Chapter 609
Deep underground, like an intertwined burrow.
In a space that should actually be called a tunnel, a faint, dim light flickered.
The deep underground tunnels were filled with the stench of rotting corpses and strange idols.
Somewhere deep within the tunnels, at the deepest point.
A woman sat in the center of the cavity.
People surrounding her, lying on the ground, were listening intently to her story.
‘Do you remember the day the sky opened up?’
‘I saw that spectacle with my own eyes.’
‘Do you know what my first word was at that time?’
‘Wow.’
‘Hard to believe, but it's true.’
‘It might seem wrong to say such a thing after seeing that, but honestly, it was amazing.’
‘When you see rain made of light falling from the sky, even if it falls on your head, you can't help but admire it.’
‘It was so overwhelming.’
‘And it was such a despairing sight.’
‘Judgment, I suppose.’
‘Yes, it was judgment.’
‘The judgment of light falling upon sinners.’
‘The judgment of heaven falling upon sinners who failed to recognize the prophet, tortured and threatened him, and tried to kill him.’
‘Lightning struck the ground, and warp gates that once benefited people must now be removed from the world.’
‘I saw the Demon King for the first time that day.’
‘He looked so sad.’
‘So very sad.’
‘His eyes seemed to have given up on everything.’
‘No one believed in him, and he had failed in everything.’
‘Yet, the Demon King spoke.’
‘He desperately told us how to deal with the upcoming events and how to resolve these issues with less bloodshed.’
‘The demonic seed was struggling to survive, threatening that various events would occur if it wasn't released.’
‘Everyone had no choice but to think that way. I also thought so at the time.’
‘However, the Demon King's words were true.’
‘We had to pay a heavy price for our sin of not recognizing the prophet.’
‘I was one of those sinners.’
‘Although many people inevitably died, how many could have survived because of the words the Demon King spoke?’
‘As countless as the dead were, so too were the survivors.’
‘People don't know the Demon King's kindness. They don't even try to know.’
‘Those who know the Demon King's kindness don't tell others. They don't even think about it.’
‘Isn't it strange?’
‘Good children should receive rewards, and bad children should be punished.’
‘Why did the kindest child in the world have to become the child who committed the worst act, and be known as the worst child in the world?’
‘It's strange.’
‘It's wrong. That's what it is.’
‘The world is like that, so good people can't receive rewards, and bad people take everything. I know that there's such a saying because of that.’
‘Even though it's not true, let's believe it that way.’
‘We should live kindly, thinking that the gods might pity us and give us something.’
‘Even if we can't enjoy glory while living, we might enjoy it after death.’
‘That's why there's a saying that we should live kindly.’
‘It's all a bunch of lies.’
‘You all know it.’
‘If the good deeds we accomplish while alive aren't rewarded, then they simply aren't rewarded.’
‘If the good deeds we try to do while alive turn into bad deeds, then the world is just wrong.’
‘The Demon King's minions had been the ones who caused the Gate incident, so perhaps the Demon King had been in the wrong.’
‘But could it truly have been said that the fault lay solely with the Demon King?’
‘If only they had trusted the Demon King.’
‘If those with power and authority had listened to the Demon King's words, even just a little.’
‘None of this would have happened.’
‘But no one knew that.’
‘This couldn't be right.’
‘To place all blame and punishment on a single person.’
‘To keep it hushed among themselves.’
‘Someone had been a hero.’
‘Someone had been an emperor.’
‘Someone had claimed to be a Holy Knight Commander.’
‘A pope, they had said.’
‘They had claimed it was all for the sake of humanity.’
‘For the sake of the people.’
‘But they shouldn't have been swaggering around.’
‘All sinners themselves.’
‘Placing all the blame on them, saying they were the ones people should hate.’
‘Because if people started receiving hate as well, the world might collapse.’
‘Forcing the Demon King to bear all the burden for such a petty reason.’
‘That was…’
‘Too unfair.’
‘Too infuriating.’
‘Sad.’
‘And disgusting.’
‘The reason I had been saving all of you until now was that I thought there might be at least one thing we had in common.’
‘The Demon King had done no wrong.’
‘The Demon King had been right.’
‘The world had been wrong.’
‘We had been wrong, too.’
‘You who believed in the Demon God had been wrong.’
‘I, who had realized too late that the Demon King was a prophet and started to believe in him, had also been wrong.’
‘But did wrong people get born in a wrong world? Or did they become wrong because they lived in a wrong world?’
‘I wasn't sure.’
‘But I knew one thing.’
‘Mistakes must be corrected.’
‘That's why I had been educating you so well up until now.’
‘I was sorry for getting a little rough at first, but after you started listening to me, I didn't hit you or stick needles under your nails.’
‘I had been tolerant of you believing in the Demon God disguised as the Hero Religion.’
‘Of course, it had been because the Demon God Cult, which believed in the Demon King, had been better than the Hero Religion.’
‘Anyway.’
‘The veil that had hidden the truth had been covering reality for far too long.’
‘The days when sinners had walked the world pretending not to be sinners had been far too long.’
‘That saying, that truth was worthless before reality.’
‘That there were things that should be buried.’
‘That there were sins that should be overlooked.’
‘That reality was harsh, so there were truths to be buried, people to be sacrificed, and people and groups who should avoid responsibility.’
‘I had heard it so much that my ears hurt.’
‘So.’
‘I didn't want to hear such ear-piercing words anymore.’
‘The empire and the holy orders, which had lost their legitimacy long ago, no longer existed for humanity's sake.’
‘They were all just excuses, and they were just monsters existing for their own sake.’
‘Those words telling us to stay still, to be patient just a little longer, to think about it after all this passed.’
‘I wouldn't believe them anymore.’
‘The world would remain as it was.
‘It wouldn't change.’
‘The words telling us to endure would continue forever.’
‘In that case, I would change it now.’
‘Changing it seemed better.’
—---
Rowan, with cold, determined eyes, spoke to those who had prostrated themselves.
"Stand up."
The prostrated ones rose to their feet.
"Let's show them the real reality."
"To the group that had turned a blind eye to countless sins, lied, and deceived people."
"Let's show those who endured in silence just how sick the world has become."
"When chaos of an uncontrollable scale breaks out."
"The moment they paid for the sins they had committed thus far."
"I want to see the expressions on their faces."
"I think it's time to sprout the seeds of division that have been buried under the pretense of a petty cause, under the pretense that humanity must now unite."
Rowan knew that if killing the heretics only made them grow like weeds, it was better to grow trees.
Rowan did not hunt the heretics.
She couldn't help but know from the start that the heretics in the refugee camp were not the culprits of the bone theft incident.
They couldn't have done something she hadn't ordered.
That's why she easily reached the other masterminds behind the empire.
Rowan raised the heretics as trees and had their masters in her grasp.
Obedient slaves, who could no longer think of anything but submission after enduring torture and pain for a long time, were the masters of those trees.
"So now you don't need to live as heretics anymore."
"It must be the will of the gods."
"I believe so."
Therefore, she did not believe in heresy, yet she was the master of all heretics.
I knew where Rowan was. It's just that the range was too wide.
I would soon find out who Rowan had captured. However, most people in the refugee camp didn't have proper identities.
The high priests issued orders, and Rowan carried them out.
But the high priests didn't know about the extensive heretic forces in the refugee camp and their individual leaders in detail.
They left it to Rowan, thinking she would handle it.
But now that the information had become important, they had to find it.
It was not a time-consuming task.
At most, two days, and at the longest, four days.
That should have been enough time to find out where Rowan was.
But time was never given as needed.
Destruction was sudden.
Just as the world had come to this after the sky suddenly opened, the gates suddenly opened, and the situation turned like this.
The reason for destruction was insignificant.
A few misunderstandings and overlapping incidents led to destruction.
The trigger was often not that remarkable.
-Kill! Kill them!
"…"
I was watching a building in the refugee camp burn.
Many people trampled on the fallen corpses, throwing them into the fire.
It was a common sight.
Murders frequently occurred in refugee camps.
But this time, the direction was different.
The refugees killed the guards.
They stole the guards' spears and stabbed their corpses.
The burning building was not a shanty in the refugee camp.
The guard headquarters was on fire.
In the falling snow, I watched the refugees, filled with revenge and madness, set fire to the guard headquarters.
Revenge for the persecution and oppression they had suffered so far was unfolding.
It took only a small act of violence to unleash a torrent of hatred. The guards were also mere humans.
The moment they realized that their violence wasn't absolute, the collapse of this flow was inevitable.
A large-scale riot broke out in the refugee camp of the Imperial Capital.
They killed the guards and set fire to the guard headquarters.
The beginning was easy.
And the moment it began, the initiator themselves could not have controlled the enormous flow of vengeance.
"Your Majesty. We must suppress this."
The emperor listened with a stern expression.
In the refugee camp district, massive riots had erupted, killing guards and setting fire to the guard station.
At first, it was a minor incident. But whoever had initiated it knew that once the hatred towards the guards exploded, it would continue on its own.
The number of guards in the refugee camp was minuscule compared to the entire population. They were somehow controlling the refugees, but once that failed, the people would no longer tolerate it.
It didn't matter who started it.
Everyone had turned their backs on the guards. All they needed was an opportunity.
By turning their backs on the guards, they were also turning their backs on the empire.
If left unchecked, the refugee camp would become a lawless zone.
And the boiling hatred wouldn't end with attacking and killing the guards and burning down their headquarters.
What if that anger turned towards the imperial palace?
What would they do then?
The empire had long been a sandcastle on the verge of collapse.
The gunpowder was ready, and no matter what the fuse was, it was waiting for a moment to ignite and explode.
As long as they could not feed the refugees.
As long as they could not alleviate their cold and hunger.
As long as they could not provide even the most basic safety and comfort.
It was just a matter of time before it happened. The problem was always the gunpowder, not the fuse.
But the empire could not collapse.
It must not.
Not yet.
It absolutely could not.
"Very well..."
The people had been oppressed by the fear of the guards.
The riot erupted only when hatred crossed the threshold of fear.
They could not provide bread.
Because there was none.
They could not provide everything the starving, angry mob needed.
There was only one thing the empire could give them.
Fear.
"Deploy the army and the knights. Execute everyone involved in this situation."
The only thing that could suppress hatred and rage.
Fear.
And the violence that evoked fear.
Regrettably, the empire was not wealthy, but it was strong.
Stronger than ever.
Could a country that did not protect its citizens, but rather killed them, truly be called a country?
Of course, it could have existed.
As long as a country had the violence to sustain itself, it could have continued to exist regardless of its legitimacy.
Massive riots had broken out in the imperial refugee camp.
Guards had been killed, and the guard station had burned down. The guards had retreated en masse to the imperial city.
For a moment, the refugee camp had become lawless.
But that violence had not solved everything.
The angry mob had needed to redirect their rage somewhere and had had no choice but to find a scapegoat.
But that had been temporary.
Bloodshed had ensued.
The empire had deployed a large army and holy knights, destroying any place that had shown even the slightest sign of violence.
The holy knights, composed of superhumans, could single-handedly massacre hundreds of people without mercy.
Furthermore, when the monster-slaying task force was deployed to suppress the riots, the uprising was quelled in no time.
The swords and spears that killed monsters were even more effective against humans.
Violence born from rage had no choice but to cower before the relentless brutality that was almost impossible to resist.
The riot was brief.
Thousands of guards were killed.
But within just a few days, hundreds of thousands of refugees were slaughtered.
The empire had trampled on the burgeoning frustration, asserting that violence belonged solely to the state.
Fear subdued and repressed everything.
But ultimately, all legitimacy vanished.
Everyone knew that it was a lie that the empire existed for humanity.
The brief riot returned as a massive massacre, and the raging mobs were forced to hold their breath, overwhelmed by fear.
While the empire couldn't support the refugees, they could kill them all within days.
Overturning the empire through riots was impossible.
The truth hardly mattered.
People still hated the Demon King.
Only one thing had changed.
People hated the empire as well.
What was the difference between the Demon King and the empire?
Although people held their breath, they began to whisper to each other in hushed tones.
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