Episode 144 – It’s Me, It’s Me

*

Robin was moving his feet aimlessly with trembling legs.

Even though he chewed an elixir in pill form, the goddamn wound on his side, stabbed by Deborah’s knife, stubbornly burst open, gushing blood.

Thanks to being blown away by magic for over 500 meters, colliding with a wall, and rolling on the dirt floor, his right arm was bent in a direction it shouldn’t be.

Blood oozed from his torn and scratched skin, then trickled down.

Just when he was about to lose consciousness from the heavy pain that made him feel like he would faint any moment, the tingling pain of the scraped skin scratching his brain neurotically made Robin scream, though no sound came out.

Still, Robin kept moving his staggering legs.

If he didn’t move, he would die.

This was because a huge impact accompanied by a loud explosion that made his stomach rumble before his eardrums was falling madly around Robin.

At first, he thought it was a bomb.

No matter where he ran, the explosion always went off in front of him, causing Robin to fall in place several times, scream as he tried to support himself with his broken arm, and then get up and run again.

As he grew increasingly tired of the pain and fear, Robin began to feel vaguely that all of this might not be real.

He was being framed with the ridiculous accusation of being a minion of the Demon King, but Baron Salvier himself was the real Demon King.

But how?

The Demon King was definitely dead.

He had definitely cut him down with his Holy Sword, along with that Ed bastard.

But why was the Holy Sword in the hands of that Demon King again?

The absurd situation of the Demon King throwing his body and sending him flying hundreds of meters.

Perhaps because of that, all of this felt like an unreal dream to Robin.

A terrible nightmare at that.

It felt like he had fallen into a cesspool filled with confusion and fear.

Robin staggered and moved his feet into a deserted alley.

He figured that if the Demon King was detonating bombs remotely, the high walls on both sides would block the view.

Robin staggered, trying to pass through the alley and out the other side.

However, the impact accompanied by another huge explosion in front of Robin sent his body flying backward like a piece of paper.

It was like an explosion warning him not to come here.

Robin groaned and slowly raised his upper body, lifting his head.

Robin clearly saw something flying towards him just before the explosion.

Robin swallowed the groan that leaked between his teeth, barely holding onto his trembling eyelids as he stared intently at the rising cloud of dust.

After a little time passed and the dust cleared, Robin was able to find the cause of the explosion.

In the middle of the deeply indented floor, there were chunks of blunt metal spewing black smoke and shattered arrow shafts rolling around.

“An… arrow?”

Robin raised his head.

He could see the figure of someone holding a bow on the high, narrow walls on either side.

He couldn’t see properly because of the dazzling midday sunlight, but one person flashed through Robin’s mind.

If all the explosions so far were due to arrows shot at him from afar, there couldn’t be two people with such precise archery skills.

“…Lara…?”

At the same time as Robin muttered, the shadow jumped down from the building towards Robin.

She grabbed the railing, kicked off the small hole in the wall, grabbed the pillar on the opposite wall to descend, stepped lightly on the window frame, and landed on the ground in one swift motion.

The figure, who had fallen in front of Robin in an instant with nimble and splendid movements, frowned so hard that he could hear the sound of his teeth cracking and shouted.

“Don’t you fucking dare say my name with that dirty mouth!”

“…Lara? Really… La,”

“I told you not to say it!”

Lara grabbed an arrow and stabbed it into Robin’s leg like a dagger.

His already trembling legs had no strength.

Lara’s arrowhead, which he couldn’t avoid or block, pierced through the flesh and tore through the muscle in an instant, reaching the thick calf bone and being blocked.

Robin screamed terribly and begged.

However, Lara, not even noticing Robin’s blood splattering all over her face, grinned and twisted the arrowhead as if digging into the hard bone, driving it in even harder.

“You fucker, because of you, you son of a bitch, because of your goddamn lies!”

“Ugh, ughaaak! Why, why! Why you…!”

“My life is because of this disgusting son of a bitch!”

“Auuughkkeueaaak! Stooop! Please, Lara…it’s me, please, stop!”

“Son of a bitch, I told you not to say my name!”

“Pleeaaseuaaaal! Aaaak!”

Robin screamed, enduring Lara’s inexplicable rage that had appeared after nearly 17 years.

The Demon King, false accusations, Mella’s betrayal, and Lara suddenly appearing?

Unable to comprehend the series of incomprehensible events, Robin couldn’t come to his senses.

This must be a nightmare.

Robin thought so.

Was he seeing some kind of hallucination due to Baron Salvier’s trickery?

No, was even the fact that Baron Salvier was actually the Demon King a hallucination? From where had he been attacked?

Would he open his eyes to find himself on his bed in the Boldiras mansion?

Even as he had such thoughts, whether it was escapism or a cold judgment, Robin was clearly feeling the chilling sensation of the metal scraping against his bones, like waves of pain washing over him.

Finally, whether his throat was broken or he was so exhausted that he couldn’t even scream, Robin, unable to make a sound and only gaping like a fish taken out of the water, heard someone’s footsteps behind him.

Robin desperately turned around, as if those footsteps were a ray of hope.

Hoping that anyone would save him,

“Lara, stop.”

Even at the man’s words, Lara pressed down on the arrow stuck in Robin’s leg once more without a word.

Robin struggled and pitifully looked up at the face of the man standing behind him.

“…”

“Lara… I know how you feel, but,”

All of Robin’s hope collapsed.

“It couldn’t be as much as me, right?”

Robin’s lips twisted, and a metallic whisper flowed out.

“…Ba, Baron-nim,”

The Baron looked down at Robin and slowly muttered.

“It’s really… over.”

Because of the pouring sunlight, the Baron’s face was shaded, and even within that, especially within the dark mask where not a single ray of light entered, his amber eyes were shining brightly.

*

Was it because of anger, or because he couldn’t come to his senses in the face of an incomprehensible and chaotic situation?

Or was it because the shabby pride that his prestigious title of Hero had built up was so solid?

Robin, who had been begging for his life while calling Lara’s name, trembled with fear as soon as he saw me in the mask, but still maintained that arrogant attitude, stiffly raising his head.

Even though he had been blown away hundreds of meters by Ulgaros’ attack through my body, the fact that he could maintain such an attitude was astonishing in a way.

Maybe the standard for a Hero is guts.

Of course, if that were really the case, the reason why this Holy Sword was shining in my hand wouldn’t be explained, so it’s a meaningless hypothesis, but Robin’s attitude was so brazen that it seemed strangely absurd to have such a foolish thought.

Robin looked at me and moved his lips.

“You, monster… demon… Demon King, have you come to kill me?”

“…Robin.”

“Yes, I should have made sure of the kill that day 20 years ago. I was too busy paying attention to that idiot Edward bastard… Damn it.”

Surprisingly, this was the first evaluation of me that I had heard from his mouth.

I let out a hollow laugh.

“…Ha,”

Robin seemed to have taken my hollow laugh in a different way.

“So, are you going to take revenge? Are you going to kill me?”

Robin spat out the blood filling his mouth and raised his head.

“I am a Hero. I lost my children to you, and Lara, Jennifer, and Mella were all charmed by you and left my side, but I will never beg for my life from a monster!”

“…”

Lara flinched.

Even though her disheveled bob was covering her face, and her hair was sticking to her skin with sweat, the murderous intent and anger swirling in her gray eyes were glaring at Robin as if she would kill him with just her eyes.

Robin seemed to firmly believe that Lara’s appearance was because she was charmed by the Demon King.

From Robin’s perspective, it was understandable that he would think so, since his wife, who had suddenly disappeared a long time ago, had appeared on the day the Demon King revealed his identity at the banquet and blew him away, and was now attacking him.

“…”

I had been curious all this time.

Robin, do you really have no remorse towards me?

Just thinking of you made me feel like the blood was rushing backwards even in my undead body, where blood doesn’t circulate, so I had been trying not to think about you as much as possible for the sake of my inner peace, as I had a precarious mental state all this time,

I really thought I had shared a friendship with you.

I was really surprised and distressed that you had betrayed me… I realized it now.

Finally, only now.

“Pfft,”

After listening to Robin’s declaration full of spirit for a long time, I just laughed.

“Crazy bastard, keuheuhe,”

“What, what’s so funny?”

“Fhahahahahaha”

I understood.

I realized it.

Robin, you magnificent dumbass.

I struggled to hold back the laughter that kept bursting out and slowly raised my arm to my mask.

There was no one around.

The citizens had already fled long ago because of the explosions caused by Lara’s arrows, and even if someone remained, there was no view reaching into this deep alley where we were, and no one could enter because of the blocked alley.

I had imagined this scene for a very long time.

I imagined how Robin would react when he saw my bare face, and I thought about what words I should return to him, refining all the dozens of situations I could say, considering all the possibilities.

Would there be perfect words and sentences that could contain all my anger and resentment?

I refined, refined, and refined again, but it was always lacking.

But I realized that all of that was meaningless only when this moment came.

I calmly took off the mask.

“…What is it? What are you plotting?”

“…Ha, haha.”

As expected.

Robin didn’t recognize me at all.

But there was no disappointment.

Only a dry feeling of, “I see.”

I smiled and said without bothering to explain my identity.

“You, you really firmly believe that you’re a very proud Hero, don’t you?”

“…What?”

“Really, you saved this world as a Hero, you really thought so, didn’t you?”

“Wh, what are you trying to say!”

“So, you had nothing to be sorry for, nothing to be ashamed of. From the beginning, you never even thought that you had committed a sin or done something wrong.”

“Why is killing the Demon King a sin,”

“Robin, it’s me.”

“…?”

“…It’s me. Me.”

“I don’t know a guy like you! I don’t remember exchanging names with a demon,”

I kicked Robin’s chin up.

“Ah, shit. It’s me, you moron.”

Robin’s head, with his chin kicked up so much that his back was arching outwards, slammed back into the ground due to the limits of his flexibility and the influence of gravity.

At the same time, several pieces of white teeth were floating in the blood that gushed out onto the dirt floor.

He had to grit his teeth and endure it, but I steadily stomped on and rolled Robin’s head, which was cowering and trembling from the violence and pain that had shattered his teeth, to make him look up at me.

Robin’s disgusting blue eyes, which were reflecting me, twitched greatly as if he had finally realized something.

Robin slowly revealed his teeth with holes and said.

“…E, Ed…?”

.