173

When I came to my senses, the entire area was a sea of blood.

It was a metaphorical expression, but considering the ratio of red everywhere, it wasn’t inaccurate.

In other words, a scene of such a horrific accident had suddenly spread out before my eyes.

“What the hell is this!?”

I was so shocked that I ended up shouting in my native language without thinking.

Before trying to find the culprit who had apparently thrown a sudden tomato party, I checked my own body.

With the amount of blood and chunks of flesh stuck to me, there was no need for deduction.

“The culprit is among us,” I declared sharply at the grisly scene—where there was clearly only one survivor.

“…Seriously? Something must’ve been done to me at the end, and that’s probably the cause, but even so this is awful.”

When I had been subjected to the domination spell before, my consciousness had remained clear.

If that was the case, then this must have been a different type of magic—but unfortunately, nothing in my shallow knowledge matched it.

If I compared it to something game-like, considering the rampage that had happened, it was probably something like “berserk mode” or something similar.

With that in mind, I began examining the corpses… but a problem immediately appeared.

“My mouth felt disgusting… so I was biting people too, huh.”

Grumbling curses at whoever made me do this, I spat the foreign matter from my mouth—and then found an elf’s corpse.

Actually, three of them.

Since I had found three elves in total, if there weren’t any others, that meant they were completely wiped out.

(Wait, they failed to escape?)

This unexpected development made me start doubting whether my assumptions had been correct.

Even if they were rotten to the core, they were still elves.

People sent all the way to another country wouldn’t normally make such a blunder.

Which meant the cause was on this side—or possibly a combination of factors.

“That said… did something happen? …Yeah, it did.”

I immediately remembered the Spirit Sword.

Right. I had taken a risk in order to obtain it.

Thinking it had probably fallen somewhere nearby, I looked around.

Corpses were scattered everywhere, but the object I wanted was easy to find.

As I approached it, I noticed one strangely shaped corpse.

Looking at the grotesque form that was barely recognizable as human and the equipment it wore, I realized it had once been a person.

“They even deployed a secret weapon like this…”

Coming from someone who had already stopped being human, I could say this: trying to surpass humanity by becoming another kind of creature rarely leads to anything good.

There was so little of the original form left that I couldn’t tell who it had been.

After offering a brief prayer for the dead, I picked up the Spirit Sword lying nearby.

And was repelled.

Right, that was how it worked.

I looked around, wondering what to do.

“…Wait a second. Could this thing be the cause?”

But I quickly rejected that idea.

The last time I fought the old man who wielded the Spirit Sword, nothing like this had happened.

It was possible there were time-based conditions, but even then, that battle had lasted long enough that such an explanation felt unreasonable.

And if you asked whether the Empire would want the opportunity to obtain spirit weapons, the answer would absolutely be yes.

If so, it was hard to believe they would install a function that caused someone to go on a rampage like this.

(Which means it really was the elves.)

Thinking about it that way, I regretted not understanding what they had said at the end.

I didn’t know how all three of them had ended up as corpses here, but the most reasonable guess was that they had tried to seize the Spirit Sword amid the confusion and failed.

(Those types who operate in the shadows never bring anything good.)

Satisfied with that conclusion, I wrapped up my thoughts.

But was that really the truth?

Somewhere in my heart, I doubted that answer.

Sometimes when traveling I ended up going wildly off course.

Whenever that happened, I had always been thinking about something else and lost track of the route I had been running.

Similarly, there were those strange sleeping positions.

There was a possibility that something in my body was changing.

That fucking madman had definitely said this:

“Since you’ll be sent to war, I expect you’ll lose your reason and rampage within about a year of being deployed.”

Thinking back, I had fought quite a few battles.

He said I would “lose my reason,” but how exactly would that happen?

And how would losing my reason benefit that Doctor Zeta?

When I considered that, another convincing answer appeared before me.

Maybe this very scene in front of my eyes was the answer.

Reason suddenly disappearing, as if a switch had been flipped on and off.

Was the end he spoke of when the switch remained off permanently?

The possibility that I might cease to be myself crawled up from my feet in the form of fear.

And then it vanished.

My emotional suppression function was quite diligent.

(…I can’t afford to be optimistic. Should I take the risk and go?)

Originally I had intended to do it anyway.

The plan was only moving forward a little sooner.

Changing plans or policies was something I had done even when I was still human.

It wasn’t certain yet, but there was something I needed to confirm.

My next destination was decided… but before that, I had to retrieve the Spirit Sword.

I picked up a suitable weapon lying nearby and used it to carry the Spirit Sword.

I wanted to do something about my blood-soaked body first, but without water nearby I would have to endure it for now.

After retrieving the supplies I had hidden, I took out a spare dull saber from its container and placed the Spirit Sword inside.

“The size doesn’t match… well, it’ll have to do.”

My backpack had limited capacity, so I would need to stop by a shopping mall again and find a container of the proper size.

I also needed water, so I decided to head toward Eilquel first.

And so I trudged through the pitch-dark ruins after the sun had set.

I had managed to wipe off most of the blood, but the smell still lingered a little.

There was water pooled where the sewer used to be, but it was shallow, far from enough to wash this body.

Since I also needed drinking water, I decided to stop by the river and went to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow I wanted to quickly finish my errands and reach my destination.

That destination was the research facility where I had first awakened.

It had collapsed, but with this body it should still be possible to dig through the rubble.

It was dangerous, but there was something I had to confirm.

Convincing myself that it was worth the risk, I ended that day.

The next morning, without even eating, I quickly secured a case that could hold the Spirit Sword and set my course east from the ruins of the military base toward the river.

Since the direction required me to veer slightly south, I had to zigzag a little to adjust my course—but I safely arrived at the ruins of the military base, which served as a waypoint.

First, I wanted to deal with this blood-stained body, so I ran straight toward the river.

And there before me was the Restnant River, which I hadn’t seen in a while.

In the deeper areas it reached my waist, so I put down my belongings and waded into the river.

“Oh, right… does this body float in water?”

The question slipped out of my mouth.

When I tried it, I floated just fine.

“Amazing, Imperial technology,” I said, praising my homeland for the first time in a while.

Incidentally, while floating there, I tried moving my tail against the current, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough propulsion to move this massive body forward.

After that, I scrubbed my body thoroughly with the towel in my hand.

For my back, which I couldn’t reach, I used my tail.

It had completely become a part of my body.

Since I was already here, I caught some fish and made an early lunch.

If there was any problem, it was that the fish I caught were all small and not very filling—and someone apparently spotted me and ran away at full speed.

Since it was just a shabby old man, I ignored him, though even if it had been a beauty, I might not have had the spare time to deal with it.

(…Though if it had been the boob lady, what would I have done? I saw her in Canaan too… and she seemed able to speak normally…)

I realized I was unconsciously looking for someone I could talk to.

Apparently it was weighing on me more than I thought.

(No detours. I’ll head straight to my destination. Right now I absolutely need information about myself… about Type Goliath.)

Otherwise, the anxiety would probably crush me.

After getting out of the river, I dried my body with the towel from my backpack and carefully checked that the campfire used to grill the fish was completely extinguished.

Never forget camping fundamentals.

After finishing my pointing-and-calling safety check, I shouldered my backpack and started running southwest.

I didn’t remember many landmarks, but for now I would begin by searching for the crashed airship.

From there, I still roughly remembered the distance.

I ran through the forest.

And it was about five hours later that I realized I had gotten lost.