Chapter 55 - The Calamity of the North (1)
"Damn it, everyone scatter!"
"T-the ground is freezing!"
"Uwaaaah!"
The North.
In the field where demons were fleeing frantically, only one person walked leisurely.
"It will be soon."
Selimia looked at the freezing ground with an ecstatic expression.
"I'll soon be able to prepare a foundation for him."
CRUNCH!
One by one, the fleeing demons froze.
Selimia wove through them, recalling the time she met the Hero Clay in the past.
He clearly recognized her true identity.
She was, by all rights, an entity that should have been subjugated.
Even if Selbaro protected her, he was a man who bore the hope of the entire continent.
No one could stop him, who was realizing the will of the Holy State Alliance.
Nevertheless, he did not attack her.
Why was that?
"He must have recognized me as his only companion."
Other than Selbaro, Clay was the only one who treated her kindly.
Even without revealing her curse, the imperial family members all found her strange for being unable to move beyond a certain range.
Naturally, they were reluctant to approach her. Except when they were forced to come close to escort her, no one wanted to spend time with her.
What she felt then was utter loneliness.
It wasn't just a feeling she experienced because no one would associate with her.
It was a sense of solitude that came from having no one suitable for her secret.
Selbaro didn't know.
The fact that she desired a companion.
Selimia's longing to live a life of love, but whose body was too weak, leading her to walk into the snowfield on her own to avoid being a burden to Selbaro, could be said to constitute her entire being now.
"He promised me."
Clay seemed to have read her loneliness.
He treated her kindly and promised to accompany her later.
He said he could do anything after the Demon King died. Selimia asked him then if he truly meant anything.
When he nodded, she asked him to be her companion.
He merely smiled.
He didn't answer, but she knew what that smile meant.
"Because he couldn't answer there."
Selbaro was watching the scene. Instead of answering with words, Clay showed it with his actions.
"My brother might have wanted the Hero to die."
He, who had initially tried to keep her caged, who disliked the Holy State Alliance, might have preferred for the Hero to die.
She could not tolerate that.
If it weren't for her brother, she wouldn't have left it alone. She just couldn't do anything because the thought of harming her family remained.
It was just for that reason.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE.
Then, she felt the ground vibrate.
"Huh?"
Something was rushing from afar.
Looking closely, it was demons riding cow-like quadrupedal monsters.
"Are they trying to put up a struggle?"
WHOOSH!
Arrows soared into the sky.
The falling arrows contained magi. Just that alone was enough to strengthen them to pierce stone.
THUD! CRACK CRACK CRACK!
Numerous arrows embedded themselves in the frozen ground. Each time, the frozen earth cracked, and shards of ice flew out. Amidst the fragments and dust, Selimia frowned.
"How vulgar."
Selimia found it ludicrous that these people thought they could face her with such means.
CRASH!
She stomped her foot hard on the ground.
Then, the cold spreading from that spot condensed into a single form and froze.
ROOAARRR!
What was created was the Ice Dragon, Freezing.
"Go and tell them."
Though it was merely a shell created without a soul, Freezing roared madly, powered by her strength.
"Tell the bugs to get out of here."
Then Freezing immediately flew up and shot shards of ice from the air.
The charging demons were hit by the ice shards and shattered, scattering in all directions.
***
"Damn it!"
Amidst this, the one barely dodging the ice shards and screaming was none other than the horn-demon.
"How am I supposed to keep going forward!"
Having become the vanguard after insulting Clay, he turned pale watching his comrades fall one by one.
"It's a complete monster!"
The horn-demon had met countless monsters before.
But honestly, he didn't properly understand the Hero and the Demon King.
He didn't know how strong they truly were.
He realized it now.
"Kyaak?!"
"Agh!"
In the hellish scene created by the dying screams of the demons, the horn-demon looked back.
There, a black grim reaper, now the Demon King, Clay, was slowly walking towards them.
"Damn it…!"
There was no retreat.
He shouted in desperation.
"Let's go! Let's finish off that dog-like bitch who came to devour the North!"
The cornered demons charged with him, and…
As a result…
"…K-cough."
They were utterly defeated.
Legs severed, arms vanished, some even headless.
Amidst the many half-destroyed demons, the horn-demon coughed up blood on the ice and struggled to raise his upper body.
"D-damn it."
It was an unwinnable fight.
Before they could even get close, they were struck by ice and sent sprawling, like insects being swatted away.
CRUNCH, CRUNCH.
Clay approached, his steps crunching on the snow that had accumulated on the ice.
"I commend you."
He said to the horn-demon.
"You seem useful enough."
"Cough, wha-what?"
"It means I'll let you live."
His eyes, as if containing an abyss, looked down at the horn-demon.
"So never babble foolish words again."
Shuffle.
Watching Clay's back as he walked away, the horn-demon swallowed dryly.
This wasn't merely something he had done to punish him. He had shown him the simplest rule applicable in the demon realm.
If you don't know who to follow, you die.
Even demons, who lived in a primitive, almost barbaric way, understood the importance of the hierarchy of power.
"Merciful, indeed."
For demons who, though they knew it, rarely experienced the hierarchy directly unless they encountered it, Clay had given them an 'opportunity.'
"I will follow."
It was a mode of behavior unseen in demons until now.
But precisely because of that, the horn-demon realized that Clay possessed a formidable ability to revive the demon race.
He was cruel, yet he knew how to utilize what was valuable without discarding it.
ROOAARRR!
Freezing, who had been pulverizing the vanguard demons, paused as it flew above Clay, preparing another attack.
CRACK!
Freezing bit and shattered the chunk of ice it had gathered in its maw, then landed gently beside Clay.
"Are you trying to make amends now?"
Clay asked in a low voice, looking at Freezing.
Freezing did not answer.
It merely turned its head and looked at a woman slowly walking from afar.
Clay's gaze followed, and the woman called the Snow Witch became clearer as she approached, coming into sharp focus.
"Ahhh."
She gasped ecstatically.
"You are alive, after all."
"…Selimia."
"Yes! You remembered me~!"
A face full of joy.
However, Clay's reaction was nonchalant.
"Your presence here means the real Freezing is dead."
"What?"
At Clay's words, Selimia's eyes suddenly widened.
"Lord Clay?"
"Yes, I knew."
Clay already knew that Freezing was binding her body.
"But I just left it alone."
At the time, Clay couldn't decide whose side to take.
After speaking with her directly, he couldn't simply conclude that Selimia was just a wicked Snow Witch.
Yet, there was no guarantee that she would remain so if released from her shackles, so he left it as a problem for that country to resolve.
"From the perspective of a Hero, it was a wrong choice. I should have distinguished between good and evil and found a solution."
Nevertheless, he couldn't.
He didn't know which choice was right.
"I didn't even know my own future would turn out like this, so looking back now, it might not have been strange that I did nothing."
"You knew, but you just left?"
Selimia said with an expression that seemed to have lost its excitement.
"Even though you could have freed my chains."
"There must have been a reason you didn't tell me about it in the first place, too."
Clay replied in a low voice.
"You also didn't know how I would think of you, did you?"
Something other than human.
She hadn't revealed anything because she didn't know how Clay would react if he knew that fact.
"In that regard, you definitely have an emotional side, Selimia."
Clay respected Selimia.
At least, in the past.
"I tried to protect your feelings."
So he listened to her words, spoke kindly to her, and indulged her childishness.
"But your current appearance doesn't seem to be what I expected back then."
"!"
Seeing Selimia's surprise, Clay immediately continued.
"Of course, I am different from back then. What's important now is whether you are a calamity that can be controlled."
"Do you want to use my power?"
"If possible."
However, if what Selimia wanted was the Clay of the past, that was no longer something he could offer.
"So, Selimia, what are your thoughts now?"
Judging by her current actions, Selimia was far from normal.
However, that wasn't necessarily a reason for Selimia to prefer the current Clay over the past Clay.
Selimia might still be chasing the Clay of the past.
"…Lord Clay."
After a brief conversation, Selimia opened her mouth.
"I was surprised and grateful that Lord Clay was alive."
She gathered her hands to her chest.
"If you had released me earlier, Lord Clay wouldn't have had to suffer such insults. But it's also true that I didn't want to show Lord Clay my true self. My brother also wanted me to be a normal human."
"..."
"However, I realized it belatedly. Lord Clay wasn't unsure how to distinguish what kind of being I was. Rather…"
Selimia's eyes gleamed.
"We were too similar to be set free. I, who don't even have the ability to deceive myself like Lord Clay, would have immediately descended upon this world as a 'calamity'."
"Deceived yourself?"
"Yes. Look at Lord Clay's appearance now. Haven't you become a magnificent calamity yourself?"
Selimia let out a soft laugh.
"Yes, Lord Clay. You were indeed the companion who suited me. There's no other reason. We were both destined to be that way."
"Is that so."
"So, Lord Clay."
She held out her hand.
"Come with me. I will now guide you to a cradle that no one can touch. To the empire I will create."
"I cannot do that."
Clay shook his head.
"I am not a calamity, but an end."
The revelation about those who betrayed his everything – that was him.
"You too must become a herald of that end. I ask only that of you."
"That's a bit different from our promise, Lord Clay."
A blizzard raged around Selimia.
"This world belongs only to the two of us."
"I'm sorry, but I have already taken on another duty. If you cannot comply with that…"
Clay drew the demonic sword, Shiltnaro, from his waist.
"Then you'll have to withdraw from 'my land', Selimia."
"That sword…!"
Selimia's expression twisted terrifyingly.
"Let go of it, quickly."
"This is my weapon."
CRUNCH!
Selimia clenched both her fists.
"Then I have no choice."
Coldness swirled around her.
"Now, I too must take what I want by force."
Her next step moved towards Clay.