Chapter 333 : Side Story (3)

Night fell quickly.

While the entire village of Peniteo fell into a deep sleep, the bearded village chief was wrestling with papers in his room.

Even if it was a village that seemed isolated deep in the mountains.

No, rather, because it was so, even more consideration, worry, and countermeasures were needed.

And in most cases, the solution was ultimately money.

The village chief, despite everything, had no choice but to admit that the stranger who suddenly appeared had solved many of the village’s problems.

The forty gold coins handed over abruptly as lodging fees were enough to feed this small village for several months.

Having processed all the documents, the bearded village chief realized he had become very tired.

He pressed firmly between his eyes and extinguished the candle.

Yet, because the moon was bright, he could distinguish objects.

If only it had become completely dark.

If it were a night so dark that one couldn’t take a single step forward.

Then it would have at least served as an excuse not to leave this room.

Clinging to his deep fatigue and his crumbling heart, he slowly raised his body.

“…….”

He couldn’t bring himself to just leave, so he peeked slightly into the children’s room.

Eight children were huddled together sleeping peacefully in the cramped space.

He repeated the children’s names.

Mano, Argus, Henna and Henni (the two are sisters a year apart), Pitus and Patus (despite the similar names, the two are not brothers), Exena, Ruios.

His eight children.

Although he had only seen them for a little over 3 years, and although not a drop of blood was shared, these children were precious beyond measure….

“…They are cute indeed….”

The village chief ended up laughing without realizing it.

The sight of Henna and Henni holding hands even while sleeping, Pitus and Patus with one leg thrown over each other, Ruios who always slept hunched over, Argus who started snoring because he got older…….

Trying to leave the children behind, his footsteps wouldn’t move.

Still, he had to go.

The bearded village chief looked at each child’s face as if this moment were the last.

A teardrop tried to fall but couldn’t.

There was always something blocking his tear ducts.

He didn’t know the name of it.

Only, it had been a long time since the village chief began to hate himself, and a long time since he deeply lamented that he deserved to enjoy nothing.

“…….”

Chewing on the silence, he went outside.

There is a man waiting for him outside.

Looking for where he was, he found him over there, in the corner of the field.

Obro was standing in the field like a scarecrow, tilting a canteen.

The village chief approached him.

It felt like a prisoner walking out to the executioner.

Perhaps that might truly be the case.

It was a strangely bright night.

The moonlight was so bright that the village chief and Obro could examine each other’s features in detail.

Obro Denoebang said nothing.

Looking at the village chief approaching him, he only silently held the canteen in his mouth.

The village chief realized there was a smell of alcohol coming from him.

The village chief knew who the other person was.

From the moment he heard the name Obro Denoebang, he knew he was the White Lord of the West.

That even empty-handed, he was a monster who could topple the Ten Great Generals of the Empire, and that if he put his mind to it, his own life would fly away.

“…From the capital….”

The bearded village chief opened his mouth with great difficulty.

Even while speaking, he squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

“…You came from Lutilium, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

Obro spat out abruptly.

He had been in the attire of an Imperial officer all along.

It was because he had no intention of hiding his identity.

To the village chief, that flashy officer’s uniform was too familiar.

“I thought about why you… why the White Lord of the West is wearing the clothes of an Imperial officer.”

Obro let him speak.

“…Presumably, it seems you are working for Zionis.”

“It seems you have closed your ears to outside news all this time. It is a fact the entire Empire knows.”

Only then did the White Lord open his mouth.

He closed the canteen containing alcohol and put it into his bosom.

Although he put it to his lips, he could barely drink.

It was because anger boiled up from deep within his heart.

“Still, to figure it out that far just by briefly seeing my attire, that’s impressive. Well, considering that… no, never mind….”

Obro shook his head.

The night is still deep.

Moonlight illuminates the two men.

One is Obro Denoebang.

The always mild-mannered man is exceptionally sharp today.

One is the bearded village chief of Peniteo Village.

He seemed to have too many secrets to be a mountain village chief.

“What else would be important.”

The village chief felt his lips drying up completely.

“Why, is important. Why did I came to such a deep mountain valley, to the village where you are.”

“…….”

“Actually, I am surprised.”

Obro Denoebang took a step closer.

The distance to the bearded village chief was still ten steps away.

Yet, the village chief felt a pressure as if a boulder the size of a house was rolling down toward him.

Because Obro Denoebang is that kind of man.

“I thought you would only run away. Since that is your specialty. So I watched you all along, but you didn’t even attempt it.”

“…How could I run away further from a place I have already run away to.”

“You speak very well.”

A scoffing sound came.

It was the sound of Obro Denoebang snorting.

“Do you know what else was surprising?”

Obro took another step closer.

The village chief trembled and his teeth ended up chattering.

He didn’t want to do that, but his body reacted first.

He wanted to back away but couldn’t bring himself to do so.

“You, acting as the chief of this village, seemed truly good-natured. Polite to the end to a rude guest, and taking care of several children who have nowhere to go. Above all, it seemed you sincerely cherished and loved those children.”

Although he saw it for only a day, he could tell.

Affection dripped from the bearded village chief’s demeanor toward the children.

The village chief knew each of the eight children he hadn’t even fathered very well, and was working for them all day long.

“So….”

Obro raised his head.

He spoke as if reciting.

“So, I….”

Demonic energy shimmered.

A fire raged from inside Obro Denoebang.

The blue flame he tried to hide and live with boiled over in an instant.

He clenched his teeth, and blue demonic energy leaked through the gaps of his clenched teeth.

“…I find you simply detestable.”

Obro Denoebang grabbed a stick.

It was a wooden stick used to prop up carts or such, rolling around in the corner of the field.

However, when held in Obro Denoebang’s hand, it becomes a threatening weapon incomparable to any famous sword.

Demonic energy, blue demonic energy surged.

In front of Obro Denoebang heating up bluely, the bearded village chief could only tremble in fear.

The village chief realized the opponent’s power.

“I am Obro.”

He was a being more powerful than anyone the bearded village chief had seen in his entire life.

Not only the Ten Great Generals of the Empire, but even more than the Two-Flame Grand General Sen Hostanio or the Six-Star Mage Hermai Merhes….

The fact that such an opponent intended to kill him made the village chief afraid.

“Obro, Denoebang!”

The White Lord declares his name.

Obro suddenly chewed over his nightmare.

“Emperor Shion’s henchman. His exclusive executioner.”

Days that had collapsed, pains that couldn’t be handled.

Which had to be endured but couldn’t be endured.

Which couldn’t be endured but couldn’t lead to death either.

While collapsed, unable to die, he lived convulsively for a long time.

He had to sit down on his life which had become like excrement and suffer miserable and shameful crushing for a long time.

Because of who was all that suffering…

“And… the one who lost many things… truly many things because of you.”

“…….”

“That should be sufficient qualification to take your life.”

11 years.

Over three thousand days and nights.

Hearts that were hacked to pieces hundreds of millions of times a day.

Because he had forgotten, he could live, but he ended up recalling it again.

Obro Denoebang’s heart simply became fire.

It is a hatred that boils fiercely and cannot be endured without burning something.

“Isn’t that so, Ferbias Caseptus?”

***

Obro called the bearded village chief Ferbias Caseptus, the runaway 50th Emperor.

“………….”

The village chief did not deny it.

Because it was the truth.

He grew a long beard to cover half his face.

His hair was also turning white.

However, his eyes were still golden.

“No reply either.”

“…….”

Ferbias Caseptus did not answer.

Instead, he closed his eyes gently.

It looked like he was enduring many things.

He seemed to feel deep guilt.

Obro Denoebang found even that detestable.

He hated Ferbias.

He had no choice but to hate him.

Even if the ‘Night of Inversion’ happened before Ferbias’s ascension, it was clearly Ferbias’s doing to send intelligence agents to feed him poison and prevent him from waking up.

How painful was it?

He doesn’t remember.

Only, if he remembers even a little, he ends up sighing to himself.

What kind of time did I pass through?

That suffering.

That pain that felt like all his insides were being churned up seems surprising to the current me.

It is just pitiful how a person can go through such suffering.

One suffering barely recalled is that surprising.

However, didn’t such suffering visit me thousands of times a day back then?

And didn’t such a day repeat thousands of times?

How is my past sorrow so preposterous?

Obro needed someone to blame.

And Ferbias Caseptus was a very appropriate and justified object of hatred.

“It means I can crush you.”

Obro raised his arm.

With a single wooden stick, he could do many things.

He had the power to crush not only a person but even a mountain range.

“Please die, Ferbias….”

“Stop!!!”

A shout interjected.

A man was running toward them.

“What are you! What are you doing!!!”

It was Cheshih.

He shouted at the top of his lungs and ran toward Obro and Ferbias.

Even while doing so, he looked side to side.

Obro frowned.

The reason Cheshih was shouting was not to stop Obro, but to wake the people.

“……Tsk.”

Cheshih’s shout woke the whole village.

Even the children woke up and looked at Obro and Ferbias.

Obro couldn’t bring himself to strike down with the stick.

It was as Cheshih intended.

“I knew it would be like this!”

He stood in front of Ferbias in anger.

As if trying to protect him.

Even amidst all this, Ferbias Caseptus closed his eyes quietly and was enduring something.

“I knew it! Being nice to people is useless! Just what are you doing…!”

“Mr. Cheshih.”

Obro spoke.

His tone was so calm that it gave goosebumps.

“Step aside.”

“…I don’t think I can do that.”

“You must have thought that if the children were watching, I wouldn’t be able to kill you guys.”

“…Rather than unable, I considered that you wouldn’t.”

Cheshih answered.

“…Because you are a man who doesn’t wield a sword in front of children, White Lord.”

“As expected, you knew me.”

“4 years ago, during the Western War, I was there too. I saw you stop your sword several times in front of the weak.”

“I see.”

Obro nodded.

He threw away the stick.

“But you saw wrong.”

In the hand that threw the stick, a sword was held.

It resembled a dry twig more than a sword.

Yet, it was a sword.

“Because my hatred is deeper than my compassion.”

Obro Denoebang’s Ars.

‘Grayish-white Nobility’.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep