220
I Killed The Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 220
Huff! Huff!
Gloria continued swinging her sword while sweating profusely.
Though her hands were slippery from rain mixed with sweat and her palms were bleeding and painful, she didn't stop wielding the greatsword.
She couldn't rest for even a moment if she wanted to overcome the puppets lurking in the deep, dark valley below the hill.
She had to train relentlessly like Caesar to become stronger, or she wouldn't be able to defeat those puppets.
But...
'Can I really win?'
Gloria didn't feel like she was getting any stronger at all.
Her hands were just trembling and her shoulders felt like they would fall off from pain.
Was this pain evidence of growth?
If so, how much more pain would she need to endure to become stronger?
Gloria was afraid because she couldn't see the end.
Just then, she sensed someone's presence beside her.
"Gloria."
Gloria had to stop her greatsword at the all-too-familiar voice.
And with trembling eyes, she turned her head toward the direction of the voice.
There stood Caesar, looking at Gloria while breathing heavily, his body covered in blood and mud as if he had showered in it.
"...Master?"
Gloria unknowingly dropped her greatsword and stepped back.
"No... This isn't right..."
Gloria's pupils trembled extremely at the sight of the injured Caesar.
"Is it, is it starting again? Am I going to, to Master again..."
Kekekekeke!
The shadows cast at the bottom of the hill began growing darker and wider, eventually starting to climb up the hill.
Following those eerie shadows, the puppets slowly climbed up while licking their lips.
"Am I going to Master again..."
"Phew, I'm exhausted. Let's take a break."
Gloria was bewildered by the sight of Caesar catching his breath while leaning against a tree.
"Master...?"
In Gloria's nightmares, Caesar had never rested like this when faced with puppets and Gloria.
He had always either tried to save Gloria or tried to harm her without taking a single moment's rest.
"Do you know how hard it was for me to get here? So you should rest too. Come sit here."
Gloria looked at the puppets slowly climbing up.
"Bu-but Master. Over there..."
"Don't worry about them. Just come rest first. I'm here, aren't I?"
I'm here.
At those magical words, Gloria found her feet moving without realizing it.
Gloria came near the tree where Caesar was resting.
But unsure if it was really okay to rest, she just kept watching Caesar nervously without properly sitting down to rest.
"Come, sit."
"Huh?"
Caesar grabbed Gloria's wrist and pulled her down to sit.
Once her bottom touched the ground, it felt like she had taken root and wouldn't be able to get up.
Her legs felt so weak that it seemed impossible to stand up.
Though that was frightening, when Caesar showed a relaxed expression while watching the falling rain, Gloria unknowingly closed her eyes and relaxed as well.
"Gloria."
"...Yes, Master."
"Don't be too hasty."
"What?"
"You're doing well enough, so you don't need to push yourself to become stronger quickly."
Drop!
Tears fell from Gloria's cheeks and dripped from her chin.
Gloria couldn't understand why tears that hadn't come even when her shoulders felt like they would fall off and her hands lost strength while swinging the greatsword were now flowing at Caesar's warm words.
Once the tears started falling, they burst forth like a flood along with intense trembling and irregular breathing.
Perhaps Gloria had wanted to hear those words of comfort all this time.
To be precise, she might have wanted to hear them from Caesar.
She might have wanted Caesar to acknowledge how hard she had worked, how desperately she had tried.
But... Gloria looked down at her bloodied hands and said.
"But I'm too weak?"
"You're weak?"
Unable to continue speaking properly, Gloria nodded.
"That's why you still can't trust me."
"Can't trust you? What do you mean?"
"You don't trust me as much as Wizard Raven or Sir Gideon. You always try to protect me... And then you get hurt and suffer."
Gloria couldn't wipe her tears with her palms because they hurt too much.
She kept wiping her cheeks with the back of her hands.
But she couldn't wipe away the tears with the back of her hands.
"I'm too weak, Master. I'll always be weaker than you. So you'll think of me as a burden. I'm... So afraid and scared of that. I want to be helpful to you but I'm so afraid that I won't be able to help."
Her blue eyes, filled with tears, turned toward Caesar.
"Master, what should I do? What should I do to be helpful to you? What should I do to protect you?"
This must have been Gloria's true feelings that she had hidden until now.
When problems arose, Caesar would seek out Raven and Gideon, but never Gloria.
Though she knew well that Caesar didn't rely on her because she lacked ability, she must have despaired and felt jealous at feeling like she was being branded as useless.
And she must have been deeply disappointed in herself for feeling such ugly jealousy.
Caesar's heart ached as he couldn't gauge how long this wound had been festering.
What good was psychometry if he couldn't comfort Gloria's wounds and had let them rot like this?
Though it might be good to lead this heavy atmosphere, Caesar thought it was important to shake it off once.
Caesar forced a smile and made a joke.
"So you want to surpass me, is that it?"
Gloria's eyes grew as big as saucers.
"What...?"
"No, you asked how you could protect me. What do you mean you'll protect me? Doesn't that mean you want to become stronger than me?"
"No, that's not what I..."
"I'm joking."
Caesar wiped the tears flowing down Gloria's cheeks.
"Thank you, Gloria."
"What?"
"In this world, who else would think about becoming stronger for my sake? You're probably the only one."
"...No. There's Lord Gideon and the other knights too."
"Gideon is loyal because his son is my hostage, and the other knights are just getting paid by me."
Caesar wiped the tears flowing from Gloria's eyes with his thumb.
"But there's no one else in this world who cares for me as sincerely as you do. That makes me so grateful and gives me faith in you, Gloria."
"Master..."
Gloria closed her eyes, leaning on Caesar's shoulder.
Caesar's shoulder was broad and firm.
"I was in so much pain."
"I know."
"It really, really hurt so much."
"I know everything, Gloria."
Gloria felt so happy in Caesar's warm embrace.
...She wished she could fall asleep like this forever.
"Are you done sleeping?"
"...What?"
"Well, you kept sleeping so I was wondering when I should wake you up."
Gloria looked up at the sky.
The cloud shapes had changed, the rain had stopped, and the moon had risen.
"...Did I fall asleep?"
"Yeah. You were even snoring."
"When did I ever snore...!"
"Well, you must have been tired. Thanks to you, I got some sleep too."
Caesar stood up.
Though his body was still covered in wounds, he didn't look as exhausted as when she first saw him.
Without realizing it, Gloria stood up following Caesar.
Strength returned to her trembling legs and arms.
"Now then, time to get to work."
"...Work?"
"We need to get rid of all those things, don't we?"
At the place where Caesar's finger pointed, there were puppets.
The puppets that had almost reached the top of the hill had somehow come down to the bottom.
But when Gloria looked at the puppets again, the shadows writhed and the puppets quickly started climbing back up to the middle of the hill.
"What should we do about them, Master?"
"We need to kill every last one of them without leaving any behind."
"You'll help too, right Master?"
"Well, I might help or I might not."
"What? What do you mean?"
"I'm saying if you can handle it alone, you wouldn't need my help."
"But I still think it would be hard for me to take down even one of those puppets..."
"Yes. It might be a bit difficult right now."
Caesar smiled slightly and drew his greatsword to hand it to Gloria.
Gloria unconsciously accepted the greatsword.
"But it's okay if you fail. You can always try again."
"What if I can't escape once I go in?"
"How could that happen? I'm watching over you. So don't worry."
Caesar gently pushed Gloria's back.
"Huh?"
Gloria started running down the hill, pulled by gravity.
"Just go and face them first."
***
Gloria couldn't stop her legs.
The hill was steeper than Gloria had thought, so even when she tried to reduce her speed by putting strength in her legs, she couldn't slow down.
Rather, it felt like she would fall from losing her balance.
Gloria glared at the puppets that were opening their mouths wide and licking their lips.
"It's all or nothing."
Gloria released the strength from her heels and put force into her toes.
Rather than resisting gravity, she was using it to accelerate even more.
When Gloria thought she had reached the maximum speed she could handle, she kicked off the ground.
And she put her body weight into the tip of the greatsword.
Gloria made one big spin in the air before striking down at the puppet in front of her.
The puppet raised both hands to block Gloria's greatsword.
Thwack!
Gloria split its arms like chopping firewood and then drove the greatsword into its skull.
Its head popped like a balloon and disappeared, and the greatsword had penetrated down to its chest.
"Urrrgh..."
But there wasn't just one left.
There were countless puppets remaining, and they were coming from all directions to tear Gloria apart.
Gloria pulled out the greatsword and swung it wide at the puppets closing in from all sides.
The puppets were all knocked down by Gloria's greatsword.
"Good!"
Knowing Caesar was behind her made her feel much more at ease.
She was no longer afraid, thinking he would come running whenever she was in danger.
Gloria swung the greatsword freely and advanced deeper into the shadowed ground.
Around the time Gloria was driving back the puppets without even looking back...
"...!"
Gloria's eyes trembled like aspen trees, and her arms and legs wouldn't listen to her.
The overall composition and gait of the puppets closing in from all directions seemed familiar.
No, it wasn't just familiar, she had seen it.
When Gloria sent Maru away and was captured alone by the puppets.
It was exactly the same.
Gloria froze like a mouse seeing a cat.
The puppets approached within arm's reach, but Gloria couldn't swing her greatsword.
She was too scared.
Her breathing became rapid and her brain completely shut down, unable to move.
'What should I do?'
They came rushing like a horde of zombies.
But Gloria was in a state of panic and couldn't do anything.
She just stood there blankly until their hands grabbed her hair, hands, and feet.
Is this how she dies?
Just like this, so meaninglessly...
Thump!
At that moment, someone grabbed Gloria's nape and threw her forcefully.
Gloria saw hair red as blood in her vision.
It was impossible not to be drawn to the only human glowing red in that shadow land where everything else was stained black or dull gray.
"Master...!"
Gloria landed precisely on the hill, thrown like from a catapult.
Though the impact momentarily took her breath away, Gloria struggled to her feet and ran out to see Caesar.
"...!"
Caesar was captured by the puppets in Gloria's place.
The puppets were biting all over Caesar's body and dragging him into the depths.
"No..."
Gloria recalled Caesar's image of crying tears of blood.
She remembered Caesar who died by her hands and became a puppet after his heart was torn out.
Her heart began racing wildly and her lips became parched.
She needed to save Caesar but her feet wouldn't move.
She worried that if she rushed in recklessly, she would be captured by the puppets and die being torn apart.
But she couldn't just stand by and watch Caesar die either.
Gloria gripped her greatsword and ran forward.
"Aaaahhh!"
Gloria charged forward recklessly.
Her fear of losing Caesar outweighed her fear of the puppets.
Gloria advanced towards the puppets, pulled by gravity.
She might die.
The possibility of death was high.
But she couldn't let her master die.
Rather than losing Caesar...!
"Give back my master!"
Gloria swung her greatsword with all her might.
Whoosh!
Gloria's greatsword burst all the hearts above the puppets' heads.
When the puppets lost their hearts, they collapsed like dolls with cut strings.
'Hearts...! It's the hearts!'
There was no need to painfully split the puppets' heads.
She just needed to target and destroy the hearts floating above their heads.
Since Gloria was swinging her greatsword while coming down the hill, she was always at a higher position than the puppets, and just swinging the sword horizontally was enough to reach their hearts.
Gloria trampled over the puppets' corpses while swinging her sword recklessly.
The puppets rushed in quickly trying to bite Gloria, but she skillfully took only their hearts.
Gloria advanced deeper and deeper into the darkness like plant roots digging into the ground.
Towards where Caesar was.
'Just a little more...!'
Gloria's arms felt like they would fall off.
Her breath rose up to her chin, feeling like it would stop.
But she was about to reach where Caesar was.
Caesar, who came into Gloria's view, was surrounded by puppets and completely motionless.
"Master!"
Gloria advanced steadily step by step, and finally succeeded in destroying the hearts of the puppets holding Caesar.
And she managed to face Caesar.
"Master...!"
"How is it? Not so hard, right?"
Gloria saw Caesar smiling while covered in blood.
"Master, this isn't the time! We need to escape from here...!"
As reason returned, Gloria's body stiffened.
Just like before, puppets began slowly closing in from all directions.
Her breathing became rapid, her heart pounded wildly, and her head became dizzy.
Her legs felt weak and the greatsword she held became too heavy, sinking into the ground.
"Gloria."
Gloria's mind snapped to attention at Caesar's voice from beside her.
Her rapid breathing stopped and her trembling subsided.
Right, unlike before, Caesar was beside her now.
Having Caesar was enough.
No, Caesar would solve this whole problem.
"Just like you did before, kill them one by one starting from the front."
"What...?"
"Leave the back to me and slowly advance forward."
Caesar pointed to the hill where sunlight was shining.
"Just escape from here and reach that hill. Understand?"
"I can't do it. Master, if you would take the lead..."
"Look at the puppets you killed."
Caesar pointed at the puppets scattered on the ground.
"Look how many puppets you killed to get here."
Caesar said while grabbing Gloria's shoulder.
"You're stronger than you think. It doesn't make sense for a lion to fear sheep, right?"
Caesar stood back to back with Gloria.
"So just look forward and swing your greatsword. Just advance. Make a path. This time we will do it together."
Gloria took a deep breath.
Could she really defeat those puppets?
Gloria thought it seemed impossible.
But looking at the puppets she killed to save Caesar, it seemed possible too.
And... Wasn't Caesar behind Gloria?
Though he wasn't in her sight, just thinking that he would be with her made her trembling subside.
"I'll go."
"Good."
Gloria advanced toward the puppets.