116 – Symbol of Peace (13)
The eyes were as dry and weak as rotten tree branches. The eyes of a corrupt life where there is no hope even if you wash your eyes and look for it. Those cold, cold eyes pierced Orange Altair. They looked at Orange Altair with caution, like animals seeing fire for the first time.
“….”
“What’s wrong?”
In the meantime, there was also a child’s eyes looking up at him innocently. In the suffocating silence, Orange Altair could not win against those expectant innocent eyes.
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“Hey, over there….”
Orange Altair opened his lips to break the silence.
“Wow, wow!”
At that moment, cheers continued in the village as if fire were spreading.
“Ma, it’s a magical girl!”
“The magic girl has arrived!”
“What? Magic Girl? Really?!”
“It’s true!”
“I know that person! Orange Altair! “That’s a long-distance sniper that’s rare even among magical girls!”
“Well, then it’s huge?”
“Then~ That’s great!”
“I see. I lived. Did you buy it? Huh?”‘
“Can we go back now?”
Just as pessimism is contagious, hope is also contagious. For those caught by the monster, her appearance must have been like a rescue ship visible in the open sea.
Orange Altair was more embarrassed by this reaction than his cold gaze.
She was always far away from the scene of people rescuing people, so she had never heard her cheers so close. The fact that she was someone’s hope was very far away.
On the other hand, criticism and lamentation were close. If you look at the machine screen just a little, she can be seen clearly. She didn’t have many of them to begin with.
Because a sniper with no track record would not be noticed.
However, most people chase hope. Love goodness and admire heroes. So did they.
They loved the starlight that came before their eyes. It was a very small and faint star that was not visible because it was covered by clouds, so if it started to be visible, it was the highest law.
“Thank you… Thank you…!”
“That’s what I told you. “If you believe and wait, it will work out.”
No one was disappointed that she came. She rejoiced and praised her appearance. No one doubted that she would fail.
Her countless people are leaning on her as their only hope.
This came as a huge burden, but at the same time, it also came as an exhilarating joy.
Although she always protected people, her interest in the woman who was the furthest away from her people was as sweet as honey water for a hungry child.
“…Yeah, that’s right!”
For her, who was thirsty for attention and who was good at showing off her pretense, this attention from her was a rope that could not be cut off. Even if this praise was nothing more than a momentary hallucination, it was impossible not to enjoy it now.
“Hey, rest assured now! Because I came!”
There is no certainty that we can save them. My body is exhausted and my mind is filled with doubt. I can’t deny the possibility that everyone here is actually a monster and is lying to me.
I started to suspect that the person I trusted the most until now might actually be a monster, so what can I trust in this world?
But I had no choice but to shout.
I felt like I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t shout out at this moment.
“An arrow that pierces the sky! Orange Altair! Jet, I will save you!”
How long has it been since I shouted out the entrance line? Even her tongue went limp at the end. Orange Altair’s ears turned red with embarrassment.
However, no one paid any attention to this, and only numerous cheers spread out.
**
“…What should I do?”
Immediately Orange Altair regretted it. As time went by, her heart, which had been so overflowing, cooled down. A shower of cold sweat came down on her, soaking her clothes.
“This is… Right?”
She raised her head and looked at the place where she would raid from now on. A huge building that does not match the island landscape. The height was so high that the end could not be seen from the current angle and distance.
“Phew… Gwae, it’ll be okay. It’ll be okay… I guess…”
From what I heard from people, this was none other than the stronghold of a monster. They say the monsters here kidnapped them and forced them to live on the island.
In other words, this building is the headquarters of the Argo Family.
It means the hideout of those monsters.
The original plan was to destroy the entire building by sniping from afar. Bomb-level sniping was her specialty. It would consume some of her magic power, but a building of this size could be reduced to a pile of sand in no time.
This judgment was an error. As it was a place for monsters, the building was also different from what we normally think of. Even after being hit by dozens of attacks that would have reduced most buildings to dust, they remained unharmed.
I ended up wasting my magic and stamina for no reason. She fired with the maximum firepower she could produce, so she didn’t have much magical energy left. With this level of magical power, it is easy to take down even an A-class monster.
In the end, Orange Altair had no choice but to give up sniping from the outside and attack this building directly. No matter how scared I was, I couldn’t run away from something that had already been said.
‘If I get down on my knees and pray, they’ll at least listen… Oh, no! ‘Don’t be servile!’
She erased from her mind the servile thoughts she had tried with Libra and took her first steps again.
‘What are other people doing right now? Are they even worried that I’m gone? Those people wouldn’t have suffered as pitifully as I did…?’
Would it have been different for other people? If they are worthy of being called heroes, has something changed? Was it a little different from me, who started thinking about losing to a monster?
‘Our Ayun… I guess I saw it wrong, right? If the monster I have to deal with in the future is Ayun….’
I gradually lost confidence in my walking and my body also became atrophied. He folded his hands in front of his chest, shrugged his shoulders, and looked around anxiously.
‘…If the monster is really Ayun… Then I really…’
Despite his desire to go back immediately, his feet moved forward as if they had received inertia. I ended up going into the building.
‘Can I kill you?’
The moment she entered the building, a solemn and cold air greeted her. It was an eerie atmosphere with a bloody smell somewhere.
“…Well, what does that have to do with anything? “Are you sure you’ll win?”
In contrast to the clean exterior, the interior was extremely desolate. It was closer to a construction site than inside a building. It was not paved, and construction materials such as rebar and square lumber were strewn about.
“It’s dirtier inside… Than I thought?”
It looked like a large corporate building, so I thought it would have a basic environment, but it turned out to be a lazy interior that had given up on even the bare minimum of decoration. Thinking that she would expect an aesthetic sense from a monster, she mocked herself for being foolish and continued on her way.
“And quiet.”
What was unusual was not only the interior scenery. I thought that countless enemies would rush towards me the moment I invaded, but it was so quiet.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were full of soot, as if something had scorched them, and there were traces of something being hit and broken here and there.
“…! No way.”
Did other people attack this building after being moved here as well?
“Yes, yes! “That’s all there is to it!”
Obviously other magical girls are here too. With a goal similar to his own, he advanced to eliminate the monsters. The traces of destruction and silence are proof of that.
“I-I’m not alone…!”
Orange Altair hurried her steps in her joy. She does not fight the enemy alone. I have a colleague.
There are colleagues who are always the subject of comparison, and there are colleagues who are always trusted and relied on. There is a colleague who always covers oneself like a shadow, and there is a colleague who always shines brightly and can be followed.
In the end, I won’t be able to become a hero today either.
Luckily, I can survive today too.
With this ambivalent feeling, Orange Altair quickly moved forward.
As she climbed down the stairs about 10 floors away, a dark shadow followed her.
Orange Altair’s arms were wrapped around her neck as thick as a piece of wood.
“Ugh!”
As her breathing suddenly narrowed, Orange Altair was overcome with fear. But her body took action. The trajectory of the attack unfolded along the ship.
Gathering her magic, she created an arrow, held it in her hand like her dagger, and stabbed her in the back.
“aaah!”
With her screams, the tightening around her neck weakened. She didn’t let go of this gap. She quickly turned around, raised her foot, and plunged it into the spot where her arrow had lodged. The arrow went deeper.
This is not an ordinary arrow, but something closer to a bomb.
Now, one last shot. As she was about to detonate her arrows, she got a good look at the face of her assailant.
“…People?”
“I am a proud member of the Argo family!”
What I saw was not a monster, but something very close to a human being. Just a muscular adult male. I think he’s around late 30s. He could feel the starlight, but it was very weak. Even though he was writhing in pain, he proudly declared that he was a monster.
“I am a proud member of the Argo family… Ugh!”
“Sister Altair!”
Soon his face was trampled by someone’s foot. Cute leather shoes. It was Red Vega’s.
“Ve, Vega! “Why is this person…”
“There is no time to explain! “There’s no need to worry about that!”
Red Vega did not show the slightest sense of guilt despite trampling on people. The cold gaze that seemed to be looking at her bug was all she paid attention to that person.
After all, the joy of having a friend was short-lived, Orange Altair’s right hand was grabbed by Red Vega.
She quickly ran inside the building. The magical power I felt from her was minimal. She looked exhausted, as if she had just fought a fierce battle with someone.
“Run away quickly!”
“Running away from what? Ah, why are you guys here…”
“What can I say! “It’s the monster that attacked us!”
Orange Altair’s words brought to mind the image of a creepy monster. That fearsome monster who controlled winds so powerful that he could treat a typhoon as nothing more than a breeze.
Well, if he is also a member of the Argo family, it is natural for him to come back.
“Well, but why are those people…?”
“That thing isn’t even human!”
“What?”
“Oh, let me correct that. “They are very bad criminals!”
“…What do you mean?”
“Jiknyeo, come here!”
“Yes!”
White Davih beckoned from beyond the alley, and Red Vega quickly hid inside the alley he beckoned to. Orange Altair was also there.
And where they passed, a wind as sharp as a knife blew. The wind sliced the concrete as lightly as tofu.
White Davich quickly created a barrier made of her corpse to block the wind. She did and she started moving again.
“Phew, I’m alive!”
“Why, why are you running away like that? “With skills like yours, you can be like a monster…”
Orange Altair could not understand. Why would someone as strong as her run away from a monster?
“Well, I’ll explain quickly, so listen carefully! The first thing I want to tell you about is the person you defeated earlier. Those people are voluntarily following the Argo family. In fact, they are enemies.”
Voluntary. They are different from the people I saw on the island earlier. They considered being kidnapped by a monster a pain, so why do they follow a monster?
“Why, why?”
“Wakarimasen (I don’t know)! The only thing is, it is not brainwashing! But that’s not important now!”
Red Vega continued calmly.
“And secondly, you can’t defeat that monster.”
This was practically a death sentence for Orange Altair.
“You, you can do it….”
“No. Because that monster.”
I thought it would be different for them. If, unlike me, they are bright and talented…
But it wasn’t.
“He is immortal. I won’t die. I didn’t even know that and I wasted so much magical power by attacking. “I wonder if we can get closer with the firepower we have now…”
Red Vega muttered indignantly and then laughed bitterly.
“Plus, I’m so f*cking strong! Oh, I’m sorry. Uhm, everyone else was scattered because of that strong wind. “Once we get together again, we will be able to discuss things, but as things stand now…”
“…Okay, then.”
“Hi! “It’s just as you thought!”
White Davich nodded her head.
The enemy is not just monsters, but humans who are with monsters. There’s an immortal monster there.
There is only one opponent that cannot be killed.
“We were chased! Ha ha ha ha ha! “You have to think about solving it or something!”
