How had it come to this?
I knew the future. I knew exactly what kind of tragedy the game character named FrostNova had gone through as a child, so for my own survival I had spent the past ten days digging a trench where I had buried the knife.
The trench was the perfect place to hide. I wasn’t worried about the cave collapsing after this. I knew that if I held out just a little longer, a hero would come and save me.
And the moment I sensed that something was wrong, I had slipped into the trench and watched the situation unfold.
The overseers were killing the laborers on sight. It was so horrific that words couldn’t begin to describe it.
But I looked away. I had to, if I wanted to live.
“Just a little longer... just a little longer...”
I only had to endure. If I rushed out without knowing my place, I’d end up just like them.
“Grandma... Mom... Dad...”
But that resolve wavered hard when I saw Yelena in danger.
Over the past ten days, we’d been stuck together long enough for me to grow attached to her without even realizing it. And now that girl had been caught by soldiers and was in mortal danger.
And yet I still turned my eyes away. I knew. I knew how fierce she was in the game. If this followed the original story, Yelena would absolutely not die here.
“Of course. She’s ripe enough. No reason not to.”
...Huh?
What the hell was that supposed to mean? So he was going to do that to the girl...?
The moment I understood the meaning of his words, something in my chest seemed to ignite. I grabbed a weapon from inside the trench.
Had I ever felt such violent rage before? That wasn’t something a human being should do. I could no longer turn my back on my conscience.
The Originium blade I’d made after staying up for nights a few days ago. Crude as it was, it was sharp enough to wound someone who let their guard down.
Not the upper body. Thick protective gear and slash-resistant armor would block it.
What I had to target was the lower body. But too low would be a problem, too. Boots were sturdier than they looked. This clumsy weapon wouldn’t get through them.
So I aimed for the weakest part of the armor. I threw the blade toward the back of his knee, where mobility was reduced and nothing but basic military fatigues offered protection.
Fortunately, for a move I’d come up with on the spot, it worked. With a sharp jolt of pain, the man was knocked away from Yelena.
“Earth?”
“Damn it... this isn’t how it was supposed to go. I was supposed to run.”
My legs were shaking with fear of death.
The other man was an adult, a trained soldier at that. Even if he had flinched for a moment from the sudden pain, it was obvious he’d recover quickly and come for me again.
Still... still, part of me felt strangely calm. I had stopped something wrong.
“Because of you.”
Because of you.
Because of you, I could finally face the reality I’d been trying so hard to ignore.
I could escape the torment of my conscience.
“What are you standing there for? Run while you still can!”
----
“You little brat. I’ll make you pay for looking down on a soldier.”
A sharp blade came at me. It was terrifying. But if I didn’t move, I would die.
“If you’re a soldier, act like one! How’s what you’re doing any different from some horny dogs in the neighborhood?”
Spitting out curses was my way of keeping fear to a minimum. At the same time, I rolled and twisted to avoid the blade flying at me.
Fortunately, the strong stench of alcohol made it clear the man was thoroughly drunk. That had to be why his swordplay was so sloppy.
“You little rat... you’re good at dodging, I’ll give you that!”
“Well, thanks for the compliment. Have this!”
Close combat was impossible; the difference in reach between his weapon and mine was too great. I had to create distance and look for an unexpected opening.
And the instant he raised his blade high to cut me down, I didn’t miss my chance. I threw the Originium blade at his exposed upper body.
Clang!Clang!
But for a decisive throw, his defense was embarrassingly easy. The slash-resistant armor covering most of his upper body was too tough, and my weapon wasn’t enough to pierce it.
Worse, I felt my back hit a wall. I’d kept running, and before I knew it, I’d reached a dead end.
“Nowhere left to run, huh!”
The grin on his face was vicious. Maybe he’d been aiming for this from the start.
A soldier who had once been an Ursus overseer, trash beyond saving in terms of character, and even if he was drunk and not fully in his right mind, he was still a soldier through and through.
In other words, he was a professional when it came to hunting the Infected.
He thrust his sword straight toward my heart. By a hair’s breadth I avoided the place he’d aimed for, but my body didn’t escape unscathed.
“Agh!”
Blood was pouring from my side. Naturally, it was my blood and no one else’s.
“Finally got you. That disgusting Infected bastard’s been making a nuisance of himself.”
Slowed by the pain of bleeding, I was cornered again before long. I’d been running around blindly and hadn’t paid attention to my surroundings.
...If I was going to die anyway, then I had to gamble. I had to buy even a little more time. For both my sake and Yelena’s.
“Disgusting Infected, huh... heh heh.”
“What’s so funny? Do you not understand the situation? Have you gone insane?”
“No... I just can’t tell who’s calling who a disgusting Infected.”
From his point of view, wasn’t this incredibly ridiculous? A badly wounded kid struggling with everything he had at the end of his life looked pathetic even to me.
But he looked ridiculous to me too. More precisely, I found it laughable that he treated the Infected and himself as completely separate beings.
“Hey. Soldier. This thing I’ve got in my hand right now. Know what it is?”
“What good would knowing do? You’re just babbling because you don’t want to die. Let’s finish this...”
“It’s Originium, you idiot.”
Heh.
A snort escaped me. He still didn’t understand what was happening and was staring at me like I was just some madman.
“Looks like you’ve got rotten luck. Seeing things, are you? Infected with Oripathy and all that, none of you are ever normal. Fine. I’ll kill you now.”
“Seeing things? Maybe you’ll see it in the future too. That wound behind your knee? I made that with this.”
In an instant, his face went pale. Nice. It felt like a blocked throat had been blasted wide open by a cold drink.
“How does it feel to be on the fast track to Oripathy after looking down on it so much?”
“You... bastard!!”
Originium could certainly infect through the air. The laborers here were proof of that. But above all else, the easiest way to contract Oripathy was to implant the source of infection itself—Originium—directly into the body.
And in this country of Ursus, anyone with Oripathy was treated as an exception by no one except perhaps the Imperial Guard. Not even soldiers were exempt.
He turned ashen and looked down at the wound I’d just given him behind the knee.
The moment he looked away from me was the moment I had been waiting for.
“Die!!”
I threw the dagger I’d been holding to the end. My target was his throat.
“Ghk...”
The slash-resistant armor didn’t protect his neck. The Originium blade that left my hand pierced the soldier’s flesh, and he toppled backward.
“Oripathy at least lets you die slowly. Turn your eyes away from an enemy, and it’s the road to hell right there.”
I’d gotten past the immediate crisis. But the cave was still full of soldiers. And not drunk ones either—sober, intact soldiers.
“Haa... I need to run too... huh? Why are you there?”
Yelena was standing in front of me, tears in her eyes.
“No! I told you to run! Were you not listening to a word I said—cough!”
Damn it. It looked like the cut had gone deeper than I expected. This was bad. I needed to get out fast...
“Earth..! Blood! You need treatment, now!”
“Treatment my ass. You have to be alive before treatment matters. If we stay here, we’ll die for sure. We have to get out of the cave, now.”
“I can’t do that.”
A low, heavy voice echoed through the cave. Soon after, footsteps sounded all around us, and soldiers armed to the teeth with crossbows and swords emerged to surround Yelena and me.
“Looks like you’re the one who killed Zoban.”
“...Shit. Yeah, I killed him. You people slaughter workers like flies and still don’t die yourselves? What are you, soldiers?”
Angered by the words of the man who seemed to be their leader, I snapped back. My brain had been overtaken by the thought that if I was going to die anyway, I might as well say everything I wanted to say.
“Your mouth is too loose.”
The leader raised one hand, and at the same time I felt a burning heat in my stomach. A crossbow bolt was embedded in my abdomen.
“Ghk...”
“Still, your spirit is somewhat admirable. And from the looks of it, you can’t even use Arts, so you’re not Infected either.”
Clink.
A sword dropped at my feet. It was the same kind of blade that bastard Zoban had been using earlier.
“Use that to kill the Infected girl beside you. Then I’ll grant you the honor of enlisting in the Ursus army.”
I could live? If I killed this girl?
What was so hard about that? Compared to that terrifying soldier from earlier, this little girl was nothing, right?
The desire to live twisted into the wrong shape. I slowly picked up the sword and walked toward Yelena.
“Earth...”
Was this child not even afraid? Death was right there—the end of life itself—and yet she showed no sign of running.
“I told you to run fast. This is all your fault.”
“Yeah. It’s my fault. Everything that happened to you is my fault too. So hurry up and kill me.”
My grip tightened around the sword. The way she calmly accepted her own death overlapped with the ending she’d shown in the game as a villain.
“Shit... fight back, at least. The guy in front of you has a cut in his side and an arrow in his stomach. You could still beat me.”
“But even if I do, I won’t survive. If I sacrifice myself, you can live. That’s enough, isn’t it?”
So that was why she’d stayed. If she’d just left me behind and run, maybe she could have survived.
“At least try to survive with everything you’ve got.”
I turned my back on her.
“You’re making a foolish choice.”
“And yet it’s the right one.”
At my answer, the leader’s hand rose once more. Even with my guard up, I could see it clearly. At his signal, more than ten soldiers would loose their crossbows at me.
So this was it... The best I could do was stand my ground without crouching, so the rain of arrows wouldn’t reach Yelena’s body. And then it happened.
“No!!!”
With a sharp cry, a powerful gust of wind blew through, and the arrows aimed at me were knocked aside in the opposite direction.
How should I describe it? It was as if an ice age had descended upon the small world of the cave, covering everything in pure white frost.
FrostNova’s ice-type Arts, famous even in the game, had finally revealed itself.
“Damn it... an Arts user! Take out the high-risk infected immediately! Reload the crossbows!”
“Like hell I’ll let you!”
I grabbed the sword I’d just been given and charged. Blood was pouring from my stomach and side, the ice sheet Yelena had made was slippery, and the sword in my hand felt as heavy as lead—but if not now, there would be no chance.
“You insolent brat... how dare you—?!”
The man who seemed to be the soldiers’ leader tried to draw his sword to kill me. But his attempt was in vain.
“The sword won’t come out?”
By lore, FrostNova was one of the strongest Arts users in the setting—a mage, in other words. Freezing the scabbard along with the sword so it couldn’t be drawn was child’s play for her.
And his feet had been locked in place by her ice, leaving him unable to move.
“Wai—aghhh!”
I drove the blade into the heart of the defenseless enemy. I’d taken out the most dangerous foe, but it still wasn’t over. Slowly, I dealt with the remaining enemies one by one.
“Please... spare me!”
“The bowstring won’t pull! This is impossible!”
“Aaaagh!”
I didn’t know how many I’d killed. Dragging my heavy body along, I searched for the next bastard to kill.
“Please spare me! I have parents waiting for me back home!”
Did that bastard kill Yelena’s parents and grandmother, then? Next.
“I have children... I can’t die yet...”
And yet he was going to kill that little Yelena? Next.
“You... you beast! After killing people like this, you don’t even feel guilty?”
Who exactly was saying that to whom? Next.
...
Next?
But there was no one left speaking anymore.
“It’s over now...”
With Yelena’s words, my body—moving only by habit—finally sagged.
“Earth! Stay with me!”
I had no strength left. I’d probably lost too much blood.
“Is anyone there? Please help us..! Someone’s dying here!!”
And as if answering that cry, someone was coming from the cave entrance.
Another soldier? If so, then... I had to... get up... again...
Through my closing eyes, I saw a pair of enormous antlers.
“You’re... too late...”
At that sight, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Because that person was none other than the one called the shield of the Infected. At the very least, Yelena would be... safe...
I could no longer resist my heavy eyelids. I surrendered my body to sleep and closed my eyes.
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