Due to the Tularik massacre, the remnants of Albino were driven into Lubak’s domain.

As soon as Luca heard the news, he immediately sneaked into Lubak Castle.

“Young master! No matter what, us three entering the enemy base is too much!”

“What are you talking about? I’m going alone.”

“Young master?!”

Of course, when Bella heard that Luca was going alone, she vehemently objected.

“Calm down. I have a plan.”

Luca’s plan was simple.

“No matter how strong I am, fighting all the remnants of Albino by myself is impossible.”

“But as we saw with Bizen, if Whistle and I use the power of the cloud to conceal ourselves, they can’t sense our presence either.”

“With that power, if I only burn the bodies of Count Lubak’s people, Albino will be paralyzed.”

Contextually, Count Lubak and his family were likely already dead.

They were just being forced to move by White Noise to avoid the eyes of state authorities.

“If we can just prove that they’ve disappeared, the Imperial family will send people to investigate the circumstance of the Lubak family’s annihilation.”

“They’ll probably send a special force directly under the Imperial house.”

“In that case, even Albino has no chance of survival on this continent.”

“If we can just prove that they’ve disappeared, the Imperial family will send people to investigate the circumstance of the Lubak family’s annihilation. They’ll probably send a special force directly under the Imperial house. In that case, even Albino has no chance of survival on this continent.”

Bella expressed doubt at Luca’s plan.

“But young master, isn’t Tularik alone already enough to destroy Albino?”

“It has been so far. But that person hasn’t shown themselves yet.”

“That person…?”

Bella tilted her head, and Luca pointed a finger at his own head.

“The leader of Albino. Ravinia Way. Even Tularik couldn’t do anything about her.”

“She’s that strong?”

“Strength is part of it, but if she absorbs even a single person, Albino will break through Tularik’s encirclement and escape.”

If even one person is absorbed and she steals their power and information, she’ll know Tularik’s weaknesses.

In that case, strength doesn’t matter.

She can just use their weak points and escape.

“Unless it’s someone special-forces level directly under the Imperial house, someone will inevitably fall. And if that happens, everything we’ve worked for is lost.”

“That’s… true…”

Bella groaned and nodded, then started complaining again.

“Even so, it’s too dangerous for you to go alone! Wouldn’t it be safer if I went with you?”

“That would probably be even more dangerous.”

She tried to protest, but Luca quickly continued.

“Not me—the other one.”

“…?”

Luca pointed to Ottbo.

Ottbo made a sour face as if to say, “Me?”

“When it’s time to escape after burning the corpses, I’ll need to use his auto-carriage. That means he should be hiding as close to the castle as possible, but, Bella, would you leave him to hide there alone?”

“That’s…”

Indeed, leaving Ottbo alone near the castle, crawling with Albino’s remnants, seemed too risky.

“You always put the escape route in the hands of the most trustworthy person. Bella, I know you’ll guard my escape path well.”

Though she wasn’t fully satisfied, Bella finally looked convinced.

“Fine… But if it gets dangerous, you must run away at once!”

“I promise.”

And so, Luca headed to Lubak Castle alone.

* * *

‘Something’s strange…’

When Luca entered Lubak Castle, he was startled by how different things seemed from what he had imagined.

Naturally, he thought Albino’s members would be busily preparing to escape.

Staying in the southern region in these circumstances would be idiotic.

Anyone could see it would be better to move their base to another country or region.

But inside the castle, it was quiet.

No, it was silent.

‘Why is there no one here?’

He could sense traces of people, but there was no one in sight.

“Whistle. Can you sense White Noise?”

Luca whispered to Whistle, who was concealed with him using the power of the cloud.

Whistle lifted her head.

“Yes. It’s concentrated up there!”

“Hm. Lead the way, please.”

“Got it!”

Since he was focusing on hiding their presence, he couldn’t put lightning in his eyes, so he left guidance to Whistle.

Whistle cheerfully took the lead, guiding him to the count’s office.

As they approached the office, people began to appear.

But they all had faces as if they were entranced by something.

Following Whistle into the office,

Luca nearly lost his concentration and broke the cloud concealment.

‘Urgh!’

The scene before his eyes was so revolting his arms broke out in goosebumps.

Churrrk! Churk!

White Noise was pouring out from the body of each member, being sucked into a young girl.

The person who had lost White Noise dried up like a mummy, then crumbled to dust.

“Ugh… uh…”

The girl receiving White Noise looked to be struggling.

It looked as though Albino’s members were torturing a young girl.

Seen this way, it was a disgustingly revolting scene.

But Luca quickly realized who the girl was.

― She looked like she had albinism: white hair and skin covering her whole body.

― Very long hair down to her hips and thick, striking eyelashes.

― Except for her red irises, everything else was as white as snow.

― Oddly, though she was the leader of a vast group called Albino, she wore a tattered robe.

― Her name was Ravinia Way.

― The albino disaster, boss of Albino.

The descriptions bubbled up in his mind.

‘It’s been years and the description is still exactly the same.’

Long hair down to her hips, thick eyelashes,

and a robe like a rag.

She looked exactly as she would a few years in the future.

‘But… one thing isn’t coming to mind.’

Before coming here, Luca had checked the original story on his phone for the appearance of Ravinia.

That included the descriptions above, but there was also one more.

― Behind her expressionless face, an overflowing madness spilled out unstoppably.

‘But I don’t see anything like madness…?’

Ravinia only had an exhausted expression. He couldn’t feel the abnormal madness described.

Of course, the situation itself was mad, but judging from the absence of the description, she didn’t seem to be exuding that madness.

‘As expected, something’s different.’

Since he encountered her a few years earlier than in the original, perhaps the decisive event hadn’t happened yet.

“… So. The Traverse family, huh.”

“!”

At that, as Ravinia uttered the words “Traverse family”, Luca snapped back to attention.

Before he knew it, only Ravinia and Tron were left in the room.

“I’m sorry! By my rash judgment, I put Albino in danger!”

“It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. It’s just that, once again, the world has abandoned us.”

“…”

Listening to their conversation, Luca couldn’t stop himself from snorting.

‘Are they chuunibyous?’

There shouldn’t be such a thing in this world, but hearing them talk, he got goosebumps for a different reason.

“We’ll have to find a new way to survive. In a cruel world, all we can do is struggle to live.”

“Oh my, a tragic heroine if I ever saw one.”

“Who’s there!”

Eventually, Luca couldn’t hold back and spoke, revealing himself by letting the cloud disperse.

With only those two present, there was no need to be cautious; he could handle a fight.

Besides—

― Contact Ravinia Way. (X)

‘I need to talk to her.’

The hint meant he had to make contact with her one way or another.

Opening the conversation this way wasn’t so bad.

“You’re…!”

“There’s no need to explain who I am, is there?”

Conscious that they might try to attack at any moment, Luca gave Whistle a look and spoke indifferently.

Then Tron said something that threw him for a moment.

“Wylde Traverse!”

“…?”

Come to think of it, as far as they knew, Wylde Traverse was the reason they were attacked.

Coincidentally, Luca and Wylde shared the same hair and eye color, so if one only knew those features, they couldn’t tell them apart.

Luca let out a small laugh and shook his head.

“My name is Luca Traverse.”

“Luca Traverse?”

As Tron frowned in confusion, Ravinia spoke dispassionately.

“So you’re the one who killed Montana and Vasco.”

“!”

At her words, Tron’s eyes widened, and he radiated murderous intent.

“You…!”

“Calm down. If I wanted to fight, I wouldn’t have shown myself like this. Besides, they almost killed me, so I killed them in self-defense. Why should I be blamed?”

“…?”

Tron was thrown into confusion by Luca’s confident words.

They seemed to make sense.

At that moment, Ravinia spoke up.

“The reason doesn’t matter. You killed Montana and Vasco and have been destroying our Albino.”

“Y-Yeah! Ravinia is right!”

Tron hurried to agree with Ravinia.

Luca clicked his tongue.

“We’re having an important conversation, so could you keep her quiet?”

“You bastard!”

“Tron.”

At Ravinia’s quiet voice, Tron shut her mouth.

With him silent, Ravinia spoke.

“Is that good enough?”

“Excellent.”

“I did you a favor, so will you answer my question first?”

Luca nodded at her words.

“Go ahead.”

“Why did you come here alone? Did you think you could defeat us by yourself?”

“Ha. Do I look that foolish?”

Luca smiled faintly. Ravinia still spoke in her flat tone.

“Then why did you come?”

“I had questions of my own to ask. To hear the truth, I thought I had to show the same openness. That’s why I came alone.”

“… Are you serious?”

This time, Ravinia’s voice rose slightly in disbelief.

Luca met her gaze as he replied.

“Is it not enough?”

“…”

Unwavering blue eyes.

Her eyes reflected him like a mirror, making Ravinia feel her doubts were pointless.

And soon she realized Luca’s calculation was correct.

“That’s enough. What do you want to ask?”

Regardless of what happened after—whether they fought or not—she decided she would answer this question sincerely.

That was the least courtesy she could show someone who came here alone.

Luca replied, his tone bland.

“Did you create Paradise?”

“… Paradise.”

At the word “Paradise”, Ravinia’s eyes widened slightly, but then calmed.

She didn’t know how he knew that term, but decided to answer since she had promised.

“I did.”

“I see… So you did, huh…”

Luca wore a slightly bitter expression and placed a hand on his sword hilt.

Since she’d created Paradise, he couldn’t treat her like the other “pre-villain people”.

“For the sake of everyone inside, I can’t die.”

“… Everyone inside?”

At the resolute tone in her voice, Luca thought for a moment, then tilted his head and asked again to confirm.

“Just to be sure, where exactly is Paradise?”

At his question, Ravinia fell silent, then put a hand to her chest and replied.

“Inside my body.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep