# 16
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Isn't this story very familiar?
When I came to this world and heard this myth for the first time, I accused the writer of plagiarism because the settings seemed like an elaborate mix between Greek mythology and the Bible.
It seems that I knew exactly where the writer took inspiration from building her world.
“You know the story well. Monsters never used to come out in such numbers and get past the walls, but things have gotten worse lately. It’s clear that something unnatural has happened.”
Lloyd finished his final guess and then fell silent.
I followed him, lost in thought.
Hmm, something unnatural in the Holy Land.
In fact, the villain in the novel broke all the seals in the Holy Land and summoned the demons to this continent.
But I do not have such power, and I have no intention of ruining a stable place, so I considered the news about the disturbances in the Holy Land to be mere journalistic exaggerations.
Since evil has disappeared from this world, shouldn't peace prevail?
The biggest problem I face now is...
My feet! My feet hurt!
I furrowed my eyebrows because of the pain in my feet.
My feet were screaming and begging me to stop walking.
I took out my pocket watch to see how far we had walked, and found that four full hours had passed since we left Durkan.
Four hours of walking! Therapists are not hard workers.
My body was groaning and screaming in pain because of this harsh training that I was undergoing for the first time in my life.
I thought we would rest now, but Lloyd continued walking silently.
I followed him again, dragging my sore feet.
How long will we walk?
Because of walking non-stop, I started panting forcefully and involuntarily.
But Lloyd continued walking without reacting.
I can't go any further than this.
I was encouraged despite my fear and spoke to him:
“Sorry...”
"What is there?"
He turned to me and there was not a single drop of sweat on his face.
On the other hand, my face was covered in sweat.
How can a person walk for four hours without sweating?
I marveled at the hero's endurance that exceeds human limits, and I drew the most miserable expression possible on my face:
“Can we…can we rest for a bit?”
Lloyd looked at me and clicked his tongue:
“You're annoying. This place is dangerous, there's no place to rest here.”
Just as he finished speaking, a low growling sound was heard from deep within the forest.
“Krrrr.”
I was terrified and quickly clung to Lloyd's back.
“It is the voice of the Great Orc. It is near.”
close? The sound seemed to be coming from a very far away place!
While I was wondering what Lloyd's words meant...
“Kaaaah!”
Suddenly, something huge screamed from the side and pounced towards me.
I instinctively shrunk, closed my eyes, and shouted:
“Ahhh!”
Stabbing.
There was a strong smell of blood, a dripping sound was heard, and then it was quiet again.
I opened my eyes slowly because of that stillness.
In front of my face was a huge monster with a pig's head, standing motionless.
“Krrrr.”
It seemed strange that he was not moving, so I looked carefully to find that Lloyd's sword had precisely pierced the monster's heart and emerged from the other side.
Lloyd's eyes met mine and he smiled for a moment.
Then he pulled his sword from the heart and cut the body of the monster, which was about to fall into two halves, at great speed.
The monster, which had a human form, was divided into two halves, and its exploding entrails and bones appeared.
For me, who cannot even clean a fish, seeing the scene of the monster being slaughtered before my eyes was another psychological shock.
Lloyd was dismantling that monster while looking into my eyes with a terrifying face.
As his sword strikes continued, the monster completely disappeared, leaving only pieces of red flesh scattered here and there.
The smell of exhaled blood mixed with the foul odor emanating from the monster, creating a very disgusting smell.
After a while, it seemed that I was not the only one who smelled this scent, as the sound of roaring around me returned.
It was not the sound of a single monster, but rather a strong sound that suggested the gathering of dozens.
Lloyd muttered as he heard those voices:
“If you can't bear it, there's no need to bear it. There's no one here.”
After saying these mysterious words, he threw away some of his clothes.
Ringing.
A dagger fell in front of me.
What is this? dagger? Does he want me to join the fight with him?
While I was looking in amazement at that dagger he suddenly gave me, a rustling sound was heard from everywhere.
“They came.”
Lloyd re-grabbed his sword.
“Koooooh!”
Monsters appeared from everywhere.
Their huge and heavy bodies were shaking with anger, and it seemed that they were angry to see their colleague turned into pieces of meat.
They quickly rushed towards me and Lloyd.
I cringed in the gut reaction again.
He got old.
I felt the aura of Lloyd, who was in front of me, now behind me.
When a person is very fast, you feel as if he is teleporting.
I sat in shock, shaking, and looked at Lloyd.
He was cutting down the rushing monsters quickly.
No, he was cutting off their heads one by one, and exploding their insides, as if he wanted to show me the scene of their horrific death, so he was dismantling those many monsters one by one.
"Koooooh! Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
The screams of monsters pierced my ears from everywhere.
Those many monsters turned into pieces of flesh in front of Lloyd's sword.
It was a one-sided massacre. Lloyd, his cheeks stained with blood, looked cold and stiff to the point of freezing.
Distillation, distillation.
Suddenly, the place around me became covered in blood and pieces of monster flesh.
As I watched Lloyd slaughter them, I understood the meaning of the dagger he had given me.
In the novel, Eveliana begins to become addicted to killing and loses her mind.
At first, she satisfied her urge to kill by killing small animals, but later she began to suffer from withdrawal symptoms if she did not kill a large animal or a human.
When she was standing in the killing field, she could not restrain her desire, so she would kill creatures with her sword like a madman, and it is said that she deliberately started wars in order to practice killing.
It seems that this hero knows this truth, so he was deliberately testing me.
That's why he brought me here with some stupid excuse as a special treatment.
After he killed all the monsters, Lloyd stared at me as if he was waiting for me to go crazy and start killing.
But unfortunately, I was not the evil Eveliana, but rather my weak psyche was completely destroyed.
roll.
Something rolled in front of me.
It was the eye of a monster.
Although I had seen blood and death of people in the treatment center, it was the first time I had witnessed a live massacre before my eyes.
As soon as I smelled the strong smell of blood and saw that stained eye, I felt irresistibly nauseous.
“Ooooh.”
I vomited right there.
When my vomit covered that eye, that brown pupil began to roll down and meet my pupil.
It looked like a human's eye had been removed, and my entire body shuddered with disgust.
My body, which was tired from walking for four hours, and my psyche, which had been exhausted since the morning, could not bear it any longer, and the thread of my mind was cut off.
As the vision blackened and revolved in front of me, I shouted within myself:
If I'm going to faint, why hasn't it happened since we were in Dorcan Castle!
When I regained consciousness, it was night.
I looked around and found myself inside a comfortable sleeping bag, and in front of me was a burning fire that warmed my body with its crackling sound.
My eyes met those of Lloyd, who was looking at me from across the fire.
Is his facial expression, which was filled with anger, turning into an emotionless one a good sign?
As soon as our eyes met, Lloyd looked away.
..I fainted without realizing it.
I thought that this man might suddenly become suspicious of me again, so I quickly got up.
My legs were still shaking, but I quickly arranged my sleeping bag.
Then Lloyd approached and grabbed my shoulder.
“Your body is very shocked. Relax.”
"I'm fine."
I was never well, but I didn't want a repeat of what happened.
He might become suspicious of me again and do something strange.
“Anyway, the night is late, and we will not be able to advance any further.”
I looked around because of his words, and found it so dark that I could not see anything except what was illuminated by the fire and the starry sky.
“Then... I'll be on guard.”
From the soft texture of the sleeping bag, it was clear that it was a luxurious sleeping bag that a commoner like me could not have.
It must be Lloyd's.
When I firmly refused, Lloyd sighed and suddenly approached me.
My heart started beating hard because of his handsome face that suddenly approached.
Calm down, my heart! I've seen handsome people since I was young!
I began to remember Mr. Sado to calm my pounding heart.
Lloyd grabbed my shoulders and forced me back into the sleeping bag.
“This is an order.”
His strength was great, and my body stuck to the ground against my will.
Well, if it's an order, I'll lie down.
I adjusted my position while lying down, and fell asleep due to the comfort of the sleeping bag.
Lloyd sat down and made me lie down next to me.
"I'm sorry."
What is he sorry about?
Was it about him attacking me with a sword and threatening to kill me as soon as we met? Or about grabbing my arm so hard that blue bruises appear? Or about deliberately slaughtering monsters before my eyes?
There were many things he needed to apologize for, so I thought carefully about which one he meant.
Since I'm just a commoner to him and he's the next duke, my life is like that of a fly, so I didn't expect a special apology from him.
“Sleep soundly tonight, I won’t bother you anymore.”
I screamed inside with joy when I heard his words.
Okay! Does this mean an eternal farewell to the banner of death?
Then an idea suddenly occurred to me.
In order to continue being Kai and not the evil Eveliana, I have to ask Lloyd why he tried to kill me.
I know everything because I read the novel, but based on the setting of the story, the real Kay knows nothing.
I prayed that any doubt he might have after this question would be removed, and I opened my mouth:
“Excuse me, sir.”
Upon hearing my voice, Lloyd turned his head, which was looking at the fire, and looked at me calmly.
At that moment, I tried to calm my heart, which was pounding because of his handsome face that suddenly appeared, and I asked him:
“I… why did you try to kill me in the first place?”