Chapter 428: So-Gang? (1)
Hänsel, the flesh chef, was born into an ordinary household.
Or perhaps, it was below ordinary, considering the extreme poverty. His family was so poor that his parents abandoned him in the forest.
After countless years had passed, most of the memories faded, but for some reason, Hänsel clearly remembered that moment.
The moment when his parents abandoned him.
Maybe it was because of the helplessness and humiliation he tasted back then.
The helplessness of having no choice but to follow his father, even though he knew he was being taken to be abandoned.
And the humiliation of having to return to his parents, who had left him behind, just to survive.
Despite being so young, Hänsel experienced what true helplessness and humiliation felt like, etched deep into his bones.
However, that wasn’t the end of his misfortune. Reality always exceeded imagination.
The day after he returned home by relying on the pebbles he had scattered beforehand, his father shamelessly took him back into the forest. This time, it was a deeper and more treacherous place.
Hänsel didn’t have the chance to gather more pebbles, and in the end, he had to resort to using the stale, hardened bread he had brought instead. He tore it into pieces and scattered them along the ground.
The outcome was obvious.
His father abandoned him once more. Not once, but twice.
But this time, there was a crucial difference: he couldn’t find his way back, as the birds and wild animals had eaten the bread crumbs. He was completely lost.
After losing his way, Hänsel wandered the forest.
Because that was the only thing he could do.
His legs swelled up, his tears dried out, and his body grew filthy.
Yet, the most unbearable thing was the hunger. It drained his strength, twisted his insides, and eventually threatened his life.
Cruelly, hunger grew worse over time, spreading through his body like poison. Just when it seemed it would extinguish his life, Hänsel caught a scent.
The aroma of roasted meat, rich soup, freshly baked bread, and pastries...
Following the scent as if enchanted, he discovered a small cottage deep in the forest.
A young woman lived in the cottage. She was beautiful and kind.
So kind that she welcomed a stranger into her home and served him food with her own hands, including sweet pastries.
The kindness he tasted for the first time in his life... It was all a lie.
She was a black magician—a vicious witch who maintained her life and youth by devouring children.
The reason for her kindness was simply to ensnare a fish caught in her net.
It might have been the first time Hänsel gave up on life.
After all, what reason did he have to live? His parents had abandoned him, and the miracle of being saved was merely the prelude to an even greater tragedy.
Living was a hellish experience—a never-ending cycle of taking and being taken, of devouring one another.
At the time, Hänsel was too weak to survive in such a hell, and he had no desire to endure more suffering.
So, he decided to let himself be eaten, simply hoping it would be painless...
Just as he was about to give up on everything, a second miracle happened. A true miracle.
His little sister, who he hadn’t even paid attention to, killed the witch.
Noticing the witch’s aging condition as the effects of her feeding wore off, the sister tricked her and shoved her into the furnace, burning her to death.
The evidence was her soot-covered face and the burned hands from holding the witch back.
Despite the fact that Hänsel had never cared about his sister, she used her wit and courage to burn the witch alive just for him.
It was then that Hänsel realized for the first time that, just as his parents had never cared for him, he too had never cared for his sister.
The only thing he valued was his own life. Hänsel understood that he was no different from his parents.
And yet, his sister risked her life to save him. Simply because he was her one and only brother.
From that day on, Hänsel made a decision: no matter what danger might come, he would protect his sister Gretel. By any means necessary.
Thus, Hänsel became a flesh chef. He taught himself the knowledge stolen from the witch, consumed her flesh, hunted other humans to gain strength, and even betrayed the woman he loved to reach his current position.
All for the sake of protecting his sister.
For that, he was willing to do anything. Even sacrifice his own life.
“I promised, didn’t I...?”
The flesh chef, who had ascended to a complete dragon after years of relentless effort, shed tears as he recalled his past memories and resolution.
For he was bound and pierced by shadowy tendrils and stakes, helpless while his sister Gretel lay before him with a quarterstaff driven into her heart.
All he could do was cry.
Puu...
Without saying a word, Oliver, who had imprisoned the flesh chef-turned-dragon with shadows, clenched his hand, driving the quarterstaff deeper into Gretel’s heart, inch by inch.
"...!!"
The excruciating pain of having her heart impaled caused Gretel to scream silently, while the flesh chef desperately struggled to shake off the shadows that held him.
But no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t break free from the shadows. Instead, the places where he was bound and pierced only drained his emotions, life force, and magical power.
It was incomprehensible. A dragon was a legendary being, capable of toppling mountains with its bare body, yet it couldn’t even break free from these shadows.
All he could do was thrash around uselessly while watching his sister die.
Oliver stood silently, gazing at the flesh chef with an expressionless, mask-like face, devoid of any trace of humanity.
Crack...
Consumed by anxiety, rage, and grief, the flesh chef clenched his teeth so hard that they nearly shattered. He focused solely on saving his sister.
He had once been saved; now, it was his turn to save her. Wasn’t that the right thing to do? Wasn’t that a brother’s duty?
With that resolve, he tried to tear away the shadows...
Puk! Puk! Puk!
But just as his determination seemed to fade, Oliver tilted his head slightly, causing more tendrils and stakes to drive into the flesh chef’s body, pinning him down.
The dragon’s scales, thick like layers of steel, were pierced as if they were nothing, and the flesh chef’s body suffered fatal wounds, robbing him of any freedom.
With an additional stake driven into his throat, he couldn’t even make a sound to cry, comfort, or worry for his sister.
All he could do was weep silently.
“O-Oppa...”
“Kuh...! Ah...! ...Aagh!!”
Gretel’s life force slowly weakened as the quarterstaff remained lodged in her heart, and without even glancing at her, Oliver approached the flesh chef, staring at him for a long time without saying a word.
Even as Gretel’s blood and life force continued to drain from her body, and the flesh chef’s strength was sucked away by the shadows, he reverted to his original form.
Yet, the flesh chef did not show any fear; he silently roared at Oliver.
He begged to be released, vowing to kill him, to exact revenge! To chew him up from head to toe, leaving no trace! Just let him go, and save his sister. He admitted he was wrong, pleaded for forgiveness...
However, Oliver offered no response, merely leaning forward to meet the flesh chef's eyes with that same mask-like, impassive face, not uttering a single word.
...
Even when a beautiful light, tinged with both horror and sadness, radiated from the flesh chef, Oliver remained unmoved. He just stared at the flesh chef’s suffering and gradual death with an indifferent gaze.
Time continued to pass, and as Gretel, impaled by the quarterstaff, stretched her hand toward her powerless brother, she drew her final breath.
For someone who had lived hundreds of years, devoured numerous magicians, even wizard kings, infiltrated Roculi University, and ultimately consumed the powers of hell itself, her end was all too futile.
"Aah...!! Ah...! Kah...!!"
The flesh chef, watching his sister’s death unfold before his eyes, could only weep silently through his pierced throat.
His cries, mingled with a light that was both beautiful and dreadful, shone with an intensity that could have made three or even four Filgaret crystals.
His feelings for his sister were genuine to that extent.
And yet, Oliver remained unchanged from beginning to end, staring at the flesh chef eye-to-eye with that same expression.
As he gazed at Oliver, the flesh chef cursed the world, Oliver, and himself for his own powerlessness, slowly and painfully drawing his final breath.
...
The flesh chef’s body went limp, and Oliver silently watched him.
After a few minutes, Oliver straightened his back, scanning the desolate ruins before locking eyes with Merlin.
Merlin silently observed Oliver, and as if reading something from his gaze, Oliver hesitated for a moment, raising and lowering his hand in midair before finally speaking.
"...I’m hungry."
...
The devastation caused by the flesh chef's terror left the city of Laville in ruins.
In one of the outer regions, which had suffered the least damage, there was a dimly lit basement where the electricity had barely been restored. The space appeared unremarkable at first glance, but it was actually one of Milieu's safe houses, provided to Oliver by Lucien Myra.
As requested by Oliver, the basement was well-concealed and spacious, with a table set up in one corner.
However, the table itself wasn’t important. What mattered were the newspapers stacked on top of it.
The papers, published over the past four days following the massive disaster in Laville, were filled with headlines in large print, reflecting the city’s chaotic state:
- [The Enemy of the World, Black Hand’s Flesh Chef, Dies!]
- [The Royal Army and the Great Archmage Join Forces to Eradicate Evil!]
- [Black Hand’s Finger Falls!]
- [Commoner Faction Alleged to Be in League with the Black Magician?]
- [Roculi University Protects the Citizens!]
- [Is the Threat of the Evil Black Magician Truly Over?!]
- [Leader of the Commoner Faction Arrested. Police Promise to Uncover the Truth.]
- [Additional Holy Knights to Be Dispatched by the Pater Church.]
- [Gallos Central Police Clean Up the Black Magician Remnants.]
- [The Royal Family Defeats the Enemy of the World.]
The headlines were eye-catching and provocative, but the content inside was largely the same, claiming that the flesh chef had allied with the Commoner faction to incite a rebellion, which was thwarted by the Great Archmage, Roculi University, and the Gallos Royal Army.
Although the story diverged from the truth, this version had been widely accepted, and each newspaper reported on the incident with their own interpretations.
Even after four days of continuous coverage on the same topic, interest didn’t wane due to the sheer scale and shock of the event. Instead, public curiosity only grew, like flames fed with logs.
Yet Oliver, after reading the newspapers just once, left them on the table and focused solely on dissecting the corpses he had recently acquired.
These included the dean of the Life Alchemy Department, Deziche Durans, who had betrayed Roculi University, along with her subordinate magicians, and even some of the flesh chef’s henchmen found on the streets.
Their bodies, torn apart by Big Mouth, required extensive effort to restore, but Oliver worked diligently, as if trying to distract himself from an unpleasant memory.
As a result, the work progressed at a rapid pace—almost too quickly.
"Impressive. You've already gotten this far... Are you even sleeping?"
A voice suddenly echoed from the air. It was Merlin.