Chapter 132: The Angel Who Prevents Terrorism (5)

Episode 132: The Angel Who Prevents Terrorism (5)

I told you I don’t believe in that.

Leffrey muttered and waved his hand dismissively.

“But you still felt a sense of unease, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“……!”

Iriel quickly tried to hide her surprise. Leffrey couldn’t help but nod.

“Sensing the flow of karma, it’s a sense that humans call ‘divine intuition’.”

Indeed, while playing cards with the headmaster, Leffrey had felt a flow that was difficult to describe with words. And by following that flow, he could always defeat the headmaster, even overcoming moments when he was about to lose.

It was like feeling the wind against your skin. Or to be more precise, it felt as if something beyond his skin, something essential, had gained a sense of touch, just like his skin.

‘A soul’s sense of touch…’

And that soul’s sense of touch was feeling a coldness. A cold and terrifying wind.

‘Could it be… Is Soya watching this situation from somewhere?’

Leffrey with a question mark above his head, cautiously muttered,

“Soya? Are you there?”

But there was no answer.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah, n-nothing.”

Leffrey turned his head and looked back at the Headmaster.

“…Truly.”

The headmaster murmured. Her voice was a mixture of emotions. Surprise, astonishment, and disbelief. Roughly those kinds of emotions.

But she quickly composed herself, as befitting an angel who had lived a long life.

‘It usually takes at least a hundred years for an angel to become aware of karma for the first time after being created.’

To recognize karma. That was the sense Leffrey called ‘a soul’s sense of touch’. An ordinary angel would realize this sense after a hundred years of training.

Some angels realize to it in fifty years, ten years, or even a year. To be adept at sensing karma also meant having superior abilities as an angel.

‘That’s why such angels were called archangels.’

And sometimes, there were angels who realized to it in less than a year, in just a month, or even an hour. Angels with talents that far surpassed other angels.

They felt karma, changing the world to their will. Used much more powerful angelic abilities with much less karma. Mastered and acquired numerous Angelic Abilities, something other angels could only acquire one or two, and eventually, they become the ruler of angels, the archangels.

‘But to awaken to this sense in just a few hours…’

That was why she lost in the card game, losing even the allowance she had been saving up.

Of course, this was the blessed Silver Castle, a place built for angels. It was a space more suitable for training in karma than any other. But…

‘To realize this quickly, only the strongest of angels, those second only to Luciel, could do so…’

According to the legends of Heaven, Luciel awakened to this sense in just one hour.

‘As expected of Leffriel, even though he’s lost his memories, his talent remains. A talent that perhaps could even reach the level of Luciel.’

For reference, it took Iriel a month to awaken to this sense. She was also an angel with talent that surpassed ordinary angels, sometimes even exceeding a few archangels. A talent worthy of an archangel.

Still, she couldn’t reach Leffriel’s level.

‘Moreover, to read the flow of karma in tarot, which targets the entire world, so quickly, rather than the simple flow of karma that can be felt in a card game…’

Simply put, what’s easier: predicting the future or predicting the outcome of a card game? Naturally, it’s easier to predict a card game.

The outcome of a card game is controlled by simple probabilities, but the future of the world is pure chaos, something that can’t be predicted with mere probability.

To read the future through symbols wasn’t something you could do just by becoming aware of the sense. It was a realm that could be reached only by training that sensation to the extreme.

That’s why even among angels, there weren’t many who could even vaguely see the future.

‘Even it took me decades to reach this level.’

In fact, this was Iriel’s thought.

Even Leffrey, as talented as he is, would still need years of training to fully master the sense of karma.

‘Predicting the future is something you can’t do just by realizing the sense.’

So, she thought she could control Leffrey for a few years with this technique… This was Iriel’s plan.

‘I’ll just predict the terrorist attacks that would kill thousands for him…’

That’s what she thought. Why did she think she could control Leffrey for a few years with this technique?

Why…?

“Headmaster? Headmaster?”

Leffrey, seeing the headmaster lost in thought, tilted his head and called out to her.

Iriel was still recalling memories of Heaven. Memories of that cold, mechanical place, a place where only rules and holiness existed.

Long ago, in the heavens.

She had heard them say back then,

‘’This is a training that even Archangel Luciel found difficult.’

It was what the young Iriel, who hadn’t even received a name yet, heard. Before she began her training to master the sense of karma.

‘Luciel-nim? There’s nothing Luciel-nim can’t do.’

Luciel was an inconceivably powerful being.

So powerful that other angels had believed he could do anything, so powerful that he was called the representative of Ain Soph. To the extent that he was essentially worshipped as the will of Ain Soph itself.

Iriel, before she even received a name, also thought that way. She couldn’t understand that Luciel could even struggle with something.

‘To think that even he, the strongest angel, took several months to master this training.’

If even *he* took several months, then how much time would she need?

Iriel had such worries before.

‘In reality, it took me decades. Right, so…’

So, Iriel naturally assumed that this training would take years. She never thought it would end so quickly.

‘…Even the demon king took several months to master this.’

No matter how much he had lost his memories, there’s no way he could have learned this so quickly. It defied all logic. And for this to make sense…

‘It could only mean that Leffriel’s potential is…’

It meant that his potential as an angel was even greater than that of the demon king. Greater than *that* demon king.

‘The possibility that he has the potential to surpass that demon king, the one who was called the representative of Ain Soph?’

Would that power become a new hope for this world? Or a disaster? Iriel couldn’t help but be deeply troubled.

‘Right now, Leffrey is currently cherished by the professors. And if he were to suddenly disappear…’

Just how many of those professors would lose control? And if the professors, the core force that protects this world, lost control, then Luciel would instantly crush this world.

And perhaps Leffrey was the only hope they had to defeat Luciel. Even if the professors were all sane and even if they trained countless talented students at the academy…

The possibility of defeating Luciel was too low.

Perhaps she would think this way. One day, after the entire world was destroyed, she’ll regret losing Leffrey, weeping.

That this was their only chance to save the world.

‘No, that can’t happen. That absolutely must not happen.’

Iriel unconsciously began to pray to a Heaven that no longer existed. In her heart, that is.

And then she heard it.

A voice that disrupted her prayers.

“Headmaster!!!”

“Y-Yes!”

The boy, shouting right next to her ears. Iriel, startled, replied.

“Just what were you imagining to be so lost in thought?”

The headmaster couldn’t possibly tell him that she was imagining how dangerous he could be. Iriel, with an awkward smile, changed the subject.

“It’s nothing. I was just remembering the time when I trained in karma.”

It wasn’t a lie.

She just omitted a few things.

“I see.”

“Then shall we quickly move on to the main topic?”

She had to get Leffrey out of the Silver Castle, to hide the rising shock that was pounding her heart, hammering like a fist against her mind.

So Iriel immediately gets to the point.

The girl, as if she had made up her mind, clutched the tarot deck in her hand, closed her eyes, and slowly spoke,

“Now you know it too.”

“Know what?”

Iriel placed the tarot deck in the boy’s hands and said,

“That a long winter will soon begin. That a war of all against all will begin. That the flowing blood will stain the oceans red. That not a single human who remembers the word ‘love’ will remain.”

A cruel prophecy, but Leffrey couldn’t speak. Because her eyes looked so sad.

“You now know.”

Iriel let go of the tarot deck.

Then she asked again,

“Yet you still want to know more? What is it that you want to know?”

It was true. Leffrey knew.

He vividly remembered how this world was destroyed. And if there was anyone else who remembered that ending besides Leffrey, they would definitely say this.

‘This world didn’t end because of the demon king.’

This world didn’t end because of the demon king…

…but rather, the demon king appeared because this world was already doomed.

Leffrey, looking at the handprints left on the tarot deck, muttered,

“I want to know.”

Leffrey looked at the girl. The girl who had fought to protect humanity for thousands of years.

“That there are people who still fight, even though they know what the future holds.”

Leffrey shuffled the tarot deck.

And drew a card.

“That even knowing what awaits them, some people won’t give up.”

The sound of swallowing was heard.

“Y-You…”

Ignoring Iriel’s shocked voice,

Leffrey looked at the card he had drawn.

It was The Tower. A card depicting a tower collapsing, struck by lightning. The symbol of this card was blatantly destruction. It had a negative meaning, whether upright or reversed.

(TL Note: In tarot card readings, cards can mean different things if they are drawn upright or reversed0

Since Leffrey was asking about terrorism, it wasn’t strange that The Tower, signifying destruction, would appear, but…

‘Good. How should I interpret this card? I need to read the symbols first, but…’

The Tower. The first thing that came to mind was the image of a panopticon, used for surveillance and oppression.

‘Surveillance and oppression.’

The Tower. As explained in a certain mage’s setting collection, a tower can also refer to an organization or institution.

‘Was it Hermes? That setting collection said that towers never fall, but…’

They fall in the end. Anyway, a tower could also refer to a tall institution. And Leffrey knew of a building that was incredibly tall.

(TL Note: Uhm… Don’t know the reference of this… Is this from White Wolf RPG, specifically world of darkness?)

‘An institution with a tall building.’

And the destruction symbolized by The Tower card itself. Who was the one causing that destruction?

Surveillance and oppression, an authoritative institution with a tall building, a place that brings about destruction.

Leffrey knew of an organization that monitored and oppressed people by forcing them to register as superhumans. And he had seen that massive building, a building that blocked the sun with its massive body, covering an entire area with its shadow.

Lastly, a place that would bring about destruction.

‘It looks like I’ll have to maintain a stalemate for now. Otherwise, those children will be in danger. Just like in movies, right? Where a government negotiator negotiates with the terrorists.’

‘…The Superhuman Management Bureau doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. That’s why there are so many casualties every time.’

He knew of such an organization too.

“…The Superhuman Management Bureau?”

Leffrey, who had read the symbol, muttered in disbelief.