Chapter 388: The Time He Waited And Took (1)

In the beginning, there was no one else but him. He stood alone and was whole, so he could endure eternity alone. However, being able to do something didn’t mean he had to do it. Just as he needed nothing else to be himself, he thought he didn’t need to be alone either.

To become two, he had to be split, so he chose to be cleaved. He forged parts of himself into a greatsword and used it to cut himself. The lower part of the long, straight sword sank and became the earth, while the upper part rose and became the sky.

Marking the birth of heaven and earth, people named the moment of that first strike the Sun of Sword.

***

Sylvia, formerly known as Lady Goldencup of Sormwin Academy, was now serving the Death King Clan as the chief steward and a gardener to the Garden of Withered Flowers. Today, she was sleeping late again.

“

Hhhaaa... Hmm...

Did you see that... Patriarch—no, Kim Gong-Ja... This is... my true power...”

It was probably because she was having a happy dream. Now, even her family name became blurry in her head. Was it Evanail or Evinail? Dreams were the only escape this world offered her, but this bizarre, nightmarish world made by the cruel demon god who had ruined her life didn’t let her enjoy such a sweet dream.

“Lady Sylvia.”

The voice that woke Sylvia from her deep sleep belonged to a gentle-looking woman. She had once been the Immortal Dragon Emperor, the Goddess of Protection, the Aegim Empire’s Holy Protector Sword, and Shiny. Her name was Hwia and her loooooong work experience spanned across many unrelated fields.

She was still doing many unrelated works. Estelle—the enemy who hated the nation she had founded and once ended her world—often drank tea with her. Hwia also played the very classic

Smash Brothers

with Kim Yul, her former partner who had lived a life that could be titled

I, Bullied At School, Was Transmigrated To a Different World And Now Live The Life Of A God Slayer With The Overpowered Skill Of Abandoning My Memories.

In any case, as usual, she was doing many unrelated works. One of those tasks was waking Sylvia, who often overslept.

Hwia gently shook Sylvia. “Lady Sylvia, it’s time to get up.”

“

Mmm...

”

“Lady Sylvia.”

“Five more minutes...” Sylvia said, holding her goblin doll pillow tightly. “Just five more minutes. Please, just five more minutes. Keep your mouth shut and wait for me..."

Not being prone to anger was one of Hwia’s strengths. She waited in silence for five minutes before saying, “Lady Sylvia, five minutes have passed.”

“You waited five minutes... Excellent... If you can wait five minutes, you can wait ten. I believe in you and your willpower to wait...”

Persuasion through logic was also one of Hwia’s strengths. She waited another ten minutes before speaking again.

“Lady Sylvia, ten minutes have passed.”

“

Nya...

”

“You should wake up soon.”

“Why...?” Sylvia asked in a drowsy voice.

“You should work.”

“What if... I don’t want to work?” Sylvia raised a hand, her face still buried in her pillow. “Think about it... Goddess of Protection... Hwia... Baldy—whatever. Think...”

“It’s not Baldy, it’s Shiny.”

“They both shine, you shiny baldie. Anyway, think about it. If I don’t want to work... If I have that strong will... What will you do? Will you force me to work?” Sylvia raised one finger and swayed it side to side. “No, no, no... You would not do that. You would not do that. You would not... Baldy...”

“I’m not bald.”

“Hwia, you’ll just let me sleep... and you’ll readily... do the work I should do."

“

Hmm

... Why is that?” Hwia asked.

Perhaps calmly answering other people’s bullshit was also one of Hwia’s strengths? No, that was probably a flaw. Either way, Sylvia looked at her with dreamy eyes, still half-asleep.

Sylvia answered, “Because you are a goddess... Lady Goddess... Please help me. You already look like Verdandi, so freaking act like her, please... That was Sylvia speaking... Goodbye.”

“Lady Sylvia...”

Sylvia said nothing more. The hand she had raised dropped limply; she returned to dreamland after making a goddess—not even human—wait for fifteen minutes. Despite this, Hwia didn’t get angry. That was certainly her strength.

The reason she didn’t get upset was that she didn’t need to feel upset. Like Sylvia said, Hwia was a goddess, and many others would get angry on her behalf. In fact, there were so many that several resided within Hwia herself.

“I entrust this to you, Sister,” Hwia said.

“Yes. I will handle it, Sister.”

Hwia’s hair and wings darkened.

[The Goddess of Protection has transformed into her alter form: Sympathy.]

[Adjusting the Goddess of Protection’s Constellation level.]

[The Goddess of Protection’s Skill Set has changed.]

Hwia’s comfortable dress shrank down to a plain priestess robe. Her nails, once as white as platinum, turned pitch black. A black angel descended. While Hwia resembled someone who could face a copyright lawsuit from a certain animation studio, Sympathy—one of her sword egos—resembled Advisor River Eternal so much that she would sue Sympathy for copyright infringement.

“

Woundless Pain.

”

As could be noticed from the way they talked, their personalities seemed similar.

“

Gyaaaah!

” Sylvia jumped like a cat that had run into a cucumber. Sympathy’s ability to grant woundless pain had jolted her awake. “

Ah

, what is this? This is abuse!”

“Are you awake now?” Sympathy asked.

“Awake? I feel like you dragged me out of my sleep so far away that I’ll never fall back asleep again. What was that now, really? Can’t you cherish me a little more and be gentle with me?”

“Do you want one more shot of it?”

“I’ll go and take a shower.”

Sylvia immediately went to the bathroom. A short while later, she exited her room, looking refreshed. Hwia was back, preparing her meal.

Sylvia mixed her egg with her rice vigorously while angrily saying, “You know what? Your tendency to let others get their hands dirty on your behalf is what drove the Aegim Empire to do those things to the clan advisor. Reflect on it."

Hwia looked gloomy and lowered her head. “

Ah

, I see. I guess those things could be related...”

Her mouth agape, Sylvia tapped her spoon loudly against the bowl. “Wait, what? You were sealed by the guy you summoned, so how is that related?”

“But...”

“But what? Stop blaming yourself. I said that just because I was annoyed. You’re a goddess. Why are you so naive?”

Sylvia ate her egg rice and then drank her scorched rice tea[1], finishing her meal quickly.

As Sylvia stood up and stretched, Hwia waited silently beside her, still looking gloomy. Sylvia clicked her tongue as she put on her gardener uniform. “Come to think of it, who were you fighting?”

“Pardon?”

“Kim Yul or Kim Yulmu-Tea, was it? You must have had a reason to summon him. You two fought this enemy for a long time, even after summoning him. What was the reason? I’m curious.”

“

Ah.

”

Because Sylvia slept in so often, Kim Gong-Ja’s orphanage director moved the assembly time to night. Estelle had gotten furious for causing such trouble to the clan elder, and Kim Yul had stood silent beside Sylvia, pressuring her with his presence alone. Sylvia, showing the ironclad resolve that didn’t yield to an unlawful exercise of power, had endured it.

There was still a lot of time left before the assembly. Sylvia carried the garden trowel, and Hwia balanced a water bucket brimming with sunset light on her head as they walked toward the garden.

Hwia answered, “I fought another me.”

“I see. After all those tea parties with the clan advisor... and you even have an alter form... When did the Viper virus get to you?”

Hwia waved her hands quickly, uncharacteristically flustered. “No, no! I really did fight another version of myself.”

Sylvia eyed her with doubt and crossed her arms. “Elaborate.”

Whether because Hwia was too kind or because she was too shocked by being suspected of having the Viper virus, she quickly explained the fight from that time. Kim Yul, whom the two coincidentally ran into in the garden, joined in on the explanation.

“Hwia was split in two back then. The bad Hwia and the good Hwia,” Kim Yul explained.

“Are you a slime?” Sylvia asked Hwia.

Kim Yul, who had recently begun to regain his emotions, wasn’t as kind as Hwia; he fired a rubber band at Sylvia.

After getting stung, Sylvia gritted her teeth. “

Ouch!

What are you doing?!”

“Chief Steward, I don’t care if you insult me, but do not insult my old comrade. That tests my patience.”

“Fine. Clan Shadow, I’m just asking out of curiosity. Who backstabbed this old comrade you respect so much?”

Kim Yul looked away. “Really, ‘slime?’ Stop using vague words that make it hard to distinguish whether it’s a small fry monster or a strong foe that needs magic and fire to beat. Clear words lead to a clear mind. As the head steward, you’re here to make sure the clan is neat and organized. You need to be more conscious of that.”

“You just changed the subject, didn’t you?” Sylvia said.

Kim Yul cleared his throat and began flipping through his diary. “

Hm,

anyhow. There are two kinds of holy grounds. One is the holy ground that someone creates, like this one or the Constellation Murderer’s. There are also the ones that are just ‘born.’”

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“

Oh.

”

“The Spire Mount Realm, Hwia’s world, was one of the born holy grounds. Everything there came from Hwia’s body. The whole mountain range across the continent was created from the decaying corpse of a huge dragon.”

“

Huh.

”

“That dragon was also said to be one of Hwia’s true forms, so the long fight against herself had left only two of Hwia. I was summoned by the weaker, kinder Hwia to fight the stronger, more evil Hwia.”

Hwia folded her wings as if they were her arms.

“In short, it was a process of rebirth and the fight that ultimately chose what Hwia would be. You could say that Hwia went through the same change that the patriarch did when he overcame the trials starting from the seventy-first floor to become a complete Constellation.”

Kim Yul then told a long story about how he broke the evil Hwia’s wings one by one and forged them into his own power. The story also included how he had changed the Spire Mountain Realm and made more and more people follow his and Hwia’s lead.

“It’s the kind of story that would suit to be a twenty-four episode animation that aired in the morning after cutting out the cruel parts,” Hwia said, looking nostalgic.

Kim Yul tilted his head. “Is that so? I think it’s the kind of story that would sell about a hundred thousand copies if it were made into an SRPG.”

Sylvia looked fed up but made no comments about the claims of the pair with loose screws.

Kim Yul asked, “Well, that’s all there is to the story. Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

“So, you were dodging the question earlier, right?”

A moment passed while rubber band bullets flew and the garden trowel’s mud balls dotted the air.

“Start working! It’s almost mealtime.”

“Fiiiiine. What has become of my life...” Sylvia grumbled.

Like that, the three of them began tending the garden. Hwia fluttered about, hanging up and collecting the sunset. Meanwhile, Kim Yul wrapped his long pruning shears in his aura and trimmed a protruding rock.

Sylvia squatted and used her trowel in the soil, muttering, “

Ah

, really... I also want to fight myself. Since I’m the unlucky Sylvia, the lucky Sylvia should defeat me and absorb me. On second thought, that would be annoying. If anyone will absorb anyone, it should be me, taking all the luck of my other half and becoming a true lucky charm.

Hmm...

”

Sylvia paused. Was she feeling sorry for herself? No. She was looking at a small marigold, its roots poking out a bit.

“

Phew.

She cried too much yesterday... What is she, a frog? Come to think of it, she

was

a frog once.

Tsk.

” Sylvia scooped soil with her trowel and covered the roots, grumbling, ”Patriarch. Patriarch, please return soon. How long will you stay up there, leaving the flowers like this?”

Of course, no one answered her. Hwia and Kim Yul were too far away. Regardless, Sylvia kept covering the marigold roots and patting the flower.

“Or maybe you’re already here? You’re like a ghost. Maybe you’re hiding there with your invisibility skill...

Phew

. If you’re there, please shake the carrot flower over there.... What the heck!”

Sylvia jumped in surprise. A sudden gust of wind had shaken the carrot flower.

“Why the hell did it actually sway...? Are you really there?”

The sudden breeze[2] while talking about Kim Gong-Ja triggered the siren within Sylvia’s head that Raviel had planted. Sylvia calmed her racing heart with difficulty.

“There is no way he can be here, though.”

Sylvia scratched the back of her head. She continued grumbling.

“Darn it. You’re the one who put me in this mess, but, well... this isn’t bad. Not

too

bad. Whenever I see that Mr. Kim Pollock’s life force is draining, I think I’m better off, but still.”

There was no response.

“I’m not the only one you put into this mess.”

Silence.

“There are many others. So come back quickly. Come on.”

[One of the Nine Keys has been forged.]

[All the residents from the eighty-first to the ninetieth floors are thinking of you.]

[The ninety-first floor has been cleared.]

The Tower’s announcement didn’t reach Sylvia’s ears. What she heard instead was Hwia’s voice calling for her.

“Lady Sylvia, shall we go have lunch?”

“

Ah

, yes.” Sylvia stood up after one last look at the marigold’s roots she neatly covered up. She stretched. “What’s for lunch today?”

“We’re eating out today. Let’s go to Cafe Planetarium.”

“Okay. Understood. Now then.”

Sylvia snapped her fingers. Thanks to the power given to the Death King Clan vassals, a staircase appeared, leading to a lower floor tied to the holy ground.

“I guess it’s time to eat some salad while I look at the annoying hamster[3].”

Sylvia, Hwia, and Kim Yul walked down the staircase. Following behind them was the one who had heard the Tower’s announcement.

[Entering the ninety-second floor.]

1. Made from the roasted crust of rice that is created at the bottom of a stone pot after cooking rice. ☜

2. The raw is 라비엘 보고 놀란 가슴 김공자 보고 놀란다고. It's the author's version of a Korean idiom 자라 보고 놀란 마음 솥뚜껑 보고 놀란다. It's about how when something terrified you so much, even similar stuff can also scare you. ☜

3. Hamustra ☜