"Uaaaaah!"
"Bellissen!"
"H-he killed him! He cut Bellissen's head off!"
"H-he's insane…"
The executives of House Arianne screamed while looking at the financial officer's corpse. His head was rolling on the ground.
"Wh-what have you done…?"
Weegen Arianne raised his trembling finger, his face turning pale.
"How can you do such a cruel thing?!"
"Cruel?"
Raon twisted his lips while looking at Weegen Arianne's trembling pupils.
"You are the cruel ones who abandoned your house in a crisis and ran away."
He ignored the former executives' screams and criticisms and stood in front of the quartermaster.
"Tell me what you've done wrong."
"I-I…"
The quartermaster's chin trembled as he saw Raon's emotionless gaze.
'I need to beg for mercy!'
The man in front of him was different from Wendy.
His head was going to roll just like the financial officer's if he underestimated him just because he was young. It was necessary to abandon his pride and beg for life.
"I-I'm sorry! I beg your forgiveness!"
The quartermaster leaned forward and lowered his head. He kept shouting that he was in the wrong without giving any excuses.
"What are you sorry about?"
Raon's voice was completely devoid of emotion. He pierced the core of the problem without being distracted by his words once again.
"Tell me, what are you sorry about?"
"I-I ran away when the h-house was at war."
The quartermaster said the truth that no other executive could say.
"Correct."
He gained some hope upon hearing Raon's voice, which became slightly softer, and raised his head.
'This is my chance. I need to convince him no matter what and survive.'
"I'll submit to any punishment. I'll work to my bones for the sake of our house, so please give me a chance…"
"That chance is already gone."
"W-wait. I know the secret of the house… Cough!"
The quartermaster noticed light passing in front of his eyes and lowered the hand that he was raising.
'What happened? I can't put strength in my body and it hurts so muc—'
He collapsed, unable to grasp the red line on his neck. His widened eyes revealed his disbelief at his death as he looked up at the other executives next to him.
"Uhah!"
"Uaaaaaah!"
"A-again! He killed again!"
Arianne's executives stepped back into the corner of the audience chamber as if they were running away from the blood flowing from the quartermaster.
"Th-this is murder! Why are you doing this to us when we've already surrendered?!"
Weegen Arianne barked the question while hiding behind other executives.
"Even if Zieghart bestowed you with full authority, this is still beyond your rights!"
"Are you calling this an arrogance?"
"Indeed! We are still the executives of this house! What right do you have to kill us?!"
"What you just said is wrong in two aspects."
Raon raised his index and middle fingers.
"First of all, the authority I got from Zieghart isn't the only one I have."
He declared, pointing at Wendy behind him.
"The current head of Arianne, Wendy Arianne, appointed me as the commander of this war. I haven't declared the end of this war yet."
Raon couldn't declare that the war was over because he'd collapsed right after burning the death sphere. That was why the war was still not over in House Arianne.
"Since the war isn't over yet, I have the right to execute you on the spot as the commander."
"Ah…"
"Execute…"
The executives' shoulders trembled upon hearing that he could execute them on the spot.
"And secondly."
Raon folded his middle finger and pointed at them with his index finger.
"You aren't executives anymore. You are criminals. You are thieves who tried to sell your own house and deserters who abandoned the house during a war. I can still execute you on the spot even after the war."
The arrested executives didn't deserve to live. There were no exceptions.
Raon might have forgiven them if they at least made some effort to transport rocks during the war, but they'd taken hostages and run away without even looking back.
It was necessary for the revival of House Arianne to eliminate them.
"Since I answered your question, let me continue."
Raon raised Heavenly Drive and walked up to the executives. Their faces turned yellow in fear from the murderous intent dwelling in his eyes.
"D-don't come any closer!"
"Go away!"
"We just wanted to survive!"
"D-damn it…"
The executives crouched in a corner like worms and threw out the smallest executive as a scapegoat.
Raon could only laugh at how they were picking a scapegoat among themselves in that situation.
"P-please spare me. I just followed their orders…"
Raon put strength in his wrist before he could finish speaking. Heavenly Drive curved like a scythe to brush past the executive's neck.
"Ah…"
He tried to stop the bleeding from his neck before he fell backward.
Raon cut off six more heads from the executives after that before he lowered Heavenly Drive.
'Hmm…'
His fingertips were tingling slightly because he got up and swung his sword when he hadn't completely recovered yet.
That's why you should know your place.
Wrath clicked his tongue at his pathetic behavior.
You could take care of those worms later on. There's no reason to be so hasty.
'It's because they can potentially destroy the hierarchy of the house.'
They had been ruling over the house for a long time.
If it weren't for Raon, who came from outside, they would've been stretching their influence over Wendy and the new executives by running their mouths. That was why it was necessary to kill them as fast as possible.
"Haa…"
Raon narrowed his eyes while looking at the executives clumped in a corner like a single mass.
The only ones left were Weegen and his siblings. They were Wendy's family.
"Lady Wendy."
Instead of swinging his sword right away, Raon turned to look at Wendy.
"Are you okay with this?"
"Yes."
Raon was planning to kill them even if she said no, but she immediately nodded.
"It must be difficult for you. You can stay outside."
"No, I'll stay here and watch."
Wendy Arianne shook her head with completely unwavering eyes.
It almost looked like she had heavy boulders instead of pupils in her eyes.
'What happened to her?'
The atmosphere around her had changed. It felt like the will rising from her shoulders had transcended something.
"Are you sure?"
Raon bit her lip slightly while asking for the last time.
'They are her family.'
They were simple criminals and strangers to Raon, but they were family to Wendy. Raon was concerned by the fact that she wanted to watch them until the end.
"I'm fine. I'll witness the last moments of the criminals as the head of house."
Wendy looked down at the executives coldly. It was as if she were looking at complete strangers.
"W-Wendy! I'm your uncle, I carried you on my back when you were small!"
The general administrator with a goatee, who was at the very front, waved his hand at Wendy.
"P-please give me a last chance! If you forgive me—"
"You are the one who threw away the last chance you were given."
Wendy glared at him without even turning her head.
"Deserters shall be answered with blades."
She nodded, telling Raon to continue the execution.
She has changed.
'Yes, something has changed in her.'
Wendy Arianne had completely changed from the inside. Raon couldn't tell yet if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
'But it should still be painful for her.'
It was impossible for a person's personality to change in three days. She must've been enduring the pain, so Raon wanted to make it as clean as possible for her sake.
Slash!
Raon raised Heavenly Drive and swung it down. His blade fell without hesitation and cut through the general administrator's neck.
Red blood flowed onto the ground and soaked the feet of the executives cowering in the corner.
"W-Wendy!"
"How can you do this to us?!"
"Don't you remember how we raised you?"
"How can you instigate him when you should be saving us?! You fiend!"
The executives shouted at Wendy, but she stared at them without even batting an eye.
Raon dropped their heads one by one, starting with the ones who insulted her.
Haa.
Warm blood was dripping from Heavenly Drive, and Weegen Arianne was the only person left.
"W-Wendy!"
Weegen Arianne crawled towards Wendy on his trembling limbs.
"I-I'm sorry! Everything was my mistake! Please save me!"
He cried like a baby while holding onto Wendy's ankle. He seemed to be panicking because he'd never imagined such a situation.
"I can stay in prison for the rest of my life! P-please spare my life!"
"Do you remember the lollipop you gave me when I was a child?"
"Lo-lollipop? What are you talking about?! This isn't the time to be joking, please convince that monst—"
Wendy closed her eyes as she looked at Weegen, who was begging while kneeling on the ground.
'The reason why I've been enduring everything under you was because of the lollipop.'
She remembered the lollipop Weegen had bought her when she was a child.
The warmth of her father's touch and the sweetness of the lollipop had made her live in submission for over thirty years.
She'd asked the question because the lollipop was the first and last gift Weegen had given to her, but he didn't seem to remember it, just like she'd thought.
'The lollipop finished melting down now.'
Not even a shard remained from Weegen's lollipop after the previous war. Wendy didn't have any more attachments to him.
She raised her head. She could feel the trust in Raon's gaze, trust that she hadn't even felt from her family.
She remembered her resolution to follow him, and her tightened heart pounded violently.
"Father."
Wendy went on her knees to meet Weegen's eyes.
"I wanted to revive this house alongside you."
"I-in that case…"
"I was planning to appoint you as an advisor in deference to your position as the previous lord, to ask for your advice after you paid for your sins. However, you had to commit a sin that you never should have."
Her eyes turned as cold as the wind on the northern ocean.
"You took hostages and ran away from the house as a head of house, even though the house was in a crisis. This is an unprecedented matter in the continent's history."
Wendy stood up with an icy expression on her face.
"But you don't need to worry about it."
"Ah!"
Weegen raised his head. Hope returned to his dead eyes.
"Th-thank you! I'm really grateful to you! I'll serve the house for the rest of my life…"
"You are gravely mistaken."
"What?"
"I said you don't need to worry about it because I'm going to pass down in history how unsightly you were, and how ugly this house was."
Wendy shook her head, saying that he misunderstood her.
"Sir Raon, I'm sorry. I leave it to you."
"I understand."
Raon nodded and walked up to Weegen."
"W-wait! I'm the head of house…"
Raon cut off his speech and his neck at the same time, reducing the burden on Wendy.
"Huff…"
Weegen collapsed while scratching his severed neck with his dirty fingernails.
"Haa…"
Raon shook the blood off Heavenly Drive and caught his breath.
As for Wendy Arianne, she examined the corpses one by one before she finally raised her head.
"Sir Raon."
A narrow stream of tears flowed down her cheek as she looked at Raon.
"Can you give me a lollipop?"
In a dark room without even a small window, which would've been in complete darkness if it weren't for the blue flame inside the white skull at the center, the twisting sound of muscles and bones could be heard.
Crack!
The grotesque sound continued for around an hour before it finally came to an end, and the Specter, wearing the archlich's mask rose from the white skull.
However, he had a different appearance from before.
The energy of death that had surrounded him like a second skin was completely gone, his robe was torn apart, and there was a huge scar on the mask's forehead.
"Damn it!"
The Specter screamed while slamming the ground.
"Raon Zieghart, you vermin! How dare you!"
It was finally complete.
He was confident he could kill Raon Zieghart and his reinforcement because his jewel was finally complete after gathering the energy of death for a thousand years.
Rimmer interfered, but he was exhausted from fighting the hell pilgrim, and he wasn't going to be a problem either.
However, everything was ruined because of Raon Zieghart just as he thought the fight was over.
'You rat bastard!'
Raon Zieghart was purposefully hiding his power to make him believe that he couldn't break through the barrier of death. After that, he used holy power inside his throwing dagger to destroy the jewel and his core at the same time.
The holy power even ended up hindering his revival, and he only managed to stand back up after three whole days.
'Moreover, he didn't even die.'
The Specter couldn't tell how it happened, but Raon managed to survive the explosion of that huge amount of energy of death. He must've gotten extremely lucky.
'I'll kill you. I'm going to kill you no matter what.'
He'd considered him a simple annoyance, but that wasn't the case anymore. He wanted to make sure to kill him by using any means necessary.
'No matter how long it takes, I'll kill him!'
He managed to revive thanks to the characteristic of the arch lich's mask, but he ended up losing his best body and jewel. It was bound to take a long time to recover his power.
However, he wasn't going to give up. He was going to follow him to the end of the continent and kill him.
"I'm definitely going to kill you."
"It serves you right."
A frightening voice echoed throughout the room when he made his resolution to kill Raon.
'That voice…'
There was no way he wouldn't recognize the voice of that madwoman, Merlin.
"Merlin? Why are you in this room?"
The Specter turned around while shouting, but he couldn't find Merlin anywhere.
"Where are you?! Come here right now!"
He tried to search with magic, but he couldn't use any power because he didn't have enough energy of death in his body.
"You should've gone insane the right way!"
The Specter gave up on finding Merlin and placed his hand on the wall to unleash the small amount of energy of death he had in order to leave.
"Hmm?"
However, the door didn't open. The only passage leading to the outside remained still, not moving in the slightest.
"What is happening…?"
The Specter's chin trembled violently as he raised his head. He could finally see the upper part of the room because his eyes had adjusted to the darkness.
That was when he realized that he wasn't inside the room that he'd designated for his resurrection. He was in some kind of translucent fish tank.
'Fish tank? It can't be the Fish Tank of Imprisonment, right?'
The Fish Tank of Imprisonment was an artifact with the ability to imprison a target. It looked like a powerful ability, but it was usually considered a pointless tool since the target had to spend more than two days inside the fish tank before being imprisoned.
'However…'
The Specter was sent to his room of resurrection right after he died and remained as small bones for three days straight. That meant that he'd met the condition to be captured inside the Fish Tank of Imprisonment.
"Merlin! You crazy bitch! What do you think you are doing?! Come here right now!"
The Specter barked, and the wall on the opposite side splashed like spring water before Merlin walked out from it.
"You should've never done what you did."
Merlin revealed the frightening glow of her eyes as she stared at him.
"I should've never done what? What do you even mean?"
"Raon fainted while bleeding."
"What?"
"My dear had to fight for six days straight without eating or sleeping. You deserve to rot here for eternity."
She declared that it was a price he obviously had to pay with a frightening smile on her face.
"Do you believe the Fallen will overlook this matter?!"
"He won't notice as long as I don't kill you. My real body is on a mission in a different location."
Merlin shook her head, saying that she was nothing but a clone.
"Considering your personality, you wouldn't have appeared before the Fallen until you recovered your power. That's why he won't suspect anything."
The way her old woman mask's lips curved into a smile made his hair stand on end.
"And I don't care even if he finds out."
"What?"
"Because my path doesn't lead to restoration anymore."
That was the last thing she said before she turned into bubbles and disappeared from the fish tank. Since she'd mentioned that she was a clone, she must've returned to her main body.
Crack.
The Specter gritted his teeth.
"You are insane. You are completely insane."
Restoration was the ultimate goal of Eden. The fact that she wasn't interested in it anymore implied that she was completely in love with that brat, Raon.
'It's still okay.'
As long as she didn't keep watching, he would have countless opportunities to escape the fish tank. It was going to take a long time, but he should be able to destroy the fish tank and leave.
"Merlin, I'm going to kill Raon right in front of your eyes."
The mana inside the fish tank was extremely scarce, but it wasn't completely impossible to gather.
He tried to gather the small amount of mana that he could, but the back of his neck prickled and a chill ran down his spine as if someone were watching him from behind.
'What's happening?'
He thought it was strange and raised his head.
Whir.
On top of the dark sky, pupils with crimson crosses inside were twitching. Merlin was there. She was watching the fish tank from outside instead of leaving.
"Ah…"
His heart tightened and felt like it would explode upon seeing those eyes that were full of killing intent.
"Who are you going to kill again?"
Red lips twitched under the pupils and a frightening voice could be heard.
"Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again? Who are you going to kill again?'
He covered his ears because her voice felt like a blade piercing into his ears, but her voice didn't stop.
"Uaaaaah! Stop!"
Merlin's voice finally came to a halt once Specter screamed his head off, but it was only getting started.
"I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you. I'm always watching you."
'So that you won't harm my dear. Forever.'