Chapter 64

Chapter 64: The Path of Magic (3)

“Aron, that bastard, really was strong. He was fighting you after you became a Corrupted Body, Senior, and my eyes could not even keep up.”

Lucia, who had been blankly staring at my shameless response for a moment, soon looked down at her hands and body.

Her clothes were torn in places, and faint traces of blood had risen over her skin.

“Then… what about the other believers besides me?”

It seemed reality was finally starting to sink in.

“After Aron pierced a hole through your chest and disappeared, all the Demonic Aura and corruption spread around this place vanished at once.”

“While we were treating you here, Senior, the Headmaster and the professors handled the surrounding situation.”

“The believers of the Demon Order all fainted too, so they were arrested on the spot. When they checked, apparently all the Demonic Aura had disappeared from the believers as well?”

Even after hearing the whole truth, her expression still did not move. 

Shouldn’t she normally be surprised by this much?

“Why do you still look so gloomy?”

“I… have no right to be happy.”

“……?”

What kind of nonsense was this?

After hesitating, Lucia spoke in a low voice.

“…A lot of people died, didn’t they?”

Yulia and I exchanged glances.

There was no subject, but it was easy enough to understand what she meant.

“Sorry. Did I ask something strange?”

Her ears and head drooped weakly.

Well, I supposed that reaction was understandable.

Since she had teleported to the outer district of Saengterminum with the believers, the people who had been caught up in it must have lost their lives without mercy.

She had already committed a grave sin.

It could no longer be undone.

She was probably thinking something along those lines.

“No one died, though?”

“There were no deaths.”

At Yulia’s and my answers, Lucia’s head and ears lifted upward.

“How?”

“Mm… should we say it was luck?”

“Aron subdued all the believers there while dealing with you, Senior. Thanks to that, the people nearby were able to escape before the corruption spread, without suffering major damage.”

“They said there were people injured while evacuating, but no one lost their life.”

This was why I had called Lucia the ‘Spark of War.’

Because many visitors from various nations nearby had lost their lives due to her rampage.

The deaths of Lucia and the people here were the trigger that would become the ‘Spark of War,’ but would I have let that happen? 

Me, a Regressor who knew the future?

Heh, of course not.

Yulia furrowed her brow and crossed her arms.

“Hmph, I doubt that wanted criminal did it out of goodwill, though.”

“Probably not. Seeing how all the Demonic Aura nearby disappeared as well… I think he may have been waiting there while targeting Senior to experiment with something. His way of doing things is seriously shady.”

“It was fortunate Brother Damon immediately cast Holy Magic. If the casting had been even a little late, we would not have been able to save you, Senior.”

Lucia stared blankly at me and began working her lips.

“You…….”

In the first place, I had not wanted this sort of embarrassing situation. 

Nor was I the kind of person to go along with this kind of thing one by one.

On top of that, what Lucia had just said had subtly grated on my nerves.

“Did you just say that? That you have no right to be happy?”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

“Good grief, what, do you live your life alone? You are only eighteen, yet you are saying all sorts of nonsense.”

“That… I am sorry…….”

Lucia’s ears drooped, and she pulled her knees together with both hands, curling up.

Normally, she would have retorted at least something, yet there she was. 

She must have been thoroughly dispirited.

She looked so dejected that Yulia, unable to keep watching, ended up getting angry at me.

“Would it hurt you somewhere to speak nicely to Senior? She went through something difficult, so you could at least comfort her.”

“Who was it again who tried to drive Holy Power into that senior who stands as high as the heavens?”

“Urk…….”

“I am not the type to give that kind of lip service.”

In the first place, I had not terminated the contract with Valak for Lucia’s sake.

I had wanted to keep using Valak’s Authority, and I had not liked how that demon bastard had been running wild however he pleased, so I had wanted to screw him over as much as possible.

However.

“Sorry, is it…….”

As I chewed over what Lucia had just said, I could not help but smile bitterly.

“Heh, Senior, you really are the same as ever.”

“Hm?”

“No. It is nothing. There is just something like that.”

Before my regression, Lucia had discovered the Fallen Cult Leader’s base before the demon summoning ritual could proceed, then led the believers, myself included, to wipe out the Defectors.

Lucia, who had ended up on the verge of rampaging like that, pushed me out of the altar and used the Cult Leader’s ability to sever my contract with Valak, who was connected to me.

‘…I am sorry.’

With that brief answer, as though countless emotions were condensed within it, Lucia leaped to the outer district along with the believers through ‘Large-Scale Teleport.’

I had not had time to ask why she had severed my contract with Valak, but I could roughly guess.

In my previous round, I had been the only believer Lucia had personally recruited to wipe out the Defectors.

It had not shown, but perhaps she had felt a sense of guilt in her own way for dragging me into it.

“Senior, don’t you think your attitude is too rotten?”

“……?”

“The demon who used your parents as collateral to force a contract on you is the real bastard here, so why are you making such a deathly face all by yourself? You are irritating the people watching you.”

“After doing something like this… how could I not…….”

Hm, seeing how lifeless she looked, my guess seemed to have been correct.

As a result, Lucia’s rampage became the starting point that caused an absurd suspicion to spread like wildfire across the entire continent: that the Dark Empire might have used someone from a branch family of the Four Great Houses as an experimental subject and carried out terrorism in Saengterminum.

At the time, although I had known the full truth, I had remained silent.

‘Aron Bayonel’ was a pathetic fool who had signed a slave contract with a demon, despite being of the direct line of the Four Great Houses.

If I revealed the truth to those around me, even that fact would become publicly known.

I was already hated by my father, the Lord, and I could not let my status fall even lower from there.

Only after quite some time passed did I tell those around me the truth… but by then, it was already far too late.

The rotten Regressor who was blinded by the honor of the Four Great Houses and merely stood by while you died was me.

So telling you this much now is only proper.

“Is it really only Senior’s fault? You contracted with a demon and became a Demon Cult Leader because you wanted to return your parents to normal.”

Saying empty, pleasant words did not suit my temperament.

Because of that, I only conveyed the truth based on the facts.

“The Fallen Cult Leader, Yulia, the Headmaster… none of them considered why you had to become a Demon Cult Leader, did they? It is true that you were that much of a special case, Senior.”

All sorts of things had become tangled together, and this incident had occurred.

“It is just like that. Everyone bears some responsibility to some degree.”

There might be differences in the trigger and the extent of responsibility, but it was not something that could be pinned on any one person.

Even if that person was oneself.

“So, Senior, you can be a little more shameless.”

“…….”

“What changes just because you blame yourself? Right now, it is better to simply be happy as you are.”

I snickered and raised the corner of my mouth.

“Become a little more shameless. Do not make the people watching you angry.”

Lucia, who had been looking at me, opened her mouth in a daze, then buried her face into her folded knees.

Sob.

Now that I looked, even her shoulders were trembling.

“…Huh?”

What? 

Is she crying?

She had kept her mentality together for years as a Demon Cult Leader, and now she suddenly did this?

Wondering what was going on, I looked at Yulia, but she too narrowed her eyes and stared at me.

“…You said you were bad at comforting people, but you are good at it.”

“Did that sound like comfort to you?”

“The fact that you have no self-awareness is even more surprising.”

I had only spoken based on the facts, so I wondered what that reaction was about.

Sigh, I must have spent too much time on the battlefield. 

I was far too out of sync with these girls.

“Ah… sob…….”

Lucia’s broken voice leaked out as she barely managed to form a sentence.

“Then… um… my parents…….”

Lucia’s parents had also returned to normal long ago.

However, since they had spent a long time as Corrupted Bodies, Headmaster Levia had immediately taken them to the hospital, saying their physical condition needed to be checked.

By now, they should have been resting in the hospital prepared within Saengterminum.

“They are…….”

Just as I opened my mouth to speak about her parents.

Whoosh.

I caught a brief, strange sound of wind passing by and corrected my words.

“…They will be here soon.”

FLAP! BOOM!

A house-sized shadow landed beside us.

I looked up at the shadow and spoke.

“You came quite quickly, Headmaster.”

“Do not even mention it. As soon as their examination ended, they asked to come back here.”

I chuckled at the Headmaster’s fed-up tone as she looked toward her back.

“…That is understandable.”

Even I, a Regressor, did not know the detailed circumstances of why Lucia’s parents had contracted with Valak.

However, there was one thing I did know.

Even after Lucia’s parents had become Corrupted Bodies, they had acted to protect Lucia.

That was why her parents must have wanted to return here.

To reunite with their one and only daughter, Lucia, even a little sooner.

Tap, tap.

Two human silhouettes descended from Levia’s back and landed on the ground.

Since the sun was directly behind them, I could not see their appearances clearly due to the backlight, but… it was easy enough to tell that they had ears and tails like Lucia, who was a Beastfolk.

“Ah……!”

Lucia’s face, which had been looking forward, went blank, and then she looked toward me.

“Heh, now your face is finally worth looking at.”

“You… have a bad personality. Truly.”

Lucia held back her sniffling breaths, bravely wiped away her tears, rose to her feet, and took a step forward.

The two silhouettes also began approaching her.

Her steps were weak, as though she might collapse at any moment.

However, it was probably not just my imagination that those steps somehow looked light and free.

‘You will be able to become the greatest at Black Magic, my son.’

As I watched her back while she approached her parents… strangely enough, the words my father had once said to me in my previous round crossed my mind.

Those who used Black Magic without permission from the Dark Empire were called ‘Black Sorcerers.’

Black Magic Users who had received permission from the Dark Empire were called ‘Black Mages.’

A difference of a single word.

However, the meaning was entirely different.

Black Mage.

They were said to be called that because they were not controlled by Black Magic, and because they advanced along the ‘Path of Magic’ according to their own beliefs.

It was a conventional teaching I had heard dozens, hundreds of times since childhood, enough to make me sick of it.

Only now did I finally feel as though I had properly put its meaning into practice.

“…That is good.”

Leaving Yulia’s words behind me, I quietly covered my eyes with one hand.

A shadow fell over my face, and my vision became clear.

I could see the family savoring the joy of reunion.

“…Well, it is not bad.”

Father, not yet, but… when the time comes someday, I will tell you.

I will tell you about the ‘Path of Magic’ I will walk from now on.

Tap.

Someone placed a hand on my shoulder. 

The palm was quite cold. 

No, wait. It was not just cold; it felt as if I would get frostbite.

“Huhuhuhuhu…….”

I had no idea when she had arrived, but the Headmaster, with her mouth and eyes curved into a smiling shape, began looking back and forth between Yulia and me.

“Judging by your expressions, your bodies must have improved quite a bit?”

The Headmaster’s mood was not ordinary.

Mm… this is bad, isn’t it?

Now that I thought about it, there was no way this blue lizard would not punish us for acting independently. 

Given the circumstances, she had only put it off for the time being.

“I am still in pain, though? Look at this. Wow, my blood vessels are still bulging.”

“I-I also strained my heart while treating Senior…….”

Nice assist, Yulia.

Regardless, the Headmaster glared at us fiercely, as though she might devour us at any moment.

“Just wait until your treatment is over. You two are going straight to the disciplinary committee.”

How stingy of her.

Just as my face turned sour at the Headmaster’s firm response.

…Hm?

I narrowed my eyes when I saw the object hanging around Headmaster Levia’s neck.

“Headmaster, is that… an Artifact?”

“Do you mean this?”

Click.

Levia opened the lid of the pocket watch.

It looked intact on the outside, but the inside was cracked and broken, having lost its original function as a pocket watch.

“The Saengterminum research building made it for me as an experimental item. They said they would give me one sample, and I thought there might be a use for it, so I accepted it.”

So that was why something had felt strange.

If she had already had that in her possession, then it explained how she, a dragon, had found Valak’s barrier.

It was an Artifact I knew well.

Abyss.

Because only those belonging to ‘Abyss’ could create Artifacts with a Demonic Aura tracking effect.

“By any chance… did it have a function that identified and tracked places where Demonic Aura was dense?”

“That is right. I used it this time, and it was fairly useful.”

The Headmaster answered as if it were nothing significant, but my mind could not help but cool.

The seven Top-Rank Demons who had once ruled Hell, the Seven Deadly Sins.

The name of the Demon Order that served those Seven Deadly Sins was none other than ‘Abyss.’