Chapter 38
The commotion came to an end as quickly as if it had never happened.
Heinen returned carrying the unconscious Gilesha.
His face was so badly swollen that it was impossible to recognize his original features; only the color of his hair gave away who he was.
Gilesha himself was not a small man by any means, yet Heinen, wearing full armor, carried Gilesha in one hand and a spear in the other. The sight was nothing short of valiant.
“He attempted to use Self-Destruction Magic, so I restrained him with Divine Power. I will gag him before he regains consciousness.”
Heinen said calmly.
Given how well he knew how to subdue Dark Guild members, it was clear he had dealt with them countless times before.
He then mentioned the unconscious Cahena and Chelsey.
Although Gilesha’s surging energy was exceptional even among guild members, he said that because Cahena and Chelsey had managed to hold him back, the situation was resolved quickly.
Aquila nodded.
He was not being modest; it was simply the truth.
The injuries covering Cahena’s body were far more numerous than they appeared at a glance.
The reason the blackened wounds had not spread even further was undoubtedly because Priest Chelsey had somehow intervened, even at the cost of severely exhausting her mental strength.
“…You need not worry. The elites of our Temple Knights excel not only in combat, but also in healing.”
Heinen, whose helmet was pulled low so that only his lower face was visible, lifted his thick lips into a smile for the first time.
Though his tone remained blunt, it was clearly meant as reassurance, whatever thoughts he might have had upon seeing Aquila’s expression.
Of course, Aquila had not been worried.
He already knew the capabilities of the Temple Knights from the Grand Temple of Portplum.
Still, rather than contradict him, he simply nodded in silence.
Gilesha, bound by golden Divine Power, was placed in one corner, while Cahena and Chelsey were moved side by side into a clean room.
“Sister…!”
After treating Shen, Yujelia rushed over to Chelsey with a startled expression as soon as she heard the news.
“…Is Vice-Captain Cahena all right?”
Shen, whose blackened feet had been treated remarkably well, approached Aquila.
The attendant, who looked as though he might burst into tears at any moment, stubbornly kept a stiff expression.
“She is not in danger of losing her life. The same goes for Priest Chelsey… More importantly, Shen, are you all right?”
“Yes. I can walk without any trouble. It does not hurt either! Experiencing it firsthand really showed me how incredible Lady Yujelia’s healing power is.”
“That is true.”
“But they said the strange black stuff is gone, though they are not sure whether the scars will disappear. They told me to apply medicine later, so…”
Shen trailed off and began examining Aquila’s face closely.
“Young Master, are you really all right? You dodged all of those attacks, which was amazing, but you are not hurt anywhere, right?”
“I am fine.”
Even after plunging both feet into the sludge, Shen worried more about others than himself.
After reassuring him, Aquila told him not to walk around and to rest more, sending him back again.
‘We could have killed Gilesha, but in any case, the capture-obsessed fanatic managed to take him alive. What remains is Celsia’s associates, the other guild members, and…’
Even with his mind exhausted, his thoughts continued to race.
They had defeated the shadow and dealt with Gilesha, yet there had been no word from the holy knights on the other side. Were they moving like snails or something?
On the opposite end of where they stood—
In a corner of the vast main garden of House Reschenhardt.
The grounds were so expansive that after a long pursuit, with both sides chasing one another…
KABOOOM!
A completely different explosion echoed from that direction.
Aquila’s gaze snapped toward it.
A column of black smoke rose into the air.
Self-Destruction Magic.
One remaining Dark Guild member had finally used Self-Destruction Magic after a grueling chase.
‘…Damn it. Annoying bastards to the very end.’
With a weary expression, Aquila pressed a hand to his forehead.
***
Self-Destruction Magic cast through Black Magic.
Once activated, Black Magic was difficult to suppress properly even with Divine Power.
At the Grand Temple of Portplum, Aquila had been lucky enough to use Ravaging of Formulas, but such fortune was rare.
As a result, the explosion of Black Magic swallowed two holy knights who had finally cornered the guild member, along with two soldiers of House Reschenhardt.
The range of the Self-Destruction Magic was considerable, and its power immense.
Including the guild member himself, five lives were extinguished in an instant.
Self-Destruction Magic was designed precisely to take the lives of others nearby along with one’s own.
There were also many injured.
Celsia’s close associates, realizing they could not escape the estate, chose to resist.
Celsia had stayed at the Reschenhardt Estate for nearly ten years, and most of her associates had been there just as long.
Because they all knew one another so well, the confrontation did not end quickly and dragged on for quite some time.
Just as Aquila had expected.
Even so, their resistance gradually came to an end.
More explosions followed, along with chilling screams.
Sounds that should never have been heard within House Reschenhardt echoed again and again.
And finally, word of Celsia Reschenhardt’s death reached them.
Of course, not many believed that the owner of the soul-shaking screams they had heard was a monster Celsia had transformed into.
They believed she had colluded with the Guild of Darkness and had cast the Curse of Deadly Poison on Aquila, but still—
How could a human possibly turn into a monster?
Yet evidence began to surface one by one.
The vanished greenhouse.
The glass shards embedded all around it.
The blackened, rotted shrubs of the main garden.
News that Vice-Captain Cahena had been injured and moved to a sickbed.
And finally, the sight of Celsia’s twin children clutching the already purified stones and crying.
At that point, there was nothing left from which to claim it was a lie.
Someone had died, and the proud inner workings of House Reschenhardt had fallen into chaos. That much was undeniable.
Celsia’s associates were bound and imprisoned in the underground dungeon of the estate.
Now alone, the remaining Dark Guild member, Gilesha, was restrained by Divine Magic and confined to a solitary cell.
To prevent anyone from exploiting an opening to escape, soldiers were stationed to guard the teleportation circle leading out of Igrail, and all the Temple Knights who had been waiting outside were summoned inside.
Their help was needed to treat the wounded and to purify the black stones scattered throughout the garden with the power of the Sun God.
The current acting head of House Reschenhardt, who had taken the lead in capturing Celsia’s associates, actively set about restoring order in the estate.
He did so while keenly feeling the disgrace of such an incident occurring when all elite forces guarding Reschenhardt had been dispatched to the Frost Forest subjugation.
And as for what Aquila Reschenhardt was doing during the restoration of the estate—
After sprinting to the site of the Self-Destruction Magic, giving orders to recover the bodies and tidy the area, Aquila staggered on his way back.
His vision blurred, yet he struggled to remain conscious as a thought crossed his mind.
‘No! I cannot pass out again over something like this… Back in my day…’
Aquila thought about what he had done.
Not long after rising from his sickbed, he had ridden in a carriage for half a day to reach Igrail, entered the alternate space created by the Scales of Judgment, and ridden the mad god’s shaking ride.
Before he could even recover from the ensuing motion sickness, he had chased after the fleeing Celsia, running without pause, and dodged the attacks of the Corrupted Shadow of Ecstasy.
He had used magic, and even forced out something resembling aura.
‘…That is a lot, is it not?’
The more he reflected on it, the more undeniable it became that he had truly done a great deal.
In fact, he found it admirable that he had not collapsed already.
‘This is plenty good enough…’
And so, he decided to finally let himself go.
With that thought, his consciousness began to fade, as if a thread had been cut.
Cough.
After a small cough, he staggered heavily.
“…Aquila Reschenhardt!”
Heinen, who had been following behind, rushed forward and caught Aquila as he collapsed.
At this point, only a week had passed.
Aquila achieved a new record that the “previous Aquila” had never accomplished: fainting three times within a single month.
***
A gentle breeze brushed against his cheek.
The curtain swayed as wind slipped in through the window.
Warm sunlight carefully heated his eyelids as he opened his eyes.
A plain white ceiling filled his vision.
His mind, not yet fully awake, felt dull and heavy.
When he moved slightly, he felt the soft bedding against his back.
He wriggled his fingers to check that they moved properly and took a deep breath.
A faint scent of roses drifted in.
‘Roses. Someone around here liked roses… An elf? No. That one has been dead for a long time…’
He raised a hand and grabbed his head.
Various memories suddenly intertwined, stirring confusion in his mind.
‘No, if this were a different loop, there would be a chance they are alive…’
He rubbed his face several times.
Exhaling slowly, he was about to lower his hand to call up the status window when—
Tilting his head forward and opening his eyes, he saw red flicker at the edge of his vision.
Snapping fully awake, he grabbed his hair and widened his eyes.
Red hair!
He immediately threw off the blanket and sprang to his feet.
A somewhat familiar scene came into view.
Stepping down from the bed and approaching the mirror on the wall, he saw it clearly: hair the color of burning flames.
“…Aquila Reschenhardt.”
Aquila enunciated the name clearly.
Rolling his black eyes, he brought up the status window.
【30th Loop Possessed Individual: Aquila Reschenhardt】
The familiar name greeted him.
‘Not dead, body intact, and unfortunately, my mind is still intact as well.’
After tearing his gaze away from the still-flickering blessing of the Sun God, Aquila examined his body.
There were no holes anywhere, and his body felt refreshingly light, as if he had slept soundly.
Out of habit, he continued mana breathing and bounced lightly in place a couple of times.
‘Perhaps I slept for about two days. Not bad.’
Now it was time to hear what had happened afterward.
Aquila looked around the room, searching for clothes to change into.
No matter what, he could not go outside dressed in sleepwear.
Did nobles not usually keep clothes in their rooms?
It felt like quite some time had passed since he possessed Aquila, yet he had awakened in this room so rarely that he still knew little about it.
As he busily searched through the room—
The door suddenly swung open, and Shen entered carrying a bowl of water.
“Oh, Shen. Perfect timing. Where are my clothes?”
Aquila raised his head cheerfully from where he had been rummaging under the bed.
The posture was odd, but the sentiment was genuine.
However, perhaps seeing his young master lying flat on the floor with his stomach pressed down looked strange.
Shen’s face stiffened.
And then—
CLANG! SPLASH!
He dropped the bowl of water, spilling it across the floor.
Aquila’s eyes widened in surprise.
But even with his feet soaked, Shen looked even more shocked than Aquila, blinking rapidly before opening his mouth wide.
Then, as if something urgent had occurred, he rushed out of the room.
“Hm?”
As Aquila tilted his head, left alone, Shen’s loud shout echoed from afar.
“Yu— Yujelia! Lady Yujelia! Aquila— Young Master Aquila has woken up!”
Soon, hurried footsteps came crashing toward Aquila’s room.
Aquila Reschenhardt had awakened.
It had been exactly ten days since he had collapsed.