SWNOVELXO Chapter 380
“A secret little village hidden in the forest formed around the Eldriksir family.”
Those who wander without a place to rely on, powerless and helpless.
“The villagers think that my ancestors were kind enough to allow them to live nearby, but in reality, my ancestors never showed them any mercy from the start.”
The reason they actively helped form the village was…
“The reason this underground space is so vast is that it was designed from the beginning to wrap around the entire village. It allows us to come and go anywhere in the village through the underground in order to kidnap the villagers.”
Using magic to save people from the fierce monsters in the forest.
“People believe that my ancestors protected them from dangerous monsters, but in truth, the most dangerous ones were our family. The monsters were merely convenient scapegoats to cover up their own sins. I doubt there were any real dangerous monsters at all. Anyway, they maintained their secret by pretending to use searching magic for the missing villagers while the monsters came in and devoured them overnight.”
As Joyra continued speaking, I clenched my teeth.
Just like how the wolf took the form of a kind grandmother not out of love for her red cloak, but merely to eat her, pretending to be the kind grandmother.
From the beginning, this village was merely a convenient breeding ground for the Eldriksir family to manage their spare bodies.
“They discard organs that have started failing and replace them with organs from healthy villagers. It seems that level of medical knowledge and magic could be done without gene-editing magic. One might say it’s a company that produced beastkins. Perhaps my fascination with medicine comes from this instinct running through my blood.”
“So…”
“Do you think such a method can be forgiven!?”
Before I could even argue back, a voice burst out, questioning him faster than I could.
The owner of that voice was Liche.
Even though Liche was also a wizard like Joyra, she might have been even more furious precisely because they shared that similarity, expressing her anger at his words.
As the last surviving member of her wizard family, losing her adoptive parents early and living alone in the forest, she could probably empathize even more with the emotions he must have felt and might have harbored resentment towards the choices he made because of that empathy.
“No matter how much you want to extend your lifespan, how can you sacrifice innocent people just to prolong your own life? What do you think other people’s lives are worth?”
“…At least, it doesn’t seem my ancestors felt particularly guilty about that. They only targeted the beastkins among the villagers, and for those who remember the days of the Ancient Empire, beastkins were merely animals that happened to take human form. Humans constantly hunt and eat other animals to survive. For them, kidnapping beastkins and taking their organs was just an extension of eating animals.”
“So you’re justifying the horrific acts committed by your family?”
“Of course, when I first discovered this record, I couldn’t help but be horrified by the atrocities committed by my ancestors. In fact, it was the terrible crimes my ancestors committed that troubled me the most, even more than the origins of beastkins or wizards. No matter how much they wanted to extend their lifespans, I could never support the idea of sacrificing innocent people just to prolong their lives.”
Joyra continued, not intending to calm Liche, but immediately following Liche’s inquiry.
“To think the Eldriksir family, which I’ve always been proud of, is just a disgusting and vile lineage. It felt like everything I’ve ever believed in was crumbling. Looking back, it’s only natural that this underground space was sealed.”
“…Sealed?”
“Yes. Didn’t I say? I was able to enter this underground space thanks to accidentally discovering an artifact of the Ancient Empire. I can’t pinpoint when exactly it started, but sometime long ago, my family rejected the terrible acts committed by our ancestors and sealed this entire underground space. They finally began to accept beastkins as not just animals but as fellow beings. In exchange, their bodies started to weaken again, and they eventually had shorter lifespans, but they chose to give up a life that sacrifices others and accepted their fate.”
“So your family was reborn, not as one that puts on a mask of kindness to deceive the villagers, but rather as a family that truly shares kindness and help as atonement for the horrific sins committed by their ancestors.”
“…If the Eldriksir family made such a choice, then why did you kidnap the villagers?”
At her words, Joyra’s face darkened.
The emotion that rose in that dark expression was different from the disgust, despair, or ridicule that had come up when discussing the secrets of the Ancient Empire.
It was likely guilt.
Up until then, he had been discussing his horrible past, but it had all been about someone else’s story, a story of the past.
But what Joyra was talking about now was different.
This was clearly not the story of someone else or of the past; it was his own story.
Joyra seemed to think he could escape Liche’s scrutiny by saying that, stepping back defensively and covering himself.
“I-I didn’t want to do this! I think the atrocities committed by my ancestors are horrible, and I understand and sympathize with why this underground space was sealed! In fact, I actively agree with their choice to seal this underground space! I didn’t want to sacrifice the villagers who raised me like family after my parents passed away! They are my family too!”
“Then why did you kidnap the villagers!! You, who can think of others so much! You could have been like the Eldriksir family that sealed this underground space, not the company from the days of the Ancient Empire! Why!!”
“Because I don’t want to die!”
“….”
Even as Liche was pressing Joyra, she could no longer continue her attack when Joyra’s true feelings finally burst forth.
“Death, what comes after that? Does the soul actually exist? Does something exist after you die? What does dying even mean? Is it just darkness where I can’t see or feel anything? Or is death simply the end of everything? Does dying mean I cease to exist? I don’t know anything. And that terrifies me…! What happens to me after I die!? No one is telling me the answer…! I’m so scared of that……. I don’t want to die. I want to live…!”
“….”
Though Liche was relentlessly pressing Joyra, she could say nothing further as his anxiety flowed out.
“But I guess that’s over now. Cough. Cough!”
As he desperately cried out that he didn’t want to die, Joyra began to cough, his vitality seemingly drained away as if he had been feigning it all along.
It wasn’t just a simple dry cough; it was a cough mixed with thick, dark blood, indicating that he was not merely sickly but that his end was truly near.
Perhaps he realized he was nearing the end when he was first driven to this place and intentionally shared everything he knew with us.
He might have chosen us as those to share his final moments.
No, perhaps even before he fought us…
“Cough…! Cough! Ha… Ha… In the end, I tried desperately, but it seems my wish will not come true. There’s a hidden space behind this room where the villagers I kidnapped are gathered. You can rest easy; I didn’t hurt a single one of them.”
Then, perhaps he was unable to stand on his own and leaned against the wall, pointing out the location of the villagers with blood-stained hands.
Upon hearing his words, the companions came to their senses and hurriedly ran in the direction he pointed.
And the remaining few simply watched Joyra, who was leaning against the wall, as his life force ebbed away.
Joyra, too, seeing us silently observing him, wore an expression that seemed to have resigned himself to everything.
“Ha… Ha… I see you’re a wizard too?”
“…That’s right.”
“I noticed it from your spell-casting style during the battle earlier. Haha… I envy you. I wish I had the stamina to be an adventurer like you…”
And just like that, Joyra quietly bowed his head as our party returned with news that all the villagers were safe.
….
Joyra had wanted to become a great doctor.
To become a brilliant doctor and cure the cursed constitution passed down through generations in his family.
And at the same time, he wanted to help others.
Just as he had received help, he wanted to be a doctor who treated the villagers and many more.
But at the end of the path he had chased while spending his limited lifespan, there were no answers he had yearned for.
Desperately searching for any hidden knowledge, all he found were the ugly truths concealed within the honor of the family he had taken pride in.
The only discovered means to prolong life was a horrific byproduct of sin that turned his stomach just thinking about it.
He had completely failed.
Instead of hope for healing, he ignored the worried gazes of the villagers wracked with despair and locked himself in the mansion.
Whether due to his mental state crumbling or from overworking his body in search of a remedy, his health rapidly deteriorated.
Even someone without medical training could see that his condition was clearly worsening, indicating his death was nearing.
Was he going to die like this?
Would he truly die having achieved nothing, only to ponder the grotesque nature of the blood flowing through his veins?
Days spent locked in the mansion.
Then one day, in the midst of that despair, while he was coughing as usual, he suddenly discovered that the usual dry cough was nothing but a dark, sticky, viscous cough mixed with blackish-red blood.
He thought, if beastkins were merely products created by his ancestors….
Then if they were creations of his ancestors, what reason was there that whatever was made couldn’t be his?
With a body that found it hard to get up, where did he muster the strength to approach the villagers and use anesthesia-gas creation magic he had practiced for surgical procedures, putting them all to sleep and taking only the beastkins to the underground of the mansion?
What he did was clearly crossing a line that should never be crossed.
As he executed everything, somewhere inside him was a third-party observer who watched the scenes as if he was anesthetized.
After kidnapping the villagers, just days later, the nuns from the Holy Kingdom came looking for them, and a few days after that, adventurers came as well.
After a series of battles, even his body, which had finally squeezed out its last strength, met its end.
Even if he defeated them, his body would likely have been in an irreversible state by then.
How did it come to this?
He was certain he wanted to become a good doctor.
The knowledge of the Ancient Empire drives people mad.
Once, he thought such tales were mere baseless rumors.
Yeah. Now he could agree.
Looking back, there was surely poison in the knowledge of the Ancient Empire.
Of course, since it was his own will that drank from that poisoned chalice, he wouldn’t claim to be a victim.
The descendant of a sinner ultimately failed to wash away the sins flowing through his own body, repeating the mistakes of his ancestors, leading to his demise.
It’s a common but decent enough tale, right?
…If there’s one regret.
It would be that he’ll never again receive a meal from the villagers.
He longs to eat the lentil soup he once had at the village chief’s house.
“….”
Bubble bubble
As he heard the sound of the soup bubbling, Joyra woke up.