Boudoin Britannia.
Even during the most brutal tis, he always called for peace, the most compassionate leader.
“…If you are infected, co to .”
But the figure before now bore no resemblance to the wise king I rembered.
The blood on his armor and greatsword told the story of countless citizens he had executed with his own hands—a number even he couldn’t count.
“Those who ca into contact with the infected have all turned like them… To save the remaining people, I must eliminate as many infected as I can.”
From behind the mask, his trembling voice conveyed his exhaustion and despair.
His footsteps, tangled with despair, approached hesitantly but steadily.
“You, too, will undoubtedly et the sa fate. Sooner or later, you will beco one of them.”
Even as he closed the distance between us, I couldn’t bring myself to raise my sword against him.
It was only natural to hesitate.
Though he had succumbed to despair and gone mad, he was still the man I had once wanted to serve as my king.
Perhaps, in another life, we could have even been like father and daughter.
“…So, hate .”
Even though no one would ever see him as a criminal.
He insisted on viewing himself as a sinner until the very end, determined to fulfill his duty.
“Hate , curse ; if that can ease your suffering… I will accept it, as the one who should have protected you.”
I knew. This was nothing but a reflection of the past.
Yet, even though it was just the past, the vividness and sheer humanity of his madness made hesitate to swing my sword.
I almost thought it would be better to turn my back and run away.
Even though ti was running out, I felt that if I didn’t do sothing, I wouldn’t be able to endure much longer.
“…Tacchia?”
As I wrestled with these conflicts, Boudoin stopped and called my na.
He slowly lowered the sword in his hand and stared blankly at my face.
“I heard you died in your battle with the dragon… Why?”
He recognized .
Even though this world was just a fragnt of the past, like on the battlefield, outsiders could still interfere with events.
For soone who knew Tacchia, it was entirely possible that they would recognize and react accordingly.
“…Your Majesty.”
“Ah, so you survived by a miracle. You really did defeat the dragon and return.”
At last, Boudoin dropped his sword and rushed toward .
His hands, soaked in blood, grabbed my shoulders, and I silently accepted his touch as I faced him.
Although there was a risk of infection from the monster blood, the armor created by my avatar ensured I had no need to worry about that.
“Truly…”
Facing in silence, Boudoin finally bowed his head and began to sob.
“It’s truly a relief. Now that you’ve returned, we can finally bring peace to the problems plaguing this land…”
“…Your Majesty.”
“You are the savior. Surely, the heavens sent you down to us, knowing this situation would co!”
The grip on my shoulder tightened.
Even so, his hands, slick with blood, slid down, and his body slumped beneath .
“So please… help us.”
Yet, he didn’t see this as a humiliation.
Instead, he bowed his head to the ground naturally, pleading to as if I were Tacchia herself.
“You are our only hope, the only one who can save us, to reduce even just a few more tragic losses—cough!”
But even he couldn’t last much longer, as blood spurted out with his cough, streaming from the mouth of his iron mask and spilling onto the ground.
Of course, this was inevitable. The calamity that plagued this city targeted everyone without exception.
Even he, a king who had tried to fend off the infected, was no exception to the disaster that befell this land.
“…Blight.”
Even as he realized he had little ti left, he continued to plead with .
“Blight, the scholar of the royal castle… find him. The infected swarm his base, but if they haven’t breached the basent where he’s hiding…”
Even in his deranged state, his mind clouded by madness, he found hope and used the last of his strength to convey his plea.
The fierce determination in his blue eyes, visible through the iron mask, etched itself deeply into my heart.
“If it’s him, I’m sure he’s found a way, a solution to this catastrophe.”
This man before …
Even in such a hopeless world, the noble spirit of a leader who fought until the end.
“…Why did you accept his request?”
How much ti had passed since I parted ways with Boudoin?
With a sharp rebuke from the avatar that erged from my body, I sheathed my blood-stained sword and offered a bitter smile.
“Well, that’s because I don’t know exactly where Ga-ram is right now.”
It wasn’t like I accepted his request without reason.
Since I didn’t know the exact location, getting involved in whatever was happening in front of seed like a reasonable approach.
“If we need to search everywhere, shouldn’t we focus on places where people might be? And besides, a scholar would likely be smarter than us.”
“…So you’re saying you waded into a horde of monsters all by yourself?”
The tentacled monster corpses strewn about, all slaughtered without exception, showed that I no longer hesitated to deal with them.
Even soone once called a wise king reluctantly cut them down, so as a hero, there was no way I could show weakness.
“…Even if this Blight that Boudoin ntioned is here, if that child is here, they would’ve already been reduced to an unrecognizable state.”
No matter how many I could deal with, my strength wasn’t limitless.
As I sat down in the street to catch my breath, the avatar’s gaze grew more sharp and severe, as if dissatisfied.
“I know. I know this might all be pointless.”
Yet, even knowing that, I couldn’t just stop moving.
Even in this mont, my heart was pushing to advance, to open up new paths.
“Still, I feel like I can’t just let what’s happening here go unnoticed.”
“Can’t let it go? What pointless thing are you about to say now?”
“Because saving Ga-ram isn’t the end.”
I had seen a calamity like this happen before in this city.
Whether it was cephalopods or beasts, I had witnessed twice now how human bodies were collectively transford, paralyzing the entire city.
“If this has happened twice, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen a third ti. If we look deeper into this situation, maybe… we could find a way to prevent it.” 𝘙ＡꞐȪＢÊṥ
And the scholar we were seeking now was soone so brilliant that even the king pinned his hopes on him.
In fact, even Tacchia’s mories vaguely included him, so the avatar, who shared those mories, wouldn’t take my words lightly.
“…Your reasoning sounds convincing enough. You foolish idiot.”
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, the avatar lded back into my body, solidifying her form as armor once again.
Despite the sharpness in her voice, her form was as stable and unshaken as ever.
“Fine, I’ll stick around for a little longer. But if your foolishness becos unbearable, I won’t stand by quietly. Do you understand?”
“Yeah, thanks for worrying about .”
“Wh-Who said I was worried…?!”
“Alright, alright. Another wave is coming. Ti to get ready, yeah?”
I ignored the avatar’s irritated response as the battle began again.
The hideous monsters sward, but taking them down wasn’t difficult.
I had faced monsters before, in places like the sanctuary, and in the past six months, I had fought creatures far larger and fiercer than these.
However, what concerned was that the closer we got to our destination, the more grotesque and massive the transford humans beca.
Boudoin had said the danger was too great to check on the scholar’s safety, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that monsters had nested here.
“…Maybe there really is sothing here.”
After navigating through those dangers, we arrived at a large mansion.
A testant to the scholar’s dedication to the kingdom, a reward personally bestowed by the king.
-Kiyaaahhh!!
As soon as I opened the mansion’s grand doors, a swarm of tentacles attacked, proving that even this building hadn’t escaped the calamity.
“I knew it. This mansion is already finished. There’s nothing left to see, so let’s just—”
“Wait.”
As I was cutting down the tentacled monsters, I heard a faint sound from the other side.
“Listen closely. Can you hear sothing coming from inside?”
Yes, there was a sound coming from deeper inside.
It wasn’t the cry of a monster, nor the sound of tentacles slithering… It was unmistakably the scream of a person.
“Aaaah! S-Save !!”
That must be the person we were looking for, now in danger.
As soon as I realized that, my sword swung more aggressively, cutting down the monsters in my path.
“…Even if you save him, it won’t undo what’s already happened.”
Amidst the bloodshed, the avatar gave a quiet warning.
“But it might help us correct what cos next.”
I dismissed her words sharply, using them as fuel to drive forward.
Perhaps the person up ahead had found a solution to this disaster.
If that were true, then even in this world, we could carve out a way to survive.
“Scholar! Please, don’t do this!!”
But what greeted as I moved forward with hope was a person bound to an operating table in the basent, struggling desperately.
The blood splattered everywhere made it clear that several grueso events had already taken place here.
“No, no—aaaah!!!”
And the person responsible for this atrocity was the one who, just as I arrived, plunged a syringe into the person on the table…
No—he wore clothes and had limbs, but the tentacles sprouting from his body revealed he was no different from the monsters I had been fighting all this ti.
“Pffff… Hehehehe…”
But what ca from his mouth wasn’t a strange wail—it was laughter.
“HAHAHA! AAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”
As I felt the madness intensifying in his laughter, my body froze in place as if paralyzed.
Unlike the other monsters I had encountered, this one had a ‘self,’ a consciousness behind the madness.
And the words that followed…
“Oh… yes… What a beautiful sight this is.”
Even though he had already transford into a monster, the words he spoke were unmistakably language.
And his voice was full of emotion, filled with fervor.
“Co now~ Stand up! You, too, shall have an advanced body like mine and worship the Great Being~!”
In response to his words, the person on the operating table began to twitch and transform with a sickening crackling sound.
The tentacles growing from his body and the discolored blood made it clear he was transforming into one of the monsters I had been fighting.
-Kiyaaah! Kyahaak!!
Finally, the monster’s scream erupted, the sa horrific sound I had heard countless tis as I fought my way through this place.
“…Oh, did I fail again this ti?”
Yet, he didn’t seem to care at all.
As if he had expected this outco, he simply tossed the syringe aside.
“Ah, yes… I suppose it can’t be helped. After all, it’s not easy for pitiful beings like us to accept the blood of the Great Being.”
His indifferent muttering showed he felt no guilt whatsoever for the writhing victim before him.
The bloodstains splattered all over the place, and the hideous monsters filling the mansion—all made it clear that they were the products of his twisted hand.
“But worry not, oh Great Being… I, Blight, have accepted the mission you bestowed upon , and I will spare no effort in saving more lives!!!”
Blight Cradle.
In that mont, I realized that the one Boudoin had placed his last hopes on had sohow played a role in causing the current disaster.
“Sir Blight?”
I was just as shocked by the realization.
It wasn’t just because I had believed he would help solve this situation.
Tacchia had encountered him during her ti in this kingdom, and the person she t was nothing like this madman standing before now.
“Ah…?”
As if finally noticing my presence, Blight Cradle let out a sigh of realization and slowly turned his head toward .
Through the crow-like mask that covered his face, I could see his sinister red eyes shining sharply as they fixed on .
“Ah, ah. It seems… a guest has arrived at just the right ti.”
The beak of his mask slowly began to open.
As his mouth opened, revealing sharp teeth that seed to be fused with the mask, the tentacles sprouting from his body began to writhe smoothly.
“Coming here must an you seek salvation too, doesn’t it?”
“Co now; don’t be shy. Let make you a body like mine, and together, we’ll bask in the protection of the Great Being…”
In all sincerity.
He spoke with pure joy, as if he truly believed he could bring into the sa twisted path he had chosen.
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