Chapter 237 - Full of Agony (10) - End of Part 1

Deathbringer huddled numbly inside the tent. The Inquisitor lay before him, still unconscious. He had no idea how much longer she intended to sleep.

“Please, wake up soon...”

He knew it was no thing to say to someone who had suffered as much as the Demon Knight. Yet he could not bring himself to wish her a longer rest. After all, the Inquisitor was the only one who could meaningfully change their situation now.

“Even two Great Sages can only hold them off for so long...”

The moment the Demon Knight not only woke but declared that he would accept any verdict, the dispute had grown fierce. And naturally, the prevailing opinion was to carry out his execution.

All the more so because, though both Great Sages defended him, neither could offer adequate evidence or justification. Even the Lord was coming around to the view that, since the man himself had awakened and consented, surely that was good enough.

“Damn it...”

But did they really think a death was acceptable simply because they had no grounds to prevent it and the person concerned submitted to it? Could a decision made after being driven into such a corner even be called his own choice?

Yes, the Demon Knight was dangerous. But they had all survived thanks to that dangerous power.

“I'm even starting to hope that insufferable bastard succeeds...”

If Meister, who had only just met the Demon Knight, managed to persuade him, Deathbringer would surely feel bereft.

But that was fine. As long as the Demon Knight did not die like this, as long as he could avoid such a miserable end... Deathbringer would accept even proof that he meant absolutely nothing to the man.

That would be fine...

SWISH

Someone entered then. It was Berserker, carrying the Archmage on her back.

Perhaps it was because she had spent days rushing everywhere without proper rest. The air about her was unusually subdued, as cool and heavy as the air before dawn.

“You're back... What's wrong with the mage Boss?”

“I found him collapsed from overwork. The healers attending him looked exhausted too, so I simply brought him to you.”

Deathbringer fell silent for a moment. There was nothing he could bring himself to say.

“Let me take him.”

With Berserker's help, he laid the Archmage beside him. The body, so light for its size, weighed all the more heavily on Deathbringer.

The fur made it less obvious, but he seemed to have lost even more weight.

“Where's the turtle?”

“... Sleeping over there.”

“I see.”

With the Inquisitor and Archmage lying side by side, their sizable bodies filled half the tent. Once Deathbringer and Berserker sat down to one side, it was even more crowded. There was no room left inside.

The two naturally settled into crouches, then stretched out their legs so they crossed each other's.

“... What's going to happen to us now?”

“Who knows? I imagine the only thing that will change is whether the Demon Knight is here.”

Who knows? Wasn't that the most important issue of all?

Deathbringer raised his head at her words, wondering whether Berserker perhaps felt nothing about the Demon Knight's fate.

“... Warrior Boss, are you all right with the Knight Boss dying?”

But the moment he asked, Berserker lifted her head. Her somber eyes said more than any number of answers.

“I know he does not deserve to die that way.”

That quiet remark summed it all up.

Deathbringer lowered his head again. Misery tore the heart within his chest to shreds.

“Mmm.”

Just as they were about to sink into sorrow, however, a groan changed everything. Both had been about to close their eyes and dwell on the silence; now their heads whipped around.

* * *

Facing a pitch-black world, the Inquisitor understood instinctively. This place, this place was God's...

“O God.”

She recalled receiving the divine oracle before setting out on her journey as the Hero.

It had been like this then, too. Everything around her had been black, and within that utter darkness she could see only herself.

And God, God... had left her only commands, allowing no reply.

“This lowly servant dares to ask.”

Had she offered nothing but obedience to those one-sided words back then?

Had she never dared harbor a single question because the black and white of her teachings were so clear that there was nothing to reconsider, because she was a frog in a well who thought what she had learned was the whole world, because obedience was easier than doubt, submission easier than distrust?

“Why was it me?”

But things were different now.

Before God could speak, she resolved to seek answers to the questions she had carried with her.

It was the courage of someone who had learned that asking questions was not the same as showing disrespect, that harboring doubts did not mean withholding worship, and that the world was not divided into black and white.

“Why was it him?”

It was the prayer of a mortal who had realized that there was so much she wanted to save, and that her strength was so terribly inadequate.

“Why did Bemurhen...”

Now she needed answers from an all-knowing, all-powerful God.

Why had someone as inadequate as her been chosen as the Hero?

Why did that devoted man have to suffer?

Why had the people of this city had to die without God's care?

Why, why...?

“O God, please grant me an answer...”

[────]

“...?”

[──Go─]

At that moment, a voice rang through her mind. No. It was not a voice. If anything, it was closer to written words seeping in through her ears. Or something more fundamental—

[Go── north─]

A glimmer.

Had it been like this last time? As she searched her memory, the Inquisitor saw it, too. A light rose in the world of nothing but darkness. Perhaps it had fallen instead. Or come into being. Or something hidden had only now become visible.

Or something that had been there all along had finally opened its eyes.

[Go to─ the north.]

Thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps countless eyes looked down at her. From every patch of darkness, above her head, before her, at her feet.

[Seek yo─ answer th─re.]

The world, nature, the unknown.

That which humanity must forever hold in awe was watching her.

[... And─ the one who has lo─ the way ──.]

The darkness shattered, and the world grew bright.

* * *

“Hah!”

The Inquisitor's eyes flew open. The mustiness of stale air invaded her nose and mouth. There was a little warmth, perhaps for the patients' sake.

“Softie!”

“You're awake.”

The warmth gently filled her lungs, but it did not immediately restore clarity to her mind. She took several more steadying breaths, her eyes roving around.

An oil lamp hung to one side of the tent illuminated the faces around her.

Deathbringer and Berserker stood there unharmed, while the Archmage slept soundly to one side. Those three.

Once she had checked all their faces, a worry she had not even realized she carried eased a little. Now, if she could only confirm the Demon Knight's safety, almost all her concerns would be laid to rest.

Her expression brightened without her noticing as she spoke.

“All three of you... survived.”

But when she opened her mouth, her voice came out rough.

It sounded remarkably like an old woman's, a most unfamiliar sensation. She sat up, bringing a hand to her throat.

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Not bad, ahem. Though I'm a little stiff.”

Her body did feel somewhat stiff, as though she had not moved in a long time. But a little movement would likely resolve that, so she could hardly call it a problem.

“More importantly, what's the situation?”

Far more important than her physical condition was how things had changed while she slept.

Wondering how she had survived, what had happened to the city, and where the Demon Knight was, she hurriedly pressed the two for answers.

For the moment, she set aside the oracle she had heard in her dream. It would do no harm to relay that later.

“Since all three of you are unharmed, things can't be entirely bad—”

“... Well.”

Contrary to her expectations, however, their expressions began to stiffen as she pressed them. It was quite different from the reaction she had hoped for.

“... Is it that bad?”

“... Depends on how you look at it.”

I see. So that was how things stood.

But she could not simply remain ignorant and steeped in anxiety. The Inquisitor straightened and waited for an explanation.

Soon, Deathbringer's calm voice filled the tent.

“... So reinforcements have arrived, and there's finally some breathing room?”

“To sum it up, yes.”

“Hah.”

Surprisingly, however, the answer she had taken the time to obtain was better than she had expected. After all, they had avoided a future in which everyone was slaughtered, and all the threatening demons—Greed and the unidentified turtle—had been eliminated.

Given that everyone could have died in the worst case, this outcome was almost the best they could have hoped for. It was good news.

“And yet the man who made such an immense contribution to saving the city is locked up while they discuss executing him?”

Except for one thing. The treatment of one single person.

“Take me to him.”

“... You're going?”

“Of course I'm going. What else would I do?”

She would not deny that sacrificing the few for the many was efficient. If one person made everyone else uneasy, she thought it conceivable that some restrictions might be placed upon that person.

But understandable or not, was that truly right? Did the fact that their current situation was unavoidable make it just?

“Killing someone on the pretext of a mere possibility is no different from saying we must kill an able-bodied adult because they might become a criminal. In other words, it's unreasonable. An unreasonable demand from people who don't want to get hurt.”

The Demon Knight, by contrast, had already given everything he had to save the city. That remained true even if he had used a demon's power in the process.

He had somehow succeeded in controlling the demon, and no one had been harmed by him. At this point, there was not a single reason to treat him this way!

“I have absolutely no intention of indulging such an unreasonable demand! Do you understand? I will see to it that his devotion is repaid!”

And so the Inquisitor argued for the Demon Knight's survival as a matter of course. To her, it was a truth that needed no questioning.

“What if he himself wishes to die?”

That was when Berserker, silent until now, spoke up.

“The wishes of others have certainly had a great influence on his current treatment. But even if you stripped away all those opinions, do you really think the Demon Knight would want to live?”

“...!”

“What if he chooses death himself, regardless of what those around him think? What will you do then?”

“Th-that...”

The warrior, whose air had changed considerably from before, listlessly rested a hand on her knee. Her languid face recalled a conversation they had once had.

“Didn't I tell you before? Fate will not wait for you.”

Her forearm lay across her raised knee, hanging as limply as a dead person's.

“... As I told you before, I'll persuade him. Whatever it takes!”

“I see... So that is still your choice.”

Yet she was not dead. The eyes belonging to the owner of that limp arm narrowed. It was the movement of someone who had watched the world long enough to foresee certain things.

“Do as you wish.”

But insight did not move everyone to act. Berserker was no exception.

“Every human has the right to struggle against fate.”

Rather than using her prediction as a pretext to interfere with the Inquisitor, she chose, as always, to watch from the sidelines. The faded gold dimmed as her eyelids closed.

“... Let's go.”

Yet all of it seemed to foretell her failure, leaving the Inquisitor inexplicably uneasy. It was that peculiar anxiety shared by all human beings.

“All right.”

But surely nothing could have happened in the few hours leading up to her awakening?

Deathbringer would never have kept a careless watch over the Demon Knight. Surely he had only returned briefly to their lodgings because it was night.

Surely nothing could have happened in that time.

“Oh, let's stop by the infirmary before we see the Demon Knight. Or is where he's staying closer?”

“No, the infirmary's closer.”

“Then we'll go there first.”

The Inquisitor drew her own conclusions, guided by her common sense.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG

Not even ten minutes passed before she learned how wrong she was.

“The Knight is gone!!”

Amid the bells ringing out all around them, someone shouted.

“The Demon Knight is gone!!”

Berserker had been right.

Fate had not waited for her.

* * *

[“Good grief. How'd the city end up like this?”]

[“I'm hungry.”]

[“Come on, we're almost there... Huh? Aren't those the Knight's companions?”]

[“I'm huuungry.”]

[“Didn't I tell you to wait just a little? But where's the Knight gone?”]

And vegetation began to sprout from the ruined earth.

Is It a Problem If the Protagonist Is Obsessed with Staying in Character? (Serial)

Author │ Hae Inseol

Publisher │ Kim Juhyeong

Published by │ Jple Media Co., Ltd.

Marketing │ Han Jaehyeok

Address │ Room 1101, 11th Floor, Ace Techno Tower 8, 11 Digital-ro 33-gil, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong)

Email │ [email protected]

Website │ http://blog.naver.com/jayplemedia1

ⓒ Hae Inseol 2022

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