On The Other Side: I Quit Being Human

As the wind brushes against our skins, the cold it brings us keeps us awake. It is not in the sense of preventing us from sleeping but reminding us that we are going on a dangerous journey that may cost us our lives.

For Millonia and me, this kind of journey is nothing but our daily dose of adrenaline. For Winerva, who has always seen the Hero as some sort of an undefeated existence, she can\'t help feeling depressed.

"I am going to die. This is the end of my life. Why? Just why? I could\'ve lived safely being a maid in the Demon King\'s castle!"

All of us can hear her, but none of us scolds or reprimands her. She, after all, says something true.

\'Yes, Winerva, you are right. If someone dies in this journey, you will be that person,\' I remark inwardly.

Those who doubt themselves will lose confidence and those who lose confidence will lose the will to struggle. In this world, not struggling means you can never excel, which will lead you to your demise.

Millonia and I are excited about this journey, so we don\'t have any thoughts of dying. Because of that, we will excel, survive and come out stronger.

"Anyway, where are we going exactly?" Millonia asks.

"One of the human Kingdoms that also has several Heroes summoned."

"We have seven of those Kingdoms, you know?"

"Cresundia."

"I thought you were going to kill the Heroes from Antares," Millonia says weirdly.

"We are going to pick up our informant there."

"What informant?"

"This informant has close ties with the Hero from Antares, so we will use her to find all of those bastards," I explain.

"Heh… you\'ve thought it well. I thought it was nothing but something that flashed in your mind while you were defecating."

"I am well prepared, bitch."

"Chill out, asshole."

Whenever I talk with Millonia, I always feel relaxed. Although I have never been tense ever since our departure, talking with her makes me more comfortable; she has that unique vibe that always makes you feel safe.

This probably makes Winerva think we are crazy though. She has been looking at us strangely with a look that says, \'Do these people share the same brain cell?\'

I will like to say she is just being a worrywart, but I figured that anyone should be worried in my position, which makes her concern valid. I guess we are just built differently; so, like Millonia, I pretend as if I don\'t notice her gaze.

Time flies as fast as Genelos does. We have been flying for five hours now and the sun is already sinking.

Although Genelos can still fly without problem for the next ten hours, I still decided it is time to rest. I instruct him to go down and we reach the ground in five minutes.

Undoubtedly, the wind is way calmer on the ground, so we feel warm as soon as we land even though it is not. Millonia, like an experienced adventurer, immediately sets up a campfire and begins preparing the meal.

Winerva is slightly lost at first, but it doesn\'t take her long to join Millonia. I watch the two from the sidelines while feeding Genelos with Taurone meat.

"How many raw ingredients do you bring with you?" I ask.

"Enough to make our meals for a whole month," comes the quick answer from Millonia.

"Is there a need to bring that many though? We can always gather ingredients from the environment."

"It is about quality, boy. Bringing us will lose its meaning if you still eat shit foods in the end."

"Touché."

Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye; the meal is ready. As expected of Magic, it really makes things convenient.

As I sit down before the campfire, Millonia takes the food before me. I take off my mask and scoop the mashed potato she made with the help of Winerva.

Noticing the look Millonia gives me, I say, "You don\'t have to look at me anxiously; you know I will say your food is delicious. You never made a shitty one."

"Kuhum! Who is waiting for that, you idiot?" Millonia waves her hand frantically while blushing.

I put the mashed potato in my mouth and remark, "It tastes heavenly—like usual."

Millonia doesn\'t say anything, but I can see from the corner of my eyes that she is hiding behind the bowl that is too small to hide the bright red color on her cheeks. I wisely pretend I don\'t see anything and enjoy the well-made mashed potato with the roasted beef.

Twit-twit.

None of us speaks as we enjoy our meals, allowing us to hear the chirping birds in our surroundings. The place where we are resting is a green plain with a quite lot of trees, so there are a lot of birds here.

These birds are not normal. Apart from the fact that small birds like them usually chirp noisily in the morning, all of them have three eyes that are focused on us.

"Corpse Eater," Millonia says. "That is their name."

Winerva slightly widens her eyes and mutters, "Them being here means that…"

"Possibly, yes." Millonia nods her head lightly.

Corpse Eaters are small Wild Beasts the size of sparrows. As their name suggests, they eat corpses—preferably, human corpses—to survive.

They can smell rotting flesh from 100 Absitan away. Because of that, they are often found looming above a battlefield.

Their presence here, in other words, means there is a battlefield ahead of us. We might be just overthinking, but there is merit to being careful.

Every battlefield that we don\'t know of represents the conflict that the Cursed Creation doesn\'t cause. We need to be careful since being dragged into the conflict is more than troublesome.

"This is getting scary," Winerva mumbles. "By the way, can I ask you why you have to bring me too, Millonia?"

"Hm? Why did you only ask me now? I thought you liked going on a journey together with me."

"Had I known the journey beforehand, I would have refused vehemently!" Winerva retorts in slight indignation.

"Well, you see, Winerva; actually, Layland is not the only one having a journey. This, in a way, is also my journey, so we both need someone to take care of our needs. That person is, of course, you!" Millonia explains brightly.

"…"

The conversation ends very quickly. Winerva resumes eating her meal after getting the answer she wanted to know but didn\'t want to hear and Millonia is busy chuckling at that.

\'Layland, a group of people is coming.\'

\'I know, I can feel the vibration their footsteps make too.\'

I, on the other hand, am focusing on what is approaching us. The Corpse Eaters in our surroundings are now gazing at us intensely as if expecting the group that is coming to provide food for them.

I finish my meal quickly and stand up abruptly, surprising the girls. They still don\'t feel anything wrong yet since the group is still 5 Absitan away from us.

"Layland, what is wrong?" Millonia asks with a hint of urgency in her voice.

"Nothing," I say simply. "I am going to relieve myself for a bit, so wait here."

"Are you talking about that pee or the other pee? I can help with the latter," Millonia says jokingly.

"Ah, I will ask for your help later," I reply nonchalantly but causing her to get tense instead.

"Oi, let me—"

"Stay."

Without waiting for a response, I storm off in the direction where the group is coming. I don\'t bring Genelos with me because I want him to take care of the girls.

Putting on my mask, I increase my running speed. My surroundings quickly become a blur and I can\'t hear anything soon.

When I can already somehow gauge the power levels of the people heading my way, I slow down my speed and run casually. I can already see and hear them clearly since the distance between us is less than 2 Absitan at this point.

"Fuck! What was that battle? Are you even serious? We were fighting against civilians—normal people! What could they do before us?"

"Calm down, Eric. You shouldn\'t forget who they were."

"Alleged Demon worshippers? Have you seen them do something horrible, Lucas?"

"Eric, calm down, dude. The feeling is mutual—we, too, aren\'t comfortable with how things have developed."

"Hmph! Don\'t make me laugh! All of you are smiling, bastards. It must have been good, mustn\'t it? Killing the weak and violating the \'witches!\'"

"This shithead!"

Bam!

Listening to the conversation of the rowdy bunch, I instantly grasped the situation. The seventeen people are Adventurers that took the "Purge" Quest from the Temple.

That Quest has a noble meaning to the humans—pardoning the souls of the corrupted—but, in truth, it is basically killing random people for no reason. Most of the time, it is done to expand the territory of the Temple, which will also strengthen their influence.

"Let us get some meal for you too, shall we, Rexorem?"

When I am just a few hundred feet away from them, all of them are already punching each other … Well, to be exact, punching the person named Eric, who has presented the ugly truth that none of them wants to hear.

Without any warning, I take Rexorem out and use [Senbonzakura]. Blood splashes into the air as the petals shred their bodies, but my attention is on the ransacked village 3 Absitan ahead.

It is as absurd as it is astonishing to me that humans can do that much cruelty to their kin.