In the void, a fleeting image of Siani appeared as an afterimage.
“…”
Redian’s blue eyes were relentless as he gazed at those moments. As if he had refused to miss any expression or look that woman had when she was about to leave him.
“Look, Halphas,” Redian muttered, his gaze still fixed on Siani’s afterimage. “That’s the face she had when she promised to return to me. It’s the same face as when she held me in her arms…”
The woman who came to save him and the woman who was now trying to leave were both ultimately Siani.
Yes, Siani Felicite, his love, his light, and his salvation.
“My master never lied to me.”
So the promises the woman had made to him couldn’t possibly have been false.
“It’s my fault.”
“…”
Redian bit his lip and murmured. “She must have returned as promised. I just had to wait a little longer.”
Those words echoed in his ears.
“She didn’t deceive me. I should have endured, no matter how long it took.”
Yet, despite those words, his eyes glaring at the afterimage were chillingly cold.
“Milord, if there’s anything you desire, just command me.” Halphas, who had been watching, interrupted. “I’ll bring it before you with my own hands.”
“…What I desire, you say.” Only then did Redian’s self-repeating words stop, as if he had been brainwashing himself. “What I wanted then and now has always been just one thing, Halphas.”
His voice was tightly restrained as if suppressing something.
“Did I ask for too much?”
It was at that moment.
“What more do I have to do?”
Boom! Black smoke exploded and shot into the sky, tearing through the shattered barrier.
“What else do I have to do here?”
Redian covered his face with a hand from which dark substance seeped. Thick smoke spread over his pale, fair skin.
Just how far must he go…?
For one word from her, he had endured long nights, plunged into a murky lake, followed any choice, and suppressed his twisted nature. He had believed that by serving the woman as his truth and enduring, she would remain by his side forever.
“Then why am I still standing in the same place? Why hasn’t anything changed?”
Redian stared at the ever-repeating afterimage of Siani. It seemed as though he could grasp her at any moment, but every time he reached, she crumbled like smoke.
“Answer me, Halphas.”
His dark blue eyes, engulfed in hazy smoke, burned red.
“What more do I have to do, huh? I’ve already thrown myself into hellfire, endured in any timeline, crawled like a dog!”
Bang! Bang!
“What else… what more do I have to do…”
Thunderbolts crashed from the mist that filled the sky, and black clouds gathered.
Ha, in the end, when Redian let out a derisive laugh filled with anger.
“Can I possess it?”
A fierce storm began pouring, making it impossible to see even a foot ahead.
“Milord, love from heaven is a lie. Look how much the goddess’s love has ruined.” Halphas bowed his head to the ground in response to his master’s question. “So many archangels have broken their wings and fallen, longing for the goddess’s love.”
“…”
“How is that love any different from the power we use to manipulate human souls?”
Halphas, the commander of the most destructive and warlike legion in the demon realm. Though he was born in the heavens, unlike fallen angels such as Ipos, he was a being born from evil from the very beginning. He could no longer bear to see his master and great ruler of darkness continually destroyed by that woman. And so, now, when his master was once again on the verge of falling, Halphas saw it as an opportunity.
“Milord, how can you believe the illusion that’s only spread when it’s needed and taken away at will? That is not love. It’s a lie.”
He pleaded with a voice both seductive and tainted.
“It’s hypocrisy, Milord! What’s the difference between love and greed or anger, wrapped in such a convincing name?”
“…”
However,
“How dare you.”
Just as Redian’s gaze turned toward Halphas.
“Presumptuous…”
“Keugh…!”
The black smoke piercing the sky suddenly shifted and wrapped itself around Halphas’s throat.
“I am the only one allowed to speak of my master’s love.”
“Milord! Spare me! Keugh!”
“I am also the only one who can possess that love.”
If what she had given him wasn’t love, then what was it? If saving him that bloody night wasn’t love, then what was?
“What could a being like you know about my master’s love…”
“Keuugh…”
“How dare you speak so carelessly.”
The black smoke choking Halphas showed no mercy.
“Ah, now I understand.”
Redian’s eyes were now completely hollow.
“I am the only one who can possess that love, so everything my master has done for me must be love.” Redian finally smiled as though he had found the answer.
“Yes, if master betrayed me, then that, too, is love.”
The madness in his smile was eerily beautiful.
“Yes, that’s love too.”
Then, there was no longer any reason to hold back. Since she had taught him that even betrayal and desire were love, there was no longer any reason for him to endure. Just as his patience and devotion were love, so too were his desire and obsession. The love she had directly taught him!
“Awaken the dead.”
In an instant, a sword with a cold, sharp light was gripped in Redian’s hand. It was the sword Siani had given him, the one he had used to swear an oath to the goddess by her lake.
“Milord!”
Without hesitation, Redian sliced his palm, and drops of red blood fell. Thump, thump! At the same time, the ground trembled as if it would crack open, and a dark red magic circle was engraved.
“…”
As his blood-soaked sword fell upon the magic circle, it became a ritual to summon devils. The fact that the devil king himself had spilled his own blood onto it meant…
“Uurgh!”
Halphas shuddered as he clutched his heart, which seemed ready to burst. As if awakening the dark spirits that had once infested the void, even the stars in the night sky began to shatter.
“Find her, no matter what.”
Redian said, gazing into the darkness that engulfed the void.
“…Understood.” Halphas struggled to contain his trembling as he replied.
The rain grew fiercer, driven by the already overwhelming ominous energy.
“But Milord, the woman you lost in the carriage…”
Just then, as Redian turned to walk away, he paused.
“Is she really the goddess’s incarnation you’ve been searching for?”
Could the scattered fragments of the soul, spread across all time, finally have come together? Could the final piece, completed by all those lives, finally have appeared?
“Yes.” Redian slowly turned his head and smiled. “That’s why she saves me and then throws me back into hell, right?”
Ah, of course, that was love too. Now, Redian could willingly embrace that love.
* * *
Where did Daisy go? I quietly stared at the communication tool from which the eerie voice had come.
I couldn’t figure anything out. But one thing was certain: someone else now had the tool, not Daisy.
“No way.”
“They said it was where the commanders of the devil world gathered.”
“Recently, there have been reports of coachmen going missing around here, so we should be cautious.”
Recalling the coachman’s words, I left the room. Since no one recognized me, there was no need to wear a hood or cover my face on purpose.
Is there no such thing as a newspaper here?
Just as I was standing outside the hotel, contemplating what to do next.
“Customer, do you need assistance with something?” The man who seemed to be the hotel manager approached me.
“How can I get news from outside the village?”
“Ah… news from outside, you say.”
It was quite a bizarre question, and the manager pushed his glasses up.
“As you know, our village has no interaction with the outside world. Hmm, why do you ask?”
“Can’t we hear anything from the capital?”
“The capital… where was that again? Somewhere in the central-western region?” He looked at me as though I had just asked if the first emperor was still alive.
This is absurd. I stood there, momentarily speechless.
I knew this was a secluded land, but I didn’t expect it to be this isolated. Given how cut off it was from news about the capital, hearing about Benega would be a pipe dream.
“So, there’s no way to get any information from outside the village? Like mail, newspapers, or even a gazette?”
“No. Since people here never seem curious about the outside world…” Just then, the manager’s face brightened as if something had come to mind. “Ah, now that I think about it, there is someone. You should go and ask her.”
“…Her?”
“Yes. A madam who knows everything you could possibly ask.”
A madam, huh.
The manager handed me a piece of paper with an address written on it.
Why does this seem so familiar?
Along with a name that sounded like something I’d heard before.
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