Chapter 41: Epilogue I & II (1/2)

≪Epilogue I≫

The frantic and frenzied night was over. Dawn had broken and the night had turned into day.

I had in my arms, or rather, dragged behind me two swords and something big wrapped in a cloak.

Just as planned, I was granted an audience with the king.

I had returned once to the camp, replaced my tattered poncho and combat uniform and cleaned myself up before coming before the king. After all, I had merely watched over the battle. I told myself that as well.

In the audience room, the people that I had them summon were present.

On the right hand side,

The Margrave and Luxgaru, knight-companion of the hero.

On the left hand side,

Otou-san, whom I had arranged beforehand to tell the same story. And Rana, Ea, Shuna and Bel.

The looks that my party members were giving me hurt. I was keenly aware of the voices in their hearts calling for me to explain. It pained my conscience greatly.

For now, I didn’t let myself relax and braced myself for the last move.

After a deep breath, I weaved a web of words.

「King Lemuria, I would like to express my extreme gratitude for granting me an audience today on short notice, and apologize beforehand for showing you unsightly things. However, I beg you to please defer my punishment until after you’ve heard the gist of the matter」

Alright, said the king with a small nod.

Lanseal was standing quietly next to the king. Her face looked calm, but her tail was extremely bristled.

By the way, the idiot prince had incidentally been sent away to the left continent for training.

「It was something that happened three days ago. My party came across a certain monster. It was a terrifying enemy that nullified the regeneration point. Though we wounded it, we ended up letting it escape. In addition, in view of its characteristics, we followed Medimu-dono’s suggestion and did not report it to the Guild. We decided to chase the enemy with a select few of elites.

The search was extremely difficult, and Ryutetto, who collaborated with us, lost her life.

We searched all over inside the dungeon, found a unmapped hidden passage, and the place where it led to was the ruined dungeon in the plains to the west of the kingdom.

Surprisingly, the Odoriji spire and the ruined dungeon are connected.

Though we cornered and subjugated the enemy there, there was a boss. It was big and strong. And once again, it was a monster that nullified the regeneration point.

Using the connections of my friend, we secretly got the help of Varner・Kalbezzo, the beast hunter hero.

And then, my friend, Irvin・Foz・Gasim, the two of them…...」

For an instant, the words got stuck in my throat.

At that moment, no, at last, I admitted that Irvin had died.

「…...hunted down and killed this beast at the cost of their lives」

I stripped away Varner’s cloak, revealing his head inside it.

It was an ugly beast of unknown origin.

I saw the women grimace. As for the Margrave, his knees gave way and he collapsed to the ground. Only Luxgaru was staring at it with wide eyes.

Varner’s name was brought up for the sake of achieving a compromise. The knights of St. Lyridias probably wanted to hide the fact that a member of their organization had ended up like this.

Dying in a fight against a monster to protect an allied nation. It’s quite a heroic end, isn’t it?

Compared to a death that’s unknown to anyone and caused by a small fry cutting off all of your heads and gouging out your heart while you cursed the world, it's truly a death befitting a hero.

「Medimu, is what he said true?」

「Without a doubt, it was a battle that lived up to the name of hero. For both of them」

Otou-san approached the head and placed Varner’s symbol on top of it. I added Irvin’s symbol and the two swords that belonged to them.

「King Lemuria, I would like to put forward a suggestion」

「Hmm, let's hear it」

This was the real issue at hand.

「My friend Irvin has an imprisoned elder sister. For his meritorious deed of subjugating the monsters, in King Lemuria’s name, please ask for a pardon from Elysium――」

「Hold your tongue! It’s not the place of a mere adventurer to ask a favor from the king!」

Lanseal yelled angrily at me. Aren’t you overacting a little?

King Lemuria restrained Lanseal.

「It’s fine. He fought for Lemuria’s sake at the risk of his life. You could call him the hero who saved the country. I’ll ask for a pardon in my name. In addition, it’ll be small, but we’ll hold a funeral for Varner・Kalbezzo………...Luxgaru?」

Luxgaru had pulled out his sword.

「Ah」

I said in a foolish-sounding voice.

I had been completely caught napping.

That guy was a knight with standing. I had taken it for granted that there was no way he would do something like draw his sword in front of the king of an allied nation.

It wasn’t just me. Even Otou-san was only at the stage of putting his hand on the handle of his sword.

Awfully slowly, I looked around.

I could only look. My body wasn’t catching up at all.

Shuna, Lanseal, and Ea were also starting to move.

I met Rana's eyes.

I'm sorry, I’m dead.

Did my thought get through to her in that instant, I wonder? That's my only concern. The blade closed in on me. Without a doubt, there’s nothing I can do to prevent it from cutting off my head.

There’s not even time for me to try anything.

It’s already just one blink away.

Is this really how it ends for me?

With good grace, I closed my eyes.

A metallic sound rang out.

The smell of hot iron filled my nose.

「………………」

My head had not been cut off.

When I opened my eyes, Luxgaru's sword had been stopped.

By Varner's sword.

The sacred sword that flew freely and killed had protected me, the person who had killed its owner.

What’s going on?

Luxgaru broke out in a smile and lowered his sword. No, he threw it away. The magic sword also fell to the ground at the same time.

As if grasping something from the heavens, he extended both his arms.

「Ha, hahaha, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!」

Luxgaru laughed heartily, seemingly delighted from the bottom of his heart. He was just like a child who had found treasure.

Everyone was struck motionless by the bizarre sight.

「My god, oh Lyridias! I’ve finally found it! I tricked my friend and conspired against my teacher! I sacrificed even the hero that I served! Finally! Finally! I’ve found the linchpin to Elysium’s salvation! Our curse! This crafty hero is the very one who will! Please, my god! To that body of his―――」

「Have you gone mad, you fool?」

Luxgaru was shouting deliriously. Behind him stood King Lemuria with his sword raised.

One slash.

It cut through Luxgaru’s collarbone and breastbone, and split his heart in two. The blade was pulled out and the return slash cut off his head.

Still smiling, Luxgaru tumbled to the ground.

The blood that had sprayed out spattered onto the beast.

「H,hiiii」

By chance, it stopped after hitting the foot of the Margrave.

「Margrave Winito!」

「Y, yes」

When the king made his power felt with a murderous spirit, liquid flowed out of the Margrave in various ways.

「Inform your country of the atrocities that this knight had committed! Don’t forget that I had to deal with him with my own hand!」

「Yes, yes」

He trembled as he nodded. After that, as if escaping, he left.

To replace him, the guards and the maids, who had heard the disturbance, came in. Seeing the heads of the monster and the knight, one of the women screamed.

The king admonished all of them and gave them instructions to clear up the mess.

The audience room was instantly filled with people.

「Souya, I’ll give you further instructions afterwards. For now, get some rest along with your party members. ………………Thank you for what you’ve done」

「………………Yes. In that case, please excuse me」

I bowed to the king and left the audience room behind me.

Everyone also followed.

Accompanied by Lanseal, I went out into the corridor, which was where my party members came up to me. Rana leapt at me before I had the chance to say anything. Ea also hugged me tightly. I hugged both of them close.

Shuna, who looked close to tears, grabbed my arm.

Bel clung to my back.

My head was embraced by Lanseal, who then got sent flying by Rana’s kick.

「I'm sorry for being late」

Oh, finally,

I’ve returned to the party. I had been able to escape from the painful and long labyrinth.

「Welcome back」

When I heard Rana’s voice up close, tears flowed.

「You’re far too late, Onii-chan」

「I’m sorry」

「That’s right」

「I’m sorry」

I apologized to Ea and Shuna.

「Where’s Zenobia?」

I wasn’t trying to act the fool by asking that. I suspected that she had likely said her goodbyes to everyone skillfully. I had asked in order to confirm that.

「It appears that her father back home got sick. She went back to her country in a hurry. At the end, she said to send her regards to you」

At Rana’s reply, I simply nodded.

It was just like her. A normal reason.

「Dear?」

「Onii-chan?」

「Sorry」

The thing that had been supporting my body broke due to the smell and feel of the sisters. Even though it was shameful, I entrusted my weight to the two of them.

Like the blinking of an eye, my consciousness started to flicker. After all, I had survived after staring death in the face and had been doing repeated lateral jumps back and forth across the line of human limitations, so stamina-wise, I was in a state where I was moving more or less with only my spirit.

I was at the limit of the limit.

「Everyone, Irvin met with an admirable end. Please remember.........only that」

Casually, I let go of my consciousness.

I’m such a fool, but there are people who support me.

In the midst of my relief, I didn't know whose voice it was, but……

「Found it」

…...I felt as if I heard a voice say that.

I couldn’t care less about something trivial like that.

My consciousness simply headed into the comfortable darkness.

To the gentle place that I return to.

≪Epilogue II≫

【Unknown】

From a certain day onward, a rumor started to spread.

From the ruined dungeon a little distance away from the Kingdom of Lemuria, a terrifying monster appeared.

It was said to be a monster that was comparable to a dragon.

Its appearance was so terrifying that the merchant who saw it went mad.

It had hundreds of limbs, a large number of weapons in its hands and sharp claws on its feet. All sorts of people were cut down, had their ears destroyed by its roar and were turned to stone by its stare.

It was a terrifying monster.

Hundreds of people would have died if it had reached Lemuria.

However, it was defeated by an adventurer at the cost of his own life.

His name, Irvin.

Also known as Irvin, the Dragon Scale.

Although there had been many adventurers who had saved Lemuria in times of crisis, none were as brave as him was, as upright as he was, and met their end as knightly as he did.

It was a rumor like that.

It wasn’t something that I had spread.

For some reason or another, I knew who had spread it.

I wondered if she was still in Lemuria. We might have passed each other somewhere without knowing it.

The matter of Irvin’s elder sister was awaiting progress from Elysium.

The center continent was in a state of utter confusion. Amidst that, who knew how much attention they would pay to King Lemuria’s petition. The current me could do nothing but wait.