matter how she tried to cover it.
And then, today,
something utterly unexpected happened to her as she lived day by day.
A sky just like the yellow one she had seen that day.
A red-haired man called the Mad Duke, sitting atop the Lagren family roof.
And that man had now grievously wounded her father as a World Eroder.
All of it had converged here today.
She struggled to contain her resentment, but it kept surging up uncontrollably.
Every situation overlapping with the past felt like a knife ripping open her scars.
But she suppressed her resentment, over and over.
She didn't want to repeat the same mistake as with her brother.
'Krash.'
And there was him, whom she kept seeing overlap with her brother for some reason.
Half out of it, she desperately followed Krash.
She kept applying Invisible to him as she blocked attacks one after another.
The heat she felt each time she cast Invisible on Krash intermittently snapped her back to reality.
And in the final moment...
"Haring."
Krash called out to Haring.
"Watch closely."
Krash summoned his Black Flame and flashed her a wide grin.
"Me taking that bastard down."
His face was a mix of playful mischief and deadly seriousness.
Leaving those words behind, Krash leaped toward the spot where the Sword of Light had grazed past, not giving Haring time to respond.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
And as the Mad Duke's death cry echoed violently,
it was burned crystal clear into her eyes.
The moment Krash's full-powered Black Flame struck the Mad Duke alongside the Sword of Light.
It was the moment her deepest enemy in life, the Mad Duke, met his end.
A gust of wind whipped through the Mad Duke's hair.
Blood droplets splattered from his body, staining the ground.
Beneath his red hair, the Mad Duke's eyes no longer held any light.
The red gaze that had blazed vividly against the yellow sky had gone completely dark.
For some reason, Haring felt her legs go weak.
Staring at the Mad Duke, Haring hadn't even let out a single cry of anger while reining in her emotions.
So even seeing him dead now didn't feel real.
Perhaps because of that, the resentment buried deep in her heart felt lost, drifting aimlessly with nowhere to go.
Then her eyes caught sight of a boy.
The boy, trailing thunderous noise and spewing pure white smoke, soon turned to look at Krash.
"Haring."
At that moment, Krash called out to her.
As she slowly turned her dazed eyes toward him, he took a long, deep breath and spoke.
"Did you see it?"
At those words, Haring's eyes began to widen slowly.
Before she knew it, her feet were stepping forward.
Krash's body was starting to collapse.
Haring rushed forward and caught him.
The heat radiating from his body gradually made her realize this was reality.
She understood just how much Krash had pushed himself here for her lifelong grudge.
The moment she realized that, she felt all tension drain from her jaw.
At the same time, her arms tightened around him fiercely.
"Krash."
"Still hot..."
Krash tried to stop her, saying the heat hadn't subsided yet.
But she ignored him and hugged him even tighter.
Could she ever repay this debt in her lifetime?
Haring didn't know.
But one thing she was certain of.
The guilt of failing to protect her brother and all of it was melting away in Krash's heat.
"...Thank you."
I'll repay it.
No matter what happens, from now on, I'll devote my all to living for him.
Haring quietly resolved herself.
＊ ＊ ＊
While Krash, supported by Haring, wore an awkward expression,
he was getting an earful from Crimson Garden in his head.
Of course, the Black Witch wanted Ignis.
By flaunting it right in front of her, she was sure to target Krash relentlessly from now on.
But Krash hadn't made his move without thought.
There was a way to keep the Black Witch from ever approaching.
And a way to monitor Ixion's movements as well.
"Let's talk after we get back."
Krash murmured to himself so others couldn't hear, then raised his head.
Because the job wasn't done yet.
He had taken down the Mad Duke.
But the World Erosion still lingered.
With the Mad Duke gone, it wouldn't grow stronger, but by now, the Hardenharts were probably in an uproar.
'My sister has the student unit and One Sword, but still.'
His unease hadn't faded.
Puk!
At that moment, the Sword of Light embedded in the Mad Duke's body was pulled free.
It flew straight into Rai's hand and vanished.
Rai's face was drenched in cold sweat.
His usual composure utterly gone, it showed how tricky he found wielding the Sword of Light.
Which made sense.
That sword belonged to none other than the Martial Emperor, Balok Valheim.
It was a skill replication via Repeten of the aura he, the Valheim patriarch, infused directly into a mineral.
In the past, after Rai's great exploits, Balok had offered him any reward he desired.
And what he had claimed was that very Sword of Light.
Yet even now, years after receiving it around the time Krash was born, Rai couldn't wield it freely.
The gap between Balok and Rai was still too vast.
"I'll head back to the Hardenharts first."
Recovering the Sword of Light, Rai dismissed the Emperor Annihilation Blades as he spoke.
Having heard the situation from Krash, he planned to return immediately and deal with the World Erosion.
"I'll go with you."
And Sena felt the same.
She glanced at Krash and jerked her chin.
She knew about Evelask.
The Evelask she saw was a World Eroder, but one glance told her what feelings Evelask held for Krash.
A woman's intuition told her.
At the very least, Evelask would help Krash rather than harm him.
So she meant to leave Krash and Haring to Evelask and go ahead.
Krash bowed his head gratefully to Sena.
If she were inflexible, she might have turned hostile just because Evelask was a World Eroder.
As Sena departed with Rai, Krash transferred the Red Tiger Pill into his body using his heat.
He was an expert who had experienced the Red Tiger Pill once before.
Perhaps because of that, he absorbed its essence far quicker than expected.
His breathing eased a bit as he let out a long exhale.
"I'm fine now."
Krash patted the arms of Haring, who was still supporting him.
But for some reason, she hugged him even tighter.
"...You're not."
Krash tilted his head at the softness he hadn't noticed earlier amid the Red Tiger Pill and aftereffects.
Even after running as hard as he had, Haring smelled not of sweat but something sweet.
Probably the unique scent of her poison.
As their eyes met while she held him, Haring stared intently for a moment.
Seeing her resolute gaze, Krash let out a short sigh and spoke again.
"I'm really okay. I've recovered enough. Trust me."
Hearing that, Haring hesitated before slowly releasing him.
"...Okay."
Weak to his plea, she looked puzzled at her own actions, regretfully rubbing her arms where his heat had faded.
Kuung!
The Blood Heaven Realm created by the Mad Duke crumbled, red fragments scattering across the sky.
And amid them rushed a figure.
"Krash!"
It was none other than Evelask.
Her face was filled with worry.
Sena aside, with Rai there, Evelask hadn't been able to show herself recklessly.
So she had let Krash and the others in, then anxiously awaited the outcome with bated breath.
And the instant Rai left, she had come running.
"Evelask."
"Your body? You didn't lose half an arm again, did you?"
Her face pale, she grabbed Krash and inspected him closely.
After a few checks, she quietly sighed in relief.
His body was creaking, but Evelask knew Krash's habit of pushing himself.
He'd still need the Saintess's healing in the end, but this was at least a relief.
"I'm fine. You can stop checking."
At that voice, Evelask looked up.
The mid-low tone from his post-puberty voice lingered oddly in her ears before fading.
As she followed the voice upward, she flinched.
She had grabbed him to check his body, bringing their faces too close.
She saw his straight nose and the blue eyes looking at her.
Sweat beaded on his slightly strained expression.
For some reason, Evelask's face began to heat up slowly.
Krash had saved her twice.
Once physically, by returning her heart.
The other mentally, by vowing to take on her long pain and trauma himself.
Up until the heart, Evelask hadn't paid Krash much mind.
He was just a kid pretending to be mature, after all.
But the Krash she met today was different.
His rapid growth spurt had brought him close to adulthood.
Now tall enough that she had to look up at him.
She knew boys grew fast.
But she hadn't expected this much, this soon.
So his earlier words kept circling in her mind.
Evelask slowly averted her eyes.
For some reason, meeting his gaze felt strangely hard.
This sensation was a first in her life.
At that moment, Evelask felt a tug.
Turning, she saw Haring standing expressionless.
"Krash says he's fine. Don't make it harder for him."
Hearing that, Evelask met Haring's eyes.
For some reason, locking eyes with her soured her mood a bit.
"Who asked? If he's gonna stick with me, he needs to be in one piece."
She grumbled and let go of Krash.
Oddly emphasizing "with me."
She quickly checked Krash's reaction.
But he just looked indifferent, not particularly fazed by her words.
Then her eyes met Haring's again, who was staring intently.
An inexplicable tension flowed between them.
As Crimson Garden spoke in disbelief, Krash walked toward the Mad Duke.
His eyes, staring blankly from a gaping chest wound, held only emptiness in death.
"Evelask, can you recover the Mad Duke's body? Including the Blood Demon Apostles."
At his request to retrieve it, Evelask hurried over, abandoning her staredown with Haring.
"Got it. Anything else?"
She was oddly more compliant than before.
Krash eyed Evelask curiously, but it wasn't a bad development.
He desperately needed her abilities right now.
"Yeah, the Hardenharts' mountains have quite a few residents."
Krash watched Evelask swiftly recover the Mad Duke's corpse and continued.
"Let's save them first."
Evelask and Haring turned to Krash.
Krash wasn't just some nice guy.
Prickly, foul-mouthed in an un-noble way, always worrying those around him.
But one thing was clear.
This was why people kept gathering around him.
"Let's go."
Seeing him, the most battered of them all, take the lead first, the two women inexplicably felt smiles tugging at their lips.
Because it was so very Krash.