I Looked Back

MSG – Volume 1 – Chapter 2

The black-eyed lady's smile grew slightly broader before she answered him; "Finally figured it out, have you?" as she spoke, she floated down towards his bed, sitting cross-legged on it such that any person attracted to women would find their eyes involuntarily wandering towards the parts below her waist, hoping to spot certain areas.

Solon, again, found himself involuntarily glancing at her now-fully exposed laps for a second.

"Heh." She snickered. "Why don't you accept my offer? Why don't you just leave all this behind and become the Demon King? My Demon King?"

In response, Solon pressed his lips into a thin line as he sighed audibly.

Folding his hands, he said; "Look, Lilith… I mean, As—"

"Either is fine with me." She cut in.

"…Astraea." He decided on which name to refer to her by from then on. "I am very grateful for what you have done for me."

"Saving me and the twins from…." As he said those words, his tone grew heavy as memories flooded back in. His emotions were ignited and thrown into turmoil.

"Allowing us to reincarnate with our memories intact." He rose to kneel on his bed, bowing to her before adding. "You have no idea how impossible it is for me to put my gratitude into words."

"But…" he raised his head, exiting his bow, as he trailed off. "You choose to do the same as your past life?" her tone was flat. It was hard to tell what she was feeling as the words flowed out plainly and naturally.

"You choose to make the same mistake again?"

"You are going to allow them to live on peacefully after all the atrocities they have committed against you and the other people from this world?"

She closed her eyes before opening them with an unhidden anger on her features; "To me? To Solariel? And to the innocent races that he created?! Hmm?!"

After she momentarily lost control, raising her voice at the end as she remembered the indiscriminate slaughter of certain light-based races of the past.

A moment of silence passed by before she spoke again; "Fine. At least I tried."

A warm smile appeared on her face as she reached out to touch his face, caressing his hair, forehead, nasal bridge, and lips.

"You have endured great misdeeds and come out sane where many others would not." she said. "Since you have decided to live this life as a form of retirement, I will not stop you. You have every right to do so."

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on his forehead before adding; "Just remember this…"

As she spoke, a black circular hole appeared in the stone ceiling above the bed, its edges wavy like water.

She floated towards the portal while finishing her statement; "If a time comes where you decide to change your mind, all you have to do is call on me."

"And the position of the Demon King, and Authorities that comes with it, shall be yours."

As her figure completely vanished from his room, leaving a slowly shrinking portal in her wake, a few more words echo out:

"Remember, as the holder of the Divine Spark of Solariel, you are destined for great things. Living a mundane life will prove to be impossible. If you do not go out to find trouble, it will find you on its own."

As he watched the portal shrink and disappear, the wheels in his mind continued to spin. He struggled to calm his thoughts and sort his feelings.

Looking back, it had all started five months ago.

He was a college student with a major in sculpting. One with insane talent for the craft but with only above-average GPA as his average scores in courses not related to sculpting brought down his average.

The last thing he remembered was stepping out of the shower, ready to slip into his nightwear and then into bed where he would cuddle with the person that he had just given his 'first time' to.

Her name was Esther, and she was one of the Nine Divas—a cheesy nickname for the nine most beautiful female students in the entire population of final year students.

The story about how their relationship came to be is one that spanned three years of back and forth, not something that should be dived deep into right now as there was a lot of drama.

In summary, he looked at the bed and could not find her there.

He stepped out of the room, opting to search the rest of his apartment for her, only to feel a sharp pain at the back of his head before he fell to the ground and his vision darkened.

He had not even seen whom or what killed him. Well, there was an obvious suspect but he was not willing to accept such a possibility.

'Esther would not do that. I mean, she would have to be a psychopath to murder the person she had just traded 'first times'

 with.'

He sighed as the memories sped up.

Basically, he woke up in another world—a fantasy one called Equilibria.

His soul had transmigrated into the body of someone named Solon, a supposedly Legend-Tier White Knight.

According to the memories he inherited upon hopping into the body, the last time the original owner of that body was conscious, all the blood and gore that surrounded him belonged to the demons.

He had contributed greatly to the victory of humankind against the demon army by single-handedly combating and slaying two of the Demon King's 14 Generals.

He had been fidgeting with a vial of an elixir, trying to get it open so he may down its contents and start healing from the injuries he had sustained during battle when he was suddenly surrounded.

His fellow high-ranking White Knights had their weapons pointed at him and he could not understand why.

They imprisoned him as well as his two close friends—a pair of twins called Nikolaos and Cyanea.

This pair of brother and sister had apparently always been by the side of the original owner of that body, his only family after his birth parents were assassinated on a trip back from one of the White Towers.

Instead of getting a second chance at life that many protagonists of various anime he had seen, he had woken up in some strange cell as a man with all kinds of tools of torture neatly arranged and clearly brand new.

Soon, two people entered his cell and began to use the torture devices on him.

In the torture chamber, no one told him why what was happening was happening to him.

He had only gleaned insights into the cause of his plight by piecing together the conversations, whispers, and ramblings of his torturers and those who came simply to spectate.

In summary, Solariel - the God of Day, Sun, Light, and Life had passed down a prophecy that those under the banner of the 'spear that chases the sun' shall trample on the future of humanity.

The logo of the squad formed by Solon and the twins was one of a man getting ready to toss their spear, with the sun in the background.

Of course, if you looked at it in another way, you could say that the person in the logo was actually aiming their spear at the sun.

The so-called prophecy was believed to have been referring to them.