Chapter 38 - The Hero's Other Name (2)

On a rainy day, it opened its eyes.

It had no name. It had no form. Perhaps it would be better called a shadow. On a rainy day, a shadow opened its eyes, and the moment it did, it saw the first creature reflected upon it.

CROAK.

It did not know what this creature was. There was much it did not know. Only sound... the sound of rain. Croaking filled the air all around it.

The rainwater smelled sweet.

Like a snake—though it did not yet know what a snake was—it instinctively crawled toward the creature before it. Wriggling, inching along. The creature did not know something was approaching. Unaware, it kept crying out as it gazed up at the rain.

The creature, too, gave off a sweet scent.

It opened its mouth. It happened in an instant. The creature that had been singing so prettily was swallowed into its maw in a single instant.

CROAK!

It had no teeth, so the creature's body was not torn apart. It simply dissolved. Dropping into its belly, settling in its stomach, it slowly melted away.

Rain fell.

By the time the creature in its stomach had dissolved into a soft, shapeless mass, it realized it had grown hind legs. Forelegs, too. What its legs stood upon was earth, and what its legs could not stand upon was sky. Rain joined sky and earth. The world grew a little clearer.

Ah.

The sensation of raindrops falling onto slick green skin and shattering into pieces. Touch. A premonition of life.

CROAK.

It opened its mouth and let out a moan of joy.

CROAK.

Rain fell.

It wanted to live a little longer.

The first time, it took one blow.

SHAAAACK!

My eyes could not even properly follow the attack. Not even after drinking an elixir that stretched time. I had stretched a single second endlessly, but the Demon King's blow was faster than even my lengthened second.

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

One day.

With a black permanent marker, I drew the character for one on my palm. So that even far in the future, I would never forget how many days it had been. Like a prisoner banished to some prison, recording his lost freedom in numbers.

"Zombie."

Yes.

"His swordsmanship itself isn't anything special."

This was a prison. A prison of time.

"It's more like he's just hammering away with ridiculous brute force. Of course, that alone is terrifying. Generally, if you're strong enough, you can smash anything. But..."

"But if I know which direction the attack is coming from, I can dodge it."

"Exactly."

What would happen if I followed the quest normally?

In the previous run, how many soldiers had died on that battlefield swept by torrents of war?

Every soldier who died lost at least twenty remaining years of life. A person who could have lived twenty more years died in vain.

Ten deaths meant two hundred years.

A hundred deaths meant two thousand years.

To save all that time, I had chosen no [Role].

I had simply stood before the Demon King with a single sword in hand.

Then this one body of mine...

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

I would have to steel myself for exile into eternity.

"But the problem is whether you're capable of dodging even if you know the direction. You scrawny little shit! You walking zombie corpse!"

"Oh, shut up. Please."

"Ha ha!"

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

When I returned to that day, I repeated it.

I did not merely repeat it. I went back over the battle I had fought.

I reviewed it.

"You're still bad at handling aura. That's your problem. All you have to do is concentrate aura in your feet and dodge."

"When I try to move while concentrating it in my feet, my stance falls apart."

"That's why you need to channel aura into your thighs, waist, and shoulders, too. Keep it balanced."

"Sure, easy for you to say..."

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

"If you can't do it, kindly drop dead."

"Fuck."

A day.

Another day passed.

"How dare you."

How many times had I faced the Demon King's furious voice already?

"Follow the proper sequence, Hero of the goddess. Coming here without making any choice is insolence. Only one who has inherited the empire's crown..."

"All right, down the hatch again today."

"What?"

I was growing tired of the exchange, so without another word, I drank the elixir first. As time gradually slowed, I charged at the Demon King and swung my blade.

CLANG!

Unfortunately, the Demon King's sword easily blocked my strike.

"You..."

"The Hero cuts down the Demon King."

[You have died.]

"The Demon King cuts down the Hero."

[You have died.]

"What more is there to say?"

"..."

"Come, Demon King."

[You have died.]

"I am the empire's sword."

"Very well!"

[You have died.]

"Then prove it before me!"

[You have died.]

"Show me your proof!"

"Yes."

[You have died.]

"I will show you."

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

This world had stopped.

In the stopped world, only my sword bore witness to time.

My sword was its sole hour hand.

For a single second to pass in this world, my sword first had to carry on for one more move.

I was merely a sword that lived for one second.

Yet, resting upon that one second of mine, this world drew one more breath.

Just as even a flood seeking to reach the foot of the sky must begin with a single flowing drop,

Even if I wished to live for eternity, I could only live one second at a time.

I lived my life.

"Well done, Kim Gongja!"

One day.

"My goodness! We're going to clear the stage in less than an hour!"

Another day.

"Probably fewer than forty hunters died!"

And at some point...

"Maybe even fewer than that... Ah! It couldn't be better!"

The Witch's words began to change, little by little.

The eleventh-floor stage.

The quest where I took the Black Dragon leader's hand, teleported with her, and smashed the boss monster. It was like a rite of passage I had to undergo to repeat the day. After dying a day and living a day against the Demon King, I found that the course of the eleventh floor was gradually changing, too.

Little by little.

"Well done, Kim Gongja! My goodness! We're going to clear the stage in less than fifty minutes! And your suggestion to work with that senior shield soldier, Tormund, and reinforce the right flank was perfect! Probably fewer than thirty hunters died!"

But surely.

"Less than forty minutes! Probably fewer than twenty hunters died!"

A little faster.

A little more efficiently.

A little more lethally.

With each repetition of the day, the Witch's face grew a little more excited. Her voice grew brighter. Yesterday's Witch, smiling as she said only twenty people must have died, looked a little happier than the Witch a year ago, who had said only fifty must have died.

"Ah..."

I died a day.

"Unbelievable... Well done, Kim Gongja! All we did was heal that knight Jeshua as you said and have him help fight the golem, and, ah, perhaps fewer than ten people died... To think this is possible. That it was possible. On a battlefield like this, yes. It was possible..."

I lived a day.

"You."

On one of those days, the Demon King asked me a question.

"Why are you doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"I asked why you are smiling."

I smiled.

"Because I'm happy."

My heart throbbed.

"I'm smiling because I'm happy."

The Demon King raised its sword.

"Can something about to die still know happiness?"

"You wouldn't understand. No one would."

"How arrogant, Hero of the goddess."

"Merely modest."

I swung my sword.

"Pitiful thing."

A sword cut through me.

[You have died.]

[Regressing to 24 hours ago.]

But I did not give up.

There was no reason anywhere to give up.

My sword is faster today than it was yesterday.

Tomorrow, it will be faster still.

Because I am living.

Because I am alive.

"..."

That day came without a sound.

The Witch took my hand. She squeezed it tight. She would not know, but countless characters for one hundred had been inscribed in black on my palm. To me, those numbers were like wrinkles that left no trace.

Wrinkles that told me how many days had passed since I was imprisoned here, in this prison of time.

"I just..."

The Witch's voice trembled.

"I just checked, Kim Gongja. Not one..."

Her hand in mine was trembling, too.

"Not one person died."

The trembling became sobs.

"I checked with everyone, even Pantheon, and they said there were none... There are idiots who stupidly took arrows in their arms, but... but even so, they said no one died."

Black Dragon.

The guild that had reigned at the top ever since the Tower opened in this world.

The second-ranked hunter who commanded Black Dragon. The Black Witch had challenged the tenth floor dozens of times. Every attempt had failed. The second-ranked hunter had been defeated, but they said she had still brought every hunter who participated back alive.

That was the kind of person she was.

"Thank you..."

That person rested her face against me.

"Truly, thank you..."

The Witch was crying.

And she was smiling, too.

I wanted to live a little longer.

Yes.

Time flows.

It flows within my heart.

"How dare you!"

As long as my heart beats, I will swing my sword.

"You dare claim you will stop me alone! Without even the empire's aid!"

"That's right."

An immense plain.

In the midst of stopped time and a world frozen still,

With a heart that would not stop and a sword that would not cease, I aimed at my enemy.

"I told you, Heroes are supposed to fight alone."

"Foolish thing!"

The Demon King raged.

It had no name. It had no form. Perhaps it would be better called a shadow. The shadow raised a blood-red greatsword high. Its strike flew toward me, disturbing the air with an ominous shudder.

I dodged.

"You...!"

The next blow, too.

And the one after that.

"My shadow is your malice!"

That was when something changed.

The Demon King swung its red greatsword. That fourth blow, which had barred me from my next new second for nearly a year, was blocked with the sound of shattering glass.

CRASH!

Pierced by shards of light, the charging blade recoiled.

"... Sorry, Kim Gongja."

Someone landed lightly beside me.

Long black hair fluttered gently in the air.

"I tried to sit still in the audience chamber as you asked, but I got restless so quickly."

The leader of Black Dragon.

The Witch smiled, lifting the corners of her lips.

"I felt like I'd die of boredom if I stayed any longer. So I followed you to see what you were doing after asking us for that favor... Hmm. Playing a fun little game all by yourself?"

"Playing Hero."

"Is it fun?"

I smiled, too.

"Feels fucking amazing."

"Well, that does look like a beast worth hunting."

Five mirrors rose into the air.

"I can't let you have all the fun. I'll join in."

"Wow, I've practically got it killed already. You're going to steal my kill now?"

"Didn't you know? Stealing someone else's prey is the sweetest thing in the world."

"Can't argue with that."

Laughter drifted across the desolate plain.

"You wretches..."

The Demon King growled.

Perhaps a being that cannot laugh along when others laugh is what becomes a Demon King.

"Sorry, man."

I waved my sword.

"I was going to fight you alone. But now that I think about it, Heroes really should gang up on the Demon King. It's a method steeped in history and tradition, right? You can understand it as customary practice."

"You seek to hide the heavens with paltry tricks!"

BUBBLE.

The filthy water covering the Demon King's body seethed.

"I will indulge you with my sword no longer!"

Filthy water spilled onto the ground.

As though the fluid flowing inside the Demon King's body were limitless, the filthy water kept pouring over the earth, staining the plain black in an instant.

It was as if a vast shadow had fallen upon the land.

"Hundred ghosts, answer my voice."

BUBBLE. RUMBLE.

The shadow boiled up and spewed foam.

KIRRRRK!

KREEK, KEEEE!

Every bubble of shadow was a monster. The pitch-black fluid took shape.

One bubble became a goblin, another an orc.

An orc shook its head, flinging off the fluid. Once the foam had run away, thousands of monsters stood on the plain, surrounding us.

ROOOAAR!

The beasts howled ferociously.

"This..."

The Witch looked around and furrowed her brow.

"This isn't something we can handle on our own. Sword Star! What are you doing just standing there staring? You could at least help."

"I intended to watch a little longer. It hasn't even been thirty seconds since that young man started fighting the filthy water. Who could have known that filth would summon monsters?"

The Sword Star, who would have watched me for thirty seconds, spoke as he drew his sword.

"You're right. I was planning to last a minute before asking for help myself."

I, who had endured his gaze for more than thirty weeks, answered with a smile.

"Men... Never mind. Kim Gongja, take my hand. We're getting out of here. Sword Star! Get over here, quickly. Don't you see how many there are?"

The Witch held out her hand to me irritably.

"No, it's all right."

But I did not take it.

She knitted her brows in puzzlement.

Instead of answering her unspoken question,

I murmured quietly.

"Summon a Hundred Ghosts."

The Demon King faltered.