0.0000001% Demon King - 0DK Chapter 35: The Holy Land (1) (Part 1)

“I grew up in the Holy Land.”

As she confided this, Karos listened in silence.

“There is the largest church where the Pope resides within the Holy Land. I grew up there, learning and believing in many things.”

God is righteous.

The followers of the Sun God do not speak lies.

The order of the Sun God is an existence of benevolence.

Evil is an existence that must be exterminated.

Her values, her thoughts, her perceptions. All of them were formed there.

“Among them, there was a sister who took good care of me. Looking back now, she was probably assigned to take care of me.”

A hint of longing appeared on her face.

“Unlike others, she saw me as a child. She treated me not as a hero but as a human being, her own sister. She taught me how to play and about the basics of being human. I liked her.”

To Sinclair, abandoned by the church, she was like a mother.

“One day, the sister became strangely restless and trembled with fear. Then, with a determined face, she grabbed me and said she had something to tell me. To come to the place she mentioned the next day.”

Sinclair spoke with a blank face.

“The next day, the sister disappeared from the Holy Land.”

Karos listened like a priest hearing a confession.

“I was… misguided.”

Sinclair spoke as if vomiting the words out. Her face was grotesquely distorted.

“Looking back now, there were only contradictions there. I learned nothing but falsehoods in that place. And I was foolish. I accepted everything without a shred of doubt.”

Now, she realized the contradictions. Sinclair looked at Karos with a twisted face.

“So… I ask you.”

The look she gave Karos was no longer one of affection but one that you would give to a stranger, an enemy.

“Who are you?”

“…”

She had realized the truth. She had realized that her past self was misguided. Therefore, she had no choice but to ask Karos.

“Vain. You are strange. You were not afraid of them, being beside the Demon King. Instead, you looked at me and panicked, despairing.”

“That’s correct.”

Karos affirmed. Sinclair continued to question him.

“You said you had to kill the Demon King with your own hands. That it was a promise to take revenge with your own hands. But that’s strange.”

“That’s correct.”

Karos affirmed again.

“I’m the savior who saved your life, a hero of the Sun God. It’s not something a human would do, to ask me to hide the truth about the Demon King.”

“…Have you also deceived me?”

Her voice was strained. She looked at Karos with the face of someone betrayed by a loved one.

At that expression, Karos’s face twisted momentarily, but then it quickly returned to normal, and he nodded.

“I have deceived you.”

Sinclair’s expression vanished. She loosened her tightly clenched fists with a blank face.

Karos rolled his tongue inside his mouth. A betrayed child shows hostility towards the object of betrayal. He was about to speak first, but she beat him to it.

“I don’t blame you.”

“What?”

Taken aback by her unexpected words, confusion appeared on Karos’s face. Sinclair shook her head with a gloomy expression.

“It’s all because I was foolish, naive. Blaming you will only cause me pain.”

She discarded even her anger, smiling bitterly. Karos quietly opened his mouth.

“…I hope you believe that I didn’t use you.”

“Are you asking me to trust the words of someone who deceived me?”

“No.”

To her resigned words, Karos said neither to trust nor to distrust him.

“Whether you trust or not, that’s your freedom, as you have always done.”

“…”

“But if you do trust me, I will show you the truth. I swear upon my former self, before I changed.”

“What truth?”

“The truth about everything you believed and followed.”

*** ***

“You’re back?”

“Yes.”

Karos responded to the slender man’s words. Sinclair came out of the forest belatedly. Her expression was very complicated.

“Why, why do you look like that?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s keep moving.”

Sinclair led the way through the forest. Though the path was rough, the knowledge that they would soon reach their destination sped up their steps. Or perhaps it slowed them down.

Before long, the forest ended, and the Holy Land came into view. The mercenaries gasped in admiration.

“Wow…”

“How beautiful…”

It was a vast city. The walls shone brilliantly in silver, and inside, giant churches were so large they could be seen from the outside.

Surrounding the entire Holy Land was a giant golden barrier. Its faintly shining presence was a miracle in itself.

“This is the Holy Land of the Sun God…”

A gruff man exclaimed, forgetting the situation in pure admiration. A city that only the chosen could enter, the most splendid and happiest city. He too had once dreamed of such a city.

And Sinclair, with a complicated expression, looked at the Holy Land. It was like her hometown, the place where she was born and raised, but she couldn’t purely be happy about it now.

Karos, on the opposing side, twitched his jaw without any change in expression.

“The knights are coming.”

“They must be coming to greet us.”

It wasn’t surprising for the knightly orders to welcome her back whenever she returned to the Holy Land. However, the direction Karos pointed made Sinclair’s face harden.

Hyung_Otaku

I'm currently Translating the following novels: Pick Me Up! | A Frontline Soldier Awakened as a Gamer In The War! | The 100th Regression of the Max-Level Player. If you want to support me and read more chapters please subscribe to my Patreon!

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