#746 (Patreon)

Dave (3)  

The crowd stared with blank expressions.  

Oliver’s words were shocking, even arrogant.  

No, perhaps it was beyond arrogance.  

To claim that heaven hadn’t abandoned them because he had come to their aid was as good as declaring himself either heaven itself or its representative.  

“...”  

And yet, surprisingly, while people found his statement to be audacious, they also accepted it naturally.  

It was a paradox, but seeing Oliver—his thin frame, bleached hair, and calm demeanor—they couldn’t help but believe it, without any explanation or proof.  

In a city filled with fire and madness, a serene calm emanated from Oliver, spreading outward.  

The frightened crowd didn’t resist that calm.  

Well, most of them didn’t.  

“We need to settle things before we can begin evacuating people.”  

Oliver’s tranquil voice broke the silence as he turned his gaze toward someone.  

It was the corpse dolls who had tried to seize Prince Albert moments earlier.  

Though they had hidden themselves among the crowd when Oliver appeared, his piercing eyes saw through them instantly.  

The soft yet sharp gaze locked onto the corpse dolls, and the surrounding people instinctively backed away from them.  

“D-damn it...”  

The corpse dolls, who had been waiting for the right moment, cursed under their breath and moved to take someone—anyone—hostage.  

But—  

“Everyone.”  

Even that attempt was foiled when Oliver addressed them.  

At his words, their bodies froze on the spot.  

“H-hiiick...”  

The would-be hostages let out panicked cries and retreated, narrowly escaping.  

The corpse dolls, now out of options, stood rooted in place, staring at Oliver.  

Their already lifeless faces grew even paler, filled with fear.  

“To be honest, I’d like to ask you to retreat now,” Oliver said as he approached them.  

The corpse dolls responded with silence.  

“But I know you can’t. Not for yourselves, but for Puppet.”  

By then, Oliver was standing directly in front of them, close enough to reach out and touch.  

“So I’ll help you step back.”  

Oliver gently loosened the bandages on his right arm, revealing fingers charred like burnt twigs.  

Though they looked agonizingly painful, Oliver remained calm, speaking to the corpse dolls with his usual composure.  

“Do what you wish to do.”  

With that, Oliver granted them permission to act.  

In that instant, the corpse dolls transformed again.  

Drills, spinning saws, and blades sprouted from their hands, while machine guns and shotguns emerged from their faces, chests, and abdomens.  

Dozens of lethal weapons designed solely for killing aimed at Oliver and launched toward him in a flash.  

Just as the weapons were about to strike his body, Oliver, as if existing on a different timeline, slowly raised his hand and snapped his fingers.  

Snap!  

A flash of white flame erupted.  

Fsssshhhh...  

The corpse dolls disintegrated into ashes.  

Not only the ones near Oliver but also those causing chaos across the entire capital.  

It was an overwhelming display of power—so extraordinary it seemed almost omnipotent.  

The crowd, stunned, stood frozen.  

Through the silent crowd, two women stepped forward.  

“Father, we came as soon as the path cleared, just as you instructed.”  

“We’re ready, Dave.”  

The women were Eve and Pandora, who appeared out of nowhere and stood before Oliver to report.  

Oliver welcomed them as if he had been expecting their arrival.  

“Thank you. It couldn’t have been an easy task.”  

“Thank you, but we should hurry. Time is running out.”  

“The space is shifting further. Soon, even the World Tree will slip out of control,” Pandora and Eve urged him.  

Oliver nodded and pulled a small bean and twig from his pocket.  

They appeared ordinary—no different from any bean or twig one might find anywhere—but as soon as they rested in Oliver’s hand, they began to glow green, bursting with new life.  

“Mike?”  

It was the correct answer.  

The newly sprouted bean and twig intertwined, taking root in the ground and transforming into a microphone.  

Oliver handed the microphone to Prince Albert.  

“This... this is?”  

“It’s a microphone. It’s connected to all the radios in the capital. Soon, people will arrive here to assist with the evacuation. You need to broadcast this information to calm the people. If chaos persists, even reinforcements won’t be able to manage the evacuation.”  

Prince Albert nearly said, “Why me?”  

He understood why Oliver was making such a request.  

Among everyone present, he held the most credible position—he was Prince Albert, no matter what else he might be.  

And yet, the irresponsible words “Why me?” almost slipped from his lips because of the overwhelming fear he felt.  

He doubted whether he had the ability or the right to take on such a role in this crisis. The thought left him breathless.  

“Haa... Do I even deserve to do something like this? All of this happened because of the royal family.”  

“That’s why it must be you, Your Highness.”  

Oliver’s brief and straightforward response left Albert unable to argue. He lowered his head, consumed by fear.  

“I... I’m not confident I can do it... I don’t know if I can...”  

“Why don’t you know?”  

“Because I’m just a powerless kid. All I’ve done so far is rely on others for help. That’s it... all I’ve done is receive help...”  

Reflecting on his actions, the prince began to cry.  

The prince who had fled the palace, learned horrifying truths, witnessed the chaos of the city firsthand, and endured the hatred of its people—now shed tears for the first time.  

The crowd, freed from their madness, felt an indescribable emotion as they watched his tears.  

“I have no abilities at all.”  

“You are not without anything, Your Highness.”  

At those words, Albert slowly raised his head.  

Oliver knelt on one knee to meet his gaze.  

“You didn’t turn away from what was happening in this city. You faced your sins directly and even asked for help. That takes courage. That’s why I’m asking for your help, Your Highness—because you are courageous. Please help me.”  

Oliver requested Albert’s help. He asked him to assist him.  

“...Do you think I can do it?”  

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t believe you could.”  

“Can I really do it as well as you?”  

“No, Your Highness. I believe you’ll do far better than me.”  

Tears welled up in Albert’s eyes, and he rubbed them away with both hands.  

For quite a while.  

“Huff... Huff... Dave, the microphone... could you please hand me the microphone?”  

“Here it is, Your Highness.”  

***  

For a fleeting moment, so brief it could be mistaken for an illusion, the world turned completely white.  

As mentioned, it was such a short instant that it could have been ignored, but everyone froze in place, unable to act.  

The reason?  

Some of the figures before them slowly turned to ash and crumbled away.  

No, correction. They weren’t people. Upon closer inspection, their bodies had bones and organs replaced with steel and mechanical components.  

They looked human on the outside, but they weren’t human within.  

“Corpse... dolls?”  

Someone in the crowd, still struggling to grasp what was happening, muttered those words.  

The figures that had turned to ash were corpse dolls.  

In other words, the man who had shouted that all orphans and prostitutes should be killed, the orphan caught setting fires, and the prostitute who forced children to commit arson—all of them had been corpse dolls.  

All the figures who had incited chaos in the city.  

“What... what is this?”  

Even after seeing it with their own eyes, people stumbled in place as if haunted by ghosts, unable to comprehend what had happened.  

At that moment, the adults chasing children in packs and the children fleeing from them were no different.  

Then it happened.  

[Attention, citizens.]  

A new voice emerged from the radios amidst the lingering white glow and the people’s hesitation.  

The voice sounded young, almost like a boy’s.  

Hearing it, the people in the burning streets, where blood still flowed, stopped what they were doing and turned toward the radios.  

[I am Prince Albert.]  

“Prince...?”  

“The prince?”  

“The royal family—the cause of all this—”  

[We are under attack. By the schemes of wicked individuals, we have been poisoned with suspicion, fear, hatred, and loathing.]  

“What nonsense! The royal family dares to spew this garbage?”  

“Exactly! This disaster happened because of you!”  

[And our royal family contributed to spreading that poison.]  

The voices criticizing the royal family went silent.  

[I will not deny this. Whether it was one member or two, the royal family bears significant responsibility for causing this catastrophe. I do not deny this. But I ask you to please listen to my voice. We are heading down the wrong path.]  

Some people tried to speak, but others placed hands on their shoulders, signaling them to be quiet.  

[Your enemies are not the orphans or the prostitutes. The claim that they set the city ablaze under royal command is false. The fires were started by corpse dolls hiding among them.]  

A few shouted in disbelief at the radios, but their numbers and conviction were nothing compared to before.  

After all, they had just seen the corpse dolls hiding among the crowd.  

[Just as a single sin cannot define an entire life as sinful, the crimes of a few cannot condemn an entire group. Citizens, please, stop now. Do not commit any more sins. Every action you take now only adds fuel to the fire of this calamity.]  

Among the people scattered throughout the burning streets of the capital, some wore expressions as though they had just been doused with cold water.  

Some of the citizens, who had been holding orphans in their grip, began to waver.  

A few, questioning their actions, let the orphans go.  

The freed orphans attempted to run, but others quickly caught them again.  

The faces of those who held them revealed fear and stubbornness—a fear that what they were doing might be wrong, might even be a sin, and a stubborn denial of that fear.  

“L-lies! Even in this situation, lies!”  

“Y-yeah! They’re only saying that because they’re losing!”  

“I saw it! I saw the orphans start the fire! I saw it with my own eyes!”  

They desperately tried to deny their sins.  

[I understand. I understand how frightening it is to accept that what you’ve done might be wrong. But that’s why you must stop now. We are being tested. Please, everyone, regain your senses and ask yourselves—was what you did truly right or wrong? Remember, your God is... your God is watching over us.]  

“...”  

The people shouting at the radios slowly fell silent, one by one.  

Then, they released the orphans they had been holding.  

The orphans, freed from their grasp once again, didn’t run this time.  

Instead, they looked into the faces of those who had let them go.  

For some reason, their expressions mirrored the faces of the citizens who had been chasing them—fearful and lost.  

[Please, everyone, regain your senses and restore order. Help will arrive soon. Until then, please don’t fall into despair. Wait for them.]  

Prince Albert pleaded desperately through the radio.  

His voice carried a powerful conviction, enough to pull the people swept up in madness back to their senses.  

However, while it restored reason, it didn’t plant hope.  

The majority of the capital’s citizens had already realized there was no escape from this city.  

Although it was still daytime, the sky was as dark as night, and the city’s geography had become a chaotic mess.  

Perhaps the frenzy of hunting orphans had been their way of coping. After all, madness is often the best escape from incomprehensible fear.  

The prince’s words were righteous, but righteousness alone couldn’t solve their problems.  

Now, even those who couldn’t flee from their sins had begun to fall into despair, abandoning hope.  

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-!  

At that moment, a massive dragon of flames erupted from the ground, soaring into the sky in a towering pillar of fire.  

The dragon was so enormous that everyone in the vast capital could see it.  

As the dragon leaped, the ground trembled. As it flew, the air shook.  

When the dragon touched the heavens, its flames spread across the darkened sky, illuminating it.  

The dragon didn’t stop there.  

It unleashed a magnificent breath of fire, burning away the darkness.  

The citizens of the city all witnessed the sight and felt something indescribable.  

The dragon, once a symbol of disaster and driven to extinction because of it, now inexplicably inspired hope.  

“Truly, one lives long enough to see everything.”  

Amid the crowd’s entranced gaze at the dragon, a voice with a northern accent echoed.  

The citizens turned their heads toward the sound and saw someone walking out from the flames spreading across the city.  

It was a spatial transfer spell, using fire as the medium.  

Such magic was rarely seen, leaving the onlookers in shock.  

But they were even more astonished when they realized who had emerged from the flames.  

The figures stepping through the fire were—  

“To think we, the Kel Liberation Army, are here to save the people of the kingdom.”  

Willes muttered bitterly, leading the Kel Liberation Army fighters.  

“If you wish to live, follow our lead.”  

***

In the dimly lit section of the royal palace, shrouded in darkness as if from a power outage, access had been restricted for some time.  

Even the royal family was barred from entering.  

Only a select few royal secretaries and one Red Man had permission to enter.  

It was a curious situation—an area within the royal palace, a property of the royal family, was off-limits even to them.  

And yet, one Red Man could enter.  

In this mysterious space, the faint sound of a radio broadcast could be heard.  

A desperate plea to stop, filled with talk of God watching over them—a plea dismissed as nonsense by the Red Man.  

If he had been able to speak, he would have laughed derisively at it.  

“...Brother.”  

The Red Man, who had dismissed the heartfelt plea of the second prince as nonsense, flinched at the word “brother.”  

The one who had sworn an oath of silence to become a prince of hell rose to his feet in response.  

“Are... are you there...?”  

A boy, his entire body burned and his eyes blinded, reached out a hand that had melted like wax toward the void.  

In response to his brother’s call, the man known as the Unbending Knee grasped the boy’s hand.  

“...”  

He offered no words, only holding the hand of the boy who had called out to him.