The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 135

Barak stared blankly up at the sky.

He instinctively felt the end was near.

He had failed to stop the civil war within the family.

The original sin was his own.

It was the price of neglecting Eliza.

Including Narcissa, both his descendants and hers despised Eliza.

It wasn’t just because she was an illegitimate child.

It was her magical talent.

The power inherited from the progenitor now flowed through Eliza.

And it wasn’t ordinary.

She was deemed the reincarnation of the mythical flame—a Mad fire.

It was a dangerous power, closest to the essence of Bevel and Helios.

Narcissa and her children feared her.

They also resented her.

If left to grow, she would undoubtedly seize the head of the family.

Barak foresaw even more.

Perhaps that power would shake the world itself.

The family tried to kill Eliza by any means.

Barak couldn’t bring himself to allow it.

Together with Eliza’s mother, Maria, he hid them near the village of Batrahem, close to Selene.

Though isolated and remote, the village had a warm atmosphere.

But being discovered was only a matter of time.

Until then, Barak couldn’t think of any decisive way to protect Eliza.

Narcissa struck first.

She paid Lamech to assassinate Maria.

Afterward, soldiers forcibly dragged the now-alone Eliza back to the family estate.

Barak, who had secretly visited the assassination scene, couldn’t forget that moment.

A grimy, terrified little Eliza looked up at him with a frightened face.

It stuck in his mind, but at the time, Barak consciously ignored it.

He had to turn away.

The situation had spiraled out of control, and a choice had to be made.

For the happiness of the larger family.

He believed he had to prioritize the greater good.

Sacrificing Eliza in exchange for temporary comfort for the family seemed a reasonable balance.

He believed conquering and seizing the empire would bring recompense for all.

When Maria heard this, she cursed him with venomous words, even spitting in his face.

It was the first time she had ever been so passionately angry.

Afterward, she left, telling Barak to do as he wished.

Her piercing black eyes, filled with hatred, and her scathing words remained vivid.

She told him to throw his life away chasing his grand ambitions and not to concern himself with her or Eliza.

She would care for Eliza herself and wanted nothing to do with him.

Maria, a dancer of commoner status, had the audacity to condemn Barak.

Maria had always been headstrong.

Barak had been drawn to her confidence, unusual for her status, but at the time, he couldn’t understand her.

Why was she so angry when he had a way to repay everything?

After that, Maria became more composed and calm, but it was laced with cynicism.

She hadn’t forgiven or understood Barak.

She had simply given up.

She knew all too well what kind of person Barak was.

She lived quietly afterward, fearing that she might inadvertently harm Eliza.

As a mere dancer, she couldn’t properly care for Eliza.

Even so, Barak couldn’t intervene.

He blindly believed achieving his great ambition would resolve everything.

Looking back, it was escapism from an irreversible situation.

It was a desire to justify a life of immersion.

It was the childish ambition to erase the humiliation he felt as a boy watching his father bow to Helios.

Ah. How foolish humans are.

Only after everything ends does one gain perspective and reflect on mistakes.

Even knowing he had no right to regret, he struggled to piece things back together.

It was meaningless.

Thus, the ten years he had ignored stood before him.

Eliza had grown up on her own, becoming stronger and destroying the Bevel family.

Now, among the direct lineage, only he remained.

Narcissa, Cain, Levi, Jezebel, Archan, and Sarah.

They were all dead.

Only he was left.

As he looked at his daughter, smiling brightly with the intent to eradicate the Bevel family, Barak felt death approaching.

It was time to pay the price.

“Grand Duke Barak. Why have you come only now?”

“…Eliza.”

Barak’s voice was as stiff as his expression.

“I wanted to kill you first.”

On the other hand, Eliza smiled faintly at Barak.

“It’s been a while.”

“Indeed. Have you been well in the meantime?”

“So-so. You look better than when I last saw you.”

“There’s been a reason for that.”

Eliza smiled faintly.

Unlike the twisted murderous intent earlier, this was a genuinely pure smile.

Unknowingly, Barak let out a faint smile as well.

It was so subtle that Eliza wouldn’t have noticed.

He refrained from uttering words like ‘I’m glad.’

He knew all too well how contradictory and repulsive a person he was.

With a glimmer of hope, Barak cautiously asked.

“Eliza. Do you have no intention of ending this here? Any further attrition and destruction are meaningless for both sides.”

“Why is it meaningless? Avenging those who killed the one who was my entire world?”

“Eliza… She was—”

Eliza cut him off mid-sentence.

“People often say revenge is meaningless, leaving only emptiness behind, perpetuating violence and hatred. Well, they aren’t entirely wrong. But it’s not an absolute truth either.”

“……”

“Moving on and burying it is nothing but defeatist cynicism. If I have to be haunted by those nightmares every night, I’d rather have revenge. They say success is the best revenge? Well, you could wrap that up as nihilistic optimism, but to me, it’s no different from running away.”

Her words didn’t match the smile on her face.

“If the Grand Duke had done his part, it wouldn’t have come to this. The abuse I suffered at the main house was closer to a mere wound. I could have endured all that pain if only my mother were alive.”

“……”

“But you failed to protect my mother and left me neglected as well. Today is merely the consequence of that, as you are well aware.”

Barak gave up trying to persuade her.

She was a child broken because of him.

Trying to make amends now would only be a greater sin.

It wasn’t just Eliza.

Maria, too, was a person pushed aside by his selfishness.

Both were burdens of guilt and penance he had to carry.

“…Alright. I understand.”

Barak’s pupils slowly began to glow a deep crimson.

Before departing, he intended to pass on his accumulated experiences as a senior mage.

The eyes of Eliza, who stood opposite him, were already complete.

Blazing orange waves.

Eyes like the sun, golden pupils.

“Be at peace, Grand Duke.”

She offered a farewell devoid of sincerity.

“…Take care of yourself.”

He swallowed the words lingering in his heart.

Golden flames and orange flames surged.

The two mages clashed.

Barak was a remarkable mage.

Not as much as Eliza, but a genius in his own right.

In his youth, he was often praised as an unmatched talent within the Bevel family.

However, his strength wasn’t limited to magical talent.

It took decades to ascend to the head of the family.

He had survived by killing enemies with magic.

Experience could not be underestimated.

In contrast, Eliza lacked experience.

Although she used significant magic during the war, it wasn’t combat but a one-sided massacre.

For Eliza to live on, she needed combat experience. Barak believed so.

As Barak gestured, crimson rain began to pour from the sky.

It was rain made of fire.

The ground beneath Eliza’s feet twisted and erupted with lava.

But Eliza had already teleported away from the spot.

The falling crimson rain shot toward Eliza like arrows.

With a mere flick of her hand, she burned the fire away.

For a moment, Barak wanted to rub his eyes.

Subduing fire with fire.

It was a mystifying sight.

A space distorted by scorching heat and light.

Even within it, Eliza pinpointed Barak’s position with precision.

Extending her hand, golden flames raced across the ground toward him.

“…!”

Barak immediately teleported to evade the golden flames.

He appeared in front of Eliza and extended his hand.

Scarlet flames swirled and surged in his palm.

The fastest and strongest close-range magic.

“Ray Explosion. Let’s see how you’ll react.”

Just as the completed spell was about to activate—

Eliza quickly reached out and grasped Barak’s hand.

It was the first time the two had interlocked hands, but there was no sense of familial affection.

“…?!”

As Barak stood stunned, Eliza gave him a sly smile.

“Boom.”

-Boom!

As if her words were prophetic, an explosion erupted.

The spell Barak had cast detonated within his own hand.

The extended right arm vanished without a trace.

‘Magic reflection…?! How is that possible?! And that reaction speed….’

He had no time to feel the pain or even process what had just occurred.

“This… What…”

His surroundings shifted.

Everything went dark, and the world shrank below him.

Far beneath, Eliza appeared as a tiny speck.

Barak was plummeting from an altitude higher than a mountain peak.

‘External target teleport?!’

Teleportation is fundamentally a magic that moves the caster.

To move other objects, they must be accompanied together.

But Eliza had used teleportation to send only Barak high into the air.

Theoretically, this is impossible.

Among mages, it was something joked about as a hypothetical spell.

Yet she had done it, flinging him far into the sky.

For a moment, Barak forgot everything and marveled at her raw talent and power.

And simultaneously, he was terrified.

How strong could she become? That child.

Could she even become a god?

Then came the realization.

The experience he had intended to pass on was insignificant.

Before this extraordinary child, it was meaningless.

In the end, he had nothing to offer. He was useless. Like trash.

Eliza looked up at the figure of Barak suspended high in the sky.

She had anticipated that Barak would distort her vision and close in for an attack.

Most mages, overly focused on ‘magic,’ are weak in close combat.

Barak was different.

To survive on the battlefield without support, he had honed his close combat skills.

He was a mage forged through practical experience.

But he had a fatal flaw.

He was Barak.

He was too famous.

How he fought. The techniques he used.

His power and combat style were well-documented.

Eliza had compiled all the public knowledge about him, studied his methods, and devised counters.

It wasn’t enough to simply study to neutralize him in real combat.

But Eliza had succeeded.

Even she was growing tired of marveling at her own talent.

‘A height unreachable with Barak’s teleportation. In free fall, focusing magic becomes nearly impossible.’

The battle was nearly over.

Eliza extended her hand.

She unleashed the magic she had prepared for Barak.

‘Multiple Suns Manifestation.’

In an instant, seven suns illuminated the sky, banishing the darkness.

A localized day emerged.

At the center of the suns was Barak.

‘Fusion.’

The seven suns coalesced around Barak.

They clashed violently, scattering sparks as their boundaries distorted, gradually merging into a single massive light.

Barak couldn’t escape.

When their hands had clasped earlier, she hadn’t just reflected his magic.

She had planted a spell-disruption technique inside his body.

It was temporary, but enough to kill him.

Now, all that awaited Barak was to burn to death in the scorching inferno.

But she couldn’t afford to be careless.

Her opponent was an exceptional mage.

She had to finish it with certainty.

The now-unified sun had grown far larger than before.

Eliza clenched her outstretched hand tightly toward the blazing sun.

The golden sun cracked, and light seeped out.

“Supernova explosion.”

The outer flames collapsed inward toward the core, as if being sucked in.

After a rapid collapse, it exploded with a blinding light.

-Boom! Crash!

The explosion caused a mild earthquake across the area.

Eliza closed her eyes tightly and then cautiously opened them.

Night had fallen where the sun had burst.

Darkness came quickly.

As if the sun had never risen or the ground had never quaked, silence settled.

Even the grass and trees, which had been swept up in the chaotic force of the explosion, fell silent.

How much time had passed?

Thud-

Something fell in front of her.

It was a human body.

A pitiful body with only the upper torso and head remaining.

The limbs had burned away.

The barely intact right arm was far from normal.

Barak.

He had endured the supernova explosion.

Barely surviving, but alive nonetheless.

“Hah… ugh… hah…”

Barak gasped roughly.

His insides, beyond just being scorched, were charred, making every breath agony.

His vision was already gone.

Only his hearing remained, faintly.

Crunch, crunch-

The sound of Eliza’s footsteps approached, distant but clear.

Barak tried to lift his right arm.

It wouldn’t respond properly.

The trembling arm seemed as if it would break off at any moment.

‘I must… hand it over….’

In the end, he couldn’t reach into his chest.

The faint breaths he clung to grew weaker.

His consciousness quickly blurred.

Crunch.

Eliza’s steps stopped.

She said nothing.

It was a hollow farewell, befitting a sinner like Barak.

***

Eliza looked down indifferently at Barak’s lifeless body.

In truth, he hadn’t endured the supernova explosion.

She recognized the shoes he had been wearing.

“Shoes soaked in sacred blood.”

Footwear drenched in the blood of a primordial being.

One of the sacred relics that protected the wearer’s life.

Thanks to them, he had barely escaped instant death.

“What was he trying to do at the end?”

He had struggled to raise his hand.

There was no way he could have cast a spell in that condition.

Could he have been hiding an artifact?

“Could any artifact survive that magic…?”

Eliza used magic to search Barak’s chest.

Her precise wind magic was practically telekinesis.

Then, she found a small, sealed pouch in his inner pocket.

The seal was so sturdy that it had survived the supernova explosion.

“The shoes soaked in sacred blood… A pouch made from that leather. Whatever’s inside must be…”

Inside the pouch was a key.

A small black key.

It wasn’t imbued with any magical effects.

She didn’t know why he’d tried to retrieve it or what it unlocked.

“Well, I was planning to visit Barak’s main estate anyway. I’ll find out then.”

There was nothing else besides the key.

His limbs were burned to ash, and his remaining body was blackened and charred—a pitiful sight.

For someone once called the emperor crowned in black, Barak’s end was exceedingly pathetic.

Eliza let out a bitter laugh.

“In the end, he cared only about himself.”

This key didn’t seem to be his ultimate safeguard.

She’d have to investigate further, but his gesture had felt like he was trying to give it to her.

“Was he trying to play the role of a kind parent at the last moment, to absolve himself of the wrongs he committed in the past? How obvious.”

Cain, Levi, Jezebel, Achan, Sarah. Narcissa.

And finally, Barak.

With him, all direct descendants who had ignored and concealed her mother’s death were dead.

She had accomplished what she had longed and yearned for over the years.

But there was no satisfying sense of liberation.

There was no unpleasantness or sense of futility.

It was merely the feeling of finally resolving something that should have been dealt with long ago.

That was all.

Perhaps it felt a little liberating.

At one point, I had hoped they would suffer even in hell after their deaths.

But now…

I no longer want to be consumed by anger toward them.

The intense resentment and hatred I experienced in my childhood are enough.

‘I can now stand confidently before Mother’s grave. And…’

Eliza smiled softly.

It was time to meet none other than Judas.

Once the peace treaty with the Empire was successfully concluded, she would be by Judas’s side all day, every day.

For her life, that would be more than enough.

Ah, before that—

The assassin guild.

Or rather, the person directly responsible for Maria’s assassination.

That one must be found and killed.

The only reason the task had been delayed was that, unlike the clearly identified Bevel family, the culprit was unknown.

It would be handled slowly in due time.

While being with Judas.

***

“This is the final lesson.”

Gawain blocked Judas’s path.

The remnants of Cain hesitated, retreating toward Gawain.

Judas quietly watched them before struggling to speak.

“…Sir Gawain.”

He couldn’t even bring himself to raise his sword.

In contrast, Gawain was resolute.

He strode toward Judas, gripping his sword and shield firmly.

“I…”

As Judas tried to speak—

Gawain swiftly closed the gap.

Taking advantage of Judas’s hesitation and lack of vigilance, Gawain swung his sword fiercely.

Judas barely managed to raise his shield.

– Thud!

A heavy impact was followed by another relentless strike.

Deflecting with his shield, Judas quickly countered with a thrust of his sword.

But it was easily blocked.

The two were locked in close combat.

Gawain spoke.

It was his final warning.

“Do not hesitate.”

“……”

Judas gritted his teeth.