173: Your Eyes, Sir
The festival of the Divine Rites was nearing its end.
“Uooooo!”
“Haaaat!”
With a battle cry, two warriors clashed fiercely on the arena ground.
Thud-thud-thud! Their figures darted around the arena, emitting heavy impact sounds. As this was the much-anticipated final match of the Cavalier Contest, the tension was palpable.
“Wowwwwww!”
Both competitors were familiar to me.
One was Oscar Rail, the reserve cavalier I had faced in the main tournament. The other was a middle-aged cavalier who had been acting as a human amplifier on the podium.
His name was Akamato Fulseiden.
He seemed to be known as the “Knight of the Gale.”
Akamato was a powerhouse unlike any cavalier I’d seen so far. Even bystanders in the crowd were buzzing with excitement.
“How many consecutive wins is this?”
“24 wins! He’s truly amazing!”
“Looks like everyone is blocked by the Knight of the Gale after all!”
This conversation perfectly exemplified both his popularity and skill.
He hailed from Markeuteuriseu and was indeed a bare-knuckle fighter. True to his nickname, his tornado-like chain kicks were simply breathtaking. I felt even I would have a tough time dealing with him.
“Krrr… uuuugh!”
The reserve cavaliers who faced him all fell one by one, unable to withstand his chain attacks. This included Oscar Rail, his current opponent.
Kaang, KaKaKang! Though struggling, Oscar managed to block the kicks, but he was gradually being pushed back into a corner.
“It’s over.”
At that moment, the match was effectively decided. There was nothing more to see.
I sighed, got up from my seat, and glanced around at my companions.
“… Good.”
Fortunately, the intense battle between the two fighters in the arena drew everyone’s full attention. Taking advantage of this, I slipped away quietly.
Success. I casually stuffed my hands in my pocket and slowly walked toward the entrance of the Divine Rites arena.
“Ah, Mr. Jung Yong! Are you going to the bathroom? That’s not the way.”
Fuck. Sesona had chased after me, panting, and grabbed my sleeve.
Luci was with her. Worst case scenario. I hate you, Sesona, having such sharp instincts.
I nervously avoided her cheerful gaze and mumbled a vague excuse.
“I have some errands to run at the mansion. I’ll go ahead since it’s urgent.”
“Ah… should I come with you, Mr. Jung Yong?”
Sesona immediately offered. I quickly shook my head.
“No, it’s fine. You stay here and keep an eye on Luci.”
“Ah, yes. I will.”
Sesona didn’t ask any questions this time either.
With the same cheerful smile, she moved closer to Luci.
“… Hmm?”
When Luci tried to step back, she moved closer. When Luci stepped back again, she attached herself and grabbed her arm.
Luci immediately began her tantrum.
“What the hell! Let go, you bitch! I have the right to move as I please!”
“It won’t work since Mr. Jung Yong told me to. Why don’t you watch the fight with me, Ms. Luci?”
“You impertinent girl! Are you my mother or something?”
“Would you be okay with that? Then Mr. Jung Yong would be your father.”
“What are you on about, you crazy woman!”
As much as Luci struggled, she was no match for Sesona’s strength.
After dragging Luci back to the stands, Sesona waved cheerfully at me.
Now that I think about it, I’ve been in a similar situation before.
“…”
While searching back alleys for information about the Extermination Blade in a previous life. The memory of recovering Jenna’s remains in that same life squeezed my heart.
Back then, Sesona tried her best to stick with me no matter what. Why does she trust me so easily now? It makes me feel guilty.
“Mr. Jung Yong… did anything good happen while I was away?”
Speaking of which, Seop Baek asked me the same thing when he returned from the Blue Flame Cave.
Of course, it was far from good–everything about my time in Markeuteuriseu was the worst moment of Park Jeong-yong’s life.
When I asked him why he was asking, this was his response:
“For some reason… the eerie, suffocating aura I used to feel… seems to have diminished.”
He hastily added, “I didn’t mean that Mr. Jung Yong is eerie!” after speaking. Knowing the reason behind this was due to the disappearance of the malevolent spirit, I could only give an awkward smile.
“Sesona’s easy trust is also because of that, huh.”
All the malevolent spirit inside me has been absorbed into Luci’s revival?
Is that why they can sense the difference in my aura? It’s possible.
“Hmph.”
I activated The Eye of Mimir with a self-deprecating smile.
[Name: Park Jeong-yong]
[Alias: 163417413th Official Hero. Guardian of the Demon King’s Egg. A being bound to immortality.]
[Lv. 348]
[HP: 2800/2800 MP: 1500/1500 Physical Condition: Insanity]
[Strength: 397 Agility: 662 Intelligence: 111 Hero Sense: 29]
My level remains the same, but my stats have skyrocketed due to completing the mission to sever the Witch’s Heart.
And…
“Insanity.”
The basic state of my physical condition, which was previously “mild insanity,” has now become a fixed “insanity.”
I bitterly twisted my lips in a complicated manner.
“Even though the malevolent spirit is gone, does it mean my broken mind isn’t returning?”
Well, even if I kill all the normal people walking around now, I’m confident I wouldn’t bat an eye.
If this isn’t madness, then what is madness?
I dismissed the status window and quickly moved toward Adrang’s mansion.
“So the witch and the older brother really did destroy the world?”
While walking, I had a chat with Older Brother Sooho, which wasn’t boring.
“Yeah… at that time, this world was about to collapse. When we realized it, if we hadn’t taken drastic measures, the world would have been shattered. What can I say, we’re heroes, so we jumped in without hesitation.”
Thus, the result of not hesitating about the means. We ended up being branded as traitors to humanity.
Just then, Older Brother Sooho continued with a bitter tone.
“Completely misunderstood, the Human Union Knights rushed toward us. I had to hold them off alone. After countless sacrifices… just before the world collapsed, Diana’s dark magic covered the world. Hector and Altea Bathory helped with that.”
Why are all the people around me cursed with such terrible fates?
After a brief silence, I interjected.
“Hmm? Then?”
“Yeah, that white-haired man was right. It was followed by tremendous loss of life. But we barely managed to prevent the apocalypse. I, Hector, and Altea all vowed to carry the lives lost forever.”
“…”
“You should know how we felt. That day was so terrible, so miserable. We didn’t want to witness its return. We sincerely thought it would be better if the world ended like this. It was that kind of situation back then.”
I was interrogating Older Brother Sooho, sitting him in the guest seat with no escape, as part of “Know What Happened.”
I still had questions.
“But Minerva really thinks you’re a real traitor, right? There’s no way she wouldn’t know the ins and outs of what you did?”
“That’s… maybe a difference in stance?”
“Difference in stance?”
“Almost all the lesser deities, including that crazy woman, generally don’t care if ordinary human lives are ruined or not.”
“What… do you mean by that?”
I recalled the dialogue I had with Minerva in the torrential rain right after Luci died. She certainly made similar remarks to what Older Brother Sooho just said.
And Older Brother Sooho continued.
“The lesser deities originally wanted to let the world collapse and then rebuild it anew. It’s like refreshing the world and its creations. Into something more stable.”
“… Wow.”
“Because of Diana and me, their grand plan was thwarted. In the end, we are now stuck maintaining this unstable world we live in now, so how would they feel good about me? The only ones who like me might be the Three Fates, right?”
“Ah, yeah. I’ve been curious about that too. Why do those three like you so much?”
“They just don’t want their toys, human lives, to be confiscated. They have simple mindsets matching their actions. So, they cooperated with me who tried to protect the toys. That’s why there’s no grand reason.”
“Hooh…”
Maybe because most of the facts were revealed by Adrang already, Older Brother Sooho has long abandoned his air of mystery.
No, come to think of it, he didn’t have that mysterious air in the first place, did he?
“Though, tell me. The monsters? You released the demons too, right?”
“Ho, that’s…”
Here, Older Brother Sooho’s fluent storytelling paused briefly.
With an awkward smile, he said.
“I wracked my non-existent brain, thought that I should release creatures from another dimension to revive the collapsed ecosystem. But this strangely reacted with Diana’s dark magic… and resulted in something called ‘Troll Gate.’ Haha.”
“Haha? Go die somewhere, Brother.”
When Diana and the older brother destroyed the world, only three heroes were summoned.
Hansooho, Hector Cassas, and a woman named Altea Bathory.
The heroes who appeared in geometrically increasing numbers after them are all the result of the lesser deities trying to compensate for the catastrophic decrease in human population after the big chaos Older Brother Sooho caused and to counter the Demon King. This is how he explained it.
The conversation went by in a flash, and we were already at Adrang’s mansion.
“Lord Adrang. It’s me.”
After knocking on the door and waiting a moment, Adrang opened it.
Knightrea was also beside him. I gave a slight nod to both of them in greeting.
Cutting to the chase,
“We’re setting off immediately. To Unterland.”
