The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP8. The Coming Doom

Ainzel seemed to be losing his mind.

When I came to my senses, most of the demons had already been killed by him.

Numerous demons lay as corpses around him.

It started to rain.

The fires in the village began to die down, and corpses were strewn about in the muddy water.

Even the corpse of the girl who had been close to him.

Ainzel took up his sword.

Then he stabbed himself in the torso.

What’s the point of this?

The operation was discovered by the enemy, and countless friendly troops were killed. Even civilians who did not need to die were killed.

Let’s go back. Let’s go back and correct our mistakes.

They were people who didn’t need to die.

If he had done just a little better, the civilian casualties might have been reduced.

Yeah, if I had known that I would knock down the commander for no reason and then raise my head to scream, causing the demons to go wild, the damage would have been reduced.

Ainzel thought about that and stabbed himself in the stomach, then felt his consciousness fading and he died.

And when he came to, he felt that he was still standing in the same place where he had been standing.

And I saw the girl’s body, still cut in two, lying on the dirt floor, soaked in rainwater.

He died and nothing changed.

Raindrops ran down his cheeks. Tears also began to flow.

The Holy Sword proved that what he did was not a mistake.

At best, they are just insignificant soldiers. At best, they are just insignificant civilians.

Those people were so insignificant that they could not even be considered a ‘mistake’ by this holy sword.

Ainzel lifted the holy sword he was holding with trembling hands.

Red blood flowed. Ainzel looked at his holy sword with shocked eyes.

Why?

Why are you telling me this is not a mistake?

Why do you say that this does not interfere with the accomplishment of the mission?

It’s just one girl. If I can’t even save one girl at my own will…

Why am I a warrior?

He fell to his knees.

He buried the holy sword in the ground and barely managed to support his body while kneeling.

It was disgusting. My weak self who couldn’t even save a child, the Holy Sword who looked down on those who shouldn’t have died, and most of all… the black magician who betrayed humanity and caused the deaths of so many people.

Yeah, that warlock was the problem.

This is what happened because he was born as a human and served the disgusting demons, and as a result, he betrayed humanity and gave information to the demons.

Yes, from the beginning, warlocks and demons should not even exist in this world.

This is happening because they still remain on this earth.

Only then did Ainzel seem to understand why there was a warrior.

Kill all demons and warlocks.

Ainzel gripped the holy sword tightly in his hand.

…

Ainzel had no choice but to withdraw his troops. There was no other way. The enemy had already discovered the plan, and he could say that he had gained some benefit by annihilating the commander’s direct subordinates and his unit, so he could not ask for anything more.

… and the civilians in that village were not even included in the calculation of that profit, because they were of no help at all in the war.

The situation on the battlefield, even the Holy Sword, everything was treating the people of that village as if they didn’t exist.

Is that really true? Is it right to die and be forgotten just because you have no use or value?

no.

That’s not right.

Someone had to remember them, at least that much.

Yes, someone had to exact their revenge.

From that day on, Ainzel devoted himself to training like crazy.

There were so many strong enemies, and he had to kill them all to get revenge.

There was so much dregs in this world that needed to be erased. It would have been better if I had never been born in the first place.

To cleanse the filth of warlocks and demons, he swung his sword, studied magic, took up a bow, and prayed.

…

Ainzel observed a man wearing a hood.

It’s that man. I could feel a faint, dark magic coming from that man’s body.

While no one other than a warlock could sense black magic, Ainzel could sense it strangely. And from his perspective, it felt quite useful.

Mainly because it can distinguish between burrs.

Ainzel began to quietly follow the man as he made his purchases at the market and headed towards his home.

The man wouldn’t even hear the sound of footsteps. The gap between Ainzel and the culprit had widened to that extent.

The man returned to his home without any suspicion.

Before we knew it, it was almost evening.

Laughter was heard in what appeared at first glance to be a harmonious household.

That shouldn’t have happened. Those b*stards shouldn’t have been happy.

Ainzel cautiously drew his sword in a state of joy. The time had come to save the filth of the world. These were the people who had betrayed their own race as humans. Even if he killed them now, it was clear that they would go to hell.

He carefully hid the sword behind his back and knocked on the door.

The man opened the door and came out shortly thereafter.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

Ainzel smiled quietly at the words the man spoke without any suspicion, then stabbed the man with the sword he had hidden behind him.

“Cough!”

The man collapsed to the ground and began to vomit blood.

When he looked at Ainzel with his bloodshot eyes, Ainzel smiled madly.

Yes. That’s the expression. The expression of hatred, resentment, doubt, and fear of death.

This kind of expression suits you better than a smiling expression.

The man began to convulse in his limbs and then stopped breathing.

Ainzel felt regretful about that fact. The pain was less. It was such an easy death – that’s what Ainzel thought.

But it doesn’t matter. Anyway, the dark magic felt inside the house was a bit more.

“Whoa, whaaa!”

The woman who appeared to be the man’s wife who saw it collapsed and screamed.

Ainzel smiled and went into the house.

The woman’s legs gave out and she began to crawl away from Ainzel.

Ainzel grabbed her by the hair.

“Ugh, ugh!”

As Ainzel grabbed her head and pulled her gaze towards him, the woman spoke with a look of fear in her eyes.

“Why, why are you doing this! Please save me!”

Ainzel chuckled at those words and said.

“Why are you doing this to a black magician? Are you asking because you don’t know?”

Her pupils began to tremble, as if she had no idea that she would be found out to be a warlock.

“Okay, I was wrong! We were just having a hard time making ends meet, so we followed the Dark Church and they said they’d make us rich enough to live on… I had no choice because I had to raise a child!”

The Dark Cult. It seemed like a rather grand name for a group of dark magicians who only followed the Demon Tribe.

Ainzel said with a cold look in his eyes.

“so?”

“yes…?”

Ainzel met her wavering eyes and spoke.

“So why should I save you?”

The woman’s eyes became filled with fear.

“Yes, it may have been difficult to make a living. But… after all, as a warlock, you are fundamentally bound to harm other humans. Can you really say that you did not have even the slightest contribution to doing that?”

The woman’s eyes were shaking, but she couldn’t speak properly.

“That, that is…”

“A person who joined the Dark Church and became a black magician while knowing that it would harm others, and who made a living off the money he received in return for helping them, does that mean he deserves to live? Do you think that you yourself are not a cancer to humanity?”

When the woman failed to answer, Ainzel smiled eerily and said.

“It seems like there is no reason for me to spare you.”

Ainzel’s sword cut off the woman’s arm.

“Ugh, huhhh!”

The woman screamed, blood spurting from her arms.

“Be quiet. I didn’t get to enjoy your husband enough before… I plan to make you suffer enough before I kill you.”

The woman looked at Ainzel with eyes filled with fear.

Ainzel began to cut off the woman’s limbs.

As the woman lost all her limbs and died from the pain, Ainzel approached their remaining child.

“Please, save me.”

He was still a young child, but his body was imbued with black magic.

I don’t think that the young child learned the black magic on his own. Perhaps he became accustomed to handling the black magic through artificial means like his parents.

Ainzel hesitated for a moment as he raised his sword.

The image of a little girl cut in two and dead before his eyes came to mind.

Ainzel frowned, squeezed his eyes shut, opened them tightly, and cut the child’s throat.

He looked at the disaster he had created for a moment, then snapped his fingers and began to wipe out the house.

There are still many stains that need to be erased.