Chapter 20 – Isolation

000

“──.”

An excruciatingly heavy silence.

The office of the guild leader, Luti Sions, located within the Adventurer’s Guild.

The sunlight streaming in from the window behind the table was bright and warm, suitable for a warm spring day.

Even so, the light was too weak to melt the air in the office.

Alvein, a blonde young man with a pale face, staggered as he raised his hand to his forehead.

“Under…?”

A voice that seemed incomprehensible to what came out of his mouth.

That would be too. Now, what did the woman sitting in front of him say to him?

“Isn’t it what you wanted? Hero Alvein.”

The piece of red parchment placed in front of her was part of the destroyed request.

The bounty was successfully completed and order in the city and guild was restored.

In the process, some of the buildings in the back alley were destroyed, and there was a protest from the residents of the area…

The traitor of the guild that was threatening the city, ‘Magic Swordsman Cleon’ has been subjugated.

While the hero Alvein passed out unsightly.

Alvein gripped his hand so hard that his palm bled, and his teeth said, ‘Pudeudeuk.’ I heard a voice saying

“Who! Someone stole my ball!”

It is clearly his own achievement.

At that time, a woman who used magic that she saw in the hideout of the assassin group ‘Vilden Tooth’.

Now that I think about it, the woman with an outward resemblance to Cleon was Cleon himself.

So that. Alban thinks. The one who contributed the most to Cleon’s death was himself.

In the fight between himself and Cleon, Cleon unknowingly took damage and showed a gap…

Another adventurer finishes it…

Thinking that far, Alvein is weighed down by a bit of conscience denying himself that it was his grandiose delusion.

It had to be him who killed Cleon and became the city’s hero.

In that case, Kuondo, Lailado, Sasha, and even Gala, who suddenly disappeared, would become her own.

Even the woman in the red uniform who had talked about it disappeared from the city.

It is always on the other side of the contact.

Did someone other than Albain complete the request and leave disappointed with him?

“…Cleon’s corpse?”

“Nothing below the neck- The head was collected by the academy. Along with the demonic sword.”

At Luti’s answer, Alvein slams his fist on the desk.

As the papers on the desk were scattered, Luti narrowed his eyes and looked up at the man who was committing a violent act.

“Isn’t that too rude?”

“Courtesy…? You should be polite to the hero of the city…! If I hadn’t requested a bounty, all the women in the village would have been raped by Cleon by now…! He’s that kind of guy.”

Alvein puts his face in her face, eyes filled with rage and madness.

Ruti’s patience was also running out.

“You’re no town hero. There’s no evidence for your arbitrary testimony.”

“What does that have to do with it! He’s a magic swordsman! If he develops his strength, that means he hates people and makes them obey!”

The voice keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Incoherent logic.

Ruti was getting tired of talking to Alvein.

“In the first place… You’re an accomplice too! After hearing my testimony, you started a bounty… Alas. That’s right, she disappeared. What are you in a position to say to me?”

Luti is silent at that.

Albein got excited and slapped the cheek of the cheeky woman who had been fighting against her.

That was the trigger

Luti’s body froze to the point that she stopped breathing.

Albain thought it was Luti’s fear and continued her next words.

“And… You haven’t forgotten that I have a secret you don’t want to find out!”

At Albein’s words, the temperature of the entire room gradually dropped.

Extreme chill that swallows even the sunlight coming from outside.

Albein looked at Luti as if he thought something was wrong with her.

“What, what have you done? Magic? You will never be able to attack me.”

“According to you. We have been ordered not to attack humans.”

Ruti’s eyes become vertically slit pupils.

The cold air in the room was the result of her deep breath.

“But that doesn’t mean that we exist as slaves. We are allowed to use force to protect ourselves.”

Pink scales sprouting from her neck.

Alban doubted her eyes.

Is the woman in front of me not human?

“It’s poisonous to know about the secret halfway through… Your thoughtless actions… Could kill you…”

“Lord, kill me? The guild’s hope and the city’s hero… The hero Alvein?”

At those words, Ruti burst out laughing.

When a high-pitched laugh echoed through the office, it was to the point of doubting whether this was the same person as the girl commonly referred to as the ‘Wind of Happiness’.

“Don’t be foolish, kid… There are countless heroes on this continent. There are plenty of guys who can replace you…”

Blades of wind that seemed to pierce her flesh floated around her.

Even though it was just air, it seemed to contain so much magical energy. The black pink magical energy flowed over it like fresh blood.

“Khhhhh!”

Alvein is terrified that he will surely be killed.

One step, two steps.

Step back.

She then stormed out of her office without looking back.

“Whoa~”

Luti looked at her with satisfaction, let out a sigh, and trembled her body.

“Oh, it’s cold.”

As if nothing had happened, I opened the office window to let in the warm air outside.

When the wind blows the papers on the desk into the sky. Luti was about to grab the dummy with a ‘wow!’ Sound.

001

The adventurers of the guild watch Alvein run away unsightly.

Already, their interest was focused on how to earn a living today rather than the dead Cleon.

He went into an assassination group that had nothing to do with Cleon and lost his mind.

In the meantime, the hero who had been deprived of merit was not their concern.

The place Albein headed with wobbly steps was the quarters of his colleague ‘Quon’.

Obviously, he couldn’t defeat Cleon himself.

But it was true that Cleon was dead.

If it’s Quon, who was with him even before he became an adventurer, after Cleon’s death, he puts his mind together.

Will come back to you

I thought so.

“…”

Until I saw her leaving her dorm with her things packed.

“Ku…On…?”

“…Alvein.”

Quon turned his head away from Alvein’s gaze as if he didn’t want to meet him.

I wonder if the rejection she felt from her felt heavy in her heart, even to Alban.

I approached her with her trembling steps.

“You… Where are you going?”

“…I don’t know.”

At such an ambiguous answer, Alvein reached out and tried to grab Quon’s arm.

Then, Quon pulls his body back and tries to escape from Albein’s hands.

“No, hey… I don’t know. What kind of nonsense is that…?”

She seemed dumbfounded and disbelieved.

I wonder if her heart was hurt by her eyes looking at her kuon.

She tries to turn her body away, even if it’s just to avoid making eye contact with her.

“No way, Cleon died? Is it because of that? Just because of that!?”

“… Just that one?”

The words she uttered without thinking properly, in the mind that she would hold onto a woman who was just about to walk away.

That one word completely removes the last affection she had for him from her kuon.

“I was hugged by Cleon.”

“…”

Alvein’s mind is confused.

The meaning of what she said in front of her eyes was not conveyed properly.

No, it would be accurate to say that she didn’t want to understand.

“It wasn’t done by force. I asked for it.”

“That, crab… What do you mean? Why did you do that…”

Moments later, Albein recalls what she had done.

That day. The day Cleon cowardly attacked his back and disappeared with Quon.

Foolish behavior, inability to control oneself through anger.

With this hand, I tried to violate Quon.

However, Quon refused.

Such Quon was embraced by Cleon. He mingled with her.

He himself is not good… Will Cleon be?

Alban takes his hand to the sword at his waist.

It was an instant.

The sword, forged to protect people and slash monsters, is pulled out and swung toward the most important person.

The irreversible barbarism reveals its teeth to Quon.

Next moment.

“Rose Tangle!”

A rose vine rising from the ground binds Albain’s arm and sword.

Her holy sword stopped in front of her kuon, barely able to protect her.

“Albein! Are you crazy!?”

The one who stopped Alvein was the red-haired wizard.

Like Quon, it is Layla Flamewatch, a genius mage girl who had an adventure with him.

She stood there with an expression of astonishment, pointing her staff at Albein.

Seeing that she also had her luggage on her back, Alvein crumpled her face.

“This guy has been brainwashed by Cleon! Lila!”

And then she again spits out good words for her circumstances.

There was no way Quon would betray himself with his sanity.

There was no way he would deny that he mixed bodies with Cleon.

Her own standards of judgment define her others.

“Alvein…You, really…”

Quon and Lyla looked at Albein with despairing eyes.

In these few days, a lot of trust in him had disappeared.

I also understood that he had gone too far.

But he was a colleague who once trusted his heart… And a man he loved.

Even with the help of Cleon, he wanted to restore it to its original state.

He thought that a bitter shock was necessary for that.

Even if they couldn’t return to their previous relationship, it was a necessary defeat for Alvein.

However, Albein’s stubbornness was not something that could be organized to the level of ‘exceeding the limit’.

It was madness. Narcissism by positive emotions amplified by the holy sword.

Of course, there was no way to change his thoughts, and he would always deny the reality.

When he realizes that he has been ‘lost’, he has a negative mindset.

Because he thought that the power of the holy sword would leave him.

“Listen Layla! Quon bastard mixed with Cleon!”

“…”

At that, the two are silent.

Only Alvein, with his wandering eyes, was talking to Laila as if to make excuses.

“I, no. When this guy comes to his senses, he will kill himself by shame. I’d rather give him peace with my own hands…”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Quon isn’t that weak. Above all. She’s sane. I, the head of the academy, vouch for it.”

Lyla denies Alvein’s words as if she doesn’t want to hear any more hateful words.

Then Albein sighed and crumpled his face once more.

“Ah. Also. Quon isn’t the only one who had sex with Cleon. Me and Sasha. I’ve already done it with him.”

“La, Lila!”

It was Quon who responded to Lyla’s revelation.

Alvein himself dropped his sword as if he was shocked.

Not just Lila, but even Sasha? When? I’ve never shown that kind of expression before…

“You’re an idiot. You’re the one who doesn’t look at others properly. There’s no way you’ll know how people change.”

At Layla’s words, Alban tore her hair.

“Idiots…? You are the fools… You are the fools…!”

“Why is it Cleon and not me! He was kicked out of the party because he was weak, useless, and a lump of luggage!”

“The only thing he knows how to do is to cowardly stab people in the back, deceive people, and commit crimes!”

“A mad criminal carrying a sword with eerie power…! I mean Cleon…!”

Albein screamed as he grabbed her face hideously and pulled her down.

Then. Layla pulls Quon’s hand and brings him towards her.

He looked down at Alvein, who couldn’t move, and spoke in a cold voice.

“That’s all you.”

… Lila turns her body around as if she saw something she couldn’t see.

And, Quon follows her.

Alvein raises her head and shouts at the two of them.

“Wait! Lila! Where are you going!”

“I’m going back to the academy. With Quondo. If someone like you persists, it’s dangerous alone…”

Layla looks back at Alvein.

In those eyes, he no longer had any connection with Alvein.

Alvein couldn’t accept the hatred towards himself in Lyla’s red eyes, and had to twist his body on the spot until the magic was released.

002

How long has it passed? The weather in early spring seems to change every moment.

Even though morning and noon are clear without a single cloud, it is a spring day to be plagued by sudden rain.

When one or two drops of water start to fall from the overcast sky.

The two of them hide into the room while making disliked faces one by one.

But there were also people who didn’t.

For example, even if you struggle for a long time, you can’t escape the magic.

Like a blonde young man who was left unattended on the street.

If you are stretching your body with complete loss of strength.

There was someone who came close to him and handed him an umbrella.

“…”

Alvein quietly raised his head.

There- I saw a woman standing with her body wrapped in a robe, ‘Gala’.

“Whoa… SM play on the street. It’s a good hobby.”

Gala’s voice was too sweet for Alvein, who was in despair.

When she puts her finger on her vine, a black flame rises and consumes only her vine.

When the vines fall to the ground with flames that cannot be quenched by rain, Gala walks away, leaving her umbrella behind.

Alban raised her head for a moment and looked at Gala, then opened her mouth.

“Now, wait a minute… Mr. Gala…”

With a voice like an abandoned puppy, he calls out to Gala.

Gala quietly looked at him with her usual kind eyes.

Although the direction is different from that of Quon.

“I… Break up with everyone at the party… If you don’t mind… Let’s talk…”

Even if she thinks about it, the causal relationship is messed up.

However, Gala is different from girls like Kuon and Layla who don’t recognize themselves.

With her grown-up composure, she might… Listen to her own story.

She may even admit to herself.

She thinks so and clings to her.

Gala looked at Albein for a moment, then lifted the corners of her mouth and smiled.

“Then… Shall we go together for a while?”

As if seduced by such a gala, Alvein nods at her and runs after her.

With slow steps, she stood in front of Alvein and walked away.

Even the rain that fell felt good, the water running down her hair.

Her convex protrudes from her hips or breasts.

Albein, who was walking behind her while watching her, lusted after her.

She felt a black desire creep up on her.

“Albein. Can I have a drink?”

Do you know what he thinks or not? Gala asks Alvein in an innocent voice.

“…Yes. First of all, I’m an adult.”

Silently answering Gala’s question, Alvein was watching her opportunity at some point.

Even one person is good She thought she wanted to make the woman her own that Cleon’s untouched.

She is an alien sorceress who appears from nowhere.

A woman with a body that seduces men.

Whatever happens, she can hold her accountable too.

With that in mind, the woman in front of her seemed like a perfect prey.

-While Albein spreads his delusion and imagination.

He hadn’t noticed where Gala was leading him.

The identity of the bottle she was holding in her hand didn’t bother her either.

The place I arrived at after walking quietly behind her was a place in my memory.

“Sasha~!”

“Ah, Mr. Gala!”

And Gala waves her hand and calls out to the orange-haired girl.

I was standing in front of a collapsed building in ruins with an umbrella in the same rain.

I see a flower in her hand.

White chrysanthemum symbolizes ‘memorial’.

Albein recalls from her hazy memories of her.

The place where the hideout of the teeth of the assassin group’s tent was.

She said that she and Cleon fought… No, it wasn’t a situation that could be called a fight. It was a one-sided crush.

Recalling such an unpleasant memory, Alvein frowned.

Sasha too, seeing Albein, shrank back and turned to her gala.

“Why is Mr. Alvein here…”

“Um… I was pretending to be pitiful. Just to let you know a little bit about my worth.”

Gala answered Sasha with a finger on her chin.

Hearing those words, Alvein felt a tingling sensation as if he had been hit in the head with a hammer.

“Gala… Mr…?”

And then she called out the name of the woman who had shown her mercy to her.

Gala did not answer the call and handed Sasha a bottle of her liquid.

Sasha placed her drink in front of the rubble of the building following her bottle and raised her chrysanthemum.

“Hey Sasha… What are you doing… Someone’s there…”

“It is. It’s definitely here.”

Is it the scum of an assassination group? Or is it the dead Cleon? Anyway, that’s a good thing.

This woman is a lustful whore who has already betrayed herself and shakes her ass in front of her Cleon.

She didn’t want to mix her words with such a woman.

More than that, I couldn’t hear Gala’s words properly.

When Sasha finished her prayers and looked back at Albein, the hunter’s imprint appeared in her eyes.

Not the same color as usual, but the engraving that shines in a slightly darker color exudes a mysterious atmosphere.

“The hunter’s imprint can also track the traces of the soul.”

Just a while ago, she was attacked by a magician, and her imprint her, which was activated, was stronger than before.

Perhaps thanks to that, he now has enough power to pursue the traces of the soul left in this world.

And, she just recently.

She found traces of the soul left here.

By attempting to assassinate her her teeth, framed as her ‘villain’ her, she only tarnished the honor of her own sword and took the old assassin’s soul her.

After discussing this with Gala, Gala taught her rituals so that the soul could leave this world.

Albain doesn’t know who it is.

However. Instinctively, she realized she was involved.

She herself knew that there was an attempt to assassinate ‘Cleon’.

And, in the process, the assassin who failed the mission sacrificed his own life.

After all, she thought it was an assassin crap subject.

Remnants of ruins. Even though there was no light due to the clouds, the shadows remained there.

The shadow keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Finally, she turns into a shapeless blade and approaches Alvein.

The pace wasn’t fast at all. Rather, it was trembling as if it would disappear at any moment.

Even so, the hatred of the soul approaching him with murderous intent resonated in Albain’s soul as well.

“Hey, yikes…!”

Raise an unsightly voice.

Alvein inadvertently clung to Gala who was next to him.

“Go away! What did I do wrong! You scum that failed the mission…!”

I didn’t do any reflection.

It is all because of Cleon that this happens to him.

“Go, Mr. Gala. Are you a shaman? Then, don’t you know something about the soul?”

“Umm~ If you ask me that. Sorry. I’m not a shaman.”

The moment Gala said that, her robes disintegrated with magical energy and scattered into the air.

When the bottom of her robe her, which had been hidden until now, was revealed.

That she wasn’t a ‘shaman’, and that she wasn’t even a ‘human’.

Only then did Alban realize.

“Ah, the devil…”

“…Whoops. You call me that too. Well, okay.”

‘Gala’. No, as Galatea revealed her true form of her, Sasha hardened her expression a little and looked at the two of them.

Even in the meantime, the blade of the soul was slowly approaching Alvein.

“I mean… I really hate you, Alvein.”

“…!?”

Albein could not come to her senses properly due to the sudden dark emotion of her.

“You cling to Cleon only when it’s convenient. As soon as you gained strength yourself, you treated him as a hindrance and kicked him out…”

“Intoxicated with the power of the Holy Sword, forgetting all the original heart…”

“Malignantly defiled that sword, now minutely tearing the remaining soul to shreds… ‘The Misfit'”

“I don’t like you as a human… But as a soul, the devil’s food… I think it’ll be delicious.”

“Because we like the souls of the ‘evil’.”

Her face her contorts

Her eyes are like crescent moons. Her mouth her smiles, baring her teeth.

It was never human.

What is in front of you is not a human being.

It’s the devil A demon who covets human souls.

And, this woman also put the name of ‘Cleon’ in her mouth her.

“Mr. Alban!”

The moment Sasha shouted that, a black blade aimed at Albain’s neck and swung.

Albein suddenly comes to his senses her and moves her her body her, but the blade slightly brushes her shoulder her and gets hurt.

“Kwaaaaak!”

“Eomsal… I’ve been hurt a lot more than that.”

When Galatea said that and tried to bring her finger her to her wound her, Alban quickly fell away from her.

“…Why, why why why why why!!”

Soaked all over in the rain.

Shedding blood and sweat, Alvein glared at Galatea.

“Ah. Why are you on Cleon’s side?”

“…”

Then, Galatea smiled as if it were natural.

“Yes, because I belong to Cleon. From head to toe. Outside and inside. From birth to end. Body and soul are all … His own.”

“—Damn it!!!”

Alvein’s holy sword is pulled out once again.

This time, for its original purpose. It is to cut down the devil.

However. His sword His, clouded with fear, could not reach Galatea.

On the contrary-

The flying arrow changes the trajectory of the holy sword.

Although the bow Sasha held in her hand her was unusually small.

Even so, it was enough to disturb Alvein.

Albein looked at Sasha with her ghostly face her, but Sasha swallowed her saliva and spoke calmly.

“… Alvein-san. Until now, Albain-san has committed many sins. He has polluted his soul his. I can see that now.”

Sadly, she lowered her arm with her bow and sprinkled the remaining liquor on her ground.

Then, the shadow slowly diminishes and eventually disappears.

“That soul has already been stained black beyond purification. Even the connection with the Holy Sword is at stake…”

Alvein stepped back as if he didn’t want to hear it.

“—Just in case. If you want to be forgiven… Pay the penalty. It’s the only way to save your soul…”

“Don’t… Order me!!!!”

Then she stretches out her hand and aims it at Sasha.

At the tip of the left hand, which is different from usual, when mana is concentrated-

“Saint Ray!”

A golden flash appeared literally like lightning on her, and hit Sasha’s shoulder her-

Caang-

Couldn’t penetrate

Galatea disappeared at some point.

Instead, she descends on top of the ruins.

What saved Sasha was the beautiful sword.

And holding it in her hand.

“…You, how…”

A black-haired, black-eyed magician.

“Cleon…”

“…Alvein. It’s time to end it. The end that suits you is… Isolation.”