Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance Chapter 105

“The return of the Brightest Light is a given, a promise, the future of the world. Those who prevent Her return are traitors to the Light.”

 

The angelic-looking Ian sat on the couch, muttering to himself as he read slowly. To the untrained eye, this would be a peaceful sight, but the sight of dozens of human bodies lying at his feet changed the mood.

 

Himes, who was cleaning a glass jar at one side of the room, tilted his head and asked.

 

“Are all these people really having nightmares?”

 

“Yes! Very delicious, desperate nightmares. Alas, brainwashing a bunch of fanatics was fun, and I love it.”

 

Ian rubbed his heated cheeks and stood up.

 

“Did you get a good crowd?”

 

“Yeah, not bad.”

 

Magi, the stuff of nightmares that lasted forever, dutifully gathered into the bottle in Himes’s hand.

 

“I think this should be enough for this batch.”

 

“Where did you say you were going to unpack the magi?”

 

“The northwest, where there are lots of mountains.”

 

“Sounds fun!”

 

The plan was coming together. Ian stretched languidly. He’d been collecting magi for over a hundred years. When he was younger, he’d been forced to hide among the backstreet tramps, but now that he was hidden in plain sight in a noble house, he had nothing to fear.

 

“I can now grant you your wish, Lord Urzar!”

 

Ian exclaimed, stomping his feet with glee. Himes, watching him, asked.

 

“Is it so nice, having his wish granted? You don’t really care about heroes or anything.”

 

Ian’s lips pouted out as if his excitement had waned. He was uncomfortable with Himes. His suits, always buttoned up to the collar, his unchanging fat expression, and his sullen demeanor didn’t fit Ian, who was essentially a monk.

 

“But I can’t help it,” Ian said, ”Urzar told me to get along.”

 

Two hundred years ago, Urzar had saved a demon from certain destruction in order to stockpile power, and they were his left and right arms.

 

“None of that matters, I love you and the nightmares you create, you idiot!”

 

Ian stuck out his tongue and spat at Himes.

 

It was Urzar who had given him a body when he had been born formless, parasitizing on humans and living only in dreams. He could never forget the joy he felt when he first stepped onto the world outside his dreams.

 

“It must be a good thing that he likes it, and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t, a munchkin like you wouldn’t recognize it in the first place.”

 

Himes shrugged as he stared at Ian, who was still panting.

 

“I don’t care what it is, as long as I can kill a lot and eat a lot.”

 

Himes stroked the bulge of his stomach hidden beneath his suit. He felt hungry.

 

“If I get enough of them out, can I have one?”

 

He stuck out his slender tongue and skimmed his lips. His face was still expressionless, but his red eyes, visible through his long bangs, gave off a dark aura that resembled a chill.

 

With a heavy sigh, Ian lay back down on the couch and pointed with his fingertips.

 

“Pig, just eat that one, he’s a pain in the ass to round up.”

 

Himes, looking unusually amused, stomped off.

 

 

***

 

 

“Yes, we’ll take care of that.”

 

The man left the office with his agenda in hand. An older man nodded with satisfaction and turned to the Marquis of Eldium.

 

“Ever since you took the Marquis’s seat, Mr. Calix, the estates have prospered and your family’s reputation has grown. As an elder for two generations, I’ve never felt more at ease than I do these days. Hehe.”

 

The Marquis smiled benevolently the entire time and saw the family elder off. Silence descended on the office as the elder closed the door behind him and disappeared.

 

‘Stupid.’

 

Urzar, the bored stranger in the Calix mask, took out a cigar.

 

The elder, who had served the house for decades, didn’t even notice that the Calix before him had been switched. Instead, he wiped a tear from his eye, believing that Urzar’s abilities were the result of a matured Calix.

 

“Why don’t they realize that humans are not so easily changed?”

 

They’d been trying to take control of the Eldium for so long, and now that they had Calix’s body, it was all for naught. The humans were less suspicious of him if he made them a little more comfortable, and when he excelled, they praised him for his different bloodline.

 

“Boring.”

 

He leaned back in his chair, maintaining a knife-like angle. As he watched the smoke from his cigar slowly spread across the room, Urzar remembered a battle he’d fought at the height of his powers.

 

A day over two hundred years ago when he had fought to the death and lost everything.

 

A chill ran down his spine as he recalled the golden eyes that had burned with anger and desperation, masking fear.

 

“Boring. Boring as ever.”

 

The girl he’d met in Gaudium’s greenhouse had the closest resemblance to those eyes, but that wasn’t enough.

 

“Regia, nothing has more vigor than you.”

 

Eyes that shine despite the scars on her body, the fear hidden beneath. There was still a vigor in her eyes, the vigor of a maniacal sublime that fought to live but would not flee.

 

If there was anything he wanted, he would bring it back.

 

 

***

 

 

“I bought too many.”

 

Albert looked down at the box of cookies in his arms. It had been a long holiday since he’d returned from the slaughter. It had only been a short time ago that he’d wandered into the capital to run some errands, and the smell had lured him into a bakery.

 

“I was trying to get some for the kids.”

 

It turned out to be too much. Deciding he had to go back to inquire about the delivery, Albert turned back to the shop.

 

“Count, let’s go see the dresses next!”

 

His eyes widened as he involuntarily turned back at the pretense of popularity around him.

 

“Ian…?”

 

Fluffy golden curls, big olive eyes. Ian stood in front of him, long since lost.

 

The woman walking with him, holding his arm, heard Albert’s mumbling and spoke.

 

“Eh? Do you know the Count?”

 

Ian’s head snapped around at the words. Round eyes stared at Albert indifferently.

 

“……?”

 

At that moment, Albert felt an intense sense of foreboding.

 

Ian’s eyes were cold and emotionless. Ian looked at him like he was looking at a piece of trash on the sidewalk, and then, as if it was all an illusion, his eyes softened and he smiled.

 

“Albert! Ah, Marianne. He’s my classmate from Verotanis. How have you been?”

 

“Uh, uh.”

 

Flustered, Albert blurted out a casual reply, and Marianne, who had been watching him closely, spoke up again.

 

“Well, do you mind if I give you a moment?”

 

Ian reached out and wrapped his hand around Marianne’s waist.

 

“No, Marianne, I have an appointment with you first, and he seems to be overwhelmed with luggage. Albert, I’ll see you later.”

 

Marianne’s cheeks flushed red at the words. Albert let him go, barely able to react to what had happened so quickly. As he turned, Ian gave him a sideways glance with his cold, sunken eyes, but Albert didn’t notice.

 

Albert sank to the ground, dignity forgotten, in the distance.

 

“Is that really Ian?”

 

He thought back to when he was just starting out in Verotanis. The only child of a prestigious count, a childhood friend in Jericho, where everything was new.

 

“Look at this. The ice cream is splashing.”

 

“Albert, being mayor is so much fun!”

 

“Poor thing. This bird can’t fly.”

 

With a single sigh, the scene before him transformed into a graduation ceremony.

 

“Why am I an elemental? Albert, I’m not even as powerful as you, and I’m only a lowly Elemental.”

 

“I’m good as I am? Don’t be ridiculous. I must be perfect. The heir to Roperson must not be like this.”

 

“Mother wants a perfect heir, not a weakling.”

 

“Don’t talk to me like that. You don’t know what it’s like to be a noble. We were born differently.”

 

The last words were exchanged in vain, but as Albert grew older, he understood Ian’s feelings.

 

Nineteen-year-old Ian was cornered. He was raised in a family that didn’t recognize weakness. A life of walking on thin ice, always being compared.

 

‘It would have been better if I didn’t have this spirit.’

 

The friend who ended up hating the spirit he loved stopped laughing, and they didn’t see each other anymore after graduation, as Ian said they were born differently.

 

“He recognized me, but it wasn’t in his eyes.”

 

He hadn’t seen him for a long time, but he assumed he was doing well: he had become a count and was well-liked for running a stable estate.

 

But that emotionless look in his eyes, as if he were dead. The way he wrapped his arms around his fiancée’s waist, and the artificiality of the way he moved, devoid of any warmth, sent a chill down Albert’s spine.

 

“You look like someone else.”

 

The cookie case crunched to the floor.