◈ 683. [STAGE 40] Conditions of a hero (3)
There was one reason why Skyrian was interested in Violet at first.
This is because among the humans who participated in this great expedition, the final war of royalties, he was the most ‘unsuited to this war’.
Illusionist Violet.
As a wizard who deals with illusions, she was essentially a liar.
She always lived a lie called genjutsu, both to herself and to others.
Origin Age Experience… She was a petty thief, a robber, and a conman who lied about everything about herself and used the lie to deceive others to make a profit.
Even to my closest colleagues.
The Gamble Club colleagues who had been working together for a long time came to trust and rely on each other at some point. But it wasn’t Violet.
She still lied like she was breathing.
She still didn’t trust anyone, not even herself. She was a perpetual liar.
Unlike all the other heroes who truly and voluntarily risk their lives, even in the final season, Violet was still forced by inertia to participate in the front lines.
An ordinary, insignificant human being who can’t run away because he has no excuse to run away.
So, among the heroes on the front line, Skarian was particularly interested in Violet.
I wanted to see Skarian.
This poor human being was an ordinary villain who was forced by inertia to participate in the great war.
The sight of corruption again.
By seducing her, cajoling her, and enticing her. If you turn your back just a little bit. I will tumble down that far cliff by myself.
I wanted to watch the messy fall process of a person who could have been a great hero, turning into a petty thief again.
I wanted to observe from the side the entire ugly process of living a shabby life as she fell to the bottom… in a world that was destroyed by fire or even in the world after that.
I wanted to prove before my eyes that human will is so insignificant and weak.
So….
***
6 hours ago.
Southeastern part of the continent. An old village with a distant view of the coast.
Violet and Skyrian, riding on Parekhian’s back, entered this empty, abandoned village. Skarian looked around curiously.
As we left the main road and suddenly turned east, I wondered where we were headed, but Violet led the group here.
《Where?》
“…It’s my hometown.”
“huh? “Didn’t you say you were from New Terra?”
“That’s a lie. “This is truly where I was born.”
Violet raised her bewildered gaze and looked around.
“It’s been almost 20 years since I came here… but I never thought it would have changed so much.”
It wasn’t just that things had changed, the village was completely ruined.
It was empty, as if everyone had left a long time ago. Snowflakes, rare in the South, were piling up endlessly above the collapsing buildings.
“It’s completely ruined. Is no one living there?”
Violet, who was walking, smiled in front of a bar where one of the doors had fallen.
“Oh, this was my home.”
《Didn’t you say he was the illegitimate child of a noble family?》
“That’s a lie too. They say he was an orphan who was abandoned by a prostitute at a bar here. “The owner of this place, the old man, couldn’t bear to throw it away so he collected it.”
Violet ran her fingers over her temples. Then the long scar that had been hidden by the illusion was revealed.
“I was drunk and beat up kids on a bad day… but thanks to that, I was able to survive.”
《….》
“When I was eight years old, they tried to sell me to a brothel, so I broke a bottle of alcohol on the owner’s grandfather’s head and ran away.”
Violet, speaking calmly and heading towards the center of the village, let out an audible sound.
Parekhian stopped and Skarian looked in Violet’s direction.
In the center of the village, there were small shopping streets. And in the center was a pawn shop and a tailor shop.
“Twenty years ago, this was a large village in the area, so a lot of outsiders came and went. “It was my livelihood to pick the pockets of those outsiders.”
Violet stopped by the pawn shop first.
“The pawn shop here doubled as a fence… and they used to sell stolen goods here at low prices. haha. “I guess this is the place for my monumental pickpocketing debut.”
The pawn shop’s door was broken open and the inside was completely emptied.
It was only natural that this would be the place that thieves frequented most even after the village collapsed.
Violet picked up some cheap fake jewelry and gold thread that had peeled off the gilded paint that was lying around on the floor.
Next, Violet entered the tailor shop next door. Inside the store, covered in dust and cobwebs, several moth-eaten suits remained.
“This place pretends to be a tailor shop, but in reality, it is a store that leads to an underground illegal gambling house. “If something goes wrong here, you leave the money at the pawn shop next door.”
《….》
“But I actually ran a tailor shop. I used to vaguely imagine this while watching adults getting their clothes made here. “The image of my parents coming to look for me one day.”
A couple wearing a nice suit and a beautiful dress arrived in a carriage.
In fact, you are our child. Now the hard days are over. Let’s go home together and live happily ever after.
I imagined this as I glanced at the smartly dressed adults walking in and out of the tailor shop.
“Of course, that didn’t happen. haha.”
Violet smiled bitterly and calmly went into the tailor shop, calmly took out the most decent clothes among them, and put them on her body.
“Still, it was my wish to try on these clothes, so I’ll try to achieve it now.”
Next, he picked up a fedora that was hanging on the wall, dusted it off, and put it on his head.
A moth-eaten suit and a dusty hat. The plated gold threads on the suit and the jewelry that looked fake even at first glance…
Violet’s appearance was comical. But Violet wore it all on her body as if it were some kind of pious ritual.
After leaving the tailor shop, Violet left the shopping area and headed toward the back.
There was a large vacant lot that was used as the village square, and beyond the open view, the eastern sea was visible in the distance.
“….”
Violet silently stared at the distant horizon.
Before she knew it, the illusion magic on her head had been released, and instead of the iconic light purple hair, her natural hair color – plain brown hair – was flowing long.
Skyrian, who quietly followed behind her, asked.
“Why did you come here?”
“I wanted to check.”
《What?》
“My true heart. “What and how I really want to do.”
Then take a deep breath.
Violet turned around and opened her mouth.
“I want to run away. “To the end of the world.”
《….》
“I never want to return to that horrible battlefield again. If the dragon can protect me from the destruction of the world, then yes. I want to do that. “I want to get rid of you forever without looking back.”
Skalian’s tightly closed lips twitched. He was desperately suppressing a smile.
That’s it, Violet.
You are at best a petty thief. There is no need for you to continue this difficult fight.
Let’s keep running away together.
Throw away the pride that others have built for you and take the last step toward corruption.
hurry…!
“but.”
Violet’s tightly clenched fists trembled.
“Still, I want to go back.”
《…What?》
“I’m going back. To Crossroads.”
The Skarian blinked blankly, unable to understand the context of the conversation at the moment.
《What does that mean? You say you want to run away? But are you going to go back?》
“…Okay. “I really want to run away.”
Violet trembled as she hugged herself.
“I want to run away, I want to run away, I want to run away! My whole body is shaking. “Just imagining that giant monster makes me want to pee.”
《But why…》
“I know. That I’m not suited for that kind of fight. Going back wouldn’t be of much help. “I know that at best I am nothing more than a swindler, a robber, and a petty thief!”
Violet looked back at the village where she was born.
The prison of my childhood, where gambling houses, fences, window dressing rooms, and bars were chaotically intertwined.
“But… just because you were born this way doesn’t mean you have to live like this, right?”
《….》
“I fought a great fight.”
An unforgettable word was stuck in Violet’s mind.
– If you’re going to play as a clown… shouldn’t you play to take over the world?
That one word from Prince Ash.
So I had a great time playing with him.
I competed with the fate of the world at stake. He saved the citizens of the imperial capital and defeated powerful monsters.
The only means he had were trickery and illusions, but Prince Ash took him to and from the land of decisive battle.
It was a real competition that couldn’t be played at a gambling table with small amounts of money at stake.
“Even if all I can show to this world is an illusion, that doesn’t mean my whole life is a lie.”
No doubt Violet has saved the world time and time again.
Even if the fight was unintentional, it did not tarnish its greatness.
“I…”
I returned to my hometown, which I never wanted to return to, and faced the messy past I had been avoiding, even with it on my whole body.
This was the conclusion Violet came to after facing her true self for the first time in a life that had always been lies.
“I want to be great.”
《…!》
“It’s a life I’ve already run away from once or several times, but maybe it’s already too late…”
At that moment, Skyrian saw clearly.
“I want to… save the world again!”
In a world covered in darkness.
The petty thief before my eyes was wearing shabby clothes and funny decorations, revealing his hidden scars and normal hair color.
Shining brighter than ever.
Giving off the glory of a true hero.
《…Just because you were born that way doesn’t mean you have to live that way.》
Skarian slowly considered Violet’s words.
《There is no law that says you cannot become great again just because you have fallen once…》 The corner
of Skalian’s mouth twisted as much as possible.
《Ah, of course…》
And then he
smiled widely, as if he couldn’t bear it any longer.
《Humans are really cool…》
Actually, I liked this story better.
Stories of falling, falling, and being broken are good, too.
Even if it is a story that is so familiar that it is so widespread that it can be hit by a foot on a shelf full of books.
Even if it was childish, obvious, and common…
the Skyrian actually liked stories of hopeful heroism much – much, much more.
《Violet.》
So Skarian slowly took out a bead from his arms.
“Will you take it?”
Puzzled, Violet accepted it.
“What is this?”
《My gift.》
It was one of the two magic spells possessed by Skalian.
Violet, who had no idea what this bead was, tilted her head, but it still looked precious so she quickly took it.
The movement still seemed like a petty thief, so Skalian laughed without realizing it.
《Okay then, shall we go back!》
Flash!
Skarian, who had transformed into a long dragon, glanced over his back.
《To continue the epic story of the great hero Violet!》
Violet blushed with embarrassment, but eventually nodded loudly and climbed on top of Skyrian. Parekhian followed suit.
The two dragons and one human flew through the blizzard-filled sky and began to go back again, retracing the way they had come.
***
Currently. Crossroads.
《Oh my gosh, I almost died…》
After receiving every last piece of Night Bringer’s breath.
The Skyrian, who almost fell from the top of the castle wall, let out a hot sigh from the corner of his mouth.
No matter how much he inherited the black dragon’s ‘scale’ characteristic, and is a loner in the corner of his room, he is an expert at defense, and because he inherited his father’s blood, he is resistant to its breath and black flames.
It was impossible to block that breath completely without damage.
Skyrian, who was examining his half-cooked body, glanced down the castle wall.
When she came in front of her colleagues, Violet put on a magic spell again on top of her shabby outfit, transformed into a stylish outfit, and then got beaten up.
In a way, it was only natural that he came back after running away for over a day.
“Ah, you’re back though! “Please take a look!”
Violet cried out loud as she was beaten on the back by the gambling club members. Skarian watched and laughed.
Shield warriors who had been out in the southern fields also began to return.
Thorkel was unharmed due to the effect of his ultimate skill, and the remaining shield warriors were seriously injured, but there were no casualties. Miller Arian, who lost one arm, was rushed to the temple.
In this way, I blocked another and final breath.
Got a last 12 hour reprieve. This gave us time to prepare for the final battle that would come soon.
It was a time when everyone felt momentarily relieved and gave each other words of encouragement.
“I’m giving you a report!”
A soldier rushed urgently from inside the Crossroads.
He was a scout dispatched to the observation tower. Everyone raised their heads towards him curiously.
The soldier who approached the heroes was out of breath and barely shouted out a report.
“The last observation tower… was destroyed a little while ago!”
“…I beg your pardon?”
Evangeline, who was receiving healing magic for her burns, jumped up in embarrassment. The soldier continued.
“Immediately after the breath, the six auxiliary heads of the Night Bringer flew into the observation tower… and destroyed the observation tower!”
“Did everyone who was out return safely?!”
“Well, all the soldiers in the observation group succeeded in escaping through the teleportation gate…”
The soldier closed his eyes tightly and lowered his head.
“Damien, who was providing covering fire to support our retreat until the very end… did not return…!”
The color drained from the faces of everyone who heard the story.
