Elizaveta and Rue entered the bedroom to find Edanant lying in a wretched state. The sight of him as a critically ill patient made the Villainous Princess and Luinong freeze and sit down in shock.
Gulp!
His face was puffed up,
his limbs were wrapped in plaster bandages,
and his whole body was covered in bruises with patches and ointment applied.
He definitely looked like he barely escaped death.
Gasping for air, Edanant managed to greet them. Rue immediately burst into tears and threw herself at him on the bed.
“Uu, Waaah!! Edan, don’t die!! I’ll save you! Just ask God to heal you!”
“I’m not dying, you know.”
He almost crossed the River Styx, though.
Wiping Rue’s tear-streaked face with a handkerchief, Edanant had to dry it off quickly as it became soaked with her snot and tears.
“Are you really okay? We should ask the Emperor to send the royal physician!”
“Ah, I’m fine… It’s not that serious.”
When he transferred to the Hohenberc family, he was merely exhausted. The bruises covering his body were marks from Ludmilla and Zebeline.
He almost died…
Who would have thought he’d end up in such a state in front of the Red Dragon and White Dragon?
Bending over a glass to express breast milk was Belashiel. The sight had caused Ludmilla and Zebeline to unleash a storm with flames and lightning.
Recalling the chilling situation, Edanant reacted with shock. If he had hesitated to apologize even a little, he would have lost his head for sure.
“If I was killed like that, Belashiel would have been free. Did she aim for that? The moment she suddenly pulled out her breasts when I asked for milk seemed suspicious.”
A cunning daughter of the creator deity indeed.
Using Ludmilla and Zebeline to finish me off?
I can’t just sit back and let this happen.
I need to prepare all sorts of shameless commands to break the steel-like reason of the Seraph.
Writing with my butt.
Lewd pole dance.
Writing on her chest, and so on.
Suddenly, Edanant burst into laughter, causing Elizaveta and Rue to look serious. They likely assumed he had a severe head injury along with all his bruises.
“How’s the atmosphere in the Imperial City?”
With the Sanctuary’s fall causing chaos in the Holy Kingdom, the Valtarian Empire must be on high alert too. Even if they didn’t know the details, they would have noticed a momentous upheaval in the Sanctuary.
Fearing the aftershocks, Edanant asked Elizaveta, who had arrived via Ludmilla’s express delivery.
“The Emperor declared a state of emergency, and security is tighter than ever. If Sister Lud didn’t help, I wouldn’t have been able to escape the Imperial City.”
“…I see.”
Although she had returned home to rest, she felt as uneasy as sitting on a bed of thorns. Soon, the name of the arch-criminal who had turned the sanctuary into a ruin would be known across the continent.
Disaster of War.
Edanant von Hohenberc.
Ilkeron Nebiaku and Sirelle Beilred must already know his identity. So, it was only a matter of time before all the Holy Knights of the Holy Kingdom discovered who he was.
What about Father,
the family, the servants,
and the citizens of the Marquisate?
The Valtarian Empire revered the Earth Mother and was an ally of the Gael Holy Kingdom. Surely, they wouldn’t tolerate the Disaster of Innocence that had devastated the Sanctuary. They might mobilize all their military forces to attack the Marquisate of Hohenberg.
‘If that happens… peaceful days will completely end.’
Father’s unyielding attachment to his roots.
The loyal servants devoted to the Hohenberc family.
The Luinong, recognized as new family members of the Marquisate.
Thinking of the precious people, Edanant looked at Elizaveta. She turned red and averted her gaze at his meaningful stare; it reminded her of their precious first kiss they exchanged when saying goodbye.
“Wh-what’s wrong? Why are you suddenly so shy?!”
“Woooromph.”
I’ve returned safely.
Well—
I got smashed because of the jealousy between the Red Dragon and White Dragon.
Edanant smiled and gently patted Elizaveta’s head. Despite being startled by his sudden action, Elizaveta did not refuse his loving touch; instead, she leaned in, accepting the warmth.
Swoosh, swoosh.
Her beautiful golden hair flowed through his fingers like a bountiful wheat field.
As his hand descended from gently caressing her hair to her snowy cheeks, Elizaveta blushed, her face brimming with shyness.
“I’m so glad to see Your Highness again.”
“Of course! It’s the Princess’s solemn command. If I’d delayed even a bit more, I would have faced strict punishment.”
“Since I’ve completed my command, may I request a reward?”
“A r-reward? Well, if Edanant wants……”
Could the notoriously villainous princess be so cute?
It was dangerously cute.
Looking into her damp emerald eyes, he thought.
*
Dreivayne Castle.
At the front line facing the gray that symbolizes the end.
The military stronghold that divided the human realm and the demon realm.
Dreivayne Castle, where countless troops gathered to repel the Demon King’s Army, had become ruins as the gray zone spread from the Demon Realm, for the Holy Kingdom had ordered a complete retreat before the ominous gray engulfed it.
Only emptiness existed in that place.
Yet for some reason, numerous troops dispatched from the Holy Kingdom stood on the castle walls.
“You’ve come.”
Maidens showing diverse beauties arrived in this cursed land. Dressed in pure white vestments, they were surprisingly the candidate saintesses from the Saintess Academy.
The role of the candidate saintess is to provide vessels for the creator deity. Why were such valuable forces placed on the front lines like soldiers?
The answer lay beyond the horizon, filled with dark clouds.
“Gael.”
A man with black hair approached Dreivayne Castle with light steps. The young man carelessly uttered the sacred name of the creator deity as he gazed at around forty candidate saintesses.
Maximilian Argon Hohenberc.
“The Hero of All Times.”
The great hero chosen by the Earth Mother.
The primary figures who had gathered to defeat the Demon King of Death commanding the Demon King’s Army finally reunited. However, Gael and Maximilian showed their hostility toward one another, clearly demonstrating their rift.
“The expansion of the gray that once voraciously devoured the Demon Realm has finally stopped.”
Maximilian stated.
Then, a candidate saintess with red hair stepped forward, speaking.
“The Disaster of Famine has been released from its seal. That’s why the End of the World decided to postpone. I can only weaken each time the Disaster of Innocence is unleashed.”
The Sanctuary was destroyed.
Many believers, including the Holy Kingdom’s soldiers who were sent to battle, lost their lives.
Destruction. Chaos.
Fear and dread.
Accepting it as evil, the End of the World decided to postpone, believing that challengers to face the creator deity, who sought to color the world only with faith and goodness, had appeared.
“But far too many lives were sacrificed! What’s the point of the results produced by such a horrific massacre? We should have done everything we could to prevent the resurgence of the Disaster of Tyranny and Famine! Tyranny and Famine are evils that absolutely cannot be tolerated for the sake of humanity’s prosperity and peace!”
“So you thought to shift all that burden onto War… on Edan?”
“Maximilian. Why do you defend Edanant so much? I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time. The current Edanant is not the brother you once knew! He’s just an outsider’s soul hijacking the body!”
“……”
I can’t understand.
Why,
why are you embracing the outsider?
He couldn’t possibly be unaware that the outsider’s soul was occupying his brother’s body like a master.
He knew.
Yet still, he tried to protect Edanant alongside Beatrice until the very end.
Gael, who could not fathom why Maximilian and the Saintess Party would go to such lengths to protect an outsider, raised his voice in agitation, as if compelled by something.
“Edan did everything he could.”
“What?”
“Despite being an outsider, despite being unrelated to the world inside, he desperately saved countless lives during the war.”
“……”
From the perspective of an outsider, he was merely a falsely-created being.
A world conceived by the author,
merely a narrative happening in that world.
Yet, even in desperate circumstances, Edanant always prioritized saving others.
Tens of thousands.
No, it could well be hundreds of thousands.
His image of rescuing people who were destined to die shocked even the Saintess Party. Thus, the Saintess Party, which had overcome obstacles while saving countless people together, came to regard Edanant as a revered hero and comrade.
“I will ask you, creator deity.”
He drew his sword.
It was the Holy Sword granted to him by the being before him.
“While Edan was saving countless lives… what were you doing?”
As Maximilian’s words fell, the sky turned black.
Finally signaling the return of the Disaster of Death from eternal rest.
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