Chapter 546 – Knight of the Holy Grail.
Lancelot abandoned his beloved wife, family, honor and glory and left his hometown, Pasiphenia, with the sole intention of saving his child.
“I only heard stories, but there really is nothing.”
When he left the Grandis Prairie, where weeds taller than a person were growing in abundance, an endless red wilderness greeted him.
The vast wilderness captured the edge of the blue sky, drawing a curved horizon beyond, and the vast wilderness, where it was impossible to tell where it began and where it ended, even captured his eyes.
Because he knows that a place further away than the distant horizon is where he must go. When he looked back with longing in his heart, only the thick weeds taller than himself blocked Lancelot’s view.
“Ereine…”
The moment when the image of my hometown and wife beyond appears glimmering through the bushes.
“Mites! Mites! Mites!”
“Galliot?”
Was he hungry? He turned his head to see his little son crying in his arms, and saw the child stretching out his hand toward him.
“Flatter!”
When I put my finger in his small hand, he stopped crying and smiled brightly, as if he was happy, as if asking what he was doing instead of just leaving.
“…”
Now he had to embark on an irreversible journey. An uncertain journey in which he would never see his hometown or his wife again. Before that, Lancelot took out a book for a moment. He won’t be able to record much because he doesn’t know how long the journey will be.
‘As I look at the wilderness I first encountered after leaving Parsiphenia, I realize how reckless I have embarked on a journey. This land smells like blood, as if it has sucked the blood of countless travelers, and all it has is the smell of barren sand where it is difficult to find even a trace of moisture.’
Crunchy, leaning against the carriage, he writes down the beginning of his journey with a quill made from Hildis Bini’s feather. In fact, there was no expectation that this record would be passed on to someone.
“…”
Nevertheless, why do we write records?
“Abeuu!”
Lancelot chuckled at the sight of Galliot stretching his hand toward the sky, wiggling his fingers as if wondering how long it had been since he had been left by his side.
“Let’s go.”
Yes, all of this was ultimately for our child. Even though the child may not know the faces of the father and mother, I hope that the child will remember their names.
Lancelot waved the reins, hoping that this record would be of some help if this child were to ever set foot in the wilderness.
-Beep!
-Gurgling!
After receiving a signal from her master, Hildis Vinnie kicks off the ground and runs without hesitation, even in the wilderness where only the distant horizon awaits.
‘Erain, my love.’
Every time Hildisvini’s hooves kick up dust on the ground, dark red sand scatters, and our memories scatter among it.
‘I hoped this love would last forever.’
Our memories are like a mirage reflected in the sandstorm that blocks our eyes. Your golden hair seems to be fluttering in the sand breeze. When you raise your head, what awaits you is our love.
My first meeting with you. Ironically, our eyes met while drinking the same drink and swearing at the same person.
The two of them met unexpectedly because they were drawn to her by someone else, but the way her eyes lit up when she looked at her own chess board made them recognize at a glance that they had similar tastes.
How adorable was it to see her pulling her tiny body onto the table as much as possible and whimpering while trying not to look down on him?
-Gurgling!
However, it was such a pity that those memories disappeared as soon as Hill This Beanie, who was pulling the carriage, lifted her head as if she was annoyed. What awaits him again is an endless wilderness and a distant horizon that touches the sky.
‘Now I have to move on.’
I wanted to look back, but I couldn’t. I’m afraid that if I do that, the desire to go back will grow too much. I’m afraid that Hildis Bini’s head will turn towards you, whom I love.
Because I know that even if I go back, there will be no place for me anymore. Because he knows that even if he loses his original family and goes back, all his efforts and determination will be meaningless.
“Boo, boo.”
Because in his arms were the fruits of their love.
‘So I hope you are safe. Even if you end up with someone else, I hope you remember that our love was never a lie, and I hope that only you will be happy.’
I run across the wilderness, where the sun and moon come and go, brightening each day. I run because I am a fugitive. I run because I am a traveler with no way back.
Sometimes I encountered monsters and suffered hardships. There were dozens of Armored Crickets that attacked in groups, so I wasted a lot of time, and when I came to, it was a night filled with only their corpses.
“Ha, I never thought it would be this annoying.”
He felt relatively weak because he had experience fighting dragons, but that was all. They are more numerous, and even though their compatriots are dying like fallen leaves in the fall storm, they rush forward without any sign of fear.
-Kagakak!
“Is the name line still attached?”
Animals know how to calculate their own profits and losses, so they tend to run away if they decide that it is not beneficial to them, but the monster did not do this even when it saw its compatriots dying at Lancelot. Even the female, who had been trying to protect herself from the males until the very end, threw herself at him in the end.
“Why on earth do they want to kill humans like this?”
It was already common knowledge that monsters were hell-bent on killing humans, but I began to wonder if it was because they looked different from the dragons I had originally faced.
-Kagak!
“Yeah, there’s no way you can answer that.”
Even though his body was already unable to move and half of his neck had been torn off, Lancelot saw the man striking his sharp clawed jaws in an attempt to kill him until the end. Without hesitation, Lancelot cut the man’s head in half and killed him.
-Wheeeee!
After confirming that the surroundings were safe, he silently raised his head and looked at the brightly rising blue moon. He was the only one who stood by Lancelot, who stood alone in the middle of a field of corpses.
“Saeaksaek.”
“You sleep well despite all this noise.”
He burst into laughter at the sound of small breathing coming from inside the leather cloth wrapped in front of him. It was a truly dangerous task, but even through frequent battles, he could not separate himself from this small fruit.
Not only do monsters hate humans, but they are also cunning, so they distinguish between important objects and vulnerable humans and attack them first. Rather, his embrace was safer.
So he went through the wilderness, killing and butchering countless monsters and wild animals that attacked him. Fortunately, there was no problem with food.
Among the combat rations, there were quite a few things that could be used as substitutes for baby food, so the wagons were filled with them.
‘Fortunately, there are more wild animals in the wilderness than it looks, so there was no need to worry about food. Even water can be made by boiling and distilling their body fluids, so I made my share of meals with these.’
Contrary to its empty appearance, the wilderness was home to many creatures living in hiding and frequently attacking, so hunting them was enough to supplement food.
‘As long as it is not a monster, it can be used as food.’
Even the blood and flesh of the monster are fatally toxic if consumed by humans, so they can only be used for other purposes, so all the corpses are thrown into the wilderness.
‘Sometimes I wish this was all a dream. I imagine that I am just having a long dream, and when I wake up, I will have a comfortable morning with Elain lying next to me.’
However, since the only people by his side were Hildis Vinnie, who had fought the battlefield with him, and our child, who had barely started eating baby food, such a fantasy was just a dream.
‘This world is truly wide, and there are many, many secrets hidden there. Even though I just move forward, traces and ruins of the fallen country pass by me.’
Sometimes, it’s not that I don’t want to go to that place and see the secrets of this world.
“Galliot, will I be able to return to Pasiphenia with you someday?”
“Abua?”
“Puh, there’s no way you understand?”
Since he now had a precious fruit in his arms, he did not dwell on it and just kept moving forward.
‘I hope that at the end of this journey, there will be a land where our child can live in abundance.
I really hope that this child can live a healthy life.
I hope that this child will recognize our love.’
It was a day of seeing off the sun that rose and set again and again, and the moon that appeared and departed again and again, and saying goodbye to a period of time that I did not know how long had passed.
As I was walking through the wilderness, I frowned at the bitter, fishy smell of iron that passed my nose, and then I came across two figures wearing old robes.
“People?”
It was truly a strange thing. There are no habitable cloud areas or villages nearby. Moreover, if there is anything unusual.
“What about this river?”
The river that blocked the path ahead was as red as blood. He slowly approached the river, forgetting that there were people here, and tried to float by putting his hand in the river.
“As expected, it’s blood.”
-Gurgling!
Hildisvini, who had put her head into the river thinking it was water, smelled it and turned her head as if disgusted, so it was clear that it was blood.
Even though Hildisvini occasionally eats meat, it is basically herbivorous and is not hungry enough to drink raw blood. Her never-drying blood flowed like a river.
“Can you give us some water to drink?”
“You…”
“We are wandering this land. We are not allowed to set foot or stay, so we are staying here, but as you can see, we cannot drink this water.”
Lancelot took a moment to check their shabby robes and the dry hands visible through them.
“Please wait a moment.”
Without hesitation, he went into the carriage and took out a bottle of water as well as an abundance of beef jerky and dry food that he had prepared for himself and presented them to them.
“I just asked for water…”
“Please take it. It looks like you haven’t been able to eat or drink properly.”
Judging by their behavior, they seemed to have been wandering around for a long time, so Lancelot did not seem to be just looking after other people’s business, so he gave them food and water.
“”…””
Then they looked at each other for a moment, nodded, drank and ate all the water and food Lancelot gave them, and then asked him.
“Where are you going?”
“Wherever this may be, I am just looking for a land where this child can live in abundance.”
Then they looked at each other again and stretched out their hands to point beyond the river.
“Cross from here to the other side. There will be the land you desire.”
“If there was such a land, you could have stayed there…?”
“Go ahead. That’s all we can say.”
Lancelot hesitated for a moment and looked ahead. The blood-stained river seemed wide and deep. They say there is no problem because Hildy’s Bini can swim anyway.
“… I understand.”
‘I couldn’t understand it myself at the time. Why did I trust them? How was it that I was able to follow those words without hesitation? But what was astounding was what happened next.’
As Lancelot led Hildis Vinny to the river, he hesitated and took his first steps toward the river.
“Take it.”
What was hurled into Lancelot’s arms were two objects.
“How is this?”
One was a leather water bottle that he handed over. The two people clearly drank it and confirmed that it was empty, but I heard a sloshing sound and opened the lid, and the smell of clear water seeped into my nose.
Another one was a thick book. In a situation where wood is already scarce, a book as thick as his fist probably wouldn’t be worth much.
Their hands were empty, and the only thing they had was a staff held by one person. Even though there wasn’t even a bag to hide things in.
“Read and do. That is all we can say.”
Lancelot looked at them for a moment and lowered his head, then without hesitation he urged Hildisvini.
‘The moment one of them, Hildisvini, stepped into the river, he struck the river with his staff, and the fishy smell disappeared from the river where blood had flowed, and the water flowed as clear as it had been from the beginning.’
He looked back in surprise, but all he saw were the figures of two people watching him in silence.
‘I couldn’t believe it. The carriage that Hildisvini and I were riding in was not only swimming, but was running on water as if it were land.’
Lancelot bowed his head again and walked in front of him. I vaguely believe what they say.
‘I didn’t know that I would encounter something like that at the end of my journey.’
-Sreung!
He aimed his sword at the girl in front of him. Red hair like a beautiful flower, bright golden eyes. She would have thought that she was just a beautiful girl, but her body was not human.
‘The body looked like a human body at first glance, but it was made of tangible light. I originally didn’t know what such a thing was, but after reading the book someone handed me in Rivers of Blood, I knew what it meant.’
The sharp sword, which had not rusted despite the long journey, could easily cut off a neck as thin as a baby deer with just a little strength, but Lancelot did not let down his guard.
“Tell me. Are you an angel of light?”
Angel of Light, because according to the records, that girl was one of the three beasts that turned this world into such a terrible hell.
