Chapter 272: Hidden Message (2)
"Are you so certain? That I won"t kill you?"
"Yes."
I nodded affirmatively.
"You could have ambushed us earlier without making any noise. The Black Dragon Witch might have lost an arm, and I might have been injured too. You had the perfect timing… but you deliberately made noise to reveal your presence, didn"t you?"
"Hmm."
"It was a threat, a warning. [If anything like a purge happens, I won"t stand idly by]. That"s the clear message you showed to me, or rather to the Black Dragon Witch."
"...."
"There"s already a steel-like trust between you and me."
Amidst the still heavy tension surrounding us.
I smiled and approached the Sword Saint.
"Hey! Kim Gong-ja! Don"t go! Stay with me, you fool!"
Naturally, the Black Dragon Witch panicked.
"Don"t you hear me? Stay with me so we can use Instant Teleportation or something! Ah, Kim Gong-ja! Really! This lunatic!"
The Black Dragon Witch raged behind me as if saying, "are you out of your mind?"
Interestingly, the voice of her anger was getting closer to my back. Meaning, while the Black Dragon Witch scolded me for going, she was actually actively following me.
Towards a swordsman who had never lost the first place in the hierarchy for over ten years.
"…Ah."
The Sword Saint watched me approaching.
"Haha."
A laugh escaped the wrinkled lips of the old man.
"Uhaha! Haha! Um, hmm… Hahaha!"
We both stopped in our tracks, bewildered by the sudden burst of laughter. We exchanged glances, asking each other what was going on, but the Black Dragon Witch just shrugged.
"Uhahahaha!"
The old man"s laughter grew. As if he had witnessed something he had never expected to see in his lifetime, the Sword Saint laughed heartily, holding his belly in a manner unbefitting his station. With each laugh, his neatly groomed white beard trembled.
"…Has he gone senile?"
The Black Dragon Witch approached me with a disgusted expression.
I cleared my throat.
"Should I contact the pharmacist and ask for some dementia medicine?"
"Ah. Come to think of it, the pharmacist is also in your line… How do you always manage to recruit such promising talents? I think we need to establish a fine system for h.o.a.rding talent."
"What kind of strange system is that…"
As evident from the Black Dragon Witch"s and my idle chat, the Sword Saint"s laughter continued for quite a long time.
Finally, the Sword Saint stopped laughing.
"What was so amusing?"
"How could I not laugh? Young man. The once cold and decisive owner of Black Dragon Witch, known as the Black Witch, who wouldn"t hesitate to kill, is now so concerned about your safety."
Ah.
He changed the way he addressed me from Death King to young man.
I preferred being called young man over Death King. It felt much more comfortable.
Was it like being treated like a grandson by a grandfather? There was something pleasant about the resonance in the Sword Saint"s use of "young man."
"You… I was worried that you might have changed."
The Sword Saint continued.
"You now truly belong to the highest echelons of this tower. It"s natural for you to be friends with the five guild masters."
"...."
"Young man. I was worried that you might be influenced by those guild masters without realizing it, picking up their [bad influences]."
"What?"
The Black Dragon Witch bristled.
"Bad influences? How dare you say that about us?"
"Did that upset you?"
"Of course, it would! What makes you think you"re so superior!"
The Black Dragon Witch bared her teeth, her expression one of wanting to bite off the Sword Saint"s neck.
"You"ve purged together and yet you act all high and mighty, pretending to be n.o.ble! After stepping down as the Civil Militia leader, you should"ve spent your remaining days quietly in a hermitage, not roaming around killing hunters suspected of being murderers! Acting like a crazy old fool!"
"...."
"A person should have some shame, right? What, is what we do merely a vicious purge, and your killings are the actions of a dark hero? Why don"t you get yourself a bat mask then? Even a hero wearing a bat mask doesn"t kill people."
The amount of pent-up feelings the Black Dragon Witch held against the Sword Saint was palpable.
To anyone else, such a storm of criticism would be overwhelming, but the Sword Saint didn"t even blink. He listened quietly, then casually said,
"The Black Dragon Witch is a human person."
Anastasia paused.
"…What?"
"Most residents living in the tower know the Black Dragon Witch as a ruthless ruler. A woman who secretly poisons her enemies. A tyrant who spreads spies all over, keeping an ear on everything that happens in the tower. A sovereign who coldly cuts down anyone standing in her way, no matter who it is."
"...."
The Black Dragon Witch clenched her fist. Her lips trembled, not knowing whether the old man was mocking her or if there was another sinister plan, making her unable to respond.
"But look at the woman here."
The Sword Saint let go of his sword hilt.
And pointed to the Black Dragon Witch with his bare hand.
"She is just infinitely human."
"...."
"She rejoices in reducing meaningless sacrifices. She cries over unavoidable sacrifices. She gets angry at corruption and incompetence, praises effort and struggle, and respects heroes who achieve results."
Until now, the Sword Saint had laughed heartily.
But in this moment, his eyes were not smiling.
His moon-like eyes glanced at the Black Dragon Witch and me.
"Even though she is a ruler who has a.s.sa.s.sinated and purged many people."
"...."
"Young man. The Black Dragon Witch is a human person. That"s why I had no choice but to worry about you."
The old man"s tone softened as he spoke to me.
But the tone of his words was firm, and his white eyebrows were resolutely set.
"Normally, it is said that when you peel off a layer, everyone becomes human. But this old man thinks the opposite."
"...."
"When anyone puts on a mask, even for a moment, they only appear human."
I silently contemplated.
From the other side of the wide rock where we stood, the sound of the festival still reached us. Thud-thud-thud, thud! Thud! The goblins, having prepared drums from who knows where, were pa.s.sionately beating them. The fairies provided free liquor, and all the races were intoxicated.
"You"re right."
The Black Dragon Witch, the Heretic Questioner, the Count, the Venomous Snake.
All of them must have blood on their hands.
Even the old man before me, before he changed after meeting me.
"...."
And Raviel.
If I were to face complete death for some reason. If I were to disappear. If it becomes impossible to ever find me again.
Just as she completes me, I also complete her.
If one of us disappears, what remains is nothing but shattered remnants.
A heart completely frozen.
A person doesn"t need many reasons to break.
"But it"s okay."
I looked directly into the Sword Saint"s aged eyes.
"As long as I am alive, it"s okay."
"...."
"Anastasia always chooses the easy path, doesn"t she? Saying it can"t be helped. But if I"m by her side, she"ll think twice. If I ask her, she"ll think three times. And if I say I absolutely disagree, even if she sighs, she"ll relent her decision. [Ah, choosing the difficult path again]."
"...."
"It"s the same with the other members."
I gazed down at the festival.
The tentacles of the snail race created a net to lift the Heretic Questioner into a swing. "Ahaha! Haha! This is incredible! What an amazing amus.e.m.e.nt!" the Heretic Questioner"s laughter reached us from there.
I could intermittently see the Count having tea with the Fairy race, and the Crusader swimming with the Ocean Race.
"The Heretic Questioner would say things like [Hmm! Let"s kill them to prevent future troubles!] because he only knows the easiest, simplest, and most certain method. But if I ask him to think again… he will. That child."
"...."
"You said, elder, that anyone can appear human by wearing a layer of a mask. If so, I am willing to be that mask for our members."
Thud.
I walked right up to the Sword Saint.
Close enough that if someone drew their sword, one of us would surely lose a life.
There, I looked straight up at the Sword Saint.
"You"re not an exception either, elder."
"...."
"After meeting me, you stopped relying on skills to kill murderers. You said you would trust your own eyes."
"...."
"It"s not masks, pretenses, or arrogance that make people human. Elder. What keeps a person human is always the presence of others by their side."
I raised my hand to grasp something in my pocket.
The lily-scented handkerchief Raviel had given me.
Unseen by anyone, I held the white handkerchief tightly.
"I am that person for Anastasia, and she is that person for me."
"...."
"And I hope to be such an existence for you too."
Silence followed.
The distant cheers and laughter echoed faintly in our ears. Especially the Heretic Questioner"s high-pitched laughter. Ahaha, ahaha. Ahaha....
Besides that, everything was quiet.
No sound came from the forest surrounding us.
"…Indeed."
The old man spoke.
"You have already become one of those people for me."
Yes.
My heart was filled with joy.
I smiled gently.
"I am glad to hear that."
"You taught me, painfully, that [I could be wrong]. Now, you have shown me that even a person like the Black Dragon Witch can change. Each time I meet you, I change once. You"re not just a good friend, but also a good teacher."
No.
That"s a bit of an exaggeration.
After all, this old man always does everything excessively. Threats, warnings, emotions, compliments – everything is overdone.
Wearing a suit, he may look neat, but he"s actually quite emotional.
"But, young man. There"s a fatal flaw in your words."
"A flaw?"
I tilted my head in confusion.
"A flaw, or weakness, call it what you will."
The Sword Saint nodded.
"It"s that if you die, everyone around you will revert to being even more monstrous beasts than before, or as they were in the past."
It was a similar statement to what the Lady had once told me.
"The Black Dragon Witch who shares your friends.h.i.+p, the Heretic Questioner, and these hundreds of warriors holding their swords, ready to pounce at any moment… all of them, though perhaps not as much as your spouse, will go mad. They will become beasts that tear the world apart."
"So."
Thud.
The Sword Saint lightly tapped my chest.
Right where the heart is located.
"If we wish to remain human, young man, above all, you must value your own life the most."
"No matter what happens, whatever sacrifices must be made, you must protect your own life. That is the duty of one who has resolved to lead the Heretic Questioner down the path of humanity, who has brought the Black Dragon Witch into friends.h.i.+p, and who has prevented me from slaughtering even a single person over these past months."
"…Yes."
I slowly nodded.
It was a fact I was already aware of, but it needed reaffirmation.
"I will never leave."
"Never?"
"…I will do my utmost."
"Hmm. Yes. That"s the most honest promise you can make."
The Sword Saint then smiled playfully.
"I"m sorry, but I trust people less than the Black Dragon Witch. From a young age, I"ve found humans unreliable and sometimes contemptible, and I often heard McCallister asking me why I had such a lack of faith in humanity."
"...."
"Young man, the promise you"ve just made… it seems unlikely to be kept. No. Rather, I have a premonition that it will definitely be broken. I don"t like to brag, but predicting such ominous premonitions is my specialty."
Huh?
"Death King."
"Yes?"
Rustle.
The sound of gra.s.s being softly crushed was heard.
The Sword Saint knelt on one knee in front of me.
"I wish to become your bodyguard."
…
What?
"To be your bodyguard, to protect your life, and to forever preserve the humanity of those around you."
The elderly gentleman winked with his left eye.
Despite his advanced age, it was a remarkably fitting gesture. He must have been quite the heartbreaker in his youth.
"I may have well surpa.s.sed the average retirement age for a bodyguard. But would you employ this pitiable old man?"
No, Elder.
You"re a former corporate chairman and the current top-ranked swordsman.
Why would someone like you want to be my bodyguard!?