The Gamer's POV-Chapter 266: Leaving the Home of the Hollow Ones

Later that day...

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With the duel between summons concluded, the creatures returned to the inner sanctuaries of their lords while the cadets later dispersed for their respective business.

As for Cedric, he paid a visit to one of the homes in the section where the cadets who stayed outside the fortress lived.

This particular home was the most dilapidated in the entire row, and it didn’t even have a roof.

Inside this ruin, a certain teen with red hair and blue eyes sat slumped against the wall, staring blankly at the flames of an oil lamp that flickered in front of him. The boy’s expression was hollow and, honestly, he looked like a shell of a person.

He was still lost in his head when a raven suddenly landed beside him. At first, he turned slowly and stared at it for a few seconds with a dull, vacant gaze. But then, as the sight of the bird finally registered, his eyes widened.

In that heartbeat, the raven melted into a flurry of dark feathers that solidified into Cedric sitting right beside him.

Cedric was dressed in his usual long coat and a newsboy cap, idly holding a long brown-and-gold pipe in his hand. Upon seeing him, Levi swallowed hard, and sweat began to bead across his forehead.

"Bro-brother!" Levi stammered. "I-I didn’t expect... I mean, I’m honored. But... w-what brings you here?"

Cedric turned to him, then gave him a warm and genuine smile and said, "Relax."

Instead of relaxing, Levi’s throat went dry, and his shoulders hunched as he tensed even more.

Cedric narrowed his eyes, then he adopted a look of profound sadness and said in a somber, mournful tone, "Goodness. You look all skin and bones."

He looked away, his face growing even sadder as he watched the flickering oil lamp. "It makes me truly heartbroken, as your big brother, to see you like this."

’Of course not!’ Levi thought as he stared at Cedric in fear. ’You are the one who made me like this!’

...Well, that was true.

Despite the hollow sympathy he had just performed, Cedric was the architect of this misery.

You see, over the past few days, Cedric had made sure to exclude Levi from the daily rations he provided for the other cadets. He also made sure that Levi did not get to drink any water, and ensured he stayed starved and cooped up in this dilapidated building.

Because of this, Levi had been reduced to... well, you know: skin and bones.

’And to think that after all this while, all I got... was just sixty karma points?!’ Cedric thought bitterly as he stared at the fire with a profoundly sad expression, which... he was actually wearing for himself and not Levi.

’Tsk.’

Well, honestly, he wasn’t really that surprised about the meager points.

You see, after the test Cedric had in his inner sanctuary, his understanding of his karma accumulation had improved.

It might look like he was committing an act of evil by treating Levi in this manner, but in reality, he was simply being the executioner of Levi’s bad karma, which had finally returned to haunt him.

Levi used to punish the "Original Cedric" in this exact manner. On their father’s orders, the original Cedric had been forced to live in the stables, and Levi had made it his personal mission to make that existence a living hell. Most times, he would personally intercept the small rations the maids tried to sneak in. Other times, he would block the water brought to the original Cedric, forcing him to quench his thirst by drinking from the horses’ troughs.

So, now that this Cedric was returning the favor, he was merely purging Levi’s evil karma. Since the payouts were so meager, it only meant that Levi’s "Karma Debt" was massive. At this rate, it would either take a really long time for Levi to pay it off, or... Cedric would have to accelerate the collection by doing things far more "evil" than this.

Anyway, that aside, the battle of the lords was in two days, and he needed Levi to at least be in good condition for that. So, it was time to put a temporary hold on his evil.

"Here. Take this." He extended a hand to Levi, and a large piece of raw meat appeared in his palm.

Levi looked at the meat for a moment, salivating. Then he alternated gazes between Cedric and the meat.

"C-can I really have that?" He asked in a low whisper, as if he expected the food to vanish if he spoke too loudly.

"Tsk." Cedric clicked his tongue and threw the meat at Levi’s feet. "Have your bond eat that as well. And feel free to drink from the river."

At that moment, Ifrit manifested out of Levi’s arm in a burst of flames, then he banged his head on the ground and said, "Thank you!"

Seeing him, Levi also did the same thing, hitting his forehead against the cold floor in a desperate show of gratitude.

By the time he lifted his head, Cedric was already gone.

***

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..

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Time passed quickly, and before anyone was truly ready, the day to depart for the final battle of the lords... arrived.

On this fateful day, all the cadets had gathered by the gates of the sunken city to prepare for the departure.

Were they all actually ready for this battle?

Well, they had spent the last few weeks doing all they could to get themselves ready enough. There was nothing more they could do at this stage than pray to the gods and hope for a miracle.

...Sometime early into the gathering, Aurora had already made her appearance. She took it upon herself to talk to them again and increase the hope in them. She promised them victory and survival. She even exposed her exclusive attribute, promising that if they were to have faith in her, she would empower them with her attribute.

At the end of her speech, everyone steeled their resolve. They gritted their teeth, clenched their fists, and shouted their defiance into the cold air. They were going to fight with all they had for their chance to return. If they died fighting, then so be it. They had made their peace with that.

...After a while, the cadets began to hear the rhythmic thud of horses approaching, followed by the heavy, synchronized march of iron-clad boots. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

They waited in anticipation, and before long, they saw the army of the Hollow Ones arrive at the gates of the city. The sight of the metallic, emotionless soldiers chilled the air more than the wind ever could.

Leading them was Argentos in all his regal majesty, and riding beside him was Cedric, who appeared especially cold and detached from the world around him.

While the sight of the two leaders was imposing, it was a different sound that truly stunned the cadets and broke their silence into a wave of glorious murmurs.

From the distance came the rhythmic, thunderous vibration of footsteps that sounded like giants approaching. When the cadets turned their gaze toward the peaks of the hills surrounding the sunken city, they saw the source of the tremors. Twenty colossal, obese statues were marching toward them in a slow and imposing procession.

It seemed that the colossal giants, which numbered a total of twenty, were going to join them for this monumental battle.

This made the spark of hope within the cadets surge as they thought... If these titans were also on their side, perhaps survival was not just a dream after all.

Perhaps...

At that moment, Argentos reached the front of the gathering and reined in his horse.

Then, in a voice that commanded absolute silence, he yelled, "Citizens of the other world!"

At his voice, all the cadets returned their full attention to him. When they did, he solemnly touched his chest, then his forehead, after which he raised his hand to the side. Almost immediately after, all the members of his army repeated the gesture. When they finished the salute, Argentos concluded his address.

"The time has come for blood and iron. Today, we depart for the fields of war. I say this so that you understand there is no path back from where you go. Let no heart falter and let your resolve never break, for we march to conquer or we march to our graves."