Chapter 190 – City of Perfection (3)

Marakia couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t like he could afford to talk back to the world’s most terrifying man. Either way, once the chaotic assertion of hierarchy was over, Marakia assumed a gloomy face and returned to the earlier topic.

“Mmm… Although there were some unfortunate happenings just now, I wish to repeat my earlier request. Allow me to go outside.”

Sungchul realized that what Marakia had said earlier was not entirely a joke, so he asked,

“Do you have something in mind?”

Marakia nodded and answered.

“I, Marakia, am the most exceptional of all Nahak-kind. I did not widdle away my time idly eating and drinking. I pondered about the curse set upon my body. Why the Curse of Extinction was undone. Why the curse does not affect this place, and other questions were deep within my thoughts and I have spent a long while coming up with an answer.”

“You speak too much despite being mere 3rd in rank!”

Bertelgia gave a roaring shout but neither Sungchul nor Marakia reacted to it. Bertelgia went under the blanket in shame. Once silence returned, Sungchul’s eyes seemed to glow as he asked.

“Did you figure out the secret of this place?”

“I am not entirely certain. But I think I may have a clue. That is why I command you. Let me out of this stuffy home.”

“…”

His tone of voice was reproachable, but Marakia was still a being who dominated in the past era as the greatest mage of his time. His knowledge and acumen in magic might even surpass that of the combined sum of all mages of the current era. Sungchul hedged his hopes on Marakia and left the room with Marakia in his arms.

The servants’ gaze were all drawn towards Sungchul’s abdomen. It was Marakia hidden in his robe. Sungchul had no reason to reveal the existence of Marakia to either McRaed nor Vestiare. Sungchul spoke to the women bluntly.

“Is it your first time seeing an erection?”

The servants blushed and averted their eyes. Sungchul who safely left the hallway stood by the door.

“Will you be ok?”

Marakia nodded and unfolded his wings from inside Sungchul’s embrace.

“Let us place our trust in my unparalleled instincts and move about slowly.”

Sungchul carefully left the house as Marakia instructed. It was at the moment one of the feather left the boundary. The black feather quickly turned white.

“Knock away the feather!”

Marakia hastely shouted. Sungchul hit the feather away. The black feather fell to the ground and initially turned white, before it became covered in black dots and wither.

“That was dangerous,” Marakia said as he stuck out his tongue.

“Did you figure out anything?” Sungchul asked as he stared at the feather on the ground. Marakia flapped his small wings a bit.

“I think I know a bit more.”

Marakia plucked one of his own feathers and threw it out the door. Unexpectedly, the feather that had been separated from his body did not show any reaction.

“As you can see, the Curse of Extinction is a curse that is placed upon me as a being itself,” Marakia explained. “But that curse does not take effect in here. Destroyer. Do you know much about curses?” Marakia looked up at Sungchul and asked.

Sungchul stroked his chin and crossed his arms.

“I do not know much about it. Although I have plenty plastered all over me.”

“You’re right, you’re definitely full of all sorts of weird curses.”

“Collecting curses is my hobby.”

“What a strange hobby. Anyway, Curses share similar nature to magic formations.”

“Similar to magic formations? Now that I think of it, they do share a lot of similar qualities.”

In order for a curse to be formed, it requires the existence of both the recipient of the curse as well as the one bestowing the curse, and the recipient must be specifiable. Therefore, a common curse thrown out as a petty insult like ‘I curse the heavens!’ is incapable of carrying any effect.

It’s also complete nonsense in Heaven’s perspective. Who is he to curse the Heaven anyway? On the other hand, it is possible to curse a set region of land. Although it’s only possible for a powerful being to do so. Because the Curse of Extinction is a curse bestowed by the gods, its effects cover the entirety of the continent. It’s recipients are any intelligent creature living on the continent under the age of twenty. The effect is affliction of incurable and completely fatal disease. But that curse did not extend to the Verdure Greenhouse.

Marakia analyzed the reason as follows.

“There are two possibilities. One, that this area is an area outside the effect of the god’s curse. In other words, it is possible that this place is a region hidden from the gods. The Underground Kingdon we met in the past is a similar place.

“You’re talking about earlier when you said this might be a safe haven?”

Marakia nodded at Sungchul’s question.

“Yes. I thought so at first. But as I spent my time here, I thought of the possibility of a different answer and have become aware of it.”

“What is it? The other answer?”

To this, Marakia looked beyond the wide open door into the night sky as he replied in his characteristic collected tone of voice.

“It’s completely absurd, but this place seems to have successfully nullified even the God’s domain.”

“…”

A deep furrow appeared on Sungchul’s brows. Marakia glared at him and said,

“The status window does not open here.”

Sungchul immediately tried to open his status window.

It did not.

He still had the god-like strength running through his body, but the method of displaying it in values was somehow disabled. Although this was possible within a barrier within a dream, unique areas, and the like, but it was impossible to happen in reality according to the Otherworld’s common sense.

“How peculiar,” Sungchul said.

“It was because of this I became aware of the second possibility. And I wish to do an experiment.”

Marakia spread his small wings side.

“Put me outside once more.”

“But that seems dangerous.”

Upon Sungchul’s expression of concern, Marakia made a confident grin and thumped his chest with his adorable little fist.

“I am the king of Nahak. I know no fear.”

“…”

Sungchul picked up Marakia. Bertelgia muttered when she saw that from the side.

“What… are you trying to do?”

“It is to see if his second theory is correct,” Sungchul answered as he again held Marakia out, to have his wings leave the Verdure Greenhouse once more. But the moment the wing reached the edge of the outside, Marakia gripped Sungchul’s wrist and spoke in panic.

“Wait, slowly. Very little bit.”

“Understood.”

“If there’s a problem, cut it off right away.”

“You have a lot to say for one who knows no fear.”

“Try being afflicted by the Curse of Extinction too. See if you turn out like me or not.”

Sungchul stuck Marakia, who was talking back, outside. A portion of the wing left the Verdure Greenhouse.

“Ugh!”

The feathers that escaped the protective region instantly began to turn white.

“Now!” Marakia shouted.

Sungchul pulled Marakia back within the Verdure Greenhouse and took out and readied a sharp dagger from his Soul Storage in an instant.

“Ugg…!”

Sungchul stared at the whitened portions of Marakia’s wings. It was to cut them off quickly in case it spread or worsened. Despite feeling horrendous pain, Marakia stood proud and tall as befitting the King of Nahak and withstood the pain.

Terrible moments passed.

Soon, a miracle happened.

If it were like normal, the whitened region should soon form black spots and quickly rot away, but an opposite phenomena occurred. The black color slowly became restored to the whitened regions.

“Kukuku… as I thought, it is the victory of my greatness and knowledge as vast as the ocean.”

Marakia made a low chuckle as he verified his well being. But he was small and just recently born. He soon reached his limit. Marakia lost his strength from where he stood and fell.

“Yeap!”

Bertelgia held Marakia up from behind to stop him from falling. Bertelgia was large enough to hold up Marakia’s small frame and more.

“Ugh… Even the book has uses at times,” Marakia said as he massaged his beak.

“How insolent, towards the 2nd in rank.”

Even as she scolded him, she allowed Marakia to use her as a crutch to stand back up. Sungchul snuck Marakia back into his embrace and returned to the room. The Servants eyes of all the servants were glued to Sungchul’s lower body.

Sungchul sat Marakia upon an armchair immediately upon returning to the room.

“It seems as though you were right.”

“That is the case. There is a power here that can nullify the power of even the god’s curse.”

Sungchul couldn’t help but recall Vestiare’s story.

‘Vestiare. She wasn’t bluffing after all.’

Sungchul told Marakia what he heard from the former princess of Ixion. The story of New Ixion serving a Lesser God Sidmia, and Sidmia being able to protect the city from the curse in return.

Marakia sometimes asked questions or argued against Sungchul’s words and came to accept Vestiare’s story in his own way.

The part he was the most suspicious about was the actual being that cast the Curse of Extinction upon the world.

“That Vestiare woman said that the Curse of Extinction’s origins aren’t God, but God’s agents. But is there any proof to this statement? I have never heard of this before.”

“But it would explain how even a mere Lesser God is powerful enough to nullify the curse upon your body.”

Marakia nodded in agreement to Sungchul’s statement.

“Now that you speak of it, there is also no evidence proving that the Curse of Extinction was directly cast by the Gods themselves either. It was just another story passed down from generation to generation.”

He seemed to have thought of something and snapped his head back up with a glint in his eyes.

“Did a Lesser God manifest itself in this land?”

Sungchul shook his head.

“I have not heard anything to that effect.”

“But if I am right… the fact that the power of a Lesser God is taking effect on this land means…”

Marakia paled. He curled up his previously whitened left wings and muttered as he pet the feathers with his hand.

“There must be a large scale human sacrifice taking place upon this land somewhere.”

“How do you know this?”

Marakia opened his wings back up at Sungchul’s question and answered with a bitter laugh.

“We Nahak too have tried the same thing. Although I do not know what was the result of doing so.”

Sungchul was reminded of the countless bodies of the Cave Elves entombed within the walls of the giant underground Avian Kingdom.

Marakia continued to speak.

“The Lesser Gods who have ascended and left the mortal plane cannot exert their power in this world for free. They must pay a price.”

“And that is…?”

“I suspect that you already know, but I’ll tell you anyway. It is human souls.”

“Human Souls, you say?”

It was something impossible to imagine happening in Ixion, a city fondly called the ‘City of Perfection’. But Sungchul had already heard the story from Clarice. The fact that ‘Paradise on Earth’ Ixion was recruiting a vast number of people from La Grange and they were being sent to facility called settlements.

‘Now that I think of it, the number of people living in Ixion was very small compared to the scale of the city.’

Ixion’s prosperity was difficult to attribute wholly to Vestiare and her Colossus. But it was a different story if it involved the sacrifice of others.

“Do you have any theory as to where?” Marakia asked as he leaned back comfortably on the chair.

“There is one place.”

Sungchul nodded and recalled the face of the woman who was singing with a brilliant expression and redoubled his resolve.

‘Since that is where that woman is, something must be going on there.’

His next destination was decided.

“I’ll ask you to check on that for now. I’ll try to work on my own on the issue of the Curse of Extinction.”

Strong resolve could be felt from Marakia’s eyes. It was because he saw the possibility that the curse was not divine in nature. He found a thread of hope for liberating himself… no, his entire race, from the terrible Curse of Extinction.

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