Chapter 186: Can I, The Evil Ghost Who Returned From Hell, Illuminate Your Night, Senior?

Within the Abyssal Sea, the light was devoured. There was no sunrise or sunset, no way to distinguish north from south, east from west.

It was the Abyss of Despair, the Whirlpool of Pain.

And that iron coffin, together with scattered shackles, sank into the seabed of the deep sea, as if abandoned by the world.

Such a chaotic passage of time—no one knew how long it lasted—

Until a certain moment, the chains that had been gradually corroded by seawater, stained with bronze rust, began to shift once more.

...

Splash—

The iron coffin broke through the water under the drive of mechanisms and chains.

Immediately after, the steel coffin lid, already rusted by the sea, was slowly pushed open, revealing Ingrid who was imprisoned within.

Every joint of her body was bound by shackles of Mithril. Her jet-black hair was loose and disheveled.

Under the tangled strands, the skin on Ingrid’s face appeared unnaturally pale from prolonged immersion in seawater, completely devoid of color.

Her expression was numb and stiff, like a doll abandoned for a millennium. Both body and spirit had been buried with the coffin in the deep sea, dying little by little in a tomb until she vanished into pure nothingness.

Yet, though her appearance and figure had become as rigid and withered as a corpse—

The moment the coffin was opened, and Rast’s figure appeared in her vision alongside the sunlight—

Ingrid’s eyes seemed to be smiling, brilliantly so.

“Didn’t expect that, did you… Rast.”

Her voice was hoarse and dry, like a mummy buried in desert sands for ten thousand years, yet her tone was relaxed and lighthearted.

“Hehe… I bet even you didn’t expect yourself to make a miscalculation.”

That numb and indifferent expression slowly came back to life.

Lying in the iron coffin, Ingrid gazed at the black-haired youth bathed in sunlight who looked down at her, her eyes lively and joyful.

In that moment, her gaze didn’t resemble that of a stern, high-ranking officer of the military or the former Director of the Surveillance Bureau—

But rather like a little girl who had snatched a lollipop from her childhood friend.

“To be drowned repeatedly in the deep sea, only to be revived… dying again and again, living again and again.”

“It was indeed a torment worse than death, an agony where each day felt like a year—though it was only three months, I felt like I endured centuries beneath the sea.”

She quietly stared into Rast’s eyes. “You must have thought that once I got out, I’d kneel before you in tears, begging not to be sent back into the sea, back into that hopeless cycle of death and rebirth, right?”

“Just like in those manga and novels… no matter how noble or strong a woman once was, no matter how sharp-tongued, after enduring the torment of body and soul, she would ultimately give in and kneel.”

“Becoming a docile and obedient little thing, crawling to her master’s feet with her tongue out, licking his shoes, gentle and loyal—”

“A ‘dog.’”

A faint, dry smile emerged at the corner of Ingrid’s pale lips. “But unfortunately, Rast, you gambled wrong.”

“Not everyone… when facing adversity, setbacks, or unbearable pain—will beg for mercy, admit defeat, and kneel.”

“In this world, there are always some proud souls who would rather die than bow their heads, who refuse to become dogs.”

She glanced at Rast, her gaze calm and clear. “But someone like you, ambitious and devoted to the law of the jungle, believing the strong have the right to toy with the weak at will…”

“You probably will never understand the true meaning of those words. After all, in your eyes, everyone is just petty and cowardly, bullying the weak and fearing the strong. If someone doesn’t yield, it’s only because the pressure isn’t big enough… The kind of people I speak of don’t exist in reality—they’re just fairy tales made up from nothing.”

Though Ingrid at that moment was bound within the iron coffin, her appearance and posture utterly disheveled like a doll torn apart and thrown away—

Yet the way she looked at Rast was filled with pride, as though she stood high above, overlooking the vast land like a snow-capped peak apart from the world.

“Rast.”

“It seems this time, you lost.”

“Lost completely.”

Ingrid closed her eyes, no longer meeting Rast’s gaze.

In truth, there was nothing more to say between her and the young man before her.

Indeed, in those three months beneath the sea, in that endless cycle of suffocation and drowning, of life and death… Ingrid had nearly broken, nearly knocked on the coffin lid, begging Rast to pull her out of the sea.

Yet in the end, she had never knocked on the lid of the iron coffin and had endured this three-month torture, a punishment unparalleled in the world.

Even Ingrid herself could not clearly explain why she was able to persevere... perhaps it was the memory of that brilliance and honor when she had just joined the military that resurfaced in her moments of collapse, or perhaps it was simply that innate, bone-deep pride, refusing to bow her head even in death.

But regardless, since she had endured these three months—

Then henceforth, there would be nothing left in the world that could shake Ingrid again.

...

Ingrid closed her eyes within the iron coffin, and the darkness surged like a tide once more.

She did not care whether Rast, upon discovering her resistance once again, would choose to kill her outright to eliminate any future threat, or continue to sink her into the deep sea—three months not enough, then a year, a year not enough, then three years, even thirty years...

Because Ingrid knew that even if she were to be submerged for another three or thirty years... she would never again lower her proud head.

There were things in this world that could never be extinguished—neither by time nor by the gods.

However, after a brief silence—

What greeted her was the gentle sound of applause coming from outside the iron coffin.

The applause was mingled with the whistling coastal winds, somewhat hard to distinguish.

But immediately after, Rast’s voice rang clearly by her ear: “Yes, you’re right, Senior.”

“This time, you’ve won.”

“You’ve won beautifully, Senior, leaving me speechless.”

As he spoke, Rast once again snapped his fingers.

Then, with the clicking sound of mechanisms being triggered, Ingrid suddenly felt—

The Mithril shackles that had bound her joints, sealing her extraordinary abilities and rendering her powerless, silently fell away, vanishing without a trace.

Even the iron coffin that had caged her like a prison, at that moment, collapsed with a resonating clang, no longer able to restrain Ingrid in the slightest.

She opened her eyes in confusion.

Azure skies, radiant sunlight.

Fresh air, moist and warm sea breeze...

That clear and beautiful world, unseen for so long while trapped in the deep sea, reappeared before Ingrid’s eyes once more.

Ingrid slightly turned her body, gazing at Rast, who was clapping not far away, her eyes filled with doubt.

“No trap, no illusion, and certainly not one of those interrogation room routines with a ‘good cop, bad cop’ performance.”

“This is your reward as the victor, Senior—”

Sensing Ingrid’s confusion, Rast stopped clapping and spoke again with a smile:

“As you can see, you’re free.”

Ingrid was silent for a moment.

She gently touched her right wrist, sensing her metallic prosthetic. The Pale Silver “Shining Silver Arm” also slowly reawakened as the Mithril shackles were removed.

The silver prosthetic reconnected with Ingrid’s consciousness, re-establishing the soul circuit, allowing the Shining Silver Arm to move at her will, like a real limb.

“You’re not afraid that I might go berserk now and kill you right away?”

Ingrid stood up from the iron coffin, rotating her right wrist’s Shining Silver Arm, her gaze fixed sharply on Rast’s eyes: “That agony of drowning in the deep sea—I can still feel it vividly now. Anyone would want to kill the source of such torment without hesitation.”

“Judging from your aura, you’re at best peak Fifth Tier or just entered Sixth Tier. Once caught in close combat, you wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

“Not worried.”

Rast shook his head with a smile. “Besides, I believe that after experiencing the strangeness of ‘Time Rewind’ and ‘Stagnant World’, even if you really wanted to kill me, Senior, you wouldn’t act rashly.”

Ingrid fell silent again.

Had she not experienced it herself hundreds or thousands of times, Ingrid would never have believed that such forces capable of rewinding time and halting the world could be wielded by someone not yet a Legendary Realm extraordinary.

She was a senior military official and had once studied countless secret files in the military archives and the Forbidden Catalogue of the Arcane Tower—thus, Ingrid knew well that even among the recorded Legendary Realm experts of the Western Continent, those capable of using time-space based skills were exceedingly rare.

And even if someone had time-space abilities, they were usually peripheral ones like “Dimensional Pocket” or “Shadow Jump”—tangential but ultimately inconsequential.

But what Rast had used—Stagnant World and Time Rewind—truly involved the laws of time and space, vastly superior to those superficial abilities.

So what Rast said was not wrong.

Until she could fully uncover the secrets behind Rast’s time-space law-based trump cards, Ingrid indeed could not act against him recklessly.

“Then why did you choose to set me free?”

Ingrid stared directly at Rast. “Even if all those world-shattering ambitions of yours were just an act to deceive me...”

“The crimes I’ve committed in the past, the blood on my hands—they are all real—without a single falsehood.”

“According to Imperial Law, executing me ten or a hundred times wouldn’t be excessive... even taking into account the value of the information I provided, I should still be imprisoned indefinitely in the highest security extraordinary prison until the day I die of old age.”

“Yes, Senior, you truly have committed monstrous crimes.”

Rast nodded in agreement.

“Participating in human trafficking, assisting cultists in conducting blood rituals, murdering innocents to keep secrets... all of these are crimes that the law can never pardon.”

“However—”

Rast smiled. “Senior, why would you assume I am some law-abiding, righteous citizen?”

“If we were to talk about the law, then what I did to you—water torture—has long been abolished by law, explicitly prohibited, a notorious criminal act that severely violates the Human Rights Act.”

“Moreover, that so-called ‘single-use’ water torture—”

“Compared to everything you’ve experienced, those three-plus months of being submerged in the deep sea were just one ten-thousandth of the pain and punishment you truly deserve.”

His gaze turned to the sea’s horizon, at the edge of the azure sky: “Starfall University is not under the Empire’s jurisdiction, and does not need to obey Imperial Law. Even if it did, I wouldn’t care.”

“I have my own sense of right and wrong, my own ideals, and to achieve those ideals, I can give far more than you imagine, Senior.”

“Mundane law, morality... these are things I can discard without hesitation.”

“To trample over laws, to become an unforgivable villain, to blow half a city sky-high with explosives, even to bury an entire nation's people with me—”

“Believe me, Senior.”

Rast lowered his gaze, looking at his slender, well-jointed palm.

“The blood of innocents that has stained these hands of mine... far more than yours.”

“And since, in my heart, the punishment you have endured, Senior, is enough to atone for the sins you've committed... then you are now free, regardless of how the Empire’s laws might judge you.”

“Moreover—”

His words paused for a moment.

Rast's gaze once again settled on Ingrid. In those pitch-black eyes, which devoured all light like a black hole, a certain depth suddenly emerged.

“Senior Ingrid.”

“Even if you once committed unforgivable atrocities, your hands drenched in blood…”

“But in truth, you never truly accepted that self who had become a Black Glove, an executioner, did you?”

Rast spoke calmly, his tone even and undisturbed. “Although you’ve claimed countless times that you hated Shiltina—hated her superiority, her pampered upbringing, her effortless possession of everything you could never obtain...”

“In reality, you also admired her, even longed to be like Shiltina, didn’t you?”

“You envied and yearned for Shiltina’s unyielding resolve, that ability to stay true to herself even when faced with temptations within reach, to remain unmoved despite being scorned by the masses... that blazing and brilliant flame in her heart never once wavering.”

“Senior, no one loathes that self who abandoned faith for hatred, who fell into darkness and stained her hands with blood, more than you.”

“That’s why, in the end, you returned to the ruins of the Gustav Nuclear Power Plant—because that was the origin of your dreams and your glory. It was the place where you climbed step by step, with your own hands, to reach closer than ever to your ideals and the light.”

“You didn’t want to survive in exile as an executioner, as a fugitive…”

“You would rather die with honor at the place where your dreams began—as the hero who once saved the entire Ardentflame Domain.”

The boy’s words rang crystal clear in Ingrid’s ears, causing a ripple in her gaze.

After a long silence, the wave in Ingrid’s eyes quietly settled, returning to stillness.

“But if you already knew what was in my heart… why did you do all this?”

She looked at Rast:

“Why go to such lengths to rescue me from under Shiltina’s watchful eyes, only to subject me to torment in the deep sea?”

“Why put so much thought into me, instead of simply letting me perish in the molten steel of the nuclear plant and be done with it?”

“That’s because…”

“I’m genuinely interested in you, Senior Ingrid. It has to be you.”

Rast sat on a reef and smiled. His profile was bathed in the clear sunlight by the shore, making Ingrid momentarily dazed.

“I do indeed want to recruit you, to have you walk alongside me, Senior, but not for some nonsense ambition of ruling the world.”

“These past three months were my trial for you… or rather, a selection process for companions.”

The sea breeze swept through, lifting the corner of the boy’s garment.

“Senior, you were once Director of the Surveillance Bureau in the military. You’ve investigated countless criminal cases and seen all manner of light and shadow in society. You should be well aware of this.”

“In this world... upholding justice is far harder than aiding evil.”

“Often, the evildoers wear the cloak of justice, labeling their opponents as unjust, because the authority to define the word ‘justice’ lies in their hands.”

“To fall into darkness when faced with injustice, hatred, and overwhelming power... to become one with the evildoers, turning to oppress the weaker and transforming from victim into new perpetrator—”

“Anyone can fall.”

“But to stay true to one's own justice amidst obstacles and pressure as vast as mountains—that is far more difficult than falling.”

Rast gazed at Ingrid quietly, the playfulness in his eyes fading:

“This was a test for those who walk with me—a mutual selection. It was both my trial for you and your trial for me.”

“Senior, do you remember what I told you before—about the ‘Eagle Taming’ method from a tribe in my homeland?”

Ingrid nodded.

The struggle between her and Rast over these past three months had indeed been what he called Eagle Taming.

He was the hunter, and she was the unruly eagle.

It was a contest of wills between human and eagle. Both had to endure without rest until one side gave in and submitted.

“You might have thought I wanted to use Eagle Taming to wear you down into surrender and submission...”

Rast smiled faintly. “But that wasn’t it.”

“It was precisely because, even when you were pulled out of the sea the third time, you still never bowed your head—that you did not disappoint me.”

He raised his head and gazed at the clear, cerulean sky above: “It’s true that hunters can tame eagles through Eagle Taming.”

“But once the wildness is gone, once it listens obediently to the hunter’s command—it’s no longer an eagle...”

“But merely a poultry bird in an eagle’s skin.”

Rast stood up from the coastal reef, brushing the dust from his hands.

“Senior, I am indeed building a group of my own, and I’m recruiting for it… but the challenges this group will face are far more dangerous than I have described.”

“The darkness and despair you once confronted—may pale in comparison to what lies ahead after joining.”

“That’s why I designed this Eagle Taming test.”

“And as for its result—I’m quite grateful.”

Rast paused: “Because in my eyes, a true eagle—”

“Would rather die than bow to the falconer.”

“And only a true eagle is worthy of being my companion.”

“A martyr who never stopped gazing at the starry sky, even while in hell... one who walks alongside me.”

...

Rast gently grasped the void with his right hand.

In the next instant, a heavy revolver engraved with Iron Moon patterns quietly appeared in his palm.

Then, the revolver etched with Iron Moon was placed by Rast atop a large stone before Ingrid.

“Senior Ingrid, I said you’ve won.”

“So no matter what choice you make, I will not interfere again.”

"Whether you choose to retreat from the border and continue colluding with those clandestine organizations and cult groups; or return to the Imperial Capital to surrender yourself and face judgment under Imperial Law, spending the rest of your life in prison."

"Or perhaps to continue what I once stopped—to use this 'Iron-Marked Moon' to end your life; even attacking me right now, locking me in the iron coffin and sinking me into the sea—it makes no difference."

"But—"

"Senior..."

Rast turned around, his back facing Ingrid. His soft voice drifted with the sea breeze.

"If in your heart, there still remains even the faintest yearning or longing for that radiant glory—of the military hero who once saved the Gustav Nuclear Power Plant from crisis, of the brilliance and honor of that time..."

"Then, perhaps you could consider what I proposed before—to become one who walks alongside me."

He slowly extended his hand.

A crystal, as dark as the night and seemingly capable of devouring all brilliance in the world, quietly formed in the palm of Rast's hand.

Then, this pitch-black Night Crystal was placed by Rast upon the reef before Ingrid, alongside the previously placed 'Iron-Marked Moon' revolver.

"This is my Memory Crystal."

"Within this Memory Crystal are stored fragments of my past life, and incomplete remnants of memory."

Rast turned slightly. In his pitch-black eyes was reflected the light of the sunwheel over the coastline.

"Senior, you said you were a moth in the dark, destined to be burned to ash by the sunlight."

"You also said that the light belonging to Shiltina could never illuminate the darkness of Ingrid... because Shiltina was born with everything, never bent to the dust, never experienced the rise from humble origins—so she could never truly empathize with you."

"Then, Senior, why not take a look at this Memory Crystal, see my past life and experiences."

"See if I, a ghost who returned from hell, can reach that night that belongs to Ingrid."

"And then, sever the fate that binds you, Senior."

...

By the time Ingrid recovered from her daze, the black-haired boy's figure had vanished from the dusk-stained coastline.

Only the revolver and the Memory Crystal, bathed in the sunset upon the nearby reef, remained as proof of Rast’s words.

"If you change your mind, Senior, then—"

"I’ll be waiting for you at the student dormitory of Starfall University."

The boy's calm and clear voice still seemed to echo by her ears.

Ingrid looked at the revolver on the reef.

Then—

With a trace of hesitation, she reached out her hand toward that pitch-black, night-like Memory Crystal.

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