OBS Chapter 3872 The Demon's Tale (Part 8)
Chapter 3872 The Demon's Tale (Part 8)
Chapter 3872 The Demon's Tale (Part 8)
"of course I remember."
While Shade and Mr. Asmond were talking, the butler had already arranged for a maid to push a food cart and bring over a teapot and teacups. It seemed that the Earl trusted Mr. Asmond very much and gave him a very high level of treatment before leaving.
"The story begins with a man without desires sealing away a wondrous being. After his death, his grandson makes a new wish, willing to dedicate his life to sealing away that demon."
So the young man and the demon traveled a very, very long way. During this time, he met the girl he loved, but fearing the demon would reap her soul, he killed her beforehand. In his middle age, he encountered a fallen noblewoman and her cat and dog, but the noblewoman was sacrificed by her family, leaving only the cat and dog to accompany the young man on his continued journey.
Shad sighed:
"Years later, when the middle-aged man grew old and wanted to find a successor to guard the demon, the young child made a wish at the cost of his own soul shattering so that his relatives could live better lives, and the old man turned back into a young man."
Unable to endure the torment any longer, the young man wanted to resurrect his grandfather, the one who had first traveled far away, so that he could take his place. But this was undoubtedly another tragedy, as the cat and dog also sacrificed themselves to prevent the demon from usurping the young man's body.
And so, only the youth remained on the long journey.
Shad briefly described the previous seven stories, and Mr. Asmon nodded:
"Yes, so this is the story."
"please wait for a moment!"
But Xia De interrupted him, feeling embarrassed:
"So far, every story about demons has ended in tragedy. Is there never a better ending?"
The young man who vowed to seal the demon with his entire life is now alone again. Will he die this time, and a new traveler appear? Or will the others the young man encounters die because of his arrival?
Mr. Asmon's dark eyes stared at Shad, the cat licked its paws, and the dog curled up on the stool with droopy eyelids.
"No, this story, although it still involves a young man, is not a tragedy centered around him."
Seeing that Shad showed interest, the demonologist continued:
"The youth sealed away the demon, but in doing so, he became incredibly powerful. Throughout his journey, he used this power to do many things. This story begins many years after the cat and dog sacrificed themselves for the youth, who is still just a youth."
"You mean his appearance hasn't changed?"
"Yes, after the boy made a wish for him and the cat and dog sacrificed their lives to reverse his injuries, the young man's body possessed a certain characteristic that he himself could not understand. His age was no longer affected by time, and the changing seasons would only increase his knowledge, not take away his strength and wisdom."
"It's amazing."
Shad picked up the rose tea offered by the maid, but Mr. Asmon did not touch the tea or the pastries; he placed his hands together on the table.
"It was a stormy night when the young man, who had failed to reach the next village, stumbled into an abandoned church in the wilderness. Before him, there were already three other people seeking lodging in the church. The three were strangers to each other and sat warily by the fire, too afraid to fall asleep."
The three are a robber who robbed and murdered people on the road in the wilderness, a woman who just killed her husband, eloped with her lover but was abandoned by him, and a wanted criminal who killed his friend and fled the city.
The young man who sealed the demon recognized them at a glance, but he said nothing and instead sat down by the fire.
"I'm really looking forward to the rest of the story. After all, even if all these people die, the story will still have a decent ending."
Shad spoke softly, while the demonologist continued his narration:
After the young man took his seat, the three people, who were already wary of each other, began to act on their own.
Amidst the torrential rain of a stormy night, the bandits offered the young man food laced with poison. The woman who had murdered her husband feigned weakness and began to approach him. Meanwhile, the wanted criminal plotted to take the young man's place and start a new life.
"So what did the young man do? Did he retaliate?"
"No, he ate the bandits' food, acquiesced to the woman's approach, and answered the wanted criminal's questions about his identity before falling asleep peacefully."
As dawn approached, in the final darkness of the stormy night, seeing that the young man was still alive, the three men by the fire drew their weapons, ready to attack. At that moment, the young man asked, "I have fulfilled your demands, why haven't you left?"
Shad clicked his tongue, while Mr. Asmon tapped his fingers twice on the table, a signature eccentric smile playing on his lips.
The young man asked: "You have already died from killing each other, and only your souls remain here, repeating the past over and over again. Since my appearance can save you from falling into the same fate of killing each other again, why don't you leave on your own?"
"Oh, all three of them are souls."
Xia De sighed dryly, but he wasn't really surprised; outsiders had seen many stories like this before.
"Yes, they are all souls. So guess what, Mr. Watson, the YMCA will do with these three souls."
The demonologist posed a question, and Shad pondered it for a moment:
"If we devour them, it would be a very good punishment for these three villains. But in doing so, we might fall into the devil's trap. The act of devouring souls itself would give the devil power."
Letting them go is probably not a good idea; these three souls are still committing evil even after death, so they really can't be let off easily.
So, what if we actively send them away? Let them continue on their way. Do young people have that kind of strength?
Shad shared his thoughts, and Mr. Asmon slowly shook his head:
"The youth could not let three such stubborn and evil souls leave, nor was he willing to shatter them, which he considered a terrible thing. So he decided to seal the three souls in the church forever, so that they would torment each other forever."
Xia De nodded in understanding:
"So that's the story? The bad guys were indeed punished, but the story doesn't seem particularly exciting."
The black cat glanced at Shad, while the black dog continued to pretend to be asleep with its eyelids drooping.
"Don't rush, Mr. Watson, the story isn't over yet."
The demonologist shook his head again:
"As the young man prepared to seal the object, he suddenly became curious about which god the church belonged to. So he looked into the depths of the church and discovered that the face of the statue, which had turned into pieces of stone, was none other than himself."
"As expected, there was a turning point!"
"The young man, having come to his senses, swallowed three souls in one gulp. He became whole again, and sat by the fire, questioning the demon within him—"
You used the example of a woman who killed her husband to mock me for killing my lover; you used the example of a bandit in the wilderness to ridicule me for harming so many people along my journey; you used the example of a wanted criminal who killed his friend to mock me for killing the cat and dog that accompanied me on my travels.
The demonologist's voice was hoarse, yet still possessed an eerie, slippery quality; his black eyes remained fixed on Shad.
The young man sat alone by the fire, staring fiercely at the flames in the dim light of dawn outside the window, where he could see his own distorted face reflected—
"Demon, you inadvertently split my malice and guilt. If I were to abandon them here, my soul, no longer whole, would likely be devoured by you soon, wouldn't it? This time, you didn't resort to lies and deception from the outside world; you tried to use me against myself. But this time, I still won."
Mr. Asmon clapped softly, bringing the story to a close:
"Thus, the young man successfully thwarted yet another of the devil's plots. He extinguished the flames in the abandoned church and continued on his journey."
Xia De took a deep breath, held his teacup in thought for a moment, and then spoke after a long pause:
"This story does have a happy ending, but something feels off to me. Mr. Asmon, your description is from the perspective of a young man, so the young man himself believes that the three villains are part of himself."
So what's the truth? Were the three people truly part of him? Were they all real souls? Or perhaps nothing happened that night, and it was all just the young man's delusions after he went mad?
I have a feeling that something's wrong with that young man's mental state.
Mr. Asmon clapped again, but this time not for the story, but for Shad:
“Mr. Watson, you are very perceptive. Yes, the young man who set off again could not tell what had happened. Since the death of the cat and the dog, he had no companions and could no longer distinguish which of yesterday, the day before yesterday, and all those years before that were the devil’s conspiracy, which were his own imagination, and which were just simple dreams.”
Shad showed a pitying expression:
"He's crazy?"
"The young man always remembered his mission, that he was to seal away the demon. As long as he remembered this, he did not go completely mad. He was just an ordinary person. Too many experiences, too many conspiracies and trials had overwhelmed him."
But precisely because of what had happened before, he dared not entrust this responsibility to anyone else. This wasn't arrogance, but rather a knowing that the demon he had journeyed with his grandfather and himself through so many hardships could not be sealed away by a third person.
Sean Asmon's dark eyes looked at Shad, awaiting his assessment, while Shad frowned:
"So there's no truth to this eighth story? There's just a pitiful person, sustained by a single thought?"
The demonologist nodded:
"Yes, regardless of truth or falsehood, reality or illusion, he only knew that he had to keep going, leading the demon forward."
Shad took another deep breath:
"Well, this story is indeed not a pure tragedy like the previous seven. But why do I feel that this story is even more tragic than a tragedy?"