Chapter 453. **You Touched What You Shouldn’t Have**
—
“Isn’t your neck a bit stiff?”
Satan frowned.
From Guardian Knight Andro’s perspective, it was enough to make him think, *What kind of lunatic is this?*
A king who ruled the world.
And a guardian knight of that king—meaning one of the strongest warriors in this world.
No one would dare brazenly spit words and meet Andro’s gaze head-on.
Let alone in the middle of battle.
He could at least commend the courage of someone who approached this close despite the magic pressure—but this was the first time in his life he’d seen someone *criticize* him for holding his head too high.
*What is this guy?*
He couldn’t tell.
Judging by the fact that he could withstand Andro’s magic, he was no ordinary individual—
But the way he behaved was that of a complete thug.
“Your dad—Pandor, was it? He couldn’t even look me in the eye. And you dare meet me at eye level?”
Pandor was Andro’s biological father.
And he, too, had once been a guardian knight.
How this man knew his father’s name was unclear.
“Lower your eyes, you little shit.”
“…I’ll grind you into dust.”
He had crossed the line.
He couldn’t be left alive.
“Hah, this is really ridiculous. You swing that sword and you’ll die, kid. Still, I can’t exactly kill you when I even cut your umbilical cord when you were born. Such a tiny little bean… honestly.”
“…My umbilical cord was personally cut by His Great and Exalted Majesty, King Rundmal, using the Guardian Sword.”
Andro dismissed the nonsense outright.
When he was born, King Rundmal himself had visited to offer congratulations.
That wasn’t all.
Rundmal had personally cut Andro’s umbilical cord with the Guardian Sword of the world.
How could such great, exalted beings be compared to this senseless fool?
It was a grace he could never repay in a lifetime.
“I *am* that Guardian Sword.”
“…?”
“Rundmal begged me to do it. Said you’d inherit Pandor’s rune. Looks like the inheritance went well. Did you ever solve that chronic ‘mana combustion’ problem?”
“…!”
Andro froze.
His family line was powerful enough to serve as guardian knights generation after generation.
They inherited runes into the next generation, refining and advancing them further.
To pass on a rune, the previous guardian knight greeted death with a smile.
That was why Andro revered runes.
Because he had inherited one from his father.
But the rune passed down through generations carried a fatal flaw.
The *mana combustion* phenomenon.
Once his family members reached a certain age, their mana ignited uncontrollably.
Whether it was a problem of bloodline or rune inheritance was unknown—but around the age of fifty, their mana would burn endlessly until death.
It was an incurable flaw.
That was why they had no choice but to continually pass the rune to the next generation.
Only a handful knew of this.
There was no reason to publicize a hereditary weakness.
Only the king and a few guardian knights knew.
So how did this absurd man know about it?
“It was solved. I burned it off in advance.”
“…!!!”
He even knew that the mana combustion had been resolved.
Despite being over fifty, Andro had never suffered from it.
He believed it was thanks to King Rundmal’s grace.
But the true cause lay with the Guardian Sword that had cut his umbilical cord.
“Your family forced rune inheritance too aggressively, corrupting your fundamental mana. Normally, cutting away the impure mana gathered in the umbilical cord would’ve been enough—but the contamination was too severe. That’s why Rundmal asked me. He said he wanted to see you live long.”
“How could you possibly know that…?”
“A distinguished house that served as guardian knights for generations. And yet, everyone burns to death at fifty. After repeating that for thousands—tens of thousands—of years, Rundmal must’ve regretted it.”
“……”
“I burned off all the impure mana—but you pissed on me. You little bed-wetter.”
“T-That’s something only His Majesty Rundmal and my father should know…!”
“There’s one more, you know. The Guardian Sword.”
“…!!!”
“So lower your eyes, kid.”
Without realizing it, Andro dropped his gaze.
The magic gathered as if to destroy the world gradually calmed.
Because only two beings knew all these facts.
King Rundmal—and his father, Pandor.
Add one more exception…
The Guardian Sword itself.
*It’s real.*
The audacity to break through his magic.
The knowledge of secrets no one else knew.
“S-So… you truly are the Guardian Sword?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“I heard you disappeared recently… and that appearance—”
“My new body. What do you think? Pretty decent, right?”
“……”
“I asked if it’s decent.”
“I-It’s decent.”
“See? I thought so too.”
Satan looked pleased.
Then he asked Andro again.
“But why are you attacking this place? Didn’t the war end? I heard the tunnel purges stopped.”
“…We heard the dwarves had brought in an ‘external god,’ so we captured them for investigation.”
“An external god? Oh—you mean that creepy thing down below?”
“Pardon? There’s someone else down there?”
“…?”
“…?”
They stared at each other, both tilting their heads.
They realized they were talking about different targets.
“If it’s not the one down below, who did you capture?”
“The external god…”
“The only one worth calling a god is the thing down there.”
“What?”
“Compared to that thing, even the dwarven god is like a child. Rundmal couldn’t handle it alone.”
“…What?”
“Then who the hell did you capture? Don’t tell me—it was those two brats, was it?”
“……”
Andro’s expression twisted.
His face turned pale.
*It was strange from the start.*
They were too weak.
Too easily subdued to be called an external god.
Now it was clear.
They had taken the wrong ones.
The real one was below.
Inside the tunnels.
Seeing Andro’s silence as confirmation, Satan shook his head.
“Ah… I’m stepping out of this mess. Looks like you broke the peace treaty on your own.”
“…The era of peace is over.”
“Yeah. Without even consulting me, you broke it unilaterally. Was it Rundmal? Or Lemegheton? Don’t tell me both—after eating Apsel’s rune.”
“……”
“Apsel was something of a pacifist, you know. Did Rundmal and Lemegheton lose their minds after abducting and eating the dwarven god’s body? Or have they gone senile? This is why you’re supposed to pass things on and die at a proper age.”
Satan shrugged.
This was no longer something he could intervene in.
The world’s peace had been maintained by the Three Kings and Satan.
And Satan’s role had been especially significant.
As the sword of peace, the Guardian Sword protecting the world, he had fulfilled his duty.
But they shattered that peace without a word.
The Three Kings became two.
Apsel and Dietrich were kidnapped.
Satan gazed at the tunnels.
Recalling the being inside.
With a solemn expression he had never worn before, devoid of all playfulness, he spoke heavily.
“You touched something you should never have touched.”
*
*
The place where the king resided.
Called a palace, but in truth it was a tower that seemed to reach the heavens.
And beneath that tower—
In the deepest underground, Dietrich and Apsel were imprisoned.
“A-Are you okay?”
Dietrich asked weakly, looking at Apsel.
Apsel lay collapsed on the floor, grievously wounded.
No matter how strong Apsel was, he couldn’t face three guardian knights at once.
“Hey! Can’t you at least heal him?!”
He shouted through the bars, but the guards didn’t budge.
Apsel was bleeding out.
It wouldn’t have been strange if he stopped breathing at any moment.
“Damn it…!”
Dietrich bit his lip.
He was too weak.
There was nothing he could do.
A human who could do nothing alone.
That was Dietrich.
—So… you were captured after all…
A voice echoed from somewhere.
As Dietrich tried to look around—
—Don’t react. They won’t hear.
Dietrich pulled Apsel into his arms and leaned against the wall.
The androgynous voice continued to pierce his ears.
*Is it next door?*
He couldn’t tell.
The view outside the bars was impossible to make out.
But the voice felt as though it came from the cell beside them.
—Do you want to save… Apsel?
Dietrich almost reacted.
The voice knew Apsel’s name.
—Apsel weakened because he hasn’t eaten runes for a long time. Instinctively drawn, but rationally resisting.
Isn’t Apsel a dwarf?
That made no sense.
The dwarves Dietrich knew didn’t eat runes.
They used them as weapons.
—Apsel is not a dwarf. He was Apsellon, one of the Three Kings who ruled this world. Betrayed by Rundmal and Lemegheton, he was dying—until he ate my heart and survived.
—I entrusted him to Baek. Why was he captured again? Still, this is an opportunity.
—Rundmal and Lemegheton would never imagine it. Seeing him locked here, they must still think Apsel is not Apsellon.
—But discovery is only a matter of time. When that happens, neither of you will survive.
—Feed him a rune. Then the king’s cells will begin to move again.
A rune?
But there were no runes here.
To obtain one, someone had to die—and there was no means.
—Your body will suffice. What matters is awakening his instincts.
“……”
Dietrich’s eyes trembled.
Feed him an arm or a leg.
Or die and give him the rune that way.
Either way, it was unthinkable.
—Otherwise, you’ll rot here forever and be eaten like me. Arms, legs, ears, nose, eyes, heart, organs… the pain is indescribable. Please… please get us out of here…
“Feeding time!”
“Wow, it already regenerated?”
“It’s faster today!”
“Hehe! This is the time I look forward to most!”
“Endless glory and loyalty to the great King Rundmal!”
That was when—
Knights descended the stairs.
They entered the adjacent cell.
And then—
Slaaash!
Crunch! Crunch!
Slurp! Slurp!
—Aaaaaaah!
“……!”
Screams rang out.
Agonized screams that were impossible to endure.
Dietrich trembled violently.
He covered his ears and shut his eyes.
Only then did he understand.
…This place was hell.
