Chapter 324.
Chapter 324.
Galak stood on a field located deep in the Demon’s Territory and smiled sadly, looking at the horizon that had become thick with bushes.
Zendia stood next to Galak, wearing a blue mask. In his hand was the Spirit Sword, one of the four god swords.
"To whom did you sell the magic sword you got from destroying the headquarters of the Demon King worshipping organization?" Galak asked.
Zendia gave him a killer smile in response, saying, "I broke it while playing with my youngest grandson."
Galak nodded, a powerful aura surrounding both of his hands. "I see. He’s definitely grown a lot. If that child had been in normal condition, I would have had a hard time, too.”
"Did you meet Denburg?" Zendia asked.
"Yes. Because that child had ‘The Prophecy of the Holy Tribe’,” Galak answered calmly.
Zendia frowned and asked, "You didn’t harm Den, did you?"
"Ahahaha, it’s more like I was the one harmed, so don’t worry. Besides, in the end, Doomstone interrupted and put my life in danger."
Zendia was relieved to see Galak speaking playfully and said, "Then that’s fine."
"Ayy, Father is sad because his only son doesn’t worry about him,” Galak said exaggeratedly. Zendia smiled in response. Just then, Galak spoke seriously as if their playtime had ended. "Son, did you know? This actually wasn’t a field, but a narrow basin surrounded by rugged mountains."
"Really?" Zendia asked. He knew very well what this place had been like, but he pretended not to know.
Galak nodded and answered with an air of nostalgia, "Yeah. I fought with the Demon King here with my life on the line. Fraham and Del Tri died here.”
Galak recalled the Captain of the Imperial Guard Division, whom he had called a grumpy old man; and his closest friend, the great warrior from the Hunter tribe. Then he looked at the reed forest and continued, "There, Arpen got a hole in his stomach and almost died. Without the medicine of that alchemist kid who lived next door, he would have really died.”
Galak was calmly referring to Mirpa Ainsmall as an ‘alchemist kid’. In fact, he laughed, saying that if she had been a little older, she would have gone with him when he went to defeat the Demon King. He continued, "And there, old man Drachen lost his right arm. According to Arpen, it got sent to the reverse world?”
The battle came to Galak’s mind vividly as if it had happened yesterday. "And there, Marsen cut the Demon King and destroyed the castle behind him. It was such a ridiculous blow."
This was the place where Galak Blade, who was praised as a hero, had fought desperately against the Demon King alongside his comrades.
"There, Marco and... Wayne died." Galak pointed to a huge pit that might have been tens of kilometers in diameter. "Marco was so good at surviving that he was called a cockroach, but he died while holding down the Demon King. He was more suited to be called a hero than me."
Galak slowly took a white mask out of his breast pocket and put it on, saying in a trembling voice, "Wayne..."
Zendia took off his blue mask and continued the sentence Galak was unable to finish. "At that time, while the Mercenary King held down the Demon King, she sacrificed herself to seal him again.”
"That’s right." Galak smiled sadly and nodded. "A lot of people died. They were unfortunate people to have died like that.”
"Even though you know that, is there no change in your resolve to unlock the Demon King’s seal?" Zendia asked calmly.
Galak smiled and replied, “Yeah."
“I won’t ask you why. You won’t tell me anyway,” Zendia remarked.
Galak replied, "You know me well."
Zendia said with a subtle anger in his voice. "Father is an egoist who only cares about himself."
"I know,” Galak said.
Zendia clenched his hand powerfully and smashed the blue mask he held. As if to declare that the conversation was over, he gave off killing intent. "I’m done persuading you. From now on, I’ll try to kill you with all my might, Father."
Galak sincerely smiled brightly as he faced the intense killing intent that had even stopped the flying bugs in the field from flapping their wings. He said, "How reliable. All right, try to kill me, son." Martial aura exploded outward from him, responding to Zendia’s killing intent.
The two stared at each other silently, fighting for control over the space with intangible mana. Suddenly, they rushed toward each other without a word.
Boom!
As the power of the two combatants collided, the area nature had reclaimed over the past 120 years was overturned. It was as if the battle to subjugate the Demon King that had taken place on this land was being recreated.
One fist dug up the ground and made a pile of soil into a mountain. One cut turned a flat field into a canyon. The topography of the ground changed multiple times, and the clouds in the sky were occasionally cut as the battle continued.
The battle overturned the heavens and earth and shook the world, as they fought against each other with no end in sight.
"Huhuhu, still monstrous.” The Witch of Greed, Selina, flew at leisure through the sky as she watched the battle, avoiding the growing battlefield as she observed it. As she watched, an owl flew toward her.
It was impossible for an ordinary owl to be flying with lively wings in broad daylight, over such a battlefield where brutal killing intent and martial aura came and went. At once, Selina grabbed the owl’s neck and asked, looking into its eyes, "What’s going on, Libra?”
-Cough! Cough!
Seeing that Libra couldn’t even speak properly after having the owl’s neck seized, Selina helplessly let go of the owl and said sarcastically, "It’s pathetic that you can’t even talk when your familiar’s being strangled."
-Cough! Huk! Huk! Quiet! How dare you treat me like this even though you knew it was my familiar?! I won’t let you off!
Selina burst into laughter after seeing Libra’s anger. "Puhahaha! That was the funniest joke I’ve heard in the last hundred years.”
The owl’s face crumpled in response to Selina’s laughter.
-Do you think I’m kidding?!
"Huh? Wasn’t it a joke? Perhaps if you were the past-past-past leader of the religious organization, who summoned Demon King Ma 120 years ago... But there’s no way you can put up a fight against me.”
As Selina had said before, she was a great madosa who had seen the limits of the Magic Way, but Libra was only a madosa. If he used one of the special magic tools containing black mana, he could put up a fight briefly.
However, most of those tools had been smashed by Galak 120 years ago, and even the last remaining tool, the Demon Sword, had been stolen by Zendia when he attacked the organization’s main base.
-As long as our God comes back to this land!
"Okay, okay. How about you tell me when you get back?” Selina responded derisively with a smirk, and Libra’s familiar clenched its beak to the point it might break. She asked, "So what’s going on?"
Selina seemed to be asking Libra to repent for the crime of interfering with her entertaining sightseeing. Upon hearing her, Libra’s familiar opened its beak nervously.
-I found the person who has the last letter.
Libra’s words were enough to stimulate Selina’s interest, as she responded, "Oho, and so?"
-For me, it’s hard to touch that person recklessly. To be exact, it’s the monster who stands by the one who has ‘The End of the Holy Tribe’.
"Who is it?" Selina asked with interest.
Libra’s familiar slowly spoke.
-The letter is in the head of Denburg Blade, the great-grandchild of the hero. And the Crow of Death is guarding him.
Selina swallowed dryly. "That heavenly disaster is guarding him, you say? Then it’s impossible. It would probably be easier and safer to pierce through the imperial palace’s magic circle with your bare body. It’s suicide."
-You can’t die anyway. Just give up your life a few more times.
"Oh, my. That’s a ridiculous request. I like it." Selina smiled pleasantly and took a broom out of her pocket space. "Okay. I’ll do that for you. The kid owes me for having killed me once. But I’m the Witch of Greed, and I’ll ask for a price worthy of that name.”
-...What is it? I’ll accept anything.
"Ohohoho! You’re so willing to listen to my offer. How refreshing and nice,” Selina said, giving Libra an unexpected look.
Libra urged her to tell him quickly what price she wanted, and in response, Selina smiled greedily. "What I want is the magic stone that has gathered mana from the fanatics’ nightly prayers, as well as their lives. I’m sure the mana accumulated over the past 120 years will be amazing, right?"
-That...! That’s—!
"Why? I’m sure you’ve already poured all the mana needed to summon the Demon King into the altar.”
In response to Selina’s ridiculous request, Libra’s familiar closed its beak. After feeling conflicted for a short time that felt like much longer, Libra agreed to Selina’s request.
-...All right.
If the Demon King could just be summoned again, it didn’t matter what happened to that amount of mana.
"Wow, how intense. For your information, payment is in advance, Customer,” Selina answered.
Libra’s familiar ground its beak. However, Libra couldn’t say no. He didn’t know when that fickle witch would change her mind.
* * *
For some reason, I felt as if I were getting caught up in something annoying in real time. Clearly, it was because of the envelope in my hand. Hmm, is it not that?
I wondered if there could be anything more annoying than opening an envelope containing Aunt Talaria’s request. I didn’t know, because my rational mind meant my instincts weren’t as sharp as my father’s.
Then again, my father’s instincts were almost like spontaneous realizations from the wilderness, so it would be difficult to just copy him.
"Ehew,” I sighed.
"Why are you sighing?" Hestia noona asked as she sat next to me wearing a straw hat, an aloha shirt, and sunglasses that didn’t fit the season. Now that we were entering fall, they looked like products she had bought on sale from somewhere.
"You seem to be enjoying that,” I remarked.
"Oh my, I don’t have the body to run away from home, unlike you. When I come out like this, don’t you think I should enjoy the capital’s culture?” Hestia noona hummed and bit into a macaron. She exclaimed, "Mmm! It’s too sweet! They’re almost impossible to eat." Despite saying that, she looked happy.
"That’s a lot of calories, so it’s good to eat moderately,” I said.
"Calories? Hmm... Ah! The calories you mentioned when you were four? Did you say that food with a lot of those isn’t good for your health?” Hestia noona asked.
"No, it’s okay if you do a lot of exercise, but this is the fiftieth one you’ve taken out. And you’ll get hyperglycemia,” I warned her.
Hestia noona shrugged. "How many calories could such a small snack have?"
It was really high. She had probably eaten nearly eight thousand calories by now. In addition, she hadn’t just been eating macarons. She had called them too sweet, so she was eating other things alongside them.
Well, it was her choice to gain weight anyway, so I decided to move on. I saw that my father was watching from the side and not stopping her; he didn’t seem to have detected any problems with his sixth sense.
"So what’s with the sigh?" Hestia noona asked again.
"Eh, Aunt’s request is in here, but I don’t want to open it,” I answered.
In response, Hestia noona looked at me strangely. "When did you get this request?"
It had been three days, because I had received these documents on the train coming up to the capital. I held up three fingers.
Third Sister looked at me incredulously and asked, "What are you going to do if Aunt gets angry? If Aunt gets angry and tries to stab you in the back, it won’t be easy for you either.”
"That’s true." I sighed and opened the envelope.