Chapter 219 – [Hero] Rose
When I woke up in the morning, I checked my arm out of habit.
One flower of a breathtaking size was even smaller.
At this size… It’s already over.
Yuni fell for him.
I knew this was going to happen, but seeing the evidence in front of me still left me with a bit of regret.
“UNI…”
But now is the time to let go.
In her mind, I said goodbye to her once more.
***
The one who created this pattern magic was the demon king of the past.
Maybe it wasn’t the devil himself, but someone among his subordinates, but anyway, it was magic created by the devil’s will.
The fact that it intervened in the bondage without an owner and became a part of it certainly seemed to reveal a gap in the bondage, as Ertina had said.
But I don’t know exactly about him.
It’s getting closer and closer to the Devil’s Castle, but I still haven’t found a way to solve the problem.
“Don’t be in too much of a hurry. It’s probably not a problem that can be solved with such a head.”
Ertina comforted me, but she couldn’t stay still.
“The demon king who created that pattern must have made it because he wanted to leave it to the distant future, right?”
Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been forced to join part of the chain.
“Of course, when you live a long time, you end up doing a lot of meaningless things. Maybe it really means nothing.”
“Yes…”
It may be useless to search for meaning.
I don’t know who did it, and I don’t know why.
The people involved in this must have all died a long time ago.
Therefore, no matter what hypothesis is established, it cannot escape the realm of speculation.
… What were you thinking?
As Ertina said, it may not have really meant much.
But somehow I was curious about it.
Ertina didn’t know the details, so she couldn’t answer more…
I glanced down at my arm.
They could not be called roses anymore, one was so small that it didn’t even look like a rose, and only traces of the other two remained.
Trace…
The rose that disappeared from me now grows on his arm.
Roses and vines like me.
The same is growing in him.
I also confirmed this while listening to his answer.
When that thought occurred to me, I took my eyes off my arms for a moment and examined them.
Head with me and Ertina.
And the back part where the rest gathered.
Our party, taking a break, was divided into two like that.
Uni is behind.
Even though she keeps a little distance from them, seeing how she interacts with them and smiles from time to time, Yuni is clearly a part of them.
“… They are completely gone.”
“Are you okay.”
Ertina looked at me with a worried look, so I said.
“It probably didn’t suit me.”
“… Maybe just…”
“No, I don’t want to blame the goddess.”
Perhaps… Maybe she just changed her mind according to that fate.
If that’s the case, if you think that I was a bad goddess or that it’s fate and there’s nothing I can do about it, that’s enough.
But in the end, nobody knows.
Is this also the result of the bridle intervening, or is it really nothing more than a problem between us.
So I decided not to blame others.
At least I didn’t learn something from this incident.
I will be able to do better in the future.
“Have I told you before that I am similar to the last hero?”
“Um, it was.”
Did you think the two looked alike?
“I will cancel.”
“Yes?”
“It’s definitely different now.”
Ertina smiled at me.
He is… Eventually collapsed at the end.
Does that mean that I don’t see that in me?
I wonder if I interpreted it too positively, but thinking that way gave me a bit of energy.
My gaze turned to Jeren again.
Jeren…
A candidate to succeed the Demon King.
“To be honest… I am not very interested.”
He said so, but how am I supposed to take this?
That day, after she finished talking, before Ertina left, she told me one thing.
At least I don’t think he lied.
It must have been confirmed by using the precious spirit.
I trust Ertina’s words to some extent, but I can’t really just trust them.
“What do you think?”
“Yes? Oh no, just…”
But when she said that to her, she felt a little sorry, so I decided to move on to another topic.
Another topic… Yes.
“That glyph.”
“Yes.”
“Divine power… No, um…”
What should I call this now?
Originally, I thought it was a power bestowed by a goddess, so I called it divine power, but now that the distinction has become ambiguous, I’m not sure how to name it.
“Anyway, isn’t that power the power of the goddess?”
“Hmm… According to Luella, the pattern magic seems to have settled down in a parasitic way to that power. They say that the two are almost united now, but I don’t know the details.”
“Then that god… Are you saying that the power of this symbol is almost the same as that of the Holy Spirit?”
“Well, if she guesses right, that would be it.”
I looked at my arm for a moment.
Deadly power to demons.
I thought that the goddess gave it to me to defeat the demons with this power.
Is this just a demon lord’s auxiliary device?
Like some sort of safeguard to keep me from dying easily?
“… Shall we depart?”
“I see.”
We said we would start again, and they also got up from their seats.
My gaze naturally turned to Yuni’s hand.
In the morning, before we left, there was a ring on her hand that we hadn’t seen before.
What about my ring, she wouldn’t tell me.
“…”
Yuni avoided my gaze.
No, she tried to avoid it and then looked at me again.
We looked at each other without saying a word.
Did Yuni read the emotions in my eyes?
At least I couldn’t read her mind properly.
Is it regret? Sadness? Sorry maybe?
“Let’s go.”
“… Huh.”
Uni answered Jeren’s words obediently.
I don’t see the old hostility.
My heart ached a little at the distance between the two of them.
“… Are you okay.”
“All right.”
I politely declined Ertina’s silent offer of comfort.
Sick.
It hurts… I can bear it.
I turned my back on them.
For some reason I had the thought that she was looking at my back, but even then I didn’t look back at her.
After I had withdrawn and left empty, another man approached before I knew it.
***
“If you pass one more village from now on, you will find the Demon Castle.”
“… It’s right in front of you.”
The end is coming.
But am I ready to face the end?
I gripped the handle of the sword I was holding on to.
Think of the beginning rather than the end.
A future where everything ends and starts again.
“Let’s rest here today.”
“It is a small place.”
The next place I stopped by was probably a rural village, such a small place.
“… Maybe the inn is a little shabby.”
“Are you okay. I just needed to be able to sleep, what.”
As we entered the village, gazes poured in from all directions.
Some people are looking at us with disapproving eyes, while others are looking at us with bright eyes as if they were liberators.
There are humans and there are monsters.
They paused in houses and streets to watch us.
“… From here, very few people pass by. It’s close to the castle of the devil, so I don’t come here recklessly.”
“Then you don’t even know who we are.”
Could it be that the gazes of those who want us to defeat the demon lord and those who want us not to kill the demon lord are entangled?
“I guess so. But I won’t attack you recklessly. Because they are weak.”
Most of the strong monsters are on the battlefield.
The fact that they remain here proves that they lack combat capability.
“The inn… Ah, here you go.”
“It seems to be operating.”
“It’s not like there aren’t any guests at all.”
The inn was run by an old grandfather, who seemed uninterested in receiving guests.
“Single room? There is nothing like that here.”
“Yes?”
He glanced at me and said.
“It’s just the same room. Three or four can sleep. Can you give me two of them?”
“No, not two…”
“In two.”
That’s what Yuni said.
I turned to her and felt a chill run down her spine.
Uni was beside me, not looking at me, she was talking to her grandfather.
“… Two, please.”
“UNI…”
She didn’t look at me
Are you rejecting it?
For that reason, her reaction was a little subtle.
A little… I am trembling.
Swoop.
He handed over both of her keys to Yuni again.
She took her key for a moment, hesitated, then, without looking at me, only slipped out her hand.
An unfamiliar ring on her ring finger.
The ring on my little finger is nowhere to be found.
I made skin-to-skin contact with her as she took the key she held out, her really timid.
I wondered if it would feel like stabbing, but surprisingly it didn’t.
As soon as Yuni gave me the key, she walked over to him and she handed it over.
“Let’s go.”
Following his words, Seria and Arin went up the stairs.
Uni, who hesitated for a while, eventually made up her mind and followed them.
“… I will go up too.”
“Okay, then again tomorrow…”
Ertina didn’t say anything more and let me go.
I silently climbed the stairs alone and entered my room.
I was welcomed by a room and a bed that were a bit large for my own use.
“… It’s wide.”
While muttering to myself, I roughly arranged my clothes and lay down on the bed.
As I was still, I heard a faint sound through the wall.
Could it be their voice?
If you concentrate, you might hear something.
After turning my head that way for a moment, I decided not to pay more attention to them.
I chose to close my eyes and fall asleep rather than listen to the faint voice.
Now.
Let’s not pay attention to the little things.
Because I have a clearer goal.
It’s different from the past when I was vague about what to do.
Break the bridle, end it all.
That is… It’s my job as a warrior.
I wonder if I heard it in a dream, I felt like someone comforted me saying that I did well.
