Chapter 174 – Ashes (6)

I buried the sword.
I couldn’t help it.
Since I was settled in Parenzia, it was impossible to carry that conspicuous sacred relic.
Above all, he had to guard the canteen.
Even if it meant throwing away the hero’s power on the ground, it was something that had to be done.
Even from cutting with a knife, a bone had appeared.

So when I heard that none of those who headed to the western forest came back.
I stood blankly for a while.
We fought so hard.
I was tired now and wanted to rest.
It was clear that the world was not willing to let me go.

Terra said that my soul was forcibly placed in a state where I could not return to the original world through a secretary left by the empire.
The three Sandalphonia sisters also said that my sacrifice was worthy of their help throughout eternity.

Of course, that was none of my business.
At night, I suffered from constant hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.
As a side effect of letting go of the holy relic, which was one-third of the warrior’s power, pain came as if my soul was being torn apart.
The body, which did not need food or sleep, slowly began to go crazy as the fear and stimulation of the battlefield disappeared.
As the karma flowing like a broken faucet turned the land around me into a wilderness, my spirit also became exhausted.

If there had been just one proper priest in Parenzia at that time, it would have definitely been a big problem.
However, the old quack, who was over 70 years old and the only priest of the Parencia branch of the Temple of Light, could not see properly.
When the monsters broke through the west gate, they were the first to be trampled to death.

When I felt nostalgia for the past from the countless ‘evil’ coming beyond the collapsed castle walls.
The only choice I had was the same old way.

***

Daring said, ever since he was young, he hated looking up at anyone.
The reason was that he couldn’t bear the feeling of being looked down on at the top of his head.
Her head held high and her eyes always filled with the bold aspirations of a self-respecting woman.
It was an ambition that one day it would grow up and crush all of your heads.

“… “I was hoping you wouldn’t come.”

But now she did not make eye contact with her Lewis, who was always about two heads above her.
Even though she barely managed to save her life just before being swept away by a horde of monsters, a shadow was cast across her soot-stained cheeks.
Between the soldiers who were relieved that they had survived and the astonished wizards, her head was only looking towards the floor.
Hoping that the corpses of the monsters that turn into ash will pile up like snow and cover the embers at your feet.

“If you were going to meet me like this, I didn’t want you to come.”
“…”

But the ground she dug with her hands when she was young already told her who the fire belonged to.
Stopping the monster wave seven years ago and setting fire to the forest now were all Lewis’s doings.

“Tell them it was a mistake.”

Turning her back on Luis and Parencia simultaneously, she swallowed her cries.
She covered her wounds, hiding her clenched fists.

“Or say it was necessary.”

Darling did not know.
Both of the words she has now spoken out of her own mouth are most likely true.
The fact that monsters began to flock to the west gate meant that her father, who had headed to the guard post, failed to set fire to the forest.
At the time, it was just a shabby shack that couldn’t be expected to have proper defense facilities or magic like it does now.

All troops would have been annihilated there, and the city was on the verge of being trampled by the feet of monsters.
Even if she could have achieved better results than now, it was Luis who protected Farencia.

“I’m afraid I’ll be sad… “I couldn’t bear to tell the truth.”

With the collapsed city.
A world that has become a heap of ashes.
The only thing that remained by young Darling’s side was the old butler and the man to whom his father had entrusted him.

“Ugh, say that… !”

People are given purpose in life from lack.
Darling desperately tried to rebuild Parencia.
Finding the remains of her departed parents was also the reason she was able to get back on her feet.
During this time, her Lewis took care of her as if she were his own family and gave her a lot of advice.
She knew very well that if she had found out that the person closest to her was the one who had burned everything, she would have been in a state of shock that she, who was much weaker than she was now, could not handle.
However–

“Louis… !”
“… Sorry.”

Darling, whose voice seemed to have barely been squeezed out, bit her lip until it bled.
It would have been better if she had just said what she said.
If that were the case, he would have convinced himself by making excuses, saying that it was okay to tell him the truth now, or that he would pay for saving his life.
When I return to the mansion, I will kneel in front of the royal tomb and weep for a long time.
At least she wouldn’t have to blame Lewis and hurt her most precious person.

“It’s my fault.”

But he didn’t even make an excuse.
No matter how urgent the situation was at the time, he did not explain how unstable he was back then, which was quite different from what it is now.
To protect Parencia, Lewis incinerated the remains of those who fell in the forest with the monsters all at once.
As a result, he chained the deepest chain of hatred that he would receive in the future.

“I blame you.”

So, conversely, Darling had nothing to hide anymore.
The weakness that he had hidden from everyone around him since the day his father died ran down his cheeks.
A single word vomited from the deepest part of me became an emotion and stuck like a dagger.

“I hate you for lying and deceiving me all this time.”
“…”

When he turned around, he was standing there like a criminal.
Her bent head gazed at the horizon of an abyss that was much darker than the one she had been looking at the ground just moments before.
The darkness that has been reflected in my eyes ever since I first met you.
Only then did Darling understand.

‘Lewis, you…’

I guess I’ve lived like this my whole life.

.
.
.

The wind blew.
The wind began to blow as the heated air rose upward, coming from the other side of the forest and hovering low between my legs.
At that time, when the last remaining monster’s breath was cut off and ashes were flying around.
Bruise-. The small steps moved one step at a time, making a sound.

Footsteps leaving traces on a pile of ashes that resemble snow.

It was a sign of courage, understanding, and a reversal of Darling’s resolve to wait until Lewis’ heart was completely healed.

“… But listen carefully.”

After taking a deep sigh, I looked up at him again.
Resentment and sadness were mixed together like grains of sand, and I was so dizzy that I didn’t know what to say anymore.
It was clear that what I wanted to say was something I had been thinking about for a very long time.

“Louis.”

When my melted hand touched my damp cheek.
It felt like the pain that sometimes came from the laceration had cooled down.
The emotions that swept away my boiling heart.
There was only one.

“No matter how many reasons I have for hating you.”

Darling hugged Lewis who was crying.

“That will not be a reason not to love you.”

A fleeting moment created by the dying embers and the wind blowing over the ashes.
It felt like the winter of 7 years ago when heavy snow fell.

***

“Michelan? That’s how I look. Well, that’s good. “It would be an indication of recognition of a member of the Holy Kingdom with a higher status than oneself.”
“So you are the real Pope? I can’t believe it, how did we get here…”
“Nothing is impossible, Caroline. Just as Hella led you to me.”
“To sell the name of the goddess like that, the whole kingdom is rotten.”

She brainwashed a saint from a country and joined hands with her demons.
Even to Caroline, who was willing to do all kinds of dirty work as a heretic inquisitor for the Blood Gate Brigade, this was clearly crazy.
However, Cassel did not care at all and praised her.

“Thank you for your effort. “You have achieved great achievements within the brigade.”
“It’s an achievement… ?”
“You finally found the hero, right? Ten years have passed since the Demon King’s death, but Penheim hid it so well that it all ended in failure. “Looking at that forest, I think sending you to the academy was the right answer.”

Caroline was well aware of her consistent failures over the past few years.
Seongguk was unable to catch the tail of the warrior and her saintess, who disappeared like smoke.
In particular, as the fate of the saint, the biggest issue of the small war, was not revealed until the end, the conflict between the two countries gradually came to an end.

“That doesn’t change anything. “Do you think finding Louis will make any difference?”

I had already confirmed his power several times.
It is not something that can be put to death just because the Cheonakdae gathered here attack it.
Caroline feigned her composure even as secretly she prepared her magic to get out of here.

“No, that’s it. Entire.”

Until Cassel clasped her hands together and laughed.

“Caroline, do you remember what your mission was?”

Mission?
Clearly–

“Looking for a hero…”
“It was about finding a sacred object. “To be exact.”

His two hands drew a small triangle.
The heat felt in the west was slowly fading away, and the monsters’ moans of pain were about to stop.

“Like the Trinity advocated by the church or the three original sources of magic, the warrior’s power is largely divided into three. “The moment one of them is missing, the balance collapses in an instant.”

An oracle given by Hela, the goddess of light.
The divine power that resides in the church’s holy sword and shield.
An unbreakable belief that only a warrior has.

Three sacred skills complete the warrior’s power.

“And the first of those three, the trust, can be taken back at any time.”
“What?”
“Because the Ruby shrine was made for that purpose.”

Only then did Caroline learn about the purpose of the church.
Why did she tell herself to find the holy relic?
If a warrior does not have a holy sword in his hand, he only has two sacred weapons from the beginning.

“The goddess… “There is no way you would allow it.”

Caroline shook her head and stepped back behind her.
Yes, she was the goddess who had been giving her revelations and trying to connect her and Lewis, so it was clear that she would not take away his oracle without permission.
But Cassel looked at her and shook his head.

“You are so weak. She became a saint and then even her head became stupid?”
“What!?”
“Hella is not a being who distinguishes between good and evil among humans! Peace, peace, and tranquility to all! Blessings on the path led by light!! Did you think that if we joined hands with the demons, a thunderbolt would fall from the sky!? If it were heavenly punishment, she would have punished you a long time ago when she was working as an Inquisitor!”

The words of the saint I met at her skandal came to mind.

— From God’s perspective, human existence is as vague and intangible as fireflies shining in a foggy summer valley. Therefore, our inner karma is also evaluated holistically throughout our lives.
— I don’t quite understand… Yes.
— Do you understand the doctrine contained within just one page of the Bible?

“Do you really not know why we are looking for heroes and holy relics so much?”

A crazy color sparkled in Cassel’s blue pupils.
His hands fluttered as if they were reaching beyond the crystal ball, and his voice was terrifying, like a spear stabbing the back of his optic nerves.

“Caroline, it’s the devil! A terror that engulfed half of the continent and brought humanity to the brink of extinction just by its very existence… !! “The one who is stronger than that is the hero who possesses all three divine powers!!”

As Terra said, humanity has already pulled the bowstring.
From the moment I dug up an old booklet from the sand of a fallen empire.
The Holy Kingdom had finished thinking about how to use its power according to its doctrine.

“What would happen if such a being advocated perfect justice?”

The Monarch’s Pope, Nicholas of Cassel, had one purpose from the beginning.

“The war will stop in just one day. In one week, the demon world will be purified with a single sword. “In one month, all the weapons of each country will be broken and put into the furnace, and in one year, magic will no longer be defined as anything other than academics!!”

Made possible by just one superman.

“Peace throughout the continent.”

A model garden in a sterile room where all conflicts and disputes are resolved.

“Can you tell us that that is not the doctrine the Goddess commanded us to pursue?”