~CHAPTER 20~
“Jahar! Jahar!”
Hurrying my steps, I brought Latia back home.
As soon as I ran into the house, I rushed through every corner looking for Jahar.
First floor—nothing.
Second floor… also nothing.
Where did he go?
I even searched the rooms on the third floor, but Jahar was nowhere to be found.
Maybe he went out because there was nothing to eat in the house?
Come to think of it, when I first met him, he was drunk.
Maybe he went out to drink again.
Should I go out and check the taverns? That’s so inefficient though. I don’t even know which one to start with…
I needed to find out who sold that egg to Jahar as soon as possible.
I bit my lip, growing anxious.
Crash! Thud!
A loud noise echoed, followed by a heavy thump, as if something had fallen.
…Jahar? Or a thief?
The sound came from the basement.
There’s a basement in this mansion?
It’s not like Sian would have hidden it from me. If anything, he probably knows less about this place than I do.
But Jahar… why didn’t he ever mention it?
Even when we were picking rooms or getting a short tour of the mansion, he never said a word about a basement.
So all that clumsy behavior he’s shown until now—was it all an act?
Yeah, when I think about it, there have been more than a few suspicious things.
He even hid a monster egg and raised it. And he thought it was a Minotaur’s egg of all things.
Is he planning to destroy the human realm?
When humans gain power without conviction, they easily fall into corruption. Maybe Jahar is that kind of man.
A single Minotaur might not be enough to wipe out the human realm, but destroying a village? Easily.
Who knows—if a mage like Jahar were to enhance the Minotaur with his magic…
He could probably wipe out an entire city.
Could I stop him?
I don’t have any power right now.
If only I had my magic, no matter what he was plotting, I could stop him with ease.
“Serena?”
“Let’s go.”
I held Latia’s hand tightly.
If Latia were really just a child, I would have left her behind, but I already knew the truth—she was Phoenix, a high-ranking spirit of fire.
Latia would be a great help to me.
Maybe even more than I could help myself.
To prove it, she immediately found the way to the basement, which I hadn’t even sensed existed.
She grabbed a small groove in what looked like an ordinary wooden floor and lifted it—revealing stairs leading downward.
When I asked how she knew, she simply answered,
“The wind is blowing! I like the wind.”
Such an innocent reply.
Maybe that’s a spirit thing—they’re far more sensitive to such things than humans.
As for me, a demon… well, there’s no point comparing.
If Jahar’s down here… and if he’s really planning something dangerous…
Could I stop him?
I swallowed hard and started down the stairs.
“Ah—Serena? You’re already here?”
There he was—his face flushed red, the wide basement floor covered with books and research materials, and…
“Wait, it’s not what it looks like… Serena? Serena?”
…a few empty bottles, rolling on the floor and spilling their leftover contents.
“Ugh, the smell!”
Latia groaned, covering her nose, while Jahar waved his hands frantically in front of me, realizing that cleaning up the mess should probably come first.
He snapped his fingers, and the bottles lifted off the ground.
Using magic, he quickly straightened up the mess that had been scattered across the floor.
Though magic doesn’t seem to perfectly restore the things that got soaked.
I thought he’d just mash everything together, but no—apparently not.
He even sorted out the papers stained red by the spilled wine, stacking them neatly on his desk.
…What was I even worrying about?
The thoughts I’d had before coming down here had been deadly serious.
But seeing that idiot drunk face again made them all seem ridiculous.
I really was overthinking it.
Worrying about someone rolling around drunk in his basement… what was I thinking.
As I blankly watched the papers floating neatly back into place, something caught my eye.
“…!”
I gasped and instinctively reached out, catching one of the papers midair.
It was soaked in wine and stained crimson, but the bits of ink that hadn’t run off were enough to make it worth reading.
“S-Serena?”
“This…”
Jahar called my name, startled by my sudden reaction, but I ignored him and began to read, entranced.
“All gods are children of the World Tree, and the World Tree loves all existence…”
I focused only on the legible parts.
“Even the gods have not been granted authority to interfere with the timeline.”
“The only being capable of altering the flow of time is the World Tree itself. All others must live according to the natural order…”
Below that seemed to be more mythological details, but I didn’t care about those.
There was only one line that mattered.
‘The only being capable of interfering with the timeline is the World Tree itself.’
If that’s true, then meeting the World Tree might be the key to breaking this endless cycle of regression.
It felt like seeing a ray of light after an eternity in darkness.
After living through twelve lifetimes, I couldn’t remember the last time I felt hope like this.
But then again…
What if the World Tree isn’t friendly to me?
I looked down again and read another line.
“The World Tree loves all existence.”
What a blatant lie.
I bit my lower lip.
Even those so-called merciful gods never loved demons. To them, our lives are worth less than worms crawling on the ground.
And yet, the parent of those gods supposedly loves us?
It’s hard to believe.
But still—if there’s even the slightest hope that I can escape this cursed loop…
Then I…
“Serena!”
Someone shouted my name and grabbed my shoulders.
My wandering mind snapped back to reality.
“Jahar…”
His face had regained most of its color, though he still reeked of alcohol.
“Are you okay? I’ve been calling you, but you weren’t answering. And… who’s that?”
He pointed at Latia.
I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten something this important.
As soon as his hand left my shoulder, I grabbed his instead.
“Who is it?”
“Huh? Wh-what?”
“The person who sold you the spirit’s egg—claiming it was a Minotaur’s. Who was it?!”
“W-what? A spirit’s egg?”
“Latia was born from the egg you mistook for a Minotaur’s. She’s a spirit!”
Even as I shook him, his face was filled with confusion.
“She’s Latia? Wait, Latia’s a spirit?”
“Yep!”
It wasn’t me who answered his disbelieving tone—it was Latia, smiling brightly as she replied in my place.
Jahar blinked at her for a moment, then quickly brushed off my grip and walked over to her.
His eyes shone with a light I’d never seen before.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a sinister glint.
It was greedy, yes—but not for wealth or power. Something else entirely.
I don’t know exactly what kind of greed that is, but…
Anyway, no matter how foolish Jahar may act, he’s still a large man.
Yet even under his intense gaze, Latia didn’t flinch at all.
She simply smiled up at him with that innocent, childlike grin.
“What’s wrong, Jahar? You didn’t notice even though you gave me your magic?”
“How could I have known… If I did, I would’ve fed you holy power instead of my magic.”
He muttered with regret, his voice unusually serious—one I’d never heard from him before.
A brief silence followed before he spoke again.
