Chapter 268
Chapter 268
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 268
Chapter Title: 75. More Proudly Than Anyone (1)
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Ophelia wrapped both her hands around mine, gently enclosing the hand that clutched the small fragment.
Her hands began to glow white.
I stared blankly at the light.
The light guided my hand.
Toward my chest. Toward my chest.
Finally, my hand touched my chest, and the faintly glowing fragment burrowed straight into it.
A soft light spread throughout my entire body.
And when the light faded once more, I realized what it was I had lost.
Fragments of my life that I had sworn to carry even into the moment of annihilation—fragments I had briefly forgotten, devoured by the void's darkness—finally became part of me again.
Thus, I could recall everything I had forgotten.
But,
"Do you now know where you must return to?"
Even so, I couldn't answer her question.
The image of them charging toward that immense darkness was seared into my heart like a brand. The obsessive malice, and the vivid picture in my mind of those still locked in desperate battle, staking their very existence...
I opened my mouth several times, only to close it again.
Finally, after a long while, I bowed my head limply and answered in defeat.
"I'm dead."
Ophelia cupped my cheeks with both hands.
She carefully lifted my face to meet her eyes.
"If you wish it, you can live again."
The certainty in her words filled me with such joy. And yet, it didn't.
"But if I leave, what about Agnes? What about the others?"
All I could say in front of her were childish pleas like that.
I couldn't abandon those who had risked annihilation for my sake.
Ophelia didn't scold me for it.
"Gruhon. You're always like this."
She simply sighed,
"That's why I can't just leave you be."
And simply smiled.
"The usual you wouldn't worry this much. Right now, you're so small... so fragile."
That smile somehow seemed tinged with apology in my eyes, filling me with unease.
"Steel your heart."
Ophelia pulled my cheeks closer.
Then pressed her forehead to mine.
"What you're about to see..."
Her face was so close I could feel her breath—the golden eyes unique to one who possessed divine sight gazed at me.
"Will be more horrific than anything you imagined."
And in that instant, my vision went white.
Thousands of soldiers cloaked in black hoods gathered before the fortress.
At their forefront, atop a towering platform, the Northern Duke proclaimed bloody vengeance with a face full of rage and grief.
The soldiers and knights raised their spears and swords high, roaring in unison.
The thousands-strong army began its march, stomping the ground in rhythm.
Crossing a bridge somewhere in the central region, they pressed on without rest.
Even as they advanced, more soldiers and knights continued to join their ranks.
At the end of their relentless march, they reached a forest thick with mistletoe trees.
Fiends with dark blue skin blocked the path of the knights and soldiers.
Soldiers drew crossbows and unleashed volleys of arrows. A one-eyed cavalry commander led his spearmen straight into the fiends' midst, cleaving them apart.
Masters gathered aura blades at their sword tips and tore the fiends to shreds alongside them.
The battle ended. Many had died.
The survivors set the forest ablaze and continued their advance.
The battles with the fiends dragged on.
Soldiers who wielded crossbows like demons fell one after another. The tireless spearmen were surrounded by fiends and died off one by one.
Yet they did not stop.
They claimed pyrrhic victories, burned the forests, and pushed forward, ever forward.
The fiends' resistance intensified.
Among them were powerhouses even Masters struggled against.
The Masters gathered in one place to confront the mighty fiend.
After a full day and night of combat, the fiend finally fell.
But the Masters were not unscathed.
A Master who wielded swordlight pale as moonlight pierced the fiend's heart—only to have his own heart pierced in turn, breathing his last.
There were no eulogies or remembrances.
They marched on once more.
And clashed again with an army led by another mighty fiend.
They won this time too, but at great cost.
A female knight who commanded blazing golden swordlight like the sun fought a desperate duel against two mighty fiends, sustaining grievous wounds before succumbing less than a day later.
Now, only one Master remained.
And the female knight who had slain countless fiends with star-shower brilliance finally met her end in the last battle, her body torn apart by their combined assault.
The Duke who had cried for vengeance became a headless corpse in that final clash. His loyal court knight, limbs severed, perished on the spot.
And the war came to an end.
The mistletoe forest burned to ashes, and the dark blue-skinned fiends were annihilated. The survivors scattered and fled.
The army turned back there, but a few soldiers expert with crossbows and some knights remained to pursue them.
And vanished without return.
The kingdom, deprived of its sharpest sword in the war against the fiends, could not fend off the vultures circling hungrily. It suffered defeat after defeat, ultimately collapsing entirely.
Mountains of corpses rose, rivers of blood flowed.
"Guhk!"
The breath I'd held burst forth in a cough.
My chest ached as if it were shattering.
I forcibly suppressed the pain, gasping raggedly.
I didn't even blink.
If I closed my eyes, I saw Bernard's head drooping as his heart was pierced,
Adelia's final moments, writhing in agony as she slowly died,
Arwen's end, turned to a cold corpse under the combined assault of the corrupted elder high elves,
Vincent's head rolling across the ground,
Kals's remains, limbs torn asunder.
They threatened to resurface, so I kept my eyes wide open, breathing harshly.
Only after a long while did I finally force my mouth open.
"What the hell did you just show me? What the hell did I just see?!"
Ophelia, who had stepped back a couple of paces, gazed at me steadily.
"You already know."
Unlike my terrified self, her voice was utterly calm.
"It's the future the kingdom will walk without you."
Her voice pierced my heart all the sharper for it.
"The end awaiting your knights."
I denied it.
It couldn't be. This was impossible.
I hadn't offered my soul as sacrifice just to see such a future.
But the more I denied it, the clearer the future she had shown me became.
The foresight of one with divine eyes could never err.
"Gruhon. Look at me."
I reluctantly turned my rigid head toward her.
Hesitating, dreading that her eyes would show me another horrific future, I finally met her gaze.
Her eyes were serene.
There was none of the ominous dread I had imagined.
"That horrific scene you witnessed will never come to pass."
At Ophelia's words, my wildly thundering heart and tangled thoughts instantly settled.
"Because of you."
"Because of me."
"I won't let it."
"I won't stand by and watch."
She smiled softly.
Right then,
"What a troublesome gift."
A familiar voice sounded from behind me.
"Ahn!"
I whipped around toward the voice.
Agnes approached us with a somewhat displeased expression. Beside her was the founder of the Leonberger family, the Dragon Slayer.
"I suspected it was you. No one else could awaken all these deeply slumbering souls."
"I only hope I didn't disturb your deep slumber."
Ophelia and he exchanged brief greetings, bound by their shared climb of Frostmountain four centuries ago.
But Agnes didn't let them savor the reunion long.
"Was there any need to show him such ghastly sights and stir his heart further?"
"It seems the Sword Marquis takes no pleasure in my powers."
Even under Agnes's overbearing rebuke, Ophelia showed not a flicker of agitation.
"I've always hated prophets. That damned foreknowledge of theirs too. They're all black-hearted; you can never tell what they're thinking."
Displeased by her demeanor, Agnes furrowed her brow.
"I merely worried that a deeply affectionate soul might be led by emotion to overlook what truly matters. No other intent."
"Well, he's always been indecisive. All that talk of magic swords and such, just posturing—soft inside, utterly spineless, worthless."
Agnes stroked her chin thoughtfully, then added,
"But in the end, it was pointless. I foresaw this very situation and came to kick his ass back to where he belongs."
She glanced at Ophelia, then fixed her eyes on me.
"Tch. Pathetic weakling."
Agnes clicked her tongue sharply and thrust her hand out toward me.
Seeing the clumps of light hovering above her palm, my eyes widened.
They were the fragments of my soul, shattered and devoured by the darkness.
"How did you..."
"How? Sliced its belly open and pulled them out."
Her casual tone left me dumbfounded.
Talking about that colossal darkness like gutting a fish on a plate—it was absurd.
"We haven't finished it off completely. Just temporarily neutralized it. In time, it'll regain its full power."
The Dragon Slayer explained in Agnes's stead.
"Then the others..."
"By now, they're all sprawled out somewhere recovering their feeble souls. A few might have annihilated, but who cares about the weaklings."
At Agnes's words, I let out a sigh of relief.
Despite her gruff tone, her warm expression suggested the others were safe.
"Is this the time to worry about others, you fool?"
Agnes tsked at me.
"Ahem."
Then the Dragon Slayer stepped forward and extended his hand.
A small, faint soul fragment floated above it.
"That's not mine..."
"It's the soul of your body's original owner."
As I blinked in shock at the unexpected revelation, he elaborated.
"The weakling panicked alone, firing at the darkness until it was devoured by the void and lost its ego. Only faint remnants of thought and memory remain."
"Why give it to me?"
"You'll need it to return to your proper place."
Before I could respond, Agnes snatched the fragment and shoved it into my chest.
"Just swallow it like tonic and be done. Why so chatty?"
Staring blankly at my chest, I saw the fragment already absorbed, without a trace.
Absurdity overwhelming me, I let out a hollow laugh at Agnes—then the Dragon Slayer abruptly extended his hand again.
"I regret the burden my greed forced upon you. Curse me as selfish if you must, but honestly, I'm glad you're here for the kingdom now. May the kingdom..."
"This damned fool's still not learned, trying to dump the load again. Shut your trap. We can smash that thing because..."
The Dragon Slayer flinched at Agnes's sharp rebuke, his face sour.
The overwhelming pressure unique to a knight of mythic rank began to emanate subtly.
"What right have you to glare? Have some shame."
Under her scorn, he groaned and turned back to me.
Then extended his hand once more.
"Sorry. And thank you."
Realizing the meaning of his belated gesture, I reached out and clasped his large hand.
"Move. Don't pretend to have a conscience now."
Agnes shoved him aside and stood before me.
She scanned me from head to toe.
"Eat properly, will you? That bastard's blood must be poor; you're scrawny as hell."
"He's still growing."
"Sure he is. Barely escaped dwarfdom thanks to the rebirth."
Her lip curled in mockery, and I bristled to retort—
Whoosh.
She pulled me into a hug.
"Don't think of yourself as anyone's property anymore. Live proudly. Savor this one life to the fullest. No regrets later—abundantly, happily. Do everything others do. Do what others don't."
In her gentle voice, I tentatively raised my arms to embrace her.
"You more than deserve it."
She gripped my shoulders and met my eyes.
"Not as Gruhon, but as Idrian Leonberger."
Agnes pulled me close again.
A strange sensation touched my forehead.
"Claim every happiness a human can know."
Before I could even comprehend it, Agnes grabbed my collar.
"Farewell."
And hurled me away.
"Huh?"
Toward a pure white light that had appeared from nowhere.
"See you again, Ian."
Hearing Agnes's parting words at my back, I was sucked into the white light.
"Ah..."
When I opened my eyes again, I lay upon my soft bed.
As I blinked dazedly, a hoarse voice reached me.
"Y-Your Highness?"
I turned my head. Adelia stared at me, face pale as if she'd seen a ghost.
Tears swiftly welled in her drooping eyes.
"Your Highness! Your Highness! Your Highness!"
She threw herself into my arms, face a mess of tears and snot.
I recoiled in disgust, but she burrowed in relentlessly.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Adelia sobbed bitterly in my embrace.
"What? Your Highness?"
Clattering footsteps sounded from beyond the door.
The commotion made me chuckle.
It felt like coming home after a long time.