Chapter 226
Chapter 226
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 226
Chapter Title: Evan's Resolve
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Evan said in an incredulous voice.
“Are you in your right mind?”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re proposing to travel together with me.”
Probably the word “Sub-Cult Leader” was hidden right before “me.”
Even if it was a remote place, this was still the capital.
No telling who might be eavesdropping from where, so keeping his mouth shut made sense.
I evaluated it inwardly.
‘That kind of caution passes too.’
Of course, I knew full well that traveling with Evan Helvin, who had awakened as the Sub-Cult Leader, carried significant risk.
Heros could be called the cult’s natural predator, even more so than the imperial family.
If asked to name the organization that stood completely opposed to the cult, it wouldn’t be the imperial family, the 72 cults, or the Solar Cult—it would be Heros.
Historically, Heros had clashed with the cult most often and thwarted its ambitions the most.
“To begin with, you’re strange too. I’m strange myself, but Ruan—you should be avoiding Heros as well, no?”
“…….”
“What the hell are you?”
Evan had seen me using the instrument.
Truth be told, the current situation was fairly dangerous for me too.
Three people had clearly witnessed me using the instrument in the underworld.
Seren was already in the same boat as me, and Dean Alderson was trustworthy.
Which meant the most dangerous remaining witness was Evan Helvin.
This guy, bearing the identity of Sub-Cult Leader, was in a position where threatening me on the spot wouldn’t seem off at all.
“Well, I have my own circumstances. And don’t overreact to my words. I was just asking your opinion.”
“What?”
“Accept or decline—it’s your call. As for why I suggested traveling together... well, call it repayment. Since we once shared a room and I heard your dreams.”
Evan’s breathing grew ragged.
For some reason, it felt like he was reminiscing about the training camp days too.
Back then, Evan had spoken of his father without reservation, taken pride in the Raven swordsmanship he’d learned, and dreamed of entering Heros.
A boy who wanted to become a hero.
Images surfaced in sequence: the son who harbored not a shred of shame toward his father, the Knight of Total Defeat.
In a way, this was my own test for Evan.
Had the Evan who’d talked with me in that cramped training camp room vanished?
Had he been ensnared by Harden Ihar’s schemes at the academy, only for some entity called the Sub-Cult Leader to occupy his body?
“…I don’t know what you expect from me.”
Evan forced out the words.
“But I can’t become like you.”
“Huh?”
“You said it yourself. I wanted to be a hero, and I believed I could. But when the chance actually came, I put my own self-preservation before saving others. If I’d unleashed all my hidden power, maybe I could’ve turned things around—but I didn’t. Truth is, I lacked the resolve. You, on the other hand…”
“…….”
“…used your power without the slightest hesitation. Unlike me.”
Evan gazed up at the sky.
“The me now has no right to set foot in Heros. Not because I’m the Sub-Cult Leader. Heros is the place the boy I was admired... A guy like me can’t defile it.”
Only then did I glimpse what Evan had been mulling over these past few days—and the reason he’d gone into hiding.
He’d likely been locked in brutal self-loathing all along.
On a separate note, I realized one more thing: this was definitely the Evan I knew.
Which meant I had one thing to say.
“Evan.”
“Speak.”
“Sorry, but I’m really not interested.”
I continued, facing the cool night breeze.
“I just made the offer, that’s all. No plans to force or convince you. Do it if you want; drop it if you don’t.”
“You think I’ll pledge myself to the cult?”
“I’m saying this precisely because I don’t think you will.”
“What?”
Evan blinked.
“No matter what you do going forward, I don’t see you pledging to the cult. Even skipping Heros, I doubt you’ll do anything foolish—so handle it yourself. Don’t drag me into it.”
A brief silence followed, then a chuckle erupted from the bench’s edge.
We stayed seated like that for another thirty minutes or so.
I was just rising to leave, figuring I needed to wake early tomorrow,
when Evan spoke.
“Let’s go together.”
“But grant me one condition.”
“What is it.”
“Keep watching me. And if the person you see—if my true nature, my purpose—starts leaning more toward the Sub-Cult Leader than Evan—”
Evan’s eyes fixed straight on me.
“Then you kill me.”
* * *
The Hero Institution Heros wielded immense influence.
Bluntly put, unlike the empire—where power concentrated in the capital—Heros’s reach extended beyond imperial borders to the continent’s remotest, least populated corners.
Officially known branches alone numbered over a thousand; add in secret hideouts and guilds in formal collaboration with Heros, and it multiplied several times over.
That Heros headquarters lay in the empire’s east.
Not the great grasslands, but just before—precisely, the city of Tepher, where the plains began to unfold.
“It’s an obsolete concept now, but some still call Tepher a free city or city-state. Size-wise alone, it rivals a nation. In truth, the empire can’t interfere in Tepher.”
Keian’s words before we left.
Meaning Tepher existed in unofficial independence from the empire, having seized its own autonomy.
Tepher was fairly large—far smaller than the capital, of course, but with extreme population density, bustling everywhere like the capital’s busiest streets.
In any case, the trip from the capital to Heros took a full week.
And that was with well-paved roads; a typical carriage would need at least two weeks for the distance.
“Then we’ll set off! Oh—one more person?”
“That’s fine, right?”
“Of course! This carriage seats twelve, after all. Haha!”
Mir and Evan made decent travel companions.
Mir—who’d spent most of his life in the north—seemed to enjoy himself even cooped up in the carriage.
Plastered to the window, he watched the shifting scenery and occasionally quizzed Evan on unfamiliar plants or beasts.
“What’s that?”
“Badger. Weather’s warmed, so it’s out of hibernation.”
“Uh... dunno? Never eaten one.”
By my memory, Mir and Evan hadn’t been especially close or distant...
But perhaps because neither shied from people, they’d grown friendly over the journey.
From a slight distance, they even looked like warm siblings—despite looking nothing alike.
I joined their talk scarcely.
Not from lack of chatty confidence, but because I had tasks.
‘My guts feel off.’
Like my internal true energy wasn’t meshing. Chilling sensations occasionally swept my abdomen—likely Kajita’s azure flame.
To fix the disharmony, I spent most bumpy carriage time in meditation.
To maximize Flame Arts of the Greatest efficiency, I perched on the roof, sunbathing directly.
Possible only because I’d hired the carriage myself.
Coachman Gon initially protested, but after I balanced ghost-like on rough inclines, he stopped interfering.
Of course, it couldn’t last.
Day three brought rain—not a deluge, but fierce enough.
Consulting expert Gon yielded this:
“Not undrivable. But a river’s ahead—if the current swells, the bridge gets tricky.”
“Can’t use the bridge?”
“Three or four days detour.”
“I see.”
No need to deliberate—I asked straight.
“What’s best, then?”
My casual query mildly surprised Gon...
Who soon smiled faintly in reply.
“Recommend pushing on. No steep grades, low risk. Trust me.”
“Will do.”
I trusted the expert’s call.
His conduct these past days proved Gon reliable.
Rain being rain, I descended and passed time inside.
Naturally, gloomy weather tanked meditation efficiency, reverting me to idle Ruan.
Idle chatter with Mir or Evan, scenery-gazing, future-mulling.
It was then, some moment.
Drip, drip...
Deep midnight.
Sleepless, back against the wall pondering ahead, the rooftop rain suddenly rang clear.
The instant I thought it played a fine rhythm...
Head-filling thoughts vanished traceless.
“Hm...?”
The startling shift hit then.
Internal true energy began harmonizing.
Nothing I’d willed.
Never consciously tried.
Yet my body naturally tuned it.
‘Ah...’
That instant, I freshly grasped rest’s equal importance to training.
Post-regression, I’d raced mindlessly—I reflected.
Dawn jogs, form practice, body torture—not all training was that.
Meditation, martial arts rumination—that counted too.
True rest demanded shedding even those thoughts.
Mind emptied, I reverted to wastrel Ruan after ages.
Hours chatting with Mir and Evan; counting trees per minute; seeking patterns in raindrops—foolish pursuits.
Forgot future tasks entirely—even martial arts.
Days one, two, three passed thus.
Peering inward anew...
I realized the roiling azure flame—the impure blaze from the instrument—had fully settled in my dantian.
Henceforth, wieldable with mastery matching my prior true energy.
Somehow tempted to cycle it fully later, but held back—lest the instrument unconsciously leak.
Ere long, day six.
Tepher tomorrow originally, but Gon reported.
Heavy rain delayed two-three days.
Half sorry, half pleased.
Unexpectedly savoring the trip.
Rain poured relentlessly; rare for days on end this season.
Midnight once more—Evan and Mir deep asleep—I drew a book from my bag.
Heavenly Calamity Birth Scripture.
Second Sister’s gift.
Likely hoping I’d read it.
Opening revealed long-unseen classical Chinese.
Unlike Third Martial Brother’s script, I grasped it somewhat. Interpretation slowed me, but readable.
Two-three days spare, I parsed it leisurely.
The Heavenly Calamity Birth Scripture opened thus:
[Righteousness and chivalry fallen to earth—heaven might as well be dead.]
[Since ancient chaos quelled not by order or law, but vaster chaos—yet this world brands chaos-bringers mere ‘demons’; we embrace it gladly.]
[May our demon touch heaven. May that corpse-reeking firmament fully crumble.]
[Thus, henceforth our cult names itself Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.]
“Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?”
A religious group too? Like the Dark Cult?
My murmur faintly stirred Mir. I readjusted her flipped blanket, then read on.
[Since antiquity, the jianghu swayed by one absolute. White Way, Black Way, Demon Way... The absolute’s faction tipped the martial balance.]
[Jianghu’s myriad prodigies claim: Absolutes birth only from talent, circumstance, fortune aligned.]
[Our cult dissents.]
[Absolutes can be forged.]
Forged.
This time inwardly echoed.
The term snagged deep.
[One concession.]
[Circumstance matters. Precisely: circumstance alone matters. Talent, fortune secondary.]
[What circumstance, then? Conditions for absolutes?]
[Our cult long agonized.]
[Human strength’s source? Why cultists loathe heaven?]
[Loss.]
[Home, hearth, siblings, lovers, comrades.]
[-Loss.]
[First stair to absolute might.]
[Realizing thus, we gathered seventeen hundred twenty-seven orphans under ten across jianghu.]
[Became their kin; fed delicacies; warmed with fine garb.]
[Next year: gouged every eyeball, hurled them down snowy cliff.]
Instantly, blinding white flooded everywhere; thunder crashed belatedly on eardrums.
Boom...
“...What?”
I couldn’t help voicing it.
Second Sister’s face—ever veiled thinly over eyes—flashed through mind.
[Human senses’ most treasured?]
[Vision.]
[Losing it equals losing the world. Utterly for mere ten-year whelps.]
[First: retaught these whelps loss.]
[As foreseen, gouged-eyed hundreds wailed day one. Betrayal-shock compounding, from savior-cult.]
[Unqualified sprouts for absolute. Death-worthy; died indeed.]
[Ferocious beasts pre-loosed below cliff.]
Grip tightened; page crinkled faintly. Exhaled breath warmed perceptibly.
Breath alone not.
Dantian flared hot.
Flame Arts of the Greatest, resonating my ire.
[Day one: half of seventeen hundred twenty-seven perished.]
[Swift adapters moved to live—yet most folded ere week’s end.]
[Tough-tempered, cool-judging, venomous even: luckless died.]
[Month promised elapsed—ninety-nine survivors.]
“…….”
[One girl shone paramount.]
[Emotion-scarce post-adoption. Eyeless scream-mute.]
[Innate transcendence.]
[Peerless talent, venom.]
[Ten-thousand-surpassing aura.]
[Throat-deep ecstasy erupted.]
[This child.]
[Survives trials’ end assured.]
[Revives cult; topples rotten world entire.]
[Surnameless; self-named Little Spirit.]
[Cult bestowed surname conviction-full.]
[Talent heaven-touching, heaven-toppling, firmament-demon-cloaking.]
[Honoring thus, child’s surname—]
“...Cheon.”
I murmured it.
Cheon So-ryeong.
Second Sister’s name.