700. Promise (5)
As the morning sun rose over the horizon, the world brightened once again.
The pitch-black night sky gradually turned blue-gray, and the earth turned red in the sunlight.
A sight where hope sprouts on its own.
However, there are exceptions to everything in this world, and the morning sun was no different.
There were also those who felt despair instead of hope through the morning sun.
For example, this was the case in Seonghwangsi-guk, the capital of Paterism.
As the morning sun rose to dispel the darkness, a new form of despair arose in the city of Seonghwang. The ruins shrouded in darkness came into view.
This was especially true at the top of a hill located in the heart of the city.
There were not one or two, but nearly a hundred priests and knights. They were all looking at one place.
The pile of 56 corpses that the woman riding the camel had just used, clearly alive and moving until just a moment ago, had now turned into nothing more than a pile of meat.
[The end is coming.]
Leaving behind that one declaration.
“······.”
“······.”
Both the priest and the paladin were silent.
Those who should never remain silent. But there was nothing I could do. My mind just couldn’t keep up.
Who on earth could possibly accept the catastrophic reality of a demon descending upon the human world and declaring its end?
Some even thought that they were dreaming. They thought that they were having a nightmare that was so real.
As proof, isn’t it too peaceful now? As if waking up from a dream.
However, at the moment when such a thought was about to sprout, the morning sun that had been hanging over the horizon came out of the ground and emitted dazzling sunlight, piercing the eyes of those who had been turning away from the truth and making them see reality again.
The collapsed Seonghwangcheong building, the dried-up pond that once contained the sacred dharma, the skin disease (boils) on people’s faces, the city in ruins, and the countless corpses strewn about.
All of this testified that the devil had descended upon this place.
It wasn’t a dream.
It was a reality that the devil descended and wreaked havoc on the capital of the Pater religion, that the devil took back the holy law, and that the holy law was even broken.
Those who faced that reality slowly turned their heads as if possessed by something and looked at a boy.
The boy who was revealed to be the prince of hell, the boy who put himself in an underground prison, the boy who stopped the demon who was trying to erase the Holy Land, and the boy who destroyed and destroyed the Holy Law.
The boy stared silently at the pile of fallen corpses.
As if thinking deeply about something.
Everyone followed the boy’s silence and became silent, and the hilltop was filled with a silence that made it seem as if time had stopped.
At that moment, the rising silence was oppressing the people.
widely.
Oliver, who had been standing like a statue, broke the silence by touching the ground with his quarterstaff.
He turned back and opened his mouth.
“Are you okay?”
Kevin and Joanna stood opposite Oliver.
Unlike the priests and knights present here, the two had relatively natural expressions on their faces.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“I’m okay too.”
Oliver nodded as if he was satisfied with the answer. Then he walked forward, leaning on the quarterstaff.
Knock······knock······knock······knock······.
Oliver was about to leave this place now. On his own two feet.
It had to be stopped. That’s what most people thought. But no one actually took action.
It seemed impossible to stop a boy with a gaunt body, bleached white hair, and a bandage wrapped around one arm.
“What do you plan to do?”
Then, Kevin called Oliver over with a question.
Knock, knock. The ringing quarterstaff stopped and Oliver opened his mouth.
“I don’t know either. I haven’t thought about what to do next······. What are you going to do now, Professor?”
“Well, I guess I’ll go to Landa. There I’ll reveal that I’ve become an archive, and continue the work that my master was doing.”
After hearing the answer, Oliver suddenly turned his head and looked down the hill.
At the bottom of the hill were those who survived the disaster, those who were caught in it, and corpses that were alive and moving but not caught in it.
The living corpse was peeking around and made eye contact with Oliver. Upon seeing this, the consciousness of the living corpse left the corpse and hurriedly fled.
Oliver turned his head back to Kevin.
“······It must be quite difficult, right?”
“I don’t care. Whether it’s hard or not, that’s my job.”
A consistent answer. Oliver, having heard Kevin’s determination, said nothing more.
Oliver turned his head and looked at Joanna. The knight who had absorbed the holy blood and had wings on her back. The knight who had faced her own sins.
“······.”
It’s not that he had nothing to say, but Oliver didn’t know what to say, so instead he tried to leave.
“Oliver······!”
As Oliver tried to move his feet, Joanna called out to him.
Oliver stopped at a louder sound than he had expected, and Joanna bit down on him through her tightly clenched lips.
“Is Oliver······okay?”
An unexpected question. Oliver thought about it carefully before answering.
“······I do not know.”
And then he walked forward without stopping and left the city of Seonghwang.
***
“Keugh······!!”
——————
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The Royal Palace of the United Kingdom.
The chief secretary’s office is located on one side.
The owner of the place suddenly took a deep breath while listening to the emergency report at dawn, as if startled by something.
“Are you okay?! Master- no, sir.”
At this, the royal secretary1 and the puppet’s disciple asked in surprise.
I was so surprised that I almost called him “master” even though it was just the two of us.
A mistake that even a beginner wouldn’t make. However, you had to understand.
Secretary 1 had served the puppet in the royal palace all her life under her master’s orders, but this was the first time she had seen the puppet so surprised.
Indeed, Puppet is an old monster who has survived for hundreds of years, and a living legend in the world of black magic.
It was only natural that I would be surprised to see him react like this.
Secretary 1 asked again.
“Sir. Are you okay?”
“······are you okay.”
The puppet answered. It was obvious at a glance that it was a lie, but Secretary 1, like any faithful disciple, did not bother to ask questions.
I couldn’t deny that I felt a little disappointed, but Secretary 1 had to understand.
The puppet infiltrates the city of Seonghwang. While seeing disaster and demons with his own eyes and confirming the disappearance of the Holy Law, he suddenly makes eye contact with Oliver.
At that moment, Puppet felt as if a blade was piercing his heart.
Although he himself had no heart and had never felt any real sensations, he felt a death comparable to that.
Fortunately, the puppet quickly regained its composure, as if the past hundreds of years had not been a waste.
“Don’t even finish reporting.”
“Oh, yes.”
Puppet’s disciple and royal secretary1 immediately returned to his usual work routine and continued his report.
“It’s not just the knights here.”
“······.”
“Not only the Paladins of the capital city, but also the Paladins assigned to the major cities of the United Kingdom have disappeared.”
Secretary 1 recited with the utmost seriousness the information that Puppet had already figured out.
However, the puppet did not interrupt. He listened quietly for the moment, thinking that he might be mistaken.
“The contents are all consistent. It is said that the holy law in the bodies of the paladins suddenly escaped and flew into the night sky like stars. Even in the major cities of the colonies where our information sources are located and in major bases abroad, similar reports are continuously coming in······. The holy law of the paladins has disappeared!”
Secretary 1 held out the paper he had brought as evidence and showed it to Puppet. It seemed like it was important information.
It was actually important information. The Holy Law was a power that could defeat black magicians on a small scale, but on a large scale, it was a power that was responsible for one axis of the order of this world.
Is this proof that God loves humans? But such a holy law has disappeared? It is impossible to avoid great confusion.
It was as if the very bottom of a precariously high tower of cards had been removed.
Naturally, the bigger and higher the card tower, the greater its side effects would be.
The wrath of countless warlocks oppressed by the power of the paladins.
The fall of Paterism, which established its authority through the Holy Law.
Many royal families relied on such Paterism to establish their legitimacy.
Furthermore, the interpretation that God has abandoned humans, and the subsequent inferences about the end.
Just the ones that come to mind right now are like this. Each and every one of them was even fatal.
I could tell just by looking into Secretary 1’s glaring eyes.
“I shouldn’t presume to speculate as someone who deals with information, but it seems like the Holy Law has completely disappeared from this world. It doesn’t make sense that this phenomenon only happens to the knights who work in the big cities… Did you already know that?”
Puppet’s main secretary1 asked. Puppet answered.
“A few minutes ago. The demon retrieved the law.”
Secretary 1, who heard the answer, tried to control her expression as much as possible, but she still couldn’t completely hide her surprise.
I couldn’t believe it. But I didn’t ask again if it was true.
Secretary 1 trusted his master like any other puppet disciple. Instead, he asked a different question.
“Well, then really······. The end is beginning. Is he the prince?”
The extremely ambiguous title of ‘that’.
But there was no problem with communication at all.
Currently, in the world of warlocks, there is only one person who is referred to as ‘he’ or ‘him’.
Dave the Woodcutter, who defeated the Pied Piper and is worshipped by numerous warlocks.
After he defeated the Pied Piper, the warlocks who saw him dispersed and spread the news far and wide, and now everyone called Dave by that name, as if even daring to mention it was disrespectful.
The Paterites had been desperately trying to cover up this fact, but now even that would be difficult. Now that the holy law had disappeared, it would be difficult to save themselves.
Of course, wizards or the military might be able to stop it, but it was uncertain whether they would be able to do so well.
Not only did they have no reason to block the Pater Cult as desperately as they did, but they were also desperate to block it with the Paladins, who had overwhelming superiority over them, so it was questionable whether they could do well.
‘Well, it might not be impossible if I put in the effort, but I don’t know······.’
The puppet thought so. He didn’t know what to do.
I’ve felt this way for a while, but after meeting your eyes in Seonghwangsi, I became even more certain of it.
Oliver. I can’t say for sure if he’s the real Prince of Hell, but I can definitely say that I must avoid provoking him as much as possible.
It was impossible to fight against the devil, let alone the blessed being.
At least until the goal is achieved.
One, it has come too far to just sit back and hope the disaster will pass.
He who put himself in prison started to move again.
Right, it didn’t seem like he would go to Randa, but there was a good chance he would end up going to Randa.
An unavoidable or unstoppable entity is approaching······. I had set up a surefire safety device in preparation for this moment, but I was uneasy about trusting it alone.
More distraction was needed.
“Are there quite a few wizards from our side who went to the magic tower?”
“Yes, he is from a traditional school and has practically taken control of the Magic Tower’s neural network. This is thanks to Tilda’s active cooperation.”
“Tell them this news secretly. Through someone else’s mouth.”
“Please speak.”
“Merlin died, and a new archive was born.”
“······!”
“And that archive is Hong-in, Merlin’s disciple. Then you can handle it.”
***
Knock······knock······knock······knock······.
Oliver continued walking forward, his feet touching the ground with his quarterstaff.
He simply walked forward without paying attention to the citizens of the city of Seonghwang, which was in chaos due to the appearance of disasters and demons, or to the people who came to understand the situation of the city of Seonghwang.
Knock······knock······knock······knock······.
I didn’t even think about it. Thinking was just too bothersome and tiring.
Sometimes, when I saw people in confusion due to the disappearance of the law, I thought of Merlin, but I tried not to think about him either.
Kevin must have asked, so I tried not to think about it.
Oliver just kept walking forward with his head as clear as possible, and before he knew it, he had entered the forest.
Knock······knock······knock······knock······.
As we continued walking through the forest, fog began to roll in, and as we passed through the fog, a deeper forest appeared.
A dense forest like a mystery whose location is unknown.
Surprisingly, there was a castle inside the forest.
The castle where Sleeping Beauty stays. Oliver opened the gate and went inside.
