“why… … .”
The heroine, barely supporting her convulsive body, poured out a vomit of blood.
The blood-soaked horizon turned into a wetland, and even the leaves that fluttered in the courtyard of the dojo spread wet in the blood.
Every life reflected in his eyes died in the blood or melted in the abyss, becoming a mysterious mass of foam.
Who would believe that this dojo was once called Cheonhwa (天fire) because it is said that the appearance of beautifully lighting up the sky is like fireworks.
One of the Six Great Gates of the Republic, the Chunhwa Clan. The owner of Hwayeonbong Peak in the Red Mountains.
All of her five hundred disciples became disastrously corpses and were scattered on the mountain roads.
“There is a law discipline that needs to be engraved on this peak. So you warned me three times? Get out of the way if you don’t want to die.”
The 800-year-old dignity of the Yukdaemun faction was destroyed overnight by a single culprit.
The woman, who casually walked through the bloody sea, drawing a demonic form with the blood, answered in a tone that was even calm.
That woman with a deep blue hat was once called the savior, 200 years ago.
“For just that reason… … !”
Mana is concentrated in the heart, and her body emits red light. I put the last history, the energy of the dying horse into my fist.
It’s okay even if you can’t knock it down.
If only I could show this anger, this sadness, this hatred, if only I could leave a scar that would make me regret what happened today, even if it wasn’t a fatal blow.
“Heh, that’s just the reason… … .”
But at that moment, the woman with the hat suddenly raised her head.
Strangely, something resembling a rage twitched in those eyes that had been empty at every moment of slaughter.
I just met that gaze, but I couldn’t move as if I was being pressed by scissors. As if something invisible wrapped tightly around the body… … .
Then, with a thump, the fist pressed down on the skin of the abdomen and dug into the intestines, and the martial artist fainted and collapsed.
When did he appear, it was a man wearing a dark blue robe and an iron mask. As he lowered his fist, the martial artist’s body fell forward, leaning against his shoulder.
“Did the ceremony get in the way?”
When the man in the iron mask looked back and said politely, the woman silently put the smoking pipe in her mouth and went back to what she was doing.
“Then I’ll bury you on the hillside like the others.”
The moment she opened her mouth was when the man tried to move away with the martial artist slung over his shoulder.
“Don’t think about letting go, and take your breath away. It’s annoying to smell the smell at Musinyeon.”
The man, who even stopped walking, answered after a while.
“yes.”
* * *
It was the fifth day after entering the Red Mountains when he was finally able to have a decent conversation with the Goblin Slayer.
Until then, Miria hadn’t said anything.
To some extent, it was difficult to talk to him even more than that blunt Eldwig. There were only these three things to say.
“wait.”
“Follow me.”
“Today we are going to camp here.”
Just like the mechanical devices of Dwarfs, he just slaughtered the goblins with precision and perfection, making a path, and when the day was over, he didn’t open his mouth no matter what.
The daily routine refers to moving through the tunnel during the day and sleeping in the tunnel at night.
At night the great winged shadow flew over the mountains and its three eyes flashed. Each time, Aki would reveal her fangs, then burrow deep into my clothes and hide.
“Hey, Goblin Slayer.”
Then the goblin slayer only glanced back at me.
“Can I ask you something?”
“I’m going to take a look around. Never light a fire until dawn.”
When I tried to say something, it often disappeared like this. There are so many things I want to ask… … .
Until now, when it came to relationships with women, all of them had come from the woman’s side, so I didn’t know what to do in this situation.
Having been in the narrow, dark, rotting cave road for several days, I was overcome by a strange feeling of loneliness.
“Pippi, is that a Restyle?”
“Fake, fake.”
“But don’t they look alike?”
“Lista, Fifi’s friend. Lista, Lynn’s friend. That’s fake, fake, fake.”
Pippi replied bluntly and trimmed her wings with her beak.
Certainly, if you think rationally, Fifi’s judgment is correct… … If it was real, it would be like pretending not to know Phi Phi, so Phi Phi would feel very sad.
From noble mtl dot com
At night, when I went to sleep with Ceressia as a blanket (Ceresia expanded and thickened like a giant fur blanket), Lista appeared in my dreams.
– Lin!
– Lin?
– Lin.
With a dazzling smile on her face, she beckons to follow me, but… … If I tried to follow him, I would only get farther away. I had to wake up every time.
“cadet?”
“Oh, woo?”
“cadet!”
It was scary to wake up and I thought I heard a familiar voice, but an unfamiliar voice overlapped it.
I woke up in my sleep and searched for Aki and the source of her voice… … The two were surprisingly together.
It was the goblin slayer who was smiling shyly while carefully holding Aki with his arms wrapped around his armpits. He took off his helmet and revealed the same face as Rista.
“When did you two become so close?”
When I asked, raising my upper body, Miria’s shoulders trembled. The next moment, the guy grabbed the hilt of the sword.
“quiet.”
“hmm?”
“You just heard the voice of a goblin somewhere. Didn’t you hear?”
“?”
“Ah, did you say that? Ooh, did I say… … .”
“???”
“Looking at the developed vocal cords, they look like hobgoblins, but there seem to be a few left. I should go and look around.”
Quickly hiding her blushing face with a helmet, Miria disappeared into the darkness. Of course, holding Aki in my arms.
It was absurd.
It was so absurd that I couldn’t even laugh… … I couldn’t get out of the reverberation of that sweet voice for a while.
“By the way, Aki, why aren’t you crying away from me?”
“peekaboo?”
“Women are better, right?”
“Ah-baat.”
Seeing Aki clinging to my leg and rubbing my face as if it was never like that, the desire to interrogate me completely disappeared.
“But it is strange. You didn’t do that to any other woman. If Cassena found out, she would be very disappointed.”
Was it the third day or the fourth day… … Anyway, after that incident, more constructive conversations began to come and go.
“Wake up, the sun has risen.”
In the morning, I had to get out of the tunnel and ride the mountains of the Red Mountains until I found another tunnel.
The mountains of the far-rising Red Mountains may look beautiful from a distance, but they are rugged when viewed up close.
Although it was such a rough road, Miria rejected all the mountain roads and the stairs that the Red Dragons had made for humanity and moved along the slope.
“I don’t go on mountain roads. Because wherever people can pass, there will definitely be snow.”
“What eyes?”
“Eye of the Seven Scars. Seven black witches and black magicians who have become infamous after the sunspot incident. They said they would be looking for you too.”
In fact, the twigs scratching my face endlessly and the roots snatching my feet were tolerable.
What I couldn’t stand was the boiling heat like geothermal heat inside the mountain range.
Since I was here in midsummer, sweat dripped down my whole body like rain, as if I had entered a steamer.
“Abubud!”
“Abud, abud, abud.”
Aki and Pippi, whose body temperature is much higher than that of humans, were very excited, but… … .
According to 『The 11 Wonders of the World』, because of this geothermal heat, a tropical climate is formed in the Red Mountains in summer.
Due to that climate, the forests of the mountain range were colored with beautiful vivid colors all year round. Red, yellow, orange… … A feast of bright and stimulating primary colors.
“Wow!”
During the feast, Aki couldn’t hide her excitement and shook her head back and forth (this is also a bad habit she learned from Pippi).
‘Alakish… … .’
Looking at Aki, who looked over his shoulder and looked around the mountain, the great true dragon, Arakish, came to mind.
Are you watching now?
You have come to the homeland you have longed to return to. I really like Aki. Is it because it’s warm, or does it know your heart… … .
“I found the next way. It’s here.”
It was that evening that I was able to have a conversation like a conversation with Miria, the goblin slayer.
“Have you waited long? It’s done, Aki.”
As I took the grilled skewers dripping tantalizingly from the oil and juices out of the fire, Aki, who was sitting on my lap, let out a cheer.
“Pa-ri, ju-time!”
Kheuk, tears of emotion… … .
It is said that dragons grow faster than humans, and they are gradually becoming able to speak human language without being taught separately.
He gave the skewer to Aki, who was very proud of him, and then handed one to Miria.
“Would you like to eat one too? It’s made with salted meat, but it still tastes good.”
Miria, who was grinding the equipment clinging to the goblin’s brains and fat with a whetstone, removed her wary gaze at the exit of the cave and glanced back at me.
Of course, as always, he was wearing a helmet, so he couldn’t see his face, but his tone was absurd.
“You keep talking without getting tired. Do you like to be criticized by any chance?”
“No, I like to curse. In the old days.”
I mean when I was younger.
Not now.
“Are you proud? And in a place like this… … Meal, how good your stomach is.”
The inside of the cave was littered with goblin corpses.
The goblins vomited when they died, the stench of rotting flesh, and the swarms of flies and ants that had already smelled the blood tickled my nerves.
It was all Miria’s workmanship.
After becoming a fire magician, I couldn’t use grandiose magic in a cave like this… … The skill was so great that there was nothing to help.
“What do you not know? Aki cries if I don’t give her my special grilled skewers for a week in a row. You can’t imagine how loud it is.”
As if my answer wasn’t the same, Miria looked away from the road.
I wondered if the conversation would end as short as usual, but Aki was crawling and holding a skewer to Miria.
“Ah, out!”
It seemed that Miria was more surprised by that action than Fifi and I. The blood drained from his voice in embarrassment.
“no it’s okay… … I don’t have much of an appetite.”
“Dabuuu.”
“Because I’m really fine. I’ll take your heart.”
At that time, when he glanced at me as if he was puzzled, Aki’s face became teary-eyed in the continued rejection. Miria hastily took off her helmet.
“Oh yeah. I’ll eat. It’s really delicious~.”
Aki ate a piece of skewer and gave a soothing smile, and Aki smiled brightly as well.
That guy knows how to make a face like that… … .
As I stared at it, Miria glared at me with a slightly irritated expression.
“What are you laughing at? This doesn’t happen because you suddenly grill meat.”
“No, if you don’t do it, will you cry? But isn’t it hot? I don’t know why you’re always wearing a helmet. It’s comfortable to take it off like now.”
Then, a shadowy sneer formed on Miria’s lips.
“What? Because of this face.”
“?”
“Because of his face, all the men he met insisted on doing some tricks. Let’s have a party with me, come to our guild, please marry me… … Some of them have been chasing after for over a year.”
“Isn’t it nice if other people like it?”
“Good, good, good.”
“Guys like you come to visit me every day and annoy me, which is great.”
“Puck, puck, puck.”
It was the same with Lisa.
Her beauty, like a flower bud blooming on the last cliff in the world, made most men woo her.
Friede used to say that if Paquorea hadn’t had the rule to swear non-marriage when he was appointed a hero, the wolves who promised to marry Lista might have stained the empire with blood while competing with each other.
“Thanks to that, I don’t have a fixed place to work. always move If you don’t know her face, she’s just a nasty b*tch who only catches goblins and smells like goblin guts.”
Having muttered that, Miria let out a wry smile with a self-deprecating shadow over it. This time I had to be a little more careful.
“The skills are good… … You don’t even seem to like goblins that much, so may I ask why you’re so obsessed with them?”
“… … .”
“No, I’m not really kidding. It’s just because I’m curious.”
Miria did not answer.
On a night when the moonlight shone from outside the cave, a lukewarm summer night breeze blew in, and Miria suddenly pulled the longsword from her back.
It was wrapped around the blade with a bandage without a scabbard, but even that was similar to Lista. Because there was no scabbard on the supreme satellite sword, Rista also wrapped the sword body with a bandage and hung it from the sword belt.
“Of the 12,214 cases of damage to towns and cities reported to the Alliance last year, 43 were attributed to goblins.”
“Isn’t 43 cases a year too few? Wouldn’t it be across the continent?”
“Write it down, write it down, write it down.”
“Not much. But can I say that in front of the people involved?”
Miria sneered coldly and gently caressed the bandaged blade. His hand movements were indescribably pitiful.
“It’s something someone has to do. but nobody wants to Even beginners quickly withdraw their feet after hunting a few times, saying it smells bad, it’s dirty, and it doesn’t contribute.”
“… … .”
“Adventurers only try to climb higher as they get stronger. No one looks down low. People who need help are not only up there, but also down there.”
Even though it was a bitterly cold voice, it didn’t make me feel bad. Rather, the nostalgic voice was superimposed on the boy’s voice, speeding up the rhythm of his heart.
Lista… … .
Rista used to say the same thing. Of course, it was so much fresher and kinder that it couldn’t even be compared to Miria, but… … .
“The nickname Goblin Slayer is for such people. If you want to laugh like before, do as you please. I am proud of this name.”
After those words, Miria, carrying the knife she had been holding dearly on her back, did not look back at me. And I couldn’t help but stare at it.
– I want to create a world where everyone smiles.
Rista used to say that. Not with pretense, but with pure sincerity.
He never lied to himself or to anyone else. He did not compromise on anything and carried out his beliefs that he believed were right.
Miria was obviously different from Lista in many things. It’s colder, more terrifying, but… … As much as that beautiful inner side, I thought we were definitely alike.
‘As I am Rin’s reincarnation, is Miria the reincarnation of Lista?’
If that’s the case, it’s a mystery if it’s a mystery that, unlike me, even the appearance is exactly the same, but… … .
It was just an unsure guess, but when the wandering thoughts formed in my head, the whole situation began to feel heartbreakingly confusing.
Even this awkward silence that now flows between the two of us, and even that cold attitude.
Just like he did when he first met Rista, 300 years ago. Just like I felt this way from the moment we first met.
“You are a good person.”
As it was 300 years ago, it is now.
The thoughts that had been in my mind suddenly came out of my mouth.
Miria then smiled as if my words were funny, yet strangely sad.
“Am I a good person?”
That cynicism was so cold and frigid that I couldn’t even guess what kind of whirlpool of life would be entangled in it.
“A good person would take all the money and stop helping people.”
“… … ?”
“I work for money after all. No one hunts only goblins, so it’s because the pay is surprisingly good. I don’t know? I just said it was plausible. Forget everything.”
As if this was the end of the story, Miria put on her helmet and walked out of the cave. I blankly watched Miria’s back.
Even though we were so close, close enough that each other’s voices could reach, it felt like there was an insurmountable wall between him and me.
It was a little too early to know that the wall was built by the painfully miserable past and present.