Episode 3 – The Day I Came Back to Life (2)

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“Lara…”

As I took a step closer, she drew an arrow in the blink of an eye and aimed it at me.

Only then did I realize what I looked like.

An undead draped in the Demon King’s cloak.

“Don’t shoot! Lara!”

“…!”

“It’s me! It’s Edward!”

“… That name.”

“Yeah. You might not believe it, but I’m an unde-“

Swaeak!

At that moment, an arrow flew and pierced my chest.

But the bowstring was still drawn.

She wasn’t the one who shot the arrow.

“To dare impersonate that name…”

Behind her, dozens of arrows shot out from the forest in a row, creating a whirlwind.

The arrows, flying at an invisible speed, pierced through me and slammed into the Demon King’s castle gate with a resounding *kwang kwang*.

“Keuk! Ugh!”

As the last arrow passed through my body, my stomach was riddled with large holes.

I fell backward.

The elf slowly lowered the drawn bowstring and swept back her wind-tossed hair.

A terrifying murderous intent emanated from behind her, and soon, an elf with her face hidden by a hood appeared in an instant.

In her hands, she held a longbow that was incomparably larger than the previous elf’s, and gray eyes flashed with anger from under the hood.

“Looks like Mom’s pretty pissed.”

I touched my stomach as I lay there.

A large hole where muscles, ribs, and various organs had melted away like butter was slowly recovering.

Fortunately, since I was undead, even in this state, I didn’t die, nor did I even feel any pain.

But the recovery was so slow that I couldn’t even get up yet.

The hooded elf and Lara approached and looked down at me.

This time, with Lara aiming at my head from close range, I said slowly.

“Lara. I’m really Edward.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the hooded elf growled.

“Don’t speak that name.”

Who the hell is that hooded person to freak out just by hearing my name?

Lara is the only elf I knew, but Lara herself doesn’t react at all when she looks at me.

“Please believe me. It’s me.”

“How amusing. Did you think I’d forgotten that cloak? Demon King.”

“Ah, this is a misunderstanding!”

If I can’t clear up the misunderstanding that I’m the Demon King, it’s over.

It hasn’t even been a day since I opened my eyes in the Demon King’s castle, and I’m in danger of being finished off by my old comrades.

If that powerful arrow and whirlwind from earlier were to grind my brain, even an undead would have no choice but to die.

Even if I don’t die, it will probably take a tremendous amount of time to recover.

My voice became urgent.

“I just took it off the Demon King’s corpse and put it on. If you don’t believe me, you can go inside the castle and check!”

“You must think I’m a fool. Because of the demonic energy flowing from the Demon King’s corpse, no one can enter or leave the Demon King’s castle!”

“Demonic energy…?”

Demonic energy flowed from the Demon King’s corpse?

But I didn’t feel any demonic energy at all.

No, in the first place, I had found my ego while tearing apart and eating the Demon King’s corpse.

Perhaps the influence of demonic energy had something to do with my resurrection as an undead.

“We tried hundreds of times to bury Edward’s corpse, but we never found a way to get in.”

The elf said that and took off her hood.

Short black hair cut into a bob, and blazing gray eyes.

She seemed a little more mature than I remembered…

Lara…?

There are two Laras.

I looked at the one standing a little behind, the one I had thought was ‘Lara’ until now.

She looked exactly like Lara no matter how I looked at her.

But when I looked closely, she was about a handspan shorter than Lara in my memory,

And her eyes were blue, unlike Lara’s gray eyes.

So, is this hooded elf… the real Lara?

“Lara…?”

“Yes, you remember my name. I have the right to hold you accountable for Edward’s death.”

She bit her lower lip as if trying to suppress the emotions that were bursting out.

Was my death such an unbearable thing?

That’s a little touching.

The problem is that that emotion is trying to kill me right now.

“Lara, please, it’s me. I’m Edward.”

“I told you not to speak that name!”

“It’s really me, Lara. When I came to my senses, I was an undead. My clothes were all worn out and torn, so I took the cloak from the Demon King’s corpse and put it on.”

“Stop trying to deceive me with your cunning sophistry. This is your last warning.”

“And, it wasn’t the Demon King who killed me that day. It was Robin.”

“…What?”

Lara’s eyes widened, and the flames flickering in her eyes seemed to subside a little.

I didn’t miss the opportunity and said.

“Robin, that bastard, grabbed the Demon King and slashed me along with the Demon King.”

“…How do you know that…”

“If you’re going to kill me again, listen carefully. Robin killed me. I don’t know why I was resurrected as an undead, but I think it’s to take revenge on Robin.

“Th-That’s enough.”

“So if you kill me here now, at least you’ll take my place and kill Robin…”

“Stop it!!!!!!”

Lara screamed.

I was afraid she would shoot an arrow, so I shut my mouth.

Lara took a deep breath and lowered her head,

The elf who resembled Lara looked at her worriedly, then slowly approached and placed her hand on Lara’s shoulder, saying.

“Calm down. You’re too excited.”

“…”

She patted Lara while turning only her face towards me and said.

“We also know that the hero and the mage murdered the thief.”

“You knew…?”

“Yes, although we only found out long after Edward-ssi died,”

So, Lara didn’t know anything about Robin and Jennifer’s plot.

The anger I had been harboring since the Demon King’s castle was somewhat relieved just by knowing that at least not all the party members were in on the plan.

I wonder if the Saintess knows this fact as well?

“Does Mela… know too?”

“Aside from the hero and the mage themselves, we’re the only two who know that fact.”

Mela is unrelated to my death. That’s a relief.

Of course, I didn’t suspect her, but I was a little uneasy.

At that moment, Lara, who had been bowing her head, spoke.

“Three if you count you. But that’s information that even the Demon King at the scene could know.”

“What do I have to do to make you believe I’m Edward?”

“My name.”

Lara knelt down on one knee and grabbed my collar, bringing us to eye level.

Her gray eyes, trembling and moist, were filled with tears, perhaps from bowing her head and crying.

“A long time ago, I only taught my real name to Edward.”

“That’s right.”

“If you’re really Edward, you’ll know that name. My real name.”

‘What am I doing right now? Do I really think this guy is Edward?’

It can’t be, but if he’s really Edward, even if it’s just a one in a million chance…

Such complex feelings are revealed on her face.

“If you can’t say it, I’ll tear you apart, grind you, and crush you. Until only tiny pieces remain that can’t even twitch anymore.”

“…”

“Say it.”

Elves and humans live in vastly different regions, so their languages are also very different.

Most humans could never pronounce Elvish accurately, no matter how much they studied it.

The same was true of their names, which were formed in sentences.

Because the pronunciation sounded quite unique from a human perspective, the elves’ real names were often used as jokes by insensitive people.

Most elves found this very unpleasant and hid their real names.

If they needed a name, they used a pseudonym derived from a part of their real name, and the name ‘Lara’ was also the same.

“You’ve always been so harsh with me.”

She definitely told me that real name before.

“Ellaranira-Larararuru-ga.”

Her expression crumbles.

“Re… Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Really… Ed?”

“Long time no see, Lara.”

Her gray eyes gradually stopped trembling, and soon large tears welled up and fell.

She hugged me tightly and said.

“Yo… You idiot… It’s wrong… There’s one too many ‘ra’.”

“I know, that’s why you always got mad. My tongue always twists when I pronounce that part, but you knew that and always picked on me about it…”

“Ed!”

She hugged me tightly.

I, who had recovered to the point where all the holes in my stomach had disappeared, patted her head.

＊

The sky had already become completely dark.

I arrived at a small cabin in the forest, guided by them.

The small cabin, built with the roof extending far down to the ground to replace the walls, looked like a tent made of wood.

A small potato field in front of the house, well-maintained, was adorable.

When I opened the door decorated with leaves and entered, a cozy space appeared.

The fragrant scent of fruit permeated all the wood used for the walls, pillars, and furniture, filling the house.

A wooden chair placed near a small bonfire in the middle of the room looked comfortable even without a backrest.

The cabin in the forest made even my body, which couldn’t feel warmth, feel warm.

I smiled slightly.

Lara looked at my face, narrowed her eyes, and spoke in a playful tone.

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah…”

“Hehe, of course you’d like a house where only two women live.”

“It’s better than the Demon King’s castle.”

“Better than a castle? Your cheap taste is still the same.”

“Here we go again.”

“Did you miss it?”

Lara smiled brightly and warmed some tea.

She and I used to bicker like this every day.

The main pattern was that she would nag at me, and I would retort, and when I ran out of words, I would curse, “Damn pointy-ears.”

Then, instead of getting angry, she would laugh at my poor eloquence and tease me, which made me very angry.

To me, who had died and come back to life, this conversation didn’t feel like it was that long ago,

But looking at Lara’s eyes, which were full of laughter but also looked like they would burst into tears at any moment,

It was clear that she had missed this conversation for a very long time.

How much time have I missed?

I was lost in the thought that all of this might be a dream.

“Actually, I don’t really know.”

“Huh?”

“I was betrayed and died, and when I opened my eyes, I had been resurrected as an undead and was chewing on the Demon King’s corpse.”

“Ah… that must have been terrible.”

All of this happened to me in what felt like a day or two, so I still didn’t feel a sense of reality.

“It feels like I’m dreaming. Won’t Mela wake me up, saying it’s my turn for guard duty?”

“Edward…”

“Or perhaps, after being betrayed and killed by Robin, this is just a pathetic illusion I’m seeing as I die.”

Lara sat me down on a long wooden chair and handed me a cup of warm tea.

I took the cup, but I didn’t feel any warmth at all. This numbness made my sense of reality even more floaty.

“Edward. Look at me.”

“Huh?”

She sat next to me and looked at me.

I felt the fruity scent emanating from her body even more strongly.

“Being next to you is not a dream.”

“Lara… I can’t feel anything in my body. My heart and breathing have stopped, and everything that touches my body feels numb. Even though I’m holding a steaming cup in my hand… I don’t feel any warmth at all.”

Lara wrapped her hands around my hand holding the cup.

“Edward… How nice would it be if all of this was just a dream. I think that too.”

And she closed her mouth for a moment.

“I really do. Every day. I think that.”

“…”

“But terribly, this is not a dream.”

“How can I be sure of that?”

Her words ‘terribly’ were strangely vivid. What happened to her?

My gaze fell on her black bobbed hair.

Could her shortened hair have something to do with what happened to her?

Feeling my gaze on her hair, she smiled faintly and replied.

“Because you don’t have the creativity to imagine my bob.”

“Haha. You damn pointy-ears.”

The other elf opened the door and came in.

She had a basket of freshly dug potatoes tucked under her arm, and she really did look like Lara no matter how I looked at her.

“By the way, who is that elf? You look so much alike that I thought that elf was you at first.”

“Ah, Lily? Now that I think about it, I haven’t introduced you yet because I’ve been so out of it… Yes.”

Lara suddenly paused and started to worry.

Is there something preventing her from telling me who she is?

After thinking for a moment, she opened her mouth.

“Lily is… my daughter. Edward.”

“Daughter…?”

Holy shit. A daughter.

I’ve never heard of her having a daughter, so she must have been born after I died.

But Lily is a woman who has grown up enough for me to mistake her for Lara.

I heard that elves grow at the same rate as humans until they reach a beautiful appearance, then they stop growing and live for a long time.

“Lara… I should have asked this first.”

“Yeah… What is it?.”

“How long has it been since I died…?”

“Ah…”

“…”

“20 years.”

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