Chapter 123
Chapter 123
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 123
Chapter Title: Flame Hair
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Flame Hair.
Leyzon guided him to the Steel Wolf Guild's reception room before taking a seat on the sofa.
The five, disguised in their appearances, naturally poured tea for him.
The tea they brewed was incredibly fragrant.
Apparently, during her stressful days working as a clerk, she had mastered the skill by always brewing and drinking tea.
Newly realizing it, Daseun seemed far more suited to being a butler than a knight.
"Oh my, how fragrant."
The same reaction came from one of Flame Hair's women.
The woman, distinctive for her peach-colored hair, exuded an air of elegance.
She might have noble blood in her veins.
"I'm glad it suits your taste."
As Daseun bowed politely, the woman smiled faintly.
"You've got a good person by your side."
Thanks to Daseun, Leyzon gained a bit of favor with her.
But the glares from the other women were anything but friendly.
In Soaz's case, she couldn't even meet Leyzon's eyes.
Leyzon flashed a faint smile, trying to lighten the mood.
"So, which one of these ladies is your lover?"
The eyes of all five women changed in an instant.
Their gazes locked onto Flame Hair.
It was clear that all five were fiercely competing for him daily, like a constant war.
Flame Hair, however, calmly took a sip of his tea.
"How rude. We're not in that kind of relationship."
Is this guy an idiot?
The fire in the women's eyes died out in a flash.
Anyone could see their affections were all focused on one man.
Yet the man himself seemed completely oblivious.
'Or maybe he's pretending not to know.'
All the women before him were hero-class or higher.
Dating one would surely drive the others away.
Flame Hair might be aware of that and acting this way on purpose.
'Cunning one.'
Or just plain crazy.
Leyzon decided to ask one thing since he was here.
"Flame Hair."
Leyzon leaned back leisurely in his chair, fiddling with his fingernails.
"You know about the downfall, don't you?"
Leyzon recalled the conversation he'd had with Flame Hair that day.
The birdcage he had spoken of.
The birdcage referred to the empire.
There were several reasons a bird might not want to live in its cage.
And if the cage was about to shatter, it would want to escape even more.
Flame Hair's body stiffened for a brief moment.
At the same time, his eyes grew ice-cold.
"......Yes, I know."
The empire's downfall was in progress.
This was a secret known only to a select few, including the imperial family.
Flame Hair knew it and was preparing alongside these women.
He had said he would shatter the birdcage.
This seemed to include not just himself, but others as well.
And then rebuild it anew.
Because some birds in the cage didn't know how to survive outside.
'Speaking in vague terms.'
To put it simply, if the empire fell, he would build a new nation and protect its people.
It was the mindset of a true hero.
"Then it's my turn to ask a question."
Flame Hair tapped his index finger on the table.
"Abyss, are you planning to turn this place into an ark?"
Ark.
Even Dungeon Replay had its share of legends.
Among them was one like Noah's Ark, where someone built a vessel to survive a great flood.
Flame Hair was asking if Sahā Village was meant to be such an ark.
Leyzon just smiled faintly.
No, not at all.
'I'm just setting it up for the nation-founding ending.'
From the looks of it, Flame Hair had misunderstood again in his own way.
But he couldn't exactly explain the nation-founding ending.
"Think whatever you want."
Leyzon simply handed over the right to interpret it as he pleased.
Flame Hair's eyes narrowed slightly.
"......Unexpected. I thought you'd welcome the downfall."
"For me, the longer the empire holds out, the better."
Tales of transcendent beings emerging and dooming the empire were too complicated.
He'd rather comfortably aim for the dungeon ending or nation-founding ending.
So Leyzon didn't wish for the empire's fall.
If possible, he hoped it would hold on long enough until he saw the ending.
Flame Hair stared at Leyzon with uncomprehending eyes.
"......I can't figure out your true goal. Your actions seem to invite ruin without fail."
Misunderstanding.
Never happened.
"Look at my face. Do I seem like that kind of guy?"
Leyzon grinned.
"Ugh."
"I can't look with my eyes open."
"Makes my stomach hurt."
The women recoiled in disgust.
Leyzon's masked face was hideous.
That explained their reactions.
Leyzon wasn't particularly hurt.
It was all the mask's fault.
Then why did he feel a bit down?
Rumble rumble rumble―
At that moment, the reception room began to shake.
Beneath Leyzon's feet.
His shadow twisted, turning red.
Seeing the women's reactions to Leyzon had pissed off Syria.
The atmosphere in the room shifted in an instant.
Everyone here was a hero-class powerhouse or higher.
They could indirectly sense Syria's strength.
"Eek! Hic!"
Soaz twisted her body and hid behind Flame Hair's back.
She was the only one here who had faced Syria directly.
The terror she had been instilled with lingered.
But Syria wasn't the only one heated up.
Darkness began to creep around Leyzon.
The bookshelves and floor moved of their own accord.
Eden and Pauli made their presence known.
Gradually, the other women's faces hardened as well.
He had forgotten while calmly chatting with Flame Hair.
Before them was the Abyss.
The pinnacle of necromancers.
Showing displeasure in his presence was tantamount to...
Declaring intent to fight the pinnacle of necromancers.
"I'll apologize on their behalf for the rudeness."
Flame Hair hurriedly offered an apology first.
He had no desire to clash with Leyzon.
"Syria, Eden, Pauli."
At Leyzon's call, the killing intent filling the reception room vanished.
"It's fine. Don't worry about it."
Even hero-class fighters couldn't peer beyond the mask.
That spoke to the mask's excellent performance.
He owed the Gray Mage Tower master his thanks.
As the positive Leyzon smiled again, everyone tensed up.
That smile felt like a warning not to cross the line.
"N-Now that I look again, what a charming smile."
"Such a beautiful heart."
"I could stare at that face forever!"
The women belatedly tossed out compliments.
He had unintentionally instilled a sense of crisis in them.
Not that it was intentional, but it made conversations easier.
Leyzon decided to let it be.
"Abyss."
Then Flame Hair posed another question.
"......First, allow me to thank you for exposing the traitor this time."
What was this now?
"Honestly, I underestimated that traitor. He'd nearly fully merged with the transcendent evil entity."
At the mention of the transcendent evil, Eden reacted.
Her daughter's soul was held captive by it.
Thus, she needed to confront the transcendent evil to retrieve the soul.
"While infiltrating the soul realm to uncover his identity, I got caught."
Leyzon grasped the situation roughly.
Flame Hair had vowed at their last meeting to expose the traitor.
True to his word, he had entered the soul realm to hunt him down.
"There was no way to deal with him in the soul realm. I nearly got taken out helplessly."
The traitor, already nearly fused with the transcendent evil, was at the pinnacle of the soul realm.
As a result, Flame Hair had been in dire straits.
"Then, he suddenly retreated back to the resonance world."
At that exact timing, Leyzon had tried to expose the traitor.
The traitor judged that Leyzon had already pierced his identity.
To leave no further information, he forcibly sealed the resonance world.
In that process, Flame Hair barely escaped.
"Thanks for noticing my hasty judgment and helping me."
Leyzon realized the direction of the misunderstanding.
'This guy thinks I did it on purpose.'
Don't overestimate me.
It was just a coincidence.
But Flame Hair didn't seem to think so.
Leyzon had always feigned profundity to brush things off.
Because of that, Flame Hair believed Leyzon moved with grand schemes and plans.
'In reality, I just go with the flow.'
The misunderstandings kept piling up.
Flame Hair expressed his genuine gratitude sincerely.
Leyzon found that straightforwardness rather appealing.
"So, the resonance world closing this time is partly my fault too."
Flame Hair truly believed Leyzon had helped him.
Thus, he decided to repay the favor now.
"Abyss, you're planning to reopen the resonance world, right?"
"Yeah. I called you because I need to find the resonance world's master first."
He needed to find Piercyran to do anything with the resonance world.
Hearing Leyzon's answer, Flame Hair nodded.
"Got it. I'll look into the soul realm side."
Fortunately, no power struggle; he understood easily.
Seeing his upright nature, Leyzon was quite surprised.
Honestly, Leyzon and Flame Hair weren't on the best terms.
'Our relationship started with my impersonation, after all.'
Yet witnessing Flame Hair's integrity stirred an odd trust.
'That must be his innate nature.'
At least now he understood why his women were drawn to him.
Flame Hair had a strange allure that pulled people in.
It was innate charisma.
Charisma that drew others forth.
Not just anyone possessed such a thing.
'Looking at him like this, he seems like the protagonist.'
Handsome looks and women.
Unyielding will and honesty.
Even a resolve to save the world in his own way.
It felt like encountering a game's protagonist in action.
'Then what am I?'
Maybe a side character.
Living modestly while doing his tasks.
That's what Leyzon thought.
However, no one here treated Leyzon as a side character.
A madman whose intentions were impossible to read, unpredictable in every way.
Every action tied to major events, the center of all recent incidents in the empire.
That was the Abyss, Leyzon.
"Alright. Looking forward to working with you."
Oblivious to that fact, Leyzon beamed innocently and offered a handshake.
Flame Hair and the women struggled to maintain their expressions.
Leyzon still had no inkling of the intimidating pressure his smile exerted on others.
After the conversation ended.
Flame Hair walked out of the reception room.
And once they were quite a distance from the Steel Wolf Guild's main building.
"......Captain, are you really okay with this?"
One of the women asked cautiously.
The others began reacting one by one.
"The aura around him earlier was too dangerous."
"What the hell is that guy? Surrounded by those monsters, yet he's just a pioneer at around ten ascensions."
The women shuddered, recalling the earlier events.
Hanging out with such monsters while being a mere ten-ascension pioneer.
They couldn't comprehend the disconnect.
"He's hiding his power. None of us could read his true strength."
Another woman said with a furrowed brow.
They had been completely toyed with.
That was all they could think.
"Soaz, you talked to him last time, right? Did you learn anything?"
"......I don't know anything. Just... just, he's an absurd monster."
Soaz, the only one who had faced Leyzon before, muttered blankly.
She still hadn't shaken off the trauma from that encounter.
"......At this rate, won't the captain be in danger instead?"
"The resonance world thing might not even have been his intention. He could be in league with them."
"Enough."
But Flame Hair dismissed it.
"Even if he didn't help me on purpose, that's how I'll see it."
The resonance world was still necessary for Flame Hair too.
If he could restore it without making the Abyss an enemy.
There was no better situation.
"To save the world, I have to join hands even with a monster like that."
For the greater good.
He would gladly ally with the world's black curtain.
Flame Hair clenched his fists with resolute eyes.
At his firm resolve, the women all swallowed their tears.
They had fallen for him long ago.
"......Captain."
"Got it. I'll trust you."
"Don't worry. Even if it's dangerous, we'll all face it together."
Amid their faith, Flame Hair nodded.
Leyzon's face floated in his mind.
A monster whose thoughts were utterly inscrutable.
His smiles always felt detached from the situation, sending chills down the spine.
That made his intentions even harder to read.
He could only desperately hope that the unpredictable madman would stay quiet this time.