episode_0079

ran.

Even though the tree in my arms fell like an aspen tree, I ran.

A forest with trees gradually began to appear in the desolate battlefield,

I continued to run, avoiding the sparse trees and stepping on the dirt that had been flattened like a road by years of people passing by.

After running for a while, I arrived at the destination where I started running.

“…”

The village seems to have already been ruined, with people’s corpses visible.

As if looking at a country house, the houses built with mud or wooden planks were collapsed rather than well-built buildings.

Rather than being hit by artillery fire, the house looks like it was swept away by a huge monster.

Even the bodies of people lying around there.

“…”

When I slowly turned my head and looked into the house where someone was crying, I saw a man weeping from the sorrow of losing his wife wailing in the yard of the house.

When I turned my head to the other side and looked at the street, I saw a woman crying, hugging a child with only the upper body remaining.

“…”

It was devastating.

“There.”

At that time, I turned my head when I heard someone’s voice coming from behind me.

“It is the royal command to sacrifice all children.”

A muscular soldier holding a huge spear that looked like a scimitar said while pointing at Nyamu in my arms.

“Hurry and hand over that child.”

“…”

I hugged Nyamu, who was trembling, tightly.

“I promise, no matter what happens.”

“Are you disobeying His Majesty’s orders?”

“I won’t give up on you.”

A man rushed to the ground with an explosion sound.

As expected, the 8th floor must have been a much more difficult place than expected, as the soldier ran at a similar speed to Yeonwoo.

Push…

He quietly stabbed his sword in a frenzy.

A very quiet death with no screams and no one even knowing if he felt pain.

“Don’t cry, Nyamu.”

There was no reason to pay attention to the soldier’s corpse, so I slowly entered the village with Nyamu, who was crying in my arms.

“What are you doing…”

The soldiers, who were said to have received orders from the emperor, cut down anyone who blocked their path. Then, I just walked towards where I needed to go, ignoring the corpse of the fallen soldier, as if kicking trash.

I wanted to give closure.

Hoping that Nyamu’s confused emotions would be sorted out in some way, I walked to the place that Nyamu’s emotions led me to.

A thatched house with a collapsed roof.

“…”

I took Nyamu, who was no longer crying, in my arms and went into the house.

Two trembling men and women were crouching in the corner, using the corpse of a child whose heart had been torn out and already a corpse as a shield.

“…”

“Please… stop… stop.”

“…”

“Didn’t you give it to me this time and last time too..”

As I looked around, I noticed that the wardrobe and drawers were broken, as if even the money in the house had been stolen.

The man and woman who were trembling and hiding behind the corpse of a child who appeared to be about 4 years old in front of them as a shield…

“Have you ever sold the heart of a 6-year-old girl to the emperor before? ”

“Yes..?”

They were Nyamu’s real father and mother.

“Did I make it difficult to speak?”

“No… That’s… Yes… That’s right… ”

“How much did you sell it for?”

“It was 5000 Jenny..”

I don’t know how much 5000 zeny is worth, but

“That’s a lot of money.”

No matter how much it was, it felt like it was infinitely insufficient to pay for his daughter’s life.

“Poo.. It’s a small amount of money.. I don’t even think about it..”

I spoke to the man and woman who were lowering their eyes to avoid eye contact, as if they still thought I was a soldier moving around to remove children’s hearts.

“What is the child’s name?..”

“…”

“I asked what the child’s name was.”

“..I’m sorry…”

“…”

Anger rises.

“How come you can’t answer your child’s name?”

“…”

“If you don’t answer.”

The sword, already stained red with blood from cutting down several soldiers, was thrust between the couple.

Only then did the couple look up and look at my face.

“I will cut you.”

“…■■■■..”

It was an unintelligible language.

So much so that it seems as if the taste that Nyamu spoke of originated from the language of this world.

“…”

Now the man and woman who saw that the child in my arms was alive realized that I was not the soldier who had come to take the child’s heart.

“Are you the father of the child you are holding?”

“…My father.”

“Please.. Help us.. Please..”

“..what?”

“As you can see, this time, they are using the children’s hearts as an excuse to take money and food because they don’t know if it is eternal life or not..”

“…”

“You gave me a reward last time… but what is this this time… really…!”

“…”

“If you take all of this away.. how are we going to live?..”

“…”

“Please help me just this once.. please…”

After hearing the man’s answer, I realized.

“Aren’t you telling us to just die like this…”

These people in the first place.

“Of course, near the castle gate…”

“It’s late.”

In a frenzy, he stabbed the sword into the man’s right arm.

The man’s screams filled the collapsed house.

“You should have recognized your child from the beginning and apologized.”

“My child! Dead..! Stop..Stop..! Why are you doing this!”

The woman, unable to continue speaking as her husband began to speak, pointed to the dead body of her child, whose heart had been ripped out.

“I asked you to recognize your living child, but what if you pointed to a dead body?”

“How absurd is that..! My child…my…ah…”

Only then did the woman seem to realize something when she saw the familiar back of the child in her arms.

“Ma, this doesn’t make sense..? Well, it’s a lie…”

“Why did you sell your child to the emperor for such a small amount of money?”

“…No… It’s not like that.”

“There is no salvation for you.”

I couldn’t find the reason why I came here.

It was my excessive greed that I wanted to somehow think rationally and give Nyamu a good ending.

When I was about to leave the door and head back to the battlefield where Su-ah and Seol-hee were waiting.

“Then what should I have done!”

A woman’s voice crying from behind grabbed me.

“Should you have refused the emperor’s order there?”

“I should have refused.”

“Then wouldn’t it be treason?”

“You should have rebelled.”

“In that case, our child would have been taken away even if we died!”

“I should have died.”

I looked back at the woman screaming.

“What nonsense is that!”

“What?”

“Is that what you want to say, that I will protect you even at the risk of my life?”

“Yes.”

“Is that as easy as it sounds? Risking your life… You’re talking nonsense, really..!”

“I walked.”

I turned my head again to the familiar voice.

“He died for his precious person 9 times.”

“..Yes?”

It was Seolhee noona.

Sister Seolhee naturally takes Nyamu in her arms.

“It was a 6-year-old child..! Only 6 years…”

“He also died for his younger brother, with whom he lived for only 6 years.”

“..?”

“Because he is a man who sacrificed himself for someone who is not his real brother, but is just a stranger to whom he can pretend not to know.”

“What do you mean by that ridiculous statement from earlier?”

“I saw it.”

“That..”

“I saw it.”

The last remaining soldiers in the village gathered here after hearing the voice of the woman who had been yelling for them to stop acting unreasonably.

“I can’t say that you had to sacrifice your lives for your children.”

“Of course..! That’s…”

“I don’t know if I deserve it, but maybe I would have made the same decision as you.”

“..I have to live…I have to live…my child too..! You would have wanted me to live..!”

“By the way. There is only one person in this world who can say with certainty that he should have died at that moment.”

“…?”

Just like that, the tip of my sister’s finger pointed towards me.

“He has the right to say that.”

I don’t know.

Why does my sister speak to me so confidently?

But what was important now were the four soldiers in front who threatened to take Nyamu’s heart.

Four skilled soldiers came in with their respective weapons pointed out as if they were attacking each other.

Even ordinary-looking soldiers had the skills of C-B grade hunters on Earth, and with four of these people working together to attack, it was more difficult than dealing with A-grade hunters.

still.

I held on.

Even though he was injured, he held on while blocking the opponent’s attack, and Sister Seolhee’s holy fire burned the soldiers.

There must have been a particularly evil person in Sister Seolhee’s sacred fire, a soldier who burned to ashes as soon as the fire was ignited.

The moment the guys who were avoiding Seolhee’s flames lost their concentration after seeing that, they cut off another soldier’s head.

With this, there are two soldiers remaining.

One of them started running towards Nyamu, pointing his sword at him even while the sacred fire was burning.

Even if I cut him with a sword, I was worried that Seolhee or Nyamu would get hurt due to the soldier’s running inertia, so I hit the heavily armored soldier with a headbutt and pushed him away.

Perhaps intentionally aiming for this, another soldier standing right behind me came in, stabbing a thin fencing sword right between my eyes.

I can’t avoid it.

This was not a distance that could be avoided, nor was it a situation that could be prevented by being aware of it.

Therefore, when he pierced the head, recovered again with the Fencer’s ring, and took the opponent’s heart while he was off guard.

“This..!”

I saw it for the first time.

The fact that a tree branch can hold a person.

I lowered my head slightly to avoid the thin sword that stopped in the air, and frantically thrust the sword into the neck of the soldier who was stabbing me.

After taking care of the last remaining soldiers in this village, I looked at the owner of the tree branch that saved my life.

“…”

A child shedding tears.

No matter what anyone says, the child who stopped the sword coming out of the air for me,

He is my precious child.

“Shall we go?”

“Let’s go. Sua will be waiting.”

There was a lot of work to be done here.

The emperor’s right leg had to be sliced thinly and served raw.

The emperor’s left leg had to be used to make beef bone stew.

The emperor’s right hand had to be used as a target to practice the bow he might one day shoot.

I will spare the Emperor’s left hand because it is pitiful.

However, if the emperor is left-handed, only his right hand will be left behind.

“I have a lot of work to do.”

“? Is that so?”

As we tried to go back to Sua, who was waiting for us, the woman who had screamed earlier caught us.

“If you keep going like this…! Well, I was a mother before!..”

“Ha.. I understand. Don’t hold on to your pants.”

“What… do you know…?”

“They say they will help.”

“…! thank you! thank you!! If you don’t mind! Oh, it’s been a while since I saw my child…?”

The woman raised her head in that state and looked down at the frantic sword that pierced her heart.

“No matter what happens, I will protect you, so don’t worry and get some sleep.”

Let’s just pull out the knife. The body of a woman who picks and falls down.

“..Good job.”

“How embarrassed I must have been to talk back like this.”

“Kya..?”

“Mmm. No, Nyamu, from now on, Nyamu just has to live with Mom and Dad for the rest of her life.”

“..Kya!..”