Chapter 337. Caesar of Belief (6)
Flam followed Arwen into the military camp and asked, "How did you know I was here?"
Arwen took out a magic wand and an old pen that Den had given her from her pocket space.
-It’s an application of soul magic that Teacher-nim taught me. You know how there’s a story that the soul resides in objects that have been used for a long time? I followed the soul traces left on the pen that Fool used for a long time.
"Then, have you been tracking my location all this time?" Flam asked, surprised. Arwen shook her head.
-It might be different for Teacher-nim, but I can’t track others from a long distance. Teacher-nim wasn’t able to track you down after you ran away because he was busy preparing for the war.
Arwen’s sharp remark stabbed at Flam’s conscience. In the end, he felt guilty that he had run away because he couldn’t find a solution after starting the war. He said sullenly, "That’s... I’m regretting it myself. In the end, I heard Den resolved the accident I caused. I have no face left to see him."
Arwen hit the back of his head with her magic wand.
-You idiot. Teacher-nim told me to tell you that you should be prepared to answer for running away without paying off your debt when you meet him later.
"What, what does that mean?! I’m certain I paid off all my debts!" Flam exclaimed defensively.
Arwen smirked and replied.
-That’s the principal. You didn’t pay back the interest. The interest has probably already increased by tens of times more than the principal.
Flam, who had never thought of interest, was stunned. He said, "This... Rather than not being able to meet Den out of shame, I won’t be able to meet him out of fear."
He was trembling with fear because he had been working with Den for the past three years, and saw how Den had dealt with the people who owed him.
-Teacher-nim will find you with soul magic anyway, so it’s a useless fear. Just endure it.
Arwen’s kind consolation made Flam even more desperate. He asked, "But isn’t soul magic that evil magic that deals with the dead?"[1]
-It’s similar, but it’s not. Raising the dead is necromancy, while soul magic is talking to or possessing the dead. To be precise, the field is the same, but the school is different.
Arwen continued with a magical explanation that Flam couldn’t even understand, so he just let the explanation go in one ear and out the other. He remarked, "Den is proficient in more magic than I thought."
-Of course! I bet Teacher-nim knows all the magic in the world.
Arwen boasted proudly as if she had been praised. It was like a child’s vanity, but Arwen was sincere. She then asked a question.
-But what brought you here?
Flam answered seriously, "Teacher-nim sent me to this place because he was anxious about something."
-Grandfather did?
Flam nodded, and Arwen clenched her magic wand with a serious expression. She wondered if the reason why her teacher had given her the magic wand was related to that anxiety.
-But what about Grandfather?
"Right now, he’s probably about to start attacking the place where the Demon King summoning ceremony is taking place." Flam looked in the direction he had come from. For some reason, he felt as if the terribly strong aura had grown even larger.
* * *
Libra tried to distribute the awoken family members of the Demon King among the three churches.
However, Galak objected. "If you distribute those demons in groups of two, the defenses will become too weak. You have to assign at least three each.”
Libra frowned. "Weak? What nonsense are you talking about? In the past, you had to risk your life against just one of these divine demons. Did you forget?"
"That was possible because it was a long time ago, and I didn’t know much about the demons. Now I can deal with three at once,” Galak remarked.
"Lies...!" Libra wanted to dismiss Galak’s words. However, over decades of cooperation with the Twelve Zodiacs, he had tasted Galak’s terrible power.
Galak said confidently, "I’m stronger than three of the Demon King’s family members. If I risked my life, I’m confident that I could win against all seven."
It was said that unless the Demon King was killed, the demons wouldn’t die, but it was possible to render them unable to move.
Libra frowned, but it was hidden behind his mask.
"But you know what? The problem is that my grandson is stronger than me. I know because we’ve fought a few times in the last three years,” Galak remarked.
Libra bit his lips and blood trickled down. He asked, "Then what are you saying we should do? The enemy will definitely attack from multiple angles at the same time. How do you know where the Crow of Death will come from?”
Galak smiled lightly and said, "Hey, cool down. Our purpose isn’t offense. It’s defense. All you have to do is stall for time."
Libra’s eyes widened. "I see. No matter how strong the Crow of Death is, it will take a long time to deal with three divine demons at the same time." However, his bright voice quickly darkened again. "Then how will you defend the places where the divine demons can’t be placed?"
"Didn’t I say it already? I’m stronger than the family members of the Demon King. I’ll protect the most important altar,” Galak said.
Libra felt a subtle emotion. He could rationally accept the fact that his strongest enemy was on his side, but he couldn’t easily accept it emotionally. Although they were holding hands now, Galak was a deadly enemy, so he couldn’t bear the thought of Galak guarding the altar.
"There are definitely seven family members of the Demon King, so why are there only six here?” Galak asked.
Libra held back from mocking him and said, "That’s none of your business.”
"Hmm, it seems you’re trying to pull some nonsense again. Well, we won’t know if it’ll work out,” Galak said.
Galak wasn’t nervous, no matter what Libra did. He believed that he had prepared adequately for Zendia and Doomstone on his own. He knew quite well that it was a very irresponsible and selfish thought, but the most important thing to him was the success of the ceremony.
* * *
After a long night, dawn broke out over the horizon.
The previous night, I had plucked off one of the scales of the pet dragon, made a simple hut, and slept in it. It was more comfortable than I’d expected. When I plucked off the scale, the pet dragon had said his skin stung and got angry, but after my father said he was being noisy, he grumbled briefly and continued to fly quietly through the sky.
"Are you awake?” my father asked when he felt my presence.
"Yes. Did you stay up all night?" I asked in response.
My father smiled and said, "Yeah. But don’t worry. I’ve long since surpassed the level where my condition would worsen because I didn’t sleep for a day."
"Haha, I’m more worried about the Demon King than about Father,” I joked as I took out breakfast from my pocket space.
"You’re going to eat, right?” my father asked.
"Of course,” I replied.
Someone jumped up from down below as I was preparing breakfast with a barrier put up to block the wind. Then, that person climbed onto the pet dragon even as it flew quickly thousands of kilometers up in the air.
"You’ve arrived, Father?" my father asked.
It was my grandfather who had climbed onto the dragon. He said, "Hey, it’s been a while, son and grandson."
Grandfather didn’t seem to have fully recovered yet, and looked exhausted. But neither I nor my father said anything about it.
"Grandfather, please join us and eat,” I said, showing him some bread with butter spread on it.
My grandfather smiled, coming over and sitting down. "I heard that the Demon King’s summons were stolen. Were you injured anywhere?" he asked while toasting the bread using a primitive method of rubbing mana together.
"I’m fine. But still, I’m sorry. The Demon King summoning ceremony is starting because of me,” I said.
My grandfather shook his head and smiled kindly. "No, the person who should apologize is the fool who wants to summon the Demon King. You did nothing wrong."
Keup! If it were my aunt, she would have been all kinds of hysterical, but my grandfather was so caring. "Okay, then let’s decide who’s going to attack which place after breakfast,” I said.
My grandfather spread jam on the toasted bread and took a big bite.
* * *
When generals visited, ordinary military units would start cleaning even a few days prior, from the nooks and crannies to places that wouldn’t even be seen.
Valhalla’s soldiers thought such things weren’t related to them. They saw division commanders and even generals day in and day out, so a general coming to visit wasn’t a special thing, but a normal part of daily life for them.
However, Valhalla, the first line of defense against the Demon’s Territory, was on alert this morning. They received a surprise visit from the crown prince and the saintess. The military camp had been half burned down by the fire of the phoenix, and the destroyed walls had yet to be cleaned up.
Hillis arrived at Valhalla amid the panic of various officers, and said one thing as soon as she got off the carriage. "Please guide me to the medical corps." She spoke firmly, as if she didn’t care about anything else. The knights who had lined up to receive her awkwardly guided her to the medical corps.
In contrast, as soon as the crown prince got off the carriage, he told everyone to keep up the good work and immediately went to meet William. The officers and soldiers, who had been nervous and prepared to hear bitter words, were relieved.
After arriving at the medical corps, Hillis immediately began to treat the soldiers and residents. She asked, "This is a frontline base, so why are there ordinary people here?"
The nursing officers answered, nervous about the presence of the saintess whom they had only heard of. "Yes! That’s because this place is going to be the second Warrant."
Even though it was a poor explanation due to their nervousness, Hillis immediately understood. She remarked, "So it’s because of the empire’s work to move north and reclaim the Demon’s Territory, integrating it into the empire. I heard that Warrant was originally a frontline base, but Valhalla seems to be the same."
"Ah! Yes! That’s right! So, families of long-term soldiers or pioneers who wish to have their own land are living here together!" the officers replied.
If it were simply at the village level, more settlements could have been built besides Valhalla, but not many places could be developed into bases the size of cities. For that reason, the deepest frontline base had been selected as the main camp and the frontier.
"It would have been better if we took more time to set up a frontline base further ahead than this,” Hillis remarked.
"That’s... The previous frontline base ahead of this one was destroyed two years ago by the flood of demons. It seems they haven’t recovered yet,” the nursing officer explained. Hillis nodded.
Geographically, there was enough land for it to become a city, but since it could only grow if there were people, it was natural to invest in getting more people to come over.
"And there haven’t been any big problems so far because the imperial family and His Highness the Duke have fully supported us...” the nursing officer trailed off.
Hillis smiled bitterly and replied, “But there’s a risk of great demons attacking without any notice.”
It was a high risk, high reward situation. She had to admire the courage of the pioneers, but the risk was too brutal. The burns caused by the phoenix’s fire were so serious that they couldn’t easily be healed without her level of divine power.
While Hillis was focusing on the treatment, suddenly another source of divine power other than her own manifested. She raised her head and identified the owner of the divine power, smiling brightly. "Arwen!"
-I heard you came over. I’ll help too.
It was clear that Arwen, who had learned divine magic from Hillis, would be of great help.
"Thank you. I heard Den left me to go stop the summoning of the Demon King?” Hillis asked, smiling playfully.
But Arwen felt helpless as she replied.
-Yes. If it’s Teacher-nim, he’ll be back safely. With your sister.”
At Arwen’s consolation, Hillis smiled and stroked her head. "Thank you for worrying about me.” She then looked at Flam, who stood hesitantly next to Arwen, and joked, “I heard that you ran away, but it seems you were here all along? It’s been a long time."
Flam laughed awkwardly. "Ahahaha, I heard you took care of Arwen while I was away. Thank you."
"If you’re grateful, please help the nursing officers,” Hillis said.
"Of course! Just tell me what to do!" Flam shouted enthusiastically. After receiving instructions, he moved busily to transport medical supplies.
Thanks to their diligent work, soon they had some room to relax.
"Oh, I’m tired," Hillis said.
-Good job.
"Good job."
Around the time they were about to take a break, a roar came from outside.
Boom-! Ding ding ding ding ding-!
The emergency bell rang urgently, just as a huge mass of black mana suddenly hit the military camp.
1. The author uses two different words for necromancy. Based on the description given in the next dialogue, I named one soul magic to distinguish it from necromancy. ☜
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