Episode 38 – The Tragedy of Heroes, The Comedy of Shells

*

Mela’s son ran to me and asked.

“Baron-nim, are you alright?”

“I’m fine, but first…”

I showed him Dena, whom I had been shielding with my body.

He bowed his head to me, then picked up the unconscious Dena, shouting for a doctor, and ran towards the mansion.

Jennifer, her face ashen, followed him back to the mansion.

The servants, each to call a doctor,

To find medicine

Or simply unable to bear the stench emanating from Daniel’s corpse, scattered in all directions.

As people disappeared one by one, Robin hunched over, head down, and covered his face.

Mela cautiously approached Robin and spoke to him.

“Robin…”

“Eueueuk, geueueueuk!”

Robin groaned like an animal, tormented.

His face was hidden by his hands, so I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but the distorted lips were visible on his lower jaw, which wasn’t fully covered.

Tears could be seen flowing from between the fingers covering his eyes.

He had somehow endured the deaths of his children, but it seemed painful for him to cut down his son, who had become a monster, with his own hands.

Mela slowly approached Robin and gently hugg-

Ah, shit,

Hugged him.

“Robin…”

“Eugeueueuk,”

Robin buried his face in Mela’s shoulder and cried.

Mela warmly embraced her husband, who had just hurled abuse at her.

Robin was weeping, his shoulders shaking.

‘You moron.’

Good God, could anything be so pathetic?

Suppressing the urge to laugh at Robin for showing such human emotions was more difficult than I imagined.

No, not just Robin.

Everyone here was just a bunch of pathetic morons deserving of ridicule.

Robin, who doesn’t realize that his past sins are strangling him, is a moron,

Mela, who is comforting her husband without knowing that he is the real culprit who murdered her lover, is also a moron.

Of course, the biggest moron of all was me, who could only stare blankly at the scene.

Robin’s face buried in Mela’s shoulder overlapped with Daniel ravenously biting at Dena’s shoulder.

Of course, in my eyes, Robin looked much more greedy and filthy.

I let out a very small groan.

“…Moron.”

A few minutes later, Robin silently and slowly left the garden.

Lest the fragments of Daniel lying on the ground should even catch the corner of his eye, Robin left with his face and eyes tightly covered with both hands.

Before I knew it, only Mela, Daniel’s fragments, and I remained here.

Next to Daniel’s fragments, his blood, fat, and pus stuck to the sword, which was left lying on the ground.

[Ed, grab that sword.]

‘…Why?’

[Please, just trust me and grab it.]

[Don’t listen to that, Edward.]

‘What the hell do you want me to do?’

“Baron Salvier-nim…”

I ignored the voices in my head and focused on the voice I heard with my ears.

Mela approached me with a worried expression.

I was about to tell her not to worry, but I stopped when I saw her face.

It was because Mela’s face turned pale when she saw my arm.

Since a terrible incident had occurred in which Daniel, the eldest son of the family, was resurrected as a hideous undead and attacked Dena, the youngest daughter of the family, everyone was so out of their minds that no one had the wherewithal to pay attention to me.

It was also because I had said with my own mouth to prioritize Dena first.

But outwardly, my condition was also very serious.

I must have been neglecting to pretend to be in pain while enjoying Robin’s reaction.

It’s already incredibly annoying to constantly act like I’m breathing with a body that doesn’t breathe, but acting like I’m in pain with a body that doesn’t feel any pain is also a pain in the ass.

I tore off a part of my shirt using my right hand and teeth and tightly tied it below the shoulder of my left arm.

Anyway, to pretend to be a normal person, I had to at least pretend to stop the bleeding.

Mela stood there, unable to speak to me, hesitating.

Whether to apologize, whether to thank me,

There were many things she wanted to say, but the words filling her head didn’t seem to be organized and were just spinning around.

I grabbed my arm, staggered to my feet, and nodded to her once.

Only then did Mela open her mouth.

“Are you alright with your injury?”

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem life-threatening, but I’ll have to focus on treatment for the time being.”

“I, I’ll introduce you to a good doctor.”

Mela was bowing her head.

No, to be precise, she couldn’t even look at my face, which was covered by a mask, and was looking down.

When her gaze, which had fallen downwards, discovered my arm, which was soaked in a red, sticky liquid as if it had been dipped in a pool of blood, she became restless and bowed her head even further.

I shook my head and replied.

“No, it’s alright. I don’t want to be indebted any further.”

“Oh my! What are you saying? Our family has been nothing but trouble to you, Baron-nim. Please, give us the opportunity to offer our apology and compensation.”

Mela looked up at me in surprise.

I looked down at her and pondered.

Clearly, Mela hadn’t yet realized my true identity.

Yet, she continued to show me a favorable attitude.

Even now, isn’t she asking for permission to help me?

Is it because she is kind and treats everyone kindly?

Or is it simply a sense of responsibility for someone who has been harmed by her family?

Could this be a special kind of favor?

Perhaps Mela and I are connected by something fateful, and she is feeling an instinctive attraction to me, her true love?

Ha! You crazy bastard. To still be thinking such things,

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

Mela, hearing me laugh, wore a puzzled expression.

Don’t worry, Mela. It’s not like I’ve gone crazy from the extreme pain.

I looked at her and gritted my teeth.

Something fateful? Instinctive attraction?

Give me a fucking break.

I recalled Mela hugging Robin a moment ago.

Two molars cracked with a snap.

I spat out my teeth along with blood-mixed saliva.

Right now, I’ll look like someone who’s been attacked by an undead, so no one will find it strange that one or two of my teeth are broken.

Mela, seeing the clots of blood and white fragments of teeth that I spat out, wore an even more distressed expression and said.

“Please, I know a trustworthy doctor. Besides, if you’re bitten by an undead, you must call a priest with the divine power of purification to take special measures.”

I know.

People who have been touched by the teeth of an unholy undead sometimes become another undead after some time if they don’t receive purification.

But I shook my head, unconcerned.

Because I have the divine power of a saintess that performs all kinds of miracles.

It was ironic.

Wasn’t the divine power I have now breathed into me by her?

The divine power I have now was merely a fragment compared to the enormous divine power she originally possessed.

But now, not even a speck of that wondrous golden miracle power remains for her.

What must Mela be feeling right now?

If she hadn’t offered her virginity to Robin, everything that happened today might have just been a happening.

If it had been her 20 years ago, she would have turned Daniel back into a corpse with a single gesture,

She could have healed my and Dena’s wounds with a single prayer,

And she would have purified the curse of the undead, which causes flesh to rot and eventually turn into another undead, with just one blessing.

But now, she can only helplessly watch this mess, so what is she thinking right now?

I looked at my tattered left arm and recalled the voice of the divine power that Mela had left me.

The voice that is still nagging me in my head to pick up that sword.

[Ed! Please listen to me!]

‘I’m listening, but if I pick up the sword now and something reacts, how am I going to explain it to Mela?’

[Ah, that… that’s true.]

‘Wait a bit. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I’ll grab it later.’

[No! You must never touch that sword, Edward!]

‘No way I’m listening to what the Demon King has to say… You’re just trying to take over my body.’

[You’re using my Demonic Energy as you please, yet you’re acting as you please!]

‘I’m using the divine power as I please too, so don’t feel wronged.’

[Wow! Ed, I believed in you!]

Perhaps the personality of this voice remaining in my head is the Mela I knew.

The woman in front of me is just an empty shell who has lost her divine power.

No, maybe everything is just an empty shell.

Mela, who lost me, lost hope in life, and gave up her divine power instead of finding another reason to live,

Lara, who left everything behind after learning the truth and can’t give up on unrequited love,

Robin, who is more concerned with honor than the duty of a hero and is inviting his own downfall,

Jennifer, who threw away her pride and used her body to seduce for the sake of money,

And me, an undead who died as a human and walks around with the Demon King planted in my head,

The heroes of the adventure full of legends and mysteries, the great heroic deeds that protected the world, have been worn down, rusted, and weathered over the course of 20 years, and now only empty shells remain.

This is the end of the hero party that defeated the Demon King.

Hahaha,

It’s funny. It’s a comedy.

Wasn’t it said that tragedy is the story of the downfall of the upper class, and comedy is the story of the foolishness of the lower class?

The comedy of the shells of fools left at the end of the tragedy of the fallen heroes is still not over even after passing its climax.

‘Oh, Goddess-isiyeo.’

I muttered inwardly.

‘When will it end? How much is left, exactly?’

Mela was silently waiting for my silence with an anxious look in her eyes.

Her eyes were brimming with tears.

Whatever,

I replied to Mela in a cold tone.

“I want to keep my distance from the Boldiras family for the time being. I will leave with my maid for now.”

“No, but…”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“I… I’m really sorry, Baron-nim.”

Mela bent over and bowed her head deeply.

A Countess to a Baron.

No, it was a sufficiently bizarre scene for a countess to bow her head to an unidentified foreigner of unknown status.

If it had been the usual Baron Salvier, he would have told her to raise her head, but I didn’t care and coldly spat out in a sharp tone like a dagger.

“I would prefer that you do not contact me for the time being.”

“…Ugh, yes.”

“…And of course,”

Of course, I didn’t forget my initial plan either.

“Let’s just say the maid’s payment will be in lieu of my medical expenses. Please tell Count Boldiras-nim that as well.”

.