The Subjugation of Carpeng (1)
The winter that made my bones ache.
The cold that tore at my skin.
The memories that were nothing but wretched.
The past that dragged me down into the dirt.
The nightmare that shredded my spring.
Carpeng, who had destroyed everything I was, had awakened.
I had sworn that someday I would have my revenge.
That it had to be me—no one else.
That only I could take that bastard’s head.
I discarded my emotions.
I discarded my dreams.
I discarded my past.
If I could have sold my very soul, I would have.
I had lived driven by pure malice.
To overcome the past.
To shatter the nightmare.
To honor my dead little brother.
So why.
Why the hell.
Was this damned body trembling in terror?
Why was I frozen in place, unable to move?
“Lu… Luci…”
The shrine maiden’s trembling voice reached me.
“What in the world…”
Drenched in sweat from head to toe, she stared south with shaking eyes and let out a despairing breath.
“Ca… Carpeng… why… why has he woken…? The… the barrier was certain…”
I looked around.
Just as she said, the barrier stood firm and unbroken.
Which meant someone had deliberately awakened Carpeng.
And that someone was almost certainly—
The one who had twisted Habron in people’s memories.
Who had spread empty rumors.
Who had slaughtered every last survivor.
The Pope of Erden.
Alstein Saint Erdenshute.
“Luci.”
Heinzel’s grave voice cut through my thoughts.
His tone and expression carried a weight of meaning.
I took in the scene around us.
Carpeng’s roar had thrown the village into chaos.
People sat collapsed where they stood.
Some foamed at the mouth in seizures.
Others coughed up blood and fell.
Still others stared blankly, souls gone.
That landscape—
Identical to the Habron of the past—
Was unfolding right before my eyes.
If we turned our backs on Roholan and fled now,
the four of us would survive.
We would definitely survive.
And this village would become like Habron of old.
Its beautiful buildings would crumble into heaps of stone, its fertile soil would wither and crack,
every living thing—livestock included—would die,
leaving nothing behind
but a land crawling with magic beasts.
A second Habron.
Forgotten from people’s memories.
Erased from the maps.
Leaving only distorted rumors in its wake.
On the other hand,
we could live to fight another day.
We could survive and look forward to tomorrow.
Wake up every morning,
eat, train, and live the peaceful life of adventurers.
So then—
right now—
“Retreat—”
“Luci. Is that truly what your heart wants?”
Heinzel’s solemn eyes fixed on me.
Deep, piercing, as if he meant to see straight through to my core.
“What my heart wants…”
Carpeng still terrified me.
Goosebumps rose.
My teeth chattered.
My clenched fists were slick with sweat,
my whole body shook violently,
and the memories of the past made clear thought nearly impossible.
I wanted to run.
I didn’t want to die.
But—
I wanted to kill him.
I wanted to fight.
I didn’t want the past to repeat.
I wanted to conquer the nightmare.
I wanted to catch that bastard’s axe,
deflect his fists,
tear his hide,
rip out his eyes,
chew through his guts,
shatter his bones,
and in the end—
cut off his head.
That had been the purpose of my life.
That was the only way left
to honor my little brother, Lux.
A hollow laugh escaped me.
How ridiculous I was—the man who had received Heinzel’s comfort,
who had taken his advice.
“Heh… Heinzel. Our bet isn’t finished yet, is it?”
“Kwahahahahaha! True enough! We both lost count halfway through. First place goes to the little one, so we’ve still got to settle last place!”
Heinzel’s booming laughter rolled across Roholan.
It shook my heart.
“Khuhuhu… Yeah. That’s right. Your crude halberd and my sword—we still have to decide which one’s the bigger piece of junk.”
I clenched my fist and slammed it down on my rigid legs.
I struck the mouth that had spouted nonsense, the face frozen in fear.
Then I drew the sword that was already falling apart.
“Looks like the stone-slab steak is off the table, so how about we settle it with a meal in Urusphier village up in the Karahan Mountains?”
“Mm. A fine idea.”
Heinzel gripped his halberd as well.
“E-everyone… what… what are you trying to—”
“Young lady, you’d best take the little one and help the villagers evacuate. I don’t know if you’ll make it all the way to Urusphier, but you’ve got to keep your heads on your shoulders first, don’t you?”
I turned and looked at the shrine maiden.
Even wrapped in Divine Power, she looked barely able to stay on her feet.
“That would be best. Keep the Divine Power around yourself. If you hear that bastard’s howl, you might pass out.”
Then I turned back south.
In the distance—
fur redder than blood,
savage fangs,
claws stretched viciously wide,
and a maw torn open as if to devour everything—
was charging straight at us.
“Just in case, let me say this: even if Noah wakes up, do not send her this way. Not under any circumstances.”
“Kwahahahahaha! Right! If the little one steals the kill, we won’t be able to settle last place!”
“You’re going… you’re going to die. You’ll definitely die… so why…”
I ignored the shrine maiden’s voice behind me.
I drew a slow breath.
I loosened my locked body.
I wrapped myself in mana honed to a razor edge.
“Back when we hunted the manticore—I’ll show you clearly whose performance was greater, you thick-skulled baldy.”
“You’d better protect that remaining eye of yours. If that bastard takes it too, you’ll be too bitter to even die properly, won’t you?”
“Bullshit.”
Heinzel’s muscles swelled.
My mana grew even sharper.
And right after—
Carpeng’s roar shook the heavens.
The long, long nightmare would end.
The bitterly repeating, freezing winter would be severed.
The past I ached for would be smashed to pieces.
Step—
I took a step forward.
Even with Divine Power wrapped thickly around me, Carpeng’s roar made my entire body tremble.
It made me go numb.
I wanted to collapse right then and there.
“Huu… hah… hah…”
I lifted my head and looked in the direction Luci and Heinzel had gone.
There it was—the Nightmare of the East.
The crimson wolf, Carpeng.
A body easily three times the size of a human.
The thick killing intent pouring from that form,
the blood aura gushing from its claws,
the horrific malice dripping from its fangs—
all of it filled my vision.
It made me want to flee this instant.
It made me want to give up.
But at the same time—
I saw the people standing firm in that place.
With bodies infinitely frail compared to a magic beast,
wearing armor already half-destroyed,
holding cracked weapons,
still continuing the fight.
I saw them.
“Stupid girl…”
I carefully laid Noah on the ground.
I whipped my body into standing.
I bit my tongue and forced the terror back.
I wet my throat with the taste of blood.
I focused my mind and spread my Divine Power.
So the people could rise from where they lay.
So they could overcome their fear.
So they could come to their senses.
Remembering Noah’s warm smile—the one who had said she would protect me for life—
I unfolded a barrier of Divine Power that embraced all of Roholan.
Small sounds reached me.
The sound of bodies rising.
Steadying breaths.
Sobbing.
Lament.
Despair.
Terror.
They wrapped around Roholan.
I poured Divine Power into my voice and cast it far.
“People of Roholan.”
I formed a warm smile on my face.
The expression that came as habit.
I spoke with a confident voice.
“At this very moment, the Sun Goddess Lilith is watching over us. So there is no need to worry.”
I caught my trembling voice and poured more strength into the cry.
“There have been no meaningless deaths. No meaningless deeds either. Everything has simply flowed according to Lady Lilith’s will.”
And then—
the words I had spoken for the past five years,
the words I never wanted to speak,
the loathsome lies—
I poured my whole heart into them and let them out.
“All for the sake of Erden.”
The small noises became irritating clamor.
The sound of rising bodies became footsteps.
Steadying breaths became rising voices.
Sobbing became laughter.
Lament became admiration.
Despair became hope.
Terror became courage.
My teeth ground together.
My stomach churned.
Nausea surged up.
My hands shook,
and I felt as if bloody tears would spill at any moment.
The people you hated.
The people you scorned.
The people you loathed.
The people you cursed.
The people you poured your rage upon.
Those very people
were protecting you right now.
They were dying over there for your sake.
And yet you looked at them
and smiled,
and admired,
and held hope,
and found courage—
as if it were only natural that they should act that way,
as if they were obligated to risk their lives to stop it,
as if they had to step forward and take responsibility—
every last bit of it
was detestable
and nauseating.
The Habron of the past had fallen.
My village too.
My heart too.
Had long since crumbled.
But—
you people survived, didn’t you?
You could have been protected, couldn’t you?
You were protected, weren’t you?
They stopped it for you, didn’t they?
They did that for you.
Because they did—
if even one person,
if even a single word of thanks had been given,
if that feeling had been shown,
if a warm word,
a kind greeting,
even a lukewarm cup of water had been offered,
if just the slightest gratitude had been expressed—
then those two would not have had to go so alone.
They could have advanced with pride.
It would have been more than possible…
“Yeah… it would have been possible…”
I too.
The me of the past too.
Could have done exactly that.
But I didn’t.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t.
I simply didn’t.
I had been exactly the same as the villagers.
That truth made me want to vomit.
In the past I had acted just like them,
thought just like them,
and now I found it loathsome and detestable—
I myself
was utterly
disgusting.
Filthy.
I hated myself so much I could barely stand it.
“…Ugh, heh… hehaha…”
Ironically, Carpeng’s roar shook the useless thoughts out of me.
“Huu…”
I pulled myself together and lifted Noah into my arms.
Then quietly,
I set my feet in motion.
I had to do what a shrine maiden could do.
The work I had done for the past five years in villages ravaged by magic beasts.
“Who among you is the village representative?”
“Ah… I-I’ll bring them here right away!”
A woman trembling from head to toe stepped back as she spoke.
“No. I’ll go there myself. Just guide me, please.”
“Y-yes… yes, of course!”
The woman lowered her head and began to walk.
I followed behind her and glanced back toward Luci and Heinzel.
In that instant—
far in the distance, blood erupted from Heinzel’s body.
The halberd that had seemed unbreakable shattered.
His right arm was torn away.
The adventurer who had always stood so proudly
was now crawling pitifully across the ground.