Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Humiliation
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At the moment when the Mountain Giant covered its eyes nestled in the crevices of its enormous, angular rocky face, a female knight seized the opportunity, scaling its arm like a wolf leaping over a fence and slashing her sword upward from below in one stroke.
Boom!
In an instant, the rock exploded along the path of her blade. The female knight had sliced the Mountain Giant clean in two. Parting the mountain and descending gracefully, she raised her red-bladed sword toward the sky once the situation had roughly settled, crying out before Bulki, who had barely managed to stand.
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
"Yerutsa Rahav!"
Inherit the sword, inherit the sword.
The entire knight order raised their swords in unison, their charred and bent plate armor clanking, and cheered. They rose again. They fought. They died.
Blood sprayed from all directions, flesh was torn apart, and death bloomed everywhere.
Who could save us? The knights dared not even pray, merely clawing at the merciless earth.
"Save him!"
At the female knight's command, the knights rushed forward, prioritizing Bulki's protection. The Mountain Giant, far larger than the one Bulki had ridden, turned its blood-soaked foot toward the gathering knights.
Bang!
From afar in the fortress, a magic-infused scroll targeted the massive Mountain Giant. Its foot crashed down again.
"Don't give it an opening, knights! If you can hold a sword, charge! Save him!"
The female knight's words were brutally harsh. How could a single human fell that colossal mountain? How could anyone escape that gigantic harbinger of death?
"Yerutsa Rahav."
Yet at her cry, a knight who had already lost both arms and collapsed rose dazedly to his knees. He had no hand left to grip a sword. So he bit down on his shattered blade amid the dirt.
He sought no salvation for himself.
He only wished to save that faint glimmer of hope.
For that alone, his life held value.
Thud!
The armless knight was struck by the swing of the largest Mountain Giant and burst apart. He vanished like that. But he did not die. Countless lives like his swarmed the Mountain Giant like ants, inheriting his sword.
"Why... me..."
In every scene Bulki beheld, blood droplets erupted in chains.
Thud!
Finally, even the largest Mountain Giant slammed both its arms into the ground. The female knight leading the order walked toward the fallen evil that shook the earth.
How could a single human fell a mountain?
"[Sword Draw]."
But she was a single human-and a knight.
Boom!
The sword she drew in a flash blazed red once more, cleaving the largest Mountain Giant apart. Along the trajectory of her blade, massive rocks exploded, resembling a falling meteor.
Perhaps because flames of disaster had risen in opposition, heavy rain poured down immediately after.
"Yerutsa Rahav."
As the female knight sheathed her sword, the knights swiftly moved, carrying the wounded. Of course, the one who had just felled the largest Mountain Giant in a single stroke asked Bulki with a terrifyingly cold expression.
"Can you stand?"
"No. I can't."
"You've lost much today, but..."
As Bulki couldn't rise, the female knight bent down, grasped his wrist, and said,
"You've proven that a light of hope remains on this land."
"What... have I become?"
"The light that shone from your hand is not yours alone. Thus, your life must now be dedicated to the Empire-and to Helred itself. We'll speak more of this later."
The female knight immediately helped him up, mounted a horse brought by her subordinate, and told Bulki,
"Mourn the dead and regroup, then come straight to the Sonain Empire's capital. Seek me out there once more, 1st Knight Order Captain Riu. I'll grant you the glorious chance to become a knight."
The female knight-no, 1st Knight Order Captain Riu of Sonain Empire-rode off like that.
Only then did the dust and blood wash away, reaching the sea. The entire ocean was dyed red, like the sword of the knight who had parted the mountain.
"Glory..."
Bulki gazed at the blood-soaked earth and sea before him, his hand glowing faintly through the rain, and clenched his fist tight.
"Bulki..."
Iven had watched all the tragedy and salvation with his own eyes from behind him.
-In this world shrouded by the sun, 1st Knight Order Captain Riu saw that you would become Helred's true light and commanded you to come to Sonain Empire's capital and join the knight order.
-Yes, I remember the moment you told me to come with you to the knight order.
***
Bulki lifted his head toward the night sky obscured by rain clouds, seeing nothing. All that might have been tears or rain washed away. Around him stood the graves he and Iven had built.
"Iven, that woman earlier said... my hand... I'm joining the knight order."
"Yeah."
"Come with me, friend."
Bulki extended his hand toward the slumped Iven. Iven took it and stood. In that moment, Iven turned to look at Lije.
But Lije was looking elsewhere.
"Lije, it'll be okay."
"I know. I know, Bulki."
Bulki left Lije behind and trudged wearily home. Lije watched him until the end, her hands clasped as if in prayer.
-How dazzling that instant was, that radiant glory one wanted to steal. Did you know?
***
That night, when it was deepest, Iven finally made it back to his room.
He looked in the mirror.
It was the same as morning, but soaked with too many tears and deaths.
Iven stared at his reflection and thought of Bulki.
He was surely just like himself, yet he neither trembled in fear nor despaired like Iven. He simply rose, bore his sorrow silently, and walked on.
Even if tears blurred his vision and twisted his face, he never cried in front of Lije. Unlike Iven, who had shivered in terror and hidden.
Iven closed the door and tossed the book he had wanted Lije to read onto the desk haphazardly. The daily routine of making up new stories to sing-where Lije would laugh and Bulki would return with Grandfather-had become as useless as that book.
Just like himself today.
Both needed their hair cut, after all.
Iven recalled the way Lije had looked at Bulki. It was surely the same gaze he had given Lije.
He had been the same. Grandfather was precious, he had cared for Lije, he had wanted revenge, and he had wanted to run away.
Iven remembered how he had tried to flee the stable, abandoning Lije. Overwhelmed by despair, he fell to his knees.
Humiliation.
Nothing else could describe it as it swirled through the small room.
He was the same. Just like me. Why could you shine so brightly?
In that instant, Iven was engulfed not by sorrow, but by an emotion akin to death. It wasn't new; it was what he felt every day staring in the mirror, what he thought seeing Lije's face as she gazed at Bulki.
He clutched his throat with both hands, twisting his face in rage or grief-he couldn't tell which. His chest tightened. Iven clawed at it until his nails broke. He felt like he needed to tear a hole and bleed to escape the despair. The churning, overwhelming emotion poured from his burning eyes.
"Why!"
How lost in madness was he? Then, like a whisper in the darkness, he muttered to himself.
"Why... why only you...!"
That day, a abyss-like darkness rippled deep in Iven's heart.
-But this is my story.
***
"Now, I will end this long tale."
Closing the final page of the storybook he had written long ago, the grotesque form amalgamated from all races.
Demon King Iven gazed at the hundreds of thousands of horns filling the canyon and plains.
The demons growled toward the opposite side of the canyon, awaiting orders. A single word from him could summon death to the land again, allowing them to slaughter the vile knights before their eyes.
They were once those who had lost everything, even faith, but now they turned again to the being who had united them and personally bestowed horns upon them.
As they looked to him, Demon King Iven turned back to his enemies.
The humans who had barely survived by allying with the wicked Empire, the elves, dwarves, beastkin, and the tens of thousands strong army led by her-the saintess and princess-blessed and blazing in golden light, the Hero.
He shone with glory like Or, the true sun god, staring straight at Iven.
The one born from humiliation, devouring all and stitching them together to become the king of horns; his former self as the Hero's friend, as Iven.
Demon King Iven rose from his throne of piled corpses, gripping a weapon brimming with sin in one hand and the broken sword that had once pierced his neck in the other, and roared.
"Go! Kill them all! My faithful horns who will strike the Empire. In the name of I, Demon King Iven van Ivelhac, who has usurped everything!"
'Imperial Year 261: Outbreak of the 4th Demon Invasion.'
Thus began the final war, as later recorded.
The Demon King rose in his hideous form to confront the Hero of Glory. The Hero's golden blade clashed with the Demon King's deep purple sword in midair, exploding with the fury of war as if night and day swirled together.
Demon King Iven.
No- Iven, friend of Bulki, cried out.
"Today, we will defeat the princess and save the Hero!"