Chapter 340
Chapter 340
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 340
Chapter Title: Kyle Toven (1)
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Black rain poured down.
The downpour dyed the colorless forest black. The two walked through the darkening woods. Chalpak. The sound of stepping in a puddle echoed out.
Kyle's steps were light.
Having shaken off even the last lingering attachment, Kyle felt his steps lighter than ever. His exhaled breath scattered easily.
'...The future, a future.'
Raniel van Trias from the future.
Overhearing her words, Kyle realized he must have surely failed in the time she had to endure. He would have faltered, no doubt.
His failure had led her to hell.
Lania's voice, having walked through hell for 13 years, carried poison. Vicious poison. The venom from one who hated, despaired, and ended up empty after losing everything—it was vicious.
She had lost everything, she said.
She said she could never become a hero.
That's why she returned, she said.
She begged him not to trust her, but Kyle still believed in Raniel. No matter where she came from—even from the future—Raniel was Raniel. With just a small trigger, she would rise again, and Kyle trusted that.
So.
He would gladly be that trigger for her.
"......"
Kyle looked ahead in silence.
Though hidden by trees, beyond lay an even fiercer rain. There was the battlefield he had once fled from. The wasteland that had become an unforgettable symbol of failure.
Achieve the feat you once turned away from.
That was the trial the stars had given Kyle.
Kyle let out a short breath. Recalling the sharply honed sword within his heart(?), he kept walking. How long had he walked like that?
Chalpak. A puddle splashed.
Before he knew it, Kyle had reached the edge of the forest.
"Kyle."
Kyle turned around.
Sara, who had been silent all along, was calling him. He looked at her. Her head was bowed, so her eyes were hidden. Rain-soaked hair covered Sara's face.
Looking down at the ground, Sara spoke.
"You really planned to die, didn't you?"
Kyle was silent.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
You really planned to die, didn't you?
Though she posed the question, Kyle said nothing. As if not denying it. When no answer came no matter how long she waited, Sara bit her lip hard.
She had thought it would end up like this.
She'd suspected it since hearing about the contract, but the moment she saw Raniel, who claimed to be from the future, Sara was certain.
"You're planning to die."
Kyle Toven.
This man, who was everything to her, planned to die here today. It wasn't a feat achievable with a mere human body. Kyle truly intended to stake everything.
Kuuk.
Biting her lip, Sara clenched her fist tight. Her tightly gripped hand trembled faintly.
"To die here..."
"Sara."
Kyle gently cut off Sara's words.
Sara slowly raised her head.
Sararak.
Kyle reached out and brushed aside Sara's rain-soaked hair. Meeting her reddened eyes, he said,
"Your face is a mess, Sara."
"...What?"
"It reminds me of the old days."
Kyle smiled.
"Wasn't it like this back then too? You know, when you were kidnapped."
"Why bring up something from so long ago..."
"How could I forget? You, who tormented me so much, clung to me sobbing."
Sara's face flushed red.
"Wh-why bring that up now?"
"No particular reason."
Just, Kyle murmured.
"It just hit me how much time has passed since then. You're right. It's ancient history."
And.
"Through all that long time, you've stayed by my side."
Sara shut her mouth.
Kyle smiled and said,
"Must've gotten sick of it by now, seen so much of my ugly sides... Thanks for sticking around."
"You said that last time too."
"Important words bear repeating."
"What does that have to do with the situation now..."
"Everything."
Kyle tapped the hilt at his waist with the back of his hand. A faint starlight leaked from the holy sword. Clearer than ever.
"Watch from the closest spot this time too."
Kyle smiled.
"I'll show you my coolest side."
Gazing at Kyle's brilliantly handsome smile, utterly out of place for the moment, Sara let out an absurd chuckle.
"...Since when did you get so full of bravado?"
"It's not bravado—it's my real personality. I was just putting on airs to fit the role. A country bumpkin like me from the start."
Sara flinched and shuddered.
"Traveling with a country bumpkin? My life sure is rough. Stay away—you stink."
"Is it because you weren't raised right? No class in your manners. Vulgar speech. A hero like you? What do people even see in you to trust you?"
Early in their journey.
In her rush to return to the church as soon as possible, Sara had given Kyle hell. Back when she was following the church elders' orders.
"What can you do with roots like a country bumpkin?"
The very words Sara had used to needle Kyle then, he now tossed back with a playful grin. Teasing her like always. Face beet red, Sara reached out and clamped her hand over Kyle's mouth.
"St-stop it. Back then, I didn't know any better..."
"Wasn't wrong, though."
Grasping Sara's wrist and lowering her arm, Kyle said,
"I'm still the same as back then. The same kid from way back. Admiring fairy-tale heroes, dreaming of becoming one... A country bumpkin wanting to show off in front of girls."
Kyle smiled bitterly.
"Sorry."
But.
"I have to do it."
He couldn't give up.
Couldn't back down. Even staking his life, Kyle had to achieve this feat. It was non-negotiable, so he didn't expect Sara to understand this side of him.
"So..."
As Kyle moved to continue.
"Really."
Sara cut him off.
She grabbed his collar and pulled him close. After a brief silence, with a pah sound, she exhaled sharply.
"After this."
Her face a bit flushed, Sara shot back.
"After this, how am I supposed to stop you?"
I know. I get it.
Muttering that, Sara continued.
"I know telling you not to won't work, and that you have to do this here."
She had overheard Raniel from the future.
Heard the hell she endured.
When she heard it all, saw her collapse and plead before Kyle, Sara couldn't bring herself to resent Raniel.
'Even now...'
Even now.
She couldn't resent anyone, couldn't make excuses for others, and it tormented her. Sara had always blamed others and run away. But in the end, what remained was the responsibility for what she herself ignored.
She survived the encounter with the Demon King.
Lived owing Raniel so much.
Lived averting her eyes from her duties.
Having reached this point after surviving like that, Sara could blame no one. In the end, in self-abandonment, she gripped Kyle's collar and continued.
"Still, I don't want you to die, Kyle."
"...That's."
"I know it's selfish. But I'm going to be selfish anyway."
Sara swallowed tears and said,
"Don't you dare die easy. You can't die here. I'll keep you alive somehow."
"...Quite the impressive confession."
Sara sealed Kyle's muttering lame words with her lips again, then released him with a long exhale. She shoved his back lightly.
"Lead the way."
"Sara, you should bless from here..."
"Why's a guy who read so many fairy tales say that?"
Sara grinned mischievously.
"A saintess belongs by God's side—and the hero's. Praying from the back or firing arrows is for side characters."
I'm different from Remia.
I'm the one by Kyle's side now.
'I won, you rag-eared bitch.'
Muttering inwardly, Sara stood beside Kyle. Together, they stepped toward the wasteland under the black rain. She was scared. Terrified out of her mind, but right now, Sara thought it didn't matter.
Just once.
Living her whole life in such a role was exhausting.
But just once, she wanted to be the saintess from a fairy tale. Sara gripped Kyle's empty hand with her trembling one.
"Let's go, Hero."
Let's bring down a fairy tale.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
The downpour intensified.
The blackening rain now poured as filthy sludge. The two standing in the wasteland looked up at the sky.
The sky was dyed black.
A sky covered in filth.
For the second time facing this sky. Before the omen of a massive catastrophe...
The two faced each other.
Nod.
Sara nodded and released Kyle's hand. Kyle took one more step forward, and Sara pressed her palms together in prayer.
"As God desires..."
A prayer she couldn't recite back then.
Too scared and fleeing, with God not answering, Sara had failed her duty as saintess.
"A miracle in this place."
But not now.
Sara was praying. Even if the stars didn't answer, even without starlight, she truly thought so.
She would no longer sing for God.
No longer pray for God.
She would sing only for Kyle, deem him her only god. Paradoxically, that's why the divinity(?) within Sara responded to her prayer.
What rose was not platinum starlight.
What rose was a cluster of pure white light.
With her own power alone, she blessed Kyle. Seeing the pure white particles settle on him, Kyle chuckled.
"Thanks, Sara."
Kyle spread his hand wide.
He thrust the open hand forward.
Tuning into the pouring rain, Kyle closed his eyes. What he recalled was the sword within his heart(?).
It took the form of the holy sword.
The sword he had gripped for years.
Kyle gripped it tightly. Though his hand clutched empty air, the familiar hilt remained in his grasp. Kyle opened his eyes.
The holy sword was in his hand.
An empty sheath hung at his waist.
Kyle unfastened the sheath and tossed it to the ground. This sword he drew today wouldn't return to it. Bracing for the end, Kyle exhaled deeply.
The rain kept pouring.
Rainwater flowed along the furrows.
The filth flowed and became a river. The sludge along the ruins of a long-destroyed kingdom began to writhe.
Then, thud.
Something surged from the sludge.
The black sky shook as something plummeted. Things surged and fell in succession. From earth to sky, the filth everywhere took form.
The demon(?) stripped of kingship.
A curse aggregate of thousands, tens of thousands of hands revealed itself here.
Kiiik, kigeek■■■■■■. ■■■■■■■■kigeek.
A tearing sound beyond creaking echoed.
As the world crumbled, Kyle stood firm and twisted his lips. In the past, he had dropped his sword and fled pathetically...
'Not this time.'
What he discarded was the sheath; in his hand was a sharply honed blade.
Kuuk.
Gripping the sword tight, Kyle took stance.
To achieve the feat once ignored, to prove he had changed, to show those watching him now.
"A hero is made by the world."
"If people find solace watching him, if his path is right, and he seeks to restore light to all."
To become the hero as defined by the first.
"Then he is the hero."
Kyle Toven gripped his sword.
"I."
Kyle raised the sword.
"I, Kyle Toven."
The blade tip aimed at the false god descended upon the world.
"Remember. The name of the one who will fell you."
Shadows overflowed.
Amid the overflowing shadows, a small star shone.
A small but unextinguishable star.
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