Chapter 367: The Last Threshold of Wrath (1)

Not everything went as smoothly as the wedding. Days sped by. I felt like I closed my eyes for only a moment, but when I opened them, a month had passed. I wish I was exaggerating. Time moved on, leaving me behind. It almost felt unfair.

Well, there is nothing I can do about it.

It was said that time flew faster as one got older. My body was young, but my mind was much older. I tried counting how old I was, but stopped when the number reached three digits. Whatever. My body was still in its twenties.

Hm

, that could be seen as me insisting that I was much younger than I actually was...

As I thought about the cruelty of the passage of time, a knight rode up and saluted me, snapping me back to reality.

“Glory to the Moon of Ivansia! Your Grace, we’ve surrounded the castle as commanded!”

“

Ah

, great work, Knight Commander.”

“No problem!”

“Did you send the envoy to ask for their surrender but still nothing?"

“Yes, Your Grace! They say they will fight to the end!”

I clicked my tongue. “How foolish.”

The Ducal Family of Ivansia’s best troops, including their knight commander, surrounded me in a tight circle. An army of at least six thousand was encircling a small city. Since I had been doing interviews not too long ago, some wondered why I was now in the middle of a medieval battlefield. The reason was simple. Raviel had nearly been killed. Well, she had actually been killed.

***

After winning the duel against the Primordial Staff, I stayed on the first floor for a while. As Anastasha had strongly insisted, I needed to make public appearances. The interspecies wedding had wrapped up nicely and the fire kindled by the discovery of the underground civilization was still burning brightly.

As I was talking with a reporter, a message rang in my head.

[Activating the Skill.]

I hadn’t used any Skills, so I was rightfully confused.

The reporter probably noticed something was off with me. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

Just as I was about to smile and say it was nothing, I realized a certain Skill had activated for the first time.

[

A Certain Returner’s Love

has been activated.]

[You share your lover’s timeline.]

[The timeline has ended.]

That was how it all began.

The world around me spun, and my vision became as dark as squid ink pasta.

The reporter panicked. “Mr. Death King? Mr. Death King!”

His voice came from far away but quickly faded.

[You have died.]

[Rewinding time to twenty-four hours ago.]

I was probably the first human to die without doing anything at all.

“Die! Please die, you evil wacko!”

When I blinked, the world around me changed. The reporter who had been interviewing me was gone. Instead, Anastasha was squeezing my neck and shaking me hard; I had regressed twenty-four hours.

“The hell.”

I understood why I had suddenly died. The Tower’s system message had told me that

A Certain Returner’s Love

had been activated. The Skill allowed Raviel and me to share the same timeline. If I regressed a day, Raviel also went back a day. The two of us always existed on the same timeline. If Raviel died, so did I.

However, I had the

Returner’s Clockwork.

When I died, I went back twenty-four hours. Since my timeline had been rewound, so had Raviel’s. As long as both skills—

A Certain Returner’s Love

and the

Returner’s Clockwork

—stayed intact, the two of us would never face irreversible death. Only one day would be lost.

I was just talking to a reporter, but the timeline was still wound back. It meant someone else died instead of me—Raviel.

“You evil wacko! Die! Die!!”

Of course, Anastasha didn’t notice that I had regressed just now. That would have been why she didn’t understand why I was so out of it.

“You don’t have to bother, Anastasha,” I said. “I already died just now anyway.”

“What?”

“I regressed just now.”

Only then did Anastasha really look at me. “What? Then why do you look like that?”

“Look like what?”

“Ready to slit someone’s throat. It’s a little scary. Was the death so shocking that it made you glare like that?"

“It’s different this time.”

“

Uh... umm...

I see. What’s different?”

“It wasn’t me who died. It was Raviel."

For some reason, Anastasha’s face darkened. Silence fell. She let go of my neck and closed her eyes, sighing so deeply that the floor seemed to sink around her.

“The hell?” she muttered.

“I’m sorry for revealing the underground civilization’s existence without telling you first, but I think it’ll be an opportunity to spur some camaraderie among the Five Guild members. If you need someone to blame, you can use me.”

“Okay... yeah... I guess so...”

“Anastasha.”

She gestured in resignation. “Go on...”

“I’m sorry for making you handle all the work at this busy time, but I have to visit the empire.” My voice sounded so cold that it sounded unfamiliar even to my ears. “I can’t tell you for sure how long it will take, but I promise I’ll take care of it as soon as possible and return.”

“Kim Gong-Ja.”

“I’m listening.”

“Don’t kill too many...”

“I can’t promise you that.”

I picked up my holy sword. Snakey and my fox god had been playing with the sword, and now they both looked up at me.

“

Kieee?

”

“

Peep?

”

It was as if they were asking, “What’s going on?” Both of them fell silent the moment they saw my face. Snakey quietly climbed onto my wrist and coiled around it while my fox god turned into my scarf as I walked out of the room.

“Sylvia Evanail!” I shouted.

Sylvia was waiting in the hallway. Once known as Lady Goldencup, she was under my complete subordination since I had defeated the Ruin-Harvesting Cow. It looked like she had been yawning in boredom only to flinch at my shout.

“Y-yes, Patriarch?”

“Summon every member of the clan. You don’t have to call those who are far away. You have five minutes. Gather every clan vassal who can come now in the garden.”

“

Eeek.

That sounds very bothersome. Besides, five minutes is too little time. Why are you—” Sylvia met my gaze. “I’m sure you have a good reason of your own, Patriarch! Yes! I’ll gather everyone at once!

Woohoo!

Work! Work! I’m happy to work! Damn it!”

Sylvia ran off. I went down to the garden and waited. My lodging was shared not only by me and my clan vassals but also by the Black Witch, the Inquisitor, the Countess, the Paladin, and others. We didn’t really live together in the same building. Everyone lived in separate buildings, and our only shared space was the garden.

One by one, my clan vassals came to meet me. The first to arrive was Estelle. Although she usually acted as the clan advisor, she was also my heiress who would lead the clan on my behalf in an emergency. She and I quickly exchanged glances as we continued to wait in silence. She didn’t ask why I had called everyone or what the problem was.

After Estelle came Kim Yul and the Four Demon Kings. Next were the Heavenly Demon Cult followers. They looked between Estelle and me, still silent.

Five minutes passed. Some of the vassals weren’t here, but I didn’t plan to wait longer. In fact, the five minutes I had mentioned before were already testing my patience.

“Where is Uburka?” I asked.

“The chief warrior has been sent to the fifth floor to help in the negotiation with the people from the underground civilization, Patriarch,” Estelle replied calmly. “The Terras love the scent of the earth and find the dampness of the underground comforting, so I believed that he would get along well with the underground civilization and sent him there. Shall I bring him back?"

“No, it’s fine. There’s no time.”

Over a hundred clan vassals were watching me. Although they weren’t taken aback by the sudden call, they were still wondering why they had been gathered. I answered their unspoken question.

“Raviel is dead.”

The garden fell silent.

“To be accurate, she’ll die tomorrow,” I clarified with a smile. “Thanks to my Skill, I can know about her death in advance. Heaven has helped me.”

I was joking in a way. I represented the Demonic Heaven, yet I learned of Raviel's death through my Skill because heaven helped me.

No one reacted or even forced a smile. Estelle’s face froze while Kim Yul closed his eyes. The Sword Demon King broke into cold sweats, and the Ghostfire Demon King let out a deep sigh.

I forced another smile. Since no one was laughing at my joke, I may as well do it myself.

“I have no idea which bastard harmed Raviel. I don’t know how stupid one can be to do such a thing. One thing is clear. That bastard’s imagination is far worse than mine. Why? Because they don’t know how to imagine hell. Whatever hell that person imagined will seem like joyous heaven compared to the hell they’re about to go through. I would like to show everyone that no one is better at creating hell than those who speak of heaven.”

Without saying more, I turned around and started walking. Over a hundred footsteps echoed behind me.

[Teleporting you to the twenty-fifth floor.]

The destination was Sormwin Academy. Sormwin was already the empire’s top academy, but it had grown even bigger after the treaty between Babylon and the empire was signed. A government office was set up in charge of immigration, leading to building homes for the civil servants working in the office. As rare goods came from Babylon, trading guilds were also built to manage them. Sormwin was now more of a city than an academy.

The moment I arrived, an imperial official greeted me with a smile. “Greetings! Welcome to the empire! If I may ask, what is the purpose of your visit?”

“I’m the Duke Consort of Ivansia. I’m here for my family matters, not Babylon’s affairs.”

“

Uh...

” the official trailed off, seemingly recognizing me.

Well, since he was a public official in charge of immigration, he should get fired if he didn’t know who I was. The official’s face darkened when he realized I had over a hundred of my clan vassals with me. The imperial immigration office was surprised by our sudden arrival.

“I’ll say it again. This is a family matter,” I emphasized. I had no time for this. “Unless you plan to antagonize the Ducal Family of Ivansia, get out of my way right now.”

The official couldn’t stop me. The knights and soldiers at the immigration checkpoint opened a path for me. The Hunters sent from Babylon and the guild members of the Black Dragon Guild and MA all returned to their posts the moment they saw me.

I headed to the Ducal Family of Ivansia’s villa, built next to Sormwin. Flustered, the ducal family’s soldiers blocked my path.

“Y-Your Grace! What happened?!"

“If you wanted to come, you should have sent a notice so we could make preparations to welcome you properly!”

I scoffed. “I don’t know how you can hold your head up high and get in my way when you couldn’t even protect your master.”

“W-what?”

“I’d like to tie you all up and interrogate you, but I want to see Raviel first. I won’t repeat myself. Step aside. Even if you don’t, it doesn’t matter,” I said with a cold smile.

“What?”

“I have no time to waste on you.” I gestured with my chin toward them.

Estelle moved and applied a joint lock to the soldier, instantly incapacitating him. A half-second later, the cultists stepped forward. In an instant, the ducal family’s villa was under my control. The Blue Lion Knights tried to resist, but their attempts were crushed quickly.

I walked down the hall. Six servants stood guard outside the room where Raviel stayed, all of them trusted by Raviel and having been trained to stop assassins. I usually found them very reliable, but they were now leeches living off the ducal family’s money.

“Your Grace.”

“Please step aside, Moon of Ivansia.”

“Even if it’s you, you can’t just—”

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Did I have any reason to listen to this nonsense? No. I used my aura to pressure the six servants’ acupoints. Unable to make a sound, the servants collapsed in the hallway, still awake but trembling. I did that because I wanted them to feel utter shame for failing to stop me for even a second.

I opened the bedroom door, leaving the servants behind.

Creaaaak!

“

Hmm.

”

Raviel was sitting in her chair, looking down at the wind-up clock. Despite the chaos I had caused, she wasn’t surprised. Instead, she nodded lightly as if she had expected this.

“Thirteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds, I see.” She lifted her red gaze from the clock and met mine. “I thought that if you came alone, it would take no more than five minutes. If you came with your people, I thought it would take no more than fifteen minutes. Indeed. The gap between us was thirteen minutes.”

I smiled. “I’m sorry for being late, Raviel. So, which son of a bitch should I kill?”

Raviel returned a bitter smile.