Chapter 496 – The Dead and the Memorial

000

The gloomy aura that spreads through the graveyard of Asteris, which seems to be spreading out forever in the thick fog, not only obstructs the sight of walkers, but also lowers the perceived temperature.

At a temperature so low that it felt like late autumn or early winter, Amelia unknowingly shivered a little, and Cleon looked down at Amelia and talked.

“Are you okay Amelia?”

“Ah, yes… It’s okay. It’s just a little cold…”

“It’s very dark. It must be difficult for people who come to visit a place like this.”

While talking like that, Cleon gathered the mana on his hand her, and he created a thin film to cover himself and Amelia.

The membrane had warm warmth, so it protected the body from the dreary chill felt.

“Thank you, Cleon.”

When Amelia replies, letting out a sigh of relief at her slightly warmed body her, Cleon nods her head.

“I feel a little chilly even as an adult. Amelia will add more. Are you guys all right?”

“Thank you for your concern. We are fine.”

Among the three members of the Eastern country’s covert mobile unit advancing, the person in the middle answered that.

Certainly, they covered their whole bodies with black robes, and they wore hats that were so deep that they could barely see their faces.

Thinking that it wouldn’t be cold if he wore it that way, Cleon understood inwardly.

But even in the midst of that, Amelia heard a voice in her head.

[Right! If it’s cold like this, it’s also warming up with body temperature. Owner. It clings to Cleon’s arm her right away.]

[It’s too late… Because Cleon has already cast a warming spell.]

[Hot…!? Suddenly…!? While I was thinking about the method… Keungh…]

Amelia let out a sigh at the words of her subpersonality her, the self-appointed love master in her head her.

“Is it still cold after all?”

“Oh, no! It’s not like that.”

Cleon seems to have attributed Amelia’s sigh to her physical condition her, but Amelia quickly shook her head and denied it.

Of course, it was true that I wanted to be as close to Cleon as possible, but I thought that making him worry about it would be a nuisance in a slightly different sense.

“Tell me if you ever feel unwell.”

“…Yes.”

After answering Cleon’s words with a little slack, she talks to another self in her head.

[Because the death seems wrong. Think about the next operation.]

[… Joe, great. I do.]

This will calm your mind for a while.

As I move my steps with such confidence, I find a huge shadow slowly revealing itself in the fog.

It was a ‘huge pillar’ that looked blurry.

Standing firmly in place like the legs of a giant, I could feel its size as I got closer.

Soon after, Amelia and Cleon stopped in a position where she had to lift her head all the way up to see the end.

A huge cylindrical metal pillar about 6m tall.

“This is the Astera memorial stone.”

Amelia sees it for the first time, not to mention its enormous size, which she has only seen in books and literature.

As if decorating a pillar, the decoration of a lively ‘snake’ climbing up around it.

Placed on each top of a square-shaped pedestal that decorates the supporting part of the pillar.

I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the perfection of the statues in the form of dragons, turtles, tigers, and birds.

“Awesome.”

And Cleon, too, the material of the memorial stone is not simple iron.

It was found that it was ‘whole adamantite’ so that it would not be damaged even after a long period of time.

Since the characters engraved on the surface were from the Eastern countries, it was not possible to read all of them, but some of them were engraved with the characters of the kingdom.

I could see that all of the densely written words were ‘names of people’.

“Everyone whose names are written here are the ones who gave their lives to fight the Empire.”

“Yes. The names of those who died fighting together in this country for the peace of the continent as well as the Eastern countries are engraved.”

Amelia nodded her head at that, then she lowered her head slightly and put her hands together.

As the princess of the kingdom – as one who stands above the people.

We must not forget that many beings on this continent owed their lives to them.

Thinking so, I wished that they could sleep peacefully.

Until Amelia’s prayer was over, Cleon looked at the memorial stone for a while.

Of the names engraved here, how many people lost their lives due to the brutal aggression of the demonic sword emperor?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel sorry for them, and- guilt.

That’s why Cleon, bowed his head for a moment to honor their spirits.

[Dark Demon Clan…]

[It’s a magic swordsman…]

[He’s carrying a lot of karma…]

An unfamiliar voice reached Cleon’s ears.

Black shadows appear around him one by one.

Those who wore the armor worn by soldiers of the kingdom, warriors of the eastern kingdom.

If there was a shadow of an impression that looked like an adventurer, there were even those wearing imperial armor.

‘Are they the dead?’

As expected, it is confirmed once again that the yin energy spread here is caused by the dead being unable to return to the spirit vein and staying on the ground.

Usually, it is recommended to ‘ignore’ the countermeasures regarding these dead.

This is because the dead react more strongly to those who recognize them.

If Cleon, too, listens to their voices his but lowers his head not to make eye contact with them-

[Imperial people…?]

[No. You’re too young to be called an Imperial. He must have been born after the war…]

[But… It smells. It is the same sign. This man is similar to that ‘Emperor of the Demonic Sword’…]

The story that I have no choice but to care about is that the voice continues to be heard.

In the meantime, ironclad. He felt the blade’s shadow touch his neck.

Starting with that, the human shadows appearing and enveloping oneself, enclosing one’s surroundings, gradually become hostile to oneself.

“Cleon!”

And, it’s not just you who felt it.

Noticing that her yin energy her had gathered, she looked back worriedly at Cleon, and found that there were numerous ghosts with distorted bodies surrounding him.

“Such… Even though the dead did not return to the spirit vein… Like this…!”

Cleon too, these dead, regardless of whether he was aware of them or not.

Just because he resembles the ‘Imperial Man’, ‘Dark Horse Clan’, ‘Magic Swordsman’, and ‘Demonic Sword Emperor’, there is a possibility that he could inflict harm on himself, so he raises his magic power to protect himself.

“Amelia, step back.”

This issue is between you and the dead.

And when Cleon, who thought he couldn’t bring Amelia in, tried to make Amelia back-

“For a moment. I want you to leave it to us.”

The three of the ‘secret mobile unit’ who were accompanying the two of them, stopping Cleon and Amelia, advance in front of the ghosts.

And- they pulled out the long sword hanging from their waist.

The language of the Eastern countries was clearly engraved on the silver-colored long sword, and when they swung their swords, they left silvery trails like afterimages.

“The reason we came together is also to deal with this problem.”

And the three of them jumped among the dead, moving like a black wind.

Although the dead tried to attack the women in black robes who suddenly rushed at them.

The three skillfully dodged all those attacks, swinging their swords like a whirlwind and slashing all the dead.

It took less than a minute for the situation to be sorted out.

They literally become ‘blizzards’ and after sorting out the situation, they approach Cleon.

“Are there any injuries?”

“…It’s okay. I’m indebted to you.”

“No. It’s a relief that Herti and all the customers of the Beauty Painter were not hurt.”

When they say that, they return the sword to the scabbard and turn to Amelia.

“…Are those dead people…Are those whose names are engraved on this memorial stone?”

“Yes. These are the people who are buried in this cemetery-and around the memorial stone. Even 30 years after the end of the Great War, they are still in this world.”

“Shouldn’t the shrine maidens have to purify?”

They are silent for a moment at Cleon’s question, but the woman who seems to be the leader shakes her head and lets out a sigh.

“It’s as Cleon-nim said…But it’s impossible right now.”

“Is it related to the condition of the Sacred Tree… ?”

And this time she nodded her head.

“Of course. It has to do with the weakening of the divine tree. But… The fundamental problem is what happened during the Great War.”

While saying that, she was talking about the secrets of the ‘ghosts’ that exist in this cemetery.

It was a story about the dead whose souls were twisted because of the taboo magic weapons used by the imperial people.

001

In the past, during the Great War against the Empire, the Empire operated numerous forbidden weapons.

Most of them were items made in the Empire’s secret science laboratory, and most of them interfered with the human soul.

A technology that turns humans into monsters while alive, a weapon that materializes the human soul, extracts it from the body, and turns the body into an empty shell.

Numerous weapons were created and put into war, equipped with heinous technologies that would turn this world into hell.

In the meantime, what the Empire used on the front lines with the Eastern countries was a vicious poison called ‘Soul Injure’.

Soul Enjua itself did not directly affect the body, but rather rotted the soul of the being that absorbed the poison.

It was used in drinking water, in the air, and attached to swords and arrows.

A rotten soul immediately becomes a dead person the moment the body dies, and only the enmity of life is amplified with only hatred in the world.

Even with the power of shamans, it cannot be easily purified, and even if it is defeated once, it will be reconstructed in its place over time.

The ‘hostility’ is amplified even more.

As well as the people of the East, the soldiers of the kingdom.

Even the imperials who, in the middle of the war, questioned the cause of the Empire and betrayed them and surrendered to the Eastern countries or kingdoms.

Died from the poison.

The distortion of the bodies of the dead who surrounded Cleon was also caused by the transformation caused by the ‘soul entourage’.

In the end, the memorial stone made of adamantite was driven into the cemetery of Asteris as a ‘wedge’.

There, after tying up the dead, they covered the cemetery with a barrier.

As a result, the negative energy exhaled by the dead accumulated in the graveyard, but if left alone, the dead who occurred indiscriminately would threaten the people of Asteris.

Of course, they do not regard anyone as a target for indiscriminate attack.

If that were the case, it wouldn’t even have appeared in the ‘tourist brochure’ that Amelia had.

In any case, when a clan of dark horses called Cleon approached the memorial stone, it was triggered and the dead moved.

The three had previously the situation and accompanied them all the way to this place in order to protect Cleon and Amelia.

002

“That means. He was listening to the story we were talking about when we were leaving the Amryong Sanghoe.”

“I’m sorry. We were undercover near you under the ‘elder’s order to protect you.”

The leader of the covert mobile unit bowing his head and waist towards Cleon.

“No. I’m not blaming you. Rather, we were able to avoid getting hurt thanks to you guys. Thank you.”

Cleon expresses gratitude, but Amelia can’t help but feel sorry for Cleon.

Although she didn’t know it, because she said she wanted to go here, Cleon was almost in danger.

“I’m sorry, Cleon. Because of me…”

“You don’t have to apologize, Amelia. I know very well how you wanted to come here.”

Amelia’s expression doesn’t lighten up after hearing Cleon’s words, but Cleon turns her head towards the three members of the covert task force and asks a question.

“So? I haven’t told you the story I was originally going to say yet. The story about the Kingdom and the East and the Empire is related… What the heck is it?”

To Cleon’s question, she answers with a nod of her head.

“First of all, let me introduce ourselves. We are a unit guarding this eastern country from the shadows under the command of the elders. I do have some of it.”

“…!”

In other words, they were also beings whose souls were slowly being twisted and dying.

“Why did you do that…!”

“Because beings with twisted souls are able to more strongly perceive beings with similar signs. We are, so to speak, living ‘detectors’ and alarm devices.”

Then – in the part of the twisted soul, Cleon remembered that he had heard something similar recently.

As if he knew now, he answered with a surprised face.

“They are demons.”

“That’s right. Twisted souls-. Ghosts that possess demons. That’s exactly what the dead exist in this graveyard. We are, so to speak, beings at an intermediate stage between ‘nobles’ and ‘humans’.”

As she said that, she took off her hat and showed her face her, though she had her long black hair down and a mask covering her mouth.

Above her head her-just above the ironclad circlet-were two small projections sprouting like horns.

Her face still could n’t be seen properly, but Amelia and Cleon looked at her as if they were a little curious about her figure her, which seemed to give off a mysterious impression.

“I’m late with my introduction. My name is ‘Aine.’

When Cleon nods her head at the words of the two people who have finally spoken out, the two people who have been introduced also bow their heads with their hands together.

“We are aware that there is an entity that is trying to cast the shadow of the Empire over this Eastern country, and we are taking action to stop it.”

“Is it the remnant of the empire?”

When Cleon asked that question, Aine nodded her head.

“Yes. The operation to wipe out the remnants of the empire has been ongoing since the end of the Great War. However, recently some of the remnants of the empire hiding in the shadows have begun to move.”

As if taking over Aine’s words, Zwei, who had been quiet until now, spoke.

“According to rumors- Starting with the appearance of Otis, the dark giant in the kingdom, the remnants of the empire have heard the story and are active… At the center of it, another dark giant also exists.”

“The black giant… Otis.”

When Cleon sees the memories of the demonic sword emperor in the past, she recalls them, which she confirmed.

All of them were cruel and obsessed with the emperor.

“Yes. And the old man said that their target might be Mr. Cleon.”

“Are you trying to kill Cleon…?”

When they shake their heads at Amelia’s question, Cleon opens his mouth.

“—You intend to make me their emperor.”

“That’s right.”

“Then…!”

Cleon gives her a small smile as he looks back at Amelia’s face her, her astonishment her.

“Don’t worry Amelia. I have no intention of doing that.”

“It’s fortunate if you can hear that answer. Cleon-sama. Would you like to join us in driving the remnants of the empire out of this eastern country? … The situation is getting worse again and again.”

“The situation seems serious.”

The child nodded once again at Cleon’s words her.

“Recently, immigrants with ‘Imperial’ characteristics have been found in Asteris. As you know, Asteris is a place that is tolerant of subhumans. …But- I recently discovered that some of the criminal settlers bear the coat of arms of one of the Dark Giants, ‘Poltuk the Famine’.”

“Poltuk the Famine. Mad Scientist.”

“Yes. He is also the one who developed the ‘Soul Engagement’ we talked about earlier. It was the elder’s guess that he might be trying to plant remnants of the Empire in this Eastern country.”

“Maybe- maybe they’re trying to poison this country once again.”

This time, “Dryna” Continues Aine’s words.

The next moment, the three of them bowed deeply at the same time and begged Cleon.

“Please, Cleon-sama. Originally, it is something we have to protect, but to show such a shameless appearance is against humanity. …But! Situation.”

Amelia also looked a bit confused after seeing them, but Cleon slowly moved closer to Aine, bent her knees and put his hand her on her shoulder her before talking.

“You don’t have to beg so lowly. If the ghosts of the past left behind by the ‘Empire’ are threatened… I have a duty to settle.”

“Cleon-sama, then-“

Cleon nodded at their words her.

“I will work with you to lift the shadow of the Empire once again from this Asteris.”

At his words her, Aine lifted her head and opened her eyes wide, then she lowered her head once more.

“Thank you!”

With that said, if Cleon gets her her body up and gets away from her and tries to talk to Amelia about her future her —

“Aine sister. As expected, it’s better to say that.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

Hearing Zwei’s words, the three sisters, including Aine, straightened their backs and looked straight at Cleon and spoke.

“Cleon-sama. How should we repay this silver for helping us? We have our own thoughts.”

“—No. I don’t really want that.”

Cleon shook her head, a little surprised by the story of the sudden ‘compensation’, but Aine also shook her head with a determined expression, facing Cleon.

“This child. And three including my younger siblings. If Cleon-sama wants, I will be your woman.”

“──.”

Cleon listens to them and becomes stiff, while the three sisters nod with determined faces.

And, of course, Amelia, who was listening to the story by Cleon’s side, too—

It became a ‘ha?’ Expression.

“Okay. We’re going to collect information about the ‘remnants of the empire’. Please, Cleon-sama be careful too.”

After saying that, Cleon and Amelia looked blankly at the three girls who were dispersing like black shadows just like when they appeared.

“Cleon. You’re not going to accept that, are you?”

“Of course…”

Cleon, too, became an expression that his head hurt her.

However, what I am concerned about is the existence that gave such an order.

There must be an existence called ‘elderly’.

‘It’s not a beautiful flame, but a vassal of another royal palace…? If that’s the case-‘

In any case, the fact that the Imperial threat has begun to surface once again.

Cleon was determined to protect his comrades her.

003

“That’s just… The presence of the Eastern country’s covert task force.”

A man who was observing Cleon from afar, folded the fan he was holding in his hand and adjusted his glasses.

“From this side, I have no desire to fight him… But I thought it would be a good opportunity to devour this eastern country and resurrect the empire.”

I pressed my temple with a fan, then closed my eyes.

After a while, he smiled.

“I’ve always lost at chess, Your Majesty. This time, I’ll need to capture your King.”

As she said that, she looked at the chessboard in front of her.

The place where he is located is a place that plays the same role as the back alleys of the royal capital in this Eastern country.

The top floor of the tallest building in the Asteris ruins.

It was a luxurious room prepared for its owner.

“…But I’m not ready yet… Let’s put ‘Insects in the way’ to good use.”

The man changes the being reflected in his crystal without erasing his smile.

That is, the woman who walked out of Aisha’s house.

She was ‘Darwin’, who was making her way out of Asteris with quick steps.