Chapter 683

Last episode - Red Thread

There are writings that can only be written in blood.

There are also drawings that must be drawn in blood.

That was the case with the Demon King's empire.

After the Gate incident, the Demon King declared a new empire.

There were those who believed in the Demon King, but there were also those who did not.

Thus, there was division.

The division scattered their seeds and they sprouted.

There were several wars.

The seeds of division were not lost, but were scattered somewhere.

The important thing was that the Demon King's empire never suffered a defeat.

If you ask if there was no prosperity and reconstruction, that was not the case.

Despite the continued division and conflict, the world was recovering civilization.

So, sometimes faltering but ultimately moving forward in the flow of history.

5 years of the New Empire.

-Sarac

In a forest that has become a sea of blood.

Ellen was looking around at scattered corpses.

She looked at the pieces of monsters that were neither human nor animal.

As if thinking deeply about something.

As if trying to estimate their original form.

Ellen took out a notebook and wrote something down.

She wrote and even drew simple pictures.

Pictures she had never drawn in her life, but Ellen had become familiar with them.

But what was the reason for drawing these pictures?

There were monsters that were symmetrical, but they all looked different. There were many with strange, terrible, and unfamiliar appearances.

Recording each individual monster by drawing them was actually meaningless during the Gate incident.

Yet Ellen did it.

Ellen, who had been struggling in the stinking forest, put the notebook in her backpack and walked somewhere.

The sun was setting.

Ellen knew that the night of the forest and mountains would come quickly.

* * *

-Tadak, Tuk

Night had fallen, and Ellen was sitting in front of a campfire.

Like the fire chasing away animals, she sometimes chased away monsters.

But it was actually meaningless.

Just as there were monsters afraid of fire, there were also monsters fascinated by it.

So, having a campfire at night in a deserted area could be dangerous or not.

It could be meaningless or meaningful.

So the conclusion was simple.

It was better to light a campfire because it had the definite advantage of driving away the cold.

That was one of the many insights Ellen had gained during her long wandering life.

Killing monsters in a deserted area.

Ellen could kill monsters, but she couldn't eradicate them.

The time when monsters poured out of the warp gate was over.

But if you ask if there were no dangerous days for 5 years, that was not the case.

Many monsters had dangerous attack methods, and that was sometimes fatal for Ellen.

She had wandered more after the Gate incident.

It's hard to say it was just because of the monsters. Ellen had experienced more difficult situations in her life, such as starving or getting sick from eating something wrong. However, she has come to realize that her body can withstand even mildly toxic substances. Of course, she never ate unknown monster meat. Ellen takes out her notebook, which is not just one but several, and flips through the pages under the light of the campfire. She has been writing in these journals for some time, feeling a strong sense of obligation to do so. Sometimes she adds annotations to the pages, and she has visited human settlements to buy more notebooks and pens. Ellen has gained knowledge of what she can eat without getting sick, but she doesn't remember the last time she slept or ate properly. She has survived on minimal food, sleep, and water. Sometimes she has gone days without food when she couldn't find any in a certain area. She has fought not only monsters but also hunger. If she didn't have such a strong body, she would have died of starvation long ago. Although she lives a life far from civilization, she occasionally visits human cities or towns. However, she has to hide her identity and can't stay for long because she has no money. Ellen and the fallen emperor Berthus de Gradias are the most wanted people in the empire, and even those who support the emperor hate them. Therefore, she cannot stay in human cities for long. Even if she joins the anti-empire forces, it's still dangerous. Everywhere she goes, she can't feel at ease. Of course, there are no incidents where her identity is exposed just by briefly visiting settlements. As long as she hides her identity and appearance, it's fine. She just can't stay for long. Although she can't always observe it, Ellen occasionally sees civilization slowly coming back to life. The adventurer guild that Ellen once briefly experienced still exists. However, it has changed to a form similar to a mercenary business where they kill monsters and get paid, rather than exploring the Darklands, which is no different from a vast ocean. The fact is that the public order in various places is unstable, and there cannot be enough troops to clean up the entire continent. So individuals solve the mission of killing monsters and receive compensation from the empire. That was the current form of the adventurer guild. If Ellen had received money for killing monsters, she might have been buried in money. No, she would have to doubt whether the empire had the ability to pay her that much money in the first place. However, to avoid the empire's eyes, living in a remote area, registering as a new adventurer to earn money is impossible. It is also impossible to create a fake identity because her face is too well known. So, although there are some corners to earn money, it comes with too much risk. When she was really in a hurry, she disguised herself as an anonymous adventurer and took a lot of evidence of monster extermination to earn money. As the adventurer guild's characteristic is to pay for killing monsters, if there is overwhelming evidence of monster extermination, they have no choice but to pay. Of course, if she did such a thing, the adventurer guild would go crazy, asking who that person was. There were many times when she just took the money and ran away before the commotion got worse, and it was actually a dangerous thing. In the end, wandering the wilderness like this is very dangerous and harsh. Returning to where humans live is just as dangerous as wandering the wilderness, if not more so. Whether it's the Demon King or the Empire, there are places where people who wander around are not interested, and there are even friendly villages for those who wander around. There were times when she helped with small things and received a place to sleep or a little food. There were even people who didn't know who Ellen Arthurius was, aside from what she looked like. There are still places where one can detach from the world. Ellen, who had chewed on all the roots, leaned against a tree trunk with no energy and looked up at the sky. She had lived without a circle during her time at the temple. Even this much food was enough to survive, so maybe eating so much back then was not really wasting food. "...." Ellen smiled faintly at herself for having such thoughts. There was someone who gave her noodles every day, asking why she ate so much. And yet, there was always someone who made her something if she wanted to eat something. Ellen shook her head for a while. She couldn't help but obsess over the topic she had abandoned and left behind. What if she had just stayed? But the reality of the present tells her otherwise. Bounty hunters are wandering around to catch Ellen and Berthus, while some still idolize Ellen as a hero and hope that she will one day save humanity. Just her existence alone is a burden of war. Even if she didn't exist, wars have already happened multiple times, and if she did, even bigger wars would have occurred. The empire may have crumbled before it was completed. There can only be one sun. The existence of two suns alone would set the world on fire. And in fact, past events have no meaning. Even the fact that she is currently wanted has no meaning. Even if everything else is gone, reality exists. The Demon King got married. And a long time has passed. Ellen couldn't hold back her thoughts and closed her eyes. The wind was cold. The next day, Ellen gets up from her spot after tending to the fire and sets off to kill monsters in the wilderness. She walks through the forest, tracking the monsters and using her skills to estimate their size, behavior, and location. Ellen is a skilled adventurer, and she sometimes finds it amusing that her brother, Lagan Arthorius, was a legendary adventurer who became a hero, while she became an adventurer first and then a hero. Ellen checks her notebook and follows the trail, sometimes losing it but always finding it again. There was a time when I just killed monsters without thinking. Wherever there were monsters on the continent, I just killed them, killed them, and killed them. Then someday, I could hunt the last monster. I would save people from monsters. I could achieve that goal. However, the process is not easy, and it is very difficult to eliminate every single hidden monster. Therefore, the number of monsters will decrease and become harder to find. That's why Ellen gradually realized how to track monsters. Overall, it's not much different from hunting. But every hunt has a different prey. Giant monsters are easy to spot from afar. However, regardless of their size, monsters are deadly. So when she sees a giant monster, she runs to kill it, and she also deals with small and medium-sized monsters. She finds and kills hidden monsters as well. In recent months, Ellen has been feeling a suffocating fear. Even though the food supply is running low, she prioritizes finding monsters over finding food. She takes out her notebook more often than usual because of this. Ellen moves carefully but quickly, passing by footprints and broken branches. Footprints. Footprints that match the drawings in her notebook. She follows them. Monsters usually look different from each other. There were many monsters that couldn't even be seen as a form of life. Of course, there are many similar ones. Some have wings or are giant monsters. But a perfect match is very rare. It can't be said that there are none, but the color or horns are slightly different. However, a few months ago, Ellen faced monsters that were a perfect match. Of course, they were not strong monsters. They all fell to the ground, bleeding, and dying. But Ellen felt nauseous with fear in that moment. Since then, Ellen has been searching continuously. Comparing the traces, searching the area, and looking for something. Hoping that there is nothing to find. Hoping that it's just a delusion. She draws pictures, collects traces, and searches. She keeps searching. Hoping that there are also monsters in that form. How much time has passed? When she had been wandering in the forest for over five hours, in the crevice of a hill. -Krrrrr! Ellen heard the low, rough cry of a monster. "......" -Srrrr! Ellen took out Lament and looked at the cave. The monster was staring at Ellen with its red eyes from the crevice of the hill. It was a threat. A threat that meant it would kill her if she approached. But Ellen didn't step back. She slowly approached the monster. -Creak! The closer Ellen got, the more the monster raised its front paws with claws outstretched outside the crevice. The warning and threat grew stronger. But Ellen approached with her eyes wide open. Please, let it not be. As she took another step forward, the creature leaped towards Ellen with its massive jaws filled with hundreds of teeth. Ellen swiftly struck the creature with her weapon, Lament, and it fell lifeless to the ground. It was the same type of monster she had killed many times before, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was different. She had been searching for a specific type of monster and had been plagued by a suffocating fear. As she entered a cave, she discovered a small creature that looked like a shrunken version of the monster she had just killed. Ellen realized that she had not been searching for the monster itself, but for its offspring. The fact that there were multiple creatures of the same type meant that they were capable of reproducing and that the monster population was not decreasing. Ellen was filled with despair as she realized that the monsters would never truly disappear from the world.