The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP8. The Coming Doom

Ainzel looked at Grandis and growled.

“…what?”

Ainzel looked really, really angry.

“You and I have already made a contract. I will not attack you. But if you tell me that you can break that contract, what does that mean? Do you think I would like it? Do you intend to insult me?”

As Ainzel spoke, Grandis looked at him and smiled faintly.

“No, I’m not saying you have to attack me. It’s just… someday, when you go back in time and are in danger, I’m telling you to survive even if it means killing me.”

Ainzel’s face crumpled even more when he heard that. He didn’t quite understand what she was saying. Why would she say something like that?

He looked at Grandis and said.

“Do you think I would like it if you said that? I wouldn’t. I don’t mind dying once. I don’t want to hear that.”

Grandis stroked Ainzel’s cheek and said.

“…Well, there might be a time when you get in danger because of me. That’s what I’m saying. You’ve already become precious to me… So, I hope you don’t get hurt because of me.”

Ainzel grabbed her wrist and said.

“I also think of you closely. Haven’t you thought about my feelings? Even if you say it that way, it’s just a burden to me.”

“But still. Please remember. If there comes a time when you absolutely must fight me, it’s okay if you fight me and kill me.”

Ainzel frowned at Grandis, who refused to give in to his will until the end, and said.

“…That won’t happen.”

Grandis thought as he watched Ainzel’s back as he disappeared, saying that he would go on a training trip.

Well, is that really so?

Anyway, she was a demon and had great interest in Ainzel.

But will there really be no chance of running into Ainzel even once?

The more she thought about it, the more she felt a mixture of regret, sadness, and anger at the thought of her memories being erased.

If it’s Ainzel’s personality, he’ll probably die right after reaching the level of Master and return to the past.

No matter how many things you teach him and how much time you spend on him, he is still human after all, and his lifespan will not last more than a few decades at most.

Suddenly, she felt that the period was too short.

That period, Ainzel’s life, was too short for her to have him all to herself.

Grandis wanted to possess him forever.

She was selfish and only cared about herself, so she never thought of letting go of the object she had become most obsessed with since birth.

But no matter how hard she tried, she would have to say goodbye to him someday in this time zone.

I want to have it. I want to have it. I want to have it.

I want to scrape every last drop of his soul and lock him in my arms forever-

That couldn’t be done.

Even though she was the most powerful warlock in the world, even though she had reached the realm of transcendence, she had her limits, and she had to admit that she could not hold him back forever, whether he died or reached the realm of mastery before then.

That’s why she decided to love selfishly until the end.

I told him he could kill himself.

At first glance, it resembled something like a sacrifice, but the true meaning behind it was completely different.

She simply decided to let go of something relatively ‘less’ precious in order to keep what was most precious to her.

His soul and memories remain even if he returns to the past.

So, she said that so that he would never forget her.

He would forever be reminded of her and would think of her as an object of longing.

Even though she would leave a huge scar on his heart, she thought that the fact that he would never forget her throughout his life was proof that she owned him.

She didn’t want him to get hurt.

For Grandis, Ainzel, the being that touched the most precious thing in the world, deserved to disappear.

Yes, even if it is yourself.

That’s why she told him how to survive from her and told him that he could kill her.

Even if he actually killed her from another timeline, it was a good thing for her.

He who killed her will never be able to escape from her or her memories for the rest of his life.

Even if you live a busy life, you will suddenly remember your past memories of her and the sight, scent, and temperature of her body that you killed.

When she thought about it, she felt ecstatic.

Even after he had completed his mission as a warrior and his soul had truly come to an end, she wanted to occupy his heart.

I wanted him.

…

Ainzel learned all sorts of knowledge from Grandis. As a result, Ainzel was able to know all the spells that Grandis used.

“If you can do this to me, then no other warlock will be able to use black magic in front of you.”

“Well, what if the techniques used are different?”

“No, don’t be ridiculous. What I have taught you is the essence of the process of developing black magic in this Middle-Earth. There may be cases where you use your own unique magic, but in the end, there are only a few of them, and they will all follow the form of black magic in the Middle-Earth. What is certain is that you will have a huge advantage when fighting black magicians.”

“…Enough to kill you, you mean?”

Ainzel frowned as he spoke. What she had said a few days ago still lingered inside him, causing discomfort.

Grandis hugged him tightly and said.

“You still don’t like what I said? All I meant was that you could choose whether or not to keep that kind of contract. If you don’t like it, I won’t talk to you about it anymore.”

Ainzel looked at her with indifference. Grandis snickered at Ainzel’s appearance and said.

“Okay, okay. I won’t talk anymore. But instead, I’ll make a new recipe and make a decent meal, so don’t be mad.”

“I don’t think I feel good about creating that poison….”

After saying that, Ainzel looked at Grandis’ back as she cooked.

What on earth were you thinking when you said that?

Ainzel still couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. Was it an expression of confidence that he couldn’t kill her, or was it actually a hobby of hers that she wanted to commit suicide? Maybe she was saying that on purpose to tease him. It wouldn’t have been surprising to Ainzel if Grandis suddenly became curious about the taste of dragon meat and came hunting dragons.

… It wasn’t that he didn’t like it. In any case, Grandis had become precious to him, and what she said to him was just as shocking.

Ainzel began to become absorbed in the meaning of her words, and he spent more and more time thinking about her, without even realizing that he was getting what she wanted.

Both Ainzel and Grandis were becoming dyed in themselves.

…

Decades had passed. Ainzel had grown older. His once black hair had turned white, and his skin had become wrinkled. His muscular body had not changed, but he had grown a thick white beard, and his impression was quite different from the past.

Of course, that didn’t mean Grandis’s affection for him had cooled. Her affection only grew with each passing day, not diminished.

In his younger days, his handsome looks that everyone would tell you were good-looking didn’t even bother her, and his looks weren’t even a factor in her affection.

Ainzel has reached the level of a master of black magic, and has made progress in every way that is incomparable to the past.

He saw his own limitations as a human being before his eyes.

Before he knew it, he was so close to the horizon.

The horizon seemed very bright to him. But he could only look beyond the limits of that species, never surpassing humanity.

But he was satisfied with that. It didn’t matter anyway.

Even after reaching the level of a master, he did not commit suicide. For some reason, he was still foolish and chose to live this life to the end and then break up with her.

Finally, the day came when he and she decided to confront the Demon King’s army that had come to dominate the entire continent one last time in order to return.