EP.214 Traces of disaster (1)
Kyle signed a contract with a star.
Cardi definitely said that, and it was the first time I heard it. I had a strong intuition that the sense of discomfort I felt from Kyle was definitely connected to the contract.
“Tell me in detail.”
I asked a question, and Cardi took a short breath and opened her mouth.
“···I couldn’t read it in detail either. “Contracts with stars are generally tricky and secret.”
But, Cardi touched the corner of my eye.
“After being bound by a star contract for hundreds of years, something caught my eye.”
The animal-like eyes were shining gold.
“The gist of the contract is simple. And, its essence is similar to the contract I made.”
“···Look alike?”
“Transferring stars to other objects.”
Transferring the starlight that should reside in the body and soul into something else. Cardi said so.
“I’m sure you’ve seen something related, right? “One will be in your hand.”
I nodded slowly.
The first thing that came to mind was Ganikalt’s holy sword stuck in the northern sacred site.
“···The arms of the first saint and the holy sword of Ganicalt that was stuck in the shrine.”
“okay. “Among them, it was closer to the latter.”
“If it’s close…”
“This guy is transferring starlight into his holy sword. As I kept touching the hilt of the sword… I looked at the holy sword, and there was starlight gathering there. “To the point where it’s excessive.”
I frowned.
“What does it mean to put it in a holy sword?”
“It has two meanings.”
Cardi held up two fingers.
“To cut what cannot be cut.”
or.
“For the next person.”
For next time.
therefore.
‘For someone to replace yourself.’
I was silent at those words. I had no choice but to remain silent. Because that’s a choice Kyle would never make.
“The most outstanding warrior.”
I had a conversation with Kyle one day.
It was a story about the goals we each wanted, and Kyle clearly responded like this.
“A hero who will represent all heroes.”
“I hope that I will remain in all history books as the strongest warrior. “Because you have already become a hero.”
I clearly remember Kyle saying that as he touched the holy sword. It was sincere without embellishment. And, that wasn’t the only time Kyle put those words into her mouth.
“A being that cannot be replaced by anyone.”
“A special being that is everywhere and cannot be replaced by anyone.”
Also to Uncle Kuntel who asked about my goal.
To the knight commander who asked what his dream was.
“That’s the truth, Raniel.”
and.
Even in front of the bonfire on the day I defeated the black dragon.
“I was always jealous of you.”
The guy said to me.
“There is someone who can replace me. After I die, another hero will be chosen. “I was special because I was chosen by the stars, and that is not a specialness that only I enjoy.”
He said he wasn’t special.
It’s just something to be replaced by someone else.
“But, not you. “You are different.”
“No one can imitate you. It can’t replace you. You are more special than me. Sometimes, I wondered why the stars chose me and not you.”
so that.
“I wanted to be like you. “Raniel.”
I hoped that this guy would be irreplaceable.
“And today, it seems like I’ve reached you. He felt it the moment he cut the black dragon’s neck. “I can become someone special like you.”
Laughing bitterly.
And yet, a little happily.
“I feel like I’m one step closer to my dream.”
Kyle told me his dream.
Because I remember that.
Because I remember what that guy said.
“…I want to cut what cannot be cut.”
I wanted to believe more in the former possibility.
“Raniel.”
Cardi’s eyes narrowed.
“You probably know, but judging from his attitude, it’s better than the former.”
“I just want to believe that.”
I sighed briefly.
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“Actually, it doesn’t matter if it’s the latter. “It’s rather surprising.”
“···What do you mean?”
“I mean, I even thought about it that way. “It’s just passing on responsibility, but it’s not like throwing it on the floor.”
At least he has something in mind.
“You f*cking bastard.”
I laughed bitterly.
2.
The path that leaves the church basement and heads to the ground.
Cardi glanced back. Raniel, who looked thoughtful, was climbing up the half-ruined stairs.
‘···I don’t ask any more questions.’
If I had asked more, it would have been difficult to answer.
Cardi did not reveal the whole truth to Raniel. Kyle’s contract that he saw did not stop at simply imbuing the holy sword with starlight.
There was something else.
And, its essence was very similar to the first contract he had made. This is something that cannot be told to Raniel, who has not yet reached the first truth.
‘It’s not just something left for ‘next’.’
It’s not for the next person…
“······.”
Cardi looked at Raniel in silence.
“what? why?”
Raniel, who was smoothing his chin, blinked.
Cardi quickly looked away and shook her head.
“It is nothing. “Let’s go up.”
Is it a coincidence or an inevitability?
It was something unknown yet.
* * *
The western block where the main church of Delohim is located.
In a place filled with the corpses of demonic beasts, Raniel stretched out lazily and opened his mouth.
“You’ve obtained the Holy Grail, where should we go next?”
As if answering the question, Cardi raised her arms.
The raised fingertip was pointing to a castle wall that can also be seen from here.
“Do you see that?”
“Collapsed castle wall?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll go there.”
“What is that?”
Cardi thought for a moment.
There were countless words referring to that castle wall.
‘The strongest castle wall.’
Ganicalt, the knight commander who was the first sword saint.
Because it was the wall he guarded, it was called the strongest wall. A castle wall that no one can break through, or even dare to break through.
Therefore, it was humanity’s final wall.
Some people called it the pride of Arcadia.
Also, someone called the wall a sacred place because it was blessed by a saint.
‘But now, it’s nothing.’
Forgotten by everyone, broken and cursed.
Cardi muttered, remembering the walls that were no longer strong, proud, or sacred.
“···It’s a wall of despair.”
“I don’t think it’s a name worthy of a castle wall.”
“You’ll understand when you go and see.”
Cardi walked ahead.
“Beyond those walls was the capital of Arcadia. “It’s practically the center.”
“Why in the center?”
“To show the second truth.”
The capital of Arcadia.
The royal castle of Arcadia located there.
Now the place is in ruins.
“That place is a trace of my failure.”
With bitterness in his eyes, Cardi looked back.
“Because I chose the lesser evil rather than the best, the tragedy I had to face remains there. “It hasn’t been erased even after hundreds of years.”
Cardi said as she glanced at the wizard who looked like her.
“Perhaps the ending you might have had to face is there. “You’ll understand everything when you see it.”
“…I guess it’s related to the devil?”
“well.”
Cardi laughed bitterly.
“In Arcadia, it would be harder to find something that isn’t related to the Demon Lord. “Because everything is related to the devil.”
Even to the deepest places.
“Let’s go.”
Cardi walks forward again.
The distance to the castle wall was quite long, and we had to walk for a while to get to the castle wall. Raniel, who had been walking along the road in silence for a while, suddenly raised his head and looked at the castle wall, which was getting closer little by little.
A castle wall that can be seen from afar.
The castle walls were so huge that their size was hard to estimate, and it didn’t look like they would collapse easily. However, even that is nothing but rubble that has already collapsed.
“Cardi.”
Looking at the castle wall, Raniel opened his mouth.
“…Did you say it was Ganicalt who destroyed that castle wall?”
“okay. “I swung my sword and broke it.”
Destroy a castle wall of that size with a sword.
Raniel was not very surprised at the fact that something that would have been impossible even with magic was accomplished with a single sword.
‘What about that monster…’
It is a monster that can collapse a canyon and cut off the heads of hundreds of knights with just a swing of its sword. Raniel knew very well that it was foolish to try to judge a being that deviated from common sense by using common sense.
“…You managed to survive.”
Every time he remembers encountering the sword of death, Raniel thinks like this.
‘It’s not about fighting, it’s about surviving.’
That’s what it was like to face Ganikalt.
Death comes in form. That was Raniel’s perception of Ganicalt…
“My sword exists for humanity.”
Memories of what I saw in the Northern Tower.
Thinking back to the image of the first warrior, who was more perfect than anyone else, I couldn’t sum up Ganikalt in one simple sentence.
“······.”
Raniel’s eyes turn to Cardi, who is walking ahead. The first warrior’s companion and the great sage who would have watched Ganicalt from the closest.
“Hey, Cardi.”
“What?”
“···What kind of person was Ganicalt during his time as a hero?”
Looking at him, Raniel asked a question.
The answer to the question came back right away.
“It was questionable whether he was human.”
Cardi said as she continued walking.
“Before he was a warrior, he was a superman, and before he was a superman, he was a swordsman. He was a guy with great pride in his sword. And, he had decent swordsmanship.”
The first sword saint.
A swordsman and knight who pursued the ultimate in swordsmanship.
“Even the strongest elf swordsman who has lived for over 3,000 years could not predict victory against Ganicalt. “It was the moment when three thousand years were shattered by the sword of a man who was only thirty years old.”
Cardi let out a faint laugh.
The memories of that time still come to mind vividly. The moment when the arrogant elf swordsman, who had been discussing the pride of the sword and the shabbiness of humans in front of Ganicalt, succumbed to the human sword was quite a sight to behold.
“He was a perfect being before he became a hero, and when he became a hero… it was almost ridiculous.”
“Is this ridiculous?”
“Just imagine.”
Cardi shrugged.
“I’m talking about the scene where the guy who cut off a dragon’s head with a simple iron longsword now holds a holy sword that can cut through anything.”
“oh···.”
Raniel briefly expressed his admiration.
Perhaps it was a scene that was hard to imagine, but he had a very mysterious expression on his face. Cardi smiled bitterly at her appearance and let out a short breath.
“···and.”
The walls were approaching little by little.
“He was a guy whose convictions were as strong as his skills. “He never gives up his convictions.”
The remains of the collapsed castle wall come into view.
“The sword must be wielded for someone. A sword without purpose has no value. “When you have the right beliefs, the sword is the most beautiful law.”
These are the words that Ganicalt used to say.
“My sword exists for humanity.”
Cardi continues walking, reciting the words one by one. As the castle walls approach, rotten corpses begin to appear one by one.
“I am not a warrior because I was chosen by the stars. He is a warrior because he took up the sword for humanity. So, everyone on the battlefield is a warrior.”
A proud knight.
A paragon for all knights.
The knight commander whom everyone admired and respected.
『My sword is the sword that protects humanity.』
Cardi stopped walking.
“so that.”
A wilderness full of corpses.
They were soldiers because they wore armor, and they were knights because they did not put down their swords until the very end. So, from the plain filled with the corpses of knights, Cardi slowly raised his head.
“No one could have imagined it.”
The gaze reached the castle wall.
“The wall that protects humanity will collapse at the hands of the knight commander who protected the wall.”
Even though it has collapsed, the majesty of the castle wall remains intact.
The castle wall, so huge that you have to raise your head for a long time to see the end, is only half of it.
Collapsed, cracked, crumbled.
There was a wall there that eventually had no meaning, and now only has meaning as a trace of a disaster.
3.
“Is there a next time?”
The corpses of knights.
The smell of blood filled the plains.
“Isn’t there a next time?”
Death stands there.
Death poses questions to humanity. There is no human answering the questions. Because everyone is dead. In the silence that has come, death raises its head.
Height is two or three times that of a human.
Huge arms made of bone and bone.
The knights watching the scene from the top of the castle wall hold their breath. Death was there. Death comes with a definite form.
sword of death.
The sword of death, Ganicalt.
Humanity, no longer able to think of the hero, no longer feels sacred in that name. Even as they recall the name of the knight who was once their idol, they only feel extreme fear.
Death moves in fear.
He looks at the castle wall, holding a sword larger than his size, looking too hideous to be a human being. The walls he once guarded, but which he must now tear down with his own hands.
Coogugung.
The tip of the bayonet touches the floor.
The human spine wrapped around the bizarre right arm shakes like a tentacle. The tip of the sword lifted in this way is level with the ground.
Stance for swinging a sword.
The being who had caused the death of hundreds of people with a simple swing without taking any stance took a stance for the first time and held the sword.
Sreung.
And death moves.
The sword held by death moves.
It’s like a guillotine.
···Ganikalt Van Galatric is the first sword saint.
Even if it was lost.
Even if it is corrupted.
Even if you have abandoned your humanity.
He pursued the ultimate in swordsmanship and achieved all that a sword can achieve. The sword he holds never becomes dull. The state he has achieved will not be buried in the shadows.
That is why the fall is so cruel.
He was once a warrior, and the knight commander who guarded the castle wall swung his sword at the wall that symbolized him. The great sword cuts through the air and draws a single line.
One swing.
One wind.
The wind that blew smelled rotten.
Suddenly.
The cutting sound is quiet. However, after the calm comes the Qasem. Although he swung his sword from afar, the tip of his sword touched the castle wall. A sword strike that twists logic leaves a single line on the wall of protection.
And then, everything falls apart.
Kwagagagagagagag!
The castle walls shake. The solidly stacked bricks collapse. Even layers of protection spells mean nothing in front of a sword that cuts everything.
I am swept away. It collapses. Can’t stop it.
With one sword strike, the castle wall, known as the final wall, collapses. The knights feel that they are falling along with the castle walls. It is called a disaster because it cannot be prevented by anything and cannot be opposed.
In fear, the knights face death.
And, there is someone who looked at it all in vain. The great sage, whose body was covered in blood, staggered to the castle wall and looked at his companion.
A being that drags death along.
Cardi feels despair as she looks at a being born to destroy, not protect. Cardi had no power left to block the path ahead.
The black dragon’s cry.
A human scream.
The sound of Ganicalt’s steps.
The sound of everything collapsing echoes in Cardi’s ears. And then, Cardi closes his eyes. So much time passed and the ancient elf arrived again in front of the walls of Arcadia.
“Keep going.”
“···huh.”
Traces of disaster.
Beyond the traces, they headed inside the castle walls.
A word from the author (author review)
Forgive me for being late!
Instead, it was generously included with illustrations… !
This is an illustration created by the artist with the typo. Although it is in landscape format, the grandeur of the illustration is less felt when uploaded in landscape format. So I rotated it vertically and uploaded it!
For readers watching on mobile devices, please flick your phone to the left and watch. For readers viewing on a PC, please use a monitor…!
It’s a joke. We will post it in a separate horizontal standard size on the notice.
Thank you 😀
