episode_0220

After returning to the Tania region, the next morning I resumed my journey. As I followed the path I’d predicted the resistance forces would take, I found traces of a fierce battle and sighed heavily, realizing they had already passed through. Damn it… It’s a relief that the route was predictable, but I didn’t expect the resistance forces to have passed through here so early… Judging by the scorched marks on the trees and the dug-up ground, they seem to have been here two days ago… Am I too late…?

“At this rate, I might not even be able to link up with the resistance… Could the situation have become so serious that the resistance forces came here this early…? Sigh… If so, I need to join them before it’s too late… Otherwise, Aria will…”

Assuming that the reason the resistance forces moved so early, as I had predicted, was due to the situation becoming so dire, I immediately started walking again. As this was the area where the cult’s headquarters were located, I had to proceed cautiously, gripping Trahan with both hands and scanning my surroundings. Of course, given the intense battle that had taken place, the cult probably wouldn’t be nearby… but just in case, I couldn’t easily let my guard down. As I carefully took one step, then another, forward…!!

“Oh… wait a minute… This scenery… It looks familiar…!!”

As I walked, I realized the landscape of the path before me looked familiar and quickly began to check my map to figure out where I was. Upon identifying the location, my eyes widened in surprise, and I immediately began to run urgently toward a certain spot. This path… I knew I’d seen it before… This path was…!!

“Pant… pant… As expected… It was true… This path is the one where I was chased by slimes before…”

Arriving at a certain place, I looked at the scenery before me and realized that where I was now was indeed the place I had thought of. Because that path was the very one where I was chased by a group of slimes when I first embarked on my journey… And these ruins full of debris before my eyes… This was the fallen Esrad Kingdom… Even after five years, this place remains a heap of rubble…

“The place where I first met Aria… Sigh… If I had returned here with Aria, what would she have said…? Oh… this is…”

Imagining what Aria would have said if I had come here with her, I entered the ruins. There, I discovered something and walked toward it. It was the exact spot where Aria had been confined in a cage by slave traders, and the remains of the bonfire where Aria and I had roasted boar together were still there. Sigh… Seeing these again just keeps bringing Aria to mind… And it just keeps making me feel miserable…

“Aria… You must be crying out right now, trapped in a cage called Camilla…”

‘You must be hungry, right? I roasted some boar meat from the forest. Please, have some of this.’

“….!!!”

As I stroked the cage, lost in thoughts of Aria, her voice suddenly reached my ears, and I quickly turned around. My eyes fell upon the traces of the bonfire where Aria and I had roasted boar meat before, and I realized the voice I had just heard was a hallucination. With a sigh of resignation, I put a hand to my forehead.

“It makes me remember the past… I thought it was strange that Aria, a Saintess-nim, was roasting boar… And I also remember Aria staring intently at me during our meal… Sigh…”

When I first met Aria, I was greatly flustered by her active advances towards me. But now, I’m flustered because Aria is being controlled by Camilla… This won’t do. If I stay here any longer, I’ll only become more miserable… The memories from the Esrad Kingdom ruins continued to make me feel miserable, and fearing that my heart might break from the despair, I hastily left the ruins… However, the ruins of the Esrad Kingdom had already instilled much anxiety in me. What if… even if I defeat Camilla, Aria can’t return…? And what if Aria harms herself again because of the atrocities she committed while being controlled…? Could I truly take responsibility for such an Aria…? Could I, whose mind is also somewhat broken, just like Aria’s, truly do that…? I began to doubt myself and started walking again.

“Damn it… My head is spinning too much… Is it because I recalled memories from the Esrad Kingdom earlier…?”

My mind was so troubled by the memories I had just recalled that my head was spinning, and I complained of a headache. Damn it… Is there any place where I can truly rest in a situation like this? The world has changed so much…! Wait a minute… The fact that the Esrad Kingdom is here means… if I go straight this way…!! Searching for a place to rest comfortably to alleviate my dizziness, I remembered that this was near the Esrad Kingdom and immediately started running down a certain path. And at its end… I saw a very familiar, giant fence. I confirmed that the fence was intact and felt a great sense of relief.

“Pant… pant… Todrua… My hometown…!! Was this place spared from the cult’s attack…? The fence looks just as I remember it…? No, wait… Something’s a little strange…? Huh…?”

Relieved that the fence was intact and delighted that Todrua hadn’t been attacked by the cult, I looked closely at the fence and felt perplexed, thinking it seemed much longer. No… No, it really is longer?! What on earth happened…?

“…!! A… person?! Could it be someone from the cult…? Huh? Y-you’re…”

“Hm?”

A man appeared from an entrance between the fences. He seemed startled, thinking I was from the cult, but then looked at me closely and recognized me. I was bewildered by his reaction. Then, guided by him, I entered Todrua and, seeing the deserted interior, asked the man in confusion:

“Why is Todrua so empty…?”

“Miraculously, this place wasn’t affected by the cult’s divine power, so everyone here remained sane. However, when the cult later began to directly execute all those deemed heretics in the world… Guard Captain-nim Luprian and the Village Chief-nim suggested we evacuate this place… By the way, do you not recognize me?”

“Huh? Now that you mention it, you seemed to know me earlier…”

The man, who had been explaining that all the people of Todrua had evacuated, suddenly smiled and asked if I didn’t recognize him. I recalled that he had seemed to remember me just moments ago and was bewildered. Who was it…? There wasn’t anyone like that among the people of Todrua. Was he someone who settled in Todrua while I was away? No… but how would he know me…?

“It seems you don’t remember. Well… I was in a haggard state when you helped us back then. It’s me. I was the slave trapped in Boska, whom the Black Saintess-nim sent here.”

“….!! Oh… Oh my?! In… In Boska?!”

When the man revealed that he was a slave who had been captured in Boska, I was greatly surprised, recalling that I had previously asked Aria to send the freed slaves who had nowhere to go to Todrua in my stead. So that’s why I didn’t know…!! Everyone in Boska had indeed looked haggard back then… As I finally recognized who he was, the man chuckled and said:

“I’m glad you remember. Back then, I truly… had nowhere to go and felt hopeless. But we, who trusted the Black Saintess-nim and came here… received the kindness of the people of Todrua and were able to regain our health like this. So, to repay this village, I have been guarding this place, waiting for the day when the people who fled the cult will return. Other former Boska slaves also shared my thoughts, but the people of Todrua cared for us so much… So, we secretly slipped away, out of their sight, and have been guarding this place ever since.”

“So that’s why it’s so intact… But what if the cult comes here again…?”

“I might die fighting them. Their power is so strong… But I was a body that would have died in Boska anyway, and a body that would have died wandering aimlessly… so I was willing to sacrifice my life for this village.”

“I see…!! By any chance, were there people using the family name Luprian among those who evacuated?”

“Ah… Are you perhaps referring to the Luprian couple? Yes. They also safely escaped Todrua…! Could it be… that you are the son of the Luprian couple!?”

“Oh… That’s a relief…”

When the man explained that the Luprian couple—my parents—had escaped alive, I felt immense relief that my parents were still alive. My tension released, my legs gave out, and I sank to the ground right there. I had been worried about my parents ever since arriving in this world five years later… It’s truly a relief that they are safe… As I sat there, breathing a deep sigh of relief, the man offered me a glass of water and said:

“To think you are the son of the Luprian couple… That’s truly surprising. Please, drink this water for now. It’s water from your hometown, so it must taste familiar and comforting.”

“Ah… Thank you… I was very worried about my parents… Hearing that they’re alive makes me feel a little more at ease…”

“By the way, I’m surprised. We thought the Black Saintess-nim was the one named Zeke… But it turns out you were Zeke all along… So your name is…”

“Yes… I am Zeke Luprian… The Black Saintess is Aria Ritt.”

“I see… But… the Black Saintess-nim…?”

When I revealed that the Black Saintess was Aria Ritt and that I was Zeke Luprian, the man asked where Aria was. Hearing his question, I lowered my head and became gloomy. Bewildered by my reaction, the man tilted his head. Afterward, we sat facing each other on chairs, and I informed the man that Aria had been brainwashed by the cult. The man’s eyes widened in horror, apparently greatly shocked by the news.

“This can’t be… That merciful person eventually fell victim to the cult’s evil influence… What a tragic thing to happen…”

‘That mercy… in truth, it was because I asked her to intervene.’

“Ugh… To think Saintess-nim Aria must have suffered before being brainwashed by them… My heart feels heavy…”

As I thought to myself that Aria’s healing of the Boska slaves was because I had asked her to, the man expressed sadness, imagining Aria’s suffering before she was brainwashed. Hearing his words, I likewise became gloomy, imagining Aria’s suffering before she was brainwashed. Sigh… Aria… I can’t even imagine how much you must have suffered…

“Then you came here to rescue Saintess-nim Aria?”

“Ah, yes… That’s right.”

“I remember hearing a large group shouting about heading to a certain temple earlier…”

“That’s probably the resistance forces. I heard that those resisting the cult are gathering outside right now. They’re probably heading to the Temple of Pioneering, which is believed to be the cult’s stronghold.”

“Sigh… It’s a shame I can’t fight alongside them, as I’m guarding this place… Oh, please, make yourself comfortable and stay here. You’ll need to prepare yourself mentally as well.”

“Mental preparation… Yes, I do… Thank you for your hospitality.”

The man expressed regret that he couldn’t fight alongside me because he had to guard Todrua and advised me to rest before leaving. I agreed to his suggestion and stood up. And so, I took one step, then another, looking around. Sigh… This place is full of old memories…

‘Afterward, I want to become a magnificent explorer who explores the entire world. I want to be a magnificent explorer who explores other worlds and spreads the stories of those worlds to yet another world.’

‘Why does he want to do something so dangerous?’

‘You’ll get eaten by a monster if you do that, Zeke! So why don’t you just give up?’

‘No one has ever explored the entire world, how could you possibly do that? Right, everyone?’

Back then, I admired Uncle Gid and became captivated by the allure of exploration, announcing my dream of becoming an explorer at school. However, the other children urged me to give up or ridiculed my dream, saying it was impossible. But at that time, I couldn’t properly feel emotions, so I didn’t pay attention to what the others said. Lost only in thoughts of exploration, I…

“How many times did I train against this scarecrow…? And how many times did I practice fighting…? Phew… This place is still intact.”

I gazed at the yard with the straw scarecrow before me, lost in old memories. Here, I trained again and again to prepare for future explorations. The children who thought my dream of exploring the entire world was impossible gradually changed their minds after seeing me train diligently, starting to think that I might actually be able to do it. The same went for the adults. But my parents worried about another part of me: my lack of emotion.

“Ah… It’s been a while here…”

‘Zeke. In times like this, you must say thank you.’

‘Why?’

‘That way, you can get along with other people. If you don’t, even Uncle will leave you, won’t he?’

‘….?! I can’t let that happen…!!’

Entering the house, I reminisced about my parents and uncle teaching me about emotions inside. At first, I had almost no emotions, to the point of lacking proper etiquette. My parents put all their effort into teaching me about emotions. Although I had very few emotions, they weren’t completely absent, so thanks to them, I was able to awaken my feelings… Thinking about it this way… I should be grateful to my parents… Thanks to them, I developed enough emotion to encourage Aria… But perhaps because there’s still a part of me without emotion, I couldn’t understand Aria’s love.

“My room… I taught myself how to read maps in here…”

Finally, entering my room, I recalled how I had self-studied the knowledge needed for exploration there in the past. How to deal with a pen running out of ink, how to read maps, and even how to start a fire… But now, I wonder if any of it was truly necessary. Is it because my sense of loss is too great…? Even my efforts feel somewhat hollow… As I felt a sense of emptiness about myself, I looked at an old pen I had used long ago, lost in thought.

‘Did I truly want to explore the entire world… or… why did I leave Todrua and enjoy my journey anyway?… Now that I think about it, the exploration I did feels… somehow very different from the exploration I imagined in the past…’

Had I truly embarked on the exploration I desired? Continuously questioning myself, I placed the pen on the desk and sighed deeply. Thus, I left the house, having only deepened my self-doubt and sense of futility. As I emerged from the house, the man from earlier flinched in surprise upon seeing my gloomy expression and asked me:

“You don’t look well… Did something happen inside?”

“No… Just many old memories. Anyway, I’ll be leaving now.”

“….If you successfully rescue Saintess-nim Aria… please visit this place later. Oh, conversely, if Saintess-nim Aria comes here, I will definitely find you and tell you.”

“Thank you… Then, I’ll…”

When the man said he would definitely find me if Aria came here, I bowed in gratitude and left Todrua. And as planned… I walked the path the resistance forces might have taken, pursuing them. Hoping not to be late this time…