Chapter 11: Let’s go home (1)

The end was beginning to come into sight on the land dyed red.
The green grass that proved they had entered human territory added a sense of ease to the Hero Party’s steps.

“Ugh… We finally made it back. To the human world.”

Ririel leaned her body against Baran’s shoulder.

“I’m exhausted… I want to rest.”

It had been three weeks since they had been expelled from the Western Demon Realm Unit for abandoning the soldiers.

Dragging their bodies, which felt as though they could collapse at any moment, they headed toward Kanadi Village, which lay beyond the ridge.

Ririel ran her fingers over her cheek.

“Look how dry my skin has gotten. I want to take a bath and get a massage.”
“Just hold on a little longer. We’ll be there soon.”

The neatly paved road eased the fatigue in their feet.
The road was maintained so well that it was hard to believe this region was adjacent to the Demon Realm.

As a village bordering the Demon Realm, Kanadi Village always maintained a high level of vigilance.

Every single resident was a soldier or adventurer who had once made a name for themselves, and they possessed enough skill to casually deal with most monsters that approached.

‘There really isn’t a better place than this to recover in peace near the Demon Realm.’

Tall wooden pillars marked the entrance to the village.
The four men standing guard shifted their gazes toward the Hero Party.

Feeling their gazes, the members of the Hero Party relaxed.

“Haa… We can finally get some rest.”
“Yeah… I don’t care about food or anything anymore. I just want to sleep.”

Thump!

Emilaile and Rom Paeng collapsed onto the ground.
Neither of them was accustomed to physical labor, so the three-week march had been even more exhausting for them.

Rom Paeng simply closed his eyes.

“Someone come pick me up… I’ll be sleeping… so…”

His sleeping head drooped limply.
Emilaile and Rom Paeng fell asleep leaning against each other.
Perhaps seeing their companions asleep was what did it.

“Ah… I’m tired.”

Thump!

Baran and Ririel also collapsed helplessly, unable to overcome their exhaustion.

Baran waved at the approaching guards.

“Excuse me… I’m sorry, but could you help us up? We really can’t stand…?”

He swallowed his breath at the killing intent that sent a chill down his spine.
Every one of the guards was displaying intense hostility toward Baran.

‘What is this? What just happened?’

Baran couldn’t understand the situation unfolding around him.

He was the hero.
The hero chosen by the Holy Sword.

When a hero appeared, hope shone in people’s eyes.
Meeting a hero caused awe to bloom in people’s hearts.

A hero was an existence who always became an idol to everyone and received the goodwill of all.

That was the way Baran had always perceived the gaze people directed toward heroes.

‘It should definitely be like that…’

Baran brought a hand to his waist.

‘What is with those looks?’

There wasn’t even a hint of reverence toward the hero in their expressions.
No, seeing the guards glaring at him as though they wanted to kill him, he unconsciously gripped the Holy Sword.

The guards stopped walking.

“That’s the bastard, right? The one who got Cain killed.”
“I heard he even abandoned the soldiers who were left behind and ran away.”
“Piece of sht. Without that Holy Sword, he’s fcking worthless…”
“We should’ve known what kind of bastard he was when he started acting cocky just because he had good physical abilities.”

Ririel struggled to get to her feet.
She shouted at the men insulting them.

“Hey, you! Don’t you know who we are?! We’re the Hero Pa—”
“I know, you fcking btch. Shut your mouth unless you want me to rip it apart.”
“…What?”

Having received such harsh treatment for the first time in her life, Ririel tilted her head.

‘What? Did I hear that wrong?’

Ririel, the Sniper of the Mist, had received considerable goodwill from every human she had encountered because she was a member of the Hero Party.

She too had grown accustomed to the goodwill she had received as though it were something she naturally deserved, so it took her quite some time to understand their hostility.

Whoosh!

The guards picked up a bottle and threw it toward Ririel.

Tap… drip…

“I’d normally just kill you, but I’ll hold back because you’re the Hero Party. Take that and get the hell out of here.”

A bottle of stamina potion rolled to a stop at their feet.
Its contents trickled out through the cracks in the shattered bottle.

After picking up the potion lying in front of Ririel, Baran raised both hands toward them.

“I don’t know why you’re acting like this… but we have no intention of fighting you. We just need somewhere to rest…”
“Somewhere to rest? Did you just say you want somewhere to rest?”

They cut Baran off and spoke.

“Do you think you people who got Cain killed have a place to rest near the Western Demon Realm?”
“…What?”
“What I’m saying is…”

The guard narrowed his eyes and muttered quietly.

“No matter what village you go to, there won’t be a single place willing to take you in. Understand?”

Baran’s lips trembled.
Watching the guards turn their backs and return to their original positions, Baran shouted.

“Why?! Why are you doing this?! Isn’t it normal to be happy when the hero returns alive…?”

Thwack!

“Ugh…?!”

An arrow flew toward Baran as he shouted loudly.

Baran shut his mouth and stumbled backward as the guards slowly raised their middle fingers toward him.

“You should’ve just saved Cain and gone and died yourselves, you fcking pieces of sht.”

Leaving those words behind, the guards no longer paid them any attention.
After shouting for a long while in front of the door that would not open no matter how much they pounded on it, they eventually turned away and walked off dejectedly.

“Wow… She’s fcking beautiful. How can a person possibly be that beautiful?”
“Yeah, she’s practically a sculpture.”

What the hell?
What are these fcked-up stares I’m feeling on my face?

‘I wasn’t supposed to be dead?’

Even though my eyes were closed, my skin reacted to the intense gazes that felt as though they could pierce straight through my face.

‘But what? Beautiful? Who?’

Me?

No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one person who could be the focus of the murmuring voices.
The intense discomfort I felt on my face was proof enough.

“Uungh…”

I stretched myself out to wake my sleeping body.
Feeling my bones crack as they fell back into place, I slowly lifted my eyelids.

“…Where the hell am I?”

A tent?

“Why am I here?”

A musty ceiling made of cloth.
A bed made of cloth that was unpleasantly uncomfortable.

It was a medical tent.

“Keck, cough…”

The high-pitched voice tickling my throat made my uvula itch.
I gently rubbed my throat.

How was the neck that had turned black and fallen off attached again?
No, forget about it being attached.
How the hell was I even alive?

“Excuse me…”
“…?”

A soldier who appeared to be a medic held out a cup of water toward me.

His face was flushed red, and the sight of him was incredibly fcking irritating.

‘You fcking bastard. Stop squirming around. I’ll twist your neck and kill you if you don’t.’

I took the cup of water from his hand and slowly drank.

Gulp… gulp… gulp.

“Huu…”

Looking at the hand holding the cup, I tilted my head.

“Huh?”

What the hell?
Why was this hand so slender and white?
And the cup wasn’t even that big, yet there was still water left?

‘Normally, that amount would only take me two sips…’

Rustle…

I raised a hand and fiddled with my ear at the soft sensation tickling it.

But something was strange.

‘Huh? Why is the back of my hand suddenly itchy too? And why has my hair grown so long?’

It seemed to reach all the way down to my waist…

“…..?”

Hair swayed along the back of my hand and brushed past the corner of my eye.
Soft hair as white as snow.
It was definitely my hair.

“…What is this? Something feels wrong.”

My body felt unbelievably soft beneath my fingertips.
When I touched my waist because it hurt, I felt the slender curves of a woman’s body.

‘And…’

Those gazes from the soldiers staring at me.

“…..”

I felt the need to check the condition of my body.
I raised my head toward the medic.

“Excuse me…”
“Ugh?!”

The medic stared intently at me, his face turning even redder.

“Could you give me a mirror?”
“Ah… Yes! Please wait a moment!”

The moment I finished asking, he hurriedly ran out of the tent.
He looked so frantic that all the soldiers blocking the entrance were knocked aside.

He returned in an instant with a small hand mirror.

“H… Here it is. Is there anything else you need?”
“Ah, there is. Something very important.”
“What is it?! Just tell me! If it’s something I can do, I’ll do anything for you!”
“Really?”

I smiled sweetly at him.

“Y… Yes! Just tell me what you need!”
“All right, then…”

I raised a finger and pointed outside the tent.

“Please take those people out of here.”
“…What?”

The medic looked down at me with a foolish expression.
If I had to keep looking at that fcking face any longer, even I wasn’t sure I could hold myself back, so I decided to get them out.

“Um… This is my medical tent.”

He timidly announced that this was his territory.
It was something I understood as well.

But so what?

Smile.

“So?”

If I kept looking at them any longer, I felt like I was going to kill them all.

“…..”

Under the silent pressure contained within my smile, the medic wordlessly locked the tent flap.

“Huu…”

After confirming that the gazes directed at me had disappeared, I took a deep breath and composed myself.

For some reason, I felt like I already knew the answer.
I knew what had happened to me.

I had been in a situation where I should definitely have died.
Yet somehow, I hadn’t died.

White hair, a slender waist, a small body, a high-pitched voice, and so on.

Putting together all the clues I had confirmed so far, I had no choice but to realize the truth, whether I wanted to or not.

“…..”

With trembling hands, I raised the mirror.
From inside the trembling mirror, pure-white eyes stared back at me.

“…Fck.”

Dark eyelashes.
White hair.
Pure-white eyes.
A perfectly shaped nose.

A slightly youthful, slender-eyed smile formed an incredibly beautiful picture.

Crash!

The mirror slipped from my hand, scattering fragments across the floor.
I lowered my head and remained still for a long while before eventually looking up at the ceiling and screaming in shock.

“What the f*ck is this!!!!!”

Why the hell had I become Lilac?!

“What the hell?! What’s wrong with my body?! What happened?!”

Cain was bewildered by the changes that had occurred to his body.
He continued feeling himself all over.

“Why?! What the hell happened to me?!”

He should have been dead, yet he was alive while wearing Lilac’s body.
Faced with such an absurd and ridiculous situation, Cain couldn’t maintain his composure.

After spending a long while touching his body in confusion—

“What the hell?! And where did she go?! More importantly, where’s my original body…?”

[Yawwwn… You’re noisy. Please be a little quieter…]

Lilac’s voice echoed inside his head.

“…Huh?”

Lilac murmured in a voice that sounded as though she had just awakened from sleep.

[It seems your soul has settled in quite well… It’s surprisingly stable.]
“Hey! Where the hell are you talking from?! And what the hell is this?!”
[Calm down… Calm down. There was no other way… I… zzz…]
“Wake up, you bastard!!!”

Lilac had used all of her remaining power to save Cain.
Exhausted from extracting a soul from a dead body, Lilac was unable to overcome the overwhelming sleepiness.

Cain continued shouting to wake her up.

“Wake up! Wake up, I said! Stop sleeping!!!”

Outside, the murmurs of soldiers could be heard as they talked about her.

“Good grief… She must have been through so much…”
“Sniff… I’ve made up my mind. I’ll take care of that person!”
“You crazy bastard. Don’t say stupid things like that. It won’t be you. It’ll be me…”

Snap!

A thin vein bulged on Cain’s forehead.
Suppressing the anger that threatened to explode at any moment, he quietly clenched his fists.

Crack, crack…

“Haha… Hahahaha…”

Should I really just kill them all?

Step, step, step.

The unrestrained footsteps of a man could be heard approaching the noisy tent.

“…..”

Cain’s eyes quietly fixed on the tent entrance.
Sensing the hostility directed toward him instinctively, he regained his composure in an instant.

“What are you doing right now?”
“Th… There…”
“Didn’t I clearly tell you to report to me as soon as she woke up?”
“I’m sorry!”

Cain slowly withdrew his killing intent.
The voice sounded strangely familiar.

‘Could it be…’

The voice shouted at the soldiers.

“Did my words mean nothing to you?! Do you think you’ll be safe after disobeying an order?!”

Hearing the voice filled with anger, Cain tilted his head.

‘It sounds like him…’

Step, step.

Whoosh!

He threw open the locked tent entrance.
The thick canvas was pulled aside, revealing the red moon of the Demon Realm.

“Huh?”

Standing in front of the tent was a familiar man Cain remembered with longing.

“Why is Father here?”
“…What?”

It was Surd.

“Did you… just call me Father?”