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Chapter 4: And the Scales the Demon Uses to Weigh It All
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He looked down at a dead body.
It had been cut cruelly into a sopping mess. Then he looked farther out, to the next and the next. The room was covered in bodies, each soaking up another’s blood through the ocean of red between them.
“……”
Sion looked down at them wordlessly.
He was currently sitting in the oldest room in his country, the throne room of Roland Castle.
Countless bodies covered the floor. It was a surreal sight, but he, the king of all Roland, didn’t say a word. He stared at the gruesome scene before him with his willful golden eyes, and nothing more.
“……”
Then he looked up to ‘something’ that squirmed deeper into the room. He couldn’t see it clearly. The magic lights had been destroyed along with everything else, and there was heavy rain outside, so it was difficult to see much of anything. But there on the other side of the darkness, ‘something’ squirmed without sound nor presence. Even without those, he still understood without a doubt that something strange was there. He understood that the cause of this destruction was there.
This was a common occurrence, after all.
He had closed his eyes for a brief moment, and when he opened them again, ‘something’ had hidden itself in one of the bodies that’d once been his guards that now lay scattered across the floor.
“…Again?” Sion whispered as he glared at the ‘something’ on the other side of the darkness. “Try as much as you want. You people have no chance against me here.”
“……”
He felt that the ‘something’ responded. But its voice was so quiet, so feeble, that he couldn’t decipher it. “I didn’t hear you,” Sion said. “Not that I need to. Lucile.”
An abnormally beautiful man appeared just behind him, where nothing had been. “Yeah,” he said. “Will you kill it?”
Sion nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then it’s already dead,” Lucile said. He disappeared once more, and then something on the other side of the darkness moved. “Hiding won’t get you anywhere,” Lucile said with a smile.
Lucile pressed a hand into one of the many dead bodies. He moved it around inside a bit, as if to scoop its guts out, then grasped something and pulled a strange monster out.
It had the head of a snake, arms of a human, wings of a bird, and legs of a spider. Its whole body was covered in burns.
The very sight of it was enough to make anyone nauseous. Lucile held it up by his hands on its neck.
It let out a jarring scream, jutted its fangs out, then sunk them into Lucile’s shoulder.
“That’s gross,” Lucile said and brushed it off. The snake’s head disappeared instantly, taking its fangs with it. But the monster didn’t give up. Spiders’ eyes and fangs sprouted from its chest, and its newly formed mouth gaped and tried to swallow Lucile up.
But Lucile just smiled, as if this was something enjoyable.
“Ha, hahah, hahahaha. What’s that for? You mean to swallow me? Do you think you’re capable of that, at your level?”
Another head, this time one that resembled a bird’s, sprouted from the monster’s shoulder to speak. “How egotistical you are, descendant of Eris Lied. Your recklessness ends here. The Goddesses’ anger has already reached its limit—”
Lucile plucked the bird’s head off. It fell silent. “And what exactly did your crazy harlots have to say?” he asked as he smashed its head between his hands.
The monster still didn’t give up. Its spider-like fangs aimed straight for Lucile, but it was practically nothing to him.
“Enough of this charade,” Lucile said. He released his power, and everything ended—
Or at least, it should have.
“…Hm?” Lucile’s expression changed. There was a small light inside of the spider’s mouth. “This is b—”
The light exploded out from the monster’s body, towards Lucile. No… towards Sion. Lucile was swallowed up by the light and disappeared. Then it continued on, as if to swallow Sion as well, but Lucile reappeared in front of him, a dark sword in his hand. He sliced the air with it and cut the light into two, then absorbed both halves.
“……”
The room became dark and still once more. Now it was over.
“…Lucile,” Sion said as he looked at the beautiful man in front of him, who was supposed to be darker than any darkness and wasn’t supposed to lose to monsters, no matter how mighty they may be. “That doesn’t look very good?”
Lucile turned towards him. “This is nothing,” he said with a smile on his attractive face. But only the right side of his face smiled. The left side of his face… no, of his body - his left arm, left leg, the entire left side of his body, was gone. The light from the spider’s mouth had burnt it off, and now it was gone.
Sion eyed him suspiciously. “That doesn’t look like nothing.”
Lucile shrugged his remaining shoulder. “It’s really nothing.” He patted his body with his right hand. When he did, it reformed from the inside out, until he finally looked like his usual, beautiful self. Disgustingly so.
Sion smiled bitterly. “You monster.”
“Hahaha. Your own kind disgusts you?”
‘Own kind’… So he meant to call Sion a monster as well?
Sion didn’t argue. Because it was true. He was no different from this disgusting monster now, and he’d only become more monstrous as time went on.
Sion quietly looked around the room one more time. There was no trace of that gross mix-matched monster to be found. It’d probably self-destructed in an attempt to kill Lucile… no, to kill Sion, the Mad Dark Hero.
“Still,” Sion said while Lucile looked around. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen you wounded.”
“…Yeah. I was careless. I didn’t think they would come here personally.”
“Personally?” Sion asked, eyes wide. “You mean a Goddess came here personally?”
Lucile nodded. “It was probably a piece of the Goddess of Peace, Cukanohst. She must have used magic to send it here. But for a Goddess to bother sending a piece of herself on such a long path here… They must be getting awfully frantic—”
“You fools,” a harsh voice that was so high-pitched that it was difficult to understand suddenly said. It was the voice of a woman, but in all likelihood, nobody had actually said it. It was more a voice that was placed inside of their world, into their minds, than one that was spoken on the other side of the room.
“…It’s still here?” Sion asked.
Lucile smiled. “It is. Because I didn’t kill it. The only thing that disappeared was the Goddess’ attack.
“You fools,” it said once more. But this time it felt different - panic magic, they called it. It ate away at the listener’s spirit in order to destroy their ability to fight back, and the Goddess had embedded it into her voice.
Not too long ago and Sion would have lost his fighting spirit entirely at the sound of her voice. He would’ve gone mad from the fear. It was unmistakably the voice of a god - what else could cause humans to fall to their knees and obey out of fear but a god?
“Though it doesn’t have quite the same effect on monsters like us,” Sion mumbled as he searched the room for the source of the voice. “Ah, it’s no use. My eyes can’t find it, Lucile.”
Apparently Lucile had already found the Goddess fragment, as his gaze was focused on a spot on the ceiling. “What, Sion. Don’t you want to see what a Goddess looks like?”
Sion nodded. “I suppose I do. One of the Goddesses who always sends her magic down to attack us has finally come down herself. But she ought to show us her face since she came all this way.”
Lucile turned back to look at Sion. “But you’ll regret seeing her?”
Sion cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
Lucile smiled. But it wasn’t his usual smile. It was meaner, darker, meant more to laugh at Sion than to smile at him. “Because they’re so ugly. Even though we call them Goddesses.”
Lucile waved his hand before Sion, and the colors of the world changed. It became darker than darkness itself, and other places brighter than the light could shine.
Lucile looked back up to the ceiling, where the light massed together to form a coherent shape - it was a woman who wore shining robes like an angel might.
“…Oh my,” Sion couldn’t help but say. Her face made him grimace. She was just so absurdly ugly. She was crawling on all-fours on the ceiling, and her face had dark holes where her eyes were supposed to be. Every now and then he saw something crawl inside, bug-like little movements that sent shivers down his spine. She didn’t have a nose and her mouth was profoundly inhuman - it was placed vertically as opposed to horizontally, and hundreds of teeth lined the outside of her gums. She was perfectly human from the neck down, but instead of that feeling like a relief, it just made the rest of her that much more grotesque. It felt like she took the partial form of a human out of hate rather than love.
Her mouth opened and closed sloppily, and her voice resounded through the air once more. “You. You you you. Why, why why why, won’t you let us save you? Give you salvation?” It was a high-pitched, painful, and difficult to decipher voice.
“See?” Lucile said. “You wish you never saw it, right?”
“……”
Sion answered with a mere shrug. It was about what he expected. These Goddesses constantly sent monsters down to them, so he already had a vague idea of how monstrous the Goddesses themselves would look. This was no different from what he’d expected.
Plus, Lucile had shown him a book about them once. The book depicted a world of light and dark like this, and after reading it, he’d expected that the Goddesses would be exactly this ugly. This exact kind of story was common inside of that book, after all.
The book itself had gone something like this—
Born far too long ago, the mad desires of the Goddesses could not be stopped. They wouldn’t stop even if the world itself was in their hands.
They create and devour light, create and devour dark, create and devour humans. Still, nothing is ever enough.
They’re hungry. They want more. They’re hungry, hungry, hungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungryhungry.
Then, at the end of it all, they committed the world’s greatest sin.
They returned to the place that birthed them, the people who gave them life, and devoured their parents. Finally, they were satisfied.
Everything ended. Everything that had existed in the world until then was now gone.
Then they are born again.
But…
Sion looked up at the hideous Goddess fragment on the ceiling and spoke. “Things won’t go how you want them to go this time. The hideous story you aim to recreate ends here.”
The Goddess turned her empty eye sockets towards him. “You again. You, always always always you are the crazy one here, you mad Hero, my beloved Hero… You trick Omega, trick Alpha, trick the Demon. Do you intend to sell this world out again?”
A faint smile rose to Sion’s lips. “I knew that you guys had countless continuously told stories to tell among yourselves, but…”
The stories of old survived with the same pattern across the board.
There were stories where the Hero destroyed the world, stories where the Demon destroyed the world, stories where the Goddesses destroyed the world. Sure, some parts were bound to be true, but the truth was hidden among the lies. He didn’t know who made those stories or why they made them, but they were all stories tied together by their shared themes of destruction, only varying by who caused it…
Anyway… The goddess spoke again.
“Accept our aid,” she said. “Take the salvation we bring you. It is for your own sake. Accept it, take it, become the Hero who saves this world—”
“Shut up… you ugly bitch,” Sion muttered.
Lucile flew forward. “Azure Emperor’s Tongue,” he whispered and raised his right hand. But nothing came out of it. Nothing Sion could see.
But it worked on the Goddess. Her ugly face became even more hideous as it warped with fear. “A, Azure Emperor, you say…? Ridiculous… Have you devoured the God Hunter’s power? But you shouldn’t… Omega shouldn’t… Descendants of the sacred sword Eris Lied shouldn’t—”
Lucile smiled. “Don’t think that you geriatrics… that you old gods can keep doing whatever you want forever. I will devour it all - Gods, God Hunters, and Goddesses.” He used his hand to pull the Goddess’ head down. She couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t do anything to stop her head from moving down. Then her body began to disappear.
Her expression was one of perfect shock. “No… I-I’m really being devoured… What are you doing… to my b—!?”
Her words ended there as she returned to darkness.
Lucile landed in the middle of the bodies, then turned back to Sion. “It’s ov…”
Then Lucile collapsed to his knees before he could finish. Then he fell even from there to lie on the floor.
“……”
Sion watched silently. He’d seen Lucile like this before too, after all. This was what happened when he devoured a Goddess and took her power. No… this was what happened when the God Hunter devoured a God - he was tested.
Was he worthy of such power? Did he deserve power great enough to make or break a world with? Should he be allowed to hold the pen to edit the eternal story that’d remained relatively unchanged since ancient times?
Lucile was tested, and if he failed, he would die. If he lived, he’d move forward. It was simple.
Lucile and Sion had both consented to this dangerous game long ago. They threw away everything for it - laughter, sadness, happiness, joy, friends, family, allies, their lives, everything, to the point that all one ever wanted to do was cry like a fool. They threw it all away, so they had nowhere to move but forward.
Maybe humans would call them crazy. Maybe Gods would call them crazy. Maybe the Goddesses would. But even so…
“……”
Even so, if they managed to survive, they’d be able to cut through the darkness that threatened their world. So they kept moving forward.
“……”
Lucile came to.
“…Is everything alright?” Sion asked.
Lucile met his eyes and smiled, darker and colder and emptier than before. “No problem.”
“Then…”
Lucile nodded. “Yeah. We’ll keep going.”
Then Lucile disappeared, leaving Sion alone with the piles of bodies and sea of blood.
“…The Mad Dark Hero, huh,” he groaned.
“…Your majesty.”
Sion rose his head. One man stood on the other side of his dead companions. His face was wrinkled from a lifetime of stern expressions, despite only being in his early thirties. His uniform was satisfying to look at because of how wrinkle-free it was, and he stood with perfect posture. He was Major Rahel Miller, head of the Taboo Hunters, Milk Callaud’s boss… no, the genius Luke Stokkart’s boss. He was probably the smartest man in this whole country.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Rahel Miller had created the current Roland. By the time Sion had thought to start a revolution, Miller had already taken all the necessary steps to make his revolution a success. Sion was nothing but a gear in his plan.
Right now, Miller’s stern, troubled expression was focused on Sion. It was guarded so as to not show even the vaguest sign of what he was thinking about.
Sion smiled. “What do you need?”
“I would like to clarify some details regarding Roland’s present situation…”
Miller looked around. At the corpses. Sion watched his sharp eyes flit from one body to the next, then to the empty air. Was he searching for Lucile? Or for the Goddess that Lucile devoured?
“…So about when did you start paying so much attention?” Sion asked.
Miller’s gaze fixed itself on Sion. “About when? If you’re asking, then my answer is that I don’t pay attention. Even if I did, I’m sure it wouldn’t get anywhere. I don’t have enough information for conjecture. That’s why I came here with only one question in mind.”
Sion nodded. “What’s your question, then?”
Miller looked straight into his eyes…. peered through them, into Sion’s core. “Tell me everything, Sion Astal,” Miller said, his voice low. “Tell me everything, starting from the very beginning.”
---
He ordered every neuron in his mind to think, think, think.
What should he do? What should he do? What should he do?
What’s the situation? The details?
“……”
Even when he tried to order his brain, it fired right back at him - it’s a pain, it’s a pain, it’s just too much of a pain. Let’s just go to sleep, let’s sleep, let’s take a nap instead.
It wasn’t even realistic to go back to sleep. It was way too late for that kind of reaction. Too much was happening now. But his foolish mind just kept screaming for its nap. Alright, time to sleep, it’s sleepy time, bye-bye world of the awake and hello fluffy comfy world of dreams that he’d never want to wake from ever again, goodbye!!
Ryner Lute
P.S. Don’t look for me.
“……”
What a stupid brain.
He gritted his teeth and swallowed his yawn, then looked up at the clock on the wall. It was noon. No wonder he was so tired. He escaped jail yesterday morning and hadn’t slept since because he was running around getting info before jumping the border, and then after running all the way to their meeting point he met Kiefer as she was coming back, and then they found Ferris out cold.
He was about thirty hours into sleeplessness right now.
And now. Right now, he was inside Asolude Dango. Their plan had been to leave here at 8:30 and head on into Imperial Nelpha.
“……”
Ryner quietly watched the absolute beauty across from him shovel dango into her mouth with a perfectly carefree expression. Her sister was beside her, eating just as much. It was to the point where Ryner was worried about who was going to pay for all of it. Seriously, he was breaking out in cold sweat here. Well, if push came to shove, they could always make a run for it…
“……”
Kiefer, his redheaded old friend, was here too. She was sitting beside him, also eating dango. At some point she said that it was really good and Ferris’ eyes lit up.
“Yes! You understand!” Ferris had said happily.
Kiefer stuttered, a little overwhelmed. “Oh, um… yes. It’s a little different from other dango.”
“That’s the part you understood!?” Ferris asked, then took another few bites. “Forhwhababagaah!” She yelled. Maybe it was supposed to be real words, but with her cheeks full of dango, it sounded like some kind of incantation.
“Um,” Kiefer started, a little confused. “Err, yeah, probably…”
“Uncle!” Ferris shouted. “This woman understands! Get us thirty more skewers!”
“Thirty, comin’ right up~!”
“Thirty!? I can’t eat thirty skewers of just d—”
Ferris and Iris stared with matching expressions of wide-eyed shock.
“Umm, er… I s-sure want to eat some more dango!”
“Right!”
“Fawaha!”
Ryner shot Kiefer a sidelong glance as the troublesome sisters played with her, then went back to desperately trying to override his thoughts of sleep.
But seriously, this wasn’t the time or place to be lazing around.
According to Ferris and Kiefer’s conversation between bites of dango, the reason that Kiefer came back was like, uhh…
Ryner thought back to what Kiefer said earlier. To her face, red as could be.
“I, um, I wanted to come back to Ryner…”
The part after that was embarrassing, so he stopped there. The important part was that that was why she was here. Giving her a real response would be hard so uh, he ended up putting it off. Also, if that was really the only reason she was back, then she didn’t need to be in Roland with how things were now. Like, what would Sion do if she knew about this?
“……”
Thirty skewers of dango were set down on their table. Ryner looked to Kiefer, who was wearing a puzzled expression.
“…Hey, Kiefer.”
“Hm?”
“Do you want to see Sion…?”
Kiefer shook her head, a little lonely. “Um… Well, it’s not that I wouldn’t talk to him. But I didn’t come here just to see him. I came to see y—”
“Uh, okay, cool,” Ryner interrupted, flustered. “So you don’t want to see him?”
“Yeah. Besides, judging from what you’ve said, it doesn’t sound like I could either way…”
Ryner nodded. “I think so too.”
Then he returned to his thoughts.
Even if Kiefer tried to meet with Sion, she’d probably come out of it disappointed. Because… the Sion of today wouldn’t even see Ferris, who he’d spent a lot of time acting like idiots with up until recently. It’d actually be a lot more shadier if Sion did meet with Kiefer than if he didn’t at this point. If he did, it’d mean that Kiefer…
As if reading his mind, Kiefer spoke. “Can I come with you?”
“Huh?”
“You’re leaving Roland, aren’t you? I’ll come with. After all, I came here to be with—”
“Hey, woman!” Ferris interrupted. “If you don’t eat now, you’ll lose your chance to eat this dango at the moment when it’s tastiest!”
Ryner looked over to Ferris and met her eyes. She was as expressionless as always. No… more expressionless than usual? She was expressionless like she was back when they first met. What the heck.
“…Are you mad?” Ryner asked.
Ferris tilted her head. “Mm? What are you talking about?”
“I mean, you’re awfully expressionless right now.”
“This is just how my face looks.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Okay then.”
“Okay.”
“Mm.”
“Then I guess that’s that.”
“Yeah.”
Ferris went back to her dango. Honestly, she looked a little uncomfortable to him. Usually she’d be talking about something exceptionally stupid right about now, but… ah, wait, wasn’t she always pretty quiet when she had her dango? Was she?
“……”
Whatever. It wasn’t really the time to worry about stuff like that.
For some reason, Kiefer was tense and uneasy by his side.
“What’s wrong?” Ryner asked.
Kiefer shook her head. “N-nothing.”
“Oh, is it because there’s more dango than you can eat and now you’re worried? Don’t be. There’s nothing you can’t do once Ferris has decided she’s gonna have fun with you.”
Kiefer turned her worried face to Ferris for a moment, then back to Ryner. “Uuh…”
He didn’t have time to worry about those two now. He had to focus on the real issue.
Their biggest issue was the guy who attacked Ferris.
To be frank, Ferris was strong. Strong to the point where he didn’t know who would win between the two of them if she got serious with her sword. She was definitely somewhere near the top of the list of strongest people in Roland. She probably wouldn’t break a sweat even if they sent a bunch of Magical Knights after her.
And she wasn’t just strong. She also knew when to run. If a whole battalion of Magical Knights took Iris hostage, she’d still manage to get Iris back and then get away safely.
But one person had beat her flawlessly this time. If Ferris was to be believed, he might’ve even killed her. He had her arms and legs and it was only a matter of time until she bled out.
“……”
Ryner forced back a shiver. If she had really died… If she really died, and wasn’t here eating dango now. What would he even do?
He shivered, unable to hold back his fear at the thought.
He was going to save Sion. He already decided that he would, and saving Sion was the purpose of the journey he was preparing to embark on. But someone that Sion sent just tried to kill Ferris. Ryner didn’t know if Sion gave the order or not, but either way, it was an undeniable fact that one of Sion’s men had tried to kill Ferris.
And that was…
“……”
Well, it sucked. It made him feel faint. It might happen again, after all.
He’d already decided to move forward. He would move forward on the path to save Sion. So if anyone fell victim to his quest, then it was as a direct result of his actions in trying to save Sion.
He only realized that now, just before leaving. He was putting lives on the line here. The life of his precious partner in crime was on the line.
If Ferris hadn’t saved him, they wouldn’t be going on this trip. She wouldn’t be trying to save Sion if it weren’t for him. If she hadn’t tried to save Ryner at all, then nobody would be after her life.
Her older brother Lucile Eris just so happened to come to her aid this time, but what about next time? That was a lucky roll. It wouldn’t happen twice or three times in a row. It might not happen next time. She might really be killed next time. The girl eating dango like an idiot right in front of him might disappear forever.
“……”
It wasn’t just Ferris, either. Iris, Kiefer, Arua, Kuku… Everyone who was supporting him on this venture was at risk. They could die if Ryner led them in the wrong direction for the sake of Sion and for Roland. He only just realized that.
He forced a calm and sleepy expression so as to not alarm the others who were enjoying their dango. But he wasn’t calm at all. He wanted to scream from the terror that was welling up inside of him.
He thought that he’d already solidified his resolve into steel, but now he saw that that was naive.
This was a path that could end up stained with blood. This very path that he was walking would take him against Sion, the man on track to become the dictator of the south.
Sion had already chosen his path back on that day.
Ryner recalled Sion’s face in the moment he held a knife to his neck in the rain with tears in his eyes. Sion was so kind. Sweeter than anyone else. Even so, he had resolved to walk the path that he chose. He walked it along with the weight of his crushing responsibilities.
Ryner was fed up with himself. He never did anything but run from his problems.
“…Even though he must have been suffering as I ran away.”
But Sion always smiled. He could be standing on the brink of exhaustion with tears in his eyes and he’d still smile. He smiled even when things were so hard that he could just fall over dead. He smiled until the end, no matter how horrible he felt inside.
“……”
Ryner understood what had happened now.
Ferris was attacked and nearly killed. Her attacker was Froaude. Miran Froaude. A descendant of the Holy Knight Halford Miran. But Froaude was way too gloomy to ever consider calling a holy knight. He was a cutthroat guy who went around killing everyone who got in the way of his king’s domination. Basically, he was the worst. Ryner had always thought that the king who hired him must be a rotten guy too.
Then there was something Froaude said while making a face like he looked down on Ryner.
“People cannot live without fighting. We fight to eat, for the sake of our pride, to live better than others, and to protect those we love… People fight. A peaceful world where everyone can grow up smiling… is nothing but a platitude,” he continued. “A world like that is impossible. The world isn’t as sweet as you think it is.”
The world isn’t as sweet as you think it is.
Whose words were those really?
Who had been backed so deeply into a corner that the only thing he could feel was despair, yet still moved forward?
“……”
Ryner thought back to when he first met Froaude. At the time, he had been staying with Toale, the bastard son of the first prince of Nelpha. Froaude appeared to try to kill Toale, who was both of royal blood and popular with the people, unlike his father.
But this story went back even further than that.
Sion had released Ryner from prison. Then he sent him on a journey with Ferris. This was right after that journey started.
That meant that Sion had a guy like Froaude working for him that far back. He had been hiding the darkness in his heart since then.
It must have been…
“……”
It must have been so difficult.
But…
“…Now is far too late to be realizing that,” Ryner mumbled to himself. He stared out of the teahouse’s window. It was built at an unusual angle, with the window showing the north instead of the usual south. It was showing him a direction without Sion.
The rain had lightened up. Surprisingly, it was looking like they made the right choice to kill time here where it was dry for a while. It would’ve been draining trying to cross the border in that heavy rain, but now it looked like they’d get to see a little sun by the time they made it over. Though it’d probably still rain throughout the day.
Then the sun would fade and they’d get a rainy evening, which would be ideal for evading the guards stationed at the border. So he’d like it if they could cross around then.
“……”
Then he remembered what Luke told him about the border before sunrise.
Basically Luke said that Roland was putting on a brutal show of military power and indiscriminate massacre to get other countries to submit before fighting them out of fear. Roland’s worst case scenario was if the other countries saw what had happened and built an allied army to fight Roland, a cruel foe that would spit on its own alliances, and managed to fight with clear minds.
Roland was slaughtering every Nelphan they could get their hands on to scare the other countries into not fighting at all for fear of what might happen to them. As long as they could make a proper example out of Nelpha, the other countries wouldn’t want to fight them and would surrender before even trying. That meant that this was ultimately the route of least sacrifice.
That was why Roland would need to slaughter Nelpha’s royal family. They had to do it to prove that they were serious. Then they’d tell the royal families of the other countries that if they valued their lives, they ought to surrender now. In fact, they could stay nobles in Roland as long as they surrendered!
That was their strategy.
It’d probably go pretty well, too. Roland was perfectly capable of slaughtering Nelpha’s royal family with all the power they had now.
As long as they continued as they were, the Southern Continent would end up in the palm of Sion’s hand. It’d be the fastest solution with the smallest number of sacrifices.
Anyway, that was Roland’s side of things. But what about Nelpha’s side?
Ryner couldn’t help but grimace as he thought about it.
“……”
Nelpha was in the worst possible situation. The first person that came to mind who might be able to stop the conflict was the king, Gread Nelphi, but…
“I will end fighting with his death and the imprisonment of my son, Starnelle!” Gread had said.
But as soon as he said it, his stupid son was yelling back. “Who cares about the country! I don’t want to be Roland’s slave.” Then he killed his father, effectively destroying Nelpha’s only way out. And Starnelle’s idiocy didn’t stop there. He ordered 10,000 troops to be his meat shield against Roland so that he could run off to safety.
Nelpha’s situation was about as bad as it could get. They didn’t have anyone who would surrender to Roland, so Roland would keep slaughtering its people to make a point. All Starnelle wanted was to get away himself, so he ordered his soldiers to burn anything they could find to make it harder for Roland to reach him.
It would have been better if nobody had ever fought anyone, but that didn’t happen, and now it was all a huge mess. Getting out of it would be a real pain.
But there was a single light in Nelpha’s dark situation: Toale.
Toale was an illegitimate son of Prince Starnelle, as well as a kindhearted young man who helped Ryner research in Nelpha’s imperial library and offered him a place to stay when he needed it. He was a good kid to the point where it was frustrating, and his people absolutely adored him. He took lead of the army Starnelle sent to die and was trying to stop the fighting with them.
That ought to be a huge victory for Roland. If Toale was successful, then he could surrender on Nelpha’s behalf and keep the casualties to a minimum.
Knowing Toale, he probably planned to ask, ‘If we surrender, will you spare these soldiers?’
Roland wouldn’t accept it, though. They’d tell him that they couldn’t spare the soldiers for someone who wasn’t even Nelpha’s king. They’d tell him to become king and then get back to them. Then they’d accept his surrender.
Toale would accept their condition. Of course, Roland would execute him as soon as he surrendered, since he’d be Nelpha’s king and all…
Anyway, that was how things were probably playing out right about now. Ryner knew Toale, and this was the conclusion Toale would come to. He might even be happy to sacrifice his life in order to save the lives of his people. He was a stupidly good person, after all.
Ryner crossed his arms.
Right now, Imperial Nelpha was a stage for Toale Nelphi’s fight of a lifetime. It was absurd no matter how he looked at it. Toale was taking a meager 10,000 soldiers to fight his father’s 68,000. Even if he managed to beat Starnelle’s army by some miracle, he’d take the crown and use it to surrender to Roland, then accept his death with a smile.
So that was what Toale was working towards. A miracle and then his final sacrifice. Like, how much of a saint did he even have to be for this!? It was such an unbelievably shitty situation, and he was taking it so well. Ryner just wanted to yell at him.
“……”
Ryner had to go there. He had one thing he needed to do: help Toale defeat his idiot father, then have Toale take all the credit so that he could surrender to Roland fair and square. But he wouldn’t let Toale die.
He’d take the path of even less sacrifice. There was a way to do it. There had to be.
“……”
Wasn’t it gonna be like… super hard though?
Ryner scowled as he thought it through all by himself. He’d been thinking of ways to save Nelpha ever since Luke gave him a book of information on the situation early this morning, but he hadn’t thought of a single good idea yet.
Well… he’d thought of ideas. Sure. He thought of lots of things. But the methods were kinda… well, they all involved some degree of casualties.
But could he be so picky as to claim he could only accept zero deaths now? This was war.
If he made a mistake, an unimaginable amount of people would die. Even if he didn’t make any mistakes, he’d still bear the burden of any deaths that may occur.
Sion carried that same burden. He carried it all alone.
But could Ryner?
“……”
What should he do?
“…Shit,” Ryner muttered.
Shit, shit, shit.
He needed a plan to fight Claugh Klom, the red headed monster of Roland’s military.
He needed a plan to fight Prince Starnelle’s army of nearly 70,000.
He needed a plan to get Toale out of there when everything was said and done.
And all of his plans needed to be amazing. More than a few hundred people would die if they weren’t.
So he ordered his mind to move. Shit, shit, shit, he grumbled. Think, think, think, he told it. Find a way out of this stupid problem, slow, neglected brain cells.
He kept repeating it to his brain, which kept grumbling back that it was too much of a pain.
Move, move, move.
Think, think, think.
How could he break through this situation? What could he do to make things better than they were now?
He set the scale in his mind up and weighed lives on it. He weighed the lives lost if they went to war and if they didn’t. Of course there would be less deaths if they didn’t fight. He knew that. So the pro-fighting side dropped from the weight of bodies.
“……”
Or… at least it should have.
But the scales in Ryner’s mind didn’t move. The weight of the two options were the same to him.
The scales were balanced. But scales were two separate options that couldn’t coexist, so he had to pick one or the other.
Shit, he thought again.
Weakling, he told his brain cells. Wimp. Isn’t it alright to kill to move forward at times like this? It was only natural that people died. He couldn’t do anything about it.
Maybe that was true, the other side of his mind thought back. He wasn’t a magician of miracles. He couldn’t do the impossible.
But surely there was a way—
No, no, it was impossible, the other side of his mind quickly replied. And even if it wasn’t, thinking about it was too much of a pain. It was useless. Stop being so haughty. It just wasn’t possible to save everyone. The world wasn’t as sweet as he thought it was. He needed to acknowledge that people would die and keep moving forward.
But—
No buts! People were dying now too, as he mulled his options over. He needed to get a grip and face reality again. He’d been running away from it for a long time, but it was time to face the world.
Look at it. Take a real good look at it. Look at the same world that Sion was always looking at. Look at the world, at its despair, and make a choice just like he did.
He needed to take responsibility, take a good look at things, and make a real choice.
He needed to take lives and move on.
So which was it?
Which side of the scale should he throw to the wolves?
“……”
Hurry up and decide.
“…Shut up,” Ryner told the voice in his mind. It was a voice born from his own weakness.
He raised his head. When he did he saw Ferris, Iris, and Kiefer. They were all staring at Ryner, who suddenly said to shut up, with wide eyes.
“Oh, um, s, sorry,” Kiefer said. “W-were we loud? Were you trying to think…?”
“Ummm, I was being really quiet,” Iris said. “Wasn’t I? Sister?”
Ferris didn’t say anything. She just stood wordlessly and stared at Ryner, her blue eyes meeting Ryner’s. Then she suddenly picked her chair up and lifted it over her head. “You would tell me to shut up!?”
The chair flew towards him so fast that it looked like it disappeared. “You’re kidding,” Ryner whined.
He wanted to dodge, but his thoughts from earlier were still distracting him.
“I’m not gonna make it…! Gyaaaahhhh!!”
The corner of the chair slammed into his cheek, and as the pain seared through him, his body flew back from the force of impact. He collapsed onto the floor and held his poor aching cheek in his hand, curling up as if it’d help protect him from the pain.
Then when the pain settled a little, he lifted his head to say ‘what the hell did you just do?’
But!
“…Huh? Wait, seriously?”
All of Ryner’s complaints left his mind when he looked up. Because Ferris had her foot on the table. Then she used it to jump up and over it. Over to him. Now her foot was lifted and in perfect position to kick him real good.
“W-w-wait, wait, um, I was in the wrong so you don’t need to go that f—”
But then he stopped. Because he just realized that Ferris wasn’t wearing her usual armor. She was wearing a cute little dress, and by little he meant short, and if she lifted her leg anymore, um, wouldn’t that be bad?
She lifted her leg. And her dress hiked up.
“W-wait, this is bad. Your dress is hiking—”
It was too late. She launched her kick, right for his face. Right for his face!!
“Gobugh!” Ryner yelled as he flew through the air once more. He flew too fast for anyone’s eyes to follow.
“R-Ryneeeerrr!!” Kiefer shrieked.
Next was Iris. “Kyaahahahaha!” Instead of screaming, she was just having fun…
Anyway, the three girls watched over him as his head rammed through the window and shattered it, leaving him half in and half out. It was still raining outside, so his top half was soaked in no time.
This time he really wanted to yell at Ferris for going too far. HE wanted to yell that this would be the day he didn’t forgive her, and that he was gonna kill her.
“……”
He didn’t, though.
He’d been full of fiery anger before she kicked him through the window, but now the rain was cooling him down. It felt nice. It also did a lot to wake his floundering mind up from its all-nighter.
He looked up at the sky. It was already midday, but the sun was nowhere to be found because of the rain. It was like looking into a certain someone’s rainy heart.
“Alright,” he said to himself. He was going to think through what he needed to do one last time.
Sion had decided to kill people and move forward despite the tears in his eyes.
But Ryner? Could he really walk that very same path?
“…Have you cooled your head, Ryner?”
He took his head out of the window so that he was all the way back inside and looked behind himself. When he did, Ferris’ expressionless face was staring back at him.
“…Huh?”
“I asked if you managed to cool your head,” she said. “Really. All day, all you’ve done is worry with that grave expression. Think about the people around you who it’ll bother next time!” Ferris yelled.
“Huh? I looked that serious?” Ryner asked, surprised.
Ferris nodded. “You did!”
“No waaay~.”
“Bastard! To say that you wouldn’t believe m—!”
“No! No, don’t get your sword out!”
His pleas did nothing to stop her. She unsheathed her sword.
Ryner did everything he could do to escape, but he didn’t make it. Ferris slammed him with her sword.
“Gyaaah!”
This time she whacked him so hard he went all the way through the window. But she wasn’t satisfied with just that. She jumped out the window after him and grabbed him by his collar, threw him down, and ran as his body dragged against the wet ground.
“Gyah, ow, ow, that hurts, Ferris! S, st, stop! Aren’t you going a little too far here?”
“……”
She finally stopped running. But she continued to hold Ryner against the ground. Her hands moved from his collar to the skin of his neck.
He looked up at her. Even though it took them so long to get dry after the morning’s rain, here they were wet a second time. Her long hair was soaked.
He looked at her face… and couldn’t help but grimace.
She was making an expression that couldn’t possibly be called expressionless.
Inside of the teahouse, she’d been making a face that was more expressionless and emotionless than it had been since they first met. But here and now, her face as she held his neck and squeezed was different. It was like…
“……”
Like she was going to cry. Like she would cry out here in the rain while strangling him against the ground.
That was why he made a face.
Ryner focused on his own tone, forcing it to come out as lighthearted as possible. “Did I make you make that face?”
“……”
She didn’t say anything. She just glared as she held back tears, then nodded.
“…Does the reason have something to do with Kiefer?”
She shook her head with ease.
“Then… then does it have something to do with me making that serious expression you were talking about?”
“……”
She didn’t answer. She just stared at him.
“…What kind of face was I making?” Ryner asked.
“A face like what Sion makes,” she said quietly as she glared.
So that was it. That was what she was anxious about. She didn’t like seeing Ryner make a face like he was worrying about things all by himself without ever asking for anyone else’s opinion.
Then Sion disappeared. He suddenly went mad and disappeared with that lonely expression like he’d cry. Then Ryner disappeared. Sion jailed him, so he disappeared from Ferris’ world and left her all alone.
She had shivered from her fear of being alone, and he knew that. It happened just yesterday morning when she broke him out of prison.
He’d had the wrong idea. He wasn’t all alone in this. He had people who wanted him to share his worries so that they could talk things through together. He didn’t have to take responsibility for the path they walked all by himself.
He made the same mistake.
“……”
The exact same mistake as Sion.
Talk to others before worrying about something all alone. Before being cornered all alone. Ryner had thought the same thing about Sion, and now here was Ferris thinking the same thing about Ryner.
And now she was crying on top of him.
She was supposed to be over the moon from the joy of eating dango, but instead she was outside of the dango shop crying because of him.
Ryner was such an idiot. He was so fed up with himself.
He was bringing all these people with him on the path he was taking, but he still had the gall to worry about everything without them.
It really was exactly like Sion. He didn’t have to do that.
If he couldn’t even understand that, then did he really think he could save anyone?
Ryner looked up at Ferris, at his wit’s end. “Hey, Ferris.”
“What?”
“I have a lot to think about right now. Can I talk some things over with you?”
Ferris’ expression returned to nothing. But it was the kind of nothingness that Ryner could read. It wasn’t the expressionlessness of when they first met. It was her usual face with proper emotions, muted as they were.
“You want to talk about it with me?”
Ryner nodded.
Ferris instantly looked happy. “You can’t. Because you’ll die here.” She squeezed hard on his neck.
“Whaaat!? Wait… gyaaahh!”
In the end everything turned out how it always did.
Ryner only managed to break free and jump back when he was dangerously close to dying. “What the hell! Were you trying to kill me!?”
“Naturally.”
“I know that you always say that, but seriously, we gotta talk about using that as a punchline!”
And so they were back to their usual stupid conversations.
“…Hah, hahah.” Ryner couldn’t help but laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Ferris asked.
Ryner just laughed. He looked up at the sky.
It was still raining pretty hard. Not as hard as it had been earlier, though. And the wind was blowing hard. But it’d probably stop as soon as it blew this big stormcloud away.
Then he realized that it was blowing northwards.
“Whoa, wait. If it blows the rain to Nelpha, we aren’t gonna get away from it anytime soon, are we?” Ryner asked, tired just thinking about it.
But it was okay. They’d definitely figure something out. That was just the feeling he had. He didn’t feel like running away anymore.
“……”
It was because he had his friends. He wasn’t alone so he didn’t want to run away.
He looked to Ferris, then to the dango shop’s door where Kiefer was running towards them with an umbrella. Iris was with her, too, without one.
“Iris doesn’t have an umbrella either! I’m gonna catch a cold!” Iris said.
Kiefer ran towards them, flustered.
“I think I’ll probably catch a cold even if you give me an umbrella now,” Ryner said. “My clothes are soaked.”
He looked down at the clothes he’d borrowed from the teahouse. Yep, soaked.
“Oh!” Ferris said suddenly. “I just remembered!”
“Hm? Remembered what?”
“Mm! I forgot because I was attacked on the way here, but I brought you clothes and supplies!”
“I won’t wear them!” Ryner said without hesitation.
“Mm?”
“All you put in the bag Iris brought were stupid clothes like pants with a rat embroidered on the privates that don’t really cover anything else and shirts that would only cover my belly button, right?”
Ferris nodded. “Ohh, did you already see them? Knowing how perverted you are, you may even have such pants underneath your current ones?”
“No!! I just know you. I don’t need to see them to know that you only bought me embarrassing things. I’m seriously gonna catch a cold here, and we don’t have time for all this either way. We’ve gotta go back inside, get changed, and leave. I just… haven’t thought of what to do after that…”
He looked back up at the rain and clouds that were making their way north. Getting to Nelpha in this would be a real pain in the ass, but he thought of a way to make it through. He thought of it when Ferris hit him with her sword.
“…Am I a masochist?” Ryner wondered. It was the kind of plan that made him wonder about himself.
He thought of a plan to fight the army that the monster Claugh Klom was commanding.
He thought of a plan to fight Starnelle’s army of nearly 70,000.
He thought of a plan to get Toale out of there.
He just needed to set them into action.
“……”
Kiefer finally made her way over to them. She looked a little like she was sulking. “Geez, you two. Did you come out here in the rain to have a private conversation or something?”
Ryner smiled. He looked at Kiefer, then Ferris. “It wasn’t private. It’s going to involve everyone from here on out. I’m not gonna worry about things alone. We’ll talk about them all together. We’re all in on this suuuuper annoying strategy to make things right in Nelpha. So…”
He averted his eyes. He felt so lame saying something like this. So lame that he couldn’t meet their eyes as he said it.
“…So… will you come with me?” Ryner asked his two friends who stayed with him through thick and thin, no matter how worthless he was.
The two responded at the same time with firm, unwavering tones.
“Yeah!”
“No!”
“……”
Huuuh? She said no!?
Well, whatever. They weren’t the kind of super in-sync group who had the same response at the same time, but they could work on it.
“…Alright, let’s go,” Ryner said. He looked to Kiefer and Ferris, then to Iris behind them, who was rolling around in the mud.
These were his first allies.
Their enemy was the strongest country in the Southern Continent and their hero king and the 70,000 soldiers of Nelpha. On Ryner’s side were a lazy guy, two women, and one child. They definitely didn’t look like they could win. Anyone would think their little party was a bunch of reckless idiots.
But even so…
“It’s enough,” Ryner whispered and smiled.
And that was really what he thought. These weren’t people who Sion ordered to go with him. They were people who came with him of their own free will, and that was amazing. Their belief meant a lot to him.
So he wasn’t going to be afraid, and he wasn’t going to run away. He was going to move forward.
“……”
He looked back up at the rainy sky. To the south where Sion was and the north where the redheaded monster, idiot prince, and Toale were.
Then he looked back down to his allies.
“…Let’s go,” he said. “Let’s start with solving Nelpha’s problems.”
---
Several days later, in the dark of night.
Claugh Klom - the Black-Handed Reaper - stood on a hill near his army’s camp. He stared across the Nelphan scenery with lonely eyes.
“……”
Even in the dead of night, the towns shined bright with red. They were empty despite all the light. His army had spent the day razing them and setting every town they could find aflame. Now they were nothing but ruins.
Right now, a bright red, magical fire was burning through them, but that too would disappear eventually. Then all that would be left were the burnt ruins, bodies, and despair.
By now, he was used to seeing this stuff. It’d been a couple weeks since he entered Nelpha, and every day was a neverending string of atrocities. So he knew this scene well.
This was war, and war looked like this.
War was people dying, one after another. It was blood flying everywhere and screams filling the air. It was ignoring the blood and screams and killing more people.
One begged him to save them. Another pledged an eternal grudge. Another swore revenge. And every single one of them… died by Claugh’s hand.
He killed them without hesitation, but the fighting continued. It wouldn’t do him any favors, so it wouldn’t end even if he wanted it to.
He hadn’t expected things to be like this. At first he thought that Nelpha would surrender nigh on instantly. He always understood that Nelpha’s king would die, but he thought that the people would at least be spared. Then they were supposed to take the other countries without ever invading.
But things didn’t go that easily. Shit happened and now they were here.
He wondered how Sion felt. He was always worrying about how to do things with the smallest number of casualties possible, so seeing things turn out like this must’ve been really hard for him.
As for Claugh, he was glad that he was here. He didn’t want anyone else doing the horrible job that he was saddled with.
He was glad that Sion wasn’t here. Glad that Calne wasn’t here. Glad that Luke wasn’t here. Glad that nobody else was here.
“……”
But… there was one thing that he didn’t like. It was the thought of Noa’s face, knowing that he was out here. She had unusual dark blue hair and resolute, though occasionally naive blue eyes. He thought of her for only a moment before pushing the thought back away. Then he shook his head to try to spare himself the memory of tears pouring from her eyes.
He wanted her to forget about him and live her life out in happiness. She didn’t need to cry over a murderer like him.
He looked down at his right arm. A curse ran through it, turning it pitch black. It had stolen more lives than he could count by now. There was no way that he could forget all the people he killed and turn around to live in happiness despite it all. The thought was laughable.
But that was precisely why he could adjust to doing this. He killed people and threw away his own happiness in exchange for their lives.
He looked away from the fire and back towards the darkness.
How could he appeal to the other countries, proving Roland’s endless brutality, while still sparing as many Nelphans as possible? His best option was to get in contact with Toale Nelphi. But he couldn’t find him. Toale was supposed to be leading 10,000 troops, but he still couldn’t find him anywhere.
If he could just help Toale succeed, then things would get so much better…
“……”
Claugh turned around. The forest on the other side of the hill was pitch black compared to the burning city on the other side, but just a moment ago he felt something moving there. But he wasn’t particularly bothered by it.
This had happened countless times since entering Nelpha, after all.
It’d happen like this - they’d burn the towns, someone would declare a grudge, and then the survivors of the families they killed would send assassins out to avenge them, or come to do it themselves. Men, women, children, professionals… They all came after him with knives and swords, aiming for justice.
‘Die, die, die, I’ll give rest to their grudge!’ They’d yell.
Claugh always responded the same way - by killing his attacker. That was what he was ordered to do. Claugh felt that it was a fair order, too. It was necessary.
So he wasn’t surprised when he noticed someone staring at him from the forest.
“…Get over here if you want to die,” Claugh said.
He felt their presence move. Their bloodlust drew closer.
Claugh didn’t even bother to guard. Their bloodlust was too weak to put any effort in. But it wasn’t as though their hatred meant nothing. It was probably enough to kill a private. But he was Claugh Klom, reaper of the battlefield, and it was not enough to kill him.
He gazed into the forest. They’d lose their life the second they stepped out. Claugh had no intention of prolonging their suffering. He’d end everything for them.
He raised his cursed black arm, and his opponent finally appeared.
“…Wha—”
The second they sprung out of the forest, their bloodlust got ten times stronger. They were fast, too. Nearly as fast as Claugh. They leapt towards him.
Claugh got a good look at them while they did. They wore all black, from head to toe, including a dark mask - perfect for attacking someone in the middle of the night with. They had a knife in one hand and angled it towards Claugh’s neck as they approached.
“…Damn,” Claugh muttered. He dodged as fast as he could, and it was only barely enough. “Gah, shit!”
Claugh used his left arm to grab at the other guy’s mask, but couldn’t get a good hold. Shame, too. He could’ve used it to strangle his enemy.
His enemy thrusted their knife towards Claugh’s arm, aiming to slice a major artery. It was all Claugh could do to turn his full attention to that pesky knife.
Claugh felt a smile on his face. This guy was pretty strong! Maybe even stronger than Claugh. But they wouldn’t know until the match was settled.
“……”
Even so, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. This was the first enemy on his level since entering Nelpha. This was the first person who could actually fight back against him instead of just letting him continue his senseless massacre.
The knife finally found its way into his artery. But that gave Claugh a chance to grab it for himself.
His enemy stood still for a moment out of shock.
“That was a fatal mistake,” Claugh said. He flipped the knife in one hand and grabbed his opponent’s head with the other. But this maneuver didn’t end like it normally did. Because his opponent managed to wrestle free.
Claugh had expected that. His opponent dodged to the right, but only barely. Claugh moved to attack again. It should’ve ended with that, but it didn’t. It needed one more.
Claugh shoved his arm forward, aiming to stab straight into the assassin’s face.
“……”
That was supposed to be the end of this. Claugh’s timing was perfect. Only a monster could dodge.
“……”
That meant he was fighting a monster.
The other guy somehow managed to dodge. But the knife nicked his mask, exposing his face to the air.
This was bad.
His opponent’s next attack was coming, but Claugh hadn’t prepared for what’d happen if his last hit didn’t kill.
His opponent was readying a kick, so Claugh balled his hand into a fist. Normally a kick would win against a punch, and the punishment for losing here was death. Whoever faltered first would get their head popped off.
Even so…
“Don’t underestimate me!” Claugh yelled. He’d win despite any odds. His fist flew towards his opponent in the same moment they kicked.
After a few seconds of their limbs locked in air, his opponent drew back. Then, for the first time, he spoke while keeping his eyes trained on Claugh. “You’re stupidly strong, y’know.”
Claugh knew that voice. It was a sleepy, apathetic, motivationless voice. The voice of someone who was tired of living. It was a voice that always pissed him off.
Still, Claugh grinned. So this was what was up. “Ryner Lute.”
His opponent tore the rest of the mask off and threw it aside to reveal his annoying, exhausted face. “Figured me out already, huh?” He asked with a lighthearted tone. He had a lighthearted air about him, too. But his bloodlust didn’t disappear.
Claugh didn’t have to ask why he was here. His bloodlust said it all. “Do you think you can win if I go all out?” Claugh asked.
“…I wonder?” Ryner said, troubled. “Think it’d be hard?”
The fact that he said that with the same carefree expression as always made his real thoughts pretty clear.
Who was stronger if they didn’t hold back? The winner would be down to luck. They were pretty evenly matched - they knew because they’d fought before, though it had just been them messing around. But even when playing around, one could tell approximately what their opponent was capable of.
So this was down to luck. Neither could go easy on the other.
“…There’s something I wanna ask you before one of us dies: why? Why the hell are you here?” Claugh asked.
“Oh, um, well…”
Ryner tried to answer, but he didn’t have to. Because Claugh already knew why from his bloodlust. The question was only meant to distract him.
Claugh threw the knife. Ryner reacted with surprise, but managed to dodge it. But he was too slow.
Claugh released the curse in his right arm. This’d end it all.
Why did he have to kill like this? Well, that was simple. Because this was war, and Ryner Lute was his opponent. There was only one answer in times like this.
When faced with an enemy like Ryner…
“…I’ll kill you!” Claugh shouted as he released the curse from his arm.
---
