Chapter 219 ·Rio (1)
Rio (1)
Suddenly, Rio, who had collapsed while screaming, slowly began to open her eyes. She worried for a moment that she might have returned to the place from her memories of the past, but what she saw before her was not a battlefield whose ground was covered in blood.
As her previously broken consciousness gradually returned, Rio regained her sight completely. Fortunately, it wasn't a war zone, but there was a massive monster right before her eyes.
"Rio. Are you awake?"
"..."
When Louis, whose body was that of the Chaos Dragon, asked her, Rio's expression hardened.
"At least you're definitely awake."
"..."
Louis was caring for Rio, who had fainted and collapsed, by laying her back against his own body. It was certain that Rio had woken up, but from her expression, he could see that it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling.
"Is there something on my face... No, that can't be. Did you have a nightmare?"
"Well, I shouldn't say this, but..."
After seeing Louis's face, Rio hesitated for several seconds before speaking.
"Right now, young master is scary."
Judging by the way she spoke with trembling eyes, it was clearly not a lie. At those words, Louis let out a hollow laugh.
"If I'm that scary, is it really okay for you to be leaning against my body like this right now?"
"..."
There was no way to argue against that fact, so Rio closed her mouth again.
"Seriously, you! Do you know it's already been 25 hours since you've been lying there like that?"
Pram, who had been perched atop Louis's head, popped her face out and nagged at Rio.
"25 hours?"
That meant she had been lying there for almost an entire day. Worried for a moment that something was wrong with her body, she felt relieved when there didn't seem to be any problems.
But the fact that she had been unconscious for that long meant that she had suffered a severe shock. So, Rio spoke honestly about what she had seen.
"I saw my past life."
"Your past life?"
"The moment I touched the manual, all those memories flowed into my mind."
"What kind of person were you in that past life?"
When Rio introduced her past self as the Blood Sword Technique user who unified the East Continent, Louis immediately summoned the relevant parties. The people he summoned were the two who had brought the manual from the East Continent, Silia, and Ferus, who was in charge of artifact creation.
As soon as everyone gathered in response to Louis's call, Pram began to speak. She began to explain all the memories she had witnessed through the manual.
"Several hundred years ago... To think the Maiden of Blood, who unified our East Continent, had such a past...."
"We didn't know about that either."
Kaid and Yugwang, both from the East Continent, were clearly surprised. They had only ever learned old stories through books, so there were plenty of details they didn't know.
"To think that children were kidnapped or bought and then used as tools of war. Ha... People in the ancient days weren't in their right mind, were they?"
"But isn't it pretty much the same now? Think about why we joined the 7th Legion in the first place."
"At least nowadays, they mainly conscript criminals. Of course, there are those like us who were taken in unfairly..."
Victor, Simon, and Rozen discussed the differences and similarities between the armies of the old East Continent and the current 7th Legion. They shared similarities, but there were also many differences.
"Excuse me, but how is the history of the Maiden of Blood portrayed on the East Continent?"
In response to Silia's question, Kaid and Yugwang explained.
"Well, she's known as a traitor of the highest order. Someone who plunged the entire East Continent into disaster—a villain, regularly depicted as our continent's enemy in history books and children's stories."
Just as characters who earn readers' ire always end up being brutally killed in fanworks, the Maiden of Blood suffered the same fate.
From the East Continent's perspective, it was natural; she was seen as the main culprit who nearly led their continent to collapse.
"But according to the memory Rio saw, that disaster was actually started by the East Continent's Emperor at the time."
"Yes... Even we were surprised at that."
"As we only learned the past through the history books and children's stories distributed by the Imperial Court..."
In other words, distorted history education had persisted for hundreds of years. Louis bitterly laughed, saying there could be no worse distortion of history than this.
"In the end, the Maiden of Blood—Rio's past self—didn't do anything wrong."
"Yes..."
"Of course, even if we went back to the East Continent and spread this story, no one would believe it."
On the contrary, Yugwang laughed dryly, saying anyone who did so would likely be executed for treason.
Listening to Rio's recollection, they realized the so-called Imperial Court had been forged by force... There was no point in even considering what kind of thinking such a country would have.
The Emperor, too, was nowhere near sane. The fact that he heaped all the blame onto Rio's past self and covered up the truth said everything.
"Our Rio... She's so pitiful... Even if it's in her past life."
After listening to the whole story, Pram leaned her head on Rio's shoulder with a sorrowful expression. Unlike her usual teasing, she sincerely felt sad, but Rio simply found Pram's head annoying.
"In the end, the Maiden of Blood isn't an evil person, unlike what we were taught."
"Our continent's people have been taught the wrong thing."
Yugwang and Kaid realized just how badly their own continent's history had been warped.
They were ashamed of themselves for having trusted such a history until now.
[That's not all. Now we can finally understand what we didn't know before.]
[Now I understand why the Chaos Dragon quieted down that day.]
Frederick and Mirianne, both hanging from Silia's waist, also spoke up.
[Thanks to the Maiden of Blood—her past self—sacrificing her own life and leaving a fatal wound on the Chaos Dragon, its rampage subsided.]
[That gave our Imperial Court the opportunity to create artifacts to resist the Chaos Dragon. It puzzled me why it quieted down, but now I know.]
Although not officially recognized, she was a being who wielded great influence even in the West Continent.
She deserved to be called a legend several times over, yet the East Continent, which treated her as a criminal and cast her away, was out of its mind.
"But the ritual that awakens the black horde and great devils... If one can truly perform such a ritual, it's no wonder she'd be treated as the enemy of the world."
Ferus pointed out a very real issue, causing Rio's face to darken. Silia cautiously rebuked him.
"Are you saying Rio should disappear?"
Though it was an extremely inappropriate remark, Ferus calmly replied, saying he understood.
"No, the opposite, in fact."
Instead, he brought up something far more positive.
"Could you show me this manual?"
"Here you go."
At Ferus's request, Yugwang handed him the manual.
"So this is the artifact the Maiden of Blood—Rio's past life—created several centuries ago. That's why there's resonance and shared memories."
"Isn't it just an ordinary piece of paper?"
"Hey! How could you call this just a piece of paper? This is an incredibly rare item!"
At Pram's ignorant remark, Ferus scolded her sternly before continuing.
"This manual is packed densely with exceptional magic power. To be honest, it's closer to a magitech device or perhaps even greater."
"I don't see traces of magitech, though. Are you saying they made a magitech device just like that?"
Given that this thing was made centuries ago, magitech at the time wouldn't have been as developed as it is now.
That was certainly the case for the West Continent, and likely true for the East Continent's technology as well.
"As far as I know, magitech devices back then could only be made by a handful of people with extraordinary magic power. Only heroes could make them, which is why such items are now considered artifacts."
That's the reason why the weapons used by the five Heroes who subjugated the Chaos Dragon are considered artifacts.
Back in those times, when there was no advanced technology, people made do with their bodies, and only a few could use their immense mana to create something like magitech.
"In that sense, your past self was an outstanding talent. If I may say so, you surpass even the two Heroes here."
[That's true.]
[After all, you managed to force the Chaos Dragon into a groggy state even without an artifact—something we couldn't even scratch.]
Frederick and Mirianne, the Heroes themselves, agreed with that assessment. Rio lowered her head at the continued praise.
"Embarrassed?"
"..."
Louis quietly asked, but Rio kept her head down and said nothing. Indeed, the one feeling the most uneasy right now must have been Rio.
"Um..."
But suddenly, Rio spoke up hesitantly.
"Can I... really live?"
At Rio's earnest and anxious question, Ferus replied,
"A Blood Sword Technique practitioner can perform rituals to awaken great devils? That's true, but there's no guarantee that the Blood Sword Technique only affects great devils."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember the dream Louis had?"
Louis certainly remembered. It was about the ancient times, when the Chaos Dragon fought against the invading great devils. At that time, the Chaos Dragon perished along with the great devils, and the great devils took measures to one day revive their power.
Blood spilled in the battle stained the ground, and that blood became what manifests now as the Blood Sword Technique.
"Think about the blood splattered by the great devils back then. Do you think it consisted only of their blood?"
"That's..."
Louis recalled his dream again. Both the blood of every great devil and of the Chaos Dragon stained the ground together. That meant the Chaos Dragon's blood was mixed in as well.
"Ah...!"
"Exactly. The Blood Sword Technique contains not only the power of the great devils, but also that of the Chaos Dragon. That means this ritual could affect the Chaos Dragon as well."
If that was the case, then conducting the ritual might allow the Chaos Dragon, too, to reclaim its original power just like the great devils. Louis had never considered that possibility.
"Wouldn't that make things even more dangerous?"
"If you perform the ritual carelessly without any countermeasures, yes, it'd be risky. But I think, you see, that very ritual holds the key to restoring your body."
"The key?"
At Ferus's words, Rio reacted with surprise.
"Surprised? A ritual known for summoning world-destroying devils might actually be the only way to restore this friend."
"Y-yes, that's right."
Ferus returned the manual to Rio and continued,
"That's right. Since this is so important, you need to learn how to perform the ritual. Meanwhile, I'll finish the artifact."
"But if the ritual can bring young master back, then isn't the artifact unnecessary?"
"Really..."
Ferus sighed as Pram made yet another ignorant comment.
"If it weren't important, we wouldn't have been making it in the first place. And you're just as important as the artifact."
"Me? Why?"
"..."
Again, Ferus showed extraordinary patience, as if reacting to another foolish thing Pram had said.
"Because you're the World Tree itself."
"Ah! I forgot."
"..."
Holding his temper, Ferus went back to the facility in the village to continue working on the artifact. As the group prepared to return to their respective places, something happened.
[There's one thing I wanted to ask....]
At that moment, Frederick, attached to Silia's waist, spoke to Rio.
[You said in your memory that you dealt a fatal wound to the Chaos Dragon. Can you describe the process in detail?]
"Is it really necessary for you to know?"
[Not particularly....]
After hesitating for a moment, Rio gave a very concise explanation, saying that she had put her life on the line, pointed her blade at the Chaos Dragon, and then her body had been torn apart by it.
Frederick and Silia showed pained expressions at her words, but in truth, most of it was a lie.
She did die in battle against the Chaos Dragon, but not by being torn to pieces.
More importantly, there was one truth she hadn't told anyone about her recollection:
That if she performed the ritual, she would die.
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