◈ 226. [STAGE 9] The arrow left the demonstration (2)
– Are you going to sit still and wait for your death?
Ash, standing in front of him, spat out that.
Damian noticed.
This is my own memory.
– so? Would you like to give up and let go of your hands and then die?
but… … when?
– I will fight! I will devise and struggle until the last moment!
When did you have this conversation?
– If you want to die without leaving your hands like that! Cut your own throat with this knife right now.
memory,
– But if you’re a coward without the courage, Damian.
My memory is blocked by something… … .
snap!
Then Van ran up and hugged Damian.
“Don’t listen, Damian!”
He covered both of Damian’s ears with trembling, half-wrinkled hands.
“It’s because you’re tired and tired right now. So wait a minute, that sounds nonsense. are you okay. I’m with you.”
“… … .”
“I will grow old and die with you. Forever, forever, I will be with you. therefore-“
Damian looked at the class, then shifted his gaze to Ash.
– my… … .
Ash smiled and said something.
His voice was blocked by Ban’s hands, but his lips at that moment could be read clearly.
– … … be the trigger.
trigger?
Damian blinked blankly.
By the trigger, do you mean the device that triggers the firearm?
However, he has never held a gun in his entire life… … .
“uh?”
Damian looked down at his hands.
In his old, wrinkled, skinny hand, something vague in the shape of a long rifle was clutched.
As if it had been handled for a very long time, it had a familiar feel that fit perfectly into the hand.
Damian looked ahead again.
Ash had already disappeared. The grandchildren who followed his son also disappeared like a mirage.
Stagger!
Damian got out of bed like someone possessed.
The old two legs, afflicted by the disease, were weak. A sharp pain arose in his deeply bent back. He has long since become unable to move without a wheelchair.
However, Damian used the long gun in his hand as a walking stick to propel himself to the ground, and finally got himself out of bed.
“No, honey!”
Ban screamed and tried to stop Damian, but Damian shook off Ban’s hand and stood up.
And the moment he left his visit,
clattering… … .
With the sound of sand being swept away by waves, the world began to crumble.
The mansion where he spent his old age disintegrated from the ceiling as if it was swept away by a storm, soaring into the sky.
Damian stood at the entrance of the crumbling mansion, looking down at the city he had lived in all his life.
The world was falling apart.
It collapsed like a puzzle piece, sinking to the ground and rolling up into the sky.
Only then did Damian notice.
I see
This place was a dream.
“no.”
Then a voice was heard from behind. Damian looked back.
“You can’t go, Damian.”
half stood
Wrinkled and with dark spots, but still the most beautiful face in the world to Damian. Half was crying.
“You were the one who said we shouldn’t go on adventures, Damien!”
“… … .”
“Don’t go back. There is only sadness and suffering there.”
“… … .”
“Hell is waiting for you! Damian, please!”
Then, Damian smiled faintly at the corner of his wrinkled mouth.
“I’m sorry, Van. It was my dream to die peacefully with you like this, but… … I can’t.”
“why?! it was your dream Here, you can live according to your dreams, as you wish. But why!”
“I remembered your last words.”
The will left by Van.
– Don’t forget that promise.
The dawn of the day they escaped the orphanage.
——————
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——————
The promise we shared with our first kiss.
“Let’s venture out into the whole world. Let’s put the whole wide world in our eyes.”
remember
don’t remember
“Life here is happy, but you really didn’t want to live like this.”
“… … .”
“So, you have to go.”
Staggering, hitting the floor with a long gun.
“Because I made a promise to you.”
Old Damian started walking forward.
Into a broken world, without hesitation.
rumble… … !
Fragments of a shattered world flew to dust all around Damian as he walked along the heart of the city.
The theater where I used to hold hands with my classmates.
The regular restaurant that I couldn’t finish eating all the menu, and the top building that I worked for the rest of my life.
The park where we went out every weekend, the plaza where we knelt down to propose during the autumn festival, the semi-basement room where we started our newlyweds… … .
It all turned to dust and disappeared.
Each time, the old Damian became younger and younger.
The tall, faded staircase that led to the door of the semi-basement house.
The cup the couple used together, the vase the half of them put flowers in every Monday, the lines they drew on the wall as their son grew taller, the bed where they lay holding hands and whispered love… … .
memories,
disappear
It evaporates without leaving anything behind.
Damian, now young, did not cry.
Crushing the happy dream without hesitation, and managing to hold back the tears. I walked without stopping.
***
When Damian came to his senses, it was the dawn of the day he escaped the orphanage.
Young Damian and Van stood at the top of the mountain again.
“don’t go… … can’t go… … .”
Half covered his face with both hands and was crying.
“half.”
Damian looked at the girl he loved and spoke softly.
“We will be doing mercenary work after this. It was one of the few things we could do without any money, but it was also suitable for our purpose of wandering around the world and adventuring.”
“… … .”
“You are recognized for your outstanding talent as a swordsman. I am lacking, but as a healer, I partner with you.”
“… … .”
“Do all kinds of hardships. Adults look down on us because we are young, our money is taken away, we almost die several times, we get hurt, we are sick, we cry because we are hurt and sad… … .”
Half looked at Damian with tears on his face. Damian laughed bitterly.
“After suffering like that for about 3 years, and now I’m getting a little grounded, in the year I turned 18.”
Damian’s eyes trembled as he recalled the painful memories.
“At the southern outpost of the Crossroads, fighting a battle surrounded by swarms of black spiders… … You will die from being stabbed by the black spider’s claws.”
With a voice that seemed like he was going to vomit blood, Damian barely uttered it.
“Save me, instead.”
“… … Do you really want to go back to such a painful reality?”
Van sobbed and shouted.
“Once you get out of this dream, what awaits you is a terrible hell! A living hell teeming with monsters and death! Do you really want to go back there?”
“… … The three years I lived as a mercenary with you was suffocating.”
Was it only three years as a mercenary?
The orphanage of my childhood was also painful.
“Like you said, this world has always been like hell.”
Not even once.
There has never been a time when this world was not hell.
“… … But half, you laughed.”
Damian recalled how his partner lived.
Always, even in the worst of circumstances.
even when you die.
half laughed.
“With bluff. While giggling, while walking. I used to laugh weirdly Even on the dreadful day, you laughed so much.”
Instead of turning a blind eye to the horrifying reality, he laughed it off with a bluff.
Van did not run away, but lived against this hell.
“So I could laugh too. Because you bluffed me, I could breathe.”
Damian was crying as if he would cry at any moment, but
“I liked you, Van.”
But he didn’t cry, he smiled hard.
“… … You saved me and died. You gave me my life.”
Half blankly looked at Damian.
“You who died for me, your sacrifice, I can’t do anything that didn’t exist. Because I have a promise with you in my life.”
Damian clenched his trembling hands into fists.
“I was happy while running away, but… … Breaking my promise to you is more painful than happiness.”
“… … .”
“I am going on an adventure to the end of this hellish world. No matter how terrible and painful it is, I will not run away anymore.”
Damian reached out and grabbed Van’s shoulders, then,
He slowly embraced him in his arms.
“I’ll see you, Van. the end of the world.”
“… … .”
“I will continue the adventure that I started with you, even by myself.”
Van’s body began to glow white.
Damian held the feathery girl more tightly.
“I liked it, really.”
Trying to remember that precious touch that I will never be able to hug again.
“hi.”
Is it an illusion?
A white smile seemed to pass by Ban’s mouth as he cried in his arms.
“okay… … .》
“You won, Damian.”
I felt like I heard a unique, pretentious laugh.
《May good luck be with you in your future life.》
《… … Nightmare Slayer.”
And a pure white horse gun remained in its place.
***
Damian suddenly opened his eyes.
It was on the wall of the Crossroads. Damian looked down as he held himself dearly in his arms.
It was the horse gun [Black Queen].
However, the appearance was completely different. The black aura was no longer visible, and the gun barrel had turned a dazzling white color.
Grabbing a long rifle that seemed to emit light by itself, Damian muttered shyly.
“… … Something, I think I slept for over 50 years.”
It feels like a long, long dream.
Looking around, I saw Lily, sweating profusely, ordering the artifact to fire. Her alchemists and Kurehado assist her.
pop! Beep-!
Cannons fired fire from all sides. Soldiers were screaming and firing cannons.
Damian raised his upper body and asked in a languid voice.
“How much time has passed?”
Lily glanced back and answered sharply.
“Did you sleep well, Damian?! An hour has passed since you passed out!”
one hour.
I only slept for an hour, but my whole body feels heavy as if I had been in hibernation for decades. Damian groaned and got up from his seat.
My body was heavy, but my heart was light.
When he fully stood up and looked over the walls, Jormungand was right in front of him.
They advanced to a place that was only tens of meters away from the wall.
Coo-goo-goo-!
The giant body of the snake pushed its body right in front of the castle wall, and a cloud of dust flew in all directions.
pop! Beopbeobung!
The soldiers who formed the final line of deterrence on the castle wall poured out shells without a break, but the body of the snake was unable to strike an effective blow.
Ash and the party members were working on something on top of Jormungandr’s head, but they looked distraught as if things weren’t going their way.
Despair was on everyone’s faces.
The soldiers on the wall and the heroes struggling on top of the snake’s body.
Damian, who was looking down at this, said to Lily.
“I will go. Please open the gate.”
“what?”
Lily, taken aback by the sudden nonsense, asked again, stunned.
“Can’t you see the situation?! How to open the gate in this situation… … .”
“That snake, I will stop it.”
round and round-
Clap!
Damian smiled thinly as he held onto the Black Queen.
“Believe me, Lily.”
The stars seemed to shine in the boy’s eyes.
Surprised, Lily looks at Damian,
“… … Damn, yes! It’s the judge’s decision!”
shouted down the ramparts.
“Open the gates! right now-!”
