Chapter 289 – Suspension.
With the sound of her own footsteps echoing through her hallway, Diana realized that her turmoil had died away with the sound of thunder that had been echoing inside her for some time.
“Is it over now?”
She sighed that it took even Cardinals a long time to subdue the inhabitants of the Underground. It was surprising that even the Cardinals had struggled, although I had expected her to be formidable since time was running out for a handful of people. In any case, Cardinal was unquestionably the strongest among the current Paladins. I didn’t think I would have been defeated.
“I’ve already made up my mind, but I didn’t expect such a tough opponent to appear…”
She never expected that it would take this long to subdue her opponent, who could in fact be considered a single person. She thought that if he had come up with more people, she would have been in real danger.
“So I can’t delay any longer.”
Diana resumed her paused steps and found the door that had been locked with her large padlock and opened it. Then, what appeared in front of her was a dimly lit room with her black mouth open. It didn’t look like a good place for people to stay, but the smell of drifting dust was faint. Every time she walks with the door closed, the echo of her footsteps announces that the place is empty. Approaching the candlestick barely exposed in the shallow beam of light leaking in from somewhere around the center of the room, Diana lit a fire with a tool she had taken from her bosom.
The ember she kindles with her tools touches the candle and creates a spark in the dark. As the candle starts to burn, the darkness that fills the room recedes, revealing another candlestick and a pattern on the floor. Diana used a lighted candle to light the exposed candlesticks one by one, lighting a total of 12 candles in the room. Then, there were 10 circles on the floor of the room that revealed itself. Ten of candles on top of a circle. The other two were burning without a circle of their own, as if guarding a cross lying on the inside of the circle, in an empty space.
“The Beginning Witch is the surest way, but if it can’t be helped, I’ll have to sacrifice myself.”
Diana looked down at the scene and bit her lip. Originally, she wouldn’t have touched such a terrible ritual.
“Why is everyone obsessed with the land like this. They don’t even know if there really is a god.”
She muttered bitterly and closed her eyes. And all she remembers was her childhood. Diana was born in the Holy Land. She is of the saint’s lineage. Even when she was young, she didn’t know what that meant.
“Nanny! Nanny! Can I see you today?”
“Sure. Lady Diana.”
From a very young age, Diana was separated from her mother and raised by her harpy nanny. She didn’t know the reason in detail, but her mother said that as a saint, she had a lot of obligations, so she didn’t know if she would be able to see her once every few years. She did remember, however, that Diana was overjoyed when her nanny told her that at a time she did not remember, she had come to visit her for a while and see her face. She had only seen her mother once, though for a moment, at a festival in her holy place called the Birthday Festival.
Her memory of that day was still vivid in Diana’s memory. The center of the city where festivals are held and many people lively. The sky where her flower petals flew, riding on her nurse’s shoulders, was the image of her mother dressed in pure white among the petals. Clearly, all she had to do was shake her hand at the castle far away, but I could clearly see her beautiful figure, which was not lacking in the word saint. So Diana liked her own blonde hair and green eyes, just like her mother.
She did not know how proud her mother was whenever she heard that she had saved many people by healing people as a saint. So she was really glad that her nanny had told her that day that she could barely see her mother.
“Don’t forget to thank King Pung for allowing her to meet with the saintess. No matter how nice it is, don’t let the saintess hug her carelessly.”
“Nanny too. Got it! How many times has this been?”
She didn’t want to hear her nanny’s nagging, but she couldn’t help but feel excited at the thought of meeting her mother, whom she admired so much. And after going through all kinds of tricky procedures and dozens of doors, she was able to stand in front of her interview room. Diana held her beating heart and opened the door. And there, too, was a woman with blonde hair and green eyes like hers. The eyes of the same color as Diana’s, her mother’s eyes wide open as if in surprise, made her heart burst.
Diana forgot her nurse’s words at that moment and was approaching her with quick steps. It was because her mother was more than happy to see her up close for the first time. But she didn’t notice the growing contortion in her mother’s face. The moment I finally reached her.
“Mom…!”
-Jaaaaa!!
Diana was speechless at her shock of hitting her own face. The left side of her face was as hot as if it had been scalded by a fire, and as if a loud sound had hit her ear, only a beep could be heard in one ear in the stillness. She couldn’t comprehend what had happened, but she was soon informed by a sharp female voice ringing in her ears.
“Why is this in front of me!! Can’t I get rid of that ugly thing right now!?”
The woman’s voice, which Diana knew nothing about and longed for, pierced her heart sharply as she shouted loudly. Diana could only stare blankly at her mother like that in front of her, unable to do anything. Her one ear, which couldn’t even hear the burning pain in her cheek, didn’t care about anything. The only thing that filled her mind was the question of why. What solved Diana’s question was the story of the harpies who dragged her out as if they had been waiting for the woman’s screaming voice.
“Because I knew this would happen!”
She said, “Anyway, even that nanny can’t stop it. She’s said many times that she can’t do it. She finally gets permission from the king of wind and throws it away!”
“Did she think that even if the woman were attached to the child she was forcibly born to, she would feel it?”
Only then did Diana realize. She wonders why she was taken away from her mother and raised by her nanny instead. Even if her mother was, why couldn’t she even meet her father. She was the child her mother forced her to conceive. Her mother, whom she longed for and wanted to meet, did not want her.
“Really, this kid will be a seed when he comes of age.”
“The King of Poong must have thought of giving him an early education.”
Diana realized that her future was no different from her mother’s because she told her story regardless of her presence. After that day, she became locked in the castle like her mother. Her mother didn’t want to come out, and it wasn’t just that she was busy with work and couldn’t see her face often. She was imprisoned in the castle. At first, she struggled and saw an opportunity to escape. However, each time she was caught and imprisoned by them. She ended up doing nothing when she knew that no matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t get away.
I didn’t even want to eat, but they forced me to eat. At least, she didn’t like the bathroom herself, so she took care of it, but she still spent most of the day staring out her window blankly. The scenery seen through the bars was all she could see, as if to inform that many people had already been imprisoned here. Diana seemed to know why the figure of her mother, the first time she had seen her, somehow stood out from afar. She seemed to be in melancholy, but her face, which forced a smile, was not pity for her people, but lamentation for herself.
“Your health doesn’t seem to be bad. Is it still far from menarche?”
“Yeah, that seems a long way off.”
“Take good care of it. Skin should not be burnt, bones should not be visible, and hands should not be rough.”
There were many people who came to see Diana. However, all of them were the ones who came to manage her, not her. She did not know whether to call it fortunate or unfortunate that she did not have her nanny to look after her. It was one day when she passed the day in a daze. The loud sound echoed for a long time, and then the outside of the room suddenly became noisy. Diana looked at her door for a moment, but that’s it, she looked out her window again. Because she had nothing she could do. However, it was around the time when she thought it was strange that for the next few days she only came in for food and no one came.
The door that hadn’t been opened suddenly opened. No, she was right in saying that she fell rather than opened.
“Hey, where else is this? I’ve heard the story, but it’s filthy complicated. How many days has it already been?”
And what you see It was the figure of a knight standing on top of an overturned door as if she had kicked it open. Soon after she met her gaze with him.
“Huh? What kind of kid are you?”
“Uncle…”
“This is the next room! Hurry up!”
But they didn’t even have time to talk. From far away, she heard the familiar voices of harpies.
“Um, I don’t know what it is, but are you being held captive?”
“Swing.”
Diana was confused, not knowing what had happened to her, but when she nodded, he immediately hugged her.
“Then escape!”
“Yes? Wait there!”
And isn’t it just running through a window blocked by iron bars? She tried to shout that it was blocked, but he had already slammed her body, breaking her window with his outstretched feet, and blew the entire barricade above it. He was running along the sloping wall of the castle, absentmindedly at the feeling of the wind brushing his face.
“Wahhahaha! I’ll take that kid!”
“Are you stealing that kid again?!”
“How many times is this!”
That was her first meeting with Yakaf, which Diana remembers. She thought she would never forget that moment for the rest of her life. Even now, his voice was as vivid as if it were talking to him.
“Liberation of Clippa. Did you intend to call in Antigenomgenos? Diana.”
Yes, like now. Couldn’t she have just heard the whirlwind? She thought, but she had never heard of such hallucinations. Her teacher had never said anything like that before. She creaked and turned her body, unwilling to turn, to look where her voice had come from.
“Master…?”
There, Yakaf, her teacher who stayed in her past until just now, was sitting on the stairs and looking at the picture drawn on the floor. It was different from my memory, but I had no choice but to know. That voice, and that golem-like appearance, had been confirmed by her asking Gomel to save him.
“Can’t you see the guys behind you?”
If you follow where he points with his thumb, there is a girl wearing a thin protective plate over a dress and Kayaba, who he thought would have subdued the inhabitants of the underground. But there was no way she could care about that now.
“How the hell did he come up this time?”
“Yes, it is us.”
“Nonsense!! Gomel’s experiment would have failed then!”
“I guess it wasn’t a failure.”
Certainly, if Gomel’s experiment hadn’t been successful, he couldn’t explain why he’s here. But she couldn’t understand.
“…Why?”
If the experiment was really successful, why did he come back now, almost 20 years later?
“I tried my best. I was trying to keep what Master taught me.”
Once upon a time, the place he took her and her escape was the hideout of rebels against her harpies. It was then that Diana learned for the first time that there were many who were dissatisfied with the Var Gadgets and Harpies. The inhabitants of the underground are destined to fight inevitably, but I didn’t know that even those on the ground would fight with them against the harpies. There was a commotion when she found out that Diana was her saintly blood, but she was curious because Yakaf seemed insignificant.
“Mister, don’t you mind that I’m a saint’s bloodline?”
“What’s wrong with drawing that? A child is a child.”
It was clear to see that those who came up from the underground called him Master and followed him. Even people on the ground generally followed him. Was that so? Diana talked often with him. Conversing like that, before she knew it, she was the one who called him her master.
“Master, what do you plan to do if you defeat Vargazzet?”
Diana is said to be of her saintly blood, but in the end she is a branch of her witch. She eventually learned the secret of her shrine. That he was destined to take his place if he really defeated Bargazzet.
“Hmm, well. I’m not interested in the Holy Land. How about letting people go and going somewhere else?”
“Yes?”
It was an answer she hadn’t expected. Isn’t it usually right to hold the power here?
“I am also a resident of the underground after all. What will I do if I defeat Vargazzet and take it instead? There are still people living underground.”
Only then will this situation repeat itself forever. So I’m going to ask you to leave the Holy Land.
“But that’s it.”
“I’ve already prepared everything. I’ve finished talking with the manager below.”
All that remains is to defeat Vargazzet in a good way and leave this holy ground with the people of the Underworld. Diana listened to his story. According to him, she didn’t have to take the place of a saint like her mother. But she couldn’t do what he said. He really did knock down Var Gadget, but he also fell with him. Nevertheless, Diana wanted to make his wish come true. She wants to leave this sacred place with the people.
“But people didn’t listen to anyone!”
Although he said that he worked with his apprentice, most of the rebels were people on the ground who had been fighting Bargazzet for a long time. They wanted to keep themselves in power and wanted other residents to stay in the Holy Land. Why should I abandon the land blessed by the gods?
“So you’re trying to bring in Antigenomgenos? You’d rather destroy the Holy Land?”
She nodded her head, holding back the tears that were about to overflow.
“Why, why did you come back now? Why.”
I wish you would have come a little sooner. Why are you back so late? Only when I’ve done such a terrible thing.
“Well, it’s because it’s so unfamiliar that it’s become like this.”
The body doesn’t even look like a body, so I wondered if I was really hit. Krikaliev, who had been listening to her cries, spoke in a chorus and patted his own body, which looked like armor everywhere he looked.
“So, after wandering around for a while, you finally returned after finding an excuse.”
At his words, Diana covered her mouth with her hand. She did it because she thought that she might be able to revive the dead at least in the form of a golem, as normal methods cannot bring the dead back to life. He didn’t know that it would hurt him.
“I’m sorry. At that time, I couldn’t teach you the most important thing because I was only looking at the future.”
I wanted you to live a more rewarding life. My dreams have become your shackles.
“The important thing is not my thoughts that taught you, but that it was your happiness.”
I wasn’t particularly good at being your teacher. I was able to be your teacher because you called me a teacher.
