Chapter 317: The Recollections of a Certain Monster

That was a monster born from mana.

He didn’t have anything that might resemble a parent, so he was less a creature and more a phenomenon. Similarly, it would be more apt to say that he occurred rather than that he was born. The beast himself did not have any awareness that he was born. He just realized that he was there.

The monster that lay at the heart of the manor of ruins at the depths of the Great Forest did not have any particular goal. In the first place, he did not even know what he needed or what he ought to do, neither did he understand who he himself was.

But there were things that he did understand. After all, he has been here since the village was established. Although he did not have a clear sense of self at the start, he lived in the manor while relying on his faint memories that would occasionally surface into his head.

With his body made from mana, he did not need to eat or sleep. He could live on even without doing anything.

He captured the wandering souls of the villagers and allowed them to relive their old lives with fake bodies. When creatures got lost into the manor, he would welcome them as new residents.

He has noticed Ryouma since he entered the village with the other man. The undead inside the village made a commotion, but the monster wasn’t particularly wary of him. If anything, he was excited at the prospect of a new resident.

『Is he going to enter?』 [Monster]

He became even more excited when he saw Glen running around the following day. It was rare for humans to venture this deep into the Great Forest. Only a handful of adventurers and rogues who pushed their luck managed to get lost this far. And with all the undead, it was rare even for non-humans to enter the village.

『How long has it been since the last human entered?　I wonder what kind of person he is.』 [Monster]

He’s been watching Ryouma and Glen from the window since they started gathering undead. He knew that humans actively hunted undead, but it was the first time he had seen individuals like them deliberately attracting such a large group. At least from the human common sense he remembered, their actions were extremely dangerous. However, he also understood that they were capable people.

This understanding turned to caution when the two approached the mansion.

He hurriedly shut the gate and called out as many residents as possible to reinforce the defenses.

However, they were utterly powerless against them.

What puzzled him even more was his inability to retrieve the souls of the residents.

『They’re not coming back.』 [Monster]

It wasn’t rare for residents to be killed. The Great Forest was dangerous and encounters with monsters often resulted in casualties. However, even if their makeshift bodies were destroyed, they could be regenerated as long as their souls were retrieved and reincorporated.

That’s why residents could engage in life and hunting within this Great Forest. No, it was the Monster Beast himself that made them do that.

Yet, why weren’t the souls returning?

Puzzled, the monster eventually decided to open the door.

He could lure the two inside and turn them into residents.

By peering into their memories and showing illusions, he might be able to learn why the residents weren’t returning.

『!? 』 [Monster]

But he miscalculated. Ryouma’s memories were “more difficult to decipher” than any creature he had met before. Furthermore, the fragmented memories contained nothing but unseen cities and human activities.

For the monster, who knew only the Cormi Village of the past and the Great Forest, that alone was plenty shocking, but then he even saw the gods give Ryouma a job.

『…… 』 [Monster]

This monster, which had been observing the activities of the residents by giving them bodies for their souls to inhabit, knew about the gods. He had never met them or exchanged words with them, but he understood them to be absolute beings. Yet now a boy has appeared with a job from the gods to dispose of him. It was at this point that he realized that Ryouma was his enemy and decided to assimilate him completely.

『Why? …Why!?』[Monster]

But all of his plans ended in failure, and now, he had to face Ryouma with only a few residents remaining. The illusions he had shown not only failed to turn Ryouma into a new resident but also angered him. Ryouma ruthlessly and indiscriminately cut down anything that resembled a familiar human figure regardless of his relationship with them, charging straight through to at last appear before him.

“You sure showed me a ton of nasty stuff.” [Ryouma]

『Guu… Remove the intruder!』 [Monster]

From the deepest part of the hall called out the frail voice of an old man and issued commands. At once, residents who had been lying in wait in the hall rushed at Ryouma, but he deftly dodged the attacks and swiftly defeated them with his sword imbued with light magic.

What was his goal?

How would he move next?

The monster tried to read his thoughts, but it was to no avail.

（It’s too fast!）[Monster]

That was partly because Ryouma’s mind was indeed hard to read, but it was also because most of his movements were now reflex. By immersing himself purely in battle, all excess thoughts have been removed, and even when the monster could read his mind, neither the monster nor the undead could respond in time.

Fortunately, unlike the residents outside, the souls of the residents slain by Ryouma returned to him, allowing him to bring them back. So the monster could summon them again. The monster couldn’t leave the manor no matter what, so there was no way for him to retreat. As he braced himself for a decisive fight, he summoned the residents and plastered on them the face of Ryouma’s acquaintances, hoping that he’d slow that even if just a little.

“You just don’t know when to give up, do you?” [Ryouma]

The monster desperately fought. There were differences in the power that the souls could manifest due to the difference in station in their previous life. For example, knights and peasants, but the monster could not afford to be picky. The monster summoned whatever he could, but his confusion showed no signs of abating.

(Why?　Why?　Why?) [Monster]

The monster was just too lacking in experience. Though the monster might know a thing or two about how the people here used to live, in the end, that was not something that the monster personally experienced. It’s only been a few years since he’d taken this form and integrated human souls too.

Because of his overwhelmingly powerful abilities, he has never faced anyone immune to his abilities before. He also hasn’t had anyone to instruct him in the way of tactics. That’s why this situation was completely unexpected.

（What should I do?) [Monster]

They were evenly matched. If the person before him was human, then he should eventually run out of stamina or mana. Meanwhile, his residents could just keep resurrecting, so a drawn out fight should eventually end in his favor, but something was amiss. A vague but intense sense of unease washed over the monster. It wasn’t just because a human came specifically to kill him.

『Ah…』 [Monster]

Then one of the residents started moving slower. It was already dead and was absorbed in an illusion, yet despite knowing neither tire nor fear, the dead resident shook. That was not because it was trying to resist the monster’s response, no. It was instinctual.

“A-Ahh…” [Undead]

They diligently tried to stop Ryouma, but the monster could feel every one of them starting to shake. Their movements dulled, and gradually, the residents started to be pushed back. At the same time, the shaking of the residents too grew more intense, and some among them, even became unable to move.

（I know this. I mean, I don’t know, but I understand. This is bad—) [Monster]

The residents were created based on the souls integrated, so their memories and personalities were infinitely close to their lives before they died. That was also why their ’emotions’ could manifest more than ordinary undead. The monster used illusions to make them move, but now, a fear that transcended their illusions has sprouted within them.

Through them, the monster too came to know fear. As the battle lines drew closer to him, so did that fear intensify.

『Just what are you!』[Monster]

The monster yelled, but that did little to help the residents fighting in front of him. He had no more cards left to play. So there was nothing he could do. The moment those words crossed its mind, the monster finally realized it – what the source of his fear was.

（He’s not human. This thing isn’t a human.) [Monster]

It was something the monster knew very well but had never experienced.
It was something the residents had experienced, but really, it was something that all creatures experienced and feared.
It would visit in various forms, sometimes in the form of a monster, sometimes as a phenomenon, and sometimes as illness. It was an irrational thing.

（Yes, this is death.）[Monster]

Death had taken the shape of a man and now approached him. As the monster’s fabricated skin bristled with an even stronger fear, in his mind, a scream urged him to run, while another urged him to despair. When the residents protecting him were cut down, the monster at last met Ryouma’s gaze.

『Eek!?』[Monster]

The monster fled, but he did not do so after pondering the situation. He was merely moving on instinct, and in fact, he had no where to flee to. He just wanted to escape that place at all costs, so he fled to the door behind it.

But fleeing to another room could not even buy him more time, and Ryouma appeared again a moment later.

(No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! –No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!) [Monster]

The desperate monster summoned residents one after another. The monster couldn’t move from fear and couldn’t think of any other way with which to resist, so he did the only thing he knew and used his vast reserves of mana to summon undead one after another, making sure to give them faces that Ryouma would hesitate to hurt.

“Ryouma!　Wait!”
“Onii-chan!”
“Ryouma-kun!”
“Boss!”‘
“Ryouma! Stop it, nyaa!”
“Ryouma-san! Please calm down.”

The people of Gimuru. The employees from the store. The children from his travels, and above all, the people from the duke’s family.
The people he met in his second life, the people with whom he formed countless memories with, appeared before him and asked him to stop.

“Cutter Tornado.” [Ryouma]

But with a swing of his blade, a storm of wind blades swept them all away.

The monster too suffered under the ferocity of those blades of wind.
When he beheld Ryouma rushing for him through the opened path and the approaching edge of his blade, the monster thought to himself.

“I can’t run anymore, but I don’t want to die.” [Monster]

（――――）

That was the last act of resistance on the part of the monster.
In the face of death, in his desperation, and due to having been made conscious of death, the monster conjured that illusion without intending to, and the memories of the countless residents who have lost their lives were reproduced.

――As a dense darkness emanated from the monster, the concept of ‘death’ engulfed the entire room.