Chapter 71 - Episode 11. King of Chaos (2)
Chapter 71: Episode 11. King of Chaos (2)
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As soon as he woke, Jaehwan received a rough account of everything that had happened in the meantime: the battles and humiliations Gorgon had suffered over the past ten days, including how their surprise operation had come to nothing.
“Wait. Where are you going?”
“The conference room.”
“You cannot go to the conference room right now. Some of the officials want to hand you over to the Palace of Rebirth.”
“Hand me over?”
Cheongheo let out a sigh and explained the situation.
Jaehwan listened with a calm expression.
“I see.”
Despite Cheongheo’s attempts to stop him, Jaehwan headed straight for the conference room. The officials of the Inner Fortress looked flustered by Jaehwan’s sudden appearance.
“C-Fortress Lord?”
Jaehwan seemed to read something in the mood of the room, then suddenly said:
“I’ll go.”
“What do you mean, you’ll go?”
“I’ll go to the Palace of Rebirth.”
It was a thunderbolt of a declaration, dropped before they even had time to share the joy of seeing him again.
At that moment, everyone in the conference room understood Jaehwan’s resolve. He said he would go to the Palace of Rebirth. The Fortress Lord had come here knowing everything.
South Sea Hall Master Cayman shot to his feet and shouted.
“What are you talking about? You cannot!”
“...South Sea Hall Master. Sit down.”
Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong spoke in a weak voice. He and a few others could not even bring themselves to look Jaehwan in the face. Jaehwan understood what that meant.
He looked at each of them in turn and said:
“I’m fine, so stop making those faces.”
Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong bit his lip with difficulty and lowered his head. No one in the room could speak. Someone covered their face with both hands, someone else turned away with their eyes squeezed shut. Fury and resignation crossed through the room.
Then, after some time had passed, Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong, who had been hanging his head, suddenly stood up and spoke.
“Fortress Lord, I hate you.”
His reddened eyes were fixed on Jaehwan.
“I hate you so much for forcing life on us, finding freedom for us, and teaching us hope.”
“...”
“Do you know? While you were lying there, many Companions died. They are people who would not have died if they had never known freedom, if they had never known hope.”
Jaehwan slowly looked around the room again.
Scholar Forest Hall Master Jegal Myeong was not there.
“I’m sorry.”
“You, why do you...”
Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong could not finish the sentence. Instead, his expression said the rest.
As he watched the tears in Yoon Yong’s eyes, Jaehwan reflected for the first time on what he had done.
Had the things he did really been right?
He could not tell. He did not even know whether he had the right to judge that. Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong kept his head lowered and said nothing for a long while.
Then, after some time had passed, Jaehwan realized that Yoon Yong’s voice was continuing.
“But even so, truly...”
It was a wet voice, as if wiping away tears.
A sound so small, yet so unmistakably clear.
“Fortress Lord, we need you.”
That was the beginning. Whatever trigger Yoon Yong’s words touched, the officials hurriedly rose from their seats.
“Please do not go to the Palace of Rebirth!”
“Fortress Lord, please. Stay here!”
“Please do not go, Fortress Lord!”
Who could have expected such a scene? Only an hour ago, these were the same people bickering over whether the Fortress Lord should go to the Palace of Rebirth or not.
“Then let’s fight! Let’s all fight and die together!”
Everyone in the room trembled at those words. It was not because of fear or dread. If anything, it was closer to the exultation born from deep rage and despair.
These were people who had learned what freedom was, what hope was, what life was. They knew they could die. But because of that, there were values that had to be protected all the more.
Why had they tried to forget that?
Cheongheo’s gaze on Jaehwan deepened.
You really did give them something absurd.
If it meant protecting what they had been given, they would offer up even their own lives. Every eye in the room burned with emotion.
Jaehwan examined each face turned toward him, then said:
“I think you are all misunderstanding something. I’m not going to 《Palace of Rebirth》 to surrender.”
“...What?”
Someone asked back like a fool.
Jaehwan smiled faintly.
And the moment they saw that smile, everyone in the room realized something. In truth, all of them had been waiting for that smile.
A man who never submitted, no matter how powerful the enemy or how overwhelming the despair. A man who created miracles with his own power, and made everyone believe in those miracles.
They waited for that man to speak.
For Jaehwan, who had appeared as if out of nowhere, to say in his calm, indifferent voice:
“I’m going to blow 《Palace of Rebirth》 off the map.”
* * *
With Gorgon on the brink of destruction, he was saying he would go blow up the Palace of Rebirth by himself? Everyone in the Inner Fortress gaped at the absurd idea. But even as they stood there with their mouths open, none of them could hide their anticipation.
Because he was not a man who spoke empty words.
...Could it really be done?
The officials in the conference room had seen the Combat Power of Warlord-class Lords with their own eyes. Even if every Awakened One here rushed them together, a Warlord was an enemy they could not defeat. And there were no fewer than three of them.
That was why the officials had no choice but to ask:
“Fortress Lord, are you in your right mind?”
“I’m always in my right mind.”
A hollow laugh spread at his casual tone.
“Did you say you would blow up the Palace of Rebirth?”
“Yes.”
One by one, people started letting out little laughs. The matter they had agonized over for days, the Fortress Lord spoke of it that easily.
“When?”
“Right now.”
That was right. Their Fortress Lord was this kind of person.
Someone calm in the face of the impossible. Someone who did first what anyone could think of, but no one else could actually do.
The expressions of the people who had been full of despair flickered with a strange anticipation.
Watching from the side, Dream Demon Sirwen raised an eyebrow with interest.
What a strange human.
Justice was childish by nature. Because it was unrealistic. And because it was unrealistic, people could blame it and turn away from it. They could all say the same thing together.
Your words are not realistic.
People who practiced justice to the bitter end under the excuse of reality were despised as mere idealists. That was the fate of justice when placed before reality.
But the man before her was different.
He looked like someone who did not even know the word reality.
Sirwen quietly watched Jaehwan, then slowly shook her head. Having lived for two thousand years, she had seen humans acclaimed as heroes several times. They too had been like Jaehwan was now.
In the end, humans kneel before reality.
They had all failed. No matter how great their ideals, they meant nothing without the power to put them into action. Reality was that solid. It was not so fragile that it could be scratched by the faith or declaration of a single person.
So this man too would eventually kneel. No one would follow him, and he would be left all alone. Sooner or later, someone would step in to stop him...
“Fine! I’ll go right now!”
...?
“Please take me with you, Fortress Lord!”
Huh?
“Let’s go crush those bastards! Right now!”
What?
As people all over the room sprang from their seats, the conference hall instantly turned into chaos. It felt as if the entire fortress was rising to its feet. Watching the scene, cold sweat ran down Sirwen’s back.
None of them were in their right minds.
She had heard that something strange had been happening in Gorgon lately. Souls who had been living well enough as souls had suddenly started shouting about freedom, true life, and liberation.
Why now? Because of this one man?
She could not understand it at all. Perhaps, as someone born a dream demon who had lived for two thousand years, it was something she would never understand.
...Well, maybe it did not matter.
Sirwen’s goal was to learn the secret of the Eighth Gate from Jaehwan. She was dying of curiosity over what exactly her godfather had left behind in the Eighth Gate.
It was Jaehwan, as expected, who brought the conference room, boiling over with excitement, back under control in a single stroke.
“I appreciate how you all feel, but this time, four people including me will be enough to deal with them.”
The roiling atmosphere in the room cooled in an instant.
“Me, Old Man Cheongheo, and Cayman will go together.”
“It is an honor, Fortress Lord.”
At Jaehwan’s declaration, Cayman looked proud, and Cheongheo grumbled as if annoyed, though his face was lit with a trace of excitement.
“Hmph. Where do you think you’re going without me?”
But the others who had not been called looked aggrieved. A few of them shouted:
“That makes no sense!”
“You know it too, Fortress Lord! Four people are not enough!”
Just as the commotion threatened to spread again, Jaehwan cut them off.
“Four are enough. And the people staying behind also have work to do, so do not feel too slighted.”
...Work to do?
“I think you are misunderstanding something. Even if 《Palace of Rebirth》 is brought down, that does not mean everything will be over.”
Jaehwan’s voice remained calm as he continued. Before anyone realized it, the whole room was focused on his voice.
“Once 《Palace of Rebirth》 is destroyed, Chaos will naturally unite around Gorgon. What do you think will happen then?”
What would happen if Chaos were united? The people in the room, who had never thought that far ahead, could only stare blankly at one another.
The one who answered the question was Aisa Lindcroft, Fortress Lord of Dryad.
“Groups that seek to split things apart will start appearing everywhere. Not everyone will accept Gorgon as the center of 《Chaos》.”
“That’s right.”
For some reason, Aisa felt a chill at the sight of Jaehwan calmly nodding. He was already certain of Chaos’s unification.
Which meant...
He was already thinking beyond 《Palace of Rebirth》.
In other words, he was certain that today, 《Palace of Rebirth》 would be destroyed. Jaehwan continued:
“From now on, Gorgon will have to deal with Warlords springing up everywhere.”
“...You mean we need to train separate forces to deal with them, aside from the Abyss Expedition.”
“That’s right. You’re smart.”
Smart? In the past nine hundred years, no one had dared use that word to her. Yet even at his rude remark, Aisa could not bring herself to be angry.
At that moment, Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong raised his hand and said:
“Fortress Lord, I cannot accept this! Are you saying we should turn away from the Palace of Rebirth right in front of us just to prepare for Warlords that do not even exist yet?”
“It is not just the Warlords. You do not think that destroying 《Palace of Rebirth》 means the war with the Lords is over, do you?”
Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong furrowed his brow.
“If we destroy the 「Narrow Gate」, the Lords cannot cross over, can they?”
“The 「Narrow Gate」 is only a Treasure that disguises a living being as one of the dead. You know there are other ways to come to 《Chaos》 besides that, don’t you?”
At those words, Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong looked like he had just been struck on the head.
Jaehwan was right.
《Chaos》 was not originally a place one came to through the 「Narrow Gate」.
“But something like that would never...”
“We are simply preparing for the possibility.”
The odds were low, but they could not completely rule out the possibility that the subordinates of the Twelve Great Lords might willingly end their own lives and cross over into 《Chaos》. Had their expectations not already been overturned by the appearance of even Warlord-class Lords?
“...If that is truly your will, Fortress Lord, then I understand.”
In the end, Thunder God Hall Master Yoon Yong stepped back. Then Aisa, who had been quietly listening, suddenly spoke up.
“Fortress Lord of Gorgon, I think there is one thing you have overlooked.”
“What is it?”
“You said earlier that you would take four people, but you have only named three. Who is the remaining one?”
The conference hall was instantly covered in a suffocating silence. It was a silence layered with the hope that perhaps Jaehwan might call on them. Even Aisa, who had asked the question, had a gleam in her eyes. But the one Jaehwan pointed to a moment later betrayed all of their expectations.
“The last one is that one.”
At those words, a woman who had been blankly watching the room until then widened her eyes.
“...Me?”
She was Sirwen Armelt, a dream demon.
Footnotes:
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