CH 692

If human thoughts were like tangled threads, Ellen's thoughts were now a complete mess, twisted and knotted together.

It was impossible to know where the tangle began, and therefore, it was impossible to untangle it.

She couldn't make sense of anything.

There was no way she could understand why the cat, still wearing the necklace she had thrown away, had appeared not in the temple but in a city thousands of kilometers away in the southwest of Kernstadt.

Ellen ran away.

She fled without even knowing why.

Without thinking, she turned into an alleyway and ran like a madwoman.

What had happened?

How did everything come to this?

She thought about it, but couldn't find any answers. In this state of confusion, Ellen ran aimlessly.

She just sprinted through the narrow alleyways.

The tangled maze of alleys was exactly like the confusion in Ellen's head.

Her whole body was covered in cold sweat, her breath was labored from the running, which she was painfully accustomed to.

"Haah... Haah..."

It was terrifying.

Frightening.

Eerie.

She felt like something had happened to her.

Like she had been tricked.

Even now, she felt the fear of running away from someone's grasp.

The cat that had always been with her.

The cat that had been her refuge.

The cat, which had remained a fond memory from her difficult past, had become the object of her fear in a completely unexpected situation.

Running through the alleyways, Ellen no longer knew where she had come from or where she was going.

Was she running in circles?

Or was she actually getting somewhere?

Should she scale the walls and buildings to escape the city quickly?

"Huff... Huff... Huuah..."

Overwhelmed by an unknown fear, she glanced behind her, but nothing was following her.

She ran without even knowing what she was fleeing from.

Though nothing pursued her, the thought that something was chasing her filled her mind.

She couldn't tell what it was.

But it felt like someone knew everything.

She thought she was running away.

But in reality, she was still in their grasp.

There was no other way to explain everything that had happened.

"Haah... Haah... Haah..."

-Kaang! Thud!

At the end of her aimless escape, stepping on and tripping over garbage and boxes in the alley, Ellen saw the surroundings gradually becoming whiter as she ran through an unfamiliar alley, not knowing where she had gone wrong.

"What... is this?"

Suddenly, there was fog.

It was impossible in the bright weather.

But unable to stop, Ellen continued running, turning corners in the alley.

However, as the fog closed in, Ellen couldn't help but feel the strangeness that had come upon her once again.

She had definitely been running through an alley blocked on both sides.

But as the fog invaded her space, everything disappeared.

Even the walls of the buildings that had been supporting her on either side.

Even the ground she had been stepping on was obscured by the fog around her ankles.

Fog surrounded her in all directions, and every nearby landmark vanished.

No matter where she walked in the open space, she could see or feel nothing other than the fog.

A chill crept over her.

She couldn't tell what kind of magic had befallen her, if it was magic at all.

Although she wasn't immune to it, ordinary magic could neither harm nor interfere with Ellen.

But somehow, she had fallen into the maze of some unknown magic.

Ellen ran, lost and aimless.

In a strange space where one couldn't tell whether the end would be visible if they ran, she ran recklessly.

Was it going in circles?

Was she going anywhere?

Ellen couldn't find a way out of this maze.

Just running vaguely, running and running.

"Haah... Haah... Haah..."

At the moment when the thought of collapsing from the breath that filled her up to her chin came to her mind-

-Whooosh!

"Hu, huu...!"

Suddenly, the fog cleared.

And then, Ellen saw it.

The tall, burning sun and the bright blue sky.

The white sandy beach that appeared out of nowhere.

-Swoosh

And the waves.

-Splash

Ellen had arrived at a coastline where transparent emerald waves rolled in.

What happened?

Where was this place?

Was it a real place that existed in reality?

With those thoughts, Ellen looked at the beach with trembling eyes.

There he was.

As if by fate.

At one corner of the beach, Reinhardt was there.

The amulet she once wore.

The amulet that had just hung around the neck of a black cat.

"Have you run away now?"

Now, it hung around Reinhardt's neck.

------

After wandering through an unknown maze, Ellen arrived at a beach.

She couldn't help but know everything.

What had happened so far?

The black cat was Reinhardt.

She was not tied down by anything, nor restrained.

-Swoosh

The waves that rolled in and the distant cries of seabirds were the only things that invaded the silence between them.

As Reinhardt approached, Ellen could only tremble.

All she could do was watch Reinhardt come closer while shaking, and slowly back away, little by little.

Although she couldn't tell where she was, it was clear that he already knew her location.

"H-how... How..."

As Ellen's words, scared by the incomprehensible situation, reached him, Reinhardt shrugged his shoulders.

"You're not a fool. You wouldn't try to escape the same way you entered."

He had read her.

"That place was the last city."

He even knew where she would end up.

From the moment she entered Kernstadt, he knew she would head southwest.

Kernstadt southwest.

"The last city before entering the Sren Mountains."

There was a massive mountain range there.

"Did you think I wouldn't know that you were trying to go to Rezaira?"

Ellen's hometown.

The Demon King knew that Ellen would flee in the direction of Kernstadt's southwest, where her hometown, Rezaira, was.

He had long known that Ellen wouldn't disappear beyond the southwestern border, but would head to the Sren Mountains.

"Of course, I thought you'd go that way."

Entering from the northeast and heading to the southwest.

Once the route was known, it was obvious which cities she would pass through and where she would end up.

There was a high possibility that her whereabouts had been known from the middle.

While retreating step by step, Ellen eventually cornered herself.

The Demon King gripped Ellen's chin and peered into her eyes.

"Do you think it would have made a difference if you had arrived at Rezaira without being detected?"

"..."

"You may not know, but I've been there already."

"What...?"

That was a story Ellen had never heard before.

Ellen had only briefly mentioned Rezaira to Reinhardt a long time ago, in passing.

She hadn't expected him to remember that.

That's why she thought he would have no idea at all.

But not only did he remember, he had even been to Rezaira himself.

When exactly?

Even if Ellen had finally reached Rezaira, Reinhardt could have come to Rezaira and found Ellen.

From the moment Ellen entered Kernstadt, the Demon King knew where she was heading.

Even if she had escaped safely, he could have entered her final destination.

Escape had been impossible from the start.

Ellen swallowed, her chin held firmly in his grip.

In Reinhardt's piercing, scrutinizing gaze, Ellen couldn't even move.

She felt a vague fear.

A vague pain.

Reinhardt released her chin and stepped back.

Just moments ago, she had been in a city in Kernstadt, but suddenly, she had arrived at a tropical beach.

"Where... where is this...?"

Reinhardt shrugged his shoulders, pointing behind Ellen.

Not at the beach, but toward the interior of the island.

As Ellen turned around, there was a mansion.

It was a bizarre sight.

A beach out of nowhere, a mansion out of nowhere.

The mansion was certainly not present in any of her memories.

"You really don't know?"

Reinhardt asked.

The scenery was similar to the Grantz Duchy's villa on the Edina Archipelago she had visited once, but the mansion was clearly different.

Ellen gazed into the distance.

A landscape that could only be called a tropical forest stretched out before her.

She wondered where such a place could be.

There was only one landscape in her memory.

"Could it be... here... we... before..."

"Yes."

Reinhardt nodded.

"The uninhabited island we visited during our group mission in the past."

An unknown uninhabited island.

A place where they had once conducted a group mission.

It wasn't a place that didn't exist in reality; it was definitely real.

But now, there was a newly built mansion that hadn't been there before.

She didn't know how she had gotten here or what the mansion was.

She couldn't even understand why he had brought her here.

In that place, which was a pleasant memory from a difficult but ultimately good period, Ellen and Reinhardt had returned.

She didn't know why he had brought her here.

She didn't know what he wanted to do.

Reinhardt offered no explanation.

If he were to say something resentful, could she bear it?

A traitor.

A runaway.

In reality, she had no excuse to offer Reinhardt.

Without any explanation, she had left for her own reasons.

She couldn't refute any sorrow, anger, or resentment she might hear.

She didn't have the confidence to persuade him.

Fearing what she might hear, Reinhardt said nothing to the trembling Ellen.

He simply picked up a thick branch from the scattered branches around them.

Swish!

Without realizing it, Ellen caught the branch he suddenly threw.

"I don't know about the rest."

Reinhardt also picked up a branch.

"Let's have a sword fight, like old times."

For some reason, Reinhardt wore a playful smile reminiscent of their time at the temple.

Holding the branch like a training sword, Reinhardt slowly approached Ellen, aiming at her.

However, just thinking about those days made Ellen's heart ache.

And so.

"Ah... ugh..."

Facing each other like this was overwhelming, and tears burst forth.

However, even though Reinhardt's attitude was playful, there was no playfulness in his grip.

"Tsk."

Seeing Ellen sobbing, Reinhardt lightly kicked the sand and rushed at her.

"You're wide open."

-Smack!

"Ah...ow!"

Distracted by sadness and longing, Ellen was hit on the head by the branch, and she crumpled to the ground.

"Ugh..."

Reinhardt looked down at Ellen, who was crying and collapsed, and laughed.

"Are you not going to snap out of it?"

"..."

"Who do you think you're up against right now?"

The Apostle of the War God.

The Demon King of Flames.

The ruler of the continent.

She was facing Reinhardt, the great emperor.

Of course, he was holding a tree branch at the moment.

"Get up, we're going again."

Sniffling, Ellen staggered to her feet.

The tip of the tree branch she was barely holding trembled.

What was the point?

Would things go back to the way they were if they fought like this with just a branch?

So much had changed, and they had spent so much time apart.

This wouldn't bring them back, she knew that.

What did he want?

His heart, his attitude.

It was too heartbreaking and sad, Ellen couldn't concentrate.

Ellen wanted to go back more than anyone.

But she couldn't because she couldn't allow herself.

Because she was a sinner, and she couldn't do it due to her guilt.

"Reinhardt... I... I can't... I can't do it..."

So, her fingertips trembled.

"Is that so?"

"Uh...yes... I can't... I can't do it... I'm sorry... I'm sorry. It's my fault. I'm sorry..."

Seeing Ellen crying and barely standing, Reinhardt's eyes changed.

"Then."

The playfulness disappeared.

Aura gathered around the tree branch.

"Die."

It wasn't a light leap.

The moment she came to her senses, Reinhardt was already close, and the ordinary tree branch had become an Aura Blade that pierced Ellen's side.

She was going to die.

At that moment.

Swoosh!

Ellen's tree branch, also infused with aura, barely deflected the fatal thrust.

"Ha...haa...ha..."

Pushed back by the tremendous impact, Ellen took a few steps back, wide-eyed, and caught her breath while looking at Reinhardt.

Reinhardt smiled again, draping the aura-infused branch over his shoulder.

"See, you're doing just fine."

Don't make excuses if you can do it.

Reinhardt added that and aimed the branch at Ellen again.

She didn't know what he wanted.

But nothing would end until she fought back without complaint.

So, Ellen held back her tears, and aimed her tree branch at Reinhardt.

He smiled, seemingly satisfied with her attitude.