Chapter 170: Nightmare (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 170: Nightmare (6)
Frillite and her companions stepped through the fissure.
"Where is this...?"
Before them lay a sand-floored training ground.
Did something bad happen to Cloud at a training ground?
Frillite tilted her head, then turned her gaze to his companions.
"It looks like a training ground... but I've never seen one with a structure like this," Eri said.
Cloud's other companions also looked like they had no idea.
"Then it's highly likely this happened after you three parted ways with him," Frillite said, looking at Eri, Ophelia, and Neria. The three women flinched, but she paid them no mind.
It was then.
"Again!"
A woman's shout echoed. The group turned their attention toward the voice.
A beautiful, blonde woman in light attire was swinging a wooden sword. A black-haired man parried her strike.
He wasn't a peerless beauty like Cloud, but he was handsome enough.
He couldn't withstand her sword strikes for long. Soon, he took a blow to the head and slammed face-first into the ground.
"Again!"
The man shot back up and charged the woman once more. He paid no mind to the blood streaming from his nose as he screamed and clashed his wooden sword against hers.
But just like before, it wasn't long before he was struck down again.
Each time, the man would pop back up like a roly-poly toy and swing his sword. On the rare occasion he didn't get up, the woman would roar and kick him in the stomach.
Then the man would stagger to his feet, only to be struck down again.
This process repeated itself over and over.
"This is too much..." Katarina frowned as she watched the man get beaten one-sidedly.
"Is it? All I see is a man I can be proud of."
"...How on earth can you look at that and feel proud?"
At Katarina's incredulous tone, Frillite gestured toward the man with a nod.
"Look at the life in his expression. An unyielding will, even through grueling training, is the first virtue of a fine knight."
"Oh, is that so..."
"Um, more importantly, where's Cloud?" Neria cut into their conversation. Frillite shook her head, scanning the area.
"Come to think of it, he's nowhere to be seen. What's going on?"
While they puzzled over it, a soldier arrived and informed the woman that the king had summoned her, taking her away from her training. As the man enjoyed an unexpected break, other knights flocked to him.
"Sir Hero. Are you still alive?"
Frillite and the others froze at the middle-aged knight's smiling words. There was no hero who looked like that in their memories.
Ignoring them, the knights began to chat with the man they called the Hero.
"After a beating like that, most would have snapped by now, but you're holding it in surprisingly well."
"You think I want to? I'm just trying to avoid another beating."
"Come on, that's not the whole story, is it?"
"What?"
"Sir Hero, you're in love with our Commander, aren't you?"
"Wh-What kind of bullshit is that!" the man yelled. But the knights just grinned slyly.
"It's no use pretending. Everyone knows except the Commander."
"...Was it that obvious?"
"Yes. Extremely. I thought I was looking at an old bachelor who'd missed his chance to marry. Have you, by any chance, never dated before?"
"...Shut up."
"You really haven't? With that face? Wow, your standards must be incredibly high. But why would someone like you fall for someone like our Commander?"
"Because..."
"Because?"
The knights fell silent, hanging on the man's every word. He spoke in a small, embarrassed voice.
"She's so dependable."
"...Excuse me?"
"I said, she's dependable. It feels like she'd protect me no matter what happens..."
"..."
The knights were silent.
Then, they all burst into laughter.
"Sh-She'd protect him... Pfft... Bwahahaha!"
"Sir Hero! Forgive my rudeness, but are you really the Hero? You're not some housewife pretending to be the Hero, are you? That would be a problem. Our Commander likes men, you see!"
"Hey, hey. You're going to get hit if you keep that up."
The knights were cackling, unable to compose themselves.
Just as the trembling man was about to retaliate, the Knight Commander returned.
"Oh, you're back already. Well, good luck! We're rooting for you."
"If you need any help, just let us know. I'll help you with all my heart, on my honor as a married man."
With that, the knights left, teasing the man until the very end.
"Was it an amusing conversation? Your men seem to be in high spirits."
"...You don't need to know. More importantly, why did His Majesty summon the Commander... Ms. Yuriel?"
"...You're suddenly using my name."
"S-Sorry. If it makes you uncomfortable—"
"No, it's fine. Thinking about it, I believe we've been unnecessarily formal until now. And since you've mastered the basics, unlike before, Sir Hero, I don't think we need to be so stiff. S-So, it's alright for you to call me by my name."
"I understand... Yuriel."
The woman called Yuriel's face flushed slightly. She cleared her throat, chasing away the blush, and changed the subject.
"His Majesty has entrusted me with the role of envoy for the upcoming truce negotiations. So, I'm afraid I won't be able to be your training partner for a while."
"An envoy? Isn't that dangerous?"
Yuriel let out a small laugh at the man's worried expression.
"Don't worry. The demons also suffered considerable losses in the last battle. Continuing the war would be a great burden for them as well. It will go well."
Yuriel placed a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him.
Suddenly, the two of them wavered, and the scene shifted.
The man was still standing there.
But his face was devoid of life.
Where Yuriel had been, there was now a horse and the headless corpse of a knight leaning against it.
Inside a bundle tied to the saddle.
Was Yuriel's head, her eyes wide open.
"Fucking bastards. I'll kill them. I'll kill them all. Sons of bitches."
With the man's murderous muttering, he and the background wavered and disappeared.
All that remained was the horse and the body of the decapitated knight.
The headless knight rose and took the reins.
Hee-hee-hing—!
The horse reared its front legs and neighed powerfully. The knight drew its sword. It whipped the reins and charged toward Frillite and her companions.
Just as the headless knight leaned to the side, about to swing its sword, Frillite brought her greatsword, imbued with sword aura, down in a vertical slash.
CRACK—
The knight and the horse were split in two. They dissolved into black particles and scattered.
Rumble!
The space before Frillite and her party shattered, and a new fissure appeared.
"...I don't know what in the world is going on."
Frillite frowned, recalling the scene she had just witnessed. The man called the Hero. No matter how she looked at him, he wasn't Cloud. In fact, Cloud hadn't appeared at all.
And truce negotiations with the demons?
Frillite had never heard of such a thing.
"Let's move on."
Frillite led her equally confused companions through the fissure.
The moment they stepped through, something soft and squishy crushed underfoot. Not only that, but their shoes became soaked. One by one, the companions looked down.
Corpses.
The ground beneath their feet was carpeted with corpses.
"Aahk?!"
Horrified, Katarina took a step to the side, but that spot was squishy too.
"Wh-What is this...?"
Panicked, Katarina searched for a patch of ground not covered in bodies. There was none. The entire land was buried under them.
It didn't matter if they were demon or human.
"...How cruel."
Tearing her eyes away from the corpses strewn about like trash, Frillite looked up.
Atop a hill made of bodies.
Sat the man who had been called the Hero.
The man who lost the woman he loved was consumed by rage.
He welcomed the war with the demons, vowing revenge as he stood on the front lines and fought them.
It was only possible because his rage had made him forget the terror of war.
In reality, not long after the war began, he was forced to realize it once again.
The fact that no matter how elegantly he was decorated with titles like 'Hero,' he was ultimately just one among tens of thousands on the battlefield.
The war between demons and humans was brutish.
A full-scale war where both sides threw everything they had at each other.
Blades and spears filled every inch of the battlefield.
Shouts and screams mingled, heating the air of the warzone.
As the war dragged on, the rage in his heart diluted, and the fear grew.
What is this? What am I doing right now?
I'm going to die. And not just die. I'm going to die in excruciating pain.
No. I don't want to die. I don't want to!
Terrified, he turned his back. Many aimed for the defenseless Hero's back, but even more threw themselves in the way to protect him.
The knight who had asked if he liked their commander.
The knight who had teased him for acting like a girl despite being the Hero.
The knight who had sworn on his honor as a married man to help him with his love life.
They all became human shields to keep him alive.
N-No... No!!!
Having lost his friends after the woman he loved, the man was once again overcome with fury. He fearlessly charged the demons, swinging his sword.
He fought bravely, but he was an immature hero... no, he was merely an ordinary knight, not even worthy of that title.
Every time he swung his sword, three or four blades aimed for him. And each time, someone else was sacrificed to protect him.
He fought desperately to reduce the sacrifices, but effort alone couldn't make up for his lack of skill. His allies continued to die.
After several days of battle...
The Hero was the only one left alive.
The man stared with empty eyes at the battlefield, where both the demons who were his enemies and the humans who were his allies had been reduced to chunks of meat.
Even after that battle, the man wandered through countless more. As he participated in more fights, he gradually became more like a hero, but as a side effect, he stopped laughing and crying at some point.
It was only natural.
They were all going to die anyway.
What was the point of smiling at people like that? It was a waste of emotion, a waste of energy.
At some point, the Hero became an outsider.
At this rate, the Hero's mind will break!
The higher-ups who came to this conclusion assigned him companions who were unlikely to ever die, in order to manage his mental state.
It was the birth of the Hero's party.