Chapter 727 – Wait (3)
Yusra Kingdom. Golden Palace.
A soldier stopped a beggar.
“Stop right there!”
“I’ve come to deliver a message to King Hakuna.”
“You? Deliver a message to His Majesty?”
“It is a message from one of the Ten Thrones—Vassago.”
“W-what?!”
At the same time—
“What? That scammer bastard—no, Di Mazzio—sent a letter?”
A letter had arrived at the Today Arcana production team.
Not just Yusra or VBC.
New information had spread across every land touched by the prophecy.
“Vassago—the Ten Throne—has surrendered?!”
The gates of the Demon King’s Castle opening—
The world already knew. They had been watching it closely.
They had even prepared for it.
But the gates, once tightly shut, opening from the inside?
-Is the Vassago raid finally starting???
-Didn’t Lee Hoyeol just secretly open the gate?
-Here come the Hoyeol fanatics again
-Everything turns into Hoyeol with you guys lol
-I like him too, but this seems unlikely… he hasn’t even shown up near the castle?
Unless it was a trap disguised as surrender—
“Should we believe this or not?”
It was hard to accept it as genuine surrender.
After all, hadn’t they learned from experience?
Barbatos had been the same.
“Can we really trust this?”
“Didn’t Barbatos act all nice at first too?”
“For now, let’s detain them. Just in case.”
Those who delivered Vassago’s message were arrested first.
But nothing came of it.
Vassago had withdrawn his authority from his avatars.
“DiMazzio really doesn’t seem to know anything.”
“Magic isn’t working.”
“Even black magic shows no deception from Vassago.”
In the end, the news reached Hoyeol without progress.
Knock, knock.
Marcelo—his expression now heavy—knocked on the Chief Mage’s office door.
“You may enter, Marcelo.”
“My lord, I have something to report—”
“Sit first.”
Marcelo checked the time and flinched.
‘Already that time?’
Tea time.
Even without checking, his body reacted automatically.
During Hoyeol’s absence—which had felt like eternity—Marcelo had learned the art of tea.
‘If my lord permits, I could brew green tea for him…’
But—
“Is something troubling you?”
“Yes, there is.”
…Hoyeol skipping tea time?
‘Well… this isn’t the situation for it.’
Marcelo steadied himself.
“This concerns Vassago. His whereabouts are unknown.”
Surely, a man who would never tolerate demons running free—
But—
“I see. Leave him be.”
“…!”
“Wherever he hides, nothing will change.”
Unexpected.
‘I do not doubt him.’
Hoyeol understood demons better than anyone.
If he said so, it must be true.
Still—
Marcelo worried.
‘If not because of a demon… then why would he…’
Forget tea time?
His face turned pale.
‘Don’t tell me… he’s quit green tea…?’
Then what about me, who can’t live without it now…?
*
- read only at pindangscans
*
Marcelo left.
“…I’ll take my leave.”
He had clearly seemed bothered.
‘No wonder.’
Even I hadn’t expected Vassago to act like that.
Sure, I showed him mercy—
but I never truly expected him to abandon malice.
‘Call it a whim.’
Or maybe—
I wanted to believe.
Not all demons are the same.
‘Otherwise, I’d have to treat you the same as them, Grandfell.’
That’s right.
Showing mercy to Vassago had been… practice.
‘Still, thanks for not stabbing me in the back immediately.’
Of course, it wasn’t just blind hope.
I calculated it.
Letting Vassago live vs. killing him.
‘If I killed a Ten Throne—’
There was Authority.
‘For Vassago… 【Father of Avatars】, was it?’
A power dragged from old memories.
Until now, I could wield Authority thanks to Grandfell.
That’s why demons had been shocked—how could a human wield it?
‘The experience would be huge, sure.’
But levels and stats weren’t that important.
The system itself was unstable anyway.
‘Even using what I already have is hard enough.’
Back to Vassago—
‘His avatars are still intact.’
From DiMazzio’s appearance, they’d lost prophecy-related abilities.
‘Which means Vassago can’t act freely.’
To truly act, he’d have to reclaim their lives.
Marcelo would monitor them.
‘If something happens, I can suspect him then.’
For now—
I hoped. Akshan. Even if it defies a demon hunter’s logic…
“Please… live a new life, Vassago.”
Only if the truth—
Demons cannot change—
is proven wrong…
“I’m hoping for it with all my heart.”
I stopped thinking there.
Before Marcelo knocked, I returned to my focus.
Entering—
The Social Hall of Spacetime.
A mental realm where time was effectively frozen.
I climbed to the top floor and reached for the spacetime quest scroll.
‘Even if it contains an eternity of memories—’
I can witness them all.
No—Beyond that.
I, Lee Hoyeol. As a player, even with the system broken—
‘I can go beyond witnessing it—I can clear it.’
You might ask—
What is this ‘plan’?
How grand is it, anyway? Is Lee Hoyeol, who’s failed time and again, really that confident?
Why come here?
I’ll show it through action.
But at least this—
‘What I want is…’
So, the reason I’ve gone through endless twists and turns is this—
Because I wanted to save Grandfell.
Not kill him.
Then you’d ask—
Why make a promise with Grandfell in the first place?
I regret it too.
No matter how much I thought about it, it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to keep that promise.
Why?
‘Looking back on my memories from previous cycle…’
I think I’ve broken a promise before.
-“I’m sorry… I can’t do it.”
Lee Hoyeol from the previous cycle. I distinctly remember him saying that while crying his eyes out. Anyway, let’s stop with these embarrassing flashbacks.
‘A promise? Yeah, I did make one this time, too’
This time too—
But I’ll return the message:
Everything has give and take.
After all, you extracted a promise from me, who knew nothing. I let the corners of my mouth curl up slightly.
‘You should try being in my position.’
…Sounds like I’m the bad one.
But you avoided me first.
Until just a moment ago.
We had a chance to meet.
You know that better than anyone, don’t you?
“So…”
I focused on the scroll.
Memories surged back.
My lips twisted bitterly.
“…Even if you forget, don’t hold a grudge.”
*
- read only at pindangscans
*
Memories float up. It’s been a while—since I looked at the memories of the previous cycle without turning away.
Only I remembered the moment a world ended. That was a relief. To remember such a horrific sight was no different from a curse.
A reversal not accompanied by perfect understanding.
The aftermath can be known just by looking at the reversed Demon Realm. It goes without saying. Until now, time has never once been reversed under perfect understanding.
The Cursed Flesh—they were the proof.
They do not accurately know what they hate, nor why they hate it. They merely chase after the faintly engraved memories of the previous cycle.
‘Us.’
I did not want you to learn the truth. Because you are different from me. However, in this cycle where we prepared for the end, many variables arose.
Grandfell could no longer be certain.
Just from the fact that about half of the karma weighing on his shoulders had disappeared, one could infer it.
In the end, would we repeat failure again this time as well?
To say it wasn’t regrettable would be a lie. Because, using the previous cycle as a mirror, it was possible to guess what kind of expression you would make at the moment this cycle ends.
I did not want to see that expression, which I could not grow accustomed to.
That is why I wished every time for it to be the last, and yet—even at the moment he sensed failure, Grandfell did not despair. He merely prepared for the next.
Entering the top floor of the Social Hall of Spacetime. He leaves the memories newly obtained in this cycle in the form of [Requests]. A space of consciousness free from the flow of time. Just as the memories engraved in exorcism rituals remain intact even if time is reversed, the Social Hall of Spacetime is the same.
One by one…
It is a task as familiar as the repeated time itself. It did not take long to engrave completely new memories, excluding duplicated ones.
However, why was it?
He wanted to examine past memories. More precisely, thanks to the Holy War Alliance clearing the curse, he wanted to examine the past memories that had grown faint within Hoyeol.
However.
Tap.
“!”
I sensed your presence.
Grandfell hurriedly withdrew from the consciousness. Why he was in such a hurry did not matter. He simply did not want to face Hoyeol.
“……”
After exiting the consciousness, he came to realize the reason Hoyeol had come to the top floor.
‘Could it be.’
Was it because he had allowed many variables, thinking it was the last? To think that you would realize the secret of that place. In that instant, an answer came to Grandfell’s mind.
But Grandfell could not carry it out. Because he lacked initiative? Because his blood green-tea level was low from leaving half behind? No. It was because he had forgotten.
Now—even he himself—the memory of the first cycle with Hoyeol, which he had tried to remember.
.
.
.
On the day he closed his eyes, the Emperor of the Empire had seen it—the absurd truth of this world.
It was something that would never end—like a game of tag where the tail chases its own tail. Yet, the Emperor saw the answer.
Could they reach that answer? That was an unknown domain, but that it was the correct answer was certain.
“As long as neither forgets the other.”
In the end, it means it is a story that will never end, forever.