According to Serthia, there was a connection between the Demon Lord and Iria in so form.
She said that Iria and the Demon Lord were almost identical beings, with similarities in appearance, abilities, and even the structure of their bodies.
It didn’t seem like a lie. I’m not so naive that I can’t see through a lie from soone standing right in front of , even without eting their eyes.
And if I consider Serthia’s words to be true, a lot of things start to make sense.
Like how consuming the Demon Lord’s seed didn’t affect , or how my physical abilities are inherently extraordinary.
However, Serthia herself didn’t know exactly how Iria and the Demon Lord were intertwined.
If anyone has information on this, it might be the remnants of the Demon Lord’s army.
I recalled Iria lying among the remnants of the Demon Lord’s followers. What’s the connection between the Demon Lord, Iria, and the remaining followers?
I learned more from eting Serthia than I had anticipated.
My next destination was set—the stronghold of the Demon Lord’s army.
The feeling of having killed Serthia was not particularly pleasant.
She died, and I survived. Yet, I felt a strange emptiness.
How would I describe this feeling? Though she ended as a monster, she was human. In so ways, she may have been more human than anyone else.
An endless void? No, it wasn’t quite that. It felt as if I had drifted entirely away from humanity.
Whatever feelings Serthia may have held towards , I really had none for her.
Aside from recognizing her strength and a tragic past that rivaled my own.
"I guess I won."
But perhaps because she left with such provocation.
There was a twist of discomfort within , like I wanted to vomit.
Though I didn’t feel anything emotionally, the very lack of feeling created an unsettling dissonance.
A monster’s life is suffering. Suffering is more terrifying than death, so in that sense, I am enduring a harsher punishnt than Serthia ever did.
She won, and I lost.
The aning of her parting words strikes to my bones.
"…"
Perhaps, on this continent, she was the one most like .
Serthia and I both bore the sa curse, were both human and monster, and wished for death over life.
In a way, she might have been my kin. Does that an I’ve killed one of my own kind for the first ti? I’m not sure I know anything anymore.
My body hurt, and the blood loss left feeling dizzy.
"Ugh…"
This battle had been dangerous.
My life wasn’t directly at risk, but there were monts when I almost lost my grip on sanity.
I could have repeated the massacre in the back alleys that happened about a year ago.
In the end, it was two monsters, neither of them fully conscious, fighting each other. If Serthia had fought with a bit more hatred, I wonder—perhaps the Empire would have been destroyed.
‘If Serthia had chosen to beco a monster at the end, what would have happened?’
The scene would have been far more devastating than it is now.
Even if death is rest and life is suffering, it’s never easy to accept death when it’s right before you.
It might be rest, but an instinctive fear always follows.
Yet, in the end, Serthia chose not to beco a monster. It was a surprising choice, even for .
She left the decision to , but the choice wasn’t mine alone.
If she’d wanted, she could have accepted the demonic energy at any mont and struck down. I respected her for not doing so.
She was similar to , yet different.
Unlike , who beca a monster and committed a massacre a year ago, Serthia didn’t go that far.
"Goodnight."
I paid my final respects to the hero of the past, whose eyes were now closed.
Serthia had been stronger than in both body and mind. If I had t her twenty years earlier, I might have truly found “liberation.”
And…
Even in death, the dignity of Serthia, who had served as the Academy’s principal for so many years, remained.
Just before she drew her last breath after being pierced by my sword, she said one thing.
"Please… tell that child that I’m sorry."
It wasn’t until I read her mories that I knew who that child was.
It must have been Ariel, the hero of this generation and the protagonist of this story.
What she was sorry for, I couldn’t know, as I am not Serthia. But I decided to deliver the ssage. It wasn’t particularly difficult for .
With everything finished, I put away the red demonic energy. My whole body was covered in blood and wounds.
It would have been nice if it rained now, but the sky never takes pity on .
I looked up at the sky, which had turned dark at so point.
In a landscape soaked in blood and untouched by extinguished flas, starlight seed to rain down instead of rain.
After standing still for a while, I sensed a presence behind .
"…Albert."
Was he alive?
I thought he’d been buried under the debris when the library collapsed.
Then again, Serthia was exceptional, but he was also a first-rate mage. He could manage his own body at the very least.
He stood with his head lowered, saying nothing. With his dark glasses obscuring his face, I couldn’t see his expression.
But I understood his feelings. Right now, there was only emptiness, but I used to be human, too.
I asked him,
“You knew this would happen from the start, didn’t you?”
“She could never escape her fate of death. While I didn’t foresee this exact outco, I was prepared. At least she didn’t beco a hideous figure like the forr saintess.”
“Aren’t you resentful of ?”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel any resentnt. Yes, I do resent you.”
Of course.
Another murderer asks the mage who has lost soone.
“Because I killed your teacher?”
“…”
He answered my second question with silence.
A silent affirmation.
And then,
“But I also know that there was no other way. It was the Demon Lord’s curse that would have transford my teacher into sothing inhuman.”
“Hmm.”
“I thank you for allowing my teacher to pass on as a human.”
He spoke with a calmness that hid his emotions as best as he could.
Not that he needed to hide them from —I could see right through it. His breathing was uneven, his heartbeat irregular.
A stark contrast to the cold deanor I’d seen before. So he does feel emotions after all. It seems I shouldn’t judge people by their exterior alone.
“You heard our conversation earlier, didn’t you?”
I looked him in the eye.
In the presence of this dense demonic energy, lying was impossible.
“They say I might be the Demon Lord. Just as Ariel is the candidate for the next hero, I might beco the new Demon Lord.”
“I heard.”
“Then, will you oppose as well? I could be the greatest calamity humanity faces.”
I asked if he would fight now.
For him, I must be an enemy who killed his ntor, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he attacked right here.
He had every right to be angry at .
I stood still, waiting for his answer.
“...Of course. You are an enemy of humanity.”
“…”
“But that ti is not now. If we were to fight now, there would only be one more corpse added.”
As expected, he’s level-headed.
He knows that he can’t handle on his own, especially since Serthia couldn’t either.
I had no desire to fight, either. I may not look it, but I’m quite exhausted. If we were to keep fighting, I’d surely lose control.
I didn’t want to cause another massacre like the one a year ago.
“Then let’s look forward to another ti. Co back when you’re better prepared and feel you can actually kill .”
The current Albert is no match for . Maybe that will change in the future.
With Serthia gone, he is now the strongest mage in the Empire. I held a slight expectation for him.
Even if he doesn’t reach Ariel’s level, he may beco strong enough to give so trouble in the end.
I’ll avoid him from now on, so we won’t et again at the Academy.
If we do et again, that day will be the last.
Before leaving, I turned back to Albert.
“Keep what happened today a secret. You know better than anyone that provoking would do no good.”
The Empire is powerless without Serthia.
And this world I’ve fallen into follows the law of the jungle.
I am now stronger than the entire Empire’s forces combined. At this mont, I am the master, and they are the servants.
He is a smart man, so I won’t have to erase his mory.
“Soone will need to take care of her funeral.”
I left Serthia’s body in his care.
If soone found it later, that would only make things more complicated.
The sll of blood on today was nauseating.
Usually, the scent of blood is so sweet it almost makes faint, but this ti it was probably because it was my own.
I endured the tallic scent and headed back to where I originally ca from.
To the back alleys of the Empire.
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