Free Web NovelA wide platform like a stage had been prepared in the central plaza.
Cale stood atop it and slowly looked around the plaza.
They’re filled with fear.
The residents, the officials from the Demon King’s castle, even the Demon King’s army soldiers standing guard.
Fear sat in their eyes, each for different reasons.
-Cale. Still, the bare minimum preparations for purification are in place.
The Ancient Tree was right.
Purification of Chaos.
What it required was the caster, and a place where a festival was taking place.
More precisely, the place only needed to be “a seat where joyful chaos could dwell.”
-There is no joy right now, though.
True. There was not the slightest trace of joy.
-But a seat where joy can dwell has been prepared.
Cale saw the feast tables set before the numerous residents filling the plaza.
Preparing all this in one day is impressive.
Strategist Ed must have worked quite hard to prepare tables that were not extravagant, but could at least be called the minimum for a feast.
“......”
Cale turned his head.
Long words were unnecessary.
Nod.
General Mol, seeing Cale’s nod, led several subordinates up onto the platform.
Then, one by one, they removed the cloths covering the stretchers.
“Gasp!”
Someone drew in a breath.
Starting with the people closest to the platform, more and more began to realize what had been on the stretchers.
To be more honest, they were even more shocked because it was exactly what they had suspected.
“My daughter—!”
Beginning with one man’s desperate cry.
“Honey!”
“Father!”
“Mother!”
Demons rose from their seats here and there.
They were all family members of the fifty-one secondary infected.
“Gods, it’s true!”
“...Th-this is bad. We’re doomed, we’re doomed!”
“Insane. The rumors were true?”
Most of the residents, who had only heard it as rumor, felt shock and terror at the sight of the infected lying unconscious with their eyes closed.
“Ugh!”
“Urgh—”
Whether some device had been placed on the cloths or not, the moment the cloths were removed, a sudden stench of rot spread.
Some parts of their bodies, or almost all of them, had turned gray. Their veins bulged grotesquely, and some looked as though their bodies were rotting away.
“...If, if their whole bodies turn gray—”
A demon who remembered what someone present in the market that day had told him muttered without realizing it.
“If they burst, everyone gets infected—”
His face went white with terror.
“What kind of nonsense is that! Burst?”
A demon who had jumped to his feet glared at the demon who had said that behind him.
“That won’t happen! There’s no way it will!”
The man howling those words had eyes bloodshot red.
Because his daughter was one of the demons on that platform.
“Ah, no, I—”
The demon who had spoken without thinking froze, at a loss now that attention had gathered on him. The man could not say anything more to that demon.
He simply looked around and poured out his grief and anger.
“No! My daughter won’t die!”
But the face of the man saying those words held fear and despair rather than certainty.
Because he had heard how the fruit merchant died, and he had already guessed how his own daughter might die.
How horrific the time had been while he stayed at home.
He had wanted to see his daughter, but they would not even let him.
There is a risk of infection.
With those words.
Then.
“Hey. Then aren’t we going to get infected because of those infected people too? Why did they call us here?” freēwēbηovel.c૦m
The atmosphere nearby stirred at the quiet words someone let slip.
Another fear settled in the demons’ eyes.
The past three days.
They had not been able to leave the city, and they had been practically confined in their homes.
They had not been allowed to contact anyone outside the city either.
And yet the rumors, the truth, had spread.
A terrible infectious disease had appeared in this city, and because of it, the Demon King’s castle had personally dispatched troops and sealed off the city.
“N-no way—”
Shock spread across someone’s face.
“Are they going to—”
He could not finish.
He could not bring himself to say it aloud. He hurriedly looked around.
The Demon King’s army, wrapped up tightly, and their murderous pressure.
No way—
Were they not only sealing off the city, but planning to kill them all?
To prevent the disease from spreading through the entire Demon World?
The thought occurred to him.
“Do not indulge in useless imagination.”
A chilling voice rang out at that moment.
The demon flinched and trembled as he looked at the person sitting beside him.
A man with a hood pulled over his head.
He froze without realizing it at the man’s cold gaze. But the demon soon opened his mouth with a stiff expression.
“Useless imagination? This is—”
But the man’s voice was drowned out.
“No! No, it’s not true! My daughter won’t die!”
“Father!”
“I, I have to go save Mother!”
“Uaaaah—!”
The families’ wails.
“Hey. Shouldn’t we run?”
“What is this? Why did they call us to where those things are?”
Voices rising with anxiety and fear.
The plaza was, quite literally, filled with chaos.
“Damn it!”
And in the end, the demon who had suspected they were going to kill all the residents shot to his feet.
Because he felt he could not stay here any longer.
“Sit down.”
At that moment, Young Master Jimon, who had been sitting beside that demon with his hood up, spoke.
“What?”
“Soon—”
He stopped speaking for a moment.
He knew that the purification ritual would soon unfold.
He wondered why Cale Henituse was simply watching this scene in silence instead of beginning the purification ritual immediately.
But he had taken a seat in the plaza because he wanted to see this purification ritual.
It was a miracle.
In the village where the mediator group stayed, where Aurora was village chief.
There, an old man named Tedric, the former chief, had told him about Cale’s purification ritual.
It was like—
The old man had spoken with a smile that seemed somehow distant yet gentle, as though wandering through a happy dream.
Yes. It was like peace.
The former chief had continued speaking to Young Master Jimon, who was following Cale to Telia.
You will feel the warmth of this world.
What in the world could that mean?
“What? Soon what? You look like someone who knows what’s happening right now! Say something!”
Young Master Jimon opened his mouth while looking at the angry demon, and at the demons around them glaring with sharp eyes.
He wanted to say that a miracle was about to arrive.
But.
“!”
He stopped speaking.
What is this?
The plaza was filled with chaos.
And within it, he heard a sound.
SHAAAA—
Waves?
SHAAAA—
No, was it wind?
It was the sound of wind blowing through a forest.
No. That can’t be.
There was no sea or forest here.
Then what was this sound?
It was a miracle.
The old chief’s voice surfaced once more in Young Master Jimon’s mind.
Without realizing it, he turned his head toward the direction from which the wind, the waves, seemed to be coming.
The others did the same.
SHAAAA—
Those who had been wailing, those who had been raising their voices in fear, and those who had simply been trembling.
All of them closed their mouths for a moment at the sound of nature, so refreshing and beautiful.
And they turned their heads.
SHAAAA—
They could see gray mist flowing out from the red-haired man.
That mist was not gloomy.
Instead, warmth could be felt when looking at it.
The residents.
My neighbors.
My family.
My friends.
It was different from the gray that had been horribly staining them.
Gray mist came rolling in, carried by wind that held refreshing waves and a gentle forest.
That mist began to cover them one by one.
“Ah.”
Young Master Jimon’s eyes widened.
Jimon.
He could hear it.
He could hear a voice he missed so terribly.
You do not need to grow up splendidly, and you do not need to grow up well. Put down that burden.
When he was young.
When Jimon had been crushed by the pressure that he had to inherit Moraka Castle.
Jimon, you simply need to grow as yourself.
A voice that sounded indifferent, but held concern for Jimon within it.
“Ah—”
Count—
Count Lupe—
Uncle—
When Jimon had heard those words, he had finally felt certain that it would be good if he inherited Moraka Castle, but even if he did not, Count Lupe would not abandon him.
How happy he had been then.
Because he had felt that he, too, had gained true family.
So this is it—
Jimon could feel what kind of miracle was happening.
He could have looked around, but he did not.
He could not let go of this moment, when that precious memory had become vivid again.
He had to savor it even a little longer.
But Jimon, you have grown quite a lot.
Count Lupe, who had stroked his head while saying he simply needed to grow as himself.
As Jimon heard his voice, it felt as though that touch rose in his memory.
Young Master Jimon felt emotions he had not felt over the past few days—no, not since Count Lupe went missing.
They could be described as peace, joy, and excitement.
And his weary body was becoming comfortable.
It must have been the consolation given by memory.
No.
This was not given by memory.
Young Master Jimon slowly opened his eyes.
“Ah.”
A sound of wonder escaped him without his realizing it.
The place had been filled with countless residents and packed with confusion and fear.
Gray mist embraced it.
Through that mist, he could see the demons’ faces.
“Kh—”
“Ah, aaaah—”
With different expressions, they were smiling, crying, or closing their eyes. freewёbnoνel.com
And they were rejoicing.
Fear had vanished from them.
Instead, countless emotions that could not be explained had appeared on their faces.
Happiness, excitement, joy, being moved.
They were lost in savoring those emotions, and then, like Young Master Jimon, they let out sounds of wonder.
SHAAAA—
Gray particles rose from them one by one.
They were very small, but sparkling particles headed toward the gray mist.
And that gray mist, wrapped in sparkling gray light, looked like a gray galaxy.
SHAAAA—
Then that gray galaxy moved.
The wind that had passed over them passed over them again and returned to the place where the wind had begun.
Residents.
Officials dispatched from the Demon King’s castle.
Even the Demon King’s army.
All of them watched with dazed faces as the warm gray mist that had wrapped around them, and the gray light emerging from them and entrusting itself to that mist, drifted away.
And the person at the place where that gray galaxy arrived.
The man who had risen from his wheelchair before anyone knew it.
His pale face and short breaths made it painfully clear that even standing like this was difficult for him right now.
The red-haired man wore loose clothing like priestly robes, wide enough to cover his entire body.
Gray mist surrounded him.
No, a galaxy surrounded him.
SHAAAA—
When he waved his hand, the gray mist holding countless gray lights moved toward the fifty-one infected.
The demons whose eyes were closed and whose bodies were rotting away.
The galaxy settled over them.
The red-haired man, Cale, opened his mouth.
“What was created shall soon vanish.”
The grotesque appearances of the demons could no longer be seen.
They were wrapped in a beautiful gray galaxy.
“As inherited from the beginning.”
There was no smell of rot.
The scent of flowers.
The smell of delicious food made by one’s mother.
The scent of a grandmother’s clothes.
The smell of the forest one had visited with one’s father.
The scent each person loved most lingered at the tips of their noses.
The hearts of those watching began to pound.
It was not fear, but joy and anticipation.
Something was happening now.
This something unfolding in the plaza stirred anticipation.
“As they were born.”
Cale spoke calmly, his face indifferent.
General Mol, looking at him, had a completely dazed expression.
The strategist who had come out to observe the situation, the Demon King’s retainers as well.
Even Siz, commander of the First Army royal guard, who was secretly watching from a rooftop overlooking the plaza.
All of them simply watched.
It was not splendid.
It was not overwhelming.
It was merely a single stream of wind and mist that would not be strange to see scatter at any moment.
And yet the scene created by those two things looked so sacred and sublime.
In the silence, emotions hotter, more turbulent, and more overwhelming than ever churned through the plaza.
That, too, was chaos.
Joyful chaos.
Within it, Cale spoke.
“They shall return to their true form.”
The gray galaxy seeped into the infected and into Cale’s body.
“Ah—”
“M-Mother—”
“My daughter, my daughter!”
Drip. Drip.
The infected bodies rose into the air, and gray droplets fell from them.
Their grotesque bodies were returning to normal.
Warmth returned to faces that had been dying.
They were coming back to life.
Shock and joy spread across the demons’ faces.
They forcefully swallowed the cheers that wanted to burst out.
Even those who had been calling their family members’ names pressed their mouths shut.
Drip. Drip.
Like a drizzle.
Very quietly, gray droplets flowed down from the infected bodies.
And everyone waited until that quiet sight came to an end.
Thump.
The bodies that had floated into the air settled back onto the stretchers one by one.
Their appearances were exactly as their families, neighbors, and friends remembered them.
“......”
“......”
No one could open their mouth easily.
Everything felt like a dream.
This was an experience none of them had ever had in their lives.
“Huu—”
Then Cale exhaled deeply.
-Cale, only half of your left arm has been purified. The Pope’s chaos is far more vicious than expected.
From both arms to his collarbone. Only part of his corrupted body had been purified.
To think it would not all be purified.
Cale felt disappointed as he listened to the Ancient Tree, but he spoke the final words of the Purification of Chaos ritual.
“The final stage of this ritual remains.”
Cale’s complexion was still pale.
To others, he looked as though cold sweat was pouring down him.
But still, his stomach felt less bloated than before.
-It feels like I’m digesting a little!
At the gluttonous priestess’s words, Cale was moderately satisfied with his condition having improved compared to before. He smiled pleasantly and spoke calmly.
“Please enjoy the feast and make good memories.”
With those words, Cale did not sit back in his wheelchair and instead walked down from the platform on his own without hesitation.
His stomach had improved enough that he thought it would be fine.
“Mm.”
But he had been mistaken.
His body swayed.
He was dizzy.
-You haven’t finished digesting yet!
The Ancient Tree spoke urgently.
Cale’s face stiffened, displeased by his own condition. He had thought his state had improved, so he walked, only to become this dizzy.
But Cale thought,
If I do it a few more times, I’ll get better.
The seeds still remained, and he had confirmed their locations in the Pope’s dream.
If he purified the corruption together with those seeds, he would recover.
At any rate, I confirmed that this direction is correct.
He had found a way to resolve the gluttonous priestess’s indigestion, so it was satisfactory enough.
As Cale descended the stairs, he spoke to the person who caught his swaying arm.
“Thank you.”
“......”
General Mol was looking at Cale with an expression impossible to explain.
And.
“......”
The Demon King looked at Cale, then opened his mouth.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Siz, commander of the First Army royal guard, hurriedly followed the Demon King as he turned away. Even so, her gaze went to Cale once before dropping away.
The Demon King and Siz.
The two demons who had been secretly watching the ritual disappeared.
“......”
The Demon King hurried away from Cale and looked down at his own hand.
His hand was trembling faintly.
As though he had remembered something he should not have remembered.
“......”
An emotion other than ennui settled over the Demon King’s face.
But no one saw it.
WAAAAAAAAAAAH—
WAAAAAAAH—
Soon, cheers of joy burst through the plaza.
And a true feast, a festival, began.
It was a seat where joyful chaos dwelled.
