The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 73

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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 73. Questions (2)
The Predestined One.
Taking only the surface meaning, it refers to a person chosen or designated to fulfill a specific purpose or role.
One who bears fate and mission regardless of their own will.
‘Avarus knew nothing beyond that.’
Avarus only knew that Seraphia was The Predestined One.
I unleashed Dragon’s Wrath[E] a couple of times to check if he was lying, but the result was the same.
He only repeated that it was ‘the Cult’s orders’. And the Cult in question here was the worshippers of the fallen soul.
In other words, the Dark Merchant Company.
Avarus had merely manufactured the Infinite Elixir under the Dark Merchant Company’s orders.
But that was fine.
Because I already knew.
The role predetermined for Seraphia was—.
‘The Frost Lord, of course.’
What else could it possibly be?
Even the penalty from the sudden Quest confirmed it.
In other words, the Dark Merchant Company deliberately approached Seraphia with the intention of making her The Frost Lord.
Then—.
One question arose here.
If the intention to make Seraphia The Frost Lord came from the Dark Merchant Company’s orders—.
Was it an order from The Abyss Lord?
Or was it an order from The Emperor?
Of course, the god served by the Dark Merchant Company is The Abyss Lord.
But the one whom The Abyss Lord serves is none other than The Emperor.
In other words, The Emperor can issue orders to the Dark Merchant Company alongside The Abyss Lord. And if it were an order from The Emperor—.
‘Why didn’t The Emperor step forward directly?’
It was a matter of drawing in The Frost Lord, the Imperial Army’s greatest force and the Allied Forces’ greatest adversary.
Was it because Seraphia was a high-ranking noble as a Count?
Perhaps to avoid complications if the Battenberg Kingdom became involved?
That could be possible, but—.
‘Hmm.’
That possibility was extremely low.
After all, The Emperor is the Emperor of The Empire.
The strongest on The Continent and an absolute authority.
The Battenberg Kingdom should defer to The Emperor, not the other way around—that was difficult to accept.
‘Or perhaps at this point, The Emperor didn’t fully understand Seraphia’s power?’
Then the reason The Emperor didn’t step forward directly would make sense.
I, who possessed information from the future, knew that Seraphia was The Frost Lord, but The Emperor would not.
If he merely thought of Seraphia as ‘a useful pawn’?
The reason The Emperor didn’t step forward directly would be sufficiently convincing, but—
‘Then what does “The Predestined One” mean?’
But calling Seraphia “The Predestined One” had caught my attention.
It was an expression that sounded as if I knew everything about Seraphia.
The Predestined One.
‘It feels like there’s something more that I don’t know.’
It seemed there was something beyond merely referring to The Frost Lord.
Come to think of it, even in my previous life, information related to The Frost Lord had been quite limited.
The Empire—especially The Emperor—had thoroughly concealed anything related to The Frost Lord.
Which made it all the more strange that The Emperor hadn’t stepped in personally.
Taking that line of thought further.
‘Could it be connected to Ian’s regret?’
Ian’s regret.
I had a feeling it might be related to that as well.
‘Ian, if you know something, just spit it out already.’
Once I meet him.
He must have grown tremendously by now. I was planning to give him a proper earful.
But then again, Ian wouldn’t have done it intentionally.
He probably didn’t fully understand it himself.
It was highly likely that Ian had only vaguely sensed something else while fighting The Frost Lord.
In any case, I needed to properly understand what “The Predestined One” truly meant.
‘…It seems they’re not planning to give me a separate Quest.’
I had secretly hoped for one.
After all, Quests only provided direction. In that sense, my current direction was already set.
Finding Ian’s whereabouts.
Understanding the true meaning of The Predestined One.
My next destination to resolve all of this was essentially already determined.
* * *
Kai, having gathered all the treasures from the secret vault together with Adrian.
Or rather, after Adrian alone had gathered all the treasures.
Upon emerging from the Underground Vault—
Sunlight pierced through the collapsed ceiling of Beneron Manor, glimmering faintly through the dust.
It seemed daylight had broken through.
The faint yet brilliant sunlight revealed the landscape of the shattered manor more clearly.
Doors splintered to pieces and destroyed furniture.
Smoke and soot left in the wake of Avarus’s lightning magic.
With each step through the ruined corridors of the manor, fragments of destroyed magical formations crunched beneath my feet.
An eerie silence.
Upon exiting the ruined corridor to the outside—
Countless bloodied guards sprawled about, and the grand entrance of Beneron Manor, cleanly destroyed, greeted us both.
The manor’s front gate, demolished the moment Adrian launched the ambush.
The wall shattered so spectacularly that a cool morning breeze swept through from beyond it.
As I prepared to leave the manor and return to Whitewolf Territory—
“Wait.”
Adrian suddenly called out to Kai, stopping him in his tracks.
At Adrian’s call, Kai’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
Then, as I turned my head—
Adrian reached toward the scattered guards’ bodies, and with a whoosh!
The corpses vanished as if sucked away, disappearing like coins swallowed into a void.
I was well aware that they weren’t human, but homunculi.
So I wasn’t particularly shocked—
….
Yet I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.
The reason Adrian was collecting them.
At first glance, it seemed like destroying evidence, but that wasn’t it.
Simply by decomposing the magical materials used in homunculus synthesis and selling them, Adrian could accumulate considerable wealth.
Adrian left nothing of value behind, scraping together every last coin.
….
Faced with such fanatical pragmatism, I found myself at a loss for words.
Adrian swiftly collected all the guards’ corpses.
And as if that weren’t enough, Adrian moved forward once more.
Following Adrian, we arrived at none other than the village of Baron’s Territory….
“This is….”
All the numerous inhabitants of Baron’s Territory stood motionless, like puppets with their strings cut.
It seemed this was why I had sensed that eerie silence upon leaving the manor.
“When Avarus died, his power source was severed.”
“You mean….”
“Like the guards at the manor, all the inhabitants were not human. Avarus had converted the entire territory into homunculi and controlled them at will.”
Adrian’s words rang true—the inhabitants’ eyes had lost all vitality. Their skin, drained of life, bore a pallid grayish hue.
Had they simply frozen mid-task?
Some stood with tools still clutched in their hands.
Others in the village streets remained mid-conversation.
Yet they too stood frozen in place.
Children who had stopped eating fruit.
Broken fruit scattered on the ground.
The children’s bright smiles remained etched on their faces, but no emotion lay behind them.
What remained here were no longer living beings, merely empty shells.
Adrian methodically stored away each motionless inhabitant.
Men, women, children, the elderly.
The process continued until dusk fell.
Over the course of an entire day, Adrian collected every single inhabitant of Baron’s Territory.
I thought I was about to return to Whitewolf Territory—but I wasn’t.
Adrian headed not toward Whitewolf Territory, but beyond Baron’s Territory into a desolate plain. There, he carefully withdrew all the territory’s inhabitants and laid them out in a single row.
The inhabitants, transformed into a heavy ashen hue.
Though I knew they were no longer human, my heart felt heavy.
That was why Kai couldn’t understand Adrian’s reasoning.
After quite some time had passed, Adrian laid all the territory’s inhabitants upon the ground.
Adrian bent his knees slightly and summoned forth the dragon’s flame.
Whoosh!
The inferno roared fiercely, melting the frozen earth of the Frozen Lands, and the forms of the inhabitants were consumed by the raging fire.
“Why would you…?”
Kai’s eyes filled with confusion.
After all, why would he withdraw those he had so carefully stored away, only to burn them?
Perhaps Adrian had sensed Kai’s thoughts.
“Homunculus synthesis requires human genetic material.”
Adrian’s voice reached my ears.
Adrian’s left arm had turned to ash and vanished.
And Adrian did not regenerate it.
“It means all of them were once people.”
It felt as though he were sharing in the suffering and sorrow of the territory’s inhabitants.
Only then did Kai understand why Adrian had gathered the territory’s inhabitants.
It was not to disassemble them and collect magical materials.
It was certainly not to sell them and earn coin.
A funeral.
Adrian did not simply regard them as homunculi.
He saw them as individual humans—innocent victims who had been sacrificed.
The dragon’s flame swiftly consumed all the territory’s inhabitants.
With the roaring inferno as a backdrop, Adrian posed a question.
“Kai, what do you think a soldier is?”
A soldier.
One who is permitted to wield sanctioned force.
Those who dedicate themselves and remain loyal to their nation.
A soldier may receive a wage, but they must possess the conviction of dedication and loyalty.
Therefore, those without such dedication and loyalty are not called soldiers, but mercenaries.
“What I believe a soldier to be is one who runs in the opposite direction.”
But Adrian’s conception of a soldier was somewhat different.
“Knights and soldiers who run toward the opposite direction from where people flee.”
“….”
“A mother who rushes into flames to save a child, a father who leaves his comfortable home at dawn for his family.”
“….”
“An adventurer who abandons treasure for a comrade’s survival, a mercenary who walks into a perilous battlefield to protect their own life.”
“….”
“A king who descends from his throne for his people. A jester who swallows his own tears for the laughter of others.”
“….”
“Those who possess something worth protecting, something they wish to protect—willing to cast aside their very lives and pride without hesitation.”
“….”
“They are all soldiers.”
“….”
“And that is why a soldier’s pride does not come from victory in war. It comes from what we protect. At least, that is what I believe.”
And.
“What I wanted to protect as a soldier were innocent people like these.”
Consumed by the flames of ruin—.
The innocent people of the Baron’s Territory, sacrificed to Avarus.
Adrian’s fist clenched tightly.
The enemy commander Avarus had vanished, the Baron’s Territory had suffered no losses, and he had secured an enormous fortune as spoils of war.
If this ambush could be called a war, there had never been a victory as complete as this.
But.
Crunch—!
Adrian was seething with rage.
Even though they were not the people of the Whitewolf Territory, but the people of the Baron’s Territory whose faces he did not know. Even though it was not Adrian’s fault—.
Adrian was seething with rage.
Not light… at all.
That Adrian who had seemed so ruthless and indiscriminate.
The Adrian who sometimes appeared frivolous, yet his heart and convictions were never light.
The funeral was small, quiet, and austere.
Adrian, standing before it, was neither grand nor dignified.
But.
Kai could sense a shift in her feelings toward Adrian.
The way Adrian had charged toward the monster legion first when it attacked the Baron’s Territory.
The resolve to throw his own body forward for the Baron’s Territory in crisis.
The obsession Adrian had shown in the Infinite Labyrinth.
An iron will that would never surrender, no matter what.
And even genuine sincerity and devotion for those who had been sacrificed.
Kai found herself changing how she thought of Adrian without realizing it.
A feeling called trust, entirely different from hatred.
Yet still lingering like an afterimage—the emotion of hatred.
Thus, a tempestuous surge of conflicting emotions churned deep within her heart.
Kai still could not understand Adrian.
Perhaps she would never understand him, even in the future.
However.
At least the Adrian she saw now—.
It transcended mere understanding, awakening in Kai a sense of admiration and reverence.
* * *
The raging inferno extinguished only after cremating the territory’s inhabitants.
Now, bone ash accumulated like snow—pristine white powder.
Only that remained, bearing witness to their existence.
The sky was already painted in the hues of dusk.
The wind of the Frozen Lands swept across the scattered ash, and it dispersed like the quiet song of a farewell.
Adrian began to move slowly.
Yet the direction Adrian walked was not toward the Whitewolf Territory.
“Where are you going, sir?”
Adrian did not turn at Kai’s question.
Adrian simply took one step, then another—
“To Violess, the lawless city.”
Kai could see Adrian’s eyes, more composed and profound than ever before.

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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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