◈ Episode 308. Even If the World Abandoned Them (4)
Former commander of the Shadow Mercenary Corps.
“Hm?”
Kichi swept back her drooping black hair. The Arcana Continent, which she had set foot on again after truly a long time. On top of that, she was in the position of having walked out of the Shadow Mercenary Corps on her own two feet. She had no intention of causing a commotion.
If she were being honest……
She wanted nothing more than to hole herself up in some decent tavern, get thoroughly drunk, and become a wreck. But the world did not help Kichi. Because there was not a single tavern left anywhere on the Arcana Continent.
“This is why you shouldn’t do things you don’t normally do……”
So she had asked around about the Demon King’s Castle.
Partly to settle the Shadow Mercenary Corps’ mistakes involving Claudi, partly because a Demon King would surely live with strong liquor at his side and she could swipe some, and partly because, while she was at it, she had found the Demon King’s Castle and entered it.
And now.
“……
No, no.”
Shake, shake—she cast away the unproud idle thoughts. Then she calmly looked at the situation unfolding before her. Slice. It was the moment she had sent the head of the demon corps commander, who had called himself the Demon King’s right arm, flying.
Rumble!
The ground shook, and the Demon King’s Castle vanished without a trace.
“……
Damn it.”
Even the wine she had swiped from the storeroom along with it……! Having lost her objective, Kichi had no choice but to turn her dagger toward the ill omen that had swallowed the Demon King’s Castle.
It was a formidable foe.
There were not many enemies Kichi’s dagger could not dig into.
On top of that, there was even an abnormal status effect that made her head throb.
“Hoo.”
Her temper, which she could not hand over to anyone else just like the commander’s seat, boiled up, but Kichi suppressed her emotions. After making such a grand show of disappearing, only to die an untimely death not long afterward while fighting an opponent whose identity she did not even know?
That sort of end was not welcome at all.
However.
“No, seriously, what is that?”
Craaaack!
At the moment the ill omen even she had failed to cut was split in half.
Kichi had no choice but to let her mouth fall open.
She stood stock-still and watched that unbelievable sight.
“He cut that thing with a sword like that……?!”
The sight of the Lesser Calamity collapsing before a slender silver sword.
The forms pouring out from the cracks in the split creature.
As everyone knew, Kichi was well-versed in information about the Arcana Continent.
“……
Wait.”
The Shadow Mercenary Corps was a fixture of Arcana’s underworld. Requests for information on things forgotten by the continent, and for tracking them down, were common for them.
The eyes of Kichi, the former commander of the Shadow Mercenary Corps, twitched.
“Beastmen?”
An appearance that seemed exactly half human and half beast. Those were definitely the beastmen she had seen in the request ledgers. The beastmen said to have suddenly disappeared from the Arcana Continent one day.
And it was not only the beastmen.
“I’ve seen that pattern somewhere too……”
Money.
Especially anything related to gold coins was something her memory never forgot.
In Kichi’s memories.
“That’s right!”
A gold coin from an ancient kingdom said to have fallen long ago flashed past.
Even after retracing it, she was certain.
The emblem on the armor worn by some of those pouring out.
It was certainly that of a nameless ancient kingdom.
Kichi muttered in a trembling voice.
“What the hell did that thing swallow and spit out……?”
At the same time.
The same scene was unfolding in other regions as well.
Hiel’s eyes twitched.
“……!”
Because his lord, Hoyeol, had said it.
Hiel was not surprised even when the ill omen was split in half and fell. However, he had never imagined that spirits would pour out of such an ill omen.
And those spirits were.
“You are……?”
The distant past.
He even realized that they were the “Spirits of the Universe” who had disappeared from the Spirit Realm. Hiel urgently stretched up vines for those pouring down.
The situation was not much different elsewhere, including Diend’s side.
The Iron Castle.
News reached Chainwalker one after another.
“They’re pouring out! It looks like everything the bastard swallowed all this time is flowing back out of its split body! Humans, beasts, other races…… Anyway, there are too many to count!!”
Chainwalker asked calmly.
“Are they alive?”
“Damn it, I don’t know. Whether they’ve stopped breathing or just fainted…… But one thing is certain. At the very least, Akshan, they are definitely alive!”
“Yes, of course they would be.”
Had he not heard the news?
The silver sword, the very symbol of Akshan.
It had cut the monster’s body apart.
More news came in succession.
“It seems we can breathe a little easier, Sir Chainwalker. Among those who poured out, we see no demons, including the Demon King! We have identified no factors that would threaten the fallen either!”
The tension loosened.
Only then did Chainwalker let out a hollow laugh.
“Truly, did they have everything planned?”
Akshan.
Even after being swallowed by a monster called an ill omen.
Had they been sharpening the edge of their silver swords for this very day?
“That is something I could never even imagine.”
Before the lingering feeling had even faded.
Chainwalker raised the head he had lowered.
“Iron Castle, descend in altitude.”
He continued in a trembling voice.
“The time has come to welcome Akshan, our friends.”
It was not that he intended to take only Akshan.
Was it not the moving sky fortress, Iron Castle?
There was no way to know how many people had poured out of the ill omen across the entire Arcana Continent. However, unless they were literally enough people to fill the Arcana Continent……
‘At the very least, we can accommodate about half the population of Antonium.’
Clank!
Hiss!
Clank!
As the dwarves moved, gears began to mesh busily.
Before long, the structure of the Iron Castle began to transform.
Space expanded at a terrifying speed.
Of course, even so, there was a need to accurately grasp the number of people.
Chainwalker asked.
“Gunner, how many people have poured out of that thing? If you cannot count them all, just those you can see will do.”
If they multiplied that number by the number of Demon King’s Castles, they would get a rough figure.
But at the answer that followed, Chainwalker was horrified.
Unable to believe it, he asked again.
“……
Wh-what did you say?”
“This looks to be at least tens of thousands.”
“T-t-tens of thousands?!”
The creature’s body had been enormous, but it had not seemed large enough to swallow tens of thousands of people. However, there was no time to be surprised. Chainwalker came to his senses and spoke.
“Damn it. We cannot accommodate that many people even on the Iron Castle. Nor can we leave unconscious people thrown out on the Arcana Continent in this state……!”
Even if they requested aid from the Empire.
It would easily take dozens of days just for them to head to every corner of the continent. Moreover, even if the Demon King’s Castle had vanished, demons unrelated to the Demon King were still coiled throughout the continent.
Wallswale added from beside him.
“It is getting darker and darker, Chainwalker.”
As if misfortune were piling on misfortune.
When the sun set, the Demonic Eye would rise in the sky.
It meant that the fallen might become prey for the demons just as they were.
‘Think of a way, a way……!’
Chainwalker clutched his head.
At that moment, news arrived that turned his worries into needless concern.
An urgent voice.
“W-wait a moment!”
“What is it now?”
“Mr. Gunner, Sir Chainwalker! Th-the people who had lost consciousness are beginning to wake up one by one! They’re alive! Not just one or two—everyone is alive!”
Was that true?
If so, one worry had been lifted.
Chainwalker thought with a clearer head.
“Then what we must truly concern ourselves with now is……”
Was that ill omen the only thing left?
It had been split in half and had seemed to have lost its will to fight long ago.
Only then did Chainwalker sense something ominous.
“……
Gunner, let me ask one thing.”
“Anything!”
“Among those who poured out of that thing’s body.”
“Among them?”
“……
Are there Akshan hunters, our brothers?”
The demon hunters who had actually cut down the ill omen had not shown their faces.
It was Akshan, who should have regained consciousness before anyone else.
Therefore, they should have appeared long ago, yet they were nowhere to be seen.
……
Wriggle!
And then.
The ill omen sprawled on the ground began to twist its body.
Urgent communications rang out aboard the Iron Castle.
“They still haven’t come out yet……?”
“Th-the thing is digging into the ground again. Sir Chainwalker!”
“Why are you staying still, Akshan!”
But Chainwalker did not waver.
Akshan, what sort of beings they were.
He felt as though he could now guess.
Chainwalker recited vacantly.
“Do you mean there is still a burden left for you to shoulder?”
Akshan.
You truly are unbearably cruel, my friends.
Are you not far too cruel to yourselves?
“……
Damn it.”
The thing that had swallowed those abandoned in Arcana.
Was now pouring out those who had been abandoned and forgotten.
Those who had been abandoned and forgotten.
On the Arcana Continent, miserably trampled.
They had reappeared as a ray of hope.
However.
Even this time, Akshan was not there.
“……
I suppose I have no right to stop you.”
Chainwalker desperately ignored the bitterness rising in his mouth.
“Because that is Akshan. That is who you are.”
*
Click—
With the ill omen in front of me, I did not have the magical leeway to search the entire Arcana Continent. Even if I drank elixir-herb tea that increased mana regeneration, the effect would be insignificant.
‘Compared to Natural Enemy, that is.’
In that sense, whether I liked it or not, there was truly nothing I could do but believe and wait. Mary, who was holding a teacup across from me, cautiously opened her mouth.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Grandfel.”
“Had you attended the banquet, I would have served you better tea.”
……
Hey, are you serious?
In a situation like this, you’re regretting not being able to serve green tea.
Besides, if you mention a banquet that ended long ago, it makes me look like I hold grudges to a ridiculous degree!
As expected, Mary looked apologetic.
“I will be sure to attend next time. If you invite me.”
Then she asked even more carefully.
“This may be an impertinent question…… but if it is not rude, may I ask what you are waiting for? You clearly said it was part of the procedure. With my narrow insight, I cannot fathom what that procedure is.”
Of course she would not know.
I was brazenly acting as if I knew, but I had only just learned about the Akshan seniors’ diversionary operation through the class quest.
I said calmly.
“You need only wait.”
“Wait……”
“For the moment of reunion that will come again.”
“……
Reunion?”
As expected, it was Grandfel’s self-centered way of speaking.
For me, I could call it a reunion with the Akshan seniors.
But if Mary faced the seniors, would that really be a reunion?
Click—
First, when I had nothing to say, I tilted my teacup.
At the same time, I was racking my brain over how to patch this up again.
‘!’
My vision flickered.
And I realized again after a long time.
Right, that was how it was.
Grandfel’s bluffs did not need to be patched up.
『Because he inevitably made them reality.』
Messages appeared one line at a time.
[The small coastal village, Narvik, has been restored.]
[Narvik’s sea breeze blows across the Arcana Continent.]
This was the first time I had seen a restoration message too.
If I had not known, I would have wondered what it was.
But I could guess.
“I knew you would accomplish it.”
You really did succeed in the end, our seniors.
Restoration, the opposite of deletion.
As the quest objective said, they had subdued the Lesser Calamities that had swallowed the Demon King’s Castles.
Like Akshan, they had rescued those swallowed by the ill omen.
And not just one or two.
My vision flashed without pause.
Messages appeared one after another.
[The ancient kingdom, Zishra, has been restored.]
[A desert storm sweeps across the Arcana Continent.]
[The Forest of Harmony, Manlasia, has been restored.]
[The sprouts of peace bloom across the Arcana Continent.]
[The pure-blooded magical clan, the Descendants of Twilight, has been restored.]
[Forgotten mana overflows across the Arcana Continent.]
……
“……!”
Mary, who had been staring blankly in shock.
Her complexion changed rapidly.
As if confirming something, she suddenly raised her mana.
“!!”
She manifested her distinctive violet magic. The effects of the cigarette should have worn off long ago, yet the force of her mana was incomparably more intense than before. She herself must have realized it before I did.
Mary muttered.
“Th-that can’t be?”
Then she suddenly looked at me.
“Lord Grandfel, could the reunion you spoke of be……?”
For now, I nodded.
There were so many restoration messages that had appeared that I could not be certain what it was.
But among the messages that appeared, there must have been one related to Mary.
‘So Mary must have had a story like that, and that’s why she had been standing against the ill omen.’
Was she unable to hold back her swelling emotions?
Mary said tearfully.
“How am I supposed to repay this grace……?”
No, I’m not the one your thanks should be directed to.
All I did was tilt a teacup.
It was all the work of our Akshan seniors.
The quest objective flickered together among the messages.
—Hunt the ill omen. (In Progress)
●Subdue the Lesser Calamities scattered across the continent. (Success)
However, from this point on, it was my role.
The Lesser Calamities had joined with the main body, becoming a Great Calamity.
It certainly seemed far larger than before.
Of course, it did not matter.
Nothing had changed.
In truth, I had intended to throw my life away from the beginning.
Why, it would be sad to forget the effect of [The Last Adventurer]!
[The Last Adventurer: You do not die on the Arcana Continent. Upon death, you immediately return to reality and cannot access the Arcana Continent for a set period of time.
- Cooldown: 24 hours]
So I was about to properly raise Gwicheol……
No, the moment I raised Illusion Breaker.
I froze.
The newly updated quest objective.
It was not the quest objective I had expected.
What appeared was praise from Akshan that I had never heard in my life.
●Well done. (Success)
……
Don’t tell me this is Akshan-style speech?
In any case.
Seriously.
●And this is the last. (Success)
●O final demon hunter. (Success)
●So that no one will ever be swallowed again. (Success)
●So that no one will ever be forgotten. (Success)
●Seal the Great Calamity in the southern sea together with us. (In Progress)
This is one hopelessly rotten sense of sentiment, you people……?