episode_0143

The sound of eerie footsteps echoed, but there was no one to hear them.

The corpses scattered around those footsteps wouldn’t be able to hear the sound.

“Hoo…”

The Demon King, who was the owner of those steps, wiped the blood from his face and moved forward.

I kept walking and walking, my steps empty and desolate.

“Kill the Demon King! Kill the tyrant and reclaim the throne that was ours!”

“… What a meaningless struggle.”

Not all demons liked the Demon King. In fact, there were even those who hated the terrifying war of attrition he was trying to unleash.

“Those who have lost their fighting spirit are not needed.”

It was a truth acknowledged by all that the pitiful king who loved all life had died along with his wife.

“Lam Sword – Spiral Corridor.”

The grotesque slashes that spread out in a spiral shape reduced the traitors surrounding the Demon King to mere chunks of meat.

The Demon King’s spirit gradually wore down through the repeated killings and footsteps.

I reached a state of liberation, but in the process, I ended up letting go of too many things.

And the ego that had let go of so many things began to get closer to the natural phenomenon of letting go of everything as it repeated the killing.

“… Ah.”

How much had he walked? How many had he killed? How many times had he repeated it? The king, who had lost even the concept of these things, stared at the things unfolding before his eyes with eyes even more empty than Raoul’s.

“What was it that I just cut?”

He even stopped remembering those he had killed.

Through enlightenment, he was getting rid of the unnecessary things and even the impurities that were his foundation were gradually disappearing.

As I walked along, letting those useless things drift away into oblivion, a house suddenly appeared.

“Your Majesty…?”

A young dark elf girl approached him.

“What kind of blood is that… Are you hurt…?”

The Demon King was not hurt. The blood on his clothes was simply the blood of those he had killed.

“You…”

“I’ve met that Demon King before! You defeated the giant spider monster that appeared in our village before and we even had a feast!”

“……”

“And my father is also working under the Demon King right now! I think his rank was Archer Captain…”

“Ahh…”

“Ah! Anyway, it’s late at night and you seem to be very hurt, so I’ll call the people! Please wait a moment! ”

The moment the girl turned her back to call her mother and the other villagers,

The Demon King’s sword pierced the girl.

“Huh…?”

“You…”

The Demon King listened to the surrounding sounds and it seemed that there were no young men in this village who were capable of fighting.

That meant that most of the people in this village were incapable of fighting, and the Demon King defined them as follows.

Because there is no fighting spirit, they are unnecessary things.

“I don’t feel any emotions other than the feeling that it’s useless… worthless… and that I don’t know why I’m alive.”

The Demon King pulled the sword out of the girl’s chest and walked into the village.

And the same ‘measure’ that was taken against the girl was applied to all worthless people like the girl.

That terrible time of screaming and flesh-splitting didn’t last long, because I wasn’t weak enough to waste more time taking action against worthless things.

“After…”

Among the corpses that had lost their heads, the Demon King was looking at the full moon in the sky, trying to remember something.

The full moon was shining brightly and the Demon King was emitting pure white energy, but they were unable to illuminate the things that were engulfed in darkness.

“I can’t feel it. I can’t remember the warm feelings I used to feel when I saw them. The reason I tried to protect them.”

The Demon King first approached the dead girl’s body and asked a question.

“Answer me. Why did I try to protect you? What did I feel when I saw you?”

But sadly, the corpse could not speak.

In that natural silence, the Demon King sighed and felt a suffocation in his chest.

The Demon King realized that he had wasted his time and regretted it, as he was left with only frustration without a clear answer.

How much longer did he walk like that? After the name of the thing hanging in the sky changed several times, the Demon King’s footsteps stopped.

The beautiful rock mountains and fields of marigolds, so beautiful that they are blinding to the eye, magically remained in full bloom all year round.

The Demon King touched the flower gently and made an incomprehensible expression.

“….. Go away. So that only the two of us can be together.”

As he let out his lonely voice, a thick fog covered the flower garden. It was enough to hide the appearance of the Demon King, the beauty of the flowers, and the emotions contained within them.

As we walked along the path that had been made to avoid the flowers, a tomb came into view.

What was just an ordinary transcendence when Raoul and his party had previously made a surprise attack to assassinate the Demon King had transformed into a vast flower garden in just a few years.

However, the person who brought about this transformation has even lost the sad smile he had when planting flowers.

“I’m here.”

The Demon King stroked the neatly maintained tombstone.

“Your husband. Your king. Your companion. The one saved by you. The one given a new name by you. Your love. Beled has come.”

The Demon King knelt down, overcome by emotions he had never felt before, just after reaching a new realm.

“My wife. My faithful servant. My companion. The one who saved me. The one who gave me a new name. To commemorate my love.”

Everything that makes him who he is today was made possible by his wife.

Even the name by which she could identify and call him was a blessing that came from her lips.

It was the light that first acknowledged his existence as he approached a stranger from a distant continent.

Even though I had forgotten most things, the voice from that day could not be forgotten.

The same was true of the memories of the past that were filled with that voice.

A woman so beautiful that even the surrounding flowers fluttered in shame. Amidst the fluttering flower petals, the Demon King spoke his name for the first time.

“Your name is■■? That’s a name I’ve never heard of before…”

“… How do you name things on this continent?”

“Well, there’s no special format. It just feels a little awkward because there’s no such name. Does it mean something?”

When I explained the meaning of the name, she burst into laughter.

“Pfft… Puhahahaha! What the heck is that! It just means you’re a huge idiot!”

“… I guess you could explain it that way.”

“Get rid of that damned name! I’ll give you a new one!”

“New name…?”

“Belred! How about Belred?”

“What does that name mean?”

Then she smiled faintly and told me the meaning of her name.

“Everyone’s hero!”

“……..”

“Why don’t you like it?”

“……. No. I’m just worried. Because I’ve lived foolishly until now. The more I live, the more foolish things I repeat and reign. Just like my name suggests. ”

The Demon King looked at his swords quietly.

“But if you get that name.”

And after hardening his resolve, he spoke calmly.

“Please live up to your name.”

After letting the brief memories flow away like dew, the Demon King looked at his hand and the tombstone, which were traces of his wife, alternately and smiled bitterly.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t live up to that name.”

And like a memory, a dew-like liquid flowed down his cheek.

“I couldn’t protect you.”

His lost left eye could no longer see anything, but the dew flowing through his left eye held countless memories.

“I could not be the ideal king, the hero of all, the perfect husband… I could not be anything that I promised you. Just like my original name, I just lived foolishly, even more foolishly.”

Crushed by guilt, he collapsed towards where his wife was buried and said:

He was also distressed by the smell of grass full of green odor.

“I can’t even remember my original name anymore…”

The name he had when he reigned and the name his wife had smiled at him by did not come to mind.

The rage through that forgetfulness burned and tore at him at the same time.

The anger flowing from his heart that had been so torn apart was reduced to that directed at the empire.

“Wait. I will definitely destroy the empire.”

The Demon King quietly took in the scent of grass, weighing his resolve.

As if he could sweetly accept even that suffering if it was given to him by her.

“I miss you. I miss you so much.”

I couldn’t forget the memories and voices of that day.

But at that moment, the curse of enlightenment that made him let go of unnecessary things ended up taking away the thing that was most precious to him.

“But…”

The pictures in my memory were dyed dark, as if all my memories had been painted black.

“You…what on earth did you look like…?”

The Demon King, who had everything taken away, even lost the right to recall the form of what had been taken away.

In such a loss, the Demon King simply stared at the ground with sad eyes and did not express any anger.

Because I intended to pour all my anger out on the empire.

“And…”

In this way, the Demon King once again forgot something through the curse of enlightenment.

“What did you… wish for…?”

I couldn’t figure it out.

In the enlightenment of oblivion that freed everything, the Demon King gripped his sword tightly.

“I don’t remember…”