Chapter 245 — 화려한 귀환

Chapter 245

A Grand Return

“You want me to go with you?”

King Yulho looked as if the thought had never once occurred to him.

Which made sense; choosing to remain here of his own will, going outside probably hadn’t even crossed his mind.

Elric nodded emphatically.

“What’s the point of staying cooped up? Get some fresh air for once, grab something tasty. If need be, we can even swing by the Black Tundra.”

“And when things get rough, you want to ask me for help?”

“Two birds with one stone. Ever heard of give-and-take?”

King Yulho stared at him, incredulous, but Elric only folded his arms and gave a shrug.

Yulho shook his head as if Elric were hopeless.

“Some things never change. Still trying to freeload, then and now.”

『It’s not like that’s a new development, so I’m not even surpri—Gyaaaah!』

Mephisto, who had been looking drained at Elric’s side, nodded as if in agreement—and promptly fell back under the curse of handstand tap-dancing.

“So? What do you say? Waiting around until your descendants show up is, frankly, boring.”

Elric’s eyes burned with zeal as he looked at King Yulho.

The look of a man intent on dragging him out of here no matter what.

And really, Elric found it a shame to leave Yulho behind.

A waste of resources, if you wanted to be blunt.

The thought-form left behind by one who’d reached the realm of a demigod had spent centuries meditating out of sheer boredom. If Elric could receive the knowledge housed in that head, it would be a massive boon to him—and to the beastkin as well.

“Even just the improved Body-Tempering… heh, hehehe.”

On top of that, if need be, he could serve as a force multiplier, and, for the newly blossoming King Belenche, a much-needed mentor.

Above all… King Yulho—though brief—had pointed Elric toward a monumental milestone.

Parting with a man like that felt a little too bittersweet.

Watching Elric, whose eyes might as well have been scattering starlight, Yulho shook his head—yet his face grew pensive.

“I’ve no particular desire to remain trapped here either, but… hmm.”

“Then let’s go. If you don’t like the outing as much as you thought, I’ll bring you right back.”

“And you’ll put it off, making excuses day after day, won’t you?”

Elric flinched inwardly but made a show of waving his hands, unfazed.

“Come on. You think I’m that dishonest?”

“I can see your little schemes clear as day.”

Of course, King Yulho was still three steps ahead of Elric’s games.

Even so, his lip curled up as if to say he’d let himself be fooled this once.

“You’ve got a way?”

Elric thumped his chest with a fist.

“Who am I? The one and only Merbinger. Easy. All we need is the chieftain’s permission.”

“Hmm…!”

Yulho wavered, then swept his gaze across the hollow.

Leaving a place he’d called home for so long without any preparation stirred all sorts of doubts.

Memories of the small incidents that happened here flitted by.

Each trivial and small, but together, they had become a pleasant routine.

To set them aside and begin a new life?

“Not bad.”

He realized that wouldn’t be so bad in its own right.

His original self had attained enlightenment and wandered off.

What remained here was him, and yet not him at all—an altogether separate being.

Now that the “Will” binding this body had dispelled just moments ago, it didn’t feel wrong to live a life of his own.

And, as Elric said, he was curious how the outside world had changed over these centuries….

“All right. What do I do?”

As if he’d been expecting it, Elric held out his hand to Yulho.

“Take my hand.”

Yulho’s expression tightened.

“I don’t swing that way.”

“…Do I look like I do? I like women. Enough with the nonsense—just take it!”

“Very well.”

Yulho clasped Elric’s hand.

In that instant—

Fwoooosh!

A gale roared out from Elric’s center.

The mana that had been suppressed by the mindscape King Yulho had woven burst fully open.

For a heartbeat, surprise flashed across Yulho’s face.

“When did he undo it?”

The mindscape he’d laid over the entire safehouse had the property of constraining every energy rooted in mana, per his Will.

Partly to test Elric, but also to keep uninvited guests from damaging the safehouse’s functions.

And his Will hadn’t been fully withdrawn yet.

Yet Elric had somehow shed every one of those restraints.

“I saw him release a portion earlier… I thought even that was impressive.”

He had no choice but to look at Elric with fresh eyes.

He might have pioneered a realm in some other field even beyond Body-Tempering.

“No. No. That won’t do. Body-Tempering must stand foremost, whatever the case.”

Having decided to follow Elric anyway, Yulho felt an even stronger urge to leave the art properly behind.

Elric flinched.

He caught a strange heat flicker in Yulho’s eyes and, for a split second, wondered if this choice had been a mistake.

“It’ll work out somehow.”

With that thought, he invoked a mantra.

“【Seep in】.”

At Elric’s cry—

Rumble…

The entire safehouse began to quake.

The thought-form of King Yulho left in this place was, precisely speaking, his whole mindscape serving as his body.

To take him out, Elric had to “contain” the entire world within himself.

If he slipped up, Yulho’s thoughts might flood his subconscious realm and drown his ego.

“No worries there.”

Elric had already recklessly expanded his subconscious to catch Azazel.

This much, he could handle.

And sure enough—

Ssshhh—

The vast currents blanketing the safehouse poured toward him.

The transparent barriers sharpened, then shattered into whirling shards. A monstrous squall swept the cavern floor, throwing up a storm of dust.

Everything funneled into Elric at a furious pace, while Yulho’s body began to waver.

“So you meant to house me inside you.”

“You won’t be bored. It’s a bit crowded in there.”

He meant the Winter Six who had awakened with the Seal of Winter.

They’d make worthy sparring partners for King Yulho.

And maybe the last two—with their noses still in the air—would get their discipline beaten in properly with Yulho around.

A smile crept onto Yulho’s face.

“Interesting.”

With that, his presence fractured and poured entirely into Elric.

Fwoooooosh!

The gale swallowed the entire safehouse.

* * *

Elric returned when the small hours had sunk to their darkest.

In actual time, it had been only a few hours, yet it felt like days had passed to him.

Likely because, unlike when he’d gone to the safehouse, he wasn’t alone anymore.

「So this is Biern City?」

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop across the high buildings.

King Yulho peered down at the city through Elric’s eyes for a long while.

「Quiet. Very.」

It seemed to fascinate him.

Back when he’d been active, Biern City had stood as the continent’s second great metropolis, brimming with might.

“Time has a way of passing.”

「True. Nothing is perfect or eternal. Still… something happened, didn’t it? Even the air feels subtly different.」

Elric thought, as expected, Yulho was quick on the uptake, and gave him a succinct rundown of recent events.

「A great war, and demons to boot? They’ve not changed at all.」

The beastkin, who disliked the incomprehensible phenomena called magic, detested demonkind even more.

Closer to contempt, really.

Unlike ordinary life-forms, demons were beings akin to a magical phenomenon itself—phantoms in their eyes.

“Feels like I’ve gained a solid ally.”

That thought flickered through Elric’s mind as his gaze sharpened.

Far ahead.

On the roof of the highest watchtower of the Host of the Stars’ citadel, someone sat quietly, watching the night sky.

The way he stared at the moon looked like he was tracing something with his eyes.

“Nameless?”

Elric immediately sensed the wooden-mask wraith.

Nameless was currently a prisoner.

He should have been confined, and yet Elric hadn’t bothered binding him.

Partly because Nameless was skilled enough to attempt an escape any time he wished, and partly because Isabel insisted that, if they meant to win over the Red Lion, they had to treat him well.

Of course, even if he ran, Elric was confident he could catch him again whenever.

Just then, Nameless seemed to feel Elric’s gaze as well. He turned his head this way.

Thump.

“What are you doing up here, brooding under the moon?”

Elric still spoke down to Nameless.

He’d considered switching to formal speech, but saw no reason to change what he’d started with.

Nameless hesitated on whether to answer, then decided that ignoring him would only make Elric more annoying, so he gave a curt reply.

“Thinking of home.”

“Home?”

Elric tilted his head.

Come to think of it, he’d sometimes thought Nameless’s speech was oddly stiff.

Not a regional dialect—more like a foreign tongue that didn’t sit on the palate yet.

By cadence and feel, he definitely wasn’t from the Empire.

“Where’s that?”

“You wouldn’t know even if I told you.”

“The South?”

“If it were, I wouldn’t have gotten tangled up with this damned Empire.”

“Hm?”

Elric cocked his head, but Nameless turned back to the moon as if he had nothing more to say.

That was when King Yulho tossed out a remark.

「This one smells a bit like us.」

Completely unexpected.

Elric’s eyes widened slightly.

“Beastkin?”

Nameless’s eyes snapped to him at once.

Wide open.

Elric’s mouth curved.

“Not a full beastkin, I’d say. Mixed blood, or at least a line from that side?”

“How did you…?”

“I’m fairly close with the beastkin myself.”

Nameless lurched to his feet, as if he had something to say—then froze.

A crow had suddenly flown in to where they stood.

Flap!

A letter was neatly tied to its ankle.

It was the same crow Elric had sent after Count Kaliger.

Nameless tensed for a moment. He knew exactly whom this bird had tailed.

Elric scratched the crow’s chin a couple of times in thanks, untied the message, and read it.

Short and to the point.

Then he folded it quietly, turned to Nameless, and spoke.

“Your friend wants to see me.”

The Talent-Devouring Mage