Chapter 357 – Ep 1

EPILOGUE 1

The Hell Gate was closed.

The aura that powered the demon forces everywhere was cut off, and victory leaned again towards the defenders of Pleiades, the armies of the kingdom and the emperor.

“UOOOOOOO!”

The last strike of the Wind and Lightning Flurry Strikes unfolded at the fingertips of Count Bayer, the Sword Saint of Wind, cutting off the neck of the Gray Lady.

The flames of Count Chase, who had been waiting for the perfect moment, ignited the Gray Lady, and the emperor’s army burst into shouts of victory at the sight of the calamity finally collapsing.

“We won! We won!”

“Sword Saint of Wind!”

“Red Storm!”

A rather strange situation occurred when the soldiers of the empire shouted out the nicknames of generals from the kingdom’s army, but none of their officers criticized them for it.

Even the imperial Sword Masters were shouting out the names of Count Bayer and Count Chase.

“You did well.”

Count Chase said as he landed on the ground.

As a giant nearly two meters tall, he looked imposing and strong, but his old friend, Count Bayer, could tell.

Count Chase only appeared fine on the outside, but he was actually on the verge of collapsing.

“You must have felt it… She suddenly became weak.”

At Count Bayer’s words, Count Chase slightly frowned and drank a potion.

He spoke as he burned once more the Gray Lady who had already become ashes.

“The power of Hell that strengthened the calamity has been cut off. The sky of the imperial capital has also changed.”

“Yes, I guess the kids have done a good job.”

Their children.

Count Bayer silently smiled as Count Chase’s sight dimmed a bit. He no longer had the energy to stand, so he fell and plopped down the ground before looking to the south where the imperial capital was.

Jude and Cordelia.

Count Bayer’s second son and his daughter-in-law.

The two people who had always loved each other unchangingly despite the world being repeated many times.

To be honest, Count Bayer had very few memories of his past lives.

As Jude had said, Count Bayer was always killed in the early stages of the war.

Even if he wanted to remember, there was not much to remember.

‘But even so…’

There were things that vaguely came to mind.

There were things that he could guess without remembering.

“I hope you two will be happy together this time.”

Without hurting each other.

Without only one surviving and spending their entire life in tears.

I hope that this time, the two of you can live together, loving each other.

“Hmph.”

Count Chase snorted, and Count Bayer laughed.

Count Chase was easily misunderstood because of his personality, appearance, and usual behavior, but Count Bayer also knew again this time.

That Count Chase agreed with him too.

He sincerely hoped for it.

So just like his son, Jude, Count Bayer asked a mischievous question.

“Arthur, will you acknowledge Jude now?”

“Hmph, not yet.”

“I see, you’re saying that you acknowledge him. Since his build problem, the only problem that you used to question, has been solved. Now, he looks quite good, or rather, he looks imposing, right?”

“Not yet.”

“I see, you’re saying that you’re satisfied.”

Count Chase narrowed his eyes at the strange answer that followed, but did not complain.

In fact, everything was true.

The weak and sickly-looking Jude was no longer here.

Jude grew up to be strong and having a very imposing build.

He was the youngest in the continent – no, since the beginning of human history, to reach the level of a Sword Saint, and according to the words of Count Bayer, he was also an existence who reached the sword horizon.

The savior of the kingdom.

Or rather, he was now the savior of the entire world called Pleiades.

His connections were also great.

The kingdom and empire on both sides of the continent were greatly indebted to him, and he had also established friendships with fairies that other people had never seen in their lifetime.

Not only the elves of the Forest of Eternity, but also the elves of the Shadow Forest had good relationships with Jude.

Even that unsociable Grand Sword Master Elune liked Jude.

The ally of the elves.

The savior of the Sirens.

The financier of the dwarves.

The guardian of the wild lands.

Now that he thought of it, Jude also had a lot of money.

Perhaps Jude was the richest teenager in the kingdom – no, the entire continent.

‘He’s the protagonist of a true hero story.’

No, even in hero stories, they were often criticized for being all brawn and no brain.

A happy smile spread across Count Chase’s face, and Count Bayer laughed again.

In fact, it was amazing that Cordelia was the same.

An incomparably beautiful girl.

Could anyone find a more beautiful woman than Cordelia on the continent? That would be hard. No, it was clear that it would be close to impossible.

Moreover, Cordelia was an angel.

She was also an angel that inherited the divinity of Solari, the sun goddess.

To put it bluntly, she was pretty much considered a goddess now.

And since it was Cordelia who had always been with Jude, Cordelia had the same connections as Jude.

Cordelia was also amazing like Jude.

“I’m looking forward to their wedding.”

Count Bayer’s eyes widened at the serious words that unconsciously came out of Count Chase’s mouth, but he soon nodded.

“Yes, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Perhaps it would be the largest wedding in the history of the continent.

It was the wedding of the two people who saved the world, so the guests would be tremendous.

After imagining the wedding for a moment, Count Bayer brightly smiled as though he had returned to his childhood.

Eventually, Count Chase began to smile with him as the two thought of the faces of their children.

***

“We won.”

Kirara blinked her eyes as she spoke with a still mesmerized voice and surprised expression. She glanced at the Serpent King wrapped around her arm, then looked at Violent Avalanche sitting next to her before her eyes widened.

She jumped up from her seat and shouted.

“We won!”

The raging waves finally dispersed and disappeared.

When the Red Gate collapsed and the Yellow Gate was flooded, she thought that it was all over, but the power of the raging waves weakened at some point.

The raging waves, that was advancing and trampling on the power of the wild gods including Violent Avalanche, was blocked in front of the walls of the Yellow Gate.

It was broken up and dispersed by the counterattack of Violent Avalanche who did not miss the gap when it weakened.

It became like a wave hitting the breakwater.

“Yeah! Yeah! We won! We really won!”

Kirara jumped around holding the hands of Violent Avalanche, and the exhausted Violent Avalanche could not even jump properly, so he gasped and became annoyed.

“Let go of me first!”

Let me rest.

Let me catch my breath first.

Violent Avalanche slumped to the ground and completely fell flat on the ground.

He looked at the back of Kirara who had suddenly ran to Elune over there and began jumping around again as she burst out laughing.

‘She has changed a lot too.’

Even if he was old, Violent Avalanche was still a ‘god.’

After hearing about the story of their past lives, many things came to his mind.

Most of it – no, all of it were just terrible memories, but among them were some memories about Kirara.

A child who was always wearing a mask.

A child who treated people with a smile, but was always thinking of betraying and running away.

But not now.

She smiled widely like a child, revealing her honest feelings.

“Yeah! We won! We won!”

“Yes, yes, we won! We won!”

Kirara and Elune held hands and jumped around together, and the soldiers and warriors who were about to die also smiled at that cute sight.

‘I’m sure they’ve done something this time too.’

Violent Avalanche lay down and looked at the sky.

The blue sky was beautiful and clear.

The two people had saved the wild lands, the kingdom, the empire, and even the world now.

‘You can say they also saved the heart of Kirara.’

Of course, they also saved the fate of Violent Avalanche himself.

‘Those very friendly duo.’

They were people he was so grateful of that he did not know how to thank them.

Violent Avalanche smiled like a baby bear and thought of Jude and Cordelia.

He remembered the smiles of the two.

***

Georg the Slayer fled.

Unlike the other calamities, he was a human with a cunning ego.

The moment their strength weakened, he abandoned the soldiers and escaped, so Gaël and Adelia who were already seriously injured had no choice but to let him go.

“Gaël, are you okay?

“Yes, I can bear it.”

Although they were married, the two were still respectful to each other.

Adelia sometimes felt a sense of distance in their relationship, but she did not hate it because this was very much like Gaël. Rather, she liked it.

“How is Musu?”

“They lost their right arm. Still, it won’t affect their life, so don’t worry too much about it.”

“That’s a relief.”

For a swordsman, losing their dominant arm was like a death sentence, but one could still say that they were fortunate.

After all, it was something that could happen as long as one lived.

Like Gaël who was now completely accustomed to using his prosthetic arm.

“Gaël.”

“Yes, Adelia.”

“We… We won, right?”

“Yes, we won.”

The two warmly exchanged words and lightly kissed.

Because of their battle, the two were soaked in blood and sweat, they smelled bad, and their faces were not as clean as usual, but that did not matter to them.

Gaël tightly hugged Adelia.

He recovered very few memories of his past lives, but he could tell.

This was the first time.

That he and Adelia were in a relationship.

“O-Others are watching. H-Here is a little….”

“Eh? Ah, yes.”

As Adelia blushed and said, the embarrassed Gaël hurriedly stepped back.

“Ahem, ahem. Ahem, ahem, ahem.”

Why was she like that if it was just a hug?

There was actually a reason why.

Gaël experienced some changes after his life was saved from the royal capital, that is, after receiving the power of the Essence of the Silver Moon, and he began to be called the Wolf of the Wind.

‘He’s… like a beast.”

In more ways than one.

Gaël coughed again and lightly hugged Adelia from behind.

They looked northwards together before speaking.

“Now, it’s the turn of those two.”

“Yes, I guess I have no choice but to acknowledge them now.”

Gaël laughed out loud at the response of Adelia which closely resembled the temperament of Count Chase.

He hugged again his wife who was both acting shy and giving him a reproachful look.

***

The Snow-White Knight, the incarnation of plagues, ran away.

The Guardians of the Holy Cross, that had already lost more than half of their forces when he suddenly became stronger at some point, gave up on pursuing him.

They focused on rescuing the survivors and escorting the wounded.

Seven-Killings Sword, Seryu, and Sword of Swiftness, Sebastian, sat or lay down in different places to recover.

Both of them were seriously injured.

Seryu seemed like she could be cured if she rested, but not for Sebastian. He would probably never be able to hold a sword again.

But neither of them thought about that right now.

They closed their eyes, feeling grateful for the fact that they won. They did not think of anything else anymore and deeply fell asleep.

Victories continued everywhere.

Even though this was the first war in her life, Princess Leica maintained her dignity as a princess and did not lose her focus, but she returned to her usual self when the battle was over.

Once the tension was gone, she sat down and could not stand up, and the loyal Midas and Vanessa were both embarrassed when they sat down together with the princess instead of helping her stand. No, in fact, neither of them could afford to stand.

Crown Princess Daphne hurriedly spread the news of their victory, and King Henry II of the Sälen Kingdom appeared before his citizens.

He declared the kingdom’s victory in front of everyone.

Actually, their victory declaration was quite early.

Because there was still the Cilates Plains.

However, the Golden Sword Saint succeeded in preventing the king from becoming a liar.

After defeating Grand Sword Master Lucius of the empire who had become a demonic human, he continued to advance north and succeeded in marching beyond the northern Cilates Plains for the first time since the kingdom was founded.

And time passed.

The day became night and the morning came again.

Having stayed up all night awake, Maja breathed in relief at the consecutive news of victory.

When the news of the survival of her now best friend, Dahlia, arrived, she even cried without realizing it.

‘We won.’

She did not know much about war or fighting.

But she knew what it meant when they say that ‘they won this fight.’

It was now all over.

There would be no more fighting.

Dahlia would come back alive, and so would her young master and his fiancée.

They would return, go back to their territory together, and spend their days peacefully and happily.

Maja brought her hands together and prayed.

She thanked and thanked again.

But another day and two days passed.

Despite the fact that two months had passed.

Jude and Cordelia did not return.

***

Autumn passed and winter arrived.

Half a year after the decisive battle in the imperial capital.

Maja returned to the fief with Dahlia.

Located between the central and southern parts of the Sälen Kingdom, the August counties were lively even in the middle of winter.

Because it was a trading city where industry and commerce were primarily developed rather than agriculture.

Cassius, the master craftsman whom Jude and Cordelia had brought, suddenly disappeared, but apart from her absence, the dwarves still hammered the iron every day, so countless people still visited the August counties.

“This is the financial report for this month.”

“Thank you. You may leave it there.”

Maja’s official title was housekeeper, but she was no different from the August counties’ majordomo now, and in addition, she was the highest person in charge of general affairs for the two August counties.

It was definitely difficult for her, who had lived as a maid all her life, to be fully responsible for the trading city that was considered as one of the best in the kingdom.

Even though her intelligence was above average, there were bound to be things that were possible and impossible for her to do.

But Maja carried out her tasks brilliantly.

It was due to the excellent bureaucrats sent by Count Bayer and Count Chase, but if one was to mention the top contributor, it was Dahlia.

As the Knight Commander of the August counties, she diligently helped and supported Maja at the same time.

Maja took off her glasses and let out a long sigh.

There were piles of documents that had to be reviewed within today, but she could not help it since her tired eyes could no longer read the text.

Too much time had passed.

In a little while, the year would come to an end.

And it meant that more than half a year had passed since Jude and Cordelia, her young master and miss, left for the Hell Gate.

Half a year in Hell.

She could not even imagine it.

She was afraid in even trying to imagine it.

On what happened to the two.

If the two were still alive.

If the two would return.

Her heart weakened.

She kept thinking about scary things.

“Maja.”

She suddenly came to her senses and raised her head to see Dahlia.

Dahlia bit her lip and then hugged Maja.

“It’s okay. They’ll be fine. They will definitely return.”

If Jude was no different from Maja’s younger brother, Cordelia was like Dahlia’s younger sister.

Maja who had turned pale without realizing it, slowly nodded. She hugged back and depended on Dahlia’s warmth.

“Have you calmed down now?”

Maja lightly nodded at the question of Dahlia.

Over the past half a year, they relied on each other, sympathizing together amidst their hardships, so they ended up becoming close.

“Then let’s go. A guest has arrived.”

“A guest?”

“Lord Lucas is here.”

Lucas Hræsvelgr.

A great hero that the kingdom was proud of.

The Sky Sword Saint who was revered as the strongest among the Ten Great Swordmasters.

But for Maja, Lucas was known for something different. He was her young master’s best friend.

Why did he visit without a notice?

Perhaps there was some good news?

Her heart began pounding.

She was scared at the same time.

If there was no news this time around.

If only dreadful news arrived.

“It will be fine. Miss Scarlet and Lady Kajsa are together with him, and they have bright expressions on their faces. Kirara is with them too.”

Dahlia spoke as though she was soothing Maja, and Maja slowly nodded.

After adjusting her clothes, she straightened her back and arranged her posture.

“Oh, now you’re the Ice Queen.”

Maja frowned at the silly nickname given to her by the county’s maids and butlers, and Dahlia laughed again.

As if escorting a lady, she left the office holding Maja’s hand.

“I apologize for making you wait for a long time.”

Maja entered the drawing room and gave her greetings.

Although Maja ruled the counties on behalf of Jude and Cordelia, her actual status was just a commoner.

On the other hand, the one standing before her was a leading noble of the kingdom and a great hero who saved the world himself.

But the hero paid Maja the same respectful courtesy.

“It’s been a while since I last saw you, Maja.”

Maja’s face had become thinner before she knew it, so Lucas was worried. But she reassured him with a small smile.

After greeting Scarlet, Kajsa, and Kirara, they sat down.

“Maja, we have something to tell you today.”

As soon as the chatter to ease the mood was over, Lucas straightened his posture and said.

Maja had already expected this development, but her fingertips lightly trembled. Dahlia also gulped.

“As you know… It has been half a year since Jude and Cordelia left beyond the Hell Gate. And they have yet to return.”

Maja gritted her teeth at the calmly stated facts.

Dahlia gently held Maja’s hand and looked at Lucas.

Lucas would not have come all the way here just to talk about this.

“Jude and Cordelia are alive. It’s not a vague belief. It’s not even a wish. It’s a clear fact.”

Lucas asserted.

It was something they wanted to hear so much, but Maja and Dahlia were both happy and confused.

Lucas was not this determined in his previous visit here.

What in the world had happened?

“We have gotten confirmation from the fairies. The Fairy King’s Protection is still with the two of them.”

His words were simple, but the meaning it held was great.

Dahlia who did not understand it for a while soon opened her eyes wide, and Maja swallowed hard again.

Lucas continued his words.

“Jude and Cordelia are alive. The two are still fighting somewhere in Hell. So we have decided to form a rescue team.”

“Rescue… team?”

When Dahlia asked again, Lucas nodded his head. Kajsa who was quietly listening next to him then said with a smile.

“There’s no rule telling us that we’re the only ones who have to suffer, right?”

Only Heaven and Hell invaded Pleiades.

Why only them?

Why should Pleiades be the only one to suffer?

“Heaven is no longer our enemy. Archangel Raguel made a promise. So we only need to focus on Hell.”

At the words of Scarlet, Dahlia turned to Maja.

The intelligent Maja immediately understood what Lucas and the others were saying.

She also realized what having a rescue team meant.

“We’ll be going.”

Kirara said.

Instead of being scared and terrified, she clenched her fist as her big eyes were filled with courage.

Lucas looked at Maja.

He spoke with a face of a hero as reliable as Biltwein.

“We will go to Hell and save the two.”