A Wish to Grab Happiness

Volume 10, Chapter 265: The Devil and the Friend

The heat of flames melted the air and took the shape of a person. I didn’t know if there was any meat or blood left in there. However, it seemed that the lump of fire was moving by taking a shape for a moment.

But he certainly spoke before my eyes, with his glistening eyes wide open.

「Unfortunately, I don’t die, because I’ve killed death. This body is no longer like a moving dead person.」

I don’t die. It was those who have killed death. It was people who couldn’t die. I see. I remembered hearing such words somewhere in the past. I heard them well.

The flames that burned the night distorted the surrounding area. Even though there was a lump of fire in there, the surroundings did not brighten at all. Rather, the surroundings seemed to have sunk even more due to the burning flame.

I held the treasure sword with both hands and focused my eyes. The enemy became just flames. Could I kill it? Besides, the enemy was a demon. It was not just a matter of extinguishing the flames.

In the past, I never faced such opponents during the salvation journey, though I heard that several weird phenomena happened from the time to time. What exactly was this?

They dealt with something different from magic. It felt as if someone trampled on humans. After the great catastrophe, people were afraid of the magical shape that suddenly sprung up.

Anyway, I had never seen it before. And, of course, people were afraid of things that were different. People never tried to understand intangible things.

So, I wondered. When did a person name such things? In order to put both that variant that they couldn’t understand, they created their own category. In other words, Roseau looked like a demon from the age of the gods.

The decapitated officer, the enemy of the human species, the person with dark magic…All of those names fell into the category of demon.

The beast with the lump of meat that I saw at Belfein was a monster moved by wrath. However, Roseau had reason. He spoke words and took the form of a person. And yet, its existence was heresy itself.

Curiously, this one was much creepier than the deformed beast.

「What are you saying? The deceased will die someday. And for you, that’s today.」

By the way, why did the demon end up in such a place and as a person named Roseau? I couldn’t understand that. In fact, it happened right in front of me. Then, there was only one thing to do.

I held the treasure sword and pressed my lips. Unknowingly, I bounced my legs and kept a distance. A little sweat licked from my cheeks. Was it because of the heat of the demon or something else?

The flames swayed in the wind. No, Roseau’s arm, which had become the fire pillar itself, scattered the flames and consumed the air. The jumping flames shook like a whip and destroyed red bricks with it.

Such eerie appearance made me feel as if I was looking at an illusion. It seemed that my brain refused to understand what was happening in front of my eyes or as to whether such a thing could really happen. But the heat that touched my cheeks was undeniably true, and I was now putting my life on the line.

Moving away by instinct, I hit the red bricks with my feet. I jumped while trying to fall back. My spine shouted that I must do such action.

The next moment, several flames stood in front of me. For a short moment, Roseau’s flames and heat wrapped my body. The heat burned my lungs. For a moment, an unbelievable amount of heat was blown into the body, and my esophagus was about to move backwards.

I escaped into the darkness with a rushing momentum. I almost collapsed and forcibly exhaled the hot air with my lungs. I screamed as if my internal organs were swollen. My heart was beating as if I had fever. I see. This was a demon’s blow.

I raised my cheeks quietly while pulling myself together. It was a painful blow, but in response, there was something that came to my mind.

Roseau’s left arm swung up, perhaps because he didn’t have time to rest. It was like waving his arm as a whip. His left arm became a flame, and the flame swam in the air like a snake.

While looking at the snake of flame, I let out a hot sigh from my lips for a moment. Eldith or Filaret were the right people to deal with this.

I moved half of my body as to respond to the flame. Then, as it was, I held the treasure sword to defend myself from the deadly flame. At the moment, the back of my hand was thinly burned. Of course, it was normal. It was insane to handle burning flames directly. A scorching smell pierced through my nostrils.

I moved my wrist, leaving the heated skin intact. Then, the purple light was run by tracing the trajectory carved by the flame snake. The fire of column standing in front of me was torn apart as if it had been struck by a storm.

I used the treasure sword to scoop out the part that seemed to be the boundary between the body and the left arm, where the shoulder should originally be. Roseau’s body was wrapped in flames, and it was hard to tell if there was meat in there anymore. However, there was definitely something solid in there. I felt it in my hands after swinging the treasure sword. It was the unmistakable feeling of cutting the meat and bones.

The flame swayed dramatically as if it was in agony. In Roseau’s body, which became a whirlpool of fire, I could see only his eyes shining up close. It seemed that some meat still remained, but every time I slashed it, it fell off.

The next blow Roseau showed was no longer that of a human. Roseau stuck out his right hand, which had turned into a flame, and grabbed the air with his palm.

That’s it. It was just a small gesture…but the air exploded.

An empty echo screamed in my ears. It was the sound and momentum of explosives bursting. I didn’t know what it was, but it did some ridiculous work. There was something on my cheeks that fell like either heat or pain. I didn’t even know.

But, even so. There was one certainty in my chest.

I took a step into the heat and opened my eyes. I wondered if a spark had entered the eyes, because the inner corner of my eyes was hot.

I pushed the treasure sword towards the heavens. Then, after that, I just kept the trajectory drawn by the treasure sword in order to break through the flames. The purple light carved a line into the sky.

…The wind reverberated. The flames covering the meat were crushed by the treasure sword, and the remaining of Roseau’s meat was exposed to the sky.

With the momentum of swinging the treasure sword, I dispelled the flames that clung to his body. The sparks of faint agony seemed to make some noise.

「Sorry, but it’s not the first time I’ve fought in the fire.」

Besides, this guy named Roseau still had some humanity. Certainly, his behavior was that of a demon, and his tricks were far from ordinary.

However, even though he turned out to be the flame itself, he still kept the shape of a person. How to take a step with his legs, how to swing his arms, how to move his eyes. He was no different from a human being. Moreover, he was just like an amateur when it came to fighting.

Then, I shall not die. What did he know about being wrapped in flames? I knew it perfectly well. There was no way that I would die.

Caria’s sword flash was even more murderous than this, and Helot Stanley’s blow was much more profound. Compared to my teacher, Roseau’s attack was lacking.

I believed so. Roseau was a monster called demon, but he still clung to the human side somewhere. I didn’t know why and how, but it was true. If so, I shall kill him now. I shall behead him immediately. I knew I could do it.

This demon should decay without knowing its roots…without knowing the original foundation.

When Eldith once killed the dead, she smashed the flesh to the point of leaving no fragments, and the end was completed by evoking a spell.

I couldn’t repeat such behavior. In the first place, I couldn’t use magic, let alone spells. Therefore, it would be difficult to shatter it into pieces. But strangely, my viscera didn’t freeze in fear, in fact, I had a strange heat.

Ah, yeah, of course. What was this guy? Was this not the demon called Roseau the one who hurt my friend? Well, he did something foolish. There was so much nausea that my viscera was about to turn inside out. An indescribable irritation crawled on my back for some time.

Once, there were people who treated me like a mere rat. However, Bruder treated me as a human being. She was the one who pulled my hand, when I had no choice but to lick the mud and bow down mercilessly. This emotion was different from the scorching admiration for the heroes. It should be called friendship.

The current Bruder did not know anything about me, and she didn’t feel the same as I did. Perhaps, my feelings of friendship for her now were different too. But in my heart, she was always my friend, and I regretted that I let her die once.

My heart was burning and trembling.

「You’ll burn out here. Don’t worry. I’ll lend you as much suffering as I can. 」

There was a painful fever in my chest.