234
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 234
The next evening.
Brian did not appear.
Caesar swallowed the bitter taste and muttered.
"It can't be helped."
Honestly, Brian wasn't absolutely necessary for the operation.
The reason Caesar wanted to employ Brian was simply to see if he would be a useful talent.
However, if the wounds in Brian's heart still remain and he's not in a situation where he can overcome them, then perhaps this isn't the right time.
Caesar spoke to Raven through the crystal ball.
"Raven, are you ready?"
-I'm ready.
"Then begin."
Ding dong! Ding dong!
The bell sound began to ring throughout the entire unit.
"Emergency situation! All unit members prepare for full combat! All unit members prepare for full combat!"
The unit members were startled by the sudden alert and came out fully armed.
"Damn, is this another drill?!"
"Shut up and get out quickly! If our platoon comes in last like last time, we'll all face punishment!"
Jerry seemed to have trained them well, as they were moving very efficiently.
Simultaneously, the wizards began pouring water into all the mouse holes.
As large amounts of water entered the already moisture-laden ground, the earth began to rise.
The mice couldn't escape from their holes.
They couldn't escape because the water pressure was too strong for their strength.
However, the doppelganger was different.
Bang!
Suddenly, a bear the size of a house burst through the ground.
"Grrrrrrrrrr!"
Just because they were Elijah's duplicates doesn't mean they all lack survival instincts.
Particularly when it comes to blocking breathing, which all living beings must do, it provokes strong resistance, so the doppelgangers had no choice but to summon their strongest physical forms for survival.
"W-what is this?!"
"D-devils! The devils' minions were living underground!"
Until now, the soldiers had been training under the pretext of preparing for a demon invasion.
So when beasts suddenly emerged from the ground, they misunderstood it as the devils' scheme.
Gideon shouted with aura in his voice.
"Kill them all!"
When Gideon's aura-filled voice echoed throughout the unit, the soldiers immediately began firing bullets at the bear.
However, even as the bullets hit and embedded themselves, the bear seemed unaffected.
As the creature tried to flee while ignoring the soldiers' bullets, Messio stepped forward.
"Everyone move!"
Riding Snow, Messio charged straight at the bear and swung his halberd.
Slash-!
As Messio's merciless attack instantly severed its right arm, the bear screamed.
"Rooooaaaar!"
The bear looked around trying to escape.
But enemies surrounded it on all sides.
The bear was then hit in the head by an incoming mortar.
Bang!
The bear died bleeding, unable to regain consciousness.
"Persistent doppelganger, aren't you."
The bear blankly stared at the approaching halbert.
***
Doppelgangers appeared and caused chaos everywhere.
Some were bears, some transformed into tigers, and some took human form.
However, they all began to be executed one by one by the magicians, knights, and soldiers who had been waiting in advance.
Caesar listened to the screams carried along the Path of the Wind.
The doppelgangers were being eliminated without issue.
"Shall we begin then?"
Caesar looked behind him.
There were 11 Red Wolf knights including Gideon and Gloria.
The Red Wolf knights, like Caesar, were composed of knights who excelled in individual combat abilities rather than group combat.
In other words, there were no better individuals for conducting tracking operations.
Caesar ran toward the coordinates Raven had provided.
Caesar had informed Raven about Brian's information that rats frequently appeared near Eagle valley.
Raven then immediately discovered that all the rat holes within the unit were connected to one small rat hole in the forest near Eagle valley.
This meant that the doppelgangers who had infiltrated the unit would either share information here or pass it on after obtaining it.
With water rapidly rising, he thought many doppelgangers would surely be forced out into this forest.
Caesar arrived in front of the rat hole exactly in 10 minutes.
As calculated, water had not yet risen in this rat hole.
But soon, numerous rats and doppelgangers would emerge from this rat hole.
Caesar's objective was to capture all doppelgangers that came out of this place.
Flutter!
Bats flew in and settled on the trees.
Caesar and the knights saw the bats looking down at them from the trees.
They were all succubi and vampires.
It seemed they could hand over the escaping doppelgangers to the succubi to find out what information they had gathered and who they had passed it to.
Just then, a strange sound caught Caesar's ear.
Thud, thud!
It was different from the sound of wild animals fleeing in surprise.
Based on the running sound, it was something running on two legs, and given the clashing sound of steel, this was the sound of a knight running.
It was heard from too far away to be the sound of Red Wolf knights.
'Could it be...'
Caesar looked at the rat hole.
Water surged up, but no rats were visible.
Only ashes carried by the water flowed out.
Then the crystal ball vibrated.
When he turned on the crystal ball, Raven's face appeared.
"Answer me. What's happening?"
-All the doppelgangers have disappeared.
Caesar's expression hardened.
"How?"
-We put restraints on the arms of the few that survived, but they immediately turned to ash and vanished.
A mistake.
It seemed there was a doppelganger among them who could use 'telepathy'.
"...Damn it."
-What should we do?
It appears the one who was fleeing through the forest earlier was the doppelganger who could use telepathy.
They needed to catch that one.
'The direction it's running...'
Caesar focused on the footsteps.
The direction the creature was running was toward Eagle valley.
Caesar knew what that loyal doppelganger planned to do.
"Everyone head to Eagle Valley!"
The creature planned to jump into the valley to eliminate all traces and die.
***
Brian’s Deaf POV
Brian headed alone toward Eagle valley carrying a manure basket.
He emptied the manure into the valley and put tobacco in his mouth.
Gunshots could be heard from the direction of the unit, along with the sound of shells dropping.
It seemed the doppelgangers were being eliminated.
Brian looked down at the bottom of the valley.
The sight of the cool stream of water flowing toward the sea was close to magnificent.
In front of such beautiful nature, Brian had only one thought.
'Is it all over now?'
Brian's platoon members were fools like Brian.
Some had awakened their aura but didn't even know it was aura so they never received knight training, some had killed their habitually violent father right after awakening their aura power, and some had failed the knight qualification exam document screening due to petty theft records.
In Brian's case, he was forcibly drafted into the military as a criminal after beating someone to death while working as a debt collector.
Until joining the military, Brian didn't even know the power he used was aura.
He just thought he was a bit stronger and faster than others, never even considering that this stirring power was aura.
So he would often joke to his platoon members, saying ‘If I had known this was aura, I would have become a holy knight.’
When he broke the ice like that, others would also join in, joking that they would have become heroes or that they would have become knights and seduced all the women... He was the leader of such foolish but fun platoon members.
Having lost all such foolish comrades, this fool also tried to die by cutting his wrists and hanging himself, thinking he should follow them, but the suicide attempts always failed.
Whether being discovered by patrolling guards by chance or the tree branch he hung from breaking, etc.
It seemed as though God was commanding Brian to live longer, saying it wasn't his time yet.
More precisely, it seemed He was saying Brian hadn't fully atoned for his sins yet.
It seemed God was saying Brian needed to endure the most terrible punishment in this world before he could see his fellow soldiers again.
So Brian volunteered for the lowest, most degrading, and difficult job.
Waste handler.
Dealing with horse and human excrement.
He thought if he did the dirtiest, smelliest, and most horrible job in the world, God would take him.
After working as a waste handler for 2 years.
Brian naturally joined Caesar's unit like flowing water, and stood daily before a ravine where falling meant certain death.
Brian always thought while looking at this deep ravine.
Is this Brian's final destination?
Is this God's final mercy for me?
If I fall to my death, it would be painless and certain.
Brian constantly thought about wanting to fall mixed with the waste as he watched it drop.
But recently, his honed expertise had managed to discover the doppelgangers.
Doppelgangers.
These cursed parasitic bastards kept appearing endlessly when he thought they were gone.
But the reason Brian hadn't told anyone until now was because he didn't trust his own judgment.
Brian had gotten his platoon killed due to his misjudgment.
What if those rats weren't doppelgangers?
If they were, who should he tell?
Would anyone listen to someone who was just a waste handler?
Amidst these complex worries, Caesar reached out to Brian first, and Brian revealed all the truth.
'It's all over now.'
Brian has no regrets left now.
Rather, he feels relieved.
Brian's final judgment proved correct and was a great help to Caesar.
He could tell just by how chaotic the unit had become.
It must be the sound of them exterminating the parasitic doppelgangers.
Brian was grateful to Caesar and Leon for helping him do one last good deed before he left.
Brian flicked away his cigarette butt.
The cigarette butt curved as it fell along the steep cliff.
'Let's go.'
Just as Brian was about to throw himself off without regret, a knight was rushing urgently behind him.
That man was wearing black armor and carrying a greatsword on his back.
Though the attire was unfamiliar, that man's face was all too familiar.
'...No way.'
That hooked nose and angular face, brown hair, and even the long scar over his right eye.
How could he forget that face?
How could he forget the face of that man who appeared in every nightmare?
He was definitely that knight from three years ago.
-The one who was brought along wasn't a doppelganger.
-They said he was a knight on a secret reconnaissance mission.
Brian's heart began to race madly.
But Brian's cold reason began to assess the situation like puzzle pieces coming together.
Why was that man fleeing from the forest in this situation of all times?
Why did he appear at this very moment when Brian was about to end his life without regret?
To be fleeing urgently from the forest where doppelgangers frequently appeared while a doppelganger extermination operation was in full swing.
Brian's weak flesh froze at the workings of a world where one couldn't see an inch ahead.
Thump! Thump!
But Brian's 'instinct' from years of living as a ranger was telling him this.
'He's a doppelganger.'
Moreover, Brian's cold reason made a definitive judgment of this situation.
'That doppelganger is being chased by Caesar.'
Finally, the God who had saved Brian's life several times seemed to whisper to him thus.
-The reason I saved you was for this very moment.
Brian shattered the unreasonable world's machinations binding his weak flesh with burning instinct and cold reason.
Aaaaargh!
Brian ran towards him with a roar.
In Brian's hand was a waste ladle.
Not a gun, not a crossbow, not a spear or sword but a waste ladle.
It was absurd how pathetic the weapon given to him was.
The creature saw Brian.
Its eyes wavered upon seeing the waste ladle in Brian's hand.
It seemed unable to grasp what this situation was.
But there was only one thing the creature had to do.
Cut down Brian and get past him.
It drew the greatsword from its back.
Unlike Brian's waste ladle, its greatsword was sharply honed.
It swung the greatsword down at Brian.
Don't they say everything slows down when death approaches?
Brian saw his waste ladle being split by that precise vertical slash.
The merciless greatsword rushing to split his head after cutting through the waste ladle felt like a guillotine to Brian.
'Ah....'
Life is such a tragedy.
Though he had always wished for death, to die by a doppelganger that had driven his platoon to their deaths…
Still, Brian exerted force.
Even if he died, he would at least spray waste on the creature's face.
He would spray his death cry.
Brian did not back down from death like a true ranger.
At that moment, an axe struck the side of the greatsword in front of Brian.
----!
Brian couldn't hear the thunderous clash of steel on steel.
But as the blue lightning contained in the black axe exploded, his body flew backward as if hit by a grenade.