Book 10 Chapter 9

Episode 234

It was Aki who calmed Setsunen, who was biting Elamas even harder. Aki picked up Setsunen, who had withdrawn her fangs.

As a purple aura gradually intensified from the bodies of the primitives strewn around like dolls, Aki silently looked down at Elamas.

For some reason, Elamas found that gaze extremely unpleasant. It was repulsive. She couldn't bear it.

“What, heh heh, did you come to beg for your life or something…?”

She let out a scoff mixed with the pain of her dying breath, but.

“Uncle Shale asked me to deliver this message to you, big sister.”

Instead of getting angry, Aki placed Setsunen on the ground and tightly hugged Elamas's head.

“He said he already forgave you, big sister.”

Since when was *she* your big sister?

And Shale?

But upon feeling this warm embrace, upon smelling this scent, why were tears flowing uncontrollably…?

Was it the soul's yearning that even the chains of oblivion couldn't bind?

“Elamas…”

Rain cried out to such an Elamas with difficulty.

“You don't know the price of the Abyss… the loss of humanity… You were just being used as they pleased, having forgotten the most important thing…”

“…?”

“I understand that feeling… Tureina was the same as you… having forgotten everything about Lin, just…”

Elamas burst into a maniacal laugh, then retorted sharply.

“Shut up! Do you think I did all this because of yearning, like that bitch Tureina? Without a single conviction? Don't make me laugh!”

“…”

“What I despaired over was the very foundation of this world! If it isn't changed, the world will continue to be like this! The strong are sacrificed as a matter of course, and the weak multiply like cockroaches!”

All of them must be eradicated.

Those pieces of trash must be prevented from running rampant any further.

“The weaklings don't think at all! What kind of sense of loss will the families and friends of those born with power have to live with?!”

I am not destroying.

I am saving those who are truly valuable. I am trying to create a valuable world.

“The chains of such a world must be broken. Since no one else thinks to break them, I, I have no choice but to step forward and break them!”

Rain, who had been looking at Elamas, who had just finished her final passionate speech, with a gaze that dared to be pitying, closed his eyes.

“Lies, you're making excuses… Was it because you couldn't endure without them?”

“Whether it's an excuse or not…!”

“If it's not an excuse, then why are you crying…?”

Don't make me laugh, I'm crying?

My vision is blurry, true.

But this is just my consciousness fading because I'm on the verge of death.

“And there's a contradiction in your words. Do you think you were strong from birth? Really?”

At that moment, someone approached and gently wiped away the tears that soaked her eyelids.

Even though it was warmth and a touch she couldn't remember, for some reason, she knew that she had yearned for this sensation her entire life.

「Elsara.」

Reflected on her retina was a handsome young man with red hair, taller than Rain, whom she had been facing until now, and clad in dragon-scale armor.

「It is enough now. Let's stop.」

Enough?

What's enough?

Nothing is done yet. I have to raise the army of the dead. So I have to revive my unjustly killed sister…

Huh?

Did sister Lilkiur die? She should be down by the wall right now?

Right, it wasn't my sister who died… The one I yearned for my whole life was Dad.

The great dragon named Shalesarum.

‘Where I was born…’

I don't know exactly where, but the south-central part of the Adrion continent.

A land close to the demon realm, before <Fire Ten Thousand Miles> was built.

I had almost no memory of my parents, but I vaguely remembered that they had hidden me and then all died during a demon attack.

‘They were guardians, I was told. Elves entrusted with the mission of watching over the Abyss.’

I was hungry.

I was thirsty.

And I was scared.

I couldn't go outside. Just as I thought I might die in the darkness of the crate, that person appeared in my life.

- Ah.

Hair with the hue of flames and a beautiful stature. At a glance, I could tell it wasn't human.

- You were alive, thank you.

After finding me in the crate, they suddenly hugged me and started crying.

Why were they crying?

Why were they apologizing?

What could they possibly have done wrong…?

It seemed like I was a body with no value, but that person took me in and raised me like family.

- The name the Great Flame bestowed upon me is Shalesarum. You may call me that too.

Shalesarum, the True Dragon who protects the peace of the continent, the True Dragon among True Dragons, respected by all races for his great deeds.

The one with the greatest and noblest dignity in the world had taken in me, the lowest and humblest, as his daughter.

- From now on, your name is Elsara, which means 'pride' in the dragon language.

The smile Shalesarum wore when he gave me my name that day warmly fills my mind.

‘Ah.’

I understand now why this memory came to mind every time I faced that dragon hatchling.

To be so similar…

Is it because they're truly kin? They said he was the hatchling of the True Dragon of Harvadonia…

‘That doesn't matter.’

Because such a fellow didn't exist 500 years ago.

Being with you was the pride of my life. If I could be by this person's side forever, I felt I would have nothing more to wish for.

I thought, ‘The gods must have taken my family to give me such joy.’

I always offered prayers of thanks to the gods, and perhaps because this led to devout faith, my skills improved by leaps and bounds, and I was even anointed as the youngest Shasa.

I felt like I would spend my entire life praising and spreading the grace of the gods until I died.

Until the demon attacks intensified.

When the southern front's strength weakened due to the betrayal of the mercenary group known as Slayers, the demons began to run wild.

The humans of the southern region came day after day to convey their hardships. They pleaded for the demons to be exterminated.

- That's all well and good, but why don't *you* try to fight? Implement conscription or something to replenish your troops!

- Shasa-nim, you say that because you don't know how fierce the demons are. We, well…

- So you're saying Dad should go there alone?

I couldn't understand.

Why on earth do these people not try to fight for themselves, but only rely on others?

And Shalesarum's answer was also difficult to accept.

- My time has come. Elsara, I entrust what remains to you. Become a torch that illuminates this world.

Shalesarum, who left for the border with over a hundred wyverns, drove the great army of the Abyss beyond the barren desert and died.

Died…?

Why did he have to die…?

What wrong did he do…?

Those bastards were cooped up in their rooms, and Dad had to die in such a foreign land?

‘Should I forgive and embrace these people?’

Are they worth it?

No, they are not.

I couldn't bear to see these worthless beings reveling in the sacrifices of others.

- You want to meet the True Dragon again? It's not impossible. Since the conviction you hold in your heart is the same as mine, I will teach you the way.

That hatred and resentment opened the path to meet the Abyss.

‘How pathetic.’

Blind by hatred and resentment, she had joined hands with the Abyss, which had killed her biological parents and Shalesarum.

‘Truly pathetic.’

Perhaps even hatred and resentment were merely tools to justify her longing. On a village festival day, Shalesarum said:

- Elsara, meeting you there that day was the greatest joy of my life.

- Huh?

- When I see you growing day by day, I realize how valuable and beautiful this world is, which my kin protect with their lives.

- By looking at me?

- That a child who once cried alone, unable to eat, has now grown up to bring laughter to others and wipe away their tears. You are truly the very possibility of this pitiful world.

That day, Shalesarum pressed his forehead against Elamas's, leaving a smile that should never have been forgotten.

- I have entrusted my heart to you, so now I can go and fulfill my mission.

That day, Paladin Sneer, who was present, advised Elamas not to forget that smile.

- Please recall once more what Shalesarum entrusted to you that day, Shasa-nim.

Elamas did not hear that sound.

And she murdered two Shasas and twenty Elf Priests who had come to subdue Elamas.

Afterwards, her strength ran out, she was captured, secretly executed, and reported as missing.

- To think that a Shasa of the Seonryong, expected to inherit Shalesarum's will and illuminate this land, would become such a sinner…

She defiled Shalesarum's name.

She betrayed the heart entrusted to her by the one who had given her everything.

I should have shared what I received, I should have conveyed the light and emotion I felt that day to others.

‘Right.’

It wasn't that the dragon hatchling was repulsive. It was that I was too ashamed to bear it.

‘Because those eyes were so much like Shalesarum's.’

Seeing those eyes looking at me with sadness, it felt as if I was revealing the shameful parts of my life before Shalesarum.

‘Looking back, it was a truly pathetic life.’

There were countless opportunities to correct my mistakes, but did I reject those chances again and again?

[Ro ha bel tars… Will you abandon your desires like this?]

Then, the whisper of the Abyss, deeply embedded in her soul, was heard.

[No, there is still a chance.]

And from the other side, from the depths of a soul untouched even by the oblivion of the Abyss, Shalesarum's voice was heard.

“Aki, come here! It's going to explode!”

“Leave that one and hurry!”

“We need to set up a barrier! Bring Setsunen to me! Quickly!”

Elamas's head, tightly embraced in Aki's arms, let out its last breath.

At that very moment.

The bodies of the primitives, the power of the specters that had reached the point of explosion, slowly faded and then completely lost their light.

‘She withdrew the power of the specters herself…?’

As Rain blinked his eyes, unable to believe the reality before him, Aki gently closed Elamas's eyes, which had not yet fully shut.

“Now, go to sleep soundly, big sister.”

It's warm.

Is this what peace is?

The light and warmth I felt that day when I first met Shalesarum, it's right here. The one I searched for my entire life…

“Huh…?”

When I groggily opened my eyes, I was in a space where light and darkness coexisted.

The realm of light was surrounded by chains, making it inaccessible. The path led only towards the realm of darkness.

Acknowledging her sins, she was about to advance into the darkness when, from ahead, Shalesarum called Elamas.

「Come, let's go.」

Go?

Why?

Why go together? Dad doesn't need to come here. The path to the light is connected over there.

「I left you with too great a wound, too heavy a burden. Therefore, everything you did was my fault.」

“No, it was my fault, Dad didn't do anything wrong.”

「That is why I decided. No matter where you go, I will not leave you. Even if it is the place of punishment ordained by the gods.」

Elamas's world became blurry. She couldn't suppress the flowing tears.

“I, I was wrong, Dad, I did everything wrong, please forgive me, I defiled Dad's name, I couldn't carry on Dad's will.”

Just as she had 500 years ago, Elamas leaped into Shalesarum's embrace and burst into tears.

「It is done.」

And just as he had 500 years ago, Shalesarum pressed his forehead against Elamas's and smiled faintly.

「I forgave all your wrongs from the day I took you in.」

Achirea, my thanks to you.

And Alakish, my beloved sister. Truly, your daughter has given my daughter peace.

Forgive this unworthy brother who has always only received from you.