Chapter 55
Chapter 55
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: the Saint’s Inner Thoughts
-----------------------------------------------------------------
As Bellamora died, the Nightmare Theater she had ruled began to slowly reveal its true form.
The streets, now devoid of light, were shrouded in twilight gloom, with only darkness left in its place, and the people who had awakened from their fantastical dreams were crying out with an insatiable thirst.
All the shadows that had followed Bellamora had turned into rustling black ashes, leaving not even the manpower to manage the territory.
"Me... take me back to that dream...!!"
"This is a nightmare. This is fake. This isn't real..."
The void was filled with the screams and wails of the people.
An elf couple who had come here as a last resort because their lover had an incurable disease and they couldn't find medicine. Dwarves with bloodshot eyes from overwork. There were also faces the Hero's party had seen before.
They clung to the already broken projectors and power sources, desperately trying to fix them somehow.
"You must flee from here. The Demon Realm is a place like hell, teeming with all kinds of monsters and demons. Now that Bellamora is dead, enemies will swarm in, coveting her vacant position...!"
Kyle was already trying to persuade people with vacant eyes who were engaging in meaningless acts.
"Kyle, give up. It's already over."
Watching that scene, Anima shook her head from side to side. Because it was a situation where people who missed the dream were even taking their own lives.
"If it weren't for that bastard Hero...! Bellamora-sama wouldn't have died...!!"
"This can't be... To think they even betrayed their fellow elves and came to the Demon Realm..."
Unable to see through the Perception Hindrance Magic and thus unaware of Kyle's identity, they were lamenting the one who had killed Bellamora.
After all, the only beings capable of killing one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Realm alongside her were the Hero's party, who wielded great prestige within the Demon Realm.
"More than anything, we have injured people right now, don't we?"
"......"
Anima let out a deep sigh as she looked at Astal, who was being carried on Victoria's back. Although the Mana Core had been returned to his heart, he still hadn't regained consciousness.
Victoria, carrying Astal on her back while shedding tears drop by drop, was biting her lip, trying to swallow her emotions.
"...It's alright. I believe it's right to save even one more person. That must be what Astal-nim would want."
Victoria had come to know all the details about Astal's past, the one called the Harmless Mage.
Why he was obsessed with saving people. Why he showed little reaction to her own attempts at seduction.
The man named Astal was trapped in severe self-loathing.
That's why he could fight the Demon King's minions while discarding his own life like a worn-out shoe, and even showed a tormented appearance, unable to quit drinking and smoking.
"Victoria..."
Kyle was at a loss for words seeing Victoria's tearful expression as she carried Astal. Clearly, at first, it didn't seem like the two were sincerely dating.
Because the perceptive Kyle had actually noticed to some extent that they were pretending to date for some reason.
'...Now, it doesn't seem like they're dating just for fun or as a contract.'
Kyle remembered the scene he had witnessed earlier.
The sight of Victoria using a miracle, even as most of her body turned into flowers, to save Astal.
No matter how many times Anima begged her to stop, please stop, Victoria couldn't regain proper reason and repeated the same actions.
Because even though the Mana Core had returned and his heartbeat had resumed, Astal still hadn't regained consciousness.
'Something must have happened between Bellamora and him that we don't know about.'
In fact, Victoria had even refused all offers from other comrades to carry or escort Astal in her place. The moment anyone tried to touch him even a little, she glared at them with eyes that seemed ready to kill.
Her face, originally described as the most devout and gentle Saint in the Holy Kingdom of Aurelium, was tinged with anger and despair at failing to save Astal.
"Alright, I'll respect your opinions. Then I'll be the last one to leave this territory, so the rest of you escape first."
Kyle spoke while looking directly into Victoria's darkened eyes.
He judged that to save the most people, in accordance with Astal's beliefs, someone had to stay here until the very end.
"You can't. That's too dangerous..."
"Astal knew it was dangerous too, but he tried to save you, didn't he? Am I wrong?"
"......"
Kyle spoke while looking at Victoria's red, swollen eyes. If a couple who usually seemed busy showing dislike or insulting each other was showing this level of reaction,
"So, this time, you save Astal."
This must surely be the reason.
"Understood. I pray you take good care of yourself."
Victoria nodded as she saw the determined look in Hero Kyle's eyes. Anyone else might be different, but he was a person worthy of trust.
If asked to name someone who serves as a model for others, whose very existence makes the world a better place, anyone would choose the man named Kyle Dragonica.
"Are you really sure? No matter that Bellamora is dead and the shadows that followed her are gone, this is the Demon Realm, overflowing with monsters and demons."
"That's right, no matter how much we need to save Astal, it's too dangerous...!"
Taryon and Anima wore worried expressions towards Kyle. No matter that he was the Hero, they thought he wouldn't be able to rescue the many people in this territory.
"I'm the Hero. If I don't suffer at times like this, who will?"
As if guessing their worries, Kyle showed a willing response, lifting the corner of his mouth slightly, and said,
"Go ahead first. If Astal really doesn't open his eyes, Victoria might make a fuss and die along with him."
Victoria, who was running ahead of anyone else towards a place where Astal could properly rest, was inwardly expressing her gratitude to him.
'Thank you, Kyle. I think... no matter what, the one man on my back is more important to me than the many people in this territory...'
Victoria was running while ruminating on the blasphemous thought that even surprised herself. Physical fatigue or the weight on her back held no place in her mind.
The survival of the man named Astal Caisaros.
That was the only thing Victoria desired, so even with most of her body turned into flowers, she wasn't thinking about pain or what would come later.
'I'm disqualified as a Saint.'
Victoria felt disgust rising from the depths of her heart. How could a person have such selfish thoughts?
—And yet, you also belittled and disparaged Astal-nim's character while hiding your true feelings, didn't you? At this point, aren't we similar?
Victoria recalled what Bellamora had said just moments before.
It was a result born from the clash of contradictory emotions: wanting to experience love for the last time while living a life with a time limit, yet trying to hide her fond feelings.
Victoria's mind was so filled with negative thoughts that she couldn't make proper judgments, but...
'Pull yourself together, Victoria.'
Feeling the warm body temperature of the man on her back, she was able to think again about what she must do.
"...Once this is over, I will confess properly and convey my feelings."
The end of the contract relationship.
The fate of the man and woman racing towards that finality had become this urgent and poignant.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ When I opened my eyes from Bellamora's Illusionary Dream, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me.
'Where is this...?'
I was clearly in Bellamora's territory, the Nightmare Theater, just moments ago, but after closing and opening my eyes, I was lying on a soft bed.
A pain as if someone had stabbed me with a knife.
My whole body throbbed and ached. A terrible pain arrived, enough to make me want to scream just from moving a finger.
'...It doesn't seem like a dream.'
Seeing Victoria sleeping curled up beside the bed, I realized this place wasn't a dream.
My heart, which should have been burst, was restored, and seeing most of Victoria's body covered in flowers, it seemed she had suffered greatly.
'How did she end up saving someone like me...'
I couldn't help but make a pitiful expression looking at Victoria.
Because while repeating the gloomy past hundreds of times in the dream, thoughts of wanting to die had welled up in my head.
Now the Saint who saved me from such a nightmare had ended up in a life-threatening situation because of me.
'If things continue like this, it wouldn't be strange if Victoria died tomorrow...'
The state of Victoria seen through my Magical Power-sensing eyes was serious.
To the point where it was a mystery how she was still breathing; her body was already mostly turned into flowers.
Flowers had burrowed between her heart, lungs, kidneys, and even between various bones and muscles, likely causing tremendous pain.
"Astal..."
"......"
Victoria fidgeted her fingers, mumbled with her lips, and talked in her sleep, calling my name, showing a reluctance to leave my side.
"I'm sorry, but I absolutely cannot watch you die."
As I said that, I glanced at the calendar placed nearby.
By coincidence or fate, this day was my 21st birthday.
A moment when I hated myself so much I could barely breathe, as it overlapped with the anniversary of my parents' death.
"...Even if I were to die."
While committing self-harm by strangling my own neck, I engraved the last sight of Victoria I would see in my lifetime into my eyes.
Using Pain Nullification Magic and Silence Magic, I began transferring all the flowers in Victoria's body to my own.
After transferring all the flowers to myself, I secretly used Invisibility Magic and fled the place as if running away.
If the duration of the Pain Nullification Magic ended, I might die immediately from the pain or shock.
So before that, I planned to walk into deep water like a lake and end my life.
That was the final sacrifice the trash who killed his parents could make, and my personal selfish desire to no longer see precious people die before my eyes.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ How much time had passed like that?
"...Even considering you suffered significant aftereffects from the Succubus Queen's Illusionary Dream, to try to throw away your life so easily... I was truly shocked."
"Victoria...?"
Splash—.
Victoria noticed my empty spot that had suddenly vanished at dawn, followed my trail, and performed the feat of jumping into the lake to rescue me.
"Do you think I would truly be happy if you saved my life like this and then died...?!"
Victoria was genuinely angry looking at me now. Her usual gentle or playful expression was gone, and her hands were trembling.
"—No matter how much you suffered from Bellamora's Illusionary Dream, I never thought you'd do something this stupid...!!" After hearing Victoria's inner thoughts, I began to doubt why she was going this far for me.
Because I failed to save the villagers and my parents with my trivial genius thinking, and because Victoria abused miracles and was once again living a life with a time limit.
"Why are you saving trash like me? I have no worth living..."
"...That is truly a foolish question. Why do you think a reason is needed for a person to save another?"
Victoria shot me a strange look and was rescuing me, scooping me up from the water.
"You probably think I'm making a sacrifice. But to me, saving others is as natural as breathing or drinking water."
I couldn't understand her. I couldn't comprehend why she was so sincere about saving people.
I felt that even more after seeing the records in the Holy Kingdom's forbidden archive. Because Victoria had spent six years alone in the village chief's basement, with her parents held hostage.
The platinum rosary Victoria always carried with her was also a keepsake left by her father. The Papal Court had said it was already too late to intervene.
Even though she struggled and begged for help, the world abandoned her, and despite experiencing betrayal from everyone she trusted.
"Such natural things... don't need reasons."
How could she say such words so easily?
As if it were obvious, Victoria closed her eyes, lifted the corner of her mouth slightly, and answered willingly—there was a sense of disconnect in that appearance.
"Well, if I must attach a reason for your sake..."
Victoria set me down on the ground, lit a campfire to dry herself, and prepared to utter her final words.
"It's because I ardently admire you, Astal."
"—It's because I ardently love you." "...What?"
A confession where her inner thoughts and spoken words matched.
For me, hearing Victoria's true feelings directly for the first time, many worries arose in my mind about how to treat her.