Chapter 488: Clockwork Fate

Junelva’s suspicions and hostility didn’t cease even after Lugis left Rabel’s room. In fact, one could say that those suspicions and hostility only grew stronger. His heavy beak made a clicking sound.

It no longer mattered whether Lugis was once human or not. Junelva was convinced that his nature didn’t mesh with Lugis’ nature.

「Why can’t you trust him, Junelva? Tell me the reason immediately. He is on our side. 」

Why was he so skeptical? Rabel asked. She didn’t understand, but it wasn’t because she was foolish. It was because of her nature that she couldn’t understand.

Junelva knew this very well, and that’s why he trusted her. Junelva opened his beak skillfully and replied.

「Rabel, I don’t know how much you can understand, but there are some beings whom I must suspect. They don’t know loyalty or gratitude. Or worse, they don’t know how to calculate profit and loss. 」

Those who only stood on their own existence in order to prove themselves. They were beings who betrayed easily, and didn’t know the word “comrade”. No, to them, it was probably not a betrayal. They just did things as they pleased.

To be honest, there was a time when Junelva liked such people. They were much easier to get along with than mere demons. From one point of view, they were quite attractive fellows. In a way, they were easy to understand.

Some of them were just cowards when you got to know them. If you opened your heart to each other, you could become good comrades. That’s what Junelva believed in the past.

…That’s what he believed until he met that cowardly traitor.

Junelva’s eyes distorted again. He remembered a woman he found very unpleasant.

That reddish-looking woman who betrayed him at the worst possible moment. That woman pretended to be sympathetic and then betrayed him with a terrible timid demeanor.

That incident made Junelva keenly aware that no matter how hard he tried, he could never trust people like that. Those people could betray others as if they were nothing.

Rabel listened to his story with interest, but she still didn’t seem to understand. She just said that she recognized that such things could happen in fact.

Junelva didn’t seem to mind either. On the contrary, he asked back.

「Now that I think of it, I still haven’t heard it clearly. Rabel, what did you do for him to become a magical devilish being? I haven’t found an answer. 」

Rabel couldn’t lie. So Junelva didn’t try to put up a false front in front of her.

Rabel opened her lips, letting the ends of her neatly trimmed hair fly apart.

「I’ll be frank with you. He had a wrong fate. Therefore, I have corrected it. That’s all. Please understand immediately. He was not meant to be in that situation. 」

Junelva nodded vigorously. He roughly understood what Rabel was saying up to that point. It was probably the Clockwork Fate she had mentioned several times in the past.

Rabel said that even the seemingly coincidental fate in this world was on the path of the clockwork gods.

The fate of all things was set, be it demons, animals, insects, or humans. There must be no major disruptions to that set of work.

「The first gods have given me three prophecies. That’s one of them. Correct his fate immediately. 」

As she spoke, Rabel embraced one of her legs with both hands. Every gesture looked like a doll’s predetermined gesture.

Rabel was explaining with an empty heart. That power was her Original Text.

Of course, no matter how great a magical devilish being like Gear Rabel was, she actually didn’t know the fate of all things. At best, she could sense distortions.

She could see Lugis’ fate very clearly when she touched him directly. Rabel felt her eyes naturally narrowing for the first time in her life.

Lugis. To put it nicely, he was a common human being. To put it bluntly, he was quite ordinary. That was the extent of what a human he was.

If there was one thing that set him apart, it was his talent. In other words, the only talent he was given was an ominous one. Not the talent of a merchant, nor the talent of a craftsman.

…An evil talent. A villain.

That was the title that should’ve been given to him instead of hero.

Someone who deceived others without a second thought, and used them for his own benefit, and then easily betrayed them. A villain with deep guilt.

Rabel knew that this was the path that was meant to be his. He would’ve been himself until the end once he had followed that path. He would surely have had a happy life.

Because he had no hero’s soul. He had no fighting talent, nor magic skills, and no blessed race or environment.

Yes, he had nothing.

The person who was like a parent to him was lost easily, and his beloved teacher was killed before his eyes. He lost his friends, those who accepted him, everything.

Which was why, no matter what path he took, he would reign as evil, spewing smoke of hatred so strong it burned him. Even if it was in the palm of someone else’s hand. That was what he would call happiness.

And yet.

On that day, at that time, something that should never have happened, it did happen. Surely not even he could remember when or where it happened.

But it certainly did happen.

…He saw the sun. Divine, unobstructed by anything, a golden aura that cleared away dark clouds.

People called that sun a great hero.

Everyone wished to be under that sunlight, to be illuminated by his light. They thought of this as happiness.

But strangely, Lugis was different from those people. He yearned for the sun.

He didn’t look away, nor did he want to feel the warmth of the sunlight but instead wished to be like that light. Even if it meant his eyes being burned off and his arms being torn off.

It was an unmistakable curse. A cursed yearning that would distort his fate. He threw away all his talents and entrusted himself to that yearning.

And so, despite his lack of talent for the sword, he took up a special sword, and then, he walked down a bloody road with a pride that shouldn’t have had in the first place.

Of course. His fate rejected his will. He had no talent for becoming a hero, and that’s why he was destined to enjoy a miserable life. But even so, he didn’t abandon it.

Rabel declared that this was a clear mistake in his fate. And it was by no means a trivial mistake that could be overlooked. The mistake in his fate had already involved too many people.

「…He probably has almost no memories of the people he knew now. To his true self, no one matters to him. Memories, feelings, even yearning. All of them disappeared instantly when his fate was corrected. That’s all. 」

With a quiet voice, Rabel just awoke the fate that lay dormant within Lugis’ soul. Every time Rabel indulged in this emotion, she wondered if this was what humans felt like.

Then, he is someone who shouldn’t be trusted after all, Junelva muttered with a sigh.

—

The capital of the Bolvat Dynasty, now a city ruled by demons, was lively with people today. The demons didn’t do anything, because they knew those people’s presence was necessary.

The citizens and sorcerers all spoke up.

「Did you hear that? Lord Mastigius…」

「…That’s ridiculous. How could something like that be possible! 」

Speculation, anxiety, and dismay mixed together, and the emotions grew more and more turbulent. The people living in the capital could hardly believe it.

Hearing it once, twice, and even a third time, it was still hard to believe. It was ridiculous. The same words were repeated.

…It was so hard to believe that the Sorcerer General Mastigius La was captured and Volgograd would be executed.

Even among those who showed allegiance to the demons, whether they were sorcerers or citizens, they were in shock.

Even in the face of such a powerful force, humans remained conscious that they were the true masters of the continent. They could succumb for a time, but they believed that someone would eventually drive away the evil forces.

One symbol of that hope was Mastigius himself, and the elite of the Bolvat Dynasty led by him. It was impossible to believe that they had been defeated no matter how many stories they heard.

Hope could only survive as long as it wasn’t cut off.

In front of the Capital’s Imperial Guards main quarters. It was normally a place for lively performances and voices of merchants. But right now, there were multiple execution platforms and criminals being led away.

Magical armored soldiers and elite sorcerers. They were supposed to have left the capital as the main army of the Bolvat Dynasty, in other words, the only hope for the nation, but now they were chained as losers. They were being led by evil hands until the time of their execution, as if they were a spectacle.

The citizens were speechless at this scene, which could only be described as humiliating. And they realized the truth without saying a single word. This country would perish.

Looking down at this scene from the room he was given, the magical devilish being Lugis placed a polishing cloth on his devilish sword. A sword like that shouldn’t need such a thing, but he did it out of habit.

On the bed where he was supposed to sleep, a black-haired sorceress was lying there, not even sobbing. She was still wearing her collar and bracelets, but they were probably not functioning. She was sleeping peacefully. However, she didn’t wake up.

She had been asleep ever since Lugis brought her here. Lugis muttered while looking at her.

「…It’s really odd. Is it alright to do it? 」

Lugis said, gritting his teeth as he sheathed the devilish sword. The demon bird that had been assigned as his attendant spread its wings in fear.

「What’s the matter, Lord Lugis? 」

「What’s the matter? Why should I have to kill people who can’t even resist? It’s shameful. There’s no point in showing trust, those who betray will betray no matter what they do. I have no idea what this woman is thinking. 」

Lugis said, combing Filaret’s black hair with his fingertips. The demon bird didn’t know why Lugis was doing such a thing, but it knew that it would die if it upset that magical devilish being.

「I don’t know what a magical devilish being thinks, but…I think it’s a rite of passage, so to speak. When a young bird becomes an adult, it’s dropped off a cliff to see if it can flap its wings. It’s an unscrupulous analogy, though. 」

A rite of passage, huh. Lugis repeated those words while gazing at Filaret’s sleeping face. He started walking. Then, without a word, he kicked the door open.

The demon bird didn’t know if Lugis got convinced, but he must have swallowed it somehow. The demon bird told the reporting bird with a relieved look on its face.

「Lord Lugis is heading for the execution ground. Send the message, the humans’ executions will proceed as scheduled. 」

With this, the humans’ hope was shattered. Their hatred would no longer be directed at the demonic forces, but at the traitor Lugis.

Humans would never be able to form an alliance again with their hero fallen and siding with the demonic forces. And they would all meet their righteous fate of being consumed by the demonic forces.

The demon bird clattered its beak loudly, keeping in mind exactly what Rabel had said.

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