Chapter 446 – The End of Suffering.

“I see a town over there!”

By the time about three days have passed. Sulsien, who was by Usher’s side to guide the way, noticed the faintly visible private houses across the hill and said,

Usher heard her voice and continued driving her wagon to the edge of the hill, where he paused and looked down the hill.

Is it nestled inside a large basin? Or is it surrounded by mountains? Villages large and small were visible everywhere down the sunken basin.

But the most notable among them was the huge fortress wall at the center of the vast basin. The division of small towns and cities around it was a familiar sight to Usher.

“Is that Paciphenia?”
“That’s right! That’s Ephesus, the capital of Paciphenia.”

Maybe it’s because she’s back in her hometown? She points to the city and asks, and Sulli N answers.

“Ephesus.”

The city, at first glance, was not a normal size. The hill on the other side that made up the basin was wide enough to be faintly seen in the distance.

The city occupied most of the center of that basin. As expected, the sky on the other side was blocked by a huge wall of clouds.

‘Stories about the Knights Bureau are still famous in Lantua?’

He looked down at the scene, feeling as if the story of Mediah he had heard the other day was still echoing in his ears. Usher had seen many countries, but it was the first country as large as this.

‘Wasn’t it famous as a great power for no reason?’

In terms of simple scale, Lantua would be overwhelming, but Lantua was a confederation of numerous city-states, and Pacifenia was a single country.

Thanks to its geographical characteristics, Parz was a large country that was a little less than two city-states as a center of trade, and the holy land, Rak Saria, was the same size as other city-states in terms of scale.

The newly built Parz grew smaller and never larger than the original Parz, and nowhere else did it single-handedly form a state as large as Parsiphenia.

‘This is Donar and Sif’s…’

When she recalls the two people who once accepted him and her girl into her family, she was filled with emotion.

“Mr. Usher! Let’s get down quickly!”

Seeing Seol-shien urging with an excited voice, Usher drove the wagon down the branch along the gentle dirt road.

“Umm! Try eating Amana’s Pie after a long time!”

Then, in the first village he encountered, Seol Shien, who smelled the sweet scent wafting from somewhere, begged him to lead him to a restaurant where the scent had been wafting from, and settled down.

While watching her order and eat the pie, Sulsien found Usher like that and cut out a piece from the remaining pie and served it to him.

“Try it, Mr. Usher! It’s so good!”
“Is this fruit pie?”

Looking at the traces of the yellow flesh on the cross-section of the pie, which had turned brown as if it had been scorched by the heat of the oven, and the juice flowing down like thick honey, the owner of the restaurant intervened.

“Have you ever seen a pie made with Amanas?”

Usher opened his mouth at his asking question as he opened his eyes cautiously.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard of Amanas.”
“Looks like the knight came from a foreign land, didn’t he?”

The lady looks like a local. The restaurant owner, who had raised his chin in doubt, soon saw Usher watching and took out a fist-sized piece of fruit from a basket.

“This is Amanas. There is no other fruit like this in a place where most of the grass grows.”

Holding a fruit that looks like a yellow apple and showing off proudly, he cut the pie with a fork and took a bite.

“It’s delicious.”
“Yes?”

Seol Xien nodded as he watched him eat the pie, took another bite of the pie and smiled. The pie was delicious enough to make sense of her assertion.

I don’t think it’s too sweet, but the unique bitter taste of the fruit held the center so that the sweetness was not burdensome. Then, all of a sudden, a memory flashed through my mind.

“Can you make wine with this?”

At Usher’s question, the restaurant owner and Sulsien looked at him as if surprised. As he looked at him curiously, the owner of the restaurant, who came to his senses first, answered.

“It’s possible, but making it into wine isn’t easy to get.”

It’s not that Amanas used in the pie can’t make wine, but if it’s not a variety used for wine, it’s cheap.

“Have you had some alcohol by the way? To recognize that at once.”
“I just thought it would be okay to make it that way.”

Seeing him looking at him with admiration, Usher excused himself like that. In fact, I just felt a sense of deja vu from this Amanas.

‘I think the wine Donard gave me this scent.’

It was the wine he gave to Usher and Belka when he married Sif. Even though I wasn’t a drinker at the time, and I gave it back in a panic, wondering why I was drinking this in one sip.

“Does the knight know something? The quality of Amanas brought into our restaurant is good!”

The owner of the restaurant seemed to let his guard down with a chuckle, probably taking his words as a compliment. Seol-Sien looked at Usher to see if he had any idea, but when he shook his head, he finished eating the rest of the pie.

“But no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t seem like a Korean article. Where did you come from?”

Usher wondered if he was from Parz, but changed his mind. Parz would still think that the Cat Sis would rule it.

“I’m from the Holy Land.”
“Holy ground?!”

The restaurant owner examined his outfit as if to confirm something.

“I thought it wouldn’t be a normal knight. Did the demon king send a knight?”
‘Devil?’

Usher didn’t understand what he was saying. You’re the devil Why is Vargazette’s nickname appearing now? While questioning her, Seol Sien, who met her eyes, saw her beckoning and approached her, she whispered.

“Most people in Paciphenia still believe that the demon king is alive.”
“Why? The Demon King must have died 30 years ago.”

The fact that the Holy Land and Parz were destroyed by the dragon kings was not a situation that anyone could have told separately, so it was natural not to know, but Rachel said that several years ago, Rachel led a delegation to inform that the demon king was dead.

“Didn’t an envoy be sent from the Holy Land?”
“Honestly, I don’t believe it either.”

Even if she had heard the news, she would not have believed it if she hadn’t personally investigated Parz and her shrine.

“Because the name Demon King is a living legend in both fairy tales and real life.”

Bargazet single-handedly destroyed the few countries that existed around the Holy Land, ending the scramble for the Holy Land, which was thought to continue forever even while the monsters were raiding, and was called the Demon King.

That is not enough, he is the one who has lived and breathed and reigned even while many nations were created and destroyed for hundreds of years. No matter how much beastmen live longer than humans, it was obviously an abnormal lifespan.

Moreover, even in the history books of Pasifenia, there is a record that he was reigning at the time of its establishment, so it seems that few years ago, when the envoys announced that Bargazzet died and the owner of the holy place changed, there were no people who could easily believe it.

“Even if it’s a side affair, my investigation also included verifying that the news was true.”

The more I listened to Sulsien’s story, the more I realized that the weight of Bargazzet’s name was not worth discussing carelessly.

“I was dispatched because I had something to do.”
“Is that so?”

Usher decided to evade the story that he had already died a long time ago, lest he be called a madman or suspected that he was not even a knight.

Anyway, this place is just one of many villages around the capital, not a city, so it was a waste of time to explain in detail.

“Can we go to Ephesus as it is?”
“Yes, because the Faust Society is also there. I can guarantee Mr. Usher’s identity.”

After eating the pie, they got back into the carriage and went to Ephesus, but something caught their eye.

“What are those animals doing?”

The animals were unfamiliar with everything from their appearance to their behavior. A greatly distorted carapace with the neck rising upward, short legs like a blunt log protruding to the side, and finally a particularly long neck.

I could see such creatures, which had much shorter legs, but were comparable in size to Hildisbini, slowly moving in rows, carrying people or luggage.

“It’s a creature called Hiloma. It’s not as fast as Hildisviny or Sbadilferry, but it’s strong, so it’s often used as a porter.”

I looked at the walls of Ephesus while listening to her story that they were important livestock in Paciphenia because they ate any grass without covering their food.

‘…Can we meet?’

Thinking of a woman who seemed to be the last piece of a girl who might be here.