Chapter 40 – Clue

Diego instinctively retreated as he saw blue light emanating from Arin’s body.

Can humans have such divine power?

Is that even possible?

And when the powerful light touched his mother, she seemed to be shaking and in pain. As Diego tried to approach in surprise, Arin shook her head.

Purple spots rose sharply on Diego’s mother’s body. When he thought it was getting worse, purple blood poured out of his mother’s mouth.

The purple blood flowed through her mouth and volatilized in blue light and disappeared. After that, his mother began to look better. Only then was Diego, relieved.

In the slums, his father disappeared, and the two kids were lying side by side with arrows stuck in their foreheads.

He wondered why his father disappeared from the slums and the two boys who were acting as kings could die in vain.

Is it just that?

Those who bothered Diego and his mother were screaming with arrows in their calves now. Ed was whispering something as he cut the wounds on their calves again with a knife and pulled out an arrow, and in the whisper, the boys were biting their lips and holding back their screams, shedding tears.

It was a treatment that seemed to leave more aftereffects.

Looking at the boys struggling in pain, they looked pitiful. It’s amazing that the people who have bothered him so much so far may look pitiful.

Then Diego looked back at the blue light disappearing from behind, and Arin laid his mother down comfortably and said.

“Now she’ll get better as long as you feed her well.”

Diego bowed his head to the point where his head touched the ground.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Arin closed her eyes for a while and opened her eyes. Diego stepped back in surprise when he saw her eyes shining blue. Arin, who was looking at Diego, tilted her head. He wondered if human eyes could shine like that.

Arin did not feel any magi inside of him. So when she looked a little more carefully, she felt a small piece of the child’s heart. The pieces of the magi were smaller than the magi felt in his mother.

Arin reached out her hand, grabbed Diego’s shoulder, and began to pour out her sacred power. Then, with strong resistance, it bounced off.

Diego was holding his chest and bleeding, and the blood was red. And the piece of the magi in his heart was no different from what she had seen before.

Arin looked down at her palm. This is because the shock was so strong that the palms were numb.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

Ed came inside and Arin didn’t know what to say. Then he looked at the conditions of the two and asked.

“What’s going on?”

They took Diego and his mother to meet Thane.

Thane was drinking alone and was surprised by the additional people. Ed asked Doug to take Diego’s mother and Diego to a separate room.

Since they caused a scene in the slum, they thought it would be better to bring the two here for now. And there was a lot to ask when the mother woke up.

After sending her and Diego upstairs, the group gathered again.

Ed emptied a glass of alcohol recommended by Thane and asked.

“Can you have a baby between a demon and a human being?”

Thane burst into laughter at Ed’s question.

“Are you talking about a demon’s illegitimate child? It’s not that there’s no such crazy demon, but the demon’s illegitimate child is different from birth. It is easy to notice because it has horns or red skin. That’s why most of them die when they’re young.”

Ed thought something would solve his curiosity if he asked the Einstein of demon research. However, he seemed to have never experienced such an issue.

“Why do you ask that?”

Arin replied instead.

“That kid from a while ago. He had magi in hisbody.”

“Magi? Are you saying he’s an intermediate demon?”

“No. If he’s a demon, I would recognize it right away. But there’s magi planted in his heart. Like a seed.”

Thane made a strong impression at the words.

“Maybe he’s a demon follower or a demon subordinate?”

“That’s not it either.”

Thane’s expression became very serious.

“This is a case I haven’t seen before. But, it is not the boy’s energy that led us here.”

“I’m going to check when Diego’s mother wakes up. I don’t think the kid knows anything, but maybe his mother knows.”

“Can you tell me what her husband’s name is? I’m going to collect some information.”

“He’s a man named Juan.”

Ed recalled what the kid had said and replied. Thane nodded and filled his glass.

“First, let’s have a drink and rest. Either way, we’ll only know when the mother of the child wakes up.”

Ed waited while emptying the drink. They gathered at the place where there seemed to be a lot of merchants and nobles.

No matter what city they went to, Thane would choose his accommodation by looking at only one thing. Alcohol. The atmosphere was different everywhere they went because he only went for the alcohol.

This was a place where fishermen dragged their tired bodies and drank ale.

Ed took a sip of wine and looked back at Arin as if he remembered something.

“Didn’t you say there was a dinner you needed to attend?”

Arin smiled in vain and replied.

“You’re so mischievous.”

“Chief Charlie looked grumpy”

“So what?”

Arin said confidently even though she did not drink much alcohol. Ed and Thane burst into laughter at her appearance.

“Yes. No one can touch a holy knight.”

They are only a handful of holy knights in the Astron denomination encompassing the continent. They call them Astron’s Sword, and no one dares to touch them.

Even the Archbishop.

Only one chief priest is an inevitable opponent.

Her glass was filled again in the air.

Everyone gathered in the room when they heard that Diego’s mother, Sophia, waking up. Thane winked at Doug and said.

“Take Diego and buy him breakfast.”

“I want to be next to my mother.”

At Diego’s words, Ed grabbed his shoulder.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of her. The steak here is delicious. Go eat with Doug.”

Diego looked at Ed’s eyes. A person who said there was no unprovoked favor, but has given him unlimited favor. A person who reminds him of his father. He thought Ed was like a real brother.

“Please take good care of her.”

“Okay.”

Ed plays with Diego’s hair and sends him down with Doug. Sophia smiled at Diego and looked at him as he moved away.

After Diego went down with Doug, Arin held Sophia’s hand and said.

“I’m Arin, a holy knight of the Astron Church.”

She could see Sophia was nervous. It was a different atmosphere from other people who met. She looked scared.

Arin let out a short sigh. When Arin was thinking about what to say, Ed asked instead.

“What happened a month ago?”

“That day…”

Ed asked Sophia, who was hesitant.

“A month ago, you were exposed to the demon’s magi and got sick. And that day, your husband Juan disappeared.”

“That··”

Ed waited for her answer. Sophia was contemplating and eventually clenched Arin’s hands with both of her hands.

“My husband is innocent.”

“We want to know the situation that day.”

When Arin clenched her hand and asked, Sophia carefully spoke.

“There was someone who visited my husband that day. I couldn’t check his face, but I could tell one thing. His eyes were as red as blood. And he had three eyes.”

Sophia trembled with fear as if she remembered the time. When Arin was holding her hand, she courageously continued to speak.

“He told my husband to follow him in a scary voice, and my husband refused. Then he and my husband began to fight. But my husband was overpowered too easily. I couldn’t imagine my husband losing to someone, but he was overpowered so easily and dragged away by him. I wanted to stop him, but just looking at his eyes made my hands and feet tremble and I couldn’t move.”

“Do you know where your husband was dragged?”

Sophia nodded heavily at the question.

“I gathered up my courage and chased after him. I saw him go down to the underground sewer in Kalim City. The last memory is the look in his eyes before he was dragged down there. When I woke up, Diego had already moved me home.”

“Why didn’t you tell the church?”

Sophia hesitated and said.

“The church doesn’t listen to the people in the slums. And I couldn’t go to church because my physical condition was extremely bad. And I believed in Juan. He is··.”

Sophia buried her face in her knee and answered with difficulty.

“He wasn’t a normal man. Juan was the same man as the spiritual pillar of the slums. But he hated the church. At first, I thought it was because he hated the priest

Charlie, but he hated the church itself.”

Ed looked at Sophia. He is not sure if a man named Juan is a demon, but she, who lives together with him, recognized his strangeness.

Juan, the hero of the slums. Was he really the demon? Diego is such an unusual case.

Even Thane has never seen this happen before.

“Is Diego his son?”

Sophia nodded as if it were natural.

“That’s right. He’s the fruit of my husband and my love.”

Arin asked just in case.

“Did you two really love each other?”

“Yes. He cared about me and loved me. Diego grew up receiving a lot of love from him.”

Diego grew up so well that it was hard to believe he was a slum child. It was hard to believe that Juan was the demon because he seemed to have educated Diego well.

The demon who is the spiritual pillar of the slums, loves someone, and is good at educating children?

If he really is a demon, he sounded better than a human being.

Compared to the greedy priest Charlie, he is more human-like.

He is different from other demons. But they don’t know what plans Juan made. First, they have to find him and check it out. And the demon who dragged Juan away.

Perhaps he was truly the one Arin was chasing.

However, this is the place where they arrived after tracking down the blood mana stone. There is a demon here.

“The underground sewage. Let’s check.”

Arin nodded at Ed’s words. Sophia held Arin’s hand tightly as she stood up. As Arin turned around, Sophia said with a desperate look.

“Please save my husband.”

Arin couldn’t give any answer.

“Please.”

Arin thought she was possessed, but she couldn’t see anything strange in her eyes.

She could only see the eyes of a wife who was worried about her beloved husband. Arin hesitated for a while, but held Sophia’s hand and replied.

“I will, if he’s not related to the demon.”

It was an honest answer that Arin gave.

Sophia let go of her hand helplessly and bowed her head. She must have realized herself how absurd it was to ask a holy knight to save her demon husband.

Ed, who left her outside, looked back at Thane.

“Please take care of her and Diego.”

“Are you going to go right now?”

“Yes.”

Thane spoke again while touching his glasses.

“Based on the information collected so far, Juan must be the spiritual landlord of the slums and the person representing them. They said he had been in the slum for about 10 years. At the same time, he didn’t reveal himself to the outside world. He took full control of the slums. So he’s not known to the outside world at all. If it weren’t for you finding this kid, we would’ve never known about this.”

“What did he actually do in the slums?”

Thane smiled at Ed’s question.

“He represented the interests of the poor. Those who were targeting the slums disappeared silently. After a few years, people didn’t dare to target or attack the slums.”

Thane found Diego among those eating on the first floor and continued.

“There were no drugs, no gambling, and no prostitution in the slums. All of that occurred after the month he disappeared.”

Ed looked at Diego and waved. Ed laughed in vain as he saw Diego chewing a steak enough to fill both of his cheeks.

“So, Diego used to be the prince of the poor.”

Arin also stood next to Diego and muttered.

“Or the son of the demon.”