Chapter 146 — Just Bad Luck (6)
Through Attentive Hearing and Politics, Roan perfectly understood what the duke was trying to say.
But he had no choice but to ask again.
"Corruption... you say? Don't tell me it's... because of the land."
"Yes."
The vice-commander, Yurus, let out a scream that felt as though it might tear through everyone's eardrums. A protracted scream filled with agony, like that of a beast caught in a trap.
Yet, chillingly, the duke finished his reply to the emperor with a cold expression and drew his sword.
"...He must be killed."
The duke's curved blade reflected the nearly full, brilliant moonlight. The silence of the surrounding knights was heavy.
It was Roan who seized the duke's arm as he prepared to raise his sword without delay.
"...Your Majesty."
"Hold on."
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory stared blankly at the emperor.
"Once it reaches this stage, there is no coming back. A swift death is best for everyone."
But Roan bit his lip for a moment, then opened his mouth. Without releasing the duke's arm.
If a cough was his prodromal symptom,
then perhaps my magic...
might be able to subdue this symptom as well.
"Just once... restrain Yurus."
"Your Majesty."
The duke's yellow-tinged eyes, glowing in the darkness, narrowed.
The vice-commander himself, the duke, the knights.
In time, it would only become a torment for everyone.
The duke clicked his tongue inwardly.
Was His Majesty going to suggest showing mercy because Yurus was an outsider he did not know well?
But after hesitating, the duke ultimately followed the emperor's command.
At times, his emperor gave orders that seemed absurd at first glance, yet he always managed to produce a miraculous answer.
With a threadbare hope that his liege lord might save the life of a knight who had served alongside him for years, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory lowered his sword hand.
"Restrain Yurus."
At the Lord of the East Yellow Territory's low command, several knights rushed toward Yurus at once.
The vice-commander, unable to rise because his ankle had been cut, thrashed in an effort to lift his body somehow. But the ones trying to hold him down were also knights.
It was beyond his strength to endure the pressing weight of several grown men.
"Khuuu... aagh...!"
The sharp scream was saturated with pain.
Roan hurriedly lowered himself into a crouch.
'"Was this the right thing to do?"'
No matter how much he kept the nature of the magic secret, word traveled fast. It was only a matter of time before this reached someone's ears.
Because a demon healing someone would be a jarring spectacle.
What if someone discovered it? What if they attacked him using it as a weakness? Was he ready to reveal this power?
And what if, after all this, the healing didn't work?
Was he acting too impulsively, without thinking?
As he knelt beside the knight,
all manner of thoughts flashed through Roan's mind.
'"...Hey. Pull yourself together, Kim Yong-cheol."'
Will enveloped Roan's body.
Roan steadied his resolve.
For me, it was merely the possibility that a troublesome situation might arise, and even if it did, I would find a way to avoid it somehow. I would endeavor to do so.
I did not wish to conceal a power that might be the only way to save him, simply for my own safety. I did not want to act that way.
Hadn't I, in the end, strived to become strong precisely so I could do as I wished freely?
Variables could be blocked in the face of overwhelming force.
A light of determination flickered in Roan's eyes.
The moment his resolve was complete.
Reciting the incantation in his heart, he gathered his will and channeled power.
Blessing of the Stars.
A lustrous light slowly moved from Roan's hand to the knight.
The light was brilliant, but it did not dazzle.
Perhaps this was what it would feel like to see starlight before one's eyes—faint because it shone from far away, yet never losing its radiance because it was always there.
"...?"
"Huh...?"
"No..."
Exclamations of wonder sounded from all around.
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory's eyes grew round.
"Your Majesty...?"
Not only the duke, but the knights present were men who had seen human priests, holy knights, and mages on the battlefield.
Yet no magic they had ever witnessed had radiated such a warm, sublime light.
Without realizing it, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory slowly knelt. It felt as though failing to do so would defile this light.
And all the knights surrounding Roan began to kneel, one by one, following the duke's lead.
In the silence, the only sounds were the crackling of torches and the beast-like roar emitted by the knight.
The brief seconds that passed felt like an eternity to everyone.
Roan clenched his teeth.
Far more power than usual was being consumed, and the light emitted while casting the Blessing was unlike anything before.
But the knight still could not stop making agonized sounds.
With a rueful expression, Roan lifted his hand from Yurus's arm. Bewilderment was palpable on the faces of the duke and the knights as well.
Because the power they had felt through the light was a holy force that seemed capable of accomplishing anything.
But the moment Roan straightened up entirely.
"...Khuuu... ...ugh..."
The knight's struggling began to subside.
He drew rough breaths, as if trying to swallow the pain.
"...Vice-Commander?"
The duke's voice as he called the knight was filled with astonishment.
Roan stared at the knight with eyes wide open.
The howl, which had been gradually lowering, now faded into something like a low groan.
"Ooh... uuugh..."
"Vice-Commander Yurus! Have you come to your senses?!"
The knight who had been holding the vice-commander's arm quietly called Yurus's name. Then, astonishingly, the vice-commander, who had been groaning lowly, slowly moved his head in response to the words.
"...Mome. Why am I... here..."
His voice was so composed that his beastly condition from mere seconds ago seemed like an illusion.
Roan's fist trembled with a shudder.
But the surprise he felt was far too simple compared to the emotions felt by the people of the East Yellow Territory.
"Your Majesty. What did you... do..."
It was an indiscreet question he would not have asked under normal circumstances.
The duke asked Roan in a pained-sounding voice.
"How, how could this... This... was something that could be healed...?"
The duke's voice was shaking.
Roan flinched, startled by the explosive emotion contained in his murmuring.
Alongside faint joy,
astonishment, sorrow, fury, regret, bewilderment.
The emotion the duke was feeling was chaos itself.
Perhaps he had not meant to seek an answer, but, not knowing what to do with his surging emotions, had instinctively sought a response from the emperor.
He at least had the standing to ask, so his circumstances were on the better side.
Because all the knights were staring at the vice-commander, who was beginning to regain his senses, with flabbergasted faces, unable even to pose a question.
"Why is everyone... acting like this, ugh..."
The vice-commander, flustered by the unfamiliar atmosphere and trying to rise, realized that he was wounded.
And quite seriously, at that.
"A sword wound on my... back... my ankle... too...? I, could it be..."
The bleeding was not insignificant.
Realizing his ankle had been cut deeply enough to sever a tendon, the knight's voice sounded despairing.
"Duke, I... was I corrupted...?"
The knight asked in a voice so anxious it seemed about to shatter. The duke, who had been staring intently at him, silently nodded once after a long pause.
"I am sorry... Your Majesty, Duke..."
The knight struggled to lift his body, but he could not even sit up on his own. In the end, lying on the ground, the knight barely managed to raise his head and offered an apology to the emperor and the duke.
As if the vice-commander's voice had broken a spell. Only then did the surrounding knights begin to stir, one by one.
Someone ran to prepare a stretcher, while someone else supported Yurus and helped him sit up.
"Duke."
Roan called to the Lord of the East Yellow Territory, who still could not tear his eyes away from the vice-commander.
"...Yes, Your Majesty."
The duke, whose attention had been momentarily elsewhere, answered a little late.
"I wish to hear an explanation."
"..."
The duke glanced once at Yurus, who had sat up. Noticing his gaze, the vice-commander of the knight order bowed his head with an expression of resignation.
The Lord of the East Yellow Territory parted his lips with difficulty.
"The corrupted land not only renders the land barren, but also renders people barren."
In the darkness, his yellow eyes wavered with unease.
"Those who spend a long time in places close to the east, or who are exposed to the desert for long periods... at some point, begin to change like this."
Roan furrowed his brow.
"You called it corruption."
"Yes."
Having confirmed his condition through the duke's words, the knight swallowed a groan.
Both the duke and the knight knew.
The fact that this was the shame of the East Yellow Territory.
And that, in the end, it had been discovered by someone from outside the East Yellow Territory,
even by the emperor himself.
"The tribes wandering the desert, the knights and soldiers who regularly go out on reconnaissance, the merchants who travel between cities... anyone who must walk the desert roads for a long time is exposed to this danger."
Roan could only nod silently. The malevolent will he had physically sensed simply by going closer to the east than Birektum, merely two days prior.
A threat that even demons could do nothing about was eating away at the people of the East Yellow Territory.
"The closer one goes to the corrupted land, the higher the danger. Aggression is amplified, and they lose the ability to control their hatred. Over the course of several days, they fight that will as though in convulsions, and each time, cough symptoms appear."
Roan bit his lip.
As Fiora had said,
was 'Greed' truly slumbering in that land beyond, beneath a failed seal?
"But Yurus hid it."
The duke gazed at the knight with cool eyes.
Compassion could be felt in his words,
but no such trace could be found in his sharp eyes.
Concealing his emotions,
the Lord of the East Yellow Territory spoke calmly.
"Yurus is someone who knows the laws of this land, but as a knight, as one entrusted with the heavy responsibility of escorting His Majesty, he attempted to hide his flaw rather than fulfill his duty. It is unforgivable."
Roan looked upon the liege lord and his retainer, who wore a mournful expression.
The scar-faced knight was already enduring his pain, sensing the punishment he would receive.
"Ordinarily... if that state of corruption continues, as it just did, what happens?"
When Roan quietly asked, the Lord of the East Yellow Territory replied.
"They lose their reason, and become like beasts. In the end... they come to loathe all living things and attack them. I hear that when humans refer to us, they call us monsters. I believe... the end result of that corruption is what truly turns us demons into monsters."
In the duke's words, there was no unnecessary condemnation or violent emotion.
But through Attentive Hearing, Roan could eavesdrop on the exhaustion felt in his voice.
A painful secret known to no one except those living in this land near the desert.
If it became known that they could suddenly change after being exposed to the eastern desert, the people of all Evirgio would naturally look at them with prejudice.
Simply because their ancestors had settled in the east, they were paying a brutal price.
"I have seen hundreds of such individuals. No matter how long we confined them, in the end, there was no method but to kill them."
Remorse and astonishment were intermingled in the words of the Lord of the East Yellow Territory.
"Yet Your Majesty... has healed such a person."