◈ 384. [Side Story] The monster
serenade is a civilian.
She is a merchant, not a soldier.
Civilians must be free from this mud. Civilians should not be prepared to die.
However, she repaired an empty ship that could not be obtained by ordinary means, brought it to the battlefield, and participated in the battle while injuring herself.
I was able to win with the help of such a group over and over again.
“… .”
If the political situation had not turned in my favor as the third prince.
So if the relief army hadn’t come.
If the adventurers of the Lake Kingdom hadn’t stepped forward at the request of an unknown person.
If the civilian Serenade hadn’t helped me at the risk of injuring herself… … .
I was game over here.
It was only when I saw the blood that had spread on her body that I realized it deeply.
My strategy is poor.
Enough to drive countless colleagues to death and even injure civilians who have nothing to do with it… … .
“majesty?”
Serenade called me in a worried voice.
“Are you okay?”
“… then. I’m fine.”
I corrected my expression and smiled.
“thank you. just thank you serenade. Be careful until you feel better… … .”
“It’s really just a scratch. Don’t worry!”
Serenade waved her arms as if she was fine, but I wasn’t blind enough to notice that her eyebrows, which normally had no wrinkles, were contorted with pain.
And he wasn’t smart enough to point it out one by one. I smiled and pointed towards the empty space.
“I think it would be a good idea to ask Kelly Bay for advice on repairs to the airship. Because you are the one who designed this empty space.”
A crackling sound came from the lower part of the airship, as if Kelly Bay was crawling somewhere.
Serenade also seemed to smile bitterly.
“Our people worked hard, but there were a lot of sloppy parts. There is an original designer, so I’ll fix it better… … I will do my best to be of assistance to Your Highness.”
Instead of saying thank you anymore, I squeezed Serenade’s hand once more.
Serenade blushed and smiled lightly.
It hurt.
My stomach hurt.
***
I came to the temple.
This was a real battlefield.
Wounded soldiers were plentiful and priests were in short supply.
Fortunately, I had an abundance of medicines, such as bandages and hemostatic potions.
Other mercenaries and citizens who were still in good shape were volunteering as volunteers.
I could see juniors and young wizards sweating profusely next to Damian and applying medicine to the bodies of the wounded.
And in the middle of this quarrel – she was not there.
Marherita.
Even though she usually droops like an overworked office worker, she is fearless and fights when she stands in front of a patient.
The R-rank healer who was with me until the end of my 742nd game.
She was killed by goblins who attacked the temple.
Despite the groans of the countless wounded, this temple where her nervous screams are not heard… … It felt desolate.
I couldn’t bear to go inside the temple and looked at this scene from the outside.
“… majesty.”
Then a voice came from the side. i saw that
A man wrapped in bandages and wearing a blunt helmet on his head came limping along the stone wall of the temple. I nodded lightly.
“Torkel.”
“I heard that you were quite overworked in this battle. Are you okay… … .”
I gritted my teeth at his concern for me.
Torkel lost all the party members he had been with. The Leper Slaughter Squad was wiped out, leaving only the leader.
I couldn’t even guess how festering his stomach must have been.
Still, he asked how I was doing.
why?
what am i
Did your comrades die because I didn’t plan the strategy straight?
“… I am truly sorry for your colleagues.”
I tried my best to let out a steady voice.
“As soon as it is ready, I will hold the funeral with the utmost courtesy. As fast as possible… .”
Thorkell silently bowed his head to me and thanked me. I couldn’t bear to face him anymore and turned my head back to the temple.
“How did I survive?”
Torkel’s eyes, standing next to me, were looking at the goddess statue inside the temple.
“The saintess wrapped me around and passed away.”
“… .”
“A man so noble took the place of a dirty man like me… You were hit by an arrow.”
I had already been informed of the fate of Marherita, so I just listened.
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t understand.”
Thorkel’s rock-hard voice grew warmer and hotter.
“Wouldn’t it be better if I died?”
“… .”
“Wouldn’t it have been better for the saintess to live and for this leper to die?”
thud!
Thorkell shouted, punching himself in the chest.
“All I know how to do is wield a knife with this ailing body that can’t even feel pain! Better than a spoiled mercenary… … .”
he was crying
“Wouldn’t it be better for a saintess who could save countless people in the future to live… … ?”
I didn’t shed tears or weep.
With a blunt voice, he pounded his chest, which felt no pain, and cried out.
“My colleagues all died, so why am I still alive… We need to spread the light to the world where we have to live for a long time in the future… … Why did such a noble person die?”
“… .”
“I do not know. I do not know. I don’t know any of it.”
Thorkell lowered his head and slammed his helmet into the stone wall.
“I should have died.”
I couldn’t bear to offer any clumsy consolation and just listened to him.
“I am… Should have died… … .”
***
No.
None of you should have died. You all deserved to live.
I clenched my fists tightly.
I opened my tightly closed eyes. The shaking world was clearly visible.
In this place full of death and pain, what I have to do… … seemed
iced coffee.
okay.
I’m a little determined now.
***
Field south of Cross Road.
Skuld captured Belldandi in this place, still littered with goblin corpses.
“sister!”
“… .”
Finally caught, Belldandy chewed his lips and avoided his gaze. Skuld stood in front of Belldandy, unable to speak for a long time.
“live… There was.”
“… Skuld.”
“I was alive. All I knew was that my sister was dead… … .”
Skuld hugged her sister tightly. Belldandi lowered her eyes while holding her sister in her arms.
“… Why didn’t you tell me?”
“… .”
“why… Didn’t you tell me you were alive? Why a hundred years… … Where were you and what were you doing?”
“The Holy Grail.”
Belldandi spat out briefly.
“According to Urud’s older sister’s order… … I was looking for a Holy Grail that could save the World Tree.”
“The Holy Grail… yo. this?”
Stunned, Skuld shook his head.
“Calm down, sister. There’s no way such a legendary thing actually exists.”
“… .”
“The World Tree died long ago, and the Empire burned even the mangled stump. All that remains are the roots rotting beneath the ground. How are you going to bring it back?”
“… .”
“Come back, sister. The remaining elves and I need my sister.”
Skuld begged, but Belldandy stood firm.
“I will find the Holy Grail. And I will revive the World Tree and revive the Fairy Kingdom.”
“Please wake up, sister.”
Skuld let out a long sigh.
“The Fairy Kingdom ended during the Tribal War a hundred years ago. Urd’s eldest sister was executed, and the remaining elves became slaves to humans and live day by day while confined to the autonomous district.”
“… .”
“Come back. It makes the lives of the remaining elves like us a little better. I can do it if my sister helps me.”
“… I can’t give up yet. There must be a Holy Grail in that dungeon… … .”
When Belldandi didn’t back down, Skuld’s face twisted horribly.
“On my own… ! After all my sisters died or disappeared, I alone led the surviving elves!”
“… .”
“My hometown is reduced to ashes! Forcibly relocated to a foreign country! Exploited and exploited! Starving and prostrate! Adults die and children are taken away! I’ve lived like that for a hundred years!”
Belldandy looked at Skuld, who was shouting in a shrill voice, with a pale complexion.
“Every moment I was alive was hell! I’m the worst elven queen in history who had no choice but to watch her people sold for gold coins! Still, I gladly wore this crown of disgrace and contempt. It was a responsibility I had to endure as a descendant of the fairy royal family!”
“… .”
“But what about my sister? Holy Grail? Holy Grail?!”
Belldandi couldn’t meet his eyes. Skuld scolded her sister in a voice that seemed to vomit blood.
“For over a hundred years, I and my people were thrown into hell while searching for an illusion that didn’t even exist! Did you say you didn’t know me?!”
Silence prevailed.
On a plain full of goblin corpses, the two women of the Fairy King family said nothing to each other for a long time.
It was time for me to step out.
“The Holy Grail exists.”
When I raised my voice, two startled elves looked at me.
Standing by the southern gate and listening to their conversation, I slowly walked toward them.
“In the darkness of the Lake Kingdom. Area 8 Dungeon ‘Magic Tower’. He is sleeping there.”
“Prince Ash… .”
“Me and the Holy Grail Exploration Team will go there together and retrieve the Holy Grail. Why don’t you at least wait until then? queen.”
Belldandy is still needed on this front. I can’t let you take me
Skuld shook his head and tidied up his expression.
“You seemed to be invisible because of our family problems.”
“I understand. Our family is also in a pretty bad situation.”
“Let’s put aside things between me and my sister for a while and talk about what we were talking about earlier.”
Skuld, who instantly changed his expression to a gentle one, looked at me with serious eyes.
“I heard about the banner that the Kaiju Front has put up and maintained for a year since you came here. It was ‘killing monsters and protecting people’. He also said, ‘I will save everyone within my reach’.”
“… .”
“And among those people were not only us elves, but also humans from other races and countries.”
The fairy queen took a step closer to me. I silently looked at her.
“You have no idea how long it’s been since I’ve faced such an inclusive cause.”
“… .”
“Prince Ash. The world is increasingly filled with hate. I am among the youngest of the elves, but over the past lifetime I have easily sensed that the world is becoming more and more malevolent.”
“… .”
“The banner you raise can bring this divided world back together. so… .”
“I’m sorry during the talk, but my queen.”
I cut her off.
“That banner is retired as of this time.”
“yes?”
“Killing monsters and protecting people… It is a beautiful cause.”
A self-deprecating smile crept across my lips.
“But now I realize. That you can’t protect people with beautiful things.”
“What is that… .”
“It is not the flag that protects people. It’s a sharp knife. I learned that this time.”
I looked around the crossroads.
The southern wall that was horribly burned and collapsed.
And the lives I’ve lost.
“So that banner is now scrapped.”
“… Then, what banner will you lift now, Prince Ash?”
“I will still protect people. but.”
I put my new resolution into my mouth.
“If I have to kill people to protect them, I will.”
“… Are you the one who defines what that ‘person’ is?”
I silently affirmed. A cold disappointment crossed Skuld’s face.
“If more ‘people’ can be saved, a certain race or an entire country… … Maybe you can get rid of that ‘person’.”
“… .”
“I must have misunderstood you.”
Skuld turned around.
“After all, you are just like the other kings.”
“… .”
“Let’s pretend there wasn’t a story.”
Skuld didn’t look back and walked towards his soldiers waiting on the other side.
Belldandy approached me while watching the back.
“Ash, are you okay… ?”
“huh? I am fine.”
I smiled.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to talk to my brother.”
“… .”
“We met after a hundred years. There won’t be much more to share. Go see.”
Belldandy looked at me with trembling eyes, then bowed his head and ran towards his younger brother.
I don’t understand.
Why is everyone looking at me with such worried eyes?
My mind is clear and my resolve is strong. All delusions were finally gone.
I walked along the southern field. A dirty flag was waving in the center of the field.
It was the white flag I planted while using [Imperial Declaration].
Once a straight white banner, now it was stained with human red blood and goblin green blood, half burnt and dripping ashes with every breeze.
Like the countless lives that died following this flag. The flagpole that was horribly damaged… … I grabbed.
“… .”
In all of those 742 games, I always threw my characters to death.
In order to efficiently clear the entire game, countless subordinates were thrown to death without any remorse.
He had no doubts about the act.
I was a monster.
It was a monster that did not regard people who only knew efficiency-crazed strategies as human beings. And that’s why I succeeded in clearing it.
-okay.
Why did I just realize it now? Didn’t you know the truth? So, isn’t that how you cleared the game?
To save more people.
someone has to die
If the reality is anyway, you can order death as efficiently as possible.
Killing people can save others.
Why did I avert my eyes from such a simple equation?
because it was cowardly Because I was weak. It is because he was not prepared as a prince.
But now I’m ready.
– Then who will decide who will die? Who will order death? Who will bear the weight?
The voice of the Goblin God King echoed in my mind.
– If it’s to protect the world. Shouldn’t someone wear the skin of a monster?
okay.
If you can kill people to save people.
If so, that’s me.
I have no choice but to order its death.
“You’re right, Alexander.”
I covered my face with my hands and smiled bitterly.
“I have no choice but to be myself.”
Awesome!
I broke the flagpole I was holding in my other hand and threw it on the floor.
– There will come a moment when you have to sacrifice your most precious thing to protect this city.
I remembered the advice Marquis Cross gave me long ago.
Those words that seemed like a prophecy or a curse.
Finally, it became a reality.
to defend this city.
to protect this world.
I am my most precious thing
banner.
The purpose of protecting people… … decided to give up
In order to save more people,
I am.
It becomes a monster that eats people.
