Chapter 17 Nuclear Ping Matou Family

Kareya walked briskly through the scenery of his hometown. He had always thought that he would never see this scenery again.

Even though Kariya had returned to Fuyuki City several times before, he had never crossed the river and stepped into the deep mountain town. Thinking carefully, he had not been back for nearly ten years. Unlike the new capital, which changed its appearance every day due to urban development, this area had not changed at all. It seemed that time had stopped here.

The quiet alleys and street scenes were exactly the same as in his memory. But even if he slowed down and immersed himself in the scenery of his hometown, none of the memories that emerged in his mind made him feel happy, especially after talking with Aoi an hour ago, he finally understood why he changed his flight ticket overnight and rushed back to Fuyuki City several days earlier.

Because of anxiety.

Because of fear.

Because of the pitying look of the young travel companion when he left.

And because of the tear in the corner of Aoi's eye when she said goodbye.

He did see his childhood sweetheart who was safe and sound in the park, as well as the two daughters she and the head of the Tosaka family had conceived.

He had already breathed a sigh of relief, but when he learned that Aoi's second daughter Sakura had gone to the Matou family this afternoon and became "Matou Sakura", how big a bloody wound was dug in his heart?

Ah... Is this really okay? Aoi?

[... I'm already prepared... It's a mistake to dream of the happiness of an ordinary family...]

Such words are simply lies.

When Aoi accepted the proposal of the young magician eight years ago, her expression of confidence that she would be happy and her current weak smile flashed alternately in Matou Kariya's mind.

Back then, it was because of his trust in her smile that Kariya accepted the failure calmly.

He thought that perhaps only the man who was about to marry Aoi could give her a truly happy life.

But Kariya was wrong.

The price of the first mistake was that he lost the person he loved forever.

And the price of the second mistake... that is, the offspring of the person he loved will fall into the hell he escaped from in the past.

The thought of regret was burning Kariya's heart at this moment.

He actually repeated the same mistake, saying the same wrong words, doing the same wrong thing.

If I had stopped Aoi and kept her eight years ago, perhaps there would be a different future. If she had not married Tousaka at that time, perhaps she could have lived an ordinary life without being cursed by the fate of magicians.

And then in the park this afternoon, if Kariya had also objected to the decision of the Tousaka and Matou families... Aoi might be surprised and treat his opinion as an outsider's joke, but at least she would not have to blame herself and suppress her pain in her heart.

Kariya would never forgive himself for repeating the same mistakes again and again. In order to punish himself, he returned to the place where he said goodbye in the past. The only way to atone for his sins must be there. The world he had turned away from before, the fate he had escaped to protect himself before.

Now he finally has the courage to face it.

For the woman in this world who he least wants to see sad.

Under the dim sky as the sun was about to sink into the horizon, he walked towards a lush and tall western-style house. The looming roar gradually became louder, accompanied by a bright light that burned his eyelids.

What happened? Kariya thought blankly and quickened his pace.

After ten years, he returned to the doorstep of his birthplace.

At the gate, Matou Kariya once again met the familiar figure.

The golden eyes were more gorgeous in the afterglow of the setting sun, but what made Kariya focus all his attention and was shocked was the hideous iron in the young man's hand.

"...Sakutsuki?"

"Hmm?" Turning around, Shuoyue saw the dumbfounded Matou Kariya with his mouth wide open. He subconsciously wanted to say hello, but realized that he was holding the RPG-7 with both hands, so he simply smiled and said, "You came just in time, Kariya! Although I don't know why you came back early, it's just right for you to witness this great moment of history with me!"

"...What do you want to do, Shuoyue?"

Faced with Matou Kariya's unbelievable question, Shuoyue showed a childish and brilliant smile, and declared loudly like a devil:

"Of course - blow up this insect cave!"

Without waiting for Kariya to react, the 84mm-diameter rocket drew a brilliant arc, pierced through several precarious lines of defense, and hit the Matou family's mansion!

"Boom!"

At the moment the flames exploded, the young man with golden eyes cheered, holding a large stack of incendiary bombs that had appeared in his arms at some point, and rushed into the gloomy western-style building straight against the flames.

"Blow them all up!"

"Wait a minute! Don't go over there!" Seeing his home destroyed, Yanye didn't know whether he was happy or sad. He just rushed into the house following the footsteps of his young companion.

————

Explosion, explosion, explosion.

Flame, flame, flame.

In this devastating scene, the wailing of countless arthropods resounded throughout the mansion.

Eggs, larvae, pupae, and adults.

Wriggling, crawling, and flapping their wings.

The dense, black wave-like swarm of insects sensed the fatal crisis and fled from their hiding places, moving desperately towards the door.

Then——the merciless flames burned them to ashes.

"Haha, huhahaha!" The young man laughed wildly, and the flamethrower in his hand spit out a dozen meters of flames, sweeping everything around, and all the filth and all the unbearableness were thrown into the red lotus's fire.

Behind him, Jiantong Yanye watched all this happen in fear, as if he had reacquainted this young travel companion--

Just now, he watched Shuoyue throw away the last incendiary bomb, and then conjured such a dangerous weapon out of thin air, killing everyone in this western-style building and destroying all mysterious factors.

Until now, he had only one thought in his mind-why this broken house hasn't collapsed yet!

"I thought who visited the Jiantong family, but used such a despicable weapon. It seems that you are really corrupt, Einzbern!"

In the firelight, the short old man appeared in front of Shuoyue and Jiantong Yanye, and the flames around him extinguished as if in fear, and the shadow of the years once again enveloped him.

"Jiantong...Zouyan." Jiantong Yanye glared at the head of the family with angry eyes.

In fact, even he did not know the real age of this old man. In the household registration, he was the father of the Kariya brothers, but strangely, in the family tree, his great-grandfather and the ancestors three generations ago were also called Zouken.

No one knew how many generations this old man had ruled the Matou family.

The immortal magician who used unspeakable horror methods to extend his life again and again, the ancestor of the Matou family bloodline that Kariya hated the most, and the living monster who survived to the modern era - this was Matou Zouken.

Once he thought of the introverted little girl who always hid behind her sister and fell into the hands of this monster and suffered a cruel fate, an irrepressible impulse rushed through Kariya's body. He wanted to pounce on this evil magician right now, use all his strength to pinch his wrinkled neck, and then twist it hard.

But Kariya also knew it very well. No matter how thin and old he was, Zouken was a magician after all, and it would be easy for him to kill Kariya on the spot. If he resorted to force, Kariya would have absolutely no chance of winning.

A bleak cold light flashed, and at the moment when he dropped the flamethrower, Shuoyue had already held Ganjiang Moye and cut the body in half at an inhuman speed.

"You old thing should roll back into the earth. You are like Eubusta Kuhaid von Einzbern, full of the smell of decay." The young man, who finally showed his imposing aura, stared at the old man's body that was cut from top to bottom, and said coldly:

"You deserve to die, Machiri Zorgen!"