Advent of the Three Calamities - Chapter 729: Good Enough [1]
Chapter 729: Good Enough [1]
[Julien D. Evenus]
Level : 69 [Tier 6 Magician]
Exp : [0%———[57%]——100%]
Profession: Magician
﹂ Type: Elemental [Curse]
﹂ Type: Mind [Emotive]
Spells:
﹂ Perfected type spell [Emotive] : Sadness
﹂ Superior type spell [Emotive] : Anger
﹂ Perfected type spell [Emotive] : Fear
﹂ Advanced type spell [Emotive] : Surprise
﹂ Advanced type spell [Emotive] : Joy
﹂ Advanced type spell [Emotive] : Disgust
﹂ Intermediate type spell [Emotive] : Love
﹂ Advanced type spell [Curse] : Hands of Contagion
﹂ Intermediate type spell [Curse] : Shackles of Alakantria
﹂ Intermediate type spell [Curse] : Nightmare Hex
﹂ Intermediate type spell [Curse] : Immersia
﹂ Intermediate type spell [Elemental] : Water Breathing
﹂ Advanced type spell [Body] : Gliding
Skills:
[Innate] – Eye of the Seer
[Innate] – Etherweave
[Innate] – Veil of Deception
[Innate] – Step of Suppression
[Innate] – Mana Sense
[Innate] – Eye of Existence
———
Seeing the all-too-familiar interface, my mind blanked.
Even as Leon waved his hand in front of me, I didn’t react. I didn’t know how to react. My mind was completely blank, devoid of any thought as I struggled to comprehend the scene before me.
‘How…? How is this possible?’
I knew that my blood was gone.
Jackal had taken my blood. While I didn’t know what Jackal was up to, I knew that his situation wasn’t good right now.
Was he even alive…?
Even though I had no idea what his current state was, I knew there was no way I’d get my blood back.
In that case, there was only one explanation for all of this.
‘My past self left my remaining blood in the four artifacts, and by activating all four of them, I managed to absorb all of the blood back and restore my powers…?’
It all suddenly clicked.
From the memories that I had experienced to the notification panel and the reason for Sithrus’s obsession with the four relics.
It… all finally made sense.
The four artifacts…
They contained the last remaining traces of my blood.
Oracleus’s blood.
“H-ho.”
My chest rose up unevenly.
The realization hit me like a truck. Everything started to click into place in my mind in that moment as a lot of the mysteries started to clear up.
Just as my thoughts began to steady, something struck hard against the side of my face.
Smack—!
“…!?”
It stung, and it snapped me right out of my thoughts.
A pair of gray eyes appeared before me once more. They were the same eyes as the ones I had seen on the TV, but they were far from as hollow as the ones I had seen. I could see the worry in them.
“Julien!”
Ah, right…
I tried to open my mouth to speak, but—
Smack!
Huh?
I blinked slowly and tried to speak again.
But…
Smack—!
I felt another smack on the side of my face as I hastily raised my hand to block my cheek.
“I’m fin—!”
Smack!
He smacked my other cheek.
‘This fucker is doing it on purpose!’
I raised my hands and covered both of my cheeks.
Smack!
He smacked my forehead!
“Bastard!”
“Oh, Julien!”
Leon moved back and covered his mouth with a relieved look on his face.
“You’re doing fine. I’m glad you’re fine.”
“…..”
I looked at his neck. That long, and sturdy neck of his… Both of my hands twitched. I was close.
Really close to grasping his neck with both hands.
Just the thought of squeezing his neck and stopping all air from flowing through his brain sent jitters down my spine.
Jitters of excitement.
However, I stopped myself in the last moment.
‘Control. Self control.’
I took a deep breath before calming myself down.
“…Yes, I’m fine.”
Leon smiled, but looking closely, I could see that he was disappointed with my reaction.
‘This bastard was really looking for a fight.’
I steadied myself again before glancing around. The room was just as I’d left it, neat and orderly. The only change was beneath me, where the carpet was darkened by a pool of sweat from where I had been lying moments before.
I paused my eyes on the pool of sweat and then looked at Leon.
“Did anything happen to me?”
“…Not really.”
Leon’s face was quite serious now as he looked at the same carpet.
“Honestly, it all happened so fast. One moment, you told me to keep an eye on you, and the next, your face went pale and your whole body started shaking. Before I could even process what was happening, you collapsed.”
“For how long was I out for?”
“…Not that long.”
Leon took out his pocketwatch.
“About a couple of minutes?”
“What? That short…?”
“Mhm. It wasn’t that long.”
That…
I thought back to everything, from setting the four relics all up to the vision itself. In truth, barely any time had passed, yet somehow it felt as if an eternity had slipped by.
‘Could this be due to me merging with the memories?’
I felt like this was a likely explanation.
But that wasn’t important for now. Connecting my mind with the ring and going back in, I looked at the state of the place.
“…..”
If I had to describe the place with one word, it’d be…
Mess.
The palace that had once stood proudly in the grandeur of the white space was now marred with cracks, and as I looked around, I saw the same fractures spreading across the world itself.
My heart ached at the sight.
‘Can this place even be repaired? I hope so…’
The ring was far too valuable to me, and the last thing I wanted was for it to be damaged by my own carelessness.
I planned on finding someone whom I could trust in order to fix it.
“…At least these look fine.”
I paused before the four relics, scattered across the ground, their surfaces dulled from their former shine. Yet, I could still feel the intense pressure radiating from each of them.
‘It looks like they can still be used.’
I picked all four of them up before heading towards the palace.
But just as I moved, I focused my attention elsewhere. Right where a certain cat was looking at me.
“Pebble…?”
Its eyes were narrowed, and judging from its expression, the cat was anything but pleased with me. Thinking about everything that I had done, I found myself scratching the side of my face.
“This… I didn’t actually do it on purpose. I didn’t expect things to turn out like this.”
“…..”
The cat remained silent.
It was throwing me a tantrum.
I could only bitterly smile before heading into the backroom. The cat will get over it…
Stopping by the backroom, I dropped all of the relics inside. Well, not all. I placed the eye back into my eye socket and kept the Chalice.
Opening my eyes again and seeing Leon’s face, I held out my hand.
“Here.”
“Hm…?”
His brows jumped up in surprise the moment he saw the Chalice in my hands.
“You’re giving it to me?”
“Yeah, I’ve already done what I needed to do with it.”
“…..”
Leon’s lips opened and closed a couple of times. He looked like a fish out of the water. It was quite a funny sight to see.
In the end, amidst his confusion, he slowly raised his head to look at me.
“Are you serious?”
“Mhm.”
I nodded.
“I really don’t need it anymore.”
I had already done what I needed to do with the Chalice. I didn’t have any more use for it. At least, not yet.
‘Given the words that I said during the vision, this won’t be the last time that I’ll be seeing the Chalice. In that regard, it would be best if I keep it, but…’
I looked at Leon and shoved the Chalice in his hands.
“Just take it. I really don’t need it.”
A certain part of me told me that I wasn’t the one meant to hold the Chalice.
Leon was the true owner of it. Be it in the past or the future. He was always the one who had it. In that sense, this was the right decision.
“…Okay.”
After a few bouts of hesitation, Leon ended up reaching for the Chalice as he put it away shortly after.
What followed was a pause.
A long pause.
One that I eventually ended up breaking.
“If you want to ask questions, you can ask. There’s no need for me to hide anymore.”
“…..”
Despite my words, Leon remained silent.
In fact, I could see some hesitation in his eyes as he looked at me.
I was just about to speak when he cut me off.
“I know…”
The words that were about to leave my mouth stopped.
He knows…?
“What do you—”
“I’ve always had that inkling that it was you.”
“That’s…? What are you—”
“From the times when Julien would just randomly turn into a completely different person. To the times when he ended up traumatizing me with jokes of a book that appeared in the exact sequence in a book that was published way later…”
I felt my expression subtly change.
I thought back to the time of past and recalled the jokes that I had mentioned to him when I had used the third leaf to encounter him.
Those jokes…
They were indeed jokes that I had picked up from a certain book I had read.
Leon continued.
“To the times when you’d randomly disappear from time to time, and the times when you’d seem to act like you know what is happening. Your connections with the Church of Oracleus, and how they… even tried to kill you. To the fact that you’re not the real Julien.”
Leon’s eyes flickered, and my heart sped up.
In that moment, I could see it.
The clarity in his gaze.
The… look of realization as if all the dots that he had been unwilling to connect finally started to connect as he looked at me.
“You’re related to Oracleus, aren’t you?”
“I…”
I paused.
Staring at Leon and seeing the seriousness in his expression, I could tell he had spent a lot of time thinking about this. In fact, he had probably been thinking this for a very long time, but simply never asked out of respect for me.
And for that reason, I nodded.
“I am.”
“….”
Leon stood silently, his chest slowly rising as he took a deep breath, and his eyes closed. Eventually letting the air back out, his lips pursed as he nodded.
“….I see.”
Opening his eyes again, he looked at me.
“Are you… related to him? A descendant of some sort? Maybe you’re the true saint that he’s chosen? How exactly are you rela—”
“I am him.”
It was as if time had stopped.
From the moment the words left my mouth to the instant they reached his mind, I watched the world around us slow into a near-freeze as his pupils dilated and his eyes began to widen.
I could see his mind struggling to come to terms with my words, and as I saw him like that, I couldn’t help but smile as I dealt the final blow.
“I am Oracleus.”
