Episode 13: Racist and Racist

Night fell upon the Fairy Forest.

Amidst the ominous animal cries and insect sounds echoing from somewhere.

My clear refusal resounded.

Aransol stared at me silently without answering.

And then, she slowly opened her lips.

“Okay, I understand.”

She turned around without arguing further.

She intended to venture into the forest alone.

Of course, I had no intention of just letting her go.

I’d be crazy to let her go off to die alone.

More than anything, I can’t just waltz back alone like this.

I don’t know how Soun and Raphael would look at me if I did that.

If I’m going back, it’s right that we go back together.

When I snatched her wrist, Aransol turned to look at me.

For someone who was going to die, her eyes were remarkably calm.

“The Cosmic Woe is wandering in that forest. You survived this time somehow, but next time you’ll really die.”

The Cosmic Woe is lazy, but cautious.

Therefore, after seeing us revived, there’s no way it would just let it slide.

“I know.”

What do you know?

“Are you out of your mind?”

“The search party coming here might be brutally killed by the Cosmic Woe.”

“You’re risking your life to save guys you’ve never even seen before?”

“Harua, you were the same, weren’t you?”

I paused at her next words.

“You saved people from the airship first, didn’t you?”

I was wondering what she was talking about.

“You idiot, I told you at the end. I only helped because there was an escape route from the start.”

“Even so, you saved those people. And…”

Aransol looked straight into my eyes.

“You saved me too.”

Her eyes were shining brightly.

I don’t know why.

Her eyes shone much brighter than before.

“You rushed in with your bare hands and saved me when I was about to be killed by the Cosmic Woe.”

My lips twitched.

No.

I’m not the kind of person Aransol thinks I am.

I only saved her because there was a safety net called revival magic.

If that hadn’t been there, I definitely wouldn’t have done something like that.

So there’s no reason for me to be seen in a good light.

I wasn’t someone who faced real death without fear like Aransol.

“If you feel guilty about me going alone, you don’t have to.”

She slightly raised the corner of her lips.

“We both know. You and I can’t get close at all.”

Aransol hates Transcenders.

I despise people from another world.

It was a fact that both Aransol and I knew implicitly.

“But you still saved me.”

Aransol slowly released the wrist I was holding.

And then she clenched and unclenched her left hand.

“This incident made me realize that I haven’t really wanted to live that much until now.”

I don’t know her past.

I wasn’t particularly curious, and I didn’t ask.

However, I knew very well that she hadn’t seemed very lively until now.

Because I’ve often seen the somehow empty look in Aransol’s eyes.

“But even someone like me still had a desire to live in my heart.”

A life that was detached from ordinary people.

Aransol faced the faint desire to live within that life only today.

I want to live.

It was the simplest driving force of life.

Aransol realized that simple driving force only today.

“And that’s probably the same for other people too.”

Aransol looked at me again.

“Harua, it must have been the same for you too.”

Living.

As she said, I also had no intention of dying at all.

There was a point that I recklessly stepped forward believing in the safety net called revival magic.

But the basis for that was naturally the action of not wanting to die.

In the end, the principle is that creatures live to live even a little longer.

“My parents were killed by Transcenders.”

Aransol spoke her past out loud.

“I’ve lived my whole life for revenge, and I still haven’t achieved that revenge.

So I can’t possibly see Transcenders in a good light either.”

That’s obvious.

Her family was killed by Transcenders, so there’s no way she could see Transcenders in a good light.

She smiled for the first time in front of me.

That smile shone like the moon rising in the night.

“Even now, I feel uneasy about you, Harua, who saved my life. I’m this kind of person.”

That smile also contained self-deprecation.

“So I don’t want other people to go through the same thing as me.”

Her eyes shone clearly.

The family of someone killed by the Cosmic Woe.

The resentment and revenge they would harbor.

Aransol hoped that revenge would not be chained again.

“I hope they live a life where they don’t hate anyone and don’t burn with revenge.”

That might have been a defensive action from her psychology.

Just like wishing that her past self hadn’t gone through such a thing.

Wishing that others wouldn’t go through such a thing either.

Aransol’s attempt to save the people on the airship also had such a subconscious implication.

And today, Aransol finally realized who she was by facing death head-on.

People who have come back from the dead sometimes change a lot.

For example, someone who only cared about money their whole life suddenly donates all their assets.

Someone who neglected their family their whole life tries to find their family and embrace them.

Before dying, they recall the various things they couldn’t achieve and try to achieve them.

In the end, it may be because they faced the person called ‘me’ who was deeply rooted inside.

Aransol faced her inner self.

That’s why she wanted a world that didn’t breed revenge.

She came to hope that everyone, including herself, would live in such a world.

Not an endless life purpose of revenge.

It was the first life purpose she set for herself.

It was the conclusion she came to after resting and contemplating immediately after being revived.

“I’ll be back.”

Aransol, who released my hand, takes a step.

She walked away into the night forest.

She didn’t ask me to go with her.

Since this goal was her own, she had no intention of forcing that goal on me.

I didn’t move from that spot.

As I said before, I’m not exactly a saint.

A level of morality that I can’t bear to see an acquaintance die.

Just equipped with the morality of a Transcender.

Even then, I wouldn’t step up if it harmed me.

I refuse to step up for others and suffer losses.

I clenched my fist hard enough to crush it.

If I meet the Cosmic Woe this time, I’ll really die.

Resurrection can no longer be a safety net.

The decision I should make here is to turn around and get out of the forest.

Yeah, that’s what I was going to do.

“Shit.”

Before I knew it, I had caught up with Aransol.

Aransol turned around with surprised eyes.

“Aransol, I hate people from another world. I’m disgusted by them.”

Primitive people from another world.

My hatred for them always followed me.

“When I first Transcended, the place I fell into was with a bunch of cultists.

Those bastards didn’t hesitate to tear off my limbs. Just because I was a Transcender.”

I didn’t bother mentioning that my neck was also torn off.

Revival magic is my hidden card and secret.

There’s no good in letting it be known.

“So I hate people from another world. But I can’t stand the thought that people from another world are morally superior to me.”

As I said before, I’m definitely not a saint, even if I die.

But there’s just one thing.

There was a reason why I couldn’t just watch Aransol leave.

Aransol is a primitive person from another world.

That primitive person from another world has a superior moral code than me?

That’s something I can’t tolerate.

The morality of primitive people from another world is the human scum of the Middle Ages!

I couldn’t bear to be morally inferior to such primitive people from another world!

Aransol stared at me blankly.

And then she soon laughed as if she was dumbfounded.

Don’t laugh, you sly thing.

I won’t fall for the cunning tricks of people from another world.

“What kind of ridiculous reason is that?”

“It’s a reason filled with my sincerity.”

It was a great reason that everyone could understand.

Aransol’s laughter somehow contained relief.

“We can never get close to each other.”

As Aransol said, we are the worst possible match.

It’s absolutely impossible to get close to a racist.

“But we can still go in the same direction. Isn’t it funny?”

“I don’t know where the funny part is.”

“It’s just that even people who hate each other like this are still the same people in the end.”

Aransol’s face looked somehow relieved.

“Just so you know, this is the first time I’ve openly said that I hate Transcenders to anyone.”

In a world where everyone hates Transcenders, it was a better attitude than I thought.

“Sorry, but I’ve already said it before at a shitty party.”

Of course, I ended up shouting at the corpses that were wiped out after foolishly pushing my own opinions.

“It was my first time. Are you saying that after taking my first time?”

After hearing Aransol’s next words, I turned to look at her with a dumbfounded face.

Of course, her face was playful.

She’s someone who had a blank expression and spoke briefly while talking to me.

But was she originally a woman who could make jokes like this?

When I didn’t react at all, she turned her head slightly blushing as if she was embarrassed even though she said it herself.

“Just kidding.”

“I don’t know about anything else, but I know very well how you acted like a fox in front of our master, Aransol.”

“I’ve never acted like a fox.”

Maybe this is Aransol’s true personality.

The Aransol I’ve seen was a racist who hated and was uncomfortable with Transcenders.

But the current Aransol didn’t seem like a racist.

Aransol smiles at me.

That made me feel a strange, bland feeling for some reason.

But neither of us knew.

The fact that we two are terribly unlucky.

Basseurak-

The sound of leaves being stepped on echoed.

My and Aransol’s gazes slowly turned towards that side.

And we two froze in place.

In the place where the sound echoed, there was a man with a flower for a head.

The Great Sinner of Sloth, Cosmic Woe.

He slowly turned to look at us at the same time as his appearance.

“Huh?”

A dumbfounded sound flowed from his mouth.

It was like a reaction of, ‘How are you guys still alive?’

Anyone could see that he had seen a ghost.

My and Aransol’s faces turned pale.

Death came to us once again, making the resolution we had made a little while ago seem pointless.

Life is originally a series of unfair events, but.

This, even God has crossed the line.

The Cosmic Woe, who didn’t understand the situation, paused for a very brief moment.

Me and Aransol turned our bodies around.

I don’t know if we can escape from the Cosmic Woe or not.

I just had the reflexive thought that I would die if I didn’t escape now.

The Cosmic Woe stomped on the ground.

It was a will to eliminate whether it was a ghost or whatever.

There is no next time.

The moment the alarm of death rang in my head this time.

“Cosmic Woe.”

Someone’s voice echoed.

The place where our gazes reached.

There was a woman about the size of a wrist.

A woman with four wings and a bizarrely shaped fluffy clump of fur flowing down from her vanilla-colored hair.

“Liriran!”

At the same time as her appearance, the murderous intent that emanated from the Cosmic Woe covered the entire forest.

Birds were startled and flew into the sky all at once.

As if what he had shown us until now was really only a part of it.

His murderous intent was so chilling that even I, who had ignored death like a dog, felt a tingling sensation.

The Cosmic Woe leaped explosively.

It was that leap that had caught up with us in an instant.

But immediately after he leaped, Liriran, who he had shouted at, put her hands together.

“Stalker, stop following me.”

With that, the view changed in an instant.

Along with a nauseating sensation, I was already sitting on the ground with my butt on the floor.

“Eugh.”

While I was patting my butt, Aransol had landed gracefully.

I didn’t know there would be a difference in athletic ability here too.

Soon after, the surrounding scenery slowly began to come into view.

Inside an empty tree.

Several small houses like dollhouses were built in various places.

I know right away where this is.

Inside the Breathwood, the land of the Fairy Race.

And I also knew who the Fairy Race was that teleported me and Aransol at the same time.

When I raised my head, she smiled briefly at us.

“Welcome to Arielde, the land of the Fairy Race.”

The master of space magic.

Liriran Arielde.

She brought us inside the Breathwood.