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266. Engagement – Promise

The scarlet lunar eclipse swallowed the sun. Yet, amidst the shroud of darkness, the Beggar Siblings shone brightly. They laughed vividly, entwined as if they were one, surrounded by a chilling crimson aura.

Leo was plunged into panic. Just like everyone in Toridom. The sorcerers shook my head like an alarm clock, frothing at the mouth.

“Uh uh… Cantata Tigofea! Po, Pofurnon Bmyuekjekadinu!”

Warning! It was a cry signaling danger.

Their convulsions quickly subsided as Lean and Reriana approached gracefully yet swiftly across the Asgard Plains.

‘Wh-why…’

Why are they there? What on earth…?

There was no time for contemplation. Leo tried to flee, clutching Lena, but his feet wouldn’t move. He stared at the siblings, bewitched by fear.

Lean and Reriana were now halfway across the plain, nearing Toridom. Although they were still a distance away, it felt much closer.

The siblings smiled contentedly. They gazed into each other’s reddened, golden eyes and kissed.

A blasphemous exchange of tongues.

A relationship that defied moral bounds unfolded. Sweat and blush adorned Lean and Reriana’s bodies. Moving slowly, as if conducting a significant ritual, steam billowed from their youthful forms in the midst of winter.

The reflection of that silhouette in the crimson lunar eclipse was enormous. The Asgard Plains seemed cramped, capable of wrapping the fortress of Toridom in one embrace.

A round horn adorned its head.

Golden eyes, split vertically, resembling a snake, yet the face was human. The mane began at the forehead and flowed down the back to a tail adorned with fish scales, as it caressed its neck with five fingers, the eagle’s yellow talons, and proclaimed with a cursed voice.

– Astro! My homeland! I have returned after thousands of years of waiting.

It was the voice of Duke Astroth. Leo, clutching the trembling Lena like a aspen, gazed blankly at the ancient being that had descended since time immemorial…

“Hu, Hwaaaaargh!”

“…O, Older Brother?”

Lean hurriedly detached from his younger sister. Dew clung to his privates. Reriana momentarily didn’t recognize her pale-faced brother.

His golden eyes stripped away, head, and the bewildering situation confounded her.

I was clearly being led into a carriage by my brother. The last memory she had was of asking, “Why?” in response to his urging to run away.

“Older Brother. Wh-what…?”

Reriana realized that she wasn’t wearing any clothes. In shock, she gazed at her brother, kneeling naked before her with shattered eyes.

His face, tainted with horror, bore no vitality. Lean glanced towards his equally color-drained sister, expression vacant, and let out a strangled groan.

Duke Astroth rolled his ‘golden’ eyes downward. He spoke to the frightened siblings with terrifyingly round eyes.

– What’s wrong? You loved each other, didn’t you? Ah, was it because ‘Baneka Raono’ fed you the potion back then? Hahaha! What does it matter? I want everything about you.

He took everything that the siblings were born with.

With nothing more to take, they were now useless, but was there any reason to question usefulness in love? Duke Astroth grasped the siblings in one hand. Reriana screamed, and Lean struggled frantically.

– Todler Akiunen. You promised. Awakening what lay hidden in your blood, you said you’d do anything to meet Leisia again. I kept my promise. Now it’s your turn to keep yours. We will be together forever.

Duke Astroth, who spoke somewhat reproachfully, tucked Lean and Reriana under his right shoulder. It swallowed them as if the shoulder had been empty all along, and sweet horror flowed from there.

Sigh. Duke Astroth inhaled the atmosphere. Stepping onto the plains, he was enveloped in a tingling sensation. The black moss he had spread in ancient times clung to his hooves.

The panicked sacrifices.

Duke Astroth walked toward the human-infested Toridom. But he wasn’t interested in that. Humans had gorged themselves in Oberg. The army that had hastily returned became his sacrifices. With an efficiency of ‘1’.

Duke Astroth began to unearth Astro Mountain, which was as tall as himself, with eagle talons. The cliffs collapsed, burying Toridom, and he was lost in contemplation.

Ah, Leonel had jumped down from here. He had bound the nut and terror to the rocks, feeding it, and released it.

Though the filthy deity took him away, Leonel called for me again. He sweetly pledged it with my blood.

He would give his {bloodline}. Allowing us to hide within the descendant’s blood, and on the day we meet again, he vowed to deliver everything given to him.

It was a promise gazing into the distant, ten-thousand-year future. Nevertheless, I gladly accepted.

Because I love you.

You and your sister are the only beings I love.

Duke Astroth had waited for thousands of years, hiding in the blood of Leonel’s son, born from Leisia. He had awaited the royal blood of the Acaian Empire, hoping to return one day…

– “Why! Why are you there!”

Two thousand five hundred years ago, Leonel had appeared not as royalty.

Azra.

He was a useless commoner, a priest serving the filthy deity, and too! He cornered me, the Emperor of the Acaian Empire, abandoning his promise.

Though I fought fiercely, I could do nothing against Azra, who wielded a fragile wooden staff.

Magic didn’t work. The mana that should have been free froze solid under the deity’s command, and Duke Astroth fled. Right here, to Astro Mountain.

But Azra, as if he ‘knew’ I would escape here, followed closely. Unable to endure the cruel staff strikes, Duke Astroth shed the Emperor’s body. He fled to the city of ‘Bardobona,’ which governed the south of the Acaian Empire, hiding in the blood of another royal.

You wouldn’t find him now.

Starting over from the beginning, Duke Astroth took hold of that royal’s mind. He was the brother of the Emperor, yet he had been set aside because of the low offering efficiency of that body. Still, he was the most efficient among the royals he knew, except for the Emperor.

At about 0.008.

Damn it. Leonel had broken his promise again; what was I to do? No, more than that, if he were born not as a royal… how could I do anything?

Duke Astroth fell into deep thought.

However, years later, Azra eventually found him. Traveling across the continent, Azra had grown much stronger. He appeared with a mountain-valley girl and priests, alongside a then-foreign knight known as a ‘Holy Knight.’

This time, Duke Astroth couldn’t hold back. In the name of the great empire, the royal family, he slaughtered the citizens of Bardobona as he fought against the lying being he loved.

Yet, it was impossible to win. Azra was strong, and his companions were no pushovers either.

Duke Astroth belatedly realized he had to flee, but by then it was already too late. This time, unlike before, Azra raised a bronze goblet, draping the sky in a white dome.

I’m going to die.

Azra’s white eyebrows fluttered. A staff plunged into Duke Astroth’s shoulder, and just as he was about to be consumed, Duke Astroth spotted a glimmer of life.

The priests and holy knights, devoid of fear, had no place to escape within the white dome. However, he felt fear radiating from that mountain-valley girl in the corner.

Enchanted, Duke Astroth shouted.

– As long as fear exists in the human heart! I will never vanish. I shall surely return!

That was a promise mediated by the girl’s fear.

Duke Astroth’s soul vanished.

Yet, Azra lamented that he had once again let him slip away. Sighing, he pondered whether to start the ‘cycle’ over again, but for that, he would need to kill the mountain-valley girl ‘Reina.’ Azra had no extra lives to spare.

Unable to bring himself to kill the girl who had always saved him from his crumbling self, Azra prayed.

Acknowledging that his accomplishments were imperfect, he pleaded for the power to fight against evil. He would give everything he had, so please, don’t let this girl die.

And then the heavens opened.

The noble goddess of sacrifice, Boaer, appeared with a crown of thorns, smiling as she showered the girl with radiant light. Reina became a holy woman, and Azra realized that he would soon vanish.

Azra took the fear that had erupted from Reina’s heart. He rolled up the promise Duke Astroth made, stuffed it into the bronze goblet, and flipped the goblet over to seal it. He left the words that no one should live in this region, near the Bardobona fortress, then disappeared.

Thus, Duke Astroth’s arrival was postponed for thousands of years. The Acaian Empire teamed up with the Cross Church, founded around the holy woman, to purge all the other races from the continent. Declaring that the ‘Age of Man’ had come, they enjoyed a golden age, and as history often does, they alternated between decline and prosperity, now facing the era of the Seven Kingdoms.

Duke Astroth may never arrive. Azra’s warnings, consecrated as the First Saint, were so stringent that no one approached the ruins of Bardobona.

But King Maunin and Queen Letty declared independence from the empire, and one day, an unknowing barbarian from the north stepped into the ruins of Bardobona.

“What’s this?”

Boris Ainar. That young, spirited lad took the bronze goblet and left the Bardobona ruins, not even knowing what he had unleashed.

*

Something snagged on the talons.

Duke Astroth, lost in memories of the distant past, regained his focus. He was digging into Astro Mountain, and soon found what had bound him in the past.

Gripping it tightly, he pulled. Crunch, crunch, crunch, as it broke the mountain, that which emerged was a ‘gag.’ Until Leonel released it, he had been bound with this.

Only Leonel could release my gag. That’s why he was special. However, Duke Astroth couldn’t be satisfied with merely being freed from the gag.

The deity cannot directly act upon me. I was freed from the gag.

But as long as this exists, I can’t be completely free from it. Duke Astroth pulled on the gag. He bit, tried all sorts of methods, but the gag showed no sign of breaking.

Am I still lacking in strength? Duke Astroth’s gaze turned toward Toridom.

In the half-buried ruins of Toridom, there were humans shivering in terror. Among them stood one unscathed human. He spoke to Duke Astroth in a calm voice.

“Astroth. Let’s negotiate.”

He wasn’t Leo.

A barbarian warrior, adorned with a raven tattoo, raised his head, enshrouded in a bloody glow, as Leo Dexter struggled to muster his wits between overwhelming fear and frenzied ferocity.

Trembling, Leo tried to back away, clutching the trembling Lena Ainar. Duke Astroth burst into laughter, swallowing all the air of the plains.