episode_0019

The name of the Black Serpent was all I had in this world.

—Without that name, I am nothing.

Therefore, challenging that name was absolutely unforgivable. As long as they knew our name and identity, yet showed no fear and did not retreat, they were no exception.

So I killed them.

That was why the had to die, and it was their misfortune. That was all.

“……”

I turned my head away from the window of the departing streetcar.

Around noon, rain began to fall as the sky darkened. I watched the raindrops splattering against the window, forming beads, and thought.

—In this world, there is a concept called .

As the name suggests, it’s the belief that when the world is in crisis, a hero will rightfully appear and save it—a faith in heroes emerging in troubled times.

At the same time, it is slightly different from cases like the holy maidens who are said to have heard the goddess’s voice and taken up the sword.

Because in the Heroic Faith that people in this world believe in, God does not intervene.

Heroes are born solely by ‘human wishes’, and thus, it is a strict rule that they remain human heroes, not gods.

Even the Goddess Religion, which is accepted as the mainstream religion in this world, oddly enough excludes doctrines and all forms of intervention in the face of Heroic Faith.

And the title of the game that forms this world is— 《Heroic Century》.

The heroes born this way are the ‘protagonists’ that players control in the game, a classic setting.

Moreover, true to a long-running series that churns out games like a factory and boasts a 20-year history, the latest installment, which I pre-ordered without hesitation as the Ultimate Suckered Edition, is numbered 20—.

Furthermore, the Heroic Century series’ works are fundamentally independent.

In other words, there is a high possibility that at least 20 protagonists exist in this world, and 19 of them are set to have officially disappeared after completing their ‘heroic mission’.

However, in this world that no longer moves like a game, there is no guarantee that the main characters from previous works will remain silent as they are now.

Furthermore, assuming the protagonists do not remain silent, who exactly raised the protagonists who are now moving?

Heroes born and raised in this world from the beginning? Other transmigrators besides me? Characters I manipulated and raised?

I don’t know.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the existence of is a clue linked to the objectives of Rain Grey and the Black Serpent.

Not to mention that a considerable number of their subordinates were ground down, becoming experience and equipment fodder for them.

Therefore, the first step is to track their whereabouts.

At the same time, pursuing the disappeared heroes required the utmost caution.

Just as I am here now—.

Clank.

Just as my thoughts settled, the streetcar stopped. The pouring rain also ceased, and sunlight streamed through the clouds.

Several months had passed since I fell into an unfamiliar world and transmigrated into an unknown being.

Now, I no longer hesitate to use public transportation in this world, and I am quite well-informed about the political situation and stories of the countries visible on the map.

More than anything, I am now accustomed to acting as the leader of the Black Serpent.

“……Ah. Welcome back, Rain Orabeoni.”

Leaving behind the events in the Heavenly Realm, we arrived in one of the three nations bordering the Labyrinth City.

The Grand Duchy of Germania.

A suburban residential area of a small town in the western border region, close to the Empire and the Labyrinth City.

As I entered the two-story rented house in the city, Aria greeted me, fully immersed in her usual role. By the way, there was no one else here besides us. Alice was also out.

“Are there eyes watching us?”

So I asked. No matter how I looked, there was nothing to suggest it. Aria did not answer immediately.

A somewhat awkward and embarrassed silence followed.

“……Well, I did it just in case.”

At the end of the silence, Aria answered, her voice trailing off. She wore an uncharacteristically shy expression, neither cold nor weak.

Seeing her like that, I found myself thinking deeply about how I should respond.

So, just as I was about to put a cigarette in my mouth as usual, without a word.

“Excuse me, Captain-nim. If you don’t mind me saying.”

Aria continued, her voice hesitant once more.

“Um, according to the lease agreement, when you smoke cigarettes, please do so outside—”

“Ah.”

At her words, I put the cigarette pack back in my pocket. After putting it in, I paused, then decided against enduring it and pulled the pack out again, turning to leave.

“I’ll be out for a bit.”

Because trying to suddenly quit mid-smoke felt like it would give me cancer.

*

“Gasp, gasp……”

Amidst her ragged breathing, the girl re-gripped the bloody hilt of her sword. The hilt, once shining with a sacred, pure white, was now black and red with caked, dried blood.

There was no dazzling, cumbersome armor.

She was there, shabbily dressed like a fugitive, no different from a vagrant.

At the edge of the Bretona Empire. In a sewer of a border town that would soon lead to the Grand Duchy of Germania.

Days were spent hiding and fleeing, trembling in fear of her pursuers, in a filthy place where sunlight barely reached for most of the day.

Days of desperately struggling to survive, never letting her guard down for a single moment.

‘After I escape to the Grand Duchy, will things get better?’

Even amidst all this, the man’s coat draped over Jeanne’s shoulder, the uniform symbolizing the Black Serpent, felt strangely reliable and warm.

Stopping her thoughts, Jeanne quickly flicked the blood off the hilt and vigorously shook her head.

That man was not here. Only she could protect herself.

No, was that really true?

She recalled her own sword, wielded without hesitation in front of the Empire’s and Kingdom’s pursuers.

Would that have been possible without that man’s words?

‘Live.’

Would it have been possible to be free like this, without the words of obedience that man had etched into her?

She didn’t know. Nor did she want to know.

She simply, thoughtlessly, detested herself for craving that man’s words once more.

Her own self, wishing to be bound, restrained, and enslaved by that voice.

*

Eyes that should never have opened, opened.

“—”

Soon after her consciousness awoke, a pungent stench, enough to sting her nose, filled the air.

She soon realized it was the smell of a corpse, specifically the stench of death emanating from her own body.

Her body would not move as she wished.

In terror, she struggled to move her body and lowered her head, and there it was.

Her entire body below the waist was severed, yet the flesh that should not have been alive was reattached and moving.

“Ah, hmm. It’s best to stop before your head falls off. It’s barely hanging on as it is.”

The man’s voice was heard. At that voice, Alina, who was once called the Sword Princess, desperately opened her mouth.

“Ze, Zeruel……?”

Not her own, but that man’s name.

“Zeruel? Was that the name of the boyfriend who died with you? Oh, right.”

The voice from outside her sight answered nonchalantly.

“It was quite a struggle to revive just you, young lady. But let’s think positively! Actually, your body was missing a few ‘parts’.”

She desperately turned her head toward the continuing voice. As she turned, she saw a man. Not that monster. Not a snake either.

“In a sense, should I say they’re alive? Yes, like they’re living alongside you, young lady! Hahaha.”

She understood immediately upon seeing his uniquely nauseating attire.

“Germa…… nia?”

The Grand Duchy of Germania, infamous for necromancy and military dictatorship, and specifically, the black uniform of the SS (Schutzstaffel) affiliate.

Furthermore, her revival among them meant only one thing.

“What, exactly, have you…… done to me?”

“Oh, my. Look at me. I’m late with introductions!”

At first glance, he was a man with a neat, jovial smile and a seemingly amiable face.

“I am Colonel Hydra Waltz of the Grand Duchy’s SS State Security Department, Section 4. Everyone calls me ‘Uncle Hydra’! Please, young lady, feel free to call me whatever you prefer.”

However, his smile did not suit the limbs, blood, and guts of people strewn about the area, nor the nauseating place itself.

“The Führer said not to touch the corpses of prey eaten by the ‘Serpent,’ no matter how tempting. But how could I possibly resist?”

The Grand Duchy’s SS State Security Department, Section 4 (Amt IV), also known as the , an elite necromancer organization of the Grand Duchy of Germania.

“Still, isn’t it true that the brave man gets the corpse of the beautiful woman?”

That was enough to know about the man.

As well as the future that awaited her, who had opened her eyes by that man’s hand.

*

After finishing my cigarette, I glanced up at the sky, and the setting sun was already descending.

I then stopped by a general store, bought six packs of cigarettes, and headed back to the rented house where I was staying.

Apparently, that house had been under a lease agreement even before I transmigrated into Rain Grey.

“Ho ho, isn’t that Mr. Rain?”

Just as I was about to pass the stairs and go up to the second floor, a jovial voice approached me. It was an elderly woman.

“This old granny just baked a cherry pie. How about it, won’t you have some with me?”

She said, placing the pie she was holding onto a drawer.

“And that, um, proper-looking young lady and the mischievous lady there too.”

“……I will go ask them briefly.”

On the drawer, besides the pie, there were several picture frames, and among them, unsuitably, was what looked like a military commendation.

Chillingly, it depicted several vultures circling over a corpse.