“Come before me, Barbatos,” Redian commanded as he slowly opened his eyes.
“Milord.”
An exquisite knight with golden eyes and fair skin contrasting with black armor appeared.
“You’ve found her whereabouts.”
“Yes, Milord. Halphas, being born of evil, was unable to read the communication tool’s signal.”
On the other hand, Barbatos, who had fallen from the celestial realm, could read the signal. Which meant…
“No way.”
“Yes, Milord. It’s Pronaea.”
Redian let out a small laugh, furrowing his brow. “Pronaea…”
The place she wanted to go after leaving his side was that land.
“However, further tracking is impossible. As you know, it’s a place we cannot enter.”
The land erased from the map—truthfully, it was the goddess’s paradise. The sturdy barrier made of love and peace was impenetrable by evil spirits.
“Cannot enter?”
Redian’s gaze, looking down at Barbatos, was flushed red. They looked as if he hadn’t slept for days.
“Why not?”
“Milord, if you recklessly touch that barrier…” Barbatos trailed off.
Even a devil king could be torn apart if they weren’t permitted. Redian was well aware of that.
“Even among those holed up in Pronaea…”
But,
“The one my master loved the most was me.”
Since Siani left, Redian’s appearance gradually changed. His once fair skin had turned pale, and his eyes that used to hold a smile had hardened coldly. Even the air surrounding him felt dangerously sharp, like a cold blade.
“Why can’t I enter?”
“…”
“Shouldn’t it be me, who has crawled like a dog for thousands of years for my master, to enter that land? Isn’t that right?”
Was it for those weaklings that you abandoned me? What did those frail creatures even do? No, no. Right, master was always one to give her heart even to the worthless.
He muttered as if spitting out. “If I just kill them all, maybe my master will return to me.”
Black energy swirled around his anxiously trembling eyes.
“Milord, that’s—!”
“Don’t worry, Barbatos.” But Redian soon smiled faintly. “Master would hate me if I did such a thing. I wouldn’t do that.”
After thousands of years, he had finally kept the woman by his side. Her eyes barely spoke of love to him, and he had no intention of ruining everything again.
“But…”
Suddenly, Redian quietly stared into Barbatos’s eyes.
“It seems master didn’t take away your eye color.”
Those who fell from the celestial realm and descended into hell had their eye colors changed, but Barbatos remained the same.
“It didn’t matter before.”
“…Uugh!”
“But now it can’t stay like this.”
As Redian shifted his gaze and stood up,
“Master might remember you.”
“Agh!”
In an instant, Barbatos’s brilliant golden eyes turned a murky gray.
“Gather all the commanders of the upper legions…” Redian, staring at the dark sky where torrential rain poured, gave the order. “Prepare the army, Barbatos.”
“At your command.”
Redian would personally lead the way to Pronaea.
* * *
Peaceful sunlight always bathed Raphiel’s mansion.
“Nineteen…?”
However, I couldn’t fully engage in conversation. The atmosphere resembled bright summer light, the eyes that curved when smiling, and the mention of age nineteen.
Could she really have some connection with Redian? But even to me, it seemed like an absurd thought.
Royal Princess Izel was surely reported to be dead. Though no one had directly confirmed her death.
“I hope I get to meet him someday. After all, I gave birth to him, but we parted ways when he was very young, so I don’t know how he’s grown… Ah, according to the rabbit, he’s said to be very handsome.”
“The rabbit?”
Raphiel smiled softly.
{Goddess! Yu have arrived safely!}
Good grief! I almost screamed out loud.
“What is that?”
It was because the rabbit on the table started speaking.
{Why is Mori left out while Aunt is playing alune with Goddess?}
“…Royal Princess?”
The rabbit doll even twitched its ears in response to my words.
So it was really Royal Princess Moriana’s voice.
Am I dreaming? Was I being fooled in this strange village?
{Mori also wan to fulfil Goddess’s will and head to Pronaea. Fyuuh, life is tu tiring.}
“Try a little harder.” But Raphiel answered with a laugh as if this was nothing new. This meant that Moriana already knew I was in Pronaea.
Mori, Raphiel, the talking rabbit doll, and the raccoon driving the carriage all knew each other.
No wonder I felt too easy to get here. Wow, the damned author really hit me in the back of the head with that twist.
“So here…”
Everything started to make sense now. This was the land of those who followed the will of the goddess until the end, even if it went against divine law, a land where devils didn’t exist.
“This Pronaea is actually a land blessed by the goddess.” I was convinced and spoke without hesitation. “Isn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s why the goddess returned here.”
Unlike my serious tone, Raphiel chuckled as if it was obvious.
“Oh, Mori. Did you finish the puzzle I gave you?”
{No. It’s hard.}
“To become a great elementalist like me, you must work hard on your homework.”
Suddenly shifting the subject, Raphiel glanced at me. “Isn’t it fascinating the more you look at it?”
Then, she resumed working on the unfinished puzzle on the table. “Even a small piece has its role. Those pieces come together to form arms, legs…”
My gaze followed her fingertips.
“When thousands of pieces are all assembled, they create a single, perfect picture.”
It was at that moment.
“And when you breathe ‘consciousness’ into it.”
Raphiel blew gently,
“Chirp! Chirp!”
And a white bird popped out from the puzzle and flew into the sky.
Wow…
Yes, consciousness. What I lacked was exactly that consciousness. I was nothing more than a finished puzzle picture, unaware of who I truly was.
“Amazing. It seems everyone here has divine power.”
Moreover, they clearly knew who they were, why they were in this land, and what they were supposed to do. Unlike me, who had stumbled in, feeling awkward and out of place.
“Of course. Only those loved and protected by the goddess can enter the barrier she created…”
Raphiel pointed at the sky where the white bird had flown away. In the clear sky, a rainbow-like light spread.
“Only those chosen by the goddess can enter this village. This is a place for the chosen ones.”
But at that moment,
Wait. Suddenly, something clicked in my mind. A place for the ‘chosen ones’.
“How are the chosen ones determined?”
I had done nothing to earn the favor of the gods, nor did I have any special divine power. But for me to have entered here, it means I must have something in common with them. Could this be a clue to my true identity?
“Hmm, of course.”
At my question, Raphiel raised three fingers, folding one down at a time.
“First, the priests and priestesses like us who sacrificed their lives and regained their names from the celestial realm…”
I hadn’t sacrificed anything, nor was I a priestess, so that was a pass.
“Our great goddess…”
Not that either, so pass.
“And lastly.”
There was only one left. Could this be my identity?
“Perhaps the devil king?”
Wait, what? Why is the devil king suddenly brought up here?
“How could the devil king enter a land where devils don’t exist?”
“In fact, the devil king and the goddess are in love.”
Huh?
{The devil king, chased after her alune.}
At that moment, the rabbit doll perked its ears again.
“No, she finds him cute in a way.”
{Hmm, that’s true. The goddess does sem to luv the demon king the most.}
“Right. It’s all a love quarrel.”
Moriana, or rather the rabbit doll, and Raphiel exchanged glances and whispered.
The more I spoke with them, the more I felt like a foreigner who had stumbled into a strange land.
“Anyway, I’ve answered your question.” Raphiel winked at me. “This is a place the devil king can enter.”
And why did every answer to my questions circle back to the devil king and the goddess?
“That’s why you should stay in the annex instead of the hotel.”
However, from Raphiel’s expression, one thing was clear.
“That, it would be a bit awkward if the hotel got wrecked during their love quarrel… right?”
It seemed their love quarrels were quite intense.
* * *
Having returned to the hotel with no particular results, I collapsed onto the bed. It felt like I had gone searching about Benega, or rather Daisy, only to be toyed with by mischievous fairies.
“Hmm.”
Anyway, I planned to move to the annex as Raphiel had suggested.
That woman definitely knows something. I felt like I could learn a lot just by being around Raphiel. And more than anything,
I also have something. Instinctively, I felt that I was at a crucial point. It felt like the whole world was asking me who I really was.
I thought everything would be over once I helped Redian ascend as the crown prince, but perhaps the final quest still remained.
“I knew it. I can never rest in peace.”
Sigh, my life!
“Alright, let’s move my things and figure it out.”
There was no time to waste anymore. As I opened my bag to retrieve the communication device I had thrown on the floor,
“Ah, right…”
Before leaving, I had packed the homework from Moriana and the letter from Claude with me.
“Now that Redian is crown prince, I probably won’t need this anymore.”
I opened Claude’s letter without thinking much,
“…Huh?”
It was a letter I had read dozens of times just a few months ago, but now I couldn’t tear my eyes away. There was nothing written except for the message Claude had left for the duke…
[To my dear friend Izel.]
The moment sunlight streamed through the window,
[If you can see this writing, it means my letter has reached the land where you are, right?]
Claude’s hidden handwriting began to slowly reveal itself.
Hi, now you can purchase 10 advance chapters in here.
WHY. SHE. SO. STUPID. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA