Chapter 170 – Episode 170. SHH
I don’t know when it was.
When I came to my senses, everything was over and everything was gone.
The sky was dyed dark red to the extent that the distinction between day and night was blurred, and everything beneath it withered, withered, crumbled, and crumbled…
‘Dave, where are you?’
In a world where everything was so endemic and waiting to turn to dust, she was roaming alone.
As if he forgot to take care of himself on the land of death, where the majestic civilization was collapsing and all life was fading away.
‘Dave, where are you… ?’
I knew very well that she was once called a dragon, walking through the fragmented land as if possessed by something about her.
Yes, it must have been in the past.
No matter how inevitably the concept of a demon king and a hero exists in this world, it can only be established if there is someone who even calls out their names.
‘… Dave?’
Then where is the demon king?
Why is the world the way it is, and is she walking through it alone, holding only a sword?
‘Dave~ You were there~ Ahahaha!’
There is only one thing you can know right now.
The woman in front of me is pursuing something even in a world where everything may be meaningless.
I only cling to that one thing.
As if it was the only salvation.
‘Dave, where the hell have you been… I, how I wanted to kill you… !’
A mass of rotten flesh left unattended in the middle of a collapsed world.
Repeatedly repeating that the thing she held in her hand was constantly thrown into it.
It couldn’t even be called a sword.
It was no different from a lump of iron that had already been crushed by countless strikes, she just mercilessly struck the thing in front of her without any skill.
‘At las…’
At the end of it, she began to draw a deep smile on her lips as she straightened her body, which was covered in her rotten blood, struggling to breathe.
‘Finally, I killed Dave, I killed him! Ahahahahahaha!’
The sound of laughter that seems to be crazy but pleasant, and yet feels light.
As if she had finally achieved her long-cherished wish, she burst into laughter and grabbed my face and began to loosen her grip on her sword.
Yes, as if I realized that everything was over by tearing off the flesh in front of me.
‘Then, what should I do now?’
The moment she realized that what she had been pursuing for so long had come true, empty complaints began to escape from her mouth.
‘I killed Dave, now, what am I to do…’ …’
Blankly.
Something that was a warrior who just stood on the spot and looked towards the sky with only empty eyes.
‘Oh yeah… That’s right.’
After the long silence ended, her voice began to leak out of the smile that stretched to the side again.
‘Dave…’
It was an epiphany.
A realization that gives a mission again to an existence that has lost its meaning by completing its purpose.
‘I have to go kill Dave.’
Put the goal you have already achieved into your mouth again, aim for it again, and repeat it.
‘Yeah… Dave is what I live for. Killing Dave is what I live for.’
The moment when the broken body is corrected again, and the empty spirit is revitalized.
Even so, she was trying to navigate this world.
‘Because while I’m alive, I have to kill Dave… Yeah, go on, go on… You have to kill Dave, you have to kill…’
Even if it’s a world with nothing left but yourself.
Even if it’s a world where no matter what you do, even if it’s a concept that can’t even be called a language.
‘Uh, ahahahahahahahaha!!’
She, who had demonstrated her will to live on, smiled as if she had lost her mind, and soon began to move out of my field of vision.
Dividing this world into me and non-me, and repeating the slaughter of everything that exists… A person waiting for the destroyed world to crumble.
“… Dave.”
The moment she reflexively tried to follow such a woman, someone’s voice was clearly heard from behind her.
The tone was the same as it had rang before,
And at that moment, a distinct voice came from behind.
As she slowly moved her gaze there, she became aware that the woman she had thought had vanished out of sight was standing in front of me.
Celica.
A hero who only aims to kill me in a destroyed world.
But there was no glimpse of madness in her as before.
Even though I know that the madman wandering this space and the person in front of me are the same person.
“You still think I’m fake?”
She asked a question with a faint smile on her face.
For some reason, despite being calm, she had a very sad look on her face.
***
… And.
“Huh… !!”
The moment her breath bursts from her stuffy chest.
I got up from the tent belatedly and took the time to reflexively examine what was around me.
I can’t see anything.
Not only Verdia, whom I had sex with last night, but also Celica, who attacked me.
“… Dream?”
As soon as I realized the situation, it was a reflexive word that came out.
No matter how vivid it was, it was hard to believe.
Beyond my mental instability, the fact that my personality, born of foreseeing the future, defeated me, and that the predicted future was truly a hellish scene with nothing left.
And the way she walks through such a scene, crying out for me who doesn’t exist anymore…
“Really, a dream?”
Right after the heart that I wished that all of that was a lie came out of my mouth.
“Mr. Porter? Are you awake?”
At that moment, a voice came from outside the tent. My gaze, which reflexively shrunk my body, was directed straight to the exit of the tent.
A silhouette nestled in the fabric that the light shines through as the dawn breaks.
“Mr. Porter. Are you okay?”
And the moment a familiar voice revealed its concern for me, I felt a considerable gap between the thoughts I had thought of and the current situation.
If what I remember is not a dream but a reality, I thought that the protagonist with the now revealed voice would not be able to express such feelings.
“Porter, I heard loud breathing just now. Are you sure you are sick?”
“Don’t go in, leave it alone. I must have had a nightmare while sleeping.”
What followed was Ymir’s voice.
However, there was no significant change in his attitude toward Celica.
Even though there’s no way she could treat her the same way if her personality had changed.
“But just in case you don’t know, I’ll check…”
“No, I’ll be leaving soon.”
Whatever it is, you’ll need to check it out for yourself.
I put on the mask and hood that I had taken off and went straight out of the tent.
Early hours around dawn.
As the dark forest gradually brightened, Heira and Verdia were making stew in front of the bonfire.
“Oh, are you awake?”
“… Mr. Verdia?”
“Morning, you don’t have to dress up today. Celica got up early and set it up.”
Verdia greeted me and Heira explained about the pot in front of me.
The two seemed insignificant, but I couldn’t bear to overlook the situation.
Originally, breakfast was supposed to be prepared by me, and even if Jung and the others helped, only Heira and Verdia had helped.
Her memory was unstable, and today was the first time Celica, who was protected, made breakfast herself.
“Oh, look at this guy. I can take my eyes off it, so I can make something like this grunt porridge with precious food.”
However, despite such unusual behavior, Ymir was moving her steps toward the pot containing Celica’s stew, without much suspicion.
The grim distorted face must have been due to the usual grumpiness, not malice.
“Ah oh… Did you do anything wrong?”
“It’s nothing. What does a guy who has never properly gripped a kitchen knife believe in, wasting food?”
“Ahh, uhhh…”
Celica was intimidated and made a gloomy expression.
Seemingly uneasy by the action, Verdia, who was sitting on her pot and pouring her stew into a bowl, started staring at Yumir.
“Ymir, don’t complain about the situation you don’t have. Celica made it to express her gratitude to us…”
“Yeah, it’s as good as Dave’s.”
“What, did I say I didn’t eat? In the first place, it was a body that studied while eating more than grunt porridge…”
While grumbling, Ymir accepts the plate Verdia gives out.
Then, as she scooped up her stew with a spoon, her face began to harden.
“…”
“Hey, how does it taste?”
“Don’t make me talk while eating, you bastard.”
Ymir continues to eat stew while answering Celica’s cautious question.
He had no friendly attitude at all, but watching him eat silently, the food seemed to suit his taste.
“Ymir, you are still disingenuous.”
“Be quiet.”
Furious at Verdia’s words, Ymir eats the stew.
Heira also saw that and burst out laughing, and then Celica, who felt her relief, turned her back from her seat and began to approach me.
“Would you like to have the porter too?”
A fairly cautious attitude must have been seen since I remember that I have been blatantly distancing myself.
“You can eat at least a meal together.”
Even so, I couldn’t find any difference between the way she closed the distance towards me and the way she had been walking around the travel room.
That’s right, it’s the usual Celica.
I don’t know if what happened last night was a dream or not, but Celica now is in a completely different state from what she saw then.
“No, thanks. I’m not feeling well today…”
So, I have to treat myself as usual.
After making that decision, I went back to the tent and tried to organize my thoughts.
“If you don’t come, I’ll rip you off your head?”
Pop.
The moment my body stiffened at the sudden voice of the day.
“… Uh?”
When I looked back with her exclamation, Celica faced me and began to head towards the place where her party was gathered with a bessy smile.
“Hi-Hi. Come quickly~”
Even though he lost his memory, he did not lose his unique innocence.
Just looking at that, I wondered if I hadn’t heard that bloody muttering from before…
“Oh, I forgot.”
No, it’s not an illusion.
I’m just fooling everyone.
She’s just fooling everyone by perfectly acting out what she had in the past.
“Mr. Porter.”
As if to prove my guess was true, she put her finger on my lips as she drew a faint smile on my lips.
And she said quietly.
A warning, secretly and distinctly, that you never know what will happen if I divulge what I have noticed in this moment.
“Shh.”
