Chapter 363: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 363
Elijah took considerable time to understand the situation.
The silver disc had the ability to precisely 'replicate' opponents. And the replicated target would move according to Elijah's commands.
So Elijah ordered the charging Barre to strike down with Wilderness. But perhaps he should have noticed when Barre discarded Wilderness and charged with Thunder. The replicated Barre could not lift Wilderness at all and ultimately died instantly with his head shattered.
What should be done now?
Barre was approaching Elijah moment by moment. As if attempting to transform into Caesar, his hair and eyes were turning red.
'Caesar.'
Elijah's obstacle.
The doppelganger who always confounds Elijah with extraordinary methods. Elijah caught his Thunder with his right hand.
Crack!
Thunder penetrated deeply into Elijah's wrist, breaking through his energy barrier. Despite the terrible pain, Elijah did not even blink.
Instead, he grabbed Caesar's Thunder with his left hand.
Caesar, facing Elijah at close proximity, did not avert his gaze either.
Elijah's eyes and hair began to change. His pupils became a deeper gold color, his hair turned white, and a white mane-like beard grew like that of a lion.
Through psychometry, Caesar recognized what form this fellow was transforming into. The Lion of Friedrich, who pacified the Friedrich region and was recognized by the first emperor.
He was the first Margrave of Friedrich.
Crack!
As his split right hand recovered perfectly, strong force flowed into his left hand. Enough to instantly break the handle of Thunder, which was made of steel.
With Thunder suddenly breaking, it flew through the air. Having lost weapons in both hands, Caesar and Elijah, as if they had been waiting, fought bare-handed.
Elijah pressed Caesar hard, reinforcing damaged armor parts with energy barriers. Though Caesar's entire body was being crushed by the energy barriers, he had the blessing of the Baptism Sword. With the ability of 'Infinite Regeneration,' his bruised and crushed muscles healed, not losing strength.
Caesar grabbed Elijah's armor and tore it off. Blood splattered and steel was torn away as power clashed against power. Faced with such a fierce duel, Raven, Gloria, and Elijah's duplicates could only stare blankly.
"Aaaaah!"
As Elijah and Caesar's fists crossed, they struck each other's jaws.
Both Caesar and Elijah staggered backward. Caesar reached his hand into the air. Just as Wilderness was about to enter Caesar's hand, Elijah knocked it away with his fist.
At that moment, Caesar thrust his knee into Elijah's exposed side.
Crack!
The sound of Elijah's ribs breaking was heard, but his fighting spirit was not broken. Elijah instead headbutted Caesar, breaking his nose. Elijah clasped hands with Caesar to prevent him from repeatedly summoning Wilderness.
As they entered a test of strength, the ground split and the air trembled. Elijah drove his knee into Caesar's side. Caesar sacrificed his side but delivered a headbutt to Elijah.
Blood splattered and his nose broke. Caesar continued to headbutt Elijah. As darkness filled his vision, Elijah's firm legs buckled.
Caesar growled, pressing his forehead against Elijah's.
"You had many chances to choose."
Through their touching foreheads, Elijah's memories and emotions flowed into Caesar.
"You could have handed Friedrich over to your son at any time and gone to find Diana. But you didn't do that."
Elijah muttered quietly, bleeding.
"...That's right."
"Were you that resentful of Diana for abandoning you?"
"Yes. I was resentful."
Elijah gritted his teeth and pushed with all his might. Blood vessels burst in his eyes and blood poured from his nose.
"I didn't want to be a pathetic man searching for a woman who abandoned me."
Crack!
The sound of cartilage giving way came from Elijah's knee joints. But Elijah did not lose his strength and pushed harder.
"I hated that I could only yearn for one-sided love. So I wanted to call Diana. I thought she would look back at me if I ravaged the land she loved. But she didn't budge at all."
"No. You just wanted to control Diana."
"I have that right. I am Diana's first sculpture after all."
Elijah recalled when he was first created.
"Diana wasn't a great sculptor from the beginning. She often hit her hands with the hammer and hurt her wrist when the chisel went astray. Still, Diana continued to make me."
-Hmm... Is this close enough?
Elijah couldn't help but smile. Tears of blood flowed down his jaw.
"Objectively, I was a mess. I looked like half-finished dough. But I didn't want to disappoint Diana."
Elijah recalled the image of the man Diana remembered.
"Even if that wasn't my true form."
Elijah molded himself into the form of the man Diana had loved.
"Even though it was the form of Diana's former lover whom she loved, not me, I craved her love as she abandoned me and created me."
Crack!
Elijah's two knees, which had been trying to endure somehow, shattered and buckled.
"Was it so wrong to wish that Diana would love me as much as I loved her?"
"Is it so wrong to wish that you would look me in the eyes for as long as I look at you."
Elijah headbutted Caesar, breaking his nose. Then he broke his own fingers to escape from Caesar's grasp.
Thud!
Elijah grabbed the Wilderness that had fallen to the floor. It was a replica made from the silver disc. A Wilderness also flew into Caesar's hand. Elijah and Caesar simultaneously swung their Wildernesses toward each other.
Clash!
The Wilderness in Elijah's hand shattered.
At the same time, the silver disc floating in the sky broke. Caesar was captured in Elijah's eyes. Like a death row inmate, Caesar held up the Wilderness toward Elijah.
Elijah saw the moon behind Caesar.
"Ah...."
The moon was, miserably, beautiful.
"Diana."
***
When Elijah died, the army easily disbanded. Since the soldiers had rallied around Elijah as their focal point, they all surrendered to Caesar once Elijah died.
In truth, it was also because they had witnessed with their own eyes the unbelievable power that Caesar had displayed. Caesar passed through the Steel Fortress and headed toward the Demon Realm.
The Demon Realm was still red. The only difference was that a familiar face was waiting for Caesar beyond there.
"Caesar!"
The real Agatha looked different from the one he had seen only in his dreams. Having rushed over as soon as she heard of Elijah's death, she had not properly applied makeup nor worn a beautiful dress.
But despite this, the current Agatha was much more vibrant than the one in his dreams, and Caesar could not look away. Caesar dismounted from Whitey and embraced Agatha.
When the rose scent that he had only experienced in dreams enveloped him, his head felt dizzy.
Could there be any being more sufficient simply by existing?
Caesar just closed his eyes and felt Agatha with his entire body.
"I love you."
It feels embarrassing and awkward. It is a word inappropriate for the situation and too personal. But perhaps that is why it is a word that requires courage.
"I love you."
The embrace of lovers and whispers of love might be the perfect conclusion to mark the end of a war. Whether demon race or human, everyone could see Caesar and Agatha's embrace and understand that the long war had ended and it was time to return to life.
Whether that was what everyone had hoped for or not.
***
Raven and Caesar, along with Gloria and Agatha, headed to the Demon King's castle in a carriage led by Whitey.
There was much to discuss during the carriage ride.
"I'm afraid the demon race might occupy the Steel Fortress and make it a middle ground."
"You mean to create an area where humans and demon races live together?"
"Yes. I think it's important to communicate with people. That seems to be the way for this peace to last longer."
Agatha placed a lemon candy in Caesar's mouth.
"What do you think?"
"You just wanted to eat a lemon candy, didn't you?"
"Well, that's mostly the reason."
Borden, who was pulling the carriage, spoke up.
"Vampires and succubi need human blood and energy. I'm thinking of letting humans harvest magic stones and herbs from the Demon Realm in exchange for blood and energy."
Agatha poked Borden back.
"Borden, Caesar is going to be my consort. Shouldn't you speak to him more formally?"
Borden glanced at Caesar and then spoke.
"...Yes."
It feels strange to hear Borden speak formally. He must feel uncomfortable too, as if a stone is rolling around in his mouth.
"It's fine. He'll adjust to it over time."
Caesar deeply considered Agatha's idea.
Using the Friedrich region as a middle ground and keeping trade routes open. It seems like the first step toward creating a world where humans and demon races can coexist.
Of course, at first, humans would feel reluctant to sell blood and energy, but it's a necessary measure for peace. In fact, one of the reasons the Demon Realm war broke out was because vampires and succubi frequently crossed over to suck human blood and energy before fleeing. It seems right to bring this into the legal framework of trade, allowing each side to take what they want.
"We're almost there."
Raven pointed to where the Demon King's castle was visible.
Caesar gazed absently at the castle. The place that had been the end of Choi Seo-han and the beginning of Caesar. Who would have known that he would set foot in that castle again?
Agatha took Caesar's hand.
"Why are you so nervous all of a sudden?"
"...Do I look nervous?"
"Extremely."
If Agatha could notice it, then Gloria and Raven must have noticed it too.
"I think I'm feeling tense at the thought that everything is now over."
"Over? This is just a new beginning."
A new beginning.
A pleasant phrase, but it was a burden for Caesar. The underground library in the Demon King's castle that wouldn't open is an unknown world to Caesar.
What will happen when he steps into that world?
While imagining the worst, Caesar also thought that perhaps nothing would happen at all as he slowly descended toward the Demon King's castle.
***
Caesar slowly descended to the underground of the Demon King's castle. Familiar stairs. The difference was that back then he was climbing these stairs up, and now he was going down.
As Caesar walked quietly in silence, the group following him also maintained silence. Soon they reached the underground. Caesar saw the large iron door in the distance. Between the iron door and the stairway entrance where Caesar stood was a small room.
"There used to be quite a few statues here."
"To be precise, they were all gargoyles."
"What happened to all of them?"
"...I killed them. Well."
Caesar recalled the Valent Saga.
After conquering the demon realm, this was always the place where Raven was. I remember installing all the bookshelves here and diligently researching to open that door with a desk and a quill pen.
"Raven, there's something I'm curious about."
"What is it?"
"Didn't you want to open that door?"
Raven fell into thought for a moment, looking at the library door that wouldn't open.
"Yes. It was a door that wouldn't open no matter what I did."
"Then why didn't you research how to open the door?"
"Well, at that time, I was focused on other things."
"Like what?"
Raven hesitated for a moment but finally spoke.
"I wanted to find you."
"Me?"
"Yes. I was thinking of looking for you as soon as the demon realm war ended and everything was sorted out."
Caesar understood the meaning of Raven's words well. It would be because Barre became too close to Raven, and the butterfly effect that occurred when Barre didn't die when the Demon King died.
"If I hadn't been there, would you have researched this door?"
"Probably. I can't resist curiosity."
"Then can you open that door now?"
Raven looked at the library door. Dragon language floated around the door.
『Sealed』
『Opening spell required.』
Raven looked at the dragon language and spoke.
"Ah... I think I understand."
Raven stood in front of the iron door as if entranced. The Akashic Record glowed.
"Why couldn't I see this before?"
Raven looked at the scratches on the iron door. Raven read along what appeared to be random scratches.
『Valent Saga』
As the door opened, brilliant light poured in.
Raven's Akashic Record was sucked into the light.