성황의 아이들 [1]

44

[Didn't I tell you not to get into trouble like this? Just where do you think your sense of danger has gone, acting so recklessly...]

[No, Father, Your Majesty. Although I suddenly died like this, I still protected Delcross from the threat of the demon realm!]

The brat even pouted as if he'd been wronged. He hadn't even finished half of what he wanted to say, but now that he'd grown a bit, he knew how to argue against his father's scolding.

As Nate opened his mouth to say more, a certain scene suddenly flashed through his mind.

It was the sight of the outskirts of the Delcross capital, shrouded in black smoke. Part of the residential area was completely shattered, and casualties could be seen here and there. The Knights of St. Gracia were visible, carrying out rescue operations.

On one side, the Knights of St. Marcias and St. Aurelion were together battling against giant moth-like monsters. The odds were in their favor, but the damage to the knights was no trifle either.

And far in the sky, an ominous hole wrapped in a black whirlwind could be seen. From that huge open black hole, an immense number of moths kept flying in.

The vision ended in a fleeting moment.

This was the brief illusion created by Nate's premonition. The catastrophe that surely would have occurred had his son not intervened.

Once aware of the anomaly, Nate would have returned and shut that gate, but the damage that would have occurred in the meantime was not something even he could ignore.

In the end, he had no choice but to say with a disgruntled face,

[That... you did well.]

Hmph. Seeing his son's face instantly turn confident, Nate realized he had completely missed the timing to scold him.

Feeling somewhat deflated, his eyes fell upon the small soul his son was holding. Now reduced to a trivial appearance, that ominous red-flickering thing was undoubtedly one of the wicked beings that deserved a thrashing. It was likely the very thing that had dragged his son into this mess.

However, as he had done initially, Nate decided to ignore that irksome thing this time as well.

When his son, who had been ill with a fever not long ago, entered the audience chamber, the moment Nate first saw him, he could sense it. That worthless thing would remain by his son's side even in the distant future.

—I pray you do not blindly trust your premonitions.

The man, Cornsheim had said that, but that old man would never understand.

Some of those premonitions were not mere foresight, but an inevitable future that must come to pass. That child's path would continue to embrace wicked beings alongside him.

[Can you tell me what my soul looks like now? How did you know I suddenly died?]

Unaware of Nate's tangled thoughts, the brat threw out difficult questions with an innocent face, chirping away. This clueless thing.

Moreover, it seemed they had lingered too long at the dimensional boundary. Suddenly, an unpleasantly sticky gaze sweeping over them could be felt, so Nate swiftly added another layer of barrier to his son's soul.

It appeared they had caught the attention of one of the unsavory beings that occasionally coveted this place from the outer realms.

After the two connected primal worlds separated and the dimensional wall weakened, those things would sometimes gaze this way with eyes full of greed, as if looking at an exceedingly appetizing meal. However, the fiends who seemed ready to charge at any moment would poke around the boundary a few times before meekly returning.