Chapter 214: Residents of a Ruined World (10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 214: Residents of a Ruined World (10)
To be honest, I let my guard down.
If I were to make an excuse, I didn’t think that ominous energy could cut through the mana of an already activated artifact, nor did I expect him to be so persistent in trying to catch us.
“I don’t think I misread him, though.”
He had the eyes of an exhausted human, just as I had back then.
It felt like looking at the smoldering remains of something that had already burned far too intensely.
Even while fighting, his attitude suggested he was merely tidying up some leftover chores, which confirmed my suspicion.
Others might not have noticed, but there was no way I could fail to recognize someone so weary they wanted to do absolutely nothing.
I figured a man that exhausted wouldn’t bother chasing after fleeing people, but surprisingly, he displayed remarkable skill to block our escape.
Perhaps his attachment to his fellow countrymen was stronger than I thought, or maybe he had another motive entirely.
I couldn’t say for sure since I lacked information, but one thing was certain.
“I’m screwed.”
The current situation was not good.
I had to find the professors who were scattered, and since that monster wasn’t likely to stay put in the deepest part of the dungeon, I had to deal with him somehow.
Ideally, I should regroup with the other teams in the dungeon and launch a coordinated attack with as many people as possible. That would be the logical choice.
However, there was one small problem: I really didn’t want to see the professors fighting that guy.
Chairperson Leilan and Professor Park A-ram could fight from a distance, so they might be fine, but Professor Cathy was a terrible match for someone who fought while shrouded in that kind of curse or fraudulence.
Honestly, I kept thinking I should just handle it alone, but if I did that, I’d inevitably overexert myself again.
“What a pain. Seriously.”
I didn’t want to push myself, but it felt like the world was constantly forcing me to.
No, I couldn’t even blame the world.
I couldn’t blame the world when I knew exactly who the culprit was.
“Seo-ha. What on earth are you trying to do?”
I understood that she wanted to torment me and lead the world toward destruction.
But causing all these incidents at once without properly managing them wasn’t Seo-ha’s style.
Using hidden elements of this world and wielding the Authority of the Creator was certainly something only Seo-ha could do, but since it wasn’t the way she usually enjoyed things, I couldn’t help but wonder.
“…Well, now isn’t the time to be worrying about that.”
Still, I felt like I needed to meet her one more time.
* * *
“Whoa!?”
Park A-ram, who almost plummeted from the sky due to the botched teleportation, managed to stabilize herself and stick the landing by using her superior mana control to fix her body in mid-air.
“…I’m grateful he let us escape, but it looks like we’ve been scattered.”
Normally, she would have immediately started strategizing her next move, but she wasn’t in the mood for that right now.
Having faced a landscape identical to her ruined home and the very person who had destroyed it, she felt she had reacted far too foolishly.
There was no way he was okay. Just because he was smiling didn’t mean his hatred had vanished.
What was she thinking, grinning like an idiot in front of him?
In truth, the story of their world’s destruction was a common, almost cliché tale.
Siegfried—commonly known as Zeke—was a hero who could calmly find a solution in any situation.
He traveled the world solving problems with his cool and cheerful companions, asking for nothing in return, and his popularity among the people soared.
A hero who slew countless calamities and sought no reward.
A picture-perfect hero who gave even his enemies a chance to redeem themselves and reached out to anyone in need, even if it meant breaking his own body.
Yes, he became far too popular.
Just as a bright light casts a deep shadow, people began to envy and resent him.
A hero more beloved than a king was a political rival; a martial group stronger than a national army and supported by the citizens was a threat.
Adventurers and hunters were relegated to handling minor pests because the hero took all the major quests, and the Church hated that people relied on the hero more than on faith.
They only tolerated him because of the benefits he brought and the fact that no one was strong enough to get rid of him.
But the moment a small opening appeared—when the Dragon Emperor, the Demon King, and the Platinum Witch had all vanished, and the world’s greatest calamities were gone—they began to move as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
It was what people in this world called “cooking the hound once the rabbit is caught.”
The fools who had enjoyed peace within the fence the hero provided had finally grown fat and decided to do something moronic.
Whether peace had corrupted them or whether they were simply things never worth protecting in the first place, they began by picking off the hero’s allies one by one.
They poisoned the warrior’s parents and claimed they were ill to make him leave the party. They staged a play to break the alliance with the elves, forcing the elven princess, who was their archer, to return to her kingdom.
They lured the mage with the bait of a Demon King’s soul and knowledge, and they forced the Saintess to return, claiming it was the will of God.
Once his combatants were gone, they summoned the blacksmith who maintained his gear to the castle and assassinated him. Then, they began to slowly cut off his support.
Since they couldn’t defeat his perfect party with strength, they dismantled the party first and began to isolate him.
Even so, Zeke did not break.
He helped people using whatever he had left, and though he fell into crises, he always managed to claw his way out.
The name of the Hero did not lose its luster easily.
So, next, they began to drag his name through the mud.
He had a history of sparing the Great Sinner, the Platinum Witch, calling her a friend.
He had spared the children of the Dragon Emperor knowing they would be a threat, and he had let the demons live instead of exterminating them.
It was all a conspiracy, they claimed. The Hero was actually in league with the calamities.
Most people laughed at the rumors at first.
But with the Church and the State already in cahoots, there was no stopping the spread. By the time the rumors reached his ears, the entire world was condemning him.
The sight of the Hero, exhausted to the point of death yet still swinging his sword for the sake of the people, was pitiful. But even that was belittled by those who called it “atonement” or “reflection,” so what more was there to say?
Some say ignorance is not a sin. But in her opinion, flapping one’s mouth while being ignorant was definitely a sin.
Park A-ram had gone to him without hesitation to comfort him.
She told him that those who believed the nonsense were idiots and asked if he knew how many things he had protected.
Yes, she had been ignorant too. She was no different from the fools gossiping behind his back.
She never imagined those disgusting bastards would go that far.
Perhaps thinking Zeke had reached his limit, he was arrested a few days later. By the time she heard the news, it was too late.
Because she was sealed, she lacked the strength to help him, and the atrocity occurred.
How much time had he spent in prison? There was no light left in his haggard eyes.
Was that what someone who had swallowed all the malice in the world looked like?
Did he lament his situation—seeing his comrades lose their will and become drug-addled toys, or being assassinated and murdered, only to end up on the execution block himself to be cursed?
The sight of the crowds cheering at the malice poured upon the man bound in all sorts of restraints on the scaffold was utterly hideous.
That was why she had screamed that day.
No, she wasn’t the only one; surely there were others who screamed for him.
However.
Just as a handful of light cannot illuminate the deep darkness.
Our cries did not reach the hero buried in malice, and the blade of death swung down toward him.
As his head flew and the laughter of the cheering crowd rang out.
The face flying through the air…
Was definitely wearing a smile.
She didn’t remember much after that because everything was a blur, but the story went that he was resurrected, wielded the power of death, and destroyed the world while she fled.
And yet, to think that he might have come to his senses now.
It was a joke.
He had been sane from the beginning. It was because he was sane that he recognized the true value of the things he had protected and slaughtered them all.
“…Phew, what am I supposed to do?”
I just wanted to regain my original form and help this new world, so why did things turn out like this?
Is there even anything I can do for Zeke now?
Me, who ran away because I was afraid of him.
* * *
Cathy slowly looked around and pulled out a map.
After comparing the surrounding scenery with the map’s information, she was relieved to find she was at one of the marked points, but the problem was that she was separated from all her colleagues.
It was awkward to go out and search because they might miss each other, and she had picked up some strange baggage, making it even harder to move.
“I’ve restrained her for now, but…”
Slung over her shoulder was the body of a woman with platinum-blonde hair.
For now, she seemed to have lost all her mana, so Cathy had thoroughly bound her with the restraints she had on hand. However, once the woman recovered her mana, there was a risk she would break free and escape, so she couldn’t be left alone. Besides, she couldn’t just abandon what was supposedly Professor A-ram’s body.
“…Realistically, the best plan is to leave marks in the direction I move and search slowly.”
In her heart, she wanted to find So-hyun immediately, but as a hero, she knew it was common sense not to act irrationally in such a situation.
Even though she didn’t know what state So-hyun was in, and he might have been seriously injured if the teleportation failed…
“…Can’t I just leave this here for a second and go find So-hyun?”
For a very brief moment, she wrestled with a strange dilemma between friendship and love, but in the end, her hesitation didn’t last long.
She had spotted figures approaching from a distance.
“…Cadet Kang Han-hee?”
A cadet in a rather unusual outfit—an apron over a school uniform—and a small, cute, yet somehow mysterious young girl.
Since they shouldn’t be here, it was logical to assume they were a dungeon trap or a mirage, but her superhuman intuition told her they were the real deal.
More than anything.
“Oops.”
“See, Mom? I told you we’d meet her if we came this way.”
“…I thought you meant we’d meet So-hyun.”
An illusion or a dungeon trap wouldn’t make a face like a child caught doing something wrong.
As they got closer, it became even more certain.
If it was a trap that could deceive even her intuition, there was nothing she could do, but as far as she could tell, it was really them.
…But wait, she’s still calling her “Mom”?
“Unnie!”
I’m an “Unnie,” but Cadet Han-hee is called “Mom.”
I mean, it’s not that I dislike being called Unnie, but I’m jealous.
“…Professor? I understand if you’re suspicious, but I really am the real Han-hee.”
Ah, was I staring too hard? Luckily, since we’re in a dungeon, she thinks I’m just being cautious.
I almost lost my cool, which isn’t like me.
Being called “Mom” by another girl is much better than… wait, I should focus on closing the distance slowly.
I shouldn’t be jealous of a cadet.
“Cadet, how on earth did you get in here?”
“Well, the truth is…”
Her explanation was so full of holes it was hard to describe, but that actually made it more believable.
It was a preposterous story that no one would believe unless they had witnessed that day’s miracle themselves, and she was someone who had seen it firsthand.
“…I understand what happened, but it was far too reckless.”
“I just felt instinctively that I had to come. I’m sorry.”
“For now, stay with me and we’ll look for So-hyun together. Since the situation is dangerous, I’ll let it slide for now, but you’ll have to listen to a stern lecture once we escape the dungeon.”
“I’ll accept that.”
The Small Spirit watched the two of them and smiled brightly.
It was partly because the conditions for safely rescuing her Dad were being met, and partly because her plan required the two of them to get along.
Fortunately, since the desires they held were similar in nature, it seemed there was no need for her to interfere much for the time being.
* * *
“…Did I hear you correctly just now?”
What should I do about this situation?
Thinking about it alone didn’t seem to yield any answers, so I decided to borrow some wisdom.
After all, I had the ever-reliable ally and advisor, Sun Wukong, with me.
However, Professor Sun Wukong, who always gave such satisfying answers, had just said something so insane that I couldn’t help but ask her to repeat it.
“You want me to do what?”
— Why are you pretending you didn’t hear me? You’re good at it, aren’t you? Playing the Masked Villain. I’m saying let’s solve it with that.
…What is wrong with this guy? The same person who told me to stop deceiving the kids is saying what now? Did he break?