Chapter 229: The Witch’s Song (5)
Swoooooosh—
The Second Prince’s warship cut through the blue sea, and Cain stood at the stern, watching Lesbos Island grow distant.
[‘Winter’ says a lot happened.]
As ‘Winter’ said, a lot had happened on Lesbos Island, becoming a signpost that would lead to many more events in the future.
[‘Summer’ wonders if this is really the end.]
[‘Winter’ says ominously to stop talking nonsense.]
Cain smiled bitterly.
He felt that no matter what happened, ‘Winter’ and ‘Summer’ would never change.
Whooooosh—
The wind blew.
It was the warm sea breeze of the southern empire.
He brushed back his messy black hair and looked to the side.
The island was getting farther away, but…
The real Lesbos was right next to him.
The boy, Lesbos, held tightly onto the railing with his small hand, looking at the same place as Cain.
“How is it?”
If it was a signpost for him, it must have held a greater meaning for this little boy.
“I don’t…… know. When I came out of the cave, I had a lot of thoughts, but now that I’m this far from the island……”
The little goblin, who had been trapped on the island for hundreds of years due to the worries and overprotection of the previous Lesbos, had wished for this.
To see the sunlight.
To touch the sea.
To breathe in the wind.
Aurelia and Morning had already fulfilled those wishes by taking him around, so Lesbos thought he had nothing more to wish for.
But now, like this…
As Lesbos Island rapidly disappeared from view, as fast as the water jets from the empire’s latest magic engine, the boy’s heart was filled with mixed emotions.
“Do you hate it?”
“Maybe I do. The farther away I get, the emptier I feel inside.”
“Everyone feels that way when they leave home.”
Cain also turned and gripped the railing, looking back at the island.
Since the airfield exploded, many ships began to gather around Lesbos Island, and from here, it looked like a school of small fish swarming to devour a giant prey.
Or maybe it looked like a crumbling castle of desire.
“Did the hero feel that way too?”
Lesbos asked Cain.
Cain closed his mouth for a moment.
He had left home twice.
However, he had never left on his own two feet. Once, he was chased out, and the other time, he was stabbed and thrown away.
Unable to bring himself to tell such a story, Cain vaguely muddled through it.
“Well, it was similar.”
“Then you don’t want to go back?”
“……Well.”
Cain rubbed his rough hands over his face.
No matter how much of a hometown it was, if you were away for too long, it would fade from your memory.
However, since memories grew in the place where memories faded, Airian was a place of love and hate for Cain.
And he now knew that the second Airian he had faced with the 『Four Seasons』, although not as good as his memories, was a place that would become a memory.
And the Pure White Demon King, Oleciren.
[Calculating World Line Fixation……]
Cain stared at the message that had been popping up sporadically and opened his mouth.
“It’s not time to go back yet.”
“Then when?”
“Maybe when a new spring comes.”
Abel had once asked Cain.
When would he be able to defeat him? At that time, Cain’s answer was that it might be possible when a new spring came.
And now.
To Lesbos’s question, Cain once again replied that it would be possible when a new spring came.
[‘Winter’ closes her eyes.]
‘Winter’, who was always with him, knew what Cain meant when he spoke of the new spring he would return to.
Even so, the kind winter just closed her eyes without saying anything.
The warrior, who always lived in winter, raised his head. He looked up at the summer sky, which was always warm and now lower as summer had truly arrived.
“Are you doing well under Morning?”
“Yes!”
Lesbos nodded vigorously.
Judging from his actions alone, no one would have guessed that he was a golden goblin who had lived for hundreds of years.
Lesbos took out a small cookie from his pocket.
“She pretends she doesn’t care, but she always takes care of my snacks.”
And he broke it in half and gave it to Cain.
Cain stared at the cookie embedded with chocolate and nuts, then took it and put it in his mouth.
“Morning made this too?”
“Yes. She said I need to eat quickly and grow taller so she can order me around, so she brought me my favorite things.”
Cain smiled and stroked Lesbos’s head. As the two of them continued their meaningless conversation…
“When am I going back~”
It was Olivia.
Even when she was in Airian, she acted like a princess, but she had changed a lot while living on the continent.
Even now, she was walking with her arms crossed behind her head.
Lesbos bowed to her and went back inside the ship.
Olivia lightly high-fived Lesbos and took his place.
“If hubby is going back to Airian in the new spring, when should I go?”
“……”
Cain looked at Olivia for a moment and raised his hand. Olivia, who had been joking, stiffened slightly as he suddenly approached.
Pak—!
“Ouch!”
Cain flicked her hard on the forehead, right between her round, white eyes, making it turn bright red.
“You should go back sooner.”
“I guess so, right?”
“How much do you think the kingdom is looking for you?”
“But my sister won’t be able to cross the sea to find me, so wouldn’t it be okay?”
She was a witch, which was a problem in itself, but now that she had awakened as the Pure White Demon King and her existence as Oleciren was known to everyone, the moment she set foot on the continent, a holy war would be declared.
No matter how proactive Oleciren was, she wouldn’t wage war against the continent just to find Olivia.
“So when are you going back?”
Olivia didn’t answer.
The playfulness that had always been on her face was gone, replaced by the expression of a woman deep in thought.
“What can I do when I go back?”
“The position of the Marquis of Ross is vacant, so you have to take over.”
“Yes.”
Olivia gave a curt reply, unlike her usual self.
Cain glanced at her profile and opened his mouth again.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not like I really wanted to be the marquis. The position is vacant, and the king is…… Well, it’s something my sister has to do.”
“Do you think it would be different if you were king?”
“Yes. Because that’s what I really wanted to be.”
“Then you have to reclaim the throne.”
Swish.
Olivia turned her head in surprise at Cain’s advice. The content was a joke, but his tone was more sincere than anyone else’s, which flustered her.
Cain met her eyes.
“You’re a dignified marquis, your grandfather was a marquis, and your father was the king, so there’s nothing you can’t do.”
“But my sister will just kill me if she wants to, so how can I do that?”
Her opponent was the Demon King.
What could she, who had already joined forces with Cain and strengthened her royal authority, do in the face of such immense power?
“Was the Oleciren you know that kind of woman?”
“……”
“At least the Oleciren I know isn’t that cunning. If you confront her head-on, she’ll accept it, not as the Demon King, but as the rightful heir to the throne.”
“I don’t like that either.”
Olivia said flatly.
She turned and leaned against the railing, turning her back to the sea and raising her hand.
“That’s just like an adult and a child fighting. In the end, the child’s victory is only achieved through the adult’s concession.”
“That’s still a victory.”
“What I want isn’t just victory. I want a victory that comes after a fierce battle, a battle so intense that it consumes me entirely, a battle filled with a mix of scorching and messy emotions.”
She clenched her fist.
Instead of playfulness, a strange fire could be seen in her eyes.
[‘Winter’ has always felt this way, but this woman is a bit crazy.]
“Then we need to find it. Something that will burn you to the core.”
Olivia didn’t say anything more. It wasn’t that she had nothing to say, but that she couldn’t say anything to Cain.
As the sea breeze tickled the hair of the two Arianians…
“Oh, right. Atillina woke up. She’s looking for you.”
The far-seeing witch had awakened.
And from afar, dark clouds began to gather.
🔹🔹🔹
“Wake up.”
Thwack!
Purple slammed his staff, made of black wood, against the ground.
The sound echoed through the hidden underwater cave near Lesbos Island.
“Devil of Plague, Belial.”
《……》
In front of Purple.
A gruesome sight of scattered flesh and blood.
Rumble—
As the enormous body touched the wall of the underwater cave, a loud and magnificent sound, like thunder from a distant sky, resonated.
“Were you satisfied with the meal I prepared?”
Purple was the only one alive.
He had already fed most of Lesbos’s witches to the devil, and as if that wasn’t enough, he had kidnapped and fed it slaves and people without proper identities.
The fallen ancient devil, at first, devoured everything he was given, but at some point, it stopped.
As if its original reason was returning.
“Well, you can’t be satisfied. After all, you’re a monster that only stops after devouring everything, like our flames.”
《……》
“Even so, you haven’t forgotten the ritual of the contract, have you?”
Purple placed the wooden box he was holding in his left hand on the floor.
He smashed the lock with his staff and opened the box.
Thump.
Inside was a heart, too large to be human.
It wasn’t connected to anything, and there was no blood to pump, but its life force was so strong that it throbbed incessantly.
Purple picked up the heart with one hand and held it out to the vaguely visible devil, Belial.
“This is the best devil’s heart we have. I don’t know who it belonged to because there’s no record, but it should help you, seeing as it started beating when I brought it near you.”
《……》
“I will offer this. In return, grant my wish.”
Screeeech—
In front of Purple, the rock of the underwater cave began to split. What emerged from the gap was a tentacle.
No, it was Belial’s.
Only a small part of it had emerged from the water, with most of Belial’s body hidden beneath the sea.
Even the smallest tentacle it had extended now seemed capable of shattering this cave if swung properly.
Swoosh.
However, Belial’s tentacle did not do so. It roughly stretched out in front of Purple and wrapped around the beating heart.
Sizzle—
And then it disappeared back into the crevice.
It was a reflexive reaction to the food given to it, devoid of any reason.
Purple looked up at the giant Belial and shouted.
“Kill the hero. Attack the ship that’s heading south to the continent right now, and kill everyone on board, not just the hero!”
《Your wish…… I have heard it.》
Perhaps it was because of the heart it had eaten.
Belial’s voice, which had been silent until now, penetrated Purple’s ears.
However.
《But the offering is insufficient.》
Purple frowned.
The amount he had fed Belial was equivalent to hundreds of kilograms of gold. It was absurd that it was still insufficient even after consuming that much and growing larger.
“What is insufficient……?”
But he couldn’t back down now.
Time was running out now that the hero’s party had left the island, so he was about to say anything, offer anything, when…
《You.》
“…?”
Shhhick—!
At that moment, the tentacle that had disappeared earlier shot out from the crevice.
Stab.
A very thin protrusion that shot out from the end of the tentacle pierced straight through Purple’s chest.
《You…… fed me the ‘one thing’ you shouldn’t have.》
Swoosh.
Belial sank back into the dark seawater.
[50.1% of the world is imbued with Belial.]
Translator’s Blog
Blog
- My Brain on UFC: Why I’m Convinced I Could Totally Take on Adesanya (I’m Lying, Don’t Tell Dana)
- Feeling like a lazy Naruto? This is How You Stop Procrastinating and Conquer Your To-Do List Like a True Hokage
- Naruto Runners Storming Area 51: A Weeb’s Perspective
- Scrolling Through Reddit: “My dog got into the Chinese take-out before I did”
- Anime With Good Plot, But One Thing Makes It Unwatchable: My ‘Black Clover’ Criticism
Leave a Reply