WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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◈ Whispers of a Scheming Demon ◈
Chapter 38: Gawain (1)
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More than ten chains rushed at the airborne Johan.
They were holy magic meant to capture him.
In demon form, Johan could have easily evaded chains like those.
The problem was the Ominous Book.
‘It’s too cumbersome.’
Flying while clutching a mirror as large as a person made his movements slow and unnatural.
“Don’t let him get away!”
“Throw everything at him!”
They even brought out consecrated arrows and enormous lassos.
The sky filled with countless weapons.
Johan barely avoided the attacks as he alternated between gliding and ascending.
‘This will never end at this rate.’
The number of enemies kept growing, while his stamina gradually declined.
Those gathered now were mere small fry, but overwhelming powerhouses would join them soon.
Johan had no way to deal with them in his current state.
He might have to abandon the Ominous Book and focus only on escaping.
The instant that thought occurred to him, the Ominous Book began to convulse in his arms. It continued trembling as it turned into black smoke.
It crumbled into powder as though it were weathering away.
The drifting black dust was absorbed into Johan’s body.
Then red words filled his vision.
The same phenomenon that had occurred when he evolved by offering Betra as a Sacrificial Offering was happening again.
‘I don’t have time to read it.’
Escaping came first.
Once the cumbersome Ominous Book disappeared, Johan’s movements noticeably quickened.
He began easily dodging the weapons rushing at him.
He had enough room to gain altitude.
Johan spread his wings wide.
His body shot into the air.
A black shadow raced through the night sky.
“Catch him!”
“Don’t let him go!”
The desperate shouts gradually faded into the distance.
* * *
Johan folded his wings and descended to the ground.
There was no way he could continue flying.
Clergy were spread out everywhere, and the Holy Power Sealing Formation encircled the area in every direction.
He had been completely surrounded.
There was no gap through which he could escape.
It was the greatest crisis he had faced since possessing this body, but there was a solution.
‘Wait until morning.’
Once the sun rose, Johan would turn human.
The encirclement meant nothing to Johan in human form.
No one would even ask why he had come here.
The Great Saint Church had lit signal fires, and it was only natural for a noble to answer that call.
In fact, many nobles were voluntarily heading here.
Johan would become one of them.
As long as he could last until morning, his survival was guaranteed.
Johan immediately entered the cave before him.
From what he had seen from the sky, this was the most suitable hiding place available.
A rocky cave deep within a dense sea of trees. It was completely enclosed, so even searching it would not be easy.
Even if they somehow found it, it would already be morning by then.
‘At least I bought a few hours.’
Johan looked around after entering the cave.
There was not a trace of light, but a demon’s eyes could clearly distinguish every object.
Clusters of stalactites hanging from the ceiling dripped calcareous water.
The stalagmites jutting from the ground resembled sharp teeth.
Damp moisture wrapped around his entire body.
Johan felt as though he were walking inside the mouth of a beast.
If Kaiaje had devoured him, this was probably the sort of sight he would be seeing.
He snickered and sprawled on the ground.
‘I’m exhausted.’
The last few days had felt like a month.
From the moment he came into contact with the original Ominous Book until now, incidents had occurred without giving him a chance to catch his breath.
His birth mother had suddenly regained consciousness, Kaiaje had manifested on the surface, and the Great Saint Church was pursuing Johan.
Everything had begun with one thing.
Contact with the original Ominous Book. That was what had caused this whole mess.
Come to think of it, it had been Ilea’s suggestion.
He had no intention of blaming her, but one question remained.
Had she expected a situation like this?
Probably not.
If Ilea had anticipated Kaiaje’s manifestation, she surely would have stayed by Johan’s side.
But she had left to obtain a copy of the Ominous Book.
In other words, even a Witch had possessed no information about Kaiaje.
That was what the circumstances suggested.
Still, there was a strange uneasiness.
‘You can never tell what she’s thinking.’
Johan fell into thought for a moment.
He reflected on the past.
Even before he came into contact with the Ominous Book, Ilea had seemed certain Johan was an Apostle.
What had been her basis for that?
‘She did give a reasonably convincing explanation.’
At the same time, he wondered if it had not been a little flimsy.
What if Ilea had hidden a decisive reason?
Johan shook his head.
‘She has no motive to do that.’
Johan was Ilea’s heart. No one would toy with their own heart.
Johan decided to stop speculating.
Nothing but pointless suspicion was building inside him.
Rather than worrying over it alone, it would be better to ask her directly later.
Just as he cast aside those thoughts, Johan’s keen hearing caught an unfamiliar sound.
Thud, thud.
Slow footsteps.
Johan sprang to his feet and immediately turned toward the source.
At the same time, a flash burst from deeper within the cave.
With a sharp whoosh, a beam of light shot toward Johan.
‘Damn it!’
Johan swiftly twisted his body. The radiance grazed his cheek and lodged in the wall.
A boom erupted behind him.
Fragments of stalactites and stalagmites scattered in every direction.
Johan did not move, keeping his eyes fixed ahead. Black blood trickled down from his torn cheek.
Slow applause echoed through the cave.
“I didn’t think you’d dodge that.”
A pure white silhouette approached.
Johan narrowed his eyes.
Only then did he see the intruder clearly.
“Not bad.”
The owner of that languid voice was a knight clad in white holy armor.
The knight stopped abruptly and made a small gesture with his hand.
A white spear rose from behind Johan and returned to the Holy Knight.
It was the weapon that had attacked Johan.
The moment he saw the man holding the Holy Spear, Johan’s expression crumpled.
‘No way...’
Unusual purple hair, cut short to his ears. Black eyes. Above all, that excessively ornate spear shaft. One person immediately came to mind.
Gawain de Artelga. One of the protagonists in the original work, the third prince of the Artelga Kingdom and the Holy Kingdom’s Guardian Holy Knight.
His appearance and presence matched the original work’s description too closely for Johan to mistake him.
Even after observing him more carefully just in case, Johan’s judgment did not change.
‘It’s Gawain.’
The certainty made his head throb. The greatest crisis of his life had been renewed once more.
Gawain was a monster. Unlike Shaperia, who had built her strength through effort, he was a genius close to a completed form, like Ilea.
At this point in time, he might even surpass Ilea in combat ability.
Johan had encountered an opponent so strong that he could not even fight back.
Johan let out a hollow laugh.
‘This is truly exhausting.’
The cheek grazed by the Holy Spear hurt even more for some reason. It was a wound that would never heal.
An injury inflicted upon a demon by Holy Spear Espada could never be healed.
The situation was terrible in every way.
Gawain spoke in a lazy voice.
“That’s an odd look. Do you know me?”
He was sharp, too.
“Of course I know you well.”
A lazy genius, a wandering vagabond, a libertine obsessed with drink and women, the shame of the Artelga royal family, a cursed unfilial bastard... Johan knew enough about Gawain to recite countless descriptions of him.
Gawain scratched his head.
“Have we met before?”
“No. I heard a little about you.”
“I suppose I’m rather famous among demons too.”
“Famous? You’re the very model of laziness. You’re a Holy Knight, yet you have little interest in exorcising demons, don’t you?”
“You know me well. To be honest, I was planning to hole up somewhere and waste time today. This cave looked decent, but I didn’t expect someone to beat me to it.”
Johan’s luck was truly rotten. Of all places, he had chosen the same hiding spot as Gawain.
‘Nothing is going right.’
Johan waved his hand dismissively.
“Now that you know, go find somewhere else. Get out.”
Gawain stared at Johan with a dumbfounded expression, then burst into laughter. Tears even welled in his eyes.
It was the innocent reaction of a boy his age.
“You’re a funny one. You’re White Horn, aren’t you? The one who supposedly dragged Apostle Beris away.”
“White Horn?”
Come to think of it, the clergy earlier had called Johan White Horn as well.
“Yeah, White Horn. You’re pretty famous too, apparently.”
Without Johan even realizing it, he had acquired a nickname.
Johan touched his white horn.
“Well, I suppose it does fit me.”
Gawain let out a long sigh.
“To think I’d meet you in this cave. We’re both unlucky.”
“What’s the problem? We can each go our separate ways.”
“Impossible. I have my position to consider too.”
Gawain slowly drew up Holy Power. A white aura began to ripple around him.
Johan clicked his tongue.
‘...So he won’t let this go.’
No matter how lazy Gawain was, once he encountered a demon, he had to fulfill his duty.
He could not simply compromise with a demon because it was troublesome.
Pointing the spear at Johan, he said,
“Let’s finish this quickly.”
A sense of danger consumed Johan.
He did not show it, but extreme tension ran through his whole body.
Even if Johan died and came back to life, he could not defeat Gawain as he was now.
He had to use his head.
While buying time through conversation, Johan had already made a plan.
He would drive Gawain berserk.
Gawain was still young, so he could not fully control his own power.
His foundation often collapsed under his overwhelming output.
And whenever that happened, terrible accidents followed.
Such as swallowing his own mother with that immense power.
Gawain, the cursed unfilial bastard. He was the blasphemer who had killed the Queen of the Artelga Kingdom, his own birth mother.
Johan looked at the Holy Spear pointed at him and spoke.
“That’s the spear that tore your mother apart.”
At once, Gawain’s movements stopped.
Coldness settled over his ever-relaxed expression.
“A trite attack, just like any other demon would make.”
“It isn’t an attack. I’m merely curious. Why don’t you throw that spear away?”
“Whether I throw it away or not is none of your business.”
“I’ll take a guess. You intend to atone. To cover your mother’s red blood with black blood.”
Gawain tightly gripped his spear.
“I think I’ll have to rip out your tongue.”
At the same time, he kicked off the ground. A white flash raced through the darkness. The distance closed in an instant.
The spearpoint was before Johan’s eyes.
Just before his head was shattered, Johan took flight.
A black silhouette soared into the darkness.
Red eyes flickered from the high ceiling.
A demon’s bloodthirsty laughter echoed through the cave.
“If it isn’t atonement, is it repentance? Do you keep that spear at your side, remembering the day you tore your mother to death, indulging in self-pity so you won’t forget your sin?”
The air began to tremble. Vast Holy Power poured out from Gawain.
The cave brightened white.
Johan did not care. Kazan’s corrupted ring continued to defend him from the Holy Power.
He continued.
“Don’t struggle. You can’t forget that day anyway. How could you? Her face, smiling even as it grew pale and cold. Her voice soothing you as she said it was all right. Her bloodstained hand stroking your cheek. The warmth fading in your arms. Even the silence that had surrounded you before you knew it. How could you ever forget?”
Wild laughter thundered through the cave.
“Neither atonement, repentance, nor self-pity can lay your mother’s soul to rest! How pitiful! The reality that nothing can save either you or your mother!”
Gawain’s Holy Power exploded.
Everything around them burned white.
The pitch-black cave was dyed white.
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