Book 7: The First: Chapter to Ending the Demon King: Revealing the Truth behind the Demon King
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Child!
“…?”
Child, my child, why were you so foolish as to trust others? It’s okay even if you don’t trust me; actually, that’s even better. It’s okay even if you kill me or seal me. The most important thing is, don’t trust anybody and don’t trust anyone!
“… Scarlet?” Hearing the word “seal,” I finally understood whose voice this was. In a hurry, I replied, “I don’t want to be the demon king!”
I only didn’t want you to die! If you don’t become the demon king, you would definitely perish! In the end, you really died.
I died?
Yes, you were killed by the last demon king candidate, remember?
The last demon king candidate… Roland! It’s Roland who killed me. He and Pink set a trap, and then they killed me!
After remembering everything, I still didn’t dare believe it at all. I growled, “I don’t understand, why would Roland kill me? Even if he is the last demon king candidate… I don’t believe it!”
Pink as well. Why would she harm me? We have already known each other for more than ten years. How is it possible that she would watch me bleed to death… I don’t believe it!
You don’t understand us. So many years have already passed. Within all three of us, the only left thing that we are concerned about is our own child. Everything else is not important, not important!
“That’s impossible! There must be some kind of misunderstanding!”
Sigh, then I’ll just let you see it all!
Child, remember, next time, don’t trust anyone else again.
It all? Wait, Scarlet!
In the darkness burst a sudden great release of light. It was simply so blinding that even my eyes hurt, and I couldn’t help but use my hands to cover my eyes… Wait a moment! How am I able to see this?
“Oh no, I’m late!”
A child ran past me. The expression on his face was a little nervous, not much like an expression that a child would show. However, those fair and tender cheeks likely explained that he was definitely not any older than twelve years old.
Fair and tender… I thought that I would never be able to use this description ever again. That’s because no matter how exceedingly good a blind man’s sensing ability is, even if above average and close to godliness, he is definitely unable to sense whether something is fair and tender or not. One is not able to tell something like color when sensing, and without color, nothing will appear tender no matter what the object is.
However, rather than the matter of “I suddenly can see,” what was more shocking was that the kid just now had golden hair and blue eyes with fair skin, and his face was so familiar that it couldn’t be any more familiar… If that wasn’t myself, there’s an eighty percent chance that it was my future child!
Unfortunately, right now, I don’t even know who my wife is, let alone my child. That should be me all right. To say it more accurately, it was me before the age of twelve.
I looked all around me, to the left and to the right. This was a place that couldn’t be more familiar. This was the Holy Temple’s square, and I couldn’t have mistaken the time either. That’s because I saw my teacher, and in front of him, there were ten children who were about ten years old lining up. They were selecting the young Sun Knight!
“Perhaps it was because of your beautiful blond hair!”
This line… I was stunned for a moment. At this time, a brown-haired kid walked past me. I shot a glance at him by reflex, and only then did I abruptly recall who he was…
Roland!
Upon remembering who he was, I glued my eyes to him hurriedly. That was because at that time, I had only seen his back as he left. Thus, right now, I wanted to see his every step and expression clearly.
Did he leave with anger and unwillingness? Did he cry? At that time, every child who wasn’t selected had cried. Did Roland do the same?
I even specifically walked in front of him, wanting to see what kind of expression he was showing at the moment. He walked toward me, head-on, and on his face there was… no expression?
I stared at him, but he had no expression on his face at all. He looked as though he was in a blank daze. This was simply too strange; how is it possible that he would show this kind of expression at this kind of time?
He walked straight onward, and though I was blocking his path ahead, I had no intention of letting him pass. I really wanted to block his way and ask him what exactly he was thinking… But he passed directly through my body without even stopping.
I turned around to look at him. He walked directly to a woman’s side, and that woman’s left hand was already holding onto another child. The child was wearing a cloak and had her head lowered, and the hood covered the child’s face. One couldn’t tell exactly how old she was, but it seemed that she was a little bit younger than Roland.
The woman extended her right hand, and Roland took her hand in passing. The three of them turned around and left.
I chased them for a few steps, before the child wearing the cloak turned around. Her line of sight passed through me and landed on an area not too far away behind my back.
Softly, she said, “Grisia? I’ve remembered you, humph!”
So, actually… this was the first meeting between Pink and me?
However, I had completely no recollection of this matter for, at that time, I only managed to have the time to sneak a hasty peek at Roland’s back. That was because the whole square was paying attention to who the young Sun Knight was, and after my teacher had announced that he had selected me, he had brought me around to see the other young knight selection results. There was completely no time to even look at Roland for more than a peek.
Roland had actually already known Pink then… No, he was actually brought to the selections by Pink, right? But he had never mentioned this before. Didn’t he come from an orphanage?
Wait, he seemed to have said that his sword was a family heirloom? Where would a family heirloom come from for an orphan?
However, if Roland wanted to hide the fact that he wasn’t an orphan, then he shouldn’t have mentioned a family heirloom. Could it have been a slip of the tongue? Is it my brain that is confused or is Roland’s brain confused?
I really wanted to follow them and see where they went afterward. However, the surrounding scenery started to blur. It felt extremely familiar, a little like the scenery before one is about to faint… Being familiar with this kind of matter simply isn’t a good thing. In this year already, the number of times I have fainted is even more than my past twenty years combined!
Usually this process wouldn’t take too long. It wouldn’t take more than two seconds to lose consciousness after the surroundings begin to blur. However, I had already thought about so many things, yet I have yet to faint? What was more important was that the scenery was starting to sharpen again…
After my surroundings became clear, I instead discovered that I was not at the Holy Temple’s square anymore. However, this place was still within Leaf Bud City, and with just a look, I could tell that this street definitely wasn’t far from the Holy Temple.
Just as I was pondering over which street this was, a boy suddenly passed through my chest!
Right, I seem to be in spirit status right now with others being unable to see or touch me. However, even if that is the case, could you not pass through me randomly? It feels really strange… Wait, was he a golden-haired boy? Don’t tell me it’s me again?
Thinking till there, I hurriedly gave chase. However, just after I took two steps forward, the boy stopped. He turned around to yell into an alley, “Hey! What are you all doing?”
Although I was only looking at his side profile, that was me all right.
I looked into the alley that he was facing. A few boys were giggling as they surrounded something unknown. This scene was simply very unfamiliar. However, many things had happened over the years since I was young. Even my memory wouldn’t be able to remember every little segment of it. However, I should be able to remember if I watch a little longer.
That golden-haired boy… I guess I should call him Grisia now? He was shouting at a few boys who were bigger than him, “Don’t bully her! A few guys bullying a girl, how shameless!”
Those boys turned around and retorted, “It’s none of your business!”
At this point, I finally saw that they were actually surrounding a little girl. The girl looked extremely dirty, with her clothes torn and tattered and her hair in a dishevelled mess. She was kneeling on the floor, her eyes long since filled with tears. However, she was trying to force herself to be strong and hold her tears back. When she really couldn’t stop the tears from flowing, she quickly used her hand to wipe her face.
Looking at her attire, she should have been a beggar.
However, what was strange was that there was dark element faintly emitting from her body. Though normal people didn’t possess sensing ability, they would still dislike things with dark element in them by instinct. This was probably one of the reasons she was bullied.
“She is an unlucky girl!” Those boys threatened, “If you dare go near her, you will also become unlucky!”
“Nonsense!” Grisia wasn’t afraid in the least bit and even retorted, “There’s completely no such thing as an unlucky girl! It’s apparent that you guys are bullying her. A few guys bullying a girl, shame on you!”
Those boys’ faces became red, their shame seeming to turn into anger. The girl instead lifted her head up, and her face lit up in hope as she stared at Grisia.
The boys rushed toward Grisia, full of rage. The latter was not to be outdone. He quickly ran to one side, took a broom and wielded it as a sword. The pose seemed to have an impact, for even the boys slowed their footsteps a little. However, seeing that they had the advantage in numbers, they still charged on fearlessly.
Grisia wielded the sword… No, it was a broom, and knocked it into a boy’s arm. The other person yelled loudly in pain, and then using his backhand, he snatched the broom away with a single grab.
“Er…“ Grisia looked at his empty hands and then lifted his head to look at the tall boys in front of him who were angry and had grown a little too well. He gave a radiant smile, saying, “The God of Light tells us that, even toward our enemies, we should hold fast to a benevolent and affectionate heart … Ouch! That hurts!”
The boys gathered around, and without a second word, they launched into a flurry of punches and kicks.
“Don’t hit me anymore, it hurts!”
While he was getting beaten up, he muttered in fragmented pieces, “Sob, sob, sob! I’m going to tell my teacher… No wait, if I tell Teacher that I lost a fight, he will kill me! Sob, sob, sob, I got beaten up and I can’t even lodge a complaint, I’m so pitiful…”
So I had already started muttering like this from such an early age?
The girl seemed to be unable to look on any longer. She dashed in front of Grisia, using her two hands and body to protect him, and shouted, “Don’t hit him anymore! This has nothing to do with him, just hitting me is enough.”
Grisia, who had been screaming that it hurts as though his life depended on it, immediately grabbed the girl and pushed her behind his back to protect her. However, the girl wasn’t willing to let that happen and struggled to stay in front to protect him. Grisia was a little vexed as he yelled, “Don’t protect me! If my teacher were to find out that I was actually protected by a girl, he would certainly kill me! Don’t get me in trouble!”
Hearing that, the girl faltered, as though she had no idea what to do.
The boys helped them solve this problem by beating up the two of them fairly. Only after beating them up for a while, when a few adults stuck their heads out to scold them, did the boys run away laughing, not forgetting to turn their heads back to ridicule them.
“Who asked you to protect her!”
“I told you she is an unlucky girl! Look, you’re also unlucky now! Hahaha!”
The girl lowered her head with a sad expression. No matter how hard she tried to hold them in, her tears couldn’t help but flow down.
Grisia suddenly jumped up, shouting, “You guys beat me up, yet you say that this is the misfortune that she brought onto me. Are your brains rotting or something? No matter how you say it, it is a misfortune that you guys brought onto me! What does it have to do with her? You guys are the ones who are unlucky!”
Hearing that, the girl lifted her head to look at Grisia. Though there were still two streaks of tears running down her cheeks, her expression was no longer sad.
Grisia lowered his head, just in time to lock eyes with the girl. He gave a smile but also agitated the bruise on his cheek. The smile immediately turned into a pained smile, and the expression of him crying and smiling at the same time was so comical that even the girl couldn’t help but laugh.
Grisia cursed under his breath, “It hurts like mad! They actually hit me so hard… They better watch out! In the future, you better not get caught and thrown into the Judge’s Complex. If you get dragged in, I’ll make you guys pay for this!”
After he finished cursing them through his mutters, he lowered his head again to tell the girl, “Don’t be scared! In a moment, it won’t hurt anymore!”
The girl gave a faint smile, saying, “Will the pain fly away?” Though she said this, her expression was one of obvious disbelief.
“That’s right! It’ll probably fly to the God of Light’s place.” Grisia finished his words casually and then muttered a short incantation. Following that, both his hands emitted a warm, honey-colored glow that covered the two of them. Laughing, he said, “Look, it doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”
The girl was stunned for a moment and then turned her head to look over her own body. The original wounds were actually all gone. She showed an astonished expression and then looked at Grisia blankly.
Laughing, Grisia said, “I am called Grisia, and I am the future Sun Knight! How about you?”
“S-Sun Knight?” The girl hesitated for a while before she shyly replied, “Everyone calls me Unlucky.”
Grisia was stunned for a moment. Then, he frowned as he commented, “That’s not a name! Don’t you have another name?”
The girl shook her head.
“Then let me give you a name!” As though it was a matter of fact, Grisia continued, “Hm… Then I’ll call you Charlotte! How about that? The meaning of Charlotte is a healthy girl, and because you look very healthy and energetic, can I call you Charlotte?”
The girl replied back in a daze, “Charlotte?”
“What, you don’t like it?”
The girl… I should call her Charlotte now. She nodded her head in a hurry, saying, “I-I like it!”
“Then good.” Grisia nodded his head, and following that, he acted like a spoilt child as he said, “Then Charlotte, would you accompany me to buy desserts? One has to queue for a really long time at that store! Queuing by myself is boring, so accompany me there! Let’s go!”
After saying that, without caring about whether she consented, he extended a hand to hold hers. Charlotte stretched her hand out hesitantly. However, once she lowered her head to see her own filthy hand and the other person’s hand as white as snow, she immediately pulled her hand back. However, Grisia’s movements were even faster, and after grabbing her hand, he dragged her to the shop.
“Let’s go! If we arrive too late, everything will be sold out! That shop’s desserts are really super delicious!”
I followed behind them, watching them chat, giggle and line up. In the end, when they had finally reached the front of the line with much difficulty, they only had a few copper ducats on hand due to Grisia forgetting to bring his wallet. It was just enough to buy a single blueberry lollipop; thus, the two of them shared it together…
In the end, the two people sat at the edge of the fountain in the center of the plaza. Facing the sunset and sharing one blueberry lollipop, the two of them looked rather picturesque and poetic. However, the people involved were two little mischievous children licking a blueberry lollipop, so rather than unpractical stuff like picturesque and poetic charm, they would probably prefer a slice of blueberry cake.
Grisia suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, oh no, it’s really late. I have made plans with my teacher to go look for Big Sister… Never mind, it should be fine. I should still be able to make it in time if I go now, since Teacher always arrives rather late.”
Wrong, my teacher just happened to not to be late that time, resulting in me getting a beating. Moreover, because I had executed two healing spells before that, I didn’t have enough holy light to heal myself completely, causing me to feel so much pain on the way there.
I remember now. I remember everything now.
Meeting Charlotte, playing with her the entire afternoon, leaving because I had to go look for Big Sister and also, our promise…
Grisia stood up and jumped off the step, shouting to the girl, “Charlotte, tomorrow evening I’ll come and look for you to play, okay? Let’s just meet at this fountain!”
Charlotte nodded her head, giving a smile as she replied, “Okay.” After finishing her words, she realized that she was still holding half of a blueberry lollipop in her hand and handed it over in a hurry, saying, “Your lollipop.”
“I’ll give it to you! I couldn’t possibly bring a lollipop to go find my teacher. He would kill me!”
Charlotte’s face was full of fear as she replied, “Your teacher is so scary. No matter what you do, he is going to kill you.”
“Haha, my teacher is very scary, that’s right…” Grisia gave a hollow laugh and then continued, “Then I’ll be going off first! See you tomorrow evening. If I am late or I don’t come, it could be because my teacher suddenly gave me an assignment. If that is so, then we’ll meet the evening on the day after… In conclusion, you have to wait for me. You must wait for me!”
“Okay, I will wait for you. I will come here every evening to wait for you,” Charlotte agreed and nodded her head. Only then was Grisia willing to depart.
Until she couldn’t see the boy’s shadow anymore, Charlotte kept on murmuring, “I’ll definitely wait for you, Grisia, Sun Knight.”
Charlotte…
It was me who had given her a name. It was me who had asked her to wait for me. In the end, it was also me who killed her.
However, just by spending half a day with her, I had actually affected her entire life. Is there anyone who is more obstinate than she is?
She licked the blueberry lollipop, her eyes still looking in the direction in which I had gone. Even though I was actually long gone from that place and was completely out of sight, she still kept on looking in that direction.
I, too, kept on looking at her. That was because from now onward, I would never see her again, for she hadn’t even left behind a corpse!
However, at this moment, the scenery started to blur again, and Charlotte’s body also began to fade. I couldn’t help but look at the sky and beg, “Please, Scarlet, let me look just a little longer. Just a little longer would be fine, I beg of you!”
I don’t know whether she couldn’t hear me begging her, or whether she wasn’t willing to let me look on any longer. Charlotte still disappeared, and no longer… would I be able to see her again…
Because I killed her.
The surrounding scenery changed again. It didn’t look like this place was Leaf Bud City anymore but a cavern. What time and place will it be this time?
“Neo, why did you knock Grisia unconscious?”
I was stunned. Turning around, I saw that the person who had spoken was actually Aldrizzt. My teacher, Neo, was standing at his side, and I, at that time, was lying on the ground unconscious… This was the time when we had entered the cavern to take Eternal Tranquility!
While tossing Eternal Tranquility, my teacher lowered his head to look at the unconscious me, saying, “If I didn’t knock him unconscious, later on he would be all long-winded again! If you knock him out, he wouldn’t be so long-winded anymore.”
Teacher! So you had actually knocked me out, and it wasn’t that I had used too much holy light and fainted? Y-You… Though I know that it was something that had already happened in the past, I still couldn’t help but start to feel anxious. That’s because in a while, Scarlet is going to come and chop off Teacher’s arm!
If I was still awake, perhaps I could have helped my teacher. Perhaps he wouldn’t have lost his right arm.
Aldrizzt sighed as he commented, “Since you knocked him unconscious, won’t you have to wait for him to wake up?”
My teacher seemed not to care in the least bit as he said, “He won’t be unconsciousness for long. You, hurry and take the chance now to tie the rope onto Eternal Tranquility and then tie it around his neck.” After saying that, he shoved the gemstone into the other party’s hands just like that.
Aldrizzt rolled his eyes at him, saying, “Don’t tell me tying a rope around gemstones is a mage’s job?”
“You haven’t done much along the way here. Do you have to nag so much over doing such a small thing?”
Hearing that, the dark elf grumbled, “It wasn’t me who wanted to get the gemstone…” while he started to do the chore. Not too long after, he held the gemstone with the rope tied around it and squatted to the side of my unconscious body. Just when he was about to tie on the necklace…
“Aldrizzt!” My teacher roared.
“Huh?” Aldrizzt turned around to look at my teacher in puzzlement.
My teacher pushed aside Aldrizzt with one hand, but he himself had not had enough time to dodge the blow. His right arm was sliced off by a dark blade. The entire arm flew away until it hit the wall and fell down again.
Large amounts of blood spurted from my teacher’s cut-off limb.
“It just missed by a little bit!”
That “me” spoke as such and then slowly climbed up. On my face was a smile filled with malicious intent. I even released a boom of dark elemental magic in passing, the explosion thoroughly blasting my teacher’s cut-off right arm into smithereens.
It wasn’t until now did I truly understand what had happened… Teacher’s right arm was chopped off by me?
“No!” I couldn’t help but give a loud scream, not daring to believe it at all. This isn’t real; it must be Scarlet trying to confuse me!
“Nonono- It wasn’t me! It’s not!”
However, there was no one who could hear my screams. My teacher didn’t even give another look at his right arm that had been blasted into smithereens. Instead, he stared at the “me” who had a malicious smile, saying, “Grisia, what are you doing?”
“What am I doing?” That “me” gave a laugh, and then his face twisted and he growled, “Who asked you to knock me unconscious! It’s always been like this. Whatever you wish to do, you’ll do so recklessly. You want me to purify the area, I have to purify the area. You want me to faint, I have to faint. What do you think I am? Your toy? I’ve wanted to give you a lesson for a very long time!”
“Grisia!” Aldrizzt angrily said, “It was for your sake that Neo came to purify this cavern. How could you say something like that! This is simply just too…”
Clank!
That “me” lay down once more, the culprit being the Divine Sun Sword.
Aldrizzt froze in shock, and my teacher instead walked to the front of that “me,” and then gave a cold snort before he growled, “I, your teacher, can still slaughter you without my right hand! You better watch out! This time, I used the sword hilt to hit you. Next time, it would be the sharp tip of the sword!”
When Aldrizzt saw that my teacher’s entire right side of his body had been dyed red by blood, he panicked and shrieked, “Neo! Your arm…”
Instead, my teacher interrupted him, “Aldrizzt, pass me pen paper.”
“Pen paper?” Aldrizzt’s eyes turned wide as he exclaimed, “Are you asking for bandages? You have to hurry and treat your injury!”
My teacher roared at him in rage, “I want ‘Pen and Paper’!”
Aldrizzt was stunned for a moment, and then he hurriedly dug out a pen and paper from their luggage. After receiving the items, my teacher actually started to write a letter.
Seeing the situation, Aldrizzt felt helpless and anxious. He quickly tried to find bandages to help him bandage up the wound, but the blood soaked through the bandages in a short period of time. In the end, he could only take off his own cloak and use it to help my teacher tie the entire wound.
After writing the letter, my teacher hurriedly shoved the letter onto that “me.” Though he was pretending that nothing was wrong, his forehead had long since broken out into a cold sweat.
Finally, Aldrizzt couldn’t help but growl, “Neo, stop pushing yourself! Do you really want to die? Do you know that the amount of blood you have lost is already enough to cause death?”
“It’s all settled.” My teacher said urgently, “Now throw Grisia outside, then we will leave.”
“Let’s ignore him. He won’t die here, but you’re about to die!”
“No way! If he sees the state of this place, he would deduce the truth. My student is not someone so easily dealt with!”
“You don’t intend to tell him?” Aldrizzt asked, shock written on his face.
“Tell him? Don’t joke around!” My teacher growled, “Usually he is already so long-winded with his never ending words, and you still want me to go and tell him that my arm was cut off by him? He would never forgive himself his entire life! Now, do you intend to watch me bleed to death, or are you going to help me move him outside?”
Aldrizzt could only agree with him, so he answered, “Okay! Don’t be so agitated. Go drink a few bottles of potions first. I’ll move him outside. You wait for me here, and by all means, don’t move randomly!”
“Yes, yes. After leaving the long-winded student, there came along another long-winded companion…”
“Shut up! Go get some rest!”
…
Leaving without even saying goodbye, throwing the unconscious me into the forest, the illegible handwriting, and being reluctant at the beginning to tell me who had chopped off his arm… It all fits together; it really was me!
It is me who chopped off Teacher’s arm!
At that time, I actually really believed my teacher’s words and thought that Scarlet did it. There were obviously so many doubtful points; I just didn’t dare think about them… Hahaha!
How laughable, though I have been saying with all my might that I want to protect my companions, in the end, the one who broke the promise and even killed Charlotte was me. The person who chopped off Teacher’s arm was also me. For the sake of stopping me, Pink killed Leaf. For the sake of protecting my secret, Judgment was killed… It’s all my fault!
“I did it. It was me. So it was me. Everything was me!”