novelraw Chapter 217 : Chapter 217
Chapter 217 : Chapter 217
Chapter 217: Wish (2)
“My wish is for me and everyone around me to be happy.”
“……What?”
“…….”
Demon Archduke Berkis, momentarily dazed, asked again.
Malein, standing behind, had a similar expression. Though silent, he seemed a bit startled by the unexpected answer.
But Harang paid no attention to their reactions.
With a clearer voice, he stated his wish.
“I want everyone within my circle to be happy.”
“…….”
“…….”
“Is that an impossible wish?”
Silence.
Quiet.
Stillness.
The atmosphere persisted for quite a while.
One minute passed, ten minutes passed, and eventually over an hour passed.
During that time, the Demon Archduke kept glaring at Harang, pressuring him.
Was that really his wish?
To destroy Calamity.
To destroy the Holy Kingdom.
To gain immense power to put the entire continent at his feet with a single word, without any price, and yet he would make such a wish?
But Harang’s wish didn’t change.
After glancing cautiously, he looked at the Demon Archduke with eyes asking how long he’d have to wait.
“……Get lost.”
Snap-!
With Berkis’s voice, as if his excitement was ruined, Harang was instantly flung out of the audience chamber.
Thud-!
“Ow… What? You said you’d grant my wish?”
Harang, falling on his rear, muttered with a frown.
He couldn’t understand.
A being as great as the Demon Archduke had invited him personally to grant a wish, and now he was changing his tune and kicking him out?
For what reason?
Had he done something to offend him?
While thinking this, the demon knight Malein approached Harang again, crossing space.
He said.
“You’re a funny guy. First time seeing someone like you.”
“What do you mean?”
“To be so filled with evil and resentment to catch the Archduke’s interest, yet make such an absurd wish. What kind of mindset is that?”
Stimulating inner evil to plunge the world into chaos was the Archduke’s greatest hobby. Harang, with sufficient potential and splendid anger, was undoubtedly a mouthwatering talent.
But betraying that expectation and making such a peaceful wish at the very end, the Archduke’s interest inevitably waned.
Seeing Malein kindly explain this, Harang showed a dumbfounded reaction.
“No, didn’t he say he’d grant any wish? Is it okay to back out like this?”
“Then what are you going to do? Go back and argue? You think you can?”
“Hmm… No.”
Harang shook his head.
Just as a human couldn’t defy a god, the same went for the Archduke. Against a being with a gap of dozens of levels, frankly, he didn’t even feel like drawing his sword.
“So, what now? What about me?”
“Before that, I have a question.”
“Yes? What?”
“Why did you suddenly change your mind?”
“Change?”
“I know. The Archduke must have known too. Until you closed your eyes, you definitely wanted great power. Power to defeat the Lord of Calamity and put all the Holy Kingdom’s Sword Masters at your feet.”
“…….”
“Why did you give that up? Is there a reason?”
Demon knight Malein’s sudden question.
Harang stared intently at his face.
He was a strange being.
Despite being a demon, he showed great interest in a human like himself, and felt oddly familiar despite being a stranger.
‘Have we met before?’
It didn’t seem like it.
While thinking this, Malein urged an answer again.
“Hard to say?”
“No, it’s not that.”
Harang shook his head once.
Yes, there was no need to hide it. Besides, for a demon, Malein seemed kind enough to deserve an answer to this extent.
He opened his mouth.
“If I were still a Godok, I might have acted as the Archduke expected, but I’m an outsider now.”
“…….”
“How long can I keep moving according to their ways, trapped by the village, by Calamity?”
“……I see. Understood.”
Demon knight Malein nodded slowly.
He drew the sword at his waist and slashed the air.
Wooooong-!
The space split long, opening a dimensional rift.
Though too small for massive beings like the Archduke or Malein to pass, it was enough for a human like Harang to enter easily.
“Go in.”
“Where does it lead?”
“Your world. Roughly… about a month has passed.”
“That much time?”
“Yes. Time flows differently, so it can’t be helped. But nothing too worrisome should have happened.”
“What do you mean…?”
“You don’t need to make a wish to seize happiness with your own strength.”
“……?”
A sudden word of encouragement from Malein’s mouth.
It was strange. This demon was oddly favorable toward him.
As if he knew him.
As if he had been greatly interested in his actions from long ago.
Of course, he said he watched his every move through the demon’s necklace…
But regardless of that.
It kept feeling like Malein was projecting his past self onto Harang…
“Ah!”
While continuing his thoughts, Harang let out an exclamation.
He scrutinized Malein’s appearance more closely.
He resembled him.
For some reason, he looked similar to the ‘Ancient Assassin’ passed down through oral tradition, and Harang muttered unconsciously.
“Could you be…?”
“……I hope, unlike me, you don’t give up on living as a human.”
That was the end.
Moving so fast it was imperceptible, Malein, the Ancient Assassin, pushed Harang’s chest, and Harang, falling through the dimensional rift with a scream, plummeted somewhere.
And shortly after.
Splash-!
“Ugh… Hmm!”
Harang, returned to the human world.
Rubbing his limbs that hit the ground, he looked around.
And soon, his eyes widened.
He realized this was a very familiar place.
“Marzen?”
Right after voicing the city’s name, Harang covered his mouth with both hands and used concealment techniques.
He had to.
Though the demon knight Malein’s encouragement eased his mind slightly, he didn’t know the state of the human world. The Holy Kingdom’s people might be pressuring Marzen’s connections, and Calamity’s assassins might be roaming nearby.
In such a time, what would happen if he openly revealed himself?
‘Probably not a good situation.’
Of course, that didn’t mean he could leave without meeting anyone.
He needed to grasp how the situation was unfolding and plan for the future.
But doing it alone was difficult. Harang, not particularly sharp in such matters, needed someone to advise him.
That person was…
‘Sheratiya Viyan!’
Swoosh-
Recalling one person’s name, Harang moved immediately.
Swiftly.
Stealthily.
No one could detect Harang’s movements, focused more than ever. Even against common demons in the demon world, he fought tough battles, but in the human world, he had almost no rivals.
Now, as the owner of the Black Sword… perhaps only the Holy Kingdom’s strongest or the Lord of Calamity could match him?
‘Though that’s not what’s important now.’
Shaking off stray thoughts, Harang swiftly slipped into Sheratiya’s mansion like melting into it. Quietly spreading his senses, he caught the presence of the person he so desired.
Sheratiya Viyan was in her office.
Seeing her looking down at documents with a rigid, worry-filled expression, Harang opened the outer window and cautiously approached her.
“Eek! Harang?”
“Shh! Be quiet. I came secretly.”
“No, where the hell have you been to show up now!”
Sheratiya quickly lowered her voice and asked. Though the situation was sudden, her sharp mind and quick wit made her understand better than anyone that this meeting needed to be discreet.
Quickly locking the door and covering the window with curtains, Sheratiya glared at Harang, then suddenly hugged him tightly.
And said.
“For now… I’m just glad, so glad. You’re safe, Harang.”
“Uh, hmm…”
Harang was flustered.
The reaction and physical contact were more intense than expected, and he wasn’t sure how to respond.
But soon, realizing he’d have reacted similarly if Marzen’s connections returned from a life-or-death situation, he patted her back.
After a while of calming her emotions, Sheratiya Viyan returned to a cold expression, as if she hadn’t just cried, and asked Harang various things.
“So. Explain everything from start to finish, leaving nothing out.”
“What…”
“Your identity, your origin, the reason for your strength, what happened during the subjugation battle, what happened after being rescued by the one-armed old man, what you need to do next, and anything else you think is necessary.”
“Hmm…”
Harang hesitated briefly.
He had never spoken about the village and Calamity to anyone except his Godok peers. He judged that just speaking of it could endanger the listener.
But with the situation escalated to this point, he felt there was no reason to hide anymore.
Moreover, feeling sorry for Sheratiya and the Eddy Family, caught in danger without knowing why, Harang relatively openly shared his story.
“So, here’s how it went…”
Perhaps because he wasn’t eloquent.
Harang’s story went on for quite a while. Sometimes repeating the same thing, sometimes rambling frustratingly, but Sheratiya listened without interrupting once.
About two hours passed.
Hugging Harang tightly again, she stroked his back and said.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“Hmm…”
“Really, really a lot…”
“…Thank you.”
Harang responded to Sheratiya’s words with a slightly embarrassed voice.
Something felt strange.
Beyond simply worrying about a precious connection, he felt a different emotion from her.
Even stranger, receiving such emotions made him feel a bit different from usual.
Soft, warm, fuzzy.
Hard to explain, pleasant yet confusing, Harang was frowning when.
Releasing the embrace and looking straight at Harang, Sheratiya Viyan said something unexpected.
“For now, you don’t need to worry about the Holy Kingdom.”
“What? What do you mean…”
“They’re caught in a checkmate.”
“Uh, explain so I can understand…”
“Why are you wanted as a public enemy, treated as a demon? Because of the ‘Black Sword,’ the symbol of the ‘Ancient Assassin.’”
“Right.”
“Conversely, what’s the symbol of the greatest hero in the Holy Kingdom’s history?”
“That would be… the Holy Sword. A pure white aura untainted by gray.”
“Yes. So, if the owner of the Holy Sword supports the owner of the Black Sword… what judgment would the Holy Kingdom make?”
“Huh? What? Why suddenly…”
“The owner of the Holy Sword has appeared.”
At this point, Sheratiya paused briefly before continuing.
“Glen. Glen awakened the Holy Sword.”