Chapter 79

 

Even after escaping, I raided villages here and there.

Honestly, I was surprised someone like me could raid villages so easily. Then it dawned on me: all the soldiers on the continent had gathered to capture Evan. Essentially, I was looting empty houses.

From a cliff, I couldn’t even see the capital city where the academy was located, but I could see countless soldiers swarming the area.

Looking closely, the figures surrounding the city walls were all human.

Even from this distance, the roars of soldiers and even louder screams carried to me, overwhelming me.

It was a staggering sight—the sheer number of humans clashing in one place was something I had never seen before.

“Ivan, this is quite the spectacle.”

I dismounted Ivan, lit a cigarette, and stuck it in my mouth.

In the past, I would have struggled to light the small flame, but thanks to the sacrifices who had kindly died for me, I could do it effortlessly now.

That speck floating in the air, hurling fireballs like a madwoman, was probably Vivian.

I couldn’t see her clearly, but I assumed as much—there was no one else who could cast such massive spells.

Watching this scene, I felt as though I had half-succeeded in escaping my hellish life.

“The genre’s changed. It’s gone from romance to some ridiculous comedy. Ha!”

Though the protagonist still seemed to be Vivian.

“So, the goal is to escape her and settle down somewhere peaceful…”

I wondered if that was even possible.

With each fireball, it looked like at least a hundred soldiers were burning alive.

Still, most of the soldiers were the skeletons clattering around behind me, so I didn’t care too much.

“I said I’d save Evan this time, but was that a mistake?”

Even wasting time on such thoughts felt regretful.

I snubbed out my cigarette on the ground and tossed it away, ordering the skeletons to gather leaves into a pile. I threw a spark onto the leaves, and they caught fire immediately, spreading rapidly.

Recently, I’d realized that arson was incredibly effective.

It didn’t always work, but when it did, the fire consumed not just the people in the mountains but also countless plants and animals.

“Let’s go, Ivan. There are people everywhere.”

Climbing back onto Ivan with a grunt, I began wandering aimlessly again.

Evan would laugh if he saw this—a noblewoman riding a dog. The absurdity was undeniable.

***

 

“Witch! A witch has come to the village..!”

An old man who had spotted me from afar screamed, alerting the others.

I quickly aimed for his forehead and fired, but judging by the screams and the commotion that followed, I was too late.

Why was he even wandering outside the main gate?

Still, I’d use whatever was left behind to my advantage.

As I entered the village, two men were waiting for me—both reasonably handsome, though in different ways.

One held a sword, the other a staff.

These days, magic staves weren’t outdated wooden relics but more like iron firearms. How clueless could they be?

“You must be the dark mage’s whore…”

The bespectacled mage addressed me in a low voice as I passed through the village gate on Ivan, creating a ridiculous spectacle.

“That old man just now—you could’ve saved him. Why didn’t you?”

Interrupting his words, I asked him a question of my own.

“Why should I have? What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Did you think shielding that old man from a bullet would stop me from entering?

Or were you trying to create a terrifying scene to scare the villagers into fleeing faster?

Sure, an old geezer like him is just a useless mouth to feed.”

Were these Vivian’s prospective boy-toys?

She probably sent them to stop me.

Their habit of glaring in silence when things didn’t go their way was so similar.

Do slaves grow to resemble their masters?

When I meet Vivian, I’ll have plenty to show her.

I’ve picked up some magic myself and can now demonstrate what Evan used to do.

Though, I doubt it would faze Vivian.

Winning here was out of the question.

So, I threw the bodies I’d been collecting into the air, filled the space with corpses, and slapped Ivan’s flank to signal our retreat.

The stench from the three-week-old corpses was foul beyond words.

Before entering the village, I recalled the face of the old man who had shouted about the witch’s arrival.

He wore an expression resigned to death, as if carrying out an inevitable duty, his self-sacrifice meant to save others.

Too noble.

It felt insulting to compare his purity to my wretched self. I buried my face in my hands and collapsed to the ground.

Ivan began licking my face and then lay beside me.

Using him as a pillow, I felt at ease.

“Please, spare the child! Just the child!”

A woman, gaunt and skeletal, begged me as she cradled her baby in her arms. Her face was so emaciated that it looked as though a skull lay beneath her skin.

I stared at the bundle she held for a long moment.

There were no maggots, but flies buzzed around it. The child had already dried up and died.

“Fine. But you…”

The woman smiled faintly, tears streaming down her face, and nodded as though accepting her fate.

I crushed her head in an instant, ensuring it was painless.

“You butcher! Demon! Get out of here now!”

When I entered another village, it was already deserted, save for two crippled men left behind.

“Abandoned.”

“No, I stayed behind. If staying here means even a slight…”

I didn’t want to hear more, so I crushed his head too.

In the city I visited next—too large to simply call a village—executions were in full swing.

Prisoners with black hoods over their heads dangled in the air, their legs kicking as they danced their final dance.

Once the dance ended, their bodies went limp. The problem was the stench that followed.

In one corner of the city, people had gathered to throw stones at someone buried up to their chest in a pit. 

It was a festival, apparently. I joined in, tossing stones at the heads of those happily participating in the stoning.

The humans, who had been laughing while pelting stones at someone, screamed and fled when the stones started hitting them instead.

Not that it mattered—skeletons had surrounded the city.

I approached the girl who had been buried in the pit.

“Hey, kid. What’s your name?”

Her mouth was bloodied, and her skull was dented, so she couldn’t respond. I cast a healing spell on her.

She grabbed her head, sobbed, and cried out, “Because of you! I almost died because of you!”

Her sudden accusation caught me off guard. When I asked for an explanation, she spat out her reply:

“Someone with the same name as you, with silver hair, nearly got me stoned to death!”

Her words soured my mood, so I killed everyone in the city.

Including the girl sitting in front of me.

Of course, I didn’t do it myself.

The white skeletons took up clubs and worked diligently.

This time, I might have a lot of broken skulls to repair.

Tally:

– One child.

– Two men.

– Four women.

– Ten elderly.

– Eight men.

– One woman.

– A lingering scent of night blossoms.

– Seven children.

– Twenty presumed humans, though perhaps pigs.

– The smell of blood, rot, and night blossoms.

– Three elderly.

– One pot.

– A child boiled alive in scalding water.

– One hundred sheep.

– Two dogs.

– One elderly man.

– Twenty-seven men.

– Two women.

– Something that used to be a woman, inside a pot.

“Ugh! Gahhh!! Uwehhk!!!”

My stomach churned as nausea surged through me. Tears spilled uncontrollably from my eyes.

I couldn’t breathe, and an unbearable weight pressed on my chest.

I was undoubtedly hunting.

But there was no one left that could even be called a person.

“Damn it, I’m supposed to be the dark mage.

The cursed demon, or whore.

So why are they treating others more cruelly than I ever could?”

How long had Evan been doing this?

I was reaching my limit.

Vivian should have come to stop me by now, shouldn’t she?

No. I was ready to stop myself.

I was sick of killing—whether it was humans, animals, or livestock.

“Ivan, Ivan. There are no humans left in this world.

Except for Evan and me, they were all revolting beasts wearing human masks.

No matter how hungry you are, eating children is just wrong, isn’t it?”

I’d rather die than do that.

At least, I think I would have.

I don’t consider myself particularly moral or altruistic.

But there’s got to be a minimum standard, right?

“Or is this all my fault? Did I make them like this?”

But if hunger alone could turn people into such monsters, maybe the world is better off without them.

“No, it’s because Vivian took all the decent people.

She dragged them to the Empire. That’s why I’m stuck seeing this filth.”

Yes, I’m looting the remains.

What’s left are the dregs—the ones who stayed behind.

The normal ones must have fled west or north long ago, abandoning the disabled, the elderly, and the burdensome children.

I’m just scavenging what’s left, like a janitor, a vulture, a crow, or a hyena.

Feeding on what others discarded—mentally dead things—and gaining strength from them…

My thoughts were interrupted.

“Erica, don’t you think it’s time to stop?”

Vivian appeared before me.