A Blend of Romance and Fantasy - Chapter 76

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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76.
His story flowed as naturally as water, yet its content was agonizing. There were moments I wanted to beg him to stop.
‘So that’s why he struggled to speak….’
In any case, my curiosity about Ragnarok had been somewhat satisfied.
But the question remained: why had the Aristocratic Elder summoned Ragnarok to the Human Realm to burst his heart?
However, there were few people in this world who could ask such a question in this situation.
In the lengthening silence, I carefully opened my mouth.
“Then James was your savior?”
“….”
Leonard Blake nodded quietly.
But he had clearly said when we first met that he had killed the Protagonist. Why was that?
I wanted to ask, but it might wound him further. As I pressed my lips shut, Leonard let out a soft laugh.
“Shall we stop now? Your face looks like you’ll only grow more curious.”
“That’s not it. I… don’t want you to be hurt.”
“Now, of all times?”
“…!”
Without thinking, I clenched my fists.
“Leonard, I’m truly sorry. You don’t have to say anymore. Really!”
“James was.”
Over my tightly clenched fists, a large, warm hand descended. It was Leonard Blake’s hand.
Startled, I looked at him, and Leonard Blake began to speak again. His expression remained unchanged.
* * *
James was truly a textbook protagonist of classical fantasy—the righteous hero archetype.
He pursued justice, followed laws and rules, and helped others with an idealism that seemed almost too perfect.
Since every action he took came back like a boomerang, he held that childish philosophy of doing good deeds for the future.
“I’ll set you free. You’re welcome to leave as you wish.”
Everyone opposed it, but James freed Leonard Blake.
Yet Leonard Blake did not leave.
Not because he was impressed by that childish philosophy.
One reason was that he thought revenge against Demian would be easier if he stayed by James’s side. The other reason was….
He wanted to see with his own eyes what this world’s protagonist’s absurd ideal—a “peaceful Empire”—truly meant.
James had told him he was needed, unlike all those who had treated him as garbage. He could not bear not to witness the world this man would create.
Yet it came with a heavy burden of guilt.
If he continued to stay by James’s side, what would become of his trampled comrades? Would the shadows of enemies he had killed without thought ever disappear?
He was swimming through a past riddled with darkness. He was not one who deserved to stand in the light.
So Leonard Blake wore a thick helmet that revealed only his eyes.
“Lord Prance, give me the dirty work.”
The dirty tasks that had to be done in the ideal world the protagonist was building.
If someone had to bear that burden, it was right that he do so.
‘…James, I will stand by your side as darkness.’
And then one day, when death finally came for him… he thought it would be punishment for his sins, and he would accept it gladly.
Leonard Blake lived his second life in this way.
Unaware of how James watched over him.
* * *
“Your Highness, a Lumenregis has appeared in the Blackwood Forest.”
“Lumenregis…? Isn’t that a wish stone that only my father, Emperor Yukal, can possess? I heard rumors it was in the Imperial Palace?”
“That’s precisely why it’s strange, Your Highness. We must find it before Demian steals it from us.”
Lumenregis.
Leonard Blake had already read the original work, so he knew how extraordinary the Lumenregis was.
A wish stone that only the Emperor could possess throughout history—one that could even resurrect the dead.
The fact that such a wish stone had appeared in Blackwood was already part of the original narrative.
However, Leonard Blake remembered from his hazy recollection that Demian would seize the wish stone first.
Since he could never allow that to happen, he vehemently claimed ownership of the wish stone.
“I agree with Lord Prance’s words, James. You need that wish stone to become Emperor. Besides, isn’t it in your own territory, the Blackwood Forest?”
“….”
“Send me. I’ll retrieve it in the blink of an eye and place it in your hands.”
But James opposed it for some reason.
He said something felt off about it and commanded that no one go.
However, Leonard Blake had no intention of obeying that command.
‘It’s not difficult for someone who knows the original work. Above all, that wish stone must never fall into the hands of trash like Demian.’
Looking back now, it was an extraordinarily arrogant and reckless decision for a transmigrator, yet it was also a conclusion he had reached naturally.
Leonard Blake had successfully aided James in many endeavors based on his knowledge of the original work.
Moreover, entering Blackwood, the place called the Forest of the Demon Realm, didn’t particularly frighten him.
What could a man who had burst Ragnarok’s second heart possibly fear?
That night, Leonard Blake left the mansion alone, sword in hand.
His heart raced with unease in a way unbecoming of him, but he deliberately ignored that warning and spurred his horse forward.
Midway through, when the horse went mad from Blackwood’s magical energy and reared wildly, he abandoned it and ran on foot.
And truly, he was able to find the wish stone.
His entire body trembled with exhilaration.
His vision swam, and it felt as though lightning struck from the crown of his head to his toes.
He was not unaware that a thread of unease was woven through that exhilaration, yet he welcomed it nonetheless.
“…So I just need to take this and leave.”
Unfortunately, Leonard Blake had only ‘heard’ about the Lumenregis and had never actually ‘seen’ it. He didn’t know its details.
The jet-black wish stone, as if it had condensed all the misfortune in the world, made his mind go blank the longer he gazed upon it.
Leonard Blake felt his mind emptying for the first time in a very long while.
The wish stone belonged to James. He should deliver it immediately. So why did he feel reluctant?
Leonard Blake reached out as if bewitched, his hand trembling as he touched it.
With this, anything was possible.
In that instant, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.
‘Could I… go back?’
I had no memory of what kind of life I had lived, yet I was certain of one thing—that world was at least better than this place.
My heart thundered violently in my chest. The biting wind cut through to my bones, forcing me to relive the despair I thought I had left behind.
A child of the House of Destruction. A boy soldier. Thanatos. Ragnarok. Demian.
And… James.
‘No. I have to take it. This is not mine.’
The moment I shook my head.
The wishing stone beneath Leonard Blake’s hand suddenly vibrated.
A sharp, piercing crack followed, and black magical flames erupted.
I tried to dodge quickly, but my feet wouldn’t move. A black magic circle had already been drawn beneath me.
Then a shadow burst from beside me and consumed my vision.
“James!?”
“Leonard Blake, get out of here!!”
It was James.
He grabbed me and pulled me down, rolling to the side with me.
But the moment we tried to rise from the ground, a long, dark spear of magic erupted from beneath us.
“Leonard Blake!!”
James pressed me down with all his strength and took the spear in my stead.
It was a rational decision.
After all, he possessed an immortal body—even if the spear pierced through him, his flesh would regenerate within ten seconds.
As the black spear drove deep through his shoulder and heart, James screamed and collapsed onto me.
It was a dire situation, yet I could only exhale a long sigh.
This was familiar—James sacrificing himself in place of his subordinates.
“James, even with your immortal abilities, you still feel pain, don’t you?”
“…”
“Moreover, it hardly befits a prince to constantly take attacks meant for his men. Why did you even come here?”
“…”
“…James?”
As I continued speaking, I suddenly realized James wasn’t rising from on top of me.
“Ja…mes?”
My face then hardened like stone. What was soaking my vest was none other than James’s blood.
Pale, I carefully lifted James up.
James was bleeding profusely, blood pouring like water. No flames rose to heal his wounds.
“James, why… why isn’t it healing?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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