Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 146

146

Cancun tilted her head, noticing Baron Langa’s intense gaze.

Innocent eyes. A face of purity. Yet, a palpable sense of holiness radiated from her.

‘When I first saw her, I dismissed her as just another barbarian knight.’

‘He bestowed miracles upon everyone, without preference or prejudice.’

The miracle had unfolded in the slums, healing all who were there.

‘He sought to save those in despair, even when covered in filth.’

Even with his own body soiled, he selflessly helped others first.

‘This is no different from the teachings of Azellan [a prominent religious figure or deity].’

Baron Langa felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

The Holy Order had collapsed. And as their faith crumbled, beings reminiscent of myths were appearing one by one.

What on earth was happening on this continent?

‘Is that barbarian woman some kind of saintess?’

‘…Perhaps she is.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘Have you heard the stories of the other Constellations [powerful celestial beings or deities] born from the Azellan Constellation?’

‘What?’

It was the first time he’d heard such a thing.

‘The Azellan Constellation gave birth to other Constellations, and when they became corrupt, they disturbed the human world.’

Baron Langa pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his forehead.

‘The Azellan Constellation, to capture them, birthed yet another Constellation.’

The priest’s fervent words, delivered with spittle flying, echoed in his mind.

‘That is…’

Baron Langa’s gaze returned to Cancun.

“Um… Saint, Saintess?”

“Yes? Ah, well… I am not a saintess.”

“But… in the North, you are called a priestess chosen by the Constellation…”

“Yes? Ah, well… I am called that.”

So, she wasn’t a saintess, exactly?

But she *was* chosen by a god.

“Then…”

Baron Langa spoke with deliberate caution.

“Which Constellation does the Saintess serve?”

“Yes? Ah…”

Cancun thought of Loki and then answered.

“Lord Loki, the… Constellation of Sin.”

“The Constellation of Sin.”

Baron Langa felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

“…I see.”

Baron Langa nodded slowly.

“Then, if there’s nothing else, may I take my leave?”

At Cancun’s words, Baron Langa nodded again.

“Yes, ah, of course. Once again, my gratitude to Asgard… Ah, one last request.”

“……?”

Baron Langa spoke quietly, carefully watching Cancun’s expression.

“May I… offer a prayer?”

***

Loki stared at the dusty old books.

He was in the basement of the monastery on the hill.

Thousands of books were stored there.

“There are many books.”

“…Being old, it’s hard to move around. This monastery is so quiet, so I’ve been seeking out famous old texts to alleviate the boredom,” the monk explained, coughing from the rising dust.

Loki looked around and recognized some familiar titles.

They were the same books that Alex, the monk who cared for the children who had become wights [undead creatures] in the basement, had possessed.

“There are books I’ve seen before.”

“Really? I never thought the barbarians of the North would have books… Ah! I apologize. That was prejudiced of me.”

The monk’s demeanor had shifted considerably.

He smiled and placed the ancient texts on a nearby table.

“What’s this?”

“These are ancient texts hidden and forgotten by the Holy Order, their manuscripts.”

“Manuscripts?”

“The originals must have been burned.”

The monk had seen the ancient texts in the cathedral where the High Priest resided.

He read them, memorized them, and transcribed them.

And soon after, those texts were all discarded.

The Black Inquisitors had burned them.

“I didn’t know why they did it then, but now I understand. They were trying to hide something…”

“……?”

“The Azellan Constellation foresaw everything.”

The monk opened one of the ancient texts.

Inside was an illustration.

An angel with white and black wings, depicted in human form.

“What’s this?”

At Loki’s question, the monk nodded.

“Doesn’t it resemble the angel you captured?”

“…….”

“This is the appearance of the fallen angels. The appearance of the corrupted Constellations. This is also contained in the prophecy given by the Azellan Constellation.”

The monk began to recite the contents of the book.

“[When the Constellation of Sin exhausts all its power and becomes like a human, those who are sealed will awaken.]”

Loki had encountered this phrase before.

“In the ancient texts, the Constellation of Sin was depicted as the one who protected the Holy Order from behind. But that fact was never made public.”

“……”

Loki tilted his head, puzzled by the strange situation.

The Constellation of Sin was the protector of the Holy Order?

“But the Nords of the North, who serve the same Constellation of Sin, struck the corrupted Holy Order, so we must conclude that the Constellation of Sin has turned its back on us.”

“…….”

“Ah, the appearance of the Constellation of Sin is also drawn in an illustration. Here…”

He turned the page, revealing another picture.

It depicted a skeleton.

“This is… an undead?”

“Yes, a lich [a powerful undead sorcerer].”

“…….”

“This is why the Holy Order tried to hide it.”

The clergy despised the undead.

Since the being that the Azellan Constellation created to punish the fallen Constellations had the appearance of a lich, the Holy Order must have tried to suppress that knowledge.

‘Hmm… it’s not a goat skull.’

He wondered if the being in the prophecy was himself, but the illustration didn’t match.

Besides, the monk’s interpretations felt somewhat skewed.

In the end, this religion, like many others, was simply interpreting the word of God in its own way.

Ultimately, the only one who knew the truth would be the Azellan Constellation itself.

‘Assuming that Constellation really existed.’

“At first, I thought the Constellation in the North was fake. But the fact that the Saintess has appeared suggests it’s real.”

“…….”

“Now that the Holy Order has collapsed, the hidden fallen Constellations must have judged that the Saint of Sin has become human. So… they’ve begun to stir.”

The monk paused to take a breath.

“But rest assured. If the Constellation of Sin is here, all those fallen Constellations will fall asleep once more.”

“I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“I know that when those fallen Constellations awakened, the Azellan Constellation created another being to punish them.”

That was what he had read in the ancient book on the way to the Cron Empire.

Besides the Constellation of Sin, it had created another Constellation.

However, the next part was missing.

Did this monk know the rest of the story?

“Do you know what that content is?”

“I want to know what the next part says. Do you know who the other Constellation is?”

“Yes.”

The monk nodded.

“Let’s see. It’s definitely here… Ah! Here it is.”

The monk retrieved another book from the dusty study.

He shook off the dust and opened it.

“It’s written here. The fallen Constellations each possess authority bestowed by the Azellan Constellation. Some have the power to control the night, some have the power to make the morning sun rise, some have the power to rule the sea, some have the power to rule the earth. They wield all the powers of nature that make up this world. If they disappear, night and morning will be reversed, disaster will engulf the sea, and this world will be filled with chaos and confusion.”

“…Does that mean the world will be destroyed?”

“Yes, well, it seems so. That’s why there is a text in Genesis stating that the Constellation of Sin could not eliminate them and instead sealed them away.”

The monk scratched his head.

Even so, he continued to read.

“But all those ‘ends’ are like ‘beginnings’.”

“…….”

“The Constellation of Sin loses its power, the fallen Constellations are resurrected, and a new Constellation is born to kill those fallen Constellations and replace their power. He is the being born from the Azellan Constellation,” the monk recited.

“‘The Father of Monsters,'”

“‘The One Who Wields Fire,’ meaning death,”

“‘The Father of Devouring Monsters’ and ‘The King Who Leads Giants’.”

Loki’s eyes widened.

“The one who announces the end of the world and starts the twilight.”

The monk held out the book.

“The Constellation of the End.”

The illustration in the book depicted a being wearing armor adorned with a goat skull and the heads of a wolf and a snake.

It was an image of Loki.

***

Cancun, riding in the carriage, spotted a familiar barrier in the distance.

It was a frozen barrier.

She had returned home after her journey.

“Lord Loki, we’re home!”

Cancun turned to Loki with a bright, sunflower-like smile.

But she blinked, noticing that Loki was staring out the window with a blank expression.

‘He’s been spacing out a lot lately.’

Cancun tilted her head, concerned.

They arrived at Valhalla Palace.

Loki stepped out of the carriage, and Aum was standing there, waiting with a forced smile.

The veins throbbing on his forehead betrayed his true feelings.

“Did you have a good trip, Constellation?”

“Thanks to you, I had a good trip.”

“…….”

Aum was speechless at Loki’s brazenness.

Loki handed the stack of books to him.

“Huh? What is this…?”

Aum awkwardly held the books and looked at Loki.

“Ancient texts. I acquired them from the Holy Order.”

“…Come to think of it, I heard you ventured into the territory of the Holy Order. I also heard that an angel? Or a demon was discovered there…”

As far as Aum knew, there were no monsters that resembled the reported ‘angel’ or ‘demon’.

At best, it would have been a harpy, an inhuman monster.

“Ah, are you talking about that?”

Loki pointed to the baggage cart behind him.

“Heave-ho!”

Cancun pulled out something wrapped in cloth from the cart.

“Have you arrived, Priestess?”

“Oh! It looks like you’ve brought something. Is it the prey you hunted this time?”

The soldiers gathered around Cancun with curiosity, and Cancun smacked her lips as if disappointed.

“No. I tried to hunt it, but I missed. In the end, Lord Loki caught it.”

“Oh! Is that so? Lord Loki must have been quite something to catch it?”

“Hmm, but it seems small for a big shot? What kind of monster is it?”

At the soldiers’ expectant gazes, Cancun puffed out her chest and spoke with emphasis.

And when she unwrapped the cloth, gasps and exclamations erupted from the crowd.

“This is the ‘angel’ that Lord Loki caught!”

Aum couldn’t help but be startled.

When the cloth was removed, a headless body was revealed.

A beautiful body, as if sculpted by an artist, with large wings on its back.

One wing was black and partially severed, while the other was pure white.

“A, a real angel?!”

It wasn’t a harpy after all!?

The report hadn’t been exaggerated?!?

“Aum.”

“Yes?”

At Loki’s call, Aum looked at Loki with a dazed expression.

“Were there any other reports of witnessing angels or demons?”

“…There were. Many reports have been coming in lately. I simply dismissed them as tricks by the remnants of the Black Inquisitors…”

Seeing the angel before him, Aum’s perspective shifted.

“…It seems to be a troublesome case, different from the Black Inquisitors.”

“That’s right.”

“Perhaps, is it related to these texts you gave me?”

“That’s why I’m instructing you to investigate.”

“…I understand.”

“Dispatch the Berserker Warrior Corps to places where heteromorphic beings such as angels or demons have been sighted. The best option is to kill them, but don’t let your guard down.”

Aum nodded.

“Ah, Lord Loki. What should we do with this?”

Cancun grabbed the angel’s foot and dragged it along.

It looked as if she were dragging a large, headless chicken, and Aum felt a headache coming on.

“Do whatever you want. Taxidermy it, skin it and eat it.”

No, you definitely shouldn’t taxidermy it, and you *certainly* shouldn’t eat it!

Aum was about to protest, but he stopped at Cancun’s next words.

“I can’t eat it, so I’ll have to taxidermy it.”

“…….”

Is that really okay?

If the clergy or the believers of the Azellan Constellation found out, they would be horrified.

Perhaps Asgard’s animosity would deepen even further.

“It’ll be okay,” Loki said, as if reading Aum’s thoughts.

“Yes?”

“Because that’s not an angel, it’s a ‘demon’.”

“…….”

***

The first thing Loki did upon returning to Valhalla Palace was to review the reports that had been sent to Asgard.

Sightings of angels or demons, or winged humans.

Or newly discovered heteromorphic monsters or inhuman species, etc.

Many such sightings and reports had surfaced since the collapse of the Holy Order.

However, it was still unknown whether these beings were connected to the fallen Constellations that the monk had mentioned.

‘Even if I investigate the texts that the monk gave me, there are many parts that have been interpreted arbitrarily.’

Above all, it was difficult to distinguish fact from fiction because the Holy Order had hidden and discarded so much information.

‘Well, it’s possible that the illustration resembling me is just a coincidence.’

Since ancient times, the goat skull has been used as a symbol in various cultures, and the theme of a figure who commands beasts is common in myths and fairy tales.

Just because those appearances overlap doesn’t necessarily mean that the ‘prophecy’ is true.

‘I’m being gullible. To be swayed by the words of a monk from the frontier.’

But it was still unsettling.

Because what he said aligned with Loki in so many ways.

‘Well, is the investigation even worthwhile?’

Loki placed the reports and texts on the shelf next to the throne.

He looked ahead.

It was the time when everyone else was asleep.

For him, who didn’t require sleep, the night was his own time.

It was a time to quietly enjoy the solitude.

But then, someone approached him.

“Lo, Lord Loki!”

It was Aum’s younger brother, Per.

He ran over, panting.

“What’s wrong?”

Per, who was in charge of the night guard at Valhalla Palace, spoke in a flustered tone.

“A delegation has arrived from the Holy Order!”

A delegation from the Holy Order?

For a fallen holy nation to send a delegation?

In the first place, since they lacked a central authority, it was strange that a representative delegation was coming at all.

‘At best, it’ll be the local lord or his children.’

The rumors about the angel subjugation must have reached the Holy Order as well.

Since this was the place where these heteromorphic incidents were most frequently witnessed, they might be requesting assistance again.

‘Hmm, come to think of it, it’s a profitable business.’

Many Nord warriors were active as mercenaries in Asgard.

The ‘angel’ subjugation was dangerous, so it would be a lucrative source of income.

But then, Per uttered words that defied Loki’s expectations.

“The Pope, who was said to be missing, has come himself!”