25. The Devil Proposes (5)
She looked to be less than 20 years old and covered herself with a black dress.
Her beauty was reminiscent of an angel, and her demeanor was impeccably modest in accordance with the etiquette of the Verdean royal family.
But there was a long knife mark on her cheek.
A bright red scar wriggled from his temple to the side of his chin.
She came to Seonghwang and kissed his ring.
“May the twelve angels bless you, Your Holiness.”
“Your Majesty April will also have the blessings of the angels.”
April Le Verde.
Among the human kingdoms, Verde was by far the most powerful.
The territory encompassed wide plains and high mountains, making it rich in both products and minerals.
Less than a year has passed since
this powerful kingdom lost its previous king .
No one knew the inside story. Even if he knew, he couldn’t talk about it.
The day the king died.
The princess became queen with a long scar on her face.
There were rumors that she had committed self-harm, but only she knew the truth.
The Emperor stared at the queen’s wounds without even realizing it.
Queen April covered her wound with her hand.
“excuse.”
“no. “I tried not to be shy, but it’s not easy.”
The Queen smiled and spoke to the Emperor.
“I heard that His Holiness was urgently looking for me. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Actually, he gave me an oracle.”
“Oracle!”
While the Queen looked surprised, Seong Hwang continued speaking.
“The Lord said to me, ‘Come to me.’”
“Come to me. “What meaningful
words these are!”
“Then he told us to shed blood in the deepest part of Akoma Castle.”
“If it’s the deepest place… Are you talking about the cornerstone of Ah Koma Castle?”
“As expected, Your Highness, that is the first thing that comes to mind.”
“That’s because the legend surrounding the cornerstone of Akoma Castle is so famous.”
The queen said with a smile.
“How can the story of the oracle be as light as a joke? “I won’t take you there right now.”
It wasn’t clear how many years ago that was.
When Akoma Castle was first built, workers discovered a strange rock while digging for the foundation.
Even though it was covered in mud, the stone had an almost perfect human shape.
No, only one part was different from humans.
A huge sword protruded from the wing bones to the back.
Because of its grotesque shape, the workers
did not dare to touch the statue, fearing the devil’s curse.
At that time, a warrior bravely stepped forward.
He overcame everyone’s objections and carefully cleaned the statue.
When the sticky mud disappeared, the true face of the stone statue was revealed.
It was a natural stone mass created when granite hardened. However, it was also a human statue so elaborate that it could be believed that it was sculpted by humans.
And only then did people know. The huge sword-shaped protrusions
on the back are the wings of an angel rising towards the sky.
The Holy Emperor put his hands together and bowed his head towards the cornerstone of Akoma Castle.
“Messenger of God. “Your faithful servant greets you.”
The cornerstone of Acoma was a stone statue in the shape of an angel.
People believed that the archangel, who had exhausted all his strength after a battle with the devil, was resting in the rock.
In order to receive the angel’s blessing, Akoma Castle placed a stone statue in the deepest place and carefully cared for it.
There were currently only two people in the space where the stone statue was: the Queen and the Emperor.
The queen looked at the angel statue with a blank expression.
The eyes, nose and mouth were not clearly engraved.
However, depending on the angle you look at it, a face so vivid that you can even feel its expression appears and disappears.
The Queen, who was born and raised in Akoma Castle, has already seen this statue several times.
Nevertheless, every time I saw the statue, I was greeted with a completely different face.
“Why
are you looking at the angel statue with such a painful face?”
“ah! Did I do that?”
” yes.”
“Your Holiness, will you please accept my Sacrament of Confession?”
“It’s sudden.”
“If not now… I don’t think I’ll ever be brave again.”
“Please speak.”
“I’m looking for a man right now
.”
“Are you Jeongin?”
“no. Just the opposite. “This is a man who humiliated me
, insulted the Verdean royal family, and killed my father.” Seonghwang furrowed his eyebrows in surprise.
Who in the world could kill the King of the Verde Kingdom?
What was even more surprising was that these facts were not known to the outside world at all.
A major incident that shook the Verde royal family took place at Acoma Castle and there were not even rumors about it!
“Your Holiness, but I don’t know who he is. Even though he brought unforgettable shame to the Verde royal family,
no one remembers him. “If I hadn’t left a knife mark on my face to remember that such a person existed, I would have forgotten him by now.”
“It’s a curse.”
“yes. “I cast the curse of oblivion and he disappeared as if nothing had happened.”
“It’s scary. “He is truly like a devil.”
“Your Holiness, please pray for me. Please don’t let me forget him
. Please bless Kingdom Verde so that he can find him and avenge my blood.”
Listening to the queen’s story filled with anger, the Holy Emperor turned his eyes back to Acoma’s cornerstone.
Perhaps there would not be a big gap between the oracle I would receive today and the curse of the kingdom.
He cut his palm with a paper knife he was carrying.
Because his body was old, blood flow was slow. However, the oracle
said that
this blood would serve as evidence .
The Holy Emperor spilled his blood on the cornerstone.
Dots fell from the angel’s toes, turning them red.
And they saw a miracle.
The granite fragments surrounding the angel statue fell like skin.
The queen and the emperor were so frozen that they could not even lift a finger.
—Human. Mortal, yet beautiful. My name is Michael, Lord of Victory.
There is only light.
At the voice that came from it, the Holy Emperor
fell to his knees on the spot.
“But is there really such a thing as an angel?”
Yulgeum nodded at the words he said while lying down using the stars as a blanket.
The place where the group was was at the bottom of a rough cliff.
It was said that an angel hunted a huge snake nesting on a cliff and lay down on its corpse just for fun.
“There are angels.”
“There’s something we say every day. “What about the protection of
the twelve great angels?”
“Archangel is the name given to the twelve commanders who lead the angelic army.”
“You mean things like blah, blah, blah?”
“Michael and Raphael Uriel and Hami El Kamael Zadkiel Raziel Zafkiel Gabriel Sariel Raguel and Metatron. “The twelve archangels have ruled the world as representatives of God from the Gilded Age to the present.”
“Isn’t it just a legend? “I don’t know if there is such a thing as a god or an angel in the first place.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Does the Demon King make sense?”
“I’m here, right?”
“They are in their place too.”
“What are you doing there?”
“Maintain order in the world.”
“law?”
“law.”
“For that matter, the name of the current era is the Age of Chaos, right?”
“It must be protecting order in the name of chaos.”
“What are you talking about, called Bumuk
? Would you eat a jjimuk called ‘bumeok’?”
“Of course I eat it. “Because I’m spoiled.”
“no wonder.”
“What is that disparaging tone?”
“I thought it was mushy.”
“What part of me is flabby? Even if you look like this, your skin age is that of someone in your late teens, right?”
“It’s not about looks, it’s about personality.”
“That just feels bad.”
“I’ll say it’s useful. Are you done?”
“I am in ruins, you damn demon lord.”
“Order called chaos. Is that Jin Geum-yong’s justice? Or are you just igniting the fire according to the rules?”
“Why are you asking such questions? Isn’t it because you feel something when you ask whether there are angels or not? “That alone is enough to be proof that there are angels.”
“Then why don’t angels directly fight in that war that happens once every 100 years?”
“You send a hero who has been granted angelic protection as your representative. “Isn’t that because that’s enough?”
“is it? Damn it, then the previous demon kings are not angels and have been continuously defeated by their agents.”
“Does that hurt your pride that much?”
“Pride… I guess it might be so.”
“Why do you admit it so obediently?”
“When I look at Zeke these days, I suddenly think of that. “A warrior has no choice but to be really strong.”
At the bottom of the cliff, Zeke and the rest of the group were huddled around a bonfire.
Originally, this group was a group formed as a master and servant with Deus.
But before I knew it, Zeke was taking center stage.
Skatul and Sadimus took care of Zeke like a disciple, as if he were a true teacher.
Lake, who recently joined, also had a high affinity for Zeke.
There was nothing to say about the two Zodiac Knights, and in fact Deus himself would always put aside Zeke’s story.
“The true strength of a hero
was not his fighting ability.”
“They are light. Creating energy with that light or growing crops are all secondary. “Light is something that makes you feel good just by being exposed to it.”
“Then I am the darkness.”
“If you look at me, I’ll get angry.”
“Because this damn woman said she would see.”
Yulgeum flicked his tongue, took a step back, and opened his mouth.
“The existence of an angel is not that great. If you look at them too
… they are not the main characters of this world.”
“The protagonist of the world? “Wasn’t that me?”
“That person must be a villain. “The masters of the world are humans.”
“Who wants it?”
“Is it whatever God wants?”
“So the Demon King is a villain who deserves to be punished?”
“huh.”
“There’s a bone to that joke.”
“Is this a joke?” “
It means that the devil is always defeated because God made humans the main characters .
“Then what is the need for the devil to exist in the world?”
“You have to find that out yourself. “You can’t seek the reason for your existence from others, right?”
“is it? Well, it has no meaning anymore. “Because I hit him.”
Deus looked far north. There was a soft red light on the horizon.
Probably a volcano.
The light from the volcano is reaching this place over 100 kilometers away
.
Yulgeum also saw the same thing in his eyes.
“We will arrive at Joryx Castle tomorrow.”
“Is that your last name? It’s not like children play war games. “We’re just piling up stones to use it as a boundary for the castle wall.”
“Did you really intend to kill Seongju?”
“Is that thought still filling your head?”
“why?”
“You’ll find out tomorrow.”
“I have no idea.”
“You know, Mr. Yulgeum. Human nature may be most similar to our demons. “You dragons won’t understand even after another 666 centuries?”
“Zeek is similar to you?”
“That guy must live through that hardship because he doesn’t meet the human standard.”
Deus stood up.
I stood trampling on the corpse of a giant snake that was about 30 meters long and looked down at it.
“You get what you want, even if it means taking it. If you hate someone, kill them and get rid of them right before your eyes. “People who are more popular than me are put down at all costs, and those who are weaker are trampled on and dominated. That’s what being human is all about.”
