Chapter : 178

“Lou!”

“You idiot!”

Lou, who appeared out of thin air, promptly shouted and gave me a powerful body slam.

Thwack!

A sound like something breaking echoed, and my mind went blank for a moment before a sudden, lightning-like realization struck me.

“You, you talked?”

“Huh!? I talked!!”

Even Lou, who had spoken, seemed surprised and jumped back in astonishment.

Hooray! I can talk! I can talk too! After flying around flapping his wings in joy for a moment, Lou calmed his excitement and guessed the reason.

“It seems possible because this is the world of the unconscious!”

After a few more joyful flaps, he slammed into me once more.

Thwack!

This time, he hit my forehead, and I thought it was going to crack.

It hurts like hell! A tear squeezed out of my eye. I rubbed my forehead and shouted.

“That hurts!”

“Master, what kind of terrible demon did you make a contract with!”

“If we’re talking about priority, Albedo came first!”

“No sane person would make a contract with a demon!”

“Uh… but it’s true that he’s helpful.”

“If he wasn’t, I would have broken it long ago!”

Was something like that even possible? Hmph! A small laugh escaped me at the sight of Lou huffing and looking confident.

“But what is this ‘world of the unconscious’?”

“It’s literally a world where only your consciousness is floating around. Spirits also call it the Spirit Realm.”

“The Spirit Realm…?”

It was a desolate landscape, a far cry from the Spirit Realm one would typically imagine.

To think that a place like this was the world of spirits, I looked at Lou in disbelief.

“Really? A place like this?”

“All the spirits are sleeping. The only ones awake right now are me and the one in the Hero’s sword.”

So that’s why there are no Spirit Summoners.

It was the first time I’d heard that all the spirits were asleep.

I was curious about the reason, but Lou seemed not to know that much and just blinked his eyes. Or maybe he couldn’t tell me.

Either way, it probably wasn’t something to worry about. I had a strange conviction that even if not right now, as long as I continued my contract with Lou, I would surely find out.

“Do you happen to know a way to escape?”

“There isn’t one.”

Lou declared firmly.

At the unexpected answer, my body suddenly went limp.

“What do you mean, there isn’t one…?”

Lou lightly attached his body to my forehead and seemed to be assessing something.

“Theo and Theo’s soul have similar wavelengths, but they’re subtly different.”

At those words, my body twitched for a moment.

Regardless of my reaction, Lou remained attached and continued his serious contemplation.

“So, due to excessive shock, your soul was temporarily separated from your body and fell into the Spirit Realm.”

“Is there really no way to go back?”

“When Theo’s body stabilizes, you’ll naturally return, but you’re in a hurry, right?”

“Yes! Totally!!”

At my shout, Lou seemed to ponder endlessly.

“The problem with Theo right now is that his soul and body are subtly different. So, you just have to shave it down.”

“Shave it down…?”

For a moment, I doubted my ears. I felt like I had heard something very ominous.

“Is, is that really the only way?”

“Yes!”

Shave my soul VS wait here until my body recovers.

Was this a deadly choice between two options? It’s too extreme!!

“I’m curious, if I shave my soul once like that, will it keep crumbling?”

“No. Since I’m here, that won’t happen!”

“Will I fall into the Spirit Realm again?”

“Unless it’s a shock close to death, that won’t happen again!”

…I see.

“So I’m fitting my soul to the shape of my body?”

“Yes!”

If it had been Theo’s body, I might have hesitated a bit more.

Even though I’ve been working it hard, if it was a method of fitting something of Theo’s to me, I would have refused without hesitation.

But, if it’s a method of me fitting myself to Theo, it’s fine.

“It’s going to hurt, you know?”

“I’m used to pain.”

I just have to endure it with grit somehow.

At my thumbs-up gesture, Lou’s expression seemed to change slightly. The bird really had an expression.

“Theo is too reckless.”

“Is this a one-or-two-day thing?”

“That’s true.”

“Will there be a day when I can talk to you like this in the future?”

“Yes, when I grow a little more! I’ll be in your care until then, Theo!”

With those words, a bright light burst from Lou’s body.

Along with it, I felt a pain as if my whole body was being torn to shreds.

I clenched my eyes shut amidst the pain of being broken into pieces and then reassembled, as if I had become a puzzle piece.

‘This life… is not easy.’

* * *

“Evan, you’re going ahead?”

Beatrice grumbled as she followed behind Evan.

“You’re the one who shouldn’t be saying unnecessary things.”

“What do you mean, unnecessary? I’m preparing.”

As a professor, I trust my students.

Evan glanced at Beatrice lightly, as if to say, can’t you even do this basic thing?

“I trust my student. But I don’t trust Iris Viden.”

Beatrice declared firmly.

The wariness in her red eyes, which held flames, flickered. It was like a blazing torch.

The witch could no longer trust Iris Viden, who had already crossed the line once.

“I’ll subdue her as soon as we meet, so you know.”

“You’re not killing her, how moderate.”

“Killing is too drastic.”

Beatrice grumbled, then immediately furrowed her brow and aimed her magic staff to one side.

“Show yourself.”

At her cool shout, the one who had hidden their form willingly revealed themselves.

At the appearance of Mordegar, who raised one hand as if to show his surrender, Evan lightly gripped his staff.

“His left hand?!”

As Mordegar’s form was fully revealed, Beatrice, who had confirmed it with her own two eyes, stared in astonishment.

Mordegar, the double of the Master of Gold. Very few knew that he was one of the most skilled staff craftsmen in the Empire, but for an Academy professor, it was impossible not to know.

Because the unidentified craftsman who had made Beatrice’s staff was Mordegar.

But to have blown off the left hand of such a person, who on earth?

The first thing that shocked her was the absence of his left hand, but the next was the battered, blood-soaked appearance of Mordegar.

“How did you end up in that state?”

Evan asked.

Mordin chose the words he ought to say.

“Golden is the culprit who attacked Lucian.”

The quiet declaration swept in like a storm.

As soon as the words were finished, the two professors cast magic on Mordin without hesitation.

Evan used high-level sealing magic along with subduing magic, and Beatrice immediately cast a taboo to prevent him from committing suicide.

“Can you give that testimony in front of His Majesty the Emperor?”

“I will, by all means.”

Beatrice, who had aimed her staff at Mordin’s neck, asked.

Even at her overbearing voice, Mordin answered bluntly without wavering.

“The Master of Gold… has committed a taboo.”

Taboo, at that one word, Beatrice and Evan’s expressions turned serious.

“The testimony can wait. First, we must stop Iris Viden.”

Hearing Mordin’s confession, Beatrice, who had almost dropped her staff from the weakness in her hand, gripped it tightly and muttered.

“Evan, it seems your son has gotten himself into some serious trouble.”

“…Dammit.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he had no choice but to.

* * *

“Your Majesty.”

At the voice calling him, the Emperor, who had been watching the morning arrive outside the window, clenched his fists.

“Yes.”

“Please go in and rest now.”

After Lucian fell, the Emperor had immersed himself in state affairs without a single moment of rest.

Now, even if he left his post for a while, it was unlikely that the situation would suddenly change and put the Empire in danger.

Rather, if the Emperor were to collapse even for a moment and create a vacuum in state affairs, that would be the real danger. But…

“I have an ominous feeling that I shouldn’t rest.”

“Your Majesty.”

At the voice calling him again, the Emperor squeezed his eyes shut.

He recalled a man who had been the starting point of all this.

Theo Lisitoel.

A man with a face that resembled his teacher, but with different eyes.

The teacher’s son who had been lying down for more than half his life, then one day opened his eyes and became the eye of the storm in the events happening around the Hero.

“Perhaps all of this is an extension of that night.”

“Are you concerned about Count Lisitoel?”

At the attendant’s question, the Emperor shook his head.

His faith in his teacher was firm. As long as there were no variables, Count Lisitoel was the one and only human who would stand firm even in the face of this world’s destruction.

“There is nothing as meaningless as worrying about my teacher. Except for Countess Lisitoel.”

Evan Lisitoel, a man like the sun who never worried about anyone and didn’t want to be worried about himself.

The only human who treated the man, who was more like a monster than a person, as an ordinary person and loved him was Countess Lisitoel.

There was a big commotion at the time because the wife of the prestigious Lisitoel Count family was a mercenary.

He vividly remembered how surprised people were when it became known that the Count, who was like ice, would smile particularly brightly in front of his wife, and had become a professor at the Academy not for any other reason but on his wife’s advice.

When she died, Leonald, who was not yet the Emperor, worried that his teacher might die just like that.

Because the Count, right after the Countess died, looked so empty that he no longer seemed to have the will to live.

What saved the Count was surely not the honor and wealth of the family, but his one and only son, Theo Lisitoel.

If things went wrong now and Theo Lisitoel were to die…

“The Empire might lose Evan Lisitoel.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Such a catastrophe must not happen. Therefore, I, too, must do my best.”

Just then, a bright light shone in his crystal ball.

“Professor Velfiaar.”

The Emperor, who had already been informed that Evan and Beatrice had left to track the communication magic, called her calmly.

Did contacting him like this mean she had found something?

The Emperor, feeling a slight sweat break out on his palms from tension, quietly waited for his subordinate’s report.

[Your Majesty, we must contact the Church of Light immediately.]

“What?”

He had not yet informed the Church about Lucian.

He had judged it right to keep it a secret because the Hero falling at the Emperor’s party could become the Emperor’s mistake, and they would have agreed…

[It’s a taboo. Iris Viden, the true Master of Gold, is trying to become a monster that will destroy the world.]

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