“Come on, Axion. “Where should we start?”
Standing in the middle of the imperial palace’s large villa, holding Axion, he grinned.
The next day, I planned to go through all the rooms here alone with Axion.
‘Didn’t you say that each room will have an event with a different theme?’
I walked away, holding the schedule that Cedric had given me tightly in my hand.
For some reason, I felt like I could understand the feelings of a mother who took her child to an amusement park for the first time.
Feeling a little excited and nervous.
“Wow!”
“here? Shall we go from here?”
While I was taking a deep breath, Axion pointed somewhere.
It was the right hallway.
“Let’s see.” This is poetry recitation… … Well, book salon… … Ugh, um. And, lectures by intellectuals… … ? “It says.”
It doesn’t look really fun.
“Wow! Wow!”
“… … okay? “Do you have to go?”
Because Axion kept pointing in that direction, I sighed and started walking toward that direction.
In order to quickly show Axion and head elsewhere, I entered a room as soon as I entered the hallway.
Without even confirming what the topic is.
“Would you believe that the world is about to end? everyone! We must prepare for the apocalypse!”
And here I encountered an apocalyptic person who I had only heard about through rumors in Korea.
‘Yes… … ?’
The destruction of the world.
I feel like I’ve heard this a lot somewhere.
‘I heard that before somewhere.’
Think carefully… … .
“Wow!”
… … What do you think? It was something I already knew well.
Because this is the future that the child held here in my arms will bring.
No, let me correct this.
‘It’s a future that can be brought about.’
In the original work, Axion destroyed this world after living a miserable life, but the future will be changing as I raise him instead of abandoning him.
“… … .”
‘Let’s hope things change… … .’
I’m sure it will.
I gently gave strength to the arm holding Axion and held the child tightly.
“Wow?”
Axion tilted his head as if he felt the force exerted on me. I was about to smile at the child’s cute face, when I heard a loud voice from in front again.
“everyone! You have to take my word for it. ‘He’ will appear and clean up this whole rotten world!”
The man standing on the podium was lecturing passionately, raising his hands and spitting.
‘The end of the world’ was written in large letters on the blackboard.
“hmm… … .”
Since I know the original work, I listened to his argument in shock, wondering how he knew this, but to others, it just sounded like nonsense.
“How did such a crazy person enter the imperial palace?”
“That’s right. Surprisingly, I heard you are a professor at the Imperial Academy.”
“Didn’t your nephew attend that academy?”
The nobles sitting in their seats frowned and stood up.
“Hmm. you’re right. He used to be a renowned scholar, but recently he suddenly started making such claims. But, funny enough, there are people who believe that claim.”
“under! It’s really nonsense, it’s nonsense. Doesn’t someone force open someone else’s treasury? “Isn’t a professor at the Imperial Academy spreading apocalyptic theories?”
A middle-aged male nobleman passed by me, shouting in a dissatisfied voice.
People came rushing out after him.
“The country is doing well!”
After saying those last words, a group of nobles clicked their tongues and left the lecture room.
As I was about to follow the group, I glanced behind me.
‘what… … .’
Surprisingly, quite a few people were sitting down and listening to him.
And quite seriously.
“We must praise ‘Him’ who will purify this world!”
“… … “That’s right!”
There were some people who slightly agreed with what the professor said.
As I looked at them, a question suddenly occurred to me.
‘How did you know that this world would be destroyed if things continued the way they were supposed to?’
If everything went according to the original story, the world would have been destroyed as the professor said. In the hands of none other than Axion.
“You must believe in ‘Him’!”
I was looking at the professor who was shouting loudly with his hands raised high as if he were preaching religion. Suddenly, it occurred to me that ‘Ruben’s followers’ were hiding in this ‘place of rest’.
Could it be that that person is a ‘follower of Ruben’?
I wonder if my suspicions are correct, for some reason the looks in the eyes of the guards guarding the classroom are unusual.
‘But how on earth did they know that the world would be destroyed?’
No, better than that. I think it’s right to address this first.
I stared at Axion in my arms. Axion was looking curiously at the man who was shouting at his podium with his hands raised high.
This child with innocent eyes may actually be Ruben.
Like Ruben, who grew up eating misfortune, he grew up as the food shortage became more severe. It’s also true that Axion’s actions in the original work resemble Ruben’s fate.
It was definitely a reasonable suspicion.
‘No matter how you look at it, if you look at Axion’s appearance in the original, it is Ruben.’
Although the name Ruben was not used in the original, most of its characteristics fit.
Now I was starting to go beyond doubt and become almost certain. Although no letter has yet arrived since the last reply to Silvestein.
‘But even if Axion is Ruben, nothing changes.’
There was no change in my attitude toward Axion. I just try to protect Axion and make sure my child grows up happily.
I quickly erased the faces of Vanilla and Dazar that passed by.
Instead, I thought of something else.
‘In the original work, the necklace that Vanilla would later obtain… … It seemed to cleanse Axion of his pure evil.’
The necklace that cut off the demon dragon’s dragon heart in the original work. I felt like if I could get that necklace, there would be some way.
However, the necklace has not yet appeared around Vanilla. In the original work, Vanilla appeared when she was truly in love with Axion, so there is still a long way to go.
‘I’d better get out of here first.’
I didn’t feel comfortable being in the same room as someone suspected of being a ‘follower of Ruben’. I left the room, leaving them behind.
“Okay then, shall we go back now?”
“Ugh?”
After coming out into the hallway, I gently stroked Axion’s forehead and smiled as if nothing had happened.
“Hey.”
As I wiped my forehead, Axion smiled happily.
I listened to the lecture as Axion wanted, so I need to get out of here quickly.
I walked quickly, ignoring the sound of poetry being recited coming from both hallways.
If I stayed here for too long, I felt like my body would smell like ink.
“Ahh. “This place smells so much like ink!”
“I think the same thing. “We shouldn’t be here.”
As if there was someone who had the same thoughts as me, I heard the sound of cranes being released from the corner of the back hallway.
It was a voice I had heard before somewhere.
“Let’s get out quickly, quickly!”
“You understand. You’re going. “But you got lost.”
“Hey, get out of the way. Let’s get out… … . uh? you?”
“Yes? “Who are you?”
What a unique way of speaking.
Even if I wanted to forget, I couldn’t.
“Aishu? and… … Korra?”
The two transcendents we encountered earlier in the temple hallway.
The Transcendent Eishu, who looked like a boy, and the Transcendent Korra, who had a unique way of speaking, were in front of me, entangled with each other.
When I called their names, they both pointed at me with their index fingers and shouted at the same time.
“uh! “The person who openly cursed Dazar!”
“What a great person!”
I still remembered it by name. Who was the person who openly criticized Dazar?
It’s nice to hear from a great person.
“What is that great man’s name?”
“uh… … .”
As I was watching them from a distance, Eishu stopped and scratched the back of his head.
“What was your name?”
At that time, Korra slightly raised the tip of her nose and spoke.
“I know. “It’s Celia.”
“right! Celia! And then it was that baby. I remember this baby’s name. “It was Axion, right?”
Eishu asked with a proud smile.
I nodded with an expression of understanding.
“yes. that’s right. “Are you two on your way out of here?”
“huh! “I took a wrong turn because of Korra.”
“But we both got lost along the way.”
“… … .”
How could you get lost in this straight hallway?
