88 . An Inconvenient Truth
My mind was sinking endlessly into an abyss far too deep, far too deep for human imagination to fathom.
The bottom was made up of remnants of the past that had finally arrived.
It’s to the point where the kids tell me to be determined.
Although I didn’t have a body, the point of view changes as I want, just like when I’m dreaming. I turned my gaze to the floor and let out a long breath.
A floor covered only with darkness, the memories I had tried to bury begin to emerge one by one.
The first was, of course, the first time I went to an orphanage.
As a child, unable to fully realize what death was yet, he was only six years old when he lost his parents in the war and went to an orphanage.
Did that blue blood clot really know what it was like?
A man with a stomach, the archbishop who was killed by Stella pushed me forward and forced me to introduce myself. What would a child who had just lost his parents and arrived in a strange place know?
As a child, I just quietly followed what others told me to do.
Disclose your name and age, and face numerous gazes looking at you.
In the meantime, there were two people who met my eyes.
Maybe I already knew from that moment. My relationship with them would last quite a long time, although of course that didn’t go in a good direction.
Still, in the past, I could say that we had a pretty good relationship.
Leon and Maria were always by my side to help me adjust to the nursery school, and they were the only people I could call friends.
The following were memories made with them.
Two people took me through the playground built inside the nursery school.
“Ain, this way.”
Leon climbed a huge tree and reached out to me.
When I saw that, I laughed like an idiot. It was definitely good this time.
Leon played the role of the nursery school’s alley leader with his unique liveliness.
Maria muttered in a worried voice as she saw me climbing a branch with Ain.
“Leon, it’s dangerous.”
The memories shown after that all had similar lines.
It was quite common in childhood, such as playing with two people or getting severely scolded for a minor mistake at the nursery school.
But something is strange.
Didn’t the children say that the moment I accepted my past properly, my mind might collapse?
Where in the world is there a memory that can shock me? This was enough to last.
No, rather, it was a pretty good time because I was able to trace old memories.
Just as I was about to finish that thought, a voice rang out from somewhere.
Resonance that seems to spread directly to the whole body, not through the ears.
“This is a fabricated memory.”
“Elia?”
“Dad, this is the last warning. Really… Are you really okay?”
I had no intention of stepping down here.
“Yes, if that is your choice….”
Elia’s voice gradually faded to a fainter tone, and then a clear sound like the snapping of her fingers rang out.
At the same time, cracks occur in the memories you see in front of you. The reality that began to crack like a crack in a mirror eventually scattered to the floor and turned into powder, and only then did it reveal itself, the cruel bare face of reality.
As if time were rewinding, all the memories were quickly passing through my head.
Go back to the beginning of the scene.
At that moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Yeah, everything went wrong already from there.
There was a person who shouldn’t be there.
A young six-year-old I was holding onto someone else’s hand. His face was obscured by the black mist, so he couldn’t be seen properly, but judging from the way he held it tight as if he wouldn’t let go of it again, it was clear that he was a precious person.
I couldn’t see his face, but I could tell instinctively.
The fact that that child is my only blood relative left in this world.
However, my brother did not exist. No, did you just live knowing that?
My head was dizzy. Confused emotions clouded thinking.
About this matter, you can ask the children in detail later.
Let’s think about it later, I thought so and focused on the memories unfolding in front of me.
The child never left my side.
When I was playing with Leon, when I was sleeping, when I was eating, it was so pitiful to see him holding onto my collar or hand.
But I knew I couldn’t throw her away.
It was the only family left in this world. A fear coiled inside me that if I let go of this child, he would disappear like a parent.
My younger brother, who was weak, couldn’t fill the quota of dropping off work at the nursery school, and Leon and I always took care of it.
I always said sorry to Leon, but Leon responded by saying he was fine.
Until right before Leon left the nursery school, he was especially kind to my brother. He joked around with other women, but in front of my younger sister, he only smiled awkwardly and stiffly.
If you think about it now, that emotion must be love.
My younger brother didn’t seem to particularly hate Leon, and if I were Leon, I could cheer for them.
The day when those feelings bear fruit never came.
Leon was chosen as a hero and Maria as a saint, and they started walking their separate ways.
Lonely, but not sad. If you are a friend, you have to support the path your friend will go on.
However, as always, misfortune came suddenly.
A few years later, one day, the director of the orphanage cautiously called us.
He handed me a piece of bread and said cautiously.
“Ain, don’t you want to leave the nursery school soon?”
I had no intention of leaving. If I didn’t get adopted anyway, I could go out naturally when I became an adult.
When I didn’t show an affirmation, the Archbishop continued his explanation.
“It is known that your parents made a lot of contributions in the war. If you want, the country has decided not to spare enormous support and support. However, since we are also in the position of running an orphanage, it is a little bit of openly accepting money from the state. You know what I mean?”
Even if I had no intention of leaving the orphanage, the offer was sweet. There was no reason to give up.
I don’t have to do menial work at the nursery school, and I can go out and live with my younger brother who is weak. Besides, the money could have given them better medicine and a better place to sleep.
“But there is a condition.”
Uncharacteristically, the archbishop took a cigarette and opened his mouth slowly.
“Your brother… This is what the country wants.”
“What does the country want? ?”
“I can’t explain in detail, but it seems that there is a secret plan being carried out by the country, and your brother is in that plan….”
I shook my head without even thinking about it, even though the archbishop wasn’t finished talking.
The reason for my life was for my brother. What’s the use of her money and fame if she’s life without her?
At the same time, the archbishop’s expression turned stern.
“Is this why it’s useless to say nice things to kids? I’m suggesting a method that can be of great help to this country, a bitch who can’t live long because she’s weak anyway.”
The Archbishop looked outside and shouted.
“Come in!”
As soon as I finished speaking, about four strong men armed with armor came in. In an instant, they laid me roughly on the floor and grabbed my younger brother by the wrist.
I knew instinctively. The fact that if I miss my brother here and now, I will never see him again.
My brother repeatedly called my name in a crying voice, but there was no way.
A young Ain, barely in his early teens, couldn’t resist anything other than screaming even while his most precious person was being taken away.
“No! Better take me! Please… !”
Despite the desperate cry, the world did not go smoothly.
After taking my brother away, the tightly closed door was accompanied by a hopelessly thick silence.
After the situation was settled, the Archbishop blew smoke in my face and spoke in a calm tone.
“Ahin, you don’t know much right now because you’re young, but your brother is going to save the world. But can a guy called oppa be so gloomy?”
I lost someone important to me in an instant, and I bit my lip in anger.
The fishy blood smears in my mouth, and I hear the claws scratching the ground.
“Shut up!”
Even the archbishop trembled from the miasma stained with blood, and rose from his seat.
“Everything… I will kill them all! 이 개새끼들… ! Even if I had to sell my soul to the devil, no evil spirit, I would tear you all to pieces!”
In front of him was a boy with an unimaginable amount of malice.
The archbishop clicked his tongue as he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Tsk, I tried to end it well, but it bothered me….”
The archbishop opened the door and went outside and said as if giving an order to the man guarding the front.
“Beat it moderately, kick it out of the orphanage, and then hand it over to the priests to erase their memories.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Ah, after work is over, let’s go to a bar with young ladies with the money the government gave us.”
The archbishop’s cheerful laugh grew farther and farther away, and at the same time my memory was cut off there.
It was Elia’s voice that broke the silence that seemed to last forever.
“Do you know who it is?”
“Roughly… “
Only then does the black mist covering her child’s face disappear, and finally her figure is revealed.
Actually, I was expecting it from the middle.
The child I saw in the castle, no… My lost brother and current demon king.
I asked Elia a question in a calm, subdued voice.
“Does Maria have anything to do with this?”
“Yeah, originally, the candidate for the Demon King was chosen from among the young girls in the orphanage, and that girl was the first candidate. But she wanted her father’s younger brother to take the position instead of herself, with the promise of dedicating herself to the archbishop or a high-ranking person in the country.”
“Why the hell….”
“Because she didn’t see her father as her equal from the beginning. That’s all.”
“Now, you understand? The feelings Dad has for her are feelings that can’t be reciprocated. She is a woman who has been rotten to the core from the beginning.”
Elia, who kept her silence for a moment, spoke for the last time.
“If Dad still wants it, then we can grant that wish.”
“Is it possible?”
“Yeah… Because we are the gods that Dad wanted so much.”
●
“Ain?”
I opened my eyes slowly, and the first person to speak to me, who came to my senses, was Maria.
The guy seemed to have regained his composure before he knew it.
“Are your thoughts clearer now?”
Maria seemed to have figured out that there was nothing good to do by provoking me in this situation, but her tone was calmer than before.
However, her words did not reach me anymore.
With Stella’s support, I got up from her seat and went over to her Maria and kicked her with her foot straight after her.
“Garbage….”
Before she had time to let out her moans of pain, I stepped on her head violently as she fell, looked down at her, and opened her mouth.
“Don’t call me by my name with that filthy mouth.”
Maria let out her short shriek, and she looked at me in disbelief.
“Ain!? What is this… !”
Just hearing his voice makes me angry.
“Are you not able to understand what I said once?”
Maria was kicked in the face, her head bent behind her and blood splattered from her mouth.
She felt the time she spent with her on her adventures was meaningless.
I grabbed Maria by the collar, put her back on her feet, and raised her voice to Maria, who looked bewildered.
“Yeah, you always just took a step back and looked on, as if everything that happened to other people had nothing to do with you. You don’t even know that it’s your essence that has no interest in other people!”
Realizing the seriousness of her situation, Maria opened her mouth to calm me down, even hiding her painful expression.
“Ain, you are being tricked by those elves….”
Before Maria could finish her words, I cut her with a single knife.
“Even if it was the work of my brother who followed you like that!”
At the same time, Maria’s eyes widened.
It was the moment when it was completely revealed that what the children showed me was not an illusion that dazzled me, but reality.
“Yeah, how do you do that?”
As I remained silent, Maria began to speculate wildly.
“Leon? It’s Leon! Did that bastard tell you everything!?”
I don’t even get angry anymore.
I just thought of my brother.
How painful she must have felt in that young body, in that spacious castle, in a lonely place without any family or friends.
How lonely that child must have felt without me, not eating well and not sleeping well.
I was sick and tired of my stupidity and weakness, not being able to hold that small, ailing body for the last time.
The self-loathing soon spread like a fire and began to spread into anger against the system.
A nation built at the cost of the future of its children, built on the foundations of their blood and screams, did not need false peace and hope.
If it is a peace that can exist only with such a sacrifice, I will crush it with my own hands.
Even if I am hated by everyone, if I can save them, I will gladly take on any role.
Yes, from this moment on.
“I am the Demon King.”