• Chapter 3 : I listened to her personal story. And I heard the gruesome details.

The forest at night looked even grimmer than during the day.

While every animal was hiding or sleeping, owls soared through the trees, hunting their prey.

This same forest cycle had been repeating itself for thousands of years.

It had remained unchanged even after mankind’s long history of warfare.

And in the midst of the forest’s unchanging daily routine were now two foreign beings.

In a cabin with lights leaking outside, the presence of those two who were so far removed from the forest’s inhabitants was particularly noticeable.

[AAAAAAHHH!!?] (Satis)

[WHOA!?] (Seto)

Satis jumped up in shock, and inadvertently spilled some water.

Seto hid behind the table once again, and called out to her.

[W-What’s wrong…?] (Seto)

[…No. It’s nothing.] (Satis)

She was breathing heavily.

Her expression was distorted, as if she was frightened by something, but she tried to feign composure.

Was she having a nightmare? (Seto)

[Satis, what happened to you? You used to be so condescending toward us, yet…] (Seto)

Right now, she was a shadow of her former self.

She was so different from the Satis he knew.

His former enemy had changed so much that he ended up worrying about her himself.

It was then that Satis slowly began to speak.

[This is all because of you people.] (Satis)

[Eh?] (Seto)

[…Or so I would like to say. But the truth is, I’m paying for my own failures.] (Satis)

She had stood in the way of the Hero’s party countless times, challenging them with her wits and magic.

However, every time she did, they managed to drive her away, leading to an accumulation of mission failures in her career.

The Demon King was not only disappointed and displeased with her, but he even sentenced her to be executed.

Her execution was to take place the next day, that is, today morning.

She was supposed to die today.

To make sure that she would die in bitter regret, the Demon King stripped her of her position as a top executive, and had her lynched by almost everyone in the Demon King’s army.

She was not only punched and kicked, but also humiliated and tortured with whips, high-voltage electric discharges, and a triangular wooden horse.

The worst of all was being repeatedly trampled by monsters who were ranked much lower than her.

This punishment broke her mind, and finally, she came to fear the entire reality in front of her.

Then, in the morning, fearing death by execution, Satis escaped.

She barely escaped from the Demon King’s domain alive, and ran into Seto in this forest.

[I can’t… believe it…!] (Seto)

[I… have betrayed the trust of His Majesty the Demon King. Even worse, I feared for my life and ran away.] (Satis)

She smiled.

But that was not the kind of smile that Seto or the Hero’s party knew.

It was a sad smile, a far cry from her former self.

[Well, guess I should tell you about me.] (Seto)

[It’s fine if you don’t. I don’t think your story will be particularly interesting.] (Satis)

Satis smiled lightly as she shrugged her shoulders.

Seto sat there and leaned against the table, which was propped up on its side.

[I was kicked out of the Hero’s party.] (Seto)

[You already told me that during the day.] (Satis)

[…They said it’s because… I’m a slaughterer.] (Seto)

[Eh…?] (Satis)

What he told her from that point on was his personal story.

About how he had been running around the battlefield as a boy soldier.

Also, how much different his values were from everybody else’s.

And how he did not know any solution other than fighting.

[…Well, I don’t know if I explained it right, but this is who I am.] (Seto)

She remained silent on the other side of the table.

She did not know what kind of face she was making as she listened, but Seto continued.

[Ever since I can remember, the adults have always told me to “fight”. If I didn’t do as they said, they would beat me up. I didn’t want that, so I always obeyed. When they found out that I had what they called a “magic sword aptitude”, they became a bit nicer to me. I didn’t really understand the adults’ decisions, but they were being nicer to me, so nothing else mattered.] (Seto)

The rest of his story was as we already knew. He killed his enemies on the battlefield as ordered by the adults.

Sometimes, he would be captured and tortured by the enemy, but he never spilled any intel because he was ordered not to.

Satis, who had been listening the whole time, finally opened her mouth.

[Say…] (Satis)

[Hm?] (Seto)

[You said you were… a boy soldier, right?] (Satis)

[Right.] (Seto)

[If I’m not wrong, your country and its neighboring nations should have banned the military enlistment of children due to religious regulations. And yet here you are…] (Satis)

[Ahh, yeah… But the grown-ups use boy soldiers like it’s normal, so… Maybe it doesn’t matter? I don’t get the complicated stuff, and they always told me to shut up and obey without thinking about anything else. Besides, I always saw others like me when fighting enemy nations. …I wonder if they were new recruits. They looked so scared… But if I didn’t kill them, they could’ve killed me, and the adults would’ve gotten mad at me too…] (Seto)

Once again, she remained silent.

She was a bit worried she might have said something hurtful, but she spoke to him again.

[Are you sure… it’s alright for you to tell me all this?] (Satis)

[Yeah, it doesn’t matter… I don’t know how to go back to the kingdom, and I’m not prepared for that either. Even if I did go back, I would probably get killed… That much I know. After all, I’m just a soldier who’s got nothing but his magic sword aptitude going for him. If I die, that’s it, and the country has so many capable adults to spare that it won’t change anything if I alone go missing. …Besides, I have no home to go back to. And there’s no one who’d worry about my well-being.] (Seto)

Why am I saying all this? (Seto)

Suddenly, Seto wondered.

He had never talked so much about his past before.

And yet tonight, he found himself unusually eager to share it.

Perhaps it was because he felt sympathy for Satis, who was in a similar situation.

[I see…] (Satis)

She gave a short reply, illuminated by the moonlight streaming in through the window.

This light from the sky brightened the forest indiscriminately, and served as a guide for the nocturnal animals.

However, there was no such guide for the two of them right now.

They were both pitiful migratory birds with nowhere to go.

[Don’t you feel lonely? You’ve been cast away by a great number of people, you know?] (Satis)

[I don’t know… Say, what do adults do at times like these?] (Seto)

[I… don’t know either.] (Satis)

She ended their conversation with a gentle tone, and each of them fell asleep.

Satis laid wrapped in her covers, staring at the young man on the other side of the table, hidden from view.

Beyond that table, Seto was sleeping.

He was wrapped in a large cloth and sitting in a fetal position.

[…I don’t know. I really have no idea what to do in such a situation.] (Satis)

Satis muttered and closed her eyes.

Strangely enough, she managed to sleep peacefully without dreaming of anything.