Chapter 95
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Graver (4)
A calamity was born in Aonia.
The monster soared so high it seemed to mock the heavens themselves, a sight too grotesque to behold directly.
One might wonder if it had been stitched together from countless corpses plastered onto it.
Graver plunged into its midst, flashing a triumphant grin.
The corpses writhed and swallowed him whole.
It felt just like a pilot climbing into some massive mecha weapon.
"Talks too much."
He tossed out that one line before gently setting Yoru down from his arms.
Her exhaustion finally easing, Yoru managed to stand on her own two feet.
Though she stood, she kept avoiding his gaze.
Not that she could cover her eyes with a blindfold anymore.
"Big talk for someone hiding in a pile of filthy corpses."
It wasn't an empty retort.
Graver was genuinely furious, as if demanding that no one dare belittle the corpses.
"What nonsense is that?"
He clicked his tongue once and gripped his sword.
The atmosphere had turned ominous.
A horrific stench was emanating from that "mound of corpses" Graver had called it.
It wouldn't have been an issue if it just stung the nose.
But this was dangerous.
Psssh— Pssssh—
The vegetation was rotting away from the spreading stench of the corpse mound.
Was it planning to turn this entire mountain into a mountain of death?
The fresh grass and trees withered and died in an instant, losing all vitality.
'If I leave it be, Aonia really will be doomed.'
Escaping didn't look easy anyway.
Which meant he had to take it down right here.
He seemed particularly obsessed with Yoru.
Or rather, it irked him more that Kline had protected her.
That could wait for later.
"Yoru. Can you move?"
"......Yeah."
First, he needed to check her condition.
'I have a way.'
There was a strategy to bring down that corpse mound.
It couldn't be sliced apart with mere aura.
Swinging his sword with aura would just wear him out until he dropped.
Unless he reached something transcendent like Ariel's otherworldly realm, no human strength could fell that monster.
'But I'm different.'
The magic sword.
He could wield both aura and magic simultaneously.
The light magic he'd gained from training with his sword after acquiring it.
And the slash that cloaked his blade in it and unleashed it.
That might kill the corpse mound...
'But I lack the mana.'
His current mana control stats weren't enough.
To obliterate that massive corpse mound in one go, he'd need far more mana than he had now.
And there was no way to replenish it, obviously.
'Anyway.'
Quitting wasn't an option.
Standing idle would doom Aonia, and he'd end up captured and killed along with Yoru.
If he didn't want to die, he had to take down the corpse mound right here.
"......"
Yoru was still looking away.
Refusing to meet his eyes directly.
Hmm.
Before fighting the corpse mound, he needed to lift Yoru's spirits first.
"......Kline."
"What?"
"Doesn't it... freak you out?"
Yoru unconsciously touched her eyelids with her fingers.
Her blindfold removed, her liberated eyes gleamed with a sparkling red light.
Pupils as beautiful as embedded rubies.
Yet to Yoru, it was a curse, an inheritance from her vile father that filled her with horror.
"......Originally, today's promise was to tell you my secret."
He knew that.
The mood alone had made it obvious.
If anything, it was a shame.
Without that bastard Graver, Yoru's confession could have ended on a positive note.
"I'm... not a pure-blooded person, actually."
Yoru's confession continued at length.
Her mother had been violated by Graver.
Born from that, Yoru had inherited the red eyes.
Because of it, the people of Aonia despised her, forcing her to always hide and conceal her eyes.
"I always... wanted to be accepted by others. Wanted to hear that it was okay for me to be alive. Even if just one person said it, that would have been enough."
Her bitter words carried deep regret.
Things she couldn't help.
Things she could never grasp, no matter how she longed for them.
Only then did Kline fully understand why Yoru was so harshly critical of the Aonian people.
'So that's it.'
To Yoru, the homeland of her birth wasn't truly a home.
She could never grow up basking in people's affection.
Everyone despised her, so she moved her life to escape that hatred, only to avoid people again to protect herself.
For a young girl, it was an unimaginably horrific ordeal.
"That's why you tried to kill Graver."
"......Yeah. He ruined my life and my mom's. Killing him was my life's goal."
But it was impossible.
Before Kline arrived, Yoru had been getting beaten by Graver's shoe.
She couldn't stand against him with her strength.
How deep a wound that must have left on her heart was hard to fathom.
"Hmmm."
Yoru looked utterly drained right now.
Compared to her usual lively, cheerful self, she seemed shrunken and timid.
No. Perhaps her usual demeanor was the mask.
A reinforced exoskeleton Yoru had donned to get along with people somehow.
This current state might be her true inner self, her genuine attitude toward life.
In that case, there was only one solution.
The best way to raise one's life tension.
Was to remove the elements dragging it down.
But first.
"Yoru."
There was something he needed to clarify for sure.
"Yeah?"
Yoru finally met his eyes.
Her sparkling red pupils held no pride.
Just a glimpse of melancholy.
Without the slightest hesitation, as casually as could be, making it clear he didn't mind at all, he said,
"I like your eyes."
"......Huh?"
Yoru's face went blank for a moment.
As if her brain couldn't process what she'd heard.
She seemed to have frozen, so he repeated it several times.
"Your glossy black hair, your delicate features, that cheeky chest you think can be hidden with bandages—I like all of it."
"Wh-what?"
"But your eyes are my favorite. I like red eyes. Black hair and red eyes are totally my type."
In his past life's media, characters with red eyes were common.
And they were usually popular.
Red-eyed people were rare on Earth, after all.
It was only natural for fantasies to form.
And his impression upon seeing real red eyes in this world?
'They're really pretty.'
No matter how he looked, there was no need to be ashamed or hide them.
He couldn't understand why they called them devil's eyes.
They should call them handsome guy's eyes.
Of course, Bloodied had red eyes too... but even she was quite the looker, save for that torn mouth.
Yoru's face flushed bright red.
He could see her near-dead tension surging back to life.
Unlike her usual self, she darted her eyes around before speaking.
"......For real?"
"Yeah."
"You really think my eyes are pretty?"
"Yeah. Super pretty. Honestly, I don't get why other people freak out over it."
"Ha. Haha, I see."
Yoru traced her eye shape with her finger again.
As if verifying whether his words were true.
"My eyes... are pretty."
"Yeah. That's why I want you to live a long, long time."
"......Huh? What'd you say?"
"I want you to live."
Beautiful girls are humanity's treasure.
...A bit otaku-ish, but it was his personal creed.
He couldn't fathom why a pretty girl like Yoru deserved such unfair treatment.
She had every right to be loved.
"Yoru."
The stench was spreading here now.
Staying put would just mean getting overwhelmed.
They needed to strike first.
"It doesn't matter how you see yourself. It doesn't matter what others say about you."
So.
This was their last conversation before battle.
"I just want you to be happy."
"......Ugh."
"If everyone else hates you, I'll love you. If they deny you, I'll affirm you. If they call you a monster, I'll call you human. So."
Just live normally.
Live normally and grasp normal happiness.
He said it with emphasis.
"......"
Yoru fell silent.
Her gaze upon him felt like she was looking into the past.
As if projecting someone onto him.
"......You mean it?"
"Of course."
"You'll really love me?"
"Huh? ...Yeah. Of course."
It was agape, not eros, but saying that now would kill the mood, so he shut his mouth.
"I see. Yeah, guess I can't help it then."
Yoru wiped her eyes with her hand.
Tiny droplets vanished into it.
And that was it.
She stood beside him, as if having steeled her resolve.
"Got a plan?"
"Yeah. It'll be tough, though."
"It's fine. I trust you."
The plan was already set.
Risky, dancing on the edge of death, but if the conditions were met, victory was certain.
The downside was his current mana reserves—
"!"
A status window popped up suddenly.
He'd unknowingly altered another Cardinal Principle.
The message was far from ordinary.
It granted not one, but three rewards.
The moment he registered the window, an overwhelming mana storm raged through his body.
'This is...'
Even stronger than when Fount of Mana had first leveled up to 1.
Mana rampaged through his entire body, begging to be unleashed.
'It's possible now.'
This would do it.
The conditions were still razor-thin, and he'd have to risk his life.
But the odds of success had skyrocketed.
"Yoru."
"Yeah."
"Let me explain the plan."
He whispered into her ear.
"Yeah. Got it."
Her earlobe flushed pink as she listened intently.
"......That's it. Can you do it? You'll have to hold the front line and buy time."
He looked at her with a hint of worry.
It was necessary, but far from easy.
She'd have to face that corpse mound alone.
How many could agree so readily?
"Don't worry."
Yet Yoru affirmed it vigorously.
She gripped her sword and stepped forward.
There, in the distance, loomed the massive corpse mound reaching the heavens.
Facing it head-on, she declared,
"I still want to live longer."
"Good."
That was enough.
He nodded and cloaked his sword in light.
His target: Graver's death.
The annihilation of the Crimson Blood Cult.