Chapter 194

His burning hair color looked like a torch trapped in the midst of bitter ice.

Barefoot and barehanded. The man without any weapons was clearly a civilian.

But he looked far too intact to be a victim trapped in the middle of ice.

Was that person really the being called a wizard that they had only heard about in rumors?

The soldiers behind Yurik unconsciously held their breath and watched the man.

Breaking the tense silence, Yurik spoke.

"Send an envoy."

"A-all the way there?"

"Yes. I don't think that fellow will surrender obediently. But humanitarian procedures are important, aren't they? Right, Sir?"

When Yurik asked, the cavalryman behind him to the right answered.

The cavalryman had too much dignity to be a mere soldier. Wearing armor so white it seemed to gleam and carrying a large sword on his back, he earnestly shone his angelic golden hair and sea-blue eyes.

Yurik couldn't remember his name, but he knew this youngster was leading the Holy Knight Order unit that had joined him.

The blonde knight said.

"You speak correctly. The temple believes that fair opportunities should be given to all."

"Sacred equality indeed."

Yurik smiled faintly.

Though they were joining hands now, they would quickly turn their backs later.

He didn't want to do anything that could give the forces threatening royal authority even the slightest handle. The Central Temple wasn't a place that could be easily overturned either, and each soldier trained by the Holy Knight Order was like a powerful weapon that could uniquely oppose demonic beasts.

Meanwhile, a young envoy was prepared.

The envoy, who was terrified and staggering, wore armor that didn't fit his body and made clanking sounds as he ran toward the wasteland.

In some ways, it was almost a comical sight.

To send an envoy to urge surrender when they could clearly see each other from such a distance.

The red-haired wizard, who had been watching the trembling envoy from afar, threw a few words.

The envoy listened briefly, then quickly escaped from the ice's sphere of influence and ran back this way.

Shortly after, the envoy, who was gasping as if he might stop breathing at any moment, returned to Yurik's side and reported.

"Surrender, he says he'll surrender."

"...What?"

"The wizard says he'll surrender. He says it was his mistake to unintentionally frighten the residents... But he says there's a condition."

"A condition?"

"That is."

The envoy gulped.

"The wizard's condition is... a private meeting with Your Highness the Crown Prince. Right now."

* * *

As he stood blankly on the ice imbued with Aphoom-Zhah's power, he eventually saw someone approaching.

Facing the wasteland's wind directly, riding a familiar black horse.

Even while crossing the land where cold embers remained scattered here and there, he showed not the slightest sign of fear.

"Duke. I didn't expect to meet in such a place, but given the circumstances. You understand, don't you?"

"......"

"I don't know when the Duke gained such power, but do you know it was quite reckless?"

"Did you do it?"

"What are you suddenly talking about?"

"'The King in Yellow.' You couldn't possibly be unaware of that name. It was one of the books in the study of the royal palace's office."

The grimoires that had been stuck on the bookshelf in the office he had seen in past lives.

Though the volume of books was vast, he wasn't foolish enough not to remember the yellow book that had particularly stood out among them.

Yurik pretended to be lost in thought for a moment, then answered cheerfully.

"There might have been such a book. Or maybe not. Shall we go back together and check?"

"What was your reason for giving that book? Why did you deliberately make him into Hastur's puppet when you were targeting Leandros?"

"Oh my. Did you already know the contents of 'The King in Yellow'? How surprising. The former Duchess must have taught you."

"Don't deflect and answer."

Yurik smiled mysteriously.

"Shall I personally answer under the assumption that you also know about Hastur? Though there's the reason of diverting him to a world different from here, the biggest reason is that you didn't burn with revenge against me."

"...What are you talking about?"

"You should hate me so that Leandros, who's like your limbs, would follow you. But Duke, what have you done so far? Attempting various acts of self-harm while completely drying up Sir Leandros's patience?"

"In the end, because I didn't come looking for you, Leandros was sent somewhere else."

"That's right. Sir Leandros could only grow if he came outside the castle. In that respect, you weren't much help regarding his motivation."

Yurik was calmly blaming him for Leandros's disappearance.

He knew Yurik was cowardly, but he hadn't expected him to come out like this.

"Where is Leandros now?"

"Why are you pretending not to know when you know everything about Hastur? At least he's not on this earth. He probably became like Cassilda and Camilla, didn't he? ...Until I bring him back, that is."

"You made him like that just for that one thing?"

Cassilda and Camilla.

They were characters appearing in 'The King in Yellow.'

'The King in Yellow' was a two-act play set in some distant star, distant country.

The content of Act 1 was a story created by the citizens of Carcosa guarding the last of a crumbling dynasty and a stranger who came to visit them.

Unlike the sad reality, the story viewed with innocent eyes was quite unique and attractive content that could be evaluated as charming.

But in Act 2, everything was turned upside down. By revealing certain truths, those living in Carcosa met terrible destruction.

Among the citizens of Carcosa were Cassilda and Camilla, and the ending of the two who loved Carcosa didn't change much either.

Looking at it this far, it was an ordinary play's plot.

But if there was one problem.

"...There are no people in Aldebaran, nor in the Hyades cluster, nor in Carcosa. At least there are definitely no human species like Cassilda and Camilla. Hastur 'procured' humans to create the play."

The origin of the roles.

Gods don't know humans.

Just as we cannot create stories that ants would like from an ant's perspective, gods were the same.

But the god called Hastur had the desire to do so, and had goals he wanted to achieve through it.

To present a play to the most prosperous species on a planet, one had to understand that species, but beings called gods couldn't have been essentially constructed that way.

Though they might theoretically know about human ecology, they couldn't understand the emotions of such lowly beings.

So Hastur directly summoned humans.

To his city, to the domain under his authority.

'The King in Yellow' was a record written while observing humans named Cassilda and Camilla trapped in Carcosa.

It wasn't a play created through imagination, but an observation diary that dryly described the songs, joy, despair, and destruction of living humans.

What Yurik had done was send a new 'cast member' to Hastur.

"I thought you wanted to keep him by your side."

"Yes, that's right. You know exactly. I want him to be by my side. And that feeling hasn't changed even now."

"Looking at how you speak... you think you can bring Leandros back."

"Duke, don't equate me with powerless you whose blood hasn't even dried behind the ears yet. Though I may look like this, I've lived quite a long time, so I have several schemes held as collateral."

That would be so. It was natural.

Yurik would have lived dozens of times longer than someone like him.

You could tell just by looking at the amount of grimoires he had collected. Though it might sound strange to say this, Yurik had essentially lived for just one plan he had established until now.

How could he defeat someone who had lived every minute and second only for his own purpose?

The moments when he thought he had found Yurik's weaknesses in the past had actually been accomplished under his deception and black-hearted tolerance.

He had to acknowledge it.

He couldn't defeat him alone.

Without Leandros, Arndt, Amelia, and Russel, he was truly nothing.

Even at this moment when he had accepted Aphoom-Zhah, he couldn't defeat him.

"-Cough."

"See there, Duke. No matter how much you fly and crawl, you can't beat me. I was a bit surprised that you went to the north to borrow divine power, but..."

As solid blood clots and fresh blood dripped onto the ice, they instantly froze.

He looked at the few drops of blood that had splattered on his black feet, then wiped his chin.

Yurik grinned.

"That body, isn't it breaking down?"

His words were correct.

Using the vast magical power dwelling in this body he was borrowing - Arenheit - to borrow divine power, and enduring the burden inflicted while freely wielding the violent divine power were completely different matters.

The reason Leandros had coughed up blood at the end of his past life was also because his body had been overloaded.

If even the protagonist of this world coughed up blood like that, a mere supporting character with a body weakened by repeated regressions couldn't endure the overload.

As Yurik said, he was on the verge of breaking down.

It was like a candle in the wind, but.

"It's not something you need to worry about."

But it was fine.

He had already broken down many times.

Throughout the journey to find Aphoom-Zhah, and while coming here with Aphoom-Zhah, he had been continuously hearing the sound of this body fragmenting.

Still, he wasn't afraid.

What he feared now was only one thing.

"If I die, you'll bring Leandros back. But before that, shall I tell you something?"

"I permit it. Go ahead and chatter all you want."

"Can you assert with certainty that Hastur's touch hasn't reached this world? I could never do so."

Evidence that Hastur was interfering in this world.

The mark on the back of his neck.

His younger brother who had received the yellow cloak.

The faithful believer who revered such a brother as Hastur's avatar - the Hartmann ducal family.

Hero, who had received Hastur's love.

Including her, the ability called 'revelation' that was passed down only in Hartmann.

The past stories the Duchess had written down, the stories of repeating worlds his younger brother had written.

And the power of Hastur he had borrowed and manifested last time - 'scenario.'

In past regressions, Yurik must have realized this truth at least once.

-Perhaps it might just be someone's simple scribbling for fun.

But there was a crucial difference between Yurik and him.

-Though the ending of every story is predetermined, until reaching that ending, I will never give up. Even if this world was created by someone's whim.

He was a resident of this world. From birth, he was already Cassilda and Camilla within the play.

But he was a stranger to this planet and simultaneously a traveler who had come to Carcosa.

He had a place to return to. He knew a world different from here. He had the right to deny this world.

Yurik answered nonchalantly.

"So? Do you think I'll prostrate myself flat before you and reflect on everything I've done until now? I don't care if this is inside some story of Hastur's. I-"

"-You won't give up. Yes, I thought so. Because you're the villain of this world."

Yes. This was good.

If that was the right and duty given to him as a stranger, he would properly deny it.

Whether it was Hastur, Aphoom-Zhah, or gods from other worlds he had never encountered, he would use whatever he could to deny it.

The last words Yurik had tried to say to him in the previous regression, the words he absolutely had to say even while dying, were.

"Yurik. If you don't want to die here and now, draw your sword. Execute the evil wizard before everyone's eyes."

"The reason?"

"-Well, even if I could save everything in the world, I would never save you alone. Didn't you know? I'm a bad wizard."

The thin disguising expression covering Yurik's face cracked.

What showed through the gaps was bewilderment, killing intent, and a trace of curiosity.

"We... definitely met somewhere once. Such an unpleasant sense of déjà vu."

"You still haven't remembered that."

With a slicing sound, a sharply well-honed sword was drawn.

The power of Aphoom-Zhah protecting him grew sharp as pointed ice pillars sprouted everywhere.

There wasn't even a moment for anyone to say anything.

What he could feel was an explosion sound loud enough to make his ears ring, ice spears that instantly grew from the ground and shot toward Yurik,

And the frost-like coldness that pierced his heart in one blow.

Beyond the shattered ice, the dying Yurik overlapped with Yurik's face staring at him.

-Because you couldn't save me alone.

His body collapsed onto the ice crystal dirtied with blood.

His vision briefly went black,

And the desolate landscape he had seen sometime before filled his eyes.