Act 2-12 - Aftermath

Chapter 12 : Aftermath

After I somehow turned the table against Gaza and killed her, Mani ran toward Edda, took out some bandages and ointment from her bag and started to do first aid on the wound on her abdomen.

「… Thank god. Even though her wound isn’t shallow, it isn’t deep to the point of it being fatal either. Let’s get out of here immediately.」

Hearing that, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Edda didn’t even let go off her enchanted sword even after Gaza stabbed her abdomen.

Her enchanted sword gave a huge status boost in both of Edda’s fighting spirit and magical power.

Thanks to her extremely powerful enchanted sword, Edda narrowly escaped death since her body was strengthened with fighting spirit.

If I was in her position, Gaza would surely have killed me who was already defenseless at that moment.

I sat in front of the corpses of the adventurers who were killed by Gaza,putting my hands together and shutting my eyes as I offered a last prayer for them.

Though two of the three were middle-aged adventurers… one of the three was a youth of the same age as Mani and I.

We collected the enchanted weapons of the three deceased adventurers and Gaza, and marked the place we found in our map.

The enchanted weapons must be returned to the adventurer guild, including Gaza’s double-headed sickle.

Even though the funds and the equipment of these deceased adventurers would be taken over by the army in the name of “investigation”, there was nothing we would gain from opposing the army.

In addition, it was impossible for us to keep quiet about Gaza, we’ve to report this matter to the adventurer guild.

Either way, we would have ended up having to report our finding as soon as the guild side found high tier enchanted tools amongst our finding.

I got this feeling that we would still be in deep shi*t even if we carefully sold the dismantled enchanted weapons.

「I’ll carry Edda-san. Dean, can you help me carry the luggage?」

I nodded in silence to Mani.

The current me could easily defeat any D-rank demon beast even while carrying luggage on my back.

Thus, the three of us managed to leave 《Romburgh’s Underground Ruin》 safely.

We returned to Romburgh city after spendind a night in the nearby village.

I submitted a report about our meeting with Gaza to the adventurer guild, and gave the four enchanted weapons that we picked up from the three adventurers plus Gaza’s corpse.

Though the receptionist had a skeptical look seeing me handing over the enchanted weapons of the adventurers, she finally had no choice but to believe me once I took out Gaza’s 《Forbidden Double-Headed Sickle, Ramiz》.

《Forbidden Double-Headed Sickle, Ramiz》 was a top class weapon amongst the already powerful enchanted weapon of C-rank.

The holder of this powerful enchanted weapon alone was already a rarity amongst the adventurers.

Even Fedor, the former top class adventurer in Romburgh city, had only wielded the weapon of the same level as Gaza, 《Wind Dominator’s Spear; Hail》.

Due to my report, the staff hurriedly arranged a meeting to hear the details from me.

This style of meeting existed due to low number of literacy amongst the adventurers.

Thanks to the training that I received from Mani, there was a time in which I could brag around as one of the few adventurers who could read and write but… honestly, I’ve a little confidence in my own writing.

Since I couldn’t divulge the matter about mine and Edda’s abnormal enchated weapons to the outsider, I modified the story, telling the staff that we defeated Gaza who had already been critically wounded in the previous battle.

The staff had already speculated that there must be another grey cult’s member since the news about Trapezohedron of Dark Radiance had reached the army.

After being released from questioning, I pondered about this matter for a while in the guild building.

There was this unpleasant feeling sticking in my hand after I killed that lunatic woman from the grey cult.

Though the meeting with Gaza was the second time in which I fought with my life on the line after the fight against Fedor, Gaza was the first human I killed.

Maybe the number of lives that I would take for my own survival would only increase from this point onward.

『Is this your first time killing a fellow human, Dean? Do you regret it?』

Beelzebub asked me about my situation.

I replied to Beelzebub after looking around at my surroundings.

「… No, I’ve long since prepared to face this problem, even back during my porter era, I often witnessed the adventurer who hired me killing the thieves right in front of my eyes.」

I mean, I even saw Fedor single handedly slaughter the fake 《Cerberus’ Fangs》 in 《Demon’s Den》.

「… I’m more surprised to find that three adventurers were killed by a single person in frontal combat. There’s even a young man around my age amongst them.」

Gaza was extremely powerful.

It was a fight in which a single mistake might cost Edda, Mani, and mine’s life.

I even almost ran out of odo in the middle of that fight.

「I’ve to become even stronger huh.」

『For a human, I think you’re already growing at a breakneck speed you know? Do you still feel powerless even after reaching this level? try to look on the bright side, at least you don’t need to worry about tomorrow meal anymore.』

I’m well aware that I was the one who killed Gaza.

But, I will not regret it nor will my adventurer’s career be stopped by it.

Someday, I might run out of luck and lose everything.

But, I will definitely leave the slum along with Mani, leaving behind a hardship-filled life.

That dream was still beyond my own grasp for now but, someday, I’ll make it into a reality.

There was a time in which I almost gave up on my dreams during my porter era.

My mother was killed during a demon beast stampede, my father whereabouts and situation was unknown after getting involved in that event, since our family was poor to begin with, I had no money to raise a commission, and his corpse was discovered a while after that.

The army who is always tardy during such situations aside, I even began to lose my faith in the adventurers who didn’t move to save him.

Though heroic adventurers who always come to rescue of the one in need during an emergency almost never exist in reality, I want to believe that they exist somewhere out there.

And yet, the reality that I encountered during my porter era had almost made me give up on my dream.

「Whenever I swing 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》. Though I won’t go as far as thinking that I might be able to use this amazing power to save the world like Sword Saint Zalios, I think that I have to at least use this power to save the one within my arms reach.」

『Hou, such passionate eyes.』

Beelzebub spoke with a teasing tone.

「Well, sorry for being an immature brat… but, I’m still fall behind this sword ability.」

『I don’t mean that, you have become the center of attention you know.』

「…………」

I looked around carefully.

Some passerby was looking at me with a pitying gaze, I was so embarrassed that I didn’t even dare to raise my face.

I’m still far from being able to make the full use of this sword’s ability.

「… At least, please tell me about that sooner.」

『That’s a splendid dream, Dean. have to at least use this power to save the one within my arms reach, is it?』

Beelzebub mimicking my voice perfectly.

This fella has such an interesting side of her huh. Sometimes I forgot that Beelzebub was a devil due to how pitiful her figure has become when it comes to food.

「… Well, seeing how we gain nothing from handing over those enchanted weapons, I guess the dinner tonight will be the black and hard rye bread, weed(coarse and bitter), and poatto(poor potato).」

『W-What’s with that straightforward food ingredients name!? W-Wait a minute, you must be kidding me! You’re just joking right, DEAN? R-I-G-H-T?』

Weed was the name of the plants that grew around these vicinities, on top of having the lowest nutritional values amongst the other herbs, it was bitter and smelled like animal dung.

As for poatto, despite its low nutritional value, bland taste, and earthy smell, it was grown everywhere regardless of the climate, and had strong insect resistance, truly the friend of poor people.

Given a choice I wouldn’t eat both of those but… those two were my staple food from before I met Beelzebub.