A perfect replica of Solomon.
And at the sa ti, Isaiah—the man who would beco the father of this Teo Gospel—crossed the barrier, abandoning the peace he once held and everything he might have had in the future.
No one knew the exact reason why he made such a drastic decision. They say the bloodline of House Angmar occasionally drives its descendants to madness. That might have had sothing to do with it.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to find out the reason behind his eccentric actions, and I did my own bit of research.
After crossing the barrier through the Witch Forest near the northern city of Sandora, he spent a considerable amount of ti beyond the wall, fighting monsters. Eventually, he t the nymph who ruled that forest and stayed with her for quite a while.
It’s not exact, but probably about two to three years.
He likely spent a honeymoon period with the nymph who lived in the monster-infested forest.
He was soone who, even when living south of the barrier, was imnsely popular and received romantic attention from countless won—so how he ended up marrying a wild nymph and even having a child with her, I couldn’t begin to guess.
Was it the unfathomable nature of love?
But then why did he suddenly leave the nymph’s side and vanish without a trace?
In any case, that was the last known trace I had of Isaiah Gospel.
But thanks to the imp I t here at Fortress Gargarta, I was able to fill in a bit more of the blank that had been missing in his story.
“You’re talking about Isaiah Gospel when you say ‘your master,’ aren’t you?”
There was an imp hiding in Fortress Gargarta.
It had lived here, avoiding the horde of monsters occupying the fortress, moving through secret passageways from place to place.
Only soone like Demon King Solomon, or myself—or perhaps Isaiah Gospel, whose blood closely resembled ours—could beco the master of a stubborn imp like this.
The imp, who was frantically devouring the dry barley crackers we had stored in a sack, suddenly wrinkled her face.
“Isaiah Gospel? Who’s that? My master is just my master! Anyway, give more food. Ever since those invaders stord the fortress, I haven’t eaten a single thing since morning....”
She didn’t know Isaiah Gospel?
The thought that my guess might have been wrong left a bit unsettled. I might have to scrap all the deductions I had just been piecing together.
I handed over so more of the crackers I had tucked away for myself and asked,
“You don’t know your master’s na?”
“No idea!”
This imp seed extrely clumsy at communicating with people—probably because she had lived hidden in this fortress all on her own for such a long ti.
How troubling.
I started wondering if she might be lying, so I carefully watched her behavior. She looked just like a middle school girl.
Her imp tail had been torn off, and she didn’t have the horns on her forehead that were common among malicious imps. She really did seem like just a young girl.
How many years had she survived alone in this place?
I glanced around the small room that served as the imp’s dwelling. A room so low even crouching inside would have your head bumping the ceiling. The only source of light was a single flickering lantern.
Leonor, whom I t in Ayra’s dream, had also hidden himself away inside a fortress. That thought made feel a little sorry for her.
That’s when Mirna, who had been silently watching this entire ti, parted her lips.
“So, what’s your na?”
“I’m Imp.”
“That’s your race, not your personal na. Don’t you have a special na just for yourself?”
“Why does that matter? What I’m more curious about is this square, flat snack! What is it? It’s tiny and shaped like a star, and when I bite it, it lts right in my mouth!”
“......”
While munching /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ on crackers and sugar stars, the imp looked delighted. Watching her, Mirna gave her a strange look, then leaned in and whispered to .
“She doesn’t seem malicious or dangerous.”
“Well, yeah. She doesn’t have horns.”
“Horns?”
Mirna asked, confused.
I gave a quick explanation. Imps who do bad things often grow horns on their heads. Sotis, like Marmar, there are imps without horns, and those are usually the kind-hearted ones.
Mirna nodded in understanding.
“So that’s why Tartar and Purpur had horns. So horned imps are evil?”
“Well... it’s not that simple.”
Anyway.
It seed like Mirna had greatly lowered her guard toward this imp.
“I thought she might be a spy or assassin planted by the monsters. That’s why I was trying to catch her before anything terrible happened.”
At Mirna’s comnt, the imp suddenly puffed up her hair.
“Comparing to those idiot monsters! How dare you!”
Alright, so she clearly wasn’t on the sa side as the monsters infesting the north. Co to think of it, imps always hated the monsters beyond the barrier.
***
The imp’s na, apparently, was just “Imp.”
When I asked why, she said her master called her that.
“For so reason, I was badly wounded and dying... and Master saved . After that, he just called Imp. That’s all I know. I don’t rember anything before I got hurt. But that’s enough for .”
To call an imp simply “Imp” as a na...
It wasn’t all that different from naming a dog “Dog” or a cat “Cat.” Maybe this so-called master of hers never intended to na her at all.
I asked,
“So, you really don’t know your master’s na?”
“......”
Instead of answering, she continued scarfing down the rest of the crackers. Seeing her working through her third small pouch of crackers, Mirna raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“Are imps normally this gluttonous?”
“Hmm...”
That reminded of sothing I once heard.
Feral cats in the wild, when they find large prey, will eat far more than usual. Since food is unpredictable in the wild, they stuff themselves, thinking they might not get another chance for a long ti.
Maybe this imp was doing the sa.
Right then, she reached around and stroked her lower back.
“...I hope my tail grows back properly. I want it to be star-shaped again.”
Ah, right.
This imp had her tail ripped off by Mirna earlier and escaped.
Imps store nutrients in their tails—like a kind of reserve pouch. That must be why she was stuffing herself—to regenerate a new tail.
“What if it doesn’t co back star-shaped...?”
She murmured quietly to herself. Mirna asked,
“You like the star shape?”
To that, the imp responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Of course! How else will Master recognize ?”
“Recognize you?”
“One day, Master will finish whatever urgent thing he had to do and co back here to get . If my tail looks different, he might not recognize .”
Through this conversation, I was able to gather quite a bit of information. This imp’s master had left her behind and disappeared.
And suddenly, I beca curious.
“How long have you been here?”
The imp replied,
“I haven’t counted exactly. But... about twenty winters have passed. It was cold. But soon, Master will co back and take to the warm southern lands. There’ll be lots of snacks there, and...”
Twenty winters.
Roughly twenty years.
This imp had been hiding here in the fortress alone for two decades, waiting for her master to return.
I’d done my share of waiting for people, too.
But after about five years, I realized no one was coming for . So I gave up.
Yet this little one still hadn’t given up, even after twenty years.
I found myself hoping that her master wasn’t the man I suspected. But I had to be sure.
Shhk.
I pulled out a drawing from the 《Squirrel Vault》 scroll. It was a portrait—a painting of the young Reinhardt, Alastair, Stella... and among them was the man I was searching for.
“Is your master in this picture?”
The imp’s red eyes sparkled wide.
“Aaah—! Master!”
She snatched the picture from my hands and pressed her dusty, dirty cheek to the image.
“It slls like him...”
She rubbed her face against it like a puppy reunited with its mother after a long ti. It was heartbreaking.
“You know Master? Did he ask you to co get ? Right?”
She said, her eyes never leaving the picture. Her gaze was fixed on the smiling man with red hair, laughing like the noonday sun.
But that man could never return.
He was no longer of this world.
Most likely.
It occurred to , maybe he had known he wouldn’t co back.
Maybe that’s why he never told her his na. Why he never gave her one either—so she wouldn’t grow too attached.
But he didn’t know.
That even a single mont of warmth, a flicker of kindness, could be enough to make soone wait five, ten—twenty winters.
And with that realization ca anger.
Maybe it was because I saw my own childhood self in her—staring out the window, waiting.
Without engaging 《Calm Thinking》, I opened my mouth.
“His na was Isaiah Gospel. And no matter how long you wait, he’s never coming back. That man is dead.”
“...Sir Teo.”
Startled, Mirna spoke beside . The imp scowled fiercely.
“No! Why would you say sothing like that!? He said he’d co back! You’re an! I hate you!”
Then she took the drawing and bolted away.
Left alone with Mirna, she touched my back gently and said,
“Why did you say that? That’s not like you. Even if you had to tell the truth, there were gentler ways to put it.”
“I don’t know. I just... couldn’t help it. I know what it’s like to wait for soone who won’t co. After twenty years, it’s better to face the truth than live on empty hope.”
“Perhaps you saw yourself in her.”
After that, Mirna didn’t press further. She simply narrowed her eyes, staring down the corridor the imp had fled through.
“We still had so many questions to ask her. What if we never find her again? She might have known quite a bit.”
“She’ll co back. As long as she believes her master will return, she won’t be able to leave this fortress. She’ll be afraid of missing him. In the end, she’ll cross paths with us again.”
We left the secret passage.
The sounds of battle outside were starting to fade, much like the tension in the air. The horrific night raid was ending, and dawn was finally breaking.
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