"A traitor?"
Inside Duke Levi's manor, the day before the banquet, Levi looked at Viktor with a puzzled expression, his brows tightly furrowed.
He stood there as if what he had just heard was simply too unbelievable to accept.
"That's right. Leopold."
Viktor sat quietly on an antique sofa, calmly explaining it to Levi.
Leopold, the traitor pursued by the Mage Council.
Viktor had learned this secret back at the academy, when Rachel had personally revealed it to him.
"Of course, there's another name you're probably more familiar with."
Viktor paused for a moment. His obsidian-like eyes seemed to shine with the light of someone who saw through everything.
It was as though, from the very beginning, he had already uncovered every secret.
"He is the last god who was never banished, Hermes."
———
The gods should no longer set foot in this world. That had been one of the founding principles of the Mage Council.
Because the gods cared only about gathering humanity's faith, dividing people into different camps according to their own will.
Such faith was extremely harmful to humanity. It greatly limited the development of both mankind and society.
If everyone devoted themselves to worshipping the gods, who would farm the land to produce food?
Who would build suitable homes for humanity?
Most importantly, who would establish order?
Even the gods fought among themselves over believers. Every god had their own order and their own laws.
If humanity was to follow order, whose order should they follow?
Since no one could agree, war became the solution to everything.
The Age of Gods was an age of constant war, an age of countless stars, an age where humanity divided its territories according to different beliefs.
The great archmages of old realized this.
Humanity should not become pieces on the gods' game board, nor should they fight wars for immortal gods.
Faith in gods could exist.
But the gods themselves should not.
So, after the gods gradually departed from the world, even the Goddess of Justice was driven away by the great archmages.
From that day on, the Mage Council, an organization founded upon lofty ideals, came into existence.
People longed for gods because gods represented salvation and hope.
Even when no god ever truly descended to save them, people were still willing to entrust their hearts to the gods.
Even in despair, they firmly believed that one day a god would appear and redeem them from suffering.
But each person believed in only one god.
One god could not save everyone.
Nor could people worship every god.
Without sincere faith, the gods would not save humanity.
The Mage Council existed precisely to replace faith in the gods.
Using the supernatural powers of mages, they helped those trapped in suffering and reduced humanity's dependence on the gods.
The Mage Council gradually became known across the world.
Through the work of mages, they successfully reduced humanity's faith in the gods.
People needed light, so mages created magical light bulbs.
People needed a way to communicate with family and friends far from home.
So mages created magic crystals.
Even when people wanted to travel to another country or make a fast journey within their own nation, the Mage Council prepared magic trains for them.
Under the Mage Council's influence, the gods' influence steadily declined.
Yet even in this age after the gods had departed, one god alone could never be banished.
Hermes, the God of Commerce and Thieves.
Because Hermes could not be banished.
Unlike every other god.
The Goddess of Justice could be replaced by the Mage Council's noble ideals.
Hardworking farmers no longer needed the benevolent Goddess of Abundance to provide them with plentiful harvests.
As for the other gods, they no longer seemed to serve any necessary purpose.
Only Hermes was different.
Because commerce was unavoidable and indispensable at any time.
Farmers cultivated the land not only to feed themselves, but also to sell their harvests for money.
Merchants conducted trade and acted as middlemen, also for money.
Even trade between nations existed mainly for economic benefit.
In most cases, everything was closely tied to money.
Because of that, the problem of wealth could never be eliminated.
Closely connected to money were thieves.
As long as greed existed in people's hearts, thieves could never be completely eradicated.
People like them were like withered grass hidden across an endless prairie.
They would always grow back.
In such an environment, Hermes, as the patron god of commerce and theft, remained in this world.
The other gods left after becoming "disappointed" in humanity.
Only Hermes remained among mankind.
As long as commerce continued, so would he.
As long as thieves remained, so would he.
And all of this was inseparable from Hermes's wisdom.
It was because Hermes had once issued a harsh warning to the Casidra Chamber of Commerce.
As a result, he became the only god who exploited a loophole among his followers to remain in the world.
After establishing the Nanade surname, he left a warning to Nanade's descendants, "Guard this money well. One day, I will steal every last coin."
Those words awakened a deep sense of crisis within the Nanade family.
They drove the family to establish the enormous Casidra Chamber of Commerce.
It was an unsolvable deadlock.
The Nanade family feared having their wealth stolen, yet they had no desire to return to poverty.
So they devoted themselves even more to developing the economy.
By constantly creating wealth and expanding commerce, they fulfilled Hermes's divine authority.
Humanity needed commerce to prosper.
Which meant humanity needed Hermes.
Thus Hermes became the traitor among the gods, the only god who never left the mortal world.
"Now do you understand the relationship between Hermes and Leopold Nanade?"
As Viktor smiled and asked the question, he clearly saw the shock on Levi's face.
But...
"If he's only the God of Commerce, why is the Mage Council so determined to drive him away?"
Levi couldn't understand.
By that logic, his own family's wealth was also inseparable from Hermes.
But Viktor's next words interrupted his thoughts.
"Not every god is as friendly as your family's goddess. Besides, your goddess can't really be considered friendly toward humanity either."
The Goddess of Nature was different from every other god because she needed no followers.
All of her power came from...
Nature.
The Goddess of Nature's primary duty was to protect the world's natural environment, so she created the Calamities representing the six supreme elements.
Once humanity's destruction of nature reached its limit, those calamities would break their seals and bring enormous disasters upon mankind.
The elves, as beings born from nature itself, were likewise protected by nature.
Yet Viktor had never been able to understand it.
How could a nature goddess who wasn't particularly friendly toward humanity become so attached to a single human?
Thinking of this, a trace of amusement appeared in Viktor's eyes as he looked at the somewhat embarrassed Levi.
"Your Grace, you're quite capable."
Hearing Viktor's teasing, Levi coughed lightly twice and turned his head aside, trying to hide his embarrassment.
He had the feeling that, in front of Viktor, nothing could remain a secret.
Once Levi had regained his composure, Viktor's calm voice sounded again.
"The God of Commerce is only a minor issue. Hermes has another identity."
Levi's eyes widened the moment he heard Viktor's next sentence.
"He is the messenger of the gods, the god destined to revive the Age of Gods."
"So Hermes must be eliminated."
'The Age of Gods...'
'Revived...?'
Levi fell silent.
His brows furrowed as a trace of alarm appeared in his eyes.
"What does the Mage Council need us to do?"
"Make sure Leopold attends the Elf Banquet."
"Evacuate all the residents of the royal capital. Any damage will be compensated by Casidra."
"And finally..."
At last, Viktor smiled and said, "Hand your daughter over to me."
———
"I knew it, Leopold... no, Hermes."
Viktor looked down at Hermes on the ground with an indifferent gaze.
"From the moment the Casidra Chamber of Commerce prepared to make a deal with me, from the moment I entered the Gates of Hell..."
"I already knew your true identity."
Hermes possessed the authority to guide souls through the Gates of Hell.
So he never believed that any human could enter the Gates of Hell without his guidance.
But Viktor had proven him wrong.
The proud gods were always arrogant, never believing they could lose to humans.
Yet time after time, the gods had lost to him.
Unable to accept defeat, the god turned the entire scheme into a gamble and became increasingly mad.
He had to win at least once.
In the end, driven by his obsession with Viktory after countless attempts, Hermes fell into trap after trap.
"A conceited god who thinks he has calculated everything?"
Demons, elves, Erika...
The combination of those three was enough to bring about the descent of the Calamities.
If Hermes could think of it, how could Viktor possibly fail to?
Those words pierced deeply into Hermes's heart like a sharp spike, filling him with pain.
He slowly lifted himself up.
His golden eyes looked unwillingly at Viktor, as though even supporting his own weight had become difficult.
Viktor bent down slightly, looking down upon the god before him.
Meeting Hermes's gaze, Viktor slowly spoke. His cold words once again pierced the god's ears, "No one has stood above the heavens from the very beginning."
"Ignorant god."
With that, he turned and walked away, no longer paying any attention to Hermes, who had completely lost and was trapped where he was.
He walked toward the mountain of stone before him.
Ahead lay Uranos's enormous remains.
He reached out a hand into the pile of earth-colored boulders.
From the countless brown stone fragments, a mass of flowing, sand-like energy slowly floated upward.
It was the Origin of the Earth Calamity.
As the Origin emerged, the quiet land stirred once more with a light cloud of dust.
The Origin of the Earth Calamity gradually began to disperse, becoming long streams of sandy aura that flowed through the air and wrapped around Viktor's fluttering black coat.
Obscured by the wind and sand, Hermes looked toward Viktor through the haze.
He saw Viktor's black coat gradually absorb the swirling sand, while earth-colored ripples appeared across its surface.
He clearly saw the black coat continue absorbing the incoming sand as faint earth-colored waves slowly lit up across what had once been a silent surface.
Hermes's eyes suddenly widened.
His golden pupils seemed frozen.
It was as though he had witnessed something even more unbelievable.
His blurred gaze fixed on Viktor's glowing back.
Upon Viktor's broad shoulders, within that radiant silhouette, a shadowy phantom of a black crow flickered faintly.
As though he had fallen into madness, Hermes's voice trembled as the words escaped his lips.
"You are..."
"Ha... bi... ka?"