Chapter 153: The Second Hibernation (1)

Louis was currently 489 years old.

He had been expecting his second hibernation to be approaching soon.

To be honest, Louis was a bit late compared to others.

His twins had already gone into hibernation two years ago.

I was wondering when the signs would appear, and here we are today.

Louis rose from his seat and turned his gaze to the side.

The children were staring at him with wide, sparkling eyes.

He probably wouldn’t see them for a while.

That’s why Louis thought now was the right time.

He gathered the children around him.

“From now on, I will teach you the studies you truly need to focus on.”

“Huh… Then what have we been doing until now?” Kendrick grumbled, causing Louis’s eyes to narrow.

That little rascal!

Kendrick had changed considerably under Louis’s tutelage.

The timid, inward child was gone. In his place was a young world-weary cynic who had seen too much reality at too young an age.

…Even too much of a good thing can be a problem.

Louis shook his head, comparing Kendrick to the naive boy from the original story. As the creator of this new Kendrick… Well, it wasn’t necessarily bad. After all, the boy had developed exactly the kind of personality Louis wanted.

As long as he doesn’t end up getting taken advantage of, we’re golden.

Of course, that was easier said than done.

Who does he think he is to complain about someone as great as me?

Faster than Louis could lecture him, his fist flew toward Kendrick’s face.

Crack!

“Ahh!” Kendrick clutched his forehead and tumbled to the ground.

Louis crossed his arms, scolding him. “Watch your mouth, ungrateful brat. How dare you talk back to your teacher!”

“Geez…”

Crack!

“Ahh!” Kendrick received another blow to the same spot for his continued grumbling.

A large lump swelled on his forehead, as if he’d been stung by a bee. The sharp pain brought tears to Kendrick’s eyes.

Damn it…

He suffered silently, keeping his thoughts to himself—no, he couldn’t voice them. His time with Louis had taught him more than a few things: his mentor was quicker with his fists than his words, and his temperament was peculiar. Kendrick knew he’d be worse off if he continued this line of argument here.

As he sulked, he heard a voice:

“You should never talk back to your teacher! You were wrong, brother!”

“You…”

Kendrick glared fiercely at his sister, who was clinging tightly to Louis and shooting him a look of disdain. In a family, it’s always more irritating when your elder sister tries to scold you than your stepmother trying to discipline you. To Kendrick, Louis filled the role of both father and stepmother, while Tanya served as both elder sibling and elder sister.

Honestly, how can she…

Ha!

Tania and Kendrick glared at each other with Louis caught in between. Suddenly, Louis spoke up.

“What I am about to share with you can be considered my vision.”

The moment he said this, their squabble ceased, and excitement filled their faces.

“A v-vision?”

“For real?”

Since the day of the ogre’s attack, Louis had been etched deeply into their hearts as the epitome of aspiration. They had diligently studied, hoping to reach their mentor someday. Now, they realized he had surpassed even their father, Aaron.

Just how high is Master Louis’s realm?

They trained and sparred continuously every day, yet they still couldn’t gauge the extent of their guru’s abilities.

Kendrick wondered how much more effort it would take to even begin to catch up to his master’s level. Naturally, he was thrilled when Louis mentioned Tanya’s vision.

“What, don’t you want to learn?”

“No way!” Kendrick exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Tania shook her head vigorously from beside him, nearly wobbling her cheeks.

Louis watched their reactions with an unscrupulous glint in his eyes.

“Oh? So you don’t want to learn because there’s someone who keeps complaining about me?”

“What kind of ungrateful person are they?!” Kendrick’s face twisted fiercely like a lion rug’s mane.

Tanya smacked his back.

“What are you waiting for?! Hurry and kneel to apologize!”

Upon hearing this, Kendrick swiftly dropped to his knees and bowed his head low.

“I’m so sorry! I won’t grumble about Earth anymore, I promise!”

”…”

Louis observed this scene quietly, once again stroking his chin.

Hmm… The kids… they’ve grown up all too well.

How could this conversation possibly be between a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old? They might have looked young, but their social skills were remarkably mature. On one hand, Louis was pleased to see how well his teachings had been absorbed by these children.

With a smile, Louis waved his hand. “Very well. From now on, don’t argue with your teacher.”

“Yes, sir!”

“And since I was always good and listened, you’ll teach me too, right? You don’t even need to teach my brother!”

“Hey!”

“What?! What is it now?”

As per usual sibling behavior, they started bickering again. Only Louis could calm them down.

Under the expectant gazes of the brother and sister, Louis opened his mouth.

“The revelation I am about to share with you is called ‘Mana Heart’.”

“Mana Heart…”

Kendrick and Tania repeated the phrase, their excitement palpable as they asked:

“It’s that thing, isn’t it?! You know, what you mentioned when you took down the ogre? If we learn that, can we be like you?”

“Can we do what you did? Like… appearing out of nowhere! Is that even possible?”

Louis flinched slightly at his disciples’ questions.

Back during the ogre incident, when Louis had mentioned they would learn something in the future, he had been referring to “Mana Heart”… but it seemed the youngsters had misunderstood.

Well, we have different attributes to begin with… Even if our attributes were the same, they couldn’t do it like I could, right?

After all, Dragon Magic was a technique exclusive to dragons.

Of course, Louis chose not to clarify their misunderstanding. Instead, he shrugged and replied, ” probably? With enough effort, you might be able to do it?”

If you fail, it’s not my fault. It’s because your efforts weren’t sufficient.

Louis had effectively shifted the blame onto his disciples.

“Hurry! Please tell us!”

“I want to learn too!”

“Umm… Alright then.”

Louis seated his disciples and began lecturing on the Mana Heart. In this way, a day soon arrived when the second sleep device was activated. The first half of Demonic Scripture, which had made Sword Saint Kendrick the Hero King, returned to its rightful owner.

After Louis had taught the children the early parts of the Hero King’s Forbidden Magic, Kendrick and Tania dove headlong into training with the Mana Hearts for several days.

They were elated by this new world that was so vastly different from their previous understandings of Demonic Scripture, and their admiration for Louis, who had shown them the way, grew each day.

But their joy over this new pursuit was short-lived.

Louis had to call Lial’s family to let them know that he would be gone for a while.

“You’re—you’re leaving?” asked Kendrick.

Louis nodded in response to his question.

“Yes.”

“Has something happened to you?”

“Yes. Something very important to me.”

The cycles between sleep periods were getting shorter.

It was a sign that Louis’s second sleep cycle was at hand.

He was telling them now because he wouldn’t be able to come to the village once he entered the second hibernation, but his sudden news caught his two disciples off guard.

On the other hand, Lelia looked like she had expected this to happen.

This is just how he is.

He was always a being who came and went like the wind. The fact that he had been teaching the children for the past few years was immensely grateful to Lelia.

Lelia looked at Louis and asked, “Just like always… you’ll come back, won’t you?”

“Yes.”

Louis’s short answer brought relief to Lelia, Aaron, and Kendrick. But there was one person who couldn’t be relieved at all.

“When are you coming back?” Tanya asked. She seemed especially shocked because she followed Louis more than anyone else. She sounded like she would burst into tears at any moment.

Louis gave a short answer to her desperate question. “Who knows? Probably about ten years. It might take longer.”

At Louis’s indifferent words, Tanya looked as if she had lost everything in the world. She suddenly made up her mind, though.

The child tightly clasped her hands and called out to Louis.

“Teacher!”

“What is it?”

“I want to marry you, sir!”

Tanya’s unexpected declaration left Kendrick and Lia with wide-eyed stares, while Aaron’s mouth dropped open at his young daughter’s confession.

In contrast, Louis burst out laughing.

“Hahah!”

”…Why are you laughing?! I’m serious!”

The scene from the past, where a younger Lia had made a similar confession to Louis with her baby teeth missing, projected onto the face of the young Tanya.

Louis chuckled and remarked to Lia:

“Hey, she’s just like you when you were little.”

“Really…” Lia shot a sweet look at Louis.

Seeing both Louis and Lia’s reactions, Tanya pouted before declaring once again:

“I still want to marry you, sir!”

“No way.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t like kids.”

“T-Then I’ll call you ‘brother,’ too.”

“Nope.”

“But why?!”

“It’d be too complicated.”

Lia had taken to calling Louis her brother, and now this little brat was doing the same thing?

Is this what they call a familial entanglement?

In face of Louis’s rock-solid defense, the precocious young lady finally burst into tears.

“Waaah! You’re such a dummy, Teacher!”

As Tanya ran out of the room bawling, Lia couldn’t help but giggle.

“What’s wrong? I think it’s great! Wouldn’t that make Louis here my future brother-in-law?”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Louis rose from his seat and patted Kendrick lightly on the head.

“Take care of your sister and keep up with your training. I’ll come by later to check on your progress.”

”…Yes, sir.”

Despite his occasional grumbles, Kendrick was the one who trusted and followed Louis more than anyone else. He nodded slightly, his voice thick with emotion.

“Then I’m off.”

With a wave of his hand, Louis’s figure disappeared. He had vanished so quickly it was hard to believe he had been there just moments before.

Lia patted the shoulder of her son, who was staring blankly at the spot where Louis had been. “Your teacher is like the wind. As he said, if you keep training hard, he’ll be back in no time.”

“Okay,” Kendrick nodded resolutely.

Seeing that, Lia turned towards the door, unable to suppress a chuckle as she did so.

It’s truly unfortunate, she mused.

Both mother and daughter had been rejected by the same man. This shared experience allowed Lia to understand Tanya’s feelings better than anyone else, having been hurt first herself.

She stepped outside to console her daughter, who had run away in tears.

After bidding farewell to the Lia couple and his two disciples on that day, Louis turned his attention to the final inspections.

He meticulously examined the Motion Crystals within the underground bunker he had prepared, paying particular attention to the cube that dominated the center of the sleeping quarters.

As the week drew to a close, fatigue began to set in. Drowsiness threatened to overwhelm him as he gazed upon the cube. He desired nothing more than to step inside and seek reprieve from his exhaustion, but Louis resolutely resisted the urge. The source of his anxiety remained ever-present in his mind.

Is this enough?

Despite the years he had spent tirelessly preparing for this very moment, a lingering unease had settled in.

What is it that I must endure this time?

Ever since the appearance of the Monarch of the Abyss on the deserted island, the Coercive Force had not reared its head even once.

The coercive force, which had been building up over time, was about to summon another death…

I’m a bit scared.

Louis couldn’t help but worry as this was the exact moment when the real Louis had died in the original story. As he struggled between sleepiness and the fear of death,

“Hugellll!” a loud voice boomed from outside the underground bunker.

Turning towards the source of the voice, Louis saw someone who shouldn’t have been there according to the timeline.

“Dad’s here!”

Genelocer and Valentina were walking towards the entrance of the underground shelter, smiling happily as they approached Louis.

He tilted his head, puzzled. “Father? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the Silver Flower Castle?”

“When our son goes to sleep for twenty years, we decide to take a leave!”

“…A vacation for twenty years? Is that even allowed?”

“What do you care? I told them I’d quit if they didn’t give it to me, so don’t worry about it.”

Louis stared at Genelocer as if he were out of his mind. He soon realized, however, how thankful he should be toward his father.

…Is it all because of me?

He knew well that his father had protected him during their first encounter with the sleep device. In other words, Genelocer was also well aware of the coercive force threatening his son. As someone who loved his child dearly, there was no way he would sit idly by while Louis was once again exposed to such danger.

Seeing the gratitude in Louis’s eyes, Genelocer smiled warmly and patted his son’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about a thing. Just go back to sleep now. You won’t get this luxury very often in the future.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Louis nodded with a smile on his face.

This is what parents are for.

A reliable support system, a family one could count on.

Feeling their warm gazes, Louis moved forward. He approached the cube he’d created, and just before stepping inside, he turned around with a slight wave.

“See you later!”

“Sweet dreams, my son!”

“Sleep well!”

Genelocer and Valentina waved back at him as they faced each other.

As Louis received his goodnight wishes and stepped into the cube, he smoothly disappeared like sinking beneath water. Simultaneously, he transformed from human form into his true dragon state within the cube.

I’m sleepy…

Thanks to his parents’ comforting presence, all the pent-up drowsiness that had been held back by anxiety finally overwhelmed him. His eyelids grew heavy and started drooping.

His eyelids soon drooped, and as his parents’ figures faded from view, darkness engulfed Louis.

The second phase of sleep had begun.