WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Editor: Sty

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Villain’s Ending

Chapter 113

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Afterimage (24)

The flimsy walls and wooden fences that had been erected had long since collapsed.

They had merely turned into piles of gravel kicked up by the feet of the demons, or splinters of wood too useless even for firewood.

The surroundings were entirely stained with ash and blood.

A boy, dragging a gun taller than himself, tried to flee but collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, an arrow piercing his back.

He convulsed a few times on the dirt floor, then fell silent.

A middle-aged man, who had fought against the demons for quite a long time, failed to notice the enemies surrounding him.

Simultaneously, several spears pierced his body, and he crumbled without even a scream.

It seems this small city will soon fall.

And I will die soon too.

The thought of waking up once again in that small room in the academy somehow fills me with a sense of helplessness.

From the beginning, with people who don't even remember me, only recalling emotions about things they don't remember, from the beginning.

The demons were slowly tightening their noose from all directions.

A few demon corpses that had just scaled the wall lay scattered in the middle of the road.

The soldiers who had dealt with them probably hadn't lasted long either.

Leaving such a scene behind, Levina and I stood on the balcony of a large mansion in the center of the city.

Inside, the noble lords who had chosen to stay here were loudly chattering, as if enjoying a final banquet.

There's no real help to be found by associating with people who've given up just because they've lost some of their people and territory.

We didn't join them, but simply smoked our cigarettes blankly.

As the cigarette burned down, so too did the world.

"You said you wanted to live longer, didn't you?"

I broke the silence first.

Levina gazed at the rising smoke for a moment, then turned her head towards me.

"Did I say that?"

"You did."

"This isn't so bad either, just the two of us."

She smiled faintly.

That smile, completely unfitting for this desperate situation, gave it an eerie feeling.

"Your wizard friends are racking their brains, diligently firing spells, shouldn't you go and help them?"

"If I were going to do that, I should have followed them to the capital, not stayed here."

Levina retorted.

Her eyes were calm.

"They'll go. Those friends were the ones who said they'd stay until the end, weren't they?"

At my words, a deep laugh appeared on Levina's face.

She took another step closer and gently stroked my face.

Her fingertips were still cold.

"Why. Did you suddenly want to live?"

Instead of answering, I hugged the approaching Levina tightly.

I stroked her head for a long time.

Her thin, soft hair brushed through my fingers.

And I lightly pressed my lips to her forehead.

The moment Levina tried to lift her head as if to say something, I held her head and gently kept it bowed.

And without hesitation, I slammed my knee into her solar plexus.

A short gasp escaped Levina's lips.

She collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.

I looked down at the fallen Levina.

I took out the wooden staff and dagger she had been holding.

I haphazardly tucked Levina's staff and dagger inside the clothes I was wearing.

Then, looking down at Levina, I took out the revolver from my waistband and placed it into her empty dagger sheath.

Levina coughed, twisting her body, still breathing.

Unable to speak, she looked up at me with a bewildered gaze.

I somehow felt relieved that the question "Why?" didn't escape her lips.

Because I didn't want to answer.

I forcibly made her stand up, then slammed my knee into her solar plexus one more time.

Cough!

As she coughed, I held her firmly, one arm supporting her back, the other cradling the back of her knees.

Like the kind of princess-carry Estelle sometimes asked for.

And I moved to the square next to the spire.

There, the last remaining mages were desperately firing spells.

Blue and red magic streaked through the air, flying towards the demons.

They were wary when they first saw me approach, but recognizing Levina in my arms, their expressions relaxed.

One of them asked me,

"Have you come to give orders now, after all this time…?"

Instead of answering, I set Levina down on the ground.

"We've already finished preparations to retreat, and we'll just fire a couple more spells, then we'll retreat too."

"Take her."

"I believe she said she would stay."

"I said, take her."

Watching a few of them hesitate and approach Levina, I simply turned and walked away.

It seemed I heard a voice calling me from behind, but I didn't look back.

I walked towards the church.

After Estelle and the priests had left, those who couldn't be evacuated were gathered there.

The bodies of the dead had been moved to the back, but the stench of blood in the air lingered.

There were still plenty of 'pre-corpses' lying on dirty beds, bleeding and staring blankly into space.

I looked at them for a moment, then opened the creaking church door and stepped inside.

The inside of the church was strangely quiet.

Light streaming through the stained glass long dyed the interior.

Neatly arranged long pews, and the altar placed at the front.

I somehow felt a sense of peace.

The place I fled to, the place I went to face, the place I went to wait, all seemed to be the church.

Is it because it's where I met Estelle?

I sat perched on the altar, took out the remaining cigarette from my pocket, and lit it.

As I lit it, faint smoke rose and dispersed in the light rays from the stained glass.

As time passed like that, the sound of battle from outside grew closer.

Soon after, screams and countless footsteps echoed around the church.

A little more time passed.

Right outside the church door, the dying gasps of still-living wounded soldiers could be heard.

And a moment later, the old church door burst open.

Six demons crawled inside.

They tilted their heads, looking at me, then scanned the surroundings and slowly began to move towards me.

Perhaps because they had just been fighting on the front lines, far from letting down their guard or relaxing their vigilance, they regretfully aimed their shields and spears at me, intending to kill me alone, and approached cautiously.

I extinguished the cigarette in my mouth against the floor I was sitting on, then stood up and drew Levina's staff.

As soon as I shot a fireball from the tip of the staff, they scattered instantly.

Two of them caught fire and began to scream, thrashing on the ground.

I somehow felt foolish giving Levina the revolver, and drew my dagger.

The remaining four simultaneously charged, thrusting their spears and blades.

I recalled the middle-aged man I had seen that morning, dying, impaled by a spear.

I threw myself to the ground to dodge, then slashed one demon's ankle with my dagger.

The moment it lost its balance and fell on top of me, I plunged the knife deep into its neck.

Simultaneously, three or four spear blades coming for me pierced that demon instead.

I don't know if they lacked camaraderie, or if they had so much camaraderie that they immediately killed the one I had captured.

Anyway, using it as a meat shield to block the attack, I tossed the corpse aside and stood up.

Then I lightly slashed the neck of the closest one.

Demon blood entered my mouth.

It tasted terribly foul and metallic.

The remaining two demons stared at me, then, letting out a roar, charged simultaneously.

The moment the right one's spear blade flew at me, I flicked my finger and set its face on fire.

The trajectory of the fiery demon was disrupted, and the spear grazed my side.

They seemed quite flustered, probably because they assumed I could only use magic with a staff if I demonstrated fighting with one.

And I plunged my dagger into the neck of the last remaining one.

As soon as the blade struck, it kicked me away, then turned its back and began to flee, the knife still in its neck.

I tried to follow and kill it, but I slipped on the blood.

I barely got up, only to trip over a corpse sprawled on the floor.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

I roughly shook off the blood on my body and sighed.

I picked up a shield and a bent sword that the demons had been holding.

They didn't feel particularly good in my hands.

Soon after, three armored demons walked through the open church door.

Actually, rather than demons, they looked more like humans with Down Syndrome and unusually long horns on their heads.

They were carrying ridiculously large hammers or maces.

"This is a bit of a cheat."

When I said that, the demons grinned, as if they understood my words.

Yet, my body somehow felt like it was moving as I intended.

I clapped my hands together, then flicked my fingers, and blobs of water appeared before the faces of all three.

And fire ignited within them.

Hiss!

Hot steam erupted, obscuring my vision.

I took that opportunity to throw the sword I was holding.

One demon lightly knocked it away.

The moment it knocked away the sword, I threw the spear I had picked up from the floor at its face.

The flying spearhead pierced through its helmet and into its head.

The other two paid no heed and slowly approached.

One of them swung its hammer at me.

I tried to twist my body to dodge, but I didn't manage to avoid it properly.

Crack.

I heard the sound of my left shoulder being crushed.

It was hard to ignore the pain, but perhaps because my mind was in such disarray, my body still moved.

I dropped the shield I was holding, jammed the sword into a gap in its helmet, and twisted it.

The demon that had crushed my shoulder thrashed and screamed for a long time on the floor before dying.

And the last remaining one, holding a mace.

It swallowed nervously, yet still approached me.

I looked at it with a somewhat dazed feeling.

As the demon charged at me, I charged at it too.

For some reason, I felt I could narrowly dodge the mace it swung.

I lunged, barely evading the mace flying towards me.

Then I grabbed its wrist and tackled it to the ground.

For some reason, my crushed shoulder was moving.

But it wasn't much help.

I tried to strangle it, but its armor made it impossible to get a proper grip.

Eventually, I placed my hand on its helmet.

I jammed my fingers into the helmet's eyeholes.

And then I unleashed a spell inside it.

Whether it was water, earth, wind, or fire, without even knowing what I was using.

There's no need to sing hymns well in church.

Just, sing loudly and well.

I don't know the lyrics, but the demon in my arms sang hymns quite diligently, then left me behind and went to meet God.

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