DMHS 78

“But I can’t help but be curious. What happened?”

“Since each person dreamed of a different ideal, I’ll just say there was a need to unify opinions.”

“By wiping out one side?”

Pearl Asif let Lucien’s sneer pass as nothing.

“Not every matter in the world can be solved peacefully. Sometimes one must stain one’s hands with blood to pursue the greater cause. They were all ones who deserved to die. If left alone, they would have ruined the future of our tribe. Especially the group Asaad led was really…”

Pearl Asif realized he had spoken needlessly, and he changed the subject.

“Let’s end this talk here. Did you read the scripture I sent?”

“Roughly.”

“We are ones who wait for the destruction of the world and the recreation that follows. In the past the Goddess created and upheld the existing world. But time passed, and now even the Goddess’s power has run out. The world needs a new law.”

Lucien paid no mind to the typical words of a cult.

“So, how many people think the same way as you?”

“Not everyone can know the truth. There are not many who hold faith.”

“Don’t dodge. Including you, how many are there?”

“The number of believers is not something to speak of carelessly. But the core officers are three in total.”

“Pearl Asif, and who?”

If he had a notebook in hand, he looked ready to take notes. Pearl Asif furrowed his brows as he answered.

“I can’t give such information carelessly.”

“I need to know what kind of group you are so I can decide whether to help you or not. Then your purpose is the destruction of the world, right?”

“No!”

Pearl Asif denied firmly. But Lucien pointed out the truth.

“You said you wait for the world to be destroyed and then recreated. Then first the world must fall, right?”

“That’s… right.”

“Good. The purpose is world destruction.”

Lucien nodded. Now Pearl Asif’s face had turned into a weeping look.

“Next is the method. By what means will you destroy the world?”

“We are ones who prepare for destruction. We can drive the world into chaos, but destruction itself is the work of the Arbiter.”

“Ha, the more I dig the more keeps coming out. There’s also this Arbiter? Is that person one of the core officers?”

“No. That isn’t so.”

“Then three core officers and one Arbiter. So four central figures. Then what will you do next?”

At that moment Pearl Asif sent a glance to the priest standing beside him. One priest quietly stepped back.

“The answer?”

“Forgive me. There was something left undone earlier, just a moment. We only follow the prophecy.”

“You mean the ten omens of destruction?”

“That’s right. For the prophecy to be fulfilled safely, a little help is needed. Of course everything will go as his will dictates.”

“Fulfill the prophecy…”

Lucien dragged out his words needlessly, then turned his head. His eyes asked if the information was enough.

Kian wanted more. He rolled his eyes quickly left and right to say ‘no.’

“I need to know more about the core officers. If you can’t tell their names, then tell me something else. What kind of people are they?”

“They are shamans who serve the god with me.”

“Oh, then all three must be of the Delia Tribe?”

Pearl Asif’s face stiffened.

“I can’t say.”

“Do you perhaps have someone in the kingdom who cooperates with you?”

“That also I can’t answer.”

But from Pearl Asif’s reaction it seemed at least one of the officers was a person of the kingdom. While the two were focused on the conversation, Kian felt a strange pain on his neck.

Tik.

When he turned back, the priest who had stepped away and returned now pretended to do something else. In his hand was a thin sharp needle.

‘Did he stab me with that?’

Kian usually wore a thin spread of mana over his body. It was a habit formed after rolling through battlefields for a long time.

Thanks to that, just now as well the needle stabbed only the barrier of mana wrapped around his neck instead of his neck.

‘It won’t be an ordinary needle. Most likely something was smeared on the tip.’

Kian silently waited for the other’s move. As expected, soon the priest behind Kian cut off Pearl Asif’s explanation and stepped forward.

“Master, Lord Lucien’s subordinate wishes to step out for a moment.”

Though it was something never agreed upon, the priest didn’t even glance at Kian. Kian felt it was incongruous. The priest was sure Kian would follow his words.

“The explanation has gone too long. The subordinate must be bored. Wouldn’t it be better for him to rest in another room for a while?”

“That can’t be. He likes to be by my side the most.”

Lucien looked up at Kian. Kian fell into thought.

‘Should I stay here as if nothing happened?’

But what Kian wanted was more clues. He could hear about Pearl Asif’s talk later from Lucien, and now it seemed better to watch what the priest would do by taking him away.

Kian obediently answered.

“I’ll step out for a moment.”

A smile appeared on Pearl Asif’s lips. Lucien looked puzzled for a moment, but soon he gave permission.

“If you want it, then do so.”

“Follow me.”

Kian trailed after the priest. The priest opened a door connected behind the platform and went in.

‘Since it’s right behind the chapel, a small prayer room should come out.’

But against his expectation, the space that appeared was vast. It was a cavern three or four times larger than the chapel that enshrined the God of Destruction.

As if boasting that it was a natural cave, stalactites hung like icicles from the ceiling, and stalagmites thrust up from the ground in every corner.

Thanks to magic stones embedded in floor and ceiling, it was not hard to see the inside. Kian took in what filled the vast cavern.

‘…Dolls.’

At first glance it looked like the morning assembly of a huge school packed with students. The figures of clay dolls lined in rows were eerie.

Kian glanced at the state of the dolls.

‘If a shaman infuses mana, they’ll immediately move alive.’

He couldn’t guess what would happen if hundreds of dolls were released at the same time. The only certainty was that nothing pleasant would happen.

‘Pearl Asif can’t pull off something of this scale.’

Making dolls demanded delicate mana control.

At the banquet Kian had studied closely Pearl Asif and Asaad’s mana. Both of their mana was unimpressive. In the kingdom they would not even earn a place as aide to a Tower Master, let alone become one.

‘That’s why they schemed assassination and such.’

It was the typical excuse of someone whose ambition exceeded his ability.

Anyway, the one who made these hundreds of dolls was not Pearl Asif. It might be one of the other two core officers.

‘Could one of them be Aslan?’

Then the pieces fit. Aslan, that is, Gimere Harkin, was a shaman who had soaked an entire city in blood within a single day. If Gimere Harkin was behind the ‘Heart of Dawn,’ then what had to be done was already decided.

‘Catch him.’

Gimere Harkin was not an opponent ordinary knights or mages could handle. It was right to think he could not be stopped unless Kian stepped in.

‘Where is he hiding now?’

Meanwhile the priest who had brought Kian began speaking with another priest who guarded the cavern.

“You say we have to turn this guy into a doll? You used the drug properly, right?”

“Can’t you tell since he walked in on his own feet? His eyes are open but his mind is gone. He’ll move as I command.”

“Show me.”

“Clicking your tongue, so suspicious.”

The priest who brought Kian gave an order.

“Raise your hands.”

Kian fixed his gaze far away and raised both hands.

“Lower your hands.”

Kian lowered his hands.

“See?”

“To check if the drug works right, you should ask something complex. You think that’s enough?”

“Ugh, nagging again. Forget it. I’ll search his belongings, so you go call the Master.”

“Why can’t I search the belongings?”

“Last time I called the Master. I also get creeped out by that Master.”

The two bickered for a while about who would call the Master. In the end, the priest who had brought Kian stayed, and the other one left.

Left alone with Kian, the priest hurried with his work.

“It would be good if there’s something he usually keeps on him…”

The priest searched Kian’s inner pocket.

Clang, clang, clang.

With a series of metallic sounds, daggers fell down to the floor in a line.

“What’s this? They said subordinate, but he is a guard? But if he was a proper guard, he’d carry a sword, so why does he have this many daggers? He’s not some sneaking assassin.”

…It was close though.

“But the daggers don’t feel right. Isn’t there something else?”

The priest’s eyes locked on the ring on Kian’s finger.

“Yeah. A ring is good.”

The priest grabbed the ring on Kian’s hand. As he tried to pull it off, Kian unconsciously curled his finger.

‘I can’t let a wedding gift pass through someone else’s hands.’

The priest looked back and forth between Kian’s blank face and his hand.

“His body shouldn’t be stiff, right?”

The priest gripped the ring again. Kian held his finger half curled and unmoving. The ring didn’t budge this time either.

“Damn it, why’s he being like this? It’s so annoying.”

The priest swore and seized the ring. Kian leaked a faint flow of mana to knock away the priest’s hand.

That action brought an unexpected result.

Flash.

His sight turned white, and the place changed. Kian was already back in the chapel with Lucien.