Chapter 321: Interlude - Caelus Benedicto

“

Phew

.” Behind the stage, Kwon Oh-Jin set down the microphone and faintly smiled.

That went even better than I expected.

He had been fairly confident. Even if the Dragon God’s soul didn’t retain any will, its power was real. Just one look at those massive wings of fire and anyone would naturally think of the Dragon God.

Besides, Ha-Eun is an Awakener with the Stigma of Draco.’

With the Draconic Eye, the Stigma of Draco, the Dragon’s Heart she had obtained in Baekdu Mountain, and the Dragon God’s Soul...

She basically has a starter pack to become the Dragon God at this point.

It felt like collecting all five parts of Exodus, The Foreboding One[1]. Song Ha-Eun had gathered nearly all dragon-related powers. If she couldn’t deceive them at this point, that would’ve been a problem.

She had already met all the conditions, and Kwon Oh-Jin made up for her weak acting skills by mimicking the Dragon God’s voice. They didn’t have much to worry about.

And we received Kellion’s help too.

With the dragonkin elder himself stepping in as the frontman, hardly any room for suspicion remained. With everything stacked in their favor, failure would’ve meant Kwon Oh-Jin’s disqualification as a scammer.

“Well, either way, everything is resolved now.”

The dragonkin had regained hope in life, and Song Ha-Eun had obtained the Dragon God’s power. That wasn’t all. She now had tens of thousands who trusted and followed her. No other ending was more perfect than that.

Ha-Eun lacked fighting skills in the frontlines, but now...

With thousands of dragonkin warriors protecting her, she could fully utilize her overwhelming firepower. Kwon Oh-Jin could confidently say that they had gained even more than they hoped for.

The only thing left is figuring out how to control the dragonkin’s mana from going berserk.

Until now, the Stigma of Draco had barely managed to suppress it. As time passed, more dragonkin would lose control.

With Ha-Eun’s Draconic Eye, that should be manageable.

The Draconic Eye could control dragon mana. If she could rein in the Dragon God’s soul, it seemed possible to control the dragonkin’s mana too.

“It seems things turned out as you said they would.” Kellion approached Kwon Oh-Jin behind the stage.

The elder dragonkin still looked troubled, likely due to the guilt of deceiving the others. Even then, his expression looked brighter than before.

“Yes. Now the dragonkin have hope to live on.”

Although they no longer received direct protection from the Dragon God, they would now live as their own individuals and not as slaves.

For now, it’s just Ha-Eun playing the role of the Dragon God. In time, they will change.

No, they had to change because the Demonic District wasn’t a world kind enough for them to survive forever under someone else’s protection.

“Looking back at it now, I suppose he wasn’t so wrong after all,” Kellion muttered as he gazed at the sky in nostalgia.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about Lord Caelus’s prophecy.”

Caelus had prophesied that a woman with the Draconic Eye would save the dragonkin. The Dragon God hadn’t actually awakened, but everything else had lined up.

“This is different from the salvation we expected, but seeing them all smiling like that, this might be the true salvation Caelus prophesied.” Kellion smiled gently at the dragonkin, full of energy, pouring out of the banquet hall.

The dragonkin were born to serve dragons. Taking their first steps on their own, free from the shackles of slavery, wasn’t that true salvation?

Kwon Oh-Jin glanced at the emotional Kellion and smirked. “Well, if you put it that way, I guess it all kind of lines up—”

Suddenly, he froze.

Wait a minute...

Looking at the results, the prophecy seemed to align almost too well.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

“Elder... what exactly did Caelus’s prophecy say again?”

“

Hmm?

Didn’t I already tell you?” Kellion cocked his head. “It was that a woman with the Draconic Eye would awaken the sleeping Dragon God and save the dragonkin.”

The only thing off was awakening the sleeping Dragon God. The rest had matched exactly what Kellion said.

Hold on.

Kwon Oh-Jin’s head began to burn, and a cold chill crawled down his spine.

“Elder... why did the Dragon God fall asleep in the first place?”

“He used too much power in the battle against the demonkin.”

“And who told you that?”

“Lord Caelus, of course. He fought alongside the Dragon God until the very end of that final war.”

Didn’t that seem strange? To say someone fell asleep from using too much power in the middle of a war?

“Then, the one who transferred the Dragon God’s soul into a Soulstone...”

“That was Lord Caelus as well.”

Kwon Oh-Jin felt like the misaligned gears finally clicked into place. He gritted his teeth and clutched his burning forehead. Why was the only part of the prophecy about awakening the sleeping Dragon God wrong?

What if he never intended to awaken the Dragon God in the first place?

What if the Dragon God falling asleep was part of his plan from the very beginning?

If that’s the case, then Caelus’s true identity is...

Kwon Oh-Jin bit his lip hard. One more thing bothered him.

“What was that human prophet’s name again?”

“Caelus. Lord Caelus Benedicto.”

Caelus Benedicto.

“Benedicto...”

It sounded strangely familiar.

Kwon Oh-Jin abruptly shot up to his feet and bolted out of the grand hall.

Startled, Kellion called out from behind, but he ignored it.

“Damn it...!”

Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? Why hadn’t he connected the dots faster?

Kwon Oh-Jin ran straight to where he stayed with Song Ha-Eun and Isabella. It was one of the few buildings still intact after the demonkin invasion.

He threw the door open and startled Isabella inside.

Bang!

“W-What’s going on?” She didn’t have a role in their little act and had quietly waited for them.

Kwon Oh-Jin panted as he stared straight at her. “Have you ever heard of the name Benedicto?”

“Benedicto?”

“Yeah.”

Even he, who barely received a proper elementary education, had heard that name somewhere. Isabella, who had received an elite education from a young age, would definitely recognize the name.

“It’s a name that is often used in Catholicism.”

“Catholicism?”

“Yes, one of the past popes was named Benedicto.” She nodded and wrote the name down in her notebook. “It means blessing in Latin.”

A sticky unease crawled down Kwon Oh-Jin’s spine. He clenched his fists so tightly that they could break.

“What about Caelus?”

“

Hm

. If Caelus is Latin, then...”

She scribbled Caelus in her notebook.

“Oh! It means heaven!”

Caelus Benedicto meant heaven’s blessing.

“Ha-Eun...” Kwon Oh-Jin dryly laughed.

His shoulders shook as he placed a hand on his forehead.

Isabella cocked her head in confusion. “What about unnie?”

Of course, Isabella wouldn’t know the meaning of Song Ha-Eun’s name since only he and Song Ha-Eun knew.

No, there is one more person.

Whether you could call that a third person was up for debate.

“Sorry, I need to step out for a bit.”

“M-Mr. Oh-Jin?”

He burst through the door and activated the Stigma of Canes Venatici to track down Song Ha-Eun’s location. The surrounding dragonkin were loudly escorting her away.

“

Aaack!

Let me go! I can help with the repairs too!”

“You must rest, Maiden!”

Kwon Oh-Jin leaned against a wall in the distance and watched her. He looked up at the sky and bitterly chuckled.

Heaven’s blessing, huh.

“Did I want her to tell me?”

Or maybe it had just been for his own satisfaction.

“Why did I...?”

He was about to ask himself, “Why did you do it?” Suddenly, a memory from the past flashed through his mind. A promise he made under the starry sky. A vow etched into his heart.

“I’ll protect you, Ha-Eun.”

He had once said those words, caught up in the emotional moment.

A hollow laugh slipped out. “

Ha

.”

Protecting someone didn’t always mean doing it with one’s own hands. Helping her become stronger herself or gathering tens of thousands of followers to stand by her... All of that still counted as protecting her in the grand scheme of things.

“But just how many did I sacrifice for that!?” Rage surged through Kwon Oh-Jin.

If he was the one who put the Dragon God to sleep a hundred years ago, if all of this was nothing more than a scam for Song Ha-Eun’s sake... Then what did that make the dragonkin, who had endured all those years, clinging to the hope that the Dragon God would one day return?

“The truth doesn’t matter, Ha-Eun.”

The very words he told Song Ha-Eun circled back, stabbing him in the heart. How many one deceived, and the truth didn’t matter because...

“Only what looks like the truth matters.” Kwon Oh-Jin gritted his teeth and bit down on his lip.

He understood because...

You were me, and I was you.

***

Black clouds twisted like sticky tar, constantly reshaping themselves.

Rumble.

The figure was so warped and distorted that it couldn’t be identified. Like a child mashing mud chaotically, the figure collapsed and regenerated again and again.

“

Kugh

.”

This was the price of reversing time. The consequence of defying the order of the stars now poisoned his very flesh, yet he faintly laughed.

“Ha. Haha.

”

From within the ever-shifting black clouds, a flash of blue flame flickered.

“It... settled in nicely.”

He could feel that the gift he had prepared long ago finally found its rightful owner.

A dry laugh escaped through the black clouds.

“I. Kept my promise... Okay?”

But who did I make that promise to again?

1. Reference to drawing all five Exodia cards in

Yu-Gi-Oh

, which automatically wins you the game. ☜