Sunk
It sank. 20. It sank.
So I began wandering the empty streets alone, staring at the empty space below my left elbow. Inside the tattered black robe. The left forearm that had vanished, leaving only emptiness behind, kept bringing back the painful memories of that day—no matter where I was.
Belberman. The so-called savior of the century, who created a golden opportunity through Yustitia’s sacrifice. In truth, he had already been this world’s savior long before that. Even after the man called the Hero appeared, the world remained steeped in darkness, everyone waiting for annihilation with necks bared, merely exhaling. But Belberman—he alone looked in the exact opposite direction from everyone else.
He truly loved the time he spent with us. He was genuinely happy. Just as I had, he cherished the moments we shared together. That was why he wanted to protect us. Even though he could barely protect his own body.
Monster invasions. The Demon King’s declaration of war. Beneath the Hero’s solitary stand. Belberman, who always put us first, eventually made his choice. When everyone shouted that it was impossible, that it was a meaningless death. When everyone cried that following the Hero was nothing but suicide. Belberman raised the massive greatsword he used in the hunting grounds toward the sky.
We hadn’t blindly trusted him either. But when he stepped forward first, and when the Hero ahead of him began digging into the pitch-black void where light began to seep through, we soon realized that Belberman’s back was our final salvation toward hope. And so we moved.
We trusted each other on that journey. We trusted Belberman. We stood before the root of all evil and poured everything we had into slaying that colossal malice, yet—
“……”
It was a nightmare. Even knowing that, it was a nightmare we could never wake from by our own will. A nightmare we could never shatter no matter what.
To humans, the Demon King was an existence far beyond measure. Before her, humans were no different from worthless dust that couldn’t even boast of their presence. I still remember the death of another hero, my closest friend, Yuda. The Demon King merely flicked her finger once. I still vividly remember Yuda’s limbs being torn away. It won’t fade. A person who had been standing perfectly fine right in front of me—someone who managed his condition better than anyone—had his limbs severed and died from a single finger flick.
Though that absurdly decisive magic could only be used once at most, and we never saw the same spell again after Yuda’s sacrifice, from that moment on my fighting spirit was already broken. So until Pierreta landed her decisive strike, we had already thought we lost and couldn’t fight properly. Even after she struck, even after she failed, I couldn’t rouse my frozen body. In the Demon King’s surprise attack that seized my trembling breath like a quaking aspen, my left arm and abdomen burst open, and I lost part of my organs.
Thud, thud——
After that, Yustitia’s explosion scattered us in all directions. Already gravely wounded, none of us could escape our fated deaths. But Siphel. The coward Siphel had survived until that moment. That fool who had despaired and given up everything before anyone else had, in the end, come to his senses and begun pulling the surviving us out from under the Demon King’s gaze.
Siphel had always been that kind of guy. He was always the first to fail to overcome fear, the first to despair, the useless one who was never any help when it truly mattered, right before success. But at times like this—when everyone was in danger—he always appeared like a comet and watched our backs. That was why we couldn’t hate him.
However, after being rescued by Siphel, I last saw him pulling out the blood-soaked Karman, whose condition was too severe to even assess, and Jeren who had lost both arms. After that, I could no longer find Siphel. And when I thought everything had ended despite Siphel’s efforts, people arrived.
The main force of humanity’s soldiers who had lured the monsters away to buy us time to enter the Demon King’s castle—they found and rescued us. Even as I was being rescued by them, who joined late believing there might be other survivors besides us three, I had been pleading for them to wait for survivors while conscious. Because in that moment, I had personally seen Belberman being flung far away in Yustitia’s explosion, calling her name and clinging to consciousness.
But even that quiet place eventually became a battlefield as monsters flooded in, and we could no longer rely on Siphel alone to wait. No matter how ingeniously talented Siphel was at covering our rear, the opponent was the Demon King, and the stage was her stronghold—the Demon King’s castle. Even Siphel couldn’t possibly save everyone in this situation.
So in the end, I too gave up my lingering attachment to survivors. All I could do was be grateful to the allied kingdom forces who took us across the bridge of corpses spanning the Returnless Gulf, through the sea’s storms, and brought us home. Beyond that, there was only guilt.
All of humanity had believed in the Hero and us, sacrificing everything so we could succeed. Yet in the end, we accomplished nothing. We even sacrificed Belberman, the only savior.
But humanity didn’t blame us. They took all our faults as everyone’s fault. That was why they desperately treated us survivors, helped us cling to life, and supported us so we could live peacefully afterward. But how? How could we live so wretchedly?
I still couldn’t stay still, holding onto hope for the other surviving heroes alongside Jeren, who had regained consciousness, while Karman remained unconscious. We used every method available to us, running on foot to chase their traces, to find those who might have survived—at least Siphel.
Yet even after thoroughly searching all five kingdoms located on the continent’s outskirts among the seven allied kingdoms, we ultimately found nothing. So I gave up and drowned myself in alcohol to forget the pain, but when I sobered, only more bitter memories returned, sharper than before. Unable to escape that pain, I made my decision alone.
Let’s fight one last time. Let’s overcome it this time. This time, without yielding to that nightmare, let’s fight bravely like Belberman did. Like he did. Even if the end is death. I felt sorry for Jeren, who would have a harder time because I was disappearing after losing both arms, and truly sorry for Karman, who would eventually wake. But—
Click——
“……Uncle.”
I have to do this. Living like this… I’ve committed too many sins. I’m too sorry to everyone.
“Yuda, isn’t it…… You were alive……”
So I stopped by the weapon shop we used to frequent during our passionate hunting days. The uncle who had always looked kindly on us was still running the store. When I returned in my greatly changed appearance, he looked extremely flustered yet gazed at me with a worried face.
“……Yuda, your arm……”
“……Give me a weapon.”
Seeing the left arm visible beyond the swaying robe, the uncle was shocked. But I wanted only one thing.
“I heard a new technology was developed.”
A weapon. The one and only way to confront the Demon King. I wanted just one weapon to explode, to burst forth all these emotions of mine.
“Give that weapon to me.”
And I took out a thick leather pouch from my bosom and handed it to him. With a clink, the cheerful sound echoed as it landed on the table before the uncle. Inside that pouch was all the consolation money I had received from countless people after returning alive.
“You brat, come to your senses…… How with just one arm——”
The uncle still pushed the money pouch back toward me, shaking his head. But—
“They say even one arm is enough for that.”
I had already heard all the information about that weapon. After all, it was information my childhood friend from the military had personally told me. The only ones left to me, who had lost all my precious comrades on the battlefield and returned, were Jeren, Karman, and my childhood friends. I had received much help from them. That was why I could stand again.
“……”
In the end, the uncle brought out the weapon for me. He had finally acknowledged the resolve in my dirtied eyes.
“This one, even I couldn’t get many of.”
“……”
It resembled a long, thin cylindrical pipe, but unlike a pipe, it had a grip to hold and a wide wooden piece that could be attached to the shoulder. And it had a section densely packed with complex, small mechanisms. It was a weapon newly invented thanks to a genius excavated by the seven kingdoms. A weapon that fires flames through this cylinder—called a firearm.
“These days, soldiers call this a gun. Seems easier to say.”
“……How much ammunition is there?”
This weapon was similar to a bow. It needed ammunition like arrows, and a simple firearm alone couldn’t produce proper firepower.
“……I got plenty of that, but Yuda.”
Fortunately, in response to my question, the uncle brought over a magazine filled with sufficient ammunition. But—
“No matter how easy it is to use with one hand, really using it with just one hand……”
At his appearance of trying to stop me until the very end, click—— I immediately picked up the firearm, tucked it under my arm, loaded five rounds into the chamber, bit the body with my chin to secure it, then— clack—— pushed the handle connected to the bolt to chamber the round.
“……”
After reloading the firearm I had bitten in my mouth at such speed, I grabbed it again with my right hand and removed it from my mouth.
“I already know how to use it, so don’t worry.”
The uncle eventually bowed his head and offered me the magazine. He seemed to have given up on stopping me.
Rattle——
“……Yuda……”
In the end, as I dragged the box containing the firearm and the magazine while trying to leave the shop, the uncle called out to me.
“……Don’t die.”
“……”
After leaving those final words, he went back inside the shop. I hesitated briefly at his words, but in the end, I couldn’t give him a reply.
“……I’m sorry, Uncle.”
Eventually, I left the shop and headed straight for the border region. Though it was a ten-day walk from where I was, that was enough. I could fight without eating, run without drinking. Because my body was already no different from dead. It didn’t matter even if I did that.
“……”
Already when I lost my left arm, several organs had been torn away. So even if my physical condition looked better than Jeren’s and Karman’s to the eye, my body with missing organs would die without the doctor’s nutrient injections and plasma. Such crude life-support measures were no longer useful to me, who had resolved to let go of everything and become a hero once more.
So at the end of my unwavering steps, I arrived at the Caspia border region. The area directly adjacent to the Demon Realm where my old friends were stationed. A few steps toward the coast from there, I could see the bridge of corpses spanning the Returnless Gulf. The Demon Realm, inactive since the final battle with the heroes, had not yet begun its invasion led by monsters. But that bridge, surrounded by massive sea storms and black clouds, always instilled the fear that the enemy could invade at any time in everyone stationed there.
That was why the Caspia border region was called the gateway to hell for all surviving humanity. But I, who had so desperately longed for that hell, soon arrived at that gateway and met—
“Curtis. Katman.”
My grateful friends who had supported my failure.
“You came, Yuda.”
“We have enough ammunition.”
As frontline soldiers, they already possessed the finest firearms supplied by the kingdom alliance. But since ammunition was limited, I had deliberately brought firearms of the same caliber from the uncle and provided matching ammunition.
“……What about Edra and Chief?”
“They left first. Said they’d scout the situation beyond the bridge.”
Following the two who had departed first, I crossed the bridge of corpses together with the two who had waited for me.
“……”
Though if we carried out this plan as is, these four soldiers would become deserters to the kingdom alliance, to me these four precious friends were the grateful ones who had found a place for me—who had returned to live wretchedly—to die comfortably. And they were the ones who, rather than waiting for annihilation due to the heroes’ failure, had wished for death together with everyone.
Sorry. Truly, I’m sorry. But I was that grateful. Grateful that they would die with me.
“……Let’s go, everyone.”
The best ending for us would be rescuing Belberman. The worst ending would be—
“To save the savior.”
Being annihilated without accomplishing anything. To avoid only that ending, we offer everything. We’ve already lost everything. There’s nothing left to offer. By offering my precious comrades, I will make a deal with the King of Hell. Return my savior to me, Demon King. If I can repay with my death, I will gladly do so.
Thud, thud———
“So you’re the one called Yuda?”
“What, this parasitic bastard~ Let’s go, Curtis!”
What appeared as we crossed the bridge of corpses, piercing through the sea storm, was my long-ago memory. Of the savior. And of my origin.