Chapter 266 : Chapter 266
Side Story 25. Goodbye, Kalia (1)
Because it was a reunion with an ending already decided, I didn't want to make a mess of it.
What I needed now was a measure of restraint—and not leaving any regrets behind.
This much was enough of a meeting with Diorin.
Just as she had in the past, she didn't cling.
She had accepted the fact that Johan Raven would never again reveal himself to the world.
She didn't pry into the reasons, nor did she ask me to arrange a meeting.
She said it was enough just to use me as a messenger.
"When you see him, tell him this. Tell him I'm doing well. And that I've grown tremendously, too."
"I will make sure to tell him."
Yet, as though she still had regrets, Diorin murmured to herself.
"......Still, I wanted to meet him in person and show him."
She would never know, but those feelings had already reached me in full.
I didn't know what stories lay between us, but the memories she had of me must have made up a considerable part of what had nourished her growth.
And that was the most moving part of this journey through Kalia.
"You don't need to regret it so much. He knows everything."
"Don't make me laugh. He's not a god, so what the hell would he know?"
"He's not a god, as you said, but there is a way for him to know everything......"
I couldn't tell Diorin the whole truth, so I left it at that.
"If you keep trying to sell me that line, I won't even believe you're Johan's disciple anymore."
That was classic Diorin.
A great deal of time had passed, but seeing Diorin exactly as she had been before made me snicker.
"Then it would be best for us to part while you still have some faith left."
"You're leaving already?"
There was a restrained hint of regret in her voice.
"I have to. I still have a long way to go."
"You're definitely his disciple. You even speak exactly like him. Anyway, make sure to tell him that I hope he's doing well."
"I will make sure to tell him that as well."
I had been well, and I would continue to be well.
That was my duty to the fate that had allowed me to live two lives.
"And thank you."
"For saving you?"
"For bringing me news of him."
I answered with a smile and bid Diorin farewell.
'That bastard Ho-joong.'
His face suddenly came to mind.
Thinking of how he had mocked me, asking how I could possibly be single for life when I was already past thirty, made me feel a little wronged.
He didn't know.
That I, too, had once had such a wistful connection.
In any case, I had resolved what I had thought would be the most difficult matter on this trip to Kalia—the issue with the Red Dragon—so it was time to move toward a fitting conclusion.
I had to go to the Demon Realm where the Demon King of Silence lived and fulfill my promise, then meet Kalia's greatest Sword Master and complete the remaining quests.
The thought of leaving my hometown again already made me regretful, but I didn't want to delay.
[Entering the Demon Realm.]
The Demon Realm ruled by the Demon King of Silence.
I hadn't heard any information about this place from Abner beforehand.
I had thought that, as someone who had experienced the Demon Realm before, I might know more than he did, but that had turned out to be wrong.
This place was completely different from the Demon Realm I had experienced in the past.
'Hmm.'
There was nothing here that suited the impression given by the words Demon Realm.
There was no nauseating air thick with demonic energy, no blood-soaked stench, no heat of a fiery hell—none of the elements that caused discomfort existed here.
More precisely, it was a space of nothingness (the void), where nothing at all existed.
An empty expanse of land stretching endlessly onward.
At first, I thought it was an illusion.
I had no choice but to think that the Demon King had exercised his authority to frighten intruders.
Even when I heightened my senses and looked far beyond the horizon, an equally desolate space stretched out infinitely.
But the world before my eyes was vividly real.
'It suits the epithet Demon King of Silence.'
The problem was that I had no way of knowing whether this was the center or the edge of the Demon Realm, or which direction I should go.
Even when I looked up at the sky, there was nothing that could serve as a guidepost.
The sky, too, was a space of nothingness, without a sun or clouds.
I closed my eyes.
The only thing I could rely on was the flow of air.
Whatever else there was, I believed that this at least had to exist.
My judgment was not wrong.
Even in this silent world, the movement of the atmosphere existed, however faintly.
'This is it.'
A faint wind that I couldn't even sense without maintaining intense concentration.
Using that flow of air as a compass, I began walking across the endlessly stretching land.
The sound of my feet striking the ground was the only sound that existed in this world.
STEP.
STEP.
Because of me, this world's silence was gradually breaking.
But aside from the sound of my footsteps and the footprints I left behind, nothing changed.
Even the sensation on the soles of my feet as they met the ground was identical, as though it were being replayed over and over.
No matter how many footsteps accumulated, the view of the world before me did not change in the slightest, and my sense of time was gradually growing duller.
I didn't know how much farther I had walked following the flow of the atmosphere.
By Earth's standards, had I crossed the border of a small country by now?
Then, at some point, I sensed a faint change.
'Wind.'
A current of air worthy of being called wind had begun to rise.
When a breeze strong enough to feel without entering a state of heightened awareness began to blow, something unknown appeared before me—something formless, yet whose presence I could sense.
"Not bad."
Though it was a voice formed in human language, it felt more like a message from the Abyss.
"So that means I'm heading in the right direction."
"Well, so far."
"I assume there's a reason you appeared before me."
"There is, but shouldn't we introduce ourselves first? Kalian?"
He knew me as someone from Kalia.
That was likely because I had used the portal map from Kalia.
In truth, now that I had returned home, even my own sense of identity sometimes wavered.
What exactly was I?
"Johan Raven."
"An unusual name."
"What are you? You don't seem to be a fairy or a spirit."
"A Demonic Spirit."
"Something like a spirit that exists only in the Demon Realm?"
"It would be easier for you to understand it that way."
He was a being I had never encountered in the previous Demon Realm.
In any case, it was clear that, for the moment, it would be an important clue.
He would surely be able to tell me something about this place.
"Then are you perhaps a subordinate of the Demon King?"
"I'm not."
"That's strange. I thought everything that existed in the Demon Realm was under the Demon King's rule."
"You're the strange one. You're talking as if you know the Demon Realm well."
Rather than knowing it well, I had killed a Demon King before.
And I had been to the Demon Realm once as well.
"......"
"Anyway, I'm not a subordinate of the Demon King."
The Demonic Spirit's words did not sound like empty bravado.
"Then I'll ask again. Why did you appear before me?"
"I got curious. About a person like you."
"That's not a very useful answer."
"Isn't it? Anyway, you're walking through the Demon Realm remarkably calmly. And in a very precise direction, too. So let me ask you something. Are you really human?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's strange, but I can sense the aura of the dead from you."
At those words, I had no choice but to flinch.
It was the first time since my reincarnation that someone had seen through my true nature.
"Do Demonic Spirits normally enjoy saying nonsense?"
For now, I decided to play dumb.
"No. If you really are human, then you're a being that violates something in the natural order. I don't know what it is, though."
Even knowing that much was an astonishing ability.
In any case, it seemed that the Demonic Spirit didn't know about my reincarnation.
But now, I couldn't help growing even more curious.
It had become clear that this being was no ordinary existence.
"By the way, it seems the Demon King is simply leaving an intruder alone. I've been here for quite a while now."
"He's watching you."
"Watching me?"
"Don't get the wrong idea. It's not because he's afraid of you. There is no being capable of defeating the Demon King in this Demon Realm. Not even if a Dragon came."
I acknowledged the advantage of home ground, but it was difficult to imagine an Ancient-grade Dragon losing to someone.
Unless that someone was me.
"If he's that confident, it seems like he could appear right now. Is there any reason for him to keep watching?"
"He's determining whether you're a human worth making a contract with."
The Demonic Spirit's tone was certain.
As if it knew the Demon King's thoughts well.
"If he decides I'm a human worth making a contract with, he'll appear then?"
"The same goes for the opposite case. He has to punish intruders."
I nodded and continued walking along the flow of the atmosphere.
"What do you think? Do I seem like someone the Demon King would find appealing?"
"I don't know. You're certainly strong enough in my eyes, but the standard for deciding on a contract isn't the degree of strength. That's how contracts are. They're made when both sides have something they want."
"Then what does the Demon King want from me?"
"To have you become the foundation that lets him descend upon Kalia."
It was a condition I could naturally expect.
I had eliminated Dejan Berger, who was supposed to become that foundation.
"Human, is there perhaps something you need? Such as power that surpasses your limits."
"No. I don't need anything like that."
"Why not? I've heard that humans like you pursue endless strength."
"I already have it. More than a mere Demon King could ever provide."
At my words, the Demonic Spirit began to laugh as if it found the idea absurd.
"You're a very amusing human."
"Are you perhaps disappointed?"
"Yes. A little."
"Anyway, it was you who was the Demon King after all."
I had been uncertain, but there was no other explanation.
His insight, which had seen through my true nature, was too great for him to be merely a spirit living in the Demon Realm.
The amount of demonic energy he seemed unable to contain, though he tried to hide it.
And he had spoken of everything from the Demon King's own perspective.
In the first person, not the third.
In truth, it made no sense for only a Demonic Spirit to exist alone in a space of nothingness (the void), where nothing else existed.
The Demon King of Silence. He was the only being living in this Demon Realm.
"Let me correct myself. I'm not a little disappointed—I'm very disappointed. It's not simply because you're strong. You're a strange existence unlike anything I've ever seen."
"......"
"So I'd like to offer you a contract. Instead of power, I can give you something far more appealing."
"I'll hear you out first."
"The authority of a Demon King that I possess is the Eye of Insight. As I said before, I can sense that the natural order within you is distorted. Given enough time, I might be able to grasp that essence and resolve it for you."
It was an astonishing proposal unlike anything I had ever heard before.
It wasn't wrong.
At present, Johan Raven's soul had been overlaid onto Seo Ji-han's body.
'He'll grasp the essence of this and resolve it for me?'
It was certainly a tempting offer.
Though I had no intention whatsoever of accepting it.