Ā Chapter 10
“Why? Did I say something wrong again?”
“It’s not that so much asā¦ā¦.”
Leonas and Vilatea exchanged glances and then looked at Silphy.
Silphy, with an uncomfortable expression, alternated looking at the waterfall of blood from its body and at me, then spoke as if sighing.
> “It fits together too well.”
“What does that mean.”
> “Like the pieces fit perfectly, as if it was the original setting.”
“Isn’t a perfect fit a problem?”
> “It is a problem. When Ren hears about this, he’ll make an expression even more serious than if you combined all of us together.”
I couldn’t understand at all what Silphy was feeling uneasy about. But seeing Vilatea and Leonas communicating with their eyes alone, it seemed like it was something not trivial.
> ‘I don’t know. If it’s something I absolutely need to know, they’ll tell me themselves. Even if it kills them.’
Just looking at the state of the village and my house was so depressing that I decided not to think any further about things I didn’t understand. So I just looked at the hideously melted building remains and recalled the past.
“I was born and raised in that inn. My parents died early, so I ran the inn alone.”
“Sorry to interrupt your sentimental story, but you’re a ‘background’ without even a name, remember? The fact that you mistakenly think you have such detailed setting values is proof that you’re a very serious errorā Ugh! Who did that!”
Silphy, who had been babbling, finally shut its mouth after getting hit on the back of the head by a small pebble that flew from somewhere. I looked at Vilatea, who was innocently brushing off her hands with a prim expression, in surprise, and then guided the group.
“My room was on the second floor, so it probably wouldn’t have been flooded by the Silver Dragon’s bloodā¦ No, I guess not.”
Contrary to my hopes, my room didn’t have a single intact corner, as if it had been hit by a bomb. Only the poisonous smoke rose thickly with a terrible stench.
“In this state, there’s no way we can take any books or anything. What do we do?”
“Still, shouldn’t we at least pretend to look? The professor wants accurate information.”
“Let’s just go. Ren is not as vicious a professor as you think.”
Unlike Leonas, who insisted on rummaging through my room, Vilatea avoided answering and just fanned herself busily. I looked at her pretty hands fluttering like a butterfly and suddenly recalled a forgotten memory.
“Ahā¦! We can go to the castle!”
“Why the castle?”
“When I cut off the dragon’s head, I went to the castle with the villagers. I brought some books from home then.”
“She’s really a strange girl. Why would you bring books when you’re going to the castle carrying a dragon’s head?”
Vilatea muttered.
Even I thought it was a bit ridiculous. Bringing books when I was excited about getting an official hero title by bringing the dragon’s headā¦ it certainly wasn’t common behavior.
Clearing my throat and slyly avoiding their gaze, I soon defended the reason for my strange behavior.
“No, but there was a reason! The castle is full of nobles, right! I was worried they might look down on us as country bumpkins who didn’t know etiquette or anything, so I brought them. Court etiquette books, understanding the nobility, things like that.”
“The more I hear, the more amazed I am. Among all that, the most absurd thing is that such etiquette books existed in this remote mountain inn.”
“The books the adventurers left behind were surprisingly diverse. Swordsmanship, magic, history books, novelsā¦. They left all kinds of things behind as if our house was a trash can, seriously.”
Mumbling while recalling memories, I just shut my mouth. The more I talked, the more embarrassed I felt somehow. Vilatea, staring at me intently, nodded.
“Alright, let’s go to the palace. Rather than wandering around here, let’s find even an etiquette book and take it to the professor to earn some points.”
This time, Vilatea took the lead.
The palace, which felt like I was returning to after a very long time, looked much shabbier than I remembered. Probably because the Emperor Leonas’s palace I had seen in the Training Stage was so splendid.
Even the pillars decorated with gold and the walls adorned with colorful jewels somehow felt crude and tacky.
“The room I stayed in at the palace is over there.”
I quickly guided the group to the room that had been assigned to me.
Looking at my sleeping self from a high place was a very strange sensation. My body, lying on a bed so luxurious it felt almost undeserved, looked incredibly unfamiliar. It felt like I was peeking into someone else’s memories.
Caught in an indescribable feeling, I just stared blankly at my body and Silphy’s head. Unable to stand it any longer, Vilatea pointed to the desk.
“Are those the books you brought?”
“Uh, yes.”
I barely came to my senses and slid toward the desk.
The heavy books with old, worn leather covers and antique lettering engraved on them were strangely welcoming.
> “I’ve seen all the books in the Academy library, but I’ve never seen ones like these.”
Leonas mumbled in wonder as he looked at the books. Vilatea glared at Leonas disapprovingly and pulled down the corners of her mouth.
“ćCompendium of Imperial Etiquetteć, ćUnderstanding and Practice of Noble Societyć, ćIntroduction to Imperial Politicsćā¦ā¦.”
Silphy’s voice, as it checked the titles and publication dates of the books, grew lower and lower. Silphy narrowed its eyes and looked at me sideways.
“Hey, were all the books in your house this old?”
“Yeah. There were even older ones too.”
Silphy’s expression grew more serious. Just as it was about to say something.
“Someone’s coming.”
Leonas pointed to the door opening without a sound.
Through the open door crack, a man who seemed to be some kind of palace high priest was entering. Behind him, the villagers of my village followed in single file, their faces utterly cowed.
After the last person entered the room, the great high priest spoke, pretending to be kind.
> “Even for you all, this shouldn’t be a very difficult choice. Whether to eliminate one person, or whether all of you disappear.”
On the luxurious silver tray on the bedside table, the head of the giant silver dragon that I had personally cut off was placed.
“That dragon you all vanquished, I mean.”
The high priest placed his hand on the elegant horn of the dead dragon and sighed. With that very same face that had kindly smiled while guiding us here and there around the palace.
> “It was a very important existence, the end of this world and the beginning of a new story. Did you know that?”
My villagers hesitantly nodded.
> “<On the day the silver wings sleeping at the end of the world collapse the mountain range with their chilly breath, the hero of wishes shall open a new door to a closed era.> Did you truly know this ancient prophecy?”
The high priest repeated the prophecy in a tone of disbelief. My sleeping self seemed to nod along with the villagers.
How could we not know the prophecy? The very reason we villagers all joined forces to defeat those ‘silver wings’ was because of that damn prophecy.
“What did we do so wrong that you’re treating us like thisā¦?”
> “Are you asking because you truly don’t know? Was there any phrase in that sacred prophecy hinting at ‘just some folks from a mountain village’?”
“ā¦ā¦.”
> “That is precisely your fault. Not knowing the difference between when to act big and when to shrink back, and acting big!”
The high priest, throwing a tantrum unbecoming of his elegant appearance, pulled a dagger from under his pure white robes and began handing them out to the villagers.
> “What need is there for long words? Just hurry up and do what needs to be done.”
The villagers, standing in a circle around my bed, fidgeted with the daggers with awkward hands and watched the high priest’s reaction. The high priest fiercely raised the corners of his eyes again.
> “You must not make such cowed expressions. The victims are us, not you. You are the perpetrators who completely ruined the perfect narrative we poured our hearts and souls into preparing.”
“We just did it to protect our villageā¦.”
> “That is the problem. The mountain range you live on, this rotten world, all of it was supposed to be trampled by that dragon! Only then can the real hero appear and the great epic that opens a new era begin!”
At those words, my past self, anger flaring up, swung a fist at the back of his head. But my fist couldn’t even graze him and just passed right through. As if I had become a ghost.
> “The gods have declared that this woman is the cause of a fatal error. I received an oracle to eliminate her by joining forces, and so I have guided you.”
The high priest, having revealed his true nature, arrogantly gestured with his chin toward my sleeping self.
> “The silver lining is that you are merely auxiliary elements existing around this woman. I hear you were analyzed as being lightly contaminated. That you can return to your originally assigned places without responsibility for the malfunction.”
The villagers and my sleeping self all tilted their heads with identical faces. Malfunctions, auxiliary elementsā¦ no matter how many times I heard it, I couldn’t understand what the hell it meant.
> “As I have said many times, there are only two choices. Whether to eliminate one person, or whether all of you disappear.”
A tense silence flowed among the villagers. Fearful eyes, rolling here and there, watching for reactions. Trembling hands. Shallow breaths.
The moment those sounds, more insignificant than the sound of grasshoppers outside the window, were cut off as if by a knife. The villagers raised their sharp, chilling daggers and simultaneously struck down toward me.
Along with the long-forgotten pain, a terrible realization pierced my body.
> Ah.
> So I was.
> Murdered by my own comrades.
