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Densetsu No Yuusha No Densetsu Vol 8
Densetsu No Yuusha No Densetsu Vol 8
Table of Contents
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Epilogue I: The System Drowned in
Despair
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He tried reaching his hand out to see if someone might help him. But
it didn’t reach anyone. He couldn’t even see his own hand when he
held it out. It was just too dark.
“I…”
He was sitting at the throne, the heart of the Roland Empire. But
nothing of worth was there.
Scared, Mom.
That knowledge made him shiver every single day. But nobody heard
his voice.
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But kindness alone couldn’t save anyone. The world was far, far
darker than he could have ever imagined. Kindness alone… couldn’t
save anything.
“So… you won’t be alone even if I’m not here with you anymore.”
Sion smiled. “You’re wrong, Mom. I’m not kind at all… That’s why I’m
all alone.”
He looked down at the hand that he submitted to the dark. His hand
that tried to bear everything to save everyone. The arm that he held
out to change the mad world. To protect the people who were
precious to him, to continue seeing their smiles. His precious
something.
“……”
When he closed his eyes, a face rose to the front of his mind. It was
Ryner Lute, a sad smile on his lips. The Ryner of his memories turned
to face him… and spoke.
That was all he’d said. But Sion knew what the rest would have been.
He had ordered Luke Stokkart to deal with Ryner Lute - to
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exterminate him… to exterminate the monstrous Alpha Stigma
bearer Ryner Lute.
Ryner didn’t have to say anything. Sion had heard him perfectly clear
even when he was silent.
“Oh, okay.”
It was screaming.
No!
His face was always full of despair. His heart was closed up in its
despair. And he disappeared, just like that. There was nothing Sion
could have done about it.
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“……”
Sion held his hand out, as if to grab Ryner even after all this time. To
grasp the Ryner in his mind. He might not make it in time again. So
he threw his hand out, desperately trying to reach… but it wouldn’t.
Sion pulled his hand back and stared down at his own palm.
Together.
“Ha… hahah.” Sion couldn’t help but laugh dryly about that now.
What a farce.
Sion had held his own hand out, and then destroyed that very hand
himself.
He asked Ryner to help him with the same lips that ordered Ryner to
be killed. He himself had ordered Luke to kill Ryner if he should go
berserk or betray Roland.
“But you’re still going to kill him, aren’t you?” A clear and pretty
voice suddenly asked from the darkness.
Sion didn’t raise his head. Because even if he did, no one would be
there.
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“Ahahahahahhaha. You sure are nice, Sion… but who cares if he
dies?”
Who cares?
Sion raised his head to look into the dark. But there was something
worse than darkness there… something far darker and far more
wicked than even darkness itself.
The malice itself spoke. “You can only walk the correct path. You
must have the strength to trample that path, even if what lies under
your feet is precious to you. It doesn’t matter if you feel friendship or
even love for them. That is the single qualification you must possess.
Now show me that you have it. Take another step along the correct
path… another step along your path.”
“……”
Sion exhaled. But his breath didn’t turn into air. It turned into
darkness.
Sion’s eyes fell to the papers scattered across the floor. Luke had
given them to him.
“…I…”
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Chapter 1: Pure Intentions, Ulterior
Motives
---
“Who are you and what do you need from me?” Luke asked.
“……”
Six men appeared from within the darkness. They lacked a real sense
of unity, each wearing a different set of plain clothes - the kind one
could buy anywhere.
“……”
But Luke understood who they were as soon as he saw their posture.
They were people who had undergone the Roland Empire’s military
training. And they’d gone through quite a lot of it, too - they didn’t
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move more than necessary, and they didn’t leave any gaps to be
attacked from.
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Luke smiled bitterly.
The way these men appeared, the way they responded to him…
everything was going exactly as he predicted. The second Milk
disappeared was the second he’d realized what was happening.
She didn’t have anyone to escape in the middle of the night with,
and she’d already agreed to polish their plans for tomorrow with
Luke then. Her running out in the middle of the night on her own
free will despite all of that was impossible. But she hadn’t been in
her room, so several possibilities for what might have happened
naturally came to mind…
That wasn’t likely. Because on top of being a good, honest kid, she
was also very capable, and… well, no, better cut that off there for
now. The point was that it was extremely unlikely for her to have
gotten into an accident that she couldn’t deal with herself.
2. That questionable fellow Ryner Lute had appeared and led her
astray.
That was… the most likely scenario. Chief Milk was energetic, smart,
and a good listener, but that guy - Ryner or whatever his name was -
was going to steal her from them someday. It wasn’t… impossible…
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that she’d keep running away even if they chased after her if that
happened…
“……”
But that couldn’t be. Because he knew Ryner Lute’s location. That
was his real job, after all.
Ryner Lute had left the inn he was staying at in the dead of night in
order to head to the Eris residence, his face full of urgency. That was
when Chief Milk would have had to have contact with him, and she
wasn’t there.
Three: She was abducted to act as a lure for Rahel Miller, head of the
Taboo Hunters organization.
The least likely out of the lot was the third possibility - one would not
normally think of doing this to lure him out, and besides, Luke knew
how great Miller was most of all. A plan to lure him out with this
would certainly fail.
The worst case scenario was the first option. Because it was possible
for it to all take place somewhere that Luke couldn’t reach.
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Luke turned around to look at the plain… no, that was too kind… the
dirty inn that Ryner Lute had stayed at. He’d come here to examine
the possibility that the people who had kidnapped Chief Milk might
attempted to ambush him here…
“…Maybe they did have business with me after all,” Luke said, the
relief evident in his voice.
If their goal had been to get to Ryner Lute, then Lear Rinkal, who
Luke had instructed to watch Ryner, would have ended up
confronting the kidnappers himself.
However.
“……”
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Luke turned his back on them, tuning out the rest. He took a knife
he’d hidden in the inn, then turned back to point it at them. “Hey,
you guys in the back! I said don’t move! If you do, the inn’s roof will
blow right off.”
“Wha…”
Luke nodded and smiled. “Good, you stopped just in time. It appears
that no one is staying on the second floor right now, but… I’m sure
they’d get fewer guests if their roof blew up, so I’m glad it didn’t.
You’d have to pay for the damages, you know? But…”
Luke looked back to the man who was stuck in his magic trap.
“I’m sure you guys would have it covered,” Luke said. “After all,
we’ve both entrusted ourselves been trained in Roland…”
Luke shook his head. “No one told me or anything. But it’s a simple
conclusion to arrive at, knowing that you are strong enough to
kidnap Milk Callaud and make contact with me - now, who might
have a private army strong enough for you?” Luke wondered out
loud.
“…Miran Froaude?
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Luke smiled. “Bullseye, huh? I see. Marquess Froaude’s son. He’s
awfully flashy, to the point where his movements become
transparent… well, I do understand what he wants to do, though…”
“I see.”
Luke considered the possibilities for why he might have been called
instead of Miller.
The men moved their legs experimentally. The magic circle below
them didn’t do a thing. Having realized that it was indeed a dummy,
they looked back up at Luke with obvious hatred.
Luke smiled mischievously. “By the way, can you guys keep this a
secret from Froaude? It’d make me feel a lot better.”
With that, Luke was captured and put into a jail cell.
A month passed.
---
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A light lit up the dark, making the cell dazzlingly bright. Well… cell
might be pushing it. Honestly, it was far too nice to be a cell. It had a
table, bed, and a bookshelf with a fairly interesting selection of
books.
There were two doors - one was fixed with metal bars, and the other
was the one he’d come in through. It was a thick iron plate of a door,
with seven locks on it. It was impossible to open from the inside. The
security was too rigid to even bother making a fuss trying to escape.
Luke looked up. He was a peculiar man. He had pretty and long black
hair, delicate limbs, and a model-thin build. He wore an unusual
black ring on one of his long fingers. His eyes were like a demon’s -
they were dark blue and cold as ice.
“……”
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They were eyes filled with despair for the whole world. Eyes that had
lost all ability to hope or look forward to anything. Luke had seen him
from a distance before, but never this close.
Froaude nodded, then looked at him with cutting, cold eyes that
seemed to look down on the rest of the world. “I apologize for
coming so late, Sergeant Luke Stokkart. My hands were a bit tied in
moving a piece of mine.”
A piece…
Luke tilted his head. “A piece, huh… Might you mean Ryner Lute?”
The reason.
The reason that he had called Luke rather than Rahel Miller.
Luke didn’t even have to think about it. That was easy.
So he was right. Froaude had called him here to kill Ryner Lute.
1. Find any Heroic Relics that the Alpha Stigma bearer Ryner Lute
overlooks and fails to collect.
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3. Should the Alpha Stigma bearer Ryner Lute go berserk outside of
Roland or show signs of betraying Roland, exterminate him.
Those orders were the reason he’d been observing Ryner Lute. The
three orders were his formal duty. There was also an additional
order that he understood to be true in the moment he was given the
first three: Take measures to prevent Ryner Lute’s existence as an
Alpha Stigma bearer, a feared and loathed monster, in Roland’s
service from being exposed.
Eventually, Luke realized that Sion had no desire to kill Ryner Lute in
any scenario, no matter how disadvantageous it may be. And now
Froaude was telling him to kill Ryner Lute. Luke understood why.
“That may indeed be so… but who says that the lives of the many are
always more important than the few who might be sacrificed for
their sakes?” Luke asked.
“I cannot see the worth in allowing the single life of Ryner Lute to
cause so much pain. His life has been devoid of worth since the very
beginning.”
“……”
“His life has been devoid of worth since the very beginning.”
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In other words…
Luke gazed up at Froaude. “Have you thought of the great effect that
Ryner Lute’s death would have?”
Froaude stared at him with those cold, dead eyes of his, seeing right
through him. “Has the thought truly never crossed your mind?”
Froaude continued. “You are not the only one who has thought of it.
Major Rahel Miller and I are all of the same inclination… are you
telling me that you have come to a different conclusion than us?”
Miran Froaude was far more upfront than he’d expected. He’d
expected to have to feel around for his intentions, but… The fact that
he had been so honest from the beginning…
“…I see,” Luke said. “So that’s where Roland stands now…”
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Froaude nodded. “If we should leave things as they are now…”
“……”
Froaude’s deep blue eyes met his own. “You should know best of all
that you cannot refuse.”
“Enlighten me.”
“We have taken Milk Callaud hostage, and can only guarantee her
safety if you listen to what I ask—”
“That is not true,” Luke said and shook his head. “You intend to kill
Milk Callaud after I have killed Ryner Lute anyway, don’t you?”
Froaude didn’t answer. He just stared with those cold eyes of his.
“You believe that is what would give you the best effect, don’t you?”
Luke asked. “You have decided that the best way to crush the
foundation of Sir Sion’s heart and nativity is to kill both Ryner Lute
and Milk Callaud at once. Am I wrong?”
Luke stared right into his eyes. “You need to guarantee Milk Callaud’s
safety. I won’t listen to anything you say before you do.”
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Froaude looked a bit troubled, his eyebrows furrowing. “Hmph. I
see… I understand what you are trying to say. Fine, then. I promise to
not kill Milk Callaud.”
Froaude didn’t hesitate to nod. “Yes. Of course that was a lie. I might
kill her, or I might not… but you have no choice but to take my word
for it. The card called Milk Callaud is in my hand, after all. Not yours.”
His eyebrows furrowed deeper, contrary to his words. “But… you
aren’t such a fool that you wouldn’t already know that… so tell me.
How might you take Milk Callaud from me?”
Froaude smiled faintly. But his smile seemed to ice his expression
over altogether - it was even colder now than it had been before,
when Luke first saw him today. His left hand moved over his right
hand so that his fingers could caress his peculiar black ring. “Sergeant
Luke Stokkart… I am well aware of how powerful you are… as well as
the fact that your power rivaled Crimson-Fingered Claugh Klom’s
during the rebellion.”
Luke shook his head. “No, no, you’ve got it wrong. I’d die in seconds
if I challenged Claugh to a fight.”
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He was inferior to Claugh when it came to magic, hand-to-hand, and
reflexes.
“……”
Anyway, Luke really didn’t feel like he could win against Claugh in a
fight. Because Claugh was a genius when it came to battlefields. In
comparison, Luke was only a little more capable than the average
person.
However.
“You cannot kill me… no matter how much of a genius you may be,”
Froaude said. He continued to stroke that black ring of his as he
spoke. “You are, at your core, human… and therefore no match for
me.”
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“Oh? You make it sound like you’re not… ah, you aren’t?” Luke said.
Come to think of it, the look in his eyes was awfully inhuman. But
maybe that was a rude thing to think.
“No, no, I am human. But you are unable to kill me, being human
yourself.”
“…You say some pretty peculiar things… A human who can’t be killed
by humans, huh…” Luke said, then drifted off into thought for a
moment. “Well, enough chit-chat. I see now that our conversation
won’t go anywhere until I prove that I can kill you.”
Froaude smiled and raised his right hand. The hand that bore that
strange ring.
“…O darkness…”
Luke’s eyes flicked across the room, towards the presences that had
appeared. But there was nothing there. They were shapeless,
formless.
“…Appear.”
Shadows sprung up from the ground, each hurling itself into the air
and taking the shape of a beast.
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“……”
“…Better get some distance between us,” Luke said to himself and
took a step back.
“It’s too late for that,” Froaude said. He moved his fingers just so as
he spoke.
It was over.
Something bright and sparkling fell from the ceiling and crashed with
an incomprehensible sound. The shadow beasts were cut up and
destroyed.
“Wha…”
“Move that finger of yours another inch and I’ll rip your whole arm
off,” Luke said.
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Froaude looked at his arm. His scowl deepened. “A… string…? But—”
Luke tugged, wrapping Froaude’s chest up, too. Then he used the
strings to throw him forcefully against the iron barred door.
“Gaha…”
Froaude’s eyes met Luke from his place pressed up against iron bars.
“Hm. You are usually so calm and collected, and yet… Is this an act to
portray the fact that killing Milk Callaud would result in you killing
me?”
“…It’s not a fucking act,” Luke said, that same smile plastered on his
face. “We don’t forgive people who hurt our family. Don’t even think
about hurting them without a death wish. Blink once if you
understand. If you don’t, then we’ll fight this out. In other words,
you’ll die.”
“……”
Froaude blinked once. So Luke removed the blade from his throat.
Luke might not have hit an artery, but there was still enough blood
dripping from Froaude’s neck for him to press his fingers to it just to
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make sure that the damage wasn’t too major. “I see… yes, if you are
this powerful, then of course your trade becomes a meaningful
offer… You can kill me, so you would like me to hand over Milk
Callaud in exchange for my life… is that correct?”
Froaude’s eyes looked around the room. “So…. the weapon you used
earlier was… a string?”
“It was.”
“Is it one of the Heroic Relics, the likes of which Ryner Lute authored
a report on?”
Luke nodded. “I was granted permission to use one of the relics that
he failed to retrieve.”
Luke dipped his hand into his pocket to pull out a tiny needle, so thin
that it was hard to see. He held it up for Froaude to see as he
explained. “It doesn’t… exactly have an ‘ability.’ But it can’t be cut,
despite how thin it is. This needle can fire an endless amount of
unbreakable string. That’s its ‘ability,’ so to speak. It doesn’t do
anything else.”
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Luke looked like he found this all a bit tedious. “I don’t expect the
same thing to happen twice.”
Froaude didn’t respond. But he was making a face that said ‘you
should know without me saying it.’
True, there was no real need for him to say it at this point. Luke was
well aware of their current situation. It sucked.
Gastark already had countless relics and was using them to conquer
the continent. They were still in the far north, seperated from Roland
by an entire continent… It might look like it was all too far to have
anything to do with Roland, but it really wasn’t. The truth was that it
mattered a lot, even now.
Only one country needed to move to change the world. And the
world was currently moving towards war. A war that would affect
even Roland.
They needed to start preparing for what the rest of the world would
do.
They had to form alliances with Runa and Nelpha before it was too
late. They had to do something before it was too late, because the
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gears moving Gastark to conquer them were already moving too fast
to be stopped. They needed to get to perfecting their own gears.
Luke recalled something that Froaude had said earlier, when he’d
just entered the room.
“So you had Ryner Lute leave the country?” Luke asked.
“……”
So that was why Froaude took so long to get to Luke. But that didn’t
matter now. What mattered was that Ryner had betrayed Roland,
putting one of Sion’s orders in effect - to exterminate him.
“His Majesty will likely return in a week,” Froaude said. “Please leave
the country to take care of Ryner before His Majesty has the time to
withdraw his order.”
Luke nodded.
Luke recalled a page of Ryner’s report that Sion had showed him
some time ago.
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What’s the feeling called when you know you can’t choose your life?
When your family dies? What about when the person you love dies?
Nobody wants those things to happen, and yet this world wishes for
pointless sadness, laughing all the while.
I’ve never wanted to change things. I know it’s futile. But I’ll keep
being sad if things don’t change, and I don’t want to lose anything
else…
This is a pain to write, but… I think it’s about time to move forward.
I’ve averted my eyes from the past until now, but if it’s necessary, I’ll
look at it. For the sake of making a world where nobody will lose
anything anymore.
A world where that kid and Kiefer don’t have to cry, where Tyle,
Tony, and Fahle don’t have to die, where Sion doesn’t have to
torment himself over the state of things.
Ryner Lute
He’d really offer his life for the cause… if only such a world could
exist.
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The more powerful someone was, the father away that dream
became. They all wanted to chase after that illusion, no matter how
far it was. To the point where they killed people.
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Chapter 2: A Worthless God, A Boring
Goddess
Some time had passed since that incident, where Sion wouldn’t smile
at him meanly and Ferris wouldn’t bully him.
He closed his eyes, then pressed at them with his fingers. Hard. Hard
enough to smash them, if they’d been normal eyes… But his eyes
didn’t give. Of course they didn’t. He’d tried cutting them out with a
knife before, but even that didn’t work. So he already knew his
fingers were useless. He didn’t think it was possible for him to rip
them out. The Alpha Stigma wouldn’t let him off that easily…
The scarlet brand in his eyes was feared and loathed by all, and if he
went berserk, he’d massacre everyone around him. It didn’t matter if
he didn’t want it or if they meant a lot to him. He’d still kill them. So
he didn’t think it was strange that people called them the devil’s eyes
or said that he was a monster. Even Ryner felt that his eyes were
truly cursed.
“……”
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“…This is dumb,” Ryner mumbled and shook his head. It was so
dumb. He’d already given up, after all.
For Sion’s smile. For the fact that Ferris was by his side.
He’d even come to think that he might be able to just live, like the
normal people around him could…
“……”
His dreams led him there… and let him hurt people again.
He thought of Sion’s face the last time they met. He’d been making a
horribly pained expression.
Sion had ordered someone to kill Ryner to deal with him if need be.
But that was obvious. Because Ryner was a human killing monster.
He had to be killed if he went berserk.
But… what expression was Sion making back when he gave it? He’d
even thought about that.
She…
“……”
There was no point in thinking about it. They’d never meet again.
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But… he still recalled those words she’d said to him.
She’d said that when he’d gone berserk and was trying to kill her.
She’d said that for his sake. And it made him happy.
“You’re my ally, my slave, and my friend who I drink tea with. You’re
nothing like a monster. Can you hear me, Ryner?”
“Hm?”
Tiir Rumibul.
His clothes were reminiscent of a priest’s, but they were pitch black
from his neck to his shoes. He even had the same black hair and eyes
as Ryner… and a scarlet brand faintly visible on his eyes, much like
Ryner’s… Tiir’s were a different shape, though. They were crosses,
not pentagrams. Because he didn’t have the Alpha Stigma. He said
his was called Iino Doue.
Tiir hadn’t explained it yet, but from what Ryner had seen, Iino Doue
had different powers.
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Ryner’s Alpha Stigma could copy and replicate any spell he saw,
unless he was berserk. But Tiir’s Iino Doue was different. His eyes
could eat both magic and people. Well, to be precise, it wasn’t eating
‘people.’ It was eating the life force capable of creating magic within
them - their spirit, as magic scholars called it. Devouring magic,
people, and spirits gave him an abnormally fast recovery rate and
physical ability. It let him move even faster than Ferris, who boasted
incredible physical ability, and Ryner when he used magic to
accelerate himself.
Honestly, it was past the point of being able to compare his strength
to that of other people’s. He had the destructive power to take an
army. He devoured people, then used the power that gave him to kill
even more people.
“I was just thinking that you might have gotten hungry since we’ve
been walking all this time without stopping to eat,” the monster said.
He seemed awfully cheerful…
“Whoa, wait, you’re not thinking of eating more people, are you!?”
Tiir smiled happily. “Oh, you’ve said something good. You’re right.
Humans are a lower life form. They’re not even worthy of being our
food!”
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Tiir tilted his head. “Then how did you mean it? Why can’t you eat
people?”
“W-well…”
Ryner’s words trailed off. Why couldn’t they eat people? That was
simple. Even a small child understood why they couldn’t. They were
humans… so they couldn’t eat other humans. It was seriously that
easy. But…
Tiir smiled, sad. “Right… Most Alpha Stigma bearers make that same
face when I try to convey that we’re not human. But that belief is the
root of your unhappiness…”
Tiir nodded. “It starts when you’re born. You’re born as a human
child and raised as one for the first few years of your life. You’re
brainwashed in that time period. Brainwashed and told that you can
live as a human and be happy as a human. You love humans, believe
in them, devote yourself to them… but in the end, they betray you.
They curse you, call you a monster, fear you as a demon… and then
they kill you. Am I wrong?”
“……”
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know either way because he didn’t have any memories of the first
few years of his life. But Arua… Arua had that exact thing happen to
him. Both his parents were killed and he was taken in by the military
for research just because he had the Alpha Stigma. Ryner had also
been taken in by the military…
But…
“No,” Tiir said and shook his head. “I have never loved a human
before. I have never felt that I was the same as humans before. Since
the very beginning, my eyes…” Tiir pointed to the scarlet pentagrams
in Ryner’s eyes, then back at his own crosses. “Iino Doue appears at a
different time from the Alpha Stigma. The Alpha Stigma generally
appears when you’re five or six years old. That’s about when yours
did, right?”
Even if Tiir said so, Ryner didn’t have the memories to confirm or
deny it with. He had no idea when the pentagram had first risen in
his eyes… He knew when he first used their power, but he didn’t
know for sure if the pentagrams had been there before then or not…
After all, they weren’t all that visible as long as he wasn’t using his
power. The people around him probably wouldn’t have looked for it,
and therefore not noticed it even if it had already activated. So he
really had no idea if his eyes already bore the Alpha Stigma or not
when he came to and began to remember things…
But if Tiir said that it generally happened at age five or six, then that
was probably the case with him too. Arua was at that age, too.
“……”
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Ryner looked to Tiir.
He didn’t like the logic a guy who calmly killed and ate human beings
followed, but… he was still a wealth of knowledge. There was value
in them sticking together.
“So when does Iino Doue, um… activate? You said the timing’s
different from Alpha Stigma?”
“Whoa, really?”
That answer left Ryner with a certain doubt. “But even if your eyes
activated in the womb, you still had a human mother, right? Would
she not raise you? If she did, don’t you think you would have thought
of yourself as human?”
Tiir smiled. “I don’t think that could have happened. I mean, I don’t
even know the face of the woman who carried me.”
Tiir looked puzzled. “Hm? You don’t have any memories of then,
Ryner?”
Ryner recalled his very first memory. It was a memory of the world,
dyed red to its edges… the world he suddenly woke up to. It was a
wide-open savanna, red from the sunset… and from the bodies and
blood of hundreds. No matter which way he looked, all he saw were
bodies, bodies, bodies…
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That was his first memories. All he knew at the time was his own
name. He didn’t know who he was, why he was there, or what he
was doing. He couldn’t remember any of it.
“…Hm. I wonder.” Tiir folded his arms and seriously considered it for
a moment before continuing. “No, I’ve not heard that from any of
the Alpha Stigma bearers I’ve found. All the Alpha Stigma bearers I
know… were either persecuted along with their parents, or were
persecuted by their parents…”
Arua fell into that first category. So most of them were like him,
then… but what about Ryner?
Tiir smiled. “That’s why you don’t need to make such a sad face.
You’re not human, see? What they do has nothing to do with you.
You’re different from them.”
Even if he said that… it just made Ryner’s feelings on the matter even
more complicated. Tiir was praising him with a big smile, full of
fondness. But…
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“…You’re just praising me for not being a human, though, aren’t
you?” Ryner mumbled to himself and scowled.
It wasn’t like he’d gone this long without considering that he might
not be human. He had thought of it before. But was that really the
case? Yes, he had the eyes of a monster. But…
Ryner looked down at his hands. They looked the exact same as a
human’s would - his skin, his nails, even down to his faintly visible
veins. Everything about them looked perfectly human. Everything
about him was like that… except for his eyes. That’s what he thought.
That’s how he’d always thought of it. He always, always thought that.
Yes, he was a monster. But only because of his eyes…
“……”
And then… those words resounded through his mind. The thing
Ferris’ brother Lucile said.
Tiir looked at him like he could see right into his thoughts, then
spoke. “By the way… there’s more to the story about the woman
who was pregnant with me.”
43
“…Huh?”
Ryner. Looked at Tiir. And forced himself to speak. “Y, you can’t
have.” He shivered.
Tiir was made like any human child, but he didn’t know his mother’s
face. Why? Why…?
“…You can’t have… devoured your mother from the inside out?”
Tiir wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Don’t call that thing my mother,
okay?”
“You…”
Ryner’s voice trailed off. He couldn’t really continue, could he? It’d
become a conversation that they definitely couldn’t have. It was
stupid. Ridiculous. So… so…
Tiir looked him over and smiled. “Yes. You’ve finally realized. A fetus
inside of a womb shouldn’t have a consciousness or will of its own
yet. And yet, I ate the woman who carried me from within her
stomach. What do you think that means?”
What did it mean? It meant… that Tiir, that Iino Doue, weren’t the
same as people from the beginning. It was like how everyone knew
that birds would eventually fly. Iino Doue would eventually eat their
mothers.
44
He wasn’t human, then. He was…
But Tiir continued, calmly pleased. “Are you… insulting me? Are you
trying to say that something that is born by eating its ‘mother’ alive
can only be a monster?”
“…Ah, ughh…”
“D, don’t touch me,” Ryner said and batted his arms away.
Tiir watched him, eyes full of sympathy. “This is the root of the Alpha
Stigma bearer’s… this is the root of your unhappiness. I was given my
decree when I was still just a fetus, but your decree never came…”
Tiir pointed to the sky. “Of course I mean God’s divine orders. See,
from the second I opened my eyes, I began to hear a voice
descending from the heavens. Only I can hear it. It said, ‘Kill the
original prey. Devour those lowly humans,’ see?”
Tiir was a bit surprised. “Hm? This is the first time an Alpha Stigma
bearer has ever reacted to that.”
45
“Just answer me. You’re saying the voice descends from the sky,
right?”
Tiir nodded. “Yes. In reality, it’s spoken directly into my mind, but I’m
not sure that fact is all that relevant… um, yeah. It leaves me with the
sensation that it’s descended on me. All Iino Doue bearers say the
same thing. Will Heim bearers tend to say they started hearing it
about two months after birth, but they seem to hear it in the end…”
“Will Heim…? You mentioned them before too, right? They’re Cursed
Eyes too, right?”
Tiir was fast to chide him. “I told you, we’re not Cursed Eyes. That’s a
discriminatory term that humans use for us. We’re God’s Eyes.”
…Yeah, Ryner really didn’t give a shit about that. “So, Cursed Eyes…
er, I mean, definitely not that. God’s Eyes. There’s Alpha Stigma, Iino
Doue, and Will Heim, so that makes three kinds, right…?”
“No, there are two more - Torch Curse and Ebra Crypt.”
“There’s so many…”
“So there’s probably the most Alpha Stigma bearers out of all of the
Cursed… I mean God’s Eyes…” Ryner trailed off. No, that wasn’t
important now. There was something else they had to discuss. “Um,
let me change my question here. Can we go back to what we were
talking about before?”
46
“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant.”
“…But really, you must be hungry by now, right? We’ve talked about
it a few times now, after all.”
They were currently travelling the main road from Roland to Nelpha.
They weren’t far at all from the Nelphan border now. This road had
teahouses spread here and there along it…
He’d wondered why she disliked him so much then. But the dango
she gave him was surprisingly tasty… though he lost his appetite for
it when he watched Ferris eating it. Because she was just so
expressionless as she ate. He hadn’t known the extent of her love for
dango yet at that point.
“……”
Ryner shook his head. “No, nope, I’m actually not hungry at all…”
47
“Oh, okay. How about we just eat the humans working th—”
Tiir put his hands on his hips. “It’s not healthy to be so picky about
food!” He said in a preachy tone.
Tiir looked worried. “Are you really okay with not eating here? You
won’t get another chance for food until we’ve crossed the border
into Nelpha!”
He was awfully persistent. “Ugh, what are you, my mom? I’m not
hungry if I say I’m not. What about you? Are you okay leaving
without eating any dango yourself?”
Tiir looked past the teahouse, far along the path in front of them.
“My meal’s waiting for me over there—”
“You mean the guards at the border!? Don’t go eating people in front
of me!”
“I know better. Besides, I already said it, but humans are inferior life
forms. They’re no better than shit. I’m going to eat their magic, not
their bodies. They’ll definitely fire some at us when we try to cross
the border, right?”
Tiir met his eyes. “I won’t lie to you. Humans are the ones who can
lie with a straight face, not us. We’d never lie to our allies.”
He was serious. Anyone could tell that he was telling the truth. Not
because he seemed like an honest, upstanding guy or anything… but
because he despised humans from the depths of his heart.
48
Humans told lies, and God’s Eyes didn’t. They were different from
humans. Humans were inferior and they were superior. But…
“……”
Ryner gazed at Tiir. At his eyes. At the scarlet cross in them. Was it
actually a certificate? Proof that their abilities surpassed what
humans could do, something that meant that they were superior?
It was true that they could do things humans couldn’t, but… it wasn’t
something they’d chosen. It was something that was forced upon
them.
Ryner had met people like that in the Hidden Elites, an organization
affiliated with the orphanage he came from. They’d been human.
Everyone knew that. They might have had abilities that made them
stronger than others, but they were still human. What else would
they be? They were humans with magic circles on them. Nothing
more and nothing less…
So what about Cursed Eyes? Were they any different? Weren’t they
just humans with weird marks on their eyes?
“……”
Ryner looked back to Tiir again. At his eyes that held faint crosses.
That was the only off thing about him. The only proof that he was
49
different from others. That was the only reason they were cursed,
feared, loathed, called monsters, and abused.
But if they killed humans, wasn’t that proof that they were above
them, in a way?
Or rather…
“…Gh, ahh…”
“Hm? What’s wrong?” Tiir asked. “Did you decide to have some
dango while we can after all?”
The fog that had clouded his mind until now was clearing. He looked
back to Tiir. To the red crosses in his black eyes.
Ryner didn’t answer. He just stared at Tiir’s eyes. His black eyes. And
scarlet crosses.
Tiir looked troubled. “What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
50
“Let the demon go. It’s our research subject. If you don’t let it go,
God will bestow punishment upon you, as an ally of demons…”
And Ryner had replied, “You guys just said… god’s punishment, right?
That we’d be punished for having these eyes…? You guys have done
unspeakable atrocities and won’t be punished for squat, but we’ll be
punished just because of our eyes?”
“Shit, shit, shit, shit… What the hell. What the hell was that? God will
punish us? Then why did he make us? God, answer me if you exist.
Why did you make us? You went out of the way for us to be born…
was it just so you could punish us when you’re done playing with us?
Don’t fuck with me! We aren’t your toys. We’re just… living. We
didn’t want to be like this… we didn’t want to be born monsters. We
don’t like having these eyes…”
They didn’t like having those eyes. Why, then, were their eyes
branded? Why did they have them at all?
Ryner stared at Tiir’s eyes. His black eyes with a scarlet brand. The
brand that Tiir said was proof of them being a superior existence.
“……”
What if Tiir was just a normal human. Even his black eyes were the
same as a normal human’s eyes. And the cross…
“……”
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The cross was just… engraved in them from behind. Then what? It
was no different from the human experimentation that went on
inside Roland. It was the same as when people were tattooed with
magic circles.
“Why did you make us? You went out of the way for us to be born…
was it just so you could punish us when you’re done playing with
us?”
There was no way that was true. There was no way they were made
for that dumbass reason. It’d be meaningless.
“Tiir.”
Relief washed over Tiir’s face. “I’m so glad you feel like having a
normal convers—”
“Earlier,” Ryner interrupted, “You said that you hear god’s voice
descend from the sky… right?”
“Ahh, yeah. But you shouldn’t fuss over that too much, Ryner.
Normal Alpha Stigma bearers can’t hear the voice of God, so they
typically don’t have too much interest in the topic anyway.”
52
because of something the Gastark spies Sui and Kuu said. They
hunted Cursed Eyes so they knew a lot about the topic. They said
something interesting when Ryner went berserk.
So… where did the differences start, and what were they? Did it have
something to do with that voice?
“……”
Tiir, an Iino Doue bearer, said that he could hear it too. While he was
still in the womb, no less.
Then there was the second interesting thing Tiir said: that Tiir
believed the voice was god. Ryner didn’t think it was, though. He
didn’t believe in god in the first place. Like, what was god even
supposed to be? Religion really wasn’t all that big in Roland, so he
53
wasn’t sure… but a god was supposed to protect the peace and be all
powerful and all knowing and stuff, right?
Would war and discrimination really exist if there were a god like
that?
There was no way such a convenient thing could exist. At least, not
one who’d help humans out with divine intervention. There was no
doubt about that.
Tiir said that it gave him an order when he was still in the womb.
That it told him, ‘Kill the original prey. Devour those lowly humans.’
Was god someone who’d say that? There was just no way.
Absolutely none. No way in hell that was a god. What was it, then?
“A god. A demon. An evil god. A hero. A monster. What did you guys
call me? What was I called? Hahahah.”
“You mean to kill me? Kill me with your current power? With items
such as Elemio’s? You are nothing but a worm crawling on the
ground. Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha. Disappear. disappear. DISAPPEAR.
Everything is nothing. Idle. Return to nothing.”
54
“Hm? Ele… what? What’s that?” Tiir asked, puzzled.
Ryner shook his head. “It’s nothing. Let’s continue our conversation.”
Tiir smiled bitterly. “That’s fine, but if you’re not going to eat any
dango, don’t you think we should get a move on? Standing like this
will tire our feet out, and besides, everyone’s waiting for us, so I
want to go home as soon as possible.”
“Oh, uh… yeah. Okay,” Ryner said. He walked forward on the road
that stretched out before them. They’d soon cross the border soon
and be somewhere that wasn’t Roland. But for now, they were still
standing on Rolandic ground.
“……”
Of course the path behind him hadn’t changed. They’d only just been
there. And if he walked back along it, he’d reach Roland’s royal
capital in about five days. And yet Roland felt so far away right now.
He hadn’t felt like this when he left Roland and went to Nelpha and
Runa with Ferris. But now… it seemed so, so far away…
Tiir had walked about ten steps ahead of him in the time he took to
stop and stare. He turned back to Ryner, exasperated. “Are you
reluctant…?”
Ryner shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s not like I’m particularly fond of
this country or anything—”
“That’s not it,” Tiir interrupted. “That’s not what I was asking.”
55
Tiir smiled, a little sad. Like he was worried about Ryner from the
bottom of his heart. “I was asking if you were reluctant to leave your
time as a human here in Roland behind.”
Ryner looked at Tiir, whose face was full of pity. He didn’t want to
see it. He didn’t want to see Tiir making that face at him.
But Tiir continued. His tone was, at its core, kind. “I can imagine what
you might be feeling right now. Alpha Stigma bearers all feel like that
at first… because they can’t hear that voice. But you don’t need to
feel like that. Because we’re not human. We’re superior. Ah, if you
don’t like me calling us ‘superior,’ then I can use different vocabulary
for it,” Tiir said, then thought for a moment before continuing. “Even
if we were human instead of something superior… we still wouldn’t
be able to coexist with them.”
“……”
“……”
Tiir held a hand out for him. “That’s why you took my hand. Isn’t it?”
“……”
“Things have been tough, haven’t they? But it’s okay now. You don’t
need to worry anymore. You’re not alone. You’ll never be alone in
this world. You aren’t someone who only hurts the people around
you. You’re not a demon.”
“……”
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“Come on. Our friends are waiting for us. No one will ever betray you
again.”
Ryner didn’t say anything. He just turned back one last time to look
at the road behind them. At Roland behind them.
---
Ferris stood on a road near Imperial Nelpha, but still within the
borders of Roland.
“……Mgh.”
She was deeply, deeply troubled, her clear blue eyes focused on the
scene before her. She was an absolute beauty, with needlessly shiny
golden hair and porcelain limbs. Anyone and everyone called her
beautiful. It didn’t matter if they were old or young, men or women.
She caught everyone’s eye as she travelled.
But no one talked to her as she stood there. Not a single person.
Because right after they noticed how beautiful she was, they noticed
the massive longsword strapped to her waist. Then they noticed the
six full backpacks she was somehow managing to carry. To top it all
off, her expression was completely, unchangingly blank. It was
impossible to tell if it was blankness from displeasure or a calm
blankness as she stared fixedly at the two teahouses before her…
“……Mghmghmmgh.”
57
Everyone who saw her thought the same thing - she was thinking
about something serious. They didn’t know what, but it had to be
serious…
She’d been to the one on the left before. They had a reputation for
having delicious dango, so there was no way that Ferris could have
left the area without checking it out. The bigger problem here was
the one on the right. It was one that she couldn’t recall ever seeing
before. It was most likely a new one that had been built over the
course of her travels.
“……”
The signs were dirtier than she’d expect, though. The wooden
building didn’t have that fresh and new look, either. It definitely
looked like some time had passed since it appeared. Also, she’d
never received information about a new store around here where
she could eat tasty dango. Eight or nine times out of ten, a store
she’d never heard about would only have so-so dango.
“No, no. Wait, Ferris. Think about this for a second. How, from a
business perspective, would it manage to run right here next to the
famous dango shop…? Maybe, just maybe… mghmgh…”
58
they’d surely fill their stomaches with the famous dango while they
were here. Of course, one could also trial the new store while they
were here and then take some of the famous dango to go.
“Mgh.”
Very torn.
“Mghmgh.”
She walked to the new store, sat down, and ordered tea and dango.
She picked the dango up by its skewer, lifted it to her mouth, and
chewed. Her eyes widened.
59
If she had to describe it, she’d say the texture was crinkley and the
flexibility was hollowy. It wasn’t sweet or savory, and it reeked of old
flour.
Ferris shivered.
She didn’t even care about how bad the dango was anymore. Ryner
just made her more and more angry the longer this went on. She
punched the air in front of her as she recalled that goth guy and
Ryner, whose whereabouts were currently unknown…
“……”
She thought of Ryner’s face then. The last expression she’d seen him
make. He’d looked like he’d given up on everything and was ready to
cry. Like he thought that Ferris was far, far away…
She didn’t… want to see him making that face. She hadn’t chased
after him so she could see that face. She didn’t know why she did it,
but she did know that it wasn’t to see what had ended up
happening.
Ferris sighed quietly. She took another bite of the horrible dango. No
matter how terrible it was, she’d long since pledged to never waste
any dango. She looked out at the sky as she endured the horrid taste
in her mouth. She watched the clouds drift into Nelpha from Roland.
60
“…Geez. Where is he?”
She didn’t have much to go off of. The biggest clue she had was what
that goth cannibal and Ryner had talked about before they left
together.
“Ahh… so I need to explain all the way from the beginning… I heard
that there were few God’s Eyes bearers in the south, but I didn’t
think it was this bad… well, there’s nothing I can do about that now.
I’ll explain. Come on, let’s go.”
“Huh? Where?”
“To where my friends are. I came here specifically to pick you up.”
And so on.
Apparently the goth had friends, and not in the Southern Continent.
They were either in the Central or Northern Continent.
Ferris looked down from the sky and over to the teahouse next door.
The one that was famous for its dango. She came to check it out
soon after she heard the rumors. The dango was indeed delicious,
and she’d left satisfied. Then she came back a second time on Sion’s
orders along with that man of doubtful origins, Ryner Lute, an
endlessly apathetic super perverted sex manic.
She’d bought him dango from there and had him try it while he
loitered.
61
“Hehe.”
“Hehhehehheh.”
“Hey, you. You’ve gotta know the secret, laughing like that.”
“Naturally.”
“Spill it then.”
“I’ll pass.”
“No passing.”
“Whaa? Guess I’ll sleep while you explain… whoa, why’d you get
your sword out?”
“Mm? Did you not read the rules before entering school? Nodding
off equals death in dango class.”
“What kind of rule is that!? Also, when the hell did I sign up for this
school!?”
“Forget about that… And give it up. You said it yourself, did you not?
‘Whoa, this is good! Please let me enroll in your dango schoo—’”
In the end, Ryner cried and listened to the whole lecture on dango
history.
62
It had been fun. Ryner said the same thing she thought was good
was, in fact, good. It was much more enjoyable than just eating
dango by herself. Surprisingly, the dango had tasted better then than
it did the previous time she ate there, too.
“……”
She couldn’t place the emotion she was feeling. She’d already spent
so much time alone. She spend every day since birth into the Eris
family training to be suitably strong. She had always been alone. But
she never thought it was tough. It was just normal to her. So she’d
never once thought that being alone was boring before.
“……”
Friends? Friends?
63
At her… at his…
She put her half-eaten dango back on the plate. This was the first
time she was ever leaving dango uneaten. But she really didn’t have
an appetite right now. She really didn’t feel well.
Just how old was the flour they used to make it…?
She shook her arms and dug some coins out of her pocket. “I’ll just
leave the money for it here…”
The owner ran out to call to her, flustered. “M-ma’am! You’ve left
your backpacks here! Six of them!”
Ferris ignored her and continued to walk. But then she turned back
one more time. “Uu…”
“A, alright.”
She set out one more time, determined not to look back anymore.
She could never catch up to Ryner with all that baggage.
64
“That damned Ryner. He’ll pay dearly when I find him.”
65
Chapter 3: The Northern Key, The
Southern Gate
---
It was a quiet village out in the countryside. Everyone here was kind.
They were always smiling. Warmth seemed to radiate from them. It
was the kind of place where one could end up forgetting all about
their hatred, anger, and other dirty emotions. They just felt stupid to
have here…
She had straightforward red eyes and hair. She had a thin body, but a
little bit of weight to her limb, and right now she was wearing the
fanciest dress in all of Gastark.
The older lady who helped her change spoke. “Aww, Kiefer, stylish
clothes look so good on you! You get a big thumbs up from me!”
66
“It’ll be alright, don’t worry about a thing! You’ll have that Edea boy
smitten!”
By the way, ‘that Edea boy’ was referring to the man who’d
conquered the whole Northern Continent, king of the Gastark
Empire, Riphal Edea… Nobody called him the king in this town. They
called him the Edea brat, the Edea lad, or the Edea youngster…
Apparently that was just how things were here.
The old lady seemed to misunderstand that, too. “Really, you don’t
need to look so worried. I’m sure you’ll shock that Riphal guy with
your beauty!”
The old lady ignored her and set to double checking her outfit. “Got
the ribbon. Got the sash, too. You have nice skin so your make up’s
perfect like this. Alright, my job here’s done. Have fun, won’t you?”
She said as she gave Kiefer’s back a firm pat. Firm enough that Kiefer
let out a strangled noise.
Kiefer looked back to the lady to see what the hit was for, but when
she did, the old lady’s eyes were glistening with tears. “Huh? Wh-
what?”
The old lady wiped her tears. She looked happy. “I’m so glad you’ve
come… I can finally relax.”
“…Whaat?” Kiefer said. It came out pretty dumb, but she really had
no idea what was going on. She shouldn’t have anything to do with
this lady.
67
“See, that dumbass kid’s gone and become king, and do you know
what he says? He says it’s for our village… for the world… He’s always
dreaming big and doing his very best, and I’ve gotten to be so
worried about him. But…”
“I’m sure he’ll stop getting into so much trouble now that he’s got a
cute girl like you to be his wife, Kiefer…”
The old lady’s eyes widened. “Huh? Aren’t you two getting married?”
“Well… Yesterday Riphal said that he was going to marry you today,
so I needed to get you in the prettiest dress possible…”
“That fuckeeeeerrrrrrr!!” Kiefer yelled. She picked her dress off from
the ground and made a run for it, out of the civilian house she was
currently in. Once she was outside, she glared up at the castle next
door where the king lived.
“……”
It was a bigger house than the other ones. By a little. That was it. It
was a big, wooden house. Even the townspeople just called the place
‘the Edea house.’ Only Riphal called it the castle…
68
was literally just a cheap looking chair made from a wooden desk he
bought and then repurposed.
The man sitting closest to Riphal nodded. “Yes. Yes, you’re right!” He
said, his voice strained.
Kiefer shrunk back. This was actually her first time seeing so many
people here at the round table. Honestly, in the few days she’d been
stuck here with him, he’d done nothing but wander around and
loiter like free time was all he had. When Kiefer went to the library to
research the Cursed Eyes, he’d get in her way.
“How about I tell you about them?” He’d offer. Then a few hours
would pass and he’d end with, “So, as you can see, I’m actually a
really earnest guy. Did you know that?”
“I don’t care about that!” Kiefer would yell back. “Don’t you talk
about anything but your own ‘good’ qualities!?”
69
“Huh? Well, I thought you wanted to know about them.”
Then he’d go back to the Edea house in a good mood. That was the
kind of life he led. To be frank, Kiefer had never seen him work like a
king before. But now, for the first time, he looked very king-like.
The man next to Riphal sounded upset with him. “Just what are you
doing with all of this, King Edea!”
The man to his other side was dressed formally. He had a noble air
about him - a member of Gastark’s nobility, perhaps…? He was a bit
different from nobles in Roland, though. Decidedly less refined.
Aside from Riphal and his closest retainer, those at the table got
younger the closer they were to Kiefer’s side. Everyone appeared
tense, like they were seriously ready to get some work done.
It wasn’t the kind of atmosphere that Kiefer could rush in to yell ‘the
hell do you mean you want to marry me!?’ so she stood soundlessly,
then took a step back to leave.
Kiefer froze. Th-the biggest problem… was her? W, well, yeah, that
was certainly a problem. She was someone with an unknown
70
background from another country. The first thing anyone would
think was that she was an assassin or a spy. There was no way she
could pass as some tourist. There was no way that Riphal would take
a liking to her just like that and have her join up with them.
She looked to Riphal. She couldn’t understand why he’d reached out
to her in the first place, why he’d outstretched his hand and asked
her to come along with him.
He would have killed her if she hadn’t taken his hand - she’d already
seen proof of it. He’d kill her if she betrayed him, too. That was
where they stood now. That was the deal she’d agreed to so she
could read the books in Grensled Village’s library to her heart’s
content, something that was worth the risk to her. They had
information here that no other country had, fairy tales and
mythology that had a deeply realistic feel to it. There were accounts
of Cursed Eyes, too.
She’d heard that it was a unique place. One that had a deep heritage,
inheriting countless relics and stories from the olden days, though
she didn’t know the details yet… But she’d heard about the black
sword that Riphal used to fight Stohl. Its name was Glowvelle, and at
the cost of a piece of the user’s own body, it could obliterate as
many as one hundred thousand soldiers with ease…
Its destructive power wasn’t the problem. What Kiefer was curious
about was the voice she’d heard back when she saw it used. No,
maybe ‘heard’ wasn’t accurate. It was more like a voice had
descended upon her, like it was making direct contact with her mind.
It was just like what had happened when Ryner went berserk. A voice
rang out, descended. It froze her with its solumness, its
overwhelming power.
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“I shall answer you. I shall answer you. Now, offer your sacrifice.
Doing so will release my power.”
Then the sword devoured Riphal’s eye and massacred Stohl’s army.
“……”
It was a strange power. It was Gastark’s secret. They killed all who
knew about it to avoid letting it get out, because it was something
the rest of the world could never know about. Holy swords, Cursed
Eyes, contracts, heroes. And… gods. Riphal said that those were
clues, and the library might hold them.
She needed leads on the Alpha Stigma. Clues that might help her
save Ryner…
That’s why Kiefer took Riphal’s hand. She did it with the full intention
to betray him. She’d get what she needed, learn what she needed,
then return to Roland. That’s what she thought, but…
The man in blue was glaring at the king with unabashed disapproval.
It was an awfully strong expression for someone who was just trying
to childe his king about a woman. It was more like he’d already
looked into Kiefer and was now aiming to dispose of her…
Kiefer shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. The blue
guy had just asked who she was. They didn’t know who she was yet,
but this guy’s tone suggested that he was willing to torture her to
find out.
“……”
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Kiefer looked down at herself and scowled. She was wearing a long,
flowing dress that’d hinder her movements as well as tall heels.
Escaping like this would be impossible. Even just getting away from
here quietly would be difficult due to the click of her heels…
The man in blue suddenly pointed towards her. “What do you see in
that woman who’s been stooped over there suspiciously for a while
now?
Everyone stared…
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She was interrupted again. Apparently people from Gastark took
pride in their ability to interrupt others. This time it was the man in
blue, who shouted, “I absolutely refuse to acknowledge her!”
“Now, now, have a good look at her before shouting that you object,
Riz,” Riphal said. “She’s a real beauty, right? I’m marrying a beauty.
Isn’t that every man’s dream? Is there really something wrong with—
”
“Yeah, but I already told you. That’s boring so I don’t wanna. I need
something a little more stimulating, you know? I long for an exciting
romanc—”
“I won’t let you get away with that as an excuse! You never looked at
any of the beauties I chose for you, and now this!”
Riphal grimaced. “You only picked out women who already have the
hots for you!”
“M-moron!? You, our ‘stupid Edea brat,’ dare to call me, Gastark’s
greatest protegy, Rigwaltz Pintest a moron!? I’ve reached the end of
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my rope with you. I will now reveal the contents of your very first
love letter, written when you were twelve years old, from memory—
”
“Y, you little… How come you’re always trying to pick fights with
me!!”
“Ha! Then kill me,” Riz said. “Reach over and kill me instantly. The
moment you do, traps I’ve set all over Gastark will activate, releasing
millions of copies of your love letters into the air. You know that,
right?”
“…Ugh, ghh…”
It was the kind of fight children would have. Everyone else at the
table was standing, too, goading them into it…
In the end, it was the same as everything here. This country was
always, always like this. The retainers didn’t see their king as a king
and the king didn’t act like a king.
“……”
Riz turned around, his expression triumphant. “Once again - for the
421st time… no, 422nd time now, in fact - our king has forgotten the
power I hold over him. How pitiful! My name is Rigwaltz, but if you
don’t have the braincells for it, you may call me Riz just as he does.
And knowing his short memory… he will soon forget your face, too,
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my lady. If you think becoming his plaything is sad, then I offer you a
trade—”
Now it was Riz’s turn to interrupt again. “I have to work hard since
our king can’t quite figure out how to use his own head—”
Just then, another interruption came, this time from outside of the
room. It was a girl, her voice raised. “Riphal!!”
Kiefer put her head in her hands. People in this country seriously
didn’t give a shit about letting someone finish…
“Riphal, help!!” The girl yelled again. No, screamed. Like she was in
pain, on the verge of tears. Like she was full of despair.
Kiefer turned to look back towards the door. Riphal jumped out past
her, rushing outside. Kiefer followed.
There was a man collapsed in the clearing, a girl holding onto him
and wailing. She looked about thirteen, and was wearing a black
dress with good maneuverability, but it was covered in dirt and mud.
Her hair was all messed up, too, and even her gracefully pretty face
was streaked with mud…
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Kiefer looked at the man collapsed under the girl.
“…This is horrible,” she said. She had the urge to look away. His skin
was open from his shoulder to his heart, like a beast had ripped into
his flesh… and the wound itself was surrounded with ice, somehow.
The dying man opened his mouth to speak. “R-Riphal. I’m okay… m,
more importantly, get Kuu some rest… she’s been using her s, scythe
the whole time… until we got here…”
“Are you conscious, Sui!? That means you’ve been taking care of
your wounds, right? Then…”
Riz came out by Kiefer. He inhaled sharply at the sight of the man
called Sui. Three men with black hoods appeared to stand by him.
“Prepare for the ceremony,” Riz said. “We’ll use the Sacred Hollow.”
“Who cares about that now!” Riphal yelled. “Don’t talk, Sui. We’re
definitely going to save you, so I need you to focus on preserving
your warmth.”
“N, no… I can… talk,” Sui said. “This might be my… last chance to…”
“No, you idiot! Don’t even start. I’ll definitely save you! Shit, aren’t
they ready yet!?” Riphal yelled, frantic. The sight even brought Kiefer
to the verge of tears.
Because it was clear. They were just too late. Sui was fatally
wounded. And yet Riphal kept yelling.
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Sui smiled gently. “You never change, Riphal… You’re so loud…”
“I told you not to talk! We’ll get you the Sacred Hollow soon, and…”
Sui shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something, but
all he ended up doing was sighing. Then he looked up at Riz.
“Rigwaltz… I don’t have the strength… to chit-chat. Persuade the
king… for me…”
Riz was quiet for a moment, deep in thought. And then, “Your
Majesty. Your decision.” His tone was sharp, far removed from the
frivolous tone he’d been joking around with just a few minutes ago.
He even said Your Majesty.
“……”
He had to decide now. What was most important now? What was
the most correct course of action?
That was all he needed to say to Riz. He moved a hand to Kuu, who
was still clinging to Sui, and swung it against a pressure point in her
neck.
“Ah…”
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That’s the only sound she made as she lost consciousness. Riz picked
her up gently. “You’ve worked hard. Have a good rest, now,” he
whispered.
Riphal watched them, then looked back to Sui. Calm had washed
over his face. He looked at ease.
“Th, thanks,” Sui forced out. “I guess I won’t see her again before I
die…”
“…We don’t know if you’ll die yet. The Sacred Hollow should be
ready soon. You might make it if we get you in there as soon as
possible.” Riphal’s face warped with sadness. “But… the odds aren’t
with us. It’s more likely that you’ll die…”
The hooded men appeared again. “The preparations for the Sacred
Hollow are complete.”
Kiefer hadn’t a clue what that was. But it sounded like fatal wounds
at this level might even be cured there.
“It’s ready, but we can’t bring you there now,” Riphal said. “Because
you might just die anyway…”
He hadn’t wavered. He made his decision as soon as Riz asked for it.
A kind who didn’t hesitate… and people who believed in him. Sui and
Riz accepted his words as if they were the most natural thing in the
world.
“…I’m glad you said so, Your Majesty… I’m not confident that I’d live
either…”
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Sui smiled.
That was this country’s true power. The fact that the people would
throw their lives away with ease for the king’s sake. The fact that the
king would offer himself up as sacrifice to move forward. They didn’t
stop, either. After the north, they moved towards the center of the
continent. Someday they’d even reach Roland…
“The monster of a Cursed Eye we’ve been looking for,” Sui said. “It’s
in the Southern Continent…”
“……”
Wh-what?
“Then that monster is the one who did this to you?” Riphal asked.
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“Ah, shit,” Riphal said. “We can’t stand up to them if they’re
together. What scale are we talking?”
“…It’s probably fine if we leave the Iino Doue to Lir. But if it wasn’t
them, then who did this to you…?”
“An assassin from another country… who used a Rule Fragment like
Lir’s lightning beast ring…”
Riphal’s grimace deepened. “I knew it. The south’s… where that gate
is located.”
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D-did he just say… Ryner Lute? Why would Ryner’s name end up in
this guy’s mouth?
Kiefer shivered.
What if the answer she’d been searching for all this time really was
here…?
“He isn’t your average Alpha Stigma bearer… he might not look like
it, but we’ve seen how much of a monster he is…”
Riphal nodded.
“…Ah.”
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It wasn’t just Riz. Riphal and Sui were glaring at her, too.
Since when…?
She soon got her answer. “You turned white as a sheet the second
the Southern Continent came up,” Riz said.
Kiefer felt like she was going to cry. So they’d been watching her for
a reaction since the beginning, even now, when one of their allies
was on his deathbed…
“Then you reacted again at Roland. A third time at Ryner Lute…” Riz
smiled. “This has become quite the interesting affair, hasn’t it?
Somebody get Sui to the Sacred Hollow at once. We can hear the
rest from this here lady…”
She had to act now. Kiefer flung her heels off and ran. She had to
find a way to escape. But… Riz grabbed her by the hair, then pulled
her just close enough to punch her stomach to knock her down.
“Guah!”
Kiefer wasn’t the one to let out a pained yelp. That was Riz, who
Riphal had just punched in the face.
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don’t worry. I don’t care about your past, even if you were a spy or
an assassin sent to kill me, as long as you truly come to my side. Then
you’ll have nothing to worry about…”
He looked at her kindly. But his tone was sharp enough to kill.
She had two choices. She could sell Ryner out or die.
“……”
Kiefer sighed, then looked up at the sky. Was this far off northern sky
really connected to the sky that Ryner was under now?
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Chapter 4: The Heart That Won’t Drown
in Despair
They left Roland for Nelpha, then continued along the main road
towards the north for a while. Then they veered pretty far off on side
roads and continued to progress to the west. Then they left even
those to push through weeds even taller than they were.
Tiir was in front of him, pushing the weeds aside for them to walk
through. “What have you been thinking so hard about these past few
days?”
“Mmmmm.”
“What, you’re ignoring me? Er, I mean, look. Ryner, I know that
you’ve had to mull over a lot of shocking truths since we’ve met, like
you not being human and all. But I don’t think it’s a good thing for
you to still be that worried about it.”
Tiir sighed, then continued timidly. “Um… could you at least help me
get through these weeds? We might make it there a little faster if
you did… I guess we’re almost there, though…”
Relief washed through Tiir. “Ah, you’re finally going to talk to me—”
Ryner didn’t hear the rest. He was too focused on staring into Tiir’s
eyes. His scarlet crosses. “Elemio…”
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Tiir scowled. “That again? I don’t know what Elemio is. You’ve said it
again and again, but… ah, is it the name of your lover?”
“Lover?”
Tiir looked like he’d finally been saved from the endless loop they’d
been stuck in. “Finally! A reaction! I’m right then, aren’t I? So that’s
your lover’s name…”
Ryner ignored Tiir again. He just stared back up at the sky. “Elemio…
a lover… Yeah, it does kinda sound like a girly name.”
“Wait, it’s not your lover’s name? Then what… ugh, you’re just going
to look back up at the sk—”
“Tiir.”
“I’m kind of busy thinking things over, so can you be quiet for a
while…?”
“What!?” Tiir said, but started to sulk once it set in. “Well, that’s
okay… We’re going to be with the others soon anyway…”
They’d meet the others soon, huh? The other Alpha Stigma bearers…
no, all the other Cursed Eye bearers. But if that was the case, then he
really had to think about this now - the truth that he’d missed until
now, the truth that’d finally fallen into the palm of his hands.
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“You mean to kill me? Kill me with your current power? With items
such as Elemio’s? You are nothing but a worm crawling on the
ground. Ha, hahaha, hahahahaha. Disappear. disappear. DISAPPEAR.
Everything is nothing. Idle. Return to nothing.”
“Elemio…”
“That again…? If it’s not a woman, then I suppose it’s a man. Are you
gay, then?” Tiir asked. He sounded tired of the topic altogether.
“You mean to kill me? Kill me with your current power? With items
such as Elemio’s?”
The monster in his Alpha Stigma seemed to know. Not just the name
Elemio, but what it did, too.
It made him think. What if his eyes were a kind of relic too?
“……”
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What about that part?
The voice had been referring to the comb. Or the power inside the
comb. That or… maybe there was someone inside the comb.
Someone who went by the name Elemio.
His two possible conclusions were very different - the comb simply
had a strange power, or it held a minor god which gave it its power.
“A god. A demon. An evil god. A hero. A monster. What did you guys
call me? What was I called? Hahahah.”
That’s why he’d thought it was his own voice. The voice of a monster
gone mad. But Tiir said he heard it, too. The voice wasn’t just
Ryner’s.
It had echoed through Tiir’s mind while he was still in the womb.
88
Kill the humans. Kill your precious, beloved people. Destroy
everything.
But…
“You’re not…? Then…” Tiir looked around, restless. No one else was
with them. After confirming that, he suddenly thought of another
possibility. “R-Ryner, you aren’t on drugs, are you?”
Tiir still seemed worried. “Well, if you say so. Because if you did,
we’d need to wait for all the drugs to leave your system before
seeing the others.” He turned back to the weeds to push through
some more. “We’re almost there. We’re almost to the others.”
Ryner looked up, over the weeds. They’d been walking through them
without a path for the past two days. Now there was finally a sight of
life through the weeds - a little cabin had come into view. “Mh? All
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the Cursed… I mean, God’s Eye bearers fit nice and snug in one
cabin?”
“From here, it kinda looks like all the world’s God’s Eyes bearers live
inside one shabby cabin?”
Tiir smiled sincerely once again. Like he was truly happy that Ryner
was acknowledging him.
“……”
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But Ryner had mixed feelings about that smile.
He felt like a different person now, but he’d spat those words just a
moment ago. What made Tiir feel that they were so different? It
wasn’t that he couldn’t understand why Tiir hated humans, knowing
how they treated Cursed Eye bearers, but…
“…….”
Either way, it sounded like a difficult place to get along with others
in. Ryner scrunched up his nose at the thought.
“So?”
“Don’t ‘so what?’ me. You just lied, right? You’re not really in
charge.”
91
“That doesn’t really matter,” Ryner said, tired. But he ended up
repeating what Tiir said anyway. “…’Because my job will have
finished.’”
“Ah, my bad,” Tiir said. Job… yeah. That’s right, I’m doing this
because someone told me to. I’m not really in charge.”
“Hold up,” Ryner said. “Doesn’t that go against what you said before,
though…? You said, ‘
Tiir smiled, calm as could be. “But it wasn’t really a lie. I’m our public
leader.”
Public leader… so Tiir played the part to cover the fact that someone
else was there, then.
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Because Gastark had people roaming the continent to hunt Cursed
Eye bearers. Tiir was searching the continent for them, too. They’d
naturally collide before long.
And when they did collide… the Cursed Eyes would probably lose
without much of a fight. Because no matter how much everyone said
Tiir was invincible, that was only against regular humans.
Ryner recalled the weapons Sui and Kuu used. They were Heroic
Relics, though they called them Rule Fragments… One was the Scythe
of Ailuchrono, capable of giving its user super reflexes and freezing
anything it touched. Another was a dagger that, when stabbed into
an arm or other body part, could become a fire-breathing dragon…
“……”
The fire dragon wasn’t one they had to begin with, either. Ryner had
thrown it away because he didn’t know how to use it, and they were
the ones who picked it up…
But the Heroic Relics weren’t magic. Their power came from
something else entirely.
Even if Ryner looked at them with his Alpha Stigma, he still wouldn’t
understand how they were made or how they used fire or ice.
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Basically, Cursed Eyes were really incompatible with the Heroic
Relics.
Tiir might seem invincible against a normal opponent, but his hands
were tied the second he fought an opponent who wouldn’t use
magic.
It was much easier for a Cursed Eye bearer to fight opponents with
relics by using magic normally instead of relying on their eyes.
Although Ryner and Ferris usually chose to run when faced with Sui
and Kuu… it was still possible for Ryner to fight with magic.
Tiir couldn’t do that, though. His eyes were always active, sucking the
spirit from the air. As useful as that ability was, it also meant that he
couldn’t fire that energy in magic. It’d just get sucked back in even if
he tried. So he was completely incapable of using magic. How should
he fight Gastark, then?
“…By the way, have you ever fought anyone from Gastark before?”
Ryner asked.
“……”
Ryner was seriously glad he didn’t bring Arua here. Because Gastark
had already painted a big, fat target on this organization. He couldn’t
bring Arua somewhere dangerous like that.
“What’s that?” Ryner said and looked towards the sound. The door
to the cabin had opened and a young boy stood in the entrance. He
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had black hair down to his shoulders and black eyes, and he was still
really little - probably only about four or five years old. He looked
around the weeds intently.
And then he saw Ryner and Tiir. His face instantly filled to the brim
with happiness. “Ah, ah, ah, ahh!! T-Tiir!!” He yelled and burst out in
a run towards them.
“Gyah!!”
“Ow!”
The kids jumped up and latched onto Tiir one after another.
“Were you waiting for me?” Tiir asked with a gentle smile as he pet
their little heads.
A little girl who was on the verge of tears answered. “Y-you’re late!”
“Yeah! Even though I was waiting the whole time!” Another one of
the boys said.
Tiir pet their heads one by one as they yelled. “I see. Were you all
good kids while I was gone?”
95
“But y-you ate my cake!”
Ryner was actually more surprised about Tiir than how loud the kids
were. He felt a kindness radiating off of him - his gaze, his tone,
everything - that Ryner had never felt from him before.
Then Tiir turned that kind expression towards Ryner. “You asked if
I’ve ever fought Gastark before, right?”
“Yeah.”
Tiir kept petting the children’s heads as he spoke. The fact that they
were dear to him was unmistakable. “Of course I have. And I ran
away, as my friends were killed and killed in front of my eyes. Every
now and then I cross paths with them when the only ones with me
are kids like this. And… then there’s nothing I can do. Thirty-eight…
all murdered. Their eyes were harvested… and there was nothing I
could do about it.”
Tiir shook his head. “No… I’ve hated humans since I was born. Iino
Doue and Will Heim enter this world hearing God’s voice and
knowing the truth - that we’re fundamentally incompatible with
humans. But Alpha Stigma, Torch Curse, and Ebra Crypt are different.
You God’s Eyes who can’t hear God’s voice are raised by humans,
scorned by them, and abused by them… and yet you still say that you
love them. You’re the same way, aren’t you? You still love humans.
Am I wrong?”
“You’re right.”
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“Mm? You aren’t gonna try and correct me?”
“There’s no need.”
“Will I really?”
Tiir tore his eyes from Ryner to look back at the kids. He resumed
petting their heads. “I can’t let that happen to these kids,” Tiir said. “I
can’t let them hear that ugly laughter. They’ve been through so
much already… They’ve been called monsters, demons, things… By
the time I get to them, some of them won’t raise their heads or
speak anymore. And they all say the same thing once they do - ‘I’m a
monster, but I don’t want to hurt the people I love.’ But…”
Tiir raised his saddened face to look at Ryner. “Who’s really the
monster?” He spat.
“……”
They called him a monster. Feared him. Loathed him. Abused him.
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“……”
He did nothing. He had no purpose. He just let time pass around him.
“……”
Ryner watched the kids play with Tiir for a moment. Then Tiir caught
his gaze.
“…I want to protect these kids,” Tiir said. “I want to create a world
where they can smile… so I’m really happy when strong people like
you join us.” Tiir smiled. “Welcome, Ryner Lu—”
“Strong? And he’s joining?” One of the boys asked. “Ah, are you
gonna be our friend!?”
“Well?” One of the other boys asked. “What kind of eyes do you
have? Do you have the Alpha Stigma like we d—”
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Ryner was overwhelmed by their rapid-fire questions. “Uh, um, my
specialty? Uh… can you give me an example?”
The girl scowled, annoyed. “Geez. I’m talking about stuff like tag and
hide-and-seek and that kind of stuff!”
“Y-you’re kidding, right!?” Ryner asked, shocked to the core. But Tiir
just laughed at his questioning look.
Ryner took a minute to think. A long minute. “N, napping,” was the
answer he finally settled on.
The kids exchanged a look. And then, “You’re useless to usss!!!” They
yelled in unison.
“Napping, huh? I like that,” someone said from behind the kids. “I
like napping too.”
“Lafra,” Tiir said. “You were right. I found Ryner in the inn in Estabul
that you said he’d be in.”
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Lafra smiled, then closed his eyes. He soon reopened them. When he
did, there were two scarlet dots on top of each other in each eye. It
was a different sort of symbol than the Alpha Stigma’s pentagram
and Iino Doue’s cross.
“Well, you definitely don’t have the Alpha Stigma,” Ryner said.
“Yes. That’s right. My eyes are the Ebra Crypt. I can alter people’s
dreams.”
Ryner tilted his head. “You mean the dreams people have when
they’re sleeping, right?”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“Hm… but that’s, like… what can you even do with that?” Ryner
asked.
“…Wha…”
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“…Y, yes,” Lafra said, a little flustered. “To be precise, I fiddled with
your dream in my mind… b-but please don’t worry. I can hardly tell
what dreams are about from so far away. I really only know bits and
pieces.”
“……”
Ryner was fed up with this guy just by looking at his expression. He
had a weak sort of look on his face that screamed that he was easy
to hurt. It was the exact kind of expression that Ryner used to make.
So Ryner didn’t have to guess what Lafra had been through. Because
it was already written all over his face.
Lafra had the ability to see into people’s dreams. Into their desires.
He could see everything that people wanted to keep secret. And he
didn’t want that power. He thought it was gross.
Don’t come near. Don’t come near, monster. He must’ve heard that
lots.
And the looks on their faces, the look on Lafra’s face, probably ever
the look on Ryner’s face… they were all the same.
“……”
They were right. Everyone here was on the same side. Even if their
eyes were a little different, they’d all thought the same things
before. They wanted to be close to people because they loved them,
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but they also wanted to stay away from people. Because they loved
them.
Lafra smiled. “When I said that I can alter your dreams, your first
reaction was that you didn’t like that. That it made you mad. But you
soon thought of my side of things and sympathized with me instead.
You’re very kind…”
“You are.”
“You may have already realized it,” Lafra interrupted. “But Ebra Crypt
bearers such as myself are searching for the God’s Eyes bearers
scattered across the world.”
Ryner had no idea what that had to do with if he was kind or not…
but at the same time, he was relieved from the change in
conversation. He doubted that there was anyone who was
comfortable with being called kind right to their face. It was
embarrassing!
And…
“……”
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Ryner forced himself to stop thinking about that and go back to what
Lafra was talking about.
“So you’re finding us Cursed Eyes bearers through our dreams, right?
But can you really find us just like that?”
Lafra smiled bitterly. “No, not exactly. Dozens of Ebra Crypt bearers
search the dreams of different people day after day. Then once we
find information on a God’s Eyes bearer, we focus on the dreams of
that region and look through them all… over and over again. But it’s
very difficult when they’re far away. Because we only see scattered
fragments then.”
“I see,” Ryner said with a nod. Basically, Lafra looked through his
dreams until he found out that Ryner was in that inn in Estabul… no,
he probably got that Ryner was leaving Roland and heading for
Estabul, where he’d stay in an inn and was able to figure out his path
from there. Then Tiir came to find him in person.
“……”
Lafra said that he and the other Ebra Crypt bearers looked through
dreams until they found out about a Cursed Eyes bearer, then took a
closer look at everyone’s dreams to figure out where they were. So
why didn’t they know about Arua, then? It wouldn’t have been
strange if they’d come to get him at about the same time Ryner did.
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“Hey, you… how long were you listening in on my dreams, anyway?”
Tiir smiled. “I’m glad you guys are getting along so well already.
Anyway, the kids and I are going to head in now. I need to start
dinner, after all. Why don’t the two of you stay out here a little
longer and deepen your b—”
“Come on, there’s no need to be like that,” Lafra said, that same
smile still on his face. He gripped Ryner’s shirt, tugging at him…
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“Please, just stop!” Ryner said.
Lafra just smiled. Looked over to make sure that Tiir had gone back
inside. And continued. “So, shall we talk now?”
Ah. “Y-you,” Ryner started, but that was all he could find to say. So
he settled for glaring at the adolescent clinging to his sleeve. So he
did know about Arua. He knew that Arua existed from watching
Ryner’s dreams.
“……”
Ryner looked back at the cabin. The door was shut, and he could
hardly hear the kids through it anymore, even though he knew they
were in there being loudmouths.
Lafra had said that he was speaking sequentially. Ryner was starting
to understand what that meant now. He looked back to Lafra.
Lafra smiled. “Keep secret the fact that I became your biggest fan
after seeing how kind you were through your dreams?”
Ryner sighed. “Can we at least keep the part where you praise me
short?”
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“Huh!? But that’s the main point!”
“Then let’s cut the main story out and make this conversation about
the spin-off.”
“Aww,” Lafra whined. He crossed his arms and was quiet for a
moment as he thought something over. “The truth is, I found you a
while ago. But I didn’t tell the others.”
“Because you’re special. You’re the first of your type that I’ve ever
seen. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty talented even among the
Ebra Crypt bearers… I’ve found lots of God’s Eyes. You are an Alpha
Stigma bearer, of course… but you’re still different. So I’ve become
interested in you.”
“But it’s important,” Lafra said seriously. “You’re kind… and I know
you’re going to hate this, but I’ve always been watching your
dreams. You’ve been far away so I haven’t seen more than
fragments, and I know that fragments alone can only convey a
fragment of it all. But… even so, they’ve conveyed your feelings. To
the point where it makes me want to cry.
“Anger, sadness, hatred, despair… your abuse, the fact that people
are scared of you, your loneliness that only ever got worse,” Lafra
continued. “You’re afraid of hurting others. Afraid of being hurt.
You’d rather die, if you could. You’d rather go mad, if you could. I felt
your feelings like they were mine.”
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Lafra smiled kindly as he gazed at Ryner. “Even after everything, your
heart is screaming that it loves people down to its core. That’s the
feeling that dominates you most of all.”
“……”
“You’re always thinking most about how you want to protect the
people who are important to you. That you’re sick of being so
isolated. That you love people. That you love everyone. That you
might be a monster, but… you still want to be closer to the people
you love. You still want them in your life…”
Lafra just smiled. “I do. You’re very charming. Because you’re as kind
as you are sad.”
“You’ve been screaming, weak and lonely as you are. ‘I hate being
alone. I hate it. I’m lonely. Someone save me. Please, save me—’”
“Cut it out!”
Lafra stopped. But he was still smiling sweetly. Smiling like he was
enjoying this.
“……”
What could Ryner say to that smile? Lafra just kept smiling and
smiling, like he could see right through him. He wanted to avert his
eyes. Because that smile knew him.
The truth was that Lafra was sad. He wanted to cry. But he smiled.
Because the only thing he could do was smile and hope that things
would be better…
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“Hey, you… you don’t have to talk when you’re on the verge of tears
like that,” Ryner said.
“Ahaha.” That laughter was sad, too. He was smiling, but his voice
was so close to tears… “You’re a lonely person.”
Ryner scrunched his nose up. “I wonder who you’re really talking
about. ‘You hate being alone. You want to protect those who are
important to you. You love humans.’ You’re really talking about
yourself, aren’t you?”
Ryner looked back at the cabin, too. When he did, the door opened
and a girl a year or two younger than Lafra popped her head out.
“Lafra, Tiir says dinner’s ready!” She yelled.
Lafra smiled and waved to her. “I want to save her, too. And the kids
inside. All of our friends in the Central Continent. You too, Ryner…”
Lafra turned back to Ryner. He looked at him with his cursed eyes.
The scarlet brand that made everyone fear, loathe, and abuse him
was plainly visible in his black eyes.
“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of
humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us,”
Lafra said with the same sad smile as always.
---
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It was awfully quiet. Maybe it was because it was so isolated from
civilization. All he could hear was the wind against the cabin and the
wind against the tall grass outside. That and the kids’ light snores.
“……”
It was the dead of night. Everyone else was asleep. Tiir, Lafra, and all
of the kids. Ryner got up as quietly as he could to avoid waking any
of them.
He left the cabin to step into a wide open night free of artificial
lights. But it wasn’t pitch black. There weren’t many clouds out, and
the moon and stars were shining down on him. So it was actually
pretty bright, all things considered. He looked up at the sky.
“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of
humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us.”
Ryner looked back at the shabby cabin. There had been four more
Alpha Stigma bearers inside. Girls, boys, even people around Ryner’s
age. They all ate dinner like a big family of eleven sitting around the
same table eating food that Tiir made for them. It was pretty tasty…
and everyone was smiling as they ate. And they all welcomed Ryner
with their smiles, too. They included him. They all laughed at
everyone’s jokes.
109
It was a worry-free sight. Nothing was wrong with it. It was the kind
of place that it was okay to call home.
And yet…
“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of
humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us.”
He’d never thought of doing that. Instead, he’d spent his time
thinking that monsters like himself who hurt people shouldn’t be
saved. Because he hated it when people were hurt. So he didn’t think
there was any worth in him being saved…
“……”
Ryner thought of the kids. They’d been so, so lively during dinner.
Endless little balls of energy.
Lafra would joke around, and the girl who’d told them dinner was
ready would watch him with her full attention… a fact that the kids
soon commented on.
“A-a-am not!”
“……”
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But he did want to save them. They were such loud-mouthed brats,
and… he wanted to save them.
“Uwah, give me a break. At this rate I’ll go just as soft as Lafra said I
was…”
Ryner looked back to the cabin where the kids were sleeping.
He’d always been the only Alpha Stigma bearing monster. He’d
always wondered why he had to have feelings, too. If only he didn’t
have those eyes, he’d thought. If only he could exist without his
cursed eyes. Why was he the only one who had to think that?
“……”
The wind was blowing against the grass. And past that…
“Luke,” he offered, seeing that Ryner couldn’t recall his name. “Luke
Stokkart. I’m affiliated with the Taboo Hunters, and I serve
Lieutenant Milk Callaud—”
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“You’re Sion’s direct subordinate. The one who accepted the order
to exterminate the Alpha Stigma bearing monster, Ryner Lute?”
Ryner overcame the urge to let his emotions show on his face. Luke’s
sad expression said it all. It was the truth.
1. Find any Heroic Relics that the Alpha Stigma bearer Ryner Lute
overlooks and fails to collect.
So those were really orders that Sion had given Luke. It wasn’t some
plot to push Ryner and Sion away from each other. It was the truth.
Ryner shrugged. “Not really. I mean, it’s only natural. Sion hasn’t
done anything wrong.”
“How troublesome… I was worried that you’d say that.” Luke’s eyes
flicked to the cabin behind Ryner. “God’s Eyes… was it? There are
many more here than just yourself. More than my sources led me to
expect, honestly…” Luke trailed off for a moment. “Ah, well, that
aside.”
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Ryner glared at Luke. God’s Eyes. God’s Eyes, he said. “You bastard…
How long have you been following me?”
“……”
Ryner’s whole body was tense. Five days had passed since he and Tiir
entered Nelpha. That meant that Luke had been watching them for
about three days now. But Ryner hadn’t noticed him at all.
He’d been watching their every move for three whole days. And
Ryner and Tiir hadn’t noticed at all. Which meant…
“You’ve been keeping your true power a secret from me all this
time,” Ryner said.
“Ugh… this is such a pain,” Ryner said. He clicked his tongue, then
took a battle stance.
Luke didn’t do the same. “You can’t win against me even if we fight.”
“Oh, not in the slightest,” Luke said easily. “I’m far weaker. You know
that as well as I do. I mean, you were once a legend known as the
greatest magician in all of Roland. I can’t hold a candle to you with
my physical or magical ability.”
Ryner snorted. “But you’re using tactics even now. You’re trying to
make me underestimate you.”
“I don’t need to. I’d win even without you underestimating me.”
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“…There’s no way you can.”
Luke smiled. It looked like he was mocking Ryner with it. “Harsh. But
the results of a battle are pretty much always decided before they
even start… well, whatever. Shall we?”
Right then, Ryner noticed the magic circles camouflaged in the grass
in front of Luke. Now that he was looking, there were too many to
count. It was a magic trap. A skilled one, at that. He wouldn’t have
noticed it at all in normal circumstances… but Luke was being really
talkative and he’d gotten distracted.
‘The results of a battle are pretty much always decided before they
even start,’ huh?
“Ah, uwah, he saw through it,” Luke said. He scowled and took a step
back like he wanted to run.
Ryner didn’t intend on giving him the chance to run. He kept bursting
forward to close the distance between them, but—
The only thing there was a single, horribly old-fashioned trap, and he
stepped right into it. Now it was holding him in place… He was stuck.
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Luke didn’t have any allies waiting to jump him. It was just this trap,
and he stepped right into it.
“……Kgh.” Ryner couldn’t say any more than that. Luke’s strategy was
too brilliant to argue against.
Everything that Luke said and did was done was strategy. For the
express purpose of getting his knife to Ryner’s throat. He meant to
sound overconfident. He meant for Ryner to see through his magic
trap. Ryner could never…
“You could never win… that’s what you’re thinking, right? I could win
with such a simple trap in the grass… I’m way too strong for you to
win against… you thought that too, right? But that’s not true. The
truth is that you’re stronger. I’ve only been acting to make you feel
that I’m overwhelmingly strong. See, if you wanted, you’re plenty
strong enough to take this knife from me and kill me instead. Do you
want to?”
“……”
Say he was telling the truth and Ryner really could steal the knife
away. Luke wasn’t moving like someone who was far out of Ryner’s
league, fighting wise. That much was true. He might really be able to
steal the knife if he just tried.
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But the fact that Luke said he could do it so easily… meant that Ryner
couldn’t move. He couldn’t tell what was a lie and what was the
truth… That was another kind of trap, he supposed.
“…Alright. It’s over,” Luke said. He squeezed the knife in his hand.
But he didn’t move.
Ryner was too focused on what Luke was saying. His reflexes were
slower. His body wasn’t as ready for a fight as it should be. And in the
instant that he wavered… the knife began to dig into his throat.
“Gagh…”
Ryner twisted his body. He had to get out of the way. But it didn’t
look like he’d make it.
It was hopeless—
“……”
And then he saw it, on the brink of death. It was like an angel cutting
through the dark, with flowing golden-blonde hair. Blue eyes. An
eerily beautiful face. She was pretty, he thought. Prettier than
anything he’d ever seen before. Prettier than anything anyone had
seen before.
Seeing her was nostalgic and all, yeah, but he was face down on the
ground before he could register any more than that. He hurt too
much to stand. “Are you trying to kill me, Ferris!?” Ryner yelled.
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“…U, uwah. Even this is nostalgic. Makes me remember how much
you always step on m—gyaah!!”
She stepped on his head this time. “Mm? Oh, you were there.”
Ryner was on the verge of tears. “S-sorry. You’re mad at me, right?
Of course you’d be. Um, I-I’ll apologize for everything, so can you
wait a minute? You could eat some dango or something. So? What
do you say? I’ll die if you keep doing thiisssss gyakyaaahhhhh!!”
He was seriously gonna die this time. That’s what Ryner thought.
But Ferris seemed satisfied when she stopped. “So what’s the
situation?” She asked. “Why’s this guy trying to kill you?”
“…So you finally caught up to me, Ferris,” Luke said. “You followed
me here, didn’t you?”
“Kyghaaaaaa!!”
“Mm?”
117
They all turned towards the sound.
Ferris’ eyes widened like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
She shivered. “Y-you… Don’t tell me you’ve kidnapped girls and taken
them to this secluded cabin—”
“Ah, I’ve not heard of that,” Luke said. “Don’t tell me you’re using
magic to exploit them—”
The cabin door opened. Some kids ran out towards them. Everyone
was crying. There were three young boys and girls, and they were
soon followed by Pueka and Lafra.
“Killed? By wh—”
Ryner couldn’t finish. Because once he saw the monster leaping out
after Lafra and the others, he was at a loss for words. It was a beast
made of light… no, made of thunder. And it was aiming for Pueka.
“Shit!”
Ryner broke out in a run. But he couldn’t make it. She was too far
away. The beast opened its mouth wide…
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But just then, Lafra kicked Pueka out of the way. When he did, the
beast turned its attention to him.
Ryner could make it this time! He just needed a little more. “Lafra,
over here!”
“…I’m glad I could make it. I know you’ll honor our promis…”
Lafra never got to finish that sentence. Because the beast ran
towards him far faster than Ryner could. It wrapped its big fangs
around Lafra’s head and bit… leaving the rest of his body to fall to
the ground like a toy after playtime had ended. His head soon fell
down beside him.
Lafra.
Lafra was… still smiling up at him sadly. And he’d never stop, now.
“……Ah…”
Ryner suddenly didn’t understand anything. His vision went dark. But
he could still hear screaming. The screams of children. They
screamed and screamed and screamed over the picture of Lafra’s
smile that was burned into his mind.
119
“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of
humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us.”
Those words were burned into his mind next to his smile. It was like
a curse haunting his mind.
“I… I don’t…”
Pueka, who Lafra had kicked out of the way of an attack, looked
towards him. She looked… at Lafra, below a beast whose mouth was
dripping with blood.
“…N, no…”
Her black eyes widened. And at their center… a cursed glimmer lit
up.
“Ahh, ahhhh…”
The red pentagram in her eyes lit up, brighter and brighter… like
they’d make her go mad…
Ryner ran to her. He could still make it. He just had to knock her out
now. He could still save her.
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“What kind of impossible dreams do you ugly monsters have?”
Shut up.
Shut up!
He could still make it. He should still make it. He could still save her.
Because even his hand could save someone, even if it was the
bloodied hand of a monster—
“Whoa there, I can’t have you getting in the way when I’m so close
to crystallizing this.”
Ryner watched her to see if she’d get up. But she didn’t move at all.
“…No…”
She didn’t move at all. Because she was the same as Lafra. Dead.
“……”
The whole world was trembling like it was cold. No, Ryner was. Of
course.
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His body was shivering. From anger, sadness, hatred, pain…
“……”
He looked down at his hands that he’d tried to reach the others with.
They were shaking.
They could…
“…kill you.”
The man in front of him laughed. “Haha, the hell? I’m going to kill all
of you Cursed Eye monsters—”
“Gastaaaaarrrkkk!!”
Ryner’s hands danced in the air. His magic circle was complete in a
flash.
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He moved his fingers, one of which was adorned with a gold ring.
When he did, the thunder beasts moved.
Ryner had seen something similar in the past. A guy called Froaude
used the same kind of relic. His had shadow beasts and this one had
thunder beasts. Thunder beasts that killed Lafra.
If this guy’s ring was just as strong as Froaude’s, then Ryner didn’t
have a chance. Because he couldn’t even follow Froaude’s beasts
with his eyes. They were too fast, too sharp. He couldn’t fight them
alone.
“Too late,” the pink haired man jived, “You won’t be able to dodge if
you cast magic. You’ll just die. You know that, right? Appear!”
If he could just…
“—Thunder—”
But just then, Ferris jumped between Ryner and the beast.
Luke grabbed Ryner by the hair, flustered, and pushed him head first
into the ground.
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“…Uough!?”
The beasts jumped at Ferris. She swung her sword at them to get
them to disperse.
“A-are you some kind of idiot!?” Ryner yelled. “Don’t jump in front of
my mag—”
“You’re the idiot!” Ferris yelled back. Then she turned around. Her
expression was just as blank as always. And yet, inside that
blankness… was something very, very faint…
“…If you… if you really want to die on your own that badly, then
that’s okay.”
…And that very faint emotion was something sad. Sad like she
wanted to cry.
Ferris averted her eyes. “If you’re really a monster and not really my
friend… then it’s okay if you disappear. If you don’t think that we’re
partners in crime, don’t believe that you’re my slave, and don’t want
to drink tea with me as my friend… then you can do whatever you
want.”
Ferris pointed her sword at the man from Gastark. “But I don’t think
that, Ryner. No matter how much you think you’re a monster… I
don’t think you are at all. Even if you feel like it’s just you, like you’re
all alone now… even if you don’t think that’s lonely… I don’t think
that at all.”
The Gastarki man smiled. “Well, isn’t this wonderful… If this were a
fairy tale, the monster would become a human at the end and you’d
live happily ever after. Unfortunately, this is real life. That monster
124
will never stop being a monster.” He turned to Ryner. “A monster
whose mere existence harms the world.”
“……”
Ryner was used to hearing that sort of thing. People always said it.
They said he was a monster. That he only ever hurt people. That he
only ever killed people. His bloodstained hands couldn’t reach
anybody. They couldn’t save anybody…
And yet.
“I, interesting,” the man from Gastark said. “No, even if you don’t
care… Are you saying you’d let a dangerous monster li—”
“I don’t care about that stuff,” Ferris interrupted. She said it easily.
Way too easily.
So what? What if he was a monster? And saying that she didn’t even
care if he was dangerous or not…
He really felt like he’d been hit. She didn’t even have to think about
it. She just thought it was stupid, didn’t she?
And Ryner, stupid as he was, began to speak. “I, I,” he said. He was
crying for some reason. “Is it really okay… if I live…?”
His voice was shaking. Please, forgive him. That’s all he wanted.
125
He was letting Ferris see him cry. What would she turn this into
later…? No, that didn’t matter now. Because now, shameful as it
was, he was crying and wanting to die.
And of course she took that moment to turn around. Because that
was the kind of person she was. She was contrary, violent, and a
bully. And above all…
Even if they hated him, even if they were afraid of him, Ryner didn’t
want to be alone anymore. Because he loved people. So no matter
how much they hurt him…
“I…”
The Gastarki man spoke over him. “Well, I guess you’re gonna get
pretty lonely then, ‘cause he’s going to die right here.” He raised the
green orb over his head. It glittered like a jewel.
Ryner had seen something like it before. Sui and Kuu had used one
when they fought. It was the crystalized eyes of a Cursed Eye bearer.
Most likely Pueka’s Alpha Stigma.
“Th, this is bad!” Ryner yelled. Because that thing would make all the
surrounding Alpha Stigma bearers go berserk. He looked around. The
Alpha Stigma kids were watching, unable to do anything but cry.
126
“I’m going to collect all your Cursed Eyes up.”
But the kids didn’t run. They were frozen in place by their tears.
But…
“Come to me, o beasts - appear!” The man said and waved his
fingers. One beast appeared in front of the children. Two appeared
to chase after Ferris.
Ferris swung her sword through the mouth of one beast to kill it. The
other caught her from behind with a low growl.
“…Gagh!”
Ferris was flung away, then knocked into the ground, unconscious.
The man grinned. “See, what’d I say? I’m not letting these Cursed
Eye monsters get me.” Then he raised the gem up again.
He was giving up on himself. His heart that said that he was useless
and that he should give up.
127
No. It shouldn’t be in vain.
At the end of this despair ridden path, there surely lay a world where
no one would lose anything anymore. That kid and Kiefer wouldn’t
have to cry anymore. Tyle, Tony, and Fahle wouldn’t have to die.
Sion would be able to smile. Ferris and Lafra, too. Everyone,
everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone!
Ryner suddenly heard Lafra’s voice. He couldn’t say why. But he saw
his face, smiling even to his death in this despair-ridden world.
“……”
Ryner looked to the cabin. He saw Tiir at the door. He hadn’t been
there earlier. His right arm and left leg had been torn off… but he still
managed to crawl to the door. But that was as far as he could make
it. He didn’t move. He didn’t even twitch. His blood loss would be
fatal. In fact, he almost looked dead now.
“……”
128
Still, Ryner smiled. His hands danced in the air. He drew a magic
circle faster and more skillfully than anyone else could. It was
complete faster than one would expect to see such a complex circle.
Ryner’s hands stopped. The speed they’d had while drawing his
magic circle left them completely, leaving him paralyzed. The world
brightened and clouded over. His mind went blank. He felt his eyes
widen. A burning pain shot through them.
“…Uuh… y, you…”
Don’t fight me. This is what you want. It doesn’t matter how much
despair exists in the world. That doesn’t matter to you—
That’s wrong.
That’s wrong!
I want to save—
129
Can it.
Can it already!
Shi… t…
Ha, hahaha.
S, stop…
Ah…
It’ll get easier. You won’t care about anything. The world will be a
blank slate. A blank, empty world with nothing at all inside it. Clarity
is all that you’ll feel. Your mind will become clearer and clearer.
End it, it said. End everything, make it just how you’d like it. Release
everything. Open everything. Kill everything.
“…Ah… ahhhh…”
130
His head hurt like crazy. His body was spazzing like mad. Even so…
the world wasn’t blank anymore. He was back. The magic circle he’d
just drawn was still here waiting for him.
“Th, this is insane,” the man from Gastark said. “You stopped it?
That’s crazy. I can’t believe that. What are you?”
“I won’t let you!” The man said and tried to raise his arm to use his
ring. But he couldn’t. It was held in place by countless strings of light.
He scowled. “Lastel’s Thread?”
“Hm. So that’s its name,” Luke said from behind Ryner. “This is…
well. I assume if you know its name, you also know its effects.”
“Ah. Thought so. But this sewing needle can kill you. Then I can send
your head in a neat little box back to Gastark,” Luke said. He laughed
in a low, dangerous tone.
“…So you even know of Gastark… I guess I better make sure you
Rolanders know what kind of a fight you’re asking for,” Gastark’s
assassin said. He laughed too, then retrieved that green orb again.
“Dumbass. A low level Rule Fragment can’t kill me. Spanquel, cut it
up.”
The green orb lit up on his orders. The threads surrounding him were
cut.
Ryner smiled. Because he’d seen this before. This was the same
game Luke had played with him earlier - he used his words to make
his opponent forget the most critical information. That caused
Gastark’s assassin to forget the most important thing here. He
shouldn’t have wasted time worrying about Luke. Beating Ryner was
131
his priority. If he would’ve done that, then everything would have
ended.
But he didn’t.
Ryner put the finishing touches on his magic circle. “I wish for
thunder - Lightning Flash!”
“I devour power…”
Tiir’s whole body began to pulsate. Then his arm and leg started to
regenerate.
Tiir sprang up. He jumped to the roof of the cabin and glared at the
man from Gastark. “How dare you… H, human… You damned
human… I’ll kill—”
“The kids! Stop the kids! Their Alpha Stigma’s going to go berserk!”
Tiir dashed to where the kids were laughing madly. So fast that Ryner
couldn’t even see him move. He pressed his hands against the three
kids’ pressure points to make them lose consciousness.
But Ryner couldn’t relax yet. “There are kids in the cabin, too—”
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“Already killed,” the man from Gastark said.
“But this time was a real bummer. I went through the effort to come
here. But Tiir got in the way, and I killed them before I could harvest
them… so I only got one harvest out of all this, in the end.” He raised
the crystal from before up again. The crystal with Pueka’s eyes.
Only one harvest, he said. That crying and screaming girl was just
‘one harvest’ to him.
“……”
What was he saying? He killed someone for that, didn’t he? So why
was he smiling like that?
“……”
Ryner looked at the man. The man who said Pueka’s eyes were ‘only
one harvest.’ Wasn’t he saying that they had to be alive for their
eyes to be harvestable?
Ryner had to think about this rationally. What was the best course of
action in this scenario? He forced himself to breathe deeply and
looked around. He needed to figure out how to save the most people
here…
“……”
133
It would be easy for the man from Gastark to win if all he had to do
was kill everyone else.
“…You? Don’t really need you, though. I can’t go home with one
measly Alpha Stigma bearer…”
Ryner snorted. “Liar. You’ve already realized that I’m not some
‘measly Alpha Stigma bearer’ by now. Your country’s starved for
information on me.”
The man looked at the pentagram in Ryner’s eyes, then moved his
eyes around suspiciously, like some kind of signal - he looked to Tiir,
then to Luke pointedly. Ryner didn’t understand why. But the man
soon spoke. “I don’t need you. Honestly, it’s probably better if I just
killed an Alpha Stigma bearing monster like you.” He raised the green
orb again.
Ryner finally understood what he meant to do. “Tiir, hurry! Take the
kids and go!”
“But you—”
“Don’t worry about me! Just go! Or would you prefer us all to die!?”
“Kgh…”
Tiir picked the kids up, and once he had them all, he ran and
disappeared into the tall grass.
134
“I won’t let you,” the man from Gastark said. “Spanquel… gh. Let me
go. Ugh! Fine. I’ll kill you and your friends, then.” He looked to Luke.
“So did you figure our shitty acting out?” The man asked.
“No, no, your acting was very realistic,” Luke said. “That’s why that
Tiir fellow quietly left for us.”
So that’s what the man’s signal had meant. He was willing to make
that trade, but not with Tiir and Luke listening. So he wanted Ryner
to get the two of them to go away. But Luke was the one who caught
that signal, not Ryner.
“So what are you going to do?” The Gastarki assassin asked Luke.
“…I don’t have any option but to leave, do I? Unless you intend on
letting me participate in your discussion as well…”
“Nope.”
“Then I’ll take my leave,” Luke said. “I don’t think I’d be able to win
even if we fought, after all. Well, maybe if I cut one or both of your
arms off first…” He smiled, carefree as ever. Then turned sharply on
his heel. “I’ll leave that opportunity for another day, though.”
The man from Gastark pointed his golden ring bearing hand at Luke’s
defenseless back as if to attack him. But then he scowled. Because he
realized the faint strings around him. “I wonder if we’ll meet next on
the battlefield. Send my regards to Roland’s king for me.”
The man turned back to Ryner once Luke was gone. “Man, what’s up
with you guys. Roland’s nothing but monsters. There’s even
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someone who appears and disappears like some kind of ghost
hanging around your king…”
Lir scowled. “Ahh? Have you forgotten your place? I’m the one with
the hostage, aren’t I?” Lir asked. He moved his fingers. A lightning
beast appeared over by where Ferris lie unconscious. It bared its
massive fangs—
“Ah, uh, I was just joking! Wait!” Ryner said quickly. “Sorry, I didn’t
mean that.”
“What!? You literally just said ‘just call me Lir—’” Lir moved his
fingers again, “—No, sorry sorry sorry! Yes, Master! Master Lir! Shit!”
“Soo, setting these jokes aside… Talk, you Alpha Stigma monster,” Lir
said. But then he seemed to think better of it. “No… perhaps I should
call you the Solver of All Formulas…”
Ryner hadn’t heard of that before. His eyes narrowed. “Is that the
name of my eyes?”
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Lir’s eyes widened. “Huh? You mean you don’t know about
yourself?”
Lir grinned. “Aren’t you a work of art. You seriously don’t know,
huh?”
“…The key?”
“……”
Ryner didn’t answer that time. But it was already too late. The
damage was done.
“Ha… hahaha. So Roland’s only made it that far,” Lir said. With that,
he turned to leave.
Lir shook his head. “No need. Actually, it’s better for you to stay here
no matter how far ahead I think…” He turned back for a moment.
“Well, do your best to not become a traitor, then, you crazy
monster.” Then Lir left stepped into the weeds.
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“Wait,” Ryner said. “What are you talking about…”
“……”
He was the only one standing there, now. The sky was starting to
lighten around the edges. But it was for the most part still dark. Dark
and very, very quiet.
All he could hear was the sound of the wind… and the wind on the
grass.
“……”
The last time he’d thought about that, there were kids snoring lightly
next to him, too. But there weren’t now.
They’d been so, so happy just yesterday. And now they couldn’t even
twitch.
The Solver of All Riddles didn’t matter now. Ryner walked over to
Ferris, who was still collapsed on the ground, unconscious. He
crouched down to check her over. Thankfully, she was breathing fine
and didn’t seem too hurt. Didn’t seem like any bones were broken.
He felt a little better knowing that.
“……”
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He felt a bit dumbfounded knowing that she’d gotten between him
and that lightning beast despite her thin body. What would he have
done if she’d died like that…?
He suddenly realized what she’d been feeling then, when she looked
back at him with a face that wanted to cry.
“Yeah… you’re right,” Ryner said. “I’d get lonely if you died, too.” He
reached a hand out to pet her dirty head, but…
“…Don’t touch me, sex maniac,” Ferris managed to say with a pained
voice.
“…No, I just woke up,” Ferris said. She grimaced as she pulled herself
up. “What happened?” She asked and looked around.
Ryner shrugged. “Nothing good. Lir… the guy from Gastark, I mean,
got away…”
Ferris looked past Ryner to where Lafra and Pueka were. Though her
face was typically emotionless, right now she looked a bit uneasy.
“So what will you do now?”
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He’d been the one pushing others away, not the other way around.
Because he was scared of hurting them. Because he was scared of
being hurt. So he ran away to be alone. But he never really got used
to being alone.
It didn’t matter how depressing the world was. It didn’t matter how
depressed he was. No matter how sad his heart was… he wouldn’t
let it drown in despair.
“We Cursed Eye bearers who have fallen into despair at the hands of
humans, who live our lives in sadness… we all want you to save us.”
Ryner met Ferris’ eyes. “I’ll go back to Roland,” he said. “Because I’ve
found something I’ve gotta do. But before that, I want you to
promise me something.”
“I’ve… always ran away,” Ryner interrupted. “Always ran from the
truth: that I’m a monster. I don’t know when I’ll hurt the people who
are important to me. I don’t know when I’ll… I could kill Sion, you,
anyone… so I left Roland. I thought you guys didn’t need me
anyway.”
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“…Have you changed your mind?”
“…My courage?”
Ryner nodded.
It was the worst promise ever. It’d only cause Ferris trouble. Even so,
he’d decided that he wasn’t going to run away anymore.
“…I want you to kill me,” Ryner said. “Kill me the next time I go
berserk. Don’t hesitate like last time…”
But Ryner could tell. He knew what she was thinking now.
“…If you come home,” Ferris said. As usual, her voice didn’t convey
her emotions at all.
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Epilogue II: The System Drowned in
Despair
It was the darkest of darkness. And yet what spoke was even deeper
of a darkness than that.
“You will walk only the correct path. You will have the strength to
step on everything that’s important to you if you must. Your friends.
Those who you love. Everyone, everything. That’s your most
important quality. Now, show it to me. Show me the correct path,”
the malice itself said. “Try to show me the path you’ll walk.”
“……”
Sion exhaled. Then he tried to bring air back in, but he couldn’t. He
couldn’t breathe the air that he needed. He could only breathe in
this darkness.
“……”
Sion’s eyes fell to the documents lying in a mess on the floor. Luke
Stokkart had given them to him. They were about Ryner. About him
making contact with a Gastarki spy. But he didn’t go to Gastark with
him. Instead he was returning to Roland. Luke proposed that Ryner’s
purpose in doing so was to use himself as a bridge to the Cursed Eye
bearers to give them more power. If they joined hands, then they’d
have a more favorable outcome in a fight against Gastark.
“……”
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His eyes were the only part of him that mattered. His… Solver of All
Formulas.
“…I…”
That was why he gave the order to kill Ryner. It was necessary. But…
Lucile Eris.
“Yes.”
“But is that really okay? If you kill that, it’ll soon be reborn. Just like
you. You’re gears of this world. So even if you don’t sacrifice him…”
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Perhaps Lucile was satisfied, as a small smile rose to his face. “Heh,
hehe, it’s fine, then. Whatever. I wish for you to do only things you
won’t regret, my… my hero.”
“……”
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Credits
Translation Group: idola
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