Chapter 150
Chapter 150
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 150
Chapter Title: Fall of Heavenly Fire
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"Why... exactly..."
The female warrior, barely holding up her convulsing body, spewed out a torrent of blood.
The blood-soaked horizon turned into a swamp, and even the leaves that had gently drifted across the dojo courtyard grew sodden and spread out in the crimson mire.
Every living thing in sight was dying in the blood, melting into the abyss to become unidentified frothy clumps.
Who would believe that this dojo, once called Heavenly Fire for shining the sky as beautifully as flames, had earned such a name?
Heavenly Fire Sect, one of the Republic's Six Great Sects. Master of Flower Banquet Peak in the Crimson Mountains.
All five hundred disciples lay as mangled corpses tumbling down the mountain paths, spared neither were her fellow students from the same sect nor the elders in perfect health or even the sect leader.
"There's an array I need to engrave on this peak. That's why I warned you three times—get out if you don't want to die."
The eight-hundred-year dignity of the Six Great Sects crumbled overnight at the hands of one single culprit.
She walked nonchalantly through the sea of blood and viscera, drawing a demonic formation with the gore, replying in a tone serene to the point of peacefulness.
The woman with the deep blue gat pulled low over her face had once been called a savior—as far back as two hundred years ago.
"For... for such a trivial reason...!"
Mana gathered in her heart, her body emitting a red glow. She poured her last reserves of strength, her dying gasps, into her fist.
Even if she couldn't defeat her.
If she could just show this rage, this sorrow, this hatred—and leave a wound that, if not fatal, would make today a source of regret.
"Heh, trivial reason..."
But in that moment, the woman in the gat suddenly lifted her head.
Her eyes, perpetually vacant during the slaughter, now twitched with something akin to excitement, strangely enough.
Just meeting that gaze pinned her like scissors clamping down. She couldn't move, as if some invisible force had tightly bound her entire body...
Then, with a dull thud, a fist crushed into her abdomen, burrowing into her innards, and the martial artist fainted as she collapsed.
When had he appeared? A man in a dark blue robe and iron mask. As he withdrew his fist, her body pitched forward onto his shoulder.
"Was she disturbing your focus?"
The iron-masked man turned politely to ask, but the woman silently put her pipe back in her mouth and returned to her work.
"Then I'll bury her on the mountainside like the others."
She spoke only when he slung the martial artist over his shoulder to leave.
"Don't let her go—make sure to end her properly. We don't want the Martial God Alliance sniffing around."
The man, who had halted mid-step, finally replied after a long pause.
"Yes."
* * *
It was finally on the fifth day after entering the Crimson Mountains that I could have a proper conversation with Goblin Slayer.
Until then, Milia hadn't said a word.
To what extent? She was even harder to talk to than the curt Eldvi. Her entire vocabulary consisted of just three phrases.
"Wait."
"Follow."
"We camp here tonight."
She massacred goblins with the precision and perfection of a dwarven mechanism, clearing the path, but once the day's work was done, she never opened her mouth no matter what.
"Work" meant traveling through cave paths by day and camping inside them at night.
At night, a massive winged shadow flew over the mountains, flashing three eyes. Each time, Aki bared her fangs before burrowing deep into my clothes to hide.
"Hey, Goblin Slayer."
He merely glanced back at me.
"Can I ask you something?"
"I'm going to scout around. Don't light a fire until dawn."
Whenever I tried to strike up a conversation, he'd vanish like this. And I had mountains of questions...
Up until now, all my relationships with women had been them approaching me, so I had no idea what the right move was in a situation like this.
Days in the narrow, dark cave paths reeking of rotting corpses had wrapped me in a strange sense of isolation.
"Pipi, is that Rista over there?"
"Copycat, copycat."
"But she looks way too identical, doesn't she?"
"Rista, Pipi's friend. Rista, Lin's friend. That's copycat, copycat, copycat."
Pipi replied haughtily, preening her wings with her beak.
Logically, Pipi was probably right... But if it were real, ignoring Pipi would hurt her feelings a lot.
When I slept at night using Ceresia as a blanket (she expanded into a massive, thick fur blanket), Rista appeared in my dreams.
- Lin!
- Lin?
- Lin.
She beckoned me with a dazzling smile... but whenever I tried to follow, she only grew farther away. I'd jolt awake each time.
"Au?"
"Ah, wu?"
"Au!"
No sooner had I woken than a familiar voice rang out, overlaid with an unfamiliar one.
Rubbing my eyes sleepily, I searched for the source—and found Aki and the other astonishingly together.
Goblin Slayer was holding Aki carefully by tucking arms under her armpits, smiling shyly. He'd removed his helmet, revealing a face identical to Rista's.
"When did you two get so friendly?"
As I sat up, Milia's shoulders twitched. The next instant, she gripped her sword hilt with a click.
"Quiet."
"Hm?"
"You didn't hear that goblin voice just now?"
"?"
"Ah, or was it wu...?"
"???"
"Developed vocal cords—probably hobgoblins. Looks like a few are left. I'll go check."
She swiftly hid her flushed face behind her helmet and vanished into the darkness, of course handing Aki back to me first.
I was dumbfounded.
So dumbfounded I couldn't even laugh... and the sweet afterglow of that voice lingered for a while.
"By the way, Aki, why didn't you cry when you were away from me?"
"Aung?"
"You prefer women?"
"Ah-baht."
She clung to my leg, rubbing her face against it as if to say absolutely not, melting away any urge to press her.
"But that's weird. She didn't act like that with other women. Kasena would be super upset if she knew."
That was around the third or fourth day... Anyway, after that, more constructive conversations started happening.
"Get up, sun's out."
In the mornings, we'd exit the cave path and navigate the Crimson Mountains' terrain until finding another.
The towering Crimson Mountains might look elegant from afar, but up close, they were brutally rugged.
Yet Milia shunned the stairs and paths made by red dragons for humanity, sticking to the slopes.
"We don't use mountain paths. Anywhere people might pass will have eyes watching."
"What eyes?"
"The Seven Evils. The seven black witches and black mages who've gained infamy since the Black Sun Incident. They're looking for you too."
The clawing branches and grabbing roots were tolerable enough.
What tested me was the heat rising like geothermal steam from within the mountains.
Being here in midsummer felt like being locked in a steamer, sweat pouring down like rain.
"Abut!"
"Abut, abut, abut."
Aki and Pipi, with body temps far higher than humans, were thrilled...
According to the World's Eleven Wonders, this geothermal activity creates a tropical climate in the Crimson Mountains during summer.
Because of it, the mountain forests stayed vividly colorful year-round. Crimson, yellow, ochre... a eye-searing parade of bright, stimulating primary colors.
"Woo-ah!"
In the midst of that spectacle, Aki shook her head excitedly back and forth (another rotten habit picked up from Pipi).
'Alakishi...'
Watching Aki peer over my shoulder, taking in the mountains, the great true dragon Alakishi naturally came to mind.
Are you watching now?
I've come to your homeland you so longed to return to. Aki loves it. Maybe because it's warm, or because she senses your feelings...
"Found the next path. Here."
That evening was when I could finally have a real conversation with Goblin Slayer—Milia.
"Waited long? All done, Aki."
As I pulled out the skewer roast dripping temptingly with oil and juices, Aki squealed in delight from my lap.
"Ppa-ri, ju-ttae!"
Ugh, tears of emotion...
Dragonkin grow faster than humans; without any teaching, she's starting to pick up words.
I gave the first skewer to the proud Aki, then offered one to Milia.
"Want one? It's salted meat, but still tastes great."
Milia, who was sharpening her goblin-brain-and-fat-crusted gear on a whetstone, withdrew her vigilant gaze from the cave exit and glanced at me.
As always, helmet on, so no face visible, but her tone was baffled.
"You're persistent, keep talking even after getting shot down. Masochist who likes abuse?"
"Nah, used to be into that. Back in the day."
As Lin.
Not anymore.
"Bragging? And eating a meal... in a place like this. Stomach of steel."
The cave was littered with goblin corpses.
The stench of vomit from their deaths, rotting flesh, and swarms of flies and ants drawn by the blood was nerve-wracking enough.
All Milia's handiwork.
Since becoming a fire mage, I couldn't use flashy spells in caves... but her skill was so outstanding, there was nothing for me to do.
"You wouldn't get it. If I don't give Aki my special skewers for a week straight, she cries nonstop. You can't imagine the noise."
My answer apparently lame, Milia turned her gaze outside.
Just when I thought the talk would end short as usual, Aki waddled over and offered Milia a skewer.
"Ah, aut!"
Milia seemed more startled than me or Pipi. Her voice lost all color from shock.
"No, it's fine... Not hungry."
"Dabut."
"Really, it's okay. I'll just take the thought."
She glanced awkwardly at me, but Aki's face crumpled from repeated refusals. Milia hastily removed her helmet.
"Ah, okay. I'll eat. So good~."
She daintily took a bite and smiled soothingly; Aki beamed back brightly.
That girl can make faces like that too...
Grinning as I watched, Milia shot me a slightly annoyed glare.
"What's so funny? This happened because you suddenly started grilling meat."
"No, she cries if I don't. But aren't you hot? Why always wear the helmet? Taking it off like now is comfy."
A shadowed sneer curled on Milia's lips.
"What else? Because of this face."
"?"
"With a face like this, every guy I meet tries their luck. 'Party with me,' 'Join our guild,' 'Marry me please'... One stalked me for over a year."
"If people like it, isn't that good?"
"Good, good, good."
"You types come bugging me every day—yeah, real good."
"Pfft, pfft, pfft."
Rista was the same.
Her peerless beauty, like a flower bud on the world's final cliff, drove most men to courtship.
Fride used to say that without the FakeWarrior precept of celibacy upon appointment, wolves vying to marry Rista would've drenched the Empire in blood.
"So I don't stay in one place. Always moving. If they don't know the face, I'm just some creepy woman who smells of goblin guts."
Muttering that, Milia gave a bitter smile shadowed in self-mockery. Time to tread carefully.
"You're skilled... and don't seem to like goblins much. Mind if I ask why you're so obsessed with them?"
"......"
"Not teasing, really. Just curious."
Milia didn't answer.
On this moonlit night with lukewarm summer breezes entering the cave from outside, she suddenly drew the longsword strapped to her back.
Blade wrapped in bandages without a sheath—just like Rista. Shyrfang the Peerless Star Sword had no scabbard, so Rista wrapped its blade too and hung it from her belt.
"Out of 12,214 village and city damage reports to the Alliance last year, 43 were goblin-related."
"Only 43 a year? That's low for the whole continent."
"Low, low, low."
"Low. But could you say that to the victims' faces?"
With a chill scoff, Milia gently caressed the bandaged blade. The motion was poignantly desolate, beyond words.
"It's work someone has to do. But no one wants to. Newbies hunt a few times, complain about the smell, the filth, low rewards, and quit fast."
"......"
"Adventurers just climb higher the stronger they get. No one looks down below. People who need help aren't just up top—they're down there too."
Her voice was scolding, bitterly cold, yet it didn't feel bad. Rather, a familiar voice overlapped hers, quickening my heart's rhythm.
Rista...
Rista used to say things like that. Far brighter and kinder than Milia, of course...
"The nickname Goblin Slayer is for those people. Mock me like before if you want. I'm proud of it."
With that, Milia sheathed her cherished sword on her back and didn't look at me again. I could only stare vacantly.
- I want to make a world where everyone smiles.
Rista had said that, purely sincere, without a speck of pretense.
She never lied to others or herself. She upheld her beliefs uncompromisingly.
Milia differed from Rista in many ways—colder, sharper... but her beautiful core felt unmistakably similar.
'Am I Lin's reincarnation, and is Milia Rista's?'
If so, unlike me, even her appearance was identical—an enigma.
Just a baseless guess, yet when it formed in my mind, everything felt painfully chaotic.
Even this awkward silence between us, and that icily distant demeanor.
Just like the moment I first met Rista three hundred years ago in the chaos. Just like I'd felt from that very first encounter.
"You're a good person."
Like three hundred years ago, even now.
The thought slipped from my mind to my lips unbidden.
Milia sneered, as if amused yet strangely wistful.
"Me, a good person?"
That sneer was so cold, so frigid, it was impossible to fathom the whirlpool of life tangled within.
"A good person wouldn't pocket all the reward money while helping people."
"......?"
"I do it for the money. Specializing in goblins pays surprisingly well since no one else does. Get it? All talk, no substance. Forget it."
With that, as if the conversation was over, Milia donned her helmet and walked out of the cave. I blankly watched her retreating back.
We were so close, close enough for voices to reach—yet it felt like an uncrossable wall stood between us.
It was a bit too soon to realize that wall had been built by her heartbreakingly wretched past and present.