Why Are You Here?
“About this next kingdom... wait two weeks after we arrive before going in. If we head straight in, something terrible will happen.”
“Do you know why?”
“If we just ask for the Holy Relic, they might execute us. Stealing it or taking it by force are our only options. Once the rebellion breaks out, it’ll be easy to take.”
Wait, what?
“Weren’t they supposed to bestow it upon us if I showed them this?”
I lightly lifted the red pendant hanging around my neck to show her.
Kenna shook her head in silence.
So stealing it or taking it by force was the true objective of this mission all along.
“Haaah...”
Crackle. Pop.
Indifferent to my churning thoughts, the campfire merely danced in vibrant tongues of flame. My head spun from the deluge of information. The useless hero could be shoved to the back of my mind for now; all I really needed to worry about was the resurrection business and waiting two weeks before entering the kingdom. It wasn’t that I doubted her. Kenna had no reason to lie to me, so I was inclined to believe her, but still... I vigorously scratched the back of my head once more.
A sudden weight settled on my right shoulder. Turning my head, I found Kenna leaning against me.
“If you’re sleepy, go ahead and sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”
I reached out my right arm, draping it over her shoulders to pull her close.
“It’s been so long since I’ve been able to relax like this,” she murmured, her shoulders trembling faintly.
“What do you mean, ‘so long’?”
“It just feels strange... that nothing is happening.”
Nothing happening, huh. From where I stood, all kinds of things had been happening to me.
Together, we stared into the fire in silence. As the night deepened, Kenna nodded off, blinking drowsily, only to startle awake, look at me, and doze off again. Over and over, she repeated the cycle, as though anxiety wouldn’t let her rest.
I needed to say something to put her mind at ease.
“I’ll stay right beside you, so don’t worry.”
Only upon hearing those words did her face soften into peace, finally letting sleep claim her.
BOOOOM—!
A sudden, ear-splitting roar dyed the night sky—once lit only by the moon—a furious red.
“That bastard Golgotha...”
My heart seized with worry that the blast might have jolted Kenna awake, but thankfully, her soft, steady breathing continued uninterrupted. She must have been thoroughly exhausted. After laying her down gently so she could rest in comfort, I waited for the other two to return.
About thirty minutes later, the mad bomber appeared, dragged along by the ear in Ershin’s firm grip.
“Thanks for dragging him back. Kenna’s fine, so let’s get some sleep. Golgotha, you’re on watch after me.”
“Pardon? Me? But why?” Golgotha protested, his eyes going wide as though suffering the world’s greatest injustice.
“Because thou dost set off explosions instead of brewing potions, is that not why?” Ershin retorted, glaring daggers at him.
“Ershin, you’ve got the final watch.”
“Is Kenna-ssi not taking a turn?”
“I’ll take Kenna’s shift tonight. She’s back on duty tomorrow.”
I looked down at Kenna lying to my right. Her expression was utterly serene, looking just like the Kenna of yesterday. Brushing back the strands of hair bathed in moonlight, I let the campfire keep me company as the night deepened.
During the first week, Kenna couldn’t fall asleep unless she was clinging right to my side. By the second week, she seemed to adapt, able to rest as long as I remained within her sight. By the third week, she appeared to have returned almost entirely to normal. It wasn’t until the fourth week that the gates of the first kingdom and the guards stationed beside them came clearly into view. As if to boast the realm’s sheer might, a colossal white wall rose before us, towering easily more than ten times the height of a grown man.
If we were to follow Kenna’s instructions, we had to hold out somehow for the next two weeks.
“We don’t know this place well, so let’s head to a nearby village and gather some intel first.”
“What? Can we not simply walk right in?” Ershin complained.
“He is likely exercising caution,” Golgotha said mildly. “After all, this is our first time visiting another kingdom.”
“Yeah, exactly. Ever since the desert, I want to be as careful as possible.”
And so, we stopped by Carswayton, a medium-sized village located half a day’s journey from the first kingdom. Lacking defensive walls, it was characterized by sprawling fields and clustered timber buildings. We were looking around the streets in search of an inn when it happened.
From a nearby alley, someone cloaked in a robe pulled low over their head was shoved by a villager, tumbling to the ground with a dull thud.
“Kyaah!”
The whimper sounded like a woman’s.
“Where do you think you’re crawling, you hideous freak?! Ptui!”
The villager scowled in deep disgust, spat on the ground, and stormed off.
“Are you all right?”
I walked over to get a closer look. Through the folds of the robe, bandages were wrapped tightly around her face, and between the gaps, raw, inflamed patches of skin were visible, looking severely burned. So that’s why they called her a freak.
“I’m sorry... It seems this place won’t take me in either.” The woman gave a faint nod. Her voice was indeed female, but horribly cracked and harsh, grating like scraping metal.
“Won’t take you in?”
“Well, you see...”
Suddenly, ragged breathing and a wave of pure bloodlust surged from behind me.
I turned around. It was Kenna.
“Why... why are you here?!”
“W-Whoa, Kenna, what in blazes is the matter?!” Ershin shouted.
“Kenna-ssi, please lower your voice,” Golgotha urged, flustered.
Kenna swayed on her feet as though she might collapse at any second, and I closed the distance in a single stride to support her.
“Who is this person?”
My voice didn’t seem to reach her. Clutching her head in agony, she glared from beneath her pointed hat with eyes blazing with pure, unrestrained fury at the woman before us.
“We weren’t supposed to meet until later! Why... why now?!”
Readjusting her stance, Kenna gripped her staff tightly and began an incantation. To suddenly try and kill someone—we needed to talk first.
“Wait! Let’s talk about this—!”
“Atasisrak.”
⟨ Incinerate the Brain ⟩
The very incantation that had scorched an orc’s brain to cinders.
A crimson glow erupted, and my eyes snapped instantly to the woman.
“Aaaargh!”
The woman thrashed against the ground, her back arching backward in unnatural, agonizing convulsions. White smoke began pluming from the crown of her head.
Crack. Snap.
“Ah... that hurts, you know.”
Accompanying a series of grotesque, clicking sounds, she squirmed and staggered back onto her feet.
Wait. An orc had died in a single strike, yet this woman survived. Convinced she was definitely no human, I drew my sword in an instant.
“Barisienoum!”
“Gagagaga gaga!”
“Gray Tisiel!”
Kenna frantically chanted strange incantations, but none of the spells triggered.
“I have to kill her... Why isn’t it working?!”
Despair began to flood her expression.
“Kenna, stay back! I’ll take care of this thing!”
Surging forward with blinding speed, I slashed straight for the neck.
Squelch—!
The blade met a mushier resistance than I had expected. It was tougher than a goblin, yet far softer than an orc or an ogre—almost like cutting into something right in between, like a human. The woman’s head slowly lost its balance and tilted sideways.
Thud. Roll, roll.
Could it really end this anticlimactically?
“Ariane—!”
“Haishi Komaio—!”
No, not yet.
If it were truly over, Kenna wouldn’t still be desperately chanting.
“Golgotha, blow it to pieces, now!”
“As you command.”
From beneath his billowing navy robes, an absurd swarm of potion flasks flew from Golgotha’s hands into the air. It looked as though he had emptied every single bottle in his bag—way too many.
KABOOOOM—!
I dove to the side, watching a colossal mushroom cloud of fire billow toward the sky. The reverberation of the blast trembled from the dirt beneath my feet straight into my chest. Kenna stood transfixed, hugging her staff tightly as she stared blankly into the raging inferno. I had no idea who this creature was, but she was Kenna’s enemy—which meant she had to be destroyed.
Looking around, the street was completely deserted; all the villagers had fled in panic.
From a distance, five guards came charging toward us. The towering blaze slowly died down, leaving the alley thick with swirling black smoke.
“Halt! What madness is this?!”
A guard’s gleaming, razor-sharp spearhead leveled straight at my throat. I raised both hands, signaling that I meant no harm.
“Please, just hear me out.”
“Silence! You lot are heading straight to the dungeons!”
Uh-oh. This was turning out dangerously similar to what Kenna had warned me about. Whether extorting or stealing, getting caught meant prison—and in the worst-case scenario, execution. We had to avoid that at all costs.
“Come on now, I swear there’s a good reason for this,” I said, acting as shamelessly unbothered as I could.
The guards continued to glare at me with grim, menacing scowls.
“Guhk—!”
Suddenly, the guards coughed up mouthfuls of blood in unison.
In that very heartbeat, an agonizing, white-hot pain tore through my chest.
Looking down, a sleek, wrist-thick crimson tentacle protruded straight through the left side of my chest. I’ve been impaled. And skewered on the tip of that tentacle, displayed like a morbid trophy, was my own heart.
“That hurt so much... Why are you doing this to me?!”
The woman’s voice echoed from just beyond my sight. If she was still alive after all that, she was undeniably not human. This tentacle had to belong to her.
Summoning the absolute last dregs of my strength, I turned my head to check on Kenna. She had collapsed to the ground, but she was uninjured, still clutching her staff tightly.
She isn’t hurt. Thank goodness.
I tried to part my lips, but no sound would come. Am I really dying?
My eyelids grew heavy, slowly sliding shut, and I drifted into the swallowing dark.
My chest still throbbed with a dull ache. They always said dying brought peace, but that was an absolute lie. Did Kenna get away safely?
Feeling the creeping certainty of death solidify into reality, I unconsciously fluttered my eyelids open.
W-Where is this...?
The previous street was gone without a trace. Before me stretched a vast, barren wasteland, beneath a perpetual twilight sunset hanging low on the horizon.
“Uh... did I come back to life?”
My voice actually worked. In a panic, I fumbled at my chest—only to feel a gaping hole straight through it. So I really had died.
Suddenly, my foot tripped over something.
“Hello there, new me.”
A severed head with nothing beneath the neck rolled across the dirt and greeted me.
A head rolling on the ground, carrying on a conversation. It bore my exact face. A chilling shiver ran down my spine, cementing the conviction that this place could not possibly be reality.
“You’ve died twice now, haven’t you? Since you’re the second one.”
The severed head looked straight up into my eyes as it spoke.
Twice... Once when my head was severed in the desert, and once just now when my chest was pierced through.
“Don’t tell me... are you the ‘me’ who died before?”
“Correct!”
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
I turned around. Sitting on the ground behind me was my own headless body, cheerfully applauding.