Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Translator: XZY
Chapter 79: Person (7)
***
A snowstorm arose.
With each step Siern took upon the snowfield, the surrounding snow scattered from the force of her mana, fluttering up toward the vast sky.
The sight was like a living, moving vortex.
Hwaaaak— !
Hwiiiiiik— !
Though her eyes, stained with rage, were filled with emotion, Siern did not bother to raise her voice any further.
It had only been a few weeks since she had met Aiseline; they were just a passing acquaintance.
She was the complete opposite of Siern in every way. Not a single thing aligned between them, so they could not have become particularly close.
Therefore, it was strange for such anger to be boiling up over Aiseline’s death.
Hwiiiiing—
However, looking at Aiseline buried in the snow, not even twitching, she could not help but bite her lower lip hard.
Even in that brief encounter, Siern could tell.
She was a person so complete in character that she was not lacking in being called the flower of the Duplein family, she was so accepting that she tried to understand Siern whom everyone called a monster, and she was a lovely girl as if all of creation bestowed its blessings upon her.
Even Siern’s ice-cold heart could not help but tremble once when looking at her.
Because Siern could not control her slaughter instinct, she would have tried to push her away to the very end... but nevertheless, she was not the kind of person who deserved to die so easily.
There was value and hierarchy in human life.
If someone had to die, it should have been her; for a treasure-like person who had tried to embrace and care for even someone like her to die was too unfair.
Therefore, the girl raised her head and looked at the mercenary before her.
By raising her hand and clenching her fist, she effortlessly manifested the 2-Star summoning magic, ‘Call of the Beast.’
Hwaaaaaak— !
On the snowfield, dozens of wolves made of mana rose to their feet.
The ethereal beasts bared their teeth and charged toward Derek. Each one was a massive beast the size of a person, but Derek, without even a hint of panic, leaped far back and swung his staff.
Grrrrr! Grrr— !
Kaaang— !
Steam rose from between their viciously grown fangs.
Derek kicked the underbelly of a wolf that was charging at him, drooling, rolled once on the ground, drew his sword, and slashed the nape of its neck.
Sreung— !
The series of movements was so fluid and masterful.
The wolf, whose neck was severed without it even realizing it had been hit, turned back into mana and disappeared.
However, there were still dozens of wolves left.
The pack of wolves, which had been circling and surrounding Derek, charged at him all at once, but not a single wolf could even scratch him.
Fwoosh! Hwaak— !
A massive flame soared up and covered the surroundings, and all the wolves summoned by mana let out yelps as they burned away and disappeared.
A few wolves managed to charge in and approach Derek, but they were quickly cut down by Derek’s sword and vanished.
Pak! Hwaak— !
Derek, who had rolled once more on the snowfield and gotten up, held a longsword in one hand and a large staff in the other.
Derek, who was proficient in both magic and close-quarters combat, could handle any way Siern attacked.
Siern was not unaware of that fact.
Although Siern’s magical achievements were incredible for her age, she was not at a level where she could overpower Derek.
Knowing well that she could never beat Derek in a direct confrontation, Siern was only thinking of distracting his attention.
And so, amidst the numerous ethereal wolves, a real beast mixed in.
Kaaang— !
Siern’s fingernail flew and struck the sword Derek had drawn.
The fingernails on her fair, small fingertips should have been blunt and soft. However, when they collided with Derek’s blade, sparks flew with a vicious sound.
Kagagak! Kagagagagagak— !
He recalled the sight when he had first met Siern, her fingertips vividly stained with blood.
She used transmutation magic to control even the strength and hardness of her body. There was likely no one in the entire world who could use such high-level transmutation magic at this age.
And so, over the blade, Siern saw the expression of the mercenary with the white hair.
He looked so calm that Siern once again bit her lip.
“I must look like a monster to you too.”
“...”
“But, it’s not like you’re particularly human either.”
Siern, grinding her teeth, drew out even more mana.
Mana seeped into Derek’s sword, and soon, Siern grabbed the sharp blade with a tight grip.
Budeudeuk, budeuk—
Kadeudeudeudeuk— !
Before long, the blade Siern had grasped completely crumbled and shattered.
As Derek narrowed his brow and leaped far back, Siern’s fingernail grazed past the spot where he had just been.
Hwaak— !
With just one swing, a massive aftershock of mana followed, scattering and erasing all the accumulated snow in the vicinity.
And through the fluttering snowflakes, she charged in, her white eyes flashing.
She took the form of a lovely girl, but she was no different from a beast that had already begun to be blinded by slaughter.
‘Transmutation magic?’
Derek threw the sword, of which only the hilt remained, into the middle of the snowfield and readjusted his grip on the staff.
Magic that changed the properties of matter was considerable in its difficulty, and the amount of mana used was also enormous.
If she had changed the essence of Derek’s sturdy sword to the point of breaking it like a cracker, it was normal for even mages of 2-Star or higher to pant and become exhausted.
However, Siern’s agile movements did not slow down.
As she ran across the snowfield using the 3-Star transmutation magic, Acceleration, her will was instead burning even more intensely.
At this point, he could understand why even renowned mages had failed to control her.
What was needed to control a girl who charged in with murderous intent without any warning was not outstanding magical knowledge, refinement, or grace.
It was a spirit that could overwhelmingly crush her.
Paang— !
When Derek manifested a protective barrier with magic to block Siern’s next blow, she was already panting and gasping for breath.
She had manifested too many high-level magics in this short time. It was at a level where it would not be strange for any ordinary mage to have collapsed from exhaustion.
Nevertheless, Siern was staring intently at Derek.
Anyone who faced that clear murderous intent rising from her skin would have no choice but to swallow a dry gulp of saliva.
However, Derek let out a small laugh.
“Are you that angry that Lady Aiseline died? What are you so angry about?”
“...”
“Did you think Lady Aiseline would have affirmed and embraced you, Lady Siern? Are you angry because you feel you’ve lost a treasure-like person? What meaning does that have?”
Pababak, kagagak—
Derek’s protective magic showed no signs of breaking.
In front of it, Derek lowered his eyes, glared, and told her clearly.
“You would have killed her yourself anyway, wouldn’t you?”
“──”
“Then it’s all the same whether it goes this way or that way, so you are quite strange, Lady Siern.”
In those cold-blooded eyes, an emotion as if he truly could not understand Siern was present.
“Isn’t it a good thing that you didn’t get blood on your hands? Or, are you perhaps disappointed that you couldn’t kill her yourself? If that’s the case, I can understand.”
“...”
“I don’t really understand the mind of a monster swayed by a slaughter instinct. If you feel some kind of pleasure or ecstasy from personally killing a person you cherished, well, even if I can’t respect it, it’s not something I can’t understand at all. Is that perhaps it?”
“Ahat. Hahaha..”
Pak— !
Siern, who had leaped back again, widened the distance.
Then, after landing on the snowfield, she raised her body, her blue hair fluttering in the wind.
Her face was in shadow due to her deeply bowed head, so her expression could not be seen.
However, Derek just flicked his staff once and wore an indifferent expression.
“Right. The young lady you killed was such a wonderful and complete person that she was not suited for a monster like me. Still... it seems it would be hard to agree with everything she said.”
— ‘There is no one in the world who deserves to die, Lady Siern.’
It was a line she had uttered with a determined face, affirming Siern to the very end even in the middle of the cold snowfield. Until she spurted blood from Derek’s blade, she had met Siern’s eyes and spoken.
Siern recalled that sight, then slowly revealed her vicious eyes.
She spat out each and every letter, filled with ingrained hatred.
“A person like you deserves to die.”
Before long, the last glimmer of humanity that had remained in her pupils vanished.
She let go of her reason as a person and listened to the voice of the great demon that had tried to seize the world.
Someone approached Siern’s heart, which had been suppressing her true nature, and whispered.
He is a person who deserves to die. A person who ought to die.
As they incited Siern, before long, the beautiful young lady of the Rochest family vanished from the world.
Hwaaaaaak— !
And in her place stood a demonic beast crazed with slaughter.
<><><>
The swirling of immense mana could be seen through the window.
Sitting in his office, Lord Melverot, with his chin propped on his hand, looked up at the scene, his expression still not even twitching.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when Siern completely let go of her reason and revealed her nature as a demonic beast.
When she revealed her nature as a demonic beast, she began to destroy everything in the area and kill whatever she saw.
She was no different from a natural disaster, moving only as her nature led her, without even her own will.
Usually, Melverot himself would step in to crush or subdue her.
However, Derek had earnestly requested him. To not intervene until the very end, to just watch from here.
Perhaps that was an arrogant judgment.
Even veterans who had rolled on the battlefield countless times would break into a cold sweat at the wild murderous intent of Siern who had revealed her full power.
Perhaps, it would just be one more of Siern’s sacrifices.
— ‘If you have taught her the weight of death, then next, you must teach her how to control her instincts.’
— ‘Is it possible to control the instincts of a demonic beast?’
— ‘It won’t be impossible. It’s not as if humans live only by their instincts. If you just create an opportunity to overcome that intense impulse once, and if you just build up that successful experience once... the second, third, and fourth times will gradually become easier.’
— ‘...’
— ‘Therefore, what happens after she seriously loses her reason is important. I will take responsibility and bring back Lady Siern’s reason. Will you trust me once?’
When it came to demonic beasts, Derek was the expert. He was not unaware of that fact, but he could not just trust him blindly either.
However, from Melverot’s perspective, there was nothing to lose. If he died from his own bravado, that would just be this boy named Derek’s own misstep.
However, looking at Derek, he seemed to feel a strange sort of confidence.
Melverot, with his chin propped on his hand, monologued.
‘If he is a truly competent talent, then pushing for a title or two is something I would welcome on my end.’
The problem was whether he could prove that ability.
Kwang— !
The bluish mana began to rage, turning into a crimson light.
The beast, engulfed in madness, its dress fluttering, attacked Derek. The amount and force of its mana had become several times more intense compared to when even a sliver of reason had remained.
Kwagak! Kwagang— !
Pak— !
Every time Siern swung her arm, combat-type magics that 1-Star mages would have to use all their strength to cast flew in like arrows.
Derek was able to defend against them all with just one swing of his staff, but he had to physically move his feet to dodge the body of Siern who was charging at him, engulfed in madness.
Hwik! Kwang! Hwik! Kwang— !
Each and every blow was like a huge gunpowder explosion.
An ordinary person without means of defense would die just by being grazed. Countless such heavy blows flew in, but Derek’s expression still did not even twitch.
He was a boy who had lived his life killing countless demonic beasts.
He had killed more demonic beasts that had been driven into a corner and were thrashing about in a frenzy of madness than he could count on his hands.
The physical strength and firepower of such monsters were immense, and if you deflected them wrongly, a part of your body would often be blown away.
However, a monster that had lost its reason had linear attacks, and its movements were easy to predict. As long as you were not overwhelmed by its immense force and panicked, dealing with it was not that difficult.
Kwaaaaaaang— !
However, that was just how the saying went; reality was completely different.
The moment Siern’s stray mana arrow hit the ground, a cratered view of the earth was revealed.
The body that leaped over it and crossed the snowfield was hard to even follow with the eyes.
Her long hair fluttering along her path looked like the tail of a huge beast scattering.
Kaaang— !
As she once again coated her fingernails with transmutation mana and charged, Derek manifested a protective magic.
The sight of her pushing against the blocked fingernails, trembling. As Siern, beyond the protective wall, let out a great breath, a huge cloud of vapor formed in the chilly snowfield air.
There was no reason in the light emitting from her eyes.
The judgment of the teachers who had called her a monster and fled in a hurry was rational. It was a moment that proved that fact.
<><><>
What did it mean to teach a person?
It must have been a constant worry for Derek, who had at some point found himself in the noble world as a magic teacher.
Whether it was Diella, Elente, or Denise... it seemed Derek always approached his work with such concerns when teaching someone.
If it was just about conveying knowledge, reading a book was better. In the end, becoming someone’s master and teaching someone must have some meaning beyond that.
Aiseline had always been lost in such thoughts and thought it was amazing to see Derek, who was always contemplating how to lead people in a better way.
As the one who had first found and scouted Derek when he was working as a mercenary in the tavern street, Aiseline thought she understood Derek’s deep thoughts better than anyone else.
Therefore, she had thought that Derek’s deviation in trying to kill Siern was nothing more than a slight wandering.
There was no life that deserved to die. No matter who it was, one should contemplate how to lead a person in a better direction, and she thought it was not right to easily solve everything by just killing them.
That was the way the upright and good Aiseline saw the world. She had thought that one day Derek would also understand such an Aiseline, and she had intended to trust and wait for him to the end as he advanced in the wrong direction.
However, was that too arrogant a thought?
The moment she was stabbed by Derek’s sword and blood gushed out, Aiseline thought.
To try and embrace and understand all people might have been to overestimate herself too much.
Perhaps Derek’s nature of trying to solve complex problems with murder was innate, something that Aiseline could not have done anything about.
There were many things that could not be solved with warm idealism. As if to remind her of that fact, the boy’s blade had been aimed at Aiseline.
As she collapsed in the middle of the snowfield and slowly lost consciousness... Aiseline thought.
She still did not know even an inch about the boy named Derek.
That ignorance and arrogance must have been the cause of her own death──
“.....Achoo!”
It was the moment Aiseline was accepting her death.
When her consciousness returned a little, she sneezed because it was too cold.
“...?”
The blood spreading under the softly accumulating snowflakes was surely flowing out from around Aiseline.
However, as soon as she regained consciousness, Aiseline was able to sit up with a start. She felt no pain in her body, and just the tips of her fingers and toes were a little cold.
Kang! Kang! Kaaang— !
As the sound of battle was heard from somewhere far away, her consciousness finally returned completely.
“Huh...?”
Aiseline opened her eyes wide and looked around.
She had a clear memory of being stabbed by Derek’s sword. However, there was no wound on her body where a sword had passed, but just a large hole on the side of her blouse.
Derek’s sword had only pierced the loose fabric of Aiseline’s clothes. Since Aiseline usually wore flowing clothes, it would not have been that difficult to miss.
“......”
Looking around, she saw a large leather pouch lying there with a hole in it.
When she reached out her trembling hand in the cold and lifted it, the red dye that filled the leather pouch was soaking the ground. The characteristic floral scent of dye from the western part of the continent lingered at the tip of her nose.
Aiseline had a gut feeling. The moment she was stabbed, she had clearly felt the hum of mana rising.
He had used the confusion-type magic ‘Chaos’ to temporarily scatter Aiseline’s consciousness.
“N-no... way...”
The reason for such a troublesome act was obvious. To fake Aiseline’s death and provoke Siern.
Why do such a thing?
To strongly imprint the weight of death on Siern.
Only by making her understand the heavy meaning of the word death several times would the groundwork for controlling Siern’s instincts be finished.
Therefore, Derek had volunteered to be the villain.
The image of the man standing firmly on the snowfield, holding a sword dripping with blood-like red dye, came to mind.
After understanding the whole picture, Aiseline’s fingertips began to tremble even more strongly.
“Just... since when...?”
From where exactly had he been drawing this picture? That was obvious. From the very beginning.
Derek, who did not trust Aiseline’s acting skills, had set the stage by making her believe this whole situation was real.
And Aiseline, not even knowing that, had been rebelling against Derek and trying to stop him somehow.
What was a master, and what did it mean to teach a person?
If necessary, it was to push a disciple off a cliff, and to accept being seen as a demon by the other party.
It was late by the time one realized the grace of that teaching. In the first place, if the person being taught noticed such an intention, it would have no meaning.
Therefore, Siern would know nothing right now.
The reason Derek was rampaging like this was all to set Siern straight. That main fact had not changed from the beginning.
The fact that Aiseline was alive like this was the clear proof of that.