270

Chapter 270 — If It Exists (8)

I let out a long breath as I looked over the demons gathering across the rocky plain, where sand drifted little by little through the air.

Since this was inside demonic territory, I had been moving under the assumption that even if priests sensed my Demonic Energy, they would mistake it for that of some demon other than the “Demon Knight”… but would they really? What if this choice turned out to be a mistake instead and became the source of trouble someday?

That kind of worry had been circling in one corner of my mind the entire way here.

“Haah.”

But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t bring myself to stop.

Koreans were the sort who couldn’t rest easy until they had earned the price of the meal they’d been fed.

Whoosh!

I pulled the sword I had stored in my Inventory and swung it immediately. Black Mana stretched toward the horizon like wildfire—or like a tidal wave.

Slash! The ghouls and skeletons that had been gradually gathering began dropping to the ground with their upper and lower bodies severed. There were roughly a hundred of them.

Grrrk.

Kyaaak!

“Seriously, these things are relentless…….”

Of course, even after that, some stubbornly clung to life, their severed limbs flailing about. The skeletons were even trying to repair themselves by pulling out shattered sections of spine and reconnecting what remained.

This was exactly why slashing damage was bad against undead. A quiet complaint slipped naturally between my lips.

Crash, clatter!

Fortunately, most of the skeletons’ attempts ended in failure.

And the ghouls, which were a higher class of undead than skeletons, had all died within the affected area. As long as I didn’t split their bellies open any further, they should not revive either.

So that was enough. This should be enough.

At the very least, the burden that city would have to bear had been reduced by around a hundred. I had done the minimum I owed them…….

For the first time in a while, instead of the suffocating feeling of the wig, I enjoyed the wind slipping between my strands of hair. Naturally, the hot air did nothing to soothe what was inside me.

After all, one spoonful of embarrassment came from feeling as though I were showing off over killing a mere hundred. One spoonful of relief came from the thought that, if there were only this many, perhaps it had never been especially dangerous in the first place. Another spoonful of worry came from wondering whether I had simply arrived too early, before the others had finished gathering…….

With all those impressions mixed together, there was no way my stomach could feel anything but unsettled.

“They’re not seriously going to keep coming, right……?”

But I couldn’t stay here any longer either.

After all, this was demonic territory.

Rustle.

Almost unconsciously, I rubbed my right arm.

Despite all my worries from before, my right arm—the demon—was remarkably quiet.

It had been the same when I first entered demonic territory, and it was still the same now, about an hour after entering.

So did simply entering demonic territory not give the demon any particular buff?

I remembered something the Archmage had once said. It felt like an incredibly long time ago, yet at the same time as vivid as if it had happened yesterday. Perhaps that was because it had been one of the reasons I became so deeply buried in my persona.

『A Great Demon is practically Satan’s…… What you were wary of was…… the demon’s…….』

Of course, I absolutely did not remember her exact words.

I was no genius, and it had been half a year… had it really only been half a year? It felt longer than that.

Anyway, how was I supposed to remember word for word something that had happened roughly half a year ago? I merely blurred together what she had said and recalled the meaning and nuance she had been trying to convey at the time.

『Perhaps we could prepare some means of sealing it…….』

Yes.

Words that had been a worry in one sense, and an alternative in another.

A future that, in the end, had never come to pass at all.

Haah.

I exhaled.

Air that would have been deep winter back in Korea was merely sweltering here because this was a different world. The dry heat of the scorching desert concealed the shape of my breath.

Shhhhhk.

Then, suddenly, something that sounded like scraping metal began rising from between the grains of sand.

An arm wrapped in plate armor and the empty space above the neck made its identity easy enough to recognize.

A Dullahan.

A dead one made from the bodies of knights and killed by knights. Or perhaps a dead one for whose destruction knights had been trained, only for that very process to create more of them instead.

“Oh… I didn’t exactly come out here looking for a real fight.”

This irony between knights and Dullahans was apparently not all that different from the relationship between the chicken and the egg, so people had debated it for quite a long time.

At least, that was what I had heard.

“Looks like I’m going to end up practicing what I learned right away.”

Still, perhaps that debate would no longer be seen in this city, at least.

Or at the very least, it ought to become noticeably less common than before.

Shhhhhk.

I tightened my grip on the longsword as the knight raised its sword with a sound like air leaking through metal.

High guard.

I raised the blade I normally let hang low and placed my right hand over the blade.

I wanted to practice swinging with my right hand, but since I had removed my disguise now, I had no choice.

In any case, once I took that stance, the Dullahan opposite me adopted a similar posture.

Clank.

The headless knight’s black armor rang.

The stance was remarkably similar to the one Sir Walter had shown me yesterday.

There was no way every style of swordsmanship in this world began like that, so it was probably a distinctive feature of the swordsmanship developed in this city.

“…Honor to the victor.”

Then had the body of that Dullahan once belonged to a knight who had lived and breathed in this city?

…Could it perhaps have known Sir Walter?

“Understanding to the defeated.”

I glanced at the faded scales visible between the plates of armor.

Grime and dust clung to them in thick layers, leaving them with a yellowed cast, but I had the feeling that, if cleaned, they would reveal a rather beautiful black.

“Fairness to the duel.”

And so I paid the respect Berserk had taught me.

Even if it had become a demon, it was still the body of a knight who had once fought for people. Shouldn’t someone like that at least be granted the bare minimum of courtesy?

Shhhhhk.

Was it my imagination?

While I was paying my respects, the Dullahan did not rush me.

If anything, it even released that metallic wind sound in time with the ritual, almost as though matching my courtesy.

It felt exceedingly strange.

Clang!

The Dullahan and I collided.

* * *

[…You interfere with my work to an astonishing degree.]

Upon the throne above the lake, the being who gazed down upon the world gripped the scepter.

Before him, a thin, broad mirror of water reflected some distant place in the world.

Thrum. Thrum.

With faint vibrations, the angle of the image changed every second, though the scene itself lacked detail.

Red rocky earth.

Two figures.

Intermittent static.

Boom!

The instant a silent explosion filled the entire image, the mirror of water burst apart.

The energy fluctuations in the area being observed were too unstable.

—If you grant me permission, I shall go personally and execute him.

And this was something that should have been done from the beginning.

The being tapped the scepter while looking upon the region lying at the edge of his sphere of influence, where proper observation was impossible.

Tap.

The instant a fingernail struck the scepter’s dazzling shaft, the mirror re-formed.

Read only on MUGEX

The same place appeared again, though now with one small difference.

There were no longer only two figures standing upon the earth.

—Morning Star, I beg your permission.

[I do not permit it.]

—…….

But the information value of that battle’s outcome was not particularly important.

The victor of that fight had been decided from the beginning.

『How creepy can you get? If you want to watch me, why don’t you come here yourself?』

So what truly needed to be examined was why *that thing* had allowed itself to be observed.

[…Is it deception, or is it not?]

Every region humans collectively called demonic territory lay within his sight.

The closer one moved to the edges, the less he could observe and the easier it became for that sight to be “interfered with,” but fundamentally, that remained true.

[Wrathful One, you forever test me.]

And the other knew that.

Yes.

That was the problem.

It knew.

Even if it had not known beforehand, the instant it stepped into his territory, it should have realized immediately.

So why?

Why was it not scattering interference waves in a one-kilometer radius as usual?

Why did it make no sign of having noticed the surveillance?

Why?

…Had the host won again?

—Then, Morning Star… the plan…….

He slowly exhaled.

[It will not be revised. Your role is to carry it out exactly as planned.]

He could not rely on the possibility that the thing before him was not Wrath.

Just as he himself had once been called Morning Star before Pride, that thing had been known as Deception before Wrath.

[Inform Sloth and Appetite.]

At the same time, precisely because it had once been called Deception, paradoxically, it would be unable to win.

[The time has come to deliver the end to the battlefield.]

Such was the future of a liar who could earn no one’s trust.

* * *

‘That bat bastard again…….’

The moment I finally got a feel for the anti-personnel techniques Sir Walter had taught me and succeeded in destroying only the Dullahan’s heart without damaging the rest of the body, I lifted my head slightly at a strange sensation.

There was no specific direction I could point to and say, *There!* but somehow, I felt as though I were being watched.

It was like… what was it again?

That demon who had gone off after slapping a mantilla on me and basically saying, *You scared?*

More precisely, it felt like that forest where I had spent the whole night searching for that bastard afterward.

“…Is it because this is demonic territory?”

Hmm.

I had felt this same strange, indescribable sensation back then too.

I never found anything, so in the end I had dismissed it as my imagination.

“Guess I really should give up on reaching Münmunt through here…….”

But considering what kind of place this was, I did not like the idea of dismissing even this so casually.

I decided to abandon the dream of traveling along the edge of demonic territory while killing demons as I went.

I had never truly thought it would be possible in the first place, so giving up was easy.

I had no ability to procure supplies in a dried-up desert.

Clank.

Instead, I collected the corpse of the Dullahan fallen before me.

As I did, the rocky ground crushed beneath my military boots crumbled several times.

Crack.

The faint Demonic Energy contained within it dispersed into the air.

Only now did I truly understand why this place was called demonic territory.

Grooooan—

“Holy shit, you startled me.”

Though the demons popping out from holes between the rocks and from beds of sand certainly lived up to the name too.

I could not tell whether I had come to a desert or some kind of courage test.

Crunch!

I stomped on the skeleton that sprang out from between the rocks.

The skull trapped between the heel of my boot and the ground made a grinding sound before shattering completely.

Clatter.

At the same time, the light that had been gleaming inside its eye sockets vanished.

Apparently crushing the head really was the correct answer, because the fingers gripping my ankle stopped moving as well.

Damn it, though. The hand around my ankle did not release, so I still had to shake my leg once to throw it off.

“Good grief.”

I should get out of here before something else played peekaboo with me.

After checking the number of remaining ghouls and skeletons, I hurried away from the area.

After all, just because circumstances had forced me to intervene did not mean I wanted to create even more eyewitness reports.

And honestly, the most effective way to reduce eyewitness reports was simply to reduce the amount of time I spent active.

Of course, there was quite a distance between here and the city, so to anyone with ordinary eyesight I probably would not even appear as a dot.

Even I could not see the people standing atop the walls.

Still, there was no guarantee they did not have magnification magic—or telescopes—and I was also worried that the lingering unpleasant sensation I kept feeling might be coming not from the demon side, but from the city side.

Bang!

Just as I had on the way here, I wrapped Mana around my legs and ran.

The coat I had not worn once since abandoning my persona fluttered behind me.

Maybe because there was nothing irritating around my upper body, it felt a little more comfortable than the cloak I had been wearing lately.

Or maybe not.

Boom!

As for the military boots pounding against the ground right now… hmm.

Those had always been uncomfortable, so there was nothing worth comparing.

Though the fact they did not smell even after walking all day definitely gave these boots the victory.

The trousers and shirt were much the same too.

The only real difference was whether they had an automatic cleaning function or not. In terms of comfort, they were about equal.

If I absolutely had to pick a good point about these, it would be that they fit my body exactly, so they flapped around less.

For the record, having clothes that were too loose was absolutely not my fault.

The problem was this world, where people over 190 centimeters tall were rare unless they were Shaggi.

And the market was also to blame for tailoring every ready-made piece of clothing around that kind of build…….

Damn it.

If Shaggi builds were more like judo athletes or mixed martial artists, I could have worn their clothes without alteration.

Why did they all have physiques more like sumo wrestlers?!

Was it because of the fur?

It was the fur, wasn’t it?!

While thinking a flood of thoughts that might have been rather rude to the Shaggi—I hoped they would forgive me; thanks to this market structure, I had to pay extra alteration fees every time I bought clothes—I jumped high once again.

Boom.

The ground I had used as a foothold collapsed, and my body soared upward, clearing a cliff several meters high.

The layers of rock stacked like oyster mushrooms growing in shelves along a tree trunk fell away beneath my feet in an instant.

Bang!

From there, all I had to do was keep moving until I reached the barrier.

I crossed several more ridges and reached the highest one.

A wall more closely resembling a log fence than a proper fortification blocked my way.

It seemed less like something seriously intended to stop demons and more like a device designed to make it obvious when a demon had passed through here—after all, if it wanted to cross, it would first have to smash through the wall, which would leave traces.

Whoosh!

But I had the ability to get over it without breaking anything…….

I used the same route I had used to enter—there was no need for it to be completely identical, since the patrol coverage was so broad that the guard posts were extremely sparse—and there was no chance of being spotted by a sentry.

Without any trouble whatsoever, I returned to human territory.

Now, there was nothing left to hold me back.