The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 286

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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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Chapter 286. Like the Final Verse of a Fairy Tale
My father’s death came without warning.
He had never been frail in health.
There was no chronic illness to speak of.
Nor was he advanced in years.
My father was strong, healthy, and young.
Yet one day, he simply passed away.
There was no forewarning. Not even a hint.
A man who had been vigorous that morning became a cold corpse before evening fell.
The memory of that day remains vivid even now.
It was the catalyst that drove me to abandon my family, the moment my entire life pivoted a complete 180 degrees.
Seraphia and Kai rushed to his side in panic.
The servants moved about in frantic disarray.
And I could say nothing at all.
My father’s death arrived with such sudden violence.
The cause was poisoning.
The Head Chef and the maids were interrogated first.
Yet no suspicion could be cast upon any of them.
The source of the poison was never identified.
No evidence emerged. No culprit was found.
The investigation concluded as follows:
My father, a brilliant mage, had suffered a fatal accident while conducting magical experiments alone—death by poisoning.
At the time, I believed it.
We all believed it.
But thinking back, something felt wrong.
“Father would never make such a mistake.”
He was cold enough to cast out his own child.
He was cruel enough to lay hands on Seraphia directly.
A man so meticulous and thorough he could scarcely be called human.
Such a man poisoned himself through sheer negligence?
“That’s impossible.”
The likelihood of my father poisoning himself was low.
Similarly.
The likelihood of him being poisoned by another was also low.
My father trusted no one.
He kept even his own child at a distance.
There was no opportunity for anyone to approach him.
Except for one person.
A single soul who had stood by my father’s side all his life.
“Bernard, did you kill my father?”
Bernard closed his eyes.
Silence enveloped the room.
Even his breathing seemed to settle into a measured, deliberate calm.
Within that suffocating stillness.
“That day….”
Bernard confessed the truth from four years ago.
* * *
The Administrative Office of Count’s Castle.
After dinner had concluded, Cedric quietly summoned Bernard to his office.
‘Bernard.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘In four months, Seraphia’s sixteenth birthday will arrive.’
Bernard’s gaze darkened.
Sixteen years old.
The age when a woman enters her prime fertile years.
And thus, the age for debut into high society was also set at sixteen.
‘The Queen herself intends to personally invite Seraphia to the Royal Social Society.’
Bernard’s eyes widened slightly.
The Royal Social Society was the pinnacle of high society.
Those of low station could not participate.
Of course, Seraphia’s station was not low.
Yet even nobles of high rank could not attend if they were mired in scandal or gossip.
The Royal Society was a place that had cast out even a duke’s daughter for wearing an unfashionable gown.
And yet the Queen herself would personally invite Seraphia—merely an adopted daughter from a remote count’s territory?
‘Is that truly so?’
‘Yes. Though I confess, I don’t understand the reason.’
‘….’
‘Moreover, the society gathering is to be held as early as February this year.’
The purpose of the Royal Social Society was to serve as a stage where noblewomen of marriageable age could introduce themselves to aristocratic society.
‘We shall complete it before Seraphia makes her debut at the Royal Social Society.’
‘….’
‘It will take place in the Annex Building, isolated from the outside. Adrian will be intoxicated and placed in the adjacent room.’
‘….’
‘Have you prepared the substance?’
Bernard nodded.
The substance Cedric had ordered was a drug.
An aphrodisiac.
A substance that incited depravity and aroused carnal desire.
Yet it was not intended for Seraphia.
Cedric Whitewolf.
It was an aphrodisiac he would consume himself.
‘Sexual reproduction is truly nothing but a nuisance.’
Cedric possessed no sexual desire.
Though it was an instinct any human would naturally harbor, the desires granted under the name of humanity had been excised from Cedric long ago.
Cedric’s very humanity had been castrated.
To Bernard, Cedric was a mechanical entity merely wearing the shell of a human, moving through existence without genuine feeling.
And intimacy devoid of desire was nothing more than physical labor.
‘If only I could exchange genetic information through remote magic.’
Cedric clicked his tongue and swallowed the medicine.
Ignoring the bitter taste spreading across his palate, he muttered coldly to himself.
‘After going to such lengths, I cannot afford to produce another defective specimen like Adrian.’
Cedric rose slowly from his seat.
‘They should be conducting genetic adjustment procedures, so have Seraphia report once preparations are complete.’
Thus.
Cedric never emerged from the Laboratory again.
* * *
Bernard’s account—neither lengthy nor brief.
Father had trusted Bernard.
He trusted only Bernard, who had remained at his side since childhood.
That was why.
Bernard was never named as a suspect in the incident.
Why no one in the family—not even I—ever doubted Bernard.
But the truth was different.
Bernard had betrayed Father.
He could no longer stand idly by while Father crossed lines into atrocities beyond redemption.
And he chose Seraphia over me.
He concealed all truth.
He acted according to Father’s will.
I became a pawn cast aside in a single moment.
Neither firstborn nor heir.
A scoundrel stripped of everything.
That guilt?
Or perhaps Bernard never harbored any loyalty toward me from the start.
Bernard turned away from me until the very end.
And so, even now.
I could not recall Bernard’s affection toward me.
“….”
Bernard remained with his eyes closed.
His face bore the expression of one for whom everything had ended.
Like a condemned prisoner awaiting final judgment, he knelt motionless with bowed head.
I remained silent for a long time.
Betrayal, manipulation, silence, and complicity.
None of it could be forgiven by any excuse.
Therefore, I had intended to—
kill Bernard.
“…I’ll bury it.”
But I did not.
I decided to bury this matter.
Bernard’s eyes opened.
His trembling gaze was asking me for a reason.
“However, there is a condition.”
I swallowed hard and spoke.
“Do not speak of what you just heard to Seraphia or Kai.”
“But—”
“It is already the past.”
And the past cannot be undone.
The regression of the past occurred four years ago.
After my father’s death.
In other words, it is something that can never be changed.
Bernard bit his lower lip firmly.
He looked utterly desolate.
At the same time, pitiful.
Was he only now feeling guilt?
Perhaps.
Bernard had been living within that guilt all this time.
Perhaps that was why he could not muster any affection toward me.
Because he had no right to.
Perhaps he wished to atone now, to pay the price for his sin.
“You will bear this burden to the end.”
This was the punishment I imposed upon Bernard.
Bernard closed his eyes.
A heavy silence descended over his trembling shoulders.
“If this truth is not revealed—”
Bernard spoke quietly.
His voice trembled thinly.
“Kai will never forgive Adrian.”
“Indeed.”
The reason Kai came to hate me.
That is, the memory of my killing his sibling was entirely fabricated.
Therefore, if the truth is not revealed, Kai will continue to live hating me.
“I will bear that weight.”
I had resolved to shoulder this burden myself.
Kai’s Perfect Immortality[T].
This ability was not absolute.
It would disappear the moment Kai denied his own mission or lost the significance of his purpose for existence.
In other words, the moment his hatred toward me vanished.
The moment Kai discovered that all his memories had been fabricated.
The moment even a shred of doubt arose in his devotion to Seraphia.
Kai’s Perfect Immortality[T] could crumble.
Therefore.
“The price of this truth, Bernard, shall be borne by you and me.”
“….”
“Do you understand?”
Bernard did not answer.
Mungu spoke his answer for him instead.
◆Bernard’s favorability toward you has entered the [Blind Devotion] state of the 「Bond Stage」.
◆Individuals in the [Blind Devotion] state display unconditional acceptance of your commands, instructions, and judgments without internal resistance.
◆Bernard prioritizes your commands over his own ethics, values, and emotions, and will follow them to the end regardless of whether the outcome is right or wrong.
◆Even if the command means his own destruction, Bernard will obey without question.
And once more.
A message materialized before my eyes.
◆You have acquired the Bond Skill, Oath of Belonging[E]!
◆Oath of Belonging[E]
: When this skill is used, the player can bind an individual in the 「Bond Stage」to themselves. The bound individual is no longer a separate, independent existence, and a part of their being becomes the player’s possession.
However, it does not activate without mutual trust, and depending on circumstances, mental submission or physical suppression may be required.
And so.
“…I will take it to my grave.”
The truth was buried once more beneath lies.
* * *
Whitewolf Territory 2, situated in the Frozen Lands.
Adrian and Kai.
The battle between two monsters had turned the entire land upside down.
Even the roots of Yggdrasil trembled, but fortunately there was no major damage.
The spirits quickly regained their balance.
And Yggdrasil stabilized its own essence.
Whitewolf Territory 2 had returned to peace.
“Oh! A squirrel!”
Silmarien cried out, pointing at the grass.
There, a single squirrel scurried busily through the grass.
It moved with such earnest intensity, as if searching for something.
“It looks like it’s searching for acorns it buried!”
At Silmarien’s words, Adlern tilted his head in confusion.
“Acorns it buried?”
“Yes! Squirrels have a peculiar habit, you see.”
“What sort of habit, if I may ask?”
“When they gather two acorns, they put one in their mouth and bury the other in the ground to eat later.”
But then.
“They forget where they buried those acorns?”
“It seems squirrels aren’t particularly intelligent, sir.”
“Right! Exactly! Or as you might say it—”
Silmarien called out cheerfully.
“They’re scatterbrained!”
“W-wait, that’s—!”
Adlern flailed his hands about frantically.
Why had I said such a thing?
My mouth truly runs away with me.
“But here’s the thing.”
Silmarien spoke while watching the squirrel.
“The acorns the squirrel never finds eventually sprout in the soil as time passes.”
They become trees.
And then forests.
“Producing countless acorns anew.”
And so those acorns grow in abundance.
It ensures the squirrel will never want for food.
“The scatterbrained squirrel’s actions ultimately became the very thing that enriched its own life!”
Adlern turned his gaze back to the squirrel.
The squirrel was desperately searching for acorns.
It seemed anxious about the acorns it had lost.
Its tiny paws scratched through the soil.
Its nose twitched as it followed the scent.
It looked quite earnest and pitiful.
“If there’s no answer right before your eyes, it’s fine to forget and leave it buried.”
Just as the acorns the squirrel forgot and buried would sprout, become trees, and eventually return as abundant acorns once more.
“No one knows how that buried problem will eventually be resolved.”
When one decides not to do something.
It might not be resignation or acceptance.
It could be a choice toward another possibility instead.
“Just look at the fairy tales humans tell.”
“Fairy tales, you say?”
“Yes!”
Silmarien nodded with a smile.
“All the protagonists in human fairy tales are unhappy.”
“….”
“And the reasons for their unhappiness are all different, you know.”
People tormented by stepmothers.
People threatened with death every day by witches simply because their faces are beautiful.
People cursed and locked away in towers, and so on.
The reasons for their misfortune were truly varied.
“But here’s the thing—in the end, they all become happy.”
“….”
“It seems that wonderful and happy things mostly happen in the latter half of life!”
A buried acorn sprouts.
It becomes a tree.
Just as time is needed for it to return once more as abundant acorns.
So too do our lives only reveal their meaning at the very end.
“So even if things are difficult and bleak right now.”
Even if relationships are clumsy and filled with nothing but wounds.
“Even if sharing one’s heart feels like a burden.”
When misunderstanding outweighs understanding.
When suspicion outweighs sincerity.
When the gears of crossed relationships refuse to mesh and turn together.
Someday all of it will pass.
Surely.
And without fail.
“We will all become happy!”
Though the reasons for unhappiness differ for each of us, by the latter half of life we ultimately arrive at the same ending—
“Just like the final words of a fairy tale!”
Silmarien cried out with conviction.
And.
The final words of a fairy tale drifted through Adlern’s mind.
[…And so they lived happily ever after.]
* * *
In the space Bernard had vacated.
I sat alone, trying to organize my thoughts—fat chance of that.
“….”
My mind was a complete mess.
Anger, emptiness, exhaustion.
And emotions I couldn’t even name.
The more cluttered my thoughts became, the shorter my thinking grew.
“…Ah, forget it.”
I shook my head to clear it.
Dwelling on it now wouldn’t change anything.
I had decided to bury the truth.
So nothing had truly changed.
Kai would continue as Kai.
Seraphia would continue as Seraphia.
And I would continue as myself.
We would simply go on as we always had.
“…Let me get some exercise.”
I rose from my seat.
In that moment.
‘Rielin?’
I sensed Rielin approaching my room.
As I opened the door, Rielin hurried toward me from the end of the corridor.
But wasn’t Rielin supposed to be busy right now?
With the Runesteel mining, that is.
I asked as soon as Rielin drew near.
“What is the matter?”
“It’s… Arcanoheart is broken.”
“…?”
Suddenly?
“The entire ground shook all at once.”
Ah.
My sparring match with Kai.
It must have been damaged when the entire foundation of Whitewolf Territory trembled.
‘This man’s control over his power is truly something.’
I exhaled a long, weary sigh.

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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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