Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance – Chapter 83

Author: Dakku-san

A man sits in a luxurious study made of saturated wood. Beneath his neatly cropped navy blue hair, his blue eyes, like frozen lakes, slowly closed and opened.

He stared at the bookshelves with a bored expression, then his gaze shifted to the door. A knock echoed through the study shortly afterward.

“Come in.”

An elderly butler with graying hair entered the study, bowing respectfully.

“Count Roperson is here.”

The man nodded, and soon a younger man with curly blond hair entered the room.

“Welcome, Ian. No more tea, please.”

With that, the butler bowed again and left, closing the door to the study behind him. The man called Ian stood expressionless, but as soon as the butler was gone, he cried out like a child.

“Lord Urzar!”

He ran, almost jumped, and knelt at the man’s feet. His sobbing face was pitiful. The man looked down at him impassively, then slowly opened his mouth.

“You shall call me Marquis Eldium now. Just like you are Ian.”

“Ugh. I’m not used to this body yet.”

Ian’s eyes turned venomous as he stammered out his words.

“It’s all their fault! I had a body I liked, and they ruined it. I should have finished it in the greenhouse.”

“That’s why I gave you a new body. You’ll get used to it in no time.”

Cutting the man’s rant short, the Marquis turned his attention back to the book in his hand.

“So. How’s the plan coming along?”

“The indoctrination of the fanatics is going according to schedule! Verotanis… There were variables in the indoctrination there, but the rest is going well.”

“Variables.”

The Marquis’s hand stopped flipping through the book, and Ian glanced up with an impatient look on his face and spoke quickly, apologetically.

“It’s all because of those elementalist kids and Gaudium’s blood! I should have nipped it in the bud.”

“Hmmm, did I mention Eileen?”

“What?”

Leaving Ian puzzled, the Marquis opened his cigar case. Taking a long drag on the thick cigar, he slowly exhaled the smoke.

Through the smoke, the man remembered a day in the past. A small child, shivering in a darkened greenhouse, blocking the way of a child smaller than her. The look in her eyes, so small and familiar.

It had seemed so nostalgic and rare to see something so weak step forward with hope.

“Not bad.”

The man who’d exhaled all the smoke narrowed his eyes and laughed. Beside him, Ian’s robed steed was whinnying, but to his euphoric ears, the noise was no more audible than the chirping of a small bird.

“Ah, well, it was harder to get to him then, with all the barriers he had put up, so it can’t be helped.”

“That’s strange, how could he have known? We were supposed to kill Lucian and the Duchess, drive Gladius insane and weaken him… and our plans were ruined because of that one bitch!”

“Hush. You really need to work on how to behave like a noble.”

The Marquis stroked Ian’s tousled hair lightly, as if he were nurturing his youngest brother.

“I’m only leaving them alone because they’re not ready yet. On the contrary, Aire, his interruption has allowed me to work more closely on my plans, which is not a bad thing.”

He flicked his half-smoked cigar into the crystal ashtray with his free hand and whispered in a soft, almost sing-songy voice.

“There’s no need to falter. We’ll be the ones to hold the light that will return.”

When he finished, the man lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling. There, out of place in the low-saturated study, was a colorful torch. Legia, the brightest hero of light, striking like a thunderbolt and decapitating the demon.

His smile deepened.

***

“Eileen is being investigated?”

“Yes.”

Cordelia, Lucian, and Felix’s faces hardened at once. Across from them stood a sullen Albert.

“Hmm, is it because of her power?”

Eileen scratched her cheek as she realized what was happening. A mysterious power with a clear target that could not be attributed to just a young spirit. Since she had no choice but to reveal it, she could only guess.

“An investigator sent by the imperial court and the temple will arrive sometime this week. As the professor in charge, I’ll be joining them, so don’t worry too much.”

Albert looked around at the children’s still worried faces and spoke again.

“I’ll try to make it as easy on Eileen as possible.”

But even as he spoke, Albert wasn’t sure. It was the principle of the Empire’s thickest shield that they were sent to the most dangerous battlefields in the name of power.

It was no wonder the children, who had grown up following the Duke’s every move, were uneasy.

“It’s okay.”

But having grown up under that shield, they could not escape responsibility.

“You don’t think I’m just going to tell you to go out there unprepared for a slaughter?”

Eileen grinned mischievously, but none of the three could smile back. Cordelia pulled Eileen into a hug.

“Don’t worry, Eileen. I’m not going to let you go out there alone.”

It was what she’d learned to do, what she’d built up, and it was no different for Felix and Lucian.

They laughed softly as they vowed to protect each other.

Albert watched them proudly, then lowered his eyes. As he watched them support each other, he remembered someone else.

He let out a long breath of longing and regret as he remembered someone he could no longer see.

***

“I hope you don’t have any questions for me?”

“I doubt it.”

Albert returned and they sat down at the garden table for the first time in a long time.

“This semester has been so weird, one minute we’re all excited that we’re finally going to the Academy together, and then one bad thing after another happens.”

Lucian made a frustrated face, and Cordelia nodded.

“I’ll admit, if I’d known the Academy was so fraught with danger, I might have reconsidered enrolling.”

She hadn’t expected anything beyond her dreams and hopes, but the demon encounters and life-threatening situations were completely out of the question.

“It’s been a pretty amazing half year, hasn’t it?”

Eileen said cheerfully, hoping to lighten the mood, but the others did nothing but nod with cold eyes.

“Now we just have to trust Professor Albert and the Duke.”

The presence of Albert, Eileen’s professor, and the Duke of Gaudium, her guardian, was the only hope she had. Everyone nodded in agreement with Felix’s words.

Eileen glanced at Felix, who spoke with a determined expression.

‘It’s like I’m dreaming about the night of the ball,’ she thought, feeling as if something great had happened, and then something serious had happened, and then the night had been ruined.

‘And Felix is the same as usual.’

Eileen’s face flushed a little as she remembered the look in the boy’s eyes that said he’d be there forever, waiting for an answer. She felt a little guilty that she was the only one who seemed to care so much about it.

“By the way, Eileen, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine!”

Eileen exaggeratedly twirled her arms in Lucian’s direction to emphasize that she was fine.

Since she couldn’t say that her sudden fainting spell was the aftermath of her unexpected vision of the future, it was hard for her to completely ease the worries of those around her.

Lucian, still eyeing Eileen’s thin forearms with suspicion, shook his head.

“I can’t. I feel like I’m throwing a baby up in the river.”

Cordelia nodded her head in agreement. Felix, a serious-looking man, spoke up.

“Do you want me to eavesdrop now that we’re here?”

“Not bad.”

“Bad, bad, bad!”

Eileen raised her eyebrows at the boldness of the imperial inspectors and the priests of the temple.

“It’s really fine, don’t worry, the Duke is here, what could possibly go wrong?”

Eileen broke out in a cold sweat, realizing that these three would actually try to eavesdrop.

“If I were three years older, I’d still be able to bully my way into the meeting room.”

“At this point, the only way to get in is to become a Transcendent as quickly as possible…”

“If I take care of the Transcendent, will I be able to unseat him?”