Chapter 70
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: The Weight of a Hero
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Like many others his age, Ad’s first memory began on a lonely road, surrounded by the corpses of monsters. He wasn’t sure where it had all gone wrong, but he was an orphan, and the stances of swordsmanship he didn’t know who had taught him were etched into his body.
His first memorable monster hunt was when he was just six years old.
The next year, he killed a low-grade mutant, and by the time he was nine, he had even slain a Mazoku, albeit one of the lowest rank.
He wandered aimlessly, hunting mutants and monsters. After he defeated the beasts, those he had helped would reward him with goods or food.
‘You saved our lives.’
‘My son came back alive. It’s all thanks to you, Ad!’
Even as his life stabilized over time, Ad never gave up this work. It was the only thing he knew how to do, but… more than that, he liked hearing people’s gratitude after the job was done.
‘You are the hero of our village!’
And among the myriad praises, the one that felt best by far was the word ‘hero.’
‘Ad appeared from the sky like a hero and…’
‘You’re my hero.’
‘I want to be a hero like you someday, Ad.’
A vagrant who knew nothing but his name.
It was a moment that gave meaning to a wanderer who knew neither his hometown nor his parents.
“I want to be a hero!”
Addicted to the word, Ad eventually began to declare his ambition to become a hero himself.
No one ever corrected him for saying the word ‘hero’ so lightly. He was talented, and he was foolish enough to risk his life for complete strangers.
It didn’t take long for rumors of the Sword Saint and his party to reach the ears of such a foolish young man. Bearing the title of General, commanding countless soldiers, and constantly achieving great deeds… they became a grand goal for Ad.
There was no special reason he accepted Rex’s offer to enlist in the army.
It was because if he followed Rex, he could be assigned the duty of escorting the ‘General,’ even as a rookie.
If he could witness the battles of heroes with his own two eyes, he could get one step closer to them.
If he took it one step at a time like that… he believed without a doubt that one day, he would become a true hero.
In fact, today, when he saw the white-haired boy riding a spirit across the battlefield, he even felt a slight sense of elation at having finally reached the place he had always dreamed of.
He had finally reached a position where he could watch the battles of real heroes.
He believed that before long, the day would come when he, too, would become a ‘real hero.’
That is, until this very moment.
“God damn it, Bill, circle to the right!”
“Don’t try to take them all on! Leave the other three to the Second Lieutenant! We focus on breaking through the southern path! Only attack the one in front of you!”
His feet kept sinking into the thick mud.
A colossal, blood-soaked hand moved, seeking its second victim. The roar of the giant mutant seemed to shake his very body. The mask obscuring his vision felt suffocating; he couldn't suppress the urge to tear it off. In the end, Ad ripped the mask away.
Poison-laced air seeped into his lungs. The toxin entering his bloodstream felt like it was rotting the flesh from his entire body.
*Thud!*
The vibration shook Ad’s feet, which were stuck in the mud.
Again, in the blink of an eye, another person was dead.
There was no room for hesitation. No time to think. Ad drew the massive greatsword from his back, a weapon as large as himself, and kicked off from the mud that held his feet captive.
*Thump!*
A tremendous vibration came from behind him.
While the soldiers focused on the mutant that had appeared in the south, Menes was holding back three giant mutants all by himself. Watching him narrowly deflect every attack while continuously sinking arrows into them, Ad’s eyes wavered with the urge to rush over and provide support.
‘Get a grip. We have to kill the one in the south so the Second Lieutenant has an escape route. Trust him. Right now, all we can do is trust the Second Lieutenant.’
Ad clenched his teeth and stomped his foot hard on the ground. Clumps of mud flew in all directions. There was no trace of hesitation in Ad’s stance.
*Crack!*
Ad’s enormous greatsword flew and struck the arm supporting the mutant’s body. It felt like hitting solid steel. The massive blade barely pierced the skin and tore through the flesh, but it couldn’t reach the sturdy bone.
Ad quickly pulled the greatsword back.
The blinded mutant swung its arms wildly.
Once, twice, and a third time.
The flailing arms were accompanied by a fierce gale, and the mud that had trapped Ad’s feet danced and scattered in all directions.
Ad quickly ducked.
Fortunately, the massive arm didn’t even graze him. He was lucky.
“Uwoooaaaah!”
A roar, almost a scream, erupted from behind him. A soldier wielding two longswords kicked off the mud and leaped high, charging toward the forehead of the whale-like mutant.
Leaping high with the dark clouds at his back, the sight was nothing short of a hero’s silhouette.
*Splat!*
And that hero, in the next moment, was gone without a trace.
The mutant’s giant hand had snatched the roaring soldier mid-air and crushed him like a small water balloon.
“…”
Ad felt two emotions at once.
The first was fear, and the second was puzzlement.
The mutant had precisely caught the airborne soldier with one hand and crushed him. As if it could see. But the mutant’s eyes had been completely destroyed by the Second Lieutenant’s arrows.
Did it have hidden eyes?
No, that seemed unlikely.
When it had attacked Ad, the mutant had clearly swung its arms randomly, like a blind person.
The mutant was definitely blind. So how did it know the soldier’s exact location to grab and crush him?
As the question filled his mind, someone else charged at the creature with a roar.
“You son of a biiiitch!”
It was a soldier with a thin, sharp sword.
He jumped onto the massive, blood-dripping fist and ran toward its forehead, scraping its skin with his blade.
*Thump!*
The mutant lifted its right arm, which had been supporting its body, and slammed it down on its left arm. It was like swatting a mosquito that had landed to suck its blood.
*Crack!*
The mutant’s massive, hard bone, which Ad’s blade couldn’t even reach, protruded from under its arm. The mutant had struck its own arm so hard that it had broken it.
Poisonous blood spurted from the giant arm.
The toxic blood didn’t splash on Ad. He was lucky again.
Soon after, the massive, whale-like body began to fall to the ground.
This foolish mutant had lifted both its arms off the ground to catch the soldier on its arm.
It was only natural that the massive body, having lost its support, would begin to fall.
*Thump!*
The tens-of-tons-heavy body sank deep into the mud. The mutant flailed its arms, trying to get out, and on them was bright red blood.
“…”
The soldiers’ blood splattered near Ad’s eyes.
“…”
Ad’s heart pounded.
He was puzzled.
How could it swing its arm so accurately despite being blind?
How had he managed to survive while the other soldiers had died so senselessly?
“Damn it!”
Before he could solve the mystery, a blade flew toward the forehead of the mutant, which had collapsed to the ground. Instead of Ad, who was frozen trying to find an answer, another soldier had charged in with a sword.
The thin blade tore through the mutant’s forehead skin and sliced its flesh. The blade sank in up to the hilt, but it was far from reaching the skull.
The soldier who had plunged the thin blade in shoved his arm into the gash, as if it were the most natural thing to do.
The blade still didn’t touch the skull.
The soldier continued to push his arm into the mutant's torn flesh. When the blade still didn't reach, he pushed his shoulder in, and soon his entire body was inside.
Green blood covered the soldier's body, and soon, the agony of his entire body melting away came for him.
*Sssss…!*
The body of the soldier who had stabbed the mutant’s forehead was covered in poison. His leather clothes melted and mixed with his skin.
“Fuck, fuuuuck!”
Screams echoed. The soldier’s pronunciation, drenched in poisonous blood, became increasingly slurred. Even in his extreme agony, the soldier did not loosen his grip on the blade.
Instead, he pushed the thin, sharp blade even deeper…
And soon.
No screams were heard from within the monster’s torn flesh.
“…”
Despair.
But there was no time to wallow in such sentiments.
‘…Screams, roars.’
Why did the blind monster know the soldiers’ locations so precisely?
A faint clue flickered in his mind.
“…”
Ad stood up, holding his greatsword, his feet on the muddy ground.
Adrenaline flooded his mind. His hands and feet trembled.
Ad held his breath, put strength into his arms, and slowly moved forward.
*Whoosh!*
The mutant’s randomly swung arm grazed his hair. If he’d been unlucky, his head would have been blown off.
The wound left by the brave soldier was visible before Ad’s eyes.
The mutant was still flailing its arms on the ground, trying to lift its body from deep within the mud.
Ad quietly walked toward the thrashing mutant’s torso, greatsword in hand.
The clear mark of the blade on its massive forehead came into view. Around the mark were the bright red bloodstains of the valiant soldier.
‘…If I stick my blade into this gap, will this monster really die? I heard some mutants don’t have vital spots.’
His mind raced.
‘What are the chances its brain is in this forehead? No, does it even have a brain in the first place?’
Meaningless questions plagued his thoughts.
But for Ad, there was no other choice but to thrust his blade into the large gap left by the warrior before him.
“…”
Ad held his breath and pushed the blade forward.
Did it not feel pain? The mutant showed no reaction. Only green blood flowed out.
Ad slowly turned the blade on its side. The thin crack widened to the breadth of the greatsword.
…Not too deep inside, he could see the melting corpse of the soldier and the thin blade.
Ad swung the blade sideways.
Soon, chunks of flesh tore apart and blood gushed out.
The giant mutant just continued to flail, trying to lift its body from the muddy ground.
‘This mutant can’t feel pain. The proof is that it kept its eyes open even after being hit by the first arrows.’
A large cave opened up before Ad’s eyes. Poisonous blood dripped from the ceiling, and a green puddle was forming at his feet.
‘It was able to pinpoint our locations despite being blind because of the roars. If we don’t make a sound, this monster can’t find us.’
Ad quickly entered the cave and carved out more flesh.
‘Sound. If I’m just careful about the sound… I might be able to take it down surprisingly easily.’
The poison dripping from the ceiling melted the flesh on his shoulder and arm, but he held back his groans.
Soon, the skull was exposed, and Ad, without hesitation, plunged his sword into it.
Where the skull was shattered, the brain was revealed. Befitting its massive size, the brain was as large as a house.
There was no time to ponder which part to cut to kill this monster.
*Crack!*
Ad immediately began to tear apart the large brain with the blade of his greatsword. Like a jellyfish stabbed with a knife, some kind of fluid flowed out of the brain, and it began to go limp like a deflating balloon.
*Thud!*
He heard the sound of a giant arm falling limply to the ground.
“…”
Ad held his breath and walked outside. If he had carelessly inhaled inside the mutant’s body, his lungs would have rotted away.
“Everyone, these things don’t feel pain! Their sight is gone, and sound…”
As soon as he was out, Ad took a deep breath and began to speak. He had to tell the surviving soldiers about the weakness he had discovered.
“…just be careful of…”
But there was no one left to hear him. Only corpses, organs, and fragments of arms and legs were buried in the mud.
“…Good work, Private. That was some keen insight.”
Through the smoke, a cold, emotionless voice was heard. The mage in the wine-colored robe had only a little mud on him.
“Let’s move. More mutants will be here soon. The Mazoku might come, too. We need to return to the unit as quickly as possible.”
Bel immediately started walking south, without sparing a single glance for those left on the battlefield.
“…What about the others?”
Bel ignored Ad’s words and kept moving. He had to escape the scene of the commotion as quickly as possible.
Ad stared blankly at the battlefield. The pain of his melting skin was overwhelmed by the battlefield's silence, he couldn't even feel it.
There was nothing.
Where the hand of the massive, whale-like mutant had passed, only dust and mud remained. The debris of buildings, tree branches, and fragments of broken steel that had been embedded in the ground were now buried deep below.
It took Ad over a minute to realize that there was nothing left around him.
He couldn’t understand. His mind simply couldn’t accept the situation he was in.
“…”
When he came to his senses, only emptiness remained in Ad’s heart. He slowly turned his gaze to find the elven Second Lieutenant who had been facing three giant mutants alone.
His lower and upper body were torn apart, and his entire body was tinged green, stained with poison.
Hundreds, thousands of arrows were stuck in the bodies of the monsters collapsed on either side of him, and from those holes, deadly poison flowed like blood.
…While he and the other soldiers had sacrificed their lives to barely deal with one mutant, the elven Second Lieutenant had apparently handled all three by himself.
“The bodies, we have to at least recover the bodies…”
Every single person who lost their life here was a brave warrior who did not lose their fighting spirit even in the face of death.
They were noble souls who could lay down their lives for a greater cause, heroes who had always lived to save others.
They were people who should not be left as nameless chunks of meat on a shabby, dirty battlefield.
“Can you even tell who is who? In cases like this, not recovering the bodies is a kindness to the families.”
Bel, who was already far ahead, spoke coldly to Ad, who was senselessly digging through the ground.
A ringing tore through Ad’s ears.
“…”
Ad said nothing as he watched the back of Bel, who walked on nonchalantly.
How can he be so calm? He just stood by and watched his subordinates die in front of him? Is he even human?
Countless questions tore through his mind. He felt pain. Not just his hands and limbs, but his head began to ache as well.
The hand holding the greatsword trembled, and Ad dropped the thick, heavy piece of iron.
The greatsword, as large as a man's torso, was left abandoned on the battlefield.