Ch.57(-4) – Remnants of Erosion

**Note: This is a side episode.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing. They’ve already erased all traces and fled.”

“Another wild goose chase. Tracking magic doesn’t work here either, so what now, Klaus? Since we’ve got a fire, should we just have a campfire?”

Remilia Acephite spoke self-deprecatingly as they left the devastated city behind.

“You can still make jokes like that in the face of Corrosion?”

Sylvia criticized her inappropriate behavior.

“How far has the Corrosion progressed?”

Klaus’s question wasn’t asked to learn the answer.

“It’s obvious even to the naked eye. It’s already in the terminal stage.”

Sylvia grabbed a handful of sand and scattered it in the wind.

Klaus frowned.

It wasn’t sand but clearly human bone powder.

An irreversible catastrophe had already passed through.

And at the center of that catastrophe was always Princess Estasha Latias de Kaizen.

“Baron Banaport? So what are we really going to do?”

“I told you not to call me by my title.”

“Klaus Nestro Banaport, Sir Hero.”

“…”

Klaus unfolded the conditional activation scroll he had received from the Shadow Castle three days ago, confirming the contents regarding the failed mission.

He bit his lip tightly and reluctantly delivered the message.

“Princess Estasha is now a target to be eliminated on sight, with no room for compromise.”

“Is it an imperial order?”

“It is.”

“Should have been that way from the start. The Emperor is too indecisive at times like this.”

Remilia seemed secretly pleased, as if a burden had been lifted.

“Is there any other support?”

“Yes. 31 Shadow Castle operatives.”

“Not bad, I guess.”

“Plus the Pope’s Special Knights and the Emperor’s Royal Guard.”

“…What? So even Verstappen is coming?”

“Probably.”

“Why all this for some mere princess?”

Some mere princess.

Klaus recalled the journey of the past two years to capture this “mere princess.”

She wasn’t as powerful as the Empire’s Verstappen, the Papal State’s Azerbaijan, or the Demon Lord Al-Zahab.

Even compared to Remilia chattering beside him, she wasn’t particularly strong in terms of raw power.

But the order to capture her as soon as possible had been issued more than a dozen times, and now even the Emperor had turned his back on the situation.

‘Just how far ahead are you seeing?’

“Klaus? There’s a survivor here!”

“A survivor in the terminal stage of Corrosion? You just lectured me about jokes, and now you’re making them yourself, Sylvia!”

“There’s a life response in the center of the city underground. About 2,000 of them. And there’s one at the city gate too. It’s nearby.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

* * *

It was widely believed that once Corrosion reached its terminal stage, it could no longer be reversed.

This was already experienced from two previous Corrosions: [Envy] and [Gluttony].

But while all plants and animals in the area were rotting and decaying from the Corrosion of Sloth, a shabby boy on the outskirts of the castle appeared completely unaffected.

“Stay alert. He could be a demon.”

Klaus warned his companions.

According to Shadow Castle intelligence, it was recently confirmed that demons were not affected by Corrosion.

Nations, including the Empire, were already preparing to form a global alliance against the Demon Lord, believing him responsible for the worldwide Corrosion.

“He’s human, at least. My rosary isn’t showing any reaction.”

“Damn, I’m nervous. Can’t we just burn him? It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve fallen for a trap like this.”

“Remilia, please cast full protective magic. We should at least hear what he has to say.”

“Fine. I’ll cover you from a distance, so you two handle it yourselves.”

Klaus confirmed the light barrier enveloping his body and approached the boy.

‘Age approximately twelve to fifteen, and he’s cautious of us too.’

Encounters with unidentified individuals were always primarily about information warfare.

Quickly assess the other’s build, presence of weapons, intentions, gaze, and prepare for any sudden developments.

The boy was small and so thin his ribs were clearly visible.

His upper body was roughly covered with animal hides, and even his relatively intact pants were shorts unsuitable for the weather.

He had no weapons, but… he was preciously holding a live white dove in his arms.

“Are you the heroes?”

At the boy’s sudden question, Sylvia startled and was about to take action, but Klaus restrained her.

“It would be better if you only answered my questions. Think carefully about your situation. Are you a resident of this castle?”

“Yes.”

“Where exactly do you live?”

“Even if I tell you, you probably won’t know where it is…”

Klaus drew his sword and pointed it at the boy’s neck.

“Answer.”

“…! The… the three-way intersection at the east gate… I live next to the mill with the big waterwheel!”

“Sylvia, check it.”

Sylvia closed her eyes and expanded her magical senses.

Her magic analyzed the terrain and structures of the entire castle in detail.

“Waterwheel, yes, there’s one at the east gate.”

“Why are you wandering outside when the gates are closed?”

“Well… there’s a dog hole in the east gate that I snuck through. I wanted to be the first to get bread from the angel…”

“Angel?”

“Yes, she told me heroes would come here!”

When Klaus looked at Sylvia, she nodded slightly.

“She comes every morning and-“

Sylvia’s eyes resonated with mana.

“Kuhuk…! Kek!”

An invisible hand gripped the boy’s neck.

His feet gradually lifted off the ground as he writhed in pain.

“It was a blonde woman with curly hair, wasn’t it?”

“Urgh…!”

“That person is not human, but a demon. A demon who turned your village into this.”

When Sylvia withdrew her mana, the boy’s form collapsed weakly to the ground.

“Heurk… cough cough… “

“Sylvia?”

“This child isn’t contaminated by demonic energy at all. How is this possible…?”

The boy clutched his throat and shouted at the hero’s party with a voice dedicated to evil.

“So what if she’s a demon…! You… you weren’t there when we needed you! Even when everyone in the village turned to stone, you didn’t come to save us! The angel healed everyone in the village!”

“What?”

“That’s not all! Since nothing grows in this land and there’s absolutely nothing to eat, she brings bread from the neighboring village every early morning!”

The boy recalled.

When the seed of Corrosion was discovered inside the castle, the lord’s first action was to seal the castle.

By the time people noticed, they were trapped behind the stone walls that should have protected them from external threats.

The lord had already fled, and the people had no way to escape the Corrosion.

Only a handful of strong individuals could climb over the 30-meter outer wall with just a sickle, while ordinary people could only wait for their approaching death with open eyes.

It wasn’t flower pollen but rotten grass powder floating in the air.

Animal carcasses were carelessly abandoned everywhere.

People knew eating those would contaminate them with Corrosion, but they had no choice but to eat them with tears in their eyes.

First, grandmother suddenly clutched her chest and collapsed. When she woke up, she couldn’t move her lower body at all.

Next, the cheerful butcher collapsed. The butcher, once full of soft flesh, became as hard as stone.

One by one, people stopped moving.

They fell asleep.

And without anyone knowing,

Their breath had ceased at some point.

The village was enveloped in silence, as if there could be no quieter death.

The boy pounded on the innocent castle walls.

Begging to be let out.

But one day a miracle happened.

A hole appeared in the magically treated castle wall that seemed impenetrable no matter what.

[Want some bread?]

At first, he thought the woman in strange attire was a witch.

But after tasting the bread and milk she offered, the boy couldn’t resist the temptation even if she were a witch.

[Take me to where the patients are.]

She said she had a way to heal the villagers.

Though it was surely a false promise, the boy accompanied her with the desperation of clutching at straws.

Then a miracle occurred.

The magic circle she created was much larger than the height of the castle walls.

The woman inscribed 85,000 runes on the magic circle day and night.

And the golden mana she infused heralded a new morning for the castle.

[This will be an asset more precious than a piece of bread. In our world, we call this compassion and hope.]

She gave the boy a white dove.

She promised that if he released the dove in the center of the castle at noon every day, the contaminated land would be purified and return to fertile soil.

It was hope.

Hope that the villagers could live again.

Though the pain of parting with the dead was still greater, a spark of hope ignited in the boy’s heart.

“How can people like you be heroes!”

That’s why, even though he instinctively knew he shouldn’t defy these people, he couldn’t be ungrateful enough to betray the kindness of the one who saved the villagers.

“What’s going on? Still arguing? Why is this taking so long? The princess will escape even further at this rate.”

Remilia, whose patience had worn thin, flew in from a distance.

“First, we check the condition of the villagers. We’ll pursue the princess after that.”

“What? Didn’t you say it was an imperial order earlier? Can the hero do whatever he wants?”

“…”

Klaus looked at the boy who was still fuming with anger.

He looked exactly like himself when he was young.

[A country exists because there are people who always look to tomorrow.]

There was much to do and his mind was complicated.

The people were suffering from the Demon Lord and Corrosion, but the hero had to kill Princess Estasha.

What was right and what was wrong, what was true and what was false?

The resolute world did not reveal the truth.