Free Web NovelThe sunset glow deepened.
The ancient site of the demon god.
The expressions of the Gray Tree clan demons guarding that place were stiff.
Night would soon come.
Then the prophecy would begin.
It was an iron rule that the priest’s prophecies were revealed to the entire clan.
That was so, should the worst happen, someone might survive and pass the prophecy down to later generations.
Sssss—
Leaves fluttered in the wind.
Sssss—
The many trees surrounding the Gray Tree clan village.
The four wooden towers guarding the ancient site of the demon god and the trees around them.
Leaves everywhere shook violently.
“.......”
The warrior chief, who was standing in for the unconscious priest, looked up at the sky.
“Warrior Chief, it looks like rain is coming.”
The sky where the sunset glow had settled was red but clear.
But this fierce wind was telling them that ominous rain clouds would soon roll in.
“...We are drawing closer to the prophecy.”
At the subordinate’s words, the warrior chief closed his eyes, then opened them and soon rose from his seat.
“He is coming.”
The one the priest had called the savior.
Cale Henituse.
He had arrived at the broad clearing before the treatment center.
“Open the doors at my signal.”
The warrior chief left those words with the subordinate and hurried toward Cale.
“Cale-nim. Everyone has been waiting.”
At Clopeh’s words as he pushed the wheelchair, Cale did not bother replying. Instead, he spoke to the approaching warrior chief.
“Let’s start right away.”
The time during which the sky was dyed red was far too short, no more than an instant compared to the approaching night.
Before then, he had to finish the second purification here.
“The preparations seem complete.”
As Cale looked around, the Gray Tree clan demons entered his sight.
Those filling the broad clearing had made preparations, in their own way, to enjoy a festival.
Of course, what sat on their faces was not the excitement or joy of enjoying a festival, but only worry and fear.
“Yes. We will open it immediately.”
The warrior chief looked around just as Cale had, then moved away from Cale with a firmly resolved face.
Cale glanced at General Mol, who had come with him.
“.......”
At that, General Mol also signaled the surroundings.
“.......”
“.......”
The territorial forces and part of the Demon King’s army that had come with Cale surrounded the treatment center and the Gray Tree clan.
“Mm.”
“......!”
At that sight, the clan demons revealed a trace of anxiety.
Every adult of the clan was an exceptional archer and warrior, but even so, facing troops inevitably brought pressure.
Especially since they had been told to prepare to enjoy the festival after purification. They had hurriedly pulled things together, bringing food and ornaments in their own way, but with soldiers filling the place, it was only natural that their hearts felt uneasy.
“Brother.”
Just then, one of the clan demons saw a soldier who often came and went from this place.
“You—”
“Brother, it will be all right.”
Unlike the soldier’s armed appearance, there was a smile of joy and peace on his face.
There was no fear.
“That person will heal everyone.”
The gazes of the clan demons nearby turned to him, and the soldier spoke while looking only at Cale.
“And you will hear happiness too.”
They wanted to ask what that meant, but—
There was no time.
The warrior chief gestured.
At that, the Gray Tree clan warriors moved.
Clank!
The treatment center door that had been locked with a padlock.
For the past few days, no one unauthorized had been able to enter or leave. The door, which had also been reinforced and tightly blocked off through repairs, opened wide.
“!”
At that sight, the clan demons swallowed despite having been told in advance.
But the warriors moved without hesitation.
No, they moved even faster.
Before night came.
Every window of the treatment center.
The windows that had been blocked with layered wood and iron plates.
Clank.
Thud!
Clatter.
Everything blocking the windows on the first and second floors along the building’s outer wall was broken, dropped, or opened.
As if they had prepared in advance, the process was swift, and the warrior chief spoke to the clan demons.
“Please move to the positions you are guided to.”
Following the guidance, the demons began filling the broad clearing and the area around the treatment center.
The clan alone would not have been enough, but quite a few members of the Demon King’s army and territorial forces had come as well, so the place quickly filled with demons.
So, at that moment when things were briefly chaotic—
“Mm?”
A demon who was opening the rear door behind the treatment center froze.
“What was that?”
He had seen something brush past his foot and enter the treatment center. He could not believe what he had seen.
Partly because everything was so hectic, and—
A snake?
He could not believe that a transparent, extremely tiny thread snake had slipped past him and entered inside in an instant.
“?”
And he immediately looked down the treatment center hallway.
There was no trace of the thread snake there.
“Mm.”
“What is it?”
“Ah, nothing!”
The warrior thought he must have seen things.
In truth, a snake that small was transparent and difficult to distinguish.
Soon, the area around the rear door was also filled with demons.
The warrior stepped back.
Drip. Drip.
Because of that, he did not see droplets forming on the ceiling of the hallway and falling.
Nor could he know that those droplets were salty.
“Check inside.”
Choi Han, who had received Cale’s order, entered the treatment center.
But the droplets had already seeped somewhere into the cracks of the ceiling.
Whoooosh—
The sound of wind entered the fully opened treatment center.
Was it because of that sound?
Sss—
The transparent thread snake moved toward the body of a patient sleeping quietly on the second floor of the treatment center.
A demon infected all the way to his nose.
Pus was flowing from his body.
Sss—
The thread snake pressed its body against that pus.
Just as when it had absorbed Cale’s gray droplet, the thread snake’s body gradually changed into the same gray as the pus.
The thread snake’s body grew a little larger.
Then it quietly moved again and left that place.
However, it could not completely leave.
—Human, I’m moving you!
Whoooosh—
Wind rushed in and wrapped around Cale’s body.
Cale, who had been standing with the support of his staff, floated into the air.
—Is this the right spot?
“Yeah.”
Cale slowly descended onto the treatment center roof.
Sss—
The thread snake stopped at that movement.
The owner of the gray water.
It had realized that person was above its head.
The thread snake, which had no intelligence, did not know who that person was. It only instinctively knew that, according to what its master had said, it had to avoid the owner of the gray water.
“.......”
Standing up high, Cale looked down below.
Everyone was looking up at him.
And the treatment center beneath Cale’s feet—
Every door there was now open.
Because of that, the demons could see the scene inside those doors.
“.......”
“.......”
No one could easily speak.
The Demon King’s army and the territorial forces closed their mouths at the sight of the infected sleeping in horrific states.
And the clan demons, though their family, friends, and acquaintances were in there, could not approach after seeing them. They merely held their breath and restrained their grief.
Their fear lessened a little.
Because their precious people were there, and they had properly realized that they had come here to save them.
When night came, they would become monsters.
Their family, siblings, and friends would run at them to wound them.
Because they knew that, they had not even glanced toward the treatment center and had avoided it completely for the past few days.
Of course, there were also those who had wanted to see their faces at least once.
But even that had not been easy.
And today, they saw those faces.
They faced them without avoiding them.
“.......”
“.......”
Strange emotions settled over the clearing and around the treatment center.
Terror and fear.
Joy at reunion and longing.
Pity and sorrow.
Expectation and anticipation.
At the moment those many emotions mixed together—
Whoooosh—
They heard the sound of wind, the sound of waves.
They lifted their heads.
The sky was dyed redder than ever before.
And beneath that sky stood a red-haired man whose color was even redder, calling blood to mind.
Yet he did not seem ominous, because the wind and sound of waves flowing from him somehow put their hearts at ease.
“Ah.”
And gray flowed out from him.
A color that held warmth.
That mist soon covered the demons’ sight in place of the sky red as blood.
“Mm.”
“!”
And with their ears, with their eyes, they saw something they had missed.
Precious memories that had held joy and happiness.
Fragments of those memories bloomed from everyone.
“Ah.”
“Ah—”
Small exclamations burst out here and there.
Someone was seeing the moment when their child inside that treatment center had been held in their arms.
Someone was seeing the scenery of the village when it had been peaceful, before anyone had attacked it.
There was fragrance as well.
Everything they had felt within that joy covered them.
The tension wrapped around their bodies faded away.
The cozy gray wrapped around them like a blanket.
A wistful emotion seeped into each of their faces.
Sss—
And the gray thread snake slipped into the ground, avoiding the gray mist.
While everyone lifted their heads and looked at the red-haired man wrapped in gray mist, the thread snake disappeared to carry out its command.
Perhaps there might have been someone who could have noticed this secret thread snake’s existence.
Because there had been someone who had seen this thread snake once before.
“Ah, aah— Mother—”
“Mm.”
But those who had seen it were standing dazedly, with their hands and feet bound.
The Wanderers Cho and Ryeon.
Cho stared into the air, once again feeling a childhood memory he had lived on after forgetting.
From within memories filled with far too much misfortune and suffering, it was a faint fragment of joy that could only be seen by going back, far, far back.
Now Cho could vividly recall, hear, feel, and smell that fragment again.
His entire body trembled.
Ryeon, too, was so entranced by the scene she saw in the gray mist that she could not even check on her younger brother’s condition.
Choi Han and Eruhaben were busy monitoring for any possible intrusion by another of the third Emperor’s strings and checking the situation inside the treatment center.
“.......”
Cale was busy gauging the sunset sky and the infected inside the treatment center while hurrying to proceed with purification.
Damn it.
Though the sunset glow was still vivid, Cale could see the sky darkening from far away.
Rain clouds.
Dark rain clouds were rolling in before night itself.
I have to hurry.
Whoooosh—
Small gray particles of light rose.
The sunset and the dark clouds far away.
At the gray light blooming between them, every demon’s eyes shone.
It felt as if they had seen hope within a prophecy that held only despair.
“.......”
And Ron, who had been searching Midi and had arrived here late, froze.
Pat, pat.
On and Hong approached him.
Then On carefully opened her mouth.
“I think I saw something.”
“Mm?”
On, Hong, and Ron’s gazes turned to Cale on the treatment center roof.
Raon was probably invisible beside him as well.
“I think I saw a gray snake come out of the treatment center and seep into the ground.”
On had been carefully watching the gray mist Cale created.
Cale had not assigned On and Hong any separate work, and because of that, On had watched the entire process from a tree where the treatment center could be seen clearly.
Mist.
Gray mist that held chaos.
That mist captured On’s gaze.
Because it was not just mist.
It was a wonderful mist that brought precious memories to mind.
On wanted to spread that mist herself too. That was why she was only observing it first.
She had deliberately taken Hong outside the mist’s range and was watching.
Because of that, she had seen something drop from a window to avoid the mist.
It was a snake.
And—
“It was water.”
The snake changed into a liquid like water and seeped in.
On had learned from Ron.
Do not miss even the smallest piece of information.
Always examine your surroundings in detail.
The weaker you are, the less you can afford to miss your surroundings.
If you want to help your companions, do everything you can.
On always recalled and practiced everything she had learned from Ron.
“Water, is it—”
And Ron spoke as he heard the information On had given him.
“Hong.”
“Yeah!”
Hong looked at Ron with a solemn face.
“On and I will search for that water snake.”
On continued.
“I saw the direction the water seeped in.”
Ron spoke to Hong.
“As soon as the young master’s ritual ends, deliver the information you just heard.”
They could not interrupt the ritual.
“Got it! You can leave it to me!”
Hong answered vigorously and looked at older sister On.
On had already finished preparing to move and nodded to Hong.
As On and Hong, the two siblings, exchanged brief greetings through their gazes—
Ron met someone’s eyes.
It was Choi Han.
On and Ron immediately moved in the direction where the water had seeped into the ground.
“What is it?”
When Choi Han approached and asked—
“I saw a water snake.”
Those words from Ron were enough.
“The direction is Midi. But it seeped into the ground. We cannot know where that water snake went.”
A water snake.
The third Emperor came to mind, and Choi Han’s face hardened.
“...I will go to Mika.”
With those words, Choi Han moved in the opposite direction from On and Ron.
Even while running, On turned her head and looked up at the sky.
Rain clouds, dark deep-gray clouds covering the sunset glow, were spreading across the sky over Midi.
Drip, drip.
From the rain clouds that had not yet reached the ancient site, one or two drops of rain fell.
On hurried.
“On.”
In the midst of that, Ron’s voice reached her.
“The more urgent it is, the calmer you must be.” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
There was another lesson.
At the moment a strange light appeared in On’s eyes—
She heard the sound of wind behind her.
Whoooosh—
A refreshing sound of wind.
Through it, Cale’s voice could be faintly heard.
“—return to your original form.”
Once again, a gray galaxy seeped into Cale and the entire treatment center.
The wide-open doors and windows.
Through them, the demons could see their neighbors, acquaintances, and family float into the air and entrust themselves to the gray galaxy.
Drip. Drip.
Drip, drip—
Gray droplets fell one by one.
“Ah.”
Drops of water flowed down the eyes of the demon watching as well.
His child’s body was being cleanly purified.
“Brother. Did I not tell you not to worry?”
The territorial-force soldier grinning broadly had clear, bright eyes.
“You did. I suppose I don’t need to worry.”
The priest’s final prophecy had seemed to show despair, but before his eyes now was the miracle being performed by the person the priest had called the savior.
The demon looked around.
Whether the Demon King’s army or the territorial forces, the soldiers’ eyes showed no fear of the approaching night or the dark clouds.
Happiness and joy.
Those who held that precious memory in their hearts had not yet forgotten that emotion.
They had also eaten a hearty meal.
Their bodies and minds were more full of strength than ever.
They had the strength to endure tonight.
Most of all—
“They say the Gray Tree clan calls him the savior?”
“Yes.”
That person called the savior said he would perform purification rituals all night tonight.
What was there to fear?
Drip.
“Huh?”
“Mm?”
The demons surrounding the treatment center soon felt the raindrops falling from the rain clouds that had covered the sunset glow.
But they smiled as they looked at those raindrops.
Because this rain did not feel merely cold.
Drip. Drip.
And Cale was also being hit by those raindrops.
—Your arm is almost entirely purified. Now only your shoulder and upper body are left!
The Ancient Tree quickly explained the current situation.
—It’s stuffy. Something cool.
And while the glutton wanted something cool—
“.......”
Cale felt the raindrops touching the skin that had returned from gray to a pale color as especially cold.
His whole body chilled.
No, the back of his head chilled.
“A gray water snake?”
“That’s right!”
Hong had come up to the roof and immediately reported to Cale once the ritual was over.
“Damn it.”
The area around Cale’s eyes twisted.
A gray water snake.
That was not simply a water snake.
Gray meant—
Purification or corruption.
Only those two things.
And Cale was certain it was corruption.
—Cale, if that snake bursts—!
They had learned that infection progressed through saliva, pus, and liquid.
If that water snake really was the third Emperor’s seawater—
“This is driving me insane!”
Cale was able to realize what variable could create the priest’s prophecy.
“Raon! Tell Ron, On, and Choi Han!”
And above all else, there was something important to Cale.
“Tell them not to touch it even if they find the snake!”
He absolutely could not watch his companions get infected.
And—
“General Mol! You notify the cities too! Tell them to avoid gray snakes and gray water!”
After telling General Mol that, Cale headed for Midi first.
Whoooosh—
The rain grew heavier and heavier.
Perhaps because sunset had passed and night had arrived as well, the sky covered by rain clouds was now simply dark.
Damn it!
Why did it have to be a gray water snake and rain, of all things?
Everything was telling Cale that tonight would not be easy.
