※ This episode is a side story.
“Is there nothing?”
“Nothing. They’ve already erased all traces and run away.”
“Another dead end. The tracking magic doesn’t work here, what do we do now, Klaus? Since we have a fire going, how about a campfire?”
Remilia Asepheit spoke sarcastically, leaving behind the Ruined City.
“Even in the face of erosion, you seem to be able to make such jokes?”
Sylvia pointed out her annoying behavior.
“How far has the erosion progressed?”
Klaus’s question wasn’t to seek an answer.
“It’s obvious even at a glance. It’s already in the late stages.”
Sylvia grabbed a handful of sand and let it scatter in the wind.
Klaus furrowed his brow.
This wasn’t sand; it was clearly people’s bone powder.
It was already the aftermath of an irreversible calamity.
And at the center of that calamity was always Princess Estasha Latias de Kaizen.
“Baron Vanaport? So what do we really do now?”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Klaus, servant of Baron Vanaport.”
“…”
Klaus reluctantly unfolded the conditional activation scroll regarding the failed mission he received three days ago from the Dark Fortress.
He bit his lip and transferred the information.
“From now on, Princess Estasha is a target for immediate execution, with no room for negotiation upon discovery.”
“Is that a decree?”
“It is a decree.”
“It should have been communicated like that from the start. The Emperor is really indecisive during times like these.”
Remilia looked relieved, as if she could breathe a sigh of relief.
“Is there no other support?”
“There is. 31 members of the Dark Fortress.”
“Not bad, I suppose.”
“And the Pope’s Exclusive Knights and the Emperor’s Imperial Guard as well.”
“…What? Verstappen is coming too?”
“Probably.”
“No, what’s so special about this princess?”
This princess.
Klaus recalled the journey over the past two years to capture this princess.
She wasn’t as powerful as Verstappen from the Empire, Azerbaijan from the Kingdom, or the Demon King Al Zahab.
In terms of sheer strength, she was even weaker than the chattering Remilia beside him.
Yet he had already heard the command to capture her alive dozens of times, and now even the Emperor had turned his back.
‘Just what are you trying to foresee?’
“Klaus? There’s a survivor here!”
“Is there someone alive in the late stage of erosion? Don’t joke with me like that, Sylvia!”
“There are life signs in the underground of the City Center. About 2,000 of them. And there’s one at the City’s Main Gate as well. It’s quite nearby.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m certain.”
*
It was widely recognized that once erosion reached its terminal stage, there would be no going back.
That had already been learned from experiencing the two erosions of jealousy and hunger.
But while all the flora and fauna in the region decayed due to the erosion of sloth, a wretched boy outside the fortress appeared to be intact.
“Don’t let your guard down. It could be a demon.”
Klaus warned his companions.
According to the information from the Dark Fortress, it had been recently confirmed that demons were not affected by the erosion.
Nations, including the Empire, were preparing to form a national coalition, believing that the worldwide erosion was the work of the Demon King.
“For now, he’s human. There’s no reaction from my rosary.”
“Ugh, I’m feeling uneasy. Can’t we just burn him? We’ve fallen into traps like this more than once.”
“Remilia, cast a full-body protection spell. We need to at least hear him out.”
“I’m not doing that. I’ll cover you all from a distance. You figure it out.”
Klaus confirmed the wall of light wrapping around him and approached the boy.
‘He looks to be around twelve to fifteen years old, and he’s also on guard against us.’
An encounter with an unidentified individual was always a matter of information warfare.
Quickly assessing the opponent’s physique, weapon presence, intent, and gaze prepared him for any unforeseen circumstances.
The boy was small and skinny, his ribs clearly visible.
His upper body was roughly wrapped in animal skin, and his shorts didn’t match the weather at all.
He had no weapon, but… he was carefully cradling a living white dove.
“Are you a hero?”
The boy’s sudden question startled Sylvia, and she was about to react, but Klaus stopped her.
“You’d better answer only the questions I ask. Think carefully about your situation. Are you a resident of this castle?”
“Yes.”
“Exactly where do you live?”
“You probably won’t know even if I tell you…”
Klaus drew his sword and pointed it at the boy’s neck.
“Answer.”
“…! I live by the intersection by the south gate… next to the mill with the big waterwheel!”
“Sylvia, check it out.”
Sylvia closed her eyes and expanded her spirit detection.
Her deployed magic meticulously analyzed the geographical features of the entire castle.
“There’s one waterwheel by your south gate.”
“Why are you the only one wandering outside when the castle gates are closed?”
“Well… there’s a hole at the south gate, so I snuck out through there to be the first to get bread from the angel…”
“Angel?”
“Yes, that person said you would be coming here!”
When Klaus looked at Sylvia, she nodded slightly.
“That person comes every morning—”
Sylvia’s eyes resonated with mana.
Gah…! Cough!
An invisible hand gripped the boy’s neck.
His feet slowly lifted off the ground as he writhed in pain.
“It must have been a blonde woman with curly hair, right?”
“Ugh…!”
“That person isn’t human; she’s a demon. She’s the one who has turned your village into this.”
When Sylvia withdrew her mana, the boy’s figure collapsed limply to the ground.
“Hah… CoughCough…”
“Sylvia?”
“This child isn’t tainted at all by the demon. How can this be…?”
The boy clutched his neck and shouted at the hero group with a voice filled with desperation.
“What does it matter if she’s a demon?! You… you weren’t here when we needed you! When all the villagers turned to stone, you didn’t come to save us! The angel healed all the villagers!”
“What?”
“Is that all? Since there’s nothing growing on this land, she buys bread from a neighboring village every morning, at dawn!”
The boy reminisced.
When the seeds of erosion were discovered in the castle, the first thing the lord did was seal the castle.
By the time people realized it, they were instead trapped within the stone walls that should have protected them from external dangers.
The lord had already fled, and the people had no way to escape the erosion.
Only a small number of strong individuals could climb over the 30m high outer wall with a sickle, while the rest waited, eyes wide open, for the impending death.
It was neither flower pollen nor dust; it was rotten grass powder flying through the air.
The corpses of livestock were nonchalantly left behind.
People, knowing that consuming them would taint them with erosion, could only weep as they consumed them.
At first, an old lady suddenly clutched her chest and collapsed. When she opened her eyes again, she couldn’t move her lower body at all.
Next, the cheerful butcher collapsed. The man, once filled with soft, plump flesh, had become as hard as a boulder.
One by one, people ceased to move.
They fell asleep.
And unknowingly,
Their breaths had quietly ceased.
Was there a death quieter than this? The village was engulfed in silence.
The boy pounded at the unyielding castle walls.
Please, let me out of here.
Then, one day, a miracle occurred.
A hole appeared in the magically reinforced walls that seemed unbreakable.
*
[Do you want to eat bread?]
At first, he thought she was a witch when he saw the strangely dressed woman.
But after tasting the bread and milk she offered, the boy couldn’t resist even if she were a witch.
[Guide me to where the patients are.]
She said she had a way to treat the villagers.
It was undoubtedly a delusion, but the boy clung to her, desperate.
Then, a miracle happened.
The magic circle she created was much larger than the height of the castle walls.
She inscribed over 85,000 runes onto the magic circle day and night.
The golden mana she infused signaled a new morning for the castle.
[This will be a more precious asset than a piece of bread. In our world, we call this compassion and hope.]
She handed the boy a white dove.
If he released the dove from the center of the castle at noon every day, the tainted land would be purified and return to fertile soil.
It was hope.
The hope that the villagers could live again.
Though the pain of parting from those who had died was still great, a spark of hope ignited in the boy’s heart.
“How can people like you be heroes?!”
Perhaps that’s why the boy instinctively knew not to confront them, yet he couldn’t forsake the grace of the one who saved the villagers.
“What’s taking so long? Why is this taking so long? At this rate, the princess will run even further away.”
An impatient Remilia flew in from a distance.
“For now, let’s check on the villagers’ conditions first. We can chase the princess afterward.”
“What? Didn’t you say it was a decree? Isn’t it fine if the hero decides?”
“…”
Klaus looked at the frustrated boy, who was bubbling with anger.
He looked just like the boy he used to be.
[It’s because there are always people looking towards tomorrow that a country exists.]
There was much to do and his head was spinning.
While the people suffered from the demon and erosion, the hero had to kill Princess Estasha.
What was right, what was wrong? What was true, what was false?
The unyielding world did not reveal the truth.
