Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

Uninvited Guests

THERE WERE SOME misunderstandings, but eventually I managed to explain to Lord Mason what had happened in Roxy’s room. Lord Mason laughed and shook his head. I breathed a sigh of relief now that he knew the truth.

“Ah, I see,” he said. “That Aisha is trouble sometimes. She’s been playing pranks on me for a very long time.”

I wondered if Lady Aisha’s love of jokes and pranks stemmed directly from Lord Mason’s trusting nature. 

“However, magic spells that can swap souls…used by ancient monsters long thought extinct…” said Lord Mason. “What in the world is happening?” 

“We still don’t know.”

We theorized that it had something to do with the Door to Distant Lands—Myne’s goal—but I didn’t tell Lord Mason about that. It was little more than a hunch. Honestly, I didn’t even know what the Door was. If I told Lord Mason about it and he asked, I wouldn’t know what to say.

“Perhaps I should be grateful. These strange happenings granted me the chance to return home. But is this for the best? I don’t think that all of it is.”

“Why not?”

Lord Mason had found a way to return home. I couldn’t understand what he meant. 

Lord Mason, noting my confusion, continued. “It’s because everybody’s been taken back to the time before I left.”

“Taken back?”

“Indeed. My death left wounds upon the hearts of the Hart family. But they lived on and overcame that grief. Roxy inherited my position as head of the family, and she leads it with great dignity. Aisha found a way to support her. By coming back, things may revert to what they once were, and that frightens me.”

“I… But even if that’s the case, I’m glad you came back,” I said. “Roxy thought she’d never see you again, but here you are. She’d never say it was better if you’d never returned.”

“Thank you, Fate. I appreciate your kind words.” Lord Mason stood once more and put out a hand. “I would have liked it if Aaron could have been here with us. Come visit the manor soon, Fate. You’re always welcome.”

“I will. Thank you.”

I shook Lord Mason’s hand and bid him farewell. As I began to walk toward the Military District, I heard him call out to me.

“The world continues to get stranger, Fate. What do you intend to do about it?”

“When I know what’s causing all this, I will leave the kingdom in search of it.”

“I see…”

There was a chance that by eliminating the source, I might also eliminate Lord Mason’s new existence. But he said nothing about it. Instead, he simply nodded gravely.

“If you are being considerate of my situation, Fate, there’s no need. I should be dead. I intend to make the most of this miracle for however long it lasts.”

“My lord…”

“What scares me is that these resurrections may continue. They would plunge the world into chaos. If ancient monsters are coming back to life the same way I did, then the situation is much more dire than we realize.”

None of us wanted to consider that possibility. If ancient monsters continued to return, the kingdom was doomed. Those monsters existed in the Domain of E. Just imagining a world in which monsters of equal power to the Divine Dragon roamed free was terrifying.

“As you can likely imagine, it’s no laughing matter, is it, Fate?”

“It might be the exact opposite,” I said.

“At the moment, it’s just a suspicion, but I can feel something. Perhaps because I was resurrected myself.”

It was true that Lord Mason’s fears and worries were unproven. And yet, I felt the same way. I needed to get to the Military District to investigate the Philosopher’s Stone as soon as possible. Through that, we would find the evil at the heart of this.

But at that moment, an enormous explosion rocked the kingdom. The sound left my ears ringing. It had come from the Military District. Black smoke billowed from the area, and with it, towering pillars of ice appeared one after the other. They stood higher than the walls that separated the Military District from the Holy Knight District, pointing toward the sky.

“That’s…how is that possible?” I gaped.

“Fate, what are those pillars?” Lord Mason asked.

“Please stay here.”

“I can already tell from your answer that there is nothing I can do. If the man who defeated the Divine Dragon sees danger in those pillars, then I am powerless before them.”

“I’m sorry, my lord…”

“No need for apologies. I will return to the manor. If you need me, I will be ready and waiting.”

Lord Mason headed back to Hart Manor. I broke into a sprint. There was no time to bother going through the gates, so I leaped over the high wall into the Military District. 

“The buildings…they’ve been turned to ice.”

“Be on guard, Fate,” muttered Greed.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

Several buildings, all at least twenty stories high, had been frozen solid. There was no way to tell if the people inside them still lived. The high-rise buildings in the Military District had been constructed with Galian technology. Their black walls were made of a unique material that supposedly couldn’t be burnt, melted, or frozen. Nonetheless, the buildings I saw had been wholly swallowed by ice.

“It’s probably more Galian tech,” said Greed. “Something very, very powerful.”

“Greed, you really don’t have any clue what all this is?”

“If I did, I would have told you when we were attacked in the Hobgoblin Forest. It’s freezing everything…which means it could be a weapon like myself, forged according to Galian principles. If so, then it was made after I was.”

“I can’t sense the source of it.”

“We should get to Laine, fast.”

The pillars of ice seemed to enshrine the facility where Laine did her research. I dashed toward it, trying to keep calm as I neared. With each step, I passed soldiers and holy knights frozen in ice. They had been taken completely by surprise, turned into ice at the very moment that they sprang into action. 

The temperature plummeted as I neared Laine’s laboratory. Though spring was around the corner, my breath came out in misty clouds. At least I knew that whoever had done all of this had gone to the same place as I was headed: Laine’s lab.

The automatic doors were frozen open, and the guards inside were encased in pillars of ice.

“This is bad,” I said.

“There’s no time to lose, Fate.”

I pulled Greed from his sheath and stepped into the elevator, but it didn’t move. The ice had interfered with its systems.

“You’ll have to take the emergency stairs.”

“On it.”

I dashed up the stairs with all the speed my stats would grant me and arrived at Laine’s laboratory. Things were worse there than on the first floor. The place was filled with holy knights and soldiers, all of them unmoving, silent, and completely frozen. They must have arrived to deliver the Philosopher’s Stone. 

“It’s freezing here,” I said.

It was a cold that pierced through my Domain of E stats. Whoever had come here was therefore also in the Domain of E. I gripped Greed in hand and entered cautiously. The door into Laine’s laboratory was frozen shut. There was no other way to get inside, so I cut it open and jumped inside.

“No… How…?”

I recognized the person before my eyes. He held the unconscious Laine in his left hand and a blood-red stone in his right.

I stared. How is this possible? How? 

The man stepped toward me, no expression on his face. “It’s been a long time, Fate.”

“Dad…”

“You’ve gotten bigger. This…is just part of the contract.”

It was the face of my father, just as I remembered him when I was a boy. His hair was a little longer, but without a doubt, the face belonged to Dean Graphite. The only difference was the red tattoo that covered the upper half of his face. It clashed with his otherwise kind features.

Even with a sword pointed at him, my father showed no signs of worry. He was calm and collected. By comparison, my hands shook with anxiety.

“What…what is going on?” I demanded.

He did not answer my question. Instead, he spoke with a slow, measured pace. “You’re going to let me leave without making a scene. That is, if you want the girl to remain unharmed.”

“Dad…why?”

Not only was he holding Laine hostage, but I felt paralyzed before him. 

My father pulled a black spear from empty space. It was different from the one Shin had wielded. He pointed it toward the wall behind him and swung. Crystals of ice formed on everything and began to crack into pieces. A hole opened in the wall and, still holding onto Laine, he jumped out.

“Damn it… Why are you doing this?!”

I ran to the hole to follow them, but a thick wall of ice suddenly blocked my path. I tried to slice into it with Greed, but it was no use. No matter how much of it I cut away, it continued to grow back.

“Laine!”

“Calm yourself, Fate,” said Greed. “You’re in shock. Your pulse is going crazy. Anyone would panic if their dead father was the source of all of this, but you need to calm down.”

“But…”

“Laine will be fine.”

“How do you know that?”

“Look around. Look at the buildings. The ice pillars are melting.”

It wasn’t happening all at once, but it was true: the ice was changing, sublimating into steam. I heard the voices coming from the hallway. The once frozen soldiers and holy knights were alive.

“He didn’t kill any of them,” Greed said. “He only froze them. If he didn’t kill them, then there’s a good chance that he won’t harm Laine. And you heard what he said. He said it was part of the contract.”

“You mean he’s being forced to do this?”

“It’s a possibility. That’s all I’m saying.”

By the time the ice fully dissipated, my father would be so far away that we’d never be able to track him. He hadn’t released Laine during his escape. Instead, he’d taken her with him. Did that mean his target wasn’t just the Philosopher’s Stone, but Laine as well? What was I supposed to tell her father? There was nothing else I could do but stand there in Laine’s laboratory, staring at the hole in the wall.

When I’d spoken with Lord Mason, I’d allowed myself to think, What if I could meet my father? What if I could meet my mother? 

But the Philosopher’s Stone was a part of Shin. If my father wanted it, then it meant he was either being forced to work for Shin, or…he was a willing accomplice. 

“I didn’t sense any enmity in your father,” Greed said, his voice echoing with a rare kindness. “If he wanted to bring you harm, he would have done it back at the Hobgoblin Forest.”

“Yeah… Thanks, Greed. I…I feel a little better.”

“But so much for our big plans.”

Unfortunately, Greed was exactly right. This had all happened because we were looking for Myne and Shin. Not only had we lost our only lead, but Laine had been kidnapped too. I felt the winds of spring flow in through the hole in the wall, suffusing the room with warmth. As I made to leave, I realized that one of Eris’s white knights had arrived. That was quick. Then again, they had been on high alert since Rafale’s attack.

“Fate Barbatos. It is fortunate that I found you. I will need you to accompany me to the castle to explain what happened here. Follow me. Eris will be returning shortly.”

I followed after the white knight silently. I wanted to tell Eris what had happened and figure out what to do next.

Dad… This was not the reunion I wanted.