DKFTI 124

Aizen grabbed the knight’s arm and stopped him. People’s attention instantly turned to them.

“What… what, what are you doing?”

The knight tried to pull his arm away, but he couldn’t beat Aizen’s strength and struggled. Aizen didn’t even look at the flustered knight. He only looked at the child who had fallen.

He stayed still. At a glance, he looked very calm.

A shadow fell over Aizen’s eyes. Sibel noticed his expression and felt palpable tension. The surrounding knights, aware of the commotion, began to turn around one by one.

“What’s happening. Why are you interfering with us?”

A low voice spoke to Aizen.

“How can a holy knight of the Order use violence on a child?”

Even though Ruru’s spell made their faces blurry, Aizen’s voice pulled the listener’s attention. A subtle anger was palpable in his low voice.

“It’s none of your business. If you’re not drawing your sword on us, then step aside.”

Fortunately, they didn’t recognise Aizen, but they aggressively warned him.

The murmuring grew louder. If they didn’t want their identities exposed and visit our site their infiltration of the temple to fail, they needed to stop here. That was the right choice.

Sibel’s hand twitched for a moment. He probably tried to stop Aizen. But his hand didn’t reach Aizen and fell through the air, and he could only clench his fist.

“There’s nothing I can’t do.”

Aizen drew the sword at his waist.

‘Aizen…’

He had misunderstood. Aizen had lost his holy power, but he hadn’t lost his sense of justice. Sibel felt sorry that he had assumed Aizen’s conviction only stayed alive because of the Apostle’s title and holy power.

Aizen was still a righteous warrior.

Aizen swung the sword without hesitation. The rope that held the child snapped.

The knights drew their swords and immediately attacked Aizen. The clashing blades rang loud in their ears.

“Uh… uh…!”

Sibel had been staring blankly, then snapped back to reality.

Do I need to help him?

***

In the end, the two of them achieved their goal and entered the temple interior. It was quite different from what they had initially planned.

“What is this mess?”

The two of them were locked inside the temple prison. It was obvious. They couldn’t use magic in front of the holy knights. No one could win alone against a group.

“If you stepped in that bravely, you should’ve knocked all of them down.”

“There’s no point talking about something that already passed.”

“You’re shameless.”

The two of them sat in the corner of the cell with their hands and feet tied, arguing.

Even though they ended up stuck in a cell like this, Aizen’s chaos had forced the temple’s high priest to step in. Thanks to that, the child had been released safely.

Where people could see him, the high priest tried to look like a good clergyman. But he couldn’t avoid having Aizen and Sibel dragged in after the disturbance.

“What are we going to do now?”

“We’ll get out in a few days.”

“On the way here, I heard them saying they should label us heretics and send us to the mine.”

The high priest acted gentle in front of the crowd, but in the dark prison he showed his true ruthless nature without holding back.

“You’ll really get divine punishment.”

Sibel probably shouldn’t have said that in front of someone who had already received divine punishment.

“Well, at least we came inside the temple. Why did we bother walking in the hard way? The knights just carried us in.”

“We can leave. It’s not a big deal.”

Aizen shrugged like it was nothing. Then he moved his body and started wiggling his hands. Watching what he was doing, Sibel realised Aizen was using a small sharp stone he had somehow grabbed to cut the rope around his wrists.

“Wow.”

So he had a plan.

Sibel suddenly felt impressed that Aizen had picked up a stone from the ground during the confusion when he had been subdued so quickly.

He held his breath and watched quietly, and he heard scraping sounds. Sibel quickly covered Aizen’s body so the sound wouldn’t leak out.

It didn’t take long to cut the rope. It was surprising how easily he handled something like this.

Aizen cut the rope on his wrists, then his ankles, and then started untying Sibel’s.

“Ow, it hurts when you pull. Do it gently.”

“Be quiet.”

The prison was silent. Fortunately, no one seemed to be listening.

“There.”

Once their hands and feet were free, they felt more at ease.

“The problem now is how to get back into the temple.”

“But isn’t this transformation spell effective?”

Sibel remembered how no one had recognised Aizen earlier. Even now, when Sibel looked at Aizen and then looked away and looked back, Aizen looked like a stranger he was seeing for the first time.

“So I was thinking, if we go out like this again… people won’t recognise us.”

“Do you really want to be that stupid?”

“Come on, let’s test it. Look at that wall and then turn back. Tell me how I look.”

Aizen turned around with a reluctant expression.

“Now turn back.”

Aizen turned his head at Sibel’s words. When their eyes met, he flinched.

“It feels unfamiliar.”

Aizen nodded. The effect that blurred his features was useful in many ways. Since no one could clearly catch his facial features, he looked unfamiliar every time someone saw him.

“So if we just slip out quietly from here, I think there won’t be a problem. But losing my bag really hurts…”

He wanted to find the bag because it had a lot of useful things that could open doors or safes.

Then Aizen smirked and searched around his waist, pulling something out. It was a thin metal pick.

“What’s that?”

Aizen answered Sibel’s question with action. He reached his hand through the bars of the cell door and started picking the lock. A few rattling sounds echoed, and then there was a click as the lock released.

“You definitely had a past besides being an Apostle.”

Sibel saw Aizen’s little tricks and started doubting his past.

***

In a room that was completely white and clean, a dark copper-colored desk stood as if d ividing the pure white space.

In this quiet place, the Holy King sat at a large desk, silently absorbed in his work. The only sound was the scribble of a quill pen on paper.

“……”

After examining the documents for a long time, he quietly set the paper in his hand down. He had been sitting like a statue, then slowly moved his hand and picked up the staff beside the desk, the one set with a clear orb.

He planted the staff on the floor. At that moment, the calm and gentle light in his eyes changed.

“An uninvited guest.”

As his quiet voice fell, a being with a heavy, oppressive aura slowly stepped out from the darkness in the corner of the room.

His appearance was too beautifully radiant for anyone to believe he came out of darkness.

“How did a Demon King sneak into this place?”

Even at the harsh words, the other man only smiled. He crossed the room as calmly as if this place belonged to him. His steps were confident, as if nothing in this world could block his path.

“The scenery here never changes.”

He acted like he was interested, but as his indifferent gaze swept across the room, the Holy’s fingertips grew cold. This wasn’t the kind of demon or Demon visit our site King he had seen in his life. This being didn’t allow anyone to measure his magical power. Nothing about him could be read. He was overcome by a sense of unease, emanating from nowhere.

“I’ve seen countless ones who call themselves servants of God and kings of humans.”

“Who are you?”

“How does it feel to wear two names that conflict with each other?”

“What are you trying to say?”

For some reason, the Holy King broke out in a cold sweat as Leviathan looked down at him, his back straight and his gaze fixed on him. It felt as if he were digging into his soul and mocking him.

“You claim to have a grand conviction to annihilate demonkind, yet you get nervous because of someone like me.”

“Which demon king are you? Why did you sneak into this place?”

The Holy King gripped his staff and slowly rose to his feet.

“How can humans and this world be so unchanging?”

There wasn’t even a smile left on Leviathan’s face. There was only emptiness.

“Do you know? Humans weren’t weak in the beginning. But they walked the path that made them weak.”

“What…”

“Destroying yourselves is like a habit for your kind. Even after a long time passes, that never changes.”

Leviathan walked toward the office window. The large, arched windows of fered a panoramic view of the city.

“The stubborn and fragile nature you have always irritates me.”

What’s weak always catches the eye and steals attention.

“I agree. Humans are weak, and demonkind is evil.”

“Humans are the only species obsessed wi th good and evil. The ridiculous names that don’t interest beasts, demons, or even the heavens.”

Leviathan sneered. His gaze lingered somewhere in the past.

“But I understand. What you need is an excuse and justification. But Holy King, do you know this?”

“……”

“The one who survives is the one who gets to define good and evil.”