This will be probably the longest chapter I will write because I want to finish this in a single chapter.
This chapter will be a bit heavy compared to other.
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I halted my feet in front of the huge bookcase with [History] written in the section.
Once upon a time after attaining Dwarf's Dexterity skill, I thought about learning more about the resources all over the world like herbs and minerals thus my reason for arrival in the library.
However, now that I'm here, I thought of taking a look at the history of this world to know more about it.
Truthfully, I didn't like history no... I didn't like the conception of studying. But that's because 'studying' was boring to me in the past world.
If it was information I enjoy learning about, I'd be glad to study it. Therefore, I hoped that the history of this world wasn't as boring as the history of the earth. If it was, I'd drop it.
After 20 or so minutes of reading which was fast considering the history book consisted of 500 or so pages, I cried.
The book, I chose, instead of the information that wrote about the changes in the world over time, the book documented the [First Hero] on his journey at Year 322.
That was about 1,600 years ago and supposedly, from year 300 to 350 was the darkest age of humanity, which also gave rise upon the greatest hero.
It was also mentioned that this book was written after the first hero explained his journey at the castle.
***
"Haah, so many delicacies everywhere, and this kingdom sure has produced a great thing," said the hero who ate like there was no tomorrow while smoking a cigarette without a care for his health.
Inside the castle, the king and the royalties looked at him awkwardly as he didn't act like a dignified hero who saved humanity from the dark ages.
The hero, contrary to the expectation, hadn't the look of glorious they had in their mind, his hair looked terrible, his clothes emitted a terrible odor, and the beard on his face that hadn't been taken care of for a long time given off a bad impression
However, the symbol in the crest was the best proof that he was a hero, despite his messy appearance.
"Hero-sama, may I ask... Where are your comrades?" after taking a while, looking as the hero feasts on his food, the king questioned the hero.
"Them? They've all died. Except for me," the hero said without a care for the world as he eat the food as if afraid that someone will steal it.
After a while, the hero finished eating. "Well. My bad, let's get to the point. We gathered here to hear out my journey, didn't we?"
The hero wiped his dirty face with his hand.
"How many years was it ago? It doesn't matter, I guess. When we first set off on our journey to defeat the demon king, it was me, priestess, warrior, and the magician."
"At first there wasn't a problem but as we proceed deeper we had a food problem. Of course, no matter how strong we are, we were still human and we needed to eat."
"Although our magician could store food inside her personal space, even that space wasn't limitless. After half a month or so, we've completely run out of food... Not that I blame her."
"So you know, we sort of ate the demon beast we defeated."
"We ate many things. Poison Rat. Fang Snake. Acid Frog. It's not even the worst part as we proceed deeper into the demon territory, the demon beasts around begin to attain intelligence."
"Some even had the physique humans and looked no different than humans except for their extra parts like Oni."
"Thinking that the food we're eating at the moment is from a demon beast which looks no different to regular humans, begging to spare them as we kill them, had us struggle to not vomit it..." the hero looked around him as he found the atmosphere worsening.
"Let's change the talk. Let's brighten the mood here. Here's a question! What is the effect Extreme Health Potion brings to you? There, little princess," the hero pointed to the princess who raised her hand.
"Yes, hero-sama, not only does it recover minor injuries almost instantly, it can even recover a lost limb within a short time," the princess nervously answered.
"+1 point to the princess! It brings me back, huh... The death of a warrior," the hero said, gazing upon far distant.
A sentence from the hero shocked the crowd listening as they don't know how a healing potion and the warrior's death were connected.
"It troubles me to question hero-sama but, how have warrior-sama been slain?" the princess clenched her courage to question him.
"It was me... who killed him after he went insane," emptiness filled the hero's face as he spoke.
"Let's see, the effect of an Extreme Health Potion is amazing. But the side-effect it carried was far more dangerous than the result it brought."
"Indeed it healed even heavy injuries almost instantly but in exchange for doing so, the Extreme Health Potion gave off immense pleasure along with a sense of invincibility."
"Being the warrior who fights in the frontline and takes the most damage, he abused the health potion the most... And before we knew it, he wasn't the once warrior we knew."
"He fought savagely, throwing his body to damage the enemy the most, even sometimes sacrificing his own body just to injure enemies."
"The once kind warrior who even provide mercy on his enemy, avoiding a pointless fight, inflicting the least pain to kill them, changed to a savage madman who sought nothing but violence."
"Once he gets damaged, he gulps upon health potion. Then he gets healed more only to be damaged more, recovers... hurt... mend... gets damaged..."
"Until one day, his mind deteriorated enough to be unable to recognize ally and enemy. It was the day of a battle where we defeats the demon general... But also the warrior's final battle."
"The past day before the battle, the warrior has only been saying potion or medicine but after defeating the demon general he has come to his sense what do you think did he say?" the hero paused for a brief moment.
"Kill me. With his rugged body, a bare flesh seen with naked eyes and bones popping out... With his body that refused to heal no more no matter how many more potions he consumes, he said... Kill me," the hero said
"Hilarious isn't it? The only thing that was keeping him alive, was also the thing that was killing him," despite saying so, the hero's face contained no laughter.
"That day..." hero canceled his sentence, "I hope his soul is resting in heaven... Or is he in hell after slaying so many lives?"
"Also on that day, the magician fell into madness and the anger changed her, the magician who was dishonest about her feeling became truthful about what she hated, and what she didn't like."
"Anyway, from then on, our magician changed drastically, she has been using magic like thunder, fire, and wind until that day but from the moment the warrior died, she began using magic such as acid and poison."
"Acid on magician's hand was terrifying, I saw it even melt easily even on the biggest boulders and the worst part was not even how deadly it was. It was the 'melting' part."
"Not only was it deadly, but even a small splash of acid could bring indescribable pain. Strangely, from that day on, instead of a demon beast begging to spare for their life, it changed to begging to kill them."
"The poison on the magician's hand wasn't a joking matter as well. I mentioned you how; as we progress deeper into a demon territory, the more intelligent demon beast gets, right?"
"At that time, we spotted a demon civilization, Children begging their mothers to buy them a favorite toy... A happy family, an old person walking their dog outside, a person striking a conversation with another..."
"Let me tell you, that demon civilization wasn't an ounce different from human civilization"
"Then, the magician poisoned the entire town as she laughs in madness. Even so now, I can still remember the face of the demon child, wailing how his throat hurt and begging his mother to heal it, as the mother reassures the children holding upon a false hope as the whole population in the village dies."
"I think the Warrior's death made her give into madness. The amount of 'likes' she couldn't say to the warriors changed and multiplied into the amount of 'hates' she had for everything."
"It's just my hunch but, I think she wasn't angry with me who killed the warrior, not with the demon general who drove the warrior to his death... and not even the extreme health potion who corroded the warrior's mind."
"I believe that she was mad at this world."
"Long before, at the top of the mountain, we scouted the demon lord's castle and decided to infiltrate the next morning but on the next morning, the magician wasn't found anywhere."
"On our search for the magician, I've found an overbearing scroll laid upon the edge of the cliff. If possible, I'd rather not explain the content of the scroll, and because of how messy it was, t's hard to find a way to describe it but based on the content in it,"
"I think it was her curse upon the world. If it wasn't me but a normal human, they'd be lost the power to even move their eyelids if they get nearby, even the bypassing monster died from next to next around it. It was much more powerful than the strongest curse I've taken from scrolls."
"If I was to describe the content of the scroll, it was messy. The neat handwriting of royalties couldn't be seen anywhere as an unorganized letter of curses written with her blood, filled with hate, was directed upon a single paper."
"Although the odds were against us and we were definitely lacking the strength to fight against the demon king, we decided to infiltrate inside the demon lord's castle by disguising ourselves as a demon."
"But during the infiltration, I messed up big and was discovered by the demon, and I was killed by the demon lord," the hero laughed bitterly as he recalled the incident back then.
"The priestess who arrived there was devastated to see my corpse lying there... But then, she came upon a reckless plan. From the spot, she decided to begin a revival ceremony."
"Normally, reviving a person usually took a huge amount of mana, manpower, and a long period of preparation, and finally then, could you revive a person to the state before they died but obviously, inside the demon king's castle, she hadn't time nor the manpower."
"So she forced a revival ceremony. She constructed my body and connected every blood vessel, vein, and nerve all by herself. Once she runs out of mana, she gulps upon mana potion and repeats this cycle."
"You see, human bodies aren't made to take on huge mana at once and as a reaction to prevent your body from exploding with mana, your brain will send out a message of uncomfortableness in a form of feeling like vomiting like when you eat too many foods."
"But that girl held that urge and continued to force the mana potion inside herself. In the end, through a tiny miracle, I was revived though."
"I was really surprised the following day I opened my eyes after I revived...." the hero paused before opening his mouth again.
"What I saw there was a pink mush of flesh, mindlessly and continuously chanting 'heal,' except for the clothes she used to wear, the traces of the priestess nowhere to be seen."
"Then with her remaining conscious, she said to me, 'devour me,' I hesitated no more and then began eating her. The fight between me and the demon lord was a laughable one."
"No matter how demon lord damages me, decapitates me, crushes my heart, opens a hole in my brain, cuts my every bit, my body just refuses to die. Eventually, the demon lord tires out and was slain by me."
"As anti-climatic it is, that concludes my story. Anyway king, thanks for the food and this cigarette..? I'll take some of it. Treat me to your food sometime again, okay?" the hero stood up leaving a messy plate.
"Hero-sama, what are you going to do from here on?" the princess opened her mouth before the leaving hero.
"Let's see... Fulfill the promise I've made with my priestess before going to hell I guess?"
The hero refused to turn his back on the king and his people
From then on, the hero hadn't shown in history until 50 years later, a being who looks terrifyingly close to the hero who appeared in the legendary hero presentation appeared, splitting the continent in half.
***
The World's history was much darker than what I anticipated because when one hears of Isekai, their first impression was; happy, harem, cheat, adventure, etc...
As much as I love the story of the First Hero, I hated it because it had no happy ending.
All I had for the First Hero and his comrade was nothing but a salute and hope for his comrade a better, happier life where magician and warrior live in a peaceful world.
Although the history book hasn't mentioned what 'promise' the priestess had to the hero, I was happy for the hero. 'At least you've accomplished your promise to her.'
I had a guess but I wasn't entirely sure and it was embarrassing if I was mistaken so I'll keep this one inside me for a long time until I confirm it.
I decided to buy the book out of my respect for the good story as an author although a failure.
My stomach was full with the tragedies in the First Hero's story brought.
I lacked any more motivation to read history books so I decided to look into the cute notebook Ceri gave me to restore my sanity.