Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (46)
****
Shoot aaaaa –
the sound of rain. Not the cold sound falling on your head, but the cozy, sentimental sound falling outside the window inside a warm building.
When I think about it, the first sense that reached me while I was asleep was always sound. Maybe it was an old habit.
When you open your closed eyes, all you see is the ceiling, but sound conveys information that can be sensed from all directions. It was a common habit for someone who always sleeps with a knife and shotgun under the bed.
The sound of raindrops falling on the collapsed city beyond the thick wall.
The warmth of the stove and the sound of wood burning.
Regular breathing. The sound of a heart beating.
‘….I’m alive again.’
The last scene I remember was free falling from a height close to the stratosphere, but I guess I somehow survived.
Now, when I naturally come to my senses, the first thing I check is the black box.
‘Hey Hyde. What happened.’
[….]
‘Hyde? Are you sleeping?’
Hmm… Unfortunately, it seems like Hyde, who is in preliminary consciousness, is asleep now, probably because he used up all of his body and mind’s strength. I guess I’ll have to figure out the situation on my own until this guy wakes up.
‘Let’s see… first the body. Even if I move a single fingertip, my whole body screams. ‘I was definitely falling at the end… so I guess I didn’t land with all my limbs intact.’
‘Someone moved me here and bandaged me. It smells like blood, but the bandages are clean. ‘I took care of it regularly.’
‘Stone building with fireplace in luxurious bedroom. Although it is a typical aristocratic room… there is a large water bottle without any elegance. That’s five each. Plus, there was a bathtub full of water sitting next to the window. At least it is certain that Otman cooperated in moving me here.’
Conclusion Situation over. The troubles in the capital ended in our favor. Among the group, Otman is in good enough condition to take care of the other members of the group. Judging by the smoke rising over the city, not much time had passed since I lost consciousness. Others unknown. Unable to confirm at this time.
Jerk. Jerk. Jerk. Jerk.
Druk Druk –
At that moment, the sound of footsteps and carts was heard outside, and the professor stood up, thinking that this was right. If it’s the sound of a metal tray vibrating slightly due to the sound of wheels… it’s probably a maid. It means that he is one of the people who took such good care of his body.
As the heavy wooden door opened silently and the eyes of a maid pushing a cart filled with wet towels and soup for the patient widened, the professor smiled awkwardly and waved.
“Saint Seo?”
The maid was startled, as if she had never imagined that I would be up, but like an experienced employee, she quickly regained her composure and walked backwards out the door.
A moment later, the sound of a large group of people running down the hallway was heard.
Thump thump thump!
Clank, clank, clank, clank!
It’s such a commotion that you can’t tell what type of people are coming without even looking at them.
“Saint niiiiim!!!!”
Thanks to the maid’s first words, the professor, who knew what qualifications he had for staying in this nice hospital room, smiled like a saint and greeted the group of armored people who came one after another.
Come to think of it, I called him too.
“Latura. Lo-haram. “It’s been a while, Brother Gregory.”
“I can’t believe you’re recovering so quickly. “Light has taken care of you, Brother Professor!”
Gregory, the leader of the Holy Knights of Light, and the Holy Knights under him.
Looking at the brass candlesticks and holy relics outside the door, I felt as if I had been picked up by their hands.
“Tsk. Then Brother Gregory. “I’m worried about the safety of my group. Could you give them some news?”
“But um… Saint. “Could you please give me a moment?”
The joy of seeing me come to my senses subsides and my voice becomes heavy.
Serious and calm. However, the voice could not completely hide the emotional turmoil.
Sinister stories always come with these omens.
“Is there anything wrong with my group?”
“….Gwangmyeong Holy Knights. “Please step aside for a moment.”
“ancient.”
As Gregory’s voice became more serious, the paladins who had quietly paid their respects to the church retreated. As only the sound of the fire burning in the fireplace filled the space between them, Gregory looked at me and opened his mouth heavily.
“He is the one to whom the will of light has reached… I believe he will accept it even if it is difficult to understand.”
.
.
.
.
Shoot ahhh.
The sound of pouring rain.
Crack. Crack.
The warmth of the stove, where all the firewood has burned out and subsided into a faint glow.
Gregory, who had an incomprehensible expression on his face, tried his best to make me understand what he had witnessed.
“…I have to see.”
“Saint.”
“I have to see it with my own eyes. right now!”
Jump up!
Gregory just watched until the long story ended and the saint, unable to understand what he heard, burst out the door. Considering his condition when I found him, it was right to force him to stay on the bed, but
“…Latura. Light guided him, and no earthly tool could dare block his path.”
Instead, Gregory only offered a small prayer next to the bed where the professor left. May He overcome. I pray that you return to the light without wavering.
****
While running down the hallway, many things caught my eye.
The neat interior was a messily organized site with traces of destruction that had not yet been cleaned up.
Half of the building, which appeared to be a noble residence, was intact, but half was completely crushed, as if it had been stepped on by a giant.
A panoramic view of the rain-soaked city was clearly visible beyond the broken hallway.
A city that is broken, fragmented, and burning, sending up scorching smoke even in the cold winter rain.
okay. It’s war. There was no rule that war required sacrifice and that sacrifice occurred only among those who could be counted.
“Huh oh oh oh oh!”
My body, which had exhausted all its strength, complained of fatigue just by running a few steps, but I had no time to think about my lungs that felt like they were going to burst.
‘Why didn’t I know?’
Principles of black magic. Aldrich explained the relationship between broken souls and evil spirits.
The appearance of revealing a past history that had not been told to anyone. That feeling.
A fallen saint. The witch’s adversary. For him, an ordinary human being, it is the only means by which he can reach an unstable god who is close to being semi-immortal.
‘It’s the last time. Now it’s really the last time…’
Why didn’t I pay more attention? Why didn’t I feel strange when I saw him face the tower and break the soul jar containing Neria with his own hands? Are you in a hurry to take care of yourself right now? As always, at the end of this incident, everyone was laughing and saying, ‘Wow, I almost died this time!’ Are you falling into the complacent thought that it will end amicably? why? why? why!!!!
Coo!
I wanted to yell at the city to leave, but the place where the group that Gregory had told me to live was in the building right across the street. if. If… I really lost someone, I didn’t want to cause a fuss in front of them in their eternal resting place.
The scream I swallowed was released into the world as a rage that struck the wall. Perhaps due to the aftereffects of using the Aura, my fist, which had returned to its poor glass body, shattered along with the wall, and the white bandages turned red.
I roughly pushed away the maids following me in the rain and reached the door where the group was.
Soft light. A familiar voice whispering softly.
When I saw the poorly made cart parked next to the door, half charred, I couldn’t stop an animalistic groan from escaping between my teeth. While traveling the empire. Whenever I was pulling the cart in front, I could always hear Ottman and Aldrich pounding behind me.
“Hehehe!”
The professor clenched his hesitant hand in front of the doorknob and vigorously swallowed what he couldn’t tell whether it was tears or snot.
Let’s calm down. I probably have more experience letting go of colleagues than anyone else here. As a leader and an experienced person, you must show a resolute appearance. Let’s swallow it and let it sink in. There will be time to solve it later when the time comes. When the time comes…. When the time comes to face the tombstone with green grass growing…
….Phew.
After making up his mind, the professor pulled the door open with all his strength, as if to hide his trembling hands. In the room where quiet whispers lingered
,
the sound of the wind mixed with the cold winter rain.
“You… you don’t look like you.”
“Otman. “I… that…”
What should I say? It felt as if the words that had been pumped out of my chest were circling down my throat and in my throat, suffocating me.
The old man, a wizard and teacher, gently held my arm as if he understood what I was like.
“okay. From the looks of it, it looks like the people over there were talking. You must have been very surprised. “You must be surprised…”
Wrinkled hands closed the door and wrapped a blanket around the professor’s rain-soaked shoulders.
“That friend… he’s in the last room back there. He doesn’t look very fit, but there’s no need to meet you now. After warming my body by that fire-”
“No. “I’ll go now.”
“….”
Thanks to that resolute appearance, the professor was also able to calm down. Even at a glance, fatigue is evident, but he greets and guides guests with his own hands. As it was, a tired old man was taking his place.
….I thought I had chosen the right house. Classy but not vulgar. It’s not a very large mansion, but it’s large enough that the noise from the entrance doesn’t spill into the interior.
Step by step. Step by step.
As we get closer step by step. I passed Lucilla, who was exhausted and asleep on the sofa, and Idrasil, who was leaning against the wall and nodding at me, to the inner room that Otman had mentioned.
I could feel the troll’s unique rough presence slowly leaking out as if there was a Notum in the room.
The black robe hanging outside the door clearly belonged to Aldrich, but his mana could not be felt anywhere.
….Wow.
In the end, the professor ended up crushing the doorknob he was holding on to.
My trembling hand pushed the door open and I felt the fresh air, perhaps because of a purification ritual.
He felt Notum’s gaze as he held his soul jar with both hands, and a thick green hand reached towards the professor, who was staggering towards him as if he was about to collapse.
“Geuuu. professor.”
“It’s okay, Notum. “I’m used to it.”
Aldrich was lying in bed. He covered himself with a clean, soft blanket and folded his hands over it. In the same state as when he was alive, as if he would wake up if his name was called at any moment.
‘The warlock among the saint’s party… has escaped the guidance of light.’
Gregory. From the perspective of someone who only knows Roharam, those words would be the most polite expression possible for a heretic warlock.
The professor knelt next to the sleeping man and quietly held his hand. Wrinkled hands full of calluses. Come to think of it, I’ve never held Aldrich’s hand before.
“Thank you for your hard work, Aldrich. Stop now… relax. Rest in peace… Ugh….”
In the end, my emotions came out as if a dam had burst, and I was left speechless. Aldrich’s body in the warm room was warmer than my cold hands that came out in the winter rain. As if holding the hand of a truly living person.
Warm like a living person.
My pulse is racing too.
“….hmm?”
I squeeze it so hard without realizing it that I end up wiggling as if it hurts. I sweat because I hold it for a long time.
.
.
.
.
.
Uh…huh?
After looking at Aldrich’s hand, which had already fallen down and soaked with my tears, I looked up and saw Aldrich half standing up and Notum standing next to him looking down at me with an indescribably awkward look on his face.
“Al…drich?”
“Uh… um… this is very different… um. I’ll be honest. It’s a very strange feeling when I wake up and see a big man massaging my hand. Could you please let go of my hand? “I also explain why this is happening.”
“He passed away… didn’t he?”
“who. I? Why are you telling such a lame joke? “To someone who almost died already.”
Woe!
Aldrich took off the blanket that covered him! She walked and got off the bed, straightening the silk gown she was wearing.
“What do you say as soon as you wake up in that body after one day? It’s truly amazing.” “In that respect, I would say he’s more like you.”
“No, that’s… the situation…”
“Well, I think I know roughly what you were thinking. Professor, you are incredibly perceptive. In fact, if things had gone the way they were, your reaction would have been appropriate.”
I couldn’t understand what was going on. What if it’s the way it was? So does that mean Aldrich, who was originally dead, came back to life?
“You look crazy, but let’s have some tea. “It seems like you are the one who needs an explanation, not me.”
“yes? Yes…. Oh yes. sure. “Tea… um…”
I couldn’t tell what was going on in the situation that had suddenly turned upside down, but the professor sat awkwardly at the tea table in Aldrich’s room as if he was fascinated.
“Let’s see.” Yes, I don’t know what they did, but it was when you dropped the witch’s star and the curse that had enveloped the capital city finally began to dissipate…”
Grumble.
While Notum skillfully brewed and poured the tea with his thick fingers, Aldrich began to explain, one by one, what had happened while the professor was unconscious.
The story is about his death. At least the moment when I was sure I was facing death. It continued after that.
****
death. As a soul mage, it is something that is very familiar, but at the same time, it is bound to be unfamiliar until the very last moment.
Aldrich knew that it wouldn’t be very pleasant because he had some knowledge, but he didn’t expect it to be so vividly terrifying.
‘My stomach… hurts.’
I thought maybe it was because of the way he died. A curse completed through a wound 52 years ago. The price for breaking the cycle of endless reincarnation and saving my mother from suffering that would last for eons. Because that was his death.
Aldrich let out a groan as he felt his mind becoming clearer due to the pain that was tearing through the wound.
Along with my awakened mind, my body’s senses also began to return. Fingers and toes carefully twitching. The pain of bruises caused by falling while jumping into the spirit world. The sensation of throbbing muscles from lying on the debris of a building for a long time.
‘This is ridiculous… I’m alive?’
It was impossible, but it was the only way to explain the current situation.
Now that Neria is gone. Aldrich, who should have been dead, is alive and moving, with life leaking out through his broken soul.
No, it wasn’t just okay. As I was prepared for the end, my body, which had squeezed out all of its vitality, was more energetic than before, my skin was a little tighter, and my eyesight, which had been poor due to presbyopia, was as good as when I was younger.
Above all, the part that had split between his soul like a large cliff had been neatly stitched together by an unknown force.
As I carefully focused my senses, I was able to see what filled the space.
“You say you have divine power… Mother, who are you?”
A witch who, although imperfect, had one foot on the border of immortality.
Although she lost the power to run the empire and the power of the curse she had built up over decades as a witch, even when she lost her senses and became closer to an evil spirit, she did not let go of the will she had within her.
[I love you.]
[I love you….]
The emotion that started all of this. Endless affection for those who have been abandoned by the world.
Although it was small, it clearly touched the essence of God and gathered Mary’s scattered soul and permeated it into the most suitable means to serve its purpose.
He is skilled in dealing with the dead and cursed spirits.
I had a good heart enough to feel pity for them.
At this moment, another soul whose soul has been broken to make room for something else.
It doesn’t have to be her, so I hope that someone will guide these abandoned people, and
the last piece of the newly born and lost god resides in Aldrich’s broken soul.
The place of the leaked life force is taken by Mary’s small but infinitely close to divine power.
The border of the fragmented soul formed a circle and became an ordinary soul, but because it was an evil spirit, it could not ascend to heaven. Neria’s soul, remembering the shape that fit the gap, was drawn by a gentle call.
With a whole soul with such little divinity.
“Oh my… how in the world… no way. If all of this is your arrangement….”
God. oh my god.
Aldrich found God for the first time in his life, seeing the abandoned souls clearly reflected in his eyes.
The deification of Mea Maria ultimately ended in failure. As a result, abandoned souls are abandoned once again.
Since he is not a believer in the light, he is a soul mage who can guide them to a place for the dead other than the sky of Roharam.
In the end, a path for them that Gwangmyeong could not accept was born after Mary’s complete death.
Aldrich lifted his head toward the sky, feeling a small surge of power within his soul.
“In the end, it seems that he is not a very heartless god…”
What was reflected in Aldrich’s eyes was the sky collapsing after losing its owner and a silver flash flying toward that sky.
The metallic sound that quietly resonated, cutting through the noise of the tribulation, and the bright silver aura literally cut through the sky, opening a new sky.
The witch died, but with her death, her wish remained in the world in a form suitable for both the light and the world.
Neria’s wish to return his good mother, which he thought could not come true, came true in the form of a sculpture of Mary gently nestled in his soul and Neria wrapped around it.
….Pussuk.
Crispy. Passsss –
The split star loses its last strength and crumbles. The corpses of the dead who lost their witch powers crumble into dust. The deeply cracked sky embraces the dust.
Shoot-
finally. It began to rain, signaling the end of everything that had happened in the imperial capital.
Between raindrops like grace falling over the burning capital.
The dead who had nowhere to go began to gather around the old man who had been given new life and a mission at the end of his life.
Aldrich decided to accept that fate.
**** After
a
long talk, Aldrich quenched his thirst with a sip of cold tea and continued.
“…This is what happened. In a way, it’s a stupid thing to do. In the end, even if my mother turned around, she was still a saint of light. It is a teaching of the Gwangmyeong Church that the dead become stars. “If you look just a little further, there are many places where those who have been abandoned by the light can go… But in the end, you can’t see what the other side of the coin looks like even if you spend your whole life on the other side.”
So the baton may have been passed to him who was not touched by the light.
The professor thinks about things that happened outside of his gaze. I felt dizzy from the magnitude of events that were too great to be ignored.
Gainax cut through falling stars and truly opened a new sky.
The witch, Aldrich, and even Neria. The end of the Teldemire family, with only three remaining. It may be difficult to understand from a common sense point of view, but at least for them, it is a solid happy ending.
And…
“So… you are now a god?”
“iced coffee. yes.”
Aldrich suddenly possessed in his soul a part of the divinity that Mea Maria created with all her might.
“Heulheul.” Just kidding. Even though it is an imperfect divinity, it is a power like dust that remains after removing the corrupted parts that made up most of it. A level that can be sufficiently handled by human power. “It would be nonsense to call him a god based on just that amount.”
The professor felt as if someone had hit him on the head with one or three punches in a truly unimaginable development.
After clearing his head for a moment, the professor came to his senses and thought, ‘Aldrich is dead.’ I gritted my teeth as I remembered the bastard who gave me this perception.
“Then why did that bastard Gregorius talk like that? Are you trying to fuck me?”
“As a Holy Knight of Light, you have seen me possess something similar to the divinity of heresy, so it is only natural to say that. First of all, it is in line with witches to attract beings abandoned by the light, so it is correct to describe them as ‘beings who have completely escaped the guidance of light.’”
Is there such a thing as this?
“Okay then. “What is Lucilla with swollen eyes, as if she fell asleep from crying?”
“Oh Lucilla. I also thought that that child was quietly hiding in the castle city, but they say that wasn’t the case. How can you run around this battlefield-like place with that frail body? It’s hard for me to believe it, but they say it was that child who personally took on Lionel, the sword of the first emperor that appeared as a vision in the collapsed castle, and traveled across the capital to find a new owner. “I fell asleep because I was exhausted from being harassed by all kinds of people before you came.”
Lucilla, who we thought had fallen asleep from exhaustion after wailing loudly in sorrow, said that the person in our group who we thought would never be able to play an active part in the curse surrounding the capital fell asleep from exhaustion after running around with a legend somewhere else.
Please, this is beyond prediction and beyond imagination. Lionel? The sword of the Founding Empire that takes up over 20 illustrations in every imperial history book? It’s higher level than the Ego Sword, so anyone who isn’t recognized can’t even lift it. Even though it’s just a transport, Lucilla carried it around?
Aldrich alone was difficult to understand, but after listening to Lucilla’s story, I began to slowly give up trying to understand. Come to think of it, Notum. This guy next to me, drinking tea from a drum, also fused with the spirit of the ancestors, so he seemed like an ally. good. I like it. Everyone except me was covered in something legendary.
“Then what is that calm attitude of Gregory? Even when I was a warrior, he was the one who did the sword dance and said he couldn’t admit what he couldn’t see with his own eyes. Isn’t it a bit strange that he became so obedient just because he suddenly got a saint’s name tag in the empire? “I thought Aldrich became so calm because of the day he died and lost his companions.”
What I couldn’t help but misunderstand was that every strange situation I saw when I woke up was explained by one thing: ‘Aldrich is dead.’
When I mentioned the strange attitude of the leader of the Holy Knights, Aldrich struggled to swallow the tea in his mouth, then chuckled and pointed a finger at me.
“Oh, that friend? It’s worth it. Well, it’s not worth it. As you said, he seems to firmly believe in what he saw with his own eyes.”
“….yes?”
“This time, that paladin named Gregory saw it clearly. You truly look like a saint, having been martyred after fulfilling your mission. Rather than explaining this, it would be better to see it with your own eyes. Idrasil had sketched the scene quite well. Gregory: My friend asked for one, so I asked for one too, so I got it. “It’s not your average skill!”
The professor looked at the paper Aldrich handed him with a grin, and it took him a while to understand what it was.
It was clear that the picture was well drawn. There was a half-burnt temple, and people in charred clothes were sitting around the temple praying fervently. The paladins on horseback next to them, looking up with fascinated expressions, were also delicately expressed.
And above that. On top of the temple’s sharp spire was a man pierced like a painting.
Blood flows from the chest of the man pierced at the tip of the spire and flows down onto the soot-covered temple. His final expression was a satisfied smile, as if he had completed his mission.
A great painting that expresses a simple yet dramatic scene well. The problem is that this is not just a drawing, but a sketch of a scene. I copied it exactly as I saw it.
“So… is that me?”
“Hehehehehe. Well then. Gregory Imagine what that friend must have seen. I ran through the empire’s territory until I died and arrived near the capital, when a comet containing holy light fell from the sky and collided with a malefic star. When I went to the place where the owner of the light fell, I saw you with a picturesque smile in the posture of a martyr who had met his end on a temple. It was dead. At least it looked dead. I didn’t see it, but according to Idrasil, who saw it from the side, ‘the middle-aged paladin cried like a child and hurriedly climbed up the temple and dragged the professor down.’ He said. Isn’t it a great sight? “It seems like a scene that would make even non-religious people shout ‘Latura!’ right away.”
“Oh my gosh, this is not a human being, this God….”
The professor ended up wrapping his head around the guidance of someone who had accidentally dropped him on the spot. Looking at the situation in the picture and the situation in the capital, which was immediately devastated, it was obvious what would happen as a result.
“…How involved am I in the situation in the capital?”
“very. Isn’t it natural for the curse to disappear and civilians who have come to their senses to fall into panic? When I came to my senses right away, I was covered in bloody wounds. Just as the chaos was about to increase, a scene resembling a temple mural appeared before my eyes. “You run right away and hang on to it.”
“Oh my god…”
Everyone was grumbling about being part of a legend, but I guess I wasn’t in a position to say anything.
“Congratulations. Now, the number of believers in the capital is increasing rapidly, to the point where they are calling for a change in the empire’s official religion. Considering that more than half of them are high-ranking nobles, it is a very likely story.”
Haram. It seems that this god like Yamsaeng ended up taking care of everything, from long-term debts to practical benefits.
The professor was literally going crazy and was holding his face with both hands. There were endless things to organize my thoughts, but still. One thing clearly came to mind that I needed to do right now.
“…Thank you for being alive. Aldrich.”
“Heulheul.” “It just happened to be like that. It’s not something to be thankful for.”
It was a truly chaotic situation, but it was 10 times more confusing than this.
I felt good because it was a much better situation than seeing Aldrich dead.
****
