<Episode 89>
It was a desperate confession, but Mekaila spoke calmly without changing her expression.
“Ariel. I am mortal. If not right now, I will die someday soon.”
[I can bear that even if it crushed my insides.]
In the end, Ariel couldn’t hold back his anger and screamed.
Unable to hold back his emotions, he looked at Mekaila with red-hot eyes and spoke bitterly.
[Losing someone at the hands of Arkane again is not acceptable…… I can’t stand it any longer.]
“……..”
[So follow my will. Anyway, except for the girl that Ilipia loves, your student, and that young man, everyone else is so insignificant that they have no significant influence on the future fate.]
Mekaila sighed, thinking to herself that she knew he would be like this.
“I will ask you directly, Ariel. In all my life, has there ever been a time when you broke my will?”
[……]
Ariel couldn’t bear to answer and pursed his lips.
In front of him, Mekaila spoke with a faint smile.
“When I look back on my life so far, every decision I made was the right path. So, once again, I want to decide my fate with my choice.”
[…… Mekaila.]
“But I am already old, so now let me leave everything to the girl that Ilipia loves.”
Ariel, looking down at the witty smile she had often gave him when she was young, was unable to utter any objection.
“Chairman….”
“Go down and bring Grand Princess Hailien and my student. The King of Nisha will definitely be by their side.”
“All right.”
The old councilman of Litera seemed to have vaguely guessed what the Chairman meant, and bowed his head with reddened eyes.
Mekaila waved her hand and motioned for him to go.
Once again, she looked at the black sky with strong winds blowing.
***
“Grand Princess, you are here!”
“……Idris Yeongsik?”
While I was wandering through the crowds with Riat, looking for Ashmed, I heard someone’s greeting voice.
I exclaimed in surprise when I spotted a familiar boy coming through the crowd.
Idris looked down at me with tear-filled eyes, smiled in relief, and held my hand tightly.
“I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“Ah…I’m glad Yeongsik is safe too.”
For a moment we continued the conversation in an awkward manner.
As for what the conversation entailed, Idris and I were talking about the situation we had just faced, with tears in our eyes.
“I am concerned about Master. No matter how much she is as a Great Spiritist, she is already old….”
“…I am also worried about the Chairman. It would be nice if there was something I could do to help.”
“Grand Princess Hailien, Priest Idris!”
Just then, an old man’s gruff voice called us.
Idris and I turned our heads in the direction the voice came from.
“Councilor Strail?”
An old man with white eyebrows, who was presumed to be a high-ranking member of Litera, looked down at me with deep eyes and said,
“The Chairman is calling for Grand Princess Hailien, Priest Idris, and the King of Nisha.”
“…….!”
“Please follow me.”
Chairman Mekaila called for us?
I looked up at Riat.
He also furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
“…Let’s go first.”
When he made eye contact with me, he gently pushed my back and said.
“We’ll find out when we go.”
I left the Temple of Wisdom and tried to find Ashmed again, but I couldn’t find him.
I left the Temple of Wisdom with regret.
I didn’t realize it at the time.
The fact that I wouldn’t be able to see Ashmed for a very long time after that.1Noooo(ᗒᗩᗕ)
***
Naturally, Mekaila was waiting at the spire that I ascended upon receiving the call.
Meinhardt…
I looked at Meinhardt, standing alone on a spire not far away, and then with difficulty, took my eyes off him.
Then, suddenly, a question arose about the identity of the handsome young man standing next to Mekaila.
He was definitely not human.
However, this was my first time seeing a spirit that looked so similar to a human.….
“This person is the Spirit King of Wind.”
“Yes?!”
The spirit King of Wind?
I opened my eyes wide and looked up at Ariel, the Spirit King of Wind.
He seemed to be looking at me intently, but then he turned his head and looked away.
“Edith Ronen Hailien. You probably don’t know exactly what’s going on.”
“…I know that the Spirit King of Darkness has ordered his subordinates to attack Litera.”
“Yes, but this is just the beginning.”
Mekaila smiled briefly and looked back at the sky that was completely dark.
“Litera has already been almost swallowed up by the realm of darkness. All means to the outside are blocked, so there is no way to request support.”
“How…….”
“This makes me reminisce about a past I don’t want to recall. A precursor to disaster that I had experienced countless times in my youth….”
Mekaila muttered forlornly, placing a hand on her chest.
“At that time, I was immature and foolish compared to now, and sometimes made hasty mistakes, but now I have little remaining shining vitality and am unable to freely wield that wondrous powers that were far beyond human boundaries.”
“Mekaila….”
“Edith, do you know the details of how we and your maternal grandparents were able to end the disaster?”
I slowly shook my head at the unexpected question.
The exact process wasn’t recorded.
In all literature, it was simply recorded that the Great Spiritists defeated the disaster and brought salvation to the world.
“I’ll tell you now. This is because we directly faced the Spirit King of Darkness, fought against him, and sealed him even while destroying our own soul.”
“Huh? Well, that….”
No matter how great they were as Spirit Masters, how could they face the Spirit King of Darkness in human bodies?
I muttered in a daze, weighed down by a huge shock.
Was that really possible?
“At first, we were sent to the battlefield to defeat the descendants of darkness, but if we only harmed the henchmen without even touching the true master, how could the disaster end? The one who guided our path was the Spirit King of Wisdom.”
Mekaila looked at me with sunken eyes and started talking about the past.
“When I crossed countless enemy territory and got closest to the Spirit King of Darkness, he taught me how to seal the Spirit King of Darkness, the source of disaster.”
The Spirit King of Wisdom…!
I held my trembling hands tightly and listened to her story.
“At first, everyone was skeptical. No matter how much we were great spirit masters who were born with part of the Spirit King’s roots, how could we win against the Spirit King who has existed since ancient times?”
It was a natural worry.
The Spirit King was an immortal being, so no matter how special they were, they were just Great Spirit Masters who were mortal..….
“The Spirit King of Wisdom answered our objection. Why did such a terrible disaster come to the world, and why is this invisible war that has been going on since time immemorial never coming to an end…?”
Kuu kuu-
When Mekaila talked about that part, an unusual vibration was felt.
I was startled and leaned on Riat’s arm next to me.
Mekaila glanced at where Meinhardt was and calmly continued speaking.
“There is something called ‘balance’ in the world.”
“!”
At that moment, I looked at Mekaila in surprise as she said the same words that Meinhardt had said in the past.
“Absolute neutrality, whose name is unknown, pursues fairness among all forces. The Dark Spirit King has abhorred life since time immemorial, and wishes only to destroy the world and bring ultimate silence at any time.”
I unconsciously put strength in the hand holding Riat’s arm.
“Some of the Spirit Kings, who were born at the same time as life, did not like Arkane’s feelings and were always on alert against him. One day, while such a sharp conflict continued, one of the spirit kings personally came forward and made a request to neutrality.”
Mekaila spoke in a low voice, casting a cool aura within the blue walls.
“You say you always pursue balance, but why don’t you allow the majority of like-minded spirit kings to even confront beings who are much stronger than us? Is the primordial darkness so precious to you that you don’t even notice our existence?”
“……..!”
“Then the neutral asked the Spirit King, who was the first to raise an objection. What exactly do you want? Then, the Spirit King answered.”
[Once every few hundred years, on the condition that all seven spirit kings express their consent, I ask for permission to take away all the power of the dark spirit king and bind him in a gold chain, sealing him for hundreds of years.]
At that moment, Ariel, who was staring into the sky, spoke in a clear voice.
I looked blankly at the Spirit King of Wind.
“Neutral agreed. And, starting with the Spirit King who was the first to raise an objection, the seven Spirit Kings who agreed with him cut off their origins to create beings that would ‘symbolize’ their decision to impose a ban on the Dark Spirit King. They were made into items form.”
Mekaila continued the story again.
“Those were the things that the world called ‘the relics of the Spirit Kings.’”
Up until now, I thought it was just a treasure given by the Spirit Kings for the Spiritists they cherished……
“The seven Spirit Kings each entrusted their relics to the spirit master they loved the most. The ‘opportunity’ to stop the Spirit King of Darkness was given to humans, not anyone else.”
At that moment, I realized the secret behind this long story.
“Because humans are the weakest and must be protected by spirits and they receive the peak of Arkane’s malice.”
Her voice, tinged with deep bitterness, spoke of the immeasurable love of immortals.
“But they probably didn’t know that the love they gave to humans would lead to a long, long tragedy…”
***
TL:
Long time no see (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
Consider supporting the translation via kofi to get extra sponsored chapters (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
