Chapter 479: Faithful servant (2) |
“Wouldn’t it be better if I went along as well?” Park Deok-Gu asked.
“It’s fine. We’re not going that far, anyway. I just want to see what’s going on, and like I said, I think there’s something strange,” I replied.
“Ugh, I don’t really understand, but… have a safe trip,” he said.
“Have a safe trip, Father Lee Ki-Young. May Elune’s protection be upon you…” Elena said.
“You don’t have to worry, Miss Elena,” I told her.
I had to spend a lot of time saying goodbye to Sun Hee-Young, Park Deok-Gu, Elena, and the other party members.
“It’s nothing serious. There’s just something that’s a bit strange, so I’m going to find out what it is and come right back.”
I told them that, but the lack of information still made them feel worried. Of course, it would’ve been nice if they could go with me, but I had to go with only Jung Ha-Yan in tow for the sake of the upcoming event.
Honestly, there was no guarantee that Belial was the one who had been summoned.
‘It’s strangely familiar…’
The mana in the northwestern region felt strangely familiar to me, so I thought that was probably the case. I had signed a contract with Belial once, and I had also never been wrong about things like this.
My ears kept on ringing as well, and it felt like Belial was trying to communicate with me, but he couldn’t connect with me because something was interfering. I had a hunch that the bankrupt Benigoa and the ruthless scum Elune were the culprits.
It had been a while since I had seen Whitefall. I patted its back and got on. Jung Ha-Yan also got on the griffon, and she wrapped her arms around my waist.
‘Shit. I can’t breathe. Are you trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver on me?’
I coughed, but she didn’t let go. She looked as if she had no plans of letting me go, so I couldn’t help but think that she had become even more obsessed with me.
Of course, she had long gotten used to staying with me, but she had always been the type to lose control over her strength in situations like this.
Her bright expression was completely different from the expressions of the people around us, and the difference was so stark that I couldn’t help but feel conscious of their gazes.
Of course, I could understand Jung Ha-Yan’s feelings. After all, the Federation was still collapsing as we speak, and under the assumption that she had heard my conversation with Kim Hyun-Sung…
‘It’s even more understandable.’
I organized my thoughts, and it started to make sense considering how Kylie Yale of the Federation had been spending time with Kim Hyun-Sung, but this way of thinking was too one-dimensional.
The first step was to talk about my recent behavior with Kim Hyun-Sung or with Jung Ha-Yan.
I was sure that Kylie Yale had said something about how I had been doing stuff with other women, and Jung Ha-Yan probably reacted to that.
‘It’s safe to assume that Kylie Yale got involved from there…’
I was sure that the training I had been giving Jung Ha-Yan had helped her endure for a while. The Federation bastards had managed to continue with their plans for quite a while, so I wanted to compliment her for her patience.
While she was trying her best to contain her anger by crying every night by herself, she had definitely heard my conversation with Kim Hyun-Sung, and she had come to the conclusion that I was about to abandon her for the Federation.
She had then proceeded to destroy the Federation with Han Sora on her right and Kylie Yale on her left. I was sure that this was what had happened, but there were still many parts that bothered me.
What bothered me the most was the distance between the joint training base and the Federation. The distance between the two was great, but it was possible to travel there and come back within twenty-eight hours. However, the timing would be really tight.
In addition, they would have needed more time because they still had to draw magic circles and cast various complicated spells before they could perform the summoning ritual.
‘Damn it… I hope Park Deok-Gu didn’t say anything.’
Park Deok-Gu had done a lot of trolling before, so I couldn’t exclude the possibility that he had said something that exacerbated the issue.
The assumption that he had said something about how I had fallen for another woman or how a gold digger had managed to seduce me to come over to the Federation made sense, this hypothesis actually fit the situation.
I couldn’t help but think that he had been egging Jung Ha-Yan on to proceed with her plan of destroying the Federation and killing that nonexistent gold digger.
‘It makes sense no matter how much I think about it…’
I had spent a lot of time with Jung Ha-Yan, to the extent that I could already read her body language. Of course, I had long gotten used to her general behavior patterns as well.
As a result, my assumptions made me feel a shiver down my spine. Jung Ha-Yan’s train of thought had always been unique. An ordinary person wouldn’t destroy the Federation just because they had heard a rumor about how I might move over to the Federation.
An ordinary person would try their best to convince me to stay, but they wouldn’t go ahead and wipe the Federation off of the map.
They were all assumptions, but I became even more confident of them when I heard Jung Ha-Yan’s following words.
“H-H-Have you heard the news?”
“What news?” I asked.
“T-The beach that you can see from A-A-A-Amera… has been c-c-completely destroyed. The sea view is ruined, and p-p-people won’t be able to play in the w-water anymore,” she replied.
‘Where did you hear that news? I haven’t even heard of that yet…
I could remember telling Kim Hyun-Sung about the beauty of Amera’s sea view.
“I-It’s known as a beautiful place… so I really wanted to go with y-you t-there, but there are many b-beaches in the Democratic Country as well. There’s also Laios, which is closer to us. T-There’s no need to go all the way to the F-Federation… right?” she asked.
“Yeah…” I replied.
“A-And according to the rumors, the people there aren’t that great. The adventurers are… b-bad people, and the w-women are bad as well. T-They say that they’re good to s-scam outsiders,” she continued.
“I see…” I commented.
“So I heard that we should n-never trust the people from the Federation. People said they’re all bad people,” she added.
“Who said that?” I asked.
“Huh? Uh? I-I heard it somewhere,” Jung Ha-Yan answered.
I hope that she hadn’t heard it from Park Deok-Gu because I was scared to even imagine what he might have told her.
Anyway, Jung Ha-Yan continued mumbling behind me, and the way she continued badmouthing the Federation made me feel unsettled.
She even had a go at their cuisine, saying that their food wasn’t good.
It was clear that she had become desperate, considering how she managed to slander them for hours on end. She was desperately trying to depict the Federation in a bad light in case of an emergency.
‘She had it all planned out.’
I was curious about the next part of her plan. I was sure that the end of her plan was to let the Federation completely sink into the ground. She could be planning on turning Amera into ruins so that it would appear as if it had never existed.
If my assumption that they managed to summon one of the 72 Demon Lords in Amera ended up being the truth, then the entire region under the control of the Federation would get wiped off of the map in just seven to ten days.
If the contract was better than the previous one, then the Federation’s demise would come even sooner.
“W-We can’t even go to the Federation now, even if we wanted to go there, right?” Jung Ha-Yan asked.
“You’re right,” I answered.
I actually wanted to threaten her by telling her I wouldn’t want to see her ever again, but I had already learned the hard way that threats wouldn’t last that long against her.
In addition, I was somewhat thankful for the incident.
‘She still has to be punished…’
She had to realize that the consequences could be catastrophic if something went wrong after creating an incident on this scale without my permission. Jung Ha-Yan had to be aware of the consequences of doing that, which could be as catastrophic as the consequences she had to face in her first life.
Obviously, the most effective way to convince her to start talking was to be kind to her. I made sure to infuse my voice with gentleness and kindness, and her voice gradually went up until it became clear that she was having a lot of fun.
It had been several hours since we had started riding the griffon and staring at the sky. I spent time chatting away with Jung Ha-Yan for a few hours before I finally realized that we were almost at our destination.
I used as much mana as I could to activate Mind’s Eye, and I instantly understood why the Federation couldn’t gather useful information.
‘I can’t see anything.’
The surroundings had suddenly gone dark. I couldn’t see Amera’s current status at all, and the darkness remained even after using Mind’s Eye. The sky had been pretty bright just before we approached Amera, but now, I couldn’t see the sun at all.
I started wondering if all this was caused by black magic rather than by a demon.
It was ridiculous, but Jung Ha-Yan exclaimed at the sight, “I-I-It’s so bad! I-It’s going to be r-really hard for them to… r-recover. What should we do?”
‘Why are you saying that with a smile, and how can you say that it’s going to be hard for Amera to recover when we can’t even see anything?’
“I-I’m not sure w-where they should even start. Should I record all these using the magic hologram?” she asked.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” I answered.
“Still… I-I’d like to take a look around… I-I can see a light over there. It’s small, but…” she pointed.
I could see a few denizens trying their best to escape the city amidst the darkness. I managed to see them because of the lights that the priests were using to lead the way.
I circulated my holy power without saying anything, and I could finally somewhat see the city’s overall condition. My griffon also seemed like it felt a bit more at ease thanks to my holy power.
I could see soldiers of the Federation fighting the enraged monsters that had emerged from the nearby forests. The continental alliance still hadn’t put together a reinforcement team for them, and the soldiers were outnumbered as well.
The few members of the continental alliance’s scout team had clearly been unable to just stand by and watch because I could see them working with the soldiers to fend off the monsters.
However, they were still struggling overall.
‘It’s a mess—a hot mess.’
I descended toward where the denizens were being evacuated and scattered my holy power all over the place, illuminating the surroundings. It seemed that they had realized that the honorary cardinal of the Sacred Democratic Country was here, because I could hear them shouting my name, but I wasn’t interested in rescuing them.
I was only here because I wanted to confirm whether my assumptions were true or not.
The constant ringing in my head was definitely a signal from the wise Belial.
“O-Oppa. I think i-it’ll be dangerous if we stay here…” Jung Ha-Yan commented.
“We need to save the people,” I told her.
“B-But still—you told the others that you’ll just check real quick and come back. L-Let’s go back,” she suggested.
“I can’t just turn a blind eye to them. Let’s look around a bit more,” I said.
“B-But…”
I was an expert at turning a blind eye, but it was important for me to stay here.
Jung Ha-Yan had definitely recovered a portion of her strength; I could finally see strands of black hair amidst her white hair. Still, she was also definitely anxious because she still hadn’t recovered from the effects of mana exhaustion.
The monsters here were Average, Rare, and Epic. Epic-ranked monsters were the strongest monsters here, so there was no reason for Jung Ha-Yan to feel anxious.
There were also no strong undulations of mana from anywhere in the city, and I couldn’t feel any black magic as well.
In other words, the fact that she was behaving that way meant that…
‘It means that I’m right…’
She had summoned a demon, and it was a demon that a contractor could control. I didn’t even have to be suspicious of the demon’s identity because the ringing got even stronger the more steps I took.
Of course, I really wasn’t sure just yet, but the familiar energy definitely belonged to the one I respected the most.
The perfectly clear voice that rang in my head confirmed my assumptions.
[It’s been a while, disgusting human! Hahaha. I see that your soul is still as disgusting as ever!]
The Demon of Lies and Instigation, Belial, had been summoned to the real world once more.
‘This faithful servant greets the lord of all evil! Long live Belial! Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!’
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