Chapter 133 – Opening the Door (2)

The next morning, Nienna, Haild, and Juan came out to the beach that was made up of the bones of dragons.

“Are you actually going to do it?”

“It’s not the first time anyway.”

Juan was sitting on the sandy beach with his back turned toward Haild, who was looking down at him nervously. Nienna chewed on her nails, feeling half worried and half nervous.

“I understand that we gotta do what we gotta do, but it makes me feel uncomfortable to see you get stabbed again by the weapon that killed you. There’s gotta be other ways to make you stronger, you know,” Nienna said.

“You’re the one who told me that I have to do more than just simply winning against Barth Baltic in a fight. You told me that I should step on him like he’s an ant and crush him.”

“...I guess I did.”

Juan looked back at Haild.

“You said I can gain strength by doing what you told me to do, right?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. To put it bluntly, you can regain your original strength,” Haild swallowed a gulp. “There’s a thing called the ‘crown’ inside Your Majesty, and that’s the thing you saw back in Durgal. I don’t know what it is exactly, but the Thornbush Priest Organization has been frantically searching for it. They thought that my father… I mean Gerard, had the crown with him until now, but it was confirmed that it is still within Your Majesty.”

“So what?”

“We must bring out the power of the crown.”

Juan stroked his chin with an unpleasant look on his face.

“I remember the state I was in when the crown appeared back in Durgal. At that time, I was completely out of control and had lost consciousness.”

“And Your Majesty will once again be put in a similar situation this time. But Elkiehl and I are here with you this time.”

Juan looked at the black blade which absorbed even the sunlight. The matte blade with no luster was giving off an ominous aura that made Juan feel suspicious on whether or not he should trust such a suspicious item.

“Even if Your Majesty loses your mind, we can force the crown back in as long as we have Elkiehl. All Your Majesty has to do is try to control the power of the crown while trying to maintain consciousness. If you can handle even a small portion of that power, it will be much more useful than using the mana of trivial beings.”

“Isn’t it too dangerous?” Nienna intervened in the conversation.

Haild looked at Nienna silently.

“It is. It’s very dangerous, and that’s why we are doing it on this island. This island is very far from the empire, so there’s no need to worry about harming any of the civilians. The whole process will also be very harsh on His Majesty until he learns to properly control the power of the crown—both physically and mentally.”

Juan stared at Haild.

“How much strength do you think I’ll be able to regain if I could completely handle the power of the crown? Will I be as strong as I used to be as the emperor?” Juan asked.

“Your Majesty, you don’t seem to understand this very well,” Haild spoke with a serious face. “The crown is a huge dam and Your Majesty is kind of like a gate that lets the water escape. Of course, the gate is closed at the moment, but Your Majesty used to be able to let the water flow in large amounts. For your information, it is impossible to completely handle the crown.”

“That’s an interesting metaphor, Haild,” Juan smiled. “Let’s do this.”

Haild nodded. After looking at Nienna for a while, Haild carefully stabbed Elkiehl into Juan’s back.

***

Juan opened his eyes.

Feeling his head that was throbbing due to the heat, Juan realized that the sun was setting. Juan managed to turn his head despite the extreme fatigue that could almost melt him.

It seemed like a long time had passed, but he couldn’t remember anything about what had happened after he was stabbed. Juan wondered if this is what a hangover that he had never experienced before would feel like.

Although Juan had no memory, seeing the situation around him was enough to show him what he had done while he was unconscious. The sandy beach which was filled with dragon bones that were burnt and blackened, and Nienna’s ice spears were scattered everywhere, making quite a mess.

Juan blinked, seeing some parts of the island burning as a consequence.

“What the…”

‘

If this pain is close to what a hangover feels like, should I consider myself to be drunk right now?

’

Juan tried to raise himself up while thinking ridiculous thoughts, but soon realized that his hands and feet were pierced through by ice spears. But Juan was so exhausted that he had no energy left to melt the ice.

“Dad?”

At that moment, Nienna’s nervous voice was heard from the side. When Juan turned his head, he saw Nienna, who was heavily armed and in a combat posture, aiming an ice spear toward him. Behind Nienna was a half-melted Fenrir that was breaking down and scattering away. Nienna had a fed-up look on her face and asked once again.

“Is that really you, dad?”

“Maybe?”

Nienna let out a sigh of relief, lowering the tip of her ice spear.

“It seems like the whole process took quite a while. I didn’t expect it to take the whole day,” Juan said.

“The whole day?” Nienna laughed, almost as if she was dumbfounded.

Then Nienna pulled out the ice spears pierced through Juan’s limbs one by one.

“Today was the third day. Haild, Entalucia and I haven’t slept for three days and nights, all to fight against you.”

Juan was taken aback by the unexpected words coming out of Nienna’s mouth.

“What?”

“Honestly, I’m just glad that you didn’t try to escape the island. If you did…” Nienna shook her head and shuddered; she didn't even want to imagine what would have happened.

Then Juan heard the sound of huge wings flapping in the air. Soon, Entalucia landed on the sandy beach. The water dripping down from her huge body implied that she had been somewhere deep in the sea, and Haild who got off of Entalucia was also soaked in seawater.

Haild could barely open his mouth to speak with an exhausted expression.

“...It seems like you’re finally back, Your Majesty. Thank goodness.”

“What happened?” Juan asked.

“Aunt Nienna finally succeeded in restraining Your Majesty’s hands and feet, and then I forced the crown back in with the help of Elkiehl. At that moment, Entalucia and I were thrown into the sea by a roar from Your Majesty.”

Juan assumed that Haild and Entalucia must have been thrown quite far, considering that the sea they fell into was deep enough for an entire dragon who was hundreds of meters tall to drown.

Juan looked at Haild as if he was dumbfounded and spoke.

“I thought you said you could get me under control as long as you had Elkiehl with you? Actually, while we are at it, this time was quite different from back when I was in Durgal. Back then, I was somewhat conscious and Swallan told me that you were able to restrain me with ease.”

Haild also made an awkward expression as if it was difficult for him to explain.

“I think it’s because of Elkiehl.”

“How is Elkiehl responsible for it now?”

“Back then, the crown was forcibly drawn out through the power of spells and prayers that only the Priests of Thornbush Priest Organization can use. The fact that Your Majesty’s consciousness was at its peak due to the heat of the battle should also have contributed to you remaining somewhat conscious when the crown was drawn out. But it seems like Your Majesty’s consciousness was instantly taken over this time, since the crown was taken out through Elkiehl in a completely stable state.”

“That’s why this mess happened?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Maybe we should… think of a better way that causes less harm. My father and I had only prepared this theoretically, so… Another way to make this work is to use a spell. But that might attract the attention of the Priests from the Thornbush Priest Organization… before that, maybe I should…” Haild stumbled and fell on the sand. “...I need to take a nap…”

Haild started snoring even before he finished speaking.

Meanwhile, Juan looked at Haild with a dumbfounded smile.

‘

How defenseless

.’

Nienna sighed, recalling all the ice spears and the Fenrir she had summoned.

“So? How was it?” Juan asked Nienna.

“Terrible. It was so terrible that I highly doubt I will ever be able to kill you even if you were a monster of the Crack,” Nienna said with a shudder.

Such words could almost count as a praise from Nienna.

“Right from the very first day, I tried to restrain your limbs with Oberon. But far from being able to restrain you, Oberon even immediately vaporized and disappeared as soon as it approached you. I tried to shroud myself in ice to protect myself as much as I could and get closer to you, but I could never get close to you. Even the sandy beach that we walked around on the first day melted down and turned into glass, so you can look around at it later if you’re interested.”

“Walked around?”

“Yes. We were all exhausted from trying to get you back under control, but you just walked around the beach as if you were out strolling on a sandy beach. You looked like a kid who has never been on a beach before. Then, the second day was even worse. You were running all over the place and setting everything on fire. The heat was a little less intense compared to the first day, but there was no way for us to put out all the flames. Haild and I almost died several times.”

“Did I try to kill you guys?”

“No. And, that was a little strange. You didn’t seem to have any intention of attacking us. You were just running toward us… But you know, we wouldn’t even be left with ashes if you had hugged us like that. Haild tried to take advantage of you running toward us to force the crown back in with Elkiehl, but he wasn’t confident enough to withstand the heat,” NIenna sighed. “Finally, on the third day, around the evening, your movements started becoming much slower and the flames died down enough to the point where I could stop you using Oberon. Maybe you were tired or something. I stabbed you with Oberon and Haild forced the crown back inside you, since that would be our only opportunity. Then the crown exploded so we thought that Haild was going to die. But, it turned out that the crown hadn’t exploded—it had simply bounced off.”

Juan remained silent.

Nienna then examined the wounds on the back of Juan’s hands—although it was slow, they were slowly but surely recovering. Juan also noticed that his back which had been stabbed by Haild had already healed.

“Dad. Your mana…”

“Yes. I got a small amount of my mana back.”

Quite a large amount of mana had filled Juan during the time when the crown was drawn out, and it was what filled him with almost the same amount of mana he had after he absorbed Talter.

‘

Not bad. This is much more than I had expected.

’

Juan muttered, thinking that it was a relief that Haild was asleep.

“The ‘dam’ is much bigger than I thought.”

But Juan couldn’t be satisfied. His purpose was to learn how to completely control the crown—he didn’t intend to be satisfied with just a cup of water leaking from the dam.

***

Haild spoke firmly on the next day.

“Let’s do it in a slightly different manner this time.”

Neither Nienna nor Haild wanted to repeat what they had to do in the past few days. They were safe thanks to Juan not being hostile toward them, but no one knew what would happen if Juan lost consciousness again.

“I’m going to try recreating an environment that’s somewhat similar to what you encountered in Durgal and see what happens. I’ll use both the spell and Elkiehl to have a duel with Your Majesty. I’m hoping that Your Majesty will stay conscious while the crown is drawn out, since your consciousness seems to heighten during combat,” Haild explained.

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“A duel, eh?” Juan asked with an interested look.

“Yes, Your Majesty. While Aunt Nienna and Your Majesty are fighting, I will try to draw out the crown with Elkiehl…”

“No. Do exactly what you did the last time.”

“Pardon? But that’s too dangerous. If Your Majesty loses consciousness again…”

“It didn’t work last time because I didn’t expect things to go in such a different direction from what happened in Durgal. If it’s just a matter of how much I concentrate, I’m sure that I can handle it. Just do it.”

“But…”

“Do it. The fact that I’m swayed by such an unknown item is so annoying that I want to split my skull and pull it out.”

Seeing Juan's firm attitude, Haild looked back at Nienna with a concerned look on his face.

Nienna sighed and summoned Fenrir, preparing herself as much as she could for the upcoming duel. The sea froze white, and hundreds of ice spears were aimed toward Juan.

Directly accepting Nienna’s murderous intent, Juan calmly sat down on the sandy beach.

Haild looked down at the back of Juan’s head and hesitated to take out Elkiehl.

Tension filled the atmosphere around the sandy beach.

“Here we go.”

Just like he did last time, Haild stabbed Juan’s back with Elkiehl.