Chapter 36
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Banish the Night
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Memory is something that naturally fades with the passage of time.
Every memory eventually blurs and is forgotten, swept away like grains of sand by the waves.
That is what they call oblivion, and people fear this oblivion that steals away their precious recollections.
But oblivion is not something to be feared entirely.
It blurs painful memories and allows cherished moments to become what we call nostalgia.
"Huh? Why that look on your face?"
The mad Scarecrow had been robbed of the blessing called oblivion.
Memories from ages ago replayed endlessly without respite.
A brilliant journey, but knowing its ending made the tale feel nothing but brutally cruel as it whispered incessantly in his ears.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it, Scarecrow."
The voice he heard upon reaching the Emerald in the Holy Empire.
The purple-haired girl who twisted her smile the moment he obtained what he so desperately desired.
Her voice, which had made the Tin Man's heart beat, given courage to the Lion, and gifted wisdom to him, now pierced like a dagger.
Into his heart, the false medicine, his brain.
Love became emptiness, courage became death, wisdom became madness.
What they had wished for twisted just like her smile.
"Ahaha, ahahahaha! Look at you now. How could I not laugh?"
Dorothy led them to ruin, laughing until tears streamed down her face for reasons unknown.
Then, darkness fell once more.
Returning to the moment he first met her.
The Scarecrow, who craved wisdom and knowledge, was doomed to repeat that story eternally.
Eaten away by madness, stripped of oblivion's blessing, he gained wisdom yet could do nothing.
He wished for someone to kill him and end this curse.
To grant rest to his comrades who suffered the same fate.
And to stop the witch who desired eternal night.
Unable to fulfill these unreachable wishes, he could only hurl himself back into pain as endless as eternity.
T crackle, t crackle.
The fire was dying down.
The Scarecrow hadn't overcome the shadow flames.
The fire was dying because there was nothing left to burn.
His entire body reduced to ashes, only his head remained for the Scarecrow now.
Even that wouldn't last much longer.
Even without my intervention, this Scarecrow would turn to dust and vanish.
"Guh..."
The head alone opened its mouth toward me.
Something felt off.
The bizarre aura that had constantly radiated madness and terror had vanished at some point.
Was it because he was on the verge of death?
Or because he knew he no longer had the strength to harm me?
...No, it was something different.
Tha...nk... you..."
I doubted my ears.
Did he just thank me?
"To the west... to the west..."
His voice now, as life ebbed away, felt clearer and more lucid than ever, as if he'd regained his lost reason.
"The Lord of Tin... must... die..."
It was a common tale.
A fallen foe repenting at the last moment, offering information.
There was no harm in hearing him out.
I could judge for myself.
And I had some personal curiosity as well.
"The Lion... afterward..."
Tin Man, Lion.
Words this Scarecrow had cried out even during battle.
The Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion.
And furthermore.
"Stop... Dorothy..."
Dorothy.
A familiar name.
One of the protagonists from The Wizard of Oz.
But the name Dorothy felt even more familiar.
The woman I'd encountered right after hatching from my egg was named Dorothy too.
"The witch... eternal night..."
The witch who had nearly thrown me out the window to my death.
The Scarecrow was telling me to stop her as he uttered that name.
This place's boss, guided by the quest, was the Scarecrow.
Other enemies like the Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion would appear next.
And someday, Dorothy herself.
I knew it instinctively.
It wasn't mere coincidence that I'd seen her the moment I hatched.
No woman would simply watch a crow's egg hatch in a treehouse cabin as a hobby.
Perhaps my arrival in this world was tied to that woman named Dorothy, and even the phenomenon of eternal night was connected to her.
"Guh... now... kill... me..."
With no hope left, did he just want release?
"I am the host... this is... the end..."
It wasn't that.
The Scarecrow had been worried about eternal night.
The Scarecrow was dead.
Where he had stood, only a gleaming blue gem remained.
[Skarnas's Eternal Night has been postponed.]
The darkened sky began to brighten bit by bit.
The moon and stars resumed shining.
It wasn't fully gone—just postponed—which nagged at me, but this was better than nothing.
I'd thought killing the host wouldn't end an already arrived eternal night, so this was a solid win.
[Feather of Night (Green) has dissipated.]
With eternal night ended, the Feather of Night vanished too.
It was the power that let me, constantly on the back foot, overwhelm the Scarecrow.
I regretted losing it, but I wasn't idiot enough to wish for eternal night to persist.
I stared at where the Scarecrow had been.
This guy surely had a story.
Golden light had gleamed in his eyes just before death.
But I had no way to learn it now.
I'd have to encounter the others he mentioned to uncover the truth from the clues he left.
For now, I'd withhold judgment on him.
Even if he repented at the end, his deeds didn't vanish.
"Shuuuung..."
Flutter slowly flew to me and rubbed against my cheek.
[Hidden quest cleared!]
The system messages kept sparkling, promising rewards for clearing the quest, but they weren't registering in my eyes right now.
Something far more important had my attention.
I tore my gaze from the Scarecrow and turned to where Muna had been.
The fateful encounter and comrade I'd met first.
Wiser than any, braver than any—it was time to honor my kiwi.
A small tree had sprouted where Muna had stood.
Truly wondrous.
It had been an empty clearing moments ago, yet now a tree grew there.
Was this land mourning the Sage?
Or thanking me for banishing eternal night?
"Shuuuung..."
I bowed my head alongside Flutter.
If Muna hadn't shoved me aside, I'd have been crushed under that hand.
A small kiwi fruit grew on the new tree.
Even in death, he'd sprayed green juice—had that caused this?
What exactly had Muna been?
So many questions I wanted to ask, but couldn't.
I'd probably never know his true nature.
I gazed at the small kiwi.
Memories of first meeting him brought an involuntary smile.
What a ridiculous encounter.
A crow with an acorn cap, and a kiwi bird pretending to be a kiwi fruit.
Just like then, I pecked the fruit lightly with my beak.
The plump fruit twitched.
"Caw...?"
Déjà vu somehow.
"Shuoooong?"
Flutter bobbed side to side, staring intently at the kiwi.
I pecked near its plump bottom again.
It twitched once more.
And at the same time, two black dots gazed at me soulfully.
"Caaaaw?"
No way?
Like our first meeting, the kiwi fruit spun and fell to the ground.
"Mm."
No, a kiwi bird.
【Kiwi LV1】
A nocturnal bird with completely degenerated wings.
It moves swiftly using powerful leg muscles and locates prey with its keen sense of smell.
Level and size reduced, but this was the Muna I knew.
Above all, a kiwi with the Sage trait could only be him.
"Cackackackaw!"
"Shuooooooong!"
You're alive!
I flapped my wings and bounced around joyfully.
Flutter flapped its cloth, mimicking me.
"Mm, this form again, huh."
It was unmistakably Muna's tone.
But not his voice.
More precisely, like his deep voice forcibly pitched higher.
With his shrunken size, his voice had risen in pitch.
This kiwi was now truly the size of a kiwi fruit, not the bird I knew.
I met his eyes, flapping my wings with pure joy.
"Mm, even I get a bit embarrassed under that gaze."
What are you talking about?
"Shuooooooong..."
Flutter quickly clung to Muna, serving as makeshift clothing.
"Much better."
Was he embarrassed about being naked?
Don't kiwis normally go around without clothes?
And he'd been bare when we first met—why shy now?
Mysteries about Muna piled up, but they weren't important now.
What mattered was that he'd survived.
"Cackaw!"
And now, with joy, I could finally check my rewards.
[【Shadow Crow LV20(+) has reached max level.]
[Max level reached! 【Shadow Crow LV20(+) can now evolve!]
The time of the hero has arrived!