Chapter 6

──Humans.

Four men.

They were the first humans I had seen in this world, openly evil in appearance, wearing blood- and mud-stained armor, swords dangling in their hands.

“What the hell are these guys?”

Even from a glance, Juuichi could tell they were not ordinary people.

The men who had suddenly intruded into the abandoned castle had ravenous, gleaming eyes.

Ruffians, thieves, marauders.

Such words came to mind.

The children’s demeanor changed. The older sister’s child hurriedly pushed everyone back, and the children, terrified, began to flee. The younger sister’s child, trembling, drew her staff.

The men shouted something, raised their swords, and barged in without restraint.

Juuichi had a terrible feeling about what these people were about to do.

“Hey… hey, stop! Don’t come any closer!”

Juuichi stepped forward, standing in their way.

He didn’t have a single weapon, but he felt he had to put his body on the line to stop them.

“**? ***********?”

“There’s nothing here! If you’re starving and need food, take it, but don’t hurt the children!”

“……*********”

“Sorry, I don’t understand your language. I have something like bread. I’ll get it right now, so put down your swords… …!? ”

Before he could stop them.

Thud. Juuichi’s body shook.

A blade—deeply lodged in his stomach.

“Gah…!?”

It felt as if a burning rod had been thrust into him, searing hot.

From behind, he could hear the children scream.

The man who stabbed Juuichi spat, shoving him aside to pass.

“──Guh, ahhh!”

Juuichi clung to the man who stabbed him, squeezing him with all his might. The man’s bones creaked.

“***!!”

“You’re not going anywhere!”

Blood spewed from his mouth as Juuichi shouted.

They might have been killers. Still, the man wasn’t that big. Juuichi felt he could hold his own in a sheer test of strength.

To the children behind him, he shouted.

“Run, now!! Get out of here!!”

“**, ********!!”

The men surrounded him; another thug struck Juuichi on the head. One plunged a knife into his stomach multiple times, while another from behind sliced his throat.

“Guh…!”

Finally, his strength drained.

As he collapsed to the ground, a rain of blades fell upon him.

In his fading consciousness, Juuichi felt his body being stabbed repeatedly.

The world around him darkened…──

────────────────

He found himself in a vast, purple cosmos.

There was a rift before him. Like a powerful current, Juuichi was drawn into it──

“Gah!?”

He sprang up.

It was the place in the grassland where Juuichi had first awakened in this world.

In the distance, he could see the abandoned castle.

He checked his body. There were no wounds, no pain. His body was perfectly intact.

──Immortality.

The curse of never dying. An undying body.

His final ability had activated. Though he had been killed in that place and had certainly died, Juuichi was resurrected and alive.

But that wasn’t important. His mind was focused on the castle visible in the distance.

He took off running toward the distant castle.

He stumbled, got covered in mud, and ran as if his life depended on it.

He passed through the gate he had crossed two days before.

Through the courtyard──

──

──The girl and the children.

In the flower field, amidst a sea of blood… lay their fallen bodies.

“Ah…”

Juuichi’s body shook violently.

He approached the flower field.

The four men were there; one had stolen the bread hidden deep inside and was clutching it in both hands, another appeared burned by fire magic and cursed under his breath.

Then, noticing Juuichi, they looked at the ‘corpse of Juuichi’ lying nearby and recoiled in shock.

Juuichi reached out, his trembling hand toward the fallen sisters and the eight children.

They had passed away.

Their breaths had ceased.

Every single one.

“……”

No voice came out.

What is this?

I don’t understand.

How did this happen?

Only two days. We happened to meet, they fed me, I did some work, we exchanged a few words, shared such a brief moment together.

I didn’t even know the children’s names.

I hadn’t even… asked their names.

The sound of his rough breaths felt distant. The children lay there, bloodied, none of them moving.

Everything was shattered in an instant.

So suddenly, so fragile, so fleeting…

The hand of the older sister’s child was stretched toward the void. Ahead of her lay Juuichi’s own bloodstained corpse.

──Something erupted from the depths of his heart.

He understood it was murderous intent.

Gripping a piece of broken wood nearby, Juuichi, overcome with rage, lunged at the men.

“──Gaaaaah!!”

It sounded like the roar of a beast, unrecognizable as his own voice.

With all his strength, he smashed a bandit’s head with the stick. One of the thieves, though confused, reacted sharply and drove a sword into Juuichi’s stomach. Despite the searing pain, Juuichi kept hitting him.

“Try killing me, damn it!!”

Juuichi let out a scream.

He could not die. No matter how many times he was stabbed, beaten, or torn apart, he would return unharmed.

His immortality was the anchor of his soul.

He was determined — no matter how many times he was killed, he would kill them. He would destroy them if it was the last thing he did.

Abandoning any attempt at defense, Juuichi fought with sheer fury, vomiting blood as he lashed out. He struck one man’s head repeatedly with a broken wooden beam, gouged out another’s eye with his fingers, and tore off a third’s ear.

Juuichi himself was quickly reduced to a shredded mess. He was stabbed countless times, his fingers severed, his guts spilled out, his face shredded, his skull shattered.

His knees buckled, and he fell.

Once again, darkness descended before his eyes…

— I’ll kill them…!

(I’ll keep coming back… kill… them… for those kids…!!)

His consciousness faded.

────────────────

“Gah!”

Juuichi shot up, gasping.

Not yet. It wasn’t over. He would never forgive them.

He would rise again and again to make them pay.

But—

“…What?!”

The scenery was different.

It was no longer that grassy field.

He awoke in a place without ruins, without anything. The climate and terrain had changed entirely.

White snow was falling.

──He was on a vast white snowfield. His breath rose in a cold puff, and an unfamiliar, biting wind stung his cheeks.

“…?!”

(No… this can’t be…)

He looked around, but nothing changed. Juuichi was in a different place.

“Why… how?”

He muttered in despair.

He couldn’t understand. This time, he had not returned to that place.

Juuichi’s hands could no longer reach them.

The children… those beastkin kids… were beyond his grasp.

He sank to his knees. His wailing cry echoed across the desolate snowfield.

The distant white mountains stood cold and unyielding, heartbreakingly out of reach.