Chapter 1, Episode 15: Despair

(Where did I go wrong? What did I do wrong?)

The man’s thoughts were awash with those words.

He was full of confidence just a while ago, but that was all gone now.

It took all he had to run from the enemy that was chasing him from behind.

The man’s name is Karelis. He will turn 34 this year.

He is a staff officer in Bail Narmer Lichtein’s army.

He was once a slave, but he improved himself by developing his knowledge and was set free.

His life was finally on the right track, but he just happened to run into trouble.

And he had so many comrades, too. Where did they all go?

(There were 500 of us. What’s going on?!)

Without so much as landing a single strike, the 500 soldiers were all killed.

If this isn’t a dream, the only monster capable of that would be some sort of spirit.

As soon as he came to that conclusion, the man’s feet stopped.

(… Could it be that he was a spirit?)

He hides in the shadows of the rocks to catch his breathe. It would probably be best that he go report this to Viscount Lichtein after he does so.

While looking around his surroundings, he holds his breath and gathers his thoughts.

(That’s right. There’s no way Dagner would die an unnatural death like that unless that was some sort of spirit.)

Thinking back on it, his body trembles even now.

A young boy had appeared to stop their advance. Dagner tried to get rid of him, but he ended up having his arm torn off.

After that, a ma.s.sacre began. It could not be described in words.

Everyone who went against him was butchered, and those who tried to escape had their heads severed from behind.

There was no expression on the young boy’s face as he effortlessly killed them.

There was nothing there. Not a speck of any emotion at all.

(Why did it turn out like this…? It should have been a simple job. We were just supposed to take the Sixth Imperial Princess’s rear!)

Tremble, tremble—

Even though it wasn’t cold, his body was shaking, and his teeth chattering.

Karelis held his tongue. He mustn’t make a noise, lest the young boy takes notice of him.

Clunk—

He heard the sound of a stone being kicked.

Karelis closes his eyes. The humid air brushes against his cheeks.

He felt he was going to go insane from the intense fear.

(I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.)

However— Despair was not about to let him go.

「… I will give you two choices. Either take your own life, or I take it for you.」

『Eek, p-please, spare me! I don’t know what I did, but I was wrong. So please, let me go!』

The young boy looks down on Karelis with cold eyes as he lowers his head.

『Please. What are you saying I did?! I didn’t do anything! I even lost my comrades! What else do you want me to— gah!』

Karelis was grabbed by his neck and hoisted up.

Wondering where these skinny arms found the strength to do this, this was the point in which Karelis’s mind completely broke.

『Please, I haven’t done anything! Don’t kill me! I don’t want to die yet!』

「You haven’t done anything “yet”. But if I let you go, you might. That alone merits your death. Letting you go might lead to someone’s misfortune. I can’t stand the thought of that.」

『Wh-What the h.e.l.l is that…? You’re going to kill me with that sort of reasoning?! Do you think you’ve become a G.o.d or something?!』

「Yeah… Maybe I am a G.o.d right now.」

『Gah— Mmph!』

The young boy’s glistening blade slashed Karelis’s chest and made him spit up blood.

As Karelis’s consciousness began to fade, he recalled a certain folktale.

It is a very common story which parents read to their children when they are up late.

If you stay up too late into the night—

—”Desperation”* comes to take you away.

(TL note: Kanji is “infinite despair”.)

「What, so you were 「Ogre」 after all?」

Viscount Lichtein’s smile widens as he steps on the head of the man with the scar on his face.

This man showed a level of strength that was different from the other Imperial soldiers when they attacked Fort Alt.

He captured the man alive thinking he would be useful as a slave for a long period of time with his well endowed physique. He was glad he did.

To think that he was that 「Ogre」. It seems fortune is on his side.

「Thanks to you, it seems I’ll be able to capture the Sixth Imperial Princess. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of her in front of you.」

『Gah!』

Viscount Lichtein shouted at the crimson haired girl as he kicked Dios’s face.

「If you wish for me to return this man unharmed, surrender quietly!」

They couldn’t tell from her expression, but seeing as how she had stopped moving, the soldiers knew she was stirred.

Just one more push… Thinking this, Viscount Lichtein swung his sword down on Dios’s arm.

『Ugh!』

The severed arm flies high into the air and spins around before it hits the ground.

『Gaaaaaah!』

Dios grit his teeth and endured the pain.

He had lost his arm. It wouldn’t have been strange for him to have lost consciousness from the pain.

Fresh blood gushes out. Viscount Lichtein nods his chin at a subordinate.

「Stop the bleeding.」

「Yes, sir!」

Immediately, the subordinate takes out a piece of cloth and wraps it around Dios’s shoulder.

He stabs the fallen arm, swings it up vigorously, and throws it before the crimson haired girl’s feet.

「Sixth Imperial Princess, your precious subordinate is going to die if you don’t hurry and treat him! Ahaha, hahahahaha!」

Now, I don’t care whether you charge or surrender. Let me see you take some sort of action.

Viscount Lichtein saw the image of the Sixth Imperial Princess crying out in his head.

He feels a sense of pleasure from the thought alone.

I’ll torment you, violate you, and treat you like trash. I’ll show the entire Empire your crying figure.

Viscount Lichtein is unable to hold back his smile as he imagines that near future.

But that soon came to an end.

『Your highness, Celia Estreya Elizabeth von Grantz!』

Dios shouted.

「Hmm?」

Viscount Lichtein looks down on Dios puzzled.

『Fight on! Even if I am to die, my soul is with the Grand Grantz Empire! It is with you! Fulfill your dream! Fulfill the grand dream you once spoke of!』

「You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, what are you saying?」

『I will offer my soul to the twelve G.o.ds of Grantz if that dream will come true!』

「Shut his mouth!」

『Mmph!』

He kicked Dios’s face, but he didn’t so much as flinch.

Viscount Lichtein draws back, overpowered by the sharp glint in Dios’s eyes.

Dios spits out a ma.s.s of blood and continues.

『The road you will take is grim, and there are likely many hards.h.i.+ps awaiting you! But you absolutely must not stop! Cross over the mounds of corpses and reach your goal! Push through with your mighty rule!』

「Enough with your useless prattle!」

『Gah!』

Dios is kicked in the shoulder where his arm use to be, and falls to the ground.

After looking down on him with indignation, Viscount Lichtein immediately looks toward the Sixth Imperial Princess.

She was moving behind the iron wall.

「Wait! Do you not care what happens to this guy?!」

He grabbed Dios’s hair and lifted his face in a panic.

But she had disappeared into the shadows of the cliffs and could no longer be seen.

『Hehe, that’s too bad. Go ahead and kill me already. The princess will not become your slave.』

「… I see. Then I’ll just take her by force. I’ll make sure of her downfall.」

He slams Dios’s face to the ground and vigorously stomps down on him over and over again.

He continues to relentlessly swing his heel down to let out his frustration at the fact that Dios didn’t so much as groan.

「Hmph, you can watch in silence from the other world as your dear princess is defiled.」

Viscount Lichtein cuts off Dios’s head which had completely stopped moving, and tosses it before his subordinate’s feet.

「Put it on display. Make sure they have a good view of it.」

As if he had lost all interest, Viscount Lichtein doesn’t even glance at the head. He raised his blood soaked sword and shouted out toward the battlefield.

「All troops, attack!」

「Let’s show them what we’re made of! Protect the princess at all costs!」

Tris’s angry voice pierces through the cliffs and rings throughout.

Without saying a word, the heavy infantrymen bang their s.h.i.+elds.

Without any instructions, the archery unit begins to fire their arrows and take the lives of their enemies.

Behind them, was Liz with her head hung low.

Beside her was Cerberus, lying down quietly

Her eyes are red and swollen with pain.

There were no traces of the once vivacious young girl.

(Hiro…)

She recalls the young boy with the kind face.

It was doubtful that Hiro knew how rea.s.suring his existence was on this journey.

The mysterious young boy who came along without even knowing the situation.

The kind hearted young boy who stuck with them until the end, without so much as complaining.

When he said he would fight together with her, she almost embraced him from sheer joy.

(… I wish I could have apologized.)

She no longer has any will to fight.

She can’t bear the thought of anyone else dying.

She could count on her fingers the number of surviving personal soldiers who had accompanied her.

And even they would likely be annihilated in short time.

(Hiro… I’m tired.)

She hugs her knees, buries her face between them, and rejects the world.

With her tears already dried up, she closes her eyes to fall asleep.

Her consciousness begins to fade so much that she doesn’t even care about the tumult of the battlefield.

This is why she didn’t notice.

—A change had occurred in the raging battle.

On the wasteland where sunlight was glaring down, within a cloud of dust of hot air and blood, a ma.s.s of a deep darkness swoops down onto the surface of the battlefield like a drop of rain.

「That」 which fell from the sky succeeded in opening a distance between both sides.

Everyone stops fighting and looks suspiciously at 「that」.

His lacquer like and charming black hair was dancing in the wind.

His eyes had a cold truth to them, and was letting off a clear, black light.

The young boy who wore clothes that seemed to be an embodiment of darkness itself, stood silently surveying the enemies.

「….」

The young boy lightly swings the silver sword in his hand.

A gentle wind slipped through the enemy forces of the dark skinned soldiers.

In the blink of an eye, a spray of blood rises from a large number of troops.

It didn’t take long for it to envelop the entire field.

All the soldiers who were bathed in the blood of their comrades looked baffled.

Even after seeing their fellow soldiers fall, their thoughts were frozen. They couldn’t comprehend what had happened.

Why is there blood falling on me? What’s going on here? I don’t understand.

Although time had stopped for everyone on the battlefield, the young boy was the only exception. He slowly began to walk.

Without even looking, the young boy swings his sword to the side, and the head of an enemy soldier, who was looking on dumbfounded, went flying.

He twists his body, and using that force, his sword brings down the skulls of two enemy soldiers.

Before the blood sprays out, he took one step forward and cut down an enemy. He then took another step and slayed three more.

He switches his silver sword to his left hand, picks up a spear, and casually throws it.

As if shooting through an apple, it effortlessly pierces through the necks of four enemies.

He stabs the throat of a bewildered enemy with the sword in his left hand, then cuts off the head of another one next to him as he gently swings his sword.

At this point, any human would return to their senses.

The enemy troops let out a roar.

It was loud enough to blow away the young boy’s body.

『Wh-Who are you, b.a.s.t.a.r.d?!』

「Sh…!」

The s.h.i.+ning blade slices through the air, severing the torso of the enemy soldier. He falls to the ground with a rasping sound.

『Urah!』

「Ah!」

He leaps towards the enemy who was swinging his spear down, and stabbed him with his sword.

Using the momentum as he pulls his sword out, the young boys reaps the life of two enemies. He then kicks the ground and leaps into the air.

Thump, thump—

A number of javelins were thrown back to the soldiers who threw them.

The young boy somersaults and dances back to the midst of the throng of enemies.

「Haa!」

He swings his arm multiple times and carves cross figures.

He produces a number of white lines in the air, and without even having the time to feel pain, the enemies around him all turn into corpses.

As if crus.h.i.+ng ants, he indifferently and quite effortlessly trampled over the enemy army.