Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 529

529.

I blinked slowly. As my blurry vision cleared, the surrounding scenery gradually came into view. Where am I? I was definitely in the plains just a moment ago, but now I was indoors. The messy desk and the small reception area in one corner looked familiar, as if I had seen them somewhere before.

Bang! Just then, someone burst through the door. I flinched at the loud noise, then was surprised to see a familiar face.

“El! We’re in big trouble!”

“…Chris?”

I asked blankly, then felt a sense of unease and looked around again. The scenery was familiar because it was inside the guild’s administration office. Why am I here? Where’s Kanos? What was everything I’ve seen so far? I don’t even know how much time has passed. I think I’m awake, but my head is still fuzzy.

“What’s going on? Why is Chris here? No, why am I here?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Anyway, that’s not the problem. There’s chaos outside right now!”

“Chaos?”

“Princess Anais is dead!”

…What?

I raised my head blankly. Chris’s face, full of shock and excitement, was clearly visible.

“Minerva murdered Princess Anais, they say!”

My mouth opened on its own. I don’t understand what this all means. Based on what I’m seeing, there’s only one possible explanation. This is the final scene, the past I knew. But…

“That was all an illusion.”

“What are you talking about?” Chris asked, bewildered. I looked at his face and slapped both cheeks hard with my palms. A tingling sensation spread, and I became a little more alert. This isn’t a dream. This is really happening. I raised my head again and looked at Chris, who was frozen in embarrassment.

“What year is it now?”

“Huh? What?”

“How long has Ain Idris been guarding Princess Anais?”

“Uh, well… Hasn’t it been about two years? It’s definitely been more than a year. No, but that’s not important right now…”

Two years. All the strength drained from my body. Chris, surprised, rushed over and supported me as I staggered.

“El, what’s wrong with you? Are you okay?”

“This can’t be happening…”

This shouldn’t be happening. It absolutely shouldn’t be happening. I reached out and grabbed Chris’s sleeve tightly. He was dragged along powerlessly and gasped in surprise.

“Where is it?”

“Wh-what?”

“Where did the princess die?!”

I ran out, almost sprinting. Hadn’t the employees who witnessed the situation reported it? The front of Ain Idris’s mansion, the scene of the incident, was already crowded with reporters and onlookers. Knights, both Royal Guard and Autonomous Guard, surrounded the mansion, preventing people from entering. “You can’t go in!” “What’s that?” “Stop them now!” I brushed off the hands of those trying to stop me and ran inside. Passing through the garden and into the mansion, I saw people surrounding one of the halls. The knights there turned around in surprise.

“Who are you?”

“Who told you to come in here?”

“Wait, isn’t that Hunter El?”

“Ah, that Sword Saint…”

Ignoring the voices from all directions, I continued to move forward. The path gradually opened, and I finally reached my destination. A man was holding a fallen woman and crying.

“Anais. Anais? Please open your eyes. Please open your eyes. Ah, no. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening…”

The sobbing black-haired man was Ain Idris. No breath could be felt from the princess in his arms. She really was dead. Suppressing the ache in my chest, I turned my gaze. A pure white being stood like a stone statue a little further away. It was Minerva. Surrounded by restraining knights, his face was as stiff as the dead princess.

“We must clean up the scene now,” one of the knights said to Ain Idris, who was crying.

Only then did Ain Idris raise his head and look back at Minerva with tearful eyes.

“Why!” A scream that sounded like it was scraping his throat erupted as he lunged forward.

“Why did you kill this poor woman? Why! Why you!”

Ain Idris, his eyes full of blood vessels, was clearly out of his mind. Minerva’s expression crumbled.

“Ain, I… I wanted to help you.”

“Help me? Is this how you help me?”

“The princess seemed to be causing you too much pain. I thought it was a pain that wouldn’t end unless she died. I just wanted you to not be in pain anymore.”

The murmuring grew louder. Ain Idris screamed as if having a seizure. The nearby knights tried to stop him, but everyone had to back down because his momentum was so fierce.

“That wasn’t my true feeling!”

“True feeling… you say?”

“I came to love Anais! I wanted you to know that! I wanted you, the Spirit King, to understand it first! Human Anais knew it, but why didn’t you know it!”

Minerva’s pupils shook greatly. Even while seeing the clear agitation on his face, Ain Idris did not stop.

“You’re the Spirit King! You’re the great being who governs this world! Didn’t you really know that my heart was leaning towards her? Anais, a human, knew it, but why didn’t you know it!”

“No! You actually knew it, didn’t you! You killed her because you knew! You killed her because you knew! You wanted to help me? You wanted me not to be in pain? Don’t talk nonsense! You’re always like this! You always look down on everything and control me as you please! You pretend to care about me, but you’ve never granted me what I really want even once!”

Ain Idris, crawling as if pouncing, grabbed Minerva’s shoulder tightly. He screamed like an evil spirit, wailing as if spitting blood.

“You came to ruin me!”

Minerva’s frozen face turned pale white.

“You ruined everything for me!”

“Stop it!”

I couldn’t watch any longer, so I rushed in and forcibly pulled Ain Idris away. His ghostly, hollow face turned to look at me.

“Are you crazy? How could you do that to Minerva…!”

“I’m crazy, of course. Of course, I’m going crazy. How can I not go crazy in this situation?”

“Are you saying that now?”

Strength entered the hand gripping my collar. Ain Idris, staggering as he was being dragged, laughed like a truly insane person. Tears streamed down his eyes.

“Yeah, the great and outstanding El. You’re always amazing. You deeply communicate with spirits and understand them better than anyone else, unlike someone like me.”

“Ha…”

“The world is really easy for you, isn’t it? It must be. You easily achieve everything with just a little effort, and you receive respect and love wherever you go. But not me. Anais was the only one who understood me.”

I was speechless for a moment at the absurd logic. I turned my gaze and looked below his waist. The spirit sword hanging there was revealing its presence even at this moment. Ain Idris’s expression wavered as he realized what I was staring at, but he clenched his teeth again.

“Give Anais back.”

The suppressed voice sobbed like an animal’s moan. The madness filling his bloodshot eyes was clearly visible.

“Give Anais back! Bring her back to life! You die too, Minerva! You’re the one who should die! I curse you, Minerva! Noble Spirit King? Ruler of the Wind? Give it all to the dogs! Someone like you is just a demon! Disappear most tragically in eternal pain!”

Before I could even finish thinking, my fist shot out. Ain Idris, who was hit in the face and fell back, crashed to the floor and slumped there. The people who screamed looked at me with horrified faces. Ignoring the pouring gazes, I turned to look at Minerva and gasped at the sight. Minerva, standing quietly, was crying.

“Minerva.”

There was no reaction to the call. My heart sank at his empty eyes. What should I do? What should I do now? I had to tell him not to pay attention to such nonsense, but it wouldn’t reach him. It wasn’t a wound that could be comforted with a few words. I couldn’t stop him from getting hurt.

As I forcibly clenched my sweaty palms, Minerva’s empty gaze turned somewhere. I turned my head following that gaze and paused. Among the people surrounding us in a chaotic manner, I saw one person standing calmly. A boy with dark black hair and golden eyes. It was Trowel. He was also staring at Minerva. Amidst all the chaos, only the two of them were quiet. It was as if time had stopped only between them.

It was Trowel who averted his gaze first this time as well. So, it ended like this after all. I couldn’t tell who the words he mouthed with his eyes lowered were directed at.

“I think you’ll have to come with us first.”

The Royal Guard knights, who had been hesitating, approached. They looked very hesitant, perhaps embarrassed to apply the laws of human society to the Spirit King. I turned to look at Minerva, who was still unresponsive, and hardened my face. A faint wind was blowing from his body. He was the Spirit King of Wind, but he didn’t usually affect his surroundings. But now, a breeze was definitely blowing around him. No matter how I looked at it, it wasn’t a normal air current.

“Minerva?”

He didn’t seem to be aware of what was happening to him. The building, affected by the air current, began to shake. Even the people who didn’t know anything about it sensed the unusual atmosphere and cowered.

“Wh-what is it?”

Fearful gazes reached Minerva. The wind surrounding him was already forming a clear spiral that was visible to the eye. The whirlwind, which started from under his feet, gradually wrapped around his body and rose to the top of his head. Minerva’s figure, swallowed in it, gradually began to blur, as if he didn’t know how to form a shape.

The Spirit King’s instinct warned me. I couldn’t leave him like this. This was a very dangerous sign. At that moment, all the wind stopped abruptly. The shaking also stopped, and I saw the people who had been wary sighing in relief. I became even more urgent. It wasn’t over. This was just the beginning.

“Minerva! No!”

I reached out towards him. At that moment, everything went white, and a strong shock hit me. Kwaaaang! The explosion that pierced through my head was deafening. Someone pulled me. No, I don’t know. It was as if my body was caught on a hook and being dragged around recklessly. Was my eardrum blown out? Amidst the tearing tinnitus [ringing in the ears], vibrations of unknown origin, whether it was people’s screams or the sound of buildings collapsing, were buzzing.

“El?”

I think I lost consciousness for a moment. When I came to my senses, a familiar face was looking down at me.

“…Father?”

Eluien, who appeared in my clearing vision, had a rarely hardened face. His gaze was angry, and even in my dazed state, my body flinched. What, why is he angry?

“Are you okay, young master?”

With the heart of a frog in front of a predator, I only blinked blankly, and then I heard another voice from the side. It was Ifrit. His gaze was also stern, unlike usual.

“This time was really dangerous. No matter how fearless you are, if you felt something was wrong, you should have avoided it. What are you doing getting closer? If Elquines hadn’t snatched you away by a hair’s breadth, your whole body would have been torn to shreds. I’ve never seen Elquines so surprised before. Of course, I was surprised too.”

Ah, come to think of it, was I just caught in an explosion? The situation that I hadn’t been aware of while I was out of my mind began to be understood little by little. Ignoring the chattering, I hurriedly got up. Only then did I see the sight, and my mouth opened on its own. The mansion was completely destroyed. All that was visible were the unsightly exposed building frames and piles of rubble that were crushed and piled up haphazardly. I also saw something that was presumed to be a corpse buried in the debris. They were people who couldn’t avoid the disaster and were caught up in it. It seemed that I was the only one who survived in this place.

“What happened? What… what happened?”

At my bewildered question, Ifrit smiled bitterly and pointed upwards with his finger. I raised my gaze following that direction and opened my mouth. The sky, which had lost its roof and was completely exposed, was all black. Dark darkness, so thick that not a single ray of light could enter, covered the entire place where the sun should have been. Nevertheless, the world spread out below was still bright. It was as if the sky and the earth were reversed.

Minerva was floating on the border where the darkness and light seemed to meet. With his eyes closed as if he had lost consciousness, his appearance was so blurred that he was almost transparent. The wind that started from him was spreading in all directions. It seemed like he was creating the wind, but on the contrary, it also seemed like the power was draining from him.

“Why is Minerva like that…”

“He’s gone berserk.”

“Berserk…?”

My vision went dark at the unbelievable word. Gone berserk. That meant he had lost his reason and completely lost his mind. The wind, having lost control and become ferocious, would begin to destroy this world. At the end of that road, only the extinction of the one who had exhausted all his power remained.

I heard footsteps from somewhere. Unable to collect my confused mind, I turned my head following the sound. There was someone carrying something on their back and walking out from inside the wall that had collapsed and was less than half left. Beneath the black hair fluttering in the wind, I saw an indifferent face that couldn’t be read.

“Trowel…”

Holding my breath quietly, I watched him approach. I thought the shuffling sound was like the ticking of a clock. Eventually, he stopped a little in front of me and dropped what he was carrying on his shoulder in front of me as if throwing it. The thing that fell with a dull sound was, on closer inspection, a person who had lost consciousness. Had he been rescued just before he died? He was in a miserable state, with no part of him intact, but I could recognize who it was. It was Ain Idris.

“The promised deadline has passed, El.”

I raised my gaze again at the following voice. The golden eyes staring at me were filled with a chilling aura and deepened.

“I’m sorry, but I won the bet.”

The voice that was the beginning of this whole process rang out again. I barely suppressed my trembling breath and clenched my fist tightly. I wanted to turn away from everything and close my eyes.

Kanos.

What on earth have you done?