"Are you all right?" The professor helped the Soul King up with concern and pressed him onto the sofa, afraid he might run away.
"P-Professor, do you mean the Calamity I'm thinking of?" The Soul King's smile looked worse than tears.
The professor nodded without a word.
The Soul King finally understood why the professor had treated the Red King with such extraordinary courtesy, even though they still had no idea how to use Humanity's Supreme Treasure.
They weren't even sure it was Humanity's Supreme Treasure.
Simply because the Red King had gone right under Calamity's nose and returned unscathed, the Soul King agreed that he deserved to be elected leader of the Seven Kings. That courage alone made him worthy.
That was Calamity, after all.
The Red King belonged to the previous generation of Seven Kings. Of that generation, some had died and others had left, leaving only the Red King and one other king. His seniority was considerable.
The Soul King belonged to the new generation of Seven Kings, but he, too, had lived through Calamity's defection. It had left a profound impression. Sometimes he still dreamed of that petite figure destroying heaven and earth, waking in the middle of the night drenched in cold sweat.
Back then, he had merely been a Seven Kings Candidate. When he heard Calamity's name, he had deeply resented it. He had poured in immense effort and endured countless trials to reach his position, yet that little girl had appeared out of nowhere and been placed above the Seven Kings without demonstrating any power at all. The professor indulged her every wish.
Then Calamity defected. When he received the professor's order for everyone to mobilize against her, he had still thought little of it, believing the professor was making a fuss over