Book 6 Chapter 26
Chapter 150
“Why on earth….”
The heroine, barely supporting her convulsing body, spewed out a mouthful of blood.
The horizon, soaked in blood, turned into a swamp, and even the leaves that had been fluttering lightly in the courtyard of the training hall diffused sluggishly in the bloody water.
All life visible to the eye died in the bloody water or melted into the abyss, becoming shapeless clumps of foam.
Who would believe that this training hall was once called Cheonhwa (Heavenly Fire), because its appearance, illuminating the sky beautifully, was like a flame?
One of the Six Great Factions of the Republic, the Cheonhwa Sect. The master of Hwayeon Peak in the Red Mountain Range.
The five hundred disciples had all become horrific corpses, strewn across the mountain path, and those who had trained with her, as well as the elders and even the sect leader, could not escape that fate.
“There’s a magic formation that needs to be carved on this peak. That’s why I warned you three times, didn’t I? Move if you don’t want to die.”
The eight-hundred-year dignity of the Six Great Factions crumbled overnight, by one person, by a single mastermind.
Walking nonchalantly through a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, drawing a demonic formation with that very blood, the woman replied in a surprisingly calm tone.
That woman, with a dark blue conical hat pulled deep down, was once called a savior, dating back 200 years.
“Just, just for such a reason…!”
As magic gathered in her Heart (心; Manaheart), her body emitted a red light. She poured her last inner energy, her dying breath, into her fist.
Even if she couldn’t defeat her, it was fine.
If she could just show this rage, this sorrow, this hatred, and leave a scar, not a fatal blow, but one that would make her regret today’s events.
“Hmph, just for such a reason…”
But at that moment, the woman in the conical hat suddenly raised her head.
In those eyes, which had been vacantly empty during every moment of slaughter, something akin to excitement strangely squirmed.
Just meeting her gaze, she couldn’t move, as if paralyzed. It was as if something invisible was tightly wrapping around her entire body…
Then, with a thud, a fist pressed into the skin of her abdomen, digging into her internal organs, and the martial artist fainted and collapsed.
When did he appear? It was a man in a dark blue robe and an iron mask. When he withdrew his fist, the martial artist's body fell forward and leaned against his shoulder.
“Did I disturb the ritual?”
The man with the iron mask turned around and asked politely, but the woman silently put a pipe in her mouth and returned to her task.
“Then I will bury him on the hillside like the others.”
She spoke when the man was about to carry the martial artist over his shoulder and leave.
“Don’t even think about letting him go; make sure to cut off his breath completely. It’ll be troublesome if the Musinyeon (Martial God Alliance) gets wind of it for no reason.”
The man, who had even stopped his footsteps, replied after a long pause.
“Yes.”
* * *
It was on the fifth day after entering the Red Mountain Range that I was finally able to have a proper conversation with the Goblin Slayer.
Until then, Miria had been silent.
To what extent? It was even harder to talk to her than to the usually taciturn Eldbich. She only ever said these three things:
“Wait.”
“Follow me.”
“We’ll camp here today.”
Like the mechanical devices of the Dwarves (兒人; Dwarf), she merely precisely and perfectly massacred goblins to clear a path, and once the day's work was over, she wouldn't open her mouth, no matter what.
By "work," I mean moving through the tunnel during the day and camping inside the tunnel at night.
At night, a giant winged shadow flew over the mountain range, its three eyes flashing. Each time, Aki bared her fangs, then burrowed deep into my clothes and hid.
“Um, Goblin Slayer.”
The Goblin Slayer then just glanced back at me, turning her head slightly.
“Can I ask you something?”
“I’m going to go look around. Absolutely do not light a fire until dawn.”
Whenever I tried to talk to her, she would disappear like this. I had so many questions, piled up like a mountain…
Until now, all my relationships with women involved them approaching me, so I had no idea how to handle such a situation.
After several days in the narrow, dark, stench-filled tunnels, I was gripped by a strange sense of loneliness.
“Pipi, is that Rista?”
“Fake, fake.”
“But doesn’t she look exactly the same?”
“Rista, Pipi’s friend. Rista, Rin’s friend. That’s fake, fake, fake.”
Pipi replied coolly, then preened her wings with her beak.
Logically, Pipi's judgment would be correct… If it were the real Rista, ignoring Pipi would surely hurt her feelings a lot.
When I fell asleep at night, using Seresia as a blanket (Seresia expanded and thickened like a giant fur blanket), Rista appeared in my dreams.
- Rin!
- Rin?
- Rin.
With a dazzling smile, she beckoned me to follow her… but the more I tried to follow, the further away she seemed to get. Each time, I had to wake up with a jolt.
“Ow?”
“Ah, oo?”
“Ow!”
No sooner had I woken up than I heard a familiar voice, then an unfamiliar one layered over it.
I squinted my eyes in my sleep and looked for Aki, for the source of the voices… and surprisingly, the two of them were together.
It was the Goblin Slayer, holding Aki carefully with her arms tucked under her armpits, a shy smile on her face. She had taken off her helmet, revealing a face identical to Rista’s.
“When did you two get so close?”
As I sat up and asked that, Miria’s shoulders twitched. The next moment, she firmly gripped her sword hilt.
“Quiet.”
“Hmm?”
“Didn’t you just hear a goblin’s voice somewhere? Didn’t you hear it?”
“?”
“Was it ‘Ah,’ or ‘Oo’…?”
“???”
“Given its developed vocal cords, it seems like a Hobgoblin. There seem to be a few left. I’ll have to go look around.”
Quickly hiding her flushed face with her helmet, Miria disappeared into the darkness. Of course, after handing Aki back into my arms.
It was absurd.
So absurd that I couldn't even laugh… and for a while, I couldn’t escape the lingering scent of that sweet voice.
“By the way, Aki, why aren’t you crying after being away from me?”
“A-woong?”
“You prefer women, huh?”
“Ah-baat.”
Seeing Aki rub her face against my leg as if to say that was absolutely not the case, my urge to interrogate her completely vanished.
“But it’s strange. You weren’t like this with other women. Kasena would be very disappointed if she knew.”
Was it the third day, or the fourth… Anyway, after that incident, more constructive conversations began to flow.
“Get up, the sun’s up.”
In the morning, we would leave the tunnel and traverse the Red Mountain Range until we found another tunnel.
The towering Red Mountain Range might look beautiful from afar, but up close, it was incredibly rugged.
Despite such treacherous terrain, Miria avoided all the stairs and mountain paths that the Red Dragons had made for humanity, instead moving along the slopes.
“I don’t take mountain paths. There are bound to be eyes wherever people might pass.”
“What eyes?”
“The Eyes of the Seven Calamities. Seven notorious Black Witches and Black Mages who have become infamous since the Black Spot incident. They’re also looking for you, they said.”
Actually, the branches that incessantly scratched my face and the roots that snagged my feet were bearable enough.
What I found unbearable was the heat boiling up from within the mountain range, like geothermal heat.
Being here in midsummer, sweat poured off my entire body as if I had stepped into a steaming pot.
“Abubut!”
“Abut, abut, abut.”
Aki and Pipi, whose body temperatures were much higher than a human’s, were having a grand time…
According to the 『World’s 11 Great Wonders』, this geothermal heat creates a tropical climate in the Red Mountain Range during summer.
Because of this climate, the forest of the mountain range was dyed in beautiful, vibrant colors all year round. Red, yellow, orange… A feast of bright, stimulating primary colors that hurt the eyes.
“Oo-ah!”
Amidst that feast, Aki couldn’t hide her excitement and shook her head back and forth vigorously (this was also a bad habit she learned from Pipi).
‘Alakis….’
Looking at Aki, who was peeking over my shoulder and taking in various parts of the mountain, the great True Dragon Alakis naturally came to mind.
Are you watching now?
I’ve come to your homeland, the place you so desperately wanted to return to. Aki really loves it. Is it because it’s warm, or does she know your heart…
“I found the next path. It’s here.”
It was that evening that I was able to have a proper conversation with the Goblin Slayer, Miria.
“Long wait, huh? It’s all done, Aki.”
As I pulled the skewer, dripping tantalizing oil and juices, from the fire, Aki, who was sitting on my lap, let out a joyful squeal.
“Pa-ri, ju-sseo-yo!” (Give me, please!)
Ugh, tears of emotion…
They say dragons grow faster than humans, and Aki, without any specific teaching, was slowly starting to speak human words.
I first gave a skewer to the very admirable Aki, then handed one to Miria.
“Want one too? It’s made with salted meat, but it still tastes good.”
Miria, who had been sharpening her equipment, which was covered in goblin brains and fat, on a whetstone, averted her gaze from the tunnel exit and glanced back at me.
Of course, she was wearing her helmet as always, so I couldn't see her face, but her tone was one of exasperation.
“You keep talking to me without getting tired of it. Do you perhaps have a taste for being sworn at?”
“No, swearing was my taste. Back then.”
Back in Rin’s time, I mean.
Not now.
“Is that something to brag about? And eating… in a place like this? How strong is your stomach?”
Inside the tunnel, goblin corpses were strewn about haphazardly.
The stench of goblin vomit and rotting flesh after they died, and the swarms of flies and ants already drawn by the smell of blood, were more than enough to irritate the nerves.
It was all Miria’s handiwork.
Although I couldn't use grand magic in such a cave after becoming a fire-attribute mage… her skill was so exceptional that there was nothing I could do to help.
“You don’t know anything. Aki cries if I don’t give her my special grilled skewers for a week straight. You can’t imagine how loud she is.”
As if my answer was ridiculous, Miria turned her gaze outside the tunnel.
Just when I thought the conversation would end briefly as usual, Aki crawled over and offered a skewer to Miria.
“Ah, owt!” (Eat, eat!)
Miria seemed more surprised by that action than I or Pipi were. The color drained from her voice in embarrassment.
“No, it’s okay… I don’t have much appetite.”
“Da-bwoot.” (Eat it.)
“No, really, it’s fine. I’ll just take your kind thought.”
Just as she glanced at me with a troubled expression, Aki's face started to turn into a tearful frown due to the continued refusal. Miria quickly took off her helmet.
“Ah, yes. I’ll eat it. It’s really delicious~.”
As she delicately nibbled a bit of the skewer and smiled soothingly, Aki also smiled brightly.
That girl, she can make that kind of expression too…
As I stared at her with a grin, Miria glared at me, slightly piqued.
“What’s so funny that you’re smiling? This wouldn’t happen if you didn’t suddenly start grilling meat.”
“No, I told you she cries if I don’t. And aren’t you hot? I don’t know why you always wear a helmet. It’s comfortable when you take it off like now.”
Then a shadowed, cynical smile formed on Miria's lips.
“What do you think? It’s because of this face.”
“?”
“Because my face is like this, every man I meet tries to hit on me. ‘Let’s form a party,’ ‘Come to our guild,’ ‘Please marry me’… there was even a guy who chased me for over a year.”
“Isn’t it good when people like you?”
“Good, good, good.”
“It’s great, when guys like you come looking for me every single day and annoy me. How wonderful.”
“Woof, woof, woof.”
It was the same for Rista.
Her breathtaking beauty, like a flower bud blooming on the world's last cliff, made most men woo her.
Frede used to say that if the Faykworia didn’t have a rule requiring a vow of celibacy during their hero investiture, the wolves who wished to marry Rista might have competed against each other and dyed the empire in blood.
“Thanks to that, my area of activity isn’t fixed. I’m always moving. If they don’t know my face, I’m just an unpleasant woman who only hunts goblins and smells of goblin guts.”
Miria mumbled that, letting out a bitter, self-deprecating smile. This time, I needed to be more careful.
“You’re skilled… and you don’t seem to particularly like goblins, but can I ask why you’re so obsessed with them?”
“……”
“No, I’m really not trying to tease you. I’m just genuinely curious.”
Miria didn't answer.
On a night when moonlight shone from outside the cave, with a lukewarm summer night breeze blowing, Miria suddenly unbuckled the long sword at her back.
The blade was wrapped in bandages without a scabbard, which also resembled Rista. The ultimate holy sword, Schurfin, had no scabbard, so Rista also wrapped the blade tightly with bandages and carried it attached to her sword belt.
“Last year, out of 12,214 village and city damage cases reported to the Alliance, 43 were caused by goblins.”
“Only 43 cases in a year? That’s not many for an entire continent, is it?”
“Few, few, few.”
“It’s few, yes. But could you say that in front of the victims?”
Miria sneered coldly, then quietly stroked the bandage-wrapped blade. Her movements were indescribably desolate.
“Someone has to do it. But no one wants to. Even beginners hunt a few times, then complain about the smell, how dirty it is, or how their contribution points aren’t increasing, and quickly back out.”
“……”
“The stronger adventurers get, the more they only want to climb higher. No one looks down at the lower places. People who need help aren’t just at the top, but at the bottom too.”
Even though her voice was intensely cold, like a reprimand, I didn’t feel offended. Instead, a nostalgic voice layered over hers, rapidly accelerating the rhythm of my heart.
Rista…
Rista used to say things like this too. Of course, she was much brighter and gentler, incomparable to Miria…
“The nickname Goblin Slayer is a name for such people. If you want to mock me like before, go ahead. I have pride in this name.”
After saying that, Miria, who had placed the carefully handled sword back on her back, didn’t look back at me again. And I could only stare blankly at her retreating figure.
- I want to create a world where everyone smiles.
Rista used to say that. Not as a pretense, but with a pure sincerity, without a speck of dust.
She never lied to others or to herself. She never compromised with anything and pursued her beliefs that she thought were right.
Miria was clearly very different from Rista. Colder, fiercer… but I felt that her beautiful inner self was definitely similar.
‘Just as I am Rin’s reincarnation, is Miria Rista’s reincarnation?’
If so, the fact that her appearance is also exactly alike, unlike mine, is a mystery if anything…
Though it was just an uncertain conjecture, when that delusion formed in my mind, every situation began to feel heartbreakingly confusing.
Even this awkward silence flowing between us now, and that utterly cold attitude.
Just as it was the first time I met Rista during the turmoil 300 years ago. As if I had felt this way from the very first moment we met.
“You’re a good person.”
As I did 300 years ago, even now.
The thought that had come to mind inadvertently slipped out of my mouth.
Then Miria let out a cold sneer, as if she found my words amusing, yet strangely sad.
“I’m a good person?”
That sneer was so cold and chilling that it was impossible to even fathom what kind of maelstrom of life was entangled within it.
“If I were a good person, I wouldn’t help people while taking all the money.”
“……?”
“In the end, I work for money. The reason I only hunt goblins is because no one else does it, so the pay is surprisingly good. Don’t you get it? I just made it sound plausible. Forget all of it.”
As if the conversation was over, Miria, with her helmet back on, walked out of the tunnel. I watched Miria’s retreating back blankly.
We were so close, close enough for our voices to reach each other, yet it felt as if there was an insurmountable wall between her and me.
It was a little too early then to know that this wall was built by a painfully miserable past and present.