Chapter 186 – Greynif (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Varnos.

A small principality in the southern part of the continent, with a total of five territories under its rule.

Its land was broader than that of the Principality of Luxible, but because most of it was mountainous, no industry had ever properly developed there.

It was a place that scraped by on various mines.

The seventh king of this Varnos, Varnos Kinor, stared blankly ahead.

What spread before his eyes was a scene of great slaughter.

Soldiers and knights alike had been torn to pieces and thrown about in messy heaps.

Beyond the shattered inner walls, he could see the capital village engulfed in flames.

The corpse of an old man still burning.

The corpse of a child collapsed in a pool of blood.

The corpse of a young man who had tried to resist and had half his upper body torn away.

All of them entered his sight.

Bodies ripped apart as if they had fallen not to humans, but to monsters.

Yet Kinor knew.

The one responsible for this devastation was not a monster.

“Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d just listened to what I told you?”

It was a being possessed of intelligence.

Kinor slowly turned his trembling head to the side.

Before he knew it, a man had walked right up to him.

He had dark gray hair and gray eyes, and at a glance his face looked endlessly cheerful.

“…”

Kinor swallowed involuntarily.

Not because of the man’s outward appearance.

It was because of the eyes.

They seemed to hold absolutely nothing.

The man’s irises were entirely dark gray, with not even a visible pupil.

They seemed to proclaim that he was no ordinary person.

No.

In reality, the being before him was not human at all.

He had the shape of a human.

But he was not human.

“You are saying we should have listened to what you said?”

“Yes.
If you had just gone out quietly, none of this would have happened to you.”

“…You said you would kill everyone…!”

Kinor shouted through clenched teeth.

He knew that too.

The man before him was something that could trample his life with ease.

Even so, Kinor did not bend his pride.

Because no matter how small the principality was, he was still its king.

No.
To be precise, it was not pride.

It was merely the last struggle of a man who had lost everything.

Because he had nothing left to lose.

Because he had already fallen off the cliff.

His eyes burned with the fierce light of someone who had gone beyond fear.

And yet, even in the face of that gaze.

The man simply let out another playful little smile.

“Even so, I said I’d spare you, didn’t I?”

“And you call that saying something…!”

“Wasn’t it only natural from the start?
That your own life matters more than anyone else’s.
Ah, no.
I suppose in your case it might be different.”

He grinned.

“Take away the fact that you’re a king, and you’ve got nothing at all.”

“…!”

It was an insult delivered with utter bluntness.

Kinor flared his eyes and tried to retort.

But unfortunately.

The moment he opened his mouth.

He no longer could.

Because a grotesque monster that had burst out of the man’s chest had already bitten off his head.

Crunch.
Chew.
Crack.

A sickening sound.

The monster devoured Kinor’s upper body in an instant.

The man watched the sight peacefully.

Then sat down atop a fragment of the ruined kingdom and looked forward.

And after that.

“What a magnificent view.”

Wearing a twisted smile.

“Now then.
Shall we begin?”

He raised his forefinger.

At the same time, a black drop began forming slowly at the tip of his finger.

It swelled larger and larger, like a bead of blood collecting.

Then at some point.

Drop.

It fell to the ground.

And with that, black energy began spreading in every direction.

Soon the capital of the kingdom, which until then had been filled only with flame and corpses, grew dark as though the light itself had been stolen away.

And things that had not been visible until then began to appear.

Monsters with bodies blacker than pitch.

They were holding a feast while chewing on corpses.

Some danced as if delighted.

Some focused solely on devouring the dead.

Some eyed the corpses other monsters were eating with hungry greed.

All of them were part of the same feast.

And he, one of the Four Great Powers of Psychedelia.

And also the master of the hungry ghosts.

“All right.
Then how should I make my next move?”

He twisted the corners of his mouth and murmured quietly.

####

About three weeks after Alon had left House Lartania.

“So we should reach Nail in about a week?”

“Hm.
Yes, that sounds right.
And if the information you gave me is correct, it’ll take about three more days from there before we enter the Greynif side.”

“I see.”

While Alon gave a short nod.

[Kkyu.]

“No.”

[Kkyu…]

Kkamangi had been sitting on Alon’s thigh and was now gradually trying to worm its way inside his coat.
Alon lightly stopped it.

Kkamangi’s ears drooped so far in disappointment that they nearly vanished entirely.

As he stroked the head of the creature, which now looked less like a cat and more like some strange little animal, Alon pulled something from inside his coat.

“It really seems to like that thing, doesn’t it?”

“It does seem that way.”

The reason Kkamangi had been trying to burrow into Alon’s coat was a certain item Alon had obtained from the labyrinth he stopped at while traveling south a week ago.

The Gem of Forgetting.

It shone with a red light like Yutia’s eyes.

In terms of practical use it looked utterly worthless.

But to Alon it was extremely important.

Because it had the power to reset the usage time of Salvation of the Wanderer.

That was the artifact that allowed him to summon Basiliora.

Of course, if he went to that one who had not appeared on the continent yet and paid the price, he could also use Salvation of the Wanderer again.

But though the Gem of Forgetting was single-use, it allowed him to use Salvation of the Wanderer immediately, and without any additional cost.

That was why Alon had deliberately stopped by the labyrinth.

“But Marquis, you said before that you were going to use that thing to operate the artifact that lets you bring out… what was it…
Ah, Basiliora again, right?”

“That is right.”

“Then what principle does that gem work on?”

Evan sounded genuinely curious.

Alon explained it simply.

“It most likely works by accelerating the time of an item that has already been used.”

“…Accelerating time?”

“Yes.”

Alon nodded as he sifted through his memories of the past.

Yes.
It definitely accelerated time.
Ten years… and three months, if he remembered correctly.

He even recalled the precise figure.

If you gathered one hundred of them, you could reset Constraint.

The ring he had first obtained in order to impose Constraint had an almost absurd setting attached to it:

It took one thousand years before it could be reused.

Of course, no matter how badly one dragged things out in Psychedelia, the in-game timeline never exceeded ten years.

In other words, the thousand-year cooldown was a setting that might as well not exist.

But once word spread through the community that Constraint could be reset by collecting Gems of Forgetting, people finally understood why such a pointless setting had been attached to it and began searching for the gems.

The craze died down almost immediately.

Because the demerit outweighed the merit.

Resetting Constraint was useful, yes.
But the gems were scattered across the entire continent like those old wish-granting spheres from that other story.

And there were overwhelmingly many of them.

Because of that, ordinary players lost interest, and it became the kind of clickbait content mostly pursued by streamers and video creators instead.

Alon himself had barely farmed Gems of Forgetting either.

Now he had many chances to use them because of Basiliora.

But under normal circumstances, throughout an entire playthrough of Psychedelia, he would not accelerate an artifact with one of those gems more than five times.

“Then if you gave it to Kkamangi, wouldn’t it suddenly grow huge?”

Evan’s voice cut into his thoughts.

“…Well, I am not sure whether it even works on a living creature, but if it does, then perhaps it could.”

[Kkyu!]

At Alon’s affirmation, Kkamangi let out a determined cry as if to say, I can do it!

[No!
You would spend the chance for me to manifest once again, even briefly, on a mere snack! Absolutely not…
!!!]

The moment Basiliora burst out screeching in outrage.

[W-Wait!
Kyaaaagh!
Stop that!
I said stop!!]

Kkamangi launched itself with perfect timing and began raining little cat punches on Basiliora.

“Yes!
That’s it!”

Evan looked positively thrilled to watch Kkamangi teach Basiliora a lesson.

It was obvious he simply felt good whenever Basiliora suffered, because he even threw both hands up in celebration.

While watching the chaos between the three of them.

Alon quietly tucked the Gem of Forgetting back inside his coat.

At least until that one appears on the continent, I should gather a few more.

####

Exactly a little over a week later.

After stopping at Nail a few days before to finish their last round of preparations, Alon rode on by carriage for about three more days.

Then at last.

“It looks like we will have to continue on foot from here.”

“It certainly looks that way.”

They had reached a region thick with forest.

“…From this point on, is it elven territory?”

“Yes.
It looks that way.
You can tell just from the color of the grass.”

“…That is rather strange.”

The grass where Alon stood and the grass deeper inside what seemed to be Greynif’s territory were clearly different colors.

This side is dark.
That side is bright.

Even though both sides were under the forest’s shadow.

The plants inside Greynif’s domain glowed with a vivid blue-green vitality.

Alon looked at the scene with clear fascination.

“Then let us begin heading in.”

“Yes.”

As he started forward with Evan, he recalled Recon.

Up to this point the information does seem to have been accurate enough.
So he probably did not lie.
In that case, from here on the issue is whether we can avoid being caught by the elves.

Alon calmly recalled the sentence Recon had stressed repeatedly.

The elves are extremely hostile toward humans, so if you are discovered, immediately make it clear that you have no intention of fighting and withdraw from outside Greynif.

Recon had emphasized again and again that the elves were extremely hostile toward humans.

Remembering that, Alon moved into the forest with a slightly tense expression.

And after walking for around two hours.

“Looks like the outside is up ahead.”

They finally saw the end of the forest, which until then had seemed endless.

After confirming it, Alon and Evan headed straight out without hesitation.

And then.

“Ah…!”

“…!”

The moment they stepped out of the forest.

Evan gasped in shock.

And Alon, too, could not help widening his eyes.

The sight before them completely filled their vision.

There were easily a hundred elves standing in front of them.

And not only that.

They looked as if they had been waiting for Alon and Evan from the start.

This is bad.

As every hair on his body seemed to stand up.

Countless thoughts began racing through Alon’s head.

Recon definitely said this was a side path.

Had Recon tricked him?

If not, then was this pure coincidence?

Or had he simply taken the wrong road?

But after forcibly strangling all those thoughts, he tried to raise both hands.

First, he needed to show that they were not hostile.

So.

“Wait.
We did not come to Greynif to fight…”

The moment he said that and began to lift his hands.

Clasp.

An elf who had been far away only a moment earlier was suddenly standing at his side.

The elf seized his hand.

Then bowed politely.

And with a trace of delight, like someone receiving a guest long awaited, said:

“Welcome.
We have been waiting for you.”

“…Pardon?”

Alon had no choice but to gape.