This is the story of a magician and an elf girl.

"You are……"

The dark back figure appeared in the eyes of the elf girl. The silhouette of a person whose height and shoulders were not enough to support the cloak appeared in another ray of light. He looked at her with childish but sharp eyes and patted her shoulder. She knew that she was the future...

"!"

Suddenly, Linna, who was sleeping on the floor, woke up and opened her eyes. At first, she thought she had returned to her original room, but at first glance, that was not the case.

"here it is……"

"Are you awake? Descendant of the elves?"

"Um... who are you... I seem to have dreamed about... what was it..."

"Don't worry, this is a safe place. I have opened the road to the underworld with the power of authority. Your lives here will continue endlessly. There is nothing to be afraid of. The disadvantage is that the memories of your experiences here will be stored in your brain in a fuzzy form. Occasionally, you will see some memory fragments left by the deceased. If there is someone close to the memory next to you, it will be easier to read the remaining thoughts."

"What... Hades... memories... am I... dead..."

"To be precise, I saved them when they were about to die. After all, the bottom of the trap was a bottomless pit filled with corpses. If they fell in, they would surely die. But for me, it was just an entrance that happened to open the door. After all, there were many souls wandering over there. You should thank them for telling me this."

"Um... I don't quite understand... who... are you..."

Linnae, who was confused, saw the other person walking towards her in a black dress, and seemed to be holding an unlit torch in her hand.

"Hoo." Suddenly, a cold blue flame illuminated her charming face. Frightened for a moment, Linnae stepped back and fell. She noticed that Wendy was lying next to her and hurried forward to check her condition: "Wendy... Wendy?"

"……Well……"

"It's okay. Under the protection of this goddess Hecate, the slaves are all fine. They just slept very deeply. You are the type who wakes up quickly from a dream, which is a special case. Normally, you should not wake up so easily before the matter is over."

"Hecate...the goddess..."

Just like the elven goddess, there are definitely not many people who call themselves goddesses. As far as Linnae knows, there are demons and legendary Valkyries in the world today. This is the first time she has heard the name Hecate.

"Haven't you heard of it? Elves are really long-lived. If you can't die, you don't know who will lead you to the underworld after you die. No wonder General Yu had to explain the legend about himself to you during the war."

"Why...you want to help us...since we are still alive...why..."

"Are you asking about my purpose now? You are so cautious. I am only doing that to achieve my goal. After all, the situation on the ground is not good now. I can hear people dying. Many lives that are not yet dead are crying out. Souls are calling for the words of salvation. It seems that he has arrived."

"he is……"

Hecate, who was sitting casually on the back of a big black dog, looked at Linnae with her chin in her hand and said, "I'm just an adventurer who has been commissioned. I pay the reward and complete the task for the client. This is what adventurers do, isn't it?"

"Adventurer... did you... did you ask your brother to do something?"

"It's just a simple cleaning. As for the cleaning of intelligent life forms, isn't he the most suitable person as a scavenger?"

"!!"

Linna, who had carefully put Wendy down, stood up suddenly, her eyes full of childish hostility, like a child who was talking back to an adult.

Hecate didn't like that look very much, it was as if it was exactly the same look that man gave her when he was staring at her.

"It's true... Let me say this first. That magician accepted the commission from the goddess Yu Deng in order to achieve his own goal, even if the process required him to delete or trample on his compassion - this was his choice."

"Even if that's the case... this is all part of your conspiracy. You kept plotting against him... and forced him into a desperate situation at the right time. None of this has anything to do with you."

“Hahaha, does that mean I can get rid of my relationship with you? Don’t be so arrogant, you elf girl.”

"!"

"Who do you think caused all this? Where did his despair come from? Where did his anger come from? Where did his reason for fighting come from? All of it - it all came from you alone."

"..."

Linna knew it, speechless—she knew it, but she just couldn't deny it, and it was hard for her to admit it.

"Why? Because you made him see hope. The man who had never looked up to hope in this turbid world could actually see the arrival of hope one day. But he knew clearly that it was because of darkness that there was light, and there would be despair when there was hope. He made his own choice. For you alone, he turned into darkness in order to light up the light. He dragged unrelated people into his anger and despair. In order to regain his own hope, he abandoned the dignity of a good man and killed only for the sake of killing. He became a merciless killing weapon. Do you really think that only the goddess and I are responsible for this result? Elf girl."

"……I……"

The elf girl knew—she knew everything.

That man has slaughtered too many lives for the life of the elf girl alone.

As a killer, as a reliever, as a doer of good, as a doer of evil.

Too many identities overwhelmed the way he looked at himself, too much guilt overwhelmed his trust in the world, and too much killing overwhelmed his qualifications as a human being.

When it comes down to it, he just wanted to get back to the elf girl.

But this world has been torturing him and playing with his feelings.

So he gave up everything, he gave up himself, he gave up everything he believed in.

The moment he picked up the knife, all that was left reflected on the blade was the figure of an executioner.

"I don't understand. Why? Why would that man choose a girl like you as his protector? Has he been brainwashed? What can a young girl like you give him in return? Friendship? Love? Sex? Hope? This kind of spiritual thing... Nothing you can do in your life can repay the sacrifice of so many lives. He should know this."

"No... Brother... I'm not helping people for this kind of thing..."

She still remembered how fragile his trembling hands were, hugging her petite body, as if he wanted to convey his own uneasiness, asking for such a transparent sense of security from the innocent girl, and lowering his head as if he had no other choice.

"Huh? What other reason is there? He trampled on the value of life in order to protect the kindness you gave him. Prioritizing kindness will never be forgiven. This world is full of countless good deeds that require malice to complete. Prioritizing kindness alone is pure hypocrisy."

“It’s not hypocrisy!!”

She remembered that he might not be a pure doer of good anymore, but in Linnae's eyes he would always be that dazzling light, and she had always believed that the people who could save lives were definitely not people like her, but heroes who had truly faced darkness and despair, and could shine with unique brilliance in this rotten world.

"It's either hypocrisy or false justice. When people justify their actions, they only consider statements that are beneficial to themselves. Even if they find more reasonable reasons and values, they can't change the nature and heart of people. In order to save one life, they kill two lives, and then kill three people to continue the value of this behavior. The constant repetition and persistence are like countless intertwined lines. In the end, what remains on the picture is only a destiny full of contradictions and chaos."

"..."

She still remembered that man hated trampling on good intentions, so that's why he was so determined to abide by his beliefs and the agreement with the elf girl. He didn't want to be the one who broke his promise, he didn't want to trample on the girl's kindness, he didn't want the girl to change because of this, he just wanted to be the one to bear all these sins.

"You can't do it alone - you can't change that magician, his heart has long been rotten, he doesn't care about anyone, he doesn't care about the value of life and the meaning of existence, it doesn't matter whether people are dead or alive, intellectual life without rationality is not qualified to live in this world - this is a natural truth, I believe he would say that, 'people cannot be changed', what needs to be changed is 'this world', as long as all inferior intellectual life forms are eliminated, the laws of this world can be changed in a real sense."

"..."

She still remembered that after knowing each other for such a long time, she still had not changed his heart. He was a warrior, he was an adventurer, he was a magician, he was a hero, he was light.

Such a person would never...

"... Linna... I want to be with you forever... Always... Always..."

If you really think so, then this is all you can prove about your trust.

"No, my brother is my brother. He is a human being, not a murderer. If this is his choice, then I will accept the torture of darkness in order to accept this choice. I will never leave him alone again. I have made an agreement with him. No matter how many setbacks I encounter, I will not break the oath between us."

At the same time, Hecate also found the reason and answer why the magician chose the elf girl.

That firm gaze, unbreakable trust, and the belief in advancing and retreating together are like souls sharing the same flesh. Their thought patterns are so similar to each other.

In order to protect each other's trust, the two of them have put in a lot of effort to get here.

"...I see...Is this the reason why he chose you..."

It is absolutely impossible for them to betray each other.

John believed in Linnae, and Linnae also trusted John.

Trying to sow seeds of doubt between their relationship would be an absurd act.

"It's been a long time since I last saw you. Let me see you for myself... Descendant of the elves, are you really worthy enough to inherit the glory of a hero?"

"..."

The Witch God holding a torch rode on the back of the evil dog and looked down at the elf girl from above.

Linnai did not flinch in the face of the huge monster and raised her bow, ready to fight it.