EP.206 Reunion (1)
Elves live for dozens, even hundreds of times longer than humans. Before the armies of the Demon Lord swept through the world and trampled the lands of the elves, the Elder who governed them lived for seven thousand years.
When Cardi reached just one hundred years old, he once asked the Elder, who had lived for seven thousand years.
Seven thousand years of life.
When recalling that long and arduous life, what was the first memory that came to mind?
“Ten days.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Elder answered with “ten days.”
“Ten days spent with a human who came to the elven realm. Those ten days with that man are my most cherished and… unforgettable memories.”
Though he had lived for seven thousand years, the memory that was the most deeply engraved was those ten days with a human. And for the elf, those ten days were like a fleeting moment.
‘Just a fleeting moment holds the most meaning?’
At that time, he thought so.
Cardi couldn’t understand the Elder’s words back then. The understanding would come later.
“Armiel.”
A fleeting moment.
“Thank you.”
The moment that shone the brightest because it was fleeting.
There are pasts that remain unforgettable even after centuries. At some point, he slowly opened his eyes. What lay before him was land turned to ashes.
But Cardi saw something else there.
He remembered.
The day hundreds of years ago when this place burned away.
*
He failed in the subjugation of the Demon Lord.
The journey undertaken with his comrades became a memory none would remember. All the countless achievements and honors he built were turned to nothing.
Only he remembered.
“Only, I alone.”
Cardi was engulfed by a crushing sense of loneliness. He could not sleep at night, staying wide awake as the night passed. Trapped at the top of the Tower, Cardi lived a life akin to that of an invalid.
He delved deeper into research.
He believed there had to be an answer.
“Forbidden texts, forbidden arts, taboos.”
Carrying out all that was forbidden, Cardi sought a method. Naturally, no answer came. The helplessness layered over loneliness. How long had it been since he was stuck in the Tower like that?
“…Master of the Tower.”
Someone came to find him.
A frightened looking mage spoke. They needed his help. Someone was attacking the kingdom.
“A white-haired woman with green eyes, a madman who calls herself ‘Saint’…”
Hearing those words, Cardi burst out of the Tower. He ran mindlessly towards the direction the mage pointed out. That place was the sanctuary of the Deloheim Church.
The location of the main church of the Church.
Where Gleria was born and grew up.
A foul odor wafted from the entrance of the sanctuary. The stench of decaying bodies and the smell of something burning filled the air.
“Aah, aaahhhhhh!”
“Ugh, uaaaaahhh!”
Someone’s screams echoed in his ears. Cardi’s face hardened. The scream was familiar. However, mixed within the screams was someone’s laughter that parched Cardi’s mouth.
“Hah, haah!”
Laughter ringing out as if enjoying itself.
Chasing that somewhat familiar and nostalgic voice, Cardi walked and walked.
Broken human corpses lay scattered around.
Beasts fused with humans defiled the sanctuary.
The stench of blood permeated everywhere.
The place meant to serve the god and called a sanctuary had already transformed into hell. Cardi continued walking through what had become a hell.
Thud.
He stopped his steps in front of the main church.
Where once humans flowed like sewage, Cardi faced his lost comrade.
“Hah, haah…”
White hair drenched in blood.
Frantic, glistening green eyes.
A cracked, dry laugh.
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood dripped from the woman’s fingertips. The blood that flowed pooled on the ground. Cardi’s eyes shook violently as he witnessed this.
Gleria Bel Armias.
As he looked at her, Cardi couldn’t bring himself to utter that name. Someone who had become something else was desecrating lives in the name of saving someone. The smell of decay reverberated beneath her feet.
Thud.
Cardi took a step forward.
At the sound of his step, the woman reacted. She slowly turned her head to look back.
“Ah…”
The laughter quieted.
The frantically gleaming eyes turned to Cardi.
“It’s you, Armiel.”
Gleria smiled brightly.
Cardi’s expression twisted.
“Gleria, what in the world are you doing…?”
“What do you mean, what am I doing?”
She smiled.
“It’s salvation.”
“The world needs salvation.”
“I’ve been believing in a broken god with a properly formed body, so no matter how long I wait, salvation doesn’t come. So it must be destroyed. The broken god must see these people.”
“And with the miracle given by the god, I want to save those suffering. That’s my wish.”
“I have an obligation to do so.”
A broken conviction.
A broken mind.
“I’m still a Saint.”
Crack.
As Cardi looked at his once comrade who had become a madwoman, he gritted his teeth. He silently lowered his head. He could no longer bear to see his broken former comrade.
Cardi sensed it.
His former comrade had crossed a bridge of no return. There was no room for any compromise there.
“Forgive me, Gleria.”
Cardi rolled up his sleeves.
The edges of his robe fluttered violently.
“This is how I’ll protect you.”
To cast a spell he had developed but hoped never to use, Cardi reached out. A massive circuit etched itself in the air. Soon, a new sun rose in the sky.
The sun fell beneath the ground.
Flames incinerated the sewage. The fire erased all traces of the slaughter and apostasy committed by Gleria. However, the apostate did not burn to death. In the flames, she swung her arms.
Grrr.
From the corpses of dead beasts, new beasts were born. Even while melting into the embers, the beasts charged towards Cardi. The fangs of the beasts bit into Cardi’s flesh.
Thus, the desperate battle continued.
Burning, biting, and then burning again. At the end, the victor was decided to be Cardi. Limping, Cardi approached the church smeared with soot.
“You haven’t changed, Armiel.”
The Saint, leaning against the church’s pillar, smiled.
“You’re still so very you.”
“….”
“Didn’t Armiel say? To not lose sight of righteousness. To not forget your path. If you forget…”
“I’ll correct it.”
“That’s right.”
Gleria let out a soft laugh.
“That’s the promise.”
“The daily contract, contract! Don’t mages bind their promises unless with a contract?”
Cardi’s steps halted.
“Not a contract, a promise.”
“This is a promise, Armiel. What contract do we have between us? It’s too rigid.”
Slowly, Cardi lifted his gaze.
He met Gleria’s eyes as she leaned against the pillar. Though she was broken, her memories remained intact. Thus, the current situation felt even more tragic.
“Didn’t you say you’d correct it?”
Gleria posed a question.
“You said a method is what a mage seeks.”
At that question, Cardi fell silent.
“Is it that you cannot because it’s a promise, not a contract?”
“…No.”
He tried to find a method.
He sought countless means. But, no answer came. It was an impossible task.
Countless words floated in and out of Cardi’s mind. However, none of them could be uttered.
“I…”
Standing before Gleria, Cardi couldn’t even bring himself to say that it was impossible. Ultimately, what he squeezed out were words of no promise.
“I will find an answer. As long as you remember the promise, I will not forget my promise either. I will…”
At his words, Gleria smiled.
She didn’t ask anything further.
“Then I will wait.”
Whether it takes a hundred years or a thousand years, it doesn’t matter.
I will trust and wait for you.
Before Gleria who seemed to say that, Cardi could not utter another word.
“……”
Leaving those words behind, she closed her eyes leaning against the pillar. It was a vulnerable state. Just a slight flick of her finger could end her life, yet Cardi could not bring himself to kill Gleria right there.
It was a ridiculous thing.
What bound the Grand Magus, known as the greatest magician, wasn’t a contract spanning hundreds of lines. It was merely an informal promise made with words, nothing imposed by anyone.
The sanctuary transformed into a hell of flames.
The kingdom burning away.
Within it, the Grand Magus hung his head low.
Loneliness, helplessness, and emptiness.
Though he had not fallen, he too was becoming broken. He simply watched as the kingdom disappeared in flames. That was all he could do.
“…In the end.”
Now, hundreds of years have passed.
Cardi stood there again, staring at the past.
“I still have not found an answer.”
“Maybe you are in the midst of finding it.”
A figure answered his muttering.
Cardi turned to look back. Raniel, who had been walking behind him, stood right next to him now.
“Aren’t you still looking?”
Thud,
She walked ahead of Cardi.
“There’s even a magician who sought answers beyond the lifespan of a human and found them. It was relatively recently but… such people do exist.”
Raniel turned back to look at Cardi.
“You haven’t exhausted your lifespan yet.”
“…Elves live forever. The limitations of lifespan are virtually non-existent…”
“Anyway.”
Raniel smiled.
“That means you’re still searching. You haven’t given up, right?”
It was a flimsy argument devoid of logic.
Yet, Cardi bitterly smiled at her words.
“…Yeah, that must be it.”
The steps that had stopped began to move forward again.
2.
In the heart of the Ashen Wasteland.
There was said to be the location of the ancient kingdom, Arcadia, where the sun did not shine. Starlight also never reached here.
A cursed land.
The Deloheim Church referred to it that way.
As a result of attracting the wrath of the god, it was a place forsaken by the god. Thus, no light shines upon this land.
“Come to think of it, it’s funny.”
I pointed to the ground.
What we were walking on was the ruins of the Deloheim Church, so I was pointing to the church itself.
“Isn’t the main church of their religion here? This is the church of the first established church order, right?”
“It is the first. It has just been expanded and expanded over time.”
“And you’re saying this is a sanctuary.”
“Up until hundreds of years ago, yes.”
“Then are they saying their sanctuary is a cursed land? What kind of nonsensical thing….”
It was a denial of their own origins.
While I was dumbfounded, Cardi spoke.
“The current Deloheim Church is probably just a shell. Important records, knowledge, and scriptures were all buried with the fall of Arcadia. Naturally, no one remembers them anymore.”
Walking upon the site of the Deloheim Church.
So, while strolling the origins of the religion, I listened closely to Cardi’s words.
“At one time, the doctrines of the Deloheim Church spread to various places and were somewhat modified to suit their cultures. Of course, it was rooted in Arcadia…”
Since Arcadia had fallen like this, well.
Muttering like that, Cardi shrugged.
“Now, after hundreds of years, there’s hardly anything left of the doctrines I remember from the church. You’re right. The current Deloheim Church has no roots.”
Indeed.
“Because they have no roots, the Saint is in that state….”
I sighed, recalling Sara.
Everywhere we go, origins are important. Things without roots tend to be twisted in some way.
“What in the world was the Saint of the time like? From the way you speak, I’m curious.”
“I don’t know…”
Sara, the Saint.
As I pondered how to respond to Cardi’s question, I ended up shaking my head.
“It’s just better not to get involved.”
It was hard to explain the bizarre feeling with words, so I didn’t feel the need to elaborate.
“If the apostate has fallen and gone mad, she’s been in madness from the very beginning…”
“…Really?”
Feeling a strange déjà vu, I nodded.
“Whether elf or Saint, it’s best not to get involved. Just breathing the same air as those two can make you realize the beauty of the world?”
“The beauty of the world?”
“It makes you realize that everything I’ve seen so far is at least more beautiful than those two…”
Cardi made a rather peculiar expression.
“…If what you say is true, then why on earth is she called a Saint?”
Indeed.
That truly was a mystery.
3.
The legendary mercenary who survived facing the Sage and the Grand Magus as enemies is guarding the door today as well.
“It’s boring…”
It’s a feat, yet the person himself would remain oblivious to that fact as he guards the door.
“Leave this place within a week.”
Ruminating on the warning left by the man, the mercenary let out a long sigh. Suddenly being told to leave this place within a week isn’t a simple task.
‘How do I organize everything in a week?’
This place was akin to a second hometown for the mercenary. Being told to leave such a place within a week? Though he nodded, making such a sudden decision wasn’t easy.
“Suddenly, if the Ashen Wasteland were to fly away, then maybe…”
At that moment of muttering and letting out a hollow laugh, he heard the sound of carriage wheels rolling in his ears. The mercenary narrowed his eyes.
‘…Which crazy idiot would ride a carriage here?’
Anyone familiar with the Ashen Wasteland wouldn’t even dream of driving a carriage here. Only a select few carriages permitted by the Ashen Wasteland could bring guests this way…
‘There’s no scheduled carriage for today.’
The mercenary placed his hand on the sword hilt. It was a new hilt he bought for a hefty price to replace the broken sword.
“Stop right there!”
The mercenary shouted, and the carriage indeed came to a halt.
Holding his sword, the mercenary approached the carriage.
“Unauthorized carriages cannot enter. Coachman, you must…”
“If you don’t want to have a rough time, it would be best for you to step aside.”
The coachman showed no signs of fear at the mercenary’s warning.
That triggered the mercenary’s pride. Having been recently beaten by a man, the mercenary glared at the coachman and thrust the sword towards him.
“Do you find the gatekeeper of the Ashen Wasteland to be a joke?”
“If you know who’s in the back…”
“Who’s riding!”
The mercenary pressed his blade a little further forward.
“Get down from there and walk in. The laws of the Ashen Wasteland are fair to everyone.”
The coachman sighed.
“That’s right, Hero.”
…Hero?
The mercenary blinked.
“Coachman, what did you just say?”
“I told you.”
The coachman shrugged.
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew who was riding in the back.”
The mercenary’s complexion went deathly pale.
Then, the door of the carriage opened. The mercenary turned his head, creaking as he looked at the open door.
“Was it said to be a rule.”
A tall figure.
Armor bearing the insignia of the Knights Order on his shoulders.
The sword strapped to his waist was a symbol of the star.
“I see now. I didn’t know this land had an owner.”
The most renowned hero, Kyle Toven.
He looked down at the gatekeeper. Under that frosty gaze, the mercenary’s complexion turned even paler.
