The beginning of my story started in the auditorium, the stage of a play.
“Really, you want me to write this?”
Arni Duratan hands me the golden wig she fetched from Professor Veritio.
She looked uneasy, but there wasn’t a hint of her backing down.
‘No time for this.’
Sen was rummaging through the academy, and I had just been searching the academy myself until a moment ago.
In the meantime, I ran into Arni and was called over.
“Well, I’ll do it, but only once. I’m busy today.”
“Got it, thanks.”
It was annoying, but since it wouldn’t take more than five minutes for just one scene, I decided to go along with it.
After all, having her keep pestering me would be more tiring.
While Arni closed her eyes and focused on her emotions, I put the golden wig on my head.
I heard it’s used even by professional theater troupes, and it’s not just placed on; it’s secured with buttons.
‘Wow, that’s neat?’
Even if I shook my head around, the wig stayed firmly in place. I might need to do some dynamic actions like in a battle scene while wearing it.
“Okay, let’s do it.”
Once Arni seemed ready, she knelt down, and I laid my head on her lap.
“I have lost everything.”
“I’m still here.”
“What I desired the most, has finally come to me in the end.”
“You fool.”
It ended faster than I expected, but I slowly got up and looked at Arni with a strange expression.
“Not much different, though?”
“……”
“You said that if I disguised myself like Ares, the emotions might convey more.”
But honestly, nothing changed much, did it?
Maybe it’s because I’m not really Ares?
But personally, it felt like my acting had become even more awkward than before, and it seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought so.
Arni was nodding her head weakly, as if she was the one who was more shocked.
‘Tsk.’
I didn’t know why she was working so hard, but I couldn’t help her any more than this.
I grabbed the sword I had leaned against the wall and tried to take off the wig, but—
Kyaaa!
A magical beast! A magical beast!
Run away!
Startled by the scream coming from outside, I left Arni behind and rushed outside.
The festival, which had been enjoyable before entering the auditorium, had turned into a bug party in an instant.
They weren’t attacking people, but they were eating up the street food and the stalls themselves.
‘What the hell.’
Did this happen just because I looked away for a second?
I knew exactly where to go.
I ran directly away from the direction the people were fleeing, and with each step, a foul energy filled my lungs.
It felt like standing in a place piled high with garbage.
“D-Daniel?”
While I was running, I passed by Ares, but I didn’t pay him any mind. Eventually, in my line of sight, I saw a magical beast walking on two legs and a girl who had fallen in front of it.
‘Hmm?’
A soft, fine mana, both secretive and expansive, tickled the tip of my nose. It was a unique mana reflecting the desires of the black forest witches.
“Have you given up now? A witch without belief who sold everything for her life, a filthy whore. Even the bugs will not eat your corpse,”
‘Ah, really?’
With that one sentence, I figured out the situation.
Adriana must be from the black forest witches, and likely tangled in fate, she had probably choked herself.
‘These guys haven’t changed a bit since then, huh.’
I remembered them sticking to me back when I lived in the forest, going on about fate and so forth.
I unsheathed my sword, leaped towards the king of insects, and it stepped back, glaring at me after taking my first hit.
‘Not bad, actually.’
Given how the ancient beasts are such abnormal entities, I was tense thinking about the possibility of facing Apviel.
But to me, the kind I feared was the type that mindlessly cast magic.
It was much easier for me to face someone like Apviel who fought purely with physical prowess.
I glanced back at Adriana, who flinched and covered herself in fear.
“D-Don’t look! Don’t look at me, a hideous and filthy being!”
After saying a few honest words to Adriana, who was struggling for survival, I turned my eyes back to Apviel.
Initially glaring at me, Apviel slowly opened his mouth.
“Boy, I only need to take the witch’s life. That filthy girl has broken the taboos.”
“That taboo will disappear eventually, so why not just let it slide?”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing, just a future thing.”
Whether the taboo disappears or not, the important part was that Adriana was trying to use forbidden magic, so Apviel had come as an executor based on the covenant with the ancient beasts.
The entire academy was already in chaos, but there shouldn’t be any fatalities. It was truly a situation where only Adriana needed to die.
‘But I can’t just back down.’
If Adriana was a witch of the black forest, there were tons of questions I wanted to ask. So much to gain.
Of course, I had no intention of pulling back based on pure rational judgment or personal feelings.
Watching the frantic struggles of Adriana reminded me of how I had swung my sword until the very end, surrounded by magical beasts in my past life.
I had failed, but—
“You will survive.”
As I gripped my sword and took my stance, Apviel charged forward with a laugh, and my sword met his fist.
“……!”
“Damn impressive.”
It wasn’t for nothing that Apviel claimed a spot amongst the ancient beasts with just his physical prowess; his punch felt heavy.
But the one more surprised was Apviel, who hastily pulled back and checked his left hand, which felt a chilling sensation.
“Just now……”
“Must be because you’re a bug? You have good instincts.”
No wonder you’re called a bug.
If I’d been a moment late, I might’ve severed his left hand.
Apviel glared at me with shocked eyes, questioning.
“Who are you?”
“My name? I’m Daniel McLean.”
“Are you really human? How could you match my speed……”
His words made me laugh involuntarily. I’d heard that line more times than I could count from ancient beasts before.
“Sherpa, to put it simply, I’m a guide through the forest.”
To the same question, I always gave the same answer.
Yeah, I was just a sherpa.
Fighting to survive in the Forest of the Demon Realm, I had ultimately ended up in your food chain, cohabitating at the top.
“Do you know about us?”
“I do.”
“……?”
“Just think that in other timelines, about half of you died at my hands.”
“……What?”
As Apviel stumbled in shock, I charged in and swung my sword. The bugs tried to block me by slamming into the walls, but my sword cut right through, embedding itself into Apviel’s shoulder.
“Uh!”
“In the past, I had injuries and my body was growing older, so it was quite tough.”
But right now, I was a perfectly healthy 18-year-old with no wounds.
Not that I had slacked off in training.
In short, I had forcibly entered my prime.
As I continued the onslaught, Apviel stepped back, seeming to search for a way out, but when his gaze wandered elsewhere, a gap was bound to appear.
Crack.
“Graaah!”
Apviel clutched at his pierced right eye in agony.
As I withdrew my sword, a torrent of crimson blood spilled out.
The bugs rushed in to protect their king, but with a single swing of my sword, they were blown away by the sword’s wind.
“I’ll let you go, so just leave.”
“Gah, ugh!”
Killing Apviel here wouldn’t be of much use, and if I killed him for no reason, I’d only raise the bugs in a frenzy, causing more damage.
It’d be easier to deal with later by planting trauma in the forest when I returned.
But Apviel, being a bug, was surprisingly tenacious.
“Do you treat me like a bug……?”
Well, you are a bug, aren’t you?
“Whatever happens, if you kill me and break the covenant, the witches will hunt you down. Just stop here.”
The reason he couldn’t kill others was simple. If he broke the covenant, the black forest witches would swarm him and end him.
But he snickered.
“You think you know everything.”
“……?”
I wondered what he was talking about, and Apviel began to laugh, gathering bugs around him.
The rustling and fluttering of what seemed like all the bugs of Elgrid echoed.
A swarm of insects, like a dark cloud, began to grow larger as it flew towards me.
“If I use ‘The Earliest Apocalypse’ as an excuse, killing one human could count as a breach of the covenant.”
“……What?”
“I’m saying I will kill you.”
While he was chuckling, I shook my head in disbelief and asked.
“No, you mean The Earliest Apocalypse?”
“You don’t know about that?”
Apviel began to cackle, but as I pondered for a moment, I coldly replied.
“You’re talking about Rin, aren’t you? I’ve met a girl with long black hair.”
The laughter froze on Apviel’s face.
He wore the expression of someone who was desperate to know how I was aware of this.
“You know something.”
“……!”
As I unwittingly exuded a fierce killing intent and stepped forward, Apviel took a reflexive step back.
I was thinking of capturing him to extract information, but that was quite difficult.
‘As long as Apviel is alive, bugs will keep appearing.’
No matter how things turn out, there’d be no choice but to take things slow, and if time dragged on, real bugs under his command could come.
‘It can’t be helped; since he shows no signs of backing down, I’ll take Apviel down here. Though I might get information through Adriana or directly venture into the Forest of the Demon Realm.’
He had enough knowledge that other ancient beasts or black forest witches could also have similar information.
Honestly, it was shocking to realize that connections from my past life knew secrets about Rin, though they must have a lot kept under wraps; I hadn’t questioned anything back then.
Just as I hadn’t realized Rin would become the cause of humanity’s end, they probably couldn’t imagine I would be associated with Rin.
For now, I decided to think about this later, but just as I was about to strike Apviel’s neck, he flattened himself against the ground, crawling like a bug and started to flee.
“I will not forgive the one who gave me this humiliation!”
“A bug crawling around is only natural, what do you expect?”
I wanted to chase after Apviel, but it was crucial to figure out how to deal with the swarm of bugs that were descending upon me from the sky.
‘I’m weak against sheer numbers.’
From my position where I couldn’t handle much mana, it was becoming apparent that my sword could only handle them partially.
At that moment, feeling the need for help, a massive storm rolled in from above.
The storm began to suck in the bugs, tearing them apart inside and raining down their carcasses.
I recognized the spell.
Though it lacked the scale and proficiency of what I remembered, it was certainly a spell I knew well.
“Can you kill that magical beast while I hold the bugs back?”
A gentle voice.
Resolute conviction emanated from it.
The scent of the forest tickled my nose.
Flowing golden hair and sparkling blue eyes.
“……”
An elf, holding a sword and staff, stood beside me and asked.
My chaotic mind felt as if it had been hammered and dumbfounded, but my mouth responded automatically out of habit.
“Just like always.”
It was undeniable that I ended up finding many instances to work in unison with the proud elf, who never listened when told to stay put.
I would catch the main magical beast, and they would handle the other magical beasts around.
Yeah, just doing it as usual.
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