episode_0011

Nobles.

People who purchased their status with immense wealth, or those born to good parents.

They were a privileged class, ruling over the vast majority of citizens and commoners, serving royalty directly.

Almost all nobles regarded commoners as inferior animals, or akin to tools stored in a warehouse.

“Even if they were nobles, as long as they were human. I thought if they lost everything, they would help each other and live together like us.”

The unfortunate nobles who drifted into Lime Forest were those who had lost or abandoned everything and fled from the threats of war.

Rai couldn’t abandon them, wandering into the forest, as fellow humans, so he rescued and treated them somehow.

The nobles, having lost their way, joined Eaton Village, and Rai thought they would cooperate in symbiosis for everyone to live together.

“They lost everything, but their eyes, which saw commoners as ignorant beasts or disposable tools, never changed. As if they believed without a doubt that they were beings of a different dimension from commoners… they took it for granted to demand and impose many things on us.”

Even as nobles, they were not humans with special abilities.

Having lost all their wealth and power, they were just ordinary humans, no different from commoners.

However, having lived their entire lives in a privileged class, they couldn’t completely shake off the deeply ingrained stereotypes in their minds and bodies.

“The only thing they were good at was shouting loudly enough to ignore others’ opinions, or shifting their responsibilities onto others.”

“So…”

Killua, listening to Rai’s story, subtly glanced at the dagger he held tightly in his hand.

The dagger, sharpened to easily skin animals, looked sharp enough to easily take a life.

“Eventually, an accident happened. A group of young villagers, who were being scolded by the nobles for struggling with slimes and treated as incompetent, couldn’t endure it and recklessly entered Lime Forest, ending up half-crippled.”

A single slime wasn’t that threatening.

But in a situation where slimes had abnormally proliferated to the point of devastating an entire forest like Lime Forest, a horde of slimes was not an inferior creature that an ordinary person could handle.

“Nobles never understand others. They only force others to understand and accept their own concepts and common sense. The slimes they remembered were bothersome and inferior creatures… but the slimes that had already formed a colony in Lime Forest were dangerous enough that even regular armies couldn’t easily approach them. However, even after seeing with their own eyes the young man being rescued half-crippled, the nobles refused to acknowledge the fact. Instead, they just shifted the blame, saying the half-crippled young man was foolish.”

Rai, who had just spoken at length and was catching his breath, slowly traced the sharp blade of the dagger he gripped with his fingertips.

That incident likely became the decisive reason Rai decided to cut off the nobles’ breath.

As if still feeling the touch of the nobles’ blood that had stained the dagger, Rai, after tracing the blade with his fingertips, lightly furrowed his brow as if uncomfortable.

“Did the villagers also agree to this?”

Killua, who had been quietly watching Rai as he told his story, asked a sharp question in a calm tone.

As if her question had hit the mark, Rai’s hand, which had been slowly tracing the blade, suddenly stopped.

After a moment of silence, he gripped the blade tightly with his thumb and forefinger and replied.

“No… the villagers aren’t involved. They just think that the angry nobles left the village on their own when things didn’t go their way.”

“Right. I thought so.”

Hearing his answer, Killua let out a small sigh and a lament, as if she had expected it.

At Killua’s sigh, Rai, who had been staring at the dagger’s blade, slowly raised his head and glared at Killua.

The distance was close enough that if he stretched out the hand holding the dagger right now, the sharp blade could easily pierce Killua’s neck or chest.

“So, you intended to bear all that responsibility by yourself?”

Killua, instead, leaned her upper body slightly towards Rai, a small smile playing on her lips.

I bit my lip at Killua’s excessively dangerous behavior, acting without the strength to protect herself. I gripped the bread knife tightly in my hand, preparing for even minimal resistance in case of an emergency.

“Come on.”

Killua, meeting Rai’s glaring eyes with a meaningful smile, suddenly spread her left arm wide.

Rai, who had been gripping the dagger tightly as if he would instinctively swing it if she made any foolish move, looked at Killua with a bewildered expression as she defiantly spread her arm, exposing critical vital points like her chest or solar plexus.

“Just lean on me for 30 seconds.”

“No… what is this…”

“Just 30 seconds. Come here, I said.”

Killua commanded him in a firm voice.

Though Rai was holding the hilt, he hesitantly approached her at Killua’s bewilderingly bold and forceful command.

Then, Killua, with her only movable left arm, managed to wrap it around his waist and gently pulled him into an embrace.

“It must have been hard. Bearing all that alone…”

And instead of his back, which she couldn’t reach, she gently patted his waist, comforting him with a warm voice I had never heard.

Rai, with a bewildered expression, looked down at Killua, who was gently embracing him with one arm.

“An enormous guilt, too great to express in words, must have weighed on your shoulders. But you had to smile for everyone as if nothing had happened. Because that was the only way to protect your precious village and its peace.”

“No… that’s not…”

The words she spoke were not hypocritical comfort or an act to escape a momentary crisis.

Killua, having heard his entire story, genuinely comforted Rai, who had hidden the fact that he killed the nobles for the village’s peace and treated the villagers as usual.

Had her sincerity reached him? His stammering voice was tinged with a slight sob.

“You did your best, Rai.”

“No… no, there must have been another way. Besides killing… there must have been another way. But I was foolish… and I couldn’t think of any other way…”

He gripped Killua’s shoulder, who was embracing him, and began to sob.

Though he was acting like a cruel murderer now, Rai also didn’t want to take another’s life with his own hands.

“There isn’t. That was the best. You just did what someone had to do. Otherwise… more villagers would have died, or been injured… or left. The village itself would have disappeared.”

“*Sob*…”

At Killua’s sincere comfort and her answer filled with groundless but firm conviction, the mask of a murderer he had forcibly worn finally began to shatter into pieces.

Still gripping Killua’s shoulder tightly, he choked back his sobs and began to shed tears.

“You did well. And you’ve suffered so much, suppressing all those emotions alone until now.”

Killua winced, perhaps feeling pain from Rai’s tight grip on her shoulder, but she didn’t show it, simply patting his waist with her hand, still calmly embracing him with one arm.

Eventually, the dagger, which Rai had gripped so tightly, fell to the floor, unable to harm anyone, at least for today.

—————————–

“I made a spectacle of myself.”

Once the situation had somewhat settled, Rai, who had been crying and now rubbed his slightly swollen eyes, forced an awkward bitter smile.

As if to prove he no longer intended to harm or threaten us, he put away the threatening tools he wore into the warehouse. He was now dressed in ordinary indoor clothes, holding a leather pouch containing portable rations.

“Thank you so much for your comfort and encouragement, Killua. But what I did is unforgivable. You wouldn’t want to be with someone like me, would you?”

He placed the leather pouch containing the portable rations on the table.

“I’ll go into my room and rest… feel free to take anything from the house and the warehouse.”

He left only those words, giving no room for conversation, and walked briskly into his room.

I lightly opened the portable ration bag he had set down and noticed that it contained more food than last time.

Inside the small bag, almost all the food he could fit was compactly packed as if tightly squeezed in.

“You’re amazing, Killua-nim.”

I couldn’t help but genuinely admire Killua’s calm and composed handling of the situation.

To calmly converse with an opponent, without an inch of wavering, even when a sharp, life-threatening blade was swinging right in front of her nose…

And the fact that she could easily sway the heart of an opponent with clear murderous intent, solely through conversation, was unbelievable.

“Rai was also pushed to his limits.”

“Huh?”

At Killua’s sudden reply, I looked at her with wide eyes.

From my perspective, Rai seemed nothing more than a murderer who had threatened Killua and me to hide his actions.

I couldn’t understand Killua’s words, defending Rai as someone who had been pushed to his limits.

“When Rai was washing his hands. Do you remember?”

“Yes… I remember.”

Come to think of it, when we heard about finding the body.

Rai had washed his hands for longer than usual, meticulously drying them with a towel more persistently than necessary.

Thanks to that, I could have found a moment to ambush him, but I couldn’t act on it due to Killua’s restraint.

“Someone might have thought it was a murderer’s arrogant composure… but to me, it looked like someone begging to be stopped.”

“Do you mean that we, whose lives were threatened… were given an opening, as if he wanted us to attack him first?”

“It means he was that desperate. Because even though he committed the atrocity of murder, his nature is good.”

“Is that so?”

At Killua’s explanation, I looked at the door Rai had entered.

I now understood Rai’s circumstances… but the fact that he had clearly threatened us with murderous intent didn’t disappear.

The suffocating tension from when he held the sharp dagger and looked at us still lingered chillingly at the base of my neck, making my scalp crawl.

In that brief moment, he had clearly harbored a distinct murderous intent to kill us.

“So… what should we do now?”

I looked at the portable rations he had left behind.

Regardless of the reason, process, or outcome, living in the same space as a murderer who had threatened your life would not be easy.

Understanding that fact, Rai had handed over more portable rations than before, as if leaving all choices to us.

“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’?”

Hearing my question, Killua jumped up. And then she strode forward.

Right to Rai’s door.

“Heeeyyy!! Rai! Eat before you rest!!”

And then she vigorously knocked on his door, calling out his name loudly.

“Come out right now, Rai!! I won’t stop until either the door opens or my throat gives out!!”

Her persistently loud shouts continued until Rai reluctantly opened the door himself.

Rai emerged, covering his face with his hand as if he didn’t want to show his swollen eyes from crying. Killua, with a bright smile, forcibly grabbed his hand, which he used to cover his face, and dragged him out into the living room.

“Come on. A lot happened today, so let’s eat a hearty meal.”

She swept aside the tasteless, dry bread crumbs I had finely cut and placed on the table.

Instead, she took out more oily and tastier portable rations from the food bag Rai had given us, placing them on the table.

“Killua. This is…”

Rai looked at Killua with a bewildered expression at her action of placing the difficult-to-make portable rations on the table, intending to consume them as a single meal.

“This is our decision.”

Then, Killua, with a meaningful smile, broke the portable rations made of bird meat and grains in half and handed them to him.

Then Rai, with his face swollen from crying, alternately looked at Killua and the portable rations she offered.

“We won’t leave. We won’t let you suppress those terrible feelings alone.”

Did her single remark about staying by his side stir his emotions?

His swollen eyes began to well up with moisture again.

But Rai, perhaps not wanting to show his disgraceful state, hurriedly gobbled down the portable rations Killua offered and bowed his head.

“Thank you… thank you so much…”

And he expressed his gratitude to Killua with a voice full of moisture.

Killua chuckled, as if finding Rai’s tearful reply amusing, and gently patted his bowed back.