episode_0043

At the same time, those of The Black Serpent who were there also remembered them.

They were the main characters of my previous work, whose appearances and backgrounds I had personally determined and created, and the heroes of this world.

It was just a game.

It should have just been a game.

Rainwater dripped onto my head through the collapsed ceiling of the abandoned factory. I lowered my head and looked at those gathered there.

My subordinates, who believed without a doubt that I was Rain Grey and were loyal to me.

Ironically, they were loyal to me, who should have been the object of their hatred more than anyone else.

Nevertheless—that name was still everything to me. Or perhaps even more.

I silently took out a cigarette and put it in my mouth. Before I knew it, the ground beneath my feet was littered with cigarette butts, so many that I couldn’t tell how many sticks or packs I had smoked.

I thought about what I needed to do after smoking.

The 18 heroes I encountered in the mausoleum, as well as the ‘hero of the new work’ who had yet to appear, and even the heroes who had vanished.

The first encounter in the tomb was merely the prelude.

Therefore, as the leader of The Black Serpent, my task was clear.

Even if I was a ‘fake’ Rain Grey—. No, precisely because I was a fake, it was even more imperative.

I was sick and tired of wandering, searching for meaning or answers that might no longer exist in a life suddenly thrown into the name ‘Rain Grey.’

When I subconsciously realized it, I looked back and saw them following me on this wandering path. They were always there, fooled like fools. Good and evil didn’t matter.

I didn’t want to end their trust, which they risked their lives to offer to a fake, with a lie that tricked them so beautifully.

I didn’t want to let that stubbornly foolish faith be denied.

Even if it meant concealing the truth, killing lies, and turning the fake into the real.

Now, for that name which could be called my everything, and to repay the loyalty they showed me, risking their lives without question.

Even for Aria and Alice, who had stayed by my side—I needed to become real.

The true leader of The Black Serpent, the head of the villainous faction, Rain Grey.

And as he wished, I would erase ‘my blemish’ etched into this world. Without leaving a single trace.

I didn’t care if it led to the world’s survival or destruction. As the Enemy of the World, I would simply do what was necessary.

The heroes I raised were the beginning.

*

“I became the leader of a villainous faction.”

*

“Can I eat it?”

On a night where the dawn moon shone palely, we appeared at our usual spot.

“…Wait, Alice.”

Beside me, Aria whispered in a voice soothing a child, and I silently walked between them.

Towards the man kneeling and begging before us.

“P-Please, forgive me! I truly know nothing!”

“…I heard you were the last to help with that woman’s ‘disposal’.”

“Th-That’s right! I definitely helped with the corpse embalming! Aside from transplanting new skin, the overall decay wasn’t severe, and she was an excellent ‘Death Knight’, so—.”

“Keep talking.”

“Yes, yes!”

Saying that, I took out a cigarette from my pocket and put it in my mouth.

The man bowed deeply, then began to babble, spewing out words like a machine gun.

“At first, I thought she was a ‘Death Knight’ being trained by the army! B-But as soon as she disappeared, they suddenly stormed in—.”

The man was an undertaker of the Grand Duchy. And in the Grand Duchy of Germania, an undertaker’s work doesn’t stop at handling funerals for the dead.

“Who was it?”

“Th-The Grand Duchy’s secret state police! And, and there were some suspicious-looking people too! It seems a warrant has been issued for the ‘Death Knight’, so I told them all the information I knew….”

Having said that much, the undertaker looked at us, visibly frightened. It seemed this was all the information he could provide us.

“That’s enough.”

After speaking, I lost interest in him and turned my head.

“Can I eat it?”

“Don’t eat it.”

I replied to Alice, who was eerily stretching her mouth at the same time.

“Ugh, okay….”

Alice, clicking her tongue regretfully, nevertheless didn’t object to her leader’s words. Only then did the undertaker glance around furtively, then started running without looking back.

“Good girl, Alice. You were very patient, like an adult.”

“Yes, Alice is a good and obedient lady!”

“Hehe, of course. A wonderful and beautiful lady.”

Aria smiled sweetly as she spoke. Alice merely grinned widely at Aria’s praise.

“How coincidental that the Saintess and the Immortal Swordswoman are acting together.”

“…I didn’t realize both of them were being tracked equally fiercely.”

“Since we are acting together, the pursuers are probably double,” Aria said.

“The Grand Duchy covets the Immortal Swordswoman as a Death Knight, and the Holy Kingdom is desperate to secure the Saintess, clinging to straws [a proverb about desperate measures].”

The Holy Kingdom’s strongest knight, Divine Spear Roland, was dead. Not only that, but Lord Monfour of the 11 Knights was also dead, and the kingdom’s proudest elite knight organization, besides the 11 Knights, was literally massacred.

And it was at the hands of The Black Serpent, on an international stage for all the world to see.

That day, our actions at the World Military Expo carved an unforgettable scar into the ‘world’.

An unprecedented international terror attack that unfolded before the eyes of all people.

Among them, the Holy Kingdom suffered the greatest blow.

A devastating void in national power was created, plunging the Holy Kingdom into uncontrollable chaos, and to deal with it, they were once again staking the nation’s survival on ‘securing the Saintess’.

And now, it was time for me to hear her answer as well.

‘When the time comes, I will come back for the uniform with my answer.’

Even to retrieve the uniform symbolizing The Black Serpent that I had draped over her shoulders.

That day, the 18 heroes I encountered in the mausoleum.

There’s no doubt that each and every one of them is a formidable opponent, not lacking when compared to us. No, in a one-on-one fight, they might even have the definite advantage.

Leaving aside myself, unless it’s a top-tier rank like Aria or Golden Mirror, we are definitely at a disadvantage.

Because they are heroes I raised with my own hands.

There’s no doubt about the strength of each hero.

After all, the hero from the previous work alone killed two serpents, didn’t he?

Playwright Romeo, Tragedienne Juliet.

Facing all the heroes head-on in a fair fight is an act of suicide.

To that end, we needed new faces.

Not members loyal to Rain Grey, the one I didn’t know, but new forces who would willingly join us, led by ‘Rain Grey’ who stood here now.

Furthermore, the Saintess, who adorned the cover of the work and was highly likely to be central to the story, would be an invaluable asset to me.

As ‘Rain Grey’, she would be the first member of The Black Serpent to whom I extended my hand.

And I was certain.

That by now, Saintess Jeanne, more than anyone, was waiting for my answer.

“Since both the Grand Duchy and the Holy Kingdom are conducting a joint investigation, we cannot delay.”

“Understood, Leader-nim.”

Saintess Jeanne, and the Immortal Swordswoman with her.

Both of them were not far.

*

Knights from the Holy Kingdom, secret police from the Grand Duchy of Germania.

The two nations were pursuing two women wandering in the shadows of the serpent.

From the Grand Duchy’s perspective, they had to reclaim the Death Knight, a masterpiece of the Corpse Vulture—.

From the Holy Kingdom’s side, they needed the ‘Saintess’ to rally the nation that had been turned into a wasteland since that day.

As a result, in that country, Saintess Jeanne didn’t have a single day where she could sleep soundly.

The Immortal Swordswoman, Alina, who didn’t need to sleep thanks to her dead body, didn’t need to be mentioned.

Moreover, due to the climate of this country where everyone watched everyone else, no matter how much they wished to remain unnoticed, they couldn’t.

‘Why did it come to this?’

Alina thought as she walked through the dark, black tunnel beneath the sewers, following the flowing river water once more.

The beauty and haughtiness she once possessed, when she was called the ‘Princess of Swords’, were nowhere to be found.

Because she was dead.

With the man she loved, she had resolved even to die in the face of the justice he believed in. That should have been the end.

But death was not the end.

What was left for her was an eternal life where even death was not allowed.

Even when she realized that even suicide, performed freely, wasn’t a solution under the Grand Duchy’s relentless pursuit, which had recognized her ‘value’.

Before this cursed immortality, the Swordswoman felt truly as if she had fallen into hell.

That day, even the justice she had steadfastly believed she would never regret swayed precariously.

“Alina.”

Then, a voice was heard before her, disturbed.

Likewise, there was the Saintess, wearing a stained black coat over her shoulders, her pure and beautiful appearance from that time nowhere to be seen.

“I sense the presence of Holy Knights up ahead.”

“!”

Only then did Alina also sense the presence beyond the sewer tunnel. From the front, and from the back.

There was no retreat.

So, as always, Alina gripped her sword.

Along with the Saintess, who no longer hesitated to cut down people.

“Wh-Who’s there!”

It was at that moment.

From far away, a shout was heard from among the knights not yet in sight. It didn’t take long for the shouts to turn into screams.

Upon hearing the echoing screams, the Saintess realized.

That he had come.