Chapter 412: The Purpose

“Ancient Demon? That’s a new one, I think,” Rael said with a tilt of his head. “And you don’t have to worry, I only came here to take over your role.”

Silas stared at him speechlessly before finally entering a combat stance. Dust and blood began circling around him, and right as he was about to attack, Rael raised his hands in a defeated manner.

“I don’t mean killing you or doing something weird. I’m pretty sure I could kill you, but our fight would destroy the kingdom, and I kind of want the kingdom if you know what I mean,” Rael said. “Plus, you already have a puppet king, so what difference does it make? He can continue ruling. I just need you to send over Aurenthia to me and I’ll be on my way.”

“…Were you born yesterday?” Silas asked, clicking his tongue. “I thought you would be more rational considering Ancient Demons tend to have a better grasp over their emotions, but clearly, I was wrong.”

“Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” Rael chuckled. “And I’m serious. Make an offer, and I’ll take the kingdom off your hands.”

Of course, it was clear Silas was pawning off all the work onto Tyrion Aurenthia while taking all the benefits. Rael wanted to avoid that kind of relationship, and if need be, he would buy the kingdom from this guy directly.

But given his limited funds of 334 Premium Coins, it might be a little troublesome.

However…

“You might have a misconception about my ruling, Ancient Demon,” Silas said. “I am the protector of this land, and the price for my protection is the kingdom itself. Tyrion Aurenthia is the rightful king, but I am the rightful ruler.”

“Aha…” Rael sighed. “So what if I could replace your protection? I’m good at crafting, so I could make a couple hundred constructs appear here and protect the kingdom in your place. They’re all going to be 1/10th of my strength, so you can imagine what they could do.”

Before Silas could refuse his request, Rael narrowed his eyes and decided to point out something that had been on his mind since earlier.

“You also burned when he began that demonic array bullshit. Are you a demon?”

“I am no filthy demon,” Silas replied coldly. “I’m a being who overcame the Hollow Touch infection. I was reborn as a new race, and that race just so happens to have the characteristics of demons, those being a couple of Demonic Cores in my chest.”

He then proceeded to glance Rael up and down before once again clicking his tongue.

“What race of demon are you? You don’t possess any Demonic Cores.”

“It’s a secret,” Rael replied, leaning in. “Name your price. I know everybody has a price. After all, why else would you be defending this kingdom? Personal attachment?”

The air once again grew heavy when all of a sudden, several miniature eyes appeared all over Silas’s body. They wriggled around, dancing from one side of his body to the other, yet they all had one thing in common.

All those eyes were locked onto Rael, and each one carried a look of regret and disgust. But it wasn’t disgust at Rael; instead, it was disgust at what they were.

In this case, it seemed like Silas was disgusted with himself and what he had become.

After a brief pause, he took a few steps closer to Rael and spoke up, his voice even deeper than before.

“Grant me mortality.”

Rael tilted his head. “Don’t you mean immortality?”

“I wish to become mortal,” Silas corrected himself. “After surviving for so long, I realized I cannot die. I’ve fought in many wars, and I’ve even been fatally injured thousands of times. But every single time it seems like I could be free of my shackles, my body begins regenerating, and after every fatal injury… the regeneration enhances itself. All thanks to this cursed race.”

He met Rael’s eyes. “I cannot choose when to die, but I can choose how to live. Rather, that path was paved for me by my late wife.”

Silas raised his hand, and the eyes that were slithering around his body suddenly gathered at his fingertips. The eyes morphed into a figure that resembled a beautiful woman.

Beside her was a man who resembled Silas. He stepped closer to her and held her by the hand.

Immediately, a warm wave of mana escaped Silas’s body, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Rael.

Even though he fed off negative emotions, he was still able to tell what others felt, and at the moment, Silas felt grief.

He loved that woman, and he cared for her deeply. However, the eyes which were calmly wriggling around and displaying Silas’s and the woman’s figures soon froze, and a moment later, the woman’s head came clean off her shoulders.

That was when the wave of negative emotions hit Rael, but because he was like a sponge, they didn’t bother him in the slightest. He only stood there and waited for Silas to get a hold of himself.

And after just a few minutes, all the wriggling eyes vanished, his body slowly returning to normal as he glanced toward Rael with a conflicted look.

“She was my everything, but one fated day, I was out fighting in the war. As it so happened… the enemies from the Hollow Kingdom invaded and took her life,” Silas said, his voice sending shivers down Rael’s spine.

“Do you want to know how I found out? The enemy general found me on the battlefield and captured me. He tortured me for weeks, but I held onto the hope that my wife was cheering me on, so I persevered.”

“However…” Silas’s gaze darkened. “My hopes were shattered when they brought an old potato sack into the tent. I still remember the wide smirks on their faces when they threw my wife’s head onto the ground had been stained by my blood.”

“They propped the head up on a table and forced me to look at it for another two months while they relentlessly tortured me, but in the end, I had lost my will to continue, and because of that, the general cut off all my limbs and tossed me outside. He drove a nail through my neck and forcibly sewed my eyes open so I could never look away from the crimson moon.”

He let out a distant chuckle.

“I was infected and I endured through all levels of the Hollow Infection until eventually, I had become what I am today,” Silas added, glancing out through the broken window. “A man whose sole desire is to protect the kingdom his wife was once a part of… I truly am hopeless, aren’t I?”

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