Chapter 679: Confession

“And then, I met you.”

Merlin, kneeling on one knee, spoke with bloodshot eyes and a flushed face.

…

In response, Oliver remained silent.

It would have been better if Merlin had interrogated or mocked him.

Then, at least, Oliver might have known what to say.

But Oliver chose silence over expressing his emotions, and that silence turned into an invisible hand that squeezed Merlin’s throat with a sense of suffocating despair.

So much so that he felt an urge to run away from the spot right then and there.

Sigh…

But instead of fleeing, Merlin took a deep breath to calm himself.

He didn’t have the right to run, nor the right to collapse.

All he had was a sense of duty, though he wasn’t sure if that duty was as an Archive or as a temporary teacher.

Merlin used that sense of duty as a staff to support himself and broke the oppressive silence.

“To be precise, I discovered you, walking down the street… Do you remember? That brief moment when I barely unleashed my magic? You looked straight at me.”

Oliver remained silent.

Merlin took that silence as an answer and recalled the moment when he first discovered Oliver.

The moment he found Oliver.

At the time, Merlin couldn’t believe his eyes, but before he could make a decision with his mind, he unleashed his magic to test Oliver.

He used a split second, so short that even the most accomplished wizards, even the heads of entire schools, wouldn’t notice it.

To Merlin’s surprise, Oliver not only didn’t miss the magic unleashed in that fraction of a second, but he also identified its source and discovered Merlin.

The moment their eyes met.

Without realizing it, Merlin said,

“Hello, young man… Here to buy a book?” That’s how I greeted you. Feels like a long time ago.”

Merlin smiled as he remembered, but Oliver remained silent.

Merlin, now accustomed to Oliver’s silence, continued speaking.

“To be honest, I ran the bookstore because I felt like I would go crazy doing nothing. I just had to do something, so I chose to manage a bookstore… People who are desperate to do something in less-than-ideal situations tend to use second-hand bookstores. I figured, if I could help those people, it might get a little better. Strangely enough, that’s when I met you.”

Oliver stayed silent—

“—Is that why you approached me?”

Oliver suddenly asked.

He asked if that was why Merlin spoke to him and recommended the books.

There was no emotion in the question other than curiosity.

No anger, resentment, mockery, or sarcasm. Nothing.

Oliver was genuinely curious about why Merlin approached him.

After a long silence, Merlin finally opened his mouth.

And instead of a polite lie, an ugly truth came out.

“…Yes, that’s correct. With the end of the world possibly imminent, you, as an existence outside the world’s order, were not someone I could afford to ignore. So, I approached you to keep an eye on you.”

Merlin confessed.

He admitted that he approached Oliver to determine whether he was a threat to the world’s end.

“At first, I decided to watch you. To find out whether you were a danger or not… The books I recommended were also part of that.”

Merlin painfully forced out each word.

He was essentially confessing that all the kindness he showed Oliver was purely out of fear that Oliver might bring about the world’s end.

However, Oliver didn’t show any reaction.

Neither betrayal nor contempt clouded his expression. He simply harbored more questions, just like when he had first emerged from the mine.

“So, is that why you took me as a temporary disciple?”

“…Yes.”

Merlin caught his breath and affirmed.

“To be precise, it was due to what I saw in Martel.”

Merlin remembered.

The time when Oliver suddenly appeared and bluntly asked if he was a wizard and if he knew anything about Martel.

Merlin had answered honestly. He felt he had no other choice.

Recalling that time, Merlin felt mentally exhausted and let his knees rest fully on the ground.

“Sigh… You asked me if I knew anything about Martel and whether it was really a place that helped people.”

“You asked if I wanted to hear a comforting lie or the uncomfortable truth.”

“You answered: ‘The truth.’ And I gave it. Furthermore, I urged you not to get involved. I told you the Tower of Magic stands above authority… Yet, you still went to Martel. To save a child who wasn’t even related to you.”

Merlin recalled secretly observing Oliver at that time. The moment was so incredible he could hardly believe it, even as he watched with his own eyes.

“After seeing that, I decided to accept you as a disciple. I thought it would be safer to keep you close and watch over you.”

“You made the wrong decision.”

Oliver, who had been silent, spoke again. His voice carried a hint of resignation.

“I don’t understand.”

Oliver abruptly declared.

“Didn’t you have an opportunity to figure out who I was right after that? Through the emotions I gave you and the tests?”

Oliver was referring to the emotions he gave to Merlin as payment for the help in Martel and the fight they had in the Frozen Lands.

“Wasn’t it all to uncover my true nature?”

This time, Merlin answered with silence.

That silence signified affirmation.

Merlin had deliberately shown kindness to lower Oliver’s guard, then used the pretexts of payment or tests to uncover his true nature.

Even the confrontation in the Frozen Lands had been part of that.

At that moment, Merlin had gained the first concrete clue about who Oliver truly was.

“Hell Summon (헬 서먼).”

He had seen Oliver summon Hell itself.

“So, you must’ve known my identity by then.”

“I wasn’t entirely sure.”

“But you had some idea.”

Merlin’s silence confirmed his guess.

Faced with that, Oliver asked another question.

“Then why didn’t you kill me?”

Ironically, Oliver asked the same question as the Dark Priests above.

Why didn’t Merlin kill him?

It was a mercilessly brutal question.

Instead of answering immediately, Merlin placed both knees on the ground and leaned forward.

His posture resembled that of someone worshipping a god, yet it also seemed like a plea for mercy or a desperate bid for hope.

“…I was afraid.”

Merlin’s tone changed.

The change made Oliver go quiet once more.

“The end of the world is like a massive, intricate machine designed by God. I couldn’t muster the courage to interfere with it, fearing that killing you might bring unforeseen consequences.”

Merlin confessed that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to kill Oliver; he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“And I wanted to believe. Even if you appeared to be the prince of destruction, I wanted to believe you weren’t.”

Merlin confessed that even though he suspected Oliver might bring about the end of the world, he desperately wanted to believe otherwise.

“So, instead of making a hasty decision, I chose to keep you close, to watch you, control you… I believed that as long as the shell surrounding you didn’t crack, everything might still be okay.”

Merlin confessed that his decision to take Oliver in as his disciple wasn’t out of kindness, but rather out of fear and a futile hope.

“But every time you slipped further from my control, I agonized over the idea of killing you… Over and over I agonized.”

Merlin admitted that he had deliberated countless times over whether to kill Oliver.

Oliver listened quietly to this truth.

“Our Archive knew long ago. We knew that humanity would eventually become like this… That by defying the natural order, blinded by desire, we would bring about our own end. And that we would bring suffering upon you.”

Merlin slowly extended his hand toward Oliver.

“Yet, we couldn’t stop it. We knew that if we tried to forcibly curb humanity’s desires, we would inevitably have to kill countless people with our own hands. Even though we knew, we did nothing to stop it… because we too are humans.”

Merlin, with both hands, grabbed onto the hem of Oliver’s trousers.

“But that doesn’t mean we are unaware of our sins. We know we have abused the freedom given to us by God, devoured our own kind… and that our end is the punishment we deserve.”

Merlin’s grip on Oliver’s trouser hem tightened.

Through the touch, Oliver could feel Merlin’s emotions.

Desperation, guilt, and an underlying plea for mercy.

It was from within these emotions that Merlin begged.

“However, despite our shame, I shamelessly beg you now… Please… Please, don’t abandon us.”

***

The Holy Capital.

Small, but over a thousand years old. A nation with an older history than any other.

Amazingly, the Holy Capital had never once deviated from its role in its long history.

Supporting the Holy Emperor’s Palace, the root and heart of the Pater Church.

As proof, the Holy Capital had never expanded its territory since its founding, not even by an inch. And its population rarely exceeded a thousand.

It only retained the territory and population necessary to assist the Holy Emperor’s Palace.

But the Holy Capital didn’t only house the Holy Emperor’s Palace.

Despite its size, effective governance and management required that residential and administrative areas be divided, as were the roles of various institutions.

The Police Bureau, responsible for general public order, the Theology Academy, training the clergy, and the Holy Knight School, for raising Holy Knights, were such institutions.

But among all these, there existed those few institutions so secretive that even the people living within the Holy Capital knew nothing about them.

One such institution was the Inspectorate, which was authorized to arrest, detain, and interrogate Holy Knights.

Holy Knights were still humans, after all, and occasionally, someone would cause trouble.

Every time it happened, the Inspectorate would quietly deal with them, and this time was no exception.

“Dame Joanna.”

In an ordinary, indistinguishable building.

In its basement, a Holy Knight addressed Joanna, who was sitting opposite him.

Joanna, disarmed and clad only in a shirt and trousers, slowly raised her head.

She was handcuffed, looking haggard, though not from any physical torture.

Perhaps it was the grueling interrogation or maybe it was due to worry.

As Joanna raised her head, the Holy Knight sitting opposite her asked a question.

“I’ll ask again. Is it true that you were manipulated by Dark Magic to perform hostile acts and insults against the Dark Priest?”

The question had a strong, suggestive tone.

It wasn’t really a question at all; it was more of a prompt for her to agree.

No, not just ‘prompt,’ it was a demand.

And as a Holy Knight herself, Joanna knew that better than anyone.

In fact, she knew it so well that she had done it herself.

She had dragged people into isolated basements like this, pressured them, and forced the answers they wanted.

As she closed her eyes, memories of all her past deeds seemed to flash before her.

“Dame Joanna. Open your eyes and answer.”

The Holy Knight ordered sternly, and Joanna opened her eyes and gave an answer.

Though it wasn’t the one he wanted.

“No, I was not affected by Dark Magic. And yes, I acted against the Dark Priest of my own will. My entire will.”

Bang!

As soon as she answered, the Holy Knight slammed his fist down on the table, empowered by the blessing of the gods.

Fortunately, the table was made of iron, so it only suffered a dent instead of shattering.

“Are you out of your mind? Why are you choosing a path of death when we’re offering you a way to live?!”

The Holy Knight, unable to contain his anger, yelled at her. Then, as if regaining some self-control, he stopped short, leaned in closer to Joanna, and whispered softly.

“We’re trying to save your life and honor, Joanna. You failed to capture that presence, hid what you found in Randa, and even had personal meetings with him…! And then you tried challenging the Dark Priest himself for that presence!! …All these crimes could get you disgraced and executed.”

The Holy Knight wasn’t just making threats.

Failing to capture Oliver in Wineham was one thing, but meeting him in secret in Randa without reporting it and then opposing the Dark Priest for Oliver’s sake was a scandal serious enough to strip her of her title as a Holy Knight.

On top of that, shouting at the Dark Priest and displaying hostility toward him on behalf of Oliver was a crime so serious she could be burned at the stake.

And yet, instead of following the law to the letter, the Pater Church was offering Joanna a way out.

After all, Joanna had participated in defeating the Pied Piper and had earned some merit. Plus, the Pater Church didn’t want to cause further internal disturbances.

So, the Pater Church laid out a path for her to save herself, a simple nod was all it would take.

They would overlook her awareness of Oliver’s presence in Randa, her secret meetings with him, and claim that her opposition to the Dark Priest was merely due to being manipulated by Oliver.

It wasn’t difficult to do.

In a centralized, authoritative, and conservative religious order like the Pater Church, if the higher-ups decided on something, it became the truth.

Anyone who raised doubts was branded as a heretic or dissenter.

The history of Pater Church attests to how they handled countless internal issues in this way.

However, this time, it wasn’t so easy.

Joanna herself continued to reject the offer.

“I understand. But that doesn’t change the truth. Everything was of my own will. Discovering Oliver in Randa and not reporting it, secretly meeting him, raising my voice at the Dark Priest—all of it was my choice. I wasn’t being manipulated.”

“Aaargh! Why are you doing this!!”

The frustrated Holy Knight finally screamed.

It was all the more exasperating because all Holy Knights were acquainted somehow through some degree of separation.

Joanna gave him her answer.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

***

“However, despite our shame, I shamelessly beg you now… Please… Please, don’t abandon us.”

Merlin pleaded.

In the deepest, most abysmal chamber of the Holy Emperor’s Palace’s prison.

Oliver, who was sitting, looked down at Merlin without a word.

An eternity seemed to pass in the silence that filled that underground prison, and finally, Oliver spoke.

“I can still see it.”

Merlin, still clutching the hem of Oliver’s trousers, slowly raised his head.

And in doing so, he could see.

The face of Oliver, enveloped in darkness, with eyes and mouth glinting as the writhing shadows around him filled the space.

The shadowy surroundings felt like the inside of a stomach, filled with rage and hatred.

“In my eyes, I can still see the sins of you and everyone else… as clearly as if they were happening now.”

Merlin slowly closed his eyes, and Oliver continued.

“I… can’t do it.”

A fact he absolutely couldn’t deny.