Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance Chapter 94

“Come on, let’s move all this stuff and call it a day!”

 

Albert’s words brought color to the faces of the students, who were growing weary. Their bodies were stiff from the exertion of moving Contras’ with the dawn sun until everything was dyed green.

 

“Wow, that’s a lot.”

 

Daniel clicked his tongue in frustration. The aid that had come in from all over the world was overwhelming, but the tears welled up in the eyes of those who had to carry it to the warehouse.

 

“Okay, okay, the chicks have done their part, I’ll take care of this.”

 

Bella stepped forward, urging Albert on. The students’ eyes widened at the sight of the youngest Transcendent up close. Some, especially those in Defense Against the Dark Arts, shifted in their seats to get a better look at her.

 

“Ah, are you sure you’ll be okay? You must have had a hard time recovering from the battle.”

 

“It’s not that hard.”

 

Bella said confidently, and as she stretched out her hand and uttered a vague spell, a mountainous pile of luggage floated into thin air. The children’s mouths dropped open as they watched her steadily lift hundreds of untied objects in one fell swoop.

 

“Sister…”

 

Neumann salivated through his dry lips and watched as Bella’s beige hair glowed with magic. 

 

He’d seen Bella’s magic many times before, but no matter how many times he’d seen it, this kind of wide-area magic was a marvel.

 

“This is really cool.”

 

Eileen marveled as she watched the packages make their way to the warehouse.

 

“Felix will be as strong as her soon, right?”

 

It was certainly a possibility, given that he was the youngest Demon Lord in the future. Bella watched boredly as the relief supplies were organized, then turned to Albert when the last of them were finished.

 

“There’s a lot of it. I see a lot of boxes from a poisonous family?”

 

“Ah, the Marquis of Eldium. Their estate isn’t far away, so they were the first to send a large amount of relief supplies.”

 

“Hmph.”

 

Bella responded moderately, as if her interest was piqued, and after a quick bow to Albert and the students, she turned her back. As she disappeared, Eileen watched her back, and then stood still to gauge Lucian’s mood.

 

‘Eldium…’

 

The family was a nightmare for him and Felix, given what Theresia and Katrina had been through. The current Marquis was even Theresia’s biological brother. Lucian let out a small laugh at the worried glances, then ruffled Eileen’s hair roughly.

 

“Ouch!”

 

“Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

 

Holding his stomach exaggeratedly, he staggered to his feet and headed for his quarters. His dark hair swayed lightly with his steps, and after watching him for a moment, Eileen quickened her pace to follow.

 

By now, the day had completely set, and the crescent moon was shining.

 

 

***

 

 

“I’m tired.”

 

Eileen dragged her heavy body back to her quarters after dinner and jumped into bed. It was a makeshift bed made of straw bales, but it couldn’t have been fluffier for her tired body.

 

“Emilia, you cried a lot.”

 

Eileen looked up at the unlit ceiling and remembered a girl who had cried intermittently throughout dinner. Emilia, a Contra native, had lost her grandparents in the tragedy.

 

It was especially heartbreaking for her because they had become close through their special class activities. It was hard to believe that someone’s life could be destroyed so easily.

 

“Magi and demons, this world is not normal.”

 

It was not something she would say in an empire that worshiped a goddess, but Eileen was frustrated that this world was so regularly plagued by disaster.

 

‘It would be nice if we could all live a normal life without such things.’

 

Frustrated, Eileen turned on her side. She could see the bed next to her, still unoccupied because its owner had not returned. She stared at the empty space and squeezed her eyes shut.

 

“Let’s get some sleep. We have to get up early again tomorrow.”

 

Luckily, her tiredness didn’t stop her from drifting off to sleep.

 

 

***

 

 

The play never ends. The nanny doesn’t come back.

 

Why?

 

Little Felix couldn’t understand anything. No matter how painful it was, he could bear it because the play would end one day. But what if the play never ended?

 

He couldn’t take it anymore.

 

“Brother…?”

 

Felix finally gave in and opened the door himself. The door swung open easily, as if all the waiting had been in vain. He glanced at the doorknob, which wasn’t locked in the first place, and strode into his room.

 

“Nanny?”

 

In the room he returned to, the nanny was lying on the floor. She wasn’t breathing.

 

Not breathing. The only person in the world who was “on my side” was no longer breathing.

 

“No, no, no.”

 

Panting, Felix ran to the main house of Forss, clutching the hem of his brother’s robe.

 

“What! You’re dirty!”

 

“Brother, the nanny isn’t breathing, please call a healer, please, please.”

 

“The nanny? The old woman? Is she finally dead?”

 

“It’s…?”

 

The tiny hand gripping the hem of his robe slackened, and a tear slipped from the gaunt child’s eye.

 

“That’s what you broke my word for, now, for some old woman with a reputation?”

 

“…Don’t call her that.”

 

Felix felt something hot rise from his chest, something resembling thick smoke that spread through the twenty-something Felix’s entire body.

 

“How dare you talk back to me, I’m going to have to teach you a lesson.”

 

Edwin’s eyes narrowed and he reached for Felix’s hand. As his hand came close to grasping Felix’s throat, sparks flew.

 

“Ow!”

 

Edwin wrapped his hand around it and stepped back, embarrassment flashing in his eyes.

 

“Did you, did you just use magic?”

 

Edwin looked down at his hand. His fingertips were blackened. Rotten to the core, but descended from a magical family. It was alarming enough that a child who hadn’t even received a proper basic education was using magic without a spell. And worst of all.

 

“You have no magic! What did you do?!”

 

Edwin shouted with venom, but it didn’t reach Felix. The steady, steady burning in his heart made his head feel heavy.

 

“Where’s the nanny? Oh, we don’t have a nanny anymore. Why do you keep screaming? Oh, I didn’t listen to you.”

 

The child was furious. It was a heavy, harsh anger that he didn’t even realize he was angry. 

 

Ignoring Edwin’s ranting, Felix scanned his surroundings. The mansion’s occupants were staring at him in disbelief.

 

“What are you looking at? You’ve been treating me like I’ve never existed. You backed away from me like I was dirty.”

 

Felix’s head pounded. It was hard to breathe. No, he wasn’t sure he was breathing at all, the energy in his body was so strange.

 

“But why are you breathing?”

 

“…what?”

 

Edwin looked down at Felix as if he were seeing something strange.

 

“What the hell are you doing?”

 

Damien, the head of the Forss family and their father, strode up to them. Felix stared at him, his eyes blank. Damien stiffened at the sight of the black eyes.

 

“Edwin! Stay back! The flow of mana!”

 

“If the nanny isn’t breathing, why is everyone else breathing?”

 

It was at the same time that a great darkness spread from the child, a darkness without a shred of light. True killing intent and rage sparked black lightning, and a wave of death crashed into the mansion.

 

“Aaahhh.”

 

Felix stood dumbfounded in that moment of chastisement that no one could escape. He stood still, staring out at the ruins around him, even as everything faded into lifelessness.

 

He thought he heard a tearing laugh somewhere amidst the deafening screams, but he didn’t care. It was the day that everything in Forss came to an end.

 

 

***

 

 

“Huh!”

 

Eileen jumped to her feet as if struck by lightning.

 

“Did he just…?”

 

A cold sweat poured down her face and her bangs stuck haphazardly to her forehead. Breathing harshly, Eileen wiped her forehead.

 

“The original, no. Is this Felix’s past, before he changed?”

 

It was the first time she’d ever seen it from Felix’s point of view, not Cordelia’s, not Aire’s. The sudden change in perspective was confusing, but more than that, it was the cruelty that young Felix had suffered that troubled Eileen.

 

“Felix…”

 

She had a vague idea of his past through the future seen from Cordelia’s perspective. His discovery and retrieval by Rosalia after this catastrophe was supposed to be the story that would follow.

 

But the child’s frustration was so much deeper and more painful in real life: why should she have to see things from a different perspective when she’d already set things right? Eileen clutched her chest.

 

The world still had something to offer her.