The Reunion She Waited For
"Nnh..."
A faint groan slipped from Raon's lips—lips that had been still as death ever since he'd put on the helmet.
Merlin's mouth curled into a smile as she watched his jaw tremble.
"Looks like it's almost over."
The fact that his body was responding at all meant the battle between Lokta and Raon in the mental realm had come to an end.
His willpower was stronger than I expected...
Her original prediction had been that Lokta would wake the moment he finished adapting to the body. But it had taken more than three hours just to seize control of the flesh. Raon's mental fortitude had been far more solid than she'd anticipated.
Still, Lokta was the winner.
Raon's irises were red. But a blue light now glimmered from the eyes behind the mask. The victor had been decided: Lokta.
Good thing I fed him the Soul-Confusing Water.
If she hadn't mixed Soul-Confusing Water into the elixirs beforehand, the battle in the mental world would have dragged on far longer, and Lokta might well have lost. She'd burned through most of the elixirs she possessed, but things had gone according to plan. That was enough to satisfy her.
Wooooong!
Merlin lifted Raon from the chair with telekinesis and laid him on the floor.
From the moment a soul claimed a body, there could be no external stimulation whatsoever. Lying on the floor was far better than remaining seated in a chair.
Am I finally going to see him...?
Lokta had been more than the knight who protected her. He had been family—the family she had spent her entire life beside. The thought of meeting him again after hundreds of years made her chest already pound.
She hadn't slept or rested in over a week, but she wasn't tired in the slightest. She simply wanted to see him.
After confirming Raon's safety, Merlin stepped back and turned around. Soul-Severing Sword was watching Raon in exactly the same posture as when they had first arrived.
"How about you?"
"......"
Soul-Severing Sword did not answer. His gaze remained fixed on Raon alone.
"Doesn't it make you itch a little?"
"......"
At those words, Soul-Severing Sword's shoulder twitched—just barely.
Merlin narrowed her eyes at him, as if she had known he would react that way.
"Sorry."
She turned her head again. Looking at the Dragon's Helmet, which radiated a soft blue light, she bit down hard on her lip.
"I'm desperate too. I can't give this up."
"Khngh..."
Wrath rubbed his blackened, swollen eyes with a round little hand and sniffled.
"You are the fifth creature to throw a punch at This King."
"Five times? You've been getting beat up a lot."
Raon snorted, looking at Wrath, who had turned the bluish hue of tropical-fruit-flavored cotton candy.
"Are you sure you're actually a Demon King?"
"Listen properly! Not the fifth to land a punch—the fifth to throw one! And among those five, you are the first to have beaten This King this thoroughly!"
Wrath bellowed, his voice cracking with outrage.
"Ghhh, I cannot even count how many times I was hit!"
"Oh, I was counting. Exactly two hundred and ninety-four."
"Uh..."
Wrath's mouth fell open. Apparently he hadn't realized he'd taken that many.
"Two hundred and ninety-four? Two hundred and ninety-four?! I couldn't hit someone that many times even if I tried!"
"You wouldn't know, but that form of yours has incredible impact feedback."
Raon smiled faintly at the growling Wrath.
For something so round, Wrath was packed solid, and he was just the right size. Hitting him was satisfying. It felt like a top-tier punching bag floating in midair. The impact had a slightly addictive quality.
"This King... This King, lord of the Demon Realm, beaten two hundred and ninety-four times by a mere human. This is a dream. It has to be a dream..."
Wrath buried his face in his plump little arms and shook his shoulders, looking utterly wretched. The being who had just revealed overwhelming power and beauty was now despairing at the reality of having become tropical-fruit-flavored cotton candy.
"Sorry, but my revenge hasn't even started yet."
Raon smiled coldly at the whimpering Wrath.
"Ah—hasn't even started?! Don't tell me you mean to hit me again! You already thrashed This King two hundred and ninety-four times and you want more? Does your conscience even have a single hair on it?!"
Wrath's rambling sped up to more than twice its usual pace. He really did not want to get hit again.
"I have a conscience. I won't hit you anymore."
"Th-then..."
"You said you'd make me eat mint chocolate three meals a day, didn't you?"
"Uh..."
Wrath's pupils swung like pendulums. He looked more terrified than when he'd thought he was going to get punched.
"Starting today, every meal is one piece of Nadin Bread. Nothing else goes near my mouth."
"You lunatic! This King at least liked mint chocolate! That bread tastes like rubber—even you hate it!"
"I'm fine with it."
Raon shook his head calmly. He had lived without caring about taste since his previous life. As long as it filled his stomach, flavor did not matter.
"Uh..."
Looking into Raon's eyes, Wrath realized he meant every word.
"No! Anything but that!"
He roared that it was absolutely forbidden, stirring up rage and frost. But the power was pitifully weak—he had spent too much manifesting his true form.
"Nadin Bread is torture! Even raw rubber is better than that!"
Wrath launched a fist of frost, as if determined to resist with even that feeble strength.
"There's a saying in the human world."
Raon cocked his chin to one side and raised his right fist.
"A punch given kindly comes back kindly."
With those words, he smashed the charging Wrath. Wrath bounced like a rubber ball and slammed into the corner.
"Ghhhk—y-you hit so filthy hard while saying..."
Wrath lay spread-eagled, his mouth hanging open.
"That was a light one."
Raon chuckled. If he hadn't held back, Wrath would have been completely flattened and folded in half.
"N-Nadin Bread is the one thing I cannot accept. Hit This King instead..."
Leaving those words behind, Wrath's eyes slid shut. Wanting a menu change badly enough to pass out over it—his obsession with food was genuinely impressive.
"I wasn't finished talking."
Raon had been about to add that he wouldn't eat mint chocolate either, but he held back. The shock might actually kill Wrath.
Raon turned his head to the right. A hatchling that looked like a lizard was plastered flat against the floor. It was Lokta, who had conceded defeat and surrendered the space.
"Your turn, then. Want to start by getting hit? Or should we go straight to..."
"I have already conceded defeat. If you have questions before I vanish, ask them."
Lokta let out a short sigh and lowered his eyes.
"Vanish?"
"The loser of a soul battle is absorbed into the victor's soul and disappears. In other words, as I am now, I am not even worth hitting."
He gave a composed nod, as if he wanted to leave as a knight to the very end. It was a world of difference from when he had first appeared.
Raon narrowed his eyes at Lokta.
He's definitely fading.
Unlike Wrath, who had kept his form even after nearly three hundred blows, Lokta had turned translucent.
Just as Lokta had said at the beginning, it seemed to be a rule of this world: the loser was absorbed into the victor's soul and vanished.
"We're short on time, so I'll be quick. The Merlin outside—is she the real Merlin?"
"She is."
"How is a human from hundreds of years ago still alive?"
"She is not alive."
"So she died and came back?"
"The mage who was our ally at the time recovered her soul from her frozen corpse after Lady Merlin passed."
"So that mage was something like Eden's ancestor, and his descendants in this era planted Merlin's soul into a mask?"
He had found it strange from the first time he saw Merlin. Those snow-white hands and lips could never have belonged to an old woman.
"That is my understanding."
Lokta nodded, saying he had heard as much through Merlin's voice.
"To be honest, I do not know the precise circumstances. I have been imprisoned here the entire time, occasionally hearing stories in Her Highness's voice. That is all."
"Hmm..."
That made sense. The information he needed from Lokta was not about Eden—it was about this world.
"When your soul is absorbed into mine, what changes?"
"The caliber of your soul will rise significantly. You will also be able to wield the abilities I used."
"Abilities?"
"Simply put, your aura will increase, and you will inherit the swordsmanship and frost-manipulation methods I employed. You will be able to reach a higher realm of martial arts as well."
Lokta delivered the information with calm eyes, as if he could feel death approaching. Raon had expected resistance or stalling. This was unexpected.
"Even more growth from here..."
Raon clenched his fist. He had already won the wager against Wrath, and now he would absorb Lokta's soul on top of that—gaining stats and martial power. Calling it two birds with one stone was not enough. It was three.
"One more thing. How do you develop this mental world?"
Wrath had told him this place held the hint to achieving Sword Realm Manifestation. He wanted to know more.
"Experience."
"Experience?"
"Even the same experience is felt and understood differently by each person. This world is like a building erected upon the countless experiences one has lived. Look upward, and you will go higher. Look downward, and you will become more solid."
Lokta said this world changed depending on what one thought and what one experienced.
Wrath was right.
Just as the flattened cotton candy had said, if he accumulated enough experience and developed this place, someday he would be able to turn this small, frail space into his own world through Sword Realm Manifestation.
"This time it's about you."
After that, Raon asked about Lokta's personality and preferences. He needed the information to impersonate Lokta in front of Merlin once this world ended.
"As I told you, my name is Lokta Deporte. A Blue Dragon..."
Surprisingly, Lokta answered all of this properly as well.
"Last question. What is Merlin's goal?"
After hearing Lokta's personal details, Raon asked about Merlin.
"To bring me back to life, and to be together as we once were."
"Be together? You mean she wants to slaughter people like in her past life?"
Loengrin had said Merlin used monsters to massacre countless people. It seemed they intended to recreate that in the present world.
"That is not it. She simply wishes to live with me. I am the only family she has left."
Lokta's gaze dropped.
"Live together as family?"
Come to think of it...
Raon turned his head toward where the frozen castle had been—now gone. When the castle collapsed, there had been a log cabin inside it, just like Merlin's room.
"Lady Merlin was the princess of the Sirken Kingdom. She lost a great deal, and in the end, I was the only family remaining."
"Sirken—that's the kingdom you built after destroying other kingdoms, isn't it?"
"Correct. Though it was also a kingdom that had already fallen before we established it. Hmm. There is not enough time for a detailed explanation."
Lokta looked at his nearly faded body and smiled calmly.
"Her Highness is a pitiable person. She has her own circumstances as well..."
"So that's why you've been answering so helpfully."
Raon looked at Lokta with cold eyes. He had wondered why the man was being so cooperative. He wanted Raon to look after Merlin once they left this world.
"Everyone has circumstances."
Every person living in this world had their reasons. But Merlin had gone far too far for those reasons to earn understanding.
"I suppose so. Both Her Highness and I know we committed great sins. But she simply..."
Lokta vanished into frost-foam before he could finish. Strangely, his eyes did not look particularly regretful.
BOOM!
The moment Lokta disappeared completely, the mental world began to shake.
"What is this?"
"What else would it be? The half-breed has been fully absorbed into your soul. The chaos of this world is over."
Wrath crawled over like a grub and heaved a deep sigh.
"So we go back to reality."
"That is so."
Raon smiled as he watched his world tremble as if in an earthquake.
I gained more than I expected.
The reward for winning the wager against Wrath, plus the abilities he would gain from absorbing Lokta. A harvest beyond anything he had anticipated.
And...
He turned and took in his world—still small, still frail.
Hoping that through more experience, this tiny, feeble space would one day transform into a place capable of Sword Realm Manifestation, he closed his eyes.
"I'll come back later."
"Th..."
As his thoughts began to cut out in the shaking world, Wrath's whisper reached him.
"Y-you're not really going to eat only Nadin Bread, right? Right?"
Thinking about food even at a moment like this. Apparently the claim that he just wanted to eat as much mint chocolate as he pleased had not been a lie.
What an incredible creature. So Raon decided to be honest.
Yeah. That's right.
"Mmh..."
Raon opened his eyes. Before he could even finish examining the magic circles carved into the ceiling, Merlin—wearing the old woman's mask—shoved her face in close.
"Do you recognize me?"
For the first time, urgency colored her voice. It was soaked in anticipation and madness.
Raon slowly sat up and met Merlin's trembling eyes.
"Your High..."
"...ness?"
He imitated Lokta's cadence, letting a slight tremor into his voice.
"Ah..."
Merlin's legs gave out and she fell backward. The eyes behind the mask shook violently.
She threw her arms around Raon, crying Lokta's name over and over.
"I finally found you! I finally..."
"I apologize, but my memories are still in disarray. Raon Zieghart's memories and my own are mixed together..."
Raon kept performing Lokta's speech patterns and shook his head.
"I do not yet understand well."
"It's all right. It'll get better with time. Just like the original you."
Merlin sobbed, clutching his neck tightly. Surprisingly, a fresh scent of spring flowers drifted from her.
This woman is serious.
Raon narrowed his eyes at Merlin's trembling arms. She had called him her last remaining family, but this went beyond joy. She was treating this situation like a miracle.
"Are you well, Your Highness?"
"Don't worry about me."
Merlin shook her head and smiled.
"Hungry? I prepared all the foods you like."
Food?
Even now, Wrath was making an issue of food. He really was insufferable.
"Come on... ah."
Merlin gestured toward Raon, then collapsed on the spot.
"Your Highness?"
Raon caught Merlin and checked her condition. There was not a scrap of energy left in her body. Extreme fatigue had completely unraveled her mind.
She fainted from exhaustion?
Come to think of it, he had never once seen Merlin rest. She had cooked for him herself, kept bringing things, never stopped moving.
Looking at the enormous quantity of mana imbued in these six magic circles, she could not have been doing this alone either. No—she probably had been.
She overdid it.
She had gone without a wink of sleep this whole time preparing the magic, and the moment the tension broke, she had passed out. That had to be it.
Raon scooped Merlin up and stood.
"......"
Soul-Severing Sword stood in exactly the same posture as when Raon had put on the Dragon's Helmet.
"I must let Her Highness rest. Step aside."
Raon held Merlin as carefully as he could and jerked his chin.
"......"
Soul-Severing Sword did not move immediately. He looked into the eyes behind Raon's helmet. A strange light that language could not express seeped from those emotionless golden irises.
"Did you not hear me tell you to step aside?"
"......"
Only after being told twice did Soul-Severing Sword retreat. When he moved, an exit appeared in the wall, just as it had when they had entered.
"My thanks."
Raon gave Soul-Severing Sword a slight nod and left through the passage.
"......"
Soul-Severing Sword stood like a statue until Raon had taken Merlin out of the room. As the rotating passage closed again, his hand trembled faintly.
Raon returned to the log cabin room, laid Merlin on the bed, and gazed steadily at the old woman's mask.
You're not going to take it off?
Wrath, back in his tiny cotton-candy form, pointed at Merlin's mask.
If she wakes up, it'll be a pain.
If he touched the mask and Merlin woke, she would cling to him and never let go. He wouldn't be able to move freely.
While she was unconscious, he needed to examine Lokta's memories and write a solid script.
You really are a ruthless one. This King would have taken it off out of curiosity alone.
Wrath muttered that this was exactly why someone would hit a person two hundred and ninety-four times.
That's because you did something that deserved it.
Raon snorted and sat down on the floor.
I need to concentrate. Be quiet.
Lokta's memories were currently as faint as clouds drifting in empty air. He had to focus and pin those memories down if he wanted to deceive Merlin for certain.
Hmph. This King has nothing to say anyway.
Wrath whipped his head away, making a show of being sulky. He was always like that, so Raon paid it no mind and tried to focus—when a message floated up before his eyes.
It was a message announcing the rewards for winning the wager against Wrath. The amount was considerable—but the messages were still far from finished.
A streak message. He had defeated Wrath eight times in a row, and additional stats had risen as a result. A massive surge of attributes flooded in all at once, and a thrill like pure ecstasy raced up his spine.
Urgh...
Wrath's mouth fell open as he stared at the messages. The stats themselves were one thing, but he seemed more horrified by the fact that he had lost eight times in a row.
But the messages still were not finished.
The rewards gained from absorbing Lokta's soul unfurled beneath it like a carpet.
Ghhhhhk!
Wrath ground his teeth at the messages.
How is This King supposed to keep his mouth shut when this kind of insanity is happening?!
His pupils surged up and down like a violent tide.
Why does This King have to take two hundred and ninety-four blows and get his stats stolen on top of it?! You fiend!