Seirei Gensouki ~Konna Sekai de Deaeta Kimi ni~ (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter Pr

Prologue: Wish

I detest this world.

It sickens me to my stomach.

That is why I will start a crusade.

A resistance against the foolish humans running rampant.

The crusade begins soon.

I think I’ll look back on the things that happened since I wandered into this world.

What went wrong.

Who was wrong.

Whether I was wrong.

Whether I’ve lost my mind.

In order to ascertain that...

◇ ◇ ◇

I was a lecturer at an urban university when one day, I wandered into this world with my beloved fiancé.

He was an associate professor in his early thirties and an extremely capable person. However, I didn’t fall for him because he was capable. His kindness, sincerity, and dedication were what attracted me to him. I loved him from the bottom of my heart.

The two of us first arrived in this world in the middle of the mountains. We were in the university research lab one moment, then surrounded by nature the next. There was a waterfall nearby.

At first, we thought we were in the countryside of Japan. Perhaps we had been caught in a warp, teleport, or rift in space. We had just encountered such an unrealistic event, but we still believed we were on Earth.

However, we were wrong.

This wasn’t Earth—it was a different world. We realized this after spending several hours descending the mountain.

There was a human settlement at the foot of the mountain. The village showed no signs of modern civilization. All the people living there had such ragged clothes; we were shocked. But they were the first people we had met since coming here. We had to talk to them.

Judging from their faces, they clearly weren’t Japanese people. According to my fiancé, their faces resembled Russian or European people. He then tried to speak Russian, English, and German to them, but they didn’t understand him.

But for some reason, I was able to understand them. In fact, their words sounded like Japanese to me. The villagers looked puzzled at my fiancé’s Japanese, but they understood every word of my Japanese.

After that, my fiancé and I were allowed to stay in an empty house in the village. We were exhausted from descending the mountain, so we slept like the dead that day.

◇ ◇ ◇

The night after we wandered into this world, I had a dream.

Apparently, I was a hero.

Someone appeared in my dream and told me that. I was dubious at first, but when I woke up in the morning, I had the same power as that I saw in my dream. I could summon a strange staff and control earth with a kind of paranormal power.

I told my fiancé of what I’d seen in my dream. In all probability, he was only in this world because he had been with me. I had dragged my beloved into this mess. Perhaps there was no way of returning to Earth. When I realized this, I paled.

But he just smiled and said, “I’m glad it was you who brought me here. I’m glad you didn’t have to come to this world alone.”

With that, I was saved.

He saved me.

Even though I couldn’t save him...

◇ ◇ ◇

We wanted to return to Earth if we could, so we tried to search for a means of doing so.

However, I didn’t know anything other than the fact I was a hero, and that I had obtained a special power. We had no hints on how to return. If something was hidden, it would probably be at the mountain where we first arrived in this world.

My fiancé and I continued to live in the village. As payment, my fiancé gave the village chief his long winter coat.

Living in the village was the best option until we became familiar with living here.

It was the best option—or so we thought.

◇ ◇ ◇

After coming to this world, time flew by in the blink of an eye.

Was that unexpected, or was it only natural? At any rate, there was lots for us to do in the village.

The villagers were far too unintelligent. Their lack of knowledge meant that they were living in an extremely inefficient way.

We used our modern knowledge to improve the standard of living in the village. At the same time, I hid my hero powers. I couldn’t see anyone else in the village that could use a magic-like power. Only nobility and other special people could use magic. That was why I used the power of my Divine Arms to plow the fields and enrich the soil in secret.

My fiancé studied this world’s language bit by bit, and eventually became capable of simple communication with the villagers.

We could feel our work getting easier and life getting better day by day. That was a fulfilling sensation. Of course, it was still inconvenient compared to living in Japan, but...

“Home is where you make it, as the saying goes.”

My fiancé would repeat those words like a catchphrase. Every time he did, I would reply with an embarrassed “Yeah.”

What truly mattered was who you were with. To me, home was wherever he was.

I was too shy to say that to him directly, but...

I was happy.

◇ ◇ ◇

More time passed.

My staff apparently had the power to heal people. I became aware of this when my fiancé was cut doing farmwork.

I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I thought I would be able to heal him if I put the magic power into my staff. I brought the end of the staff near the wounded area and it started to glow, healing his cut.

I told the villagers that I used a medicine I had on hand, but they were shocked by how his wound had healed in a day.

After that, a rumor that I was a doctor started to circulate, and I was visited by injured and sick people. I had to pretend I was a doctor and heal them while hiding my power. I had never studied medicine, but there was no one else in the village that could be called a doctor.

Meanwhile, my fiancé worked on improving farm tools, creating fertilizer, building water wheels and waterways, and improving the hygiene standards of the village.

Before we knew it, my fiancé and I had become central figures of the village. Whenever anyone had a problem, they would come to us for advice. I even witnessed the birth of a new life.

I explained to the couple that I had no experience in midwifery, but they insisted that I be there. I was completely absorbed in the experience. There was little I could do other than emphasize the importance of hygiene to the midwife and help prepare clean cloths that were sterilized with boiling water.

It was a terribly difficult delivery. With a conflicted face, the midwife let slip that the mother and child were both in danger. Seeing the pained look on the mother’s face, I decided to use my healing power, which I had kept hidden until then.

The villagers had told me about the existence of magic artifacts that had the power of magic within them. I used that as an explanation for my staff and activated its healing effect. Light glowed, and a miracle happened.

The baby was born safely, and the couple was very grateful.

“I will be indebted to you for the rest of my life.”

The father’s gratitude was so excessive, I was a little troubled. But he definitely didn’t seem to be exaggerating.

I held the newborn in my arms and felt the value of life. I wanted to give birth to a cute child like this with my fiancé one day.

I wished that from the bottom of my heart.

◇ ◇ ◇

We were completely accustomed to living in this world when we decided to visit the mountain where we first arrived once again. Our goal was to search for any hints as to how we might return to Earth.

It took some time before we were able to make the trip, but we had originally chosen to stay in this village for that exact purpose. We had grown attached to the village, but our desire to return to Japan was greater.

The reason why we were still unmarried also had to do with our lingering desire to return to Japan. We had decided that if we were to marry in this world, we would do so with the intention of being buried in this world.

There were two problems. The first was that we couldn’t specify the exact location we appeared at. We only knew that it was in the mountains and within a few hours’ walk of the village. We had no choice but to rely on our memories. We also knew there was a waterfall nearby.

The other problem was who would go to investigate. We were fortunate enough to descend the mountain safely the first time, but there were many dangerous beasts in the mountains.

Walking into the mountains unarmed was a suicidal act. That’s why I wanted to go alone, but my fiancé was worried.

“I’m much stronger than you now,” I said jokingly, but he just fell silent with a frown...because my power made that statement true.

If I wished for it, my hero power would enhance my physical abilities to a terrifying degree. My body would get sturdier as well.

In comparison, my fiancé had no such ability. He was a regular human. He had gained stamina from the daily farmwork, but his life would still be in danger against a savage beast, even if he was armed.

Although I was strong, I had never fought in a real battle before. Fighting was scary. I wasn’t confident in my ability to remain calm and protect him if we were attacked. That’s why I believed it was less dangerous to go alone.

“Even if I run into an animal, I’ll focus on running away. I’ll avoid fighting.”

My persistence eventually won him over. Thus, I was to head into the mountains alone.

◇ ◇ ◇

Early in the morning, I departed for the mountains.

A little past noon, I found a waterfall that looked like the one we first arrived beside. Then, I found the spot where we had appeared.

There was a waterfall nearby. That was the only memory I had left of this scenery. It was hard to describe in words, but this place was oddly open for being so deep in the mountains.

There was no mistaking it. My fiancé and I definitely stood here when we first came to this world. However, although I had expected as much, there were no clues on how to return to our world. I probably knew it from the moment we arrived. But we had been so confused at the time, we didn’t conduct a proper investigation.

I investigated the area carefully. Both above the soil and underneath the ground. Fortunately, I was able to control the earth with my staff, so it was easy to dig around.

There was nothing to be gained no matter where I dug, but I couldn’t give up on going back to Earth after a single attempt. I would come back again later. After deciding that, I returned to the village.

◇ ◇ ◇

One week had passed since I began investigating the mountains. In the end, we hadn’t discovered anything on how to return to Earth.

There was no point in investigating any further than this. With that thought, my fiancé and I began to gather information outside of the village. Was there any literature about heroes in this world? We set out to find the answer.

One day after that, apparently, the village didn’t have enough to pay the upcoming taxes. The villagers came to us for any ideas.

Villages paid taxes to the country, in the form of either money or harvested crops. However, there was rarely ever the need to use currency in the village. Thus, the village had no cash savings and usually paid the tax with crops.

It wasn’t impossible for them to pay the upcoming taxes, but doing so would cause a large number of people to starve to death.

The modern knowledge we brought to the village had greatly improved their agriculture, but the results wouldn’t show until the next harvest. The new crops wouldn’t grow in time for the tax payment.

I asked them if it was possible to delay the tax payment, but apparently there was no precedent for such an exception.

I then asked what the consequences were of being unable to pay the tax. Apparently, they would have to gather anything of value and sell it off for cash. If they couldn’t manage the tax with that, the country would punish them with compulsory dispossession.

However, none of the families in the village possessed any valuable items. If they did, they wouldn’t be struggling to pay the tax in the first place. In cases like this, it was apparently most common to sell someone off as a slave.

When my fiancé heard that, he was the first to strongly oppose the idea. I was also against the thought of selling someone into slavery. My fiancé then offered to try and sell our valuables in the city instead.

Fortunately, we were in possession of a few valuable items—the items we’d brought from the modern world. Clothing and accessories could sell for especially high prices. When my fiancé stated his willingness to sell our possessions, the villagers clearly let out a collective sigh of relief.

They were items that had lost their use as soon as we arrived in this world anyway. There was no point in holding onto them forever. I wasn’t opposed to the idea either.

The father of the child whose birth I had witnessed mentioned he had relatives with a store in the capital, so we decided to sell our items there.

We immediately departed for the capital. I wondered why the capital was within walking distance of the mountains, but it turned out this was an extremely minor nation. From how the villagers described it, it was only the size of a few Japanese cities gathered together. The village was by the mountains at the border of the country, but if we left with the sunrise, we would arrive at the capital by morning the next day.

The group heading to the capital consisted of a few men armed with farm tools, and my fiancé and I who owned the items to be sold. The father joined us. He was born in the capital and would lead us to his relatives’ store.

We arrived at the capital without any issue. Although it was the capital, it was just the capital of a minor nation. It wasn’t even the size of a small city in Japan. From what I could see of the townscape, the civilization level was that of Earth’s Middle Ages.

We didn’t have the money for an extended stay in the capital, so we immediately went to do our business. We made our way to the aforementioned store and began negotiations.

However, we didn’t bring out every item at once. We showed our items in small amounts and watched their reactions. Because our items didn’t exist in this world, the price depended on how much the store was willing to pay. We didn’t know how much funds the store had, and bringing out all our items at once would reduce their novelty. We feared that would result in a cheaper price.

Negotiations were done by my fiancé and me. As a result, we were able to secure the tax funds after selling just one set of clothes. I’m sure the novelty played a part in it, but it also reflected just how high quality the clothes from Earth were.

We were first given a cheap price, but when I said I was willing to give up on the sale because I was attached to the item, they immediately raised their offer. They asked if we had any other items, but we brushed them off without showing them anything else. We decided it would be better to save them for the future. Thus, the sale concluded.

The purchase price was more than they had on hand, so it was decided that we would receive half upfront and half once the clothes had been resold. Since they were relatives, the baby’s father took on the role of staying back for the remaining amount.

The next morning, our group left the capital with one fewer member and returned to the village with half the payment. The return trip was uneventful, and we were back at the village by the morning after we departed.

◇ ◇ ◇

One week had passed since we returned to the village...

I was visiting the mountains once again; it was my first visit since returning from the capital. My purpose wasn’t to investigate—I had already searched the surrounding area extensively. So why was I suddenly here again? The truth was that yesterday, my fiancé proposed again to me.

“What do you think about getting married?”

We had been engaged since before we wandered into this world, but we had put off marriage because we hadn’t given up on returning to Earth.

There were no means of contraception in this village. Getting married would inevitably result in having a child, and once we had one, we naturally wouldn’t be able to move around freely for a while.

In other words, this marriage proposal symbolized giving up on our search for a way to return to Earth.

Honestly, my answer was pretty much set. However...

“Can you give me just one day to think?”

I’ve always been like this...since I was a child, even. My feelings were all but solidified, but I was hesitant to answer on impulse.

That’s why I visited the place where we first arrived in this world. If I came here, I would find out whether I still had the desire to return to Earth, or whether I was willing to be buried in this world.

I received my answer. I came here and looked back on my life on Earth, and found I had no lingering attachments.

My fiancé was here with me. As long as he was here, I could live anywhere. My feelings were completely solidified.

I would give him my answer as soon as I returned to the village. With that decided, I made haste back.

The body and physical abilities of a hero were amazing. It had taken us hours to descend the mountain when we first arrived in this world, but now I could make the trip in a mere ten minutes. And once I did...

“Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah...”

I couldn’t speak.

I could barely believe my eyes.

His dead body was displayed in the center of the village. Beside the body dressed in familiar clothes was his severed head. The ground was wet with blood. The villagers we should have been close with were throwing stones at his body while yelling with rage.

“They were suspicious from the start!”

“How dare they steal from a noble!”

They weren’t making any sense.

Steal from a noble?

Who did?

As I stood frozen, watching the sight of his corpse from afar, I met eyes with the father of the baby whose birth I witnessed. He was the one who said he’d be indebted to me forever for saving his wife and child.

“Th-There she is! That’s the woman!” The father pointed at me with a pale face. He was surrounded by his merchant relative from the capital, a well-dressed man, and several knightlike men with swords and maces. For some reason, all our items from Earth had been brought out.

“Bring her here,” the well-dressed man ordered.

Three of the five knights around him moved.

“Aaah... Aaah...”

I materialized my staff and approached the men myself.

To be more precise, I approached my fiancé’s dead body. Slowly, step by step.

“Hey!”

“Stop! Wha—?!”

“Wh-What is this woman’s ridiculous strength?!”

The knights tried to apprehend me, but I pushed forward. My footsteps grew faster and I shook off the knights grabbing at me. I had no memory of any words spoken from that moment onwards.

The well-dressed man was yelling something with a grimace. I ignored the knights that were positioned to protect him.

All I wanted to do was reach my fiancé. I ran towards his corpse without a glance at anyone else. They must have been surprised by me.

“No... No... Don’t die...”

I picked up his severed head and activated my healing power on his body. I carefully tried to connect his neck and body, bringing the glow of the staff near the wound.

“No... No...”

As I mumbled to myself like a broken record, someone struck me from behind with all their might. It was the knight with the mace.

I was blown aside while carrying his severed head. The knights surrounded my fallen body, stabbing me with their swords and the pointed tips of the maces.

“Ah... Ah...”

My consciousness faded.

On that day, at that moment...

I was killed.

I was definitely killed.

And yet...

◇ ◇ ◇

I saw a dream.

Apparently, I had awakened.

Someone appeared in my dream and bestowed even greater power on me.

They taught me how to use it...

But I didn’t care about any of it.

What I wanted wasn’t power.

Not power...

◇ ◇ ◇

I woke up.

It was pitch black.

My body was being crushed.

It was so suffocating. I struggled with all my strength.

Then, I saw a faint light far in the distance.

It was the moon in the night sky.

Apparently, I had been buried outside the village. My dead body was still in the same bloodied clothes I had died in.

I found my fiancé’s corpse buried beside me, so I tried to heal his corpse again. The only thought in my mind was to heal him. I silently continued holding the healing light against him.

How much time passed like that? Eventually, I realized he wasn’t coming back to life.

After that, I headed for the village.

Why was I alive?

Why was I the only one alive?

Why did they kill him?

I went to find the answers to those questions.

Based on the situation, the one who was most likely to know was the baby’s father. His house was on the edge of the village.

Night had already fallen over the village, and it was completely dark outside. No one was walking around. I made it to his house without passing anyone. I peeked inside the house from a gap at the front entrance.

It was a small, one-room house for a family of three. The father and mother sat at the dining table while the baby slept on a raised bed.

“We did a good job. Now I’ll be able to open my own store. I can give you and this child a better life.”

When the father said those words, the mother reacted with clear excitement. They must have dreamed of escaping their poor life in the village.

Before I knew it, my feet were moving. The rundown door opened with a creak. The couple noticed the sound and looked up at the entryway. When they saw me in my bloodied clothes—

“Eek!” The mother trembled in horror.

“H-How are you alive...?” The father was also speechless.

“Give him back...”

“Huh?”

“You said you’d be indebted to me for the rest of your life.”

“...”

When I voiced my demand, the father made a hideous face. Was he feeling guilty about something? He averted his eyes from me.

“If you’re indebted to me for the rest of your life, then give him back. Give him back to me. Bring him back to life.”

“Eek...!” The mother jumped out of her seat and backed away from me in fear.

“D-Don’t come any closer!” the father yelled. The sleeping baby was shocked into tears.

“What a cute child.” I picked up the baby.

“Wh-What are you doing?! You’d lay your hands on a baby?!” The father glared at me as though I was the devil.

“Lay my hands? Why would you think I’d do such a thing? All I did was pick up a crying baby.”

“That’s because...!”

“Because what?” I approached the panicked-looking father.

“Y-You’re being strange! There’s something abnormal about you! You’re clearly a danger to us right now!” The father yelled vague insults at me.

“You won’t allow me to hold the baby because I look like a danger? Then would you rather I let go?” I almost laughed in spite of myself. Instead, I grabbed the baby by the scruff of the neck and lifted my arm up before the parents. If I let go, the baby would drop to the floor.

“Don’t!”

“Please don’t let go!”

The couple both screamed at once. The baby flinched and bawled harder.

“In that case, why don’t we have a little talk? Tell me why he had to be killed. What exactly did we do to deserve this?”

“I-I don’t know!”

“You’re the one who brought them from the capital, no? You were just talking about how you did such a good job.”

The father paled at my words. He must have believed I had overheard something unfavorable to him. All I heard was a brief mention of a job, but it was clear this father had done something for this to happen to us.

“I-It isn’t my fault.” Despite saying that, the father eventually gave in and started speaking.

It was nonsense.

Everything he said was complete nonsense.

The trigger was when our clothes resold for higher than expected. The buyer was the exceptionally well-dressed man in the village center earlier. He and his daughter—who hadn’t come to the village—wanted to know who had made the clothes they bought.

In short, the father before me had let slip that we possessed more rare items like the clothes that were sold. That we had neat utensils that he had never seen before, precious metals, and a staff with the power of healing.

The noble and his daughter expressed a strong interest in our items. The man was especially curious about the healing staff I possessed.

On that day, the father went back to his relative’s home without further discussion. But the next morning, a messenger from the noble summoned him back. When he arrived at the mansion—

“Good work. Thanks to you, my friend’s stolen items have finally been located. Incidentally, would you be interested in cooperating to assure the retrieval process goes smoothly? You will be rewarded handsomely, of course.”

He was given such an offer.

“So you were blinded by greed. You pinned a crime we never committed on us.”

“Y-You’re wrong!” the father argued back in a flurry when I glared coldly at him.

“I don’t see how I’m wrong.”

“I was threatened! I couldn’t defy a noble, I would have been killed if I hadn’t helped him. And the rest of the village is at fault as well! We were told they’d exempt us from paying tax for a while.”

“So the entire village sold us.”

At this time, I was surprisingly calm. Perhaps it was because the man’s panicked excuses sounded so comical.

“W-We all tried to persuade your fiancé! The noble wanted to settle things peacefully if possible! If he had just handed over everything, he wouldn’t have been killed! Yet he insisted on opposing the noble...!”

Was he trying to redirect the blame?

“Why did he oppose the noble?”

“It was a ring! He said it was for you, so he absolutely couldn’t give it to them!”

A ring for me.

In other words...

“An...engagement ring...?”

Yes, it must have been an engagement ring.

He first proposed to me shortly before we wandered into this world, but at the time he hadn’t given me a ring. He had wanted us to go shopping together to buy something I liked.

However, I told him I wanted to wear a ring he picked for me.

So he’d bought it already...

We didn’t have any money to buy a ring in this world.

The situation was clear. He had tried to protect it from being taken away by the noble. And then he was killed for it.

“Aha! Ahaha!” I laughed with tears running down my face. I wouldn’t have been able to maintain my sanity otherwise.

But was there a reason to maintain my sanity?

“...” The couple before me watched me like I was being strange. Then, the baby started crying again. What a grating sound.

“Th-That’s enough, isn’t it?! Give me back my child! I told you the entire truth!”

“After killing my fiancé and taking away our hopes of having a child, you want your own child back?”

Could there be anything more selfish than this? Was it right to let a request like that go unpunished?

“I told you already, I wasn’t the one who killed him! That noble was the one who killed him! The knights were the ones who killed him! And your man wouldn’t have been killed if he hadn’t defied them!”

In all likelihood, everything he was saying was true.

“I don’t care about what you think the truth is. You were the one who blabbered away about our valuables and brought that evil noble here. That noble ordered his knights to kill my fiancé as a result. Are these not the facts?”

“That’s... Because I couldn’t oppose the noble... And the noble could have been right about you stealing those items.”

“Aha! You’d believe a noble you’ve never met before over the woman who saved your wife and baby’s lives. You said you’d be indebted to me for the rest of your life, but you didn’t believe in us in the slightest.”

It was such a pathetic excuse to hear this late in the game.

“This is the truth to me: from the very beginning, there was nothing. This land where we were prepared to live out our days, this village where we thought we had gained a place to belong, the villagers whom we trusted enough to sell our belongings to save... All of it was a lie! We were betrayed by you all! You people killed him!”

Everyone was a liar.

We were fools for trusting them.

We never belonged in this village.

We didn’t belong anywhere in this world.

Home was not where you made it...

What we lived in was hell.

I gradually grew more emotional and tainted with madness. The baby seemed to fear that, as the crying grew louder.

Then, at that moment—

“P-Please, I beg you... Give us back that child... Please... Please... We’ll apologize for everything, but please.” The mother begged me to return the baby; she probably feared the worst.

Meanwhile—

“Aaaah!” The father yelled like an animal and charged at me.

Whether he was unable to accept his own fault, or knew he was at fault but wanted to protect his child, I know not. Either way, he was a shameless man. That’s why he was able to step on others for his own sake.

Enraged, he swung at me violently with the intent to kill, but—

“Rah!”

I materialized my staff in my left hand, which wasn’t holding the baby, and easily knocked him down. I held back my strength.

“Ugh...” He fell back, knocking over some furniture. My restraint allowed him to remain conscious, and he heaved resentfully.

I couldn’t forgive him.

Killing him wouldn’t be enough.

How could I punish him with the same despair that I’d received?

I thought about it as I spoke to the fallen man.

“You said I was being strange. But the one who made me strange was you. I will not—I cannot forgive you people.” I could no longer suppress my impulse with the little rationality I had left. I placed the baby in my hand down on the bed. When I lifted my staff overhead, the mother charged at me next. I brushed her aside just like I’d done to the father.

Then, I raised my staff once more.

“Stop...!”

I swung the staff down in front of the two of them.

“Aha! Ahahaha!”

I laughed like a broken record.

No... I was the broken one.

From that moment, I was no longer human in body or soul.

The last one I killed was the father.

He yelled at me for killing his wife and child up until his last breath.

I accepted his words emotionlessly with the same rage in my heart.

◇ ◇ ◇

The nobles had yet to leave the village, so I killed them and retrieved the engagement ring. I then made my way back to the village outskirts where my fiancé was buried, collected his body, and headed for the mountains.

I buried him in the place where we first arrived in this world. I figured that was the closest place to Earth.

Then, I killed myself to follow him.

◇ ◇ ◇

If this were a story that ended with my death, there would still be salvation to be had.

But there was no salvation.

There truly was no salvation.

Apparently, I couldn’t die.

Even when pierced through the heart.

Even with a slashed throat.

Even after bleeding out from cutting my axillary artery.

Whether I jumped from high ground or burned in a fire.

I was apparently incapable of dying.

I could heal from any kind of wound.

He was dead, but I had to continue living in this world.

I wanted to die.

I wanted to follow him.

But I couldn’t.

It was mad.

This world was mad.

I hated it.

I hated this world.

What did I have to do to be able to die and join him again?

◇ ◇ ◇

I traveled around, seeing the world with my own eyes...

But everywhere I went was the same.

No matter where they lived, humans were the same.

Humans were hideous creatures.

Even if they looked like harmless lower-class citizens, there was no telling what they were truly thinking. Everyone was selfish, forcing their own circumstances onto others. But if anyone posed an inconvenience to them, they’d antagonize them without batting an eye. At times, they’d group together to do just that. And when humans gathered together, they became dangerous beasts.

Yet they had no self-awareness. No one thought of themselves as wrong. It was only natural for others to be wrong. It was only natural for the people around them to accommodate their circumstances.

It was very difficult to believe in humans.

So why did people believe in other people so often?

Why did people think it was natural to believe in themselves?

No matter what words or actions were conveyed, there was no way of telling what someone else was thinking, what someone else was seeing...

And yet, people believed in others.

No, they believed in what they wanted to believe.

They averted their eyes from inconvenient truths. They sometimes hid them away.

They sometimes felt betrayed, enraged, and vengeful.

Were humans foolish creatures?

Were humans intelligent creatures?

Were humans ugly creatures?

Were humans beautiful creatures?

I didn’t know if this world had a god, but if it did, only it would know the answer.

However, as a hero, I was apparently an agent of god.

If that was the case, was it my duty to present the answer only god would know?

I believe I was entrusted with Pandora’s box by god. Was I unable to die because I had yet to fulfill that duty?

In that case, I had to open the box and carve it into the humans.

The fact that they were the most foolish creatures in this world.

This was my revenge, my crusade.

That’s right. I will start a crusade.

I can tell there’ll be no salvation at the end of this.

But I won’t stop marching forward...

Because what I desire the most is despair.

I want to die.