Chapter 185: God’s Discarded Creation

“I’ve become quite cowardly, haven’t I?”

During their journey, Ricardo muttered to himself somewhat self-deprecatingly.

They initially used a shared carriage on their way to the target village, but now they were walking. Since there were only two of them, borrowing a carriage from the Count seemed unnecessary, and walking from the beginning would take too much time. At times like this, not being able to ride a horse was inconvenient.

“Cowardly?”

Lutz asked with a puzzled expression.

Certainly, Ricardo owned two swords with unusual capabilities, but that alone didn’t guarantee safety. Precisely because he was strong, he had always been thrown into the most dangerous places.

Lutz couldn’t think of anyone in this world who could point at Ricardo and say he was a coward.

“Well, you know, before, I would take on requests to defeat monsters and fight alone, no matter who the opponent was. But now, even though I know there’s only one opponent, it feels lonely, so I thought I’d have you come with me just in case.”

“That’s fine. You’re the bravest coward. Seems like you’ll live a long life.”

Ricardo laughed at that. The rule of the battlefield is that the brave ones die first.

Both Ricardo and Lutz had become more cautious and anxious. Recently, they had been facing strange opponents in battles. Considering the conversation, there was a high possibility that the current opponent also possessed some kind of curse.

If it was just about being strong, a group of lumberjacks shouldn’t have lost. Even if there were some casualties, all they had to do was surround the enemy and cut them down. The opponent was so formidable that they had to abandon the village, and there was no room for complacency.

As they walked on a road Lutz had traveled several times for sharpening jobs, it naturally became a situation where Lutz guided the way. They weren’t lost; it was a familiar road. However, Lutz didn’t feel like he was walking the same path.

The atmosphere was too dark, and the once noisy sounds of birds, which used to be so loud, were now silent. It felt as if all the creatures in the vicinity had died out.

As they approached their destination, an unpleasant smell began to waft in the air, and Lutz and Ricardo tightened their expressions.

The smell of burning human flesh, the stench of spilled entrails, the smell of rotting blood.

A blend of foul odors containing the scent of death warned their instincts not to get closer.

The two cowards didn’t stop. They slowed their pace and remained vigilant, but they didn’t suggest turning back.

Lutz drew the axe he had on his back. Ricardo wiped his hands with his trousers, repeatedly checked the grip of his two magic swords, and confirmed their readiness.

They entered the village. It was a place trampled and burned by flames.

More than half of the houses had turned into charcoal and collapsed. Blackened remains of what seemed to be human bodies were scattered throughout the village.

Seemed to be, because all of them were torn apart. It looked as if they had been burned alive and forcibly torn apart with brute force.

Especially the square was terrible, with the scorched and torn bodies of about ten people scattered around.

This was the place where Lutz used to sharpen his axe while chatting with the lumberjacks. Thinking of that, his stomach suddenly heated up, and a feeling of nausea welled up.

Lutz, slightly away from the square, put his hands on a tree and scattered vomit on its roots. The vomit splashed onto his shoes, but he couldn’t afford to care about such things.

“… Selfish talk. Although I’ve incinerated enemies left and right, seeing acquaintances burned to death is like this.”

Wiping his mouth with his hand, Lutz groaned.

“What are you going to do? Go back?”

Ricardo asked with a half-joking, half-worried expression. Lutz rinsed his mouth with the water bottle hanging from his waist, spat forcefully, and then spoke.

“It’s not a bad proposal, but I can’t stand being underestimated. Let’s quickly find and kill the culprit, then quickly leave. After that, we can leave the investigation to Josel-san and the others.”

Turning fear and anger into fighting spirit, Lutz sharpened his eyes.

It was indeed a good thing to have invited this guy, Ricardo thought to himself. If he were alone, he might have run away, or he might have pretended not to find anything, saying, “I didn’t see anything.” It was good to have comrades who would protect your back and support you.

The two of them, careful not to step on the scattered corpses, began to walk cautiously. Death’s smell permeated everywhere, but they couldn’t see any sign of the enemy.

Feeling a little relieved that the enemy couldn’t be found, Lutz found himself repeating the cycle of feeling guilty for his relief.

“Isn’t it hot?”

“Yeah, it is…”

Looking around, they found it—a second sun shining brightly during the day. Slowly approaching them through the trees, radiating light between the leaves.

“It’s finally making an appearance…”

Ricardo tried to swallow his saliva, but his mouth was dry, and it didn’t go smoothly.

The enemy had approached to a visible position. It was a humanoid figure, about two and a half meters tall, engulfed in flames. The overall build was sturdy, but the distribution of muscles was a bit unusual. The right leg looked like that of an ordinary adult male, while the left leg was terrifyingly thick, like a log. The left arm was thin like a dead tree, while the right arm was gigantic, reminiscent of the Grim Reaper’s scythe, with fingertips scraping the ground.

Whether burnt out or naturally hairless, there was no body hair, and the head and body were smooth.

Whether he could see or not, both eyeballs were clouded white.

… It felt like God had been trying to create the strongest man, kneading flesh, but got bored halfway and tossed him into the fireplace. Yet, the man was still alive, burning, and had escaped to the surface. That’s the kind of feeling.

Lutz self-mocked for thinking such silly thoughts. It wasn’t the time for escapism with the enemy right in front of them.

Kevin, the lumberjack, had referred to the enemy as the Flame Demon. Indeed, it was an accurate description.

The demon directed its eyes without black pupils towards Lutz and Ricardo, exhaling a large breath. Flames leaked from its wide-open mouth.

“It seems he recognized us as enemies,” 

Ricardo said, squinting his eyes.

“I don’t like hot-headed guys, can’t imagine becoming friends,”

 Lutz replied. He wasn’t joking, and the situation was so serious that any humor felt out of place.

Lutz and Ricardo nodded at each other and distanced themselves. Ricardo unsheathed the magic sword ‘Tsubaki’ and aimed it at the monster.

Please die, just die, Ricardo prayed.

However, Ricardo’s plea didn’t reach the monster. The sweet scent inviting death was blown away in front of the flames. There was no trace of the presence of the black-haired woman.

The monster roared and charged forward. Lutz kicked the ground, leaped forward, and swung the magic axe ‘Shirayuri’ towards the burning head of the monster.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter