Chapter 70
The demons were being dealt with faster than expected.
Honestly, after repeating the same thing dozens of times, the idea of failure was just laughable.
The villages near the water had been sealed off and burned. Now, all that was left was to drag out the demons hiding in the slums or those being sheltered by the nobility.
Like the ones hiding in Ethel’s family estate.
Or, more specifically, the fox-eared demon trembling behind Ethel’s legs.
"…Ethel, stop being stubborn and move aside."
"Y-You barge into my home, start shooting people, and now you’re telling me to move?! Get away from me!"
Ethel’s pupils were shaking wildly.
Of course, if people stormed in and started killing the creatures you considered friends, anyone would be shocked.
I wondered if she was going to choke on her food.
I felt a little bad about it.
But she could rest easy.
Only demons had been shot.
Even though Julius had resisted, I had only handled him roughly—I hadn’t shot him.
I was always so kind to humans, so why was she trembling so much?
"If you’re so scared, then just run.
No one will blame you. Your family will understand."
My subordinates had their guns aimed at the count and his wife, as well as Julius.
If I gave the order, they’d pull the trigger.
That ridiculous-looking mage standing behind them, with two floating fireballs over his shoulders, would probably start casting spells.
Not that I had any intention of letting it come to that.
But my subordinates? I couldn’t be so sure about them.
"…Who would understand abandoning their child!?"
"What child?"
The estate reeked of blood.
We hadn’t even gone down to the underground tunnels yet, but the place was already packed with demons trying to flee.
It had been a perfect opportunity—just the right time and just the right people to take care of them.
Better a quick death from a bullet than slowly suffocating underground.
Yes, this was the humane choice.
I aimed carefully at a demon’s head and pulled the trigger.
Unfortunately, the bullet struck Ethel’s thigh instead.
"Are you really doing this?"
Ethel sobbed from the pain but refused to move aside.
Instead, she began chanting a spell, levitating sharp stones in the air, pointing them at me.
"Why are you doing this?!"
Before, I would have said it was for revenge or some childish game of payback.
Now, I wasn’t sure.
Whatever emotions I once held toward demons had faded long ago. I was just moving forward out of sheer inertia.
"I don’t know."
"Please, stop. Just days ago, we—"
Ethel desperately tried to remind me of something.
But to me, those few days felt like an eternity ago.
Time was funny like that.
Struggling, floundering, running in circles—it was all ridiculous.
"I don’t even remember what happened days ago, so move aside."
She didn’t.
Neither did the disgusting demon cowering behind her.
Of course, they didn’t want to die.
Life must be precious when you only get one.
I supposed my life didn’t feel as valuable.
Not when I had repeated it so many times.
Ah. I wanted to see Alicia.
Maybe I should just shoot Ethel and get it over with.
Then at least I’d get to see her wandering through the marketplace, looking for her favorite books, giggling to herself.
For a moment, the image of a terrified Ethel overlapped with the image of her with a hole in her head.
Pupils dilating, body slumping, eyes wide open even in death…
Was I really like this?
No, I hadn’t even pulled the trigger yet.
And she was still alive, trembling in front of me.
Just a hallucination.
Or maybe a memory bleeding through.
No problem.
This time, it wouldn’t happen.
Not this time.
I aimed at her stomach and squeezed the trigger repeatedly.
I didn’t look away.
She wouldn’t die from this anyway, and turning my eyes from my own actions wasn’t something I did.
"Like I always say, I’m just doing what needs to be done.
Ah, but I guess this is your first time hearing that. Not that it matters."
The spell Ethel had been casting crumbled, and the sharpened stones fell to the ground.
Had she torn pieces from the mansion walls to use as weapons?
"Marco, pull the bullet out and douse her in a potion."
Marco nodded, then smacked Julius in the gut with the butt of his rifle before kicking him in the face.
A little excessive, maybe, but Julius had thrown a knife at him earlier.
A petty grudge, no doubt.
People could be so pathetic.
Still, Marco was too useful to discard.
I picked up one of the fallen sharp stones and approached the trembling demon.
"P-Please, spare me…!"
"No."
"Why?!"
Did they never learn how to speak respectfully?
Well, in a backwater village like this, it was no surprise that the demons were uneducated brutes.
I was practically a saint for fixing such issues.
Taking care of them before they made this wretched world even worse.
"Because of you, Ethel got hurt."
I even told them why they had to die.
This thing—once a child, now becoming something else—would understand.
Ethel was important.
She would grow into a great mage, perhaps even fall in love with Theo and marry him. She was smart, pretty, and talented.
"Why not just use a gun? Why dirty your hands?"
"Sometimes, you need to feel it."
If I didn’t get my hands dirty every now and then, I’d start feeling relieved, like I wasn’t really the one killing.
Whether human or demon.
Over time, I found myself disgusted by old butler Noa and even Marco.
Even though I was the one giving the orders.
"…Even if you say it’s about feeling something, it’s just the servants who suffer doing the laundry."
"Well, they’re paid, so they should work hard."
It was a lesson I had learned after experiencing that strange, unpleasant feeling a few times.
A ritual of sorts—to feel connected.
Some blood had splattered onto Ethel’s clothes, but she wasn’t injured anymore.
Leaving behind the dazed members of the Rosenberg family, I turned to continue dealing with the demons.
The sun was still high in the sky.
I still had a long day ahead.
Though, this would all end soon enough.
***
A month passed quickly.
I was back at the academy.
If asked what had changed in the past month, I would say this:
There were no more demons wandering the streets.
It was about time for me to leave.
Leave?
Go where?
Home? The academy?
I had nowhere to go.
No one would welcome me anywhere.
When the demons fled into the church, I burned it down—Isabel included.
A few days ago, I got into a fight with Ethel and accidentally put a hole in her stomach.
As for home…
Julian’s eyes had started to lose focus. He’d probably die soon.
I wasn’t interested in cleaning up my brother’s corpse.
Maybe I’d let him clean up mine instead.
They say people become what they dream of.
But what was my dream?
What did I want?
To save Alicia.
Then… was all this killing necessary?
I had fought, slaughtered, and committed atrocities far beyond mere "fighting."
If I met a horrific end, I could at least call it deserved punishment and accept it.
But even that had been taken from me.
Now I was just lashing out at everything around me.
Like a child throwing a tantrum because nothing was going their way.
A red haze rose before my eyes.
Or maybe somewhere else. I couldn’t tell.
In the end, I was the problem.
If I hadn’t existed—if Ellen hadn’t existed—none of this would have happened.
"…Get a grip. Are you trying to die again?"
A voice echoed from the bathroom.
Blood dripped from my wrist, dyeing the bathwater a deep red, swirling like an elegant mirage.
"…People are surprisingly sturdy. This much won’t kill me."
"People can be weak, too. Sometimes they die in the stupidest ways."
"How long are you going to stare at my naked body? It’s getting embarrassing."
"Stop talking nonsense."
"That hurts my feelings."
He didn’t leave.
Not that a shallow cut like this could kill me.
Theo stared at my arm for a long time before speaking in a low voice.
"Why do you do this?"
"Because I hate myself. It’s just a small punishment.
Before, my parents punished me. Now, I will do it myself."
I reached for the dagger submerged at the bottom of the bathtub and threw it at Theo.
With an exasperated grunt, he dodged it effortlessly.
"I hate you, too."
"Why."
"Are you going to stick around forever?"
"…I don’t know what you’ll do the moment I look away."
Theo approached, poured potion over my wound, and carefully wrapped me in a towel before dressing me.
As if he had done it countless times before.
That annoyed me.
I threw a punch at him, but of course, it didn’t hurt him.
…Yeah. What I really hated was that pitying look in his eyes.