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Chapter 94

Maybe that wasn’t the right word.

Rook hadn’t lost his sight. Rather, the world seemed to have lost its light.

Vwoosh!

As frightening energies swirled around him, the darkness that had covered his surroundings melted away like candle wax.

Laughter rang out from all around him.

As if ripping through the bark, multiple mouths, eyes, and ears formed on the huge trees before letting out a maddening laugh.

The darkness that had surrounded the area faded and seemed to be sucked toward the center of the forest.

The gathered darkness bubbled like magma and then shot upward like a fountain.

Splash...

There, the darkness took form. All those who were still alive witnessed it...

[...]

A huge dark being.

The huge trees that were themselves dozens of meters tall weren’t even half the size of the entity.

Black cloth cascaded down like a waterfall, and a crown sculpted from bleached skulls sat on its head.

“Aah!”

Juan let out a scream of joy as blood gushed out of him.

“Our God of Disaster...!”

The demon lord looked down, but it didn’t seem to be responding to Juan’s call.

Rip.

The swirling darkness parted as something popped out of the cloth.

Rook realized that it was a huge pure-white finger.

Even giants’ fingers weren’t that big.

[...]

The demon lord pointed at Juan with his finger, as if to announce something.

“Aah, God of Disaster! I am but a lowly servant—”

Crunch...

The last expression on High Priest Juan’s face was that of joy as he turned into a puddle of blood.

In a daze, Rook looked down at the puddle that had been Juan.

The blood had an ominous black color and reminded him of a deep swamp.

Demon Lord of the Black Swamp, Ahop...

For the first time, he agreed with the classification given by the cult.

This wasn’t just a demon lord. This was a god.

This was a supreme being that one had no choice but to worship, that one couldn’t even beg for their lives to, a being who could sweep away humans without effort.

Rook felt his body shake.

This was a level of fear that he had never felt before.

The only reason that Rook’s mind hadn’t yet crumbled was his restrained upbringing.

“Uh, ah...”

But the other person still alive was different.

Heretic Inquisitor Juniang.

Even the warrior who had forged herself in fear and fought against demons dozens of times was overcome by fear upon seeing a god of disaster.

Juniang fell to her knees, her gaze fixed upon the demon lord as drool escaped from her open mouth.

[...]

The demon lord’s finger pointed at Juniang...

Crunch...

And Juniang also turned into a puddle of black blood.

“...”

Rook prepared for his final moments.

...The high priest used himself as a sacrifice.

He hadn’t even known that was possible.

It had probably been the last ace up Juan’s sleeve.

With that price paid, the demon lord had manifested, and with a single goal in mind...

The death of all humans present.

Unlike their initial plan, the entire land wouldn’t be overtaken by demonic energies, but there was nothing Rook could do to avoid death.

He nearly laughed.

He’d known that this wouldn’t be an easy operation.

It involved a high priest, after all.

He’d known his life was at risk.

However, he hadn’t expected to die such a vain death.

But hadn’t House Bednicker’s plan succeeded in the end?

The high priest was dead and the plan had been stopped?

Crack.

Rook ground his teeth.

This couldn’t be the end.

As a Bednicker...

As the captain of the Iron Blood Knight Order...

And most importantly, as the younger brother of the Lord of Blood and Iron...

He couldn’t die here.

“Haaaah!”

After clenching his teeth, Rook let out a roar.

Storm-like energy swirled around his body.

What could he do here?

Face the god of disaster and fight?

No, that wasn’t it.

Rook’s attention fell upon Evan.

Although he’d known that Evan was the vice-cult leader, he hadn’t expected this place to become the birthplace of that vice-cult leader.

Even if he’s the vice-cult leader...

He needed to escape with Evan.

Using all his remaining strength to surround his body, Rook dashed toward Evan.

Crunch...

That was his final moment.

There were still a dozen steps until he would have reached Evan. To be precise, after taking only five steps, Rook had turned into the same black puddle he had seen before and collapsed.

Clang.

The white sword Rook had held in his hand clattered to the ground.

***

In an instant, three people had died.

High Priest Juan.

Heretic Inquisitor Juniang.

Captain of the Iron Blood Knight Order, Rook Bednicker.

These three were so powerful that I had no chance of defeating them in my current state.

But they had all died in an instant without being able to resist.

[...]

The demon lord’s gaze turned to me.

I also felt fear, but it wasn’t enough to freeze my body.

The problem was that I couldn’t think of any way out of this situation.

What if I stick next to Evan?

If Evan really was the vice-cult leader, then not even the demon lord would mindlessly kill him.

I didn’t know how he was attacking us, but if it also affected objects in the area...

Of course, it might not work, but if I was going to die anyway, I needed to try something.

And I don’t think I can talk to this demon lord either.

The problem was that my body seemed to be completely exhausted after that fight. It wasn’t moving as easily as I wanted it to.

I had lost quite a lot of blood as well, so my consciousness was on its last thread.

Even so, as I gritted my teeth and took a step...

The demon lord’s finger moved.

Then, something unexpected happened.

For the first time, the finger stopped.

[...]

An ominous glowing eye looked at me from under the skull mask.

I thought that the demon lord was hesitating for a moment, but it passed in an instant.

As the bent finger stretched to point at me...

Fwoosh!

A storm erupted around me.

I felt the familiar energy as I turned to look back.

Sellen?

Sellen’s blood-drenched silver hair was roiling about as she stretched out her hand.

Unlike before, her eyes were sharp.

Sellen’s eyes were looking directly in front of her.

Clang! Crackle!

A much stronger sword wind cut through toward the demon lord.

The demon lord tried to use his finger to block the wind...

[...]

But I saw it all from within the sword wind. The demon lord withdrew his hand right before the wind hit him.

Crash!

* * * * *

* * * * *

The gale summoned by Sellen cut through the demon lord’s manifested form.

“Ah...”

The darkened surroundings brightened up again.

The ominous and frightening energies disappeared with the wind, and the trees returned to their original forms.

The night forest became silent. It felt as if nothing at all had happened.

“...It’s over.”

My legs gave out and I dropped to the ground.

The tree branches the high priest had broken were still broken, so I was able to look up at the open night sky.

It was the first time I’d realized the night sky could shine so brightly.

Even though it had only been three days, the night sky embedded with stars felt so beautiful that I nearly cried.

Of course, it was too early for me to get swept up in my emotions.

I let out a sigh and said, “Hey, Sellen, you’re no joke. You defeated a demon lord. With this, Goodspring—”

I stopped talking. Sellen was leaning against a tree.

She smirked as she looked at me.

“What about Goodspring?”

“...”

I looked Sellen in the eye as I asked, “You... are you dying?”

***

Sellen let out a low laugh.

“I told you, it was pretty risky.”

“...”

“The high priest?”

I looked down at Sellen as I responded, “He’s dead. Did you use that technique knowing that you’d die?”

“It’d take an idiot not to know.”

“Was there any other way?”

“There might have been.” Sellen smirked. “But... this is fine.”

She sounded tired.

I calmly waited for her to say something else, but Sellen only let out light breaths and refused to say anything.

In the end, I was the one who asked first.

“What made you so tired?”

“Who knows...”

I could see Sellen’s blank eyes.

Rather than her normal clear and intelligent look, her eyes were foggy.

Even though it had to be difficult to use her vision, it seemed like she was looking at something.

Maybe her life was flashing before her eyes.

“Cough.”

When she coughed, dark, dead blood spilled out from her mouth.

Sellen didn’t even think to wipe away the blood flowing down her young hero uniform.

“Hey, you...”

I stopped talking.

Are you okay? Don’t give up. You can live.

In this situation, I didn’t want to say those irresponsible things.

Instead, a totally random word came out of my mouth.

“...Secret. You said you had a secret to tell me.”

“...”

“Or was that something you just said back then?” I made myself sound annoying on purpose as I continued, “If you confess now... I’ll forgive you. You just wanted to sound cool and said it without thinking back then, right?”

Sellen silently laughed before forcing herself to say, “No.”

“Then tell me.”

“Really?”

Eventually, she spoke.

“You know... I know the future.”

“...”

“One of the unique heirlooms of House Goodspring is the Tome of Laplas. It contains things that will happen in the future. A sort of... prophecy.”

“...”

“But... no one actually trusts it. It’s written in an unknown script that no one is able to read...” Sellen paused. “...Except for me.”

There was another moment of silence.

I looked at Sellen.

“Is that it?”

“What.”

“I’m asking if that’s all there is to your secret. Is that it?”

Although Sellen had said that, I couldn’t accept it.

What she’d just told me probably wasn’t a lie. It was definitely the truth. However...

The words that Sellen was speaking right before her death didn’t seem like the secret that she had been holding all this time.

I didn’t have any proof or logic as to why.

It could just be my mistake.

However...

“...”

Sellen looked at me once more.

She probably couldn’t even see my face properly.

I thought I mistook a hint of joy in that gaze.

“...Heh.”

I hadn’t been mistaken.

Sellen laughed as if she was happy.

Although she coughed up more blood in the process, Sellen was happy right now. She looked even more carefree.

I couldn’t understand how someone who was always annoyed and full of frustration could look so joyful and free in her final moments.

“My name... isn’t actually Sellen.”

I blinked.

That was a condensation of a lot of big topics.

I looked at Sellen as I slowly asked, “Then what’s your real name?”

“...”

At that, Sellen flinched a little.

Her hazy eyes seemed to go through a dusty bookshelf.

“My real name...”

Sellen looked around the bookshelf in her mind for a while, searching for her real name.

“Huh...”

Her lips quivered for a moment.

“What did it sound like...”

“...”

The sound of bugs became louder.

A crescent moon appeared behind the clouds to shine down on the forest.

Step.

I walked toward Sellen and used my one hand to close her blank eyes.

Then, after hesitating for a moment, I removed my bloodied cape and covered her.

Sellen Goodspring, the girl who’d yearned for the warmth of spring but most resembled the cold winter she’d shivered in... May she never shiver again.