After sending Grander off, Ludger sat on the sofa and closed his eyes for a moment.
Considering his teacher’s personality, she would have used her nearly limitless mana to open the dimensional gate.
‘The destination, Earth, is a place I already connected once, so finding the coordinates should not be difficult.’
He could have gone with her, but Ludger was currently imprisoned here as a war criminal.
Escape was something he could do whenever he wished, but the aftermath would have been far too great.
‘If only I could simply ignore everything.’
After meeting Aileen and speaking with Grander, Ludger realized many things.
He had been born and raised in this world, and he had lived together with the people of this world.
His soul had originally belonged to a person living on Earth, but at some point during his time here, he had become influenced.
Before, he had been able to sever his hesitation and confusion under the justification of a firm goal.
But now, he himself knew better than anyone that he could not do that anymore.
So while watching Grander depart, he neither stopped her nor went with her.
He had a mountain of things he needed to take care of here.
‘A thread of connection cannot remain tied by only one side. The other person must hold it as well. That is why the thread remains, and their bond continues.’
Yes. In the end, he had not let go of that thread.
In a way, that was weakness—but Ludger accepted that weakness of his own.
Weak, wounded, anguished.
All of it, together, made up who he was.
‘I worry for my teacher who went to Earth alone, but... I doubt anything disastrous will happen.’
Grander was unpredictable, but Ludger felt certain that this time she would be all right.
That was a trust made possible because she was his teacher, the mother who had raised him.
‘Since I have returned to this world, I cannot avert my eyes anymore. I will untangle these knots one by one.’
Ludger opened his eyes, revealing his blue gaze.
“I did not expect another guest to visit.”
A murmur spoken toward an empty space.
Naturally, no answer returned.
But Ludger continued speaking without concern.
“There is no need to be cautious. My teacher has gone, and there is no one here who would recognize you.”
A moment later, from the empty air, a voice echoed.
“Hearing you say it like that kind of hurts my pride.”
A clear, high-pitched and charming voice.
The air rippled like a stone thrown onto still water, and soon a woman appeared.
A form-fitting, somewhat daring outfit.
Black-and-white hair.
And a mischievous, impish smile—unchanged.
“You noticed I came.”
“I have grown accustomed to it after seeing you a few times.”
Ludger let out a faint laugh and greeted her.
“It has been a while, Helia.”
“What’s this? Shouldn’t you start by asking if I am still alive?”
“I assumed you would survive on your own.”
“That is fair. If you fell through the gap between dimensions and returned alive, everything else must seem trivial to you.”
Helia laughed and twirled the umbrella in her hand.
Ludger studied her for a moment, then let his gaze fall on her forehead.
“You have grown horns.”
Curved horns had sprouted on both sides of Helia’s forehead.
One of them was half-broken, exposing a smooth cross-section.
It should have felt strange to see horns he had never seen before, but oddly enough, they suited Helia’s appearance perfectly.
“So they grew... or did you have them originally.”
“Tch, you are quick. I thought you would point them out right away, but you accept them too easily. Yes. I always hid them using my ability.”
“Considering your lineage, it is not strange. But if you are revealing them like this before me, you must no longer intend to hide them.”
Helia stretched her body lightly and approached the small round table.
She picked up one of the snacks with her slender fingers and tossed it into her mouth.
After chewing a few times and swallowing, Helia spoke.
“We fought together, after all. Hiding something like this feels discourteous. And I should not hide too much from someone I am grateful to.”
“Someone you are grateful to?”
“You ended this detestable fight for me.”
With the holy war three years ago, everything that had chained Helia’s life came to an end.
The Holy Kingdom of Bretus was destroyed, and the main god Lumensis lost his divinity and died.
The inescapable cycle of karma she had never been able to break for ages—
The curse she had grown half-resigned to, relying only on avoidance and flight—
Ludger had cut that curse apart.
“Thanks to you, I am free. I do not have to care about anything anymore. So yes, you are someone I am grateful to. It is all thanks to you.”
“You are feeling unexpectedly sentimental. So what do you intend to do now?”
“That... even I do not know. I have just wandered the world for the past three years.”
“You never thought about what to do?”
“I thought of it as freedom where no one would come looking for me. The freedom came so suddenly that I cannot organize my thoughts. I try to look for something to do, but that only makes it harder.”
She grumbled as if speaking petty complaints, but her voice carried an unhideable anxiety.
Ludger understood why Helia had come to him.
“You want advice from me.”
“What? Who said that? I only came because an old comrade returned, okay? And to thank you while I’m at it.”
“Right. Since we were comrades once, giving you some advice is not unreasonable. Am I wrong?”
Helia began to speak, then shut her lips tightly.
It was not easy to refute.
Finally, she exhaled and admitted defeat.
“I do not know. What should I do now? What am I supposed to be?”
“A philosophical question.”
“I grew up as the future of my clan. And I was destined to become a shrine maiden who served our god.”
But Lumensis wiped out their god, and the dragons were driven to extinction.
Only Helia remained alive.
She had been born as the future of her people—but if the clan was gone, what was the child left behind supposed to do?
She had been destined to become a shrine maiden who served a god—but if the god disappeared, what was a shrine maiden supposed to do?
Once the grief of losing her family settled, what came for Helia was a vast, ocean-deep emptiness.
She had lived only for the given purpose until now. To tell her to find a new one was too cruel and too difficult.
“I even thought of revenge. But honestly, I was never that obsessed with revenge. Surviving came first.”
Then one day, Helia met someone—
Someone like her, a servant of a god, and at the same time one called a demon.
It had merely been curiosity.
If she met someone similar to herself, she thought she might discover something.
With that faint hope, she met other apostles—and among them, Suruna stood out.
Weaker than the others, yet strangely steadfast.
Unlike other apostles who lived blindly for the god or burned solely for revenge, Suruna had another purpose.
Helia grew curious, and so she stayed with Suruna.
And through that process, she came to consider Suruna a friend.
But now that friend was gone.
Helia was alone again.
“What am I supposed to do now? Maybe it would have been better if I had died back then.”
Helia touched her broken horn with her fingertips.
That day, to survive, she had sacrificed one of her horns.
A symbol of pride as a descendant of dragons.
If one thought about it, more precious than life—
Proof that she was the last of the dragonkin.
She had spent it simply to stay alive.
“Your worry is similar to what my teacher felt. You should have asked her when she was here.”
“What? Are you joking? I would not go anywhere near that monster vampire.”
“And yet you came to find me without hesitation.”
“So what if I did? I am a demon; it is normal for me to seek the Demon King.”
The Demon King.
Ludger had to stifle a laugh.
It was an unusually flimsy excuse for Helia.
Which only meant that she was cornered.
“Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge to tell you what you should do.”
“What? Seriously... You were a teacher, weren’t you? When students worry about their future, do you not give them advice?”
“I never had a student who asked me about their future.”
Aiden, Lene—
Those two already had found firm paths long before he could advise them.
Helia sighed.
Just as she was about to turn around in disappointment, Ludger spoke.
“But I can give you faint advice.”
“......What is it?”
“For now, do what you want to do.”
“What kind of disappointing answer is that? I came to ask because I do not know what I want to do.”
“Anything is fine. If you are hungry, eat something delicious. If you are tired, sleep. If you are bored, go to a theater or read a book.”
Helia listened silently.
At this point, she became curious about what he was trying to say.
“Even something trivial is fine. Do something impulsively if you want. As you try many different things, you will eventually find something you like.”
“What is that supposed to mean...”
“In the past several hundred years, have you ever done anything else?”
Helia could not answer.
Of course she hadn’t.
She had spent her life running from the Holy Kingdom of Bretus, and the rest watching Suruna.
“I gave the same advice to my teacher. The world is vast. There are countless things you do not know and have not seen. Just as countless stars spread across the sky, the possibilities of this world will show you countless paths.”
Helia listened quietly.
“If you do not know what to do, then for now, make your goal finding what you want to do. When the time comes, you will realize it.”
With a calmer gaze, Ludger asked:
“Is there anything else you want to know?”
“......Hearing you were a teacher, I feel like the students could never sit through your class without getting bored.”
It was a completely unexpected reply, but Ludger only gave a faint laugh and shrugged.
“I was foolish to expect anything. I am going now. Unless you want to escape with me.”
“I am waiting for the date of the execution to be set.”
“......Fine, I get it.”
Helia slowly melted into the air and disappeared.
Before the boundary between illusion and reality collapsed and her form vanished completely—
Helia gave her final farewell.
“Thanks for the advice.”
* * *
Morning arrived.
Ludger woke and ate the breakfast prepared by the imperial palace.
It was so luxurious that it was hard to believe it was being served to a war criminal, to the Demon King.
His taste buds, dried out for three years, revived vividly with every bite.
‘Should I call this a death-row inmate’s feast.’
But since the execution date had not been set yet, it seemed many internal discussions were underway.
Ludger did not ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) bother concerning himself with that and simply enjoyed the daily routine given to him.
Perhaps to ensure complete secrecy, very few people walked in the place where Ludger was staying.
But “few” did not mean “none.”
And those who could enter here were all people of considerable ability and influence within the imperial palace.
Like the two women who appeared now.
“I was just about to go for a walk, and I see familiar faces.”
“You are really living a comfortable life.”
Flora, now head of the Lumos family, crossed her arms and glared at Ludger.
“Well, it is a rare opportunity. I might as well enjoy it.”
“You seem a lot more sly than before.”
“I will not deny it. It has been three years since I last held a proper conversation. So, what brings you here? I am curious about the opinion of the Warden of National Defense beside you as well.”
Ludger turned his gaze to Terrina Lionhowl, who had come with Flora.
Unlike Flora—who had grown into a proper adult—Terrina had not changed at all through the years.
She stared at Ludger with a complicated gaze.
“Standing in the hallway talking is unseemly, so shall we walk together?”
Ludger spoke with a faint smile.
Flora looked ready to argue in annoyance, but she lost to Ludger’s smile.
“Sigh. Fine, Ludger Cherish.”
“You do not call me ‘teacher’ anymore?”
“I already graduated from Seorn, you know? And I am now the head of the Lumos Ducal House.”
“It suits you well. I always believed you would become like this.”
She had asked to be treated as a family head, but hearing praise instead left Flora momentarily blank.
“......You really are unfair.”
Flora muttered under her breath, but Ludger did not hear it.