Chapter 108
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Like a Flame
A long time passed.
At some point, Allen lost track of how much time had gone by.
Was it nine days? Or ten? He didn't know. He wasn't even sure if he needed to.
He just gripped his sword and stared at his opponent.
Allen's mind was clearer than he expected. Or perhaps he had built up a tolerance. Hadn't he done something similar once before? Enduring—enduring was what he was best at.
To endure, and endure, waiting for that single chance to turn the tables.
That was what he had always done.
“Why have you stopped?”
Was his throat coated in dust? Perhaps because he hadn't had a single sip of water, the voice that came out was coarse.
“…You.”
Is he going to move again? He tried to read his opponent's movements. Having seen them hundreds, thousands of times, he should be able to predict them now. He had to.
“Yes, I suppose I have to admit it.”
What Allen felt in Gaion's tone was an unexpected emotion.
Admiration.
“Brat, I have to admit, that stubborn spirit of yours is something else.”
To suppress both sleep and hunger, to fight for ten days without a single break?
Gaion acknowledged that one thing—that mentality bordering on madness.
“Is that a compliment?”
“A compliment? Heh, a compliment it is.”
Hearing a voice from Gaion that was completely at odds with how he'd been cornering Allen until now, Allen raised his guard.
“It means your stubbornness has surpassed the old man's expectations.”
He gripped Vestla, ready to react at any moment.
How was his body? Not good. But his god-forged physique recovered with even the barest minimum of rest.
So he could continue the fight.
“Originally, I was just planning to go easy on you until you surrendered. Then I was going to fix that stubbornness of yours, the one that's almost a conviction. But…”
The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as Gaion continued to speak.
For a moment, his hand trembled. In Allen's pupils, everything else began to fade. The floor vanished, the walls disappeared. The ceiling was gone, and the surrounding space was erased.
In the end, only one thing remained.
The Beast King, Gaion.
He alone filled Allen's vision. The beast gave a vicious smile.
“I don't know. Looking at you, I have no idea how long you'll last. Two weeks? A month? You might even last longer, for all I know. So.”
The space around Gaion began to burn. It was a literal sight to behold. His very presence caused the surrounding space to shimmer and warp.
Goosebumps rose on his skin.
The Gaion before him now was incomparable to the one he had faced for the past ten days.
He wasn't using his full strength? Allen knew he was being held back on, but he had never imagined Gaion was holding back this much.
“I'll break you properly. It won't take long.”
Will it even last a day? Two days would be the absolute maximum.
“Before that, let me ask again. Do you know why I'm doing this?”
Allen gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his sword.
“…To test my skills?”
Gaion smiled as if he'd expected that answer.
“Wrong again.”
*Crash-*
The sword fell from Allen's hand.
***
“Hey, Byron! Grab it properly!”
“Yes, my lord!”
Byron sighed as he caught the fleeing three-headed rabbit.
Julius's party was currently split up, scattered to find additional rewards and hidden pieces.
As a result of drawing lots, Julius found himself working alone with Byron for the first time in a while.
“Well? Did it spit anything out?”
“I will check, my lord.”
Byron cut open the three-headed rabbit's belly with his dagger. Inside was a small box.
“I will open it. Please stand back, my lord!”
Byron seemed excited to be with Julius again after so long.
After witnessing Julius's actions in the Paern domain, he had pledged to serve him as his lord.
Although he was a knight who used mana and couldn't use prana, he was convinced that he could advance further by following Julius.
“You don't have to do that…”
Julius knew what was in that box.
[Ring of the Lucky Rabbit (C)]
Once a day! A pleasant stroke of luck!
A ring that causes a minor bit of luck once a day, like finding money on the street or accidentally buying a lottery ticket and winning fourth prize.
Since Julius believed in minimizing uncertain variables like luck, he had to obtain as many items that boosted luck-related stats as he could.
Byron opened the box.
A brilliant light flashed, momentarily blinding him.
“I'll block it! Get back!”
He shouted, placing the box under his stomach and dropping to the ground.
Julius stared blankly at the ridiculous scene. It's not a grenade… When he first met him, he'd seemed like such a dependable knight.
‘He was famous in the original story, too.’
After all, joining the Berserk Knight Order, led by humanity's spear, Douglas Abel, as a mana knight was no easy feat.
But seeing him act like this, with his weakness for women and over-the-top loyalty, all he could do was sigh.
“…Byron, that's enough. Just give me the box.”
“Ah, yes! Right away.”
Julius took the proffered box and took out the ring inside.
It was a ring decorated with the heads of three rabbits.
He personally wondered who could have imagined such a bizarre design.
Not Cerberus, but three rabbit heads.
“Let's hurry to the next place. We need to move as fast as possible before the practical exam ends.”
“I will follow you.”
Byron's loyalty was a bit much, but it wasn't unpleasant.
It meant he trusted him that much, after all.
And so, the end of the fourteen-day practical exam drew near.
***
Allen's mind was hazy.
No, it wasn't just his mind.
His body and spirit were both in tatters.
He hadn't been in such a state since his ordeal in the giant's ruins, when he'd forged the dragon's heart.
Allen sank weakly to his knees.
His grip loosened, and the sword slipped from his hand. Vestla had already slid past his knee and clattered to the floor.
The vitality that had coursed through his muscles was nowhere to be found, and the heart that had pounded so fiercely now felt feeble, as if it had never been strong.
His mental energy had probably been depleted by something other than magic for the first time.
Predicting movements.
He had extended his perception to try and follow the movements of one of the Eight Strongest, but in the end, he couldn't predict a single one.
Instead, he had discovered the essence of the technique that deceived his perception.
‘Perception receives information from the muscle movements of the opponent within its range. So, the moment perception touches the body, he momentarily tenses his muscles to send false information.’
It was a truly insane technique.
The reason Allen had predicted he was charging last time, even though he was standing still, was because Gaion had tensed the muscles used for running even in that stationary moment.
He saw Gaion. One of the top three among the Eight Strongest. The Beast King. A living legend.
He could find no answer from him.
‘In that case.’
His hazy mind didn't focus on what was before him in this dreamlike reality.
He looked past that being, back to himself, and then descended deeper within. Since he couldn't find the answer outside, from Gaion, he had no choice but to find it himself.
‘Why had he ended up like this?’
At first, he had only intended to sort out his emotions.
He couldn't abandon his relationship with Julius. So, if he just endured, there would be no outward conflict.
‘But why.’
When Julius had disappeared, just as he was trying to sort out his feelings.
You all appeared, didn't you?
Mark, Louis, Noah.
Yes, they were the reason Allen had ended up fighting Gaion like this.
Allen didn't know them.
But by meeting them and learning their circumstances, Allen was forced to confront his own contradictions.
He felt discomfort looking at those who died because he hadn't saved them.
And he couldn't say anything to Noah, who resented him for not helping.
He had said he remembered him. He had tried to remember.
‘But until I met him face-to-face, I didn't know he had died as a demon's sacrifice.’
It was truly laughable.
His own resolution was laughable.
And gathering those who held a grudge against Julius was laughable, too.
In the end, he had just been taking out his frustrations on Gaion, who had pointed out his contradictions.
Even though Gaion could have killed him in an instant if he had wanted to.
As he was finishing organizing his thoughts, Gaion spoke.
“Do you know why I did it?”
“…Was it just because?”
At Allen's answer, Gaion gave a satisfied, vicious smile and replied.
“That's right. There was no reason.”
As he finally reached the right answer, Gaion plopped down in front of him.
“You think too much. You could just act, but you consider too many things before making a single move.”
“That is what it means to be a noble.”
To always agonize, to anticipate the consequences of one's choices, and to imbue every action and word with meaning.
That was the life he had been taught, the life he had lived.
“No, that's just being a coward. You only handle things within your own limits because you can't bear to face the future.”
Allen looked at him, unconvinced.
“Are you telling me to act without thinking? That won't lead to good results…”
“Is that so important?”
Then what is important? What's wrong with gaining the maximum benefit with minimum action, with obtaining sweet fruit through a moment of patience?
“Then what did you gain by thinking so much this time?”
At that, Allen was speechless. Seeing this, Gaion spoke lightly.
“The suicides that happened recently. That's why you're like this, isn't it?”
Allen flinched as if the words had struck a nerve.
“That was when you lost your focus, so it has to be that. I don't care what your relationship with those guys was. I don't even want to know. I just don't like how you acted.”
Gaion tilted his head and asked.
“Why are you agonizing over it?”
“…Over what?”
“Isn't it something like that? 'I could have stopped it, but I didn't,' or 'Their deaths are my responsibility.'”
Allen couldn't say a word in response to his accurate analysis.
“In the end, you just thought about it and did nothing, didn't you?”
Seeing him unable to utter a single word, Gaion snickered.
“Living is surprisingly simple.”
“What do you…”
“Do you know why I attacked you in the first place?”
“Didn't you say there was no reason?”
At Allen's reply, Gaion gave a mischievous smile and shook his head.
“No, at first, I was angry. How could I not be, when a brat dared to take his frustrations out on the old man? But…”
He burst out laughing, immediately contradicting himself.
“Did that even last three days? Do you think the old man would be genuinely furious with a brat? I just wanted to fight because I finally had an opponent worth warming up with after a long time.”
Allen was dumbfounded by how casually he said it.
“Sometimes, you just need to do what you want instead of what you think.”
“…Even if you don't know what the consequences will be?”
“Then that just means you were underprepared. Did you plan so poorly that you can't handle the fallout?”
No. What Allen had built up until now wasn't that flimsy.
“Then that's that. Why are you making such a fuss? Nothing in this world is perfect.”
“In the end, how is that any different from telling me to just improvise depending on the situation…”
“Is that so? Hahahaha.”
Allen watched him laugh, then spoke out of the blue.
“There's something I want to do.”
“Then just do it.”
“But I don't know what will happen to the future if I do.”
“Sometimes, you just have to let things flow.”
He laughed and patted Allen's shoulder a couple of times.
“It's your choice. Do as you please.”
As Gaion stood to leave, Allen asked him a short question.
“Why do you live like that?”
To Allen's question, his answer was simple.
“I intend to burn brightly, then fade.”
He rose from his spot. His broad back filled Allen's vision.
“Like a flame.”
Gaion glanced back at Allen one last time, grinned, and walked away.
“That's the way of the plains.”