229

Chapter 229 — Filled with Suffering (2)

Berserk opened her eyes.

Was she alive?

How?

Before she could even understand her surroundings, that was the first question to arise.

Shift.

The next thing she noticed was a presence on her stomach.

She relaxed her stiffened body and loosened the muscles in her arms as much as possible before pulling apart the remnants of her ruined clothing.

Once several layers of fabric were peeled away, her bare skin came into view.

The black veins were gone.

So were the swollen, knotted protrusions.

Her skin was clean.

Though the scars she had acquired long ago still remained.

Grip.

“……?”

Correction.

There was more than just the scars.

There was also a turtle smaller than the surface area of her abdomen.

Whether they should be called fins or webbed feet, the turtle had attached itself tightly to her skin with the parts that would correspond to a human’s arms and legs.

“What is this?”

Could turtles even do this?

More importantly, when had it gotten inside her clothes?

She lifted the turtle and expressed her confusion.

It was an action performed while expecting someone to respond—

though perhaps somewhat unconsciously.

But no matter how long she waited, no voice came.

Of course.

The lie she had created had dissolved like foam the moment she acknowledged the truth.

Or perhaps it had simply returned to where it had always belonged.

The bonfire she had clung to because she missed her lost sun was gone.

The moment Berserk fully realized that, misery washed over her.

Perhaps it would have been better if she had died.

She had survived without even knowing why, only to feel this wretchedness.

“…How sad.”

Would it have been better to die there?

Just like her sister, who had perished in a place where the sun did not rise—

would it have been better if Berserk too had met an awful end where even her remains could never be recovered?

“Our beginnings were different, but I wanted our ends to resemble one another.”

Had she died according to the method of mourning she had chosen in childhood, perhaps not even lingering attachment would have remained……

“Was even that impossible for me?”

She lowered the flailing turtle to the ground.

Because she set it down without thinking, it landed upside down.

The creature thrashed and waved its limbs.

Feeling a little sorry for it, Berserk tapped the shell with one finger.

The recoil flipped the turtle upright.

It began crawling slowly across the ground.

Soft dirt shifted beneath its webbed feet, leaving faint tracks behind it.

“You’re awake?”

“……?”

After she watched for a while, someone tending to another person’s wounds several meters away spoke.

A man who looked immensely exhausted.

“If you’re awake, go find the Archmage. I’ve delivered the message.”

His attitude matched his appearance.

Sharp and prickly.

Whether that was his natural personality was unclear.

It seemed more likely that sheer lack of breathing room had made him irritable.

“Doctor! We’re out of bandages!”

“You boiled cloth earlier! Tear that up and use it!”

“That’s all gone too!”

“I’m losing my mind!”

“Medic! Open fracture of the leg!!”

Just looking around made that obvious.

Berserk glanced at the patients crowded everywhere, the people still arriving, and the attendants moving frantically among them to treat the wounded.

She had intended to search for the Demon Knight, the young hunter, and the red-haired priest.

But something else caught her attention first.

There seemed to be quite a few medics moving around.

Yet the number of people needing those medics vastly exceeded the number of hands available.

“Medic?! Medic?! Does anyone have free hands?!”

Someone who had just arrived carrying another patient shouted.

The man who had spoken to Berserk was the one who responded.

“I seriously want to cry…….”

He did not even get a moment to breathe before being forced to treat someone else.

He looked utterly exhausted.

“This way… over here!”

“Open fracture of the leg! You heard me, right?!”

“Yes……!”

The man somehow made room in the cramped space and laid the patient down.

Then he shouted at a girl running errands back and forth—probably pressed into service because there were too few hands.

“Painkillers here! And bandages for the bleeding, bandages…….”

“W-We just ran out of painkillers, so there’s nothing I can give you…….”

“What?”

“I went to get more too, but they said there aren’t any left.”

The situation only seemed to be worsening.

Painkillers and bandages were the very basics of treatment, especially trauma care.

Painkillers could at least be compensated for by having the patient endure more.

But without bandages, one might as well abandon every patient who was bleeding.

As a warrior, Berserk possessed a certain amount of basic medical knowledge.

She clicked her tongue.

“The priests—what about the priests? They don’t have anyone to spare either? We need to stop the bleeding at least…….”

“I’ll go ask. But probably…….”

“Right. Of course they won’t…….”

So that was why she had not seen anyone from the Temple here.

They simply weren’t visible from this particular place.

Apparently they were already working elsewhere.

And it seemed they were no less overwhelmed.

Then again, since Divine Power could hold a person back from death, the Temple tended to take responsibility for those among the severely wounded who were likely to die immediately.

Considering only that, perhaps they were even more overwhelmed than this place.

Here, most patients were either lightly wounded or severely injured without being in immediate danger of death.

Over there, the moment there weren’t enough hands, people would simply begin dying.

If the red-haired priest Berserk knew were there, perhaps things would be somewhat better……

But was the Hero even in a condition to heal other people?

The battle in the city as Berserk remembered it had been far beyond anything that allowed one to consider what came afterward.

Kweeek.

Suddenly, the turtle made a strange cry.

At the same moment, a question arose that puzzled Berserk.

Right.

It had been a battle where no one could afford to think about the aftermath.

Then why was Berserk herself in such good condition?

Leaving aside the fact that she was alive, shouldn’t at least some of her wounds have remained?

Had that young priest somehow stayed conscious until now and given her special treatment—healing—because they had traveled together?

No.

Before even that—

who had brought her out of the turtle shell?

It seemed unlikely the Hero had done it.

That young priest had already seemed to have her hands full with that Pandemonium whatever-it-was……

And the timing didn’t fit either.

Tap.

At that moment, lukewarm warmth touched Berserk’s hand.

The turtle had slowly crawled up onto the back of it.

“What.”

Go away.

Berserk nudged it aside.

Grip.

The overturned turtle flailed, this time managing to right itself under its own power.

Then it slowly crawled back toward her.

Perhaps it thought Berserk was its mother.

“…Honestly.”

Was such a tiny turtle really going to cling to her this desperately?

Berserk considered abandoning it.

Then decided to take it with her.

She disliked weakness.

She did not dislike the young.

Especially not a young creature displaying desperate stubbornness in order to survive.

She had no intention of carrying it around forever.

But she was willing to look after it until she could release it into the sea.

“Hold on properly. If you fall off, I’m leaving you behind.”

She placed the turtle on her broad shoulder and stood.

The people she had been searching for were nowhere in sight, and she had also been told that the Great Sage had summoned her.

It was about time to leave.

But when she straightened, the clothing she had pulled open earlier fluttered around her waist.

It was rather irritating.

And far too ruined to wear properly again.

“Hmm.”

It was too filthy even to use as bandages.

Then tearing it apart hardly mattered.

Having reached that conclusion, she ripped the garment off completely.

The discarded clothes were crushed beneath her leather shoes.

Kweek.

The turtle, which had nearly gone flying with the clothing, cried as though protesting.

“Do all turtles sound like you?”

Kkuek?

Before searching for the Archmage, Berserk left the chaotic treatment area.

Naturally.

The healers were far too busy for her to ask where the Great Sage was.

And they were unlikely to know much about the situation outside the treatment grounds anyway.

Kkueek.

“What a disaster…….”

But were things any better around the treatment area?

No.

Berserk breathed out slowly while staring at people sprawled everywhere like defeated soldiers.

There were some who had recovered enough to move around.

But there were far more curled up on the ground in stunned despair.

She hated the sight.

“What the hell were the soldiers doing? How did demons appear inside the city……?”

“Fuuuck… it’s all because of the nobles. The nobles and the Temple conspired to kill the guardian god, so we’re being punished…….”

And then there were people spewing nonsense like that.

“How weak.”

She understood the shock of having to abandon the city and evacuate.

But so what?

They had been protected by soldiers and had at least escaped in relative safety.

Yet now they could not even endure the shock of losing their city without blaming someone else.

It was absurd.

The soldiers who had died for them had been wasted.

Berserk looked down on the people who had been saved only to sit there in despair because they had lost their possessions, without a hint of gratitude.

Then continued walking.

In the distance, she saw soldiers moving.

“Let go! Let me go……!”

“Stop before I break your arm!”

As she approached, she saw what the soldiers were doing.

They were restraining someone who had been causing trouble.

“Hey, soldier.”

“As if this situation wasn’t already fucking enough—what?”

“Where is the Archmage?”

“Hey, can’t you see we’re— Who are you?”

The soldier, who had been twisting the troublemaker’s arm with irritation while turning around, stopped short.

Berserk could plainly see the moment the soldier revised his attitude after taking in her terrifying physique and expression.

Though a certain sharpness remained.

“I’m an Adventurer who was employed by the Archmage. I was told to come, but I don’t know the location, so I’m asking.”

“…If you really are an Adventurer, show your insignia first—”

“Hey! You!”

At that moment, someone shouted from a short distance away.

“You’re alive!”

“Do you know me?”

“You fought the sirens on the city wall.”

Ah.

One of the soldiers who had seen that.

She scratched her neck.

Unfortunately, she had no memory of seeing that soldier.

“I lost my Adventurer’s Insignia.”

Furthermore, she no longer had the insignia.

She was certain she had lost it during battle—she hadn’t seen it when throwing away her clothes earlier—

but as for where she had lost it?

Who knew.

She had fought across roughly three different battlefields if one divided them broadly.

There was no way to guess.

“Then I can’t tell you. How do I know who you really are? You can’t just ask something like that—”

And apparently the soldier she had happened to encounter was particularly rigid about procedure.

Berserk narrowed her eyes, annoyed by the inconvenience.

“If you’re looking for the Archmage, head that way. I saw her earlier.”

“Hey!”

“I know what you’re worried about, but use some common sense. If someone fought on the city wall, they’re either a soldier or an Adventurer. What else would they be?”

“Even so, she literally said she was hired by a Great Sage! You believe that?”

“Well, sure, but… someone strong enough to kill dozens of sirens could reasonably be hired by a Great Sage, couldn’t they? I think it’s fine.”

“Damn it…….”

Fortunately, luck ultimately favored her.

Berserk could not remember the soldier at all, but judged him favorably for having proved useful nonetheless.

She headed in the indicated direction.

Fortunately, the group of mages was there.

Together with members of the Temple.

“No spare hands?!”

“Priest!”

“…Give up on that one! We can’t save them under these conditions!”

Right.

Mages could use healing magic too.

Looking at the mages mixed in with the Temple personnel—golden light flowing from the hands meant priest, while pale bluish light meant mage—Berserk watched for a moment.

The situation was even worse than at the previous treatment area.

“Priest! The people who evacuated west are starting to arrive one after another! But according to the survivors, there are wounded over there……!”

“…We’re short on hands here too! Weren’t there any surviving priests there?!”

“Most were killed while protecting civilians from the demons……. So there’s no one left who can treat them…….”

“Damn it!”

The Archmage was among those treating the most severely wounded.

Though her magic was less effective than Divine Power, she was treating several people simultaneously.

Five lives were already held in her hands.

“You’re here? Then start with those over—”

“I heard you were looking for me.”

“Hmm? Ah, ah. It was you.”

Berserk approached only as far as she could without interfering with the Archmage.

Then her eyes moved again.

She was searching to see whether the Hero might be working somewhere nearby.

Unfortunately, the young priest was nowhere to be seen.

“First… let me thank you for what you did. If not for you, the damage would have been greater. Truly, thank you.”

“I did not remain there to receive gratitude. So I have no need for it.”

“I see.”

“More importantly, what is the situation?”

“…How much do you know?”

“Almost nothing. My final memory is discovering that there was a merman nest inside the turtle’s shell, then entering it and fighting.”

Deathbringer and the Demon Knight were the same.

She did not know where they were, but at the very least they did not appear to be among the injured.

“And I remember that by then, even if support had arrived in time, my chances of survival were almost nonexistent.”

“…I see.”

“So I ask. How did I survive?”

Then where were those three?

Surely they hadn’t ended up among the dead—

the group even Berserk had failed to join.

Surely not?

“…I don’t fully know either. But according to Deathbringer’s testimony, most likely… a demon saved you.”

“…A demon?”

Berserk carefully examined the face of the only person capable of giving her an answer.

The Demon Knight did not seem to be dead.

If he were, the Archmage’s expression would have been filled entirely with grief.

But……

“Or perhaps the Demon Knight.”

There were lives in this world more miserable than death.

Realizing this would be a long story, Berserk sat down.

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Kkuak.

The turtle on her shoulder cried.