Chapter 27 – Turning Back Time (2)
“Cough, ugh…”
“I don’t know what the story is, but if you’re trying to protect what’s inside, then it can’t be helped. Whatever the case, it must be destroyed.”
Despite the intimidating force and madness, Kai ultimately fell under my control. It was too fast to be sucked into the ground, so the correct answer was to make the ground itself heave up.
The earth erupted like crashing waves, wrapping around his entire leaping body, hardening, and rendering him immobile.
“At this very moment, there were those who believed in you and were searching for you. At the very least, those kids shouldn’t betray you.”
“Cough, betray?”
As I looked up at him, he gritted his teeth in agony.
“Yes, it was I who chose this path, drawn by that voice. But who dares to call it betrayal? This is revenge. Revenge against the true betrayers…!”
His eyes flashed as he began to pour out his story. In the process, the identity of whatever was in that cave, which I had been curious about, slowly began to reveal itself.
“Throughout my life, I never cursed being a goblin. No matter what happened, I thought of it as karma to bear, and I lived a life striving not to give rise to gossip.”
The root of all his problems stemmed from his birth as a goblin. As Ian said, he was a goblin, but he was an adventurer with exceptional skills and an ordinary person with camaraderie with his companions.
Even when he retired from adventurer life, and those companions settled into their hometowns to lead ordinary lives, it was no different.
Though he couldn’t mix in with human towns, his skills made living in the woods alone not a problem.
“I wanted to maintain it like that… In the end, it seems I couldn’t let go of that childhood wish of wanting to become human after more than a decade of searching for my own meaning.”
“Was that why you mingled with your companion’s children and their friends?”
“That alone was satisfying. Born as a goblin, treated as a monster, that was my limit! But! They couldn’t even let me have that. Did they say I killed Dune? That I betrayed them?!”
His rage was not due to self-harm.
It was a recent event that the lowly villagers near his home had caught onto his existence, living secretly. Dune, a villager and a companion who took care of him, was threatened by those thugs regarding Kai’s existence.
‘Such matters.’
I sighed and lowered my head.
Of course, Dune intended to protect Kai and got into a conflict with those thugs. Dune’s murder before Kai’s eyes was a result of that.
“If I had even a little more strength in this aging body… If I had strength from the start, such an event wouldn’t have occurred.”
It was then that a voice reached him, despairing and enraged. The dark temptation telling him it would grant power to take revenge on this world.
The curse of corruption enveloped his body, and in despair and rage, Kai did not push away the curse but accepted it himself.
“From the very beginning, this world’s structure has been wrong. Why did it turn out like this? Why is the path one must walk determined from birth? Why is there interference when trying to stray from that path?!”
Filled with rage, he poured out his grievances. In truth, as a third party, I had no obligation to listen to what he said, but when I heard his lament about the structure of the world, I was slightly taken aback.
This world transformed completely into a new world, different from the past, one thousand years ago, after the tower fell.
As someone who was there at that moment, I couldn’t help but feel a prick of concern.
“Is that true?”
And at that moment, a presence appeared sneaking up from behind, which I hadn’t noticed while talking to Kai.
“I-Ian…! What are you doing here?!”
Kai’s eyes widened in surprise.
At the same time, I reflexively glanced at the earth spirit. The earth spirit, which explained that it hadn’t told me about Ian because he was too harmless, scratched its head and quietly melted into the ground.
“Father truly…”
“You have great courage. Do you think the rampaging goblins will recognize you?”
Seeing Ian’s voice trembling in shock, I clicked my tongue. I had sensed he was quite daring from the start when they intended to go to the goblin den.
“It couldn’t be helped, Ian. I didn’t want you to come to hate your foolish kin. I know how painful that can be. I wanted to bear the revenge and karma myself.”
He explained the situation to Ian in a muffled voice, as if sympathizing. Still, the fact that he intended to shoulder everything alone without revealing the truth to Ian, whom he cherished, was evidence that he was not completely out of his mind.
“You should have told me! If you go about taking revenge like this, you’ll lose even the last family member you have!”
But Ian, on the contrary, became angry. He couldn’t afford to lose his last remaining family member this way.
Perhaps those words resonated strongly, causing Kai to falter, unable to speak. Indeed, even I thought Kai’s method was too extreme, even if it was for revenge.
It seemed he already finished his revenge against the instigators, but his rage was now directed at humanity as a whole.
“I-I just… ugh, aaah!”
Realizing that fact, the overwhelming black flames burned even more fiercely on his body, and he screamed in pain.
The intensifying unpleasant energy was a power that contradicted my very existence. The curse was gnawing at him, enveloping him in chaos.
“I understand your grievances, but I can no longer leave the curse as it is. Otherwise, you’ll be completely consumed, losing your very self. If that happens, you might end up killing this child with your own hands. You should have touched the things you intend to handle.”
“Ah, no… I don’t know who you are, but don’t approach it. It will surely swallow you too!”
As I pointed to the cave, Kai shouted with difficulty. He believed that something causing the curse resided within the cave and thought that I couldn’t handle it.
However, just as Kai threw himself for the sake of revenge, I too could not ignore the call of the spirits.
“Perhaps I’d fare better than you?”
With a smile, I leaped up and instantly landed on the pillar where he was bound. Facing the curse that was trying to completely engulf him, he looked at me with trembling eyes.
“That’s impossible. The curse of corruption is a disaster left by this world. There’s no way to escape it. You’d be better off killing me like this, before I go completely mad!”
“You wouldn’t know until you try.”
Grabbing his face with my hand, I shook my head. I hadn’t been able to properly use my abilities during the werewolf incident due to being too flustered, but this time would be different.
—
‘What on earth is this elf girl?’
It was inappropriate to even ask who she was. The correct question was, ‘What exactly is she?’
As the blouse that didn’t fit flapped, Irilia approached, rolling up her fluttering sleeves and placing her hand on her own face, and Kai instinctively felt something profound from her.
Perhaps this mysterious girl could turn the impossible into the possible.
And that instinct turned out to be spot on. As she began to channel her power, the curse that had been writhing to consume him began to be pushed out and purified.
‘This is just like artifact restoration.’
Irilia gritted her teeth, enduring as her strength gradually drained away while continuing to expel the curse. The disaster that had ruled this world for a thousand years was being devoured like a prey encountering its natural enemy in the presence of the power containing that era’s purity.
“I-I’m alright now.”
When that dazzling flash completely purified the thick curse, she, covered in cold sweat and gasping for breath, Kai opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
His tone had already changed. The being that had brought forth this miracle, clarifying his mind, could not possibly be an ordinary being.
“It’s not over yet.”
Irilia withdrew her hand, wiping her flowing sweat, and smiled wryly.
The cave, which she had just torn open and released Kai from his bindings, still stood gaping, exuding that eerie energy and waiting for them.
“You guide us. Someone has to take care of the aftermath at the end.”
“Ah, understood. This way.”
“I should take that child too. I don’t know what could happen if left alone here.”
Irilia directed Kai to guide her through the cave’s interior, smirking at Ian, who was watching the scene blankly.
Thanks to this, Irilia, Kai, and Ian hurriedly rushed into the cave.
“…What on earth did I just see?”
And right after that, someone who had confused even the earth spirits with his concealed magic stepped into this place blankly.
With a staff in one hand and a gun in the other, Renia had an entranced look in her eyes, as if captivated by what she had witnessed on her way to this place.
