Chapter 683
Last episode – Red thread
There are also letters that cannot but be written with blood.
There are also paintings that must be drawn with blood.
The Demon King’s empire was like that.
After the Gate incident, the demon king declared a new empire.
There were those who believed in the demon king, but there were also those who did not believe in the demon king.
So there was division.
The divisions were scattered and germinated their own seeds.
There have been several wars.
The seeds of division did not disappear, but were scattered somewhere.
Importantly, the demon king’s empire was never defeated.
If you ask if there was no prosperity and reconstruction, it was not.
The world was restoring civilization even as divisions and conflicts continued.
Like that, in the middle of the flow of history that sometimes hesitates but eventually moves forward.
New Imperial Year 5.
– Sarak
In a forest that became a sea of blood.
Ellen was looking around at the scattered bodies.
Of course, I look at the sculpture of a monster that is neither human nor beast.
As if thinking deeply about something.
As if they were estimating their original form.
Ellen takes out a notebook and writes something down.
I also wrote and, although it was simple, I also drew pictures.
It was a picture she had never drawn in her life, but Ellen got used to it.
But why should I paint?
Sometimes monsters are symmetrical, but in the end they look different. Many had appearances that could only be described as grotesque, terrible, and unfamiliar.
Drawing and documenting those individual monsters actually meant nothing during the Gate crisis.
Still, Ellen does.
After a while in the bloody forest, Ellen covers the notebook and puts it in her backpack and walks somewhere.
The sun is going down.
Ellen knows that nights in the woods and mountains come too quickly.
* * *
-Tadak, tak
Night fell, and Ellen was sitting by the campfire.
Just as fire chases beasts, sometimes it chases monsters.
But really, that doesn’t mean much either.
Just as there are monsters who are afraid of fire, there are also monsters who are fascinated by fire.
It may be dangerous because of the light at night, but in fact, there are monsters whose vision does not depend on light.
So, a nighttime bonfire in no-man’s-land may or may not be dangerous.
It may or may not have meaning.
So, in the end, the conclusion is simple.
A campfire has the obvious advantage of warding off the cold, so it is better to keep it lit.
That was one of Ellen’s many realizations during her long wandering life.
In the end, all I could do was put my nerves on edge and fall asleep.
A life killing monsters in no man’s land.
Ellen can kill monsters, but she cannot exterminate them.
Gone are the days when monsters poured out of warp gates.
However, if there were no dangerous days for five years, it was not.
Monsters often had dangerous attacks, which were sometimes fatal to Ellen.
Enemies who wandered between life and death were rather more frequent after the gate incident.
It’s hard to see that it’s just because of the monster.
There were more times when I wandered between death and death because I was starving or because I ate the wrong thing and got sick.
So, Ellen now realized that she was a body that would not die even if she ate quite a bit of poison.
Of course, even so, he never did anything like grilling and eating unknown monster meat.
Ellen takes a notebook out of her backpack.
Of course, it wasn’t just one book, but several.
Ellen turns the pages, shining her notebook in the light of the campfire.
On some pages, I thought about it for a long time, and on other pages, I turned over meaninglessly.
Occasionally, I annotate by adding what I remember.
Should I call it a journal?
Ellen was writing this at some point.
I had a strong hunch that something had to be done.
So sometimes I stopped by where people lived. To get a notebook and a pen.
Of course, the edge of the notebook was tattered because it was a rough life.
After checking the notebooks for a while, Ellen organized them well and put them in her backpack.
“Whoa… … .”
Ellen takes a root from her bosom and chews on it.
Ellen doesn’t know what this is.
I just eat because I know that I will not get sick even if I eat.
Like that, she didn’t even know what to eat, but Ellen learned quite a bit about what she could eat.
I can’t even remember the last time I fell asleep.
I don’t know when was the last time I ate properly.
Least food, minimal sleep, minimal water.
I was living with just that.
If you enter a place where you can’t get food at all, there are cases where you wander for days and days at the moment all the food you have is gone.
It was a fight not against monsters, but against hunger.
If it hadn’t been for the bizarrely strong body, an ordinary person would have withered away long ago.
How about going back to where people live and taking a break for a few days?
Although living a life completely removed from civilization, Ellen occasionally stopped by a town or village where people lived.
Of course, I had to hide my identity.
It is true that food is running out.
But now I have work to do.
And even if you go back, there is no point.
First of all, the most important issue.
I have no money.
Life in no man’s land is just to kill monsters.
So there is no corner where money comes out.
If you live in a human city for a long time, you know that there are plenty of places to make money, but that in itself is dangerous.
Along with the deposed emperor Bertus de Gradias, the hero Ellen Artorius is the most wanted in the empire. Whether voluntarily or unintentionally, the emperor had no choice but to define the hero and the deposed emperor as the greatest enemy of the empire, so it is natural.
Regardless of the emperor’s will, those who support the emperor hate the fugitive Emperor and Ellen Artorius.
So, in a human city, you can’t do anything while staying longer than just stopping by.
Even if it was an anti-imperial force, it would be no different.
There, in a different sense, is a place that will surely capture Ellen.
Somewhere to arrest, somewhere to plead for the salvation of mankind.
It’s Ellen’s situation that she can’t feel comfortable wherever she goes.
Of course, there is no such thing as being discovered just by stopping by for a short time. It’s just a matter of hiding your true identity and appearance. Just can’t stay long.
It wasn’t always possible to watch, but Ellen could now and then see civilization come to life.
The adventurer’s guild that Ellen once briefly experienced still exists.
However, instead of exploring the open sea of the Dark Land as before, it has changed to a form similar to a mercenary business in which monsters are defeated and money is received.
It is true that security is unstable here and there, and there cannot be enough troops to clean the entire continent.
So, the individual solves the mission of killing the monsters and receives a reward from the empire.
That was the changed form of the current adventurer’s guild.
If she had been paid to kill monsters, Ellen might have died buried in the money. No, in the first place, you should be suspicious of whether the Empire has the ability to pay Ellen that much money.
However, living in a no-man’s-land in order not to be noticed by the Empire, it would be absurd to suddenly register as a new adventurer just because you needed money.
The face is so well known that it is impossible to create a false identity.
So there is no corner to earn money, but you have to take too big a risk.
When he was really in a hurry, he disguised himself as an anonymous adventurer and took a lot of evidence of monster eradication and made money.
Due to the nature of the adventurer’s guild, which gives money when you defeat a monster, you have no choice but to give money once you have an overwhelming amount of evidence for killing a monster.
Of course, if you do something like that, the adventurer’s guild will raise a fuss over who the hell that person is.
There were many times when I took the money and escaped as if I was running away before the uproar grew, and it was actually dangerous.
After all, it is very dangerous and desperate to wander in the wilderness.
Returning to human habitation is as dangerous as, or even more dangerous than, wandering in the wilderness.
It’s not that there aren’t any villages that are kind to wanderers, and they’re not interested in demon kings or empires.
In some cases, they helped with small tasks and were given a place to sleep or something to eat.
Regardless of what Ellen looked like, some people did not know who Ellen Artorius was. Because there is still a place that is disconnected from the world.
Ellen, who has eaten all of the root she was chewing on, rests her back on the trunk of the tree and looks up at the sky.
In the days of Temple, I ate without wanting.
I could live by eating just this much, but wouldn’t it be a waste of food to eat so much back then?
“… … .”
It was funny to think that way, so Ellen smiled faintly.
There was a person who gave me noodles every day, asking why I ate so much.
Even so, if you say you want to eat something, the person who always makes it.
Ellen hangs her head and catches her breath for a while.
I can’t help but think about the subject that I left on my own, like an obsession.
What if I had just stayed
But the current reality speaks for itself.
There are many bounty hunters to catch Ellen and Bertus, and on the one hand, there are still those who still respect Ellen as a hero and hope to save mankind someday.
Existence alone is a source of war.
Even without confidence, wars have already occurred several times, and if there had been, a bigger war would have occurred.
Perhaps the empire fell apart before it was even completed.
There should be only one sun.
The two suns set the world on fire just by existing.
And in fact, the things of the past don’t mean anything.
It is meaningless that he is currently wanted.
Even without all of that, the reality is.
The Demon King is married.
And a long time passed.
“… … .”
There was no thought of interfering with it in the first place.
Now that you have left, you cannot go back with a few pieces of memories from the past, the time that would have flowed by itself, the accumulated time.
A lot of their own stories would have already been piled up.
Just imagine.
What would it be like if everything was good?
Just to remember.
Then, I’ll eat some more.
The food Reinhardt made.
The moment when we could touch each other.
that time.
A little more.
Anything more.
“… … .”
Eventually, forcibly cutting off her thoughts, Ellen quietly closed her eyes.
The wind was cold.
* * *
next day.
Ellen got up from her seat after lighting the fire and put on her backpack.
The chaos of the night disappears in the morning.
In a situation where there is work to be done, idle thoughts do not come.
The sadness and self-torture that seeps in like a seizure always comes just before falling asleep.
As always, do what you have to do.
I decided to kill the monsters in the no man’s land.
It is a body that cannot survive in all places where civilization exists, so it wanders only in places where there is no civilization.
It’s painful and hard, but it’s the path I chose for myself.
So Ellen walks in the woods.
It wasn’t difficult to reach the trail we found last night.
Ellen learned to do quite a bit of things she never knew how to do.
As well as drawing, so is the ability to keep track of things.
A broken tree branch. and location.
footprint.
excreta.
predation traces.
Through those things, I was able to guess things like the size, movement radius, and location of the monsters that weren’t there.
If Ellen was an adventurer, she would probably be recorded as the greatest adventurer of the present age.
Ellen did this even before the adventurer’s guild changed its form to give rewards based on monsters defeated.
Sometimes Ellen was funny.
Her brother, Lagann Artorius, was a legendary adventurer.
After making a name for himself as a legendary adventurer, he became a warrior.
But Ellen is in a different order.
After being known as a hero, he became an adventurer.
Ellen checks the tracks, guessing which direction the missing group was headed.
After checking the faintly pressed bush and the footprints, Ellen checks the notebook.
Consistent with the contents of the notebook.
And walking, looking for traces.
Traces sometimes disappear, but you can find them if you orient the whole.
There was a time when I just blindly killed monsters.
There are monsters everywhere on the continent, so you just have to kill, kill, kill.
Then one day you’ll be able to hunt the last monster.
save people from monsters
That purpose can be achieved.
But the process can’t be easy, and it’s extremely difficult to eradicate all the hidden monsters one by one.
Therefore, the number of monsters will gradually decrease and it will become difficult to find them.
So Ellen gradually learned how to track the monster.
Overall, there is not much difference from hunting.
But it’s just a hunt where the prey changes every time.
In the case of a giant monster, it is convenient to see it from a distance.
However, monsters, regardless of size, are deadly. So when a giant monster sees it, it runs and kills it, and it clearly handles small and medium-sized monsters.
Find and kill hidden monsters.
Amid those days, the last few months.
Ellen felt the fear choke her breath.
Even though the food was extremely low, they were looking for monsters rather than finding food.
That was the reason why I took out my notebook more often than usual.
Ellen moves cautiously, but quickly.
Going past the footprints and broken branches.
footprint.
Footprints matching the drawing in the notebook.
follow it
Monsters usually look different.
There were even many heterogeneous monsters that could not be seen in the form of living things.
Of course, there are also guys who look alike.
A form with wings, or a gigantic monster.
There are many similar guys.
However, perfect match is very rare.
It can’t be said that it doesn’t exist at all, but the color or the horns are slightly different.
but a few months ago.
Ellen faced monsters that perfectly resembled each other.
Of course, it wasn’t a strong monster. All of them were cut in two by the rament, and all they did was fall down with blood splattered on them.
But Ellen vomited in horror on the spot.
After that, Ellen continues to search.
Contrasting the trail, wandering around and rummaging around.
find something
hoping there’s no such thing.
Hoping that such a thing is an illusion.
Draw, collect traces, search.
search and search again
May it be one of those occasional things.
Hoping that there are monsters like that.
how much time has passed
After wandering through the woods for over five hours.
in a crevice in a hill.
– Kreurreung!
Ellen heard the monster’s low, thick cry.
“… … .”
-Sureureung!
Ellen takes out the lament and watches the cave.
The monster was still glaring at Ellen with red eyes from a gap in the hill.
It is a threat.
Threats to kill if approached.
But Ellen doesn’t back down.
Slowly approach the monster.
– Kreung!
As Ellen approaches, the monster thrusts its clawed paws out of the crack.
Warnings and threats grow louder and louder.
But Ellen goes closer with her eyes wide open.
I hope not.
please don’t
wishing
The moment you take one more step.
-Kwoaaaaa!
The gigantic body that jumped at Ellen opened its huge mouth with hundreds of teeth and lunged at Ellen.
– Squeak!
The attacking monster was cut in two from the mouth to the tail by the Void Sword’s blow, and was driven into the forest at the same speed as it was charging.
instant death.
It was exactly the same form as the monster he had been chasing so far.
It wasn’t even the first kill.
I killed those types of monsters over and over again.
But over and over again, we face monsters of the same type.
I am not interested in dead monsters.
Ellen wasn’t after that.
It’s true that he was looking for that monster, but it wasn’t really that monster that Ellen was after.
why did you threaten
Monsters usually have indiscriminate aggression towards everything except monsters.
But just now, hiding in the cave, he growled.
Like a warning not to come near.
Ellen carefully heads to the cave where the monster jumped out.
Shouldn’t be
It must be a delusion.
There should be no such thing.
Thinking so, I wandered around this area for several months.
obsessively.
Because there are monsters in the form of dividing and multiplying.
thinking it would be like that
But even before entering the cave, Ellen was already in despair.
-kiing
– Queek!
Inside, a small cry is heard.
“ah… … .”
After entering the cave, Ellen had no choice but to open her mouth in a daze.
About six small things the size of an adult forearm.
Something that looked like a scaled-down monster that had just died was lingering around, unable to open its eyes properly.
“iced coffee… … . ah… … .”
-dump
Ellen sat down in front of that little procrastination.
Something that has not been found in any object so far.
Ellen found the monster, but didn’t target it.
I was looking for a monster’s baby.
The offspring itself is proof of reproduction.
The most common form of proliferation that is neither replication nor division.
Existing multiple monsters of exactly the same shape suggested that possibility.
Among the monsters, breeding objects appeared.
It is unknown whether it existed originally or appeared to adapt.
So there will be individuals that reproduce among other individuals.
Of course, there may be monsters that mate with other species.
I hadn’t seen it before, so I left it as a possibility.
One is possible, so there can be no two.
In addition to this individual and this species in front of me, there must be a species capable of breeding other species as well.
I don’t know when it started.
However, monsters are not shrinking, they are still increasing.
somewhere in the world.
It doesn’t appear at the gate, but it should be multiplying and increasing.
That means one thing.
Monsters do not disappear from the world.
The moment to kill the last monster will not come.
“no… … .”
Ellen couldn’t see anything but despair.
