I’m Quitting Everything and Selling Cola Chapter 130

Chapter 130. Is This a Dream……?

There were even more Hungry Ghosts on the first floor.

It seed that when Penelope severed one of the three staircases, the number lingering below had increased. It was a mont that lent further weight to the hypothesis that the Hell Gate lay on the lower floor.

Even so, the three of them divided their roles perfectly.

Grrrgh?

Three Hungry Ghosts prowling near the fruit basket by the reception room.

―Fssht!

A long, thin thread of wind fired by Penelope pierced through their heads.

Screek? Screeeek?

Two Hungry Ghosts tilted their heads, bewildered at the sudden collapse of their comrade……

Thwack! Crunch!

Vivian's silhouette blurred as she burst from behind them, and their heads exploded simultaneously. For all that ferocious movent, aside from the bursting sound of flesh and bone, it was immaculately silent.

The very definition of Britannian-style CQB.

anwhile, Jurgen, though maintaining the pretence of a non-combatant, was performing his own role in his own way.

Covering the blind spots of the two, he was positioning himself advantageously for contingency response — while simultaneously plotting the route forward.

Vivian, who had already burst the heads of no fewer than ten Hungry Ghosts with her bare hands, turned to look at Jurgen with admiration, having regained so composure now that confidence had taken hold.

"Quite impressive. It's very well-trained movent."

"Thank you."

"I an it genuinely, not as a pleasantry."

Vivian had undergone military training during her university days. The primary focus had been command tactics for leading an army as an officer, but having also distinguished herself as a knight, she had completed 120 hours of the highest-level course — field special operations training.

Unlike Penelope, who was beside herself worrying whether Jurgen might get hurt, Vivian could see his extraordinary movents with perfect clarity.

Jurgen had not engaged directly in combat. Though she hadn't said it aloud, she also wondered why he had co along in the first place.

Yet he never once got in the way of a teammate's line of movent.

For instance, when Vivian lunged to snap a Hungry Ghost's neck, Jurgen had already checked the hazards at her landing point. Just before they turned a corner in the corridor, he was invariably positioned where he could watch the blind side on the opposite end.

Thanks to his movent, Vivian was able to focus entirely on the enemy before her.

"Were you attached to a particular unit, by any chance?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because your movent is accustod to real combat."

Under Vivian's curious gaze, Jurgen flinched slightly. He hadn't anticipated she would notice this.

Penelope, listening from beside them, appeared to have grown curious as well.

"I was posted overseas."

"Ah. A deploynt."

"This is hardly the ti for a leisurely chat."

Jurgen redirected the conversation — partly to deflect, but also because the situation genuinely allowed no such luxury.

"There's sothing that doesn't sit right with ."

"What is it?"

This was Erosion, of all things.

As evidenced by Penelope and Vivian not having grasped it at all, it was a sorcery virtually unknown to the outside world — one that required the involvent of at minimum a Cardinal-class practitioner to deploy.

"They've gone to all this trouble, and yet the other party is far too quiet, don't you think?"

None of the dark mage's characteristic slimy ddling was present. One might say the execution was far too incomplete. That very blandness was, conversely, what sharpened his wariness.

"Did you enjoy the ga of hide-and-seek?"

A voice threaded with amusent cut through the air without warning. The three of them spun around simultaneously toward a sound that felt strangely familiar, yet distinctly off.

"I thought I'd see what you were getting up to, dragging it out like that. And here you are, doing sothing this petty."

"Gilbert Thornton……?"

It was him.

Could it be — could he truly have infiltrated the guest annex even after slyly issuing an Order of Expulsion, only to get caught up in this? There was absolutely no need to make that mistake.

His once-refined appearance had transford into sothing grotesque, as though he had clawed his way up from the underworld.

His skin was boiling and bubbling, his body covered in tumorous masses like growths. Most telling of all — eyes with no whites whatsoever, pitch black throughout. The mark of black magic.

"Y-you……?"

Even Vivian wrinkled her nose, visibly nauseated.

Then one of the tumours clinging to Gilbert's body began to writhe, as though it were a separate living creature.

Gulp, gulp!

Accompanied by a nauseating gurgling sound, like phlegm boiling in a throat, the tumour swelled at an unnatural rate.

Sothing burst through the thin, stretched mbrane of skin and dropped — thud — to the floor.

It lay curled tight, convulsing inside a sticky amniotic sac.

Then it tore through the mbrane, and one newborn Hungry Ghost revealed itself.

The creature imdiately threw itself upon the amniotic sac it had been born in, and began picking it apart to eat it.

A truly stomach-turning scene, without question.

"Urgh……"

"What in the……"

"To fail to recognise such magnificent evolution. How base."

"Magnificent? Which part, precisely?"

Despite the won's horrified reactions, Gilbert's expression remained utterly at ease.

Jurgen narrowed his eyes and made his assessnt.

"That man is the Hell Gate."

"Gilbert is?"

Even until the earlier confrontation, he had been corrupted, perhaps, but not a dark mage. Yet soone had taken the unorthodox idea of implanting a Hell Gate within a human body, making him the axis of all this commotion.

Only after confirming what Gilbert had beco did the pieces that had been slightly misaligned finally click into place.

Why the Hungry Ghosts had seed so scattered at first, why the Erosion had spread more slowly than the one Jurgen had previously encountered — it was because there was no proper dark mage at the helm.

Handling a power for the first ti, inexperience was inevitable.

A Hell Gate is a trendous mass of distortion. No matter how long it lasts, within three days at most, he would be writhing in agony, begging to be allowed to die.

"I was rather rude to you earlier — but I am quite magnanimous. I'll give you one last chance."

Oblivious to his own future, Gilbert was brimming with self-satisfaction.

This power that Petsy gave him was real. An ever-multiplying Legion of Minions, a powerful sorcery that transford an entire space into another realm entirely, and on top of that, a strength that boiled up from every cell in his body. Why had he never accepted black magic until now?

From all directions ca the sound of Hungry Ghosts drawing closer, and in an instant they had sealed off the entire reception room.

Screek, Screeeek

Amidst the slavering Hungry Ghosts, Gilbert spoke with insufferable confidence.

"Penelope, beco my woman. I will forget your earlier rudeness. And Vivian — the sa goes for you. I shall take you as a concubine."

"What is he on about? Insane bastard."

The two won's expressions crumpled at the sudden proposal and the offer to be recruited as a concubine.

"Ohohoho! I already knew Gilbert was an unpleasant man, but…… he's so unpleasant it's almost pitiable? Is this really the drivel you wanted to say before getting into bed with a dark mage? Looking like that?"

"When one possesses overwhelming power, there is no need to fixate on appearances."

Vivian in particular — being a university contemporary of Gilbert's — reacted all the more sharply.

Along with that, the tension drained completely. If Gilbert was the ringleader, all they had to do was knock him flat and walk out without a care.

Though Gilbert had transford into sothing nightmarish enough to haunt dreams, he was certainly less frightening than an unidentified dark mage.

"I wonder if it's been so long since Gilbert got beaten by that the mory has gone all hazy for him……"

Vivian pressed her two fists together with a blunt crack. If Alchemists of 5th Rank and above possessed a Unique Code, then knights possessed Battle Aura.

Vivian's Battle Aura was Implosion — a force that crushed even the strongest armour from the inside out, coiling over her fists like a glove.

"You pissed yourself in your trousers when this hit you during a sparring match, rember? Where does a little shit like you get off telling to co be your concubine?"

With every pretence stripped away, blue-green veins stood out across Vivian's forearms.

"Penelope? I'll leave the back to you. Three seconds and it's done."

The mont Vivian leapt and swung her fist at Gilbert's head——

―BANG!

Her body was sent flying back faster than the speed at which she had charged, and slamd into the wall.

"Really, Vivian, you've always rubbed the wrong way — you're far too rough."

Pinned to the wall like a decoration, Vivian held her eyes wide open, trying to settle her shaken insides.

'I didn't see it.'

She hadn't let her guard down. And yet, Gilbert's front kick had been invisible from start to finish. Had she not barely managed to cross her arms and block it, the force would have ruptured her organs and killed her instantly.

'If I lose consciousness…… I can't…… I have to……stay…… awake……'

A stream of blood trickled from the corner of Vivian's mouth, and her head drooped forward.

"Well? Do I still seem like such a small fry to you?"

Gilbert snickered and waved a hand.

"These little lackeys won't even be needed. All of you — wait."

The Hungry Ghosts, who had surged toward the scent of Vivian's blood, stopped dead in their tracks.

As Gilbert strolled leisurely toward Vivian—

"Garden of the Fool."

The flas Penelope conjured engulfed Gilbert's body.

Flas precisely controlled so as not to catch Jurgen and Vivian in their wake. This was her finishing technique, infused with Penelope's Unique Code, Falling Petals.

The Hungry Ghosts that had been pressing close to the encirclent were charred to cinders by radiant heat alone, then whirled away into ash on the thermal blast.

However.

"Impossible……"

The Gilbert caught within the blaze was entirely unaffected. Even having been struck on his unguarded flank, he rely turned his head slowly to look at Penelope. Not a trace of damage could be felt.

"You…… damned…… bitches……"

And yet Gilbert thrashed and raved as though he had suffered a grievous wound.

"I am the great Viscount Gilbert Thornton! This is not a position to be coveted by soone who sleeps with a commoner, or a woman who has brawn and nothing in her head! So you should respect more! Revere ! That is what you should do!"

He roared and frothed, spraying sothing between saliva and bodily fluid.

The most wretched spectacle a man steeped in inferiority and self-loathing could make of himself upon suddenly acquiring trendous power. That sight was so thoroughly ugly it was difficult to look upon directly.

"Ah……. So it was because of your lot."

As though realising sothing, Gilbert turned his gaze belatedly to Jurgen.

"That's right, I never liked you. A bloody commoner sniffing around a woman I had my eye on! A worthless wretch holding his head up stiff-necked and proud!"

Gilbert advanced toward Jurgen with murder in his stride.

"Once I tear you apart and kill you in front of them, those won will know clearly enough who the superior male is."

He absolutely could not allow that.

Crack!

Just as Penelope was about to use her Alchemy again, reaching into her Palette for a catalyst—

Her Palette was blown to pieces. A single fork, produced from who-knows-when, had been fired like a comb's teeth, shattering it.

This distance was a knight's distance, to begin with.

"I would ask Lady Penelope to remain still right where she is. Why not spend the ti studying composure, proper bearing, and obedience, listening to your commoner scream—"

As Gilbert turned his back and moved once again toward Jurgen—

"I'll marry you! Let's get married! Yes! Fine! Let's do it! I fell for you at first sight! In truth, I fell for you at first sight!"

Penelope stopped him with a desperate cry.

Gilbert's neck turned slowly.

"……For real?"

Penelope's brow instinctively furrowed at the sight of Gilbert, now dozens of tis more revolting than before — but.

Jurgen's life was on the line.

"Th-that's right! Actually, the reason I rejected your escort was because I was too embarrassed!"

"Say it one more ti. You fell for ? For ?"

Did she?

But she needed ti — ti to stall. At the very least, it would be wonderful if Vivian ca to her senses.

"If that's truly the case…… you wouldn't say a word even if I tore this man apart right in front of your eyes, would you?"

"That's—!"

"What, so it was a lie after all? That's noble ladies for you. Every ti they open their mouths it's lies, lies, lies!!! How dare you make a mockery of my sincere feelings!!!!"

This wasn't working.

She had thought he was simply an idiot, but he had an inexplicably thorough streak in the strangest of places.

Hungry Ghosts sward on all sides, blocking every direction, making it impossible even for Jurgen to escape alone.

Was it going to end like this? Truly — was it going to end this pathetically, just like this? It felt wrenchingly unreal. Just a short while ago, she had been handing Jurgen that embarrassing contract, telling him they would keep going together for a long ti to co.

"Penelope. That's enough. By the looks of it, waiting any longer isn't going to bring the true culprit out."

Jurgen's words ca entirely out of nowhere, leaving both Penelope and Gilbert dumbfounded.

"Hey, commoner. You've lost your mind, have you? Trying to at least die with style, is that it? Admirable. Go on then, keep climbing right up to the very end. No matter how much you posture, you're dying today."

Gilbert let out a string of sneering laughs.

"There is sothing you have wrong, Gilbert Thornton."

Impossibly composed for the circumstances, a quiet voice spread low across the reception room.

"One. I am not a commoner."

"What?"

An accent with not a trace of regional colour — the perfect diction of the nobility. The cold, settled weight contained within it brought Gilbert's sneer to a halt.

For the first ti, he looked directly at Jurgen. The man he hadn't even properly glanced at since acquiring his trendous power, deeming him a re mote of dust.

Had this man always been this tall? Even if he stood before Marquis Ashford himself, he held himself as though he could bring the man to his knees. Yet this overwhelmingly ordinary-looking man, nothing remarkable about him save a sturdy build, was inspiring a pressure Gilbert could not put into words.

Sothing……

Was not right.

"Two. The one who dies — is not . It is you."

Penelope saw the small cube tucked between Jurgen's fingertips.

"Material Creation: Open."

A perfectly cubic Alchemy catalyst, glowing with an iridescent, luminous light.

"Gravity Elent."

The catalyst of Britannia's greatest Alchemist.