Chapter 95

The Titan created by Terato for the first time.

Beryl, a Gigas, looked at the Titans playing as if they were monkeys, sitting on what must have been a chair once used by small monkeys.

When a creature with the mass of a Titan sat down, the crude house made of poorly baked bricks built by humans could not withstand the weight and collapsed, instead compressing and serving as a sturdy chair.

“It’s itchy, though.”

At least, excluding a few bumps.

Beryl surveyed the surroundings with a dull expression.

A village once inhabited by small monkeys.

They were intelligent beasts capable of communication.

What were they called again? Humans?

It seemed like they had a proper name to refer to their own kind.

They were so small and weak that Titans could hardly use them, but unlike decades ago, the quality of their homes and tools seemed to have improved quite a bit.

Despite the presence of physically much larger and stronger beasts than humans, they were buzzing about like ants, living quite well.

Should we say they made their village smaller?

Everything here was not something one could see in the great North.

But even this village was in such a state just hours after the invasion by Beryl and the Titans he led.

“Ugh… Aaaaah- Pwoong!”

Another one was discovered.

A hidden human was exposed and was struggling.

But what could it possibly matter if humans, even when they grew up, only reached the Titans’ ankles?

In this world, size is power. It’s the truth.

As one of his subordinates kicked a human who had lost rationality in fear, the body shattered like overripe fruit.

There was an insurmountable difference in their birthright from the moment they were born.

“…I don’t get what this is all about.”

Beryl scratched his head.

“What the hell is my father thinking…”

Beryl irreverently questioned the intentions of his father, Terato.

To Beryl, this seemed utterly pointless.

Titans, the superior race far beyond any other species in this world, lived in the most fertile soil on Earth, befitting their stature.

His father and the Dragons that had said to have existed even earlier.

These great beings influenced their surroundings just by existing.

In the North, where two such beings resided, every fruit was large, and the beasts were influenced, growing big and plentiful.

For the Titans, who consumed a lot in proportion to their strong bodies, the North was their homeland and sacred ground.

However, as one moved south, lands that had not received such great blessings were small in everything.

It seemed like the difference in the area needed for one Titan to live was a hundredfold.

One could understand why Titans, driven out of villages, didn’t last long and ended up starving.

Moreover.

“…This is just so boring.”

After leaving the village, the only so-called ‘dangerous enemy’ was a female wandering giant who seemed to have been chased away from the village long ago.

Even that was dangerous only in comparison to these humans; in the first place, the giants currently moving in were all beings that had been ‘selected’ over a long time in the village.

Her husband must have died during selection, and as for whether she had children or not, there was no telling, but she was alone, the wandering giant.

Due to limited resources, his subordinates, who couldn’t indulge freely, were allowed to have their fun and were cleaned up properly afterward.

It would be troublesome if the blood of an inferior species that had not been selected roamed around in various ways.

So, are humans a threat to giants?

Beryl lamented as he gazed at the site where the human village had been flattened.

For Titans, the world beyond their original territory was far too fragile.

It crumbled and broke upon touch.

In the South, humans appeared to be similar predators to Titans, yet a village of hundreds could not withstand their attacks even for a moment before collapsing.

It was becoming dangerous to interfere with a beehive in the North rather than a human village.

“I wish the Dragons hadn’t fallen so easily.”

Titans were weapons created to slay the Gal Dragons, Terato’s old rivals as well as the ruling superior species.

When the hundred-year preparation ended, and the long-sleeping Dragons awoke, Terato and the Gigas were able to stab dozens of swords into the Dragon’s body.

Some of the brothers he had fought alongside were torn apart in the process, but still.

If the Dragon were intact, there would have been no need for him to go out of his way to warn the humans in the South, who were not worth his trouble, in the name of Terato.

“Is there really a need for a warning? They’re such weak creatures.”

With just himself, who bore the title of Gigas, and about twenty Titans, this was the situation.

No, even if they had only a quarter of that number, it wouldn’t have made much difference.

There might be larger human groups further south, but who knows.

What meaning is there in having either a hundred or a thousand ants?

Clang-!

A clear metallic sound suddenly rang out.

A human, who either charged or fled, burst when kicked by one of the Titans, sending the sword he was holding flying towards Beryl.

Beryl absentmindedly picked it up with two fingers.

It was just the right size to use as a toothpick.

Holding the sword used by humans between his thumb and index finger, he twirled it around, pondering.

It seemed somewhat sharpened, but it left not a scratch on the Titan’s hide.

Titans had only recently begun to handle metal and forge weapons, and surprisingly, humans had managed to process metal with their feeble strength and knowledge, yet in the end, any weapon they could handle with those tiny bodies was only this much.

While he understood his father Terato’s desire to become the ruler of this world, what on earth could possibly be gained by dominating these beings?

With a sigh, Beryl brushed himself off and stood up.

The village that once held dozens of houses was as easily organized as the previous ones.

“Annoying as it is, I guess we need to move. Hey!”

At Beryl’s shout, the Titans around him, who had been playfully toying with the humans like children, turned their gazes.

The corpses of humans lay strewn about like toys for children.

Crushed to death. Limbs and necks severed while still alive.

One Titan had been carrying previously gathered humans in a small bag like a snack.

“Get ready to move after having your fun. That… what was it? Pohela? Pohelrn? I keep getting confused about the humans’ villages. Anyway, we need to go that way and deliver my father’s warning to the humans.”

Upon hearing that, the Titans stopped their play and got ready to move.

They had already wiped out about ten villages where humans had been present since yesterday.

There were many more villages to play with in the future, so losing out on this one wasn’t really an issue.

In fact, Beryl didn’t even know what the destination village looked like.

He merely thought that if there was a village that wouldn’t crumble easily when knocked, it might be Pohelrn.

“But what if we accidentally don’t realize it and destroy everything?”

Thinking about the villages they had passed so far, there didn’t seem to be anything exceptional about the destination village either.

There was a chance they might mistakenly destroy everything, thinking it was another village.

“…Well, if that happens, I’ll just get scolded.”

Beryl shrugged his shoulders and began to move when he glanced at one Titan who was stuffing alive humans into a bag at its side and frowned.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m just going to carry them for snacks.”

“…Are they tasty? Those?”

Beryl had tried it once.

It wasn’t bad for a one-bite snack, and the burst of flavor wasn’t unpleasant, but humans, unlike Titans, wore clothing, and occasionally even had metal over them, so he had to strip them one by one.

While the hairless ones weren’t so bad, the ones around the head had a particularly thick amount of hair, making them tricky to eat.

Chewing on the bones wasn’t a problem, but it was still a bit of a hassle.

“I found it not too bad. Since there aren’t many beasts around, you never know, right? This could be an emergency food supply.”

The Titan replied to Beryl while stripping the humans one by one and putting them in the bag.

The humans already inside the open bag were not dead, but they lacked any vitality, and those who were stripped and screamed in refusal turned pale as soon as they locked eyes with the humans in the bag.

…They’re beasts, but the fact that they’re intelligent makes it even more disturbing.

Eating while they’re still alive is grotesque.

“Well, do as you please. Just don’t eat too much carelessly, since we don’t know if it’s poisonous or not.”

“Yes.”

Such a weirdo.

Beryl thought to himself as he looked around, observing the traces of the Titans playing here and there and shook his head.

It wasn’t just one or two of them.

The Titans turned the village of over eighty humans into a complete wreck, leaving not a single one behind, before heading south once more.

Only traces remained of the desolate village where humans once lived.

It was a sight not uncommon during the era of Roa and monsters before the reign of Priegoss.

◈ ◈ ◈

“This took a bit longer than expected.”

“It seemed to be bigger, after all.”

The human village they had just wiped out was quite sizable.

Surrounded by walls less than half the height of a Titan, it was a relatively large village.

Not one that could be dared to invade by beasts around here.

The population was close to thousands.

Thanks to that, the Titans were unable to catch all the fleeing humans.

That is, most of the humans in the village had fled except for those who held their ground until the end or hid.

“It was quite interesting to see humans riding on horses. Is it because their legs were slow?”

“It looks a bit funny, but they were fast.”

“…Should we train Brakhios when we get back and ride them around?”

“They’re not even enough to eat, would they come to split the heads of the Gigantes if we rode them?”

“…Damn. It looked pretty cool.”

Beryl’s grumbling made another Titan laugh.

Beryl, considering the village that still retained some shape due to its vast size, said, “This village seems many times larger than the others, and you said it’s not Pohelrn, right?”

“When we asked the captured humans, they said it wasn’t. Something like Belvas?”

“…Could Pohelrn turn out to be unexpectedly good?”

The villages they had visited so far had been dull but this one was still quite big and showed some resistance.

A considerable number of humans even survived.

Of course, none of the Titans were foolish enough to get hurt by these ant-like humans.

“Let’s move.”

“Already?”

“My feet are sore.”

“Humans have been scattering everywhere this time, so there’s been a lot of running.”

“Those kids. Look at how they are slacking off after letting them loose. But they’re meant to be moving under our father’s command, aren’t they?”

Once Terato’s name was mentioned, the other Titans grumbled, yet they got up and shook off the debris from the houses they had been lying on.

“Let’s finish up quickly and head home. By the way, let’s take a quick look at what they call the largest human village, Pohelrn or something.”

◈ ◈ ◈

Beryl and the Titans moved again towards the direction of Pohelrn.

Unfortunately, there were hardly any villages as large as Belvas.

As they got closer to Pohelrn, the village sizes appeared to increase little by little, but there were no satisfactory-sized villages.

What bothered Beryl, however, was that the closer they got to Pohelrn, the more he could see a strange pride and confidence in the eyes of the humans.

When he asked the captured humans the direction of Pohelrn, they showed no hesitation.

It wasn’t as if they confessed out of fear of death, but instead, the captured humans gave off a hint of, “You can’t conquer Pohelrn,” even as they faced the lined-up Titans, which made Beryl uncomfortable.

“…In the end, are they just monkeys that can talk? Their intelligence seems a bit lacking.”

No matter how big it was, could a mere collection of beings hold them back?

Even a hundred or a thousand or even ten thousand humans, wouldn’t they struggle to leave a scratch on their bodies?

As it seemed a tedious matter, the thought of playing around faded completely.

This feeling wasn’t just confined to Beryl; all the Titans accompanying him had the same impression.

Until now, they had toyed with humans, but feeling disregarded by them, the Titans swiftly crushed the villages.

While heading towards Pohelrn, they approached another village where humans appeared again, blocking it wide open so that humans couldn’t escape, and as they attempted to break down the small stacked stone walls and wooden fences, all of a sudden.

Bang-! Boom!

A sound akin to compressed air bursting rang out from one side.

At the same time, one Titan fell, creating a tremor.

“…? What’s going on?”

In front of the Titan who had fallen with a great fist-shaped mark on his face and whose neck was bent at an angle, stood a Titan dressed in unfamiliar attire.

That Titan, with eyes ablaze, rushed toward another Titan reaching out to a child on the ground who was frozen in fear and let out a roar of rage.

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