Chapter 108 Blood
Seeing everyone staring at him with strange eyes, Daniga's voice gradually lowered: "If it really doesn't work, can you give me an autograph? Just one will be enough!"
The professor narrowed his eyes slightly.
He didn't answer, but turned to look in Azuka's direction: "Is there a spell in the world that requires a handwritten signature as a prerequisite for activation?"
"Yes." The savior glanced at Daniga, who looked as if he had been struck by lightning, and chuckled with an ambiguous meaning: "But I don't think this is it."
——His professor was not good at dealing with this kind of...overly enthusiastic and straightforward kindness, so this level of enthusiasm would actually scare people.
The assassin leader who was protecting his son sneered, "Do you think everyone is as despicable as you?"
The professor scoffed, "I don't think this statement is very convincing coming from a criminal wanted by the Empire and hunted by the Silver Helm Knights."
After being attacked and refuted time and again, he was really annoyed with this guy. The male protagonist's judgment that the other party was "stubborn" was absolutely right.
"Why do you hate me so much?" The thin scholar with glasses stood up from the sofa, still wrapped in a blanket. But as he approached Ole, he subconsciously took a step back.
"Because I killed someone of yours... It couldn't be your father, you hated him. Your mother? No, she died a long time ago." The tyrant's gray eyes were like the desolate moon, cruelly and vividly reflecting every fatal tremor and escape of the soul in front of him.
"It's not Azuka, it's not Maxline... It's the people of your tribe who share your faith and bloodline, the Shadow Chasers. And not just one or two, but many, perhaps including your good friends who once shared your ideals." His voice was soft, but Orel seemed to see the faces of every dead person from the future flowing under his feet, their cries, curses, and tricks...
"Shut up," he whispered.
"It seems I didn't kill them myself, nor did I send someone to kill them. It was you who killed your brothers." The black-haired tyrant concluded calmly and firmly, as if he had already seen the future clearly. "Perhaps it was an irreconcilable dispute, perhaps a sad and bloody betrayal, which I instigated—at least in your eyes, it was me who bewitched and manipulated them, causing them to go against you. I made you kill with your own hands those brothers who once trusted and supported you wholeheartedly, but ultimately betrayed you."
"...I told you to shut up."
"So you hate me, not just because I forced you to stain your hands with the blood of your kin..." The man's eyes slowly raised, his face as pale as ever, devoid of emotion. He was like a glass statue, reflecting the face of the sinner under the wings of darkness.
He asked softly and compassionately, word by word, "—It's also because I once made you truly feel what helpless despair is, right?"
For a moment, Ole Asaqi wanted to punch the man in front of him in the hateful face.
“…It seems I guessed right.”
The tyrant didn't show any sign of triumph; his eyes simply drooped in a cold, weary expression. Daniga, the only one not in his state, stared at them in amazement. After a long pause, he spoke cautiously and with awe, "What are you... talking about?"
"—Did I just hear a prophecy?"
"Prophecy is bullshit," his boss replied rudely. "Now that the goddess of fate has fallen, prophecy is the product of liars, lunatics, and ambitious people."
"Uh, so that's...?"
Aure was silent for a moment, then reluctantly replied, "...a prophecy."
He couldn't tell others that he had lived two lives, or they would think he was crazy. After all, the tyrant was the one who had not been reborn, so why did he have to be the one to spoil the story?
"That's not a prophecy." Nova interrupted him coldly: "That's the miserable life you're about to be manipulated and toyed with."
Ole: “…”
The second male lead stood there and took a deep, deep breath.
Don't talk to him, he warned himself with gritted teeth, otherwise there will be only two outcomes: either you will be mad at him to death, or you will beat him to death, and then be beaten to death by your crazy friend.
Do something? He glared at his friend, covered the guy's mouth, or they could just go outside and have a fight or something. He couldn't stay in the same space with the long-mouthed tyrant - but the other party was staring at him with a... strange, complex look, mixed with some unidentified sarcasm and a hint of sadness.
"He's right, Ole," Azuka whispered. "Your life has been controlled."
Not just humans, but also gods.
“…What are you talking about?”
Ole stared at his friend closely, even feeling that he was a little strange.
They came from similar bloodlines, their lives merging and diverging like ocean currents carrying different substances and temperatures. That guy had many flaws, like his vindictiveness, brutality, hypocrisy, and fondness for posturing and deceiving others—but there was one thing Ole never doubted: even after experiencing countless abysmal events that would have completely broken a normal person, the boy from the depths of the sea and the snow-capped mountains in his memory remained a gentle person at heart, a good one even.
A gentle person will not easily touch the deepest wounds of his friends.
"Excuse me, what on earth are we supposed to be doing standing here staring at each other?" The villain, who had just dealt a head-on blow to the second male lead, began to grow impatient. "To create a constriction effect to make this cave even colder and more icy?"
Maybe it was a cold joke that no one understood, maybe it was because of the blood loss, or maybe he simply forgot to eat, but Nova felt a little dizzy and shivered with cold. Then the rest of the people watched helplessly as the culprit who had just caused the bloody storm squeezed past the two assassins as if no one was around, wrapped in a blanket and made coffee for himself.
Azuka suddenly remembered something: "Have you had dinner?"
"No."
"……lunch?"
"No."
Ole looked at his friend in shock, took a deep breath, and said in a very gentle tone, "I remember I asked your students to bring me lunch."
"By the time I remembered it, it was already cold. I didn't want to eat it."
“…”
Nova stared at the coffee cup that suddenly disappeared from his hand - he didn't even see how the guy moved, and his evening coffee was completely gone.
"Let's go out for dinner. It's my treat." He heard the God's Blessed One say so casually, and then an exceptionally heavy coat suddenly enveloped him. The other person skillfully fastened the buttons for him and took out an exceptionally thick scarf to wrap around him, quickly covering most of his face.
"I don't want to go out," he protested, somewhat angrily, "going out would be cold and troublesome"—but the words he uttered were all blocked by the soft scarf. Seeing that the guy had already grabbed a pair of incredibly thick cashmere gloves, the professor, realizing he couldn't persuade him, simply took them away himself.
"Don't wear a mask." Azuka, who was helping someone adjust their scarf, suddenly warned without turning back. "White Tower Town is not like Port Morris. Wearing a mask will only alert others. I'll help cast a confusion spell on the way."
Daniga held the mask and looked at him blankly - they were about to cast a confusion spell, so what did it matter whether he wore it or not?
The Savior smiled calmly: "Because I don't like it."
Although the color was different, the full-face mask always reminded him of the crazy people of "Child of Life" - and the professor liked to read people's micro-expressions when observing them.
"Control freak." Ole sneered, but also accepted the olive branch offered by the other party to ease the atmosphere, and took the lead in jumping out of the window with Daniga.
Nova's mouth twitched, knowing he could have gone through the door. The other man, as if reading his thoughts, chuckled softly, "It's an old habit of assassins—Ore once jumped out of a window as usual, but he forgot he was on a ship, with the sea outside."
Nova: “…”
Damn, it seems kind of funny.
After stuffing one hand into the thick glove, the other hand became particularly difficult. The savior seemed unable to bear it any longer and simply took his hand, his warm fingertips accidentally pressing on the newly healed wound, causing him to subconsciously curl up.
The man paused, then suddenly tightened his grip. Nova struggled uncomfortably, then frowned when he realized the man didn't move. "It was just an accident."
"I'm angry." Azuka lowered his eyes - the bloodstains on the other's cuffs were hidden by his coat, and there were still traces of blood on his pale and bony wrists, which felt almost without the warmth that a human should have.
His tone was as gentle as ever, and there was no trace of "anger" in his voice.
"You can fight Ole Asaqi. He can't beat you anyway - just don't let it affect my territory." Nova replied coldly. After a long time without hearing a response, he thought for a moment, then suddenly raised his head and glared at him in dissatisfaction: "Wait, are you angry with me?"
Unfortunately, half of his face was covered by the scarf, leaving only a pair of eyes hidden by the frames, without any sense of oppression.
The other party didn't answer, but put the gloves on him bit by bit: "Sometimes, I really think you should be taught a lesson..."
"—but you're very good at making people soften their hearts."
He sighed and gently and carefully held the man's hand again: "Does it hurt?"
"...You should know the effects of your own spells." Nova looked at him expressionlessly: "Why are you angry with me? Because of what I said to Ole Asaqi?"
"The Shadow Chasers were born in the Scarlet Bazaar. Their 'bloodline' stemming from the oppressors inevitably led to discordant voices. The gods were interfering, and I should have done something—like killing the moderates and constantly exacerbating the conflict."
Through the lens, the villain stared coldly into the savior's eyes: "After all, internal division is the best option to disintegrate a powerful force, isn't it?"
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