Chapter 243 – Chapter 243. A Story Planned From the Beginning.
“… You are gone.”
“Yes, you are gone.”
After Dave and the party ran over the hill, Varmash and Margaret, who had come with a group just in case, exchanged glances.
Barmash is preparing for exchanges with the Human Union, which has not yet been decided, and Margaret is strengthening her cooperative relationship with Dave.
He thought about rescuing the hero just in case, but the hero defeated the demon king just as he first boasted.
“What do witches plan to do in the future?”
“I will find a way to survive. Whether it’s the demon lord’s army or the human union.”
So, those who remain will have to find a way to survive somehow. After the demon king is defeated, the demon king’s army will disintegrate, and until a new demon king is born again, the place used as the demon king’s rule will turn into a crucible of chaos.
“… It’s a very harsh world. Nothing is going our way.”
“So if you can’t hold on, you have to adapt. Me too, you…”
Of course, for Barmash, the demon army is just a place he chose for survival and honor.
As much as Verdia considered herself and even considered her invitation to the Human Union, following her would be her method if her true nature was too much for her demon lord’s spirit.
“And that woman too.”
Even though she conceived an unwanted life.
As if she had no regrets left, she even thought of the long-serving woman who had followed her to this dangerous land.
“… Profit.”
“Godmother, you are crying.”
She’s a different species, and even after joining her tribe, she’s a woman who’s been wayward.
Her orcs, except for her Barmash, seemed to have a crush on her, and they couldn’t save her sympathy for her, who was left alone and shed tears.
No matter what happened to her, now that she is also a member of this tribe, is it natural?
“… A goblin.”
But Barmash can’t stand it.
Even knowing how she had come this far, she couldn’t treat her as coldly as she had before.
“Aren’t I resentful?”
What she pursued was to prove to the world that even stupid people like Orcs have honor.
There, this woman’s existence is a hindrance. She thought that if she wasn’t recognized as a pure orc, someone might try to acknowledge her accomplishments by disparaging them…
“Barmash, do you know?”
To her holding her own hand as she came to her side.
Despite the fact that her own existence is due to the curse of her disgraceful past, she shows no hostility toward herself.
She said, “The traces of that day, which she considered only miserable…”
Even though she already knew that it was too late for her salvation, even though she was reluctantly hungry and could not kill her child with her own hands, she threw it away and pretended not to know.
“She grew up to be a kid who could talk about honor, how I must have felt.”
In the end, she leads her tribe to her own home.
She was so proud of her blood that ran through her body, this honorable being who had stood before the hideous dreamer to protect her World Tree.
Her own empty heart, which had been left alone for the past 100 years, and even delayed the time of her reunion because she had not been able to show her courage…
Because in the tragic journey that drove the man who loved her to the edge of the cliff, she felt filled with a little bit of hope.
“So be proud, Barmash. You… It’s one of the blessings I got from traveling the world with him.”
In a story that should have ended in tragedy, at least an existence to comfort the wounds was left.
Since he shouldn’t forget the pain, wouldn’t he have no choice but to love him more?
***
Yes, that’s how their story ended.
The story of a hero who could not stand the tragedy he had suffered and foresaw that such a tragedy would repeat in the future, so he went on an affair to change the world…
“Serica.”
However, to genuinely sympathize with him, we were also in a position where we might be caught up in such a tragedy.
After being tricked by a dreamer, his mind becomes unstable, and after that, after losing his memory, he wanders into a distorted future with unwanted nightmares…
“Serica!!”
At the end of that, she even defeated her demon lord, because she didn’t know what choice she would make after this fight.
“Everybody stop!!”
Even though I ran with such an anxious mind.
In front of a huge mass of flesh, instead of welcoming us, she was shouting on the spot as if to throw out her warning.
“… Celica.”
At that cry, everyone, including me, stopped walking, and finally the scene where she was standing came into view.
The cataclysm that took place at the end of the battle, the clotted blood must have originated from the body of the demon king.
The moment when even the demon king, who had endlessly regenerated his body, cut his body to the point where his limits were revealed.
She stabbed her sword precisely into the center core of her six pieces dug up like that, and with her bloody body stretched out, only her gaze was directed at us.
“I am…”
Unlike the last time I saw you, with very haggard eyes.
“I am not the Celica you know.”
That’s how I confess one fact to us.
In a very resolute voice, as if teaching a fact that everyone, including myself, has not been aware of.
“Serica…”
“Look at me now.”
Celica began to open her own arms in front of us who just called her name without her heart.
“Do I look like the Celica you all know? The woman who always laughed like an idiot in front of you guys?”
She seems to be trying to force herself into a smile, but the corners of her mouth are twisted ugly, and the ends twitch as if they are filled with disgust.
Her breath quickens just by standing still, and her pupils also tremble.
It was a figure that could not be imagined of a hero who succeeded in defeating the demon lord and saving the world.
Now she barely has a sense of mission as a warrior, and she doesn’t even see the face of a foolish woman who still has dreams and hopes…
“… Even though she killed the demon king, she doesn’t feel rewarded.”
She, who has clearly revealed her miserable face, is whispering to us with her trembling voice.
“Even though I saved the world, it doesn’t feel very rewarding. I can’t erase the anxiety that there is still something left.”
“What the heck…”
“That’s because I’m already dirty!!”
Even that of her was eventually turned into her sobbing, and even her steps, which were worried about her and tried to approach her, stopped halfway by her.
Knowing that the reaction she’s showing now isn’t just that she looks excited after her battle is over.
“Even though I knew I had to kill him, I couldn’t.”
On the contrary, I knew that even the calmness I had maintained so far was to hide my inner thoughts.
“Because we neglected it like that, the world became a mess, and we killed people who shouldn’t have been killed. I wandered around a world where everything I could see was not good.”
In the midst of her misery, where no one interfered, she put her hand on her own head and began to pull her hair, putting her strength into it.
“I found out that it was all a lie, but the memories kept echoing in her head. Even though I know it’s a future that won’t happen, I keep hearing whispers. This isn’t the end, this can’t be the end. Clearly, there may be more to do after this… !!”
“… Celica.”
“It’s strange. I killed the demon king! It’s all over now, but why can’t this anxiety go away?”
A lump thicker than the blood on her body bursts out of her mouth and begins to block her breath.
Just facing it makes me feel the pain.
The fact that the person we love in her, the one who swung her sword so desperately to save the world for us, that she is tormented by the nightmare she sent her.
“Yeah, because it’s already dirty.”
Furthermore, the moment she foresaw that she would not be able to shake off such confusion in the future, and that perhaps she could impulsively commit an irreversible thing because she could not bear the anxiety.
“… Everyone thinks that there is no way that I, like this, will be able to live properly in the era of peace that will begin from now on, right?”
To the questions that continued as if driving a wedge into him, no one, including me, could answer with certainty.
Verdia, Heirado, and even Ymir.
A woman facing the corpse of a monster who lost her life with a sword stabbed in the center of her flesh so fragmented that even its traces were unknown…
Because we couldn’t accept that he was the same as the innocent and innocent being we were trying to save.
“So finish it now.”
I will accept it nonetheless.
Even before she uttered those words, her resignation, which continued before her, in her young voice, she involuntarily tightened her breath and looked back at her.
“It’s over, it’s different…”
“Dave, you can do it. If it’s your power that awakened the power of the ancients… You can erase my memory.”
Erase the memory
Even if everything wasn’t real, that experience would have felt clearer than the real thing.
In such a yard, erasing memories is practically the same as dying. Is it really possible to punish it with my own hands?
“… No need to sympathize I’m not the Celica you know, because I’m a monster worse than the demon lord.”
“It is not so. Celica, you…”
“If I put on this body like that, Celica’s future, which you guys love, will disappear as it is.”
Pop.
The moment when persuasion is cut off by the following words.
As if gaining her confidence in her brief silence, she eagerly vomited it out, wiping the blood off her face with flowing tears.
“Dave, please…”
A little bit.
Even just a little bit, if you see your current self and your past self as separate characters.
“A chance to live with you… Is not something that should be given to a slayer like me. If you’re going to give me a chance, give it to the innocent me, not the present me.”
Maybe it’s not himself who doesn’t know if he’ll come in a greater danger than the demon king.
I just felt the small pleasure of being with the party members and sharing love with my lover… I want you to go back to those innocent times.
“… Dave.”
In the midst of her heartbreaking Celica, her party members who were watching her together began to express their opinions.
“Dave, I… I do not know. How should I accept Celica now?”
Of a child she had seen since she was a girl.
The paladin, who wanted to remember and protect her innocence, chose to just look away from her and turn away.
It’s not that she couldn’t bear to see her now as the same person, but as if she lamented her own helplessness in not being able to do anything even though she was so broken.
“Selica looks so distressed…”
Conversely, a long-lived girl with less experience but more innate senses than anyone else, sympathized with Celica’s feelings at this moment and shared the pain.
She wasn’t just sad, she was genuinely suffering as if a stake had been driven into her chest.
“I hate this, Celica, Celica…”
Just the turbulence of emotions bursting out at this moment.
Just waiting for it to fade away as soon as possible.
“… You are the one he chose.”
Unlike those two, the archmage has a blunt voice, but that gaze was withdrawn from this miserable environment.
No matter how strong the pulpit was, she seemed to find this situation even more painful to watch.
“So you choose. No matter which one you choose, I don’t hold grudges, we’ll all shoulder it together.”
“… Ymir.”
“Sorry, I entrusted you with the hardest job.”
A clenched fist with an apple at the end. How should she accept her current situation, she must have not yet organized her mind.
I can’t accept the person in front of me as the foolish hero that I wanted to follow, but still…
As if he couldn’t bear to regard the person in front of him as an unrelated stranger even though he regarded him as a separate person.
“… I am.”
Yes, not an unrelated person.
Obviously, it may be a separate existence from the past, but even so, the fact that all of this was done for us doesn’t change.
“I am… !!”
So, if her time permits, she wants to find a way to be with her.
The moment the result is about to be spit out of your mouth.
“… No.”
Celica, who broke the silence first, began to distance herself from us, stepping back from her seat.
“No, also… I, too, do not want to end like this.”
“… Celica?”
“Yeah, that’s too embarrassing. I was in so much pain, but I spent such a long time alone… Why can’t I be happy?”
An excited voice and a trembling body.
He also thought it was due to mental confusion at first, but the atmosphere was greatly different from before to accept it that way.
Something has changed…
Yeah I could feel it
Her resignation to accept the end of her own until her former…
She could choose to forget this tragedy at any time, and it was obviously strange for her to express her resentment at the point of defeating even the demon lord.
“It’s not Celica.”
The moment I realized that it was not an illusion was when Heira, who noticed the abnormality like me, vomited her negativity from her mouth.
“That is not Celica. It’s different. Something is coming out of the inside… !”
“Damn it… !!”
I don’t know what it is, but something is happening.
Noticing this, he belatedly tried to attack Celica, but her hand had already dug into the demon lord’s corpse.
– Pucak!
Something was pulled out of the grip that had dug into the flesh, and it began to seep into her body as it rode on her hand.
Very quickly.
It was so unstoppable as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“… Ah.”
Unable to accept that power, her armor gradually collapsed, and her bare skin, which was soon exposed, began to gradually turn white.
The bone fragments that shoot out of the head with a gurgling sound should definitely be called a horn.
The demon king’s blood, which was spilled in the process of absorbing something pulled from the corpse, began to change like clothes that hide the naked body exposed in front of us.
In an ominous yet sexy outfit that was so thin that the contours of the body stood out…
“Ahahahahahahahaha!!”
With madness exploding from her mouth with such an obnoxious face, the bodies of everyone, including me, froze and began to stand on the spot.
“What the heck…”
“No way, have you started going crazy again now?”
Crazy?
No, it’s not like that.
Heira, feeling only her senses, trembled at the unknown situation, but unlike her, I could clearly see what had happened to the problem in front of me.
“It was hidden from the beginning.”
The power of the ancient tribe has awakened, and I can very sensitively accept the energy of the demon tribe.
More than anything else, this energy that I feel right now is something I will never be able to forget.
“Hiding, what the hell are you talking about…”
“That guy was hiding from the beginning to defeat and approach the Demon Lord!!”
Wasn’t it just a whim to approach the hero?
He wanted to make her a hero by interfering with Celica’s mind, making her have nightmares, and making her experience the future.
Was it all for this moment that he seduced the hero of the previous generation and turned him into a demon king?
“Well, where was the plan and where was the improvisation?”
Whatever it is, she has achieved what she wants.
Before long, the hateful demon who took control of Celica’s body borrowed her face and started smiling at us.
“You don’t want me to explain everything with my mouth right now, do you? If you’re an astute secretary, you’ll know how things are going even without me telling you.”
It’s beautiful enough to bewitch those who face it.
It’s even more cruel than the blood smeared all over his body…
“… Pata.”
I knew very well the Demons whose arrogant charm was their symbol.
“Pata Garbona… !!”
The queen of dreams and the leader of the Demon King’s army.
And that we were the ones who brought Celica to this place and provided the root cause.
