Becoming the Terminally-Ill Villain Who Torments His Disciples - Chapter 86.1
A long silence quickly settled around them.
It was because they couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed with their own eyes, and also because they were swallowing their shock to avoid getting caught.
“Wh-what… what is that…?”
Eli stammered in confusion, but only for a moment. Typhon, who had been slowly scanning the ground, picked up a book that had been left lying nearby.
Then, he began to mutter something.
“What’s he saying?”
The moment the scout muttered, a beast’s cry echoed from the devastated garden.
Startled, they turned their gaze, and there—
A monster was appearing, cutting through the air.
“Gah…!”
In a panic, someone sucked in their breath. Typhon’s gaze shifted to the people watching the scene from the window.
Eli, who quickly hid himself, repeated what he had just seen in his head.
“The Duke of Esteban… he’s summoning a monster…?”
Could it be… he’s trying to summon a demon?
As that thought crossed his mind, the things he hadn’t been able to understand until now suddenly began to make sense.
The exponentially growing number of monsters.
The dark mass quivering on the ground.
The people who disappeared as if their lives were burned up in an instant.
They were all connected to something the Duke of Doberman had told him when he was very young—
About the summoning of demons.
“W-we have to go…”
Eli, murmuring to himself, tapped the stunned scout’s shoulder. They had to get out of here right now. He had to reach the Imperial Palace and report everything.
As they hurried to leave, a monster began to follow behind them.
“Damn it…!”
Eli reached for the weapon at his waist, but the scout grabbed his arm.
“Go ahead. If we stay together, we’ll both die.”
“…What?”
“You’re going to report this, right? To someone high up?”
Eli held his breath for a moment when he saw the certainty in those brown eyes.
It felt as if the scout had known who he was all along but pretended otherwise. As if he knew exactly where Eli had to go now.
That gaze, full of trust, made Eli part his lips to speak. At the same time, doubt hung in his chest like a stubborn shadow—
‘Can I really do this?’
‘What if I mess up along the way? There must be more monsters ahead.’
Just as countless thoughts started to eat away at his resolve, the scout spoke again.
“The path ahead is rough, so focus on staying hidden. I’ll distract them and run in another direction. So…”
“…”
“Let’s meet again. Alive.”
With those words, the scout ran off into the brush, dragging the monster along with him as he let out a fierce scream.
On the spot where Eli stood, filled with doubt and hesitation, a heavy sense of responsibility settled in.
“Ha…!”
Eli clenched his fist as he stared blankly in the direction the scout had disappeared.
Always timid, always hiding—
But now, with his ash-gray eyes shining, he murmured,
“This much… I can do.”
He didn’t know how to ride in clean clothes and report things with formality and precision.
But he knew how to drag his worn-out shoes, throw in his unwashed, grimy body—
He knew how to do that all too well now.
Step.
Eli threw himself into the brush, his stride lighter than ever.
Go.
Deliver the message.
And save them.
Cielo, who could be anywhere, doing anything at this very moment.
The empire that had begun to fall slowly into the hands of the Duke of Esteban.
With the words and actions of the long-condemned prodigal son,
He would save them.
***
“…Something feels off.”
Having arrived at the Esteban estate, Cielo stepped down from the carriage and looked up.
Just a few days ago, the place hadn’t felt this eerie.
And yet now, there was a foul energy lingering all around the estate.
He swallowed dryly and pushed open the fence. As he entered, he found the inside in far worse condition than expected.
The tree Oscar had struck with lightning was still left broken and unattended.
The flowers and grass scorched by spreading flames had turned the estate into something closer to a haunted house.
There were even large, sunken footprints in the garden—
As if a monster had stormed the place.
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