EP.206 Reunion (1)
Elves live lives that are tens or hundreds of times that of humans. It is said that the elder who ruled the elves lived for seven thousand years before the demon king’s army overturned the world and trampled the elf territories.
When Cardi had just reached the age of 100, he asked an elder who had lived for 7,000 years.
Seven thousand years of life.
When you look back on your long life, what is the first memory that comes to mind?
“Ten days.”
To that question, the elder who had lived for 7,000 years answered ‘ten days’ without any hesitation.
“A human came to the elf territory and stayed there for ten days. “The ten days I spent with that man are the most precious and unforgettable memories for me.”
Although I have lived for seven thousand years, the thing that is most deeply engraved in my memory is the ten days I spent with humans. And, in the life of an elf, ten days were like a fleeting moment.
‘A mere moment is the most meaningful?’
That’s what I thought at the time.
At that time, Cardi did not understand what the elder said. It was later in the story that he came to understand that.
“Armiel.”
A fleeting moment.
“thank you.”
The moment that shined the most because it was fleeting.
There is a past that cannot be forgotten even after hundreds of years. She slowly opens her closed eyes. When I open my eyes, all I see is the land turned into ashes.
But Cardi sees something else there.
Cardi recalls.
Hundreds of years ago, the day this place burned down.
* * *
The subjugation of the Demon King failed.
No one can remember the journey I took with my colleagues. Her numerous achievements and her fame all returned to nothing.
Only you remember.
‘Only myself.’
Cardi felt extremely lonely. He couldn’t sleep at night, and he spent the night with his eyes open. Cardi, who was stuck on the top floor of the Magic Tower, lived a life like a ruined person.
Study after study was conducted.
I believed there would be some answer.
‘Forbidden books, forbidden alcohol, taboo.’
Doing all the things that were forbidden, Cardi was looking for a way. Naturally, there was no answer. Helplessness was piled on top of loneliness. How long has it been since I was stuck in the magic tower like that?
“···Magic Tower Lord.”
Someone came to visit me.
The wizard with a frightened face said. I need your help. Someone is attacking the kingdom.
“A woman with white hair and green eyes, that is, a madman who falsely calls herself a ‘saint’…”
After hearing those words, Cardi ran out of the magic tower. I ran frantically towards the direction pointed by the wizard. It was the sanctuary of the Delohim Church.
Where the main church of the denomination is located.
The place where Gleria was born and raised.
A foul odor wafted in from the beginning of the sanctuary. The smell of rotting corpses and something burning was everywhere.
“Ahh, ahhhhh!”
“Ugh, wow!”
Someone’s screams echoed in my ears. Cardi’s expression hardened. The screams are familiar. However, the sound of someone’s laughter mixed in with the screams made Cardi’s mouth go dry.
“Ahaha, ahaha!”
A sound of laughter resounding with joy.
Cardi walked and walked, chasing a voice that was both familiar and missed.
Mangled human corpses are scattered everywhere.
Demonic beasts fused with humans pollute the sanctuary.
The smell of blood wafts everywhere.
The place where gods were worshiped and the place called sanctuary had already been transformed into hell. Cardi continued to walk through the place that had become hell.
Took.
The place where he stopped was in front of the main church.
In a place where the things that used to be human were just flowing down the drain, Cardi faced the friend she had lost.
“Ahaha, ahaa…”
White hair caked in blood.
Green eyes shining with madness.
A cracked, dry laugh.
Patter, patter.
Blood dripped along the woman’s fingers. The spilled blood pooled on the floor. Cardi’s eyes shook violently as she saw that.
Gleria Belle Armias.
Looking at her, Cardi can’t bring himself to say that name. She has become something else and is desecrating someone’s life with the power to save someone. A rotten smell vibrated beneath her feet.
Trudging.
Cardi takes a step.
The woman also responds to the sound of those steps. The woman slowly turned her head and looked behind her.
“ah···.”
The laughter subsides.
Eyes shining with madness look at Cardi.
“It’s you, Armiel.”
Gleria smiles brightly.
Cardi’s expression becomes distorted.
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“Gleria, what on earth have you done…?”
“What are you doing?”
she smiled
“It’s salvation.”
“The world needs salvation.”
“I have a proper body and believe in a broken God, so no matter how long I wait, salvation will not come. So we have to destroy it. “So that the broken God can see them.”
“And with the miracle I received from God, I want to save those who are suffering. “That is my wish.”
“I have an obligation to do so.”
Broken beliefs.
A broken mind.
“I am still a saint.”
Quickly.
Cardi gritted her teeth as she looked at her former colleague who had become a madman. He bowed his head silently. Because he could no longer see his broken old comrade.
Cardi has a hunch.
His former colleague had crossed the bridge of no return. There was no room for compromise there.
“Forgive me, Gleria.”
Cardi rolls up her sleeves.
The hem of the robe shakes violently.
“This is how I protect you.”
Cardi reached out to write a spell he had developed but hoped not to use. A huge circuit was carved in the air. Eventually, a new sun rises in the sky.
The sun fell below the ground.
The flame burns the old water. The fire erases all traces of Gleria’s massacre and apostasy. However, apostates do not die by burning. In her flames she waves her hands.
Grumble.
New demons are born from the corpses of dead demons. Even as they melted into the residual fire, the demonic beasts rushed towards Cardi. The beast’s teeth bite into Cardi’s flesh.
The fierce fight continued like that.
Burning, tearing, and burning again are repeated. The winner at the end was Cardi. Limping, Cardi approached the soot-covered church.
“It’s still the same, Armiel.”
The saint, leaning against a pillar of the church, smiles.
“You’re still like me.”
“······.”
“What did Armiel say? Don’t lose your sense of righteousness. Do not forget your path. “If you forget…”
“I said I would make it right.”
“is it so.”
Gleria let out a soft smile.
“Because that’s a promise.”
“Every day, a contract, a contract! “Wizards can’t promise anything unless they’re bound by a contract, right?”
Cardi stopped walking.
“It’s not a contract, it’s a promise.”
“This is a promise, Armiel. What is the contract between us? “It’s too hard.”
Slowly, Cardi raises her head.
I make eye contact with Gleria, who is leaning against a pillar. Although she is broken, her memory is intact. That’s why the current situation seems even more tragic.
“You said you would make it right?”
Gleria asks a question.
“They say it’s a wizard who finds a way.”
Cardi remains silent to that question.
“Isn’t it okay because it’s a promise, not a contract?”
“···no.”
I tried to find a way.
I have tried countless methods. However, no answer was found. It was impossible for me.
Numerous words repeatedly appeared and disappeared in Cardi’s mind. However, he did not let anything come out of his mouth.
“I···.”
With Gleria in front of him, Cardi cannot bear to say that it is impossible. In the end, what he came up with was nothing more than vague words.
“I will find the answer. As long as you remember your promise, I will not forget my promise either. I···.”
Gleria smiles at those words.
She doesn’t ask anything.
“Then I’ll wait.”
It doesn’t matter whether it takes a hundred years or a thousand years.
I will trust you and wait.
In front of Gleria who seemed to be saying that, Cardi couldn’t say anything else.
“······.”
With those words left behind, she leans against the pillar and closes her eyes. He looks defenseless. With a snap of her finger she can end her own life, but Cardi is never able to kill her Gleria there.
It was funny.
The thing that bound the wizard called the Great Sage was not a contract that lasted hundreds of lines. The great sage was only bound by a weak promise made with words, which no one forced.
A sanctuary turned into an inferno.
A kingdom on fire.
In it, the great sage bows his head.
Loneliness, helplessness, and emptiness.
Not only is it not corrupted, but it is also broken. He just watched in a daze as the kingdom burned to the ground. Because there was nothing else he could do.
“···at last.”
Now hundreds of years have passed.
Cardi stands there again and looks into the past.
“I still haven’t found the answer.”
“They must be looking for it.”
There is a person who answers the muttering.
Cardi looked back. Ran El, who had been walking behind him, was suddenly standing right next to him.
“Aren’t you still looking?”
Trap, do it.
She walks ahead of Cardi.
“There was a wizard who longed for answers beyond the human lifespan and found them. “It’s something I’ve seen relatively recently, but there are people like that.”
Raniel, who was standing in front, looked back.
“You haven’t lived your entire lifespan yet.”
“···Elves live forever. “There is virtually no limit to lifespan…”
“anyway.”
Raniel smiled.
“I mean, I’m in the middle of looking for it. “I didn’t give up.”
It’s like an absurd statement without logic.
However, Cardi laughed bitterly at those words.
“···Yes, that’s probably it.”
The steps suddenly stopped.
Cardi steps forward again.
2.
The heart of the land of ashes.
The sun did not shine on the place where the ancient kingdom of Arcadia was said to be located. The starlight didn’t reach either.
Cursed land.
The Delohim Church called this place that way.
It is said to be a place abandoned by God as a result of incurring God’s wrath. That is why no light shines on this land.
“It’s funny when you think about it.”
I pointed to the floor.
Since what we were now walking through were the ruins of the Church of Delohim, what I was pointing to was this church itself.
“The main church of their religion is here. “Isn’t this the first denominational church built?”
“It’s not the first time. “It was just expansion after expansion.”
“And, this is a sanctuary.”
“It was like that hundreds of years ago.”
“So they said their sanctuary was a cursed land? “It’s so baseless…”
It was like denying my roots.
As I was dumbfounded, Cardi opened her mouth.
“The current Church of Delohim will only be in ruins. All major records, knowledge, and sacred books were buried here with the fall of Arcadia. “Of course there won’t be anyone left who remembers that.”
The main church of the Delohim denomination.
So, as I walked through the place that became the birthplace of religion, I listened to Cardi’s words.
“At one time, the doctrines of the Delohim Church were spread here and there, and were modified in their own way to fit the local culture. Of course, its roots were in Arcadia…”
Arcadia was destroyed like this, so what?
Cardi muttered that and shrugged her shoulders.
“Hundreds of years have passed, and little of the doctrines of the church that I remember remain. You are right. “The current Delohim Church has no roots.”
indeed.
“Because there is no foundation, a saint is a bitch…”
I sighed, thinking of Sarah.
Wherever you go, fundamentals are important. Things without roots were somehow distorted.
“…What on earth do you think the saints of the time were like? “It makes me curious to see you talk like that.”
“Well…”
Saint Sarah.
While contemplating what to say to Cardi’s question about what kind of person that bitch was, I quickly shook my head.
“It’s better not to get involved.”
It was a novelty that was difficult to explain in words, so I didn’t bother talking for a long time.
“If an apostate becomes crazy because of the fall, he or she is just crazy from the beginning…”
“···Is it that much?”
I nodded, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
“It’s best not to get involved in a shrine, whether you’re an elf or a saint. “If you breathe in the same space as those bitches, you can realize the beauty of the world?”
“The beauty of the world?”
“Everything I’ve seen so far makes me realize that I’m at least more beautiful than these bitches.”
Cardi made a very mysterious expression.
“…If what you said is true, why on earth is such a person called a saint?”
I know.
I really wonder about that too.
3.
The legendary mercenary who survived facing the Sage and the Great Sage as enemies still guards the gate today.
“It’s boring…”
It’s a feat, but the person himself is just guarding the door without knowing it.
“Leave here within a week.”
Thinking over the warning the man left behind, the mercenary let out a long sigh. Even if you say so, leaving this place is not that easy.
‘How do you organize it in one week?’
This place is like a second home for mercenaries. Can you open a place like that within a week? Although I nodded, it wasn’t something I could make so suddenly.
“You never know if the entire gray wasteland suddenly blows away. “Why did you suddenly leave?”
That was the moment when I was muttering and laughing.
The sound of the wheels of the carriage rolling was heard in the mercenary’s ears. The mercenary narrowed his eyes.
‘···Some crazy guy comes here in a carriage?’
Drivers who know about the gray wasteland would never dream of driving a carriage there. Only a very small number of carriages with permission from the Gray Waste will come here to carry guests…
‘There are no carriages reserved today.’
The mercenary places his hand on the hilt of his sword. This is a new hilt that I bought at a high price to replace the broken sword.
“Stop right there!”
The mercenary said, and the carriage did indeed stop.
The mercenary approached the carriage holding a sword.
“Unauthorized carriages are not allowed inside. Coachman, get the carriage right away…”
“If you don’t want to get in trouble, it’s better to get out of the way.”
The coachman didn’t even seem to be frightened by the mercenary’s warning.
It touched the mercenary’s pride. A few days ago, the mercenary, whose pride had been hurt after being beaten by a man, opened his eyes and thrust a knife at the coachman.
“Is the gatekeeper of the Ashen Wasteland funny?”
“If you know who’s on board…”
“Who was riding it!”
The mercenary thrust his sword a little further.
“Tell them to get off here and walk in. “The laws of the Ash Wasteland are fair to everyone.”
The coachman sighed.
“That’s right, warrior.”
···Hero?
The mercenary blinked.
“Master, what did you just say?”
“I told you so.”
The coachman shrugged his shoulders.
“If you knew who the customer in the back was, you wouldn’t be able to say that.”
The mercenary’s complexion turned pale.
And then, the carriage door opens. The mercenary turned his creaky head and looked at the open door.
“Did you say it was a rule?”
Tall and tall.
Shoulder armor with the Knights Templar emblem engraved on it.
Attached to his waist was a star sword that was like a symbol.
“I didn’t know. Was this land owned by an owner?”
The most famous warrior, Kyle Torben.
He looks down at the gatekeeper. The mercenary’s complexion became a little whiter under that cold gaze.
A word from the author (author review)
A legendary mercenary who does not give in even in front of a hero…!
*Plenty included 😀
