Chapter 309.
Tristan had a ridiculous smile when he saw the horn of the Demon King. "No way. I’ve been in and out of the pocket space, but I didn’t even know you had the horn of the Demon King."
"It’s understandable, since I sealed it beneath dozens of layers,” I said.
If the black mana of the Demon King’s horn hadn’t been sealed, I would have already been caught by my father or my grandfather when I brought it out from the holy place.
"But when that monster opened the pocket space, you didn’t get caught. Even though the Blade family’s instincts are almost like foresight,” Tristan said, thinking it was unexpected.
I smiled lightly and said, "Our family’s unique instincts are still just instincts, not foresight or mind reading."
"Considering that, I often get goosebumps when Master speaks from his instincts."
“What do you mean goosebumps?” I said, fiddling with the horn of the Demon King. "As a person who inherited those instincts from my father, I’ve studied how they’re triggered. Unexpectedly, our family’s instincts seem to be the result of a kind of high level thought."
"High level thought? That doesn’t seem to match the Crows,” Tristan said.
I shrugged. "Well, I’ll admit that. In reality, it’s not something you can know by thinking consciously."
"Then?"
"For example, if someone threw a stone into a lake, anyone would expect the water to splash, right?”
Tristan nodded at my brief example. "Right."
"But when you reach the conclusion that water will splash, no one takes into account the force applied to the stone, the distance from the lake surface, the surrounding wind speed, or the air resistance."
"Of course. Who takes that into account? Of course, when a stone falls into the water, the water splashes." Tristan looked at me as if what I’d said had nothing to do with our family’s instincts.
"My instincts and my father’s are the same. However, unlike others, we look at extremely microscopic events, omit the process, and predict results."
"What? How is that different from fortune telling?"
"Well, I think it’s different. Fortune telling is just more of a scam using the Barnum effect.”
Tristan didn’t understand me and asked again. "What effect?"
"Barnum effect. It’s a type of fraud that misleads you with ambiguous words."
Of course, among the types of magic practiced by the ancients, there was magic related to prophecy and foresight. However, there was a reason why it was so rare.
Seeing the future came at a huge price. The stronger the magic, the greater the rebound. Merlin, who had predicted the future at the end of the Holy Kingdom period, had likely died due to rebound from the foresight rather than from reaching the end of his lifespan.
"Unlike Mordred, Master uses too many difficult words, perhaps because you’re a magician.”
"Anyway, I named the omission ’a leap of logic by unconscious thinking’. I wrote a paper while I researched it. Do you want to read it?" I asked.
Tristan shook his head, looking as if he had been bitten by a bug. "I’m not a weirdo like Master, so I refuse.”
"Being called a weirdo is quite harsh."
In the end, father and great-grandfather had to have the right conditions to activate their instincts. Surprisingly, those conditions were so tricky I hadn’t quite identified them yet.
"But Master, the Holy Sword has been trembling since earlier,” Tristan said.
I looked at the Holy Sword hanging from the coat I had thrown. It was trembling noticeably. I remarked, "Because I can’t use my mana well right now, my sense of perception seems to have deteriorated."
On a normal day, I would have noticed it from the time it started to tremble, but I was tired and my mana was at its lowest, so I hadn’t noticed it. As I rolled over on the bed and approached the Holy Sword, the trembling became stronger.
"Hmm, is it reacting to the horn of the Demon King?” I thought.
I put the horn of the Demon King back in the pocket space, and the sword became calm as if it had never trembled in the first place. It was a pretty interesting phenomenon.
I took out the horn of the Demon King again. The Holy Sword began to tremble again, and this time, I tried to put the Holy Sword in the pocket space. Then, the Holy Sword, which had previously never entered the pocket space, entered easily.
"What, you didn’t go in all this time because of the horn of the Demon King?"
I tried to remove the Holy Sword from the pocket space again. But no matter how much I pulled on the Holy Sword, it wouldn’t come out.
“Aigoo, muscle pain." When I tried to force myself to pull out the Holy Sword, the part I had injured from dealing with Azhi Dahaka became painful.
I tried pulling on the Holy Sword while simultaneously putting the horn of the Demon King in the pocket space. Suddenly, the Holy Sword popped out, and I spun backward once due to the recoil.
"Oh, my head.” I rubbed my head where it had hit the bedside.
"Master, are you doing a skit?" Tristan smiled at me openly.
"I’m not!" I grumbled as I took out ‘The North Continent’s Cry’ and ‘The Breath of the Holy Tribe,’ which I had previously copied and stored in my pocket space. "Anyways, I can roughly understand why my great-grandfather said he needed the Holy Sword."
The content of ‘The North Continent’s Cry’ was just about the culture of the North continent.
However, as long as I knew that it contained a decryption key, I could decrypt other books by finding the key in it.
"Why do you need it?" Tristan asked.
"Why do I need it? Of course, because it’s necessary for summoning the Demon King. Although it’s still a hypothesis, so wait,” I answered. I picked out the unnatural parts from ‘The North Continent’s Cry’ and wrote them down on empty paper, muttering, "Hmm, does the page number matter?"
I arranged the unnatural parts according to the page, and found a pattern in them. Then, I applied that pattern to ‘The Breath of the Holy Tribe’. Using that pattern, the instructions for a ritual began to appear in the Holy Kingdom’s ceremonial song.
"As expected, so that’s why you needed the Holy Sword,” I said as I put the two books back in the pocket space. "You can close the pocket space now.”
Tristan closed the pocket space and asked, "So why do you need it?"
"To summon the Demon King, you need enormous divine power. If you put mana into the Holy Sword, not only does it convert the mana to divine power, but it also amplifies the mana several times, which is why it’s needed."
Tristan was puzzled by my answer. "You need divine power to summon the Demon King? Why?”
"I think the reason is written in ‘The Prophecy of the Holy Tribe’, but since that was taken away, I don’t know right now. Of course, it’s not as if I can’t guess why, but if I want to explain it, it’ll be at least ten hours long. Do you want to listen?"
Tristan shook both arms and shook his head exaggeratedly. "I won’t understand even if I listen, so I’ll refuse."
I pulled the blanket and pillow over, saying, "That’s a relief. I’m slowly reaching my limit. Is there another tool that can amplify divine power like the Holy Sword?”
Tristan nodded. "There are a few more. The Holy Sword held by Master, the Holy Shield held by Gwalchavad, the Holy Bow I used to use, the Holy Spear used by the captain, and the Holy Grail that only the blood of the royal family can use. I know of these five.”
"Is that so? When we go back to the capital, I’ll have to meet Hillis first.”
I planned on asking Hillis about the whereabouts of the tools that amplified divine power, but besides that, she also had a copy of ‘The Prophecy of the Holy Tribe’.
I fell asleep as my consciousness blurred. Today had been too long.
* * *
Galak, who had managed to shake off Doomstone’s pursuit using the Curse of the Giants, sat on a stump and breathed heavily as he rested.
"Kuhahaha, you must be getting old too, seeing as you’re breathing so hard trying to lose a little boy."
Galak glanced at Libra, who had appeared from behind him. He replied without even looking back, as if he’d known Libra would appear, “He’s not a little kid. He’s the chief of the Crow tribe. Rather, I should say it was luck that I was able to get rid of him safely.”
Libra snorted. "Hmph! You’re exaggerating. Are you praising him because he’s the leader of your tribe? Where’s Galak Blade, the arrogant warrior?"
Galak shook his head at Libra’s sarcastic remarks. "No. It’s not an exaggeration. It’s the truth.” Then, he hit his knee and laughed happily. "Puhahahaha! He’s my grandson, but he’s a real monster. Even if I die at the hands of the Demon King, there’s no need to worry about the world! No, rather, I may end up dying to my grandson’s hand before reaching the Demon King. Ahahaha!”
Libra frowned, but it wasn’t visible under the mask.
"Ha! You, someone who’s revered as a warrior, couldn’t help but end up sealing the Demon King!" Libra shouted. "Even if he came back into the world, do you think he would even blink at a little muscle monster like him?!"
Galak had a leisurely smile as he said, "Don’t keep calling him a little boy. Didn’t more than two-thirds of the religious members die and more than ninety percent of the religious organization’s territory get destroyed by that little boy?"
"Keuk!"
"By looking down on my grandson, you’re asking to get some spit in the face. Uhuhuhuhu!" Galak teased.
Libra clenched his fist to the point where blood dripped from his hand. "Who do you think is responsible for that?! Isn’t it all because you pretended to be me using my name and unnecessarily attacked the holy place of the Crow tribe?!"
Galak said, looking resentful, "Ayy, why are you being like that? What do you mean unnecessarily?! I was just caught trying to retrieve the horn of the Demon King, the most important part in summoning the Demon King. Kukuku."
Libra held in his rage, grinding his teeth, but Galak continued, "In addition, shouldn’t you be grateful that you’ve gotten more support in the religious organization because I used your name for a ‘noble’ goal?"
"Your grandson killed all those supporters! Not a single one was left alive in the places he attacked!” Libra shouted angrily, as if he were about to vomit blood.
Any members who had survived by chance after the religious organization’s territories had been attacked were definitely not his supporters.
Libra’s supporters who had been hiding deep underground were buried and killed. The supporters who had fled into the sky were split in half along with the clouds and died. The supporters who had hidden in a mountain were caught in the mountain’s collapse and died.
Doomstone’s instincts, which had left not a single survivor, were to be feared.
"In addition, you couldn’t even collect the host for the Demon King-nim!" Libra exclaimed.
"Ayy, what’s the problem? In the end, I found the other horn of the Demon King that Oryana hid,” Galak said slyly.
Libra bit down on his lip and blood flowed from his lips. "Yeah, deep in the palace treasury protected by that horrific magic circle!"
"Puhahaha! That’s right. I never thought that the saintess belonging to the temple would have hidden it there. It’s the opposite of what anyone would expect!”
"How can you even laugh?! It’s something we got after using the lives of thousands of religious organization members to attract a great demon!" Libra cried.
Galak nodded indifferently. "What does it matter? I heard your doctrine was to give up your life for the Demon King, right? They were martyred. That’s good. That’s good.”
Libra emitted killing intent at Galak, who merely clapped. But just then, a shadow approached from afar. When Libra saw the shadow, he raised his guard, but Galak smiled lightly.
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