Chapter 18
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Revenge and Resolve
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The Knight Commander, clad in heavy plate armor, crashed to the floor, sending a faint tremor through the ground.
Boom.
The final moments of a supreme expert.
But Ruyan paid not the slightest attention to the corpse. He drew in a deep breath.
"Finally, only you bastards are left."
It was time to meet their end.
Ruyan slowly turned his head and fixed his gaze straight on Alex.
Even after the Knight Commander fell, Alex showed no sign of surrender.
His eyes blazed fiercely as he glared at Ruyan, muttering incantations under his breath.
"Pierce the enemy's heart with the blazing tip of the spear."
"Flame Spear!"
⟨ Flame Spear ⟩
A true 5th Circle Mage.
As Alex finished his incantation, an enormous surge of mana scattered into the surroundings. At the same time, a massive pillar of fire floated up.
It vaguely resembled the spell Ruyan had fired at the castle wall.
Roar.
Scorching heat filled the commander's office.
And for good reason—it was a full-powered 5th Circle spell.
Sensing the crisis, Alex had pulled out everything he had.
"Die!"
The flaming spear hurtled toward Ruyan with ferocious momentum.
'What a pathetic display.'
At first glance, the flame spear boasted tremendous power.
But that was all.
No matter how brilliant the magic, it was useless if it didn't hit.
To Ruyan's eyes, the flame spear moved so slowly it was almost yawn-inducing.
He might have wanted to take the hit just to humor it, but the clumsy trajectory made that impossible.
Swoosh.
Ruyan casually shifted his position with a few steps, and the flame spear flew past emptily.
Boom!
The powerful fiery spear merely wrecked the office senselessly before vanishing into nothing.
Ruyan ignored the shockwave that swept through the room and strode toward Alex.
"N-no, stay back!"
His final spell thwarted, Alex backed away in terror, his face drained of color.
Did he truly think he could escape Ruyan's wrath like that?
'To think a worthless worm like this...'
It only fueled Ruyan's rage further.
He scowled deeply and seized Alex's head in a brutal grip.
Grab.
Lifting him effortlessly by the head, Alex flailed his legs wildly in midair.
"Gurk!"
As Ruyan crushed down with iron strength, a faint groan escaped Alex's lips.
"Tch, such a weak noise."
Ruyan clicked his tongue and squeezed harder.
Finally, a piercing scream erupted.
"Kyaaaak!"
The agony of fingers burrowing into his skull was beyond imagination.
All Alex could do was roll his eyes back and thrash helplessly.
"Savor it slowly. This won't end quickly."
Very slowly, and excruciatingly, his fingers dug into the head.
"Argh! S-spare me!"
Though only a brief moment had passed, Alex's eyes bulged desperately as he begged for his life like a worm.
"Don't worry. I won't kill you just yet."
Ruyan stopped his fingers just before Alex's breath gave out completely.
But the pain didn't vanish.
The fingers embedded in his skull continued to deliver unrelenting torment.
"Gulp! Urk..."
Alex could no longer speak properly, merely gaping and shuddering violently.
Yet Ruyan's expression remained stone-cold at the pitiful sight.
'Compared to what you did, this is a fraction of a fraction.'
His vengeance had only just begun.
From now on, they would come to realize that death would be a mercy.
Still holding Alex aloft, Ruyan turned his gaze to the lord.
The eyes of a grim reaper pronouncing judgment.
Meeting that chilling glare, Yagnik went deathly pale, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
"Now it's your turn."
Ruyan took a heavy step forward, and Yagnik shrieked at the top of his lungs while shaking violently.
"H-how dare you! Do you even know who I am?!"
"No idea. Come closer and enlighten me."
"Stop right there! I said don't come!"
As Ruyan approached, the panicked Yagnik stumbled backward and fell flat on his rear.
His foot had caught on Blanc's head.
Seeing that, mana surged wildly from Ruyan's body once more.
'You insignificant cur, how dare you!'
To insult his father right before his eyes—unforgivable.
Overcome with fury again, Ruyan hurled Alex with all his might.
Crack!
Alex's head collided with Yagnik's, shattering both skulls in a spray of gore.
A fitting end for the two who had conspired together.
Yet Ruyan looked down at the headless corpses and bit his lip.
'They deserved far more suffering...'
He regretted letting his emotions rush him into granting them such an easy death.
"I've punished you with death, but I haven't forgiven you. Await the day we meet again in hell."
This was no mere curse.
He meant every word.
Ruyan vowed that the moment his life ended and he descended to hell, he would seek them out first.
Then he would crush them even more mercilessly—kill them again and again.
With those words, Ruyan averted his eyes from the scum and knelt carefully before Blanc.
'Forgive me. I was too late.'
For this moment alone, the fierce glint in Ruyan's eyes wavered with fragility.
Thick teardrops finally trickled from his eyes.
'I... I was the one lacking.'
At first, he had thought his emotions were tangled with Ruyan's memories.
But now, Ruyan—no, Ha Cheol-hyeok—sobbed with his own pure feelings.
Blanc was a man worthy of utmost respect, a father he could gladly follow.
Ruyan embraced the unresponsive Blanc for a long while before slowly rising.
It was time to go home.
Together with Blanc.
Returning home, Ruyan soaked a towel in water and meticulously wiped down Blanc's body.
He couldn't just leave him covered in blood.
Once, when Ruyan had vomited blood and collapsed, Blanc had cared for him.
He'd wiped his body through the night while simmering stew.
'I haven't even repaid that kindness, so how could you leave like this?'
His grip tightened on the towel. Biting his lip, Ruyan dressed Blanc in his cleanest clothes.
He knew nothing of funeral rites.
He had always been alone.
With even his birth parents unknown in the Central Plains, how could he know how to send off parents first?
'Forgive my clumsiness. It is all my sin.'
Still, Ruyan didn't rely on others' hands. He prepared Blanc's final send-off with his heart and sincerity.
Beside the house site stood his mother's grave.
He hadn't asked, but surely Blanc would want to rest here.
'I pray you find another life. May you be happy there with your lover and family.'
Ruyan dug the earth with his bare hands to let Blanc rest in peace.
He gathered heaps of dirt and weeds from the ravaged mountain to pile a mound.
-One whose life was wholly love. His benevolence reaches the heavens.
He erected a gravestone and knelt.
He bowed reverently and mournfully.
The Divine Bow knelt to none but Blanc, and bowed to none but him.
Twice, thrice, beyond nine times—Ruyan continued bowing until exhaustion claimed him and he collapsed.
What did propriety matter?
How could he stop when his heart refused to let go!
Only when he lacked even the strength to rise did Ruyan slump back and gaze at the sky.
But he merely stared blankly.
Ruyan thought nothing. Though his eyes were open, nothing registered on his retinas.
He breathed, yet it was as if he did not.
Suddenly, he came to his senses to find dawn breaking.
The endlessly long night had passed, and morning approached.
'Now, what I...'
Should do.
This was neither the Central Plains nor familiar ground.
He had adapted only because of Blanc, and now his sole purpose in life had vanished.
'I thought that place was the end, but this emptiness has no bottom.'
It felt even hollower than when he had fallen into heart demon deviation.
'What if I just fall asleep like this?'
Tempted by the feeble whisper that it would be easier, Ruyan yielded.
Closing his eyes now could end his life—and everything.
His body was in ruins anyway.
The aftermath of the mana rampage still gnawed at his life force.
Too weary to think further, Ruyan simply closed his eyes. Then something strange happened.
Drop, drop.
Raindrops fell from a clear sky.
The sun rose bright, yet a drizzle poured down.
What began as a few drops soon became a downpour.
Whoosh.
The stinging rain lashing his cheeks forced Ruyan to turn his head.
Who was it? The one denying him even an easy death.
The heavens?
Blanc?
Or Ruyan himself?
'Perhaps all of them.'
Ruyan let out a hollow chuckle and barely managed to rise.
It was right.
No one wanted him to die like this. What Blanc had desired was simply for Ruyan to live.
'As long as I live, there must be something to do.'
Ruyan staggered home to escape the rain. In his current state, getting soaked could be fatal.
Upon returning, something unexpected awaited him.
Blanc's note.
-I'm thinking of establishing a magic academy. Off to Mason Village.
Blanc surely hadn't realized this offhand note would become his testament.
But now, it was the only path Ruyan could cling to.
No more time to wallow in grief.
Ruyan tucked the note preciously into his bosom and nodded with resolve.
'Very well. I'll make it happen. Rest easy without worry.'
His decision firm, Ruyan immediately sat cross-legged.
He had to live.
As expected, his condition was the worst imaginable.
'A miracle I'm even alive.'
Treatment was already too late, but further delay might lead to irreversible damage.
'First, the meridians.'
Concentrating his mind, Ruyan circulated the Return Heart Technique, channeling inner energy through his damaged meridians.
But his dantian was wrecked too, making even that difficult.
The energy that rose at his will amounted to scarcely a year's worth of inner force.
It trickled through his meridians like the feeblest stream.
'Urk, are they completely severed?'
As he circulated, stinging pain shot through his entire body.
Even with a Heavenly Martial Body, his meridians had been severed—proof that the mana rampage was no trifling matter.
In this state, avoiding heart demon deviation was a blessing beyond measure.
'Rash moves are dangerous. No rushing.'
Ruyan thinned his inner energy to the utmost and painstakingly reconnected the broken meridians, bit by bit.
All paths originate from intent.
Now more than ever, Ruyan kindled an unyielding will to live.