Translator: Ranzan Editor: JackOFallTrades
「W…wait! It"s me! Kaito! Kelly! Shen Fa! Wake up!」
「Kill you. Adventurer, I want, ramune! Ramune! Ramuneeeee!」
「DIE, ADVENTURER DIE! 」「Ramune! RAMUNE!!!」
「Agh, don"t you know who I am?」
As I parried the attack without any defense almost like a sacrifice, I knocked down the sword the kids I had become close with at the orphanage down.
「!! Dammit!」
They lost their weapon, the kids sat down without a word, almost as if they didn"t know what to do next, and began to look around in a worried look.
I was able to disarm them without leaving a mark, but I still couldn"t be a peace yet.
「Pant, pant, what"s this?」
With that, these strangely addled children sent all the weapons they had in their hands flying.
「Uwaaagh, guleeh!」「Help, teacher, help, guwaaah!」「Ahh, ahh, gaahg!」
「Kids!」
Suddenly, they were crying out in screams.
There was no time to help as all the children spit up blood and fell.
「Wait…adventur…」
「Toria!」
At the final, final moment, with the light still in her eyes, a young girl still reached out her small hand.
「Hurts…help…」
She flopped down faster than I could grab her hand, with the word help still on her mouth as she fell.
「Toria! Toriaaaaa!」
Cough, as a stream of black blood was coughed from her mouth, and the warm, slippery blood coated my outstretched hand.
「…what the h.e.l.l is this?」
My voice shook at the spectacle.
I had seen many people die since coming to this world. Many people other than me had their lives stolen away.
But still, I knew that there was nothing that could be done. I knew it.
All the children had lost their lives here.
「What the h.e.l.lllll happennnned?!」
My throat felt like it would break at my echoed scream.
『Eep!』
I felt something react to my beast-like scream, far away.
The person that had brought these children here, and had watched this tragedy from afar.
I"m not letting him get away.
Clump, I stomped on the ground as I ran right up to where this man was standing.
「…hey, where do you think you"re going?」
「Eeek, eeeeeeeep!」
I grabbed the collar of this man trying to run away, and pulled him down, stopping him from fleeing.
「What are you doing? I was just walking by…gyaaaaaa?!」
「No more words. I"ll listen to you later.」
His hand, now on the ground, I stomped into pieces.
This was the first time I had hurt someone like this to get them to answer questions, but I didn"t hesitate a bit.
I didn"t have time to.
「Owwaaarrghhh!」
「I remember you. You work at Grond"s place. Is this Grond"s doing? …Stop screaming and tell me you piece of c.r.a.p!」
I couldn"t stop my head from boiling in anger. All I could see is red.
「Eek! Okay! I"ll speak! I"ll speak!」
He began speaking so quickly he was spitting foam.
「Those orphans were put together by Grond, all first graders in his private school. They"re soldiers taught secret techniques in exchange for food and lodging!」
「A school?」
「Y, yeah! He thought it up before and once he had the investment in line he got it moving two years ago.」
「Two, years, ago?」
I suddenly felt a bad premonition pulsate through my veins.
Two years ago was when I started to sell magic tools using modern technology.
『You need various materials in order to prepare to subjugate the magic lord. These materials are good for normal soldiers that need to fight the magic monsters, desired by adventurers, and good for orphans that have lost those around them.』
Grond"s face seemed to say as he floated in the back of my mind.
To think that this school"s existence was unrelated to that was a bit too improbable with what I just saw.
My whole body seemed to feel a chill through my veins.
「Please, just, just let me live. Please, just my life.」
He spoke with no real intention though, like a wooden puppet in front of me.
「Where is this school?」
My voice was hoa.r.s.e as I said the words.
「Oh, it"s in the middle of the Ohdros mountain range. T…that"s all you need, right? I won"t bother you or Mr. Grond again, just don"t kill me.」
「What do you mean, don"t kill you?」
「Wha?」
What the h.e.l.l is this guy saying?
Why is he flailing around asking for his life?
「Why do I have to let you live?」
Grond and this guy used those kids like that, so they"d be crushed.
「With that sharp level of sense and status that doesn"t match their age, added to their lack of consciousness and the fact that they were shouting about 『Ramune』. You fellows have been feeding these kids 『Quick Growth Drug』.」
Quick Growth Drug.
Normally used to dissolve metals to clumps in order to eliminated strong curses from equipment. However, if administered to a person their status and effects go up very quickly.
In addition, in subst.i.tute for addiction, if you use for too long it becomes poison that kills you much like how these children died.
That was one of the drugs that occurred in this world.
「Tha, that"s Gahahh, Ahgghh!」
「Why should I let you live?」
「Geeeh, Gaaaah, geh gehg….」
「Stop flopping around, you piece of trash!」
Crack, I slowly turned his neck until it broke.
After letting go of him, he lifelessly fell to the ground, and the warm, wet feeling of blood on my hand told me he was dead.
「The connected crimson of the devil, 『The blue wheel of the red sun.』」
I didn"t allow the dead body to remain, but because my emotions got a hold of me, I burned the body up right there and then in front of me.
The blue-black flame of the spirit sword, after lashing out for a second with a groan, returned to silence as if nothing had happened.
「…ah, again.」
The forest again returned to silence, and again I could hear his screams echo around me.
I was attacked with a sense of powerlessness and despair, and the power had left my body so I couldn"t stand.
「Again, my fault.」
With all the throbbing painful thoughts I had, I fell to the ground and sat up against a tree.
『With money, then I can do this plan』that man once said.
If I never believed in Grond, those children would still be laughing happily.
Was I really used because I wanted money, I thought to myself, because if not this would have never happened.
「If I hadn"t mistaken the person I trusted…」
With the money I got from HIM, it"s true that these kids without relatives were offered up.
It"s true this school was to raise cannon fodder for his own use.
Grond killed all those kids,
…and I was stupid to let him.
「…let"s do it then.」
The feelings of anguish resulted in tears falling over both of my cheeks.
「Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!」
They fell, as did my emotions, as I punched away at the ground.
「Dammit all to h.e.l.llllllllllllllll!!」
Thud, thud, the sound of the hard earth being split open.
However, no matter how hard I hit the earth, I couldn"t get the feeling of the blood on my hands off.
That final remaining unforgivable word 『help』, was just a word.
It simply reverberated it my ear without stopping.
Days later.
I visited the school he talked about.
I visited this place that needed to be trampled down in my fight, now that my betrayal was clear.
Kill all. Let loose my anger. Cut, cut, CUT CUT CUT CUT
Now that the place and I was covered with others" blood, I found a paper with everything written out, seeming almost to say, "read me."
Wet with the blood from my hands, this paper was about a group of thugs from the slums called the "Slugs" and had all the details about the money that they were being provided from Grond.
…An effective disposal of a mistake, the final item stated.
And my dirtied name, which had now fallen from the status of adventurer, 『The adventurer thirsty for blood, will attack the rescue location for the children of the orphanage created by the Grond trading company, and all children along with the others will be killed.』was added to the form.
☆
「uh, Ah, ah, ahhh, ah」
I awoke with a large jump and rushed breathing so I took one deep breath in,and then pulled away my hair as if to pull away these strange recollections in my mind.
I was wet in sweat, and feeling it on my skin was disgusting.
「…」
Looking out the window, morning was still a ways away, as the village was surrounded in darkness.
Minnalis and Shuria were still sleeping peacefully. I had no desire to sleep, and so I left the room without waking them.
I left the boarding room, and the cool night wind caressed my face.
I jumped up the way behind the boarding house onto the roof and stood.
It was a slightly sloped roof, and on one knee, I could see the night sky.
That man, Grond at the Goal Dot and the last time I met him was before I was told the truth about the adventurer"s summons from the princess. I promised Leticia that I would return to the previous world, so I worked hard to get to the emperor"s capital.
I spent the night working on giving him an opinion on the development of a new invention.
We both had dark circles under our eyes, and the thing we made, we laughed at together.
I didn"t understand the situation, and I didn"t know that all my friends had been betrayed so I was easily fooled by Grond, as he trapped me with cursed weapons and items that made my status lower.
I barely escaped from the trap, and before I fled for some reason asked him why, to which he responded,
『Because of the knowledge you gave me, I will become rich. All of the knowledge will only be mine. Everything in this world has a price, and the price of keeping you alive has now fallen to zero.』
And that was all he said.
From then, there were many that tried to kill me as I tried to reach the emperor.
Position, name, dissatisfaction, anger, and money. There were many reasons to try to kill me.
But if you"re going to defeat the demon lord, that means you become the second demon lord.
It was a place where I should have shrunk back, but in opposition to Leticia who was put in the middle of the demon lord palace accompanied by many of the magic monsters, I did what I did alone, and with everyone on the top hostile to me, they tried to push their evil attacks on me and kept this up, attacking me for various reasons.
They really rocked me so badly that all you could do is laugh. I look to have my revenge on everyone that did that to me several fold, of course.
So after that, I didn"t have a shot at Grond, and knew a secret as a summoned hero.
I was in despair and ignored the world around me.
I lost my purpose, and just ran from my promises over and over again.
All the attackers that surrounded me like ants around candy were crushed.
However, there was one conspicuous group out of the attackers that stood out.
There were children I remember around 10 that had no look of life in their eyes.
Those were the shapes of the children that Grond and I became friends with at the orphanage in Dartras.
I thought that they were just normal kids, but they didn"t come to fight, they came ready to a.s.sa.s.sinate.
And what I saw after was like a dream.
The money that was used for those kids that were split from their families like me was used to brainwash them into warriors to fight me.
I thought I could protect them, I wanted to.
I was an idiot. What I delivered to them was a rotten poison.
The result of me mistaking who I could trust was that result, only the smell of garbage in my nose.
「What a large moon.」
A moon so big it looked like you could reach it with an outstretched arm, so I put my hand out.
There was no way to reach it, of course.
However, it was still there. I couldn"t touch it, but it would never disappear.
Yes, for example, even if those other than me didn"t know it, I and the others knew it.
That day, and the craziness, I remember.
「Well, I"ll avenge you soon. This isn"t my first world, but I will send him to h.e.l.l. I don"t know if that"s what you want or not. You said it before though, right? Being an adult is like cheating.」
I smiled and looked down at my hand.
「…」
What happened on that day, it will never disappear.
Even if the world rewound, there was no way to forgive it, no way that could happen.
…the connected blood of guilt would never go dry, and was still wet over my hands.