109 Part 2

The dots did not connect. It was as though an important piece of the puzzle was overlooked. The whole situation gave an unpleasant feeling of discord as if something was missing from their memory.

The boy might have done something, but what he had done was unknown.

They failed to understand. That in itself was more frightening than anything.

“Did you do this?”

Darian asked the boy calmly. Jolt managed to regain his composure as well.

Darian did not feel fear.

In that case, he might be able to do something about the situation somehow.

“That’s right. If you understand that, please leave.”

“I can’t do that.”

Both of them were exchanged words calmly.

They revealed a part of their true strength to each other. But neither side seemed to feel threatened.

Jolt decided to trust Darian.

It was only natural for Jolt to think that the boy was frightening because he understood nothing. But Darian would do something about it somehow.

To this day, Darian had defeated various formidable opponents. This time would be no different. Jolt believed that Darian would show the way to settle this situation as always.

“Why? If you can’t retrieve the half-demons, you have no choice but to withdraw.”

“Hmm. Here I thought I didn’t need to explain. Do you happen to know what purpose the half-demons serve?”

“… A barrier?”

The boy responded after giving it some thought for a moment. He might not know the details, but he should know the general situation.

“Yep. I can cut to the chase then. There are a great number of threats in this world. In order to seal them, barriers are needed. That is why half-demons are needed in creating those barriers.”

“So what?”

“I don’t think it’s good to think of people’s lives as merely numbers, but to save a million people, we sometimes have to sacrifice a hundred people. Wouldn’t you agree? In fact, that is exactly what countries do, isn’t it?”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, but it has nothing to do with me.”

“Takatou! Shall we give him a little hint?”

The girl standing next to the boy, who seemed to be indifferent, interjected.

Apparently, the girl had more decent sensibility.

“Are you sure it’s okay? If you help those few half-demons, a lot more innocent people will die.”

“You’re strong, aren’t you? Even without sealing them, you can just defeat them, can’t you?”

“You won’t know what’s going to appear. I’d like to maintain things as they are when possible.”

There might be no opponent that Darian could not beat.

However, there was no telling how violent the battle and the aftermath would be. Consequently, unnecessary damage would very likely to occur. It would in everyone’s best interest to diffuse this situation without a battle.

“You know what? I don’t really care about this half-demons issue anymore. It’s better to concentrate on what to do with the remaining half-demons instead of meddling with the risky seal.”

Darian got off his horse while conveying his thoughts. Jolt did not entirely understand where Darian was going with it.

“For the sake of you, I didn’t withdraw.”

“Is it because I killed your comrades?”

“That’s one of the reasons. Naturally, that would be considered murder in my country. The consequence is unknown, but since there’s a confession witnessed by me, a royal, you can’t escape punishment.”

“It’s probably useless to say this, but I did it for self-defense.”

The boy didn’t bat an eye even when he was threatened to be killed.

This was hardly a very peaceful world. Jolt killed people sometimes as well.

However, he did not kill without feeling any remorse.

In other words, he might feel exhilarated to trample on an irritating opponent. But even with this distorted emotion, he bound to feel some kind of sympathy when the ones being killed were his comrades.

However, the boy didn’t seem to feel anything. That was one of the reasons why Jolt thought he was so terrifying.

“You killed my friends even though they hadn’t done anything to you. Don’t you have any guilty feelings?”

“If I just watched and did nothing, I’d be the one getting killed. It can’t be helped.”

“I wonder. It seemed to me like an overkill. That was just your subjective point of view. There was no hard evidence. You were only going by your feeling that you might be killed, so you killed first. But that’s not an acceptable excuse.”

“I have no intention in making excuses, and certainly no intention in convincing you either. My only request is for all of you to leave. That’s all.”

The boy seemed to be somewhat irritated.

Even so, he was not so reckless as to try and kill Darian. However, if the situation was reversed, the boy would have been dealt with indifferently.

“You can kill your opponents spontaneously. There are no actions necessary.”

“That’s right.”

“Then, when you feel like your opponent is going to kill you, you can kill them first easily. In other words, you kill them depending on your feeling. You can kill an opponent you dislike even a little just by thinking it. Are you aware that you’re a substantially dangerous existence?”

“Yeah, I’m well aware of that.”

The boy frowned as he responded.

“I see. Then you should die. You are an existence that can’t be allowed to live.”

“I have been told that often.”

“Hold on! I don’t think they have a right to judge you like that!”

The girl interjected. The boy didn’t think much of it, but the girl’s face was distorted in rage.

“Of course we do. All living things, those who could be killed by him, everyone, have the right to criticize him.”

The girl became silent after hearing the rebuttal, but her expression showed resentment for not able to do anything about it. Unable to refute Darian’s words, she looked dissatisfied.

“Well, it’s a bit late to ask this, but I’ll ask anyway. Are you planning to kill yourself?”

“Really, it’s too late to ask that. If I had that intention, I would’ve done it long ago.”

“I suppose.”

“Let me reiterate, I don’t plan to do anything if you leave me alone … but, at the rate this conversation is going, I’ve never been left alone in the past and was always attacked …”

The boy gave a troubled expression.

It was a mixed expression as if he was fed-up or annoyed, but there was no tension at all.

Seemed like he had the confidence to deal with whatever Darian had in his disposal.

“I can’t let you live any longer than this. That’s my conclusion.”

“Well, I understand why you think that. Even I think it would be bad to let someone like me live.”

“Such composure. Are you underestimating us because you think you won’t be killed?”

“I don’t think I’m invincible. Anyone who exceeds my power will be able to kill me.”

“I see. That settles it then. You know, our meeting might not be a coincidence after all. The heavens could have arranged for me to stop you in this opportunity.”

Similar to the boy, Darian did not lose his composure even though he knew what the boy was capable of.

It only meant that he would be able to do something about the situation.

Darian walked towards the boy leisurely.

Jolt was confident of Darian’s victory.