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Book 2: Chapter 284

Lukas couldn’t help but look at the sky again.

Exactly how much time had passed?

What was the situation on the continent like now that the Demigods had disappeared.

Had the Circle revealed themselves or were they still hiding in the shadows?

Those questions and dozens more flitted around his head like flies.

“By tomorrow morning at the latest, we will arrive at the border of the Kastkau Empire. Ah, Kastkau is the closest country to where we are now.”

The Kastkau Empire.

A powerful country that was famed for being a Magic Empire.

When the Demigods had revealed their true colours, the destruction they caused swept across the entire continent.

Some countries were completely destroyed, and even for the ones that weren’t, most of their cities had been obliterated. The Empire was one of the few places that only suffered minor damage.

The reason for this was simple.

The Kastkau Empire were the ones who bowed their heads to the Demigods faster than any other country.

While it might have been considered a wise choice at that time, it obviously became an unwashable stain after the Demigods disappeared.

Their influence as a superpower that led the continental situation disappeared, and they received all forms of ridicule from the neighbouring countries.

As Lukas expected, the national turmoil that bloomed as a result of this would not dissipate easily.

He looked at Peran Jun.

While it was possible to see the dignity of a noble in his expression and actions, he was, surprisingly, wearing ordinary clothes. While he didn’t look shabby, it still made it difficult to tell that he was a noble by just looking at him.

“…”

The Jun Duke Family was one of the pillars that supported the Imperial Family, and the power and influence they possessed in the Empire could be said to be in the top three of all the families.

Since Peran, the heir of the family, was dressed in such a frugal manner, Lukas couldn’t help but wonder about what had happened.

“About two days after crossing the border is a city called ‘Bailak’. Although it’s just a small city, the security is very good so you won’t have to worry about anything happening. If you choose to go to Bailak, I will help to approve of your temporary status.”

After waking up from his thoughts, Lukas turned to Peran and nodded.

“Thank you.”

“…”

But Peran’s expression was a bit strange.

“…you are… strangely calm.”

Unlike before, when he kept it hidden, there was a faint hint of suspicion in his voice.

This was a natural and expected response.

After all, just because you couldn’t recall your memories didn’t mean you forgot the basic logic you had built up through experience. It was just like an ordinary person wouldn’t be able to overcome the loneliness and fear they felt if they woke up alone on the vast ocean without memories.

Lukas was also aware of this fact. If he wanted to, he could truly play the part of someone who had lost all of their memories. It wouldn’t be hard for him to imitate the confusion and fear that loss of memory would cause.

But he didn’t do that.

There was a hint of depth in Peran’s eyes that didn’t suit his age. (Note:…the estimated time that passed keeps getting less and less)

It would be almost impossible to fool this man with clumsy acting. Instead, it was better to just reveal his true personality as it was, and only use small lies that were difficult to distinguish from the truth.

“Being anxious won’t help me regain my lost memories.”

“Hmmm. That is true…”

Peran didn’t say anything after that.

For a moment, their gazes met, and Lukas couldn’t help but feel bitter inside.

-Speaking politely.

-Constantly wary.

-The hint of suspicion in his voice.

These three things made Lukas realise the thickness of the wall that Peran had placed between them.

‘I see.’

At this point, this moment.

Peran was no longer his close friend.

‘…I’ll have to get used to that.’

He couldn’t let himself feel so depressed. Otherwise, if he was sad every time he encountered one of his past relationships, his mind would collapse before he could achieve his goal.

Lukas couldn’t help but think that his psyche had become as weak as his physique.

This was because the human emotions and characteristics that had been muted for a long time had been reawakened.

‘Since I regained the [weakness] that I’d lost.’

Nevertheless, that didn’t mean that he would show that weakness.

After all, the one who wished for a chance to start over was none other than himself.

* * *

Clatter.

Lukas sat in an empty corner of the luggage compartment. The sun had long since set, and the surroundings were pitch black. Perhaps because it was autumn, it became much colder after the sun went down.

It was dangerous to drive a carriage in the dark, so they would soon stop and prepare camp, perhaps after they left the flat plain they were currently traversing.

-Lukas’ body and mind were currently in a stable state.

He was leaning against the boxes in the compartment, contemplating what he would do in the future.

‘…what I have to do.

Now that he had returned to his homeworld, Lukas currently had three main goals.

The first was to regain his power as an Absolute. He still had work to finish, and to do so he had to return to Earth. In order to travel across universes, it would be necessary for him to regain his position as an Absolute once again. Because the mind and body of a mortal could not withstand interuniversal travel.

His second goal was connected to the first. Finding a way to get back to Earth. There were still a few points that needed to be figured out for this goal, so he would leave it for later.

The third goal was to somehow find the reason for Kasajin’s fall, something that could only be done in this universe.

None of those three goals were easy. If he rushed to solve any one of them, it was possible that he would end up failing all of them. So Lukas was aiming to solve all of them in the long term.

He would progress one step at a time.

At the beginning, it would be easy to get frustrated at the slow-paced progress, but in the long run, it would be the surest and quickest path.

First of all, he intended to leave the caravan at the city of Bailak, where he would stay for a while until he increased his ability to live on his own. He would also have to contemplate how to restore his collapsed mana room and also find some ways to protect himself while he couldn’t use magic.

Finding those ‘ways’ would also not be an easy task.

After all, Lukas’ current body was just like a normal human body. No, it was even less than that.

It would be difficult to train his body in a normal way because his arm and leg were practically disabled.

It was also not possible for him to use divine power.

Then what could he do?

Without mana or divine power,

What could Lukas do to protect himself or defeat someone?

This was a miserable situation. It would even be accurate to say that it was hopeless.

It was a situation where a being who was once an Absolute had collapsed, and they now had to find a way to defend themself against mortals.

…But, surprisingly, Lukas didn’t feel particularly gloomy.

‘Four more days.’

After that, they would arrive in Bailak and Lukas would be left on his own, so he needed to get as much information from Peran as possible before then.

About the Circle.

When he was on Earth, he’d gotten a glimpse of Ivan with the help of Arid’s power. And he remembered his expression of sadness and irritation.

Ivan looked deeply tired.

It seemed that he was struggling with another kind of situation other than the Demigods.

…Would Peran also know about Ivan’s ‘problem’?

‘Now that I think about it.’

In the past, Peran had been a member of the ‘Trowman Rings’, one of the student groups in Westroad Academy. And he hoped to one day join the ‘real’ Trowman Rings, instead of just a student group.

Perhaps it was due to this longing that Peran had never taken the orange ring off of his finger in the past.

‘When I saw him earlier, he didn’t have a ring.’

Peran’s fingers were naked.

“…”

Either he had changed his mind. Or he had another reason for taking it off.

Lukas had a strange feeling, but he knew that he would never know the answer by wondering on his own.

‘I’ll have to talk to Peran more tomorrow.’

When the situation reached this point, the memory loss sets became a hindrance instead. Because he couldn’t even get a hint about the Circle.

For the rest of the night, Lukas carefully planned the things he would talk about with Peran in the morning.

But the next day.

He realised that his night-long contemplation had been for nothing.

The reason was simple.

-Peran Jun disappeared as if he had evaporated.