Ch.146Chapter 146

The Empress, Demeter.

Once, while conversing with Oko, there was a time when we talked about her.

Among the four chief deities, she was the one responsible for the concept of ‘life.’

Despite handling such a grand concept, Oko had described her as someone rather unremarkable, which made me wonder how Oko viewed the other deities.

I hadn’t heard about the other chief deities.

Well, I couldn’t know since Oko never finished telling me about them.

Anyway.

Demeter, despite her domain, wore an expression of having lost everything as she gazed at the dead Emperor.

So I had no choice but to carefully ask her a question.

“Your Majesty.”

“…”

“If you use your powers, couldn’t you bring His Majesty back to life?”

“I don’t have such authority.”

“But…”

Perhaps my well-intentioned question had become a dagger.

The Empress forced a smile as she looked at me, but there was no color in her expression.

“I merely follow the flow. And sometimes, I collect what needs to be collected. Once a life has disappeared, even I can do nothing about it.”

Like Oko, perhaps Demeter also lacked the power to directly intervene in the cycle.

Feeling apologetic for my thoughtless words, I stood up with a regretful expression.

The Empress simply caressed the Emperor’s cheek, gazing at him silently.

I could see various complex emotions crossing in her eyes.

She probably needed time.

Time to accept in her heart that the Emperor was gone.

I rose from my seat.

The death of the empire’s heart was indeed a headache-inducing situation that left me wondering what to do next.

But His Majesty had just given me his final order.

To make everyone smile in the end.

To do that, I first needed to stop this chaos.

“Your Majesty.”

“…”

“Following His Majesty’s orders, I will go ahead. Please take care of yourself.”

Being such a powerful deity, she wouldn’t be harmed even if several humans invaded right now.

So rather than worrying about others, I should focus on taking care of my own responsibilities first.

#

As soon as I stepped outside the palace, the chaos before my eyes made me feel overwhelmed.

How was I supposed to stop all this by myself?

In the distance, I could hear buildings collapsing.

When I rushed toward the sound, I saw knights being swept away mercilessly, like sand before ocean waves.

It seemed the deities had finally become angry and started retaliating against humans.

The knights tried to counterattack, but their attacks had no effect on the deities.

I first tried to find whoever was commanding the knights.

If I mentioned Oko’s name to the deities, they would stop immediately, so if I could stop the knights, the fight would naturally end.

Among them, I spotted a knight wearing splendid clothes.

It was the vice-captain of the Lintpia Knights.

“Knights! Don’t falter! End these deities right here and now!”

Even as knights were being turned into pieces of meat, the vice-captain was urging more sacrifices.

Something was definitely wrong.

The vice-captain I knew wouldn’t meaninglessly push people into the abyss of death like this.

“Please stop, Vice-Captain!”

I quickly ran to the vice-captain and shouted.

I looked into his eyes.

They had lost their light, appearing dazed as if he had been brainwashed by something.

“Raedan Tanthyn, why aren’t you attacking them?”

“Vice-Captain! Please calm down! Knights are dying meaninglessly! His Majesty gave an order. Please stop this fight!”

“What does that matter!”

Even though I mentioned the Emperor’s order, the vice-captain became angry instead.

I felt helpless.

Something was clearly wrong, preventing rational judgment.

There was no way to stop this.

“Vice-Captain!”

“Get out of my way! I must crush those damned rebels right now!”

Oh, this is really frustrating.

If things continued like this, what knights remained would all die.

I didn’t want to commit insubordination again, but…

I ran behind the vice-captain and tapped his shoulder with my finger.

“What now… Argh!”

As soon as the vice-captain turned around to look at me, I headbutted him and knocked him unconscious.

To make sure he was completely out, I waved my hand in front of his face, and only after confirming there was no response did I feel relieved.

This makes me dizzy every time I do it.

After all this is over, I would probably need to go into hiding somewhere.

I looked at the knights ahead.

Every one of them had expressions riddled with fear.

They were moving simply because it was the vice-captain’s order, believing they were fighting those who had killed the Emperor.

“Everyone, stop!”

At my shout, the knights stopped first.

Perhaps interpreting the knights’ halt as surrender, a deity immediately prepared to attack.

I quickly ran forward and shouted loudly to the deity as well.

“You too, please stop! In the name of ‘Oko,’ I command you to withdraw your killing intent!”

At that, all the deities stopped with surprised expressions.

They seemed full of discontent, but at least they stopped when I mentioned her name.

Only after complete silence fell did I shout until my throat hurt.

“Please stop this meaningless fight! Isn’t it foolish to kill each other—races that trusted and relied on each other—based on just words, without any evidence?”

At my cry, the knights’ expressions brightened somewhat.

The deities, hearing my words, looked full of indignation.

Since humans had attacked them first, their reaction was quite understandable.

“I just spoke with His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress! Her Majesty did not kill the Emperor! It seems the Captain was the one who killed His Majesty! The deities are simply being falsely accused!”

Only then did the knights slowly begin to lower their weapons.

It seemed they too were beginning to question why they were doing this.

“You.”

The one who appeared to be the leader among the deities approached me.

Judging by his expression, he seemed to have decided to stop attacking.

“Why are you taking our side?”

“It’s not about taking sides. There were never any sides to begin with. Everyone was just entranced by something.”

The deity leader sighed at my words and gestured to the other deities to stop as well.

Finally, signs of the fight ending began to appear.

Who would have thought one act of insubordination would resolve things so easily?

It almost made me wonder if military hierarchy meant anything at all.

Now that the deities had calmed down, I needed to go stop the chaos elsewhere.

The thought of having to commit more acts of insubordination gave me a headache, but it was better than letting the empire fall.

With that thought, I was about to move.

Squelch.

With the sound of something being pierced, the deity leader beside me collapsed.

Along with him, the knights next to me suddenly exploded and disappeared without a trace.

I was so shocked that my vision began to shake violently.

What just happened?

“Oh my, that won’t do.”

Just then, I heard a voice that sounded somewhat cunning.

I turned my head toward the voice.

There was a child.

Black hair, black eyes.

A rather cute-looking child approached with a cunning smile, bowed, and then straightened up before speaking.

“Humans are coming with the Spear of Longinus, yet you’re telling only the deities to stop?”

The girl smiled eerily.

“Raedan Tanthyn.”

Before I could be surprised that she knew my name, the roar of approaching people grew louder.

The covenant with the deities.

The law stating that they would form a friendship by sealing the Spear of Longinus.

It was crumbling to pieces right here and now.

Led by the Knight Captain.

“Execute the rebels immediately!”

Despite falling from the fourth floor, the Knight Captain looked completely fine.

I tried to move to stop them immediately, but I hit something and couldn’t move.

An invisible wall was surrounding me.

“Hah, really. You’re ruining my plans too much. Since I can’t interfere with someone favored by that Observer, I have no choice but to step in directly.”

As the child said this, the knights rushing toward the deities instantly plunged their spears into the deities’ stomachs.

The deities, who had seemed nearly invincible against normal attacks.

They were being pierced as easily as pudding by the Spear of Longinus.

“No! Stop!”

This is bad.

The fight will escalate.

Because of that mysterious girl, the deities’ eyes had already gone wild, and they were preparing to attack the knights again.

Damn it.

Am I really powerless to do anything?

Please.

I was just wishing that someone, anyone, would stop this situation.

That’s when it happened.

Something strange was occurring before my eyes.

The knights who had been attacking the deities suddenly pulled out the spears they had plunged in, and as if the world was running backward, they began to move in reverse with unnatural movements.

All the wounds on the deities’ chests began to heal back to normal.

Only the girl and I remained unaffected, watching this unfold.

“Tch, so she finally showed up.”

As the girl exclaimed this, whatever had been blocking me disappeared.

And someone stood in front of me.

“…Sorry, Raedan. I’m late, aren’t I?”

A familiar voice.

Swaying white hair.

“Someone created some strange beings, so it took me a while to resolve it.”

Although I could only see her back.

I could tell.

The energy emanating from Oko showed that she was very angry right now.

“Gaia. I’m talking to you.”

As Oko uttered that name.

The girl smiled wickedly.