WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Whispers of a Scheming Demon ◈
Chapter 79: The Count's Domain (9)
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Yeriyan’s head shattered before the Count’s eyes.
Fragments scattered everywhere. White bone dust drifted through the air.
To the Count, the entire scene passed in slow motion.
He could not accept reality.
He froze like a statue.
Time stopped within the secret chamber.
No one spoke. Nothing moved.
Only after a long time did the Count open his mouth.
“...Yeriyan?”
He trudged over and stood before the Celestial Womb.
Her crushed skeleton lay inside the coffin.
The Count dropped to his knees.
“Ah, it isn’t too late yet.”
He began gathering the broken remains.
He collected the bone dust and picked up every fragment that had fallen to the floor.
Resurrection was still possible even if the corpse had been damaged.
As long as no part was missing.
The Count desperately gathered the remains.
Ilea spoke with a pitying expression.
“That’s cheating. You made a mistake, so you should pay the proper price.”
The tip of her index finger burned a deep red.
Ilea brought her finger toward Yeriyan.
Sizzle!
The pure white bones instantly turned red. They glowed like iron plunged into fire.
The Count’s pupils widened.
“N-No. No!”
At the same time, the bones exploded.
Fragments burst in every direction.
The pieces on the floor blackened.
Some melted away completely. Smoke rose from all around.
The Count stared blankly at the Celestial Womb.
Yeriyan had vanished without a trace.
The coffin was empty.
Johan spoke.
“Don’t resent me. It was your carelessness that killed Yeriyan.”
The Count had ignored Johan’s warning and continued to challenge him.
Yeriyan’s death was the price for that.
The light vanished from the Count’s eyes. They were unfocused.
He stared at the Celestial Womb with a vacant expression.
“What was I even living for...?”
The Count loved his wife more than his own life.
For her sake, he could sacrifice anything.
The reason he had built power and influence was all for his wife.
He had lived to gain the strength and influence needed to bring her back.
Only a few steps remained until his goal.
It had been right before him, yet the road suddenly ended.
He could never reach his destination now.
His life had been denied.
A horrific sense of loss struck the Count.
He clutched his head and twisted his entire body.
Not even a scream escaped him. Like someone wailing underwater, a muffled cry echoed through the chamber.
“Hk... Huuugh...”
The Count did not stop convulsing.
He slammed his head against the floor, then frantically clawed at the Celestial Womb with his nails.
The sight of a human being falling apart was truly miserable.
Johan opened his mouth.
“Cromwell, how long are you going to cling to a mere woman? You still have many things left to protect.”
His power, his house, his wealth, his honor, and more. There were clearly things too valuable to simply abandon.
The Count slowly raised his head and met Johan’s eyes.
His eyes had turned black like a demon’s. Tears of blood streamed endlessly down his face.
“...What did you say?”
“Your life isn’t over yet. Protect what remains. Let’s continue the conversation we were having earlier.”
The despair of losing Yeriyan began changing into rage toward Johan.
The Count struggled to his feet.
He staggered as he spoke.
“I no longer have any reason to live.”
Then he suddenly tore off his pendant.
A faint wariness crossed Ilea’s face.
“Johan, step back.”
The Count’s pendant was radiating an ominous light.
The Count spoke.
“I will go to my wife’s side. And you will accompany me on the road to the afterlife.”
Immediately afterward, the pendant began burning black.
Grotesque patterns appeared across the gray-white floor.
A hidden ritual was revealing itself.
The ritual rapidly expanded.
It soon covered the third layer of the Shadow Realm, then spread to the second and first layers.
Screams erupted in the distance.
“A-A summoning ritual!”
“Get out!”
The Cult of the Evil God’s followers fell into a panic.
Johan’s expression hardened.
“Cromwell, what are you trying to do?”
The Count’s lips twisted.
He smiled through bloody tears.
“Everyone in this city will be offered to the Lower Realm. Your blood and flesh will be presented as Sacrificial Offerings for Saehel as well.”
Saehel was an Archdemon ranked in the double digits of the Lower Realm.
An existence made of pure evil. The Count intended to bring catastrophe upon this land.
Johan spoke.
“Your family and house will be sacrificed too.”
The Count’s expression filled with madness.
“Do you think I care?”
The Count had already lost his mind. Nothing could get through to him now.
Johan clicked his tongue.
“Ilea, can you stop the ritual?”
Ilea shook her head.
“The ritual began after it was already complete. There’s no way to stop it now.”
“Leaving the city is our best option, then.”
“I’ve prepared for it. Let’s go.”
A complex Magic Formation was drawn above Ilea’s head.
It was likely an extremely high-level spell.
The Count cried out as though coughing blood.
“You won’t escape! You’ll fall into hell with me!”
Johan spoke expressionlessly.
“Cromwell, you pathetic, foolish bastard. You threw away a blessing that fell into your lap. May you be born wiser in your next life.”
At the same time, a magical formula swallowed Johan and Ilea.
The two became streaks of blue light and flew away somewhere in an instant.
The Count convulsed.
“Saehel! Descend at once! Catch them and kill them!”
The ritual drawn on the floor spewed out black radiance.
Dense darkness swallowed the Shadow Realm.
* * *
The city of Beldana had a population well over one hundred thousand.
Including the floating population, nearly two hundred thousand people were always within the city.
They all screamed.
The city descended into madness.
Because black hands rose from beneath their feet.
Grotesque demonic hands seized people and dragged them into hell.
Treasures, sacred relics, gold and silver, and human lives. Everything was being offered to the Lower Realm.
No one could stop the ritual.
The Archdemon had descended into the Material Realm.
Waaahhhhhh!
A baby’s cry rang out thunderously.
The emptied city darkened beneath a black shadow.
A colossal being loomed above Beldana.
It was a baby with a human shape. A demon steeped in pure malice. Its smile was innocent, yet carried a strange cruelty. Tentacles protruded and writhed from its six nipples.
Its limp genitals continuously spewed black secretion.
Whenever the baby cried, nature screamed as well.
Trees withered, and rivers rotted.
All plants and animals were dying.
A crazed voice echoed.
“Saehel! Find them!”
The Count’s small face poked out from the top of the baby’s broad head.
He looked around for Johan and Ilea.
They were nowhere to be seen.
“You rats! Where are you hiding?!”
Saehel began to move.
Death followed every step.
Villages and castles rotted away and vanished.
Cities were annihilated.
Countless subjugation forces were formed, but most were wiped out.
The entire kingdom became a wasteland.
Only when the Empire and Holy Kingdom joined forces could Saehel’s advance finally be stopped.
* * *
“Cromwell Staviana, irreverent one. You secretly presided over an unidentified forbidden ritual and summoned Saehel, defying the Divine Mandate and divine law. Your crime is defined as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Great Saint Church hereby sentences you through the following Word of Authority.”
At the Holy Kingdom’s main church, a death sentence was being read.
A vast crowd watched the Count standing upon the execution platform.
The elderly gentleman was gone. Only a shriveled old monster remained, staring emptily into the sky.
“First, Cromwell the irreverent shall be stripped of his noble surname. Second, Staviana shall be permanently struck from the registry of the kingdom’s nobility, designated as a record of irreverence, and forbidden from being passed down. Third, as Staviana blood has been judged the source of irreverence and corruption, every member of the related clan shall be sentenced to death. Fourth, the sentence shall be carried out through burning into nothingness, a pyre that will erase even the traces of evil nature.”
When the reading ended, executioners gathered around the platform.
The judge spoke to the Count.
“Cromwell, do you have any final words?”
The Count opened his mouth with a blank expression.
“...Yeriyan, I will soon join you.”
The judge frowned.
“Carry out the sentence!”
The executioners set fire to the platform.
Crimson flames swallowed the Count’s body.
Even as he burned, the Count smiled.
“At last, I will see you again.”
As he was about to close his eyes, brilliant radiance poured down from the sky.
The Count stared at the light as though entranced.
“N-No way...”
Amid the radiance, a presence even more dazzling descended.
A blonde woman appeared, her wings fluttering.
“Yeriyan!”
It was the Count’s wife.
The angel gently embraced the dying Count.
“Cromwell, my love. I wanted to see you again in this world.”
Tears streamed down the Count’s face.
“I’m sorry. I was inadequate. I fell short, and in the end, I could not protect you, Yeriyan.”
“Don’t blame yourself. You are someone who can do better.”
The Count lowered his head.
“It is already over. I am a failure.”
The angel stroked his hair.
“What if you had one more chance?”
“What do you mean...?”
The angel pointed toward the crowd.
The Count looked in the direction she indicated.
A boy was holding out his hand to him.
The angel said,
“Take that hand. I will give you one final chance.”
The Count slowly raised his arm.
The boy’s lips curved into a long smile.
He opened his mouth.
“Let’s do better this time, Cromwell Staviana.”
At the same time, the Count’s vision shattered with a crash.
* * *
In the gray-white secret chamber, the sound of vomiting echoed.
The Count was bent over, emptying his stomach.
He could barely hold onto his sanity. His mind was utterly exhausted.
He displayed superhuman willpower and raised his upper body.
No one was in the secret chamber.
Only the Celestial Womb remained.
The Count immediately ran toward it.
His pupils widened.
Yeriyan was gone. In her place was a single letter.
He immediately picked it up.
It bore House Myatro’s crescent-moon seal.
The Count opened the letter with trembling hands.
Cromwell Stavia, this time I invite you. Come to the Myatro territory.
P.S. I’ll keep Yeriyan with me for now. She is safe.
A sheet of paper slipped from the letter.
It was a portrait of Yeriyan.
The Count quickly checked around his neck.
The pendant was gone.
It seemed Johan had taken it.
The Count silently stared at Johan’s invitation.
“...Johan Myatro.”
What exactly was he? Who was he, to be so cruel and bold?
It truly felt as though he had been toyed with by a demon.
Yet at the same time, he felt relieved.
His life was not over yet.
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