Chapter 171

He closed his eyes tightly and then opened them as the rough breath touched his face.

The bright red eyes reminded him of something he had cherished, but they were filled with obvious hostility.

His arms, crushed under solid hooves, had their nerves compressed to the point where he couldn't move a finger.

They might break again.

Someone dismounted from the black horse that resembled Sleipnir, his horse that was now gone.

Casually dusting off his clothes, he stroked the mane of the horse that was restraining Arenheit and asked.

"I clearly said. Let no one into the office. So how did this happen? Are my servants foolish, or is the Duke foolish?"

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince."

"You don't have to bother answering. It only interferes with my thinking about how to dispose of the Duke."

The perfectly calm tone,

Insensitive red eyes containing neither contempt nor favor for the person before him.

It was the same face he had last seen when he died at Yurik's hands for the first time.

Though that moment gave him chills as it came to mind, Yurik, the root of all evil, added as he flipped his loose strand of hair over his shoulder.

"How brave of you. To come in alone. Shall I hear your purpose for visiting?"

"Well, the servants Your Highness assigned to me were so incompetent that I came to complain, but..."

"Oh? They were incompetent?"

"What servant could be called competent when they can't even get the temperature of bath water right?"

"I think perhaps the Duke is being too picky. Don't you feel sorry for those servants?"

"I wonder. It doesn't seem like something I should say to those who watched my room all day and tattled to Your Highness. Did reports go in about how many times I bathed as well?"

"You already knew? Quite quick."

"Considering Your Highness's disposition, I imagine someone was also assigned to my servant who went to the townhouse."

"I dislike the Duke most when you act clever."

"I feel disgusted each time Your Highness does things like this."

Of course, he had expected Yurik to plant eyes and ears everywhere.

In fact, he hadn't thought that Yurik would have placed someone to watch Arndt, who was staying at the townhouse... but he realized it when he saw Arndt had deliberately put the letter inside the snowman's body.

Even private matters were all being monitored.

It was absolutely impossible to convey news through normal methods.

Since all letters and items were censored, the best way to maintain security was to convey messages verbally through people.

That was why he had deliberately sent Verde back to the townhouse.

Arndt was quick-witted, so he would find a way to deliver the request to the Information Guild without being discovered.

Yurik laughed slyly.

"Even if you've noticed, nothing will change. Duke, shall we speak frankly and sincerely, baring our true feelings?"

"Go ahead."

"I would like the Duke to stay quietly in the royal palace as much as possible. I don't particularly intend to do anything to you, but instead, I need you to be here so that I can work comfortably."

"You're not telling me what work it is, just asking me to stay here?"

"Would that not be acceptable? For my sake, at least."

For his sake or whatever, did he think Arenheit would readily agree?

Was he insane?

"To be honest, that would be quite difficult."

"That's disappointing to hear. Why?"

"Since Your Highness has become truthful, I'll tell you this, Crown Prince. I roughly know what Your Highness is thinking."

"Hooh."

"I dare say that whatever Your Highness decides to do with me, what will happen will happen. And what won't happen, won't."

What will happen will happen.

That was the framework of this world, the script for the stage where blood and flesh ran rampant.

Whether he died here or survived, Leandros would come to Yurik.

And from that point, this world would earnestly rush toward destruction.

No, perhaps.

"There's a fishy smell."

"A fishy smell?"

"Yes. I smell the sea, Your Highness. Your shoes seem to be wet."

At his words, Yurik looked down.

As Arenheit had suggested, Yurik's shoes were slightly wet. On the carpet beneath his feet, there were faint dark footprints.

"Ah."

Yurik muttered without emotion.

Arenheit had seen the sea with Yurik only once.

A small boat, the corpse of a boatman who had died knowing nothing, pouring seawater and rough whirlpools, and a deity sleeping in the trench.

He couldn't help but laugh. He wasn't sure why it was funny.

Perhaps the predetermined end was about to begin now.

Yurik must have offered a part of himself in the south that Arenheit hadn't visited. And he would have returned after confirming that the deity had awakened from its long sleep.

Soon, the disaster in the south would be known throughout the kingdom.

Not only to major cities and villages but also to Leandros who was wandering between them.

"It seems you've already made up your mind."

"Did the Duchess tell you? Or is it your power? The future you saw through the revelations Hartmann possesses?"

"Whichever it is, it's not relevant to Your Highness now, is it?"

Yurik slowly rolled up his left forearm.

On the white arm revealed beneath his shirt, blood had dried. No wound was visible.

It was smooth skin without even a scar.

"For a long time, I've been aware that I'm different from you all. I have closer affinity with demonic beast species than humans, and I can hear the voices of ancient ones calling from beneath the earth."

Yurik had revealed his identity to Arenheit in a previous timeline.

He was a monster.

He who enshrined the portrait of a blasphemous deity and called it 'Father' was already twisted in the head, unlike his appearance.

Yurik continued naturally as he looked at his arm and then lowered his sleeve again.

"I found the reason in my birth. I understood all the phenomena that happened to me. I found a purpose for my existence and planned for a very long time. I offered cooperation to your biological mother, but she refused."

"Cooperation?"

"She seemed to have already seen something through her revelations. What about you? What did you see at the end?"

"I..."

"No. You don't have to say. I feel like my mood would only sour if I heard it."

Through their conversation, he wanted lost puzzle pieces to appear one by one.

Yurik longed for his father.

Because of that, he was trying to destroy the world. Let's set aside how the two are related.

So he, who had set destruction as his goal, planned to revive demonic beasts and ancient beings.

And through precognition, he tried to borrow Hartmann's power to control demonic beasts or interfere with their ecology.

But the Duchess, having seen the end through her revelations, rejected Yurik's proposal.

That's not all.

As soon as she realized she couldn't stop Yurik, she tried somehow to create a counter to Yurik.

The vessel born that way was Arenheit Hartmann.

One who could understand the voices of demonic beasts and ancient beings,

Whose body was filled with immense magical power,

Hartmann's sacrifice and the world's scapegoat raised to be given to a savior from another world someday.

A world twisted from the beginning, where one couldn't even guess what had gone wrong and when.

In this world, there were no innocent victims.

All beings had been heading toward destruction since birth, and no one could depart from the fate that rushed madly forward.

Life is suffering, and suffering is life. In this world, every living being that gained life inevitably had to face destruction and pay the price.

Why on earth was the worldview like this?

He answered in an almost choked voice.

"No matter what happens to me, he, Leandros, will come to visit Your Highness."

"Indeed. Duke, your very existence confirms his purpose. I'm jealous of that fact."

"Your Highness..."

"And while you've been talking back to me so properly, I've been thinking a bit more, and it seems that to resolve this jealousy, inflicting moderate hardship on you won't be enough."

"Your Highness."

"I wish you were dead."

"Yurik den Menadia!"

As soon as he shouted, the hoof pressing on his arm applied even more force.

Yurik looked down at Arenheit, who was struggling wildly under the horse, and snapped his fingers.

"Say hello to my horse. It's a species called Biaki. A demonic beast that lives in the abyss of space adjacent to Aldebaran. It's loyal to its contractor, but quite fierce to other humans."

"What are you trying to do now?"

"We just returned from the south. Running on the southern tidal waves seems to have made my horse quite tired."

The face of Biaki, which had taken the form of a horse, was slowly changing.

No, it wasn't just the face. The shadow that formed its body was flowing away, revealing the hidden essence beneath.

Thin antennae from the head of Biaki, which had an even larger body than Sleigh, touched Arenheit's face as if sensing it.

Yurik smiled.

"It seems to like the smell of your blood."

Biaki opened its long snout.

Although resembling the tusks of a wild boar, the teeth, longer and thinner, gleamed dangerously.

One bite might kill him outright.

Moreover, dying at the hands of Yurik's demonic beast meant he couldn't be revived.

To regress once more from here?

To endure that suffering again, the bones breaking and flesh being torn?

No. He couldn't do it again. He couldn't do such a thing again.

This time, he had really done well. He had endured even when his limbs were torn by pig-humans. He had persevered even when he had given his body to Aphoom-Zhah and lay down with every bone in his body cracked.

He had maintained his status as a supporting character. He had helped Leandros gain strength. He had earned money so that everyone could travel without worry. Even when Sleipnir was taken from him, he had not resisted, thinking it was the fate of a supporting character. He hadn't gone against the story!

Please, please, please!

-Kiiiiiek!

"Worshipper!"

Biaki neighed loudly and raised its forelegs.

On the foot where thick blood vessels were visible, solid ice was climbing up the leg with a cracking sound.

Looking down quickly, he saw the snowman, which had been hiding in the folds of his clothes and had rolled out, struggling and shouting.

"Get up! Worshipper! Hold on long? Impossible!"

"Aphoom-Zhah!"

"Worshipper! Run! Run!"

If he was going to run, now was the only time.

Instinctively, he grabbed the snowman and ran.

His shoulder and arm felt as if they would split, but he couldn't pay attention to that.

The servants standing nearby screamed because of the office door that suddenly burst open with a bang.

A shout was heard from behind.

"Catch the Duke!"

He had to escape. But where to?

Not even knowing the full structure of the royal palace, he ran, tightly holding Aphoom-Zhah.

Aphoom-Zhah squawked.

"That one, not human! Not human! Run away! Worshipper, go to north!"

"How can I go to the north now! The best is to escape the castle!"

Recalling the memory of when he first entered the palace, he dashed through the maze-like corridors.

Left, right, then left again after turning.

Running aimlessly toward the outside, he found himself in a place like a small garden.

As it was presumed to be one of the many gardens managed by the royal palace, even he didn't know much about it.

While looking around, Aphoom-Zhah extended its arm.

"Worshipper! That way!"

"If I cross over there, can I get out?"

At the far end of the garden, a wall covered with vines was barely visible.

It wasn't a height that could be easily crossed, but there wasn't a suitable escape route either.

He placed the snowman on his shoulder and began climbing the wall.

His hands were trembling, and his shoulder felt as if it would tear, but he endured forcibly.

He inserted his fingers between the gaps in the stones, ignored his nails turning over, and climbed bit by bit.

First, he would return to the townhouse. He would ask Verde and Arndt to prepare a carriage so they could leave immediately.

It would be best if he could evade Yurik and reach the ducal residence, but if that was difficult, joining Leandros's party would be most desirable.

Leandros wouldn't just watch him die.

Fortunately, because the wall was made by stacking stones one by one, he could somehow place his feet.

When he finally reached near the top of the wall and precariously sat astride it.

A sharp, whistling sound brushed past his ear.

His shoulder suddenly felt lighter as something fell below the wall.

The round, white snowman was falling to the ground.

He saw an arrow that had pierced the snowman's head.

A chilling intuition struck him. The target of that arrow was.

And in the very next moment, with the second whistling sound, his back was violently pushed.

Instantly losing balance and falling below the wall, the last sound he heard was only one.

-Thud.

It was the sound of death he had tried so hard to avoid.