Chapter 80 *Bwaaaa*
*Bwaaaa*
The ship’s horn sounded . It was the indicator that the ship’s departure was imminent . Romantica started to become impatient .
“That idiot! What the hell are you doing?”
Romantica turned on the communication bracelet . The communication bracelet had the ability to search for the location of party members . They had just used it to track Desir when he teleported with Crow Mask .
She searched for the location of Desir and it wasn’t long before the result appeared . Desir was on board, in the cabins somewhere .
Romantica frantically ran into the cabin area .
She jumped down the four steps in a single leap and barged through a group of people that were loitering in the hallway . She quickly apologized to those bumped without slowing down and reached the point indicated by the communication bracelet .
She couldn’t help being resentful for the success of the Eru business at that particular moment . The ship was so large and as a result, Romantica had to traverse the hallway that connected the long line of cabins .
The positioning function of the communication bracelet couldn’t provide an accurate location . This meant that she had to open each cabin door in search of Desir .
Romantica didn’t hesitate .
She opened the door of the first cabin . The couple inside were shocked and could only look at her with eyes filled with surprise . Desir was not there .
“Sorry . ”
*Slam*
She closed the door to the first cabin .
It was the same story for the second cabin .
She closed the door to the second cabin .
It was in this manner that Romantica opened cabin doors in an attempt to search the entire living quarters for Desir .
From the corner of her eye through a nearby window, Romantica saw that they were leaving the port . She quickened her pace .
And…
It was finally the last cabin .
Just before the door opened, Romantica calmed her breathing . She had to be calm enough to give him a proper scolding .
“Hey, Desir! Are you trying to play hide and seek with me… ?!”
The last door was opened but there was no one inside . Very slowly, Romantica entered the cabin . There was no sign of anyone having used the room . This was the only cabin that was left clean .
Looking around inside the empty cabin, Romantica spotted the Hebrion Academy communication bracelet laying on the desk .
“…”
Romantica picked it up and took out her own communication bracelet . She closed her eyes for a while before opening them .
Then she attempted to call Desir .
‘Please don’t ring . ’
*Rrrrring*
The communication bracelet in her other hand started to ring .
“…”
Romantica barely suppressed the wave of emotion rising within herself . She stomped out of the cabin and back to the deck of the ship . While she was searching the cabin area, the ship had left the port .
Romantica stormed over towards the butler . He seemed rather dismayed at her unlady-like behaviour . Her face was screwed up in rage .
“Oh, my lady . What is wrong?”
Romantica immediately responded .
“Now answer my question straight . As soon as possible . ”
“Oh, young lady,”
“How did you know that I was evacuating and that I would be at that part of the queue?”
“I, I went down and kept looking all over for you . ”
“Do not lie! It doesn’t make sense to look for someone so far back in the queue!”
*Swish*
Ash has been falling down from the sky this entire time . Adjest, Pram and all of the refugees including Romantica had been outside for most of this time were covered in it . The constant movement of people also prevented it from fully settling onto the ground, increasing the amount of it floating in the air .
However, the butler’s clothes were so neat . Nobody could possibly think that these clothes belonged to a person that had been wandering about outside .
In other words, he had been in the merchant ship the entire time .
He was the butler of the Eru family, and he must have been the first to evacuate with the family .
The butler was left speechless at Romantica pointing this out .
“Be honest! Right now! No matter what he said to you, I will jump off of this boat if you don’t tell me the truth!”
Against an irrationally rageful Romantica, who was likely to follow through on such a threat, the butler had no choice but to break his promise and tell her everything .
“At that time a black-haired friend, whom you have previously asked me to escort, told me where you would be . But my lady, I swear…”
She didn’t need to hear any more .
Romantica immediately ignored the butler and brushed past him to climb onto the ship’s railing .
“Oh, my lady!”
*Scream*
Just before Romantica’s body fell into the sea, Adjest managed to just grab ahold of her .
Romantica quickly tried to throw off the clothes line, but Adjest pulled her back up one step faster . The momentum of this movement had both of them fall backwards onto the deck of the ship .
“Get away from me . ”
“Find your sanity, Romantica . ”
Romantica attempted to rid herself of Adjest’s grip while Adjest attempted to subdue her . The two of them rolled around several times during this struggle .
“I told you to let go of me!”
“If you promise to be calm, I will let go . ”
“You know that I won’t make a promise like that!”
Romantica continued to struggle to get out of Adjest’s grasp but she couldn’t resist her through force .
Adjest finally had the complete upper-hand in the scuffle, and prevented all further movement from Romantica .
Romantica could only direct her anger at Adjest through interrogation .
“Did you know about this?”
Adjest responded .
“Yes . ”
“When did you find out about it?!”
“From when Desir slowed down the evacuation by starting a fight . ”
Starting the fight .
Romantica felt as though someone had smashed her on the head with a hammer .
The fight during the evacuation was Desir’s doing to give himself enough time to conceal the communication bracelet . And Romantica had to waste time searching for it until the ship had already departed .
‘Stupid bitch’
Romantica reminded herself . She couldn’t forgive herself as she figured out just what Desir had done .
While almost crying, should could only continue shouting at Adjest .
“You knew! Not like the stupid me, you knew much earlier! Why didn’t you stop him? WHY!”
In contrast to Romantica’s frantic tone, Adjest’s tone was level and calm .
“I didn’t notice it . I was asked by him . ”
“What?”
For a moment, Romantica’s struggling stopped .
Adjest’s continued .
“He asked me to stop you and Pram from following him . ”
***
Desir ran along the coast .
The entire area of Deltaheim was obscured by the ash in the air that was as thick as fog .
He ran while coughing over and over again and futilely attempting to cover his nose and mouth against the poisonous air particulates .
As Desir passed through, a dead body came into view . The body was partially covered by rubble from a nearby stone construction .
‘Hopefully he did not feel a thing and died in a single blow . ’
Faced with such a terrible scene, Desir’s steps slowed-down and he eventually came to a complete stop . He had no words to adequately describe what lay before him . It was terrible, but at the same time, it was an alien yet familiar landscape to him .
He had previously lived a life of death . And he had witnessed so many of those deaths first hand .
Friends who had shared school days and childhood memories together . Juniors who followed him exceptionally well .
And Romantica .
Among the many deaths, Desir especially couldn’t forget the death of Romantica .
Perhaps it was because her situation was similar to his .
The story ended with a sad ending .
Romantica Eru had talent and a future more brilliant than anyone else .
She was also the lady of a baron family, so she could join the Alpha Class at Hebrion Academy without any problem and later enter the Blue Moon Party which was considered the best of the school .
After a long time, however, it was discovered that Romantica was the daughter of a baron who had bought the title with money . The Alpha Class nobles did not acknowledge her anymore after that .
Unable to endure the savage Alpha Class brutality, Romantica finally moved down to the Beta Class, but no one accepted her there too .
There was nowhere else she could be .
In the Beta Class, Romantica’s talent went uncultivated and her future had gradually stagnated . By the time she graduated, she was only at the Third-Circle .
And then the Shadow Labyrinth appeared .
Romantica entered the Shadow Labyrinth as a member of the Western Kingdom Union, where she met with Desir again who was from the same Beta Class .
Desir, being in a similar situation as her was unfortunately an inevitability .
In such a terrible battlefield they became each other’s emotional support . They survived for each other .
And eight years after the arrival of that Shadow Labyrinth… In the end, Desir could not protect Romantica .
“… I will not allow that to happen again . ”
Desir, who had returned to the past, had made that vow .
This was not only for her .
Adjest and Pram .
Zod and Priscilla .
Residents of Deltaheim and visitors from all over the world .
The heads of the Western Kingdom Union gathered for the purpose of the council .
All of them couldn’t avoid death unless they stopped Dadenewt .
The situation was currently heading towards the worst outcome .
‘I must stop this . ’
To slay the devil, its inner core must be destroyed .
In the Shadow Labyrinth, when faced with Dadenewt, legion-sized parties of wizards unleashed freezing magic to weaken Dadenewt’s power while knights equipped with Blanchum rapiers destroyed Dadenewt’s body to find the core .
Luckily this time, Desir knew the approximate location of the core . However, the problem was that he didn’t have enough power to penetrate the body of Dadenewt itself .
Desir looked down at the palm of his hand .
‘I must stop it . ’
I will stop it .
Desir clenched his fist . He decided to implement his trump card, the measure of last resort that he had kept in reserve thus far .
[Proverb]
Magic that had been arranged in a way that fell entirely outside of the existing magical system used by humanity .
It had a power different to standard magic .
At the end of the Shadow Labyrinth, Desir discovered the spell by inverting the [Proverb] of the Meteor-Rank Dragon of Destruction, Bhromier Napolitan .
It was a huge and powerful magic indeed . But there were so many risks involved as a result .
He wondered if his body would be able to withstand the magic of [Proverb] that deviated from the existing laws, but now was not the time to worry about that .
‘I definitely need to kill it . ’
*Booom*
The closer Dadenewt got the greater the heat and the more violent the ash suspended in the air became .
Desir clenched his teeth .