Four Heavenly Kings Jahar (3)
“Are you sure you don't have to go?”
In front of Sisilia's mansion. Lude cautiously asked Chiron, who was gazing up at the bedroom where Sisilia slept with a distant expression.
Even after hearing that Jahar had appeared, Chiron had insisted on protecting the capital. That's why he remained with the minimal forces alongside Lude to defend the capital.
“Jahar will definitely come for me.”
“……!”
There was half-certainty in Chiron's tone.
“I-Is that true? Then we need to get Edward here quickly……”
“The invasion of Roendel is probably real too. Edward has to handle Roendel.”
The Four Heavenly Kings. They were the ones who held power second only to the Demon King, commanding their own independent demonic armies. Equivalent to grand dukes among humans. Naturally, they had enough forces to split into two.
“He'll use his main kin to attack Roendel while his true body strikes the capital.”
Chiron knew this well because—he had experienced it firsthand.
Back then, a massive demonic invasion had struck right next to his territory. And the moment Chiron led his forces away to provide aid, Jahar appeared and massacred his entire family.
“And we have to consider the worst-case scenario. We can't lose Edward here.”
“……Captain.”
Chiron chuckled dryly.
“Have you forgotten, Lude? I'm no longer the captain of the Windsor Knights.”
Lude realized Chiron was prepared to die and quietly closed his eyes. That resolve—he shared it too.
“At a time like this, you're still our captain to me. It's what I'm used to. Captain, what's the plan?”
Chiron gazed at the capital for a moment. It was a well-developed city, but to him, it looked like his burning territory.
He had never once forgotten that day fifty years ago. The thick smoke, the despair. The suffocating pain in his chest, the tears that wouldn't come. Everything was vivid.
Jahar's words too.
—You were too strong, Chiron.
“Erect a barrier. Not one that protects the interior from the outside, but a perfect barrier that prevents those inside from noticing what's happening out here.”
From that despair back then, Chiron had always dreamed of this day. The day he would face Jahar. The moment that was bound to come someday.
“……We'll protect Sisilia. That child is humanity's future, even before she's my daughter.”
He had thought that when this moment arrived, he would unleash endless hatred and rage. But now that it was reality, his mind was cooler than ever.
Chiron steeled himself. He vowed never to repeat the same mistake twice.
But more than that—
“I'll kill Jahar.”
Revenge for his wife.
**
“S-Sorry! I suddenly remembered something urgent.”
'The reason doesn't matter.'
Beatrice gritted her teeth and ran.
'I have to stop it somehow.'
This was different from the pranks she'd played with Sisilia in the past. Not a fake regression, but a real one. A chance worth a fortune that she had obtained.
Beatrice resolved herself firmly. She would change the future that was coming, no matter what.
“We have to tell Captain Edward right now! Jahar's target isn't Roendel—it's Terezia!”
Beatrice sought out Lude. Edward was already too far to fetch in person. But Lude could manage it.
“……You noticed too, huh.”
“Pardon?”
Lude's reaction was odd. He glanced at Chiron beside him.
Chiron silently shook his head.
“Sorry. No time to explain.”
“……!”
Beatrice's consciousness faded. Lude had knocked her out.
“Ah.”
When she opened her eyes again, she was in an unfamiliar place. Beatrice staggered to her feet.
“Where is……”
It was a wasteland. Nothing remained around her. An intense void. Overwhelmed by the scene, Beatrice blankly looked up at the sky.
It was a strange sky. A fierce storm raged as if the heavens and earth were splitting apart.
Yet not a breath of wind touched the ground.
“……Lady Sisilia?”
In Beatrice's view appeared Sisilia, walking somewhere with pitch-black, dead eyes.
Her atmosphere was utterly different from usual. Like she wasn't Sisilia at all.
“Lady Sisilia!”
Beatrice ran toward her first. As she approached, Sisilia spoke without even turning.
“Betty, you're still alive, huh.”
“……Pardon?”
“Over there.”
Sisilia pointed somewhere. Another empty place.
“Keep running.”
“What……”
“It won't mean anything, but just in case.”
Sisilia seemed right in front of her, yet impossibly far away. Beatrice unconsciously reached out.
She couldn't reach, no matter what.
A fleeting moment passed.
Sisilia stopped walking.
'Demon King.'
Beatrice's eyes widened. A battered Demon King stood before Sisilia.
“In the end, the hero who kills me is you.”
Sisilia silently raised her sword.
“Sisilia Windsor. Destroyer who has already shattered half this world.”
**
“L-Lady Betty? Are you okay?”
Beatrice gasped for breath. Ruby supported her worriedly.
'That just now……'
A hallucination? Or maybe a dream. But if it wasn't a vision or dream—
'……The future Lady Sisilia enacts after losing Lord Chiron.'
A chill ran through her. Beatrice hugged her arms against the inexplicable goosebumps.
“You don't look well. You should rest today……”
“I-I remembered something I have to do.”
Beatrice shook off Ruby and ran again.
Maybe this was just a terrible nightmare? But even if it was a dream, Beatrice couldn't accept that ending.
She had done her best.
“It doesn't seem like a lie.”
Lydia pondered Beatrice's words with a thoughtful expression.
“To think the Nameless was such a powerful being.”
Surprisingly, Lydia didn't question the basis of Beatrice's claims after hearing them. She accepted them purely on trust.
Beatrice saw hope. The Empress who had protected Liannen from demons for 300 years might provide an answer beyond her imagination.
“Your Majesty, shouldn't I step in?”
“Indeed. If Lady Beatrice is correct, then only you, Sword Saint Erterion, can oppose the Nameless.”
“Your command.”
Erterion silently knelt on one knee. But Lydia said coldly,
“I forbid it.”
“……!”
Beatrice couldn't accept it.
“W-Why? So many people will die. Unimaginable things will happen!”
“We can't reveal the Sword Saint's power here. Erterion's blessing must be saved for the very last moment.”
“……And if there is no 'next'?”
Lydia looked at Beatrice as if she'd said something absurd.
Beatrice decided to reveal her regression. To tell Lydia everything that would happen in the future.
She was an empress beyond human comprehension. If she could discern truth from lies, she would believe.
“Actually, I……”
The moment she tried to confess her regression—
“……!”
The words she meant to say, the thought—they vanished.
'What was I trying to say just now?'
No matter how hard she tried, it was the same. The relevant word seemed erased from her mind; nothing came up.
“No need to worry too much.”
Erterion spoke to Beatrice, then to Lydia.
“Your Majesty. I won't use my true Extreme Art. With Lord Chiron on site, the first Extreme Art should suffice.”
'G-Good.'
Lydia dispatched Erterion. And she had already ordered evacuations, moving citizens to safety.
“Coming to me was the right choice, Lady Beatrice.”
Lydia knelt before Erterion, shedding tears as she cast healing magic. But everyone there knew it was futile.
“So please, lift your head.”
Beatrice couldn't raise hers.
“Your Majesty, stop crying too.”
Erterion was unbelievably strong. Without using his most powerful weapon—
He not only slew Jahar's numerous kin in one go, but overwhelmed Maui, who seemed impossible to defeat.
But Maui was simply immortal. He couldn't block Maui's curse with just severing one arm.
Erterion was merely 'human'.
Beatrice couldn't accept this ending again.
“Lady Beatrice!”
With Erterion's surprised voice, Beatrice began her third loop.
**
“……Why.”
Beatrice had looped dozens of times.
The processes were all different. She did her absolute best each time.
Erterion succeeded in using all his power. They killed Maui.
Some unimaginable dimensional force beyond Beatrice's comprehension.
But as a result, Terezia collapsed. And Erterion, who slew Maui, died instantly right after.
Maui's curse. She learned then that it wasn't just contact—it triggered even from fatal wounds.
“How on earth……”
She tried countless other methods. Convinced Lude, even brought Edward.
He chose the lesser evil over the worst. Jerryway died, and many Terezia citizens were sacrificed—but among all Beatrice's attempts, it had the least damage.
“There was no other way.”
Beatrice knew Edward was right, but she couldn't accept it.
“There has to be a better outcome.”
But—
No matter how many loops, the situation didn't change much.
Someone always met death. No outcome without sacrifice existed—
Beatrice realized this by the 21st loop.
“I believed that.”
“Lady Betty?”
Beatrice shed tears.
If someone had to sacrifice—
If she could choose, Beatrice wished it was her.
She didn't want anyone's sacrifice.
But the devil granting these loops didn't seem to want that.
“……I'm not feeling well. Pick a gift later, Ruby.”
“Y-Yes……”
Beatrice's heart was already pitch black and dead. The body recovered with each loop, but not the gnawed spirit.
“……I'm tired now.”
Beatrice was at her limit. The place she headed—
Was where someone was, whom she hadn't wanted to consider even after dozens of loops.
“Lady Sisilia.”
Beatrice sat before Sisilia's bed. Hands on her knees, head bowed.
Sisilia slept soundly, breathing softly.
“I think I get why you hid your power, Lady Sisilia.”
The reason she hadn't sought Sisilia through multiple loops. It wasn't because Sisilia was sick or couldn't face Maui.
Sisilia's expression before the Demon King—
It looked so lonely.
“……You didn't want to be left alone, right?”
Beatrice felt like she understood a little. The emotion from dozens of loops was utter loneliness.
Not being understood by anyone, nor able to be—it was torment in itself.
“Betty.”
Beatrice looked up. Through tear-blurred vision, Sisilia's hazy face appeared.
She patted the bed.
Beatrice dragged her exhausted body to lie beside Sisilia.
Sisilia tightly embraced her.
“I won't ask why you came now.”
Sick Sisilia couldn't hold normal conversations. So Beatrice thought it was just instinctual, wanting to hold someone.
“……Pardon?”
But at Sisilia's meaningful words, Beatrice jerked her head up. Their foreheads bumped.
Sisilia saw stars, wobbling dizzily.
“S-Sorry.”
Unable to tell if it was from her cold or the bump, Sisilia rubbed her forehead and asked nonchalantly.
“What loop number is it now?”