episode_0052

Looking at the carriages leaving, Pan gnashed his teeth at the rope that refused to come undone. It was truly by chance that he was able to use magic. The people in this procession had gathered as many precious items and things that could be bought expensively in other countries as possible to complete the assortment of the merchant group, and Pan was able to get his hands on one of them. A medium that allows him to use magic.

When Pan obtained it and realized he could use magic, he felt a sense of pity for the numerous scholars who had yearned for magic and died researching it. Most of the facts about magic known to people had been spread by the facts that those scholars had researched and revealed. It was because he realized along with it that those scholars were morons who really knew nothing about magic. All they had come close to knowing was that even if they wanted to learn and use the magic in magic books, they couldn’t.

And why the magicians let such absurd stories about magic spread, and even said that they themselves did not know why they were chosen by magic. It was because he realized from the moment he obtained the medium that announcing this fact itself was a terrible taboo.

‘Those pathetic and utterly foolish things!’

It was absurd that someone who wanted to be a magician was made like this for committing such deeds. It wasn’t like Pan had any intention of using magic for such things when he first obtained it. At first, he was just happy. Even if he had to bury the inevitable taboo, with this power, he could live a life of being treated well. What made him even happier was that with this power, he might be able to return to his homeland and achieve all the things he had so longed for.

Originally, their homeland, Pasiphaenia, was a place where knights, who were their people, had shed blood and sweat while fighting against the dragons that attacked the country every time. No matter what crisis came, no matter what difficulties there were, they had burned themselves out with the sole determination to protect it, and Pan was no different. Being a knight was by no means an easy task. Rather, as it was a job of fighting against dragons, which were called the kings of monsters, it was more strange if there were no casualties or injuries, a grueling and difficult job.

Even so, being a knight was a honorable thing to do to protect one’s country and family. Even though it was a troublesome task that the people of Pasiphaenia had to mandatorily serve, people knew that they could live their daily lives based on their sacrifices. That is why people treated them well and they could be honorable. Even if there were guys who caused trouble from time to time, it was enough to give them a big punishment so they couldn’t do it again.

It was something that young boys would look at with sparkling eyes and say they wanted to become cool, strong knights like them, and it was such a respected thing that they could call death glory. That is why they could willingly burn their bodies. But when did it start? From what day did their lives change? Days when dragon attacks gradually decreased and the country became more and more vibrant. At first, Pan welcomed such peace and continued development.

Because he thought that peace was proving that his and his colleagues’ sacrifices were by no means meaningless. The knights couldn’t completely stop guarding against dragons, but as peaceful days continued, they gradually lowered their guard and spent their days enjoying peace while taking vacations that were routinely canceled to the end. However, that peace was shattered at some point. It started with the armory managed by the knights suddenly exploding.

If that was all, it would have ended with punishing those who managed the armory. The problem was that civilians, and children at that, were caught up in the explosion of the armory. Unfortunately, those children were so horribly disfigured that they could not even be recognized, and it may be a natural story, but those children died. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate accident. The knights were drunk on peace and wanted to enjoy a nap in their spare time. And adventurous children may have just wanted to see what was in the place guarded by the knights. Not knowing that it would be their last adventure.

The children’s families cried and clutched the children’s bodies with trembling hands. And those tears became a flood that covered them. They cursed the knights’ negligence even for the smallest break and watched every trivial act with hostility. Newspapers, as if they had been waiting for it, would exaggerate even trivial matters and publish content that cursed the knights. Being a knight no longer made them honorable. When they walked down the street, people regarded them with fear, and eventually, even walking down the street was restricted.

With the dragon attacks gone, their homeland became richer and stronger day by day, but in the meantime, the existence of the strong knights was just a threatening armed group receiving many benefits. People soon took the knights’ loyalty to the country for granted and began to take their sacrifices for granted. They could no longer consider death as glory. Had about ten years passed like that? Eventually, the knights’ dissatisfaction exploded. They gathered rebels centered around a few of them, and many joined.

But that was the beginning of another hell. Days of cutting down and defeating those who were once colleagues, far too far from the leadership they were aiming for. When he realized that his friend was among them, he collapsed.

“…Didn’t we start a rebellion to bring down those damn superiors? But why do we have to cut down knights like us?”

“That’s probably because the orders from above come before their own opinions. I don’t know if that should be called loyalty.”

He ended up being listed in the merchant group for mental health reasons. Still, escorting this merchant group was not particularly unsatisfactory. Rather, protecting this merchant group, where people who had been ostracized in their homeland gathered to take refuge, was the honorable thing he wanted. But that thought disappeared completely with the gossip he overheard from the women one day.

“How long do we have to live like this?”

“I want to wash with some clean water now.”

Up to this point, it was understandable. The long wandering life was difficult, and it would not have been difficult for women, even though men were struggling.

“I can’t live because it’s so sticky. How can men endure this situation?”

“I don’t know, maybe they don’t wash well usually, they mostly just wear armor all the time. If that’s the case, they should save their drinking water and let us bathe.”

“Ahaha! That’s a good idea!”

At that story, he suppressed the desire to smash those women’s heads right away. And a question arose. What have we been sacrificing for? In the face of the leadership’s atrocities that not only took away the rights and benefits of the knights but also exploited civilians, they took up their swords to protect the innocent. However, they sensed that the rebellion would fail and created a merchant group to accommodate refugees in order to protect more people.

“And that Twoth guy too. He’s following us as a doctor even though he doesn’t have a medical license.”

“That airhead?”

“If that guy had just reduced the amount of water he takes for medical purposes, it would have been enough.”

“That’s right, what does he know.”

But what are those women? What’s the difference between those women and the leadership of his homeland? Pan became disgusted with himself for protecting them and feeling proud until now. At the same time, he felt the existence of those women, who were the same as belittling their efforts, was terrible. As such, the things that he had unknowingly suppressed burst out, and he could no longer grab the reins to stop it. That’s why he decided to use magic for such things. Instead of those ungrateful things, those soft-hearted guys who forgive even after knowing the truth, he would punish them all with his own hands.

After all, all women were the same. He had been raping the women who came to be treated using drugs. Raping them in Twoth’s form was good, but raping them in his own form brought even greater joy. After all, since they were asleep, they couldn’t see his face.

‘But how dare you betray me like this!?’

He thought of Twoth as a friend in his own way. He was furious at his refusal to agree even after knowing the truth. He pitied and despised him for refusing to act with him several times and still complying with the regulations of his homeland that had been estranged for a long time. That was all. Just as he vowed that he would chase him to the end if he could just untie this rope.

-Grrr.

A growling sound was heard from somewhere. At that sound, Pan felt his blood run cold.

‘No way, no! No!!’

He denied it inwardly, but the reality did not change. The wilderness was by no means a friendly place for humans. What was reflected in Pan’s eyes was a creature similar in shape to a wolf or lizard, but it was a heteromorphic creature that had neither fur nor scales, and its blood-red, smooth skin gave off a sense of discomfort. He could not know what kind of creature it was, but he could easily know what it was aiming for and approaching him. Because it was drooling as it opened its long snout and revealed its mouth full of sharp teeth.

Only screams that no one could hear echoed in the deserted wilderness, and all that remained were tattered pieces of clothing. Even that was covered in sand and disappeared without a trace.

The procession of carriages proceeded smoothly through the wilderness without any interference. If you follow the faintly remaining paved road that people have been traveling on for a long time, you will soon realize that the road disappears and you are standing in front of a huge cloud barrier. If you go just a little further, you will be right under the cloud barrier. Donar, who was leading the carriage at the front, raised the flag and signaled to stop earlier than the usual time to stop the carriage. The coachmen, who received the signal from the front, sent the same signal to the carriages following them without the slightest hesitation.

The coachmen who got off the carriages that stopped in a circle looked around and gathered around Donar, the coachman at the front who had sent the stop signal earlier than usual.

“Donar, is there any problem?”

It was what Odur, who was playing the role of coachman in place of Shalvi, said. Because they had not yet given the signal to get off, the people in the carriages except for them were not getting off. The coachmen who gathered in that way were standing with Donar in the center. Donar, who was standing in the center of them, was looking at the compass and the map alternately.

“I’m afraid we might have taken the wrong direction.”

There was a commotion among the coachmen at Donar’s words, but he calmed them down first.

“First, have one person on each side take Hildisvini and search for the buoy. Don’t go too far and maintain a safe distance.”

According to Donar’s words, two coachmen who were selected took one Hildisvini each tied to the carriage and headed to each side. Donar went back up to his coachman’s seat and watched them getting further and further away and getting closer to the limit of the safe distance, feeling anxious. When he saw a figure raising a flag on the right, he also raised the flag and sent a signal to the coachman who went to the other side, not letting his guard down until they returned.

The returning men tied the Hildisvinis back to the carriages where they had been, and the coachman who sent the signal handed over a piece of chain that was heavily rusted.

“Fortunately, the road wasn’t too far off. I found it where the buoy used to be.”

Only then did the coachmen let out a sigh of relief. And that was the same for Donar. He took the rusty chain piece and said.

“Yeah, I thought we should have found the buoy a long time ago, but I couldn’t see it, so I thought we took the wrong direction.”

Just in case, he went back to the coachman’s seat, saying that they should stop the carriage again where the buoy used to be. This time, he didn’t run, but slowly drove the carriage and stopped the carriage near the buoy, and they checked the safety of the surroundings and gathered where the buoy used to be. And they clicked their tongues at the sight they found.

“Tsk, I think Lantoa hasn’t been managing this for a long time?”

“I can’t see any spare chains either.”

There was a hole dug in the ground, and a large wedge made of iron to prevent the hole from being filled in barely left any trace of the buoy, and inside the wedge, there were scattered pieces of chain that had been torn off without any spare chains, scattered and rolling around.

“More than that, where did the buoy go? No one could have carried that big floating stone lump.”

As Donar scratched his head, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Odur? What’s wrong?”

“Isn’t that it?”

When he turned around, Odur was looking at the sky, so Donar also followed his gaze and saw a dot that looked like a booger, and was able to find the buoy. The other coachmen also raised their heads following the sight of the two and all found the buoy.

“…Hey, was that originally that small?”

“It probably looks small because it’s far away.”

“So how do we pull that down?”

“….”

At the end of someone’s words, silence flowed among the coachmen for a while.

“Let’s just send news to Lantoa that the buoy has been cut off.”

“It’s because of the cloud zone. It can’t be helped.”

They decided to just ignore it. In fact, if they used the nets they had, they wouldn’t be able to pull the buoy down, but if they did, they would have to risk tearing the nets used to catch fish. And what they were most concerned about was the situation where, even if they kindly pulled down the buoy and brought it to Lantoa, Lantoa would suspect that they had cut it off on the way. In the worst case, they could even be charged for the buoy repair costs in Lantoa.

“So are we going to stop the carriage here now?”

“We have to. If we don’t, we might have to sleep under the cloud zone.”

“Then one of us is bound to die.”

The cloud zone was a grateful existence that provided people with an environment to live in, but in reality, there were few people who built houses or lived under it. Because under the cloud zone was a land of darkness where day did not come.

“The biggest problem is the weather.”

The weather under the cloud zone is unpredictable. Even though it rains and winds in the dark, you can’t see properly, and if you’re unlucky, you can get hit by hail. It’s like suffering an invisible misfortune. The only thing that shines is the lightning in the clouds. You have to move forward with only that irregular and momentary light. Fortunately, it was near the cloud zone, so the temperature was moderate even though it was far away in time.

“Tell people it’s okay to come out. We’re staying here today.”

In that way, Donar stood blankly and listened to the news the coachmen were conveying, watching the people who were getting out of the carriage. It was to see Schiff, who he had not been able to catch just a moment ago. But all the people who were likely to come out had already come out, but Schiff’s blonde hair could not be found anywhere.

“Didn’t even come out of the carriage?”

Donar only sighed at his own patheticness. He wanted to be someone she could rely on. To think that he didn’t even notice in advance that Schiff was going through such a thing. Although Pan, who committed such a thing, was abandoned in the wilderness to pay for his sins, that is why the anger that had nowhere to go was burning his heart black. At least if he had killed that guy with his own hands, would this frustrating feeling have been reduced?

“Do you really think so?”

“What, what is it?”

As if aiming for it, he was startled by the maiden’s beautiful voice that was heard at that moment, and he looked at the place where the voice was heard. And there, as expected, was a red girl like a flower, looking up at him with golden eyes as clear as honey contained in the pistil. One of the two children who joined their merchant group this time, Belka.

“Letting out the anger you’re directing at yourself on others won’t make things any better.”

“Ah.”

At the girl’s words, Donar belatedly realized that the target he was angry at was not Pan. Yes, he just wanted to vent his anger. He was too pathetic at himself for not protecting someone precious, and too disappointed in himself for not keeping his promise with that person. He was angry at himself.

“That’s not what you should be doing.”

“How the heck do you…”

“Belka!!”

He wanted to ask if it was also possible with the witch’s magic how the girl saw the heart that he didn’t even know, but his words were cut off by Asher’s voice that was heard soon after.

“It’s too much that you went out first while I was getting motion sickness!”

He felt empty at the sight of Asher running quickly and taking Belka away without realizing that Donar was in front of him. In that way, the girl who approached without anyone noticing threw a few words at him and was moving away without giving him a chance to ask questions.

“Surely you didn’t already know that this would happen, did you.”

It was a sorry story for Belka, but Donar thought that she was more suited to the name of a witch than anyone else. That appearance was too beautiful and seductive, as if it was made by picking flowers and weaving them stitch by stitch rather than a human, and he didn’t know how the girl’s golden eyes were hiding such lovely emotions, they were so deep and transparent. Seeing her always wearing the same dark red dress with a white shroud on top, not feeling hot or cold, he wondered if the girl was really stepping on the same world as them.

Then, he noticed a boy following Asher and Belka, looking around, and he felt a bitter taste lingering in his mouth as if he had a very fragrant and bitter herb in his mouth, even though he hadn’t eaten anything.

“That guy Logi is going to have a tough love.”

I think I’ve said this before, but I never thought things would turn out like this.

“Pan, that bastard has caused a lot of trouble.”

If he was going to die, he should have died alone, but there were too many people who were harmed. There were Usher and Belka, Schiff, and many women who were harmed, but there was also a boy among them. It was thanks to the boy’s testimony that revealed Twoth’s innocence and that Pan was the culprit that Pan was caught, but not many people know that fact. That’s because the boy’s testimony included a sensitive story for people to hear now. Perhaps because people’s swords could be pointed at the boy, the old man did not want to reveal that fact.

But how can the tainted boy’s chastity be returned in the end? Recalling the boy’s tears as he confessed his sins with guilt-ridden eyes, he just sighed in a complicated mood.