Chapter 45 The Eight Disasters

"The Eight disasters;

The Dulhan Attack,

The Lizard Lord's Outbreak,

The Seven Deadly Sins Massacre,

The Wolf of the End,

Fall of the Desert Country,

The Basilisk's Stone Festival,

The Barbarian King's uprising, and lastly, the worst of them all;

The Ancient Demonic Dragon's Resurrection.

I have prevented the 'Seven deadly sins Massacre by unsealing Pride.

The game cutscenes showed that 'they' tried to get the other sins first but were all redirected to Pride.

That was natural, the other six all saw Pride as their leader and listened to her. If she didn't give the go-ahead, then the Massacre would not have happened.

The massacre that had casualties in the millions..."

He remembered the difference between the Pride in the game and Pride in reality and sighed.

'How did a beautiful woman turn to 'that'?'

In the game, Pride, along with the other sins looked like gigantic dragon bull-like beasts. They had wings on their backs and long horns, their heights were an average of 3.5 meters tall.

'Maybe it's some true form release thingy?'

He gave up thinking about it and decided to think about other things, namely the next disaster to prevent.

'Gotta be the Dullahans, huh?

I know Artemisia had a reward for me in the Lizard lord's lair but I'm not strong enough to take those guys yet.'

Evan thought about the Dullahans that were preparing to break out of the dungeon they were stuck in. It was a dungeon located in the northern part of the Great Western Empire.

Bultom City, in the territory of Duke Cheverton.

'The Duke of North and the Third of the Ten great swordsmen. I spoke to him during the founding ball so he would not be unfamiliar with me when I randomly appear in his territory by next year.'

Now then, one would wonder why someone even more powerful than Ralphie would be unable to defeat the Dullahans that were barely level 350.

The reason was simple;

He was held back somewhere else, by a far greater threat to Aidos.

'The Eight Finger of the Demonic Hand.'

The 'Demonic Hand' was an organization with ten leaders, all called the 'Fingers' of the Demonic Hand.

The one who was responsible for the 'Dullahan Attack', was the 'Eight Finger', he was also the one who made sure the Duke and his knights were unable to quell the original attack, letting it spread from Bultom City to other cities in the territory.

Within a few days, the undead monsters that knew no rest or sleep had massacred hundreds of thousands over multiple cities in the Cheverton territory.

Sadly, the news did not reach the capital fast as the traitors among Duke Cheverton's vassals prevented the information from going through.

As Evan was thinking about the names of the traitorous nobles, this time, Laurene walked back into the room and Evan offhandedly mentioned he was going to run away.

Naturally, her reaction was not the best.

"How on Aidos did you come to that conclusion?"

"After today's events, they are definitely gonna get me to stay at home a lot more. They might even stop me from levelling up until they figure out what my skill is.

The original plan was to make your dad increase the effort put into researching our mystic eyes but me suddenly collapsing messed that all up. I also seemed to have underestimated how much the current Royalty knew about the 'Seven Symbols'."

He jumped off his seat and walked towards Laurene as he continued.

"I'm going to have to get stronger quickly, and I have to prevent some shit from happening too.

Those things you don't know about since I couldn't tell you.

Or maybe...you can see them...?"

He picked up the paper with the disasters written on it from his desk and showed her before asking.

"What do you see there?"

"The Seven Deadly Sins Massacre...? What's this about?!"

"As I thought you can't see the rest, huh."

"Can't see the rest of what?"

"The other disasters I wrote on the page.

The 'Seven Deadly Sins Massacre' has already been prevented by my action of unsealing Pride, however, the others have not so that's probably why you can't see them."

Hearing his words, a frown crept up to Laurene's pretty face. This wasn't the first time Evan had asked her questions like this within the past seven months.

More often than not, it always ended with Laurene being unable to see or hear what he was either showing or telling her.

'Why can't I see it?!

He indeed wrote something on that paper but all I can see are 'The -Blank- Disasters' and 'The Seven Deadly Sins Massacre.'

I know he's not lying about there being other things as my skill has confirmed his words to be true. The issue is why I can't see it.

He said he knew these things because he was the 'Leader', but that's a lie. So, the reason I can't see them is not because I'm not the 'leader'.'

She gazed at the upper part of the paper after Evan placed it back on the desk, her eyes locking onto the words on the first line.

'The heading has a blank space in between, is that the number of disasters or something?'

Laurene almost began pulling at her hair due to stress, she was barely able to stop herself. However, Evan's next words instantly rekindled that dying desire.

"Tell your brother to watch out, he might get killed."

"Huh?! Why?!"

"Don't ask me, ask him, he's the one doing shady things."

"How do you know this?"

"The title of the 'Leader of The Seven Heroes' comes with extra information."

Of course, this was a lie.

Evan knew because the reason for the Great War quest in the game, was Laurene's Elder brother.

'I'd forgotten his name till I met him during the founding ball. He only showed up once during the game, after all.'

He was involved with the true masterminds behind the great war, the 'Demonic Hand'.

A group of demon worshippers.

They were one of the few groups who still possessed detailed records of the events of a thousand years ago.

'If anyone is gonna reduce the time before the seal breaks, it's definitely them.'

A thousand years ago, the seven heroes battled the higher-ups of the demonic hand before they were finally able to seal the dimensional rift, of course in the absence of the Demon king.

'This is probably what Artemisia meant when she said some people's actions might shorten the time I have.

Damn bastards, they were also behind most of the disasters too. Especially the 'Ancient demonic Dragon Resurrection'.'

He sighed as he thought of the group that would be one of his greatest enemies, oblivious of the fact that an executive of said group was currently at the bottom of the 'Graveyard of the Arrogant' screaming in anger due to the fact that Pride was not there anymore.

"I've been trying to ignore it but what's that little creature that has been flying around your head all this while?

It's too fast for me to appraise it."

Laurene asked, pointing at Kayla who had transformed into a birdlike monster and was playing catch with the other spirits.

"That's enough Kayla, return to normal now."

[Okay!]

Laurene was shocked as she heard the voice only for the birdlike monster to transform into a little girl of 20cm in height.

Appraising her she realised she was a great spirit of lightning, her eyes widening in even more shock at this.

'G-great Spirit?!'

At this point, Laurene's brain shut down and she decided to accept anything Evan threw at her, this was why she almost ended up agreeing to Evan's next words.

"Wanna come with me?"

"Oka-?!wait, no!"

"Tch...I could use a good mage for support."

"I'm happy that you praised me but one noble running away from home is gonna cause an uproar.

Two on the other hand, especially when one is the Princess, an Imperial family member, is gonna turn the nation upside down."

"True, your father would turn the country upside down just to find you so you coming with me would be a bad idea.

I also understand that just by leaving, I would be causing a lot of problems for the Dukedom. Thankfully, there aren't any who would dare to go up against the Blood Paladin's family, at least for now.

Though I won't be gone forever, I'd come to find you in about 3-4 years, maybe more...."

Evan nodded in affirmation and calmly disclosed the amount of time he was going to be away, Laurene just held her head and sighed in exasperation.

'Oh please!'

She decided to try her luck one last time.

"Can you not go? It's gonna cause a lot of problems if you do."

And naturally, lady luck was not on her side today.

"No, I have to.

The thing is, a lot of bullshit is gonna happen soon, and I need to prevent said bullshit from occurring.

A lot of questions would be raised if I tried all that while still here, especially now that your father has his eyes on me, so it's best I go alone.

I'm gonna leave a vague explanation of why I'd be going. I'm leaving tonight too."

[Don't try to stop master from leaving!]

The appearance of Kayla glaring at her with glowing eyes and lightning sparking around her body, made Laurene have mixed feelings.

'It's cute but if that lightning hits me, I might die! She's twice my level after all.'

"Ah, Laurene, can you get your dad to call off the search party after like a month or two?"

"Huh? Why and how?"

Evan took a seat on his bed and explained his plan to prevent the search party that would most likely be sent after him from catching him.

"They already know about our mystic eye crests; a lot more than we think they do.

What they don't know, is what the symbols mean.

So cut a deal with your dad, he'd definitely agree if it's you."

Laurene pondered on the pros and cons of the situation before asking Evan one last question.

"Your real reason for leaving, it's to prevent disasters on the scale of the 'Seven Deadly Sins' going on a massacre?

Something that would have caused millions of deaths..."

"Yeah."

"I see. Then you should have said that from the start, no need to threaten me."

As Laurene spoke, her gaze moved over to the great spirit glaring at her, resulting her heaving an exhausted sigh.

"That's just her, not me."

The Princess ignored Evan's words before getting up and speaking.

"Okay, I'd help you out."

"Really? Thanks."

Laurene didn't reply as she decided to leave, saying she didn't want to be around when the whole situation went wrong.

Evan told her that he'd send her messages periodically, but he didn't say how. He just said she'd figure out when he did.

After she left, Evan decided to do one last thing before leaving.

Most of the things he needed were already packed inside the space expansion bag he took from Ralphie, he had also gotten confirmation from Artemisia that there was no tracking magic on it.

'Can't get caught right after I leave now can I.'

Among them was his identification badge, something that was given to all members of every royal and noble family and was attuned to their magic powers from a young age.

Each badge contained a crest that would only light up when the legitimate owner poured magic power into it.

'Even though I'm running away, this would still be useful. Provided the Duke doesn't disown me.'

The head of each family had the authority to disable each badge and prevent it from responding even if the owner poured magic power into it. This was only done under certain circumstances like the owner's death or expulsion from the family.

The young hero took this with him, along with many other essentials he believed would be useful.