142. You are in me
[Now, what do you want to do? I can use a hand if you want…]
“I am…”
*
Zach was walking down the street.
The body is light. Even with the warrior’s divine power, the aftereffects of torture and confinement could not be completely washed away, so the groaning body was now light as if it had been reborn.
Jacques looked around, walking with a deliberately leisurely pace so as not to attract attention. I see countless monsters. Ogre, Arachne, Manticore. Advanced monsters that are hard to see once in a lifetime.
However, beings who could easily trample on a mere human did not react to Zach even when they saw him. They were either indifferent or just watched him with interest.
A gathering place for monsters to create a wave. Even as he walked through the middle, Zach, who was supposed to be human, was not attacked.
‘hahahahaha·······. Yes, if you think so.’
Zach was lost in thought while crossing the gap between countless monsters.
The warrior’s magic sword. Such a contradictory existence forced him to make a choice. Laughing out loud as if all the misfortunes and tragedies that befell Jacques were mere gossip.
However, despite all the insults and ridicule, Zach had to follow his advice and make a choice. Even if all of that was far from the best, Zach made a choice.
‘The human Emily, whom you cherished and loved so much, has already died a long time ago.’
The voice is thick and sticks to my ears. Zach shook his head fiercely. However, no matter how hard he tries to brush it off.
‘The fact that I said I would follow you when you left the house. The joys and sorrows we shared together when we were adventurers, everything until the first night we spent together with a silver ring saying that we would propose to marry properly someday.’
As if right next to him, the whispers continued to haunt Zach without stopping.
Why does he even know his most intimate memories? If only he could have let go of his mind completely.
But the current Zach couldn’t do that. Futile hope. A puppet dancing on a rotten rope.
‘I did it with a monster.’
[Zach?]
The voices of the past and present overlap. Zach opened his eyes and suddenly realized that his steps had stopped.
Look around. Where he stands is a clear reality. The sunlight beats down painfully, and non-humans stare at him, wriggling their eyes. Zach started walking again.
My clothes were rag-pickers, and the soles of my shoes were worn out, so I was virtually barefoot. However, he didn’t feel any pain even when he stepped on the rough stone beak. Thump, thump, footsteps. Breath. And heartbeat.
Pounding. Pounding. Pounding. Pounding. Pounding.
Wriggling. Wriggling wriggling wriggling wriggling.
“I’m fine.”
Zach didn’t know how to use the mental wave yet, so he muttered in his voice. The size of the voice didn’t matter. His vocal chords trembled at his words, and the resonance reached his deepest innermost being.
Zach tried to ignore the repulsive foreign body feeling in his heart.
[Because of me…]
“Don’t say that.”
The body of a doppelganger is fragile and weak. If nothing had been done, the doppelganger would have died. But when he feeds his doppelgänger, Emily dies when he grants him a new life.
The doppelganger who grew up eating the life of a new intelligent body will no longer be ‘Emily’. It would grow into a monster, not the Emily he loved.
According to the magic sword’s instructions, he split his own heart and planted the doppelganger’s larva inside. It was the only way to keep both the doppelganger and Emily alive.
“It was my choice.”
In order not to shake his resolve and resolve, so that the disgust he had tried to suppress would not leak out of his mouth again, Zach suppressed my heart with a tone that did not allow for objection.
I made up my mind to love the other person no matter what their essence is, so is this pure love? Or is it just a disgusting pretense of closing my eyes even after knowing the identity of the monster who stole everything from the person I loved?
He was already a monster when he started loving her, so maybe both.
[I’m sorry, I’m sorry…]
He loved her. Jacques loved Emily. Love meant being able to embrace the repulsive side and ugly essence of the other person.
So Zach whispered kindly, resisting the urge to dig into my heart at any moment and pull out the parasite that had loathsomely settled there.
“You don’t have to apologize.”
A madman muttering to himself like mad walks past a group of monsters. The monsters did not attack the defenseless human even when they saw him.
Without anyone interfering, the humans naturally left the gathering place of the monsters. Even the nearest city would take at least a few days. Dressed very lightly, without food or weapons.
But he won’t have to worry.
“No matter what you are, I am determined to love you.”
When a wave occurs, monsters do not attack their kind.
*
[Will Zach be okay?]
With the inconvenient stone golems removed, we sat comfortably on the floor with a freshly peeled skin of Nagaraja.
Yes, taking over the monster army is good, but there is nothing to do. While I was struggling with boredom, the silent Holy Sword suddenly spoke up.
[Are you worried?]
[·······Yes.]
Well, in many ways he was an influential friend. I thought my lover was dead, but he’s alive. I thought he was human, but he’s a monster. Also, human life is interesting.
But, well, I’m not very interested in stories that have left my hands. As for the story of Jacques Emily, well, the outcome is already decided anyway.
The human heart changes very easily. Even if we can overcome it with the power of love now, how long can we endure that rejection? The feeling that there is something inside you that is not you.
[It’s obvious. In the end, he can’t overcome the reluctance and tries to tear his heart…]
[Did you know that and told me to put a doppelganger inside your heart?]
[Then, should I just kill the person I love? Did you see her expression when you first heard Emily’s voice?]
The holy sword shut up at my sharp point. Well, the reason I suggested a plan to Zach was because I didn’t want to see such a trivial ending.
Another ending that can come to him. Zach, who has continued to live with Emily and uncomfortable, will realize that Emily’s voice is not heard from one day.
What is it, is the parasitic Emily inside it dead? No way. The main body of the doppelganger is weak, but the vitality of the doppelganger that has completed the second molt is persistent.
When will the doppelganger who was Emily realize that she is not ‘Zach’- I got a little excited just thinking about that moment.
“It’s like thinking about something perverted.”
[It’s a misunderstanding!]
I denied it to the fullest when I saw Choco, who became more sensitive to mental waves after becoming a saint. sh*t, I’m a bit mentally drained. To be unnecessarily sharp.
“Carbal, pervert, no.”
Cream, who usually doesn’t get involved in arguments, actively defended herself, as if she couldn’t bear to bear such a stigma on me.
[So what?]
“Serious, Sady, Str.”
[Hey! Where did you learn that word again!]
From noble mtl dot com
It wasn’t a shield, it was a shield hit… I felt betrayed when Cream and Muffin, who usually didn’t get involved in my cravings, launched a joint offensive.
However, Cream just tilted her head as if asking something obvious.
“Karbal, to you.”
Damn it, I dug my own grave. Certainly, whenever Choco speaks harsh words or when Cream, who is from this world, speaks earth language without roots, she reflects on herself that she should use more upright and kind words.
Uh, but what were they talking about? I think it was a very serious and solemn subject.
“When do we eat?”
Recognized. Certainly, food is important. I nodded… And yelled at Choco.
[What’s in your mouth right now!]
“This? It’s tangy and delicious.”
Choco, who was chewing on Nagara’s arm in human form, soon replied, leaving the tattered meat in her mouth. It’s not some kind of chewing gum.
In the first place, meals were not very important to our group. There are only two people, and one is extremely picky, and the other really picks up and eats everything.
According to Choco’s theory, there’s no need to hunt what you haven’t eaten, is that enough? However, I don’t think it’s a problem to eat everything you hunted.
[That’s Dokdo!]
[Excuse me…]
As we were talking loudly with a feeling of roughly that, a shivering mental wave came from the door.
I could feel the presence of people hanging out in front of me from earlier, but I didn’t expect them to come in without notice. Cream, who had been drooping with no motivation, sighed and fixed me.
[Yes, what happened?]
What came inside was an orc shaman staying at this assembly point. It was not an authentic Orc Shaman like Gurhash, but an imitation with mental waves resonating from the totem.
Well, looking at how far you’ve come, it seems that you have a place in your own way. Since it was in front of the monster, I lowered my voice again and started to work on the concept.
[Communication received from the captain.]
[What are you talking about? I should be the leader of this group.]
[That·······. Of course, the military commander is the head of this assembly area, but there is a separate commander who commands the various assembly areas.]
Whoa, this was fresh information again. Of course, considering the average size of the monster wave, I thought the rendezvous would be somewhere other than here.
Even in such a place, there might be a ‘captain’ for each of them like we do now, but I didn’t expect that there would be a general manager in charge of the multiple gathering points.
Right now, the number of monsters in the gathering place where I am is over 1,000. That includes not only crappy guys like goblins and orcs, but also powerful monsters like ogres and manticores.
In addition, it is common for the captain level to be taken by a powerful name that is just below it, even if it does not reach the level of the elder wyvern. Who the hell is going to lead these guys? No, wait.
[It’s not urgent, the captain has changed and he just wants to see his face, so he just asks for a call.]
Come to think of it, the captain here was a human, not a named monster, right? No matter how much a monster cooperates with the Dark Church, it is strange to give up a captain position that is proven by strength.
That man of the Dark Church was not as good as the twin-headed ogre, nor even Nagaraja next to him. It’s not enough to pass over the captain’s position, but the monster even assists?
[And, I…]
[What is it?]
[I would like to know when the stigma of darkness falls on my own people again.]
Why do you ask us that? I was about to shoot at the absurdity, but I suddenly stopped talking. Aha, was this the Dark Church’s means of controlling the monster wave?
If you have been given intelligence by the Dark Church, you have no choice but to follow them like a parent, and even a named monster that has acquired intelligence on its own will cooperate if you make your own people wise.
Well, that’s not what’s important right now. With this information in my head, I turned my gaze to the orc shaman.
[We’ll talk about that later. Who is the commander-in-chief?]
First of all, it is urgent to check new variables. At my question, the orc shaman hesitated for a moment as if he was frightened, and then answered.
That was a name I never expected.
[This is the Elder Lich.]