Chapter 351
Chapter 351
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 351
Chapter Title: Immortals and Mortals (20)
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Kirhas seemed to have fully recovered. The dignity of the great chieftain had vanished somewhere, and she was chattering nonstop, sticking right behind Fernandez as if nothing had happened.
They were heading to the mage tower. With the great chieftain's presence alone, no guards or checkpoints dared to block their path. The guards stepped back, whispering among themselves now and then.
"Good heavens, he's alive?"
"No way, that's him?"
"He looks exactly the same!"
Unable to ignore the words drifting over, Fernandez finally asked Kirhas.
"Just how do they know me?"
"It's the result of searching high and low for their benefactor! Aren't you proud?"
"......I'd like to hear what efforts were made."
"We spread your sketch all over the barony and even put out a bounty on you to merchants passing through the checkpoints! At this point, no one in Buran city who’s seen your face up close wouldn't recognize you!"
Kirhas stood tall with pride. Her tail swished back and forth as if begging for praise. Fernandez opened his mouth to speak, then pressed his forehead and let out a sigh.
"I suppose I'll need to change my appearance......"
"Uh...... Is that possible with a spell?"
"It requires a bit of procedure, but yes. It's not impossible."
"Uh...... Then me too—no, wait. Why? I like benefactor's looks just fine!"
"Thanks to the efforts of many acquaintances, there's no place for me to hide in this world anymore. My operational range for maneuvers has become too narrow."
Fernandez's basic strategy relied on fully exploiting information superiority for lightning strikes. Enemies had to face him without grasping his identity, or through gross misjudgments and overinterpretations.
Now, there would be no one who didn't know him. Heads of state across nations had mobilized forces everywhere to find him alone—there was no way to conceal his identity through normal means.
Kirhas tilted her head at Fernandez's words. Why?
"Why hide at all?"
"Hm?"
"Is there any reason benefactor needs to hide his identity? I have the beastkin alliance perfectly united under me, the emperor of that empire is favorable toward you, and even the sea elves wouldn't dare refuse if it's your request. Is there any reason for you to hide and scheme in the shadows?"
It was a sharp question. Fernandez hesitated before answering.
There was no rational reason. It was simply a matter of disposition. Once a few urgent matters were resolved, there wouldn't be many incidents in the material world requiring his direct intervention.
To build that environment, he had founded the Maladica, eliminated various threats personally, and ultimately slain a great demon. Now, he no longer needed to hide or ambush anyone.
*But I don't like it.*
The aesthetics of strategy, as he saw it, lay in secrecy. An environment where enemies died without even knowing who he was. It was founded on overwhelming victory with minimal losses. This was closer to a chronic personality trait.
"Moreover, I want Ana to grow up feeling your presence directly."
"......Mm."
That was foul play. Fernandez fell silent, lost in thought for a moment. Only after sorting through his mind for a while could he finally speak.
"Once a few things are wrapped up, I planned to vanish."
"......Pardon?"
"Vanish!? Where to!?"
Even Abel, who had been following silently, suddenly shouted. Fernandez continued up the stairs without looking back at them.
"Once the contract with Beitasser ends and the reversal of heaven is complete, what then? It was a question I hadn't considered until now, but not anymore."
It wasn't entirely vague. The end of the contract was truly entering its final countdown. While refining his resurrected body, Fernandez had occasionally pondered it.
After slaying or sealing the last great demon and reclaiming the final archangel. Once the reversal of heaven was fully complete, what life would remain for him?
His newly forged body operated differently from the Demonica's. The divinity flowing through his veins was not Beitasser's. It was born from the Orb of Genesis and the karma he himself had accumulated.
Though Fernandez inwardly disliked the term, he judged himself to have reached the rank of demigod—no, half-god. He could found a sect and wield divine spells if he wished.
Of course, he hadn't acquired true divine authorities. To become a perpetual being with authorities, he would need mortals to amass faith for him. He had no intention of such things.
Even so, he was a demigod. His lifespan was far removed from that of mortals. His existence had drawn near that of a perpetual being. Thus, even after all was finished, there would be a 'tomorrow.'
Tomorrow. The word felt so alien that Fernandez closed his eyes for a moment, savoring it. Tomorrow.
"It seems I'm more unplanned than I thought. I couldn't imagine what would remain after my immediate goals vanished."
"Benefactor......"
Fernandez gripped the doorknob and took a steadying breath. He pushed the door open quietly, very quietly. The room, bathed in pale dawn light, came into view at a glance.
Luxurious extravagances were scattered messily everywhere. Amid glittering jewelry, gems, and expensive furniture stood a small cradle.
He approached it slowly. It felt like his blood was drying and his skin cracking. His steps were so heavy. Little by little, cautiously, lest his footsteps make a sound.
"Bwa."
In the cradle, clear blue eyes gazed up at him. Eyes as piercingly blue and spotlessly clear as the dawn sky outside the window right now.
Chubby fingers wriggled, stretching up above the cradle, then flopped down limply. It seemed the child couldn't support its body yet. The baby smacked its lips, shiny with saliva, wriggling nonstop.
Fernandez stared down at the child in a daze for a long time. Without a word, he held even his breath, listening to the baby's babble.
"Aba."
The child squirmed, chattering. Its tiny hand twitched repeatedly. Fernandez cautiously extended a finger toward the baby's hand, then stopped.
He feared his rough hand, callused from years of gripping swords, might hurt the child. His fingers conjured magic, clutched sword hilts, sliced flesh—tools no different from a beast's claws.
Hands meant only to wound someone. The hands of a killer, no, a butcher. He had accepted that as natural until now, but in this moment, he dreaded even touching this tiny body.
"You look just like......"
So, he withdrew his hand, resting it on the cradle's edge, and let out a low sigh. He resembled him—and Kirhas. Though beastkin blood meant furry ears and tail were sprouting small, he easily spotted his own traces in the child's eye shape and lip form.
"You look alike......"
Resembling him by half also meant resembling his dead son. Fernandez couldn't help but see his son's face in this child's—down to the sad eyes and wailing lips.
The scent of the dead wafted like an illusion. The smell of a corpse tainted by hellish mana. That day's scene flashed through his mind.
*Feizashi. So this is how you've been living.*
As Feizashi's soul merged with his, he was reclaiming emotions from distant ages past. His son's death, Aria's death, the world's death. The feelings from all those moments projected onto his heart like faded photographs.
They were sentiments that tormented him now and then, no matter how he buried or struggled to forget them. Gazing down at the wriggling child, he squeezed his eyes shut.
"Aba?"
In that instant, something touched his fingertip. Something warm and soft. When Fernandez opened his eyes, the child had reached out and was fiddling with his finger.
The baby looked immensely pleased. After kneading the finger a bit, it met his eyes and burst into a big laugh.
"Baba!"
At that moment, Fernandez couldn't hold back and lifted the child up. He raised it high, inhaling the child's milky scent.
"Yes, I'm your father. I am...... Ana, Ana Fernanda Cerned. Yes...... yes. I'm your father."
"Ba!"
"Yes...... yes. Ana. Ana Fernanda Cerned."
Ana flailed its arms wide, laughing and babbling nonstop. It seemed thrilled by the sensation of flying. Fernandez gazed at the laughing child's face and spoke.
"I'll protect you, Ana."
"Ba!"
"Even if it means reincarnation once more, I will."
It was the first time Kirhas had seen Fernandez cry. She approached him cautiously. He was staring blankly at Ana.
"It's good the child isn't shy, benefactor."
"Must take after you—smart as can be."
"If it's smart like someone, it wouldn't be me."
"Pretty too, and good-natured. Ana, such a good child, aren't you?"
Fernandez murmured repeatedly, his lips loose. Abel watched from afar, then let out a deep sigh.
"I should have expected this. From the moment you said you'd stake your life for a son. I knew you'd be a doting father, but this is serious."
"Lindburum. Aren't you the one in serious trouble now?"
"That's serious too. As far as I know, there are no tales of children born between dragons and humans......"
"Well...... It's not like there's no way at all? I'll look into it too."
"Thank you, Vanadis."
Ignoring the immortals' mutterings entirely, Fernandez and Kirhas lifted Ana up, tickling and cooing over her.
"A genius! You've borne a genius, Kirhas!"
"It's because she takes after benefactor!"
"Hahaha!"
This is really serious...... Abel sighed deeply, covering her forehead.
* * *
"What will you do now?"
Kirhas sliced meat onto Fernandez's plate as she spoke. She had taken to sticking close by his side, constantly fetching this and that.
A breakfast far too lavish unfolded. With Ana cradled in his arms, Fernandez rocked her gently as he replied.
"First, we strike Fairn."
"You're not returning to the Inquisition?"
"My deal with the Pope ended the moment I got engaged to the Emperor. Now he's the one who has to listen to me—no need to stay in a subordinate organization."
Fernandez spoke nonchalantly, taking a sip of water.
The Pope could no longer suppress him with authority. Even before being named Saint of the Great Wilderness, no one in this material world had living achievements surpassing his. With the engagement to Renee, one could say the Pope owed him instead.
Beitasser Church's position was soaring across the Empire. It was an event under the Emperor's tacit approval, and the aftermath of the Crusade Fernandez had led.
If the Pope grew a bit more ambitious, he could found a theocracy by now. The council's declaration of non-interference in secular royal politics was no more than scrap paper. What secular royal house could ignore demands from an institution of such lofty authority?
Beitasser sect, one of the Holy Pantheon's major churches, had grown this strong almost entirely thanks to Fernandez. Was there any need to throw himself into the Inquisition now?
"Besides, the Inquisition doesn't exist anymore."
"Pardon?"
"Darian burned it down, and Fairn demolished it."
"Uh......? Huh??"
"Not the sort of thing for a child to hear—later. Anyway, we have to hit Fairn. Kirhas. Until not a single root of the royal house remains."
The Fairn royal family was a pillar of the Eastern Kingdom Alliance. Centered on fertile granary lands and developed ports, it wielded immense influence across the eastern kingdoms.
If Fairn was attacked, no small number of minor states would join their side. The result was obvious. Civil war would erupt.
The Empire couldn't actively intervene in an eastern kingdoms' civil war. With the 50 Years' War, internal strife, and Karadskär's great northern advance ongoing, the Empire's economy teetered on collapse.
Kirzart was physically impossible, and the spectral warlords the same. If Fernandez intervened directly in that civil war, his options were limited.
*If we stick to orthodoxy.*
If things proceeded as expected. Fairn royalty's next moves were clear. They would condemn the Church as the cause of hell mana contamination in Fairn's southwest after destroying the Inquisition.
Before the Church could issue an official statement, they would incite the entire eastern kingdoms, uproot Church influence, and infiltrate cults everywhere. With the Inquisition defunct, no one in the east could stop them.
Sticking to orthodoxy meant a dead end. Having failed to prevent the Inquisition's destruction beforehand, the eastern continent would become a hellscape.
"Then who can stop them, benefactor? Will you rally your other brothers for assassinations? Or...... Dane?"
"Dane's Vicente has lost much international standing due to intervening in the Empire's civil war. Dane Kingdom might protest individually, but it's insufficient to rally forces for full-scale war."
Fernandez passed Ana to Kirhas's arms and lifted his cup. Beyond it, Freya was visible, stuffing salad into her mouth with gusto.
She tilted her head, glancing at Fernandez. When complex talks arose, she ignored him and did her own thing.
Fernandez chuckled at the sight.
"How fares the north these days?"
"Why ask me?"
It seemed she had forgotten she was the goddess of the north.