45
I killed the Demon King. It was a mistake.
Chapter 45
"It seems you can see me."
-I cannot see.
"Then can you hear me?"
-I cannot hear. I can only sense.
It feels like the conversation is slightly off track.
Seo-han removed his hand and opened his mouth.
"Then how did you recognize me?"
There was no answer from the gargoyle.
Seo-han placed his hand back.
The gargoyle's emotions flow into Seo-han's fingertips.
This is doubt.
-What is it?
"Don't you know what I said?"
-I didn't tell you this. We can't communicate unless you're in contact with me. Of course, originally there was no one who could hear my thoughts except you.
"Why is that?"
-It's just always been that way. There have been beings who have touched me, but even when I thought, they couldn't hear.
I roughly understand the situation.
Right now, Seo-han is conversing with this being through 'psychometry'.
Words are a means of expressing each other's thoughts.
Seo-han and the gargoyle were continuing a more primitive and deeper conversation.
-Psychometry? Is that your ability?
Look at this.
It's reading Seo-han's thoughts right away.
"It's an ability that you and I have. It's the ability to read the will contained in the person you touch or objects they've touched."
-I see. Then the reason they couldn't hear my thoughts was because they didn't have psychometry.
The being expressed admiration as if it had finally found the answer.
It's like the emotion of Archimedes shouting eureka.[1]
-There's one thing I'm curious about. Who are you?
"Hmm. That's an extremely difficult question to answer."
Who am I indeed?
Am I a doppelganger?
Am I Choi Seo-han?
Or am I Barre, or Caesar, or Mil, or an unnamed soldier?
It's a very difficult answer to give to someone who can read my thoughts.
-Oh, that's somewhat difficult to understand.
It seems the being has roughly read Seo-han's confused mind.
-Are you also one who explores self-identity like me?
"Explore self-identity?"
-When I was first born, I didn't know who I was. No one gave me a name, and no one told me the purpose of my existence. So I constantly asked myself questions. Who am I? Why do I exist? What will I live for?
A philosophical gargoyle.
It's profound yet somewhat pitiful.
Hasn't it been on a tedious journey of finding out what it is for at least several decades in complete isolation where nothing can be seen, heard, or felt?
If it were Seo-han, his mind would have collapsed.
"So have you reached a conclusion?"
-No. I haven't even decided on my name yet. But it seems you have a way of defining me. Do you know what I'm called?
"Usually, you're called a gargoyle. You're a statue that can think and move."
-Move? Me?
"Can't you move?"
-What's the definition of moving? Is it like this?
The gargoyle did something.
For Seo-han, it was an unknown sensation and emotion, and again, there was no change.
"No."
-Hmm... Is this not it?
"Come to think of it, you said you couldn't see or hear, right? Why is that?"
-I don't know. Why can't I hear, see, touch, or move? I clearly understand the concept itself. Do you know by any chance?
Seo-han examined the gargoyle's body overall.
"It might not be a definitive answer, but the you I'm looking at has eyes, ears, nose, lips, and even wings and legs. But you're a statue."
-I know I was sculpted from stone. The one who made me thought so.
"Yes. That's probably why you can't move. But it's strange. I know some gargoyles that can move."
-Really? Then can you ask them? How can they eat, drink, hear, and move?
"Unfortunately, all the gargoyles I know are dead."
The ones that were moving when we invaded the vampire castle were all killed by Yan and Mitchell.
There don't seem to be any other gargoyles around here.
-Dead? What does that mean?
"To put it simply, it's when you can no longer think like you're doing now."
-Oh... That's a bit scary.
"Are you afraid of death?"
-If I can't even think, what do I have left? Isn't it too much to take even that away from me?
When you put it that way, I have nothing to say.
It seems the fear of death is primal and unavoidable.
-By the way, the dead gargoyles are a bit pitiful. Death. I can't even imagine it because I've never experienced it.
"Me neither. By the way, are the other sculptures gargoyles like you?"
-I don't know. I don't even know what I look like in the first place.
"You don't know your appearance?"
-I can only read surface thoughts, I can't see, and I can't read deep thoughts.
"Surface thoughts?"
-It's like how you don't know that I'm very happy to meet someone I can talk to, which is a deep thought, and me conveying my thoughts to you now is a surface thought. This is how I've defined it.
"I think I understand what you mean. Your current showing off is a deep thought, and conveying your will to me is a surface thought. Is that right?"
-Very accurate.
The gargoyle expressed what would be an embarrassed emotion for a human.
-Can you describe what I look like?
"Can't you read my surface thoughts?"
-Is that possible?
"We can try. Concentrate."
-Alright!
The gargoyle concentrated hard.
And Seo-han kept his gaze on the gargoyle's form so that the gargoyle could see its own appearance.
Then the gargoyle spoke.
-...Is this what seeing is like? It's such a beautiful sensation.
"Yes, that's seeing. And do you see the statue in front? That's your appearance."
Seo-han slowly turned around, showing the overall appearance of the gargoyle.
-Oh...
"Do you like it?"
-I like it very much. That must be the head they were thinking of, and that seems to be the wings. Oh... Are those claws?
The gargoyle looked at its appearance for a while and then spoke.
-I don't know how to express this gratitude.
"I can feel it, so it's fine."
It was a feeling of joy that was difficult to express in words.
For a human, it would be like shedding a bucket of tears, perhaps?
It's not that it didn't know how to express it in words, but it was genuinely moved.
-Now I can finally decide on my name. My name is 'Wings'. Because I have such large and beautiful wings.
"Not bad."
-And I will fly in the sky with those magnificent wings. That's my reason for living!
Rumble rumble.
Then the gargoyle's body started to move.
The dust attached to the gargoyle's body fell off, and old moss peeled away.
At the same time, life returned to its eyes.
The gargoyle started to look around.
-Is this where I've been? I can see, hear, and touch.
It seems Seo-han unknowingly discovered how to awaken a gargoyle.
To make a gargoyle move, you need to let it name itself and determine its own purpose of existence.
This wasn't even in the game.
Well, how could I have known?
I would have had to play the game as a demon race to know.
"Can you see me by any chance?"
-...Hmm. Strangely, I can't see your form. How do you exist?
"I don't know the exact details either."
-I wanted to let you fly in the sky with me as a token of gratitude, but it's a shame. Is there anything you want? I'll grant any wish.
Something to wish for from a gargoyle that just started moving?
Is there really such a thing?
Ah, come to think of it, there is one thing.
"You must have used psychometry a lot."
-That's true.
"Could I perhaps learn about your know-how regarding this technique?"
There are few demons who can use psychometry, so there was no way to enhance this ability.
Maybe this being might know a way to improve psychometry skills.
-It's like moving your fingers, so I'm not sure. Isn't it the same for you?
That's true.
To be honest, Seo-han doesn't know the principle of how he's using psychometry either.
It just works when he thinks about it.
-Hmm... Instead, I could share the sensation of how I've been using psychometry. Like how you lent me your eyes.
"Oh! Is that possible?"
-Of course! Now, concentrate. I'll use this psychometry.
Seo-han closed his eyes and focused on psychometry.
Then he felt the sensation of 'Wings' using psychometry.
It feels somewhat similar yet different.
How should I express this?
Should I say it's narrower but much deeper than what Seo-han uses?
It feels like throwing yourself into a dark and cold deep sea.
Should I try to imitate it a bit?
Seo-han used psychometry, borrowing Wings' sensation.
Then the figure of a woman appeared.
Clang Clang Clang Clang.
A woman with white skin moved a chisel and hammer ceaselessly, carving out a sculpture.
Even without looking closely, it was clear who that unfinished sculpture was.
It was Wings.
'...This is strange.'
Normally, Seo-han wouldn't be able to see the woman's figure from a third-person perspective.
When Seo-han used psychometry 'deeply', it always worked from the perspective of the person who touched the object.
But now Seo-han could see the entire figure of that white woman.
He wondered if he might be seeing from someone else's perspective, but Seo-han could freely see from any angle as if he had an out-of-body experience.
Then who could this woman be?
Seo-han approached closely to check her face.
Pale skin, red eyes, silky soft black hair, and a beautiful face to top it off.
This woman is a vampire.
The only difference from other vampires was that white horns were growing on this woman's head.
Seo-han focused on those white horns more than anything else.
There's only one demon race with white horns.
The Demon King.
"...Don't tell me there was another Demon King?"
The only Demon King Seo-han knows is the doppelganger Demon King.
Even in the game, there's no mention of past Demon Kings.
No, to begin with, this is the first time playing as a demon race.
How could anyone know about the existence of a previous Demon King unless they were a demon?
At that moment, Seo-han's psychometry turned off.
The gargoyle had moved away from Seo-han's hand.
The gargoyle hurriedly muttered something and rushed to the window.
But once the hand was removed, there was no way to hear it.
Seo-han looked in the direction the gargoyle was staring.
There was a knight holding a spear.
The knight ran like an arrow and threw the spear towards Wings.
Wings, despite flying for the first time, dodged the spear with incredibly nimble movements, and soon flew away into the sky.
The knight was pointing at the gargoyle and shouting at the top of his lungs.
Seo-han ignored the knight's actions and looked at Wings.
Wings probably doesn't know where to go.
But instinctively, it knew which direction to head.
It was towards the direction where the brilliant dawn was rising, driving away the night.
***
Seo-han wandered around various parts of the Demon King's castle, searching for statues.
If he found gargoyles that could think like Wings, he planned to release their seals and develop his psychometry ability.
"It's hard to find."
There were quite a few statues in the Demon King's castle, but not all statues seemed to be gargoyles.
It's not certain, but it seems that unless they were created by that vampire Demon King, they don't become gargoyles.
"Not here either."
Just in case, he went to the vampire castle, but the vampire castle was in a half-destroyed state, so there was nothing worth salvaging.
"If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have destroyed it."
It's too late now, what's the use of regretting?
Seo-han blankly stared at the sky.
It's already been four days since he started astral projection.
It seems he doesn't need to sleep in the astral projection state, but some kind of mental fatigue was creeping in heavily.
But even if he closed his eyes to try to sleep, sleep wouldn't come.
"Let's stop looking for gargoyles."
Seo-han decided to tour the demon realm, partly to clear his mind.
Seo-han flew high in the sky and looked around the demon realm.
He didn't want to look at the frontlines where wars never ceased, so he checked the rear areas.
All the knights had retreated from the frontlines and were transporting supplies to the rear.
It seemed they were moving all the looted treasures to a safe place.
"By the way, the situation is really serious."
Although Seo-han failed to find gargoyles, he could roughly understand why the army had come to this state.
It's not just one reason, but extremely complex.
First, after the Demon King's death, the discipline of the participating soldiers had loosened.
Especially the nobles leading the knight orders had become lax, starting to use the knight orders to search for treasures scattered all over the demon realm.
With the current allied commander, the Crown Prince, bedridden and the Demon King dead, the nobles saw more profit in searching for relics and demon treasures scattered throughout the demon realm rather than fighting and shedding blood.
The second reason was when rumors about the imperial finances hitting rock bottom turned out to be true.
The empire had promised sufficient compensation to the nobles across the country in exchange for borrowing knights.
However, as the demon realm war unexpectedly prolonged and many expenses occurred, the imperial finances hit bottom, and stories of various military suppliers facing bankruptcy due to unpaid promissory notes reached the nobles' ears.
If the Demon King were still alive, they might have had a goal to somehow kill the Demon King and think about it later, but with even that goal gone, the nobles' discipline had loosened.
Additionally, the Crown Prince not showing his face for a month.
There was also the revelation of deep-rooted corruption in the allied forces, and the succession struggle in the Viscount Redfield's family had intensified.
Anyway, the nobles had become disappointed with the Emperor in many ways through this demon realm war and stopped actively intervening in the war.
"Now, let's just wander around."
There's nothing more to see or gain in the demon realm now.
I might as well just travel around the entire continent.
Thump.
At that moment, Seo-han seemed to hear the sound of a heartbeat in his ears.
"Huh?"
Just when he thought he might have heard wrong, the sound of a heartbeat came to his ears again.
Thump Thump.
As bewilderment swept over him at the signals sent by sensory organs he hadn't felt for the past three days.
As if someone was forcibly grabbing his hair and pulling, Seo-han flew somewhere.
"Aaaaaaaaargh!"
When he raised his body, Seo-han saw a man dozing off in front of his eyes.
"Finn?"
"Snort! I wasn't dozing! I wasn't dozing!"
Finn wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and jumped up.
"Huh? How are you awake already?"
"I don't kno..."
Seo-han, no, Caesar suddenly felt dizzy and fainted.
Footnotes:
1] Archimedes of Syracuse was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicil