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Chapter 181: Ariartelle (6)

Wondering how long had passed, Eugene raised his head as he wiped the blood tears running down his cheeks. According to the clock on the wall, a little over ten minutes had passed since he had begun to resonate with the Moonlight Sword. Eugene felt like he had been watching the darkness projected inside his head for a very longmoment, but only ten minutes had passed.

“How long are you going to keep shaking me?” Eugene asked, groaning.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Mer’s voice croaked.

“I’m fine. Yeah, I think I’m fine,” Eugene answered and got down from the bed.

However, his legs gave in for a moment and he almost collapsed, making Mer look like she would start to cry. She climbed down the bed and tried her hardest to help Eugene, even though he was way bigger than her.

[That was why I warned you…!] Tempest yelled inside Eugene’s head.

“This isn’t the first time I ignored a warning and got my ass handed to me, right?” Eugene shrugged.

[Hamel…!] Tempest gritted his teeth.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry. I should have been more careful and checked beforehand.” Eugene raised his arms.

First, he took a look at Akasha, because he was worried that the Draconic spells had been broken due to the incident just now, but Akasha was luckily intact, as was the Moonlight Sword. The bladeless sword was still emitting pale moonlight.

Well… the sword was emitting light outward, but it projected a pitch-black darkness in Eugene’s head. The night after sunset, shadow, ink… Eugene could think of many dark things, but the darkness he had just seen was the darkest and the most ominous of them all.

There was also the rattling sound of iron chains and the pair of red eyes that had opened in the center of the darkness — eyes belonging to the Demon King of Incarceration, whom Eugene could never forget, even though he had only met the Demon King once.

‘…Why would he?’ Eugene wondered.

—Don’t look.

The words the Demon King of Incarceration had just whispered ran through Eugene’s head. Was the Demon King related to the Moonlight Sword? No… his appearance in Eugene’s vision was due to the Demon King’s own interference, it had nothing to do with Akasha’s new detection spell. When the Demon King told him not to look… was he talking about the darkness? Why?

‘So… the Demon King of Incarceration is definitely related to Vermouth’s disappearance.’ Eugene nodded.

He had no intention of being surprised or getting angry now. Even though Sienna had gotten a hole in her chest and had almost died because of that son of bitch, she had told Eugene that Vermouth had his own reasons as his former comrade and friend.

The Oath itself was evidence that Vermouth and the Demon King of Incarceration had done something together. The Demon King of Incarceration could have killed everyone who arrived before him — no, the Demon Kings could have destroyed the continent.

The only reason why a war had taken place instead of a one-sided massacre three hundred years ago was that the Demon King of Incarceration and the other Demon Kings hadn’t left Helmuth. Although they controlled demonic beasts, demonfolks, and dark wizards, the Demon Kings never left Helmuth. If the Demon Kings themselves had fought in the war, or if even two Demon Kings joined forces… it would have been impossible for the hero party to kill one Demon King, let alone three.

‘…Is the Demon King of Incarceration… holding Vermouth captive?’ Eugene wondered.

It wasn’t the first time Eugene thought of this. In fact, he had thought about Vermouth multiple times. Why had he taken so many wives and had so many children? Why had he almost killed Sienna, signed a peace treaty with the Demon King, and made Hamel reincarnate?

The Vermouth that Eugene remembered hadn’t really expressed what was on his mind. Eugene had felt this when he had first met Vermouth in his past life; he really couldn’t tell what Vermouth was thinking about.

—...And what… do you intend to do in Helmuth?

—We’re going to kill the Demon Kings.

Vermouth had said so.

—First, we’re going to kill the Demon King of Carnage. Then we’ll kill the Demon King of Cruelty, and after that we’ll kill the Demon King of Fury. Once we’ve killed the Demon King of Incarceration, all that’s left is to kill the Demon King of Destruction.

Vermouth had reached out his hand as he had spoken, and Hamel had never thought that Vermouth was lying. It didn’t only apply to Hamel — whether Sienna, Anise, or Molon, everyone believed Vermouth’s resolve and had the same resolve as him.

Their countries, their genders, their backgrounds, and their abilities were all different, but they all had a twisted side. Rather than following someone’s lead, they would all have worked alone or become a leader themselves.

The only reason why these five people could form a group was that they had Vermouth as their leader. Since Vermouth had said that they would kill the Demon Kings, the five had wandered Helmuth without doubting him one bit as they killed the Demon King of Carnage, Demon King of Cruelty, and Demon King of Fury.

‘…But you signed the treaty because you had to,’ Eugene thought as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

He did stop shedding blood tears, but there were still traces of blood on his cheeks.

—I just didn’t want to let you go ahead of me, Hamel.

—Were you satisfied with your death? If you really were, then you’re a son of a bitch. What gives you the right to go and get yourself killed out of self-satisfaction? We couldn’t just accept your death, and we didn’t want to let your soul go to its final resting place ahead of us.

—But Hamel, you shouldn’t blame Vermouth.

Eugene thought of Sienna.

—Hamel.

—Why should Vermouth have abandoned his comrades?

—He didn’t want you to die.

—He also didn’t want to see Sienna, Anise, or Molon die either. That’s why, when everyone else was defeated, Vermouth held back from delivering the killing blow with the Moonlight Sword.

—In that moment, the Demon King of Incarceration would still have been able to kill everyone except for Vermouth… However, that didn’t happen, because the Demon King of Incarceration instead was forced to make a promise with Vermouth.

—That promise wasn’t made for the sake of the world. It was to save the comrades who had stayed together with him until that final moment, and to reclaim your soul, which should by all rights have been annihilated.

Eugene thought of Tempest.

—Thank you.

—Thank you all… for coming with me without dying.

Eugene thought of Vermouth, who had pulled out the Holy Sword from the Demon King’s corpse with his back against the daybreak light.

“I would rather….” Heaving a long sigh, Eugene wiped the stains on his cheeks. “I would prefer the hypothesis of how Vermouth made a promise that he couldn’t avoid, arranged my reincarnation, and got captured alive by the Demon King of Incarceration.”

Tempest stayed silent.

“I know how absurd and ridiculous my thoughts are. The Demon King isn’t an idiot, so why would he just hold Vermouth hostage, not kill him? And why would he let me — someone who reincarnated to kill the Demon Kings — live?” Eugene rubbed his eyes.

[…The Demon King made a promise.]

“For what? I don’t know. I don’t really see why. Why would the Demon King of Incarceration stop me from seeing Vermouth’s memories on Vermouth’s behalf? …I don’t know.” Eugene covered his face with his hands.

What would have happened if Eugene had kept staring into the darkness?

Eugene looked down at the Moonlight Sword that was still in his hand. The destruction in the shape of a sword emitted pale moonlight, which was beautiful yet ominous.

…What was… the darkness that Akasha had gotten from the Moonlight Sword and projected inside Eugene’s head? Was Vermouth beyond the darkness? The voice said ‘don’t look….’

‘…As if.’ Eugene bit his lips. 

Because of the Demon King of Incarceration’s interference, Eugene had been able to stop staring at the darkness. If the Demon King hadn’t interfered, how long would Eugene have stared at the darkness — no, would he have just looked into it?

“Fuck,” Eugene muttered.

When Eugene had met Amelia Merwin at the desert dungeon, he had been unable to beat her. He knew that he would not have been able to escape from Amelia in the deep desert underground dungeon even if he had used Ignition and the Moonlight Sword. Yet, the Demon King of Incarceration had also interfered at the time; he had descended and made Amelia Merwin stand down.

‘There is nothing beyond. Nothing has happened here,’ Eugene thought as he returned to his bed, biting his lips.

When he collapsed on the bed, he could feel Mer, who had been sitting in the corner, furtively approaching. Putting a steamed towel on top of Eugene’s cheeks, Mer carefully wiped the faint blood stains and the blood clots in the corner of his eyes. After that, Tempest’s warm wind dried Eugene’s wet face.

Without talking to Eugene any further, they quietly stayed beside Eugene.

“Thanks,” Eugene quietly spoke.

“…Shall we sleep together today? I’ll hold your hand.” Mer offered.

“You can’t sleep anyway,” Eugene pointed out.

“But I can stay by your side until you wake up.” Mer shrugged.

“Aren’t you just scared to stay in the cloak alone?” Eugene faintly grinned.

“No way, I’m not scared of anything. Well… not exactly anything… I’m scared about something happening to the people who are nice to me, like Lady Sienna, you, and Lady Ancilla,” Mer quietly murmured as she tucked Eugene and crawled into the comforter to lie beside him as if it was the most natural thing. “So don’t get mad or be sad, Sir Eugene. Don’t do something dangerous too much or get hurt. Stay healthy until Lady Sienna returns.”

“I’m fine,” Eugene assured Mer.

“You’re lying. I saw you shedding blood tears and felt a part of your emotions.” Mer pouted, remembering Eugene’s pain, desperateness, loneliness, and… anger that she had sensed. Mer didn’t know what would happen to Eugene if he had to endure the burden of all these emotions at the same time, so she couldn’t just leave him alone.

[…I can sing you a lullaby.]

“Get lost, Tempest.” Eugene growled.

He was sure that he would have a horrible nightmare if he listened to the lullaby sung with Tempest’s husky voice.

* * *

—Hamel, Anise said.

Eugene wasn’t sure when this had happened. How could he know for sure? Although he had fought rather often even before he had gotten to Helmuth, once his group had reached the Demon King country, fights had come their way more often than meals. Enemies hadn’t cared about what time it was and used whatever methods they could think of to attack the hero party.

The time in the horrible hell quickly made the hero party stronger, but the party’s fights didn’t get any easier. As they got stronger, the number of strong enemies increased.

The hero party was able to fight through endless battles because three people out of the five party members could use healing magic. However, the healing spells that the three used were different from one another.

Although Vermouth’s healing magic was very effective on himself, he couldn’t cure other people. Healing magic could only be used by a devout priest in the first place, so Vermouth’s healing magic was more like a hero’s blessing of sorts.

Sienna couldn’t use actual holy magic either, but she knew how to use elven healing magic, having grown up in an elven village ever since she was a baby. Since Sienna was a very talented wizard to begin with, her healing magic was as strong as most high-ranking clerics’, but it could not hold a candle to Anise — the Faithful Anise, the Saint of Light.

—Are you okay? Hamel asked.

The healing magic cast by Anise Slywood was too extraordinary to be called a mere magic spell; no, her magic was quite literally a miracle. When Anise reconnected amputated limbs to their owner, she didn’t only connect the flesh, but she connected everything, from bones and muscle to nerves and veins. Therefore, whoever was treated with Anise’s magic did not suffer from aftereffects, and neither did they have to go through rehabilitation. When Anise cast her healing spells, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, and the blind regained sight.

Even if every bone in a person’s body was shattered, their intestines were torn out, or the heart ruptured, Anise’s miracles cured any wounds in a flash. She could fix absolutely anything, unless the person was well and truly dead. The only people that she failed to help were the dead… and Hamel, whose very soul was dissipating due to the curse of the Lich, Belial.

—I’m not fine, Anise answered.

Eugene wasn’t sure on which battlefield Anise had said that. Was it after they had killed the Demon King of Carnage? Was it after they had killed the Demon King of Cruelty or the Demon King of Fury? When they had been fighting against Kamash and the giants? While they had been avoiding Raizakia’s bombing? When they had been fighting against the suicidal vampires…the demonfolk army led by the Incarceration’s Blade?

He had no idea, because he had fought too many battles three hundred years ago. In fact, he could count on his fingers the number of times he had ended a fight unscarred. Hamel had always been busy treating his wounds after battles — no, he had even treated his injuries during battles. People had died every day on the battlefields three hundred years ago, so of course, there had also been many wounded. Many people who had lost someone to monsters, demonic beasts, or demonfolks had struggled on those battlefields out of hatred and desire for vengeance rather than whatever fancy belief about saving the world.

Those people were terribly weak, yet they went from battlefield to battlefield to cool their anger and seek vengeance. Although they wanted to give their everything to achieve those goals on the battlefields, they subconsciously knew that they could never do so, so they just hoped they could die fighting.

Anise, the Saint, had never been able to sit by and watch them die. Despite Anise’s normal unsaintly self, she was more devout and saint-like than anyone else when she had to.

When the hero party arrived before the Demon King of Incarceration’s castle, all five members were alive and able to fight. They had encountered several crises that had almost rendered them incapable of fighting, but only unerasable scars had been left on their bodies. For years, they had fought battles every day, but they were still in peak shape thanks to Anise’s miracles.

—You overtaxed yourself, Hamel murmured, looking at Anise.

On the battlefield, they could smell the blood…and the scent of rotting and burning corpses.

—You know, I know you’re so damn stubborn that you would never listen to anyone, Hamel said.

—I don’t want to hear that from someone like you, Anise grumbled.

—Why? Is it because I’m also a stubborn bastard who never listens? Well, you’re right. But unlike you, I choose who to save, Anise.

Hamel shrugged.

Anise didn’t answer.

Click.

Instead, she unbuttoned her priest robe, so Hamel sighed and approached Anise.

—They’re begging to be killed because they really want to die. Letting them die will be their salvation rather than healing them, so why… why are you taking all this suffering upon yourself by going through the trouble of saving them? Hamel asked.

—Why would a cleric need a reason to save someone? Anise answered without turning back to Hamel. The fact that they don’t want to be saved is none of my business. I just save them because I can save them. Not saving them when I can would mean that I’m turning a blind eye to everything.

One by one, she unbuttoned the rest of the buttons on her robe as she continued.

—I can’t — no, I won’t do that. You asked why I suffer losses, right? No, I’m not suffering losses, Hamel. I’ll… do many good deeds by saving many people so I can go to heaven.

Her priest robe dropped down to the floor.

—Of course, I already did enough good deeds to go to heaven. Since God must be watching my good deeds, he’ll bestow with light as bright as the number of my good deeds, Anise calmly explained.

When a person died, the good deeds they had done before they had died became light, and their bad deeds became darkness. If their light was bright enough to outshine the darkness, then the person could go to heaven, where there was no darkness. All the sins in this world were created in the darkness, where there was no light, and since there was no darkness in the heaven ruled by the God of Light, there was no sin. Therefore, no one suffered.

This was the story that the citizens of the Yuras Empire believed in.

—God doesn’t bleed on behalf of young sheep. Although God is a bright enough light to outshine all the darkness, he isn’t lighting up the darkness that is now trying to swallow up the world.”

Anise’s long hair was the only thing covering her bare back. She lifted it up as she continued to speak in a bitter tone.

—I’m the Saint of Light, and as God’s saint, I have to outshine the darkness in this world if He isn’t doing so. I should shed holy blood and brighten up the darkness with my light on His behalf, Hamel. I… think that not everyone who has died after living in this horrible era can go to heaven.

Anise’s back was bloody. Because he had seen it multiple times, Hamel had been used to it already. Whenever Anise used too much of her divine power or performed great miracles too many times, Anise’s back always turned bloody. Every time it happened, she called Hamel, but he was sure that she hadn’t planned to do that in the beginning.

There had once been a time, a long time ago, when Vermouth, Sienna, and Molon had gone off to take care of nearby remnants of the demonic forces after they had finished a battle, but Hamel and Anise had stayed behind because he had been too injured and she had been too tired. Instead of asking the already tired Anise to use her healing magic on him, Hamel had tried to give himself first aid, but while he had been taking care of his injury, Anise had fainted.

—I’ll become the second brightest light, next to the god I serve.

Anise handed Hamel a wet towel.

Holding the wet towel, Hamel carefully wiped Anise’s bloody back.

—So I’ll also light the people’s darkness who couldn’t go to heaven. Not all the people who have died in this generation will be able to go to heaven, but I’ll guide as many people as possible there.

When Hamel wiped the blood, her wounds were revealed — no, not wounds, but divine writing carved into her entire back. Any time Anise performed a great miracle, the divine writing dug deeper into her skin, making her bleed. The writing was thus growing bigger little by little. The first time Hamel had seen Anise’s back, the divine letters had only been carved near her shoulders, but every time she performed a miracle, the divine writing became longer and wider. The divine writing that Hamel could see now had already reached her waist.

—It’s interesting how you can’t cure your own back when you can use all sorts of miracles.

—That’s my stigmata, which in and of itself is a miracle, so wouldn’t it be absurd to treat a miracle with another miracle?

Putting the holy water bottle on her waist to her lips, Anise sat down, so Hamel could wipe out the blood more easily.

Hamel usually aimed for Anise’s holy water, but not in times like these, because he had found out why Anise was drinking the holy water non-stop.

—…Tell me if it hurts.

—It doesn’t.

Anise laughed and drank the holy water like usual.

Since she was good at hiding her feelings and thoughts, she always said something totally different from what she was thinking, and she always smiled, no matter how grievous her pain.

After wiping up all the blood, Hamel applied ointment on her deeply carved tattoos. Since her so-called stigmata couldn’t even be cured by a miracle, the ointment obviously couldn’t cure the wounds, but they bled less if Hamel applied it.

—I’m glad you’re the one who found out about my stigmata, Anise mumbled as she put down her holy water. I don’t want to show this to Vermouth, and Molon… would start fighting passively, giving up his strength. As for Sienna… heh, she’d physically restrain me to stop me from doing anything dangerous.

—What about me?

—You try to understand me. Anise chuckled. Although you say ‘don’t do anything dangerous,’ you understand why I’m being stubborn, so you don’t stop me. You know that the more violently you fight, the more I bleed, but you always fight in the same way.

—That way’ll be better for you.

When Hamel finished wiping up the blood and applying the ointment, he wrapped Anise’s wound in bandages.

—You won’t listen no matter what I’ll say, but battles will become longer if I fight passively. Then, finishing the battles quickly will bring us less damage overall, even if it’s dangerous.

—Hehe, and you’re skilled at treating injuries. You wrap the bandages really well, so I don’t feel uncomfortable, and you don’t feel any physical lust when you see my naked back.

Hamel frowned.

—What kind of bastard would feel lust while looking at someone’s bloody, scarred back?

—I appreciate how you consider a fellow comrade like a comrade instead of a woman, but why don’t you think about other matters for a change?

Anise giggled.

—…About what?

—Well, you know, how I might be painfully bleeding because of you.

Anise’s tone was playful.

—I told you it’s better to fight aggressively than passively….”

Anise burst into laughter at Hamel’s remark.

—Don’t we have Molon for that? Hamel, the amount of blood I shed would have halved if you and Molon got less injured.

—…Umm….

Unable to say anything, Hamel just finished wrapping the bandages.

—…I’ll try.

Recalling this conversation from a long time ago, Eugene thought of Anise, whom he had last seen with eight sets of wings.

“…There are fewer wings.”

Eugene observed Anise’s divine statue in Yurasia, the Holy Empire’s capital. A statue that was sporting only one set of wings

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