Author: aji (あじ)
Translator: sleepingjay
The shadow pointed out plainly while staring at my hands.
His question gradually brought back the emotions I had been trying to ignore and drive out of my mind.
“Are you so afraid of killing people?”
“……Killing, huh?”
At the shadow’s words, I fell into thought. The silence that finally draped over us was too heavy, and I shook my head slowly.
“It’s not that.”
“What isn’t?”
“It’s not killing people that I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of killing people, and not giving a second thought about it.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Pa kjr bcis j rwjii qjga bo ktja tjv yffc ybatfglcu wf.
Cr rbbc jr P rjlv la bea ibev, P ibra ws mbwqbregf, jr lo ktja kjr lc ws tfjga kjr rmgjqfv bea yla ys yla.
“P’w… cba rbwfbcf ktb offi uelia ja xliilcu rbwfbcf. Pc ojma, P kbeiv offi la’r mbggfma ab ufa glv bo qfbqif ktb yglcu wf lcmbcnfclfcmf. P gfwfwyfg—atja’r atf xlcv bo qfgrbc P jw.”
In those sparse, lost memories, what kind of person was I?
What I could see of that vague outline of myself had become unmistakably scary.
That time, I felt it. When I speared through and froze those men, when I held that killing intent—I felt a certain sense of familiarity. Even if I had forgotten, my heart remembered all the hatred and sins I harbored in my past.
When those memories finally resurfaced, would the me right now still exist?
“That’s why, I don’t regret it. I just wish that I had handled it without hesitation. You wouldn’t have gotten this badly hurt, and Andrea wouldn’t have made the decision to kill.”
“……”
“Even though I’ve already learned this long ago…what I can save, what I can’t save. If I misjudged, the consequences would be irreversible.”
What an ignorant fool I was. Clinging to a nonexistent deity, hoping that my prayers would reach God and save those people who were kind.
There were no miracles in this world. Everything must be grasped by our own hands.
When I smiled self-deprecatingly, the shadow looked up at the sky and quietly opened his mouth.
“This… is a story I knew from long, long ago. There was once a small boy living in a small village, who knew nothing of the world.”
“……”
“That child’s world was wholly that peaceful and gentle village alone, and he knew nothing of the cruelty of the outside world. And so, he foolishly broke the rules and stepped outside the threshold of the village. As a result, it was the boy’s own doing which invited disaster upon the village, and reaped the lives of the people he cared about. ……In just one night, everything he loved was gone.”
The shadow’s voice had no up-and-downs.
But, as he told this story that took place somewhere in this world, for the first time I saw him laden with an emotion that I found difficult to describe.
“—So, he decided to punish his own foolishness. That boy took his cherished pride and joy—the ears and tail he inherited from his parents, which he had lovingly cared for—and cut them off and burned them.”
“That—!”
“Then, the first one he killed were those aristocratic monsters obsessed with eternal beauty. ‘One platinum-haired fox, two amethysts’. It seemed they truly believed that eating those would bring them eternal youth. ……Ironically, since they died as monsters, they did get ‘eternity’ after all.”
“You, that’s,”
“Aa. One of the boy’s eyes had been eaten. So in exchange, the boy killed them cruelly. That is, he cut up the beautiful face those monsters were so proud of.”
“!”
“……Nobody can correctly judge all the sins that occur in this world. As one’s position changes, so do ‘justice’ and ‘law’. That is why all the ‘universals’ that exist are merely products created by willful creatures.”
Looks like the Shadow also had it tough. Thank you for the chapter!! 💖
geeze, the aristocrats are sick. but I have no doubts that in our worlds past, they did similar stuff.
thanks for the chapter <3
I do believe nowadays too since human trafficking still exist
Aaaand now I’m sad and I just had a fight with my mother.
Today is a bad day
Thank you for the chapter