Chapter 181 – Before the Lights Go Out -2-
Can I, who has become ordinary, revive the world tree?
I didn’t know how, but I felt that I had to face the World Tree myself to find out the answer.
And as a result, the World Tree was born again.
Of course, there was a little price to pay.
“Is it because it is out of balance? This is not okay.”
I, who kept leaning to one side, habitually scratched the back of my head while making a campfire.
No, I tried to scratch it, but it failed.
“Don’t you get used to it?”
Very thankfully, my body was in demand.
I lost all the power of the evil god, but did the vessel not lose its value?
‘If it’s one arm in exchange for reviving the World Tree, it’s cheap.’
Moreover, since he sacrificed his left arm, which had been shot by Neritiel, this was a very profitable trade.
However, even though the arm is gone, the illusion that the arm still exists is sometimes due to the fact that the brain has not yet accepted it.
‘Let’s do inventory management…’
I paid for the demon’s power, a toe, and this time one arm.
Still, I still have one extra arm left, and I can say that the price for legs and internal organs is plentiful.
If it’s a body that will die and crumble anyway, I’m just grateful that I can sell it to a place that pays a high price.
“That… Shall I?”
Then, a girl across the street spoke to me.
It seemed that he had been talking to me for a long time, and now he succeeded in talking to me.
As I stared at him without saying anything, she pulled the robe tighter and looked at her floor.
And then, the way her fingers fiddled with pieces of stone… It was a bit salty.
But rather than that salty heart, it’s just that the loveliness is bigger.
“Will you? Thank you.”
“Uh, uh, really? Wait for a sec! I’ll do it right away!”
He is so excited about my reply that he jumps up and approaches the pile of branches.
―Fire.
She sighs and lights a fire in an instant.
There is no way I wouldn’t know that the fire was not naturally occurring, but sparks spewed out by dragon descendants.
“Hey, what’s his name?”
Thanks to the robe, I can only see her lips, but her heart is overflowing, and I can’t seem to control my emotions well with longing and affection.
That’s why she didn’t answer right away, but after a little time, she opened her mouth.
“Ed. You?”
“Joe, that’s a good name! I am Beatrice!”
Her heart was heavy and sad, but she was happy nonetheless.
I thought I would never see her again, but now she is right in front of my eyes like this.
If I had followed the set route, I wouldn’t have met you.
“That’s a lovely name.”
“… Eh, huh?”
“No, there was someone with the same name.”
My sincerity came out of him without my knowledge, but I made an excuse.
Beatrice shouldn’t feel distant from me.
“Okay… ?”
It was no coincidence that she and I met.
Beatrice must have left the village and wandered in search of a ‘human who uses special powers’ relatively recently.
It must be to find that human and to defeat the curse of Baladur and the evil dragon.
Unfortunately, Beatrice cannot find such a person.
After meeting Yurgon, who was selected as a hero, and going through all kinds of humiliation, he must be meeting me.
I will also turn this over.
So I put together the stories I had heard before and found Beatrice, and now we were together at the same party.
Two mercenaries of the same rank, Beatrice, and me, the porter.
We were currently on a mission to subdue small monsters.
* * *
It wasn’t long before Beatrice had to be forcibly held by her father and ancestor, the evil dragon Baladur.
A village inhabited by half-human, half-dragons.
The only people living in that village were females who had received Baladur’s seed at least once.
Or are about to receive.
Succeed or fail to conceive with the dragon’s seed.
Those two miserable futures awaited Beatrice.
Even if she gave birth to a child, if it was a boy, she would be eaten immediately.
It was normal in the town where she was born.
‘A person who uses special powers…’
That’s why she decided to run away from the village and find the human of the oral story.
Her given deadline is until the year she comes of age.
The first thing she realized while wandering outside her world was,
It was that humans hate and despise the heterogeneous race.
Not all of them were like that, but at least all the humans she met were like that.
So, while wearing a robe, she hid what could be identified as a heterogeneous race.
But that wasn’t enough.
After accepting a small-scale monster subjugation request to earn living expenses, everyone in the party found out that he was of a different race.
“Is there a need to catch monsters for a quest? First of all, that is also a monster.”
The party member who was about to attack the scales that sprouted on the back of his hand immediately became alert.
Thanks to her desperate excuses, at least Beatrice was not attacked.
‘Are you okay. I’m not here to be treated like a human being.’
Two mercenaries with their hands on her waist, ready to cut down Beatrice at any time.
It was unpleasant and daunting to the point of being terribly unbearable, but that was okay.
After completing this quest, you can go to another city.
Let’s find a human who uses special powers there.
‘However…’
She looked at the porter who joined last in the group.
For what he was thinking, the man who claimed to be an unpaid porter.
It was clear that this man would also despise himself.
However, he also covered his face with a robe like himself, so he couldn’t tell what expression he was making.
From the perspective of humans, are heterogeneous people classified as disabled?
If so, that man and himself had something in common.
So, seeing him silently doing his job with one arm, I felt a sense of kinship.
I came out into the world with a noble mission to break the terrible link that the evil dragon continued, but couldn’t I turn away from loneliness?
Beatrice tried to put her words on her man, and that opened her speech.
“That’s a lovely name.”
“… Eh, huh?”
I was going to say aloud, but the sudden words closed the distance in an instant.
Having never expected to hear such words, heat spread through Beatrice’s body.
When I heard it, I thought that the existence with the same name as myself might be the wife of that woman.
Because humans never talked like that.
‘But something is strange…’
Beatrice felt a strange sense of deja vu.
That sense of déjà vu came upon me intensely when I looked at her man or had a conversation with her.
For some reason, the appearance of silently answering and quietly examining oneself pierces the heart rather than alertness, and promotes certain, impulsive actions.
The urge to rush at that man right now.
Run in… Hugging and kissing…
– Damn!
“Evil!”
Beatrice, feeling that her head was getting weirder, slapped her cheeks with both of her hands.
Thanks to her, all of her delusions were put to flight, but the two mercenaries who were waiting for her decided that now was the right time for her because she had finished some kind of plan.
“Hey, porter. Empty your backpack.”
“If you catch it and sell it to Hegrove… Even if I can’t, I’ll take two thousand dinars. The sun has set for now, so let’s start tomorrow morning.”
Two mercenaries of the same rank pulled out their swords.
In response, the bluish complexion of Beatrice stepped back at her and opened her mouth.
If she asked if she was weak, she said it wasn’t.
It was because he was able to spit out enough heat to easily burn two mercenaries of the same rank.
But she was still young, glazed.
She hadn’t even come of age yet, and her self-esteem was hitting the bottom due to her discrimination, contempt, and hatred.
It was natural for her mind to go white.
-Sue.
“Yes? Have you emptied her backpack already?”
“If you take it well to Hegrove, I will give you about 100 dinars.”
As the porter approached Beatrice, the two mercenaries opened their mouths.
Of course, they had no intention of giving their money to such a one-armed porter.
‘After all, this human… Same.’
Beatrice felt that her tears were about to spill.
Could it be that all of her appearances, which she treated favorably towards herself just a little while ago, were all masks?
Humans are truly, cruel and vicious beings…
“Odd. And Andel. Upgraded to the same grade two months ago. As a special note, one of the party will surely disappear every time the three requests are completed.”
At that time, the one-armed porter opened his mouth quietly, pulling up his hood.
Although she was talking to the mercenary behind her, her man’s gaze was on Beatrice.
“You… What do you say…”
“In the past and in the future. They say you guys are trash that have no influence whatsoever.”
Beatrice’s field of vision was filled with her manly face.
“This bastard is talking nonsense… Tsk, you must want to die.”
A face with a happy expression and a sad and distressed expression coexisting.
That complicated face, I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere.
After a moment, her man’s hand reaches out to her.
Her startled Beatrice shrank her neck, but her hand gently brushed her back, closing her eyelids that were floating round.
“Beatrice. It’s over soon, so why don’t you just cover her ears and count 30 seconds?”
“Yes! Yes…”
A soft and warm tone.
I’ve never heard anything like this from a human.
“Ha, one… Two, two…”
So she obeyed her man’s words, obediently closing her eyes as if she had answered her mother.
What are you trying to do?
Really… Are you trying to protect yourself?
Beatrice, who was thinking about that with her trembling body, had already counted all 30 seconds.
She was afraid to open her eyes.
Could those two mercenaries and the porter man be one team?
He might do such troublesome things in order to annoy himself, to give and then take away hope—
– Swish, shush.
Those thoughts vanished the moment her man’s hand stroked her own hair.
A bewitching yet familiar touch that makes her feel that she is a very precious being.
The young half-dragon didn’t know why this petting felt familiar.
“Don’t open your eyes, hold this hand. There is something I want to tell you.”
“Yes…”
Beatrice’s heart began to pound.
With her eyes closed, she begins to walk cautiously as her man’s hand guides her.
A feeling she had never felt before that came to her.
‘It’s a special power… Is it like this?’
Such an illusion bloomed in her head, but in the end it was a good illusion.
