Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 430

430

“You, are you perhaps a priest? And with the mark of a demon god, it seems.”

“Ah, no, this is…….”

“……This is unbelievable. A demon god’s priest summoned me?”

The muttering voice lowered even further. The gaze, which had been indifferent but somewhat amicable, began to sharpen with a chilling edge.

I felt a sense of utter failure, my mouth drying up. With the mark, it was something I would have to face eventually, but it was happening before I could even prepare a countermeasure, leaving me flustered. I knew all too well how I must appear in his eyes right now. Divine power and the power of spirits cannot mix, especially not with the destructive and aggressive divine power of a demon god’s priest. Yet, someone who clearly appeared to be a high-ranking priest of a demon god had summoned a spirit king, and the water spirit king, no less, who was notoriously difficult to summon. Naturally, I would seem highly suspicious. I would be fortunate if I wasn’t seen as an impurity shaking the very foundations of this world.

“Just what are you?”

The eyes, filled with anger, darkened to a deep blue, a color that reminded me of a stormy sea. I felt as if that wave of wrath would crash down on me at any moment, and all my senses were on edge. Still, the reason I wasn’t too worried was probably because I already knew the outcome. I hadn’t heard that El in the past was a priest of a demon god. In other words, I would handle this situation well.

“Well, you see, what happened was…….”

“No, there’s no need to answer. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

However, my attempt to somehow explain was cut off by a cold voice. The words that followed hardened my face.

“I was lenient because you were the first human summoner, but I have no interest in aberrations. The contract is null and void.”

“Huh?”

“It would be best if you never crossed my path again, even by chance. If you value your life even a little, abandon any thought of summoning spirits forever. Farewell.”

“Huh? Really? No, wait, Ellyuen! Wait! I’ll explain everything! Just listen to me!”

No, why is he so firm? Weren’t we supposed to make a contract here? Ellyuen doesn’t make empty threats. If he says he’s leaving, he really means it. Knowing that I would definitely miss him if I hesitated even a little, I hurriedly shouted. At that, Ellyuen, who seemed to be fading slightly, frowned and looked at me.

“You call me Father again.”

“Ah…….”

“What is the reason?”

What do you mean, what’s the reason? Do I need a reason to call my father, Father? You made me your son. You were the one who offered to be my father first. You looked happy when I called you Father.

But if I said that, I’d be treated like a madman. My insides churned as if filled with uncomfortable bubbles. I already knew the best way to easily resolve this situation. All I had to do was explain who I was, and everything would be easily resolved. At first, he would be skeptical, but eventually, he would have no choice but to believe that I was telling the truth.

However, I couldn’t say it. I mustn’t say it. The moment I uttered those words, the magic that sustained me in this world would lose its effect.

When I heard that warning, I thought it wouldn’t be too difficult. If I had known I would be hit so hard in the back of the head like this, I wouldn’t have answered so readily. Instead of uttering the numerous words that I could clearly answer right now, I let out a long sigh. Still, it was fortunate that Ellyuen seemed to have postponed his departure.

“It was a slip of the tongue. You just look like my father, so I unconsciously…….”

“That is a lie.”

“Why!”

“A spirit king’s appearance is unique. There is no way there could be someone who resembles me. If you keep thinking of making clumsy lies…….”

“No, there is! There is! I’m serious. Why would I lie about something like this? The hair color and eye color are a bit different, but other than that, you look exactly alike. Like twins!”

It’s only natural to resemble him since he *is* my father. Ellyuen, who had no way of knowing that fact, glared at me with a displeased expression. Now he was looking at me as if I were a con artist, which made me feel wronged.

“Very well, if that’s the case, I will confirm it. Where is this person who resembles me?”

“It’s no use. You won’t be able to meet him no matter how hard you look.”

“You can’t meet him?”

“Yes, you can’t meet him. He’s not in this world.”

“Does that mean he’s dead?”

No, he’s in the future. He’s scheduled to be born 4,000 years from now. Once again, the truth I couldn’t answer swirled in my throat before disappearing. Thanks to that, silence ensued, and Ellyuen seemed to have interpreted the answer on his own. The sharp gaze softened slightly.

“So, what were you going to say?”

“……Huh?”

“Didn’t you say you were going to explain everything to me?”

Moreover, it seemed he was willing to listen to my story. Considering his temperament, this was a golden opportunity that would never come again, so I quickly cleared my throat.

“First of all, you’re misunderstanding. I’m not a priest of a demon god.”

“You have the mark of a god, yet you’re not a priest? Does that mean you received the mark but haven’t registered with the order yet?”

“No, I mean it literally. I’m really not a priest. This mark is a fake, made for the purpose of disguising my identity.”

“You come up with remarkably novel nonsense. Do you think I can’t distinguish the authenticity of a god’s mark? The power of a demon god is clearly present in that mark. How do you explain that?”

“I’m serious. Um…… I have a friend who is a priest of a demon god. He used his divine power to make it for me, so that’s why.”

Kanos is as good as my friend, and he made it with his own power, so it’s not a lie in the end. Besides, this was theoretically possible. There was a technique called imprinting magic, which involved engraving magic onto the body through tattoos. It was a method devised by sorcerers to use magic quickly and simply, like scroll magic that involved drawing magic circles on paper. However, it had many side effects and the imprinting method was very difficult, so it wasn’t widely used.

In any case, if divine power was used in this imprinting magic, it was possible to create a plausible forgery of a god’s mark. Karyuan had also applied that technique to engrave the mark of a demon god on Duke ইউkarte [unidentified character].

The reason I knew this was thanks to Ellyuen. After everything was over, the divine realm conducted a thorough investigation into Karyuan and the Duke’s actions, and Ellyuen had also informed me of the results. The god’s mark forged by the Duke wasn’t perfect at first. It was just a crude level, like a stamp, so he had to hide and touch it up every day. Then, through a contract with Karyuan, a perfect forgery became possible. He took advantage of the fact that the demon energy of the demons had similar properties to the divine power of the demon god’s priests.

In fact, the mark of the demon god that the Duke possessed was outwardly flawless. I could say for sure, as I had been watching him closely from time to time. If it had been a simple drawing, even I would have recognized it as a fake early on. Of course, before that, I wouldn’t have been able to hide it for decades.

“I see. Of course, that friend is dead.”

“Huh?”

“For a priest to forge a god’s mark is an act of deceiving the gods. There’s no way he would still be alive, would he?”

“O-of course, he’s dead.”

That was why the Duke couldn’t use that magic from the beginning. The priest, who had to provide the divine power, the key ingredient, would never agree to such magic. The most important thing to a priest was the god they served. If they were punished by the gods and couldn’t even enter the embrace of the gods after death, who would try to forge a mark by trading their life and soul?

In fact, it was quite energy-consuming even for the demons, so not just anyone could do it. It was only possible because Karyuan was a demon king. Still, most demons would be too lazy to agree (they would choose to persuade him to just wipe everything out), but the problem was that Karyuan wasn’t in his right mind. In some ways, the Duke was really unlucky. If the demon king he had summoned hadn’t been Karyuan, things wouldn’t have escalated so quickly.

No, *we* were the ones who were unlucky. If the Duke hadn’t summoned Karyuan, his plan wouldn’t have gained so much momentum. At least it could have been delayed much longer, and if that had happened, there was a high chance that it would have been discovered and thwarted before it even started. Then Kanos and Lapis wouldn’t have died, and I wouldn’t have fallen into this place.

“He gave up his soul to create a fake identity for you. He must have cherished you quite a bit. Or was he a man of great sacrifice?”

“……He was.”

And there would have been no need to recall painful memories through Ellyuen in the past, who knew nothing about the situation. I bit my lip tightly as I thought of his last appearance being swallowed by the light. But at that moment, Ellyuen smiled coldly. I instinctively felt that I had touched something wrong. I swallowed hard as he looked down at me with a chilling gaze.

Was Ellyuen always like this? It was strange to see him wearing an expression I had never seen before. I couldn’t believe that my father would look at me with those eyes, to the point where my head was spinning. Even in that chaotic first meeting, he had never looked at me like that. He had never sent me a look of contempt, as if looking at a disgusting bug.

“It’s a very convenient excuse to say that all those involved in unfavorable testimony are dead. Even if you’re young, you can’t hide your true nature. Truly, you are a cunning human.”

“No, that’s not…….”

“Is that all you have to say?”

A chilling coldness pierced through my body. It felt like the surrounding temperature had suddenly dropped. Ellyuen was still staring straight at me. The intention behind that deep blue gaze was clearly readable. He was planning to kill me. It seemed that he was only trying not to get involved when he misunderstood me as a priest, but he was upset that I had lied.

Again, it felt strange. The Ellyuen I knew wasn’t lenient, but he wasn’t cruel. At least, he wasn’t someone who would kill the being who summoned him for such a trivial reason. Ah, now that I think about it, I heard that his personality became milder after he became a god. I didn’t want to experience that difference in this way. A feeling of resentment and sorrow welled up, and I clenched my fists tightly.

“You just don’t want to believe me.”

“What?”

“What I said isn’t entirely true, but it’s not a lie either. It’s true that my friend gave me the mark, and it’s true that he died. It’s also true that I’m not a priest of a demon god. In the first place, if I were a real priest, would it even be possible to summon a spirit? Ellyuen, if you’re Elquines, you should be able to tell. Do I look like a priest to you? Do you feel any divine power from me?”

I could say with certainty that it was definitely not the case. I felt it clearly when I extracted the demon energy from Erina’s body. I don’t have any divine power. It’s just that the mark is real, so I’ve become able to handle a little demon energy.

In fact, this doesn’t make sense. Originally, I should have become a priest of a demon god. A body with the mark of a god is subject to the god’s control, regardless of the person’s will. It becomes a kind of channel connected to the god, revealing their power. When I received the mark of a god from Ellyuen, he was taken aback precisely because of that. He wasn’t subject to the god’s control because he was a spirit king, but the meaning itself was unpleasant.

The problem is precisely that. The reason I was okay even with the mark of a god, even if there were several, was because I was a spirit king. I never expected that I would still be unaffected even after becoming human. It seems that there was some kind of error because the mark was received from the future, beyond this point in time. Or maybe it’s because my soul itself is still a spirit king.

Anyway, thanks to my protest, Ellyuen was silent. He seemed to have judged that I didn’t look like a priest either. The murderous intent that seemed to swallow me up at any moment had noticeably faded, which was proof of that.

“I’m looking for something.”

I took a deep breath, finally relieved by the air that had become easier to breathe. For some reason, my whole body was soaked in sweat. The sight of me trembling uncontrollably against my will was somehow amusing, and I swallowed a bitter smile. Ellyuen was looking at me with an unreadable gaze.

“It’s something I absolutely have to find. But I have circumstances that I can’t talk about right now, so I’m in a situation where I have no home or possessions. I also lack common sense about the world, and I know less than I don’t know. I need help.”

“I’m not asking for much. Just stay with me until I find it. Be my guide, please. I’m the first human to summon Elquines, so you can grant me that much, right?”

Until I finished pouring out my words, there was no reaction from him. I hope I didn’t make him even angrier. Should I have just knelt down and begged? I thought it would be counterproductive to act too humble, so I tried to speak as confidently as possible, but maybe I made the wrong judgment. Anxious, I glanced up at Ellyuen. He still had an inscrutable expression on his face.

“What’s your name?”

“……El.”

“El, is it…… It’s the same as the first syllable of my name.”

He nodded lightly, as if he liked only that part. Soon, Ellyuen raised one hand. Water droplets rose from his hand, and a translucent barrier began to unfold before my eyes. Dense letters were sparkling on the document made of water.

“Oh…….”

There was no way I couldn’t know what that form was. There was no doubt about it. It was a spirit contract.

“Father……!”

“You never get tired of calling me Father, do you? At this point, isn’t it intentional?”

When I looked at him with emotion, a complaining grumble returned. Of course, his displeased expression didn’t register with me at all, as my heart was overflowing. And finally, the moment I had been waiting for arrived.

“This contract is a covenant between the water spirit king Elquines and the human El. By fulfilling this contract, you, El, provide the power to bring me into this world, and in return, I promise to become your aide. Do you agree to the contract?”

“I will! I will!”

Ellyuen clicked his tongue softly as I hurriedly answered, afraid that he might cancel it halfway through. Still, the contract process was faithfully following the remaining procedures. The next moment, the document made of water gathered into one and rushed in, and a bright blue energy formed at his fingertips. Now, if he stamps that on my forehead, the water seal will be complete. No sooner had I finished the thought than Ellyuen brought his two upright fingers to my forehead.

“The contract is established.”