TL: Yul
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A new grave appeared next to the lake, next to the Lord of the Sama Order’s grave from 10 years ago.
Although the Spear King had never said where he wanted to be buried, he would probably have been satisfied with where his body lay.
Only bitterness filled Lee Sungmin’s heart as he thought of the satisfied smile on the face of the Spear King’s corpse.
The corpses of the monsters, in the light of dawn, were scattered into the wind.
Lee Sungmin, sorry for the destruction of the forest, bowed his head, but Osla shook her head vehemently. She said that the appearance of the forest was sustained by her magic power, so it would fix itself with time.
Everything had finished, but the fairies inside the lake had not come out. As playful as they were, they were still terrified by what had happened the night before.
Lee Sungmin thought that fighting Geniella outside of the forest, outside of the barrier, was the best choice. If he had done those horrible things near the lake, and the others had seen, they would have been terrified by him as well.
Scarlett, softly touching her missing eye, muttered.
She turned toward Rubia, who was sitting next to her quietly, and asked.
“What do you think? Will it suit me?”
Rubia stroked her chin, focusing on Scarlett’s face and the closed eye.
“…How about a monocle?”
“You think a monocle makes sense when I don’t even have an eyeball?”
“I thought it might make you look smarter…”
“You think I’m covering my eye just for style?”
Scarlett grumbled as she pressed firmly around her eye socket.
“I thought about creating an artificial eye with magic, but it’s not like I can make it right away. So, if I’m gonna cover it up, I might as well do it properly.”
Although she had suddenly found herself with only one eye, Scarlett spoke in a spirited voice to attempt to lift the somber mood.
Glancing briefly at Baek Sogo and the Black Dragon, Scarlett asked.
“Well? I think… I might be able to craft a prosthetic arm, too. It’s a task I’ve never attempted before, mind you, so it’ll probably require quite a lot of trial and error.”
“It’s certainly better than having nothing at all.”
The Black Dragon muttered, looking down at his severed right arm.
“It’ll be a lot harder to practice martial arts as well. If that’s the case, there might not be a purpose to do that.”
“Sogo, how about you?”
“I’m… fine as well. I think getting used to having one arm first would be better.”
Losing an arm each was a critical blow to both Baek Sogo and the Black Dragon, yet the silver lining was that they kept both legs.
Although there were instances of martial artists still practicing martial arts with a missing arm, a missing leg would cripple their movement entirely.
From that perspective, Lloyd was very lucky. For a mage of his caliber, casting a levitation spell was a trivial matter.
Even though he only had one leg, he could either choose to cast magic to float around or just use Blink to teleport.
In fact, the worst physical injury a magician could suffer was losing a hand, as that would incapacitate their ability to perform hand signs.
“Wait.”
Lloyd headed toward Lee Sungmin with a grave expression. Lee Sungmin, who had been staring at the Spear King’s tomb with a blank expression, turned his head and looked at Lloyd.
“Is something the matter?”
“I wish to discuss some important topics with you.”
Lee Sungmin nodded slightly, and the two moved to a location away from the rest of the group.
Judging by the way he spoke, whatever he had to say was likely not meant for anyone else’s ears. Lee Sungmin cast a spell, sealing off the space surrounding himself and Lloyd.
“This…?”
At the sudden spatial magic, Lloyd made a surprised expression. He was surprised by Lee Sungmin’s ability to use magic, but the thing that surprised him most was that his magic was at a level undetectable even to Lloyd.”
“You… when did… magic?”
Lloyd asked with a shaky voice, but Lee Sungmin only gave him a faint smile.
Before long, Lloyd let out a dry cough, realizing he had asked an unnecessary question. What mattered right now wasn’t the trivial reason behind Lee Sungmin’s use of magic.
Frowning, Lloyd pulled out the Griess, its cover caked with dried blood. He vigorously scrubbed the bloodstains with the sleeve of his robe, then slowly opened the book to check its contents, just in case.
But nothing had changed. The thick pages of the Griess remained completely blank.
Still frowning, Lloyd flipped through the pages of the Griess in haste before snapping the book shut. He then explained the strange anomaly that had happened to the Gries.
Lee Sungmin stood motionless, listening carefully to Lloyd’s account. He had also considered banishing Geniella beyond the bounds of space and time as a viable solution using the Griess, and had quietly wondered why such a measure hadn’t even been attempted. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that such a bizarre occurrence would happen to the Griess itself.
“May I take a look?”
At Lee Sungmin’s request, Lloyd handed him the Griess. Lee Sungmin lightly brushed the cover with his fingers, and the magic that spread out from his fingertips dug into the Griess.
However, the Griess showed no reaction. Lee Sungmin opened the book, and there were no changes.
‘Someone interfered.”
Lee Sungmin quietly clicked his tongue.
The only beings that could interfere with the Griess were either the Divine Spirit or the Demonic Spirit. The beings that had never intervened in the past had begun to intervene now.
If what Lloyd said was correct, then the Griess worked even while they were defending the Forest of the Fairies from the undead.
However, ever since Lloyd tried to kick Geniella out of this world’s space and time, the Griess stopped working.
Thus, the Divine Spirit did not want Geniella to be removed that way.
The First Disaster of the Apocalypse, Kim Jonghyun.
When Kim Jonghyun awakened as the Demon King, the Divine Spirit permitted his banishment via the Griess, yet he had intervened when Lloyd tried to do the same with Geniella.
“If I cannot use the magic from the Griess… it will get very difficult. We won’t be able to know what situations await our future.”
Lloyd muttered with a worried expression. It was a valid concern. Because they could examine the trajectory of future events using the Griess til now, they could efficiently prepare for the Apocalypse of the End.
However, if they could not use the magic of the Griess, they wouldn’t be able to prepare or even know what was to come.
“It’s too late to assume that the Griess has fully lost its power.”
Lee Sungmin returned the Griess with words of reassurance. Yet, deep down, he was certain that they would never be able to utilize the Griess ever again.
“Wait.”
Lee Sungmin disappeared from Lloyd’s sight, and the spatial magic surrounding them dissolved.
Lloyd, with a confused expression, looked around, but Lee Sungmin was nowhere to be seen.
…
Lee Sungmin created a barrier around him after leaving the Forest of the Fairies so as not to be disturbed. Then, he called Neville. (TN: for those of you that forgot, he is LSM’s broker for Nerebrisa)
“It has been a while.”
However, it wasn’t Neville that met him. Removing the fedora on his head, Laplace bowed his head while greeting him. (TN: from what I remember, Laplace is a higher-end broker that was connected with Envirus (no clue who that is, I forgot so much))
“I heard what happened through the grapevine. From what I can see… Right. Did you slay the Vampire Queen?”
Lee Sungmin did not reply. Laplace, puzzled by his silence, tilted his head.
“I heard from Neville that you wanted to meet with me. The chimera soul you traded with us just yesterday was quite a rare specimen. Indeed, another one of our clients was extremely satisfied with it…”
“Is it Remeraus?”
Lee Sungmin broke his silence, and Laplace’s mouth shut.
“Or Homerusos?”
He sifted through his memories.
The dragon that died in the hands of Heoju. (TN: my goat)
That dragon had died due to his arrogance, but that arrogance had stemmed from the strength that came from being a dragon.
The strength brought forth arrogance, and the arrogance brought him a dog’s death.
Lee Sungmin did not bring up the memories of the dragon’s death; he couldn’t get too absorbed. It felt disgusting to roll around in someone else’s memories for too long.
I am Lee Sungmin, yet my memories are those of the Blood Demon, the Lord of the Sama Order, and the dragon.
The three other memories aside from his own should only be used for information, and he could not sink too deep into the sea of memories.
“Is it Velkraon? Aside from those three, I don’t think it could be anyone else…”
“….What are you…”
“The dragon that’s using you as a terminal.” (TN: Not sure what this meant in the raws, so I googled it, and it uses the same word as “terminal,” so I’m assuming that the dragon in question is using Laplace as a connection to spy on LSM)
Lee Sungmin spoke while looking straight into Laplace’s eyes. At those words, the confused expression on Laplace’s face disappeared.
The connection hadn’t been severed yet. The dragon that was using Laplace as a terminal was in a different dimension. Even though Lee Sungmin could rule over Draconic, and even though Lee Sungmin inherited his master and the Blood Demon’s martial arts, he couldn’t interfere with a dragon in an unknown dimension.
“I’ll make it easy for you to understand.”
Lee Sungmin muttered as he placed his hand on his head. His lips opened, and he began to talk in the language of dragons.
Draconic
Immediately, Laplace’s previously emotionless face shook, and his eyes began to flicker. Lee Sungmin spoke the names of dragons that no longer existed, and spoke in a language that humans couldn’t comprehend.
He wanted to ask so many things, but he didn’t need to.
In Lee Sungmin’s hand lay a small sphere of light. He sent it toward Laplace, who caught it out of the air and placed it into his forehead.
“…Keiseroad?”
Laplace muttered in disbelief. The name Laplace spoke of was that of the dragon that had died to Heoju hundreds of years ago.
“How can this be… even if it’s just memories… even Draconic?”
“I happen to have an incredibly interesting body. It seems like no one arranged his death.
At Lee Sungmin’s comment, Laplace let out a slight laugh and shook his head.
“…You, who possess his memories, should know best… Keiseroad’s death was due to his arrogance, not due to the schemes of another dragon.”
Laplace put the fedora in his hand back on his head. His tone had changed, as he no longer thought of Lee Sungmin as just another member of Erebrisa.
“It’s been a while… or maybe not. You only carry Keiseroad’s memories; you aren’t him. No… since you can use Draconic, are you a dragon?”
“I can use Polymorph as well. It’s uncomfortable, so I don’t want to… anyways, who are you?” (TN: btw, LSM’s been talking to Laplace in a very informal way, and Laplace had been using formal, polite speech till he says “It’s been a while”; he switches to polite but slightly less formal)
Lee Sungmin asked without looking into Keiseroad’s memories.
“Homerusos”
Hearing that name brought out memories that he tried to ignore.
Homerusos.
The wisest dragon, the Lord of the Golden Dragon.
“Why did you call me out? What did you want to ask?”
“How many times has it been?”
Originally, Lee Sungmin had intended to obtain information regarding the Demonic and Divine Spirits. However, due to possessing the memories of a dragon, he found himself wanting to ask about something else entirely.
“…What are you talking about?”
“This world. How many times has it reset?”
Laplace’s expression hardened, and Lee Sungmin couldn’t help but laugh at the hesitation in Laplace’s eyes.
“Why are you hesitating, Homerusos? No matter what you say, neither the Divine Spirit nor the Demonic Spirit will intervene, as I stand completely outside the fate of this place. And they can’t interfere with you, either. I understand that you maintained neutrality earlier due to your lack of certainty… but now, you can be certain. I am beyond the reach of their intervention.”
“…It is now the third iteration.”
At Lee Sungmin’s pressure, Laplace answered with a sigh.
The third…
Lee Sungmin whispered under his breath and sat down on the ground.
“Keiseroad was not able to escape from this world.”
Lee Sungmin pressed hard on his temples.
“Roughly a hundred years after his death, the dragons escaped from Eria. The third iteration… that must be the number you observed after you escaped.” (TN: Eria is the name of the world that LSM was transported to from Earth)
“Yes. We were unable to make any observations prior to that. The observations began only after we had escaped. This world… is the third.”
Lee Sungmin sank deep into thought.
Eria.
It had been impossible to know how many times this grand experiment had been repeated.
In this world of repetition, history had no choice but to repeat itself to a certain degree.
This world.
The previous world, where Lee Sungmin was nothing more than a C-ranked warrior.
And the world before that, the world that he didn’t know about.
In the first iteration, the dragons of Eria had realized the impending fate of the world that was the Apocalypse, and fled to a different dimension.
After the Apocalypse, a new farm opened, and dragons existed in that world as well.
The dragons “disappeared.” The dragons that realized the fate of Eria “escaped.” History was repeating.
Even in Lee Sungmin’s past life, when he was a C-ranked warrior, dragons did not exist in Eria.
It was the same in this iteration.
“I want to ask you this, Homerusos. In the first iteration, you were able to escape Eria. Then, what happens to the Homerusos that escaped Eria in the second iteration? And this one?”
Lee Sungmin had asked about the time paradox that would occur from the multiple iterations.
“…I am the me of the first, second, and third iterations. We freed ourselves from our physical forms while escaping Eria and transformed (化) into consciousness. During the three iterations, the three versions of myself became a single, united consciousness.”
“Will you continue to live that way?”
“I can’t do anything about it. After this world meets its end, we will continue to… in the next world, observe without being able to interfere. The dragons of the next iteration will eventually create Erebrisa, escape Eria, and I will welcome my fourth consciousness.”
This cycle would repeat endlessly if the Apocalypse weren’t prevented. Listening to Homerusos, Lee Sungmin couldn’t help but click his tongue.
“Then I won’t be able to use that method.”
“What were you planning to do?”
“I wanted to escape this world like you guys, but… it’ll be impossible.”
He thought that there could be a slight chance and wanted to receive help from Erebrisa, which the dragons had created before escaping.
However, after listening to what Homerusos said, he knew that it was impossible. Uniting multiple consciousnesses into one was feasible due to the mental strength that came from being a dragon, but a human’s mental fortitude would collapse upon uniting just two consciousnesses.
There was no way to escape the time paradox without leaving behind the physical form and transforming into a consciousness.
And that wouldn’t prevent the Apocalypse that was bound to destroy Eria over and over again in this repeating world.
“You guys observed Eria for three iterations.”
“…That’s right.”
“So, which one’s the enemy? The Divine Spirit? Or the Demonic Spirit?”
Homerusos couldn’t reply easily to this question either.
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TN: Hey guys, Yul here. It’s been way too long since I posted. I’m so sorry about that. I do have a “payment” method set up kinda (?) in the form of in-game currency, lmfao, if anyone wants to pay me to translate, but I’m gonna translate either way, and I already try to translate whenever I can/feel like it. Please join the discord .gg/4TEw7gQt6a and feel free to add me (bunbunnyrabbit)