episode_0217

Mount Bneron.

The moment that name was mentioned, Jin, who had seen with his own eyes the mud pouring down from the top of Mount Bneron and the valley, was sobbing.

Although it wasn’t her will, Ceria’s eyes widened as she flew over the top of Mount Bneron.

“The top of Mount Beneron… .”

“If it’s there… .”

“… I guess that means he was looking down on everything from the beginning.”

Unlike the two people who were shocked, Hermel spoke calmly and closed his eyes.

The next person to react was Cromwell, who had been holding his breath since before.

“It’s called Mount Beneron… . okay… . That’s right… ?”

The eyes of those present were focused on Cromwell as he heard a suppressed voice that felt like he was being weighed down by something, and Cromwell, feeling those gazes, raised his head, looked around, and smiled crookedly.

“Send me away. I will go and kill Charlotte myself. So send me… !”

“You’re going to go alone and kill Charlotte?”

At Hermel’s seemingly absurd words, Cromwell gritted his teeth and screamed.

“Yes! What’s the problem!! If I have to fight alone through that mud anyway, I don’t care if I die fighting――”

“Bullshit.”

However, Hermel seemed to like such things and dismissed Cromwell’s words with one word.

“I think I am completely mistaken in thinking that I am in the same position now, but what do I trust and leave that job to you? Even if I slam my head into the ground and lose all my memories, I won’t leave this job to you. Never.”

“That fucking bitch is the enemy who killed my mother and younger brother… !! If only I could kill that guy――!!”

“So. Do you think that desire for revenge will prove that you are innocent? Don’t be ridiculous. You are the leader of the rebel group that started the rebellion. Rather than entrusting the job to a high-traitor who once started a rebellion and a madman who is crazy about revenge, it would be better to tame a passing wild animal and send it on its way.”

Cromwell was dumbfounded by the sight of Hermel speaking in a sneer and mocking him, or perhaps he had calmed down after going wild with anger that had passed the critical point, but Cromwell couldn’t react to those words and just gaped.

Hermel, who was looking down at the scene, clicked his tongue, frowned, and looked at Jin.

“It’s hard to look at that ugly face. Take it with you. Go and throw them in jail.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Jin nodded and pulled Cromwell, who was looking up at the sky blankly, and Cromwell was dragged out by Jin’s hand without any resistance.

Not long after, a roar was heard from afar, but for everyone except Ceria, it was probably a good story.

Hermel was the first to speak.

“So. I found out the location. So now all that remains is how to get there.”

Hermel spoke as if to listen and turned his head to look at Professor Draco. Professor Draco, feeling his gaze, looked at Hermel with a disapproving expression and shook his head.

“Eng… . You’ve decided to put a very old man under strain. Wait. I’m interpreting it now.”

“Interpretation doesn’t end with finding the location?”

“If that were the end, would I have called this an invitation? Tsk tsk, anyway, young people these days don’t want to think for themselves… .”

Professor Draco began by saying things about these days and muttered something in his mind, and Hermel slowly walked away while scratching his head.

Professor Draco stopped muttering for a moment, frowned, checked the paper several times, then took out a piece of chalk from his pocket and started writing geometric patterns on the floor.

The professor looked at the paper and the floor alternately and continued to write something on the floor, but then he woke up with a groan.

“Keuung… … . Ugh, I can’t do this twice… .”

Hermel, who heard those words, widened his eyes and looked at Professor Draco, and the professor sighed as he looked at Hermel.

“I’ll tell you everything without you having to stare so intently, so get rid of those burdensome eyes.”

“Tell me quickly.”

“Eng… . Rotten bitch, I don’t know who she resembles, but she has an impatient personality… .”

Professor Draco shook his head and showed a black and purple piece of paper.

“As I said before, this is an invitation. If you have this, you can pass by the mud outside without being attacked.”

“Is it okay to just have it?”

“No, that alone is not enough. If you go out there with just this piece of paper without thinking, the mud will leave behind only this piece of paper and tear the person who came out with the piece of paper to death. Hehehe… .”

Hermel frowned at the sight of Professor Draco laughing.

“So in the end, how do you use it? It’s not called an invitation because there’s a way to write it.”

“Okay. There is a separate way to use this. And the way to use it is to tear this paper and swallow the curse inside.”

After Professor Draco finished speaking, Sargela and Hermel, who knew what that piece of paper was, were speechless.

Swallowing a curse means being brainwashed――

“Aye, tsk, this is how it is that these guys only know how to see one thing but don’t know the other… . Even if it’s true that you’re a single-celled princess, what can you do with your brilliant self?”

“――?”

“If you get brainwashed, wouldn’t it be okay if the person who brainwashed you tells him to come to his senses?”

“Ah.”

The two people blinked at the answer that was so simple, and Seria was shocked when she finally realized that the paper was a fetish used for brainwashing.

After the story was over, the professor handed the casting back to Sargela. Sargela, who took the casting, looked down at the black-purple paper and bit her lip.

Let the silence continue for a moment. Sargela sighed, raised his head and said.

“… Phew. so. What are we going to do now?”

“What should I do? I found out the location and how to get there. Now I have to go stop Charlotte.”

Hermel responded to Sargela’s words calmly as if it was nothing special, but Sargela could not help but frown at Hermel’s words.

“Okay. Hermel, as you said, we have discovered Charlotte’s location and a way to get through the mud to Mount Bneron. Now all that’s left is to stop Charlotte.”

Hermel looked at Sargela with a sigh, wondering if this was just the beginning, at the oddly sarcastic tone.

“What do you want to say?”

If you said something like that to be sarcastic like before, you should just slap him.

Hermel, who had been thinking about such things, disappeared as soon as he saw Sargela, who looked like she was worried about something.

“I want to say who will go there.”

“… … .”

Hermel, who had been silent for a moment due to Sargela’s worried words, let out a laugh and spoke.

“Can’t believe the day will come when I will hear words from my brother’s mouth that sound like he is worried about someone. I wonder what day it is today.”

“Hermel. Please. you don’t go Aren’t there enough other strong people?”

“You haven’t said anything yet, so why are you getting excited alone?”

Sargela narrowed her eyes and spoke as Hermel shook his head.

“So, you’re not going?”

“… no. I’m going.”

In response to Hermel’s answer, Sargela sighed, touching her forehead as if she had expected that to happen.

And in response to Sargela’s reaction, Hermel opened his mouth before Sargela could continue speaking.

“Anyway, the only person who would go would be me.”

“No, if you look for it, it will definitely be there somewhere.”

“Who? jin? Jin sparred with me a while ago and lost. Grandpa Germa can’t move because he’s protecting the academy. And even if he moved it himself, it would be too much for his old body.”

“If you borrow the power of the spirit, Jin is strong enough. And although Sir Germa may be old, he is not senile. There is enough possibility.”

Hermel sighed at the sight of Sargela blocking him without even an inch of retreat.

“Why on earth do you want to let me go so much? What do you mean, you’re trying to be a proper older brother now?”

Sargela shook his head and responded to Hermel’s tone, which had become quite sharp as he was slowly becoming irritated.

“I know very well that I am neither qualified nor capable of calling you your brother.”

“Then just… !”

“But!”

Sargela, who was the first to shout loudly, covered her face with both hands and muttered.

“But… . I don’t want to lose you… .”

Sargela cried as she said that.

“Losing my flesh and blood due to my incompetence and my shortcomings… . Meditating on the powerlessness of not being able to do anything… ! Once is enough… !!”

“… You.”

Sargela, who cried and shouted, knelt in front of Hermel without a moment of hesitation and bowed his head.

“So please reconsider. Please don’t ask me like this, like this! There must be another way! There must be someone else somewhere to replace you!!”

“… … .”

In response to that heartbreaking request, Professor Draco turned his back as if he could not see, and Ceria closed her eyes tightly.

Hermel was the only one looking at the kneeling Sargela. And there was only one person who could wake him up, Hermel.

Hermel looked down at Sargela for a moment, then sighed and opened his mouth.

“――Give me.”

“… What?”

Sargela couldn’t properly hear the voice coming from above his head, so he raised his head and asked back, and Hermel looked at Sargela and spoke clearly.

“Don’t worry about me. Ask me to use that casting.”

“I’d rather go… !”

“Then you want me to stay here comforting the soldiers? I can’t do that. Things like that don’t suit me.”

“Even if you don’t do anything――”

“Go there. The man who said he came to do whatever he could, told me not to do anything. Don’t say that even as a joke.”

After saying that, Hermel looked down at Sargela and continued speaking.

“Pushing out the mud here is what that guy can do, and here, comforting the soldiers and citizens and uniting them is what you can do. And, using that paper to stop Charlotte is what I can do.”

“Wasn’t that unreasonable…? .”

Hermel responded calmly to Sargela answering in a somewhat empty voice.

“That’s right. It’s unreasonable.”

Sargela was unable to say anything at the sight of Hermel acknowledging it so readily.

Hermel, who was looking at Sargela, smiled bitterly.

“But there is something I want to confirm even if I have to force it like this. So, I’ll ask you a favor.”

With just one word of request coming out of Hermel’s mouth, Sargela realized that she could no longer persuade Hermel.

Sargela lowered her head while chewing her lips and made her last request in a hushed voice.

“Then, I would like you to promise me this… .”

“What is it?”

“… Come back alive.”

Upon hearing that request, Hermel smiled, showing his teeth.

“I’ll try my best!”

It wasn’t a definitive answer, but Sargela nodded, deeply relieved by the comprehensive answer.

* * *

“Is there anything else you need?”

Hermel nodded and answered Sargela’s question.

“Yes. Even if you take a lot of things with you, it will only become a burden.”

“No matter what, carrying only two broadswords… .”

“A few pieces of beef jerky and a bottle of water are enough.”

“… If that’s you, then that’s it.”

Hermel chuckled and shrugged his shoulders at the answer that felt somewhat familiar.

Sargela, who was looking at that scene, took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

“The gate… . Be open.”

At the crown prince’s command, the castle gate, which had been tightly closed, slowly began to open.

Beyond the open gate, there was a horribly twisted human figure, and dark red mud-like lumps filled the horizon.

“… … .”

Hermel stood in front of the castle gate with only the bare minimum of items, took a long breath, passed through the gate, and came out of the royal capital.

No words were needed. Because I knew where to go and what to do.

“The target is Mount Beneron… .”

Hermel muttered that and looked at the scarlet sky for a moment before looking ahead.

The wind picked up, and soon Hermel began to move forward.

* * *

Everyone who was watching from the castle wall could not take their eyes off Hermel.

-I salute your courage.

―Please forgive us for not being together.

The knights saluted the sight of Hermel moving forward.

-Oh God… . Please shine a bright light on the path ahead of the hero… .

―Please give us hope… . Hermel… .

-God bless her… .

Citizens held hands and prayed to the unwavering sight of Hermel.

“… Come back.”

Without hesitation even in the face of an enemy that everyone thought could never be defeated.

He doesn’t back down even when faced with something that everyone thought was impossible.

That noble figure that does not waver even as it moves towards death.

It was enough for everyone to call her a hero.