Fire arrows, fireballs, and whips flew through the air, piercing the hearts and heads of Hans’s comrades. Each time, a scream erupted, and one life after another was extinguished.
“Uagh!”
“Cough!”
Hans could not gather his wits at all.
His mind was filled only with the thought that he had to survive.
He crawled and cautiously looked in the direction from which the fire arrows had come.
There, approaching with leisurely strides, were figures.
Tall stature, pointed ears, and those slender limbs.
They were elves.
Could it be that the elves who had left had returned?
But the elves Hans had encountered before were not this powerful. If they had such strength, they would have avoided a confrontation altogether.
A particularly alien shadow entered Hans’s trembling eyes.
Among the tall elves stood a squat middle-aged man.
His face was grotesquely distorted by burns. To make matters worse, his hair seemed to have been burned away, leaving no strands to hide that hideous visage.
Yet those eyes.
Those deep blue eyes.
For a moment, Hans was overwhelmed with confusion.
However, he had little time to spare.
Desperately, he crawled and threw himself among the remnants of the burned-down hut. Then he closed his eyes and pretended to be dead, waiting.
Hoping that those monsters would pass by quickly.
The lingering heat of the ashes made his skin sting and ache. He didn’t even notice at first, but a clueless crow was wandering nearby.
It seemed he might groan involuntarily. Still, Hans did his utmost to endure.
The nightmare that had haunted him his entire life was replaying.
The day the village burned.
On that day, he too had barely survived by hiding in a barn reduced to ashes.
Through his closed line of sight, he could hear the elves chatting.
At first, their tones were filled with painful sorrow.
“This cannot be… It’s already too late. We came to assist, hoping to help since we heard that humanity’s military had been spotted nearby.”
“But it is fortunate that we can still take revenge.”
A lazy agreement followed from a voice presumed to belong to a middle-aged man.
Cold sweat began to bead on Hans’s forehead. He felt increasingly anxious as he could not grasp the situation.
In the end, Hans could no longer suppress his anxiety and opened his eyes slightly.
What he saw was the grotesque figure of the middle-aged man and the tall elf who seemed to accompany him.
A red cloth was wrapped around the elf’s eyes. They appeared blind, yet their movements were remarkably natural.
As if there were another set of eyes hidden somewhere.
The middle-aged man sighed.
“Revenge, oh… Is there a more tragic fate than this? Yet if this is also a will of the divine, then it is the duty of our kind to follow… However, I am troubled by the fact that I do not see the bodies of our brothers and sisters. Could you take a look with your ‘blessing’?”
“Of course, Lord Leorick.”
The tall elf obediently complied with the request of the middle-aged man, known as Leorick.
He opened his mouth, and something began to bubble up his throat.
It wasn’t long before a hideous eye appeared.
The eye, rolling onto his tongue, blinked and scanned the surroundings. Finally, when the middle-aged man placed a hand on the elf’s shoulder, flesh began to flicker with a blue light.
Leorick soon let out an exclamation of admiration.
“Ian Fercurus? Hahaha! I can’t believe he was hiding in the elven village… And even picked up a blade to rescue our brothers and sisters.”
With a gulp, the tall elf finally withdrew his tongue.
Naturally, the hideous eye vanished along with it. The tall elf then asked Leorick.
“What should we do?”
“He is a remarkable person. He saved the lives of our brothers and sisters, but…”
The middle-aged man sighed deeply with a troubled expression.
His hands, which covered his face, seemed to express his desire to show how troubled he was.
“He has learned too much. Just like that human brother over there, pretending to be dead, listening to our conversation.”
Hans felt a momentary chill of fear.
He exerted superhuman patience, somehow managing not to move. He only hoped it was all a misunderstanding.
However, Leorick would not permit even Hans’s brief calm.
“Enough of this futile act, brother. Haven’t you lived long enough? We—our elven brothers and sisters are soaking our hands in blood…”
“You were the first!”
The words were spat out while grinding his teeth.
Hans’s eyes widened in surprise. Perhaps it was a unique resolve born from despair.
His mind was already a whirlwind of fear. Yet on the other hand, there was a surge of courage.
It was the nightmare that had tormented him his whole life.
But should he retreat and regret once more?
He didn’t want that. If the outcome would be the same anyway, he wanted to resist until the end.
After all, it was an opportunity given to him.
Hans recalled the face of the young knight with the hand axe and staggered to his feet.
“You burned our village first! I still remember, those fire arrows… you guys attacked our village!”
“There was no other choice.”
Leorick sighed lightly and took a step forward.
The elves accompanying him were startled and tried to stop him. Nevertheless, his resolve was unwavering.
When Leorick raised a hand to stop them, the elves dutifully quieted down.
It was an imposing display of authority.
Hans could not stop the cold sweat streaming down his back.
“There was a time I dreamed of coexistence between humans and elves. I found an elven girl while I was lost and became a remnant. She showed me that possibility. She gave me bread.”
As he spoke, Leorick wiped away a tear welling in his eyes.
His hand was fumbling in his robe. Not long after, he pulled out a piece of bread.
Leorick casually presented the bread.
“Would you like some?”
“Shut up.”
Leorick, making a displeased sound, swallowed his disappointment.
His hand once again searched within his robe while he continued making steady strides forward.
“I, too, have grievances. Haven’t humans taken everything from elves until now? Their homes, their food, their lives…”
“You elves are the same!”
“Yes, indeed! That’s the crux of the matter!”
Leorick exclaimed with both hands clasped together, looking as though he were playing a game.
“I have realized… on the day I watched the elven village burn at the hands of humanity, and on the day the elven girl who saved me starved to death.”
Suddenly, the middle-aged man’s steps came to a halt.
He quietly made the sign of the cross and clasped his hands together. It was a posture commonly assumed by followers of the Heavenly Deity Sect.
“Emmanuel, praise the Lord! How arrogant this humble servant has been?!”
The passionate sermon caused the elves accompanying him to immediately kneel down.
They even clasped their hands together while making the sign of the cross.
Hans was left speechless at the spectacle he had never seen before.
“Is it possible for everyone to live together?! That disgusting arrogance—that filthy belief that living in mutual prosperity is the best! It has deceived us! Look here, at this burning village!”
Leorick’s voice, now heated, had a hazy madness about it.
His blue eyes blazed fiercely.
“Elves and humans are the same! This world, where we hurt each other, steal from each other, and struggle not to be discarded! How is this the world the Lord oversees? This is hell! In truth, we have been trapped in hell!”
“So, that’s why you attacked our village?!”
“Yes, precisely! Because that is the will of the Lord!”
Step by step, Leorick’s face grew filled with strong conviction as he resumed his advance. Hans found himself stepping back in inexplicable dread.
At that moment, something caught his foot.
A charred wooden plank. It was a long stick, sharpened at the end.
This works.
Hans forcibly suppressed the rising joy.
Just as Leorick approached within striking distance,
He quickly grabbed the wooden plank and lunged forward.
It was a distance that could not be evaded. The opponent was dressed in tattered priestly robes, so this plank would surely stab into his chest.
Yes, it had to be that way.
But when he felt the resistance against his arm with a thud,
Hans couldn’t help but stare blankly at Leorick. He made no response whatsoever. He merely stood there with a sad smile.
Leorick’s hand came crashing down on Hans’s shoulder with tremendous force.
It seemed Hans heard a faint cracking sound.
That moment was fleeting. In no time, Hans’s arm was severed, gushing blood from the stump.
It was not human strength.
Hans screamed in hideous pain.
“Ugh, aaaaah!”
“Emmanuel, praise the Lord! Human brother, you are now receiving salvation…”
And with that, a kick struck Hans’s abdomen.
With a feeling of insides turning inside out, Hans rolled on the ground, spewing forth a bowlful of blood. In just two blows, his vision began to blur.
He was in a state of death.
Leorick, too, was thoroughly sparing Hans. Had he truly wished it, Hans would have been dead long ago.
Yet, Leorick did not kill Hans.
He intended to kill him slowly.
Hans felt a burning rage and a chilling fear.
It was as if every hair on his body stood on end.
This man was insane.
He genuinely believed that this was for Hans’s sake.
Leorick’s voice, filled with emotion, continued.
“Blame me, hate me… that sin is mine! If someone must go to hell, it should be me! So brother, finish your penance and swiftly depart for heaven!”
As Leorick’s hands wandered, they withdrew once more.
What he held was not bread.
It was a dagger, a weapon intended to sever his life.
Hans felt his eyelids growing heavier.
There was no hope. He couldn’t win.
But wanting to land just one hit, Hans managed to force a smile from his battered insides.
“Ku, Kuhuhh… Le, Leorick, was it?”
Suddenly, Leorick, hand poised with the dagger, hesitated.
His eyes had darkened, as if to grant his wish.
Hans seized that opportunity without delay.
“Y-you’re going to fail… there’s someone far more deserving of the title of savior than you…”
A man who would raise a sword for the elves, even if he turned his back on humanity.
A knight who had even spared the lives of those who sought to kill him.
A person he had loathed so much, yet now felt confident in his support.
Blood welled in Hans’s eyes as he shouted.
“I-Ian… huff, huff, Sir Ian will destroy you. Look forward to how terrifying the blade wrought by our humanity will be…”
“…I will endure.”
That was their final exchange.
With a crack, the dagger embedded itself in the nape of Hans’s neck, and blood gushed forth. Hans wheezed, frothing blood, and soon he stopped convulsing.
Death.
Leorick let out a painful sigh and turned away from the familiar outcome.
“I understood your advice well. Ian Fercurus, indeed… he was here.”
Muttering to himself, he glanced toward the mound of snow forming near where Hans had fallen.
On top, a great sword was stuck. He must have been in the process of burying a grave.
A faint smile crossed Leorick’s lips.
“If he is such a great hero, then he must overcome a fitting trial…”
A white light enveloped Leorick’s hands.
The light began to wrap around the severed arm of Hans. Moreover, it was even healing the wounds on the back of his neck.
It was a bizarre level of healing power.
Even the great Lady Virgin Saint could not provide such regenerative abilities. However, even in the face of this miraculous sight, Leorick and the elves showed no reaction.
Only Leorick whispered to the ears of the lifeless soldier.
“You will become the hero who reports the betrayal of Ian Fercurus… This setup will work well. Believed to be dead and buried, yet until that point, you were clinging to a faint consciousness. And with your last strength, you will write this with my blood.”
The elves were collecting the corpses of the soldiers.
To carry out Leorick’s plan.
“…’Ian Fercurus betrayed humanity.’ How does that sound?”
After that, several more mounds were formed in the elven village.
Next, a group departed from Yuridina Castle and eventually, a brown-haired woman in maid attire arrived.
Quietly surveying her surroundings, she reached out among the collapsed wreckage.
As she did, a crow flew down onto her hand.
When the crow cawed, a flow of blue magical energy began to course through the woman’s hand.
Soon, she let out a significant sound.
“…I must report to Sir Ian.”
The next day, Ian spoke before the elves.
“I must go to that place called ‘headquarters.'”
It was a bombshell announcement.
