Chapter 945 - I Refuse.
The monster known as the Root generated demonic energy by devouring the life force of its surroundings.
It was an entity that had learned to survive by twisting several shamanic arts to consume everything around it.
It was an individual yet a colony; a colony yet an individual.
Rem clearly understood this fact and analyzed the situation from a purely shamanic perspective.
'It consumes life force and converts it into demonic energy.'
The thought naturally led to the next.
His mind accelerated, pulling a single conclusion to the surface.
'A repository of life.'
A self-sustaining colony created solely to devour, digest, and convert life into demonic energy.
Wasn't this exactly how the Lords of Demonic Realms viewed the continent?
It was just a passing thought.
But bathed in the relief, satisfaction, and joy of having exterminated Silence, a new confidence bloomed within him—the belief that they could eradicate the remaining Demonic Realms as well.
Naturally, his mind drifted in that direction.
They were on their way back after putting an end to Silence.
Riding his Vellopter, Juol couldn't hide his overwhelming excitement for three days straight.
"I can feel the life force returning to the land around us."
The West had always been barren because of the Demonic Realm.
Now that it was gone, the immediate changes were staggering.
Crops were literally growing in real-time across the surrounding earth, and Juol had witnessed it all with his own eyes.
He hadn't slept properly for three days.
Pure, unadulterated excitement consumed him.
In stark contrast, Enkrid slept soundly.
To be precise, he strictly adhered to his ironclad rule of resting when it was time to rest.
Even if he had fought using a swordsmanship that acted as the monster's natural enemy, he was still exhausted.
Fun aside, hadn't he pushed his body to its absolute limits?
The same was true for Rem and Dunbakel.
If anyone had witnessed the battle that took place in there, they would have composed dozens of epic songs about it.
"With this much fertile land, there's no reason to fight with the neighboring tribes anymore."
Unable to contain his excitement, Juol repeated the same sentence for the dozenth time.
Enkrid wasn't oblivious to the meaning behind those words.
Scarcity breeds war.
Limited resources are the reason people press blades to each other's throats.
Conversely, abundance would grant them a temporary peace.
Enkrid nodded at Juol's words.
However, that didn't mean he harbored the soft, naive delusion that all conflict in the West would magically vanish.
Even when people have plenty, those who want to fight will still find a reason to fight.
'An end to the war.'
What would it take to truly end the war?
Swinging a sword wouldn't be enough.
That much was certain.
What did the King he called a friend think about this?
He would have to bring it up the next time they met.
What kind of answer would he get?
He definitely wouldn't just say, "I don't know."
Even Krais had spoken of his vision for the future multiple times.
Of course, because Krais was inherently pessimistic, even while placing his absolute trust in the Madmen Knights and Enkrid, he didn't paint a particularly rosy picture of the future.
"Well, for starters, unifying the continent is out of the question. At the very least, the heads of every nation on the continent need to trust each other. If that doesn't happen, none of this works. Then, they have to reach an agreement. Assuming they swear to never betray each other, they need to create some form of competition to replace actual warfare. But that won't be easy. It really won't be easy."
Despite his pessimism, the fact that he harbored a sliver of hope within that "it won't be easy" was quintessential Krais.
He was a pessimistic hopeful.
A man dreaming a soft, idealistic dream of a 'Salon' in a harsh, unforgiving world.
"The Demonic Realm Slayer."
Juol, who had tossed and turned for three nights straight, muttered from beside him.
The light shining in his eyes was brighter than ever before.
Enkrid the Savior was now the man who had slain a Demonic Realm.
The man brought in by Rem—the greatest talent in the West—had ended the Demonic Realm.
He had fulfilled the centuries-old, desperate wish of the West.
It would be strange if his eyes weren't brimming with tears.
Western men weren't prone to crying, but for something of this magnitude, weeping openly was entirely justified.
Of course, Juol didn't break down sobbing.
He was simply deeply moved.
He looked at Enkrid with wet eyes and bowed his head in profound respect.
His heart was racing with the sheer urgency to return to the city and spread the news.
Enkrid knew the West might become a battlefield again tomorrow, but at least for right now, he was satisfied.
There would be no fighting on this land for the foreseeable future.
It would be an era of sharing and distributing the newfound abundance.
That night, Rem focused entirely on meditating and recovering his body, while Dunbakel happily sipped away at the liquor Juol had hoarded.
The distant cry of a Mocking Cat echoed through the night.
Even that sounded like a song of peace.
"Everyone in the West will bless your name," Juol slurred, thoroughly drunk after matching drinks with Dunbakel.
He then proceeded to list twelve different, highly enthusiastic methods for commemorating Enkrid's heroic deeds and achievements.
Normally, Rem would have chimed in from the sidelines and told him to dial it back, but even he just chuckled quietly.
"I suppose I should properly say thank you, too. But seriously, what was that swordsmanship?"
Just as Enkrid had shown immense interest in Rem's techniques, Rem was equally fascinated by his.
"Did you make that up on the spot specifically for them?"
It was an entirely natural question.
Rem was a man whose talent made the word 'genius' feel inadequate.
Furthermore, when it came to pure combat intuition, he was arguably the best in the Knight Order.
He had perfectly grasped the core concept of Enkrid's swordsmanship.
It was a technique based on shockwaves, acting as the absolute natural enemy of Silence.
How was that even possible?
From the outside, it looked as if Enkrid had comprehended and weaponized a brand-new sword art in real-time.
"True talent really is on another level, I suppose," Rem finally admitted.
It was a statement acknowledging his Captain's superiority.
Enkrid replied to those words.
"When I passed out for a bit, one of the ancestors who protected this land appeared and taught me the sword art."
"...Man, even a Mocking Cat wouldn't repeat a line like that."
It was a roundabout way of saying 'cut the bullshit.' If a Mocking Cat—a creature known for perfectly mimicking any sound it hears to lure people in—wouldn't even bother repeating it, it meant it sounded like complete nonsense.
But truth often resides in the realm of the unbelievable.
"Well, seeing as you're saying it with such a straight face, I think I know what you mean."
Rem nodded.
In the West, they had a saying:
The interpretation of the dream is more important than the dream itself.
Rem was highly skilled at interpreting dreams.
He truly lived up to the title of an exceptional shaman.
"Epiphanies and inspiration are like that. Sometimes they show you hallucinations, or you hear voices. I'm telling you, I once had an axe fly at me all on its own."
Weapons that house spirits sometimes perform literal miracles.
Rem recalled the moment he had taken a step forward through that bizarre experience and shared it.
Of course, while their experiences were somewhat parallel, the sheer scale was worlds apart.
Enkrid looked up at the two moons, which seemed exceptionally bright tonight, and closed his eyes.
The accumulated fatigue he hadn't fully registered, the cozy warmth of the heated leather, a hearty dinner, and a glass of liquor all blended together, quickly pulling Enkrid into a deep sleep.
Sway—
Standing on the rocking boat, the woman holding the lantern looked at him and smiled.
The expression 'jovial' perfectly captured the wide smile spreading across her face.
She opened her mouth.
"Thank you."
"It was my fight, too."
"Still, thank you."
The female Ferryman—or rather, the unnamed ancestor of the West.
She resembled a bear.
Her sheer physical bulk alone was easily comparable to one.
One could easily believe she was Audin's older sister.
Had she also been given a nickname like 'Bear Beastkin' while she was alive?
"You have a strange look on your face."
"I was just thinking about the people of the West for a moment."
It wasn't a lie.
And when it came to playing dumb, Enkrid was second to none in the Knight Order.
The Root was born as a tree harboring demonic energy, bloomed into a flower, and mutated into a massive colony.
The Root of her era had been called the Dragon's Nest.
The bastard conceived and birthed rotting dragons from its wooden womb.
Those dragons couldn't breathe fire, but they possessed the sheer mass and strength—along with a putrid stench—to crush and pulverize everything in their path.
The Ferryman before Enkrid had lived through that hellish era, trapped in the endless repetition of 'today'.
"I am leaving now. We won't see each other again. My long-cherished wish has been fulfilled, and I am satisfied."
With those final words, her hand holding the lantern began to turn gray.
Then, a hood rose from behind her back, obscuring her face and draping over her body.
Her gray, cracked skin was exposed, and her eyes transformed into bottomless black holes with no discernible edges.
"You truly do fulfill our long-cherished wishes."
The transformed Ferryman spoke.
The warm atmosphere from when she said 'thank you' had vanished entirely.
With the Ferryman's words, the shadows on the boat flared and surged upward like flames catching a sudden draft.
Enkrid furrowed his brow slightly.
What is this now?
It was a sight that naturally provoked questions.
The surging, flickering shadow of the Ferryman stretched out long, and the boat expanded beneath his feet.
Then, another Ferryman rose from the deck.
One Ferryman rested a lantern on their shoulder; another sat their ass on the edge of the boat.
A relatively small Ferryman walked right up to Enkrid, tilting its head up to stare intently at him, while another Ferryman twice its size also manifested.
The boat had expanded enough to easily carry dozens of people.
The boat continued to grow.
And the number of Ferrymen continued to multiply.
-Will you fulfill our long-cherished wishes, too?
The overlapping voices of the Ferrymen echoed.
There were so many that Enkrid couldn't see them all even if he whipped his head wildly from side to side.
That massive horde of Ferrymen spoke as one.
-Listen to me. Fulfill my wish.
-Please, me too.
-Me too.
-Me too.
-Me too.
Every single one of them was desperate.
-If you support everyone's dreams...
-Us too.
-Us too.
-Us too.
Every single one of them was wretched.
Desperation and wretchedness harmonized perfectly.
The Ferrymen latched onto the very beliefs and ideologies Enkrid had fiercely upheld until now.
They were like leeches that wouldn't let go until they had sucked every last drop of blood.
And there were far too many of them.
Hundreds, thousands of leeches lusting after their lost dreams.
They entrusted their wills to the sole remaining free will standing resolutely on this boat.
They dumped their long-cherished wishes and tragic desires onto him, begging for their own satisfaction.
They looked like a pack of wild dogs starved for ten days.
-I want to slice that woman's throat.
The Ferrymen, who had seemed like a single entity until now, began to unravel.
One of them abruptly spat out its dark desire.
In response, another Ferryman projected its will.
-I just need you to find one person for me.
-Are my descendants still alive?
-Did my wife end up living alone for the rest of her life?
-There are only five people I need to kill. That's enough. Kill them for me.
-I had a lot of wealth to pass down to my child, but I never got the chance.
-Just check if my treasure is still there. Don't take it. Just confirm it's there.
-Please, meet the Fairy of the Lake for me.
It was like hundreds of people screaming directly into his ears all at once.
If he had seen this horrific spectacle the very first time he repeated 'today', would it have broken his mind?
The repetition of 'today' was a curse.
The scene before him was the absolute proof of that.
This curse had devoured countless people up until now.
Among them were those who had resisted with their own willpower for as long as they could before finally being trapped, but there were also many who hadn't managed to endure even a single cycle before being consumed.
Enkrid listened to their pleas in silence.
After hearing every single one without missing a word, he straightened his posture, fortified his own Will, and answered them.
"I refuse."
It was an answer as clean and definitive as a sword strike that had reached the pinnacle of martial arts.
...
A brief, heavy silence descended upon the boat packed with Ferrymen.
Light is swallowed by brighter light depending on its intensity.
The same is true for sound.
Small sounds are buried by louder ones.
Why would Will be any different?
The wills scattered by the Ferrymen's lingering grudges were completely swallowed by Enkrid's absolute refusal.
-Whyyyyyy!
A short Ferryman rushed forward and grabbed Enkrid by the pant leg.
Staring down at the Ferryman trying to cling to him like a tick, Enkrid refused once more.
"I don't want to."
His expression of Will was painfully clear.
The half-hearted fragments of the Ferrymen melted away like snow under the harsh sun.
They crumbled into black sand in the air and seeped into the deck of the boat.
As the Ferrymen disappeared, the boat shrank proportionately.
-You fulfilled the wish of that other Ferryman! Why not mine?!
Someone spat out their grievance.
You could say they changed their angle of approach.
The Ferryman argued for fairness.
"What do you want me to do about it?"
Enkrid refused again, packing the sentiment of 'I don't give a damn' firmly into his Will.
Crumble.
The number of Ferrymen dissolving into black sand increased once more.
"I don't want to. I refuse."
Enkrid rejected them in rapid succession.
Ultimately, what the Ferrymen were doing was akin to slapping their bare hands against a fortress wall that could withstand boulders launched from catapults.
As the number of Ferrymen dwindled, the size of the boat shrank drastically.
In the end, there were less than ten Ferrymen remaining.
Seven, to be exact.
One of them sat on the edge of the boat and expressed its will.
-I merely wish to remain in a peaceful 'today'.
The tone, the presence, the method of expressing its will—it was all very familiar.
It was the Ferryman who had repeatedly urged him to just stay in 'today'.
-Life is just a continuous string of suffering anyway, isn't it? So as long as you know how to enjoy the suffering, it doesn't really matter if it isn't peaceful.
That was the Ferryman who always giggled as it spoke.
This one was also familiar.
Because he had encountered the Ferrymen so many times, it was only natural.
This Ferryman was the one who usually snickered and constantly tried to tear down his convictions.
-I don't care either way. It's fun just watching you.
Then there was the Ferryman with a stoic attitude that felt somewhat unfamiliar, and...
-The ending is already set in stone anyway.
The one who was always pessimistic.
-Stop doing such foolish things.
The Ferryman who urged him to give up while pretending to care.
-Does fulfilling a long-cherished wish put the heart at ease? Fascinating.
The Ferryman who occasionally appeared and showed him goodwill.
-How far will you go?
The last one was definitely familiar.
It was the Ferryman who asked questions but never cared about the answers.
Seeing them like this, you could finally distinguish them.
Those seven stared directly at Enkrid while remaining separate, then suddenly merged back into one.
They scattered like black sand and were sucked into the Ferryman standing in the center.
"Everyone's desires are entirely different, but there is one thing we all agree on," the Ferryman said.
Enkrid quietly waited for its next words.
"Everyone finds it highly entertaining to watch you."
Had the eradication of this Demonic Realm been a surprise to them as well?
Or was the surprise that one of their own had finally achieved their long-cherished wish?
Whatever it was, it was a refreshing experience.
Enkrid replied.
"Then I look forward to your continued guidance and instruction next time as well."
His tone was dry, but the content was brimming with raw ambition.
He was essentially telling them to spill whatever secrets they knew, just like the female Ferryman had done this time.
The Ferryman's mouth tore open.
The corners of its lips stretched all the way to its ears.
It burst into maniacal laughter as it slowly drifted further away.
Enkrid felt a sensation of floating and opened his eyes in reality.
He had suspected it before, but the Ferryman was not a single entity.
Furthermore, they all harbored their own distinct desires.
That was the truth he had gleaned from this dream.
***
If you enjoy the series and want to get more chapters early, head over to https://payhip.com/Samowek
Next 100 chapters - 25e [Be sure to message me on discord for any information]
[SHOP BEST BUY] - 50e - Every chapter translated - Latest WN-1095+ daily chapters from monday to friday for a month.
-KNIGHT - Cost 20e - Chapters 1025-1095 + daily chapters from Monday to Friday for a month
I welcome you to join our discord https://discord.gg/RY7BbJpeAZ
**ANY INFO ONLY APPLIES TO THE LATEST CHAPTER HERE ON WEBNOVEL**