“Bernoa. Is it possible?”
Now that Bernoa had recovered to some extent, I asked her about a way to enter the Demon King’s castle.
“When I was dragged here by Seto, it wasn’t like this. I don’t think I can enter either.”
“Then the condition for entry must be the Holy Sword.”
It seems the only way in is through the Holy Sword.
That is why the Hero exists.
After all, they said the only one who can kill the Demon King is the Hero wielding the Holy Sword.
Maybe this is what they meant.
‘Was that the true purpose of the Holy Sword all along?’
In the past, I held the Holy Sword in the kingdom, but I was not chosen.
And so, I ended up here.
That means there’s no reason to have regrets.
“Then we have to give up.”
“Lord?”
“We can’t enter, and we don’t know when Clanis will bring his army. I can’t just let our soldiers die here.”
At this point, it’s better to withdraw cleanly.
“Isn’t it too much of a waste to retreat now?”
“That’s right. Rather, it would be better to station our forces here and defeat Clanis as well.”
That’s easier said than done.
And it’s only possible when morale is high, and the army is still in good shape.
“How much damage have we taken?”
“Out of eighteen thousand, three thousand were injured in battle at the Demon King’s castle, and two thousand were confirmed dead.”
So many had died, and so many had been wounded.
“It seems the heavens are not allowing me into the depths of the Demon Realm. Right now, retreating is the right choice. We must build a great wall from the northern border of Ashtar to Crad.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Eldakrad decided to retreat.
Out of the eighteen thousand expedition troops, more than five thousand had either died or been injured.
However, the number of demons they had slain within the Demon King’s territory numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
Satisfied with that, Eldakrad crossed the Demon Realm once more and headed back to Ashtar.
And as Bernoa was about to leave, he stopped her.
“And Bernoa, you must not leave.”
“Huh?”
“How could I abandon the one who risked her life to support me to the very end?”
At Eldakrad’s words, Bernoa quietly wiped away her tears.
***
Somewhere in the Demon Realm, there was a burning wasteland.
At the center of that blazing land, an enormous flame suddenly flared up and took the shape of a human.
That being was Seto.
“Bernoa, you wretched woman. Was everything just a trap to deceive me?”
He never expected that even after falling, she would still trust Eldakrad.
Because of that, he lost his weapon, and only Eldakrad emerged as the hero.
“Kh…! If I hadn’t set aside my heart elsewhere, I’d be dead by now. That was close.”
The losses were too great.
For now, it would be difficult to make any moves.
At this point…
“Would it be better to manipulate the Order instead?”
***
By the time Clanis arrived at the Demon King’s castle, it was already in ruins.
“Eldakrad, that bastard! If the Demon King is dead, I will burn Ashtar to the ground!”
[Clanis, listen.]
Thankfully, the Demon King was still alive, without so much as a single wound.
“Demon King! Demon King! You’re alive!”
[Fate has changed. We must prepare for what comes next.]
“I will serve you!”
Fate had changed.
He didn’t know what that meant, but one thing was clear—
The Demon King intended to regain his strength for now.
Clanis decided to stay by his side until the day he returned to the world.
Slowly. Carefully.
***
Eldakrad returned to Ashtar.
Using soldiers and workers, he began constructing a great wall from Crad Castle to Ashtar’s northern border.
It needed to be built to defend against any future invasion by the Four Heavenly Kings.
At first, he had intended to personally deal with Seto, fearing that the power would be transferred and lead to corruption.
However, in the end, it was the lord himself who captured Seto, so he had worried for nothing.
Bernoa, despite aiding in the victory of the war, was now half-demon.
Because of that, she had intended to leave once everything was over.
But on the day she was about to depart, Eldakrad’s wife stopped her.
“My lord is a great man. A hero is bound to have many wives. I alone cannot handle him. So please, become his second wife and support him.”
“How could you say such a thing?”
“I heard you risked your life for him. I wasn’t even there at the time. So please, do not leave.”
“My lady…”
“My lord’s mother left him behind after giving birth. Will you do the same?”
Moved by her words, Bernoa ultimately stayed.
She renounced her title as the kingdom’s Saintess, and Eldakrad took her as his second wife.
The Church protested a little, but the kingdom had no intention of reclaiming Bernoa anyway, so they allowed her to resign from her position.
***
Decades passed.
Years filled with countless stories and trials.
Bernoa and Eldakrad had a child together.
Fortunately, the child was human.
He joined the empire’s military, and because Eldakrad survived, there was no period of turmoil in Ashtar.
As a result, Ashtar grew even stronger than in the timeline where Bernoa had fallen, allowing them to withstand the frontlines against the Demon Realm.
“Please take care of my lord for the rest of his years.”
Eldakrad’s first wife passed away twenty years after Bernoa married him.
Yet Bernoa remained as youthful as ever.
Her body had changed due to her partial demon transformation, but people said it was because she was a true Saintess.
Because of that, Bernoa was revered as a divine figure.
***
Many more decades passed.
By the time Eldakrad was old, an incident occurred involving his granddaughter, Olivia.
The current head of House Ashtar had fathered an illegitimate child, and from the day that child was officially recognized, he began using succubi to corrupt Olivia.
‘So Olivia had such a past…’
Unfortunately, at that time, Eldakrad and I were invited by the kingdom to help train their priests and military for the upcoming battle against the Demon King’s army.
Because of that, I couldn’t intervene.
By the time I returned to Ashtar, the situation had already been resolved.
Olivia had slapped Crown Prince Aslan and broken off their engagement.
As it turned out, Noah, the mage from the Hero’s party, had stepped in and helped her.
Strangely enough, the Emperor forgave Olivia for striking his son and even accepted the annulment of the engagement.
The real problem, however, came after that.
“I’m going to marry him! Right after I graduate from the academy!”
Olivia appeared with Noah and made the declaration.
At those words, Bernoa and her daughter-in-law, Katarina, nearly dislocated their jaws in shock.
It was one thing for their beloved granddaughter and daughter to dump the crown prince, but now she had brought along a man, claiming he had stolen her heart.
“Hey, I was just pointing out that a girl from a great duchy nearly fell for a succubus’ tricks. If that had happened, it would have been a threat to Ashtar, which stands on the frontlines against the Demon Realm.”
Noah, the magician of the Hero’s party, adamantly denied everything.
Regardless of his intentions, Bernoa did not like the fact that Noah had managed to charm Olivia.
“Oh, so you think you can just walk away after bewitching the daughter of an assassin guild and a noble lady of Ashtar? Do you want to spend the rest of your life being hunted by assassins?”
She even went as far as to threaten him.
‘Was Olivia always this bold when Noah wasn’t around?’
As Bernoa pondered this, she found herself chuckling without realizing it.
Before the regression, she didn’t know what had happened, but it seemed Noah had failed to help Olivia in time.
As a result, Olivia had died, and for some unknown reason, their souls had fused together.
“This must be fate at work.”
Although the future had changed, connections seemed to remain intact one way or another.
Bernoa realized this.
That was why the Demon King hadn’t been defeated and why Seto had returned.
It would be best to prepare for the future.
After all, Noah was strong enough to defeat the Demon King.
Unlike before the regression, they now had time to prepare for the Demon King, who was likely lying in wait.
“Mother?”
“Katarina, what do you think about allowing those two to be together?”
“Sigh… I didn’t ask the Hero’s party for help just so my precious child could end up like this…”
In the end, Katarina agreed on the condition that Olivia would inherit the assassin guild.
It was, in a way, a form of revenge.
Even though she had fallen from grace, Olivia had still become a Saintess of the Imperial Church—a church that was utterly corrupt, filled with greed, and even infested with monsters.
‘It seems he dislikes staying in one place. Well, now it’s his turn to suffer.’
Noah didn’t seem entirely opposed to the situation either.
Fate truly worked in mysterious ways.
Now that Noah had survived, the main enemies of the Hero’s party were anti-imperialists who had allied with demons and cultists who worshiped the Demon King.
“There are way too many anti-imperialists these days.”
“Well, it can’t be helped. Still, aren’t they easier to deal with than demons?”
“Yeah, right. The moment those damn cultists show up, you’re the first one to run away.”
While there were no such groups within Ashtar, the Empire and various kingdoms were riddled with cultists.
They used dark magic to spread chaos, corrupt people, and summon demon-possessed beings.
Bernoa decided to aid the Hero’s party in hunting them down.
A new enemy had emerged, but the situation was still better than before.
Most importantly, Bernoa was happy.
***
The Imperial Church
The Imperial Church of this altered world had changed in many ways.
Unlike in the previous timeline, Olivia was neither the Empire’s Saintess nor did she train battle nuns.
Money was not circulating through the church as it once had.
Instead, Noah had manipulated the situation, assigning an unpaid succubus named Nora to the church leader.
And as for the church leader himself…
SLAP!
A large, thick-bodied man was bound naked to a wooden triangular horse.
His eyes were blindfolded, his mouth stuffed with a strange gag, and both arms were tightly restrained.
Behind him stood a woman in a revealing nun’s outfit, striking his back with a whip.
“How do you like the touch of a Saintess? Khuhuhu.”
“Puhah! S-Saintess! Stop this! I am the church leader!”
The church leader barely managed to spit out the gag and protest, but it was pointless.
“Oh my, a deranged church leader swinging his lower half at married women? I heard some of them were noble ladies too? Today, we shall make sure you never try that with another woman again.”
SLAP! SLAP!
“GUUUHAAAARGH!”
Every time the church leader brought in a middle-aged woman or tried to turn one into a nun, Nora relentlessly disciplined him.
The roles had merely reversed, but in essence, not much had changed.