小嫂子的味道

The destruction of the Askington kingdom did help me achieve my ultimate goal, which was to stop this never-ending war. After the country was set into ruins, the event caught the attention of the whole world along with all the kings.

I was declared the most dangerous person at that time, a high threat level. I still remember the name I was given by the folk: the destroyer.

Since I was now a greater threat who endangered the survival of humanity, the kings finally decided to stop fighting amongst themselves and come together to face me as one.

Meetings were held and discussions were made, then one day when everything was read I received an invitation from the kings. They had invited me to a final fight, to settle things once and for all.

I would have gone instantly, this was what I wanted, after all. I chance to face the kings and kill them all. However, I was occupied at the time.

While my personal goal of killing the kings remained unfinished, I was successful in achieving the goal I shared with Reshi; which was to stop the war. Thus, I wanted to go and inform him of the good news.

And although I knew going there would do nothing as hundreds of years have passed and there is no way he would be alive, not going was a thing I could not afford. Hence, I set the kings at bay and wandered off toward the Devil\'s Mountains.

Climbing them was not so difficult this time. I climbed to the lower heights on foot, and from there I took control of a stray dragon and forced it to go upward until I reached the location of the cave.

I wandered inside and saw that the cave was engulfed in darkness. I stepped inside the main compartment, my heart ached when I saw that the torches were not lit. It ached, even more, when I saw that the utensils had not been washed for a long while and there was a pile of dust covering them.

There was a weird quiet in the cave, as if something important had gone missing. It felt really strange, and my heart pounded even more. Finally, I strengthened my will and forced myself to investigate further.

I arrived at the center of the main compartment, where both of us used to stay most of the time. And there I saw it.

There on the place where I\'d first woken up in this cave, on a piece of cloth, looking outside the cave, sat the skeleton of a man. I knew who it was, and I didn\'t intend to disturb him.

However, leaving him as it is probably wasn\'t good either, so I dug a pit for him and put him inside, giving him a proper burial. I sat near the grave for a long period, and I\'m not sure how long it was.

I just sat there, quietly, thinking about my memories and all the time I\'d spent with him. Then I stood up and looked back for the last time.

"The war is over, Reshi. Just like you wanted, this means I\'ve cleared my debt to you too. Everything is over, so you can sleep in peace now," I said, looking down at the grave.

"I know who didn\'t accept these, but still, I would say. Thank you, for everything you did for me," with those last words I left the cave and while returning, I destroyed the opening and sealed the mouth of the cave forever.

I set to return and while climbing down the mountain, I came across a klauth.

A real and alive klauth. It was around the same size as the skeleton in Reshi\'s cave, albeit the fact that it was breathing and flying in the sky with a sense of authority around it. That was the klauth I told you about back in the labyrinth.

I preferred to avoid fighting it since I was saving up my strength for the kings, and it didn\'t attack me either. I came down from the mountains and returned to the other side of the world, where the kings were waiting for me.

I was returning a year later than the original date, so I\'d expected to find no one there, but I was proven wrong.

The kings were there, all five of them. Waiting for me with their weapons and armor. From the condition, they were in, it looked as if they hadn\'t moved an inch in the last year.

Words were not needed there, I finally got what I wanted. And so we fought, all of the five kings against me at once. Many more people were killed from the impact of our battle, the land was split apart and tsunamis rose in the Eternal Ocean.

The battle continued non-stop for three days and nights, and in the end, I lost…

Yeah, not everything goes as you want it to. The kings probably knew beforehand that they could not defeat me in a fair fight even if all of them were to fight together, that was how strong I\'d grown during all the years I spent chasing after them.

Thus, they decided to take the coward\'s way and laid a trap for me; a spell. The spell activated once a certain condition was met, and I was weakened to a certain point after three days of battle.

It destroyed my physical body entirely and sealed my soul inside my sword—the Requiem sword. Once I was sealed inside, the kings used the remaining of their magical energy to create a grave for me.

Since they couldn\'t destroy either the sword or my soul, they took all the steps they could to seal me away from humanity as far as possible. The labyrinth was built, the destroyer was sealed, and a newborn klauth was put inside as a guard.

Now I don\'t know for sure, but the kings died soon after, my guess is based on the fact that I stopped feeling their presence after a month or so. It wouldn\'t be strange if they died.

They were humans in the end, no matter how powerful. They were already straining their bodies by being alive for many years, and the battle with me must\'ve been the final push they needed.

***

"That was all. In the end, I was able to stop the war, but my desire for revenge remained unfinished. Yes, I did probably speed up the process of their deaths, but I was not able to kill them with my own hands. As for whether I regret it or not, yes I do. I still wish that I should\'ve gone to battle more prepared, prepared to free myself if I was caught in a trap…" Req said and went quiet afterward.

This was her story, the backstory which was not in loli_pop\'s novel and which I didn\'t know about. I had asked her to tell me this part because I wanted to know the history of this world, but there\'s no denying the fact that I got more than that.

Her story seemed like the plot of some novel, but here it was real. She was real, I was real.

I hopped out of the bed and stood up, then I gathered all the bowls and the plate and went inside the kitchen. I washed the utensils, which took about five to ten minutes, and then returned.

She was still there, sitting on the lower side of the bed with a dull expression on her face. I observed her for a while as I changed into my night clothes. When I was done, I made sure that the door was locked and returned to the bed, and sat at my previous place.

"Req," I called. She lifted her head to match my gaze.

"Zero," I said. "That\'s my name."

Her face which had been dull before bloomed into her usual cheerful smile, and this was not the forced smile she was using all this time. Perhaps this moment was worth more than what I expected for her, since her smile grew, and she jumped over me.

It took a bit of effort to calm her down.

As for the reason why I told her my name when I\'d decided to not do that beforehand, well, I am not sure myself.

I don\'t know whether I did this because I wanted to gain her trust so the chances of her betrayal in the future would be lower or because hearing her call me master made my ears bleed with a cringe, or it had something to do with her past.

I didn\'t know, and I was not eager to.

"Zero?" she said, lying on the side of my bed and looking at me.

"Can I sleep with you?"

"No."