Chapter 285

The rain stopped.

“What a sight is this?”

Kerenneus said.

“What on earth must have happened for you to become like this, you foolish Debius?”

“…Shut up, you sly Caseptus….”

Deballo answered.

He and Kerenneus called each other by their names from a thousand years ago.

Kerenneus did not stop at pouring out words of contempt but even clicked his tongue openly.

“Can you get up?”

“…No….”

Deballo Debius was in a horrific state.

He was still the ‘Last General’, in the form of a steel lion walking on two feet.

However, both his arms and both his legs were gone, only a portion of his upper body remained, and more than half of his head was missing.

If the whole was 100, perhaps only about 17 remained.

Yet, he spoke perfectly fine, proving that a Man-God is a bizarre existence.

“…I was almost extinguished. A hair’s breadth….”

Deballo muttered.

“…Yes, it was a hair’s breadth.”

He absentmindedly rambled.

His eyes looked somewhat possessed.

Because the fight just before was too fierce, because it was a pitched battle of a weight that made even a thousand years feel light, and because he simply couldn’t grasp the fact that such a fight had come and gone.

“…Just, just, just slightly… right, if it had been off by that much….”

His rambling even resembled regret.

“…I would have lost.”

“Did the opponent.”

Kerenneus did not hide his lack of interest.

His eyes were dry and sharp.

“Die?”

“…He died.”

Deballo Debius glanced at the floor with his one remaining eye.

Soot remained there.

The meager soot, the residue that didn’t even become ash, was all the evidence that Amethus Aretion had existed.

“Was that so.”

“It was so.”

Amethus couldn’t even leave a corpse.

He just turned into a jade-colored flame and disappeared.

The Ancient Weapon along with him.

“Amethus Aretion…. He was the best human I met in a thousand years…. He will probably be the best from now on, too….”

“Hmph.”

The old man resembling an eagle sneered.

He was dressed in the fashion of an old noble, wrapped entirely in white cloth even in the mountains.

He looked very uncomfortable walking but walked well nonetheless.

Yet, he never stained his clothes.

Because he is not a human but a god, the ‘Last Minister’.

“How undignified. Why do you get softer with each passing day, you bastard? Don’t you have any intention of acting your age?”

“I got softer because I grew old.”

“Having lived for over a thousand years, you must be more than mushy, you must be melting away.”

Kerenneus glared at Deballo.

Deballo was regenerating slowly, very slowly.

Twitching intestines and attaching blood vessels could be seen through the severed cross-section.

Kerenneus, the scrawny old man, snapped.

“Take a rest and return, Debius.”

“Thank you for your concern, Caseptus.”

Kerenneus began to walk.

Deballo, who was watching the scrawny old man’s back, mumbled with his mouth.

He seemed to try to say something but couldn’t easily get the words out.

But eventually, he couldn’t let Kerenneus get any farther, so he opened his mouth.

“……Kerenneus.”

“What?”

“Are you going to retrieve him?”

“I came here to do so. You know that.”

The scrawny old man gave a sharp look.

He, the ‘Last Minister’, could pierce through and see far with his bird-of-prey eyes flashing.

He discovered a wounded, panting soul not far away, one that was once like a mighty flame but was now almost extinguished.

It was Shion’s.

“…Will you kill him?”

“I must kill him.”

Kerenneus answered without hesitation.

“Didn’t His Majesty the Great Emperor tell us to do as we please?”

“…Hey, can I ask you a favor?”

“A favor?”

The old man turned his head sharply as if surprised.

“You, asking me?”

“Yes, a favor.”

“No.”

Kerenneus’s tone was utterly cold.

“I refuse, your favor!”

“…You won’t even listen?”

“Because I know exactly what the favor is without listening!”

In a thousand years, Deballo Debius had never asked Kerenneus for a favor.

And now, a favor at a time like this!

Kerenneus shuddered, but Deballo continued speaking, ignoring him.

“…That bastard, the Last Aretion, said this before he died.”

“I said I’m not listening!”

“Please, save his master.”

He said it after all, the damned bastard. Kerenneus muttered.

Deballo continued.

“To say those words… at the end… if it weren’t for those words, he might have been the one to win…….”

“Ha!”

Kerenneus ground his teeth.

He finally strode back the way he came and squatted in front of Deballo.

And then he poked Deballo’s body with his finger.

Deballo did not hide his displeasure.

“…Don’t touch me.”

“Are you really Debius? Am I seeing things wrong? You’re old, too old! To ask for such a favor!”

“I ask this of you, Caseptus.”

“…….”

Kerenneus’s face hardened immediately.

He rolled his eyes, measured something for a long time, and then clicked his tongue with a very unpleasant look.

“……Tsk!”

He is cold-blooded.

His already cold blood had virtually frozen over from living a thousand years.

Kerenneus is a man who doesn’t even show affection to his own kin, but since Deballo, his evil companion of a thousand years, asked such a favor, it was too difficult to refuse any further.

“I will ask His Majesty the Great Emperor.”

***

“What sight is this, again.”

Kerenneus said.

“I am seeing many rare sights today. Although I didn’t particularly want to see them.”

The scrawny old man had a relaxed attitude, as if he had just come out for a stroll.

He was still wearing white cloth without a single stain.

The crunching sound of his steps was distinct.

“Prince Zionis.”

Kerenneus pulled up the corner of his mouth.

There was a small gap between the rocks.

It was covered by tree branches and wasn’t easily visible, but it looked like an animal’s den.

Groans and heavy breathing could be heard from inside.

The wounded man was there.

“A cramped den suits Your Highness well.”

“…….”

I glared at Kerenneus, burrowed in the den.

I was trembling.

Even if I tried not to tremble, I couldn’t help but tremble.

My wounded body had lost all its body temperature from the rain.

Even though not a single bit of strength to live remained, the blue eyes directed at Kerenneus held fierce hatred.

I lost everything.

My vitality, my will, and my conviction were all shattered, yet seeing Kerenneus made a flame try to rise again.

Because most of the loss I experienced was Kerenneus’s fault.

“First, let me inform you.”

Kerenneus said in an arrogant voice.

“Your Highness’s subordinate… what was his name, the lump of flesh from Arete Island… anyway, that fellow is dead. He vanished without a trace, leaving behind only soot. He couldn’t even leave a piece of a corpse.”

…Ah. I let out a painful sigh.

I already knew.

I couldn’t help but already know that Amethus would be dead.

But I kept looking away because I didn’t want to accept it, I had just pushed it to the back of my mind, but Kerenneus shoved the truth I wanted to avoid right in front of my eyes.

I felt my chest constrict again.

No, it wasn’t a feeling; it was actually constricting.

If it weren’t, my breathing wouldn’t be this ragged.

My chest was hollow and empty without a heart, just a shell remained, yet breathing was so agonizing.

“I will not stop you if you want to run away further.”

Kerenneus looked at me with eyes as if looking at a stone.

“However, both the West and the Empire are looking for Your Highness. The area must already be filled with soldiers, and your body is already a mess…. It is easier for me if you just accept your fate eventually.”

“……Are you going to kill me?”

“Wouldn’t I have to? Your Highness tried to bring down Cordis, didn’t you?”

The old man’s bird-of-prey eyes flashed.

“So, of course, I must kill you, but….”

A Tsk sound was heard.

“…I received a clumsy favor.”

Amethus asked Deballo for a favor.

Deballo conveyed that favor to Kerenneus.

To save Shion.

Kerenneus was very displeased but eventually couldn’t break Deballo’s persistence.

“That being the case, I cannot just save you either. I also need a justification to save Your Highness, so I considered what to do.”

The old man stroked his chin.

“So, how about this, Prince Zionis?”

Kerenneus strode forward and stood in front of me.

I lifted my eyes filled with hatred and tried to stand up.

But I couldn’t stand up at all and only gasped roughly for air.

Kerenneus wrinkled his nose as if amused.

“Beg, Your Highness.”

The ‘Last Minister’ looked down at the Regressor Prince.

“Beg me to save you. Then I will specially save you.”

***

“What are you doing?”

Kerenneus did not hide his contempt and ridicule.

He looked at me with the utmost pity, as if I were something dirty.

That gaze was correct.

The current Shion was the most wretched and foolish person.

The arrogant person who only thought he was right, the one who acted as if he was omniscient and omnipotent but failed, the one who couldn’t even stand up when several people had sacrificed themselves for him!

“…….”

There was a simmering sound from my chest.

It was the hunchback.

The hunchback had completely collapsed and was dying after being stabbed by the dagger Ashkal.

Yet, the sound of its wailing was too clear.

That bastard, Shion! That bastard!

Kerenneus is the one who plotted that operation on the day Poesia died!

Don’t you know!

He is the mastermind!

Great Emperor Continua’s most ruthless right-hand man!

‘I….’

I gritted my teeth.

However, I didn’t even have the strength to grit my teeth and soon trembled again.

Kerenneus was my enemy.

He was the person who took the most precious things from me before the Regression.

To have to beg such a person was something I absolutely could not tolerate.

The hunchback inside my chest, even while dying, wailed that it could not tolerate that.

It shouted at the top of its lungs, asking who let Poesia die.

‘……I…….’

The sky had cleared up before I knew it.

The rain wasn’t falling.

The sky was sunny, making me feel I couldn’t dare to live any longer.

I just felt like resting now.

‘…Should I live longer.’

‘Your Highness.’

A voice that shouldn’t be heard seemed to be heard.

‘Just try to live, please.’

Please just try to live for now.

Be a little greedy.

Amethus is dead.

There’s no way he would whisper to me.

Yet, why is it so clearly heard?

I eventually closed my eyes tightly.

“………….”

And then, I moved my body with difficulty.

Soon, I knelt.

I knelt before the Cordis Prime Minister, the thousand-year-old Man-God ‘Last Minister’.

Even though he was the person I hated the most, I knelt and bowed my head.

“…Give… me….”

Kerenneus looked down at me as if he couldn’t believe it.

Watching me kneel and beg him, he was dumbfounded and asked.

“Ha?”

“…Save… me….”

“Ha-!? Is that Shion!”

Kerenneus shouted.

“The Hero of the West! The Man of Miracles! Is it really you, Shion of Merion, who dared to bring down the Millennium Empire?”

“…….”

“I only see a mere bug!”

“……Kerenneus, I……”

I smiled.

No, I tried to smile.

However, it just became a sad face.

Even trying hard to smile, I couldn’t smile, and imitating a smile couldn’t become a smile, so it was just a grotesque sight.

Wrinkles ran in streaks across my fine face.

Sadness dripped from every furrow.

“……I must live. Save me.”

***

“Ha.”

Kerenneus shook his head.

“Ha! Ha, well I’ll be!”

The old man was dumbfounded.

It was because he hadn’t imagined that Shion would break his pride this much.

“…I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it. How can such a person be His Majesty’s bloodline.”

Kerenneus looked at the air and asked.

“You heard everything, what should I do, Your Majesty the Great Emperor?”

He nodded his head, “Yes, yes,” toward the air.

The other party was, needless to say, Great Emperor Continua.

“Yes.”

Kerenneus, who was talking, opened his eyes wide.

“Yes?”

The scrawny old man was surprised as if he would jump up immediately.

To see the ‘Last Minister’, who usually shows no emotional fluctuations, surprised multiple times in one day, was a rare sight that could rarely be seen.

“Y-yes…!?”

Kerenneus stammered.

“You said you will come yourself, travel by yourself…? To this place?”

I involuntarily listened to Kerenneus’s words.

“…Is it that surprising? It is surprising! You haven’t left the Empire in the last half-century, have you! Yes, yes, then around when… Y-yes?”

Kerenneus abruptly turned his head.

“…You are coming now, Your Majesty!”

“I am already here, Caseptus.”

“……Oh……!”

The scrawny old man hastily lowered his posture.

Another old man appeared in the mountains.

It was impossible to know how he appeared.

Kerenneus just prostrated himself, proving his reverence and loyalty toward the other party.

“…Your Sublimity, the Great Emperor.”

Kerenneus bowed his head even deeper beside me.

He is the thousand-year-old Man-God ‘Last Minister’, but bowing his head was not unnatural.

And rightly so, because the other party was his Emperor.

“…How, how did you come all the way to a place like this….”

“Raise your head.”

The old man’s eyes were golden.

They shone brilliantly even though boredom and idleness were mixed together.

I shuddered and looked at the old man.

The old man smiled faintly at me.

I could not endure how detestable that smile was.

“It is not so strange for me to see my son, is it?”

The man who shouldn’t be in the Western lands.

The one who must not be here.

Simultaneously, the most sublime person on the entire continent, and the leader of the Hotus Eight Gods.

Also, my biological father.

“It has been a long time, my son.”

Continua Cordis Magnus.

‘The Last Emperor’.

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