The Heavenly Demon Can't Live A Normal Life [EN]: Chapter 279

The summons came suddenly, echoing through the cold stone halls of the palace. An urgent message had arrived, demanding a council meeting.

High-ranking nobles, like the powerful Marquis Memphis, were filled with worry. They knew Emperor Chronos would be furious. News had spread like wildfire – news of a terrible defeat.

“Have you heard?” one noble whispered, his voice tight with anxiety. “Duke Bamford’s army… all 300,000 soldiers… completely crushed by Dimitri!”

“And,” another added, his face pale, “Chronos’s knights, Hannibal and all the rest… every single one slaughtered. The Emperor will be in a terrible rage.”

“Damn that Bamford!” a third noble hissed. “He boasted of victory! How could this ridiculous disaster happen?!”

They did not yet understand the full story of what had occurred on the battlefield. They didn’t know about the queen, or the impossible feats of Roman Dimitri himself.

Had they known that Roman Dimitri had single-handedly butchered countless soldiers and that Queen Isabel of the Luna Kingdom had appeared, they wouldn’t have blamed Duke Bamford’s command abilities.

What was certain was that Chronos had suffered the humiliation of a crushing defeat.

Emperor Chronos, who never tolerated any act that challenged the Empire’s authority, was sure to unleash tremendous fury over the outcome of this battle.

“His Imperial Majesty enters.”

The servant’s words caused the council chamber to freeze over.

However, Emperor Chronos, who appeared under escort, was strangely different from his usual self.

An indifferent expression and cruel words were the hallmarks of the usual Emperor Chronos.

But the man they saw now had a strange vitality. His eyes, usually dull and lifeless, now seemed to burn with a strange energy.

He didn’t wear the indifferent mask that made people doubt he was even human. As he entered, he met the eyes of the high-ranking nobles, exuding a powerful presence.

An uneasy feeling arose among them.

They couldn’t quite put their finger on what had changed. Everything, including his appearance, was the same as before, yet they couldn’t shake off the sense of unease.

Emperor Chronos sat on the throne.

After receiving the greetings of the high-ranking nobles, he spoke of something unexpected, rather than scolding them for the defeat.

“This war was started for unjust reasons. I take full responsibility for it, and I will declare a truce.”

“Wh-what are you saying?”

“Your Imperial Majesty, the war has already begun. Although we were defeated in the battle against Dimitri, some troops have already headed to the kingdoms of Umberto and Odelia for operations. How can we suddenly declare a truce? We cannot back down like this, even to punish the arrogant Dimitri.”

People were bewildered.

Normally, they wouldn’t dare to question him, but they reacted against this incomprehensible decision.

It was only natural.

The Chronos Empire dreamed of conquering the continent, and this war was the starting point.

The defeat on the Western Front was just a single battle.

While attention was focused on Dimitri, other operations were proceeding smoothly, and there was still a good chance of reversing the situation.

A truce was out of the question.

Faced with strong opposition, Emperor Chronos stared at them intently.

“So, you are going to defy me?”

At those words, all complaints ceased.

Even Marquis Memphis, who wielded the most power, bowed his head with a pale face at the mere mention of the word ‘defiance’.

“Absolutely not. We will carry out the truce, as Your Imperial Majesty commands.”

A truce, an unexpected development, not yet known to the world, was decided in the Chronos Imperial Palace.

Kairos, the capital, was alive with celebration, thanks to the victory report from the Western Front. Cheers echoed through the streets as people waved flags and banners.

Roman Dimitri, who had traveled through the warp gate, headed to the meeting place amidst the cheers of the people.

“I am Roman Dimitri of the Dimitri Duchy.”

“I am Isabel, Queen of the Luna Kingdom.”

Isabel possessed a unique presence. Sensing the aura emanating from her, Roman Dimitri cut to the chase.

“I have heard the explanations regarding the situation so far. I will get straight to the point. What is the truth that Chronos is hiding? In the war against them, I encountered beings called ‘Shadows’. And today, I learned that they are historical figures from ancient texts. Sven, Mystic, Shefir, and even Alexandre. Is the fact that people who should not exist in this world are alive and well related to the Chronos Empire practicing ‘dark magic’?”

There were many things to ask, including the relationship between Chronos and Luna, and even Isabel’s existence, having been a bystander despite knowing the truth.

Faced with a question containing many inquiries, Isabel met Roman Dimitri’s eyes and paused for a moment.

Soon, she opened her mouth.

“To understand everything, you need to know about an old oracle. It has been passed down for generations. The oracle speaks of a time long ago. A gate to another world opened. Cold energy poured out, freezing the world. This disaster, the oracle says, lasted forever.”

Isabel continued, “In fact, not long after that oracle was given, the World Tree beyond the endless mountains froze over.”

Isabel’s words echoed what the dwarf had said. The dwarf had also mentioned that the World Tree was frozen and Arcadia was dying.

But Isabel was closer to the ‘truth’ than the dwarf.

“What do you think is the disaster mentioned in the oracle? Cold? Germs? Death? None of them. The disaster refers to the existence of a human who fell onto the Salamander Continent through the gate of the world. That was the beginning. A human with greedy ambitions devoured the Chronos Empire, accepted the power of darkness, and swelled up in an instant. By the time we noticed the course of that being, it had already reached a point where it could not be physically controlled. Therefore, our ancestors took on the role of guardians to control him so that he could not run rampant, but now he has become so strong that we can no longer stop him.”

This was a story that ordinary people would not understand: a human who crossed dimensions.

However, Roman Dimitri was different.

Because he was called the Heavenly Demon Baek Jung-hyuk before living as Roman Dimitri, he accepted Isabel’s explanation as it was.

It was a question he had been thinking about for a long time. Was he really the first being to cross dimensions? If there had been a being like him before, what kind of life would that being be living?

The question remained unanswered.

Unless they revealed it directly, like himself, who was called Roman Dimitri, the secret of the dimensions could not be discovered.

Roman Dimitri asked, “Who is that being?”

“He is Alexandre, the founder of Aura, the Emperor of the Chronos Empire.”

It was a shocking truth. Alexandre was a being who had crossed dimensions?

If so, Roman Dimitri could form a hypothesis.

‘Until Emperor Alexandre appeared, the people of the Salamander Continent thought of mana as the exclusive property of wizards. But he changed the entire system. As a result, Aura Swordsmen were born, and knights gained powerful strength.’

Therefore, with a high probability, the being who crossed dimensions might have known how to handle mana from the beginning.

That meant, ‘He might be from the same Murim of the Central Plains as me.’

It was just a hypothetical thought.

Isabel gave Roman Dimitri a look of certainty.

“Emperor Alexandre is a being possessed by a soul from another dimension. When he first appeared in this world, according to the words passed down through generations, Emperor Alexandre revealed that his name was not of the Chronos Imperial bloodline, but ‘Kim Pan-seok’, a name that is even difficult to pronounce. That is the truth I know.”

Kim Pan-seok. It became certain that he was a being who had flowed in from the same ‘Murim of the Central Plains’ as Roman Dimitri, or rather, as the Heavenly Demon Baek Jung-hyuk.

In a gloomy space, the mysterious being who had ordered Dimitri to be attacked now revealed anger towards Mystic, who was kneeling.

“So, Emperor Chronos declared a truce?”

“Yes. It seems that the link was cut off, and I temporarily lost control of the body.”

“A tenacious fellow. The emperors of the Chronos Empire have followed my control for generations. But this emperor has awakened a 5-star aura, so his consciousness is not easily extinguished. But it doesn’t matter. The link was released due to the shock from Shefir, but he will only be able to hold out for a day or two at most.”

“Alexandre, what should we do with Roman Dimitri?”

Mystic called his name, and instantly, Alexandre’s expression twisted fiercely.

Roman Dimitri was too big of a problem. When he first appeared, he thought of him as merely a troublesome obstacle, but after confirming Roman Dimitri’s appearance through Shefir’s ‘eyes’, his thoughts changed.

The suspicion he had was confirmed: the power that Roman Dimitri used was definitely from the same Murim of the Central Plains as himself.

However, he did not know exactly what kind of power it was.

Alexandre, or to be exact, Kim Pan-seok, was nothing more than an ignorant fool who knew nothing about martial arts when he lived in the Murim of the Central Plains.

It was a coincidence that Kim Pan-seok, just an ordinary commoner living under the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, went up the mountain to pick herbs as usual.

But one day, dark clouds gathered in the sky. As if God was angry, the sky was sucking something in, and Kim Pan-seok blankly stared at the sight before accidentally getting sucked into the sky as well.

And when he woke up, people called him ‘Alexandre’.

At first, he was confused, being called by a different name than Kim Pan-seok, and the fact that this place was a new world that had nothing to do with the Murim of the Central Plains. But soon, he thought it was an opportunity.

When he lived as Kim Pan-seok, he was just a poor man who had to worry about his livelihood every day, but Alexandre’s life was so glamorous.

The status of the Emperor’s son meant every moment was happy. People bowed their heads, and everyone was busy flattering him.

Greed arose. As a member of the Imperial family, he wanted to enjoy the wealth and glory that was allowed to him to the fullest.

But as time went on, he faced limitations. Alexandre was not the legitimate son, and there was no way for an ignorant fool to overcome the limitations of his origin and seize the throne.

He didn’t know how much he regretted his past life at that time. The people of the Salamander Continent knew nothing about ‘martial arts’, and if he had known even a third-rate martial art, he would have achieved great things.

Manifesting mana physically was a revolution in the eyes of the people of this world.

The problem was that he had no knowledge in his head, and Kim Pan-seok locked himself in his room every day and tried desperately to recall his memories of his past life.

Murim people were not beings that ordinary people could easily meet.

One day, Kim Pan-seok recalled the memory of praising a being while bowing his head.

“The Heavenly Demon has returned, and all demons will worship him!”

If he was that being that everyone looked up to, would Alexandre’s life be a little different?

Rage burned within Kim Pan-seok. He had lived a miserable and insignificant life wandering around slums, but now that he was born as Alexandre, he wanted to hold wealth and power in his hands.

Life in the Imperial Palace aroused longing. Longing became greed, and even though he was enjoying things that could not be compared to his previous life, he always wanted more.

He recalled his memories. Then, he suddenly remembered what a third-rate martial artist had told him while passing by on the street.

“Martial arts are simple. The energy in the body…”

He didn’t understand it properly at the time.

Whether it was the right way or the wrong way, Kim Pan-seok did not know the truth, but he clung to the memories of his past life in order to turn his life as Alexandre around.

At first, it was a series of failures. He summoned slaves and conducted experiments, and when the corpses of the slaves who died that way piled up like mountains, Kim Pan-seok witnessed the energy of mana forming an aura.

“This is it!”

That day, the legend of Alexandre, the founder of Aura, began. That was the truth of ‘Aura’, which everyone now regards as the truth.