Volume 1
Chapter 57
I Found Out the
Man's True Identity
Translator : PolterGlast
In the secret tavern
where the adventurers used to hold their secret meetings.
The tavern keeper, a
dandy in a tuxedo with short-cropped gray hair and a neatly trimmed beard, was
calmly polishing his glass as usual, while most of the adventurers outside were
rioting and in chaos.
"......He's
here."
The moment the man
muttered so, the wooden door, which was connected to the stairs leading to the
ground and served as the tavern's entrance, burst open.
"Hel-san!"
The one who entered
was───Tekiru.
"There's a big
problem outside! Everyone wearing the black equipment is rioting! What the hell
is going on!?"
Tekiru spoke as if he
had known the man for a long time, mentioning the abnormal situation occurring
outside.
However, the man in
question, Hel, continued to polish his glass as if he hadn't heard Tekiru's
words or was simply ignoring them.
"Is it... because
of the equipment you gave them? Is this situation what you wanted? What's going
on!?"
Tekiru continued to
ask.
Hel, however, remained
calm, and after finishing polishing the glass he was holding, he sighed.
"Say something,
Hel-san! Is this, is this... your doing!?"
"......"
"Hel-san!"
"You're being
noisy, Tekiru."
Hel finally opened his
mouth.
"Noisy? What do
you mean by noisy? I'm asking you to explain this situation! Why aren't you
saying anything!?"
"......"
"Hey!"
While Tekiru was
becoming heated, Hel sighed again.
"From the way you
say it, it seems you've already formed a pretty good guess, haven't you? It's
not wise to ask something you already know."
"───! So, this disturbance
is───"
"Yes, it's what I
aimed for."
Hel said so without a
hint of guilt.
"......Hel-san,
you..."
"Ten years."
"......?"
"Ten years...
I've spent ten years just to subjugate mere humans."
"Humans...
subjugation? What are you talking about!?"
"It means my
target wasn't just the Gilmberg family, Tekiru. There's no way someone like me
would settle for just one human family."
Hel then directed a
condescending smile at Tekiru.
"……………"
Hearing this, Tekiru
lowered his face and began to tremble.
"So everything
was a lie...? Everything you told me."
Tekiru was probably
referring to the words Hel had given him ten years ago when he lost his parents
in the famine and lost hope for living. Those words, which had encouraged him
and gave him a new reason to live when he was about to die himself. Those
precious words that had supported him all this time.
Yes, it was none other
than Hel who had saved Tekiru from starvation during the famine ten years ago.
"Well, that's the
way it is. I can't believe I was able to come up with such nonsense back then.
Thinking about it now, I want to commend myself."
Hel casually said,
reminiscing about the past, that such important words were lies—empty words.
"……………"
Tekiru trembled but
didn't say anything. Rather, it seemed like he was somehow suppressing emotions
that were about to explode.
"………Then"
"Hm?"
"Then! Why didn't
you let me die back then!?"
Tekiru raised his face
and shouted with an expression mixed with sorrow and anger.
"Wasn't that your
aim!? It wouldn't have changed if I had died there! Why... why... why didn't
you let me die back then!? Why did you... say those words..."
Unable to suppress his
emotions, his shout was filled with anger, and by the end of his words, his
voice had softened with sadness.
However, Tekiru's
words, which were filled with emotion, did not reach Hel.
"I've been saying
this since the beginning. I saved you because I found you useful───nothing more, nothing
less. At that time, I hadn't yet received permission from that person───I was looking for a
capable person who could follow my orders in the future. I never thought you
would be so good at rallying the adventurers... well, people are not always
what they seem."
Hel laughed lightly,
and Tekiru's expression became completely filled with sadness.
"Now that this is
the last time, I'll let you in on a secret."
"......?"
Hel suddenly began to
speak about something.
"That great
famine ten years ago───I caused it."
"……………What?"
Tekiru froze at the
shocking statement.
"The sudden
failure of crops to grow, the fact that the Gilmberg family wouldn't move even
though it was their own territory, the fact that other territories suddenly
raised the price of their goods, all of this was orchestrated by me."
Hel said such
outrageous things with a smirk.
Tekiru was so stunned
by the amount of information that he couldn't move.
"I gradually
killed the land, causing the crops to wither, and created a barren wasteland. I
planted fabricated evidence of a heinous crime against the Gilmburg family, and
at the same time, weakened the head of the family so he couldn't leave the
capital. I leaked this information to other territories and, ultimately,
skillfully manipulated you to turn the entire town against the nobility,
creating a climate of hatred."
"...It's
impossible, that's... that's beyond the scope of what one human can do."
"Yeah, that's
true. Indeed, it is impossible for a human."
"Then───"
"Shall I
introduce myself, Tekiru?"
"Introduce...
yourself?"
Amidst a flurry of
impossible-to-process information, Tekiru was puzzled by what was happening
now.
"I am the one who
causes the land to be barren without any vegetation, a gray merchant who drops
weapons to take others as wives."
"......No,
nonono, now is not the time for such introductions, what you did───"
"A reaper of
human lives, a fourth-generation god enshrined by the God of Soul
Manifestation."
"───!?"
"I am Hadira, the
God of Death."
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