Ch.242Chapter 242: The Calm Before the Storm

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After Desire’s expressionless face disappeared, she burst into laughter bordering on hysteria. After quite some time had passed.

As she composed herself as if nothing had happened, what reached her ears was Adorator’s voice, who seemed to have waited for her laughter to subside before continuing with his next report.

Whether she listened to the report or not, having repeated countless cycles through immeasurable time.

Despite waking slightly earlier than usual, this wasn’t particularly important information for Desire, who already knew how the outside situation was unfolding.

Of course, even if it wasn’t important to her, she couldn’t help but commend Adorator’s efforts to summarize what could have been long and verbose content.

To Desire, Adorator was more than just a faithful servant—he was practically her proxy who handled everything on her behalf.

It was Adorator who, while she unwillingly fell into deep sleep, prepared their forces to stand against the straight and righteous light that denied their very existence upon touching this demon realm.

And though each attempt ended in failure, it was Adorator who, true to the maxim that attack is the best defense, constantly plotted invasions to prevent humans from setting foot in her paradise.

A relationship where she had given little but only received.

This was how Desire felt when looking at Adorator, who served her with complete devotion.

For this reason, as Adorator’s voice was about to fade, she intended to offer a word of appreciation for his hard work, including the current report, but.

“As you may have already seen…”

The moment she heard hesitation enter Adorator’s voice, which had been flowing more naturally than water running downhill.

“…”

Desire, who had been listening silently to Adorator’s report, temporarily set aside what she was about to say and raised her right hand, opening and closing it once.

This was her distinctive gesture indicating that subordinates should speak freely when they showed signs of hesitation.

Because the compulsive power in her words was so strong that it could suppress the other person’s free will—their desires—she tried not to use the coercive force emanating from her voice with her subordinates, though she had no such reservations with enemies.

It was a desperate measure she employed. If she had fully regained her power, she could have easily controlled this level of coercive force while acting.

But now, with her divine body not yet recovered to house her soul and consciousness, she couldn’t skillfully control her power, so she had no choice but to do this.

Such a gesture might seem extremely inappropriate for dealing with subordinates in normal circumstances.

But just as Desire was an eternal being who had lived for an immeasurable period.

This Adorator, who calmly reported before her, had also served as the goddess’s servant for no less time.

They understood each other perfectly, so the time it took for Adorator to compose his expression, which had momentarily shown hesitation after recognizing the meaning of her gesture, was faster than the blink of an eye.

“Is that red-haired one truly the genuine proxy destined to succeed you, as you have revealed to me through divine revelation several times, my lord?”

Despite his cautious tone, his words contained extremely direct content.

In response to Adorator’s very careful question after his hesitation cleared.

*Smirk*

A faint smile bringing life to Desire’s expression appeared, which had remained mechanical since her burst of hysterical laughter.

It was a smile so beautiful it could even negate the ominousness created by the dark red, murky divine whirlpool surrounding her body.

However, Adorator struggled to maintain his composure when he saw that smile, fighting against the gloom threatening to distort his expression.

He became dejected because he knew all too well what that smile meant.

Affirmation. That smile was indeed the method Desire, his lord, most frequently used when answering questions affirmatively.

Hence his inevitable dejection.

Since gaining divine nature through his own efforts, however modest.

From the moment he voluntarily entered Desire’s service under the banner of infinite expansion of free will.

Adorator had devoted himself to his lord to an extent that even the expression “with utmost loyalty” would be insufficient.

Unlike other demon gods and their subordinates wandering in the gaps between dimensions who frequently quarreled and created discord.

Unlike other places that were despised as masterless demon realms or couldn’t even maintain their own dwellings despite having masters, he had spared no effort in maintaining the Obsidian Palace as the only surviving demon realm in this land.

Though he hadn’t done it expecting anything in return.

For Adorator, who secretly took pride in being the one who handled everything for his lord.

The fact that there was a competitor with greater potential than himself was more than enough to cause dejection.

Watching Adorator trying not to show his dejection, Desire unconsciously restrained her lips from curling upward.

She knew well.

Unlike now, throughout the countless times she had passed through.

How passionate Adorator’s attitude had been toward that man she had brought as her proxy.

The only time she had ever rebelled—she who would have readily pretended to die if told to do so—was related to that man, all to avoid losing her position.

Now she was merely hinting at the possibility, so she only showed dejection.

But later, when that man came to this demon realm to carry out her will, she would transform that dejection into passion and try to harm him.

This was something that happened in ten out of ten timelines she had perceived, so it wasn’t particularly surprising.

And even if Adorator were sacrificed in the process, as a being subordinate to her, she could resurrect him according to her will, so it wasn’t a serious matter.

But this timeline needed to be different, so.

“Be at ease.”

Desire conveyed her intention through speech rather than just gestures as she had been doing.

“…!!”

Naturally, Adorator’s expression, which had been showing dejection, was now filled with surprise and relief.

An expression changing so dramatically with just one word.

If she had reassured her like this with a few words in the past, would such ugly internal division have occurred?

Although it was an unavoidable choice made to create the most perfect body to contain her will.

Seeing what she had accomplished fade away was not a pleasant experience, even as an empty platitude.

As Desire momentarily indulged in an impossible fantasy in her mind, an emotion most uncharacteristic of her usual self was stirring in her heart.

It was an expression that she herself found quite embarrassing to define.

But before defining that emotion, it was more important to give confidence to her subordinate who had shed fear and gloom at her single word.

“Even if that man possesses the qualities to best carry out my will…”

From Desire’s lips, seated on her throne, came only words that gave Adorator reassurance and confidence.

Words centered on the fact that she would never abandon him no matter what happened.

It was a flood of rather clichéd rhetoric that could be described as sugar-coating depending on how one heard it.

But if there was a difference from rhetoric used to hide true feelings, it was that the person using such rhetoric was sincere.

“…Please punish this lowly servant who harbored such wicked thoughts that made my lord speak such words.”

And the response of the listener was also sincere in addressing the other’s sincerity.

If this were not the Obsidian Palace filled with desolate darkness and twisted divinity, the relationship between these two would be the epitome of an ideal lord-vassal relationship found only in chivalric literature.

The small incident triggered by Adorator’s question thus led to discussions about what the two divine beings, having confirmed their mutual trust, needed to do for their future plans.

Needless to say, the trust felt between them deepened more and more as they continued their conversation.

This was a great blessing for the small patch of demon realm remaining in this land to which they belonged.

But for those who must stop them, this would be a kind of disaster.

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The flow of time possesses an absolute property that cannot be defied.

It flows without obstruction, like water flowing from high to low.

And for people lost in the flow of time, it passes more quickly than an arrow hitting its target after leaving the bowstring.

And regardless of what happens, once a result occurs, it can never be reversed… I shouldn’t say that.

Anyway, after the preliminary battle with Adorator and the resurrected Desire in Hyeonseong.

As discussions related to the military alliance between the Solarium and Geumwol Empires progressed rapidly due to renewed awareness of the demon realm’s danger, the extended one-week period of stay in the Geumwol Empire.

It was a moment that perfectly matched the aforementioned property of time.

Just a blink of an eye, and a week had already passed.

It passed so quickly that there was no sense of density to the moment, but many things happened, however trivial they might have been.

Originally, I should have been training my sword and body while establishing countermeasures against Desire, who had begun her activities much earlier than expected.

But for the first few days, I was confined to bed under Shizu’s strict(?) surveillance, who was worried that something might go wrong with my body, which accounts for the lack of density I mentioned.

There really was none.

Even though I wasn’t a baby bird whose entire daily routine consisted of eating food brought by its mother.

While in bed, I ate the food Shizu brought me.

I felt the warm touch of Shizu’s hand as she carefully placed it on my forehead to check if I had a fever.

I spent time chatting with Shizu, who had no intention of leaving my side until I fell asleep.

Since we never neglected our conversations.

I thought it foolish to have assumed there would be little to talk about, as our conversations seemed endless.

Starting with trivial topics like the current weather outside.

Whenever she briefly left her post for guard duty and returned, she would tell me in detail about everything that had happened to her in the meantime, not omitting even the smallest details.

The expression Shizu showed when excitedly talking to me was so full of life and, needless to say, beautiful that I wondered if this was what people meant by an inexhaustible spring.

…Thinking about it now, I should retract my self-deprecating comment about lacking density.

I was overflowing with happiness, so calling it lacking in density would be like inviting a bolt of lightning to strike my head.

Ahem. Anyway. While I had a good time spending tender moments with Shizu even just lying in bed.

My wish to spend time alone with her wasn’t always fulfilled due to visitors who came to my hospital room at opportune moments.

First, there was Excel, who visited my hospital room most frequently after Shizu and teased me.

He would tease me, saying it was too much to lie in bed and exaggerate when nothing was broken, but he stopped immediately when Shizu’s lightning-fast karate chop landed on the crown of his head.

I appreciated his dedication to visiting regularly as a friend, even while not forgetting to tease me.

He’s tougher than me, so I don’t know if he’ll ever get hurt, but if he does, I’ll make sure to visit him regularly too.

Not only Shizu, who practically lived in my hospital room, and Excel, who visited whenever he could, but quite a few people came to see me.

The person who visited most frequently after Excel was Princess Lukius, who seemed to target precisely those moments when Shizu and I were alone.

And Wibel, who followed her like a shadow, was the same.

Wibel, true to his role as a shadow, remained completely silent after entering the room.

“Every time I enter, the atmosphere in this room is so warm that heating seems unnecessary. I’ll request the heating manager to turn it off here.”

The playful voice of the Princess, who just entered with an inexplicably bright smile, was something I hadn’t gotten used to.

…Was the Princess always like this?

I remember her as the cold-hearted empress who led the Solarium Empire through crisis and pressured me from all sides before my regression…

Ah, I was undeniably a bad person then, so I guess it’s natural.

Not only for the evil deeds I committed while being controlled by the malice that had possessed my body.

“Your Highness, if you trouble the patient with words you don’t mean, and that reaches the Crown Prince’s ears, even the things you’ve managed to do while disguised as a man…”

“Come on, Wibel, I just made a joke to cool down the overly warm atmosphere as soon as I entered…”

Given that I was the one who killed Wibel in the time before my regression—Wibel, who was now advising her without offending her, though her words were 90 percent serious despite being framed as a joke.

Your Highness… at that time, I should have addressed her as Your Majesty, and the harsh words I heard from her were countless.

Well, after regressing and correctly buttoning what had been misaligned from the beginning, spending three years.

Seeing people who suffered because of my mistakes now smiling brightly, I suppose I won’t have to experience such things in my current life?

…I sincerely hope so.

If tears were to form in their eyes for any reason, I wish those tears would come to me instead.

I’m used to crying from pain now, so I’d like to experience it on behalf of those who aren’t accustomed to it.

Despite feeling like the calm before the storm due to the demon god’s early resurrection.

As long as there are so many people around me laughing, talking, and rejoicing.

That storm no longer seems frightening.