Hero Party After the Nuclear War

Chapter 6

Once Raven fell into a deep sleep, the only sounds filling the air were the chirping of crickets and the faint snoring that began not long after his head hit the pillow.

According to Raven, the most important threat during camping wasn't wild animals, zombies, or spirits, but a being called Shadow that appeared when darkness fell.

Back when she was still active as the Hero's fairy, even in the deepest parts of the Demon Realm, Eris had never seen or heard of this so-called 'Shadow' he described.

And then there was the mysterious new radiation called 'Maso' that spread across the world with the nuclear explosions... along with the countless anomalies and mutants that emerged because of it. Spirits that could appear anytime, anywhere.

A world where the order of past civilizations was nowhere to be found.

In such a world, all Eris—now the Hero's fairy—could do was tremble near the firelight and lantern glow, clutching a heavy pistol and keeping watch over her surroundings.

"Haa."

What should I do from here?

The world was ruined. Totally f*cked. Even Eris couldn't deny that. There was no way to turn back time in a world already destroyed. Which meant the only thing that mattered now was what came next.

The Hero's fairy—that was the purpose of Eris's existence.

A Hero's fairy is meant to travel alongside the Hero, assisting in their quest and defeating the Hero's enemies together. Then, what she needed to do now... was find the 'Hero' who could rebuild this ruined world.

As she thought that and toyed with the gun, Eris heard movement from afar and immediately aimed the barrel toward the source of the sound.

"Who's there?"

In the very spot where Eris's gaze pierced into the darkness, though not clearly visible, there was 'something'.

According to Raven's advice, whatever appeared, she should shoot first and ask questions later—but in a world this desolate, it might be someone approaching in need of help.

"Who are you? You."

Whether it was drawn by the voice or not, the figure gradually approached Eris. As the distance closed, Eris could clearly make out what 'it' was.

It wasn't a wild animal. Nor was it a Shadow, which Raven had warned her about. It had the shape of a person, wearing something like a thick protective suit, and its gait was unsteady, swaying from side to side as if injured.

Since it had a humanoid form, there were three main possibilities.

A zombie.

A lost spirit.

Or... a real person in need of help.

"Stand right there and raise both hands."

Despite Eris's command, the person kept approaching her.

"If you come any closer, I'll shoot."

Holding the pistol with both hands, she calmly warned, but the man in the protective suit continued to move toward Eris. Finally, when he got right in front of the lantern, Eris had no choice but to pull the trigger of the gun she held.

Bang!

Since Eris was inexperienced with firearms, there was no way she could hit the head accurately with a pistol she had never used before. Instead, she aimed for the easier target—the torso—and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Though it was her first shot, the bullet struck the wanderer squarely in the chest.

The wanderer toppled backward from the shot, and Eris froze on the spot, overwhelmed by guilt from killing a human—not a monster—with a gun for the first time.

But that guilt didn't last long.

The wanderer who had been shot suddenly twisted his neck in the opposite direction, glared at Eris, and then began crawling toward her on all fours like a mad beast.

"Kyaa... kyaaaaah?!"

Seeing a dead person approach her in a grotesque form, Eris panicked and pulled the trigger in a fluster. But with the short barrel of the pistol, it was nearly impossible for a beginner to hit a moving target with pure instinctive aim.

Only too late did Eris realize that this was the very zombie Raven had warned her so much about—and she finally understood why he had stressed aiming for the head.

Just then, through the half-shattered gas mask, she saw the half-demonized, decaying face and exposed teeth of what had once been a human, and Eris realized—

At some point, the quiet snoring from behind had completely stopped.

"You f*cking nightwalker bastard."

Raven, without a hint of fear, burst out of the tent, grabbed the zombie by the back of the neck, and flung it far away. Even considering the power granted by the summoner, it was an incredible feat of strength.

[KRU... A.. A.A.A.....!!]

As the flung zombie charged at Eris again, Raven pulled a burning log from the campfire and swung it like a club, slamming it directly into the zombie's head.

Crack.

Though the wooden log broke, the zombie, now set ablaze, flailed in agony and rolled on the ground.

As if it wasn't worth wasting a bullet on a single zombie, Raven stomped on the creature's skull two or three more times with all his strength, crushing it until brain matter and blood splattered out.

Once the zombie stopped moving, he didn't even bother to clean up the corpse—just kicked it aside like a soccer ball and looked around.

"Nice job. Your aim was terrible, but still. Can't expect a beginner to land a headshot."

As if this were just another day, Raven casually wiped off the blood on his body and went back into the tent to lie down.

"..."

This world has truly gone insane.

Eris realized that for sure this time.

Just as she sighed in relief after leaving the fallen zombie behind, Eris realized too late that it was too soon to feel safe.

The moment she lowered her gun and plopped down on the ground, a chilling cold crept up her spine and over her shoulders. It felt like the surrounding temperature had dropped by at least ten degrees as the sensation swept across her entire body.

As if to prove it wasn't just her imagination, Raven, who was also there, opened his sleepy eyes and silently stared at the spot where the zombie had appeared.

And from that spot, a 'something' began to rise from the ground, accompanied by a black, blood-colored puddle clearly visible even in the darkness.

No one knew what was about to emerge. As Raven had joked, it might just be a giant mutant mole born from Maso.

But could this sensation, this soul-crushing chill, really come from just a mutated mole?

As Eris trembled in fear of the unknown entity, Raven, without hesitation or question, grabbed the flashlight tucked at his waist and shined it on the blood-tinged puddle.

As if afraid of the light Raven shone, the thing kept writhing, waiting for its chance to emerge—only to fail to overcome the intense brightness and sink back into the ground.

"What was that just now...? It wasn't a servant. Not a demon either. A human... no. It wasn't even a living creature."

As Eris gasped and asked, Raven replied cynically, as if this were just another everyday occurrence.

"That's Red Grave's boogeyman—the Shadow. Don't worry. Those things can't come out in the light. I drove it away, so it won't show up again for a while."

* * *

The next day.

Eris jolted awake in front of the campfire, not even realizing when she had fallen asleep.

As if falling from a great height, she snapped awake, and the first thing that came to mind was the red gleam in the eyes of the unknown monster seeping from the Shadow's puddle she had seen yesterday.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

"Good job keeping watch. Thanks to your half-assed vigilance—and mine too—we didn't get a wink of sleep."

Though he had left her on guard duty, Raven sarcastically chided the dozing Eris, then kicked dirt over the campfire and looked out at the sun rising beyond the ghost city's forest of buildings.

"...I'm sorry. Really. I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"I know. Everyone who sees a Shadow for the first time is like that. I didn't expect one to pop out the very day I met you either."

"About that Shadow. Do they show up where people live too?"

"Places where people live usually have electricity, right? And cities with electricity stay lit to prevent Shadow appearances. So they don't show up in cities. Thankfully.

So basically, the only ones who run into Shadows are idiots like me who camp in the middle of nowhere with a fire at night. Now do you get why I'm so terrified of them?"

The reason Shadows were terrifying wasn't something external.

Most people have an innate fear of bugs or reptiles.

While there are exceptions, they're rare. So when most people see a harmless bug or reptile, even though it's much smaller than them, they still feel disgusted, repulsed, or even scared.

The fear evoked by Shadows was like that.

No one knows what they are. A creature from a completely unknown realm—or not even a creature, but a 'something'. And yet, the fear of Shadows felt like it was etched into her genes—so terrifying that she couldn't move the moment she saw one.

As Eris trembled while recalling yesterday's events, Raven handed her a small powder wrapped in paper, though she didn't know where he got it.

"What's this?"

A fine white powder with extremely small particles.

No way...

Drugs?

Just as that suspicion crossed her mind, Raven, while dismantling the tent alone and loading it into the truck Elizabeth's cargo bed, answered.

"It's sugar. They say it's good to eat after encountering a Shadow."

"Su... sugar?"

"Why? Were you hoping for cocaine? I've got some, actually. Want some?"

"No thanks."

Letting Raven's words—whether joke or truth—slide, she trickled a bit of sugar into her mouth. The pure sweetness left a salty-sweet tingle on her tongue.

"Thank you. I'll repay you later for sure."

"Repay me later? I gave you canned food and rare sugar. Don't tell me you're planning to ghost me the moment we reach the city, after eating everything?"

Raven warned her sternly that he wouldn't forgive her if that happened, and aimed the M1911 pistol she had been holding just yesterday at her forehead.

"Raven never does anything that doesn't benefit him."

"..."

Of course. That made perfect sense.

In this hellish wasteland left behind after the world's destruction, there likely wasn't a single purely good person left. Eris, who had already resigned herself to that fact, realized she was no better than a slave rolling around on the roadside—and she accepted her situation.

"What do you want?"

"You said you were the Hero's fairy, right?"

Sitting in the driver's seat of the truck, Raven started the engine and spoke.

"Yeah. That's right."

"There's no such thing as a Hero in this world anymore. You know that, right?"

"...Yes."

Of course, there was no Hero, and no Demon King, in this world now.

There was nothing she could do. Her identity was the Hero's fairy, but that important Hero had vanished.

Then Raven reached out to her and made a suggestion.

"Then you no longer have a master to serve. So from now on, you're my fairy."

With some inexplicable confidence, he said that boldly and slapped the passenger seat with his palm.

"You said you were the one who guided the Hero's adventures, right? Then, from now on, guide mine. Let's see just how high-performance a popsicle fairy made by the Ancient Civilization really is."

"..."

Eris hesitated.

A war between the human world and the Demon Realm.

Caught in mutual assured destruction driven by madness, the war ended 200 years ago when both sides dropped nuclear bombs, and she, unable to join the war alongside the Hero, had been left behind as a research sample.

Now, after a long hibernation, the one presented to her as a companion for adventure was the son of a 'demon'—her natural enemy—a mysterious half-human, half-demon Deliveryman.

Was taking this Deliveryman's hand truly the right choice?

No, Eris thought.

She had no options now.

Die here. Or become his fairy.

There was only one choice between the two.

As she accepted her fate and looked up, Eris saw Raven's confident face and, for some reason, felt a nostalgic familiarity, like seeing someone she had once known long ago.

A face she felt like she had seen somewhere before.

Holding the Holy Sword in solitude, bearing the fate of humanity on his back.

The face of a lonely Hero came to mind.

"Alright. I'll be your fairy."

Saying that, Eris climbed into the passenger seat of the truck, Elizabeth. Then, out of nowhere, he shook the dog tag hanging around his neck and spoke.

"Dante."

"Huh?"

"Dante. That's my name. Nice to meet you. Fasten your seatbelt tight. The road's bumpy. Alright, let's go. The client must be waiting."