The King’s Road

The guillotine before me was slowly raising its gold-streaked blade.

• Offer your neck.

• Do so, and you shall pass.

Hmm.
What a joke.
The staff, literally made by grinding up golden angels, was barely holding together.
It would probably break after just one decent spell, let alone a large-scale one.
Even though it was a staff made from the ground-up organs in its belly, its durability was so poor it wouldn’t even last a lifetime.
It was weak.
‘But this is enough for now.’

• Offer your neck.

• It is a neck that has been severed once.

• Can you not offer it a second time?

The neck clamp of the guillotine clicked, urging me to make a choice.
Of course, my neck had been severed once, but I declined a second time.
Above all, I couldn’t die.
The Sun’s Eye shone.
A light different from gold sparkled before my eyes, analyzing the guillotine.

[Guillotine of Deception]
The guillotine that beheaded the greatest and youngest king. Known to the greatest wings as ‘a blade that only cuts the wicked,’ it is in fact an ordinary blade with no such effect. However, as a price for beheading the greatest young king, it has been incorporated into his starlight, and at the time of reading this text, it has become ‘a blade that cuts the great.’
If a great being offers their neck, their neck will be eternally severed.

No, not this.

[Guillotine of Deception]
The greatest and youngest king…
The great being…

A little more.

[Guillotine of Deception]
……
…….
List of applied magic: [Deception], [Severance], [Greed], [Temptation], [Fading], [Resentment], [Powerlessness], [Restraint], [The Dullest Execution], [Tears of Injustice], [Betrayal of a Loved One], [Sacrifice of the Few for the Many], [Unobtained Gains], [Fallen Majesty]…
And 381 others.

381?
‘This is doable.’
It’s much cheaper to dismantle existing magic than to perform large-scale magic.
The staff should be able to withstand it.
Even if its durability is garbage, it’s better to have it than not.
‘Of course, this is no different from disassembling someone’s body at the cellular level….’
This is better than dimensional magic that requires layering thousands of magic circles.
This is much easier.
The crack in the staff glowed.
The Sun’s Eye shone brilliantly, and starlight gathered before my eyes, reflecting the beings who had died so far.
The ones devoured as The Crow’s Ruins.

‘Save me.’
‘What is this! What the fck is this!’
‘I didn’t do anything wrong!’
‘Let me out!’

Figures I didn’t know passed by.
They all looked wronged, and they screamed at the top of their lungs, waiting for someone to save them.
And after their necks were severed, they became invisible forms, the beings who raised the blade of the guillotine.
The last one to be cut was…

‘The Calamity will not forgive you.’

A Constellation with a floral scent, but a more venomous face than any other.
It was The Blooming Spring Flower.
She was beheaded, left behind a jewel-like flower, and became the last being to raise the blade of the guillotine.
Invisible screams are raising the blade of the guillotine, and without them, the guillotine cannot perform its function.
What I have to do is their liberation.

List of applied magic: [Deception], [Severance], [Greed], [Temptation], [Fading], [Resentment], [Powerlessness], [Restraint], [The Dullest Execution], [Tears of Injustice], [Betrayal of a Loved One], [Sacrifice of the Few for the Many], [Unobtained Gains], [Fallen Majesty]…
And 381 others.

I saw about 30 magic circles among them.
[Fading], [Resentment], [Powerlessness], [Restraint], [The Dullest Execution], [Fallen Majesty]…
I chose only the magic circles that bound the soul.
‘Ah, my eyes hurt.’
As expected of a creature that devoured worlds, the way the magic circles were intertwined was extraordinary.
If I touched even one stroke of a magic circle incorrectly, my neck would be under that guillotine in the blink of an eye.
‘So, carefully.’
Layering about 400 magic circles was nothing, except for the feeling that my eyeballs would fall out.
Dismantle the magic circle of [Fading].
Reconstruct the fading of existence and change it to [Clarity].
Delete [Resentment], [Powerlessness], [Restraint].
Carefully dismantle the magic circles that were attached to the guillotine to prevent it from screaming and move them elsewhere.
Modify [The Dullest Execution].
Make the blade dull with [The Dullest Execution].
Now, my neck won’t be severed.
Revive the rank of the sacrificed beings with [Fallen Majesty].
Revive their egos so that they don’t lose their minds and focus only on beheading.
And so, I dismantled the magic circles.
As I moved my hands carefully, the crack in the golden staff grew larger.
A floral scent wafted through the air.
The screams took form.
The guillotine’s blade rose and fell, screaming that it didn’t want to do this anymore.
Finally, when I had dismantled all the magic circles that erased existence.
“…….”
Fwoosh….
The guillotine before me was engulfed in flames.

“Thank you.”

The Blooming Spring Flower stood before me, the color of faded petals.

“Please take care of Emily.”

“She’s a spirited child, so she’ll do well.”
She’s so good at managing her money, she’ll do well wherever you throw her.
But apart from that, breaking a contract is physically very painful, so I will re-contract with her, but.
The Blooming Spring Flower bowed her head to me.
The many beings behind her also bowed their heads to me.

“As we pay our respects, the path will open.”
“The path will open even if you do not bow your head to the king.”
“We hope you will shatter the gold and scatter it beneath the sea.”

I turned my head.
At the end of the road leading to the royal palace far away, there was a severed head.
The creature’s panicked eyes rolled so fast that the eyeball split into two, three, four.

“You will not be able to come.”
“You will not be able to come to me. If the guillotine does not work, I will cut you myself.”
“You too seem more accustomed to being beheaded by human hands than by a guillotine.”

His tone was quite urgent.
It was only natural, as I had come right up to his nose.
Leaving the burning guillotine behind, I took a step forward.
As soon as I entered the king’s path, I saw knights on either side.
They were all kneeling, but they couldn’t raise their heads.

[Obedient Knight]
A knight who obeys the king. A greater being has arrived.
He can only obey.

• Status: Overwhelmed

From the moment I stepped on this path, I was supposed to bow my head and crawl to the great king.
Even if a knight were to cut off my head in the process, I couldn’t say a word.
That’s the kind of path it was.
But that obedience only applied to those below him.

“You may proceed.”
“You are by no means lacking.”
“In this moment, you are equal.”

Behind me are the faded forms of those who were beheaded by the guillotine.
I step forward.
Nothing happens even when I step on the red carpet.
I walk.
The faded beings follow behind me.
I walk.
The Administrator assists.

[Requesting help from the Constellation, ‘The Seventeenth Love’.]
[An additional support request exists and is under review.]
[17 support requests from Constellations have been processed.]
[The majesty of the Silent Calamity spreads to her contractors….]
[The Administrator’s scales tip.]
[Warning! Any further assistance will greatly affect causality!]

I can tell without seeing.
Daisy, who was running low on mana, is imbued with mana filled with starlight.
The possibility of dying from mana depletion, his heart being squeezed, disappears.
To Yeon Taeseon, who was continuing the legion’s fight by summoning specters, the Constellations who had contracted with the specters intervene.
Temporarily, the specters perform with the same efficiency as when they were human.
Baek Jiye’s starlight-filled heart resonates with the Constellation’s starlight.
The connection between humans becomes even closer.
The world I must live in becomes a little more stable.
I walk.
The red carpet becomes wet and squelches.
I walk.
The wet carpet turns into liquid.
Blood soaks the hem of my dress, and droplets of blood splash on my ankles.
I run.
The faded beings who were following behind me bow in reverence.
They no longer follow.
I run.
The knights cannot move.
There was no way they could stand up during the procession of a being equal to the king.
I run.
No one interferes.
A golden statue of the king speaks.

• Insolent!

I ignore it.

There’s no reason to listen to the commands of an inferior.
I run.
I stop.
The severed head was right in front of me.