Chapter 4 - Expert

Chapter 4 - 1 ExpertRhein Calendar 1244, Oubos.

Bologue sat by the roadside, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, expressionless.

"Adelle, I'm almost done with your revenge."

He muttered to himself, casually flicking the burning cigarette butt forward, which bounced and sparked before disappearing into the small river flowing nearby.

The river rushed, hurriedly disappearing from one end of the view to the other end of the night.

There are many such rivers in Oubos; they branch off from a great river that winds through Oubos, known as the Rhine River.

It flows through various countries, and legend says its source is deep within the Rhine Alliance, though Bologue has never been so far and wonders if he'll ever have the chance to verify this.

He gazed at the distant skyline that resembled mountain ranges, then lowered his head, glancing at his still glowing hand—or his veins.

In the pale, unhealthy palm, bluish light flickered intermittently, emanating from the veins within the flesh, like electrified circuits, bursting with a radiant trajectory.

As a debtor, Bologue actually bears some similarities to a demon, for instance, his soul is missing a corner, revealing an abyss-like void.

This void causes hunger, distortion, transforming one into a monstrous demon, forcing the demon to crave other souls, driving the debtor to reclaim his own soul.

Bologue was plagued by this while in the Black Prison, every time the hunger struck, it felt terrible.

Like... like there was a tiny black hole inside the body, spinning and devouring, it greedily bit into everything around it, swallowing bones and flesh, pressing everything together, collapsing and finally cramming it into that tiny hole, blood-soaked.

After the physical pain comes the mental torment—you feel thirsty, hungry, sleepy, fatigued, and all sorts of negative emotions. You try to satisfy yourself, drink, eat, sleep, but regretfully, the void is never satisfied; only the soul can relieve and fill it.

Bulimia Nervosa, that's what the people in the Black Prison call the symptoms when the void is agitated.

Whenever Bulimia Nervosa occurred, Bologue was tortured to the point he wanted to bite the wall. After getting out, he was once worried about its onset, but upon killing the first demon, he noticed something unusual.

Bluish specks.

Any demon killed by Bologue would release bluish specks after death. In battles, he questioned enemies a few times and concluded that only he could see these strange specks.

Initially, Bologue didn't understand what they were, treating them as anomalies from his "Blessing" manifesting, but soon, he realized he hadn't been troubled by Bulimia Nervosa for a long time...

After consulting Geoffrey for related knowledge, Bologue deduced the nature of these bluish specks.

Fragments of the soul.

As long as he kills demons, Bologue can devour fragments of the soul from their remains.

He doesn't know where this ability came from, attributing it to the ancillary ability from the blood contract he once made with the Devil.

Compared to his "Blessing," Bologue is more satisfied with this ability. Every time he slays a demon, the fragments of the soul merge into his body, filling the soul's gap, calming the void, and delaying the eruption of Bulimia Nervosa.

Like a ravenous ghost after a feast, Bologue feels immense satisfaction after "feeding," he even wonders if, by killing enough demons, he could one day completely fill the gap, restoring the wholeness of his soul.

Though such a thing seems distant, after a year of killing demons, it's merely alleviating the torment of Bulimia Nervosa.

But as long as he lives long enough and kills enough... maybe, maybe it's not impossible.

The evening wind was somewhat cold, involuntarily pulling his tattered clothes tight, which were burned into holes everywhere.

He turned back; the church was ablaze amidst fiery flames, Bologue watched the charred ruins, considering whether to approach the fire for warmth, but seeing those people gathered by the street, he decided against it.

The church collapsed amidst raging flames, burying the demon within.

Quite a poetic scene, yet Bologue felt a headache, already imagining what the boss would say to him, "It's just hunting a demon, no need to burn down a whole church," and similar complaints.

But that's unavoidable. Every time Bologue gets overly absorbed in "work," he forgets the surrounding environment.

"What a bad luck."

Bologue whispered; he was a jinx, maintaining a stroke of bad luck since he came to this world.

"It's been a while since I came to this world."

Thinking about these, Bologue recalled what he looked like before arriving in this city, or rather, his past life... at least he believed it was his past life.

Unlike transmigration, Bologue seemed to have been reborn into this world.

Carrying memories of his past life, born into this world, in an ordinary family.

Initially, Bologue was panicked, but faced with absolute reality, he had no means of resistance, accepted it calmly, and lived ordinarily.

Bologue planned his life very well, first growing up safely, familiarizing with the world, then gathering relevant information—he didn't believe his arrival in this world was a coincidence.