Game of Divine Thrones

Chapter 225: Raising Talent 4

‘… Are these the highest level of rewards?’

The Red Flame Ring was an item, and the Abyssal Demon Quest was a quest offering.

Woohyuk tried to check their contents, but his body didn’t move at his will.

He had exhausted his bodily limits and went beyond his body’s demonic energy limit to overcome Ancient Demon Harpes.

In addition, his body was completely ravaged from his fight with Harpes.

Feeling his consciousness slipping, Woohyuk fell onto the ground.

Thump!

Perhaps because of Harpes’ hellish absolute space influence, his mind had been devastated and left blank.

He literally couldn’t lift his finger to use the Power of Resuscitation.

‘Will I die like this…’

He had flirted with the threshold of death countless times in the past.

However, he had never clearly seen his death as he did now.

Eventually, as the surrounding landscape returned to its original state, Leifina ran toward the collapsed Woohyuk.

“Lord!”

Leifina didn’t know what happened in Harpes’ trial.

As Harpes expanded his absolute space to start the trial, she was unable to see anything within.

‘… Leifina.’

In his fading consciousness, Woohyuk called out her name in his heart.

Was this his last moment with her?

He suddenly thought that he couldn’t give up. He didn’t want this to be the last moment that they spent together.

However, his body didn’t move as he intended.

It seemed that his accumulated overexertion was finally catching up to him.

As Woohyuk continued to lay motionless, Leifina started feeding him an advanced recovery potion that she prepared in advance.

It wasn’t something Woohyuk told her to prepare, but she had prepared it with her own money in case he fell into danger someday.

Thanks to this, Woohyuk was able to barely overcome the climax of death and pull away from its threshold.

Leifina, who was holding and caressing his head on her knees with her eyes closed, sighed in relief.

“Really, the Lord is acting so unreasonably again…”

In the future, he would have to contend against stronger opponents, so she knew she had to stay close by his side.

Leifina looked down and touched the Pendant of Memory he was wearing.

‘I can see the Lord’s past now.’

Her actions weren’t just because she was curious about his private life and his relationship with other women. She wanted to share in Woohyuk’s struggles and unspeakable worries to lessen his load.

Leifina now wanted to share the heavy burden together.

So, she touched and accessed Woohyuk’s Pendant of Memory…

Teuk. Teuk.

She shed tears without knowing it.

Among the vast memories, she saw the memories of his past life.

“… So, that’s why the Lord hasn’t told me anything this whole time.”

The feelings of guilt and affliction penetrated her heart at the same time.

How long had she been neglecting her Lord?

Her incompetence in being able to assist him, which she had not been able to do so far, suddenly became a mourning resentfulness that filled her heart.

“I’m so sorry, my Lord. Now, I will protect your lordship.”

She planned to no longer have him carry the burden for both of them.

However, in order not to be a burden on the journey, she must become much stronger than she was now.

Leifina was determined as she gripped Argent, the Oath of Loyalty sword, with her hands.

***

Woohyuk didn’t regain consciousness for a week.

The accumulated fatigue had crossed a critical point during his battle with Harpes.

Due to this, Leifina spent all her time nursing him at Choi Kayoon’s mansion… with the always unpredictable and crazy Saintess Helena.

“Helena, when will the Lord open his eyes?”

“Don’t worry so much, you’ve done everything possible. Fortunately, he didn’t lose control over the demonic energy, so he should recover naturally over time,” Helena responded as she sighed and sat on a chair.

It was impossible to help Woohyuk with her divine magic.

However, because she knew about demons, she was able to somewhat heal him with Aris’ help.

“When will Aris come again?” Leifina asked.

“She’ll probably stay in Inotia, the Hextech city, unless she’s urgently needed. She’s not really of much help anyway.”

Woohyuk’s demonic energy originated from none other than that of an Asura, the former Great Demon King.

No matter how highly-ranked another demon was, it was almost impossible to completely control and assist Woohyuk’s level of being.

If one touched something wrong, Verserios could run wild.

After hearing Helena’s explanation, Leifina bowed her head down with a dark expression,

“I’m going to get stronger quickly, so I can help the Lord…”

“If it’s help, you’re doing so right now, right? Leifina, you just need to be that man’s spiritual prop. You need to become his mental foundation.”

Helena saw Leifina as the only person who could stop Woohyuk from going mad and overcome by his demonic powers.

However, Leifina shook her head because she thought differently,

“As a knight, I want to defend by my Lord’s side. I want to help alleviate the Lord’s great burden so that he doesn’t have to carry it alone.”

“… You saw that man’s memory.”

Helena knew about the relationship between Woohyuk and Leifina because she had seen the prophecies before.

Leifina raised her head in amazement and cried out,

“H-How did you know?!”

“It’s written on your face. It’s like you’re the lead female MC who’s anxious because she couldn’t sacrifice herself for her heroic male friend.”

“I will never become a burden to the Lord…”

“You’re not being honest. Fess up. You’ve been in love with that man since the beginning, right? That’s why you can’t give up cooking even though your cooking skills are trash.”

Helena looked displeased with Leifina.

Leifina could not refute Helena’s words, so she shut her mouth and stayed silent.

“…”

“Look. You want to be that man’s lover. That form of bond is definitely different from a knight’s respect for a monarch. So, make sure to make things clear from now on. Don’t grab his ankles and drag him down at a really important moment.”

“… Alright.”

She had no desire to hinder Woohyuk’s progress on his ultimate path because of her personal feelings.

She just wanted to help him by his side if possible.

As Leifina muttered these thoughts in her mind, Woohyuk opened his eyes.

“Hmm…”

“Now you open your eyes. The man who stopped the First Catastrophe and defeated the Ancient Demons,” Helena, sitting in a chair and eating lemon jelly, said offhand to the waking Woohyuk.

Seeing both women looking down at him, Woohyuk instantly grasped the situation.

“How long have I been in this state?” he asked.

“One week. Thanks to that, Leifina and I played with the monsters here.”

The current location was Choi Kayoon’s mansion in the Floren Province.

Choi Kayoon was raising and training various kinds of monsters, so it wasn’t a very good place to live for Saintess Helena.

“… Quite a long time has passed.”

“Not that much, really. It’s just that you’ve been overwhelmed and overburdened, so you needed a little more time to recuperate. Thus, from now on, try to pay attention to your pace. You’re making me repeat myself often.”

Helena, as a member of Etheria Rodinus, was constantly observing and assessing Woohyuk.

If Woohyuk wasn’t able to control Verserios and ran rampant, then she had to use the Holy Grail.

Woohyuk nodded because he understood the meaning behind her words and didn’t want such a result.

“I seemed to have struggled a little too much this time to get the highest reward. I’ll be more careful next time,” Woohyuk answered.

“Anyways, it was Leifina who did all the troublesome treatment anyway.”

Helena folded her arms and shrugged her shoulders as if she was saying that she didn’t do anything.

Woohyuk turned his gaze to Leifina, who was silently seated next to him.

“Thank you, Leifina. I lived thanks to you.”

“… No, my Lord. I just did what I needed to do.”

Leifina had to share her fate with Woohyuk because of her class, Iron Maiden.

If Woohyuk died, Leifina would die as well.

It was natural to always protect him by his side.

“Anyway, I have to check the rewards now.”

The Red Flame Ring item and a quest called Abyssal Demon Quest.

As Woohyuk raised his upper body and looked around for the rewards, Leifina gave him the ring, which glowed like a flower of fire.

“Are you looking for this? My Lord lost consciousness at that time, so I kept it in safekeeping.”

“Good job,” Woohyuk praised Leifina and checked the information of the rewards.

[Red Flame Ring]

Category: Item

Grade: S

Durability: 50,000

Description: Immune from all types of fire damage. You can unfold the fiery hell, an absolute space, on the battlefield. You can freely handle the flame or hide something within it.

[New Achievement: Quest]

Name: Abyssal Demon Quest

Type: Epic

Content: Defeat three Ancient Demons in a deeper dimension than the Demon World where the 72 Demon King exists.

Others: Only one chance is given. Failure to complete the quest will bar the user from the quest.

The Red Flame Ring was truly a fraudulent artifact.

Being immune from all forms of flame damage was an option he hadn’t heard or seen before.

In addition, it was possible to freely handle the flame or hide his appearance in it when he unfurled the absolute space.

It was possible to reproduce the reddish hell, the absolute space of Harpes, which had been so hard for him to overcome.

‘I don’t know if the other Ancient Demons will also give this level of reward.’

There was a total of three Ancient Demons specified on the quest.

Since Harpes was a fire attribute Ancient Demon, the rest were likely to be other elemental-based Ancient demons, like water or wind attributes.

It was just his guess, but if he were to defeat them all, he’d be able to master the abilities of Fire, Ice, and Wind.

It was difficult to imagine the final compensation, but it seemed to be huge in scale.

‘Didn’t he mention Mammon and Lucifer?’

He had heard both of their names once before.

Mammon was associated with the cursed ring, Andvaranaut, and Lucifer was the Ancient Demon Aleister wanted to summon through the King’s Book.

Of course, it was clear that they’d be as strong, if not stronger, as Harpes.

As Woohyuk silently touched the Red Flame Ring, Leifina carefully opened her mouth to speak,

“My Lord. How about eating now? You haven’t been able to eat properly for a week…”

“… Are you going to prepare?”

“No! Would I embarrass the Lord with my lacking cooking skills in this situation?”

Leifina was shocked and actively denied the thought.

She previously had a record of harassing Woohyuk and his party members with her ‘special’ cuisine at her mansion.

“I guess it can’t be helped. Since Leifina can’t cook, I’ll do it instead…”

“Wait. You can’t do it either, Helena.”

Helena had a criminal record of trying to put giant mushrooms instead of emperor mushrooms when making a cure for infectious diseases in the Lydia Kingdom.

Giant mushrooms were a dangerous ingredient that could cause hallucinations and kill people, who were otherwise in good health, even in small amounts.

It was impossible to leave the cooking to Helena, who couldn’t even tell such basic ingredients apart.

Helena turned her head to the side as if she was pissed at Woohyuk’s comment.

“Do you think I want to do it because I want to cook? If you’re going to be like that, do it yourself…”

Click.

As the door opened, Choi Kayoon, the owner of the mansion, suddenly entered.

Everyone’s eyes turned to her at once.

“Huh? You’re awake now? You were sleeping just a moment ago.”

“Choi Kayoon, have you tried your hand at cooking?”

Woohyuk stared at Choi Kayoon with an expectant gaze.

Choi Kayoon nodded.

“Sure. When I was living by myself during college, I used to often cook for myself and eat alone. If you want to eat Korean food, I’ll cook some and bring it over.”

“Okay, that would be great. Thank you.”

Now, it seemed he would be able to properly eat.

When Choi Kayoon left, Helena whispered to Leifina, who was next to her.

“That woman, every time she cooks something, it’s really spicy and salty, so it’s not delicious. Why is that?”

“Well, well…”

It seemed that he didn’t know that Choi Kayoon’s cooking skills were just as bad if not worse than these two women.

The two women looked at Woohyuk with pitiful eyes.

He was a poor man who had no luck with food.