OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 259: BURN!

Chapter 259: BURN!

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All three people in the room remained quiet.

Ragnar's last words echoed in their minds, each for a different reason.

Lyra was scared of how Emir would react to such words, believing that his paranoia might take over.

Ragnar himself was scared too, terrified of the off chance that Emir would lash out at him. Emir, the man in question, was calm, however.

He only looked at Ragnar with pity.

"Rag... Tell me, what happened?"

Ragnar's head bounced up in surprise...

Out of all things, he didn't expect Emir's reaction to be that of curiosity disguised as pity.

A chuckle soon escaped him.

But of course... it was just that.

Emir was no ordinary man who could be threatened with falling into self-doubt.

After all, he had already passed this test twice and graduated with flying colors.

"And just know, Ly made sure that we weren't being spied on since the start."

Emir sat back down on his office chair and chugged down a glass of whiskey while pouring himself another one right after.

"Heh... sure, brother."

Both Lyra and Ragnar sighed in relief, as they saw how composed Emir truly was.

"Ly, you can go back now; thanks for coming."

Lyra smiled and waved him goodbye while her hologram disappeared.

"Of course, love you, my prince."

Emir nodded and gestured for Ragnar to talk.

"...Sure, so my AI was some warm old man, like the mentor type, you know?"

Puff...

"Yeah."

"Anyways, he helped me get out of my rut and plan for my revenge."

"At the start, everything went smoothly; I learned about the real world, asked many questions about my path, and got much stronger as time passed..."

"But then I noticed some inconsistencies in whatever he said."

"No matter what I asked, he constantly dodged the issue, and I only realized how bad my situation was when it was too late."

"But before anything happened, the contingency plan I had in place went into motion."

"I was already betrayed once, so I wasn't about to get betrayed again."

"Silent, someone you probably know..."

Puff...

"I do."

"Yeah, well, he helped me and secretly told me the truth."

"The ruin they were about to send me into was a death sentence for both Earth and me..."

Puff...

"So you begged him?"

"I ain't proud of it, but I did... There was nothing else I could do; my every move was watched, and I couldn't even breathe without them knowing."

"If I tried anything, I would've simply died before I could even crawl."

Puff...

"I see..."

"Yeah, so my... plan worked, and he sent me out of their range."

"I walked through hundreds of portals, maybe even thousands until I finally reached my destination..."

"The point where I could hear him no more."

"He fully expected me to die, but he still gave me a simple task for our transaction to be considered complete."

Puff...

"Which is?"

Ragnar let out a sigh, pushing away the forming smoke.

"...I had to breathe."

'How ironic.'

"He tasked me to breathe... to survive."

Ragnar took a puff of his cigar while letting out a chuckle.

"That AI manager took pity on me."

Puff...

"Hm-hm."

"Anyways, I had my augmented suit and everything, so I was ready to survive the unknown."

"I was sure that Silent would complete his end of the deal, faking my suicide and all that-"

"How did he do it?"

"Oh, Silent just procured a body similar to mine that we had scrambled up beforehand, making it look like I went hollow."

Emir nodded while showing a smile.

"Smart."

Puff...

"So... how did you survive out there?"

Ragnar appeared to reminisce as Emir's question reached him.

"I drifted in the known 'unknown' for a few years... just floating, sometimes spinning, other

times going at high speeds for reasons I've got no idea about."

"I was only about sixteen back then, and that whole thing made me go insane... Though I

guess it prepared me for the labyrinth."

Puff...

"I didn't need all that, and I still won."

"I know, I know; just let me tell my story in peace."

Puff...

"But I'm bored; summarize it."

Ragnar's eyes began to twitch, but he calmed himself and took a few puffs.

"Anyways... I made it through surviving with a Holy Relic, it gave me the oxygen I needed."

Puff...

"The flaw?"

"I couldn't move while using it but that was fine, it wasn't like I had anywhere to go."

"It only needed Aether to work, and I had all the time to focus on replenishing my reserves."

"Micrometeorites, radiation, and random temperature changes didn't bother me as much as I

thought it would."

"Throughout those years, I cultivated a lot, and when I finally became a Seraphim, the Aether disturbance I caused attracted a traveling spaceship."

Puff...

"So you've survived 'cause of luck."

Ragnar laughed.

"Ain't gonna deny that... I really was lucky... That's where I met the love of my life after all."

Puff...

"Hoh, so your fiancé came from Silent's or rather Marcus's galactic faction?"

"Yeah, the Legionnaire."

'Interesting... so they related themselves to those ancient Romans...'

Puff...

'Though too bad that it's a part of the Missing History.'

"Anyways, I've rizzed her up, and the rest is history."

Emir's thoughts took pause, and his body squirmed as he held back vomit from leaving his

mouth.

"W-what the fuck is happening to you?"

"I... I don't know, that word just gave me an explicable amount of... cringe."

Ragnar leaned back on his chair and took a puff.

"Fucking h you scared me..."

"You think that it's some curse... maybe even Arcane?"

Emir shook his head.

"Probably not... Though it doesn't matter, let's just move on."

"Yeah, the ones that dug up this language archive made sure that no words were harmful."

Emir proceeded to wash that distasteful word down with whiskey while gesturing for Ragnar

to continue.

"So, now I laid out everything to you... tell me, what's your story?"

Puff...

"I ain't saying."

"Hah?! After everything I said, you'll be keeping your shit secret?"

Puff...

"Yeah."

"That's unfair!"

Puff...

"Haven't you heard?"

Ragnar banged his hand on the desk.

"Heard what?"

Emir, once again, blew smoke into Ragnar's face.

"The world is unfair; deal with it."

"You being serious right now?"

A chuckle left him as he answered:

"No... but my story is similar to yours." "You got betrayed too?"

"Yeah, my family got me fucked up, almost died a couple of times too."

"They still alive?"

"...I killed them."

"You... you killed your own parents?"

"Yeah."

"Really?"

"No."

"AHH, YOU ANNOYING—"

His roar suddenly died out.

In an instant, Ragnar looked the same as Emir did moments ago.

He, who was in the process of standing, had his back crash into the seat behind him.

The cigar in his right hand dropped to the ground for the second time, causing its ashes to

cover the floor.

Burning embers of tobacco leaf remained alive through it all.

Meanwhile, a relaxed prince chuckled at that sight as he stopped sharing his memories with

Ragnar, not wishing to pain him any further.

Then his hand slowly moved towards the ashtray.

???.

???.

And as his cigar dropped its ashes...

In the holoscreen, all that was before Elijah turned into a blazing flame.

"AHAHAHAHAHAAH! BURN BITCH BURN!"