Chapter 312 : The Country of the Demon Race

A black night sky with a pale white moon floating in it.

And below, a dark blue sea that churned.

When I looked up, there were stars scattered like salt.

When I looked down, the faintly reflected starlight seemed to guide the way.

In between, I was running on the sea.

It was the result of combining the Black Immortal Steps and the Ice Art.

I would lay down a small, disc-shaped Night Sky on the surface of the water, just big enough to step on, and then, with a cold chill wrapped around the tips of my toes, I would tap it.

Then, with the exquisite harmony of the two martial arts, it would be possible to run on the churning sea, freezing it slightly.

Of course, it was only a thin layer of ice that would break immediately with the churning waves, but it was enough to take one step at a time.

It would take too much inner energy to freeze this constantly churning sea and subdue it.

And I couldn't just use the Black Immortal Steps because I couldn't ignore the weight of Siri on my back.

So, I could say that I had found a suitable balance between the two and achieved harmony.

"Hahahaha..."

Even the Heavenly Demon would have to be impressed.

Instead of the Heavenly Demon's admiration, I could hear Siri's giggling in my ear.

"Big Brother, run!"

Anyway, since Siri liked it, it was fine.

Under the watchful eye of the moon, I crossed the dark blue night.

* * *

By the time the moon had tilted quite a bit.

We arrived at the coast.

I had wondered why it had been so quiet for a while, but Siri was already asleep.

Whether we had come to a different place from where the boats usually docked, there was no sign of people on the land we had reached after crossing the sea.

There was only black sand on the wide beach.

It wasn't a white sandy beach, but a black sandy beach.

Since we had just run across the sea, ignoring things like currents and wind, it seemed we had arrived at a place far from the shipping routes.

Anyway, after laying the soundly sleeping Siri on the soft beach, I also sat down next to her.

After spreading my ki sense and confirming that there were no threats around, I watched the waves that were repeatedly trying and failing to climb the beach, the moon and stars in the night sky, and the waves that were breaking into white foam as they all came together in the sea, and then I lay down.

And as I listened to the sound of the repeating waves and looked at the night sky...

Memories of the guy I was going to find now came to mind one after another.

Crybaby Viola.

Sherwood's only archer.

The reason she was called a crybaby was...

Literally, because she cried at the drop of a hat.

She cried when she was angry, she cried when she was happy, she cried when she was sad, she cried when she thought of the past, she cried when she was hungry, she cried while walking...

If I were to list the reasons one by one, there would be no end.

Of course, she also cried when she fought.

She was a strange girl whose combat power increased when she cried.

As a member of Sherwood, she was naturally a platinum-rank, and her abilities were beyond doubt.

She was the strongest archer I knew.

Whatever she held in her hand, the moment it was placed on her bowstring, it would turn into the strongest weapon of slaughter.

Even a thin branch that would break with a tap would have the power to pierce through a rock if it was placed on Viola's bowstring.

Not only that, but she was also a master of sniping, and she would kill an enemy far away, who I couldn't even see, with a yawn and a flick of her bow.

When I asked her how she could hit so well, she would ask back with a face that really didn't understand, "Why can't you hit it?", which was annoying.

Since she hit the target so easily, I took Viola's bow and tried it...

Hit it, my ass. It was so taut that I couldn't even pull the bowstring.

That's when I realized that arm strength was also important for shooting a bow.

Only then did I remember that Viola had defeated all the men in the mercenary corps, except for the captain, in arm wrestling.

Her forearms weren't that thick, so how was she so strong?

So, instead of Viola's special bow, I asked for a normal bow and tried to imitate an archer...

Instead of hitting the target, I missed by a long shot, and Viola made fun of me.

And then I got angry and threw the bow that Viola had gotten for me on the ground, and I made her cry again.

Viola was definitely different from ordinary archers.

I had heard that distance was life for an archer, but this girl was good at long-range sniping, and she had no problem with close-range combat either.

When the enemy closed the distance, she would pull out arrows with both hands and swing them like swords, killing the enemies.

It was as if she was delivering the arrows to their heads, necks, and hearts with her own hands.

Sometimes, she would even go around beating the heads of magical beasts with the bow that withstood that incredibly taut bowstring.

Furthermore, she had even shown the skill of shooting an arrow without an arrow.

I don't know how she did it, but when she flicked the empty bowstring, the target in front of her would shatter with a cracking sound, a skill that I couldn't believe even after seeing it with my own eyes.

And then she would shrug and say that it wasn't a very practical skill because she couldn't hit things that were too far away.

Besides that, she had shown various other magical feats.

She would shoot arrows into the sky and make it rain arrows, she would succeed in long-range sniping with her eyes closed, she would even shoot a bow with her feet while doing a handstand, and she would even twist the bowstring slightly to make the flying arrow curve.

She was such an amazing girl.

But in my memory, Viola was just a snot-nosed crybaby.

She would whine that her fingers hurt from shooting the bow, she would insist on trying to hit a cherry placed on my head and then get hit on the head by me several times and sob in a corner, and she would wail that the members had forgotten her birthday.

Thinking about that, a chuckle escaped my lips.

She was probably crying her eyes out for some reason that I couldn't understand, even there.

I fell asleep thinking about Viola, whose tear stains under her eyes rarely disappeared because she cried every day.

* * *

When the day was about to break, I woke up and roughly filled my stomach with beef jerky, and then walked into the black desert.

The problem was that it was all made of black sand, so I didn't know where was where, or where to go.

"Siri."

"Yes?"

"Didn't Hud give you a map or something?"

"She said a map would be meaningless, so she didn't give me one. Instead, she said to go in the direction the black sand is blowing."

"Black sand?"

As Siri said, I grabbed a handful of black sand from the ground and threw it into the air.

And then, I could really feel a flow of quicksand, as if it were being blown by the wind toward the deep part of the black desert.

"How strange."

"I know, right?"

There wasn't a single gust of wind, but it was truly a strange thing.

"Big Sister said that the demon realm is pulling the sand. If we go in the direction the sand is blowing, we can go to the demon realm."

"Hmm."

Come to think of it, wasn't this black sand created along with the rampage of the Evil God?

Did the characteristic of wanting to return to its original place remain in this black, ash-like sand?

"How did Hud know this information?"

"Ah, Big Sister Shushu told her that."

"How did Shushuruta know this information?"

"I don't know."

"Let's go."

While heading to the Kingdom of Sorrow, I heard stories about it from Siri.

Most of that was also information that Shushuruta had told her.

"You know, Big Brother. The demon race has horns on their heads."

"Horns?"

I looked at Siri, who had put her fists on both sides of her head and had her fingers sticking out.

"Wasn't that a baseless rumor?"

"That's what they say."

Since it was the words of Shushuruta, the master of information, and not anyone else, it had some credibility.

Suddenly, the image of Viola, who never took off her hat, came to mind.

"...Wait. Was that why Viola wore a hat? To hide her horns?"

Siri clapped her hands.

"Ah! I think so!"

"No, why would she hide it? Who would make fun of her?"

"I think you would have made fun of her the most, Big Brother."

"Hmm. That's true."

Since Siri was chattering away, I wasn't bored while crossing the black desert.

"I heard from Big Sister Shushu. The reason why the people of the Kingdom of Sorrow have horns on their heads and are called the demon race is because of the demon realm."

"Really?"

"The demon realm is right in the middle of the Kingdom of Sorrow, right? The land has been encroached upon by the energy coming from the demon realm. It's the same reason why the sand has all burned black like this."

"Hmm."

"It's similar to how our Maia Kingdom is more desolate than other countries and has frequent appearances of magical beasts. But, the energy in the Kingdom of Sorrow is said to be several times stronger than in Maia. So the people who live here are naturally exposed to that energy, and since this energy is so toxic, there are many cases where a newborn child can't withstand the energy and dies. So the population of the Kingdom of Sorrow is not very large, but each and every one of them is an incredible powerhouse. Because they have all overcome that energy."

A kingdom where the weak cannot survive from birth, that would be the Kingdom of Sorrow.

"But I don't see any magical beasts."

"Magical beasts are rare in the black desert, and instead, they are all gathered in the demon realm. The weakest magical beast there is said to be C-rank."

"...It's worthy of being called the demon realm."

Maia, which had a balanced distribution from F-rank to S-rank, was rather a paradise.

And among them, D-rank and below magical beasts accounted for more than 90%.

Suddenly, I remembered the time when I had gone to the distant past through time travel.

The demon realm.

The huge, abyssal pit where the Evil God was said to have been born.

The thought of C-rank and above magical beasts swarming there was so terrible that I couldn't even put it into words.

Then, wouldn't it be safe to say that the Kingdom of Sorrow was created to block the magical beasts that were trying to break out of the demon realm?

"Ah, and."

Siri clapped her hands and continued.

"They say there are two of Ophosis's famous swords in the Kingdom of Sorrow."

"Really?"

To think that there were two of the Eight Sword Masters in this small kingdom.

The saying that it was a small but elite kingdom seemed to be no empty boast.

One of them, I knew.

My client, the king of the Kingdom of Sorrow.

The one also called the Demon King.

"Aktir Bisanbark."

"In the Kingdom of Sorrow, the person with the strongest martial power becomes the king."

"Was he the owner of the eighth demonic sword, the Vermilion Sword, among the nine famous swords of Ophosis?"

"That's right."

"Then where is the other one?"

Siri looked at me and said meaningfully.

"In the deepest part of the demon realm."

I blinked.

"Why is it there?"

Siri shrugged.

"I don't know. I don't know either."

I clicked my tongue.

"What a thing to do. The Indigo Sword was sunk at the bottom of the sea, and now this one is at the bottom of the demon realm?"

The Heavenly Demon, who had been quietly casting his fishing rod into the lake, asked.

[How many will that be in total if you pick that one up too?]

"Hmm. If I also hold the sword of that demon king guy, and the sword that was said to be sunk at the bottom of the demon realm... six. There are three left to hold all nine."

The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.

[What a snail's pace. Looking at the way the Dark Heaven Society guys are plotting, it seems that great plan of theirs is not far off. What are you going to do?]

"That's what I'm saying. The Jet-Black Sword is still missing, and the Blue Sword is with the Knight of Frost. When am I going to go all the way to the Blake Kingdom?"

And the Knight of Frost had said that he would give me the Blue Sword only if I defeated him.

Hmm. If I get a lot of blessings from Siri, it might be a little cheap, but I might be able to beat him up somehow.

"Damn it."

Thinking about that, I felt rushed, so I offered my back to Siri.

"Get on!"

"Yay."

I threw a handful of black sand and then shot my body in the direction it flew.

* * *

And so, we arrived at the capital of the Kingdom of Sorrow.

I looked down at the scene from the top of a high sand dune and said.

"Uh... Siri. This is the right place, right?"

"Mmm... probably?"

That place... was at a level that was embarrassing to even call a capital, no, a city.

Instead of a wall, there was a fence that surrounded the outskirts.

The houses were built haphazardly with black wood, and the roads that ran between them were crooked and seemed not to have been organized at all.

In a word, it was a mess.

And in the center, there was a large, gaping hole.

That must be the demon realm.

Rather than a city, it seemed more appropriate to call it a village that had spread out a little wide around the demon realm.

Since we hadn't seen anything like a village on the way, it seemed that everyone was gathered and living here.

'This is... the Kingdom of Sorrow, the country of the small but elite demon race that is on par with the Holy Hilka Empire?'

[It's impressive in many ways.]

The Heavenly Demon laughed slowly.

"...Is this really a kingdom?"

(End of Chapter)