SIWALL Ch 46

That day, at noon, after Elliot had clambered down the stairs flailing like a newborn puppy, Elliot glared fiercely at Generwin.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Meaning of what?”

Generwin asked with a straight face. Smiling with an oily, slick expression, he swept his side hair back with his right hand. Objectively, the appearance was handsome and mature, but that only made it look all the more frivolous and pathetic. Elliot clicked his tongue briefly.

“Trying to rub me the wrong way in front of Elliot Brown. You’d better stop.”

Elliot gave a generous warning. However, Generwin merely chuckled as if amused and gazed toward the stairway where Elliot had vanished.

“Isn’t the ghostwriter really funny? I swear, I just go crazy wanting to tease him every time I see him.”

That much was true for Elliot as well. Generwin seemed completely unaware that the picture-perfect smile he made when flustered or surprised, his minutely trembling pupils, and his somehow formulaic, ridiculous, and ticklish way of speaking were precisely what made Elliot want to break him down even more.

However, feeling precisely the same emotions that Generwin felt made him feel intensely, inexplicably unpleasant.

“Do not tease Elliot Brown.”

He wanted teasing Elliot to be something only he could do. Yet that thought felt a bit childish, so Elliot swallowed his remaining words.

Without even waiting for Generwin’s reply, he turned around and went down the stairs. He intended to check on Elliot’s room, having suddenly bolted down. His legs had looked painful earlier, so he thought it might be good to teach him some ways to effectively circulate his body’s blood flow.

And so, he knocked on Elliot’s door. However, a long time passed, and Elliot did not come out.

Did he go somewhere else?

Just as Elliot was about to turn back with that thought, a strange sound caught his ears. It was the sound of a cat crying, as if whimpering and groaning in distress.

Where on earth could Elliot Brown have gone without even looking after the cat? It cried with such desperation that Elliot felt he wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt if he didn’t go inside right this second and take care of that cat.

He opened the door and slowly stepped into the room. If it refused to calm down, he could simply raise his aura just a bit and crush the cat’s high spirits.

Yet the moment he opened the door, bloodstains printed on the carpet came into view. The stench of blood, which hadn’t been present before opening the door, also rushed up harshly. The moment he registered that, it felt as though someone had fastened a giant anchor to his heart. It was a very familiar emotion.

Terror.

Was that blood Elliot Brown’s blood? Where had Elliot Brown gone? Could it be…

“Elliot Brown!”

Elliot shouted urgently toward the interior of the room. However, nobody responded except for the black cat, which came running in a patter of small steps toward Elliot as if aggrieved.

Elliot’s gaze turned razor-sharp. He dropped to one knee and traced the bloodstains on the carpet with his fingertips. The blood was still damp and warm. A very faint aura of magic remained right where the bloodstains were. The culprit had unquestionably used a teleportation scroll.

Elliot’s expression hardened.

“How dare…”

With a restless gait unlike his usual self, he strode out of Elliot’s room. A black cat darted out through the crack in the door, but Elliot had no leisure to mind that.

“Luor. Summon a wizard. We need to use tracking magic.”

Finding and bringing a wizard, preparing the tracking magic, and activating it would take quite a bit of time. Please let Elliot Brown be safely alive until then. Without realizing it, Elliot clenched his fists tightly. Nail marks that wouldn’t fade for a while were left in his palms.

∞ ∞ ∞

At the end of the tracking magic lay Saltus Forest. Even before Luor or the wizard could stop him, Elliot tore a movement scroll and teleported straight to Saltus Forest.

The forest was composed of dense, massive trees and radiated a very thick scent of nature. And in a corner of that forest, in a clearing crudely chopped out of the trees, sat a barn. It was a rotting, small barn.

The barn door was half-open, and the shadows of people moving inside were very faintly visible. With the tall trees growing far too thick for even the moonlight to pierce through, checking their faces was a stretch even for Elliot’s eyesight.

Yet was there really any need to check? Elliot dashed toward the barn at a speed rivaling teleportation. From inside the door, a familiar voice was leaking out.

“Haha, how cute. I can see why His Grace the Grand Duke dotes on you.”

It was the voice of Junior Marquis Tulion, that bastard son of a bitch. And those words were sheer nonsense dared against Elliot Brown.

Elliot took a single deep breath to keep from smashing through the barn right then and there and slitting the Junior Marquis’s throat. Then he took a step forward.

“Is that so? Do you see it?”

“Grand… Duke?”

Theseus Tulion stared at Elliot in astonishment. Inside the barn, the stench of blood was overwhelming. Elliot let out a dry huff of laughter upon seeing the masked man’s severed head lying on the floor.

“At least it leaves one less neck for me to cut.”

With that, Elliot drew his sword.

“There’s a misunderstanding here. My retainer mistakenly kidnapped this servant, so I was in the midst of punishing him.”

Theseus said smoothly. He looked as relaxed as someone who truly hadn’t committed any sin.

Meanwhile, Elliot kneeling on the floor… found that Theseus terrifying. The corpse with its head and body severed on the floor was terrifying, and Elliot standing there with his sword drawn just like Theseus was also terrifying. Everything was horrifyingly, intensely terrifying.

Why on earth do people in this world kill each other so casually? Nobles can kill commoners or lowborns at will, frame them, and treat them however they like. They are the exact same humans. Possessing the exact same flesh, blood, and bones, yet how could they.

For the very first time since possessing this body, Elliot desperately wished to return to the world he originally came from. To go back to where he used to be…

To go back…

Yet what difference was there between that world and this one?

Elliot’s face turned deathly pale. It felt as though his breath were being cut off. A high-pitched ringing pierced his ears. The tips of his hands, feet, and lips suddenly began to tingle and tremble. His vision turned blindingly yellow, then washed in blue.

At that moment, as if a torrential downpour were drenching a desert, a certain voice pulled Elliot back from the brink.

“Elliot Brown!”

“Wh-, h-huk, Grand Duke…”

Elliot covered Elliot’s nose and mouth with one hand, leaving only a tiny margin of breathing space.

“Breathe slowly. Inhale short and exhale long.”

“Huk… Huk…”

“Look into my eyes.”

Elliot did as he was told and locked eyes with Elliot. 연회색 연회색 (soft greyish) eyes tinged with a blue hue were looking at Elliot from the dark, containing a deep, a very deep understanding.

“Breathe slowly inside my hand. It’s alright.”

It was a strange thing. Though his nose and mouth were blocked by a hand and the space afforded to Elliot was terribly small, inside that palm Elliot was able to breathe more comfortably than ever before. The short inhales and long exhales gradually fell into rhythm and turned stable.

Yet the trembling of Elliot’s body persisted. Though his breathing had returned to normal, he straightaway lost consciousness.

Elliot looked down at the limp Elliot for a moment, then scooped him up into his arms and said,

“You’d better put that sword down, Junior Marquis Tulion.”

Elliot had dropped his sword to the floor in his haste to rush to Elliot. And right then, Theseus behind Elliot did not let that moment slip. Theseus quietly picked up his sword and crept stealthily toward Elliot’s back.

“My, my, they really aren’t human, these Sword Masters. It’s as if you even have eyes on the back of your head. How unfair.”

“Unfair is not a word you use in a moment like that.”

Elliot lifted Elliot up in his arms and stood straight. He turned back to look at Theseus with eyes devoid of any lingering emotion.

“Whether you’re a Junior Marquis or a Marquis, I can kill you whenever I please. Killing you and taking care of the aftermath is an easy task for me.”

“I am well aware, Your Grace.”

“However, I don’t wish to see any more blood in front of Elliot Brown, so I will take my leave for today.”

At Elliot’s words, Theseus bowed his head and offered a theatrical bow.

“I am deeply grateful for your vast, ocean-like grace.”

“It’s too early to be grateful. I’m only withdrawing for today. I haven’t forgiven you. Before long, you’ll be begging me to kill you.”

Elliot delivered the threat without so much as blinking an eye. However, Theseus was no pushover either. Inhaling the reek of blood, he smiled brightly.

“Just return my younger brother to me. Then I will gladly accept any punishment whatsoever.”

Desire was festering and writhing within his eyes. Noticing that, Elliot let out a snort. A revolting bastard.

“Hearing those words makes me suddenly want to take Generwin Tulion under my wing.”

“Your Grace.”

A crack formed across Theseus’s face.

“Generwin cannot possibly be to Your Grace’s taste.”

“True, he isn’t. But looking at your gloomy, sinister face, I wonder if taste even matters at all.”

Now that he thought about it, Generwin Tulion was a pitiful fellow, too. To have someone like this for an older brother.

Elliot felt as though he finally understood why Elliot Brown treated Generwin Tulion so well. Elliot Brown had known, too. While he surely hadn’t known the full extent of it, for whatever reason he must have felt sympathy and pity for the second son of the Tulion family, and thus…

Just as he had done for Elliot, he had treated Generwin kindly as well.

Thinking up to that point, Elliot felt his mood sour all over again. Anyway, now was not the time to be indulging in such jealousy—no, such thoughts. He tore yet another movement scroll and vanished in a flash.