## Chapter 81 – Time Passed
콰릉!
Each time a tiny flash flickered, the sound of thunder belatedly followed, as if chasing after it. The intervals between the sounds gradually shortened, showing a movement as if tracking something.
The small shadow, wrapped in currents of electricity, fixed its gaze downwards, entrusting itself to the wind and leaping across the trees.
The sound of the wind cutting through the air pierced the thunder, ringing in the ears.
As it stepped off a thick branch used as a foothold, the branch swayed heavily up and down.
In response to the swaying branch, leaves fluttered down, covering the ground.
Beneath the rumbling thunder, the screams of a bizarre creature not of this world echoed.
“Kieeeeeeek!”
The monster, bleeding and fleeing from the flash, ran with its eyes fixed forward in terror. It had no余裕to look back. The monster, which had flaunted its power and size in the forest, hunting small animals at will, was now experiencing what it felt like to be the hunted for the first time.
Before it knew it, the sound of thunder was right behind it.
As a last resort, the monster wildly swung its tail, which resembled a morning star, but attacks made without properly identifying the target were bound to miss.
The final lightning bolt that approached was the last scenery captured in the eyes of the monster that had maintained the throne of the forest. It was now time to step down from the old, worn-out throne.
The beam of light that pierced through the monster’s body in an instant was accompanied by an unpleasant sound.
Squelch!
A sickening sensation of flesh being pierced, the monster’s death throes tearing at the eardrums. Only then did the thunder that had split the sky gradually begin to subside.
The boy, who had emerged through the monster’s body, stood before the monster that had been split in half, spilling its entrails as it met its end, and clasped his hands together in silent prayer.
A monster that was not welcomed by anyone, a monster that everyone cursed with their hands clasped, but they too clearly had their own lives and existence.
The boy had brought an end to that long life. By his own judgment, and no one else’s.
The thought that he alone would remember the monster that would rot buried in the ground had become a habit for him, offering silent prayers to monsters.
The boy, having finished his prayer for the life that had vanished meaninglessly through meaningless movements, easily hoisted the monster’s corpse, which was much larger than himself, onto his back.
The hot sensation of blood flowing from the split carcass, soaking his back, was now familiar.
Carrying the monster’s corpse, the boy brushed the sweat-soaked hair that obscured his vision diagonally upwards.
The bobbed hair, grown past his shoulders and tied near the nape of his neck, and the deep, scar-like wound etched on his right cheek, were out of place on his youthful face.
The boy, wandering through the forest, eventually arrived at an open space. In the center of that open space was a deeply dug pit, teeming with maggots and countless monster corpses. With practiced movements, the boy casually tossed the corpse of the monster he had just killed into the pit.
Just as he was about to dust off his hands and leave, a rustling sound came from the dense thicket. At the same time, he sensed a presence. With a familiar gesture, the boy turned around to confirm the being that had come within striking distance.
With her arms crossed and taking a puff from her pipe, she spoke in a low voice, without a single word of greeting.
“Your skills have improved quite a bit compared to the beginning…”
The boy wrung the monster’s blood-stained clothes with both hands as if doing laundry, and replied indifferently.
“It’s something I do every day, so it’s only natural.”
The tall woman, who had approached right in front of him, stroked the boy’s sweat-soaked hair as if to praise him.
The boy slapped away the woman’s hand touching his head with a loud smack, turned his gaze towards the pit, and opened his mouth in a chilly voice.
“I… don’t like this.”
Despite hearing that he didn’t like it, Lou still only said what she wanted to say.
“Well… considering your race, it would be troublesome if you lost to these kids.”
Number 25 sighed deeply.
Conversation was a kind of exchange that occurred through the back-and-forth of stories held by each other.
Number 25 was slowly realizing that the reason why conversations with Lou, who didn’t properly communicate, were always uncomfortable wasn’t just because of the power she possessed.
“Let’s go now.”
“Alright, let’s do that.”
At Number 25’s suggestion, Lou tapped her pipe to empty it, turned around, and began to walk.
The Magic Tower, which was so tall that it could be seen even when turning one’s head in the forest where one couldn’t see an inch ahead, was a kind of castle where Lou and Number 25 currently resided.
The inside of the tower, where space was distorted, required one to satisfy certain conditions in order to reach specific areas.
For example, to get to Lou’s room on the top floor, one had to step over the threshold of the warehouse located at the innermost part of the first floor with their left foot, or something like that.
Lou took Number 25 to her room.
Arriving at the room, Lou naturally sat in front of the desk, and Number 25 also sat opposite her with a familiar gesture, extending his arm towards her as if he was used to it.
Lou fearlessly inserted a thick, gruesome-looking needle into Number 25’s forearm, then quickly drew blood.
Watching her own shimmering blood being transferred into the vial was now a familiar sight.
“….”
After the blood collection, Lou tilted the vial containing Number 25’s blood this way and that, then divided it into several vials. She was observing the reactions as she mixed Number 25’s blood with the mysterious liquids of strange colors contained in the vials placed in front of her.
Lou, having started her research, would not hear any sound. Number 25 sighed, went down a floor of the tower via the stairs, and headed to his own room directly below.
As if to prove that he would not be made to feel uncomfortable, Number 25’s room was quite luxurious.
A chandelier that sparkled on the shimmering ceiling, antique floors and wallpaper, fluffy bedding, and a bed so large that it was overwhelming to lie on alone.
Despite receiving such a room, Number 25 deliberately curled up in a corner of the hard floor, lost in thought.
Aselle, Charlotte, Hilda.
He missed them all.
Two years had already passed since he had been dragged to Area 2 by Lou.
To the question of when he could return, Lou always said she would send him back soon, but for Lou, who lived for an eternity, the time she considered “soon” didn’t seem to be filled by about two years.
Frankly speaking, his life with her wasn’t that bad. Rather, life itself was much more pleasant and comfortable. However, that couldn’t provide peace of mind.
In Lou’s tower, unlike Aselle’s castle, dishes flew on their own without maids having to move them, and all sorts of chores were done by colorful spirits instead.
Housework, cleaning, even the aftercare of excretion, everything.
He had heard that Area 2, where magic was developed, was different from reality. The area was nothing more than a huge tower in the center of an endless, dense forest.
There were hardly any people, unless they were wizards who occasionally came to test their skills against monsters, or wizards who respected Lou and came to visit her.
From the beginning, it was at a level that was embarrassing to even call it an area.
Nevertheless, the reason why Area 2 could be recognized as an area was only because of Lou, because of what her existence meant.
A figure who purged the old-fashioned wizards of the old era and built everything of the current magic system.
For those who invested their lives in magic and researched it, Lou’s existence itself was like a sacred domain.
Number 25, having curled up and finished his brief thoughts, heard a sound as if he had been waiting for it.
Tap, tap, tap.
Knocking on the door exactly three times was one of Lou’s habits.
After the sound of knocking on the door ended, her languid voice followed.
“Come out and eat…”
Number 25 got up from the corner and trudged along.
The fact that there were no people naturally meant that there was no chef, so all the dishes that Number 25 ate were made directly by Lou.
Unlike her usual appearance of blankly watching the forest and smoking, she also had a fairly domestic side.
When he first came to Area 2, he had refused to eat, wondering if she had put some strange medicine in it.
Whenever he refused to eat, he couldn’t refuse her after seeing her sometimes smile sadly.
Lou, looking at Number 25 sitting in the chair, raised the corners of her mouth.
“You worked hard today… so I made something you like.”
On the table were bread, grilled bacon, a salad made of eggs and potatoes, and a red-colored drink.
“Yeah, well… thank you.”
Despite his curt reaction, Lou didn’t particularly care. She only focused on the words “thank you” and simply smiled slightly, raising the corners of her mouth.
She rested her chin on her hand and blankly watched Number 25, who had started eating.
The sight of Number 25 constantly munching and passing the food beyond his throat looked cute, like a small herbivore, from Lou’s perspective.
Number 25 didn’t particularly offer Lou, who was watching him, any food.
In the first place, she didn’t need to eat.
While eating, Lou unconsciously grabbed her pipe and lit it.
Seeing the cigarette smoke trying to invade the food on the table, Number 25 frowned deeply enough to wrinkle his face and immediately complained to Lou in front of him.
“I usually understand, but isn’t smoking while eating a bit much?”
Lou, who had the pipe in her mouth and was looking down, glanced up at Number 25 with only her eyes, then nodded.
“Okay…. If you say so.”
Unlike her title as one of the strongest Demon Kings, Lou’s personality itself was very docile.
Even when Number 25, who had been forcibly dragged here, spat out his complaints in an angry tone, she immediately accepted it and put the pipe back in her arms.
Lou fiddled with only the handle of the pipe, rested her chin with a somewhat regretful expression, and then said to Number 25.
“If there’s anything uncomfortable, tell me again… I’ll listen to anything you say.”
What is the definition of discomfort?
Is it not uncomfortable just because the body is comfortable? The body and mind could not be viewed separately.
No matter how well Lou treated him, she couldn’t soothe the emptiness in his heart.
Number 25 had never felt comfortable for a single day since coming to the castle in Area 2.
Perhaps this discomfort would not end unless he escaped from Area 2.
Unlike her words that she would listen to anything, Lou consistently refused only the request to go to Area 7, where Aselle was.
She dismissed it with the words that her research was not completely finished yet, maintaining the state of confining Number 25 in her area and watching over him.
Number 25, having finished eating, got up from his seat and said briefly.
“I’ll go ahead.”
Coming up to his room and curling up in the corner again, Number 25 was blankly staring at the pattern on the wallpaper.
A dark room, loneliness erodes his body.
Number 25 buried his face between his knees and quietly repeated the names of his loved ones.
He couldn’t forget their existence in his head for even a single moment. He felt like he would lose his mind if he didn’t do this.
He thought he would become stronger, that he had hardened his heart so that they wouldn’t be harmed. But bitter loneliness weakened his heart, and precious memories shattered the gap.
Memories of them flowed in through the cracked heart.
Memories that were mainly filled with white and flesh colors, but even those were all precious things.
Number 25 reached out and pulled the blanket on the bed to cover his body.
Before long, inside the blanket, only dry sounds of flesh rubbing and colliding, tap, tap, tap, echoed.
