Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 175
>Chapter Title: The Prophesied Apostle
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>He double-checked the text, wondering if he had misread it, but nothing had changed.
It was exactly as he had seen.
‘……A hidden raid boss means a Hidden Raid Boss, right?’
Not only was it a hidden piece, but a Hidden Raid Boss at that.
For Do-hyun, who hadn’t even imagined that the Hero Guild was recruiting a full raid party, the information left his mouth agape.
“But now I feel a little more at ease. Since Luriel brought you here, the prophesied apostle.”
“……What exactly is this prophesied apostle?”
“……Hm?”
Do-hyun, who had been irked by the cryptic remarks from the start, asked back.
Gilberun’s eyebrow twitched.
Then he looked to Luriel with eyes demanding an explanation, and she beamed.
“Haha, come to think of it, I never explained.”
“……Luriel.”
“Sorry, sorry. I got distracted checking out all sorts of interesting things. I’ll explain now.”
“Sigh…….”
Gilberun let out a sigh as if to say, ‘That figures,’ before turning back to Do-hyun and opening his mouth again.
“My apologies. I assumed you’d been briefed, but I see that wasn’t the case. May I explain now?”
“That’s fine.”
“Thank you for indulging me.”
Gilberun gave a faint smile, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly, and continued.
“We find ourselves in dire straits. Not from any external threats or interference, but purely due to my own failings. And the only one who can resolve it is an apostle.”
“…….”
“But we cannot accept aid from just any apostle.”
Someone trustworthy who wouldn’t leak the information.
Someone with the strength to actually help us, as well.
Gilberun desperately sought such an apostle, and according to the prophet Luriel, one would appear within a few years.
“And then you showed up. With Luriel, no less.”
Charlie clapped at the succinct explanation.
-As expected……! The prophet recognized my lord’s heroism!
-……What heart? Eliza, what did that guy just say?
-Liza?
Charlie’s eyes sparkled as he nodded vigorously in agreement, while Zihard couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
Do-hyun found the whole thing equally ridiculous.
It sounded exactly like some hero’s epic tale.
“You are the knight of the prophesied apostle, and you are correct. Well, it is a few years earlier than originally foretold.”
“……People’s fates shift all the time, so the timing getting moved up is no big deal.”
Gilberun nodded at Luriel, who stuck out her lips in a pout.
“I’m not reproaching you. It’s good news for me.”
“You bet. So why are you staring? Got questions?”
“What do you mean by vouching for me, Luriel?”
“Nothing special. It just means I guarantee you’re fully qualified as the prophesied apostle.”
Do-hyun nodded, his question resolved.
‘That grindfest quest must’ve been a test of sorts.’
No wonder the difficulty had seemed way off for a basic grind quest.
He’d done just about everything possible in Pratel’s fields.
He’d been quietly puzzled.
Was this really just a Rare-grade quest?
He’d chalked it up to the final quest being a big deal, but now it looked like there was a testing purpose too.
‘Clearing it in a week must’ve played a role.’
He probably would’ve gotten the follow-up even if it took longer, but it surely made a difference.
Their goal was obvious by now.
To take down Ruidra, the Hidden Raid Boss.
But first, he had too many questions. Topping the list was the queen sleeping in the forest.
“Then what about Angela? Why is she asleep in the forest?”
“…….”
Gilberun’s face stiffened at the name Angela.
But only for a moment.
Soon his expression turned bitter as he let out a sigh.
“I see. So you went there.”
“Well……. I was searching for Angela. We agreed to talk about her as part of the test, so I had no choice. Problem?”
“No. These are things I have to share anyway. He needs to know too—what happened here, and the situation we’re in now.”
Then Gilberun paused for a beat, stroking his chin beard as if deep in thought.
“Hm. Where to begin…….”
His eyes grew wistful with memory as he spoke plainly.
“I suffer from a congenital mana control disorder.”
“I already told him that.”
“I see. Then you must have mentioned Angela’s ability as well.”
Luriel nodded, and Gilberun closed his eyes, slowly retracing the past step by step.
At last, finishing his account, he spoke again, his cracked lips parting.
“Yes, it’s best to start from our first meeting. It was in our youth, but the word ‘fate’ sprang to mind for some reason.”
And so the tale of Gilberun and Angela began.
* * *
>To sum up the story:
Gilberun, a boy of about sixteen, and Angela, fifteen.
Back then, unlike now, they were enduring hard times.
He had only recently learned of his congenital mana control disorder and was in the throes of stormy adolescence, while Angela’s family was crumbling.
Even in hindsight, it was a truly grueling period.
“In my youthful folly, I fought with my worried parents and stormed off to the forest’s edge. It’s too steep to enter carelessly, but I loved gazing at the moon from the cliff’s end.”
A climb too arduous for a young boy.
Yet Gilberun frequented it.
Standing atop the sheer cliff felt like beholding the horizon, pure moonlight softly bathing him.
It felt like a gentle reassurance that all was well.
“That day, I desperately needed that comfort.”
His father grooming him for the throne, knights heaping expectations upon him.
And on the flip side, the consort and servants who looked down on Gilberun for his mana disorder.
Worn down by it all, he finally exploded, shouted, and fled.
But what was this?
In his private sanctuary, which only he ever visited, an intruder appeared for the first time.
He bolted upright, on high alert, but it proved unnecessary.
It was a girl who still carried a childish air. A fresh-faced young lady with a petite, rabbit-like charm.
Fifteen-year-old Angela.
She too had fled, unable to bear her family’s downfall.
But once outside, she had nowhere to go, wandered lost, and stumbled upon the cliff’s end.
“Isn’t it wondrous? At the very moment we each needed solace, our first encounter was at that cliff’s edge. Perhaps our hearts had been driven to their own precipice.”
That chance meeting, born of coincidence, upended their destinies entirely.
Each could perfectly shore up the other’s insurmountable weakness.
Thus, at the moonlit cliff’s end.
Finding comfort and hope in one another, they naturally let love blossom.
The two fit together perfectly.
With their greatest torment banished, emotions long dried up now blazed beyond control.
“And so I became king, strolling that forest with her now and then, dreaming of our future.”
He believed they would live happily ever after, each the other’s eternal haven.
“Until I found that necklace.”
“No way, that necklace…….”
“Indeed. Angela’s necklace, the one you located in a flash. The Necklace of Truth that reshaped our fates and birthed Ruidra.”
[You have heard the truth about Gilberun and Angela.]
[It is recorded in the Book of Adventures.]
[You have cleared the quest ‘Angela’s Secret’.]
[You obtain 300 gold and a large amount of experience.]
[Your level has risen.]
‘My god.’
He had half-expected it, but the piece of fate was truly the culprit.
The damn thing stirred up trouble wherever it went—at this rate, it might as well be an incident generator.
‘No, a blade bears no sin. It’s the hand that wields it.’
The problem lay with those whose eyes gleamed with greed upon gaining such power.
Sadly, Gilberun and Angela fell into that category.
Though the manner in which they wielded it differed slightly.
“Have you witnessed the Lantern Festival?”
“Yes, twice.”
“The Lantern Festival wasn’t originally such a frivolous affair. It was more ritual than celebration.”
“Ritual……?”
“Hm, what do you know of the necklace? Nothing at all?”
Do-hyun nodded at the question.
He was the one collecting the pieces of fate, yet he didn’t even know what each fragment looked like.
“The necklace was half-shattered and faint, yet it held a mighty spark of purification within.”
“…….”
Do-hyun thus paid close attention to Gilberun’s words.
Spark of purification.
A flame that purified outright, and befitting a piece of fate, even its broken fragment wielded tremendous purifying might.
“Wearing it steadied the mind and cleansed any contaminant.”
Thus far, it seemed merely a healthful accessory with peculiar benefits, but Angela’s ability was the issue.
Eyes that beheld mana’s flow.
Sensing the spark of purification nestled within her, she discerned the necklace’s true power.
“The spark of purification could cleanse not just the external, but the internal as well.”
Wounded hearts and mental anguish too.
At that point, the two conceived an idea.
“With this power, could we not forge a society free of suffering? A nation brimming with hope for all.”
No one in pain, living blissfully with loved ones, departing in peace.
A paradise of dreams, truly.
And they possessed the means to make it real.
The ‘necklace,’ exuding vast purification despite its ruin.
‘Angela’s eyes,’ perceiving mana flows and the souls’ purifying origins.
‘Gilberun’s overwhelming mana reserves,’ sufficient to ignite the spark across an entire city.
It aligned perfectly, as if by divine decree.
“No way…….”
“……Yes. We kindled the spark of purification in the lanterns, soothing the hearts of those adrift in shattered dreams and exhaustion. A rite to grant joy in mere existence, unburdened by care. That was the original Lantern Festival……no, the Purification Ritual.”
Ding-
[You have learned Pratel’s hidden secret.]
[It is recorded in the Book of Adventures.]
‘My god.’
The instant he uncovered the secret origin of the dream city Pratel.
* * *
>And at that very moment.
Beyond the royal palace, the city buzzed far louder than usual.
“Time’s up. Ruidra raid party recruitment begins! Applicants, come this way.”
“Me, me first!”
“Move it, punk!”
“Waaaaah!”
The Hero Guild’s Ruidra raid.
Recruitment for its hundred raid members had commenced.