Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141
“Everyone, please do not worry that I am just spouting secrets.”
Beila Beile whispered toward the sky.
Just where is this ‘everyone’ you speak of?
He naturally pretended not to hear Shion’s grumbling.
“Because the words of this Last Clown cannot be heard by anyone but the protagonist and you all.”
The clown even gestured to the sky.
“More importantly, Shion is finally about to seize power in the West. What, are you still frustrated? Don’t be like that. That’s why this Last Clown has come out to personally reason with the protagonist.”
Lacrosha nodded as if in agreement.
“Now, let’s ask.”
He flicked a hand toward Shion.
“Let’s ask the secret-filled Regression Prince, Shion Pollinglight, himself.”
Beila Beile placed his hands on his hips and feigned anger.
“You! What on earth are you doing! You escaped the Empire! You even gained the diviner Amethus as a companion!”
“…Aren’t you spouting a bit too much of someone else’s secrets?”
“But what are you doing in this city? It’s been seven years!”
“I wasn’t playing around, Last Clown.”
Shion said coolly.
“I don’t know by what right you suddenly appear and scold me. I have not forgotten my destiny for a single moment. All this time was necessary.”
“…Ehei. Don’t be angry, Shion.”
The clown approached Shion and whispered.
“I know, I know, how hard you’re working, you’ve tried so hard you’ve practically become a hunchback. Huh? You have many secrets, many wounds, but because you keep them hidden so tightly, those people over there are getting tired.”
Lacrosha nodded, saying, Mm, mm.
“Now’s the time, Shion. Now is your chance to capture their hearts!”
“…Who are ‘those people’?”
“Ah, they exist, people like that! You should know!”
“…Didn’t you say earlier they didn’t exist?”
“Just let it go!”
Beila Beile shouted for no reason.
“Just try acting as if you’re the protagonist of a novel, explaining things to the readers!”
“…Well, fine.”
He couldn't be convinced at all.
Shion’s life was not a novel.
His life, his destiny, his regression were not someone's spectacle.
However, he couldn't simply ignore Beila Beile's words.
Because he was one of the Eight Hotus Gods, a man-god as great as his master.
“There will be a disaster in the West.”
Shion Pollinglight declared.
“The Empire’s evil hands have already infiltrated all over the West. The Del Contis were one of them. It is still hidden, but it will soon reveal itself in the form of a disaster.”
“Do people not know?”
“No one. It was the same back then. Until the Empire invaded, no one thought these events were the work of humans. If I weren’t a regressor, I wouldn’t have known either.”
However, Shion knows.
Having turned back 19 years, it was impossible not to know.
“Therefore, I…”
Remembering the Empire’s atrocities, the blue flame harbored in his soul flickered.
“…I must stop it.”
He could not let such a thing happen again.
No, it wasn't just about stopping it.
He will turn their own swords back on them and so, he will bring down the Empire.
“So you swallowed up Merion and now you’ll stop the disaster and take the West, is that it? Interesting.”
Beila Beile nodded.
“The story so far won’t be in vain, right? People like Meh and Bishop Hille will continue to appear, won’t they?”
“…Appear? If things go according to plan, we’ll meet a few more times.”
“Did you hear that, everyone? That’s what he says!”
An artificial laughter, Wahahaha-, poured down from the sky.
When Beila waved his hand, the sound of applause was even added.
“The disaster is close at hand, yet no one knows. The only ones who know are the Regression Prince and his subordinate, the diviner Amethus!”
What is the Empire plotting, and what plan has Shion devised?
Beila spread his hands wide towards the woman standing beside him.
“Isn’t it interesting, Lacrosha?”
“It is as you say, Last Clown.”
“Ahem. Your tone! You’ve broken character!”
“I was a snake then and now I am in a human body, so there is no need to speak like that….”
“Ahem!”
The clown raised his voice and Lacrosha bowed her head deeply.
With her un-split tongue, she mimicked a forked one.
“…It- is- as- you- say. Last- Clown.”
“That’s- right. Char- acter- is- im- portant.”
“I- think- this- is- a- bit- forced.”
“Everything is originally forced. There’s only whether it works or not.”
I hope it works.
The clown chuckled.
“I hope your frustrations have been somewhat relieved. I worry that I may have ruined the mood, but please understand. If only for the sake of this poor narrator.”
He bowed his waist very politely.
Yet, a playful smile lingered on his lips.
He didn’t look serious at all.
It was as if he was saying, ‘I’ve done my part, what can you do?’
To whomever he was speaking, it seemed so counterproductive that one might even worry.
“Now, the short chapter has ended. Before the next act opens, this Beila Beile will make a hasty exit.”
It was time to return to a story that was once again serious, pretending to be a bit noble, and mixed with darkness.
He winked at the Regression Prince standing beside him.
“And Shion, don’t hide your secrets too much.”
The clown twisted his lips.
“If you do… they’ll rot, you know?”
***
“The Last Clown came and went.”
Shion grumbled.
“I don’t even know why he appeared and he completely ruined the mood.”
This was the place where the hunchback wailed.
Meaning, the place he was in was not reality.
To be precise, it was inside the Septem Arcana, where the hunchback was confined.
Shion sat cross-legged in the empty air.
Since it was his dream, everything was as he wanted.
“Still, thanks to him, I was able to reflect. I have to stop the disaster. The Empire’s disaster will come through Guidone.”
Shion slowly raised his head.
“And also…”
Separate from the hunchback’s wail, there was another sound of crying.
It was because the woman with empty eye sockets was sobbing.
Because of that sobbing, the hunchback had no choice but to keep wailing.
Shion looked at her, at the place where raspberry-colored eyes once were.
His own eye sockets also melted limply with unbearable sorrow.
“…I have become your husband again. You over there are still a beautiful nineteen.”
The woman only cried, as if she couldn't hear his words.
Tears of blood flowed ceaselessly from her empty eye sockets. It seemed impossible to wipe them away.
[…Poesia, Poesia, my beautiful Chyallo flower….]
“Serena.”
[Where have you gone, my child, my joy….]
The sound of her crying wrenched his heart.
No matter how many times he heard it, it always brought a new pain.
It was just an illusion.
Just a lingering image left in his heart.
Even though it wasn't real, it was so faintly heart-wrenching that he couldn't possibly shake it off.
“The you on this side smiles so easily.”
She would giggle over a glass of wine, and even while looking at him with eyes that couldn’t trust him, she would blush and smile when he held her hand.
Because he had turned back 19 years, Serena de Verchello had not lost her smile.
That’s why it hurt even more.
The empty eye sockets that continued to cry in his heart became a deep scar on his soul.
Every time her tears of blood fell on his heart, they left a black, scorched mark as if a spark had fallen.
“…The you before the regression never smiled again, in the end.”
Serena back then had cried continuously after losing Poesia, until her strength gave out and she collapsed and she never opened her eyes again.
Shion, who was away at war, could not even be there for her last moments.
By the time he returned with a wounded body and heart, Serena was already buried in the ground.
The last thing that Shion remembered of Serena was her crying out, Poesia, Poesia, just like that.
A sharp, piercing image that would not look back no matter how many times he called…….
“If I stop the disaster, if I swallow the West. And…”
He bit his lip hard.
“…if I bring down the Cordis Empire…”
He swallowed a wail and turned his feet.
He couldn't just stare at the woman with empty eye sockets forever.
Leaving the wailing to the hunchback, he set off on his way.
From dream to reality.
“…Your crying will stop too.”
It surely will.
***
He walked through his heart.
He walked out slowly from the place where the hunchback was.
The millions of resentful spirits he had confined screamed.
It was the fourth secret.
When he turned away from the hunchback, which was a single mass of resentment, he saw the third flame.
A single rope was stretched over a remote abyss. It was a damn heavy and damn hot iron bloodline.
One misstep and he would fall into the abyss, but he wasn't scared in the slightest.
He did not give up and ran as if flying over the tightrope without hesitation.
It was the third secret.
Even the iron bloodline soon snapped.
Above the abyss, there was nothing but empty space.
It insisted that there was no place to set foot here, but Shion did not trust it.
It was the second secret.
Like that, he walked on air towards the outside.
A wide path greeted him.
It was a path made of flowers.
Flowers bloomed in clusters everywhere, on the ground and on the sides.
Looking closely, the flowers were writhing ‘Fantasy Fingers.’ Treading on millions of hands, Shion reflected on his own vain dreams.
Passing even the first secret, he escaped the Septem Arcana.
Only then could he breathe a little easier. It was a relatively shallow place in his heart.
Though in others’ hearts, it would be the very bottom, no different from the deep sea.
There, things that could be called memories or ego floated about, and beside them was a stuck-on shadow.
The shadow’s name was ‘Mana Armor Valziart.’
It was Sen Sorti's masterpiece that Shion had swallowed.
He still used it conveniently.
The Septem Arcana, seen from the outside, had the form of a seven-branched candlestick. Flames were lit on five of those branches.
Shion slowly retraced his own Ars.
A fantasy of nothing becomes something.
Into something that can do anything.
The first Ars that grasps and lets go, strokes, claws, touches, hits, kneads, fumbles, stirs, and even prays.
‘Fantasy Finger’.
So distance yourselves, all hearts.
Vain dreams are enough, so please do not reach.
The second Ars born of a scream.
‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.
Too tough for a bloodline.
So tough it has hardened, gleaming crimson like metal.
Too hot for blood.
So hot it doesn't just heat the bloodline but burns the whole body to a crisp.
The third Ars forged from duty and obsession.
‘The Heated Iron Bloodline’.
A soul distorted by deep-seated anger.
The most powerful and most ferocious.
The most painful fourth Ars.
‘The Screaming Hunchback’.
And…….
“The fifth secret is already prepared.”
He ground his teeth.
If his molars had been flint, he would have already spewed fire like a dragon from grinding them so hard.
There was a rage that he could not endure otherwise.
“Only a single piece of the sixth secret remains.”
He chewed it over.
Regression, the Succession War, the escape from the Empire, and the seven years since.
He became Shion of Merion again.
And with Serena, again…….
He could not lose her twice.
He had to destroy it.
He had to take it first before it was taken from him.
Because they were raspberry-colored eyes he had finally obtained.
Because it was a smile he had faced again after a terrible time.
“Finally, it is time to face Cordis.”
End of ‘Shion of Merion’ arc.