Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: 180. He Who Inherits the Dawn, Tarhye Rondel (1)
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0.
“Never forgive me…….”
My breath……
My breathing now……
I couldn’t even calculate spells anymore…… my consciousness fading to black……
“《White Flame Heaven-Shaking Thunder》.”
In that instant, a transcendent flash painted the entire world pure white.
“A Mythic-grade spell……?!”
A deafening roar as if the world itself was shattering.
Then came the ferocious gale that tore through the atmosphere.
Just as the grip on my throat seemed to loosen—
“《Prime Iron Halberd》.”
Kwa-gwang-gwang-gwang-gwang-gwang-gwang-gwang───!
Dozens of massive mana spikes erupted from the ground, shielding me from the explosion of light.
“You fought well, GodSpring.”
Someone caught my falling body.
“Leave the Apostle of Magic to me now. You head to the harbor, to Park Hyun-su.”
A face wrapped in bandages.
A tattered, yellowish robe that looked like rags. And pure white cotton gloves etched with 7-star magic circles.
And……?
“Valerin……?”
I don’t know why my gaze locked onto Valerin’s neck at that moment.
It was gone. It had been there.
The jade necklace Valerin treasured like a jewel.
Why was it missing?
Before I could ask, Valerin handed my body to Michelle, who had just rushed over.
“Go. Before this smoke clears. We don’t have much time, even for us.”
Valerin nodded to us, and Amber stepped up beside him.
“It’s been a pleasure.”
“I feel the same, boy, and lady.”
Then, turning to us.
For the first and last time, he smiled.
“Go. Survive. This is the only thank you we can give you.”
Michelle clenched her jaw and broke into a full sprint.
“Valerin…… Amber……!”
Strapped to Michelle’s back.
I stared blankly at Valerin and Amber’s retreating figures through my blurring vision.
- So Valerin can see the future.
No time……?
Does that mean he doesn’t even plan to win?
Boom…… Kwang…… Kwang……
We ran for a long while.
Even as we neared the docks.
The mana explosions from transcendent powers continued unabated.
The world flashed repeatedly with blinding light.
Was he winning?
Losing? Or tying?
Thinking was hard……
Then, at some point…… the mana-laced…… blue hum…… cut off abruptly.
Ah……
I closed my eyes without a word.
Sorrow poured over me like drowsiness.
Was it grief for losing Valerin and Amber? Or for losing Jeong Cheol……?
Maybe both……
I wept silently.
And let my consciousness be pulled into the darkness.
That day, I lost three bonds.
Valerin and Amber. And…… Jeong Cheol.
1.
The merchant ship carrying us lurched toward <Tarkiritten>.
I still can’t forget it.
The glimpses I caught upon waking sporadically—the city devoured by the abyss……
“Save…… please save us……!”
“Please…… please, at least take our child, please!”
“No more room! We’re already full! Any more and we all die! Cast off! Cast off!”
The desperate screams of the living……
And the chilling laughter of the dead……
“Heeheeheeheeheehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!”
“Uhehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe!”
The abyss’s foul, fishy stench.
And the acrid reek of sulfur.
I breathed in that smell of death, passed out, and woke again, repeating the cycle.
“…….”
When I finally opened my eyes for the last time, Park Hyun-su sat beside me.
This is…… the cabin……?
Bathed in faint dawn light, Park Hyun-su’s face…… was devastatingly hollow.
“Uncle.”
Only after I called three times.
Did Park Hyun-su snap out of it and look at me.
“Ah…… Tae-yeop. You’re awake. Good…… How’s your body?”
“And you, Uncle?”
“Me, well…….”
“Uncle…… Valerin and Amber…… to Cheol hyung…….”
I realized I was sobbing as I spoke.
“I’m sorry…… I couldn’t save them…… couldn’t save them…….”
Park Hyun-su dropped his gaze.
His voice was sunken deep. Couldn’t save them……? What did that mean?
“No matter how many times…… how many times I tried…… this was the best I could do…….”
Then Park Hyun-su silently touched something at his throat.
A stone emitting a brilliant light.
That’s…… Valerin’s regression stone, isn’t it? He gave it to Park Hyun-su?
Which means.
A chill ran through my entire body.
Park Hyun-su fought by regressing over and over like Valerin?
“Uncle.”
“……?”
“Let’s give up on Cheol hyung…… for good…….”
Park Hyun-su’s hand, caressing the stone, froze. I kept going.
“He wasn’t in his right mind…… Like Valerin said…… Jeong Cheol isn’t human anymore…….”
“…….”
“We have to give up……. Words didn’t get through at all…….”
Park Hyun-su didn’t answer.
His eyes said he knew better than I did, but he stayed silent for a long time.
“Uncle.”
As I pressed for a reply.
Someone knocked once and entered.
Michelle and Charlotte.
Charlotte saw me awake.
Her face flashed genuine relief, then she let out a stern sigh.
“No other discomfort?”
“No…….”
“You were in the abyss’s influence. We need to check for mental corruption too.”
“I’m really fine.”
“No dizziness or hallucinations?”
Charlotte was a truly kind woman.
Someday, if I meet a life partner…… she should be like this.
“Um…… now…… we need to talk about something complicated…….”
Around then, Michelle spoke up in a grave tone.
“S-soon…… we’ll arrive at <Tarkiritten>…… Um…… the problem is it’s an elven city…….”
“We know that.”
“It’s different from before…… without Valerin…… um…… we’ll definitely be seen as enemies…….”
That snapped me alert.
Right. Humanity and elves had moved past hatred to mutual loathing.
Elven Rearguard Lishar hated humanity.
Human Jeong Cheol was trampling elven lands.
“This ship was saved by Valerin, so it’s fine…… but…… from <Tarkiritten> on…… it’s bleak.”
Charlotte crossed her arms with a sigh and leaned against the wall.
“For now, pull your hoods down as far as possible…… Park Hyun-su, did she give you anything?”
“Huh? Give me what…….”
“Valerin was basically Charlotteum, right? A memento to prove identity.”
Park Hyun-su showed Charlotte the regression stone, his face twisted in grief.
“That’s…… I see…… so that’s how it was…….”
Our shield was just that one stone.
But soon.
It proved a meaningless shield.
We nearly got arrested by the city guard at <Tarkiritten>’s canyon pass.
“Brother?”
“Yes?”
“If you have a canteen at your belt and some water to share, could you give some to this child?”
At that moment, we were waiting.
In the long line from <Tarkiritten>’s canyon harbor to the city gates.
A mendicant monk had approached.
He either didn’t know we were human or didn’t care.
“Uncle.”
I whispered to Park Hyun-su in Elvish. Don’t give it.
“Look at this line. Who knows when we’ll get in.”
We’d disembarked from the merchant ship like outcasts, so we didn’t have much water.
“And even if we get in…….”
Would anyone share water with humans like us?
“It’s fine.”
But Park Hyun-su.
Gave a weak smile, took the mendicant’s hand holding the orphan, and gave them water.
“Now I see, brother…….”
The mendicant watching Park Hyun-su whispered softly.
“……you’re not human, are you?”
My heart froze instantly.
Michelle and Charlotte exchanged anxious glances. Then—
“There they are, milord! Those scum right there!”
A man pushed through the crowd.
Behind him…… <Tarkiritten> city guards in resplendent silver armor followed.
“Lower your hoods.”
The officer-like woman barked sharply.
“Now! That’s an order!”
In an instant, we surrounded Park Hyun-su protectively and took combat stances.
“No, don’t.”
Park Hyun-su raised both hands…… lowered his hood, and stepped forward.
“H-human!”
“Such irreverence……!”
“Kill them! Kill the humans!”
Curses and shocked cries from all sides. The officer gripped her waist short sword.
“Do you know where you are, daring to wander in as filthy humans?”
“Calm down! We came for the peace treaty. By order of His Highness Johann IV──”
As Park Hyun-su reached into his bosom for the scroll stamped with Johann IV’s seal, the guards thrust spears forward.
──Don’t move!”
“It’s true! We have proof!”
“In an age of lies? And humanity sends peace envoys in rags?”
“There’s a story behind──”
“Shut up! We can’t let beasts without basic courtesy inside.”
My mind went white.
We barely made it to <Tarkiritten>…… and now we’d be sent away empty-handed?
Elven-human cooperation.
Meeting Tersia.
All for nothing…… just leave like this? Wait.
“Valerin.”
I shouted the name like a prayer.
“Valerin sent us here! She said we absolutely had to go to <Tarkiritten>!”
The female officer’s reaction was stunning.
Her eyes widened instantly, glaring at Park Hyun-su.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“Proof?”
Here’s where it went wrong.
Valerin’s name was famous, but the regression stone wasn’t. As Park Hyun-su showed it, the officer bellowed.
“You vermin dare invoke Grand Sovereign Valerin’s name in this <Tarkiritten>!”
What……?
Grand Sovereign Valerin?
Impossible. Valerin was Fairy King Baldemar’s sister?
“No need for more questions.”
“Wait, wait!”
“No, execution! Instant execution for your crimes will please the king!”
The situation spiraled to the worst in seconds.
“Kill them!”
“Kill them all!”
“Slaughter the human scum!”
Spears closing in tighter.
Shouts exploding.
Soldiers gathering at the officer’s yell.
“Stop!”
In that moment of crisis.
I met Balon, the NPC who influenced me most in this battle royale.
“Brothers and sisters, I vouch for their identity.”
A gentle yet firm voice.
Silence fell instantly, all eyes on him.
“So cease, set aside your anger, and share blessings, not curses.”
It was the mendicant from earlier.
The boy Park Hyun-su had given water to spoke.
“That uncle’s not bad.”
“Ha…… This isn’t for priests or brats.”
A city guard sneered, but the mendicant replied.
“Children see only truth. They view the world with pure, untainted eyes.”
“No, children are all liars, holy teacher.”
“No. I too saw the light and truth in this man’s heart.”
The city guard captain snorted and glared at the mendicant.
“Holy teacher, step back. Know your place──”
The captain suddenly gasped in shock. So did I.
“What in the world.”
No, everyone there must have.
“Why must you need a sign to believe others?”
It wasn’t the mendicant removing his ragged hood. The moment he closed and opened his eyes.
The mana in the air…… rippled……?
A swastika spun in the mendicant’s pupils.
“Shi-Shin Tae-yeop…… um…… th-that’s…….”
“Yeah…… the All-Seeing Eye.”
The All-Seeing Eye.
The most famous pupil power in [For the Princess]. The problem……
“The king’s eye…… only Fairy King Baldemar has it.”
An eye only Baldemar’s bloodline was born with…… able to read all thoughts.
“How does that mendicant have it……?”
The answer came as the city guard captain knelt.
“G-Grand Sovereign Balon……!”
“I’ve already devoted myself to divine will. Don’t call me that.”
“B-but…… y-yes. You read those humans’ minds……!”
Balon smiled serenely, surveying the crowd kneeling one by one in awe.
“No. Not by reading minds.”
“……?!”
“Because I saw this man’s small act of devotion—sharing his last bit of water.”
“…………?”
“There, I glimpsed the love Tersia taught us.”
“…………!”
“Not false love of words and tongues, but true love through deeds.”
The crowd stirred.
And…… the hostility in their eyes toward us began to fade in an instant.
“Brothers and sisters. In return for his practiced love, let us open the way with our love.”
“……………!”
“Not just for us, but for the whole world to head toward the dawn of peace.”