EP.136 A trial to endure (3)
-dad
When I close my eyes, I hear a voice calling me.
It is a voice that has now become a memory. He slowly opens his eyes, hearing the voice ringing in his ears.
-Dad, are you listening to me?
The voice ringing in my ears becomes clearer.
“I’m listening. “What’s going on, Armel?”
“Why don’t you teach me how to use a sword?”
“huh?”
Draka blinked.
What you see in front of you is a lovely girl with her hair braided into two pigtails. She is a daughter who does not resemble herself at all, but only inherits her wife’s beautiful appearance.
‘Armel.’
Draka smiled bitterly as he looked at his daughter.
It was a pretty bold question. He started puffing out his cheeks in the morning, barged into the office, and asked, ‘Why don’t you teach me how to use a sword?’
‘What else am I dissatisfied with today?’
Draka soothed her daughter with a soft voice.
“It’s hard to understand. Are you asking me to teach you how to use a sword? “What did you mean, Armel?”
“I also want to learn how to use a sword. Boys at the academy make fun of me. “He is the son of a master swordsman, so does it make sense that he can’t even handle a sword properly?”
Draka frowned.
This is my daughter who raised gold and jade. She was sent to the academy at best, and it seemed like there were more than one male student who was taken aback by her beautiful appearance.
‘He’s probably just spouting nonsense that doesn’t even sound like a word, just to get a chance to say something.’
Draka clicked his tongue and said, “Tsk.” His hand reflexively went towards the wooden sword hanging on the wall.
“Who are those crazy people? Just say it. “This father runs right away…”
“You did that last time too and you were banned from the academy. “Why do adults get involved in children’s problems?”
“Hmm, but…”
“So, please tell me the sword too.”
Armel spoke confidently.
“I’ll dig it myself.”
“I wonder who the child resembles like this…”
Draka shook his head.
In fact, Draka knew that what her daughter was saying now was just an excuse. She said her daughter wanted to be like her ever since she was little.
‘I said several times that I would learn the sword.’
It will be the same this time too.
And, each time, Draka rejected her daughter’s offer. Although he is an idiot who would die at the slightest word from Armel, before that he was a prosecutor. A swordsman who makes no compromises when it comes to the sword.
“Armel.”
Draka cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
Draka never went out of his way to say, ‘Swordsmanship is not something that can be created in a day or two.’ He didn’t even say, ‘You have no martial arts talent.’ She was sure that her daughter would be disappointed if she said that.
Instead, Draka spoke in a soft voice.
“Is there really a need to learn the sword?”
“···You’re doing that again.”
Armel looked disappointed.
“···Why aren’t you teaching me? Wouldn’t it be good if I learned martial arts to protect myself? Because you never know…”
“Even if there is something I don’t know.”
Draka interrupted Armel.
Then he punched his chest and laughed.
“Isn’t this father there?”
“······.”
“I will protect you no matter what. “Because that’s what a father should be.”
“really?”
“Not really.”
Because I swore this oath in front of your mother’s and my wife’s grave. Draka didn’t say anything. It was enough to bury it in his heart.
“I swear on my name.”
Armel shook his head as if he couldn’t stop him.
Draka put on his coat and stood up, telling Armel that he would take him to the academy.
Squeak, the door opens.
Armel is the first to leave the room. Draka stopped in place and looked at Armel. After staring at the back for a moment… he then turned his gaze downward. So Draka looks back at his own body.
“······.”
He said he would drop his daughter off, but the stylish coat he wore was nowhere to be found. Instead, a shabby cloak is wrapped around her shoulders. Instead of her hands that were calloused and not scarred, I see rough hands caked with blood and ooze.
It’s time to wake up from the dream.
As someone whispers, the scenery of the office falls apart. My daughter’s image melts. It turns into black scum. My daughter, my office, and even my estate.
All that’s left is yourself.
A sneer forms on Draka’s lips.
‘Draka van Harrokht.’
It’s a name from a long time ago.
Draka closed his eyes, thinking of his own name, which he could no longer say because he could not keep his oath.
The oath was not kept.
The daughter was brutally murdered.
The child could not die as a human being.
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‘It melted and died, becoming one with the dirty demon beast.’
Draka opened his closed eyes.
When he returned to reality, he saw what was in front of him. There is a cardinal waiting for his own story. I see paladins filling the church.
Yes, I see.
Were you in the middle of a conversation?
How far have I talked? Draka pulled together the strands of the story from his jumbled mind.
“cardinal.”
Draka said.
“I’m trying to see the end this time.”
The time has come to end this long hell.
Draka took something out from inside his shabby clothes. What he took out was an old wooden box.
2.
There was a snowstorm. She was cold, but not very cold. I took a short breath and walked away. With each step I took, the snowstorm grew stronger.
Ssssssssssssssssssss!
How long did it take to walk like that? The snow wind didn’t push me away, as if it felt impossible to push me away. Instead, it attacked me as if clawing.
‘It’s like a thin blade.’
The expression “blistering wind” suited me very well.
It looks like the direction has changed a bit…
“I try hard.”
All I could do was laugh.
No matter how strong the blizzard is, it is just snow and wind. For me, who ate and slept in the canyon of Belial, a black dragon where magical energy rages like a storm… a snowstorm of this magnitude was just a cool breeze.
‘I survived even in front of the devil, why?’
No matter how rough it is, there’s nothing stopping it.
Something at the center of the sanctuary seemed to want me to return, but it was out of the question.
‘How can you stop being curious?’
That’s what human psychology is like.
There’s a button that says don’t press it, so I really want to press it, and when they tell me not to go in, I want to go in even more.
‘I can’t go back. No, I’m not going back.’
Actually, at this point I can’t go back even if I’m curious. What on earth is at the center that prevents intruders like this?
‘I thought I heard there was a weapon attached.’
From what I remember, the ordeal of the Star Sword that Kyle overcame wasn’t quite like this. So does that mean there is at least a weapon equivalent to a holy sword?
‘No matter what…’
You’ll know when you see it.
“Whoa.”
I let out a short breath.
The snowstorm obscured my vision and I couldn’t see clearly. I thought about just destroying it… but no matter what, you can’t destroy a place called a family’s sanctuary.
Trudging.
How long did it take to walk like that?
I stopped walking for a moment. It was because we had arrived at our destination. I stopped walking and narrowed my eyes.
The blizzard has cleared.
What came into wide view was a green meadow.
“···hmm.”
It was quite a mysterious scenery.
If you take even one step back, a blizzard starts, but the center of the sanctuary is a green meadow. I felt like I had stepped into a place far from reality.
‘The concentration of mana has increased.’
On the outside, it seemed like the ordeal was over, but the concentration of mana was thicker than ever. Her stomach felt a little clogged.
chin.
I took a step forward.
The rust-colored grass was crushed by my shoes. Like leaving footprints on a field of pure white snow, I walked on a green meadow that no one had ever touched.
Snap.
A stream of water flowed through the meadow, and I thought it was the road to an ‘unfrozen spring.’ I walked along the flowing water.
‘It looks like it’s here.’
The flowing waterways gathered in one place.
Where the waterway gathered, huge stone statues were arranged in a circle. Fifteen stone statues with their bases submerged in water were surrounding something.
In a way, it was like a tomb.
It looks like a stone statue is guarding the tomb.
‘···Wait a minute, grave?’
I stopped walking for a moment.
If this is really a tomb… it would be a place where I, as an outsider and not a member of the Grace family, should not set foot.
‘But I’m curious…’
It’s something I shouldn’t do, but I’m curious.
‘…Wouldn’t it be okay if I just take a quick look?’
Moral conscience and curiosity.
The moment when the scale that was weighing two values was slowly tilting towards curiosity.
“···huh?”
I narrowed my eyes.
It was because something caught my eye. I traced the pattern carved on the statue with my finger. It was a unique pattern, and also a familiar one.
“this···.”
I mumbled without thinking.
“It’s a symbol of ashes.”
It is the symbol of the Gray Magic Tower, and the pattern I wore on my robes when I was an Gray Wizard.
‘Why is it here?’
Something was strange.
I turned my head. I stretched out my hand beyond the statue. I needed to check what was hidden inside.
“He is unauthorized.”
And, that is the moment.
“Go back.”
Boom, boom.
The statue began to move.
* * *
A wooden box placed by Draka.
The cardinal who was looking at it asked a question.
“What is this?”
“It’s a kind of map to find the remains of the first saint and where they are buried.”
Draka opened the wooden box.
What was in the opened wooden box was a pure white bone. A black bone. The cardinal’s eyes widened when he saw this.
“This···.”
The Cardinal took a deep breath.
The divine power contained in this mere span of bone was clearly visible to his eyes. A saint blessed by the stars, even the sacred power flowing through Sarah’s body was insignificant compared to those bones.
“Where on earth do you get this?”
The cardinal’s voice trembled.
Seeing that, Draka shrugged his shoulders.
“I found it in a kingdom that was ashes. “It was stored deep in the ruins, buried in ashes.”
“No expedition found anything. “We have already seen the ruins buried in ashes many times…”
“Didn’t I tell you, it’s a deep place?”
The cardinal was silent, and Draka spoke.
“A place where traces of the Demon King remain. “The deepest part of the ruins, filled with miasma.”
A place where no one has been able to investigate, as life is lost just by setting foot on it.
“98 people going in.”
Draka said.
“126 people when we leave.”
What do those numbers mean?
The cardinal did not ask. Because I knew the answer without having to ask.
“After offering that much on the altar, how could it escape? This is the product obtained as a result. “Cardinal, let me tell you two interesting facts.”
Draka spread his index and middle fingers.
He said, folding his middle finger.
“One, the relic resonates with the relic. In particular, those related to the first saint… show a stronger resonance. “It’s a bit of a shame, but it’s been about ten years since I discovered this bone.”
“No, how could that be…!”
Why did you keep it hidden until now?
And, why is this being shown only now?
Draka answered the cardinal who asked that question.
“Because I finally found it.”
Draka raised the corner of his mouth.
He continued speaking, folding his remaining index finger.
“The saint’s remains faced north. No matter where you stand, it only points to the north. “It was the same when she visited the Holy Kingdom, the headquarters of the Thelohim Church.”
Also in front of the clothes worn by the first saint.
Even in front of the holy water she said she used.
This joint always pointed only to the north.
‘What does that mean?’
The cardinal swallowed.
“It probably means that the remains of the first saint are buried here. “Remains that no one has ever found.”
“···Where is it?”
“You have become impatient, Cardinal.”
Draka leaned back.
He said with a leisurely smile.
“Can you keep what you promised before?”
“···of course.”
The cardinal snapped his fingers.
The paladins guarding the door of the old cathedral took a step back. The door opens and what is revealed are children dressed in pure white clothes.
“They are young children.”
“These are children that no one would suspect even if they disappeared.”
Draka nodded.
He looked at the children as if checking an object. They were expressionless children, as if they had been brainwashed. It was in perfect condition for use.
Confirmation of the item has been completed.
Now it was Draka’s turn to give the answer.
“The place this bone points to is…”
3.
Boom, boom!
The statue collapses. The fire in the stone statue’s eyes, which had been flashing red, goes out. Raniel grabbed the statue’s headdress and tore it off, then slowly lowered his gaze.
Three stone statues were smashed.
It would be wrong to leave a mess in someone else’s family’s sanctuary… Raniel didn’t have enough time to think about such things.
Excited.
Raniel’s heart pounded loudly.
“······.”
A piece of stone floating on spring water.
The remains of a shattered stone statue.
Beyond that, a small piece of land floating in the center of the spring.
There was something stuck in the ground that a person could barely stand on. It is like a kind of stake that binds Sam’s mana.
‘It acts like a giant tree in the center of Harmain Forest.’
It was a sword. A sword that retains its spirit despite the passage of time.
“···what.”
Raniel’s gaze as he looked at the sword wavered.
The shape of the sword looks familiar. I’ve seen that sword a handful of times, but there’s no way I can forget it.
A huge blade.
The handle is thin compared to the blade.
A great sword that an ordinary person cannot even lift. The cloth wrapped around the hilt of the great sword flutters. There was a sentence engraved on the worn cloth, but it did not enter Raniel’s field of vision.
“this.”
There is a hole in the blade.
Platinum-colored starlight flows down from the hole.
“Why is it here?”
Ganichalt, the sword of death.
The sword of death, which is like a symbol of its existence.
A sword that looked exactly like it was stuck in the center of the spring.
A word from the author (author review)
It was packed in plenty 😀
