Ch.22474. To You, Because I Can Make a Request.

Swords clash against each other.

A dark sword that appears to be made of the same material as armor.

As it scrapes along the ground, it emits a heavy resonance.

“……”

Without missing a beat, I parry and receive each strike.

A sword cutting through the air.

As if pushing away the entire space, he pulls down and strikes with his sword with all his might.

KWANG!

The air trembles from the impact of the collision.

But it’s not over.

If once isn’t enough, then twice.

If that’s not enough, then until it is.

…Wandering through an endless nightmare-like dream, this is the action and work I’ve been doing all along.

Now it was unfolding through the hands and feet of my opponent.

Like looking into a mirror.

But what it shows is a scene from the distant past.

And that day was clearly divided by a certain point in time.

“……”

But this must have been the best he could do at the time.

Any further dramatic progress, development, or achievement would have been meaningless.

I would have done the same in his position.

He, like me, couldn’t have intervened in the confrontation between Mines and Leo, who held the holy sword.

…Just because Alesia accompanied us, our journey was extremely delayed and hindered.

There was no contact with the dull Legion Commander.

No intersection with Leo, who became the owner of the holy sword.

And with Mines… I formed no connection at all.

I clung to a sword that wouldn’t be drawn.

For a full month.

Then I was ambushed by unknown assailants and barely survived after being driven away.

In reality, it was Alesia who saved herself alone.

After hiding secretly in a deep place to recover for a year.

In the end, I came to know nothing.

By the time I returned to Somern Village, the sword was gone, and more than half the village had turned to ruins.

I heard there had been a tremendous battle…

What’s certain is that at that point, everything I could do… was finished.

Elbat was gone, and my body grew weaker day by day due to the curse.

To the point where I would soon faint and lose control of my body if Alesia wasn’t by my side.

…This is serious.

If things continue like this, everything will become miserable.

Every moment alive was despair.

Even she who comforted me… I had no capacity to handle it at the time.

Other than unilaterally depending and relying on her….

Still, there was a change.

Because □□□□ was born.

……

……….

Just by crossing swords, his thoughts flowed faintly into me.

Subtle and dim though they were.

I… could glimpse them.

Only I… could vaguely glimpse them.

Swords collide.

KANG!

Through that space, like faint afterimages, the journey he had traveled was transmitted, albeit hazily.

……

……….

It was one day.

People covered in black cloth swarmed in and destroyed everything.

Alesia was dead… and Lutesia… was nowhere to be found.

No one told me this fact.

I simply had to… desperately deduce and infer from the unfolding situation, watching in a daze.

I threw my mind into it, using every means and method without discrimination.

Chasing, chasing, and chasing again.

Desperately racking my brain, enduring, and struggling desperately with a dying body.

And so… countless years passed.

It felt as if an immeasurable despair was pressing down on me, becoming the world itself.

Everything…

……

……….

[You know, isn’t it newly pathetic to think about an escape with a predetermined end?]

Those words from the Demon King always shook me to the core.

Looking back now, I wasn’t escaping.

Perhaps I was just… waiting for the ground beneath me to collapse.

And.

It was around that time when he found me.

I recognized him at first sight.

Snow-white hair like drifting snowflakes.

Perhaps similar to silver.

With eyes as firm as gold.

Even the contours of his face… were similar.

“……”

“Are you the master of this place?”

He asked in a polite tone.

On the other hand.

“Are we here to see some forest sage now? We came to find a murderer, a slaughterer!”

The red-haired girl beside him snapped in an irritable tone, already treating me like an enemy.

“Ahem!”

And the man who accompanied the two.

Exactly three of them.

“……”

But what does it matter.

Only.

“The hero’s child, is it.”

The girl snickered at my murmur.

“Oh? He knows that. Have you become famous, our hero’s son?”

“…I told you not to say that.”

The white-haired young man frowned as if embarrassed.

“Excuse me, but I’d like to ask if you are the person we’re looking for.”

The man, despite clearly having some understanding of my identity,

deliberately maintains formality.

“……”

At that time, I could only remain silent.

What was I supposed to say?

……

“Don’t you think we’re bothering an innocent person?”

“The physical characteristics are too distinct.”

Black long hair and an average build.

A beard that grew abundantly without being trimmed.

He deliberately added that it was exactly as he had heard.

“Black hair might be common in the Empire… but this isn’t even Imperial territory.”

“…So you’re going to take me away?”

“Because I was asked to.”

The red-haired girl cut in.

“It’s a direct order from my sister-in-law, so I can’t just let it go.”

“…Haa.”

Sister-in-law.

In the imperial family, considering the causal relationship that would make this little one call someone sister-in-law….

Someone immediately came to mind.

“…Are you Enzul’s daughter from the collateral line?”

The girl gasped.

“Huh?! How did you know that?! Did I mention my name or status earlier?”

“……”

It was confirmed.

“…Erasth, is it.”

……

“Is there no way we can resolve this through conversation?”

Perhaps reading my intent to fight,

the young man asked cautiously.

“Then step back. If you never come near this area again, I’ll let it go this time.”

“What?! Let it go?! You crazy bastard?!”

The fiery girl took it as a clear insult.

She immediately summoned fire in her hand and shot it at me.

“Huh?”

It dissipated futilely.

I swung my sword, scattering the very foundation of the magic.

For a long time, this was the only thing I had left.

And… I’ve somehow reached it even now.

It was also the reason I could somehow cling to life even without Alesia…

“……”

That’s right.

I still have this kind of thing left.

Coincidentally.

……

……….

How much time has passed since then?

Years? Maybe even more.

Honestly… I didn’t care about the passage of time.

Long ago… when was it?

Day and night, they exist because our world is a star, and this massive star rotates, creating them like a set agreement?

Even today and tomorrow… concepts that don’t exist in the universe, she once said something like that.

“Elimion. Let’s make one promise.”

Losing my sight has made me think more.

The brain develops other senses when deprived of vision, the Demon King once said.

It was exactly as he said.

Ridiculously, I could distinguish things.

And even this… was part of the training I had done to death in dreams in the distant past.

So, all I could see with these pale eyes was a blurry world.

With these eyes that could barely distinguish between light and darkness, I could no longer discern anything.

Probably.

…I wouldn’t even recognize my daughter’s face now.

“Speak, brother.”

He responded to my words in a gloomy tone.

Why so dreary?

“I will die by that child’s hand.”

That man from the Guardian Knight Order.

He received the eyes that Grandeus had given to Rupert and implanted them in my eyes.

Saying they were meant to be delivered to me from the beginning.

The successor of Elbat is also his successor.

Therefore, this belongs to me, he said.

…Elbat.

In the end, everything went wrong because of it.

Where did it all go wrong?

…Was my very existence the mistake?

“Brother. Did I hear you correctly? What nonsense…”

“That’s the future.”

It’s a bleak future.

In the end, it only reconfirmed that there was nothing I could do with my own hands.

So…

All I could do now…

I had no choice but to ask for help.

There’s not much to do in response to a determined future.

Just wait.

Whether to wait standing or lying down.

Whether to wait while struggling, even if it means falling while running.

…That was all.

“That child still doesn’t know I’m his father.”

“……”

“But someday he’ll find out. However… I wish he would never know that he led me to death with his own hands.”

“Brother. What are you asking of me?”

“That child has had unstable mind and memories since childhood due to magical measures and drugs. But… if he awakens as they wanted him to, he’ll know everything. However… the day he awakens before you will never come.”

And though I couldn’t bring myself to say it,

after my death, what awaits him.

Will be nothing but endless pain.

“……”

Also, when I die, the contract I made with the Golden Demon King will activate.

And the target will probably be…

Lutesia. The child himself.

In this world, despite this world, just one thing.

One thing emerged.

One thing remained.

“But you can do it. You and your companions… can somehow manage that child.”

“That’s…”

He won’t say it’s impossible.

Quite some time has passed.

And he had grown into a hero succeeding his father.

Though still rough around the edges.

His abilities were genuine.

“If you ever find it in yourself to forgive that child, I’d like you to consider him as innocently exploited. Because that’s actually the truth.”

Though his hands are surely soaked in blood.

“…It’s not because that child wanted it.”

“Brother…”

“And when the time comes, you’ll naturally know what to do.”

I’m sorry.

“For burdening you with such a heavy load. But… I have no one else left to ask.”

Was it because my words moved him emotionally?

He added words with difficulty.

“Do you still… not want to meet those two? If it’s them… they might have a better solution…”

Maybe.

Maybe, but…

“Aren’t they busy? And… my resentment runs very deep. Even now, all I have left is… just that.”

There was a time when I went to meet the two of them with the sole intention of saving Lutesia.

However, I couldn’t meet them.

Because my very existence had somehow been erased within the Empire as if it were natural.

And those two would have acquiesced to it.

I understand.

They were such beings.

The greater cause over me.

The greater cause over themselves.

…That didn’t change even after I disappeared.

But Elimion is different.

That’s what it was in the end.

Because I was incompetent, they accepted my absence, my void.

Because there was a replacement.

How ironic that what I thought when leaving the institution came true exactly.

Young Kariel, how wise you were.

“I think it’s better for their reputation and lives if I die and disappear.”

“T-that can’t be! Both of them still searched for you! How can you not understand their feelings!”

“Yet you didn’t even know who I was at first. That’s only possible because they kept my existence silent. Isn’t that right?”

“……”

“Though it’s deeply disgusting to be entangled because of Erasth… that’s how the world works.”

I don’t particularly resent him.

So, he’s not at fault.

And what’s certain is that this guy is like his father.

Full of goodwill and justice, without malice.

Conversely, one who impoverishes his surroundings.

Also one who, while being used by those around him, sweeps them along.

But in the end, he embraces everything and achieves victory…

The hero of light, of radiance.

While he may unilaterally empathize with others, help them, and save someone,

the opposite cannot happen.

Therefore, he is truly a lonely person.

But he too, just as his father met his mother, will find comfort among understanding companions and allies.

He’s someone who has walked a path stained with light from beginning to end.

What dragged him into the shadowy abyss was.

My existence, born so inappropriately and having lived in despair in a dark abyss all along.

My existence was his shadow.

“Elimion. I’m asking you. Only you can do this.”

“…Is there really no other way?”

“Yes.”

I must die.

Only then… can I protect that child.

And only then…

…can I petition to you.

Guide of the Black Star.

To another me who walked the path I should have walked without deviation.

…Because I can plead, if only a little.