Ch.178Sister (2)

Despite being trapped in the forest after the carriage accident, I didn’t particularly mind.

I enjoyed the quiet forest life more than expected, and living with the beautiful Sylvia made me happier than I deserved. But above all, the main reason was that my heart no longer had room to grieve.

Having lost my parents and Laila was so devastating that I barely paid attention to my own misfortunes.

Perhaps a part of me believed that this pathetic man—who failed to protect his little sister and slaughtered five innocent people—should willingly accept whatever hell awaited him.

Maybe that self-loathing was why I was the most eager to journey toward the Demon King, whom even Alice and Sylvia feared.

Sylvia was terrified of me dying, but honestly, I wasn’t particularly afraid of my own death.

It wasn’t courage, but rather a strange determination that I deserved to be sacrificed.

If I, who couldn’t save Laila, could save the world by giving my life, then of course I should do so.

I needed to atone somehow.

It wasn’t a resolve to sacrifice myself willingly, but rather an acceptance that I should naturally be sacrificed.

To put it metaphorically, my mindset was closer to that of an offering in a ritual.

Sylvia and Alice were heroes, and I was the living sacrifice.

At least, that’s how it was in my mind.

“…”

I was ready to die at any moment.

I worried about Sylvia, and the thought of her grieving pained me deeply, but still, I had no hesitation about my sacrifice.

Living with such thoughts, my heart was naturally filled with a loneliness swirling with all kinds of self-loathing.

Sylvia’s love filled that empty plain with beautiful images, but when waves of self-loathing and loneliness surged, her love would be washed away without a trace, like the receding tide.

I love Sylvia.

She is the most precious person in my life, the beautiful woman who warms my heart and makes my breath quicken. I love her with all my body and soul.

But I miss my parents.

I miss Laila.

I miss the mansion in Goldfield territory, the smell of dust rising between book pages, and the dried pen covered with cheap, foul-smelling ink.

I miss my room where parchments filled with hastily scribbled magic formulas were scattered about.

I miss Laila, who would barge in without knocking while I was copying magic formulas onto old parchment.

I miss Laila’s red cheeks when she’d make excuses after I scolded her about manners, saying she could only be this relaxed with her brother.

I miss carrying Laila as she jumped trying to catch dust floating like angel wings in the sunlight streaming through the opaque windows, and walking down the red-carpeted stairs to the dining table where our parents waited.

I was lonely because I missed all those things, because I missed that time so desperately.

Unfortunately, this was a loneliness Sylvia couldn’t fill.

Her presence gave me hope, stability, courage, and love, like the light I clung to that night in the darkness, but she couldn’t return what I had lost.

So I was lonely.

It was even worse after Sylvia and I separated, and recently too, as our time together decreased.

Yet strangely, amid those precious memories I yearned for so desperately, one name was missing.

“Maria…?”

It took me a moment to recall that name.

I had parted with that name when I was a little older than Laila.

“…Sister Maria?”

Of course, it only took a brief moment.

But in that instant, Alice had already started rushing forward.

“…Sister, wait!”

Alice already had her sword in hand.

A holy sword gleaming like silver.

Alice let out a battle cry that sounded like a scream.

“How dare you, with that face…!”

In an instant.

It happened so quickly that Alice seemed to have been launched forward.

Before I could even get to my feet in that brief moment, Alice had swung her sword.

“How dare you impersonate Maria before me!”

Alice’s shout made the sand between the castle wall stones tremble.

The trees cracked and shook at her terrifying anger and spirit.

Yet her sword, filled with all that anger and power, stopped powerlessly mid-swing.

“…Palan Arksa, Taidradios…”

“…!”

To stop muscles, to break will.

Advanced magic controlling both body and mind.

High-level magical words, far beyond Sylvia’s simple motion-stopping spell that merely knocked people down, flowed from that figure.

Alice spoke in a powerless voice.

“…Is it really you?”

And at that moment, Alice’s body was thrown backward.

“Pia…!”

“Yes!”

I reached out toward Alice, calling Pia’s name.

Pia mixed earth with wind to soften the ground where Alice would land, and soon Alice fell gently onto the cushioned surface.

I ran to Alice and supported her body.

“Are you alright, Sister?”

“…This can’t be.”

“Sister, Alice, snap out of it!”

“You… why, you were definitely…”

Alice seemed to have received a great shock, rambling like a madwoman.

It wasn’t from physical injury.

Thanks to Pia’s spirit magic, she hadn’t received much impact when falling, and even without help, she was practically immune to external injuries thanks to her holy power.

I forcibly helped Alice up.

“Sister, get up and prepare…!”

“Ash… it’s Maria… Maria is…”

“I know, I heard, but Sister Maria is already dead. That’s an enemy. An enemy attack!”

“But… that magic is definitely…”

That’s when it happened.

“That’s too harsh, Alice.”

“…!”

An unfamiliar woman’s voice was heard.

Eerily, the voice seemed to echo from all directions rather than from behind.

It felt as if the sound was being implanted directly into my body.

I gritted my teeth.

This too was magic.

Telepathic magic for communicating with distant opponents.

Alice’s face grew increasingly confused.

“How could you swing a sword at a friend you haven’t seen in so long? That’s so cold.”

“…Maria.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“…You’re lying.”

“I’m not lying,”

“You died…”

“Me? No, Alice. Did you see me die?”

Indeed, Alice had never witnessed Maria’s death.

She had only heard the news that Maria had died.

“I’m alive. Perfectly fine like this.”

“…”

“Thanks to the Demon King.”

*

Sylvia and the peddler boy stood still near the castle.

A deep, wide pit surrounded the castle, and from that pit came a stench so severe it wouldn’t be strange to vomit at any moment.

Sylvia frowned and said.

“The secret passage is here? Inside that pit?”

“Yes,”

“The smell is fucking awful.”

“Understandable. This was the castle’s moat until a few years ago. Water filled with sewage from the castle was effective at blocking intruders. In other words, there’s a passage connected to the hole where the castle’s waste was dumped, and through that passage, we can enter the castle.”

“Ah, so this is where that sewage water was. No wonder.”

“…You speak as if you’ve been to the Demon King’s castle before.”

“I have.”

“…As I thought… you are…”

Sylvia covered her nose with the back of her hand.

“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re right.”

“…The Hero.”

The boy said with a dejected smile.

“Ha, by the Evil God, to think I’d end up helping the Hero.”

The boy closed his eyes tightly, sighed, and then very slowly opened his eyelids.

A deep, experienced gaze that didn’t match his age quietly shone beneath his eyelids.

Sylvia looked at the boy for a moment before quietly speaking.

“And who are you? This infiltration route you’ve chosen isn’t just some inconspicuous back door. It’s a path that requires intimate knowledge of the castle’s interior and lifestyle.”

“…I told you… I’m just a peddler…”

“No matter how much a peddler travels, they wouldn’t have been in and out of the Demon King’s castle,”

“…I already told you that too. My father worked in this castle…”

“As the Demon King?”

The boy remained silent at Sylvia’s question, unable to respond.

After standing still for a long time, he suddenly chuckled and slowly turned his head toward Sylvia.

“…Address me as ‘Your Majesty.’ How rude.”

A tone and atmosphere quite different from just moments ago.

A manner of speaking that exuded authority and status while also being arrogantly unpleasant came from the boy’s mouth.

But Sylvia spoke with an unconcerned expression.

“I don’t serve your king,”

“If you know my status, you should bow your head. That’s the law of the demon race. Humans shouldn’t be much different.”

The boy slowly raised his head straight and said.

“Bow your head! I am the rightful heir to His Majesty, the legitimate ruler of this castle and lord of the demon race!”

“Don’t care.”

“…What?”

“My companion is someone who captured and tortured a human prince, and I was planning to turn him into meat for my husband’s nutritional meal. Continue if you dare.”

“You crazy people… Fine. Let’s stop this.”

The boy shook his head with a disgusted expression, and Sylvia quietly asked.

“So you’re helping us? To avenge your father who was usurped and unjustly killed?”

“Yes… Although it’s extremely humiliating to borrow human hands… I have no power right now.”

“If you couldn’t stop the rebellion, that dynasty is over. You’re quite sentimental.”

The boy flared up.

“A king isn’t made simply by taking the previous king’s place! A king must win the hearts of his ministers and people…”

“Were these people you’re looking for the ministers who served you?”

“…Yes, they were.”

“Then you’re unqualified anyway if you were abandoned by your ministers?”

“They didn’t abandon me! There must be some reason…!”

“Alright, I get it, now hurry down. I don’t want to keep standing in this smelly, unpleasant castle.”

“…Kugh, this humiliation… someday…”

“Stop talking nonsense and hurry down!”

The boy gritted his teeth, sat on the edge of the pit, and slid down.

In truth, Sylvia could have shown a more gentle attitude or at least pretended to listen to his words, but the unpleasant stench was grating on her nerves, pushing her patience to its limit.

She was also annoyed that the peddler—no, the prince—had chosen such a foul-smelling route.

She’d need to at least briefly wash in the river before returning to Ash.

With such thoughts, Sylvia slowly approached the pit.

Not wanting to sit on the foul-smelling soil, she jumped down into the pit in one go.

An even more unpleasant stench than before filled her nostrils painfully.

It felt like a hot wind full of stench was blowing in her face.

Landing on the bottom, Sylvia unconsciously cursed.

“Ugh, fuck. Of all the paths to choose, such a shitty one…”

“It is quite severe… smells like rotting corpses.”

The prince decided to tolerate her cursing due to the severe stench.

At that moment, Sylvia called to the prince in a low voice.

“…Hey, prince.”

“…Why do you call me?”

“Aren’t those over there the ministers you were looking for?”

The prince turned his head in the direction Sylvia was pointing.

There, countless demon corpses were piled higher than Sylvia’s height.

“…No.”

“…”

“No! No!”

The prince ran toward the corpses.

Then, kneeling in the squelching mud, he reached out toward the bodies.

“Ah… Aah, how did you end up here? Who, who did this to you…!”

“…”

It was a foolish question.

Demons are no different from humans in this regard.

Corpses cannot answer.

Moreover, these bodies had all been thrown into the castle’s moat.

Considering who currently resides in this castle, it was a question whose answer was obvious without being spoken.

Additionally, the corpses’ skin was inscribed with unidentifiable magic spells.

Magic spells carved by cutting and tearing the flesh with sharp blades.

“…Aah, ugh,”

The prince slowly reached out and traced the magic inscribed on the corpses’ skin.

Sylvia slowly asked.

“…Can you recognize what spells these are?”

“The language is that of the demon race. I can read it. But… I’ve never seen or heard of such magic.”

“What does it say?”

“…”

The prince traced the corpses’ skin with his hands and slowly spoke.

“…Sacrifice.”

“Damn,”

“Trapping souls… raising corpses… sacrifice…”

After feeling each of the piled demon corpses and reading the spells with his fingers, the prince soon dropped his head.

Trembling with his fists tightly clenched, he slowly grasped the hands protruding from the pile of corpses.

Then he spoke with a cracking voice.

“After doing this… they still call themselves king…”

“…”

“How dare they… after doing this…”

Sylvia spoke firmly.

“Where is the passage?”

“…”

“Hey, prince. Where is the passage?”

The prince stood up.

Then slowly turning around, he passed by Sylvia and said.

“I’ll guide you…”

“…”

The two walked along the moat and soon found a hole leading to the castle’s underground.

The stench grew worse as they approached the castle.

Sylvia grabbed the boy as he was about to enter the pitch-black hole where not a single ray of light penetrated.

“I’ll go alone from here.”

“…The path splits inside.”

“Then tell me which way to go.”

“Ha, you still don’t trust me.”

Sylvia nodded and replied.

“That’s right. I don’t trust you. And even if I did, you’d only be in the way.”

“I see…”

The boy withdrew obediently.

Slowly sighing, he spoke quietly to Sylvia.

“Promise me.”

“…”

“Promise me you’ll kill that damned lizard.”

Sylvia laughed dryly and said.

“I don’t make promises with demons.”

“…”

“But I will kill the Demon King. It has nothing to do with your kind. This is revenge for my comrades, atonement for myself, and a task I must complete as one bearing the name of Hero.”

“Yes… I see,”

“And above all… it’s what Ash wants. That’s why I’m crawling through this fucking pit.”

“Ash… you mean that man?”

“Yes, all the rewards and credit belong to Ash. If you want to repay anyone, repay him.”

“…I understand.”

The boy sighed once more and slowly spoke.

“Listen carefully. When you go inside, you’ll come to a fork in the path. Ignore it and go straight. When you reach another fork, take the left path. You’ll find a narrow passage leading upward, and if you climb it, you’ll reach what used to be the kitchen. It’s the passage they used to dispose of food waste.”

“Why are you telling me about such a place even when giving directions?”

“The other paths lead to the toilets.”

“…Ah, fuck.”

Sylvia cursed.

After mentally rehearsing the path the boy had described, she slowly entered the pit.