Chapter 27 – Egido Purification (Bottom)

Editor: Nikky

“Syltina-sama!”

“Tyr.”

Tyrtinkle approached Syltina who continued to bring down the demons while pulling the child along.

“Almost all of the demons from the back to the center of the town have been destroyed. My lord will join Milliane-sama to exterminate the demons in the Baron’s mansion. I was asked to tell you to return to the Saintess’ side once Syltina-sama is finished with exterminating the demons on her side.”

“Got it. I’m almost finished over here as well, so tell those two to be careful.”

“I’ll let them know.”

Syltina crouches in front of the child after seeing Tyrtinkle off.

“I’m going to use both hands to save time, so I’ll give you a piggyback ride. Get on.”

“Okay.”

“Hold on tight, okay? Here I come!”

Syltina placed the child’s arms around her neck to prevent the child from falling, and after confirming that he was in place, she started to run.

By cutting the demons down with the sword on her right hand and blowing the others with wind magic from her left hand, the demons on either side were destroyed in a matter of minutes.

“Whew. Was that all of them? Umm, search.”

SNAP! Syltina used the sound of her snapping fingers as a signal, and, in the blink of an eye, the wind blew through the whole area.

“Uwah!?”

Unmoving from where they were for a while, the wind that ran through the town returned and blew against Syltina.

“Ahaha. Sorry, were you startled? I asked the wind to see if there were any demons left in the town. It seems that everything, except the demons in the Baron’s mansion that Al and Milliane-sama are fighting, has been destroyed. Shall we go back?”

“Okay.”

Syltina brought the child down from her back and held his hand as they returned to the town’s entrance where they were met with what seemed to be fighting.

“Kuro, what happened?”

“Ahh, you’re back, Sylti. The kid that girl took in yesterday ran into the town. Thanks to that, she kept yelling that she was going to find the child. Yuto was able to pacify her, but for how long……. You, that’s….”

“Ah, so that’s how it was. See, the Saintess was worried about you. Go on now.”

“Okay.”

Syltina sighed as she watched the child run off to where Akari was.

“You helped him? What kind of wind blew in?”

“That’s rude, Kuro. Even I will help one or two people.”

“You didn’t do it unconditionally?”

“Fufu. Hey, Kuro. To that kid, the world…… how do you suppose he sees this Kingdom?”

He was thrown away and betrayed by his parents, and yet there was someone who picked him up and helped him.

In the face of danger, someone appeared and helped him.

Even though he wept at the ‘absurdity’ that befell him and the ‘reality’ that was thrust into him, he still unconditionally believed in others from the bottom of his heart and chose to take that hand.

I wonder how he sees us, this country,… this world?

“Surely, that child loves this country. That’s why……Yes, that’s why I thought I wanted to see it for myself. What we will be doing from now on. The end of this country. And, after all of this ends, I want to know what kind of answer that child will give me. That’s why I helped him. That’s all.”

I want to know if he’ll make a completely different choice against a friend’s betrayal, or what kind of choice he’ll make at the time when all the things he held dear to him are stolen away by another person.

Will he resent them or will he hate them?

Or will he forgive them, after all?

“I didn’t just help him. I helped him because I wanted to know something. And, depending on his choice, I could have immediately bid him goodbye.”

If you bear a grudge, let’s cast it away.

If you harbor hate, let’s abandon it.

If you forgive…………

“What a terrifying person.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Kreutz smiled wryly and shrugged his shoulders at the laughing Syltina.

ーーー

ー

“Well then, Akari, shall we do it?”

“Okay.”

They were a few minutes behind Syltina. Alhart and Milliane, who successfully annihilated the demons in the Baron’s mansion, returned, and from there, asked Tyrtinkle to make a final confirmation of the demons who might have escaped. All that was left was the purification by Akari.

When Akari, who went out to the front with Yuto in tow, started the purification, the surrounding area was wrapped in a faint, glittering light.

“Pretty!!”

And from the light-covered town of Egido, numerous light particles drifted into the sky.

The child raised his voice as he watched the light particles disappear into the sky.

He squealed with laughter as the particles slipped through his outstretched hands and went up to the sky.

Syltina looked fondly at such a child.

“Syltina-sama”

“Tyr, how was it?”

Her eyes not leaving the child, she asked Tyrtinkle, who shook her head from side to side.

“I went to the house Syltina-sama told me about, but the result was just as you imagined. It was a nightmare.”

“Just as I thought. Thank you, Tyr. Thanks for the trouble.”

“Don’t mention it. If it’s just this much, you can ask anytime.”

After exchanging pleasantries, Tyrtinkle returned to Alhart, and replaced Kreutz who stood beside him.

Golden eyes glanced at Syltina once, but looked away without saying anything.

“It seems there were other children like him who were left behind,” Syltina said calmly.

“He seemed to be the only one who decided to leave the town, that’s why he ran off to check if the other children were safe even though he knew it was dangerous.”

“That so.”

“Well, he wasn’t able to do it…… I mean, I didn’t let him.”

Demons attack people. Nothing but people.

It was easy to imagine the end of a powerless person in the middle of a swarm of demons.

“It would’ve been fine even if you showed him.”

Even if that reality was shown to the child, it would not have caused any inconvenience to Syltina.

“But, won’t it be pointless if he broke?”

I want to see it after everything ends. ‘The child’s choice after’ we have ‘finished’ everything.

If he ‘breaks’ along the way, won’t it take the fun out of it?

“He can accept that if he doesn’t see it directly. He’s the type to accept something and move on after all.”

There’s no value in helping him if he cannot entertain me.

Smiling as she said it, Syltina gazed at the child who happily laughed in front of her.

“Have your emotions appeared?”

“If it’s something like sympathy, then, I can give it. But, aside from that, I will never again harbor anything else towards the people of this kingdom.”

All my ‘emotions’ had been trampled on, cut up, messed up, and thrown away by them 2 years ago.

I will not pick those up now and neatly piece it together.

The present me shall trample on, cut up, crumple up, and set them on fire as a result.

I have already used up the ‘feelings’ I once had to fuel the flame of ‘hate’.

That’s why I don’t harbor anything for the child either.

If I were here when I was still the ‘Duke’s Daughter’, then, I would have unconditionally showered him with charity, poured out ‘love’, and moved ‘for the sake of this child’.

But, that ‘Syltina Balratona’ is no more.

The most I could do presently is to ‘sympathise’, and to help only when it’s something I ‘want to enjoy’.

“Sorry you have such a master, Kuro.”

“That’s exactly why I made a contract with you, Sylti.”

“That’s right.”

Chuckling, Syltina reached her hand out to the light particles.

As the particles slipped through without touching her, Syltina whispered with a smile,

“3 more to go.”

She said it as if she were counting down, and those words only reached Kreutz, who was standing beside her, and disappeared.