Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Porter's Diary - 4
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Shocked by Ian's words, Eram's mind went completely blank, leaving him speechless.
His younger sister Ellis was an innocent girl.
"Onii-chan~ Let's play~"
Even when her stomach growled with hunger, she never complained. Even on the day their mother abandoned them, she tried harder to smile than to show her sadness. To Eram, his little sister might have been the only sanctuary in the hellish Lugeron Village.
And now, that sister had...
"'Onii-chaaan~ Leet's plaaay~'"
returned as a wraith.
"Wh-what can I do to save Ellis?"
"Nothing. Once someone becomes a wraith, they can no longer receive the grace of Hel, the goddess of death and the underworld."
"I-is that true?"
"Why? Does that sound like a delusion too?"
"...Then what about everything the village has done up until now?"
"What else? They've just mass-produced wraiths."
Not everyone devoured by monsters turned into a wraith, but in Lugeron Village, where forced abandonments and living sacrifices were frequent, the occurrences were unusually high. That was precisely why Ian had called the village more vile than any monster committing all the evils of this world.
"I'll buy you some time. Run."
"You? Didn't you hate me?"
"Of course I do. But I hate the idea of you getting eaten by your own sister even more. She's just a larva right now, but once she devours you, she'll evolve."
Watching the war bear draw steadily closer, Ian let out a sigh and shouted to Eram.
"Run as far as you can if possible. I can't guarantee I'll win!"
With that, he faced the war bear armed with nothing but his longsword. Seeing this, Eram had only one thing he could do.
Run.
It was what he had always done, and what he would have to keep doing.
"Ah, the tea's gone cold."
"Village Chief?"
At the most crucial moment, the Village Chief stopped his tale.
This was no way to toy with a listener's heart.
"Wait a moment. I'll get some fresh tea."
"It's fine. So what happened after that?"
"What happened? Just as you guessed—Ian defeated the wraith that his sister had become."
"By himself?"
"I don't know what miracle he pulled off, but calling himself a hero on a whim wasn't just bravado. He must have invoked some kind of miracle."
The most shocking part of the Village Chief's story was that my father had been a hero. He had never hinted at it to me. Why had he kept it a secret?
As I pondered this, the Village Chief sipped his cold tea and continued.
"You might not know this, but they say a person can only become a wraith if they cling desperately to life. And Ellis..."
"It probably wasn't revenge."
"Why do you think that?"
After organizing my thoughts in response to the Village Chief's question, I said,
"If she were obsessed with revenge, I think she would have attacked sooner."
"Heh, like father, like son."
Whether my answer was correct or not, the Village Chief smiled and recounted what my father had said back then.
"Right, Ian explained it to me the same way. He said Ellis probably became a wraith just to play with him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let him win so easily."
"....."
"Hearing that, I wept endlessly. The guilt of surviving at the cost of my sister's life and soul tormented me. Maybe the choice I should have made that day wasn't to abandon her, but to lure the monster myself."
I had no words in response to the Village Chief's confession.
The man who had fled from so much just to survive ended with nothing but bitter regret.
And yet, such a man offered me advice.
"That day might come for you too. Whether to flee from a disaster beyond your power or to face it head-on, prepared to die—like your father did."
"My father?"
"Ian told me he fled from a disaster he couldn't resist, just like me. And in doing so, he lost the woman he loved most."
My father's regret gripped my mind.
I never dreamed that the man who showed no shadow of doubt before me had such a past.
"He came to Lugeron Village to revive that dead woman."
"Can you bring back the dead?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but he claimed there was a passage in the Titan Mountains connected to Niflheim. He intended to meet her soul there."
To the north lay snowcapped mountains, and at the northernmost end, the old troll fortress.
To the west, the Dark Forest, and beyond it, the Titan Mountains.
Within them lay the underworld, Niflheim.
The expanding worldview made my head spin.
What kind of place was this...
"Well, I didn't hear it directly, but as you know, he failed. He couldn't save his woman and came back. But..."
The Village Chief looked into my eyes and said,
"He brought you with him."
"Me?"
"Yes. After that day, the shadow vanished from Ian's face. To him, you must have been an answer."
"I see... Thank you for telling me."
Through the Village Chief, I learned of the father I never knew.
"Why didn't Father ever tell me these stories?"
"Who knows? We weren't close enough to share secrets."
"Pardon? From what you said, you two seemed friendly enough to joke around."
"Just your imagination. That guy had a habit of teasing people who looked easygoing."
Calling him "that guy" already sounded pretty close?
"Anyway, Ian probably didn't tell you for the sake of respecting your choices."
"My choices?"
"Yes. He didn't want to limit the future you could pioneer just because of his own decisions. After all, he loved your potential more than anyone."
"....."
The Village Chief's words made a certain sense.
Considering Father's personality, he wouldn't want to burden his son because of his own past.
'Am I the same way?'
Now, I regretted not opening up about our secrets while Father was alive.
I should have treated him better.
"Thank you for today."
"No need. It was just my duty as Village Chief."
Sian bowed his head in gratitude, but instead of heading home, he turned toward the Dark Forest.
He was probably going to the house he once shared with his father, Ian.
Whether it was a final farewell or something else...
That was no longer the Village Chief's concern.
What came next would be decided entirely by Sian's choices.
Watching Sian depart, the Village Chief resumed writing in his diary.
"Your son has become a proper head of household now."
It had been just over a year since Ian's death.
A long time if called long, short if called short—but in that span, Sian had built a family, fathered a child, and even forged good relations with people from the Holy Kingdom.
And now, he was pondering his daughter's future.
It was a good sign.
He had truly become the head of a household.
Unlike us, who were always busy running.
"Amazing. His decisiveness and drive mirror yours, even though he's not your blood. Even his taste for older women."
It was a shame he picked up the bad habits too, but that only proved Sian was Ian's son.
"Well, even blood sons don't always take after their fathers. Nothing strange there."
The Village Chief's son, Parel, bore little resemblance to him. Unlike his rational, cynical father, Parel was emotional and braver than anyone.
Unlike himself and the villagers, Parel had volunteered as a living sacrifice.
To protect his son and wife, Nabira.
After that, with Ian's assertions, the village's evil customs vanished completely.
That was why some village men pointed fingers at Parel.
They slandered him for ruining the village's atmosphere needlessly.
But the Village Chief—no, Eram—was proud of his son Parel.
He praised the courage of the son who faced disaster without fleeing, unlike himself.
Eram knew.
There was no salvation in running away.
"Maybe I shouldn't have run that day either."
Eram had always run.
When his sister was abandoned, when he left Auntie Vivi behind, when he abandoned his beloved wife Maveli, and even when his sister returned as a wraith—he always ran.
All it led to was parched regret and hollow despair.
"If it was all despair no matter what I did..."
Eram continued pouring his regrets into the diary.
Hoping that some future reader would never repeat his mistakes.
"Like you said, maybe I should have fought back too. Even if it meant failing and dying."
At least that wouldn't leave regret behind.