Serenade is a civilian.
She is a merchant, not a soldier.
Civilians should be irrelevant to this mire. Civilians shouldn't have to brace for death.
Yet she repaired an airship, a feat not achievable by ordinary means, piloted it to the battlefield herself, and participated in combat, sustaining injuries in the process.
It was with such excessive help, taken to extremes, that we managed to win.
"..."
If the political situation hadn't turned in favor of me, the Third Prince.
If the relief forces hadn't arrived.
If the adventurers from the Lake Kingdom hadn't stepped in at Nameless's request.
If Serenade, a civilian, hadn't risked injury to help me...
It would have been game over for me here.
Only when I saw the bloodstained bandages on her body did the reality hit me hard.
My strategies were inadequate.
Driving numerous comrades to death and even hurting an unrelated civilian like her...
"Your Highness?"
Serenade called out to me with a worried voice.
"Are you okay?"
"...Yes. I'm fine."
I forced a smile.
"Thank you. Just, thank you. Serenade. Please take care until you're fully recovered..."
"It's really just a minor scratch. Don't worry!"
Serenade tried to reassure me by waving her arm, but I could tell from the pain on her usually unblemished forehead that it wasn't a mere scratch.
Nor did I have the heart to point out her pain. Instead, I gestured towards the airship.
"It might be good to consult Kellibey about repairing the airship. He's the original designer, after all."
Sounds of Kellibey rummaging could be heard from the lower part of the airship.
Serenade gave a wry smile.
"Our people tried their best, but there were many clumsy parts. Now that we have the original designer, we can fix it better... to be of more help to Your Highness."
Instead of thanking her again, I just squeezed her hand once more.
Serenade blushed and smiled gently.
It hurt.
Inside, it hurt.
***
I went to the temple.
This was the real battlefield.
The wounded overflowed, and there were too few priests.
The silver lining was that I had amply provided bandages, hemostatics, and potions.
Other able-bodied mercenaries and civilians volunteered to help.
I saw Junior and young mages alongside Damien, sweating as they applied medicine to the wounded.
And in the midst of this chaos, she was absent.
Margarita.
The brave woman who would stand fearless before patients, although she often appeared worn out from overwork.
The R-grade healer who stayed with me until the end in my 742nd game.
She lost her life to the goblins that had raided the temple.
Despite the groans of numerous wounded, the temple, missing her scolding voice, felt eerily silent.
I couldn't bring myself to enter and just gazed at the scene from outside.
"...Your Highness."
A voice called out from beside me. I turned to see.
A man, wrapped in bandages and wearing a blunt helmet, limped along the temple's stone wall towards me. I nodded slightly.
"Torkel."
"I heard you pushed yourself hard in this battle. Are you alright?"
I clenched my teeth at his concern.
Torkel had lost all his party members. The Leprosy Extermination Squad had been wiped out, leaving only their leader.
I couldn't begin to imagine how much he was suffering inside.
Yet, he was asking about my well-being.
Why?
What am I to him?
Wasn't it due to my failure to establish a proper strategy that your comrades died?
"...I deeply regret what happened to your comrades."
I tried to keep my voice steady and emotionless.
"I will ensure they receive the highest honors and a proper funeral as soon as possible."
Torkel silently nodded his thanks to me. I couldn't bear to face him any longer and turned back towards the temple.
"Why did I survive?"
Torkel, who had come to stand by my side, was looking inside the temple - at the statue of the goddess.
"The Saintess... she shielded me and lost her life."
I had already been informed of Margarita's final moments, so I just listened quietly.
"I can't understand it, no matter how much I think about it."
Torkel's usually stoic voice began to fill with heat.
"Wouldn't it have been better if I had died?"
"..."
"Wouldn't it have been better for the Saintess to live, and for someone like me, a leper, a worthless mercenary, to die?"
Thump!
Torkel struck his own chest, shouting out.
"All I can do is swing a sword with this diseased, numb body of mine! I am nothing more than a detestable mercenary..."
He was crying.
"Wouldn't it have been better for the Saintess, who could have saved so many more lives, to live...?"
He didn't shed tears or sob.
But with his gruff voice, hitting his numb chest, he was pouring out his grief.
"Why did she die, and why am I, who should live longer to spread light in the world... survive?"
"..."
"I don't understand. I don't understand anything. Not a single thing."
Torkel bowed his head and slammed his helmet against the temple wall.
"I should have died."
I couldn't offer any empty consolations and just listened to his words.
"I... should have died..."
***
No.
None of you should have had to die. All of you deserved to live.
I clenched my fists.
I opened my tightly shut eyes. The wavering world came into sharp focus.
In this place filled with death and pain, I saw what I needed to do.
Ah.
Yes.
Now, I feel a bit more resolved.
***
In the southern plains of Crossroad.
Still littered with the bodies of goblins, Skuld had caught up with Verdandi.
"Sister!"
"..."
Finally apprehended, Verdandi chewed her lip, avoiding eye contact. Skuld stood before her sister, struggling to speak.
"You were... alive."
"...Skuld."
"You were alive. I thought you had died without a trace..."
Skuld embraced her sister tightly. Verdandi, enveloped in her sister's arms, looked down.
"Why didn't you let me know?"
"..."
"Why didn't you tell me you were alive? Why did you disappear for a hundred years... what were you doing?"
"The Holy Grail."
Verdandi spoke tersely.
"I was following the orders of our eldest sister Urd... searching for the Holy Grail that could revive the World Tree."
"The Holy Grail...?"
Astonished, Skuld shook her head in disbelief.
"Come to your senses, sister. Such a thing from legends can't be real."
"..."
"The World Tree has long been dead, and even its broken trunk was burnt by the empire. All that's left is its decaying roots underground. How do you plan to revive it?"
"..."
"Come back, sister. The remaining elves, and I, we need you."
Though Skuld pleaded, Verdandi remained firm.
"I will find the Holy Grail. And I will revive the World Tree, resurrect the Elven Kingdom."
"Please, come to your senses, sister."
Skuld let out a long sigh.
"The Elven Kingdom ended a hundred years ago during the racial wars. Our eldest sister Urd was executed, and the remaining elves became slaves of humans, trapped in autonomous districts, barely surviving day by day."
"..."
"Come back. Let's make the lives of the remaining elves a little better together. We can do it if you help."
"...I can't give up yet. The Holy Grail must be in that dungeon..."
As Verdandi remained unyielding, Skuld's face twisted in anger.
"I have been leading the remaining elves alone...! After all my sisters died or disappeared!"
"..."
"Our homeland turned to ashes! Forcibly relocated to a foreign land! Exploited and enslaved! Starving and bowing down! Adults dying and children taken away! That's how I've lived for a hundred years!"
Skuld shouted with a strained voice, and Verdandi faced her with a pale complexion.
"Every moment of being alive was hell! I, the worst elf queen in history, could only watch as my people were sold for gold! Yet, I willingly bore this crown of humiliation and disgrace. As a descendant of the elven royal family, it was my responsibility to endure!"
"..."
"And you, what? The Holy Grail? The Holy Grail?!"
Verdandi couldn't meet her eyes. Skuld bitterly accused her sister.
"For a mere illusion that doesn't even exist, you left me and our people to suffer in hell for over a hundred years! Did you just not care?!"
Silence enveloped the area.
On the plains filled with goblin corpses, the two women of the fairy royal family stood silently for a long time.
It seemed it was time for me to intervene.
"The Holy Grail does exist."
My voice startled the two elves, who turned to look at me.
Standing near the southern gate, where I had been listening to their conversation, I slowly walked towards them.
"In the depths of the Lake Kingdom. The 'Tower of Magic' in Zone 8 of the dungeon. That's where it rests."
"Prince Ash..."
"I, along with the Holy Grail Seekers, will go there to retrieve it. Perhaps you could wait until then, Your Majesty."
Verdandi was still needed on this front. I couldn't let her go just yet.
Skuld composed herself, smoothing her hair.
"I'm sorry for displaying our family issues."
"I understand. My family is in quite a mess too."
"Let's put aside the issues between me and my sister for now, and continue our earlier conversation."
Skuld turned to me with a serious look, her expression now gentle.
"I've heard about the banner you've raised and maintained on the monster front for over a year. 'Kill monsters, protect people.' You said, 'Within our reach, we'll save everyone.' And that included not just our elves but also other races and humans from other countries."
The Elven Queen took a step closer to me. I faced her silently.
"How long it has been since I've encountered such a magnanimous cause, you have no idea."
"..."
"Prince Ash. The world is filling with more hatred day by day. I may be young among elves, but in my lifetime, I've felt the world growing increasingly filled with malice."
"..."
"Your banner can unite this divided world again. So..."
"Excuse me for interrupting, Your Majesty."
I cut her off.
"That banner, as of this moment, is no more."
"What?"
"Kill monsters, protect people... It's a noble cause."
A self-deprecating smile curled at the edge of my lips.
"But I've realized just now. With beautiful ideals alone, you can't protect people."
"What do you mean..."
"Protecting people isn't about a flag. It's about a well-sharpened sword. That's what I've learned."
I looked around Crossroad.
The south wall, burnt and collapsed.
And the lives I had caused to be lost.
"So, that banner is now discarded."
"...Then what banner will you raise now, Prince Ash?"
"I'll still protect people. But."
I voiced my new resolution.
"To protect people, if it means having to kill people, I will do so."
"...And the definition of 'people' will be decided by you?"
I silently affirmed. A cold disappointment flickered across Skuld's face.
"If it means saving more 'people,' you could exclude entire races or nations from that definition of 'people.'"
"..."
"I guess I was wrong about you."
Skuld turned away abruptly.
"You're just like the other kings after all."
"..."
"Consider our conversation never happened."
Skuld walked away without looking back, towards her soldiers waiting in the distance.
I watched her leave, and Verdandi cautiously approached me.
"Prince Ash, are you... okay?"
"Huh? I'm fine."
I offered a faint smile.
"Don't worry about me. Go talk with your sister."
"..."
"You've met again after a hundred years. There must be a lot to talk about. Go ahead."
Verdandi, with trembling eyes, looked at me, then nodded and ran towards her sister.
I couldn't understand.
Why does everyone look at me with such worried eyes?
My mind is clear, my resolve is firm. Finally, all delusions have vanished.
I walked along the southern plains. In the middle of the plains, a dirty flag fluttered.
It was the white flag I had planted using [Imperial Edict].
Once white and straight, now it was smeared with human red blood and goblin green blood, burning and shedding ash with every gust of wind.
Like the countless lives lost following this flag. I gripped the shattered flagpole.
"..."
In all 742 games, I always threw my characters into death.
I cast countless subordinates into death without a second thought for the efficient clearance of the game.
I never questioned this act.
I was a monster.
Obsessed with efficiency, knowing nothing but strategies, not seeing people as people, a monster. And that's why I succeeded in clearing the game.
- Yes.
Why did it take me so long to realize? Haven't I always known this? That's why I cleared the game.
To save more people.
Someone has to die.
If reality is such, then command death as efficiently as possible.
Kill people to save others.
Why did I ever turn away from such a simple equation?
Because I was cowardly. Weak. Unprepared as a ruler.
But now I am ready.
- So who will decide who dies? Who will command death? Who will bear that burden?
The voice of the Goblin God-King echoed in my mind.
- To protect the world, someone must don the skin of a monster, right?
Yes.
If killing people can save others.
Then it must be me.
I have to command that death.
"You're right, Alexander."
Covering my face with my hand, I laughed bitterly.
"I have no choice but to."
Crack!
I snapped the flagpole I held in my other hand and carelessly threw the flag to the ground.
- To protect this city, there will come a time when you must sacrifice what is most precious to you.
The advice given to me long ago by Crossroad's Margrave suddenly resurfaced in my mind.
Those words, seeming both prophetic and cursed.
Now, they have become reality.
To protect this city.
To safeguard this world.
I have decided to abandon what is most precious to me.
My banner.
The objective of protecting people...
I am prepared to give it up.
To save more lives,
I must become.
A monster that devours people.