Chapter 229: Side Story 21

A Shaman?

But shamans are…

“Under the devil’s command, aren’t they immediately burned at the stake upon discovery?”

“That’s right. In fact, that’s why we haven’t been able to bring a shaman into Valentine Castle until now.”

“Wait a minute. Isn’t Valentine himself the embodiment of the devil’s power?”

Yet Valentine, the devil himself, is left alone while shamans are not allowed.

What kind of contradiction is this?

Yannick seemed to understand her bewildered reaction and added.

“By His Majesty’s command…”

It was ridiculous.

So, that’s what it means.

Grand Duke Valentine is also a devil, but his power is too strong to be dismissed.

But relatively weaker shamans are seen as easy targets to strike down.

“Huh… I see.”

Sabina sighed and pressed her forehead.

“If things continue like this, we won’t last until the Grand Prince arrives. Then it’s over.”

Yannick looked up at her with a gaze filled with desperation.

It was so intense it was burdensome.

“I have a summoning scroll given to me by Brother Calin to use in case of danger.”

She raised an eyebrow and asked.

“Can you call them right away?”

“Yes! Only once, though!”

“And he’s a criminal, right?”

“That’s right!”

“Don’t you value your life?”

Those who cooperate with devil are also executed.

In this empire, only Valentine’s name is allowed in association with devil.

“So go ahead and threaten me, slap my face, and yell at me!”

Yannick closed his eyes tightly and shouted recklessly.

“Huh…”

Sabina let out a hollow laugh.

It seemed this boy wanted to create a situation where Sabina, unable to withstand her coercion, had no choice but to summon the shaman.

“You’re trying to shift the responsibility onto me?”

“Anyway, once you’re married, you’ll become part of the Valentine family. The Grand Princess won’t be punished.”

Now the devil’s name would be allowed for her too.

‘If I summon the shaman, it means I’ll have no way to escape from here.’

The moment she summons Calin, she would be shackling herself and tying her fate to Valentine.

She clenched her mouth shut.

She had rushed here wanting to save people.

But sacrificing her life, dreams, and future for them was a different matter.

Miss, I can’t tell where the land I will settle in will be.

But wherever it is, it will become the land you and I have dreamed of.

…Allen.

Sabina thought of a name she longed for terribly.

It had been three years since she had seen him.

Gradually, her memory of his face and words faded, and her imagination grew poorer.

She wanted to cross swords with him.

She wanted to hear his affectionate nagging.

She missed him terribly.

In that land, you and I can become anything.

In the land of dreams, Miss, Sabina, I will wait for you.

Sabina wanted to become anything with him.

Whether as teacher and student, or father and daughter.

Together with the one person who respected her as an individual in her short life.

“Madam?”

Yannick glanced nervously behind him and bit his nails in anxiety.

Sabina stood still, frozen, without any reaction.

“Madam, we don’t have time for this right now!”

Finally, Yannick raised his voice in urgency.

This startled Gerald, who was struggling to maintain a defensive spell.

“Yannick, you brat! What nonsense have you been spouting to the madam!”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“Your mouth is full of lies! The situation has gone this far and you still haven’t come to your senses!”

Yannick groaned in pain, then fumbled in his pocket and firmly placed something in Sabina’s hand.

It was a scrap of paper.

She looked down at it for a moment, then the boy whispered in a low voice.

“Even in this crisis, the master is an old fool who ignores our only hope…”

“Yannick!”

“Yes, yes, I’m going.”

At that moment, he lifted his head, which he had been scratching at the back of, and was startled.

“Ma, Master!”

And he stuttered, pointing his finger.

“Behind you! Behind you!”

Gerald turned his head.

He gripped his staff tightly, as if to crush it, his throat vibrating.

The Grand Duke Valentine, who had been motionless like a statue, began to move.

With each of his indifferent steps, the gathered people twitched and trembled.

Blocked momentarily by a barrier hastily erected by the mages, he raised his hand.

And then…

“No way!”

He grabbed the last remaining barrier.

Literally, he pushed his fingers into the barrier and grasped it.

A violent flame sparked along with an ominous sizzling sound from the barrier, pierced by brute force.

The Grand Duke’s hand began to blacken and burn.

He seemed to feel no pain at all.

The terrible smell of burning flesh.

The brutal sparks that seemed to devour his hand.

He tore apart the barrier he held without any finesse.

The magic circle surrounding the forcibly broken barrier lost its power in an instant and shattered into pieces in the air.

“Ugh!”

“Cough, kuk!”

Even the mages, who had barely held on, vomited blood and collapsed.

“Ugh…”

As the Grand Duke took a step, the knight at the front let out a pain-filled cry.

He covered his mouth and nose with his palms.

Blood dripped dreadfully between his palms.

The Grand Duke, with an utterly unfeeling expression, passed by the knight who collapsed on the ground.

His face was terribly detached.

With each of his steps, the young grasses instantly rotted and crumbled to ash, scattering in the wind.

“Everyone, snap out of it!”

They couldn’t just stand there helplessly and be attacked.

A knight, tense with anxiety, held his sword, as if brainwashing himself.

“That’s not our Grand Duke we swore loyalty to. It’s a devil wearing his guise!”

He suppressed the primitive fear squeezing his breath and ran, exerting all his strength to the limit.

“Han Ah!”

No sooner had his short yell ended than he was immediately impaled, as much as the recoil of his own charge.

The Grand Duke didn’t avoid the knight’s strike at all, simply extending his hand.

He acted exactly as he had when breaking the barrier. He grabbed and tore at the lodged fingers.

People turned their heads away from the scene, too cruel to witness.

The knight collapsed.

He seemed to no longer breathe.

The Grand Duke stepped over him and mechanically moved towards the next opponent.

“Sa, save me…!”

“Aaaah!”

“Guk, gua, agh!”

Bizarre screams and overwhelming fear spread contagiously.

‘This is the power of Valentine.’

He reached out his hand like a disaster to his own people, taking their lives.

Without reason or emotion.

Like a god governing disaster, come down to this earth to judge humanity.

‘This is the malice of the devil…’

Exposed to the Grand Duke’s power without any barrier, a tingling murderous intent ran through her body, making her tremble uncontrollably.

Sabina clenched her trembling arms tightly.

Suddenly, Sabina’s eyes met the unfocused eyes of the Grand Duke.

‘There’s no reason left. Completely devoured.’

By something called the malice of the devil.

Sabina read the intention of malice in those faded eyes.

An overt intention to annihilate all life present here.

‘It won’t end with just a few.’

At that moment.

Why was it?

Sabina recalled a detestable face that habitually asked to be killed.

‘Tristan Valentine…’

If malice is passed down through generations, the current state of Grand Duke Valentine might be Tristan’s future.

Was that why he laughed so joyfully at the mention of killing him?

Perhaps it was the most desired phrase he wanted to hear in his life.

‘It’s strange. This doesn’t seem like the Devil Grand Duke at all…’

Holding a devil within himself, isn’t he protecting everyone from the devil?

‘Rather, isn’t it closer to a sacrifice…?’

At that moment, Sabina realized the core of the truth she had been deliberately avoiding.

Without knowing the detailed circumstances tied to Valentine, she had pierced through the essence.

She tasted blood in her mouth.

Because she was biting her lips.

‘Allen.’

He is the person Sabina respects the most.

‘So, it’ll be alright.’

He will carve and polish his path more brilliantly than anyone on the land of dreams.

‘Even without me.’

Sabina tormented her lips for a while.

And at the moment the Grand Duke reached out his hand towards Gerald, when Yannick rushed in to protect his master, she eventually tore the paper in her hand.

“Damn kid… I’m sure I told you to avoid dinner time!”

That’s when it happened.

A man suddenly appeared before Sabina, bombarding her with complaints.

He ruffled his messy purple hair and his eyes widened in shock.

“…Who are you?”

Now is not the time to leisurely introduce each other.

Sabina immediately pointed behind him.

“What the hell did Yannick sell me to… Oh my god, damn it!”

Calin cursed as he spewed profanities.

Because the Grand Duke was right in front of him.

Only about 10 seconds away from reaching him.

The shaman, startled enough to stop his heart, bit his finger to draw blood, then swiftly drew characters on his forearm.

At the same time, words poured out of his mouth like a machine gun.

It sounded like a prayer at first listen.

“…May the light that guides us from God not forget the shadow cast at our feet in the fire!”

A prayer-like incantation, close to blasphemy.

“Huuk, hah…”

Calin let out rough, unbecoming breaths, sweating coldly.

The Grand Duke’s large hand was about to grasp his head.

“Surely you weren’t going to rip off my head…”

Not the hair, but the head.

Calin trembled violently, fearing that his ominous imagination might actually be real.

And he quickly backpedaled to put distance between himself and the Grand Duke.

“What’s this situation? Who are you?”

Yannick, the main contributor to summoning Calin, briefly explained.

“He’s Grand Duke Valentine.”

“This crazy son of a bitch…”

Calin let out a string of profanities like a spell.

Yannick interrupted him, throwing out the main point.

“Brother, I’ll explain later. Can you do something about this?”

“Sorry, but I can’t.”

“Just tie him up for a while like now. I didn’t even expect you to solve it.”

“This brat…”

Calin, once a promising genius of the century, but now a shaman who betrayed the magic world and his master, seduced by the power of the devil.

He looked around.

The mages were wary of him.

With blatant hostility and faint hope that he would intervene and solve the problem.

“Always so difficult…”

Calin twisted a bitter smile, then turned to Sabina.

He immediately recognized that she was the superior.

“I can only hold it for a few minutes at best.”

“That’s enough.”

Sabina drew her sword.

“Are you not… going to run?”

He asked with a stunned expression.

It was meant to tell her to escape.

“I’m not going.”

Sabina made her choice.

A foolish decision not to run away.

Having made a dumb decision to give up her dreams, brilliant future, and dear ones, she ought to commit an equally enormous act.

“I have to take responsibility for my choice.”

“Responsibility? To whom are you saying you’re responsible?”

“To me, to myself.”

Sabina faced the Grand Duke tied in the shadows nonchalantly.

And holding her sword, she pierced it straight through his heart.

◊