Chapter 51: Liberation (1)

Graves blanketed in snow.

The beginnings were crude, but not a single name was missing, and the recently built graves were neat.

Graves buried one by one with his own hands.

“This is the cemetery of the people.”

Innocence’s ancestor did not avert his gaze from the graves.

“My close friends and subjects who followed me when I left the empire to found a kingdom. I have watched…… their beginnings and ends.”

The ancestor muttered blankly.

“I had a duty to protect them. They left the places they cherished and settled in this harsh environment all because of me alone.”

“Fortunately, we prospered. The empire weakened, declined, and crumbled. We seized the gaps, solidified our foundation, and expanded our territory. I thought only brilliant days awaited us from then on…….”

That day.

Until he noticed something underground.

“By the time I realized, it was already too late. The cold grew stronger day by day, and the monster on the other side began to awaken.”

The monster on the other side sleeping underground.

And the one who had quietly concealed it before awakening it.

The cold, thought to be natural climate, also originated from that existence.

The day the sun set twice.

The being who left a prophecy that the monster on the other side would awaken headed north abruptly.

The ancestor knew but could not stop it.

“What I could do…… even if my arms and legs were severed, was to evacuate as many as possible. That was the best.”

“So you taught your successor the law of the jungle before leaving?”

“Yes.”

Innocence’s ancestor smiled bitterly.

“I had to. What could protect this nation was neither bloodline, nor money, nor magic. Power. Only that could protect this nation again.”

“Even if we lost everything and left, the nation had to continue. That was the courtesy to my departed comrades, friends, and people.”

“But not all the people could evacuate. They all died before my eyes, and though I tried to save them…… I failed. Killing the monster before the moon rose was the best option.”

“……And then you fell into this dungeon.”

“Yes.”

The moment the dungeon appeared, it swallowed this snowy mountain and the surrounding area.

The remaining people, Innocence’s ancestor, and even the monster on the other side.

Innocence said nothing instead,

Because he knew what end awaited.

“Infinite cycle. No matter what I did…… when the sun set, everything restarted.”

The ancestor bowed deeply.

As if it were something he did every day.

Soil and stone fragments on his hands.

He had just made the grave right in front of him.

All the graves stretching in a line.

They too had been made by Innocence’s ancestor.

“So, for a single perfect ‘moment’—a moment where all my people survive—I…… walked this infinite cycle.”

He walked this infinite cycle without missing a single time, calmly.

“I wonder from how many hundreds of days. After that, I no longer remembered the number. I gave up counting then. Like that brain friend in your hand.”

[I…… Do you remember me?]

The brain giggled.

It seemed to have no strength left, manifesting its voice with mana.

[It’s been a while, king. The only one who accepted me…… I thought you forgot since you stopped visiting me at some point.]

“You and I are the only ones who preserve memories even in this cycle. How could I forget you.”

[Kil kil…… Yes. Even the ‘domain’ we created is fading and disappearing now.]

The brain spoke in a weary voice.

[I lost my domain. The moment I became aware of and doubted my name…… that was it. This must be the end I was originally meant to meet. I understand well now.]

There was not even a trace of laughter in its voice.

It was gradually sensing the end.

The people who, upon revival, gave up everything and accepted death.

It would meet the same fate as them.

Innocence’s ancestor would also meet such an end.

After all, having fallen into the dungeon, his given fate was set.

“I remember your name.”

Innocence opened his mouth.

“Kenbaek (hard and white).”

“The founding ancestor who escaped the empire’s oppression and established the Demisia kingdom. The great king who single-handedly felled the monster sleeping beneath the mountains on the day it awakened.”

The successor who carried on his will.

He came to the land that had not only lost its cold but dried up and reestablished the kingdom.

The ancestor had achieved his dream.

“So that’s how the world remembers me.”

A dry, faint smile.

One of the few expressions he could make.

“Kenbaek…… It’s been a truly long time since I heard that name.”

Kenbaek’s eyes as he said that.

Though faint, they held intelligence.

The moment he heard his name, he found his crumbling self, if only for an instant.

“Yes. The crumbling king, and my descendant.”

What revived was not just himself.

Innocence.

From the first moment he saw him to the last.

He recalled the conversations shared until the moment Innocence’s subordinate fell into the infinite cycle and seized a single chance at revival.

“Did you come to extract my brain?”

***

Kenbaek stood and faced Innocence.

The two still resembled each other.

Innocence, eyes still closed, opened his mouth.

The time I have left is not much now. 

Not the body, but the mind—my intuition tells me.

Innocence opened his eyes.

Grayish-white eyes, unfit for the nickname of pure white, glistened.

“The brain is already ruined and devoured by madness…… The only way to fix it, it said, is to overhaul this marrow itself.”

[Even that won’t work?]

“So I found another way.”

Innocence’s eyes turned to Kenbaek’s head.

“Give me your memories, founding ancestor.”

“If it’s your memories…… they might suppress my madness.”

Khe he he. There’s logic to it.”

Kenbaek shrugged and laughed.

“I am currently a lingering thought and a departed soul…… something that should not remain in this world, yet dragged here by the dungeon’s distortion—an aggrieved spirit. Taking my memories means my extinction.”

Already dead, the soul incomplete, thus called a lingering thought; too much resentment, thus called an aggrieved spirit.

What kept him as Kenbaek was only memory and lingering thought.

If that could prevent the nation’s destruction, so be it. The empire is still a dog-like place,

LF?”

“Yes.”

Innocence answered.

“A truly dog-like place.”

“Eu ha ha ha ha!”

It seemed a pleasing answer; Kenbaek slowly approached and placed a hand on Innocence’s shoulder.

“It won’t last many years. When the sun sets and rises twice, you will go mad again. Perhaps even worse than now.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Innocence met Kenbaek’s eyes.

Those firm eyes—he had admired them from the first moment.

A king who lives trapped in an infinite cycle for a single perfect moment.

A king impossible not to respect.

“Within that time, I need only find a successor and pass everything on. Find someone to protect this nation again. That’s all…….”

“Is that so. Good.”

Kenbaek sensed his own end.

It didn’t feel too bad.

The people he should have killed himself originally.

Because some of them were still alive.

In that moment…… perhaps it was using even his remaining soul for the future—a perfect

“Ji…….”

Thump-

Kenbaek raised Innocence’s hand and placed it atop his own head.

Take everything. If that can prevent the nation’s destruction…… I can do anything my

There is.

“Brain. Cooperate.”

Innocence lifted the brain in his hand.

“I know you still have time left. If we finish within that……”

[No.]

The brain refused with a laughing voice.

[I don’t like my friend disappearing like that.]

“If words won’t do, then force is the only way.”

[You’re rushing too much.]

The resolve in his eyes hardened.

The moment strength began entering the hand gripping the brain—

[Wouldn’t it be okay to hope for a miracle a little?]

“Wait!”

Thump!

A shout came from behind.

Innocence’s gaze naturally turned back.

This was the very peak of the snowy mountain.

Carved from the summit.

Made so no one could climb, the mountain range steep and treacherous.

Yet a hand gripped and pulled itself up.

“Huff, huff.”

Face caked with dust and snowflakes.

Complexion even dirtier.

But recognizable.

Felix.

A mid-level knight aspiring to walk the pilgrimage path.

He was definitely with Evan?

“Why are you here? Did Evan, that child, call you?”

“Not wrong. He needed my strength.”

Felix threw off his tattered leather gloves.

Plop!

“But even without the request, I would have come again.”

Gloves thrown at the chest.

That meant a knightly challenge.

Principle to never refuse.

“……You are not talent meant to die here.”

A knight must respond accordingly.

But Innocence, who could discard even humanity if it delayed madness, refused.

“Go back.”

“No.”

Felix drew the sword on his back despite the refusal.

Shiiing-

“I will refuse. Where is the one who watches his and his father’s idol crumble and retreats?”

Felix’s eyes.

Despite the freezing weather, unquenchable embers of aspiration burned.

“I must stop you from abandoning the pilgrimage path and falling into the wrong way.”

“Are you saying suppressing madness is wrong?”

“I’m saying the method is wrong. Can you say that method has value as a king?”

“You heard everything.”

He managed to hear somehow.

Thought the blizzard was too fierce to hear.

“It is not right for a knight who must walk the pilgrimage path. That is no longer…… an honorable life, nor at the very least a glorious death.”

“I don’t need it!”

Innocence roared.

Whether stabbed in the core, or gradually dyed by madness.

All emotions swirled.

Anger, or doubt, or validity.

He didn’t know, nor did he try to.

To a knight with nowhere left to retreat, such things didn’t matter.

‘I see the distortion clearly, and I cannot retreat.’

Felix’s sword began to shine.

The original sword was broken, but this one Evan made himself.

I’ll make you a golem one later.

‘This one is enough.’

Made from items within the dungeon, unsure how long it would last.

But this one alone was sufficient.

“It wasn’t just me lost on the path.”

As comrades lost on the same path, they must guide each other.

The pilgrimage path is a ritual to complete the knight as himself, a path of hardship and adversity.

Nowhere does it say companions are unnecessary.

“As one walking the same pilgrimage path,”

The moment he vowed that.

He felt his world greatly shift once.

Felix was already a mid-level—no, mid-upper level knight.

His realm hadn’t risen only because his path was uncertain and incomplete.

But now, stepping onto the path.

“……Ah. So this was it.”

Belief in himself solidified, and aura amplified greatly once.

Sticky aura like blood enveloped sword and body.

Tss tss tss-

All senses sharpened, accumulated fatigue flying away in an instant.

Felix intuitively knew he had reached the upper-level knight realm.

The thrilling sensation naturally lifted the corners of his mouth.

Once again, he vowed.

His idol and his father’s idol—

“I will put your pilgrimage path back on track.”

He would put it back somehow.

“……My pilgrimage path has already ended.”

The rise in realm happening before his eyes.

Not the dramatic change of reaching Sword Master, the realm called superhuman.

But the rise itself didn’t change.

“Go back—!”

The growth as a knight he must discard.

Seeing it, rage welled up, and Innocence bellowed while thrusting his sword.

The moment pure white sword energy tried to cleave Felix!

[You’ve finally come.]

Grrrrr!!

“!”

With a growl, white light flashed.

A puppy with two heads growled loudly.

In its mouth, the sword energy just unleashed was materialized and bitten.

The puppy grimaced and crunched! it, shattering the sword energy.

“My sword energy…… blocked?”

Sword energy capable of incapacitating even the shrine maiden and Aegis in an instant was blocked.

What is that dog?

No.

More than that…….

“Well done, Felix.”

The party appeared before Felix.

The shrine maiden and Aegis enveloped in star clusters, Lapis, No. 5 standing.

At the center, Evan held the puppy in one hand and a strange device in the other, staring at Innocence.

“Innocence.”

With his usual blunt face, as if he had predicted all this.

“We came to save you.”