Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Farewell to Chichiron
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005
“From now on, Weiss, you’ll take care of Chichiron.”
The Sein Family’s Number Three.
“Boss, but—”
“Whether it falls apart or gets snatched by someone else, I don’t care. Do whatever you want.”
Sein was finishing up his preparations to leave.
“Relax your shoulders a bit. You’ll do just fine.”
The reason Number Three Weiss was taking over the organization was simple.
Number Two Darren was leaving with Sein.
“Boss, come back anytime.”
The subordinates seeing him off spoke with voices full of sincerity.
“What? Isn’t it better if I don’t come back?”
“What kind of talk is that, Boss?”
Weiss stepped forward as their representative and addressed Sein.
“To us, you were a ray of light in the filthy back alleys of Chichiron.”
“……”
“But because you were there, the ones who’d cross the line kept it in check, at least somewhat. Even the alley residents were grateful, saying life had gotten bearable.”
It had been a grueling time.
The environment handed to Sein really had been the worst of the worst.
Chichiron was a place more equal than anywhere else.
The problem was that its standard of equality was raw power.
Children and elders alike had to kneel and wail before that power in Chichiron’s back alleys.
“We’ll keep the rules you set and wait for you. Come back anytime, Boss.”
“That’s enough. You’re embarrassing me.”
Sein waved his hand dismissively, and only then did Weiss shut his mouth.
“Is that everything you’re bringing?”
Arin’s question.
He’d been told to prepare since it was time to leave, but all Sein had packed was a single small bundle.
Even if that scruffy bear of a man Darren was carrying most of the luggage, it was still far too sparse.
“That’s everything.”
But Sein showed no hint of regret.
‘This is Sein’s hometown—and not his hometown.’
The only things worth taking were a few weapons and emergency tools.
“Darren, you got everything?”
“Of course, Boss.”
Just the meager gold coins scraped together from Chichiron’s back alleys.
“Weiss. Don’t let the kids starve. Beat the thieves just enough to keep them in line.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Boss.”
Even after being trapped there for over a decade, that was all he had to take.
A world painted in blood and filth.
A world that had been nothing but crimson to Sein.
“Boss!”
Windows in the back alleys flew open as people shouted.
“Thank you for everything!”
Eighteen-year-old Sein.
Young as he was for a boss, Chichiron’s back alleys had known peace because of him.
“Ptoo! Don’t ever come back, you mad dog!”
Of course, that wasn’t the whole story.
“Weiss…”
“Yeah, bro.”
“Deal with that bastard later on your own.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
And so, Sein left Chichiron—his second hometown, as good as.
*
*
*
His footsteps were light as could be.
‘Finally.’
Chichiron, the shackles of the tutorial that had kept him from leaving.
Not a single thing there had pleased him, every day feeling like sinking deeper into a quagmire.
So, of course.
“Kyaha!”
He couldn’t help but revel in his escape.
But his joy didn’t last long.
“Definitely…”
A quiet mutter.
He didn’t voice the rest.
‘You’ve changed.’
No one had loved the Sanctuary more than Sein.
Vast blue skies and beautiful lands.
A world where nothing wasn’t beautiful.
“It’s all gloomy.”
The world he knew was gone.
It was still daytime with the sun up, yet everything was shrouded in fog-like gray darkness.
“Chichiron may be rural, but it’s still part of the territory,”
Arin explained.
“Protected by barriers, so this is your first time out, right?”
“First time.”
A world of gray.
This was the current state of things.
‘Dark Sanctuary.’
A world that had lost its light, unlike the Sanctuary of old.
The continent’s vast domains had shrunk by nearly half, and even now, human territory was dwindling.
“It’s because the old empire fell.”
The fall of the old empire.
“The holy light that guarded the continent vanished, and darkness fell.”
The great empire of Archibald, which had once protected the Sanctuary, had perished.
By no one else’s hand.
“It’s also because of the Emperor of Ruin.”
Their own emperor.
“……”
He’d heard the tales.
Even in a rural backwater, it wasn’t the kind of story you could miss.
The great empire of Archibald, which illuminated the Sanctuary, had lost its pillar of light and fallen to its final emperor—the one called the Emperor of Ruin.
That was.
“And that was over a hundred years ago now.”
A story from a hundred years past.
‘The moment I opened my eyes as the back-alley Sein…’
Yeah.
‘A hundred years after I destroyed the empire.’
In the original Sanctuary, there wouldn’t have been such a time gap from his past life, but now the world was twisted.
“Sein Demorus.”
Arin called to him.
“I’ve only given you a destination.”
The destination was clear.
Demorus.
“The path and method to get there are entirely up to you to decide and follow.”
Arin was his guardian, of sorts.
“I’ll watch, and confirm if you’re worthy.”
“Got it already.”
“Even if your life’s in danger, I may intervene based on my judgment—but you’d do well to assume you won’t get any help.”
The day he’d met Arin.
“You used up all my aid that day.”
The knight-captain level mercenary—being saved by him was the only help she’d provide.
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Cocky, aren’t you? The world now is far more dangerous than a place like Chichiron.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Sein repeated himself.
“If I can’t handle even that much, nothing will change.”
Sein’s clear goal.
Survival.
And seeing it through to the end.
He didn’t know how this world would end.
But having seen one world’s end before, Sein was certain.
‘There is an end.’
And reaching that end was the only path for him.
‘To do that, I have to make the most of what I’ve been given.’
His final life.
‘The life of the underworld heir.’
A life full of failures.
His one success marred by the stain of cheating.
This was his sole chance to wipe it clean and overwrite it all.
“So…”
Arin spoke in an odd tone.
“This really is your first stop?”
A forest full of dying trees.
“Yeah.”
Monsters lived within.
*
*
*
“Kreek… Kreek.”
A small cry echoed.
“Kreek.”
It was like a signal passing between them.
Hiding behind dead trees.
Covered in mud, clutching rusted spears.
“Peekaboo.”
One of the Sanctuary’s lowest-tier monsters: a goblin.
The goblin startled at the sudden sound and thrust its rusted spear, but it was too late.
Puk!
The sharp dagger had already pierced its throat.
“Kreek!”
One goblin that spotted the attack cried out in warning, but it too was too late.
Puk!
Sein, who’d closed in, plunged his dagger into its chest.
Around Sein lay goblin corpses strewn everywhere.
“Not as impressive as I thought.”
They said the darkness over the continent and the shrinking human domains were largely due to monsters.
In the old Sanctuary, their numbers were few, but after the darkness came, they exploded in population and strength.
‘No, they’re definitely different.’
Sein’s only experience with monsters had been corpses brought by mercenaries.
This was his first encounter with the newly evolved ones.
“Kreek!”
A goblin hiding under its comrade’s corpse lunged at Sein’s back, but.
“A bit smarter and stronger, huh.”
Sein turned naturally and stabbed its nape.
Goblin pack tactics were rare, only in special events.
Especially using a comrade’s body as cover.
Drip, drip.
Coating spears with poison.
Such things hadn’t existed before.
‘Looks like I’ve cleaned them up.’
A game turned reality.
Despite its unmatched realism compared to the past.
“Quaaak!”
“One left.”
Sein was adapting astonishingly well.
Even if they were inhuman monsters, he’d been drenched in blood countless times.
He’d rolled in the muck and gore.
So he could get used to all this.
“Broken already.”
Sein turned at Arin’s voice.
“The blade’s still good.”
It was a dagger he’d forged himself from the best materials scrounged in the back alleys, so he knew.
“Not the blade…”
Arin stared straight at him.
But she didn’t finish.
“How long do you plan on just hunting monsters?”
“Nothing beats this for real combat experience, right?”
Sein said.
“Humans have limits, and you can’t just kill them willy-nilly.”
“……”
That was his stated reason.
Tadak.
But the real one was different.
Puk!
Sein resumed his hunt, methodically wiping out the forest goblins.
Sure, they were bottom-tier, tough for newbies, but Sein was on his fourth life.
And even before awakening, he could wield aura.
Pushuk!
Goblins were nothing.
Even stronger, they were still just that.
‘It works.’
Sein was also confirming something.
His third past life awakened.
—Crown Prince of the Empire.
The life perk of the empire’s crown prince.
Life perks were special abilities granted alongside a life.
The root that supported and sustained that life.
To the rightful heir of the great old empire, Archibald.
Thump!
Dragon blood coursed through him.
Awakening mana narrowed his pupils like a lizard’s.
Within them.
Fwaaa!
Sein gained explosive power and massacred the goblins.
‘A hundred.’
The moment he slaughtered the hundredth, Sein’s world flipped.
A dark, mysterious cosmos.
“Lantern show.”
It was the second one he’d visited.