< 132. Do Not Wish for Peace, It Is Not for You (1) >
*
Fernandez had been riding towards the border of the Dane Kingdom for a fortnight now, even skipping the regular reports he was supposed to send to the Church.
“Cough, cough!”
For most of these days, he had slept sparingly and replaced most of his meals with dry rations, pushing himself relentlessly.
The Church did not send pursuers. He had already sent a message to his subordinates that he was chasing a heretic due to an urgent situation. Fortunately, thanks to his activities over the past three years, the Church did not doubt him.
There was no need to doubt him. After all, if he were truly the Servant of the Demon, he would never have committed such acts. The demonic forces had been greatly diminished compared to any previous moment.
Thanks to that, it was a peaceful time. Perhaps the calm before the storm. Fernandez looked around at the scenery as he urged his horse forward.
The Widow’s Coast sparkled with beautiful water scales under the winter sunlight.
This entire coastline would be engulfed in flames within a few years. Although the Church seemed to be preparing something, it wouldn’t be enough.
Though somewhat overshadowed by Karadskar’s fame, the northerners led by the Black Erik had burned and devastated every kingdom near the northern coastline.
Karadskar had Kirhas as a rival, but Erik had no such opponent.
The Black Erik, his halting of the invasion was nothing short of a miracle. While the courage and strategy of Vicente II and the valiant efforts of the knights of the Eastern Kingdom Alliance played a part, the biggest reason was the fever he caught during the southern campaign.
When that mighty warrior fell ill and collapsed within five days, the numerous northern tribes bound by his charisma scattered and returned home. This was the full story of the Great Northern Invasion.
Fernandez turned his horse towards the lighthouse of the City of the Awakened Dragon, visible through the distant sea fog. This city too would be trampled and burned by war. So before that, he had to confirm.
The anxiety gnawing at his heart. His heartbeat sounded more intense than ever.
*
The City of the Awakened Dragon, a city of sailors. This massive port city had remained a city of sailors through the centuries, even as its rulers changed continuously. Humans, elves, vampires, and now humans again.
-Clang! Clang!
In the distance, the sound of sailors hammering on the ship’s deck could be heard. Shouts, laughter, and rough, dull explosions followed. Fernandez tightened his robe and headed from the city’s entrance to the bustling streets, and then to the slums at the corner.
-Bark!
An old dog barked noisily and ran around. It was a lively city. Having become the center of the northeastern triangular trade, this city was a key trade route between Phaeirn’s Merlin Port and the Empire’s northern Paramarin.
Fernandez could feel a strong vitality among the passing sailors, merchants, and citizens.
Transferred from Franzrit to the Dane Kingdom, this city was brimming with the vitality of life wherever one looked.
It was a satisfying sight. The last memory he had of this city was as a vampire stronghold, and before that, the chessboard of the mad Elven King.
But it wasn’t the scenery he longed for. Fernandez was searching for a more sticky and sinister place.
One that remained vivid in his memory, whose memory had been extracted. The scar in his mind.
Fernandez walked the path he had seen in his dreams. To the gloomy alley leading to the underground waterways, where vampires and dark mages plotted to resurrect a dragon, and the Elven King schemed to use it.
He wished it was all a dream. Or perhaps, he wished this moment was the dream. The woman he had lost in his memory was not someone who should disappear like this.
-Thump.
His heart raced with an agitation that was clearly not his own. Fernandez took a deep breath, trying to control his emotions.
‘I can’t even remember who she is, so it’s irrational for my heart to race.’
He bit his lip. These weren’t his emotions. Even if they were, emotions are based on memory and reactivity. Thus, emotions from a moment he couldn’t remember shouldn’t be his.
Was it a dream? Her laughter? Or was this moment the dream? What do I wish to be true? In my hands, just a little further, lies the happiness I’ve longed for all my life.
*
There were no vampire attacks or threats from elf remnants. The underground waterways were filled only with occasional beggars with cloudy eyes, noisy rats scurrying underfoot, and sticky sewage swirling around.
It was a dark and damp waterway. Due to poor maintenance, stagnant filth dripped from the stone walls here and there. Fernandez lit a flame in one hand and walked forward.
Deeper underground. When he reached the deep waterway where tattered skeletons of unknown death were scattered, the cavity in his memory appeared.
“Huh…”
It was a cavity with hastily cleared experimental tools and traces of massive destruction.
The damp moss on the walls glistened under an unknown light source. He slowly walked towards the destroyed gate in the center.
A shattered stone gate came into view. Leading further down…
He remembered. It was the path he took down, excited by the fact that there were dragon remains, forcibly breaking the seal locked by the vampire.
‘If that memory is correct, Guimerin clashed with the dragon.’
After clashing with the dragon, the elves lost their control over Infermur and the northeastern sea due to Franzrit, who took advantage of the gap. But that was just an assumption. Until he confirmed it himself.
-Tak.
A piece of stone caught under his foot rolled down the stairs leading underground. The sound of gravel rolling echoed for a long time. Below, he felt as if the boundary between dream and reality was slowly crumbling.
‘Sound and light…’
Kadan’s trial came to mind. An illusion magic that cleverly used sound and light. Just like back then, his sense of reality was slowly dulling.
The only things left to him were his roughly beating heart and the magic circuit where magic was clearly squirming.
One step, he stepped towards the underground passage.
*
He remembered the cold and delicate fingers. The hand that wrapped around his rough hand, infusing strength beneath it.
It was the moment when warm magic flowed through his empty magic circuit, gently supporting him. Interlacing fingers with his falling hand, lifting it again and giving strength—
[You just lead. I will follow.]
And so, he remembered the moment when the last beastman was finally completed, and the power of the gods pulsed beneath his hand. Here, on the sea of Infermur City. On the Guimerin King’s flagship.
So softly, as if time had stopped. Warmly. The blue eyes looking down at him—
*
Memories began to return, fitting together like puzzle pieces between the evaporated memories and the empty scar in his brain. The more steps he took, the clearer her outline became.
-Thud.
His steps gained strength. It was a brisk pace that was hard to believe belonged to a middle-aged man who had been running all night. Fernandez’s half-gray hair grew, and vitality returned to his eyes, clouded by fatigue and confusion.
-Thud.
With each step, like shedding layers of time. As if time was slipping by!
*
The playful trajectory of the sword lightly deflected his heavy strike. At that moment, he remembered her smiling face, supporting his lost balance with one arm.
Under the clear sky, perhaps in the training ground of the Inquisition Office. Among countless brothers, she shone brightly as she discussed swordsmanship.
“Do not be consumed by your potential. Always aim higher, have a broader perspective. Never stop. Isn’t that what you humans are?”
Her soft voice flowed quietly under the late summer sky, and for a moment, a childlike mischief appeared in her eyes, looking like a noble or a mysterious fairy.
“Dragons are carnivores.”
She liked venison. Personally, venison was tough and not very tasty. Fernandez wasn’t skilled in cooking, but if possible, he wanted to show her the advanced modern cuisine compared to ancient times.
She loved food.
*
As his memories became clearer, he thought of her tomb beyond the underground. The pulse in his chest grew fiercer. It was King Dane’s emotions. Now he could clearly feel the sensation squirming beneath his heart.
He felt the legacy of King Dane melting and flowing within his soul. It might be an illusion, or his delusion. But even in such doubt, his heart beat wildly.
-Thud.
A huge cliff was beneath his feet. How did he get down last time? He looked for a railing. The railing was old, rusted, and broken.
‘Can I do it?’
Looking at his scar-covered hand, he paused for a moment. Strangely, his body was overflowing with strength. His vision was clear, and even the sound of distant falling water droplets was vivid.
‘I can do it.’
He soon lowered himself down the cliff. Crack, thud. His fingers gripped the hard crevices of the cliff. Slippery and steep, but if he fell, it would be hard to survive—
His life was still expendable,
And he never settled for reality.
*
On horseback, looking down at him, the fingers stroking the rain-soaked mane were faint. Her damp hair shone brilliantly even in the damp sunlight.
Her blue eyes looked down at him, warmly rounded.
“Ah, Fernandez. We are drifters. We have come a long way, leaving our own times.”
What did he say then? He didn’t answer her. It was evasion. A moment when silence replaced denial. Knowing her favor, yet exploiting it. Feigned ignorance.
It was a childish masquerade. Fernandez knew at that moment that she had seen beneath his mask. She smiled softly then.
“Fortunately, you have a lighthouse.”
“I wish the same for you.”
Even his coldly chilled heart, not because of King Dane’s soul. Even his heart could leap for a moment. Smiling like that, she said with the sunlight on her back.
“It’s already there.”
Was that me? Was that moment really a dream? Is this a dream?
Fernandez looked at his hands, scratched and cut by the rocks, soaked in blood. The solid sensation of the ground was too real to be considered a dream or illusion.
Was he hoping it was a dream? Not wanting to forget? Like a teenage boy feeling affection for a woman in a dream? He had a happy, peaceful, and perfect future. Could he dare let this go?
Even after climbing down this high cliff barehanded, his arms and legs were still overflowing with strength. It was strange. The strength and youth that a middle-aged man who had stayed up all night without a moment’s rest shouldn’t have.
He felt his muscles tightening. He slowly wiped his palms on his pants. The wounds were gone.
His eyes shone sharply. The fragmented memories were assembling like a puzzle in his mind. The empty cavity, numerous destruction marks, surging magic, and ahead—
Beyond the fog covered by the flow of magic. Towards the truth.
![[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return](https://i3.wp.com/novelhitam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TS-Obsessed-Gamer-The-Ultimate-Return2.png?resize=85,105 "[TS] Obsessed Gamer: The Ultimate Return")
