Chapter 308

“So? Kyle has left this world? Oh my, that girl finally achieved her wish.”

“I thought he would die young. It’s a miracle he lived this long.”

“That kid kept muttering about taking him away as soon as possible, and it really happened just like that. I knew from the start he wouldn’t live long. I just didn’t say it to avoid jinxing it.”

The elders of Pumpkin Vine Village muttered one by one upon hearing the sad news. It was the first time anyone had heard such a thing, and even Yurinel’s eyes widened in shock.

“Yurinel, do you really not remember anything? You, Kyle, and that blue-haired girl. The three of you used to play together happily. Though, there was never a time when you and that girl were alone without Kyle… But still, do you really not remember anything at all?”

The elderly woman with gentle eyes, a gatherer named Rumi, tilted her head and spoke. At the mention of the blue-haired girl, the gazes in the room naturally turned to two places.

Two girls with rare blue hair. Roka and Parnell looked puzzled by the sudden attention. Of course, the blue-haired girl wasn’t either of them.

“Blue hair…”

Roka fell into thought for a moment, then suddenly glared at Parnell. The mage, without knowing why, began to explain herself. She didn’t know why she felt the need to, but she felt like she had to clear things up or something bad would happen.

“I-it’s not me! If Yurinel was a child back then, I was even younger! I hadn’t even met Yurinel or been to this village at that time!”

“Bluebird…”

A clattering sound of teeth grinding was heard. In fact, ever since hearing the name “Bluebird,” there was something oddly familiar about it.

Once, in a place that felt like a dream or an illusion, she had definitely seen a girl with a blue glow. There was no doubt. It must have been her.

“Was that girl the goddess Kyle served?”

“She said she was a holy spirit sent down to guide the apostles created by the Lord’s command.”

“Is a holy spirit different from an angel?”

“I don’t know. Who would know? But she definitely wasn’t human. That much is certain.”

“Even after all this time, if it’s still so vivid in my memory, it couldn’t have been a human.”

Found. She had finally figured out who had taken her master.

The wolf, suppressing her boiling anger, tightened her grip on the hilt of the Resonance Sword. She gripped it so hard that even the sturdy hilt of the Resonance Sword began to dent.

Someday, she would definitely ascend to the heavens and find that Bluebird or whatever it was.

And then, perhaps only one of them would survive.

“The miracle that was too much for us has now faded and left. The miracles of the saint who served that being will no longer reach this continent.”

Ardein von Illumina muttered with a gloomy expression. Now that the saint was gone, the era of miracles had closed. The short era of divinity had come to an end.

The world had returned to its original state. The one proof that a god existed had vanished.

“That’s not true. That Bluebird always said this. The fact that we can hold onto hope, live in the present, and move toward the future is the greatest proof that that being exists.”

“We old folks can’t remember everything, but we do remember this. The one thing the god wants from us is simply to live diligently.”

But if there’s an oven that bakes infinite bread, people don’t need to toil in the fields. If there’s a mill that produces endless salt, there’s no reason to mine for salt.

The things gained through hard work. Progress. Miracles ignore all that process and bring only the result. Craving miracles, yearning for miracles, and even worshiping miracles—how could that be the will of the god? All miracles must eventually become mere fairy tales and be forgotten.

And so, the greatest miracle occurred in that sun,

And as a result of that miracle, people could live their lives diligently,

But that fact was known only to the one god, quietly buried.

‘Aldehir Church…’

The heavenly god Aldehir quietly looked down at the earth. Then, his eyes met with a girl’s. Though they were far apart, their hearts were in sync.

The girl had found where she belonged. It wasn’t the peaceful daily life in Pumpkin Vine Village that the priest had arranged for her.

Yanid seemed to like Pumpkin Vine Village and desired a peaceful life, but she now had a more important mission. To find that Bluebird somewhere in the vast sky.

Perhaps, she needed to reconsider the offer Pope Nergal had made to her. After all, the star candies had run out.

It would be a little later that the girl realized this “sky” was not that “sky.”

*****

Millions of years. Perhaps even longer.

Compared to the near-eternity he had lived as the Demon King, the mere dozen or so recent years had been more fulfilling. Now, the Primal Demon King, who had turned into an explorer of the stars, roamed the universe with his ghostly body.

‘So many, so many possibilities.’

In this near-infinite space where countless stars like their sun were scattered, there were things even more mysterious than stars.

‘So this is what was above the sky.’

Though all he could do was watch, that alone was enough. At least it was far better than the pitiful years he had spent as the Demon King in that cramped place.

But in truth, it wasn’t just that.

Humans are like that.

When they have something, they always want more.

Desire. If you put it nicely, it’s ambition.

The man once called Grimudo realized that the fire that had been cooling within him was reignited. It had been a long time since he had felt such passion, but…

He was just a ghost. A hollow soul.

A true ghost, unable to interact with anything, not even the stars.

Only allowed to watch, but not to reach out and touch. A cursed existence.

‘If only I were given one more chance,’

If I could have life just one more time,

If I could walk the earth as a living being,

This time, I would not be content with being a frog in a well, but would aim for greater things.

‘Then, even if I were to burn to death, I would reach out to this vast world.’

If I could grasp the truth today, I wouldn’t mind dying tomorrow.

Now that I truly feel this way, it’s a pity that I’m already a dead body.

‘But whose fault is it? All those eons I spent were precious opportunities I wasted.’

What a farce this is. When I had the chance to change something while alive, I did nothing and just sat in the Arctic, clinging to meaningless things and settling there.

And now, after all my opportunities have been thoroughly stripped away, I reminisce about the past and regret. How pathetic.

‘Even though I could have run harder than anyone, I just wasted my time. Now, I don’t even have the right to envy you.’

“This is the first time the Arcadia has come this far. This will go down in history. Everyone, today we have soared into the sea of stars for the first time in human history.”

So when Cardinal Omen of the airship Arcadia made a fuss, the Primal Demon King, who had already set foot in space, remained silent. He couldn’t speak anyway, and even if he could, there was no one to listen. But he didn’t want to ruin their mood.

“This is the place we’ve only observed from afar until now. Magicians, if we can solve the power issue here… If the output of the sky stone is sufficient, could we even reach the moon?”

“That’s difficult, Your Holiness. Thanks to the full support of the Empire and the Citadel Republic, the Arcadia has undergone several modifications and its output has greatly increased, but our understanding of this space is still absolutely lacking.”

The head of the Corinel branch of the Magic Tower muttered with a smile. Exploring space requires a completely different set of knowledge than traveling on earth. Here, without an understanding of orbits, you can’t go where you want. Their mathematics and science were still far from being able to travel through space.

But the Aldehir Church had just taken its first step.

The second step, whenever it comes, will surely go further than now.

“But just crossing the atmosphere and setting foot in the sea of stars is truly a wondrous achievement. Everyone, look over there. That’s the earth we’ve been living on. Seeing it like this, it’s really pitiful how we’ve been scrambling over such a small piece of land.”

Without the robust body of the Demon King Grimudo, nor his great magical abilities,

These people have still managed to scramble up to this universe with their own strength and faith.

If only he had united humanity with that absolute power instead of clinging to monsters, and actively supported that kind of development, wouldn’t both he and the continent have progressed further than now? Looking back, he had missed so many opportunities.

Not even realizing they were opportunities, he wasted them. It’s no wonder he ended up like this. He had underestimated the potential of humans.

“Do you think the stars taste like star candies if you bite them?”

“Hmm, Miss Roka. From what we know about stars, they’re just distant suns. If you really bit a star, your tongue would probably melt.”

Seeing the familiar wolf among them, he was slightly surprised. Though she didn’t see him, the Demon King still remembered the wolf that used to bring the sunset.

Why this woman was with the Aldehir Church, he didn’t know, but to see her again in such a place. If this is fate, it’s a truly strange fate.

-Roka… The place I’m in is not this sky. I guess I’ve been wandering in the wrong place. But it seems I’m learning something. It’ll take a bit longer to find you.

Lost in deep thought, the former Demon King dismissed the laughing voice that suddenly came from behind him. But then he suddenly snapped back to reality.

This place is the sea of black stars. A place where not even a handful of air exists. A place where sound cannot travel.

The Arcadia has atmospheric magic, so it’s fine, but behind him is literally outer space. A void where nothing exists. An intangible barrier where even sound cannot pass.

-But mistakes and failures are different. Mistakes that teach you something are not failures. They’re just part of the process of moving forward. What do you think, star explorer? Are the things you’ve done so far mistakes? Or failures?

But the man, rather than being surprised, was impressed. Someone was looking at him, speaking to him. The man who had lived as a thorough observer in solitude was moved just by that.

He wasn’t even curious who it was. He didn’t need to doubt whether they meant him harm.

If they had ill intentions, they could have just done nothing. That alone would have been enough to torment him.

But they still looked at him, which meant they had at least some goodwill. In fact, who they were didn’t matter at all to him now.

Even if it were a demon trying to lure him in to devour him, it wouldn’t matter. If they would just talk to him, he would ask for nothing more.

‘You… How on earth…!’

But even if a demon were here, he wouldn’t have been this surprised.

He wouldn’t have been this flustered.

He had clearly seen that death with his own eyes.

He had touched that cold corpse with his own hands.

His pupils dilated, but even his wide eyes couldn’t fully take in the figure before him.

-Do you consider your life a failure? It’s not. Even if the things you’ve done seem like failures, as long as there’s still a chance, it’s not a failure. A mistake… Maybe a big mistake, but that’s all.

‘Why, why are you appearing before me in this state and saying such things? What do you want from me?’

-That wish you once carried on your back, do you remember? Though you never spoke it aloud, a being higher than I heard that wish.

Just as he had, this Demon King was not someone who belonged in this world from the start. A world where the strength of humans had limits was not suitable for the Primal Demon King.

It’s not heaven.

And it’s far from hell.

It’s a lawless land where strife is rampant, and it could be better or worse than this place.

You can go there whether you’ve sinned or done good.

-A place where anyone can become stronger through effort. You wished for this world to become such a place. You wished for the great wall above you to crumble on its own. I can’t grant that wish, but I can introduce you to a world where such walls never existed.

If he had his living body, his heart would have started pounding upon hearing this. Even as a dead ghost, he could barely contain his excitement. His hands trembled.

-If you wish, I can send you to a much wider world. If that’s what you desire.

‘I don’t think this is pure goodwill. If there’s a price, tell me. What must I do for you? What does the one you serve want me to do?’

-Nothing. Hear me, former Demon King. Just live your life as you wish.

He was a Demon King who had despaired and fallen in this world,

But there’s no rule that says he can’t seize a new opportunity in another world.

I don’t expect this Demon King to suddenly reform and become a champion of justice. Nor do I expect him to become a philanthropist performing endless good deeds. But in truth, most people are like that. How many people in the world can confidently say they are good?

But as the saying goes, it’s not about how good people are, but what kind of world they create together. And the place this former Demon King belongs is not here, but there.

A large rock in a small pond ruins the scenery, but in a large lake, it becomes one of many landscapes. Though he was a fearsome Demon King in this world, he might become a decent resident in that world.

Perhaps he might even take on a greater role,

But that depends half on his will, and half on the will of that being.

-That alone is enough.

Just a dozen or so years ago, when he was despondent over parting with the Hero Party as if the world had ended, the angel of light who came to him simply said this.

Just live the life you want.

Just live the life you desire.

Now, standing in the same place as that angel and saying the same words,

The priest understood why that angel had said those words to him back then.

And so, he simply smiled.