Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

165 – An Elf of the Mist? (2)

Long, long ago, chaos arrived upon this land.

The reason, unknown.

There were no omens.

It happened in an instant.

The azure skies, once so brilliant,

were overtaken by darkness, and

the vast, fertile earth

began to rot.

Death, a single ray of light, settled upon all living things.

aaargh─

Kuuung─

Chek-chek, chek-chek

In the blink of an eye, the world

began to overflow with the screams of life, and

knowing nothing,

all beings were too preoccupied with pushing

and shoving one another to escape.

Trampled and crushed in the frantic

throng, the number of lives lost surpassed hundreds of thousands, and

in that feverish pandemonium,

there were not a few who

tore at each other, killing one another.

The instigator, watching all of this from afar, nodded with great satisfaction.

Muttering that all of this was

the appropriate penance

you all deserved to receive,

he wore an expression of relief

greater than that of any other.

The moonlight, which had illuminated that

terribly dark shadow,

was tainted as black as if it had been consumed by the darkness itself.

Those who witnessed this

repeated only, “The gods are angered,”

and spread the rumor that

the Demon King had

descended upon this land.

Demon King (魔王)

King of the demons, and

The absolute ruler of power.

Having glimpsed its shadow,

the survivors described it

in myriad ways, yet

from their lips, concerning

the description of the Demon Lord,

only one thing remained certain.

‘That… is a god… a wicked god…!!’

‘Hu… humanity… cannot… win…’

The Demon Lord’s authoritative

and utterly horrendous deeds

began to inspire dread

within all living things.

People burst apart,

rivers of blood gurgled forth,

and even their corpses could not be found.

Truly, hell itself.

All of this had transpired in merely two days.

‘aaah!! Save me… uh?’

‘Rest easy, I am the Hero!!’

‘A… Hero?’

‘Chosen by the Goddess, I have come to vanquish the Demon Lord!!’

But wasn’t it said that hope blooms even in despair?

As fiends began to

swarm and teem across the world,

and the tide of blood flowing from them never ceased,

four superhumans emerged,

seeking to save the world,

the Hero of the Holy Sword, Goldson, bearing

the Goddess’s mark on the back of his hand.

The Grand Magus, Lell, who had mastered all magic.

The Iron Wall Orc, Goliath, boasting

unrivaled defense and sweeping across the battlefield.

The Elf, Karche, displaying godlike archery skills and

loving nature.

Thanks to these four superhumans, whose origins

and residences were shrouded in mystery,

the balance of power shifted in an instant.

The Demon Lord’s armies, which had devoured three duchies

in nearly two days,

were almost entirely obliterated

as soon as they appeared.

Fear was the easiest thing in this world to catch,

more so than any plague,

but hope, too, could take root just as quickly.

The hope, perhaps, of surviving.

The thought of seeing the sun

rise on another tomorrow.

That kind of hope began to bloom in them,

and when, “by the skin of their teeth,” they finally vanquished the Demon King,

they were already being called the

“Hero Party” of the continent.

*

“…Wasn’t that a fairy tale?”

“No? It was, in all seriousness, a true story.”

“….”

“…You weren’t really under the impression that this was just a story for children, were you?”

“….”

“…I didn’t think you

still possessed that kind of innocence.”

Her gaze, like she was looking at

a pure, untainted child,

fixed itself on me.

Innocence?

Let me just say, that faded long ago.

In the first place, my actual age

had already far exceeded that of a child.

And besides, wasn’t it hard to believe?

Hero Parties and Demon Kings, things only seen

in transmigrated world fictions.

Things that seemed more like they belonged in

a regret-filled regression drama

being a story of the past, and not just some legend,

was a truly

difficult thing for me to accept.

What’s more, knowing how

that story ultimately ended,

made it even more difficult to believe.

“But after the Hero Party defeated

the Demon King…”

“Yes, well, they all disappeared.”

“And yet, how is this

“Then… you knew this was based on a true story?”

Were it just a day or two, one might dismiss it,

but the setting of this tale…

It was a time distant, so very distant.

Of course, perhaps the survivors of that era

had painstakingly kept records,

or maybe, just maybe, the story

had been passed down by word of mouth.

But even that would only be possible

after a certain amount of… time.

If my memory served me,

the setting of this story

was at least two millennia ago.

A tale, leaping across a century, two centuries,

even dozens of centuries, to be conveyed to posterity?

Such a thing could hardly exist in this world.

Because what is forgotten first

by the people of this world

is rumour and legend.

“Besides, the author of this book is Karte…”

“Yes, isn’t he the last remaining member of the hero’s party?”

“….”

“I’ll say it in advance, there is absolutely no

possibility of imposture.”

Within her tone, not of suspicion,

but brimming with certainty,

I harboured yet another doubt.

Because the ending of this story wasn’t happy.

Rather, it was closer

to an open ending, perhaps.

A happy ending

was nowhere to be found.

“..But in the story─”

“It was known that the Demon King and the hero’s party

perished together.”

“….”

“But, decades after that event…”

*

When news arrived that the hero’s party and the Demon King

had perished together,

The people rejoiced, near bursting with it.

No longer would the somber moon

hang in the sky.

No longer would they need to live for tomorrow, shadowed by worry.

Though the news arrived that,

in this very process,

the hero’s party had been decimated,

only a handful, nobles and common folk alike,

felt genuine sorrow.

Those highborn aristocrats, the royals,

who secretly harbored fear of their power,

instead blossomed smiles at the thought of them,

so harmoniously, resonating with the Demon King;

they reveled in the festival with abandon.

Tales of their heroism

continued to circulate

among the people,

but they no longer

existed in this world.

They themselves felt no need to harbor a sense of crisis, and

as time slowly passed, enough that

their heroic deeds were

fading from the people’s

memory,

she arrived in person.

Uttering a name

long since forgotten.

In her right hand, the

holy sword, the hero’s relic.

In her left, the

warbow she always

cherished.

Upon her back, the great warrior’s

shield,

and around her neck, the

orb, symbol of the grand mage.

She trod upon land now turned to desert,

and made her way towards the kingdom.

“Oi, halt.”

“You cannot enter the kingdom unless you identify yourself.”

“…Mirelle.”

“What?”

“You think I dragged all this

here just to be treated like this?!”

Her voice was

loud and beautiful enough

to reverberate throughout the entire kingdom.

*

“….”

“….”

“…Is that truly the case?”

“Yes, she returned in that state.”

“….”

“Well, no one knows where

she’s gone now, though.”

According to her account,

she had certainly succeeded

in slaying the Demon Lord,

and in the process, every

single member of her party

had perished without exception.

She herself had managed

to survive through some method,

but she had wandered the world

to collect the belongings they hadn’t

been able to recover, which is why

it had taken this long…

“…An intriguing tale.”

“And many people have

asked how she managed

to catch the Demon Lord…”

“…?”

“She..she sealed him after dividing him into fourths..”

“….”

“I-It’s true, so don’t

look at me like that, it’s rude!!”

“…Yes, I apologize.”

“In any case, before

vanishing to somewhere unknown,

she left behind some teachings…”

My gaze, midway through,

So mortified was she,

that she cleared her throat pointedly before continuing,

her index finger

extended fully to indicate

the book I held.

“That too is one of the books

that record the teachings

left behind by Him.”

“..So this is an ancient text?”

“No? Naturally, the records were

transferred to new books before

they could become too aged.”

..Indeed, no matter how strong

the chairman’s personal

influence might be,

the Imperial Family would

never permit such ancient

records of a legendary figure

to simply be brought to

a library like this.

“In any case, thanks

to His teachings after His return,

humanity has achieved much progress.”

“….”

“And Spirit Studies is one of them.”

“So, He was the one who first

revealed the existence of spirits to people..”

“He was.”

The founder of Spirit Studies, Kartche.

It is said that for anyone

involved in Spirit Studies,

it would be harder to find

someone who *doesn’t* know her

name.

It seemed quite shocking

to her that I, seeking books

related to spirits, would be unaware of this.

‘Though I hardly think that

warrants her clutching

at her hair like that…’

“..May I ask just one question?”

“Yes? Y-yes, of course.”

“At that time─”

“…?”

“..U-um, why… why are you looking for books related to spirits?”

“..It seemed you were about to ask

something else─”

“No!! No, this is what I was going to ask!!”

..If I dug in just a little deeper,

I felt I could discover

what she initially intended to say,

but I didn’t necessarily

want to pry to that extent,

and above all, it might

be impolite of me..

‘..Best to just let it pass.’

“It’s nothing much, I just suddenly got curious.”

“..Suddenly? About Spiritology?”

“Yes.”

“..That’s quite unusual, truly.”

“….”

“Anyway, if you’re interested

in that kind of thing,

you’d be better off looking somewhere else.”

“..Where would that be?”

“Why, isn’t there one

at the Academy? The Spiritology Department.”