Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 563

“Stop!”

The scene in front of me shattered as I screamed. Someone hurriedly supported me as I collapsed, as if the world was collapsing with the destruction.

“El?”

I gasped for breath and looked up to see Sibelius staring at me with a stiff expression. It was in the middle of a lush forest. I quickly looked around, but Kanos was nowhere to be seen.

“Why all of a sudden, El? Are you okay?”

“…Sibyl, wasn’t there a mermaid here?”

“A mermaid? What mermaid?”

Sibelius, who was flustered, didn’t even seem to know the little mermaid who had saved him. The memory that Kanos had intervened had disappeared. With a certain premonition, I slowly took off my glove. There was nothing engraved on the back of my hand. Just like that day. Like the moment when I had to completely confirm and acknowledge his absence. Tears burst out at the uncontrollable emotional turmoil.

“E, El? What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

Sibelius, flustered, quickly came over and comforted me, but the tears didn’t stop.

—The choice is yours. Let’s meet again if fate allows.

It felt like I heard a whispering voice in my ear. I bit my trembling lip. The choice is mine. Let’s meet again. Knowing what I’m going to choose. You already know everything.

If you’re going to be like this, don’t be kind. Don’t be so cruel and heartless that I can’t even like you. What am I supposed to do?

Ellüen’s warning, which he had repeatedly emphasized as dangerous, was correct. The reactions of hating him were only now barely understood. He knew this would happen. That being kind could actually hurt.

He was truly a cruel god.

* * *

If the eastern territory is the most vibrant place in the Demon Realm, the southern territory is the quietest. Since Duke Lucarém took power, the southern territory has always been quiet. In particular, the Duke’s castle had so little activity that it was said to be a ghost castle. There were almost no members of the castle itself, and even fewer visitors. But the Duke’s castle had been suffering from a visitor who came every day recently.

“What, is he not here again today?”

“I’m sorry.”

To the sullen grumbling, the person facing him politely bowed and apologized. A woman with long black hair tied loosely was the chief of the Southern Duke’s castle. Like Lucarém, her past actions were shrouded in mystery, so she was said to be the chief of that master. Even the point that she didn’t express her emotions well and had an unknowable personality was the same. If Lucarém always had a smiling face, the chief was just expressionless. So the demons found his chief as difficult as Lucarém. But the guest in front of him had no hesitation at all.

“It’s been years since I’ve seen his face. What on earth is he doing these days?”

“I don’t know what my master does.”

“Incompetent chief.”

“I’m sorry.”

The attitude of repeatedly apologizing was neat, but there was no gap at all. Eventually, it was the guest who declared surrender first.

“Tell him I came again today. Got it?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Definitely. I’ll check everything later?”

“Of course, Karyuhan-nim. Don’t worry.”

Only after repeatedly urging did Karyuhan step back. If he crossed the line any further, the cold chief might kick him out altogether. In fact, he had been kicked out before for being annoying, so he had no choice but to be careful. Thanks to this, he also learned that this chief, who was as quiet as a picture, was a much stronger demon than he thought.

*I have to tell him to send me back to Arkadon. I can really win this time.* Karyuhan, who couldn’t open the gate to another dimension without permission because he was still in a period of reflection, smacked his lips with regret. The memory of that day when he was brutally defeated by a human spirit master was a humiliating history that Karyuhan could not wash away. The fact that he barely survived with the help of others made it even more so.

He himself had no memory, but he heard that Lucarém had saved him just before he died. He had boasted that he could do well and received the mission, but his face was completely crumpled. He had trained hard and become stronger than before, but he couldn’t even go to take revenge because he didn’t get permission, so he was seething inside.

“But what was the chief’s name again?”

At the question he asked before turning around, the chief, who was about to close the door, paused for a moment.

“You don’t need to know.”

“Wow, you’re really cold.”

Karyuhan deliberately made a hurt expression. When he did this, Lucarém would just give in as if he couldn’t help it. But the chief had an even stricter personality. No answer came back, and the door closed as it was. Karyuhan, standing with a bewildered expression, had no choice but to turn around with a drooping appearance.

The Duke’s castle, where the noisy guest had disappeared, became quiet again as usual. The chief, who sighed lightly in front of the door that had been slammed shut, instructed the servants who were watching to return to work and turned around. Just in time, an intense sensation as if his whole body was shuddering was conveyed. It was a sign that his master had returned.

The chief hurried to his master’s room. However, when he opened the door and entered the Duke’s room, no one was still there. The chief did not panic at all and strode in and entered the most secret space inside. He parted the space that only those who were allowed could open and deeply permeated into it. In the meantime, his hair, which had been jet black, faded in color like water being drained, turning into a soft coral color. Black wings like ebony sprouted on his back where there was nothing.

“Yubia-nim.”

The moment the archangel appeared, opening the gate to another dimension, all the angels stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads. Yubia, who had been the chief of the Demon Realm’s Southern Duke and returned to her original identity as a high-ranking angel, still received the greetings with a dry face.

“Kanos-sama has returned.”

“I see.”

The angels Yubia encountered wherever she walked stepped back in droves. They all had black wings symbolizing the angel of the demon god, but the divine power they possessed was not. Although there were differences in concentration, they were all divine powers mixed with those of other gods. It was also proof that they were not angels of the demon god from the beginning.

Yubia was the only angel in this huge palace who possessed only the divine power of the demon god. Therefore, the angels avoided and feared Yubia even more. It was a strange situation where the one who possessed only the divine power of the demon god in the palace of the demon god was rather regarded as the most heterogeneous existence, but Yubia did not care.

The moment Yubia, who had finally arrived at her master’s room, entered inside. Suddenly, unfamiliar scenes poured in like light.

“…!”

It was a scene where all sides were rapidly collapsing. The patterns on the cracking walls, the shapes of the collapsing pillars, everything that came into view was familiar. It was something she couldn’t help but recognize because it was what had formed the foundation of her life. The palace of the demon god, which was said to be the most solid and magnificent in the divine realm, was crumbling away like a sandcastle facing a storm.

She herself, standing alone in the middle, looked calm as if she knew this day would come. As the divine power that made up her was draining away like the wind, her body gradually became transparent. In that last moment, Yubia heard a low voice brushing past her ears.

“Let’s go, Yubia.”

It was the voice of her one and only master.

Yubia blinked for a moment. The building that had been scattering like dust until just now had returned to its original appearance. Was it an illusion? Or perhaps it was a part of the many futures that could happen. When she raised her head, she saw her master sitting quietly on the bed. He turned around and smiled, sensing Yubia’s presence.

“Yubia.”

“Welcome back, Kanos-sama.”

“Yeah, I’m back.”

The master, who flopped down on the bed, looked a little tired. She didn’t know at first, but Yubia, who had experienced it once, now knew what state he was in.

“Are you alright?”

“No, I’m dying. I feel like 4,000 years have been shaved off my lifespan.”

*I dare say, but gods have no lifespan to be shaved off.* The obvious answer came to mind first, but instead of pointing that out, Yubia only replied, “I see.” Unlike his whining, his master seemed to be in a very good mood. Yubia, who guessed the reason, cautiously spoke.

“You must really like that person.”

“Ah, he was very cute this time too. He called Elquines his father? I want a son like that too.”

“Why don’t you make a proposal for adoption?”

“He’ll refuse anyway, right?”

That’s true too. Yubia felt guilty for her honest personality that she couldn’t bring herself to say that wouldn’t be the case.