Chapter 7
Chapter 7 - Devil in the Abraxas
Minerva shrugged her shoulders playfully.
"What are you most curious about? I'll tell you whatever you want."
"... Will you answer everything?"
"If it's something I can answer?"
She had an attitude of 'try me if you dare.'
Having gotten her consent, I decided to give it a shot.
"Why was I summoned here?"
"To be frank, it's because you were the last remaining, hopeless hero candidate. I never imagined it would be you."
"..."
Damn. If I was called here for doing something well, that would be one thing, but it seems I was called for being incompetent.
Even in school days, being called to the teachers' office always brought anxiety. I fidgeted restlessly with the unease gnawing at my chest.
I stared blankly at Minerva as she played with her nails.
"... Are you going to punish me?"
"Of course not."
"Then what do you plan to make me do?"
"Nothing much, just want to entrust you with an item."
Minerva said casually. I immediately raised my eyebrows.
"An item?"
"Yes. This item right here."
Minerva smiled meaningfully and waved her hand in the air again.
With a distinctive green light and 'pang' sound, a sphere surrounded by magic circles appeared. It was an oval object slightly larger than a palm. It slowly descended and landed in Minerva's hand.
Minerva readily handed it to me. I received it bewilderedly and began examining it carefully.
"... It's an egg."
"Yes, it's an egg. To be precise, it's the Demon King's egg."
"De...?!"
For a moment, I glared at Minerva, thinking I must have misheard. But Minerva was still looking at me with indifferent eyes. I stammered and kept asking.
"If it's the Demon King's egg... naturally the contents are?"
"A Demon King, obviously. Have you ever seen a dinosaur hatch from an egg?"
"By Demon King, you mean the one we're supposed to defeat when summoned...?"
But there Minerva shook her head side to side. Her eyes shone particularly sharp beneath her flowing hair.
"What sleeps in that egg isn't an ordinary Demon King, Hero Candidate Park Jeong-yong."
"If not an ordinary Demon King, what is it - a Tyrannosaurus Demon King?"
Despite my obvious mockery, Minerva's expression didn't change at all.
She just stares at me with calm, sunken eyes. With such a serious expression. The one who became embarrassed was me who made the lame joke.
As I clicked my tongue and scratched my head, Minerva muttered in a subdued voice.
"Long ago. The final Necromancer who once destroyed the continent you'll be summoned to. It's the only offspring left by the witch Diana Espada."
Minerva stopped there and lowered her gaze for a moment.
I still had no idea what she was talking about, so I just kept clicking my tongue. Taking advantage of the moment, I spouted whatever came to mind.
"I guess that Diana whatever was oviparous? A reptile?"
"..."
"Okay, I'll shut up. Don't look at me with such disgust."
Seeing me keep making light of it, our Miss Shit-hair seems a bit angry. Her gaze is so sharp it makes my whole body tingle.
But from my position, this is driving me crazy too. How can I play along when I don't know anything? Being suddenly summoned without knowing anything, my reactions can't help but be weak.
"... Sigh. As I mentioned earlier. The First Plane, Fourth Plane..."
"Right."
Minerva seemed to recognize my situation, as she started over with a low sigh. I finally leaned back in my chair and narrowed my eyes.
This was the part where she would finally reveal the inside story behind this farce.
"In this Gailand dimension, there are four divided worlds coexisting."
"Four?"
"Yes. From First Plane to Fourth Plane. First Plane is the middle world where you'll be summoned. Second Plane is the so-called Heaven. Third Plane is Hell. And Fourth Plane is commonly called the Demon Realm, the Land of Nothingness."
Minerva explains while holding up then folding four fingers.
I understand this much easily. I nodded for her to continue, and she nodded back and went on.
"Hundreds of years ago, the Necromancer 'Diana Espada' who was hiding in Hell set foot on the Paraiso continent. She was the being mentioned in prophecies who would destroy the world."
"Hmm. And then?"
"The Heaven I belong to was bound by rules forbidding interference in the middle world at the time. So through prophecy we guided humans to summon a hero to stop Diana, and succeeded in summoning an otherworldly being to this land for the first time. He was the first hero."
She says they succeeded up to here. But didn't she say earlier that 'Diana Espada destroyed the world once'?
Sure enough. As she spoke, Minerva's expression grew increasingly rigid. As if she was dwelling on the situation back then.
"But something we never expected happened."
"What? Did the hero go on strike?"
I asked jokingly. Minerva responded while rubbing her forehead as if having a headache.
"If only it was a strike. He betrayed humanity like an old shoe, became Diana's subordinate, and made great contributions to the continent's destruction."
"..."
"The hero's name was 'Han'. After his betrayal, he became the witch Diana's brain, knight, and parent, becoming infamous under the name 'Witch's Knight Han'."
Beyond my imagination. You were quite something, first hero. I had to admire him.
"Well anyway. So the world was destroyed once, and all sorts of magical beasts replaced humans and covered the continent..."
After that, her explanation of the worldview continued at length, but it was so verbose that it quickly became boring. I barely listened to most of it.
To roughly summarize what I understood:
The middle world was destroyed, loosening the restrictions on the gods of heaven and their followers. So they stepped up to eliminate the bad guys' minions that covered the First Realm.
That rescue operation is the hero summoning ritual they're conducting right now.
However, Diana, who disappeared for unknown reasons, also began her response to this.
She caused it so that when a special being called a 'hero' is summoned, a special demon called a 'Demon King' would be born.
So the heavenly gods nurture heroes through hero trials and various special privileges, helping them survive the fight against the Demon Lord.
By overwhelming their qualitative disadvantage with numerical superiority (also called ganging up), they've somehow managed to maintain a balance of power between the demon and human factions until now.
"In such a situation, an egg containing the immortal Demon Lord, said to be witch Diana's only blood relative, was discovered."
Yes. That's exactly the situation.
Fortunately, the hero side found and retrieved it before the demon faction, but they're truly at a loss about how to handle this.
This egg won't break easily.
It won't hatch easily either.
Then again, it's not dead either. It's clearly alive and pulsing.
There's too little information. They knew too little about this egg.
So heaven took special measures. First, wait.
Their intention is to avoid attention by entrusting it to an insignificant hero, then slowly observe the egg's status.
After hearing this far, one thing became clear.
"In summary. You're trying to dump such an awesome time bomb on me?"
"... 'Dump'? What's that?"
"Pass it off to someone else."
"Ah. Yes. You got it right away."
Surprisingly, Minerva nodded repeatedly and agreed smoothly. Does she not know the saying about not spitting on a smiling face? I really want to hit her once.
I stared at the egg quietly and suddenly asked.
"Why me of all people?"
"I told you. Because you're the last remaining hopeless hero..."
"That's a lie."
"......"
Minerva shut her mouth at my firm conviction.
I looked at her and smirked.
"I may be a pushover, but I'm not an idiot. Handing over such an important item to an unproven, useless, hopeless case? I can tell that's a lie."
Snicker. Minerva laughed at my expression.
As if I was ridiculous. Sure enough, ridiculous words poured out.
"If you know it's a lie. What are you going to do about it?"
"What else? I'll question you."
"Why don't you try?"
Suddenly, an overwhelming aura poured out from Minerva.
I momentarily couldn't breathe and clutched my chest. Seeing me like this, she soon withdrew her killing intent.
When I glared at her silently, a bitter smile returned to Minerva's lips.
"Don't glare at me like that. We're not shameless enough to dump this on you for free."
She suddenly leaned her upper body towards me and smiled meaningfully.
"We've prepared several special privileges for you who will perform this special mission."
"Special... privileges?"
"Yes. Special privileges."
Minerva nodded lightly. Then, just like when she summoned the egg, she waved her hand lightly.
Flash. A green light flickered right in front of my nose, and soon semi-transparent panels spread out before my eyes.
[Egg Guardian's Special Privilege List]
The header was written in foreign characters like that.
I looked back and forth between the panel and Minerva, and she shrugged her shoulders and blurted out.
"Read it slowly. Ask if you have any questions. It won't help even if you throw a tantrum later saying there were problems."
I see. As instructed, I read through the panel's contents. And I couldn't help but laugh at how absurd the current situation was.
'Is this what they mean by patience always wins?'
To think that I, who was pushed back to the very last in the gate competition, would end up in a position to receive such a special mission. Life is truly unpredictable.
With a bitter smile, I soon pushed aside idle thoughts and focused on the panel's contents.