episode_0169

Manticore.

Commander of the 6th Corps and Commander of the Dark Corps.

Along with the Knight Centaur, the leader of the 1st Legion, he is the enemy who most horribly tormented humanity in the past.

Its mobility is comparable to that of the Night Centaur, and it can disappear into the shadows and erase its presence.

Even I cannot detect the elites of the Dark Legion, let alone the Manticore.

The reason I almost died when I was in charge of the first warrior party was because of the elite who infiltrated the gateway.

I found it when Mercy and I were together, and I stopped him from trying to kill Mercy.

At that time, it can be understood that they came to spy on human information.

however.

Why now?

Has the Manticore arrived in front of the Magic Tower at this point?

How does the Demon Lord know me?

How much do you know?

There was a hole in my stomach.

The manticore’s scorpion tail protrudes from its back.

I barely managed to avoid hitting the chest, but I’m not hopeful.

The manticore’s tail is poisonous, and a hole this big will kill you no matter where it gets in.

Am I going to die?

Even as my consciousness blurs, many thoughts cross my mind.

Why did the manticore come here?

Was the simultaneous subjugation operation of the corps commander successful?

Will the fruit warriors be safe?

Ah, it’s Kati.

After I collapse, I’m sure I won’t eat anything and will stay still like I’m dead.

The good news is that the Dark Legion is all a splinter entity subordinate to the Manticore.

If the key host, the Manticore, dies, the dark army is annihilated.

Can the war be won?

Even without me, I hope so.

I lost consciousness at the end of the scene where Kati roughly decapitated the manticore.

***

Ian had a dream.

Like an insect that scatters and gathers again and again, his consciousness moved chaotically here and there.

Because of that, the dreams continued in spades.

It’s been a long time since I had a dream.

Due to the nature of him sleeping on edge even during normal times, he can’t even remember the last time he had a dream.

Of course, his conscious mind was not aware that it was a dream or anything.

I just watched what came to mind as if I were watching a passing scenery.

*

Dreams that had nothing to do with time showed the past.

That is the memory of the first day I was transferred to this world.

To him, an ordinary 20-year-old man, this world of swords, magic, monsters, murder, and plunder was very unfamiliar.

Finding food, finding a place to sleep, all aspects of life were uncomfortable.

Only an absolute command to kill the Demon King guided him.

He was forcibly transferred and forcibly thrown into the struggle.

He had to fight even though he didn’t know how to fight, but his nature was so kind and gentle.

How dare a person who has never harmed anyone in his life kill the devil?

Kill monsters, fight against hordes of thieves, survive and become stronger amidst the intrigues and betrayals of untrustworthy humans.

It was hard work.

So he died in vain.

It was a highway robber I met on my way to and from the village.

At first, I didn’t even know it was a robber.

That’s because I was begging like a beggar.

When the weak-hearted man approached, a group of hidden robbers came out and killed him.

The beggar was bait.

There was no dog death like that.

However, he regressed.

The absolute command to kill the Demon King did not allow him to be killed.

I had to live again.

I had to fight again.

So, I had to kill my own heart.

I threw myself into a struggle to become stronger.

The memory of my first murder stuck in my mind for quite a long time and would not go away.

I couldn’t sleep for days and was vomiting.

From then on, I couldn’t sleep deeply.

Still, I had to live.

My death was your survival, so it was a time when I had to kill you for my survival.

To survive in such times, one had to become accustomed to murder.

Hitting, stealing, threatening, stealing, killing.

That was my life and business.

I had to become stronger that way.

The purpose was his own survival, but he disguised it as the cause of killing the Demon King.

It’s all for the world.

It is inevitable in order to kill the Demon King.

The lives of those who died to him will be rewarded with world peace.

And I am returning from here.

If I kill the Demon King, find peace in the world, and then go back, everything will be okay.

There was no guarantee that I would be able to return, but I believed so.

I had to believe it.

Self-justification was easy.

I monopolized about half of the hidden pieces in the world.

Because I don’t remember much from the first round, I didn’t pre-empt it.

Killed, stole, and secretly stole.

had to monopolize power.

I had to force myself to feel thirsty.

Otherwise I couldn’t survive.

It was around that time that the Twelve Evils and the Thirteen Evils became known to the world.

13th evil.

Ian, the dastardly predator.

That was his nickname.

But compared to his grand name, he wasn’t that great.

I suffered from the guilt of murder every night, and had to constantly rationalize myself and turn away.

I just missed home.

Unlike now, when his memories have become blurry, at that time Ian persistently yearned to return.

As the dirty life continued, the guilt gradually faded, and only a selfish sense of duty and responsibility remained.

His sole mission is to kill the Demon King just as much as he killed him.

That didn’t come true either.

His body was hopelessly weak.

There were clear limits to growth.

Not only was she inferior to Kylie, who was one of the worst villains of her time, but she was also inferior to Sylvia, the wizard of disaster who neglected physical training.

But the demon king had to be killed.

In order to become stronger, he secretly visited Scarlett, and she gave Ian unconditional favor.

However, Ian, who had no talent for magic, had nothing to learn from her.

After the war, they gathered monsters into the magic tower that became their refuge, created a breakthrough, and secretly approached the devil’s castle.

Even though Scarlett knew of Ian’s plan, she did not stop him.

They simply sent the refugees to another place.

It’s to kill the devil.

It’s for world peace.

The disgusting self-justification ended the moment the door to the Demon King’s Castle opened.

He was hit by a protruding carriage and died instantly.

It was a sick life.

*

It went back again.

Does it come back every time you die?

I couldn’t figure it out.

I was afraid to experiment.

There are no guarantees.

again.

Do I have to start from the beginning again?

Killing, stealing, neglecting, stealing.

Do I have to repeat that behavior?

But is it really possible to win?

If I have to do it, I will do it.

However, there is no reason why it has to be that way.

Is there a way to survive without killing people?

I was sick of it all.

I’m exhausted.

I decided to take a different path.

There must be another way than living selfishly for the sake of the world.

Let’s help others.

The purpose was ultimately for one’s own benefit, so it was the same as using others.

So, I did the best I could.

acted utilitarianly.

We promoted strength and peace not only for the empire but also for humanity as a whole, and prepared together for the distant future.

It was both an avoidance of his own selfishness and a sense of responsibility for the people he killed.

Responsibility and obligation.

It has already become another name for life.

In the second episode, I killed an innocent person and bought it.

I lived as altruistically as possible during the third time.

It was all about duty and responsibility to take responsibility for the evil deeds and sins that no one could remember anymore.

Of the thirteen evils of the past, we managed to secure four that were human-like and had their own beliefs.

Ian was a bit impatient.

Since I didn’t know how strong the Demon King was, I thought I needed to recruit talented people and develop them as quickly as possible.

The growth was smooth, but the ending was not.

exile.

I never thought something like that would happen.

I couldn’t back down.

I found the hero again.

This time, we used a lot of information from the past along with memory correction to carefully select people.

That’s how I met Vivian, Helena, and Lucia.

Contrary to concerns, they were good-hearted and sincere people.

Oh, I met Kati and Mercy before that.

It was purely by chance that I met those two.

The reason I withdrew those two things, which were clearly of no help and a burden at the time, was because of the guilt of the second time.

They were a symbol of that guilt and responsibility.

It’s a ridiculous responsibility.

This is something no one knows.

It is a memory that only one has.

And yet, he alone felt responsible.

Especially Scarlett.

She is a disgusting woman.

Conscience left for the second round.

Looking back, his life was like that.

Killing people for the sake of the world.

He saved someone’s life and educated them in order to kill the Demon King.

I also took on someone else to shoulder a responsibility that only I knew about.

It was just arrogant.

Intermittently, continuously, in scenes.

Ian’s consciousness slowly returned.

As he looked back on the past time, his consciousness laughed at himself.

‘It looked like a lifeless body.’

*

The dream again shows something.

Ian’s consciousness is still hazy.

The translucent dream image was very unfamiliar yet familiar to him.

Dreams may be inherently vague, but for some reason this scene was particularly unique.

Unlike what I saw earlier, it wasn’t even the past.

In my dream, I was in a large throne room.

It was a place I saw for the first time.

In my dream, I was pointing a sword.

The person in front of me was a person, but he didn’t look like a person.

Her skin, which was as white as a light source, had no texture, and her eyes were black.

She was naked, but had no breasts or genitals.

It had no hair, just a body and a face. It looked at itself and smiled.

The corner of his mouth was torn below his temple due to his bright smile, but no blood came out.

“Finally.”

He said it as if he was happy about it.

“Finally, I’m meeting you.”

His appearance is unpleasantly clean, but his voice trembles as if it is infested with bugs.

There was no tongue or teeth in its wide open mouth, but it moved its torn mouth and spoke.

“Finally! Finally-! You killed us! I can now kill with these hands!”

The dream self who heard those words said with a sneer.

However, it seemed that the target of the ridicule was not the other person.

Maybe it was because he was himself, but I could tell.

He laughed at himself.

It was self-deprecation.

“Well. I killed more than one person. Even if I say that, they won’t recognize me.”

Even in a situation that seems so dangerous, the sly mockery clearly resembles himself.

That’s not all.

Even the gray armor and the floating sword summoned from the grave of Mugu for battle.

My dream self matched my past self.

“Ha! haha! Does not matter! ‘We’ are satisfied with killing you!”

The pure white opponent stretched out his hand and rushed towards me.

Ian, who was looking at the scenery, saw.

Countless vengeful spirits writhing in the shadows cast behind that pure white human.

Each of them shimmered like pitch black flames, each screaming viciously.

I struggled to survive, screaming and begging for help.

Ian was familiar with that scene.

On the other hand, in the dream, he fought the white man without seeing his shadow.

The opponent had no experience in combat at all.

When I cut, I got cut, and when I stabbed, I got stabbed.

Every time that happened, the shadow shook loudly and moaned louder.

However, the white human was fine.

I just smiled, recovered my body, and ignorantly rushed towards myself in my dream.

As time passed, the white human learned.

He learned how to fight, pulled out a weapon from his mouth, and confronted his dream self head on.

The power of the white human was enormous, as if in inverse proportion to its clumsiness.

With one sword strike, the ground cracked and the ceiling collapsed.

It was clear that if it were me, I would faint if I just brushed against it, but in my dream, I endured even after receiving a few hits.

Just how strong is it?

It’s not just about strength.

In the dream, he used Sylvia’s magic, Aria’s miracles, and even used Kylie’s sword and Beatrice’s magic arrows.

After a desperate struggle, the person in the dream won.

The throne room was a mess.

The ceiling was blown away, exposing the sky, and the collapsed floor was filled again with collapsed walls.

In the dream, he took a breath and looked up at the sky.

Something huge black was slowly coming down.

It flapped its castle-sized wings, but there was no wind or noise.

For some reason, it gives off a similar vibe to a sea dragon.

Even though they are very different.

My vision became increasingly blurry, as if I was being sucked into somewhere.

In the hazy landscape, the black mass opened its mouth, looking down at itself in the dream.

[…] … .]

Ian couldn’t hear the voice.

However, I could hear my own voice in the dream asking a question.

“… Before that, I have something to ask. Why me… Has it been transferred to this world?”

The large black one answered, opening its mouth with fierce teeth.

Ian was pulled out of his dream without hearing an answer.

*

[Lost Timeline Journal 3.]

[Is this the ■ of ■? Am I being punished for daring to fight back? Just like when I first came here, there is information that has been arbitrarily implanted in my mind. Wait for ■. Then, kill ■. ■ placed such a curse on ■ and made them wait endlessly until ■ came.]

[I wonder how much time has passed. It is sealed underground and is simply used as food for ■■ and ■■■. As time passes, I feel like I am getting weaker. Will I be able to face the coming ■ in the end like this? Due to its weakening condition, it was not possible to decide what to do with the interior of the castle. It is fortunate that we can get a glimpse of the outside situation through ■■. I can give instructions to the military, but I do not completely follow my orders.]

[Sylvie■, ■Leah, Beat■s, Kyle■. It’s a good thing that the net can be used ■■. It wasn’t■ that ■ he was the only one who killed■ and received it. By absorbing the work of that power, he was able to kill a person. I used him as my puppet. But will they be able to survive after losing ■■?]

[I saw ■ through ■■. ■ resembles ■. Isn’t that obvious? Unable to overcome weakness, entrusting strength and purpose to others is contemptible and pathetic.]

[tired. If I could ■■ do it myself, I would. However, I am in a position where I cannot decide between ■ and ■■. My ■■ was captured by ■. If you lose, that ■■… .]

… … .

[I wait for myself.]

***

Breath comes in and goes out through the nose.

Perceive breathing.

The feel of the back is soft.

Lying.

My fingertips are numb.

My body stiffened.

Eyelids are heavy.

Soft lighting weighs down on it.

When I regained consciousness, I very slowly regained sensation in my body.

“I just moved my finger!”

“Ian!”

Is “ happening?! Huh?!”

“Be quiet… !”

Surrounding noises can be heard far away.

I opened my eyes.

The light is dazzling, so I look around with narrowed eyes.

The first thing I recognized was Kati’s face.

The cat’s eyes widen and look down at me with a surprised face.

I feel more emaciated than before I fell.

‘You starved again, this guy…’ .’

I thought like that and forced a grin.

I was trying to let you know that it was okay, but I don’t know if I was laughing well.

The feeling is still not clear.

“Ian… !”

I slowly got up.

… My body feels unfamiliar.

It seems heavy, but also strangely light.

Is it because I woke up after a long time?

How long have you been unconscious for?

“… ?”

The scene I saw when I raised my upper body was a bit strange.

First of all, I understood that there were a lot of people.

Except for Katy, who was standing up behind me, Vivian, Helena, Lucia and Mercy.

Sylvia, Kylie, Aria, Beatrice.

Iris, Scarlett, and Grace.

I know there are a lot of people, but… .

‘What’s with that expression…? .’

There are a few people who seem to be overflowing with emotion, but their eyes look as if they have been consumed by dark greed.

For some reason, that’s a bit scary.

‘Especially Helena… .’

My chest is heaving loudly, as if I’m about to commit something.

Vivian was smiling and crying happily for some reason.

At least Lucia was the only one who showed a normal, relieved smile.

Sylvia grabbed her heart and took a step back, while the other three looked dazed.

It seems like he’s embarrassed, maybe he’s shocked… .

Scarlett looked similar to Helena, and Grace was twisting her body like she was looking at a cute doll.

‘Why on earth are you doing that?’

Iris, the calmest one, approached and asked.

“Ian. Are you okay? Are you out of your mind? Can you hear me well? Can you see ahead clearly?”

“Yes, listen carefully… .”

… for a moment. What is this.

Your voice is strange.

It’s not your usual low, slightly scratchy voice.

Is this also because I fainted?

I’m so puzzled…

“Huh… .”

Helena stumbled and fell.

“Helena?”

I was startled and tried to get out of bed.

Are you hurt?

Did you come here without treating your injuries?

Out of worry, I put my feet out of bed… .

“… … .”

low.

Visibility is quite low.

Now I had to look up at Helena, who was also standing up with Lucia’s support.

“… What is it?”

Your voice is strange.

It’s not strange, it’s different.

It’s a young voice that hasn’t even transformed yet.

I’m short, my hands are small… .

“What is this…? .”

Behind me, who was muttering in embarrassment, someone hugged me.

“Master… .”

It was Kati.

It was as if I was being held in her arms.

Apart from this embarrassing situation, Kati’s body was trembling.

Even without looking at his face, I could tell he was crying.

“Thank you… .”

I can’t react the way I normally do.

The feeling of my body becoming smaller was so unfamiliar and unfamiliar.

“Iaaan-!”

Vivian was also hugged in front of her.

“Be careful! Ian just woke up.”

Only after Iris warned Vivian did she stop giving a warm welcome.

I was out of my mind even then.

‘Why on earth is my body… .’

I soon heard the reason from Iris.

“I improved the elixir to help Ian recover, but the side effect was that he became younger. His physical age would be around 7 years old. As you recover, you will gradually return to your original body, but you will have to stay in that body for the time being.”

“… … .”

Just like that, I woke up younger.