Root devours the life around it and generates demonic energy. It was an existence that survived by transforming a few kinds of sorcery and swallowing what was around it.
It was an individual and a colony, and a colony and an individual.
Rem knew that fact well, and he looked at the current situation from a sorcerous perspective.
'It eats life force and converts it into demonic energy.'
The thought that rose naturally continued. His thinking accelerated and pulled out a single conclusion.
'A treasure vault of life.'
A self-sustaining colony ground made to eat, swallow, and substitute into demonic energy.
Wasn't this how the Demon lands lord viewed the continent?
It was just a thought. As he felt relief, satisfaction, and joy at having ended Silence, confidence that he could end the remaining Demon lands was cultivated, and his head naturally rolled that way.
They were on the way back after ending Silence. Juol, riding the bellopter, couldn't hide his excitement for three full days.
"You can feel life in the surrounding land."
The West had been barren because of Silence. With that Demon land gone, the change that arose was startling.
In the surrounding land, crops grew in real time, and Juol watched all of it.
He couldn't properly sleep for three days. Excitement held him.
Separately, Enkrid slept well. More precisely, he kept the iron rule that you rest when it's time to rest. Even if he had fought with swordsmanship that was a natural enemy of Silence, he was tired.
Fun aside, hadn't he done a lot of things that would put a load on the body?
Rem and Dunbakel were the same.
If someone had seen the fight that happened in there, they would have written dozens of songs.
"At this point, there's no reason to fight the surrounding tribes."
Juol, unable to hide his excitement, repeated the same thing for what had to be the tenth time. Enkrid understood the meaning of those words.
Poverty calls war. Limited resources are the reason people put blades to each other's throats. Conversely, abundance will give a temporary peace.
Enkrid nodded at Juol's words. That didn't mean he had a soft and naive thought that there would be no more conflict in the West now.
Even if people have more, the ones who fight will fight.
'End of war.'
How do you end a war?
Just cutting with a sword doesn't make that happen. That was certain.
What would his close friend made king think? When they met later, he should bring it up.
What kind of answer would come out? It wouldn't be "I don't know."
Even Kraiss had spoken while drawing the future how many times?
Of course, he was a pessimistic man, so even if he said he believed in the Mad Order of Knights and in Enkrid, he didn't look at the road ahead brightly.
"Well, first of all, unifying the continent is nonsense. At minimum, the heads of every nation on the continent have to trust each other. If not, it doesn't make sense. And then they reach an agreement. With the premise that they'll never betray each other for their entire lives, instead of war they make something they can compete over with each other, and they have to do that, but it's not easy. It's really not easy."
Even if he was pessimistic, the fact that he held even a sliver of hope in the words "not easy" was Kraiss being Kraiss.
He was a pessimistic optimist.
A man who dreams a soft dream called a salon in a harsh world.
"Demon land killer."
Juol, who had gone without sleep for three days, muttered beside him. The light in his eyes was sparkling more than before.
Savior Enkrid was now a man who destroyed a Demon land.
The man Rem had brought, who was called the West's greatest talent, ended a Demon land. He fulfilled the West's long-cherished wish.
If those eyes didn't grow moist, that would be strange too. Men of the West don't cry easily, but at this point it would have been fine to wail and cry.
Of course, Juol didn't do that. He was moved, and with moist eyes he bowed his head with meaning of respect. His only impatience was at the thought of returning to the city and telling this story.
Enkrid knew the West's tomorrow might become a battlefield again, but at least for now, he was satisfied.
In this land, for a while, there wouldn't be any fighting.
It would become an era of giving and sharing what they had.
That night, Rem devoted himself to recovering by contemplating his own body, and Dunbakel sipped at the liquor Juol had tucked away.
From far away, the voice of a mimic cat could be heard. Even that seemed to be singing of peace.
"The whole West will bless you."
Juol mumbled drunkenly while drinking with Dunbakel. He continued by discussing twelve ways to honor this performance and achievement. He was truly zealous.
At times like this, you'd think Rem would say one word from the side that it was too much, but he only snickered and smiled.
"I've gotta say thanks too. But what was that cutting?"
Just as Enkrid took interest in Rem's technique, Rem was the same.
"Did you make it right on the spot, then?"
That kind of question was only natural.
Rem too was an owner of talent that made the word genius seem inadequate. And if you're talking about reading the room, he would be the very best in the knight order.
He grasped the essence of the swordsmanship Enkrid had used.
It was swordsmanship like Silence's natural enemy, based on waves. How could he do that? Watching from the side, it looked like he had awakened and applied swordsmanship in real time.
"Real talent is kinda different, huh."
In the end, words like that came out of Rem's mouth. It was him acknowledging his captain. Enkrid answered those words.
"I passed out for a bit, and one of the ancestors who guarded this land came out and taught me swordsmanship."
"...That's something even a mimic cat wouldn't copy."
He said it in a roundabout way, but saying that it was something even a mimic cat that tempts people by repeating everything it hears wouldn't copy was synonymous with "cut the bullshit."
The truth sometimes exists in a hard-to-believe realm.
"Well, but if you say it that convincingly, I get what you mean."
Rem nodded. In the West, there's a saying that the interpretation matters more than the dream. He was good at interpreting dreams. The words "an outstanding sorcerer" came out naturally.
"Awakening or inspiration is like that. Sometimes it shows you hallucinations and lets you hear voices. I once had an axe fly at me on its own and attack."
Sometimes a descended weapon has a divine presence in it and does that. Rem spoke, remembering the moment he advanced one step through that experience.
Of course, what the two of them experienced were far from being on the same track.
Enkrid closed his eyes while looking at the two unusually bright moons tonight. Fatigue that had piled up without him noticing, the warmth of the heat-retaining leather, a solid dinner, and even a drink—all of it mixed and led Enkrid into sleep in no time.
Sway—
On a rocking boat, a woman holding a lamp looked at him and smiled. A full smile suited the word hearty perfectly. Her mouth opened.
"Thanks."
"It was my fight too."
"Still, thanks."
The ferryman—no, should he call her an ancestor of the West whose name he didn't know?
She resembled a bear. Especially her bulk was something you could compare to a bear. You could believe it if someone said she was Audin's older sister. Had this woman also had a nickname like bear beastman in life?
"You have a face that's thinking strange thoughts."
"I was briefly thinking of the people of the West."
It wasn't wrong. Well, playing dumb was something Enkrid was the best at in the knight order.
Root was born as a tree that held demonic energy, became a flower, and changed into a colony. The Root of that era was called a dragon's nest.
It conceived and birthed rotten dragons from trees. Those dragons didn't breathe fire, but they had a size and strength enough to destroy and crush everything around them. A stench too.
The ferryman before his eyes lived through that era and repeated today.
"Now I'm going. There won't be any reason to see each other again. I'm satisfied that my long-cherished wish has been fulfilled."
With those words, starting from the hand holding the lamp, she began to be dyed gray. Then behind her back, a hood rose up, covered her face, and draped over her body.
Gray-white cracked skin was revealed, and her eyes turned into black holes without borders.
"You really do fulfill our long-cherished wish too."
The changed ferryman said. The atmosphere from when she said thanks was nowhere to be found.
With the ferryman's words, the shadow flickered and surged up like flames meeting wind.
Enkrid narrowed his brow slightly. What is this now?
It was a sight that made questions come out naturally. The ferryman's shadow that had been flickering and surging seemed to stretch long, then the boat widened, and on top of it another ferryman rose.
One ferryman slung the lamp over his shoulder, and another ferryman sat down at the edge of the boat.
One ferryman with a relatively smaller build came up in front of Enkrid, raised their head, and stared at him, and a ferryman twice that size also appeared.
The widened boat grew large enough to carry dozens of people. The boat kept widening. And the ferrymen kept increasing.
-You'll fulfill our long-cherished wish too, right?
The ferryman's voices overlapped. There were so many that even if Enkrid turned his head wide left and right, he couldn't see them all.
All those ferrymen spoke as one.
-Come on. Fulfill it.
-Please, me too.
-Me too.
-Me too.
-Me too.
Every single one was earnest.
-If you cheer on everyone's dreams.
-Us too.
-Us too.
-Us too.
Every single one was desperate.
Earnestness and desperation harmonized. The ferrymen clung to the beliefs and thoughts Enkrid had carried through until now.
They were leeches that wouldn't fall off before sucking all the blood out.
And there were far, far too many. Hundreds, thousands of leeches indulged in dreams. They entrusted their will to the free will that remained whole and alone in this place.
They shoved over their long-cherished wishes and heartfelt prayers and craved satisfaction. They were like a pack of wild dogs starved for ten days.
-I want to cut a woman.
The ferrymen tore apart the self that had looked like one until now. One of them bluntly spit out its wish.
And in response, another ferryman conveyed an intention with will.
-I just need you to find one person.
-Is my descendant alive?
-Did my wife end up living alone in the end?
-The people I have to kill are only five. That's enough. Kill them for me.
-I had a lot of property to pass on to my child, but I couldn't pass it all on.
-Check if my treasure is still there. Don't take it. Just check if it's there.
-Meet the lake fairy.
It was like hundreds of people were shouting into his ears. If he had seen this kind of thing when he first started repeating today, would it have been a headache?
Repeating today is a curse. The current sight was proof of that.
This curse had devoured countless people until now.
Among them were people who endured and endured with their own will and were trapped in the end, but there were also many who were trapped because they couldn't endure even once.
Enkrid listened quietly to their words. After hearing every single one without missing anything, he straightened his will toward their will and answered.
"I'm not doing it."
It was an answer no different from swordsmanship that had reached the realm of art.
....
A short silence settled down on the boat full of ferrymen.
Light is eaten by different light depending on intensity. Sound is the same. A small sound is buried under a bigger sound.
Would will be any different?
The will scattered by the ferrymen's resentment was eaten by Enkrid's refusal.
-Whyyyyy!
One small ferryman ran up and grabbed his pant leg. Enkrid stared straight at the ferryman trying to cling like a tick and refused once more.
"I don't want to."
His insistence of will was too clear. A mediocre portion of the ferrymen scattered like snow melting in sunlight. They faded into the air like pitch-black sand and seeped into the boat.
As many ferrymen that disappeared, the boat's size shrank again.
-You fulfilled other ferrymen's long-cherished wishes but not mine?
Someone spat out dissatisfaction. Should he call it changing the approach? A ferryman argued fairness.
"So what."
Enkrid refused, filling it with the feeling that it wasn't his problem.
With a rustle, more ferrymen scattered into black sand.
"I don't want to. I'm not doing it."
Enkrid refused one after another. The ferrymen's behavior was like slapping a fortress wall that could endure a rock flung by a catapult with the palm of a hand.
As the number of ferrymen decreased, the boat's size also shrank. In the end, the remaining ferrymen were fewer than ten. There were seven in total.
One of them sat on the edge of the boat and stated its will.
-I just hope to remain in a peaceful day.
That tone, that air, the way it stated its will was familiar.
It was the ferryman that had urged Enkrid again and again to stay in today.
-Life is a string of suffering anyway, right? So if you can enjoy suffering, that's enough, so it doesn't have to be peaceful.
It spoke while snickering.
This too was familiar. Enkrid hadn't met the ferrymen only once or twice, so it was only natural.
The ferryman that had just stated its will was the type that usually snickered and mocked beliefs.
-I don't care. It's fun watching.
Then there was a ferryman with a calm attitude that didn't feel familiar.
-The ending is decided anyway.
The one that was always pessimistic.
-Stop doing something so stupid.
The ferryman that told him to give up while pretending to worry.
-So you feel at ease because your long-cherished wish was fulfilled? Interesting.
The ferryman that sometimes came out and showed favor.
-How far will you go?
The last one was the familiar type. The ferryman that threw questions but didn't listen to the answers.
Seen this way, should he say he could distinguish them?
Those seven stared straight at Enkrid, divided like that, then became one again. They scattered like black sand and were drawn into the ferryman at the center.
"All their hearts are different, but one thing among them is the same."
The ferryman said. Enkrid quietly waited for the next words.
"They all find it fun to watch you."
Had the ending of this Demon land been something surprising even to them?
If not that, was it surprising that one of them had fulfilled a long-cherished wish?
Whatever it was, it was a fresh experience.
Enkrid answered.
"Then next time too, please guide and teach me."
The tone was plain, but the content was full of desire.
It meant: like how that woman ferryman taught me this time, you guys should loosen up what you know too.
The ferryman's mouth tore open. The corners of its lips reached its ears. With a "kekekek" laughter sound, it drifted away. Enkrid felt a floating sensation and opened his eyes.
He had noticed before too, but the ferryman is not one. And they have wishes too.
That was what he gained from this dream.