By Zephyria =======
Red Eagle continued to wail in front of Silver, whose mind had gone blank.
「Wolf! Wolf! I thought you were dead…」
「You worried for nothing. Is the Prince unhurt?」
Wolf took a step back and looked the Prince up and down. Red Eagle wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his robe.
「Wolf, I’m sorry. When Silver set out to find you and Uncle, I… I told him to give up. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to bear it if Silver died too…」
「You were wise.」
Wolf spoke firmly.
「You made the most correct judgment in a crisis where the future was uncertain. Reckless courage is nothing more than foolhardiness.」
「Wolf, don’t beautify my cowardice. I, I…」
「Prince, please calm down. Let us not dwell on the past.」
After soothing Red Eagle, Wolf met Silver’s eyes. His amber pupils seemed to say joyfully, ‘See, Silver? I followed you to the end, didn’t I?’ However, Silver’s gaze dropped.
Reckless courage is foolhardiness?
Then what does that make me, the one who went looking for you and the Ice Armor Warrior? Just some idiot who acted with foolhardiness in a crisis?
Silver picked up his robe, which had been thrown on the floor, and draped it over his body. Shifting his gaze beyond the stone needles, he gave the floor a sharp kick with his toe. For some reason, he felt a void in a corner of his heart. A sense of loneliness washed over him, as if he had spent ten straight days staring at nothing but rivers and great mountains.
“Now, so there are only four survivors left, right?”
At Black Weasel’s voice, Silver looked up. Black Weasel was looking up at the door while stroking his beard with one hand. The door was incredibly high and large. It was a size that only the giants from myths could open and close.
How the hell are we supposed to open that massive door? All we have as tools are human hands, and there are only eight of them in total.
Facing a grim Silver, Black Weasel winked with one eye.
“See, Silver. The process was a bit rough, but we survived. Isn’t that a wonderful ending?”
“Ending? We haven’t even gotten out of here yet, you brat.”
Silver kicked Black Weasel’s shin. With a thwack! sound, Black Weasel hopped on one leg.
“That hurts, you slave!”
“Stop exaggerating! The voice said the door would open automatically once we arrived, but it hasn’t budged. At this rate, that skeleton bastard might play another trick. He might make the four of us fight, saying he’ll only open the door for the one person who survives.”
“Hah! That’s a possibility, Silver. What should we do?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? We just have to hope the skeleton doesn’t play tricks. What else can we do, given our status?”
While exchanging words, Silver’s cheek suddenly felt a prickle. It was Wolf again.
What. Why. Hmph, translation?
I won’t! Why would I translate for a guy who treats me like an idiot who acted with foolhardiness?
「It’s nothing much.」
The clunky Atania language burst out of Silver’s mouth. Fuck!
「He was saying that the voice said the door would open automatically upon arrival, but since it’s still firmly closed, we shouldn’t let our guard down. Something like that.」
「Ah, I see.」
Wolf tilted his head back to look at the door.
「It is certainly too early to relax. But… this door is truly huge. Unless the skeleton wraith opens it for us, we’ll never be able to open it with our own strength.」
「Are you men giving up already? Whether it works or not, we have to try something!」
Black Weasel approached the door, rotating both arms. A wrinkle formed on the bridge of Silver’s nose.
「Hey… you don’t mean…?」
「That’s it, kid. Is there any other way?」
Black Weasel spat into his palm and looked back.
「I’ll push the door. You guys help me!」
Ah…
Silver closed his eyes and pressed his thumb firmly against the bridge of his nose. He felt dizzy at Black Weasel’s absurd behavior. Wasn’t that hulking man the textbook example of an ‘idiot who acts with foolhardiness in a crisis’? Perhaps this was how it looked in Wolf’s eyes.
「Can’t you just behave normally? Do you not see the size of that door?」
Silver spoke in a drained tone.
「Are you that thoughtless? We don’t know what other tasks might be dropped on us. We should be saving every bit of stamina, and you want us to do hard labor?」
「Hmm, a sharp point. But let’s give it a try anyway,」 Black Weasel replied stubbornly. 「The skeleton wraith likes—what was it—distortion, right? Who knows, maybe that door looks like a steel plate but is actually thin as a sheet of paper. Now, line up!」
The stone needles were so narrow that they couldn’t push the door side-by-side. With no other choice, they stood close together in order: Black Weasel, then Wolf, then Red Eagle, and finally Silver.
Black Weasel pressed both hands against the door. A strange silence fell. Even though it seemed impossible for the door to open this way, everyone felt inexplicably tense. Beads of sweat had formed on Black Weasel’s large hands pressed against the door.
“Huuuu…”
Taking a deep breath, Black Weasel shouted.
“Yaaaaah—!”
“Yaaaaaaah—!”
Following suit, the three boys pushed the back of the person in front of them with all their might. Suddenly, the door slid open. Lightly and softly, like the flutter of a butterfly’s wing.
“Uh? Uh… uuuuh!”
The four of them tumbled forward all at once and rolled away. Dust rose in thick clouds.
〔The Master has kept the promise.〕
〔Congratulations. To have so many survivors emerge, this is the first time in our domain…〕
The voice faded into the distance. Silver rolled his eyes to survey the surroundings. Black Weasel, Wolf, and Red Eagle were all lying face down on the ground, motionless. Silver’s eyelids kept drooping. It felt as if his entire body was being swept away in a fog. The thought that crossed his mind just before his consciousness snapped.
Is this… really the outside…?
Silver…
Silver.
“Hey kid, Silver!”
A rough voice hit his ears. It was Black Weasel.
Silver slowly opened his eyes. For some reason, a terrible sense of anxiety lingered in a corner of his chest. Had he had a nightmare while sleeping? Being kidnapped by a malicious wraith… Wait, I really was kidnapped by a wraith…
“Gasp!”
He snapped awake. A powerful stench pierced his nostrils. A nauseating fishy smell that could only come from a pile of corpses drenched in hot molten iron. It was the smell of blood.
Silver hurriedly sat up and looked around. There were corpses everywhere. Every single one of them looked as if their bodies had been hacked into chunks by giant scissors. Fresh blood that hadn’t yet clotted mixed with spilled organs, forming purple puddles like thick, freshly boiled tomato soup here and there. Even the term ‘slaughterhouse’ was insufficient to describe this horrific sight.
Nearby, Red Eagle was hunched over, vomiting. Wolf looked on, patting the Prince’s back.
“We’ve returned to where we originally were,” Black Weasel said, scanning the area. “And it’s exactly the spot where our bodies were wrecked. That attendant fellow was right. That skeleton wraith is surprisingly principled.”
Just as he said, Silver, Black Weasel, Wolf, and Red Eagle were on the path leading to the hot springs. Every window of the visible buildings, including the inn, was drenched in blood. Only animals wandered around aimlessly. Chickens, cats, dogs—all of them had blood-stained feet.
Silver looked down. His hands were clean. The robe that had been stained with blood was now only smeared with yellowish dirt.
He had returned. To the human world.
The giant iron door was gone. The countless stone needles and the Jester who danced in the air had vanished. If this wasn’t a dream world, he had undoubtedly returned to his original place. Even so, it didn’t feel real. Perhaps his soul was still being held by the skeleton wraith.
“Silver. Let’s leave quickly.”
Black Weasel gestured and turned around.
“It’ll only be a hassle for us if we’re spotted by people. We have to move before other ships arrive.”
They hurried toward the docks. As always, Black Weasel led the way, followed by Red Eagle, Wolf, and then Silver. As they walked, Red Eagle kept glancing back nervously. Silver spoke with a feigned bluntness.
「Stop it. The wraith isn’t following us.」
As they passed the random crowd, Silver intentionally looked away. He didn’t want to see the Eyepatch Woman’s corpse a second time.
They departed on a small boat. Instead of the smell of blood that had been clinging to his skin until a moment ago, a cold river breeze ruffled his hair. Starlight left silver fragments on the black surface of the water. Occasionally, the howl of a wolf slid down the steep cliffs. With every stroke of the oar, transparent currents splashed against the side of the boat. It was an ordinary night, just like any other.
55 – Hell Execution Order