Episode 68

Crackle, crackle.

It was time to sleep after the meal.

I decided to take the first watch, sitting in front of the campfire and checking the condition of my spear and armor.

I had firmly barricaded the entrance and the connecting corridor, but there was still a risk that they could be breached like before.

“Brother. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

But perhaps because of the events of the day?

Ga-ram, who had been tossing and turning under the blanket, eventually couldn’t fall asleep and started talking to me.

“Rest up. We need to conserve our energy for tomorrow.”

“I can’t sleep.”

“Do you still not trust me?”

“No, no, it’s not that I don’t have the shame to distrust you after you risked your life to save me.”

Yi Ga-ram hastily shook her head in response to my probing question.

I could faintly see her fingers fidgeting under the blanket.

“…I just wanted to ask you something.”

Was her shy approach after such silence due to anxiety?

Whatever the reason, if that question was keeping her awake, I had to address it, so I nodded, and she immediately asked her question.

“Brother, you really hate heroes, don’t you?”

“I do.”

It was a response without a trace of falsehood.

A response anyone but a hero would empathize with.

“You’ve seen heroes too, right? You know how they mistreat adventurers and laborers like me.”

I’ve seen dozens die from arrogance and carelessness, even in front of monsters they’d met before.

Heroes were invariably creatures of such nature.

Unless the system entrenched in human society were overhauled, such types would continue to increase.

The endless influx of so-called heroes exploiting the overwhelming majority of citizens and foreign workers alike.

“Then, why did you agree to join my party…?”

“If you want to resent me, you can.”

However, unlike them, this child, having realized her place, could no longer hold pride in herself.

Her passive demeanor would surely be seen as contemptible even by the idolizing masses.

As much as I struggled to take care of myself, I couldn’t shamelessly exploit such a child.

“Because you deserve better.”

All the more because I was the reason she ended up in such a state.

Even so, I was prepared to accept whatever response came my way.

“…No, I don’t resent you.”

Actually, Yi Ga-ram harbored no resentment.

She just gave me a bitter smile and spoke.

“You saved me, and more than that, if I hadn’t met you, I would have acted like the other heroes when facing similar enemies.”

Instead, she thought that losing her confidence through our meeting might be the reason she was still alive.

The girl, accepting this as enlightenment, had even transformed her potential resentment towards me into gratitude.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes, actually, I’m more comfortable with this.”

That was the conclusion the girl had chosen for her story.

Not revenge against the cruel Hero Killer who had led to her fall as a hero.

But a tale of enlightenment and lifesaving grace from one individual to a girl.

Crackle, crackle.

Even after that conclusion, the sound of the campfire burning continued.

While listening to it, Yi Ga-ram, who should have been sleeping, came to my side and started to lean against me.

“I can’t sleep. Can you listen to more of my story?”

“Do as you feel comfortable.”

If she couldn’t sleep right away, I should keep her company until she was satisfied.

The prelude to the story, which I listened to with a light heart, turned out to be much heavier than I had thought.

“Before I came to this world, I tried to jump off the roof of my school.”

“……”

“…No, I did jump. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have come to this world.”

Yes, one of the conditions for reincarnating in this world was being on the brink of death at the time of summoning.

Being hit by a truck, falling from a building, etc. The last memories of people who came into this world were usually like that.

This child fulfilled those conditions with her own hands…

It was something she did at an age before even graduating middle school.

“At first, I was scared. People who were disappointed in me always tormented me. I was always ignored by others, but in this world, I became the object of expectations.”

This fragile girl, who even ran away from her own world, was awaited by a mission as a hero to save this world.

Having been pushed to the limit in her previous life, her eagerness to be properly recognized in this world must have grown.

Falling behind others, losing her own judgment.

“I thought I had to meet people’s expectations around me, but…”

And she failed.

She lost her place due to that, but still, she tried to rise above the stigma of being a fallen hero and achieve something.

“…It was wrong to do that, wasn’t it?”

Could such efforts ever be rewarded at the end of survival?

Adventurers like me might consider mere survival as more than enough, yet ironically, this world expects from this girl nothing less than the demeanor of a universally revered idol.

Once summoned as a hero to this world, the world would endlessly impose duties and responsibilities on her.

“Well…”

But I knew too well the consequences of ignoring such a reality.

Though few in number compared to the whole, I had seen those who were called heroes but chose a different path.

“Your point about the deeds of heroes not looking good is valid, but accepting such an atmosphere isn’t necessarily wrong.”

“Why? You said you hated heroes…”

“Even heroes cannot oppose the world alone. In fact, one of the heroes I know rebelled against the empire that fostered such an atmosphere, becoming a wanted criminal, hunted by other heroes.”

“A hero became a wanted criminal?”

“It’s a complicated story, even for adults. What you’ve realized now is…”

Initially, heroes were modern people like me. Wasn’t it typical for people with similar sentiments to end up as morally corrupt?

Those who defied such an inevitability were treated even worse than fallen heroes.

Like that person I know, enduring such treatment could also be a choice, but this child was too young to make such a decision on her own.

“So, if you’re not sure what to do right now, it’s better to keep doing what you’ve been doing and wait for the right time. If you can’t find an answer, it might be more comforting to just live with it for now.”

If you crumble floundering, you won’t even find a chance, but even if you ignore it and move forward, you might find an answer someday.

Thus, I, too, must momentarily pause my hesitation.

Although my ideals lay far in the distance, having pursued them to this point, I’d grown incomparably more than I had at the beginning.

So, if I wait and endure a bit longer, I might just get a chance to give those damned skeleton guys a good hit.

“…Brother, how did you end up in this world?”

As I held the polished spear, resolving myself, Yi Ga-ram, now deeply wrapped in her blanket, looked at me intently and asked a new question about how I came to be in this world.

“…Are you curious about what I was doing before I came here?”

“Yes, Brother, were you like me too…?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not particularly a sad story.”

That made me recall how I ended up in this world.

It was two years ago and hard to remember clearly… Ah, yes, that’s how it happened.

“Well, if you really want to get into it, I was on the 10th floor of an apartment and got hit by a truck.”

“…What?”

“No, I mean, let me explain how it happened.”

Sure, if I say a truck crashed into the 10th floor of an apartment out of the blue, anyone would think it’s weird.

I slowly recollected that day’s memory and began to explain it to Yi Ga-ram.

“In my previous life, I was from a large family among my relatives. So, on holidays, my nephews and nieces would come over, and they would run around, throwing toys everywhere, you know?”

“Yes, so?”

“I got hit in the head with one of those toys, and when I came to, I was in this world.”

“…What?”

“Then, like you, I was summoned to the imperial city, my abilities were tested, and I became a foreign laborer…”

“No, wait a minute.”

Yi Ga-ram interrupted me as I continued to explain.

Her face, which had been tense until now, showed a very dazed expression.

“I’m a bit confused… So, you came to this world after being hit by a toy?”

“Well, yes.”

“And that toy was a truck?”

“…Maybe?”

I don’t really remember well.

At that time, I was playing with car-shaped toys, and the feeling of being hit in the head was quite heavy, so I just thought it must have been a truck.

It could have been a fire truck, a transforming robot, or even a dinosaur toy, but now, does it really matter?

Regardless of what hit me, I ended up in this world, and now I have to live in it.

“…Pfft.”

A small laugh escaped the lips of the girl as she gradually realized the bleak reality.

Feeling puzzled, I looked at her and saw a smile slowly forming on her lips.

A feeling more vivid than the campfire lighting the room at this moment.

“Ahaha! Hahahahaha!”

“…Is it that funny?”

“S-sorry. It’s just too funny… Not hit by a truck, but by a-a toy… Pfft, AHAHAHA!!”

Given my own situation, I spoke about it calmly, but if I had heard it from someone else, I might have laughed too.

However, was it because of the previously gloomy atmosphere?

This brighter reaction felt surprisingly welcome.

Even if it was just for a brief moment, such times were deemed necessary for the journey ahead.

“You must have had a hard time too, Brother.”

As her laughter subsided, the pitiful girl looked at me with a sympathetic face.

Realizing that the pity had shifted to me, I gave an ambiguous smile to deny her words.

“No, well, the hardship in the dungeon was because I overdid it. Apart from that, it was bearable.”

“I made a choice, but for you, it was an accident. Unlike me, who thought another world would be better, you didn’t have that…”

“……”

“…Why did we end up in such a world?”

Crackle, crackle.

As the firewood we brought was almost used up, with the last piece of firewood splitting and sparks flying, Yi Ga-ram, who had turned away from me for a moment, pulled something out of her backpack and offered it to me.

It was a gemstone.

No, to be precise, it was a magic core processed for direct use by adventurers.

“This… why?”

“Right now, this is all I can offer… If you need it, please take it, Brother.”

Looted from a hero’s corpse when we first entered the dungeon, this was a top-level item that allowed even those without the ability to handle magic to use high-powered spells or magical tools.

Such an item was not easy to come by, even in dungeons.

This child, as if unaware of its value, was willingly offering it to me.

“…Are you sure?”

“It’s not without a price. I just thought that you, Brother, would listen to my request.”

Indeed, she wanted to fulfill her wish, no matter what it cost.

Indicating that she wasn’t joking, Yi Ga-ram handed me the magic core and said, looking up at me,

“I won’t ask for anything unreasonable. I understand enough about how this world works.”

Yes, this was a trade.

Not a demand made with the authority of a hero, but a request from one person to another, a young girl seeking support from an adult she could rely on.

“I wouldn’t be so shameless as to ask you to prioritize me over yourself, especially after you’ve already saved my life.”

The girl said this, earnestly hoping I would accept her request.

“But until then…”

Someday.

Before the harshness of this world would overwhelm me, forcing me to abandon myself…

“If there’s no reason for you to leave my side until then, could you stay with me?”

Even if just for the meantime, she hoped I would watch her back during her precarious journey.

For this, she would forget any past grudges, give everything she could, and even lend the prestige of being a hero if necessary.

“…Yes.”

In the light of the campfire, illuminating the deep abyss of sincerity, I clenched the magic core in my hand and responded.

Not just for the core itself.

My path ahead was as harsh as this girl’s.

Abandoning this path for safety in this harsh world would mean never finding complete peace, so I must grow stronger.

“Let’s survive together from now on as well.”

With this realization, I grasped the girl’s hand instead of the magic core, resolving one thing.

To survive myself.

And to achieve what I couldn’t yet accomplish, for now, I decided to start by nurturing this child into a proper hero.

And then, time passed, in a kingdom located on the edge of the continent.

Clatter, clatter.

No, now on the path of what was once called a kingdom, now a rundown ghost town, the horse pulling the carriage moved towards its destination, leaving a blue trail behind.

Under the cloudy sky, passing through foggy forests and checkpoints, soon came the crumbling, collapsing ghost town…

“We have arrived, Your Majesty.”

At the end, the carriage stopped in front of an old temple, and the coachman, releasing the reins, greeted him.

But to a living corpse, proper manners were beyond expectation.

All he did was relive the memories of when he was alive, repeating actions as he had responded to people back then.

“…Please refrain from using that title.”

Feeling a sense of nostalgia, the former king, Briton IV, clad in armor, stepped out of the carriage quietly.

Crossing the remnants of his once-ruled land, he headed towards the ruined church at its center.

“Now, I am no longer a king, but merely a knight.”

Indeed, he is now not a fallen king but the Knight of Death.

His sole mission was to serve the Corpse Lord, solely for his own unfinished regrets.