Chapter 49
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 49: Reunion (1)
Under the grey sky, a desperate moment where even breathing was hard.
The moment she saw the blue summoning circle unfold, and the blue-grey hair flashing under the blue light, Vivienne's vision stiffened as if stopped.
And the straight scar extending long down his neck from under his ear.
The moment she saw that scar, the intuition she had been trying hard to deny that Iden wasn't Edom Rivan shattered to pieces.
Her head went white.
Her heart beat loudly, but her thinking couldn't follow.
'Edom Rivan.'
At the same time that name came to mind, memories she had been denying rushed in as if released from a seal.
The Academy corridor, the shadow standing in front of the laboratory door, the gaze watching her standing far away, and those persistent steps.
She could no longer deny that it was Edom Rivan who did that.
'It makes no sense….'
It literally made no sense.
The changed appearance was one thing, but him 'saving' her made no sense.
Because it was Edom who always said he would have her even if he had to break her.
Why was such a person standing in front of her right at this moment.
He was a man who always stood 'behind' her.
A man chasing her, following her, trying to catch her, trying to have her even if breaking her.
Such him was now standing in 'front' of her.
Receiving the black magic rushing towards her with his body.
Vivienne couldn't understand.
Couldn't even believe it.
Or perhaps was he chasing her around again.
So up to this place, so didn't he appear at this point.
If so, is this not protection but another form of obsession.
A corrupted protection that even if broken, he must be the one to break it?
A distorted possessiveness that the only existence threatening her must be himself?
Of course, that thought didn't last long.
The blue summoning circle seen over Iden's back, and the solid posture pushing away black magic didn't resemble any distorted emotion.
He was just blocking it.
Risking his life blocking the death flying towards her head-on.
Connecting memories bound to the past to him was also something that made no sense.
Vivienne looked at him unable to even breathe.
Past memory and current scene don't interlock.
Edom Rivan and Iden Summonfield collided in her head.
It was confusing.
Following that, his appearance changed again.
As if fusing with a dark red knight overlapping as one with an existence of another world, the shape of hell's knight was overlaid on human outline.
Blue contract pattern pulsated, and dark red carapace was formed.
And.
Redric was pushed back one-sidedly.
Black magic split on sword, and mana scattered vainly.
Execution was beginning.
Overwhelming power and absolute judgment.
Like that Redric collapsed.
That moment Vivienne's breath was about to loosen a little, she felt something strange.
The sword was stopped.
Over fallen Redric's heart.
Sword tip goes down, very slowly.
Comes up again.
Goes down again.
Ascent.
Descent.
Ascent.
Descent.
Repeat.
As if an invisible tug-of-war was happening, the sword tip repeated ascent and descent.
As if doing an invisible test of strength, the arm holding the sword was trembling fiercely.
Vivienne's eyes shook.
Someone is enduring from inside.
Someone is pushing from outside.
Summoned beast and summoner.
Or.
Iden and Edom.
Another distinction arose in her head.
If it were Edom Rivan of 3 years ago, he probably wouldn't have hesitated.
Kill, that would have been his answer.
Edom of that time would definitely have stood on that side.
But this man blocking her front now, the one called Iden Summonfield, seemed to stand on the opposite side.
Even though it's the same body, the place they stand seemed different.
Sword tip goes down slowly again.
Vivienne's heart tightened.
At this rate Redric dies.
And somehow… along with him, something remaining inside that man also felt like it would be completely twisted.
Her throat dried up.
Lips opened then closed.
That name, the name she had never called first until now, the name she vowed she would never call first in the future, she dragged up forcibly from the inside of her throat.
Felt like she had to stop him.
“Edom…?”
The moment that name flowed out cutting through the air, Vivienne was surprised herself.
Name she had denied.
Past she had turned away from.
It was a call acknowledging all of that.
And her call grabbed the sword tip and his pupils simultaneously.
“….”
There was no answer.
But Vivienne instinctively felt that the name definitely reached.
Following that, the dark red shapes covering him disappeared, and he collapsed.
“E, Edom…!”
Edom Rivan who always ran to her.
Now, it was Vivienne running towards him.
**
Late at night, the attending physician's room in the Northern Grand Duke's private mansion located deep inside Wintel family's Main Castle was quiet.
Firelight of the fireplace burned calmly, and faint medicine scent spread in the air.
Iden lay quietly on the sickbed placed in the middle of the room.
That spot was Eldmonde's own bed.
Thick white blanket covered up to Iden's chest, and blue-grey hair wet with sweat stuck to his forehead.
Breath was even but deep.
Not the breath of a warrior who just finished fierce battle, but the breathing of one completely exhausted after finally accomplishing something.
By the sickbed, Wintel family's exclusive attending physician stood.
An old man as elderly as Eldmonde, but his fingertips were surprisingly stable.
He was taking the pulse with thin purple mana placing both hands on Iden's chest.
Threads of mana spread like capillaries scanning Iden's body.
“……It is a relief.”
A while later, the old doctor opened his mouth low.
“There is no obstacle to life. Just suffered a temporary recoil as his body was forcibly expanded then returned to original state. However—”
He narrowed his eyes and examined the faint contract afterglow remaining on Iden's heart.
“He was driven to the mental tolerance limit. Pushed to the boundary line of the soul then barely returned. Perhaps if his mental power was even slightly weak, he wouldn't have been able to return forever.”
Hearing those words, Eldmonde exhaled softly.
His hand swept down his long hanging white beard slowly.
His still surprised chest wasn't stopping its pulsation.
Just thinking he almost lost a noble person named Iden made him feel like his vision was turning dark even now.
When he heard the whole story from Vivienne, he didn't delay an inch.
He moved directly with Galliard, and moved collapsed Iden and tied Redric on the cliff to the Main Castle.
Redric was sent to a deep underground prison, and Iden was moved here.
A space allowed only to people of Wintel family.
There are capable medical officers in the Main Castle too, but Eldmonde brought Iden here and yielded his sickbed to him.
His gaze headed to the young man on the sickbed again.
The fact that he subdued Redric was of course surprising.
That he defeated a high-ranking executive of Endermit and a contractor of black magic was never a light achievement.
As much as it is a forbidden power using life as collateral, its mightiness was enough to make even himself tense.
However, Eldmonde's thinking didn't stop there.
What he tenaciously ruminated on was only one.
‘Contract Summoning Formula.’
And a contract with the 4th Rank Execution Knight of Belgrad at that.
Eldmonde closed his eyes slowly then opened them.
Contract Summoning Formula is something even a Summoner doesn't handle even the 1st Rank carelessly.
Rather than being hard to handle, it was dangerous to bear.
The formula forming a 'continuous connection' with an existence of another world is not simply borrowing power, but an act of opening a part of the soul making them interlock with each other.
If not careful, the summoner's mind gets encroached.
And Execution Knight of Belgrad is 4th Rank.
Butcher crazy for blood.
Knight of another world born for execution and judgment.
That existence was powerful.
Even as a single entity, it possessed combat power exceeding one top-tier magic corps.
But the problem wasn't power.
‘Nature.’
The Execution Knight looks into the summoner's nature.
Small madness, anger, hatred, suppressed desire, it digs into any small crack without missing.
And widens that gap, eventually taking the summoner as a tool of execution.
Eldmonde himself also had a contract with that existence once in his youth.
In the middle of war, it was an inevitable choice.
As a price for that, he wandered in the boundary of life and death for dozens of days.
Wandered at the boundary of this world and afterlife, and if not for the attending physician's help, his soul might have split.
That he broke off the contract was also because the attending physician broke it forcibly rather than his will.
But Iden terminated the contract himself, without anyone's help.
Eldmonde's pupils shone minutely, and soon a hollow laugh came out again.
Once again, a hollow laugh came out looking at Iden.
A man showing more than wonder every time.
Where on earth is the final destination of this man who is bizarre beyond wondrous.
Even had an imprudent wish that he would like to definitely see that place while alive.
Eldmonde looked at the young man on the sickbed for a long time.
A Summoner whose growth hasn't stopped yet.
It wasn't an exaggeration to conclude that his potential is overwhelming even compared to when he himself was young.
A faint smile brushed Eldmonde's lips.
If it's Iden, he might surpass himself far beyond.
Perhaps beyond the North, beyond the Kingdom, beyond the continent, he might become the strongest Summoner in the history of the Hypelln world.
And.
Not a wish, but a certainty arose that he would bring liberation to all those who have been suppressed, ostracized, and mistreated because of their innate talent.
Deep in his pupils, a secret greed dwelled.
Not political greed.
Extremely private greed.
Eldmonde sweeps down his beard once again looking down at Iden.
“….”
Iden on the sickbed was still asleep.
But over his chest, a blue contract afterglow pulsated very minutely like taking a breath once.
**
It was darkness.
Deep, sinking darkness.
Like being submerged in water, sound and senses were dull.
Such a zero-gravity-like space where it's indistinguishable up to where is reason and from where is inertia.
Floating there for a long time then suddenly.
Felt like something was being pieced together inside me.
Pain as if what was torn was being sutured.
It was a sensation as if forcibly sewing back flesh that was roughly torn off.
Delicate yet tenacious pain as if the boundary of mind and body was being sewn with thread.
And next.
Dull pain as if the whole body was beaten rushed in.
Every single bone rang heavily.
Shoulder, ribs, waist, wrist, hadn't even moved but muscles throbbed as if squeezed.
…Alive.
That fact came to mind first.
Heart beats slowly but regularly.
I, didn't perish.
Eyelids heaved heavily.
Opened eyes slowly as if lifting a layer of curtain.
Light spread.
Was blurry.
Shapes looked overlapped.
Ceiling entered first.
Ceiling engraved with unfamiliar patterns, air mixed with medicine and mana afterglow.
And the moment vision became clear, I saw someone looking down at me.
Red hair tied in twin tails was flowing down riding the shoulder.
Blue pupils, those pupils looking down at me were shaking.
“…….”
It was Vivienne.