I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-240

Ch-240 **Randolph’s Most Precious Thing**

—

The Heavenly Demon lifted the Heavenly Demon Blade in his grasp.

*At last, it has returned to me.*

It felt as if a severed limb had regenerated.

How long he had yearned for this reunion.

Truly, the past days had been humiliating.

After losing the first night’s starlight duel to the “Terrible Omen,” he had gone to reclaim his blade—only to face the Sunken Emperor.

*If only I’d had the Heavenly Demon Blade then, that wretch would have been nothing.*

Yet even before the Sunken Emperor he had suffered something close to defeat.

Had the blade been in his hand, he would never have tasted such disgrace.

*…The Night Wraith.*

In a perilous moment, right on the brink of death, he had used his wits to leap at the Night Wraith—and was transferred into the *Prison of Stars*.

And there he had lost yet another “precious thing.”

*I don’t know what the wraith stole from me… feels like a memory.*

The problem was that he had no way to determine what had been taken.

His internal energy and martial arts remained intact.

Which meant the only remaining possibility was—memory.

And one cannot recognize a memory that one no longer remembers.

Still, as the saying goes, when you lose one thing, you gain another.

“Terrible Omen… to think you’d come looking for me.”

The Heavenly Demon recalled the previous night.

Not long after being released from the prison.

Last night, the Terrible Omen had appeared riding **Baal**.

He had been surprised, yes—
but he did not avoid him.

How could he turn back with the Heavenly Demon Blade in sight?

But the moment he faced the Terrible Omen head-on, he could not help but feel perplexed.

*—‘Let’s trade. I’ll exchange this for the Sunken Emperor’s item.’*

The Terrible Omen suddenly proposed a deal.

From the Heavenly Demon’s standpoint, it was not a bad proposal.

The Terrible Omen seemed to be supported by the Night Wraith.
And above all, the Heavenly Demon’s internal energy had not yet recovered.

*I never had any use for that thing anyway.*

A tiny bottle with an unknown substance—
so useless that trading it for the Heavenly Demon Blade almost seemed like madness.

*I was going to kill him the moment I retrieved my sword.*

He had no intention of honoring the deal.

Once he reclaimed the Heavenly Demon Blade, he believed he could defeat anyone on the island.

But the Heavenly Demon failed to achieve his aim.

He traded the small bottle for the Heavenly Demon Blade—
yet afterward, he could only stare as the Terrible Omen walked away.

*…My internal energy won’t flow. What is this?*

Holding the Heavenly Demon Blade should cause his internal energy to erupt.

But instead of surging, it wouldn’t even *form*.

Soon he realized why.

*Is the Heavenly Demon Blade afraid of him…?*

The moment the Terrible Omen vanished from sight, his internal energy exploded back to life.

As if the sword feared him.

This had never happened before.

Instead of devouring its wielder, it now acted as though the Terrible Omen had done something to it.

Whatever he had done, the Heavenly Demon could not tell.

“Next time we meet… you will not leave alive.”

One way or another, he had reclaimed the Heavenly Demon Blade.

That alone was enough.

Once his body recovered, he would have nothing left to fear.

Not the Sunken Emperor.
Not the Terrible Omen.

If they crossed his path again, neither would walk away.

The Divine Island?
The Starlight Expedition?

Those mattered far less than killing those two.

The Heavenly Demon vowed so with a hardened expression.

—

—

Cold wind howled.

As though greeting him for the first time.

In a sense, it *was* a first meeting.

*That old man…*

In their first encounter, the old man had claimed to be a clone of the Sunken Emperor—
merely a projection of his distant past self.

Which explained why his appearance and personality differed by a full one-eighty degrees.

*Could he have been the Night Wraith?*

Perhaps the Night Wraith had transformed.

It was nothing like an NPC prepared for this game.

The wraith that guarded the cave clearly possessed a will.

It was more likely that a real individual had been brought here.

And when morning came, the Night Wraith mimicked a different participant and continued the game…

*One of this game’s hidden elements must be the Night Wraith—a participant separate from the participants.*

If he thought about it that way, everything lined up.

If it had been just a rule-abiding NPC, it would’ve intervened when the battle broke out near the cave—not watched silently.

Thus, they were participants too.

To them, we are the Wraiths of Morning, just as they are the Wraiths of Night to us.

“…I asked what you want.”

The Sunken Emperor was impatient.

His attitude made it clear he would attack if he didn’t receive an answer immediately.

And it was morning.

A time when starlight duels *and* normal combat were possible.

But the Sunken Emperor had once mistaken me for Destruction and retreated.

So he would not choose a simple fight—
he must have confidence in the *Starlight Duel.*

I organized my thoughts and spoke briefly.

“How strange.”

“…?”

My suspicion about the old man’s identity—
that suspicion now applied also to the Sunken Emperor wearing his form.

So I tested it.

“If this bottle contains your ‘most precious thing,’ surely you would have checked whether it’s real.”

I pulled the bottle from my coat and shook it.

And at that moment, the bottle’s shape changed—

—into a **Goat Mask**.

One of the “Form Alteration” abilities granted by the Primordial Armor.

Just a mimic of form—nothing more.

No matter how realistic, any true owner should sense whether it was genuine.

Yet he showed no doubt.

He had asked me twice already what I wanted.

Wasn’t that strange?

*So the old man wasn’t the fake one…*

At first I thought the old man who spent the night with me was the counterfeit.

But apparently not.

“You’re not the Sunken Emperor.”

“What nonsense—”

*Crackle!*

Suddenly—

Cracks spread across his form, and his figure warped.

“Mm…?!”

Like a shell breaking apart, a completely different body emerged:

A gaunt man with white hair.

“Aah…!! O Celestial One!”

And with that final cry, he turned to ash and vanished.

I was momentarily speechless.

He truly hadn’t been the Sunken Emperor.

—

—

 

【Based on solid reasoning, you have revealed the true identity of a “Night Wraith”!】

【The revealed Night Wraith has been eliminated.】

【Attack +50, Vitality +50】

【Three Night Wraiths remain.】

【If all Night Wraiths are eliminated, ‘Night’ will no longer fall.】

【Night Wraiths can also be eliminated by defeating them in a Starlight Expedition.】

As expected—
it had been a Night Wraith.

At morning they disguised themselves as participants, sowing confusion.

But simple suspicion was not enough—
You needed **proper evidence**, like just now.

*A Celestial…*

The final words stuck in my mind.

There was only one participant who could be called a Celestial.

The Heavenly Demon.

One who ruled like a god over the fanatics of Mount Heaven.

According to the evil god’s memories, his believers called him *Heavenly Lord.*

*So the Night Wraiths are connected to the participants… deeply so.*

Their removal was essential to winning this game.

Gaining +50 attack and +50 vitality was comparable even to a 5-star blessing.

And if all wraiths were eliminated, *night would never fall*—
meaning the battle would be decided only through starlight duels.

I liked that.

I liked all of it—
except for one thing.

*The wraith who protected me.*

The wraith who guarded me at the cave.

Who was it?

Without that wraith, I would have died inside the cave.

Which made it even more important.

Just who had protected me?

*Could it be…*

One person came to mind.

*…Isabella?*

…No.

I shook my head.

Impossible.

Isabella couldn’t be a Night Wraith.

We had made a promise.

She would wait for me outside no matter what.

But if, by some chance, she *had* entered—

*Then I must finish this game as quickly as possible.*

The longer it took, the more likely Isabella would be erased.

“Raiga. What are your attack and vitality stats?”

He looked at me, frowning.

“Why do you need to know that?”

I shrugged, playing it off.

“That Night Wraith mimicked the Sunken Emperor. If one mimics you, we should share information beforehand.”

We were allies now.

We needed to know each other.

Unwilling as he was, Raiga answered with a sour expression:

“…60, 58. Yours?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

“…?”

*Fwoooosh!*

【‘Raiga’ and ‘Randolph (Terrible Omen)’ are initiating a Starlight Expedition Duel.】

【Raiga – Attack 60, Vitality 58】

【Raiga has been defeated.】

【Expedition successful!】

【Current successful expeditions: 3】

【Randolph steals Raiga’s most precious thing.】

His eyes bulged in shock.

His cheeks trembled in rage.

“You—!!”

【The defeated is confined to the ‘Prison of Stars’ for one day.】

*Whoosh!*

His words cut off as his body vanished instantly.

*He’ll live for a few more days.*

Call it betrayal if one wished—but I had no choice.

I had to clear this cursed game quickly.

This made my third win.

And as promised, I would also treat Raiga’s condition while he was in confinement.

But I was curious.

*A… book?*

Raiga’s most precious thing was an ancient, worn-out book with no title.

I opened it.

Inside—

A simple child-raising diary.

*A record of Raiga’s upbringing written by a previous Fang.*

Someone had raised and watched him grow.

Most of the entries described bringing in an orphaned child and training him harshly.

But the associated memory was entirely different.

A previous Fang master had fallen for Raiga’s talent, murdered his parents, and kidnapped him.

Then killed everyone connected to him.

Erased everything.

Even tampered with Raiga’s memories.

*…Not a master. A mortal enemy.*

Unbelievable.

He treasured a diary written by the one who had ruined his life.

Raiga’s reality was more horrific than expected.

“…”

I closed the book and sighed.

My suspicion was now certainty.

*All these precious things are memories one is better off not knowing.*

The Heavenly Demon Blade—
the coin treasured by the Master of the Tomb—
and this diary—

All memories that brought only suffering.

If the Heavenly Demon learned the evil god intended to seize his body, could he escape that fate?

If the Master of the Tomb learned the golem master who created him was long dead, how devastated would he be?

And if Raiga knew his master was his eternal enemy, he would never recover.

“Master of the Tomb.”

*Goooooo…*

He had been staring at me for a while.

He had already beaten me once in a starlight duel when I first arrived.

Meaning he had no reason to duel me again.

【解除: ‘Starlight of Void’】
【解除: ‘Starlight of Dexterity’】
…
【All Starlights have been deactivated.】

But I deactivated every starlight.

Then—

“I need to know what my most precious thing is.”

A memory one is better off not knowing—
and yet one I *must* know.

Surely I too had a painful counterpart linked to what I valued most.

Something that pierced the core of my being.

I hesitated—
but if Isabella might be a wraith, I could not hesitate anymore.

*Goooo…*

The Master of the Tomb sensed my intent and inscribed his starlight into the air.

【‘Master of the Tomb’ and ‘Randolph’ begin a Starlight Expedition.】

【Randolph – Attack 0, Vitality 0】

【Randolph has been defeated.】

【Expedition failed!】

【Master of the Tomb steals Randolph’s most precious thing.】

This was something Raiga could never see.

He must never know what my precious thing is.

But the Master of the Tomb was different.

One who wandered the Abyss for eons in search of his master—
I trusted his purity.

Just as I returned his precious belonging to him,
he would return mine to me—
together with the intertwined memory.

【The defeated is confined to the Prison of Stars for one day.】

*Fwoooosh.*

—

 

 

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