Chapter 1
Babel, Year 2, June 9
Clear weather
Mr. Idris came back injured again today.
He had barely finished recovering, and yet he was attacked by a monster once more. I cannot even describe how shocked I was when I saw him wrapped tightly in the hydra’s massive body.
Haah. It was a good thing I found him in time. It almost turned into a real disaster. If I had been even a little later, he really might have become the hydra’s next meal……
It is all my negligence. I think I took too lightly the fact that this is a forest swarming with monsters. To think there would be such reckless creatures, blinded by the sight of a tempting human and daring to invade my territory. I suppose they did not value their lives. As for the hydra that fled in an instant, I intend to scrape off all its scales, drain its venom, and skewer it alive.
Haah, at least it ended with nothing more than light scratches……. From now on, I should properly frighten the surrounding monsters and strengthen my defenses. They must not dare trespass into my territory and harm my precious guest.
But why did Mr. Idris go all the way to the boundary of the territory and stand there? How dangerous. I clearly told him he would be safe as long as he did not leave this place……
Hm. Surely he was not thinking of running away, was he? A waste of effort. That man is dead████
No. I should not think such pointless thoughts. Surely he is not that reckless or foolish. He did not leave the territory, so there is no need to suspect him for no reason. If I press him on it, it might only make things worse between us.
Still, it would be better to give him at least a light warning.
And as for the monsters, I should give them a very firm threat, no, a warning. If I tighten our defenses in every respect, there should be no problem.
어▓▓▓▓원▓▓▓어▓▓▓▓없어.[1]
……Mm. It feels like I have written nothing but dark things, so I will add one more line.
The roast dish Mr. Idris made for dinner today was quite tasty. I suppose I really am meant to eat meat.
***
Kraaahhh!
The monster’s cry, sounding closer than before, struck his ears until they rang. The man sprinting through the dense forest gasped for breath as frustration spilled out of him.
“Damn it! Don’t those things ever get tired? Just how long are they planning to chase me!”
He had already been running for quite some time, yet there was no sign this brutal pursuit would end. They looked ready to chase him to the very ends of the world to kill the enemy who had cracked open and eaten their precious eggs.
The man clenched his teeth against the surging pain. Torn, broken, and pushed far beyond its limits, his right leg was bleeding heavily, reduced to little more than a shredded rag.
At this rate, being caught was only a matter of time. And then he would become a fresh meal for that pack of chimeras.
“Damn it!”
Crude curses he never used in everyday life spilled nonstop from between his teeth.
Though he tried to deny it, it seemed his life really was about to end like this.
There was no answer. No matter when it happened, being captured and chewed alive was already a foregone conclusion.
The mad thought that it would be better to end his life without pain rather than die in such agony gradually took over his mind. There was no better option anyway.
A Holy Knight committing suicide. What a spectacular ending. According to doctrine, it was a grave sin, and on top of a life already steeped in guilt, it seemed another charge was about to be added.
‘You chicken-brained bastards who cannot even recognize an innocent witness……!’
He felt wronged to the point of madness. Who could have imagined that, in the middle of a search operation meant to be carried out by a small, elite unit, a comrade would suddenly commit a suicidal act by smashing a chimera’s nest of eggs?
The memory was still vivid. After seeing the shattered eggs, his companion had glared at him in panic, eyes crazed as he screamed for him to die like the creature’s mother.
What was the reason he gave for betraying him again? Revenge for his family, who had been offered as sacrifices to a demon and died miserable deaths, was it? It was absurd.
‘No, it was your mother who killed people and offered them as sacrifices. Why am I being blamed when I did nothing wrong?’
Contrary to that madman’s prejudice that mother and son must have been in it together, the truth was that he too had been a victim, someone who had nearly been offered alive as a sacrifice by his own mother.
Before he could even explain this, the man had been swallowed by the enraged chimera pack that charged in and torn apart in an instant. Now, having thrown away the sword shattered by chimera fangs, he was barely managing to escape.
“Damn it!”
As if it were not enough that he still dreamed of his mother strangling him and begging him to die, now he had to suffer this kind of misunderstanding. There was nothing more unjust than this.
And that was how long ago now, only for it to surface again? Just how many years had that bastard spent plotting something this sloppy?
‘If I ever meet you in Hell, I will drive a blade straight into those useless eyes of yours. And you dare call yourself a Holy Knight……!’
Kraaahhh!
A bizarre howl shook the forest. To think they would put on such a ferocious display over breaking just a few eggs. For monsters, their maternal instinct was a hundred times stronger than his mother’s ever was.
How much longer would his leg hold out? As the man weighed his hopeless future, the uphill stretch that had seemed endless suddenly came to an end. An unexpected downhill slope opened up before him.
Faced with the steep descent, he tried to slow himself down, but with a body already battered beyond recognition, it was too much to ask for an abrupt stop.
Unable to overcome both the slope and the speed he had built up, his body staggered.
Then, with the harsh sound of his ankle twisting, he completely lost his balance.
“……!”
He hurriedly wrapped his arms around his head, and an overwhelming pain shot through his arms and shoulders. It felt like he had slammed straight into a rock.
His body began to roll down the slope at terrifying speed.
T/N:
[1] ↩
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