Act 1: Chapter 58: 《Evil God Apostle; Notes》
The mansion of the Aarburg city lord was located right at the heart of the city. It was the biggest structure in Aarburg.
Garland, who hated to see the commoners he regarded to be below him, had constructed a tall wall surrounding his mansion that was regularly patrolled by his soldiers in the vicinity.
Currently, that very same Garland along with two of his soldiers was currently confronting a young man in the basement of that mansion. The young man had bluish-black hair and a well-ordered face. At a glance, he gave the impression of being a kind and gentle young man. However, he also had this unique atmosphere about him that made anyone who saw him feel that there was something more to him than that.
「N-Notes… have you completed the preparations?」
The young man simply nodded silently at Garland’s question.
The young man was one of the 《JinMaRyuu》 who was known to always cause national level incidents wherever he was. The 《Evil God Apostle; Notes》.
Unknown to most, they were currently in cahoots.
「The stars have aligned. The eyes of the upper realm are now far in the distance. The lambs are crowding together… the spirits sing as they are unable to wait for the dawn. Will she, who embraced the withered branch and drank the sand, wake up from her dream? Will there come the one who succeeds her ideas, the rust of an unsightly crown? Whose face that’s reflected by her blade? Nay, that’s our dearest wish…」
Notes spun mysterious and seemingly nonsensical words together with his beautiful voice. It might be some sort of ancient verse, but neither Garland nor his soldiers understood the meaning behind those verses.
Notes opened his eyes slightly, looking at Garland and co. as if he was observing their reactions of bewilderment towards his words. Notes’ gaze was enough to send a shiver running down the spine of those three. Their body suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if something was sucking away the warmth from their bodies.
One of the soldiers then whispered to Garland.
「Garland-sama… this man is just too creepy. If it’s now, I think…」
「As if we can back down after getting this far! Moreover, I’ll become a king by borrowing this man’s power.」
Color drained from Garland’s face as his ugly, fat face broke out in cold sweats as he let out a greedy smile.
「Don’t worry, governor. The preparations are in order. You have my gratitude for preparing this giant altar called Aarburg city. With this… I can finally summon my master who has been worshipped by my family for generations. She will then destroy the foolish pigs who got too indulged with their power and forgot about the true faith.」
Notes’ lips opened slightly as he smiled at Garland.
「It’s not like I want power. I just… want to restore this world to its ideal form by using her power as the evil god. That’s why don’t worry, governor, I’ll make you a king.」
「I-Is that so… then it’s fine! Fufu… I’m… a king, huh!」
Garland let out a restrained laugh while his subordinates looked at him with a worried look on their faces.
「Governor, there’s something I want to tell you before I summon my master. Long time ago… more than five thousands years ago, the most chaotic and ghastly era in which demon kings and monsters used to run rampant in this world…」
Notes slowly started telling a story after Garland calmed down.
「The humans lived in fear everyday, wishing for a saviour to save them from such despair. At the end of generations of prayers from those weak humans… a huge giant, greenery, vaster than the sea, answered their prayer. From the depiction left in numerous paintings and murals, the giant wore a terrifying demon mask, and had several arms. They called the giant, Fear God; Zorophilia.」
Notes spoke with a dull and boring voice.
「Zorophilia destroyed numerous demon kings and brought peace to the humans. And not just that, she also mediated the conflicts between humans. Yes, Zorophilia knew that the humans would compete against each other after they lost their common enemy, namely the demon kings. And that wasn’t something she wished for. That’s why, she wore terrifying mask as a symbol of fear for the foolish humans.」
Though Garland had zero interest pertaining to Notes’ faith, he let out a forced smile upon hearing his story. Afterall, he had no idea what Notes would do to him if he ended up displeasing the latter.
「And yet… haa~h, such foolishness. Those idiots then shunned Zorophilia after she bestowed long awaited peace upon them. My ancestor, the priest who used to serve Zorophilia in that era… was then back stabbed and massacred by the countries they’d saved. They even placed an extremely powerful seal on Zorophilia.」
At this point, even a fool could feel the anger that was gradually rising in Notes’ monotone voice.
「Even worse, those people who still weren’t satisfied with their ungrateful act… went as far as finding justifications to kill our clan… placing the stigma of sinners upon our family and lastly, they even labeled their God of Salvation, Zorophilia, as an evil god! In the end, two thousand years later… naw, it’s still happening even now, the people who worship Zorophilia have always been tortured to death!」
Notes gripped the cane in his hands strongly, destroying it with sheer strength in the process. The wrinkles that had formed on his forehead combined with his burst of anger made him look like the incarnation of the evil god itself. There were even tears of blood shed from his eyes.
「We… will never forget those ba*sta*rd’s crimes no matter how much time has passed! I won’t let that tragedy repeat itself! Our clan made a blunder in the past! We were too naive back then! The foolish humans, the pigs who forgot about their place shall be judged by our god. Only a special human shall be the chosen one, the rest will become livestocks! Only by doing that will those pigs attain enlightenment! Zorophilia who awoken from her slumber will rule this world as true fear!」
Garland’s mouth opened wide, standing while looking dumbfounded in front of Notes who was spouting out words of pure anger like a madman.
Though he knew that the thing that was about to be summoned by Notes would slaughter the humans, he never knew that the scale was far bigger than his imagination. The two soldiers who were accompanying him were already hugging each other while trembling with intense fear.
Notes tossed aside the smashed cane and wiped the tears of blood on his face with the sleeves of his robe. Within a flash, his expression changed to show a gentle and affectionate smile as though the previous display of anger was nothing more than an illusion.
「You know what I mean, right… governor(pig)?」
Garland quickly nodded his head twice with startled movement upon hearing Notes’ question directed at him.