The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - LLD Chapter 73: Question (Part 1)

The Chosen One.

On the surface, it refers to someone chosen or designated to fulfill a specific purpose or role.

One burdened with destiny and duty, regardless of their own will.

Avarus didn’t know more than that.

All Avarus knew was that Serapia was A Chosen One.
I suspected he might be lying and hit him with Dragon Rage Explosion [E] a couple of times, but the result was the same.

He only repeated the same line: “It was the order of the cult.”
And the cult he referred to was the Worshippers of the Corrupted Soul—in other words, the Dark Merchant Guild.

Avarus had merely followed the Dark Merchant Guild’s orders to manufacture the Elixir of Infinity.

But that was fine.
Because I knew.
The role assigned to Serapia—

She was to become the Monarch of Frost.

What else could it be?
Even the penalty from the emergency quest pointed to it. That alone made it certain.

In other words, the Dark Merchant Guild deliberately approached Serapia to turn her into the Monarch of Frost.

Then—
One question arises.

If turning Serapia into the Monarch of Frost was the directive of the Dark Merchant Guild—

Was that order from the Monarch of the Abyss, or from the Emperor?

Of course, the god that the Dark Merchant Guild worships is the Monarch of the Abyss.
But the one he serves is none other than the Emperor.

In other words, the Emperor could also issue orders to the Dark Merchant Guild, alongside the Monarch of the Abyss.
And if this order came from the Emperor—

Why didn’t the Emperor step in directly?

This was about recruiting the Monarch of Frost—the greatest threat to the Allied Forces and the greatest contributor to the Imperial Army.

Was it because Serapia is a high-ranking noble, a Countess?
Perhaps he feared the Battenberg Royal Family might intervene?

That’s possible, but—

Hmm.

That possibility seemed slim.
After all, the Emperor is the Emperor of the Empire.
The single most powerful figure on the continent—an absolute authority.

The Battenberg Kingdom should be the one wary of the Emperor, not the other way around.

Or maybe… at that point in time, he didn’t fully understand Serapia’s power?

Then it makes sense why he didn’t act personally.
I, who possess future knowledge, already knew Serapia would become the Monarch of Frost—but the Emperor wouldn’t.

If he only saw her as a “useful pawn,”
then his lack of direct involvement was somewhat understandable—

But then, why call her A Chosen One?

That’s what bothered me.
It sounded like he knew everything about her.

The Chosen One.

There must be something I don’t know.

It didn’t seem like it referred only to the Monarch of Frost. There had to be more to it.

Now that I think about it, even in my past life, information related to the Monarch of Frost was extremely limited.
The Empire—especially the Emperor—kept everything about the Monarch of Frost tightly under wraps.

Which made it all the more strange that he hadn’t intervened personally.
That led me to a further thought—

Could this be related to Ian’s regret?

Ian’s regret.
It might be connected to all of this.

Ian, that bastard. If you know something, then just say it clearly for once.

Just wait until I meet him again.
Now that I’ve grown tremendously, I was fully prepared to give him a piece of my mind.

But then again, I doubt Ian kept silent on purpose.
He probably didn’t know either.

He might’ve just had a vague feeling, when fighting the Monarch of Frost, that something else was at play.

Either way, I needed to figure out the true meaning behind This Chosen One business.

…Guess I’m not getting a quest about it, huh.

I had been hoping, just a little.

But quests only provide direction, not answers.
And I already had my direction.

To trace Ian’s footsteps.
To uncover the true meaning of the Predestined One.

The next destination that could resolve everything was practically decided.

Meanwhile

Kai, who had accompanied Adrian, didn’t help in collecting all the wealth from the secret vault.
To be exact, he couldn’t, since Adrian gathered it all on his own.

As they emerged from the underground chamber—

Sunlight streamed through the collapsed mansion ceiling, casting a faint glow through the dust-filled air.

It seemed morning had arrived.

The pale but bright sunlight revealed the ruins of the mansion more clearly.

Shattered doors and destroyed furniture.
Scorched marks and lingering smoke where Avarus’s lightning magic had passed.

Each step down the ruined corridor crunched over shattered pieces of magic circles.

A strange stillness.

As they exited the ruined corridor—

They were greeted by the demolished front gate of the mansion, along with the bloodied bodies of countless guards strewn across the ground.

The same front gate Adrian had obliterated at the start of the ambush.
He’d destroyed it so thoroughly that a cool early-morning breeze now blew freely through it.

Just as they were about to leave the mansion grounds and return to the County—

“Wait.”

Adrian suddenly stopped Kai.
At his call, Kai halted in his tracks.

When he turned—

Adrian approached the fallen guards, reached out his hand, and shooop!
Like a pile of gold coins vanishing, the guards’ bodies were sucked away and disappeared.

Of course, Kai knew they weren’t human—they were homunculi.
So he wasn’t exactly shocked, but—

“……”

He couldn’t hide his speechless expression.

Why was Adrian collecting them?
At first glance, it looked like he was just erasing evidence, but that wasn’t it.

The real reason was that the magical components used in creating homunculi could be dismantled and sold for a high price.

Adrian was sweeping up every last coin-worthy item, leaving nothing behind.

“……”

Kai was at a loss for words at this fanatical pragmatism.

Adrian quickly retrieved all the homunculi corpses.
Then, as if he wasn’t finished yet, he resumed walking again.

They followed Adrian to none other than a village in the Viscountcy.

“This is…”

All of the residents stood frozen like puppets whose magical strings had been cut.

Translatin_Otaku

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