Chapter 191 He who protects his sons will also be protected by them…

As Mainkun cried, his body began to sway.

He was cold, tired, and sad, and his body was not feeling well. He really wanted to lie down and die.

"Let's go to sleep."

Peruvée grabbed his collar and led him forward, but stopped at the bedroom door.

As Mainkuhn's trembling intensified, he strained his ears and began counting the children's breaths one by one from outside the door.

[...28, 29, good, no one died today either.]

[...What about tomorrow? What will we do tomorrow?]

"Awoo..."

He started crying again.

Peruvian stared at him for a while with her dark eyes.

"You'd better not sleep here."

She grabbed her friend by the collar, pulling him away from the children, away from the noisy breathing, and into an empty corner where even the chirping of insects was barely audible.

[Pepe?]

Mainkun looked at the storage room in front of him in confusion, and tears welled up in his eyes without him even realizing it.

[It's so quiet. Why did we come here?]

"Your future."

Peruvée pointed to the abandoned little bed in the dust and said to him expressionlessly.

"Stay here. Without my permission, you are not allowed to communicate with anyone, or meet with anyone, no one."

"……Why?"

The cat looked at him with a bewildered expression, its ears drooping pitifully.

Are you going to take away my freedom too, Pepe?

No.

I just want to find a peaceful place for you in this abyss of suffering.

“No,” Peruvieri lied, “If you go out like this, crying and sobbing, who will be afraid of you? Who will hate you? Not even Rongnock. So how can you become stronger?”

Mainkun wouldn't rest until he said that.

"Peruvée, Peruvée!"

Mainkuhn looked somewhat frightened, but Peruvieri thought that expression was better than being lifeless or constantly crying.

"Stay here and don't wander off."

She deliberately showed a hint of fierceness, a warning, and annoyance on her face.

"I will bring you the hatred you cannot obtain, the power you dare not collect."

"Or, can you think of a better way to save everyone? If you can't do it, then don't make things worse for me, you idiot."

"Ah, ah..."

The child, who could barely speak, was at a loss. He looked uneasily at the rows of small beds in front of him, and then at the stubborn Peruvier.

"What use are you among us? You only cause trouble and make things worse, except for crying."

[...]

Mainkuhn had to admit she was right; he really had no other choice in this situation, but he still resisted entering the storage room.

[one person…]

But... but I'm all alone here, and I hate being alone...

Are you a baby who can't be separated from people?

Peruvieri kept a straight face, but pulled an unfinished little doll out of her pocket.

"Here, this is for you. No more fussing around."

[? ...!]

Mainkuen rubbed his eyes and stared in disbelief. The doll had dog-ear-like hair ornaments, black and gray hair, blue and purple eyes, and a smiling mouth. Its design was simple, but its features were distinctive.

[Wow……]

[It's my older brother!]

He gasped inwardly, then hesitantly reached out and carefully took the doll from his friend's hand.

"ah……"

He rubbed the doll against his face, then hugged it and sniffed it. Suddenly, he quieted down, and his short tail lifted slightly, as if he was remembering some beautiful memories.

She's so easy to coax.

"You can figure out the rest yourself, just to pass the time."

Before closing the storage room door, Peruvieri called out one last time to that melancholy little figure.

Mainkuhn.

[Um? ]

"Just so you can see your brother one more time, don't try to kill yourself again, okay?"

[...]

The kitten, with its back to her, gently nibbled on the doll's hand.

[Um. ]

"Morax will remember that promise."

Peruvée closed the door to the storage room.

The moment the door closed, she immediately grabbed the wall for support, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

What happened? Wasn't Mainkuhn dead?

I clearly went to the cold storage and touched his cold skin with my own hands.

And what is standing in front of me now?

No, whatever...

She forced herself to start walking back towards the bedroom.

"Don't sleep, and those who aren't asleep, don't cry."

"Ugh... Boss Maine..."

"Mainkuhn is not dead, I must have been mistaken."

Yes, as long as I'm not dead, nothing else matters.

"Could Pepe be mistaken?"

"He's not dead, and not only is he not dead, he scared Kujavina away from the House of Hearths, Clementine."

Forcibly suppressing her wildly beating heart, she revealed a cold, sharp smile, like a blade, to the children whose faces showed surprise and delight.

"Gentlemen, if any of you are tempted to back down during this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I will have the urge to kill... You probably don't want your heads hanging on the kitchen wall instead of lizard tails, do you?"

The video paused on the girl's murderous gaze, and the audience erupted in uproar.

"What happened? Is it dead? The lynx was definitely dead before!"

"No, don't talk nonsense! There's no such thing as coming back to life from the dead! It must be that the child accidentally fell into a state of suspended animation and woke up after being frozen in the cold storage!"

"Listen to what you're saying!"

"Then give me another reasonable explanation!"

"..."

Amidst the confusion and bewilderment, most ordinary viewers accepted this assumption, while only those who knew the truth remained silent.

"This...this is what you call life sustained by wishes?!" Funina covered her mouth, trembling.

"yes."

The traveler gave an affirmative answer, “As long as the children want him to live, little Maynkun will never die… Fryna, why do you look so sad?”

"This is terrible..."

Furina didn't deny that she felt an indescribable terror when Mayin Kuhn collapsed, and an unparalleled joy when he awoke again. But the thought that this miracle of resurrection was not under her control, but entirely governed by the wishes of others...

"This is terrible."

Her beautiful heterochromatic eyes began to well up with tears.

"If one day—and I mean if—he endured a very, very long time on this land, suffering countless torments, and Mainkun wanted to die, wanted release, wouldn't he be able to control it himself? It's too hopeless..."

"Wow, why are you suddenly thinking about such distant things?"

Paimon was completely baffled. "He's only in his early twenties!"

Navelette held her forehead, pulling her trembling gaze away from the image.

"Stop worrying, Ms. Furina. I don't think what you're worried about will happen, because I don't agree with the theory that Mainkun's life is sustained by desire."

"But he's already come back from the dead!"

"If his life were sustained by desire, he wouldn't be suffering like this! Wasn't Kujavina's obsession with making him king something that existed from the very beginning?!"

"Tell me, why didn't Mainkun respond to her wish first and become a heartless butcher? Instead, he struggled in the abyss and became this twisted creature?!"

He roared in a low voice, his grief and anger ruining his usually calm tone.

After a long silence, the traveler finally spoke.

"The reason behind this has been investigated by the Grass God, but it is not yet time to explain it. However, I think the reason that you are so distraught is not because of your questioning of my theory."

The Water Dragon King took several deep breaths and forcibly straightened his protruding horns back into his hair.

“You’re right, Mr. Traveler. According to human etiquette, I should refute your points one by one with reason and rigor, rather than letting emotions dominate my mind.”

“I lost my composure because I cannot accept… that a life, its state of being, can be so casually defined by you as being sustained by desire… the suffering of Mainkuhn, his struggles, his choices, even his desire to die… are they all just ripples and illusions produced by the intertwining and collision of countless external desires?! Your words are a desecration of him!”

"Produce evidence! Otherwise, I will not accept your testimony!"

"Please continue reading..."

The dragon's unacceptable roar and the traveler's powerless soothing words clashed in his ears, but Leosley had no intention of speaking up to defuse the situation.

He just stared blankly at the image, thinking about how Mei hugged her doll, and felt a chill run down his spine.

What is this, Little Maine?

You've grown up so much, yet the only carefree and happy time you had was the period when we depended on each other for survival in the home of human traffickers?

The Duke lowered his head in disbelief, unaware that a bard in the audience was watching him with trembling eyes.

"What is this guy feeling guilty about? Raising such a difficult little thing when he was still a child himself is practically a miracle!"

Wendy was absolutely terrified after watching the video.

Gan Yu was also still shaken: "Indeed, is it because half of him is a cat? He died even from eating ordinary food. Mr. Leosley actually managed to raise him safely to the age of six. It seems he really respected his opinion and never forced him to eat anything... Mr. Wendy, why are you trembling?"

"Fortunately, fortunately, the rescue was timely back then, fortunately, fortunately."

Barbatos mumbled something she couldn't understand, his voice trembling, "He wasn't as resilient back then as he was when he was a kid... It was terrifying! I'll never give anyone alcohol again!"

It wasn't just the Wind God who was trembling with fear; from a distance, almost all the children of the Hearth House were huddled together, with Arecino standing in the middle.

Arecino said expressionlessly, "Get out of here, all of you."

“No, no.” Fimi said, her eyes brimming with tears. “It’s safer to be closer to Father…”

"Yes, yes, yes! Father is the most reliable! Father is my only comfort during this horrific trial!!"

"I'm so sad... I need to turn off the emotion module..."

"Pepe!!" It wasn't just the children hugging her; Clementine was also crying and sobbing, clutching her head. "You kept this secret for so long, never telling me even once... You must have been under so much pressure, waaaaaah—"

"You go down too."

Arecino, with a stern face, tried to peel them off one by one, but it was no use. They seemed to have completely disregarded the executor's authority and stuck themselves back on.

"well."

"Father, so what did you do after that?" Linni asked dejectedly. "You said you wanted to make Mr. En stronger, but human malice... Father, you wouldn't pretend to be Mr. En to bully other children, would you?"

“Watch your address. Those are your uncles and aunts. As for helping Mainkun become stronger... Ha, I was completely lying to him. I never had that intention from the beginning.”

"Huh???"

"What's so surprising about that?"

Arecino squinted at them, a hint of disdain in her eyes.

“Don’t you all know Mainkun’s personality? He’s almost stubbornly obstinate, almost foolishly soft-hearted. If we let him stay with us any longer, he’ll definitely die again, hehehe… Death should be a relief for him, but it’s not for me, so I’ve forced him to stay.”

Arecino spoke lightly, but no one could ignore the danger involved.

"And then what happened?"

Lynette clung to Clayville, her ears, which resembled Mainkuen's, twitching as she asked.

"Without helping Mr. En gain power, how did you defeat Kujavina? You defected from the Hearth House at the age of fifteen, didn't you? Father said that she was far less powerful back then than she is now."

"So cute~"

Clementine's heart melted when she saw Lynette twitching her ears, and she pounced on her to pinch her cheek. "Little Lynette should remember, right? There's a den of blue-haired villains hidden in the basement of the house, and when Mother isn't around, the children always cause trouble..."

Click, click.

The distant sound of digging reappeared in my memory.

Rongnock tapped on the kitchen floor, referring to the topographical map he had drawn with crayons.

“There should be an abandoned prison right below here. Boss Mainkun once cried and said that when he killed Archie, he heard the sizzling sound of French fries above his head.”

“Don’t tell him about this; he’s forgotten that Archie is dead.” Carefully lifting the floorboards, Clementine meticulously filled a bag with the excavated soil, unsure where to hide it.

"Just dig it through and throw it into the lab."

Jack wiped the breadcrumbs from his mouth, took the spatula, and chewed while cursing, "I secretly got the key to Mother's room, and guess what? There's so much food stored up it's overflowing! She's trying to starve us, damn it!"

The children were silent for a moment, then Peruvieri gave the order, "Dig! Dig quickly while Mother isn't here! The Hearth House is a prison; we can't be free in the sunlight..."

“Peruvelli, here’s a hot plate.”

"Let me melt it with fire."

"It's so hot!"

"Phew~ Let me blow it out."

Mainkuhn didn't realize that the children of the Hearth House, all of whom had survived to this day, were all extraordinary. Fearing their mother's sudden return, they dug tirelessly through the night and actually managed to sneak into the devil's lair before dawn.

"Ugh, this place smells awful."

Soil fell onto the gleaming silver tiles, and dried bloodstains still rotted in the cracks.

"Is this the place that Boss Maine has visited so many times?"

Most of the sophisticated and expensive instruments have been recycled, and the only sound in the empty room is the footsteps of the children.

"Let's see if there are any other exits. If we have no other choice, we can escape from here... Ah."

The children did not find a way to survive in the nest.

They found something even stranger.

Some lost reagents and…

"...The Alchemy of Kanria? Published five hundred years ago, authored by Rhine...I can't see clearly, it's a very old book."

What is this?

In a hell that children should never have been able to tread, they found a glimmer of hope.

This hope was slim and faint, but it was enough to give them the strength to try to protect their little leader.

"Boss Maine, stop pushing yourself too hard, take a break!"

The cat is sleeping alone.

-----------------------

Author's note: The story of "The House of Hearths" is expected to conclude tomorrow.

This is just an estimate, not a guarantee.