I Became a Foreign Worker Loved by Transcendents

Boudoin Britannia.

Even during the most brutal times, he always called for peace, the most compassionate leader.

“…If you are infected, come to me.”

But the figure before me now bore no resemblance to the wise king I remembered.

The blood on his armor and greatsword told the story of countless citizens he had executed with his own hands—a number even he couldn’t count.

“Those who came into contact with the infected have all turned like them… To save the remaining people, I must eliminate as many infected as I can.”

From behind the mask, his trembling voice conveyed his exhaustion and despair.

His footsteps, tangled with despair, approached me hesitantly but steadily.

“You, too, will undoubtedly meet the same fate. Sooner or later, you will become one of them.”

Even as he closed the distance between us, I couldn’t bring myself to raise my sword against him.

It was only natural to hesitate.

Though he had succumbed to despair and gone mad, he was still the man I had once wanted to serve as my king.

Perhaps, in another life, we could have even been like father and daughter.

“…So, hate me.”

Even though no one would ever see him as a criminal.

He insisted on viewing himself as a sinner until the very end, determined to fulfill his duty.

“Hate me, curse me; if that can ease your suffering… I will accept it, as the one who should have protected you.”

I knew. This was nothing but a reflection of the past.

Yet, even though it was just the past, the vividness and sheer humanity of his madness made me hesitate to swing my sword.

I almost thought it would be better to turn my back and run away.

Even though time was running out, I felt that if I didn’t do something, I wouldn’t be able to endure much longer.

“…Tacchia?”

As I wrestled with these conflicts, Boudoin stopped and called my name.

He slowly lowered the sword in his hand and stared blankly at my face.

“I heard you died in your battle with the dragon… Why?”

He recognized me.

Even though this world was just a fragment of the past, like on the battlefield, outsiders could still interfere with events.

For someone who knew Tacchia, it was entirely possible that they would recognize me and react accordingly.

“…Your Majesty.”

“Ah, so you survived by a miracle. You really did defeat the dragon and return.”

At last, Boudoin dropped his sword and rushed toward me.

His hands, soaked in blood, grabbed my shoulders, and I silently accepted his touch as I faced him.

Although there was a risk of infection from the monster blood, the armor created by my avatar ensured I had no need to worry about that.

“Truly…”

Facing me in silence, Boudoin finally bowed his head and began to sob.

“It’s truly a relief. Now that you’ve returned, we can finally bring peace to the problems plaguing this land…”

“…Your Majesty.”

“You are the savior. Surely, the heavens sent you down to us, knowing this situation would come!”

The grip on my shoulder tightened.

Even so, his hands, slick with blood, slid down, and his body slumped beneath me.

“So please… help us.”

Yet, he didn’t see this as a humiliation.

Instead, he bowed his head to the ground naturally, pleading to me as if I were Tacchia herself.

“You are our only hope, the only one who can save us, to reduce even just a few more tragic losses—cough!”

But even he couldn’t last much longer, as blood spurted out with his cough, streaming from the mouth of his iron mask and spilling onto the ground.

Of course, this was inevitable. The calamity that plagued this city targeted everyone without exception.

Even he, a king who had tried to fend off the infected, was no exception to the disaster that befell this land.

“…Blight.”

Even as he realized he had little time left, he continued to plead with me.

“Blight, the scholar of the royal castle… find him. The infected swarm his base, but if they haven’t breached the basement where he’s hiding…”

Even in his deranged state, his mind clouded by madness, he found hope and used the last of his strength to convey his plea.

The fierce determination in his blue eyes, visible through the iron mask, etched itself deeply into my heart.

“If it’s him, I’m sure he’s found a way, a solution to this catastrophe.”

This man before me…

Even in such a hopeless world, the noble spirit of a leader who fought until the end.

---

“…Why did you accept his request?”

How much time had passed since I parted ways with Boudoin?

With a sharp rebuke from the avatar that emerged from my body, I sheathed my blood-stained sword and offered a bitter smile.

“Well, that’s because I don’t know exactly where Ga-ram is right now.”

It wasn’t like I accepted his request without reason.

Since I didn’t know the exact location, getting involved in whatever was happening in front of me seemed like a reasonable approach.

“If we need to search everywhere, shouldn’t we focus on places where people might be? And besides, a scholar would likely be smarter than us.”

“…So you’re saying you waded into a horde of monsters all by yourself?”

The tentacled monster corpses strewn about, all slaughtered without exception, showed that I no longer hesitated to deal with them.

Even someone once called a wise king reluctantly cut them down, so as a hero, there was no way I could show weakness.

“…Even if this Blight that Boudoin mentioned is here, if that child is here, they would’ve already been reduced to an unrecognizable state.”

No matter how many I could deal with, my strength wasn’t limitless.

As I sat down in the street to catch my breath, the avatar’s gaze grew more sharp and severe, as if dissatisfied.

“I know. I know this might all be pointless.”

Yet, even knowing that, I couldn’t just stop moving.

Even in this moment, my heart was pushing me to advance, to open up new paths.

“Still, I feel like I can’t just let what’s happening here go unnoticed.”

“Can’t let it go? What pointless thing are you about to say now?”

“Because saving Ga-ram isn’t the end.”

I had seen a calamity like this happen before in this city.

Whether it was cephalopods or beasts, I had witnessed twice now how human bodies were collectively transformed, paralyzing the entire city.

“If this has happened twice, there’s no guarantee it won’t happen a third time. If we look deeper into this situation, maybe… we could find a way to prevent it.” 𝘙ＡꞐȪＢÊṥ

And the scholar we were seeking now was someone so brilliant that even the king pinned his hopes on him.

In fact, even Tacchia’s memories vaguely included him, so the avatar, who shared those memories, wouldn’t take my words lightly.

“…Your reasoning sounds convincing enough. You foolish idiot.”

Clicking her tongue in annoyance, the avatar melded back into my body, solidifying her form as armor once again.

Despite the sharpness in her voice, her form was as stable and unshaken as ever.

“Fine, I’ll stick around for a little longer. But if your foolishness becomes unbearable, I won’t stand by quietly. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, thanks for worrying about me.”

“Wh-Who said I was worried…?!”

“Alright, alright. Another wave is coming. Time to get ready, yeah?”

I ignored the avatar’s irritated response as the battle began again.

The hideous monsters swarmed, but taking them down wasn’t difficult.

I had faced monsters before, in places like the sanctuary, and in the past six months, I had fought creatures far larger and fiercer than these.

However, what concerned me was that the closer we got to our destination, the more grotesque and massive the transformed humans became.

Boudoin had said the danger was too great to check on the scholar’s safety, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that monsters had nested here.

“…Maybe there really is something here.”

After navigating through those dangers, we arrived at a large mansion.

A testament to the scholar’s dedication to the kingdom, a reward personally bestowed by the king.

-Kiyaaahhh!!

As soon as I opened the mansion’s grand doors, a swarm of tentacles attacked, proving that even this building hadn’t escaped the calamity.

“I knew it. This mansion is already finished. There’s nothing left to see, so let’s just—”

“Wait.”

As I was cutting down the tentacled monsters, I heard a faint sound from the other side.

“Listen closely. Can you hear something coming from inside?”

Yes, there was a sound coming from deeper inside.

It wasn’t the cry of a monster, nor the sound of tentacles slithering… It was unmistakably the scream of a person.

“Aaaah! S-Save me!!”

That must be the person we were looking for, now in danger.

As soon as I realized that, my sword swung more aggressively, cutting down the monsters in my path.

“…Even if you save him, it won’t undo what’s already happened.”

Amidst the bloodshed, the avatar gave me a quiet warning.

“But it might help us correct what comes next.”

I dismissed her words sharply, using them as fuel to drive me forward.

Perhaps the person up ahead had found a solution to this disaster.

If that were true, then even in this world, we could carve out a way to survive.

“Scholar! Please, don’t do this!!”

But what greeted me as I moved forward with hope was a person bound to an operating table in the basement, struggling desperately.

The blood splattered everywhere made it clear that several gruesome events had already taken place here.

“No, no—aaaah!!!”

And the person responsible for this atrocity was the one who, just as I arrived, plunged a syringe into the person on the table…

No—he wore clothes and had limbs, but the tentacles sprouting from his body revealed he was no different from the monsters I had been fighting all this time.

“Pffff… Hehehehe…”

But what came from his mouth wasn’t a strange wail—it was laughter.

“HAHAHA! AAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

As I felt the madness intensifying in his laughter, my body froze in place as if paralyzed.

Unlike the other monsters I had encountered, this one had a ‘self,’ a consciousness behind the madness.

And the words that followed…

“Oh… yes… What a beautiful sight this is.”

Even though he had already transformed into a monster, the words he spoke were unmistakably language.

And his voice was full of emotion, filled with fervor.

“Come now~ Stand up! You, too, shall have an advanced body like mine and worship the Great Being~!”

In response to his words, the person on the operating table began to twitch and transform with a sickening crackling sound.

The tentacles growing from his body and the discolored blood made it clear he was transforming into one of the monsters I had been fighting.

-Kiyaaah! Kyahaak!!

Finally, the monster’s scream erupted, the same horrific sound I had heard countless times as I fought my way through this place.

“…Oh, did I fail again this time?”

Yet, he didn’t seem to care at all.

As if he had expected this outcome, he simply tossed the syringe aside.

“Ah, yes… I suppose it can’t be helped. After all, it’s not easy for pitiful beings like us to accept the blood of the Great Being.”

His indifferent muttering showed he felt no guilt whatsoever for the writhing victim before him.

The bloodstains splattered all over the place, and the hideous monsters filling the mansion—all made it clear that they were the products of his twisted hand.

“But worry not, oh Great Being… I, Blight, have accepted the mission you bestowed upon me, and I will spare no effort in saving more lives!!!”

Blight Cradle.

In that moment, I realized that the one Boudoin had placed his last hopes on had somehow played a role in causing the current disaster.

“Sir Blight?”

I was just as shocked by the realization.

It wasn’t just because I had believed he would help solve this situation.

Tacchia had encountered him during her time in this kingdom, and the person she met was nothing like this madman standing before me now.

“Ah…?”

As if finally noticing my presence, Blight Cradle let out a sigh of realization and slowly turned his head toward me.

Through the crow-like mask that covered his face, I could see his sinister red eyes shining sharply as they fixed on me.

“Ah, ah. It seems… a guest has arrived at just the right time.”

The beak of his mask slowly began to open.

As his mouth opened, revealing sharp teeth that seemed to be fused with the mask, the tentacles sprouting from his body began to writhe smoothly.

“Coming here must mean you seek salvation too, doesn’t it?”

“Come now; don’t be shy. Let me make you a body like mine, and together, we’ll bask in the protection of the Great Being…”

In all sincerity.

He spoke with pure joy, as if he truly believed he could bring me into the same twisted path he had chosen.