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– A whole chapter is a history of memories of mostly original character and setting... (Claudin, the dragon, Tartarus’s story)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6MP2ECaJXa
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Velvet et al arrive at the depths of the Dragon’s mental world, it is suspected that they have come into contact with the core of memory, except for a moment after the disconnection, their whole spirit is immersed in the memory again to check more of the memory.
This state is actually very dangerous, because the more immersed in the memory, the more they will be affected by the Dragon’s spirit, by the influence of connection. Humans cannot easily separate themselves from reading memory in others mental world, and they cannot even have a conversation at will. Sometimes if their spirit is not strong enough, they will be affected by the spiritual world. The closer they are to the core, the greater the impact. Simply put, if you enter the world of desperate people, you will also feel the effects of despair, and you can only maintain yourself if you are not overwhelmed. This is why Eleanor said that entering the spiritual world is an extremely dangerous action.
Once in this state of spiritual connection, if it is interrupted by external factors, the spirit will be damaged, and the damage of the spirit will mean the possibility of becoming a disabled person when returning to the body. Because a person is simply composed of spirit, soul and body , The body contains the power of the material, the soul contains the fate tree woven by the karma of grievances and gratitude, and the spirit contains the power and will of the emotions. It is impossible to lack any of the three things. Once the spirit is seriously damaged, the carrier will be Losing his will forever and becoming like a doll.
Regarding these risks, Eleanor carefully explained to her teammates before entering the spiritual world of the dragon. It is not unreasonable for her to worry that the teammates are too relaxed. The unknown length means that they will be undefended for a long time and most exposed to the enemy's world.
The indifference of her teammates really bothers her. Although she says she doesn't want to bother with it, she is thinking about it. Continue to watch the memory or protect her teammates. Just after she decided and implemented it, she found that Edna also seemed to have disconnected from the memory core and came to her side.
"Edna? You are not...?" Her actions towards Edna Confused, it's no wonder, Edna was not bothering with the danger she mentioned, but Eleanor didn't know that Edna is as not straightforward as Velvet.
"Honestly, I'm not interested in the following memory, it was a surprise to see my brother in it, but I'm not very interested in historical stories. Only Sorey and Mikleo are interested in this kind of thing. I'm a little surprised that Velvet is still watching." Edna reluctantly looked at the two who were still in contact with the core of memory.
" She had a reason to watch because she was going to rescue Tartarus." Eleanor thought of what Velvet was trying to tell Tartarus last time, in her calculation or not, it pretty much looked like she was trying to rescue him by speech.
“I didn't hear wrong, did I?” Edna gasped as I finished the sentence.
“Nope, but she has tried to save him.”
“That is far for me to expect from her.” Edna widens her eyes a little bit, looks absolutely surprised by that.
"I can't agree more, I guess Sorey does affect her a lot in a good way." Eleanor smiled as she was proud to see such a change of Velvet and concluded.
“I am not sure if you call the naive way good.” Edna, however, did not completely stand positively to this change.
“I am sure she knew the risk but still chose the naive way,” Eleanor claimed as she knew there was no way Velvet not understanding this way was way too difficult to achieve, after all the hell she had been through. Naive wish, say the perfect ending, is always the most difficult one to achieve, and people concluded it as unrealistic and idealistic, and for one knowing all this basis still chooses the hard path, Eleanor would not call Velvet naive.
"I would pray for her success then." Edna looks at Velvet in a thoughtful way, then closes her umbrella and pokes the ground with it, said: "Since it would be boring out here, let's have a chat." Edna seems to accept the claim finally and joins Eleanor's action.
"I accept your offer with my appreciation. I guess it has been a while since we last actually chatted, isn't it?"
Since it's gonna be a very long time required for Velvet and Sorey reading through all memory of the dragon, Eleanor and Edna would have a long time to chat while keeping an eye on the surroundings.
----------Dragon's Memory2-------------
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At the suggestion of Eizen the Strange Seraph, I gave up my duties completely, allowed the Dark Age to continue, and began a life of human observation.
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Meliodas, the Lord of daemon, ruled in a show of power. As an Emperor, he did not only do bad things, he unified the continent, unified weights and measures and writing. The culture and knowledge that had disappeared since the day when humans suddenly lost sight of seraphim were buried in the darkness, but he only used human power to rebuild the culture belonging to human beings. Human knowledge in architecture and technology was obtained through his own research. unprecedented progress. From the results, this may be a great cause, but the price to achieve it is the suffering of countless people.
What is needed to form his great cause is to build a large number of civil works and a large number of military constructions. He worked hard to build the Great Wall, excavated the Grand Canal, built roads, built palaces and imperial tombs. He started war again and again, conquering more land. In addition, he built 8 colosseums, locked the sinners in them to fight with the daemons, and set up auditoriums to watch the battles.
In this era, both human beings and daemons live in fear and persecution, and their lives are consumables. But in such an era, there is a family that lives tenaciously, and in terms of numbers, it is also a big family. They live in poverty but are strong. The mother always told fairy tales of the seraphim and human beings living together, and taught them to be gentle with people with the old losing belief of Empyrean. The eldest son in this family is supportive to his younger siblings and the family. He has a sunny, cheerful and gentle personality, sometimes a brag though, his name is Claudin Asgard.
A crowd appeared in front of the notice board today. It was the village's messenger who came to the royal capital. He would appear every time to convey the imperial decree.
"The Emperor summoned each household to send a male over 12 years old to participate in this construction and serve in military service. Those who fail to meet the standard will have to pay a heavy tax. The participants will gather here tomorrow morning."
It was an urgent time, and Meliodas basically did not give the people a Choice, because no one can afford to pay taxes.
Claudin's family also had to send someone to participate, after all, their family was poor. For the sake of the family, Claudin went to Corvee on behalf of the family, and before leaving, he asked his younger siblings to take good care of themselves and his mother.
Corvee is hard work, and just six months ago, their father went to Corvee and never came back, so Claudin swore that he would endure it and come back safely to see his family. He had to be separated from his family for a long time, but fortunately, his childhood sweetheart was summoned by labor with him, and he was not alone. On the way there, dozens of people fell ill due to acclimatization and eventually died, but the family of the deceased would not be notified until they came to investigate.
It has been five years since then, and the daemon supervises the labor. The daemon has long lost the sense of human beings, and does not understand the laborers, but just blindly pushes the laborers. Regardless of whether there is an injury or not, the supervisor only cares about the daily progress, and he is the one who will be punished for failing to deliver the progress. In order to save costs, the accommodation and food are very poor. In addition to the occurrence of the plague, the loss of workers' lives is naturally great. Those who died are all buried under the Great Wall they were building.
I may be tired, that I am indifferent to this, I took no action. Maybe it's my true nature, what I want to protect is my lord, not human, the dream of coexistence between seraph and human is borrowed from my lord. However, Claudin has always tried his best to help these people, not hesitate to share the food he has left to help others. This gentleness and kindness may be cultivated by his identity as a brother, that is, he still does not succumb to indifference in the dark of power. One of the teenagers he rescued was called Melchior, who was cared for by Claudin when he was seriously ill, and finally escaped the fate of death. After his recovery he seems to have become a fanatical follower of Claudin. The other person who was helped was Tartarus, he had a dark aura, he claimed to be a taboo existence, he looked strange and impressed me, and Claudin just laughed and said he was a really interesting person .
While I was looking at Claudin, there was someone else who seemed to be watching secretly just like me. The presence of other sights that I intuitively sensed, I was always looking for that sight.
The mighty city wall is built little by little under the blood and sweat of the people, its construction is based on the pain of thousands of people, and it is the joy of one person. When it was completed, only one-third of the construction workers remained in service. Even so, Claudin still believes that his family is waiting for him, but he doesn't know that the heavy taxes and the low labor force of his family have forced the children in the family to do child labor, and the mother is seriously ill. Long-term tired work has led his mother to become terminally ill. His younger siblings were tortured and beaten when working as a child. The youngest sister was raped and autistic. The only one who was happy to see Claudin's return was his mother. With such a fate, those who stay here are not as good as dead, but they also understand that their brother did nothing wrong.
Claudin kept his feelings in his heart and did not express it, but he was very sad that he failed to protect his younger brother and sister. The mother told him to "don't hate, forgive your immature siblings, and be their support", and she asked Claudin to believe that the Empyrean did not abandon them, at least no one in their family died in a bad life. She was trying to give Claudin a welcome feeling with her frail body and always cold hands.
Claudin also cheered up, as she hoped, and took on the responsibility of being the mainstay of the economy. His smile never faded, and the atmosphere at home gradually eased.
"Why is this guy never desperate and sad?" I heard someone mutter to himself, and looked for the source. Finally, my eyes fell on a man with dark and fierce eyes. He has dirty black red hair and weird red eyes, these characteristics are very normal in this era of daemon, so I never doubted his existence. The difference between Tartarus and me is that he can be seen by normal people, and he also has a normal household registration in this era. He actually participates in labor, but unlike others, he is not easily tired and is not affected by diseases. Although he has communicated with Claudin but just as an acquaintance. I saw him around here from time to time, and also communicated with Claudin, but I never thought about the possibility that he was observing Claudin.
"This is the invaluable nature of a tenacious human being, and it is indeed rare in this era." I took the initiative to catch up with him.
He wondered for a moment, and realized that I was indeed looking at him after I had spoken to him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect the Guardian of Musiphe to talk to me. Claudin is indeed a rare breed." His words were a little joking, as if it was a funny phenomenon that I talked to him.
"Eh, do you know my identity?" I was immediately surprised. A person I didn't remember knew my identity, so he must have a special identity. Either he was a daemon who fought against me, or he a seraph associated with the heavenly realm.
"Sounds like you don't know who I am, that's right, with my humble existence to you."
I don't know if it's my illusion, every word he says is a bit prickly, just as his eyes are a bit hostile to everyone.
"I really don't know who you are, I don't know if I'm qualified to use the name you're talking about, I'm Vermilion, who may you are?"
His expression was very surprised, as if he didn't expect my reaction.
"I'm Tartarus, a simple observer." His eyes returned to doubt, and he didn't add anything after two simple sentences. I think he was hiding something from me, but it didn't seem to be harmful, and I didn't plan to ask.
That was my first conversation with Tartarus.
I'll have a few words with Tartarus over the next few days, about why he observed Claudin, about the world, about humans and seraphim.
Basically I'd get a negative answer, he's desperate for everything, and Claudin is like a singularity, which intrigues him. From the tone of his voice, I vaguely know that he has experienced no less time than me, and although he is cynical, I don't think he is the enemy, maybe he is the closest existence to me in the world now, and we all have equal loneliness.
Just because I feel the other person's similarity to me, I want our relationship to be friendly. While observing Claudin, I tried to make friends with this rare alike existence, and I told him that the culture developed by the Seraphim and the human beings in the past, such as the ritual dance performed by the maidens during the "Sacred Flame Festival", the idea to adds new kindling and sesame oil to the everlasting Sacred flame.
While explaining, I performed a dance for him in a no-man's place. That was the only communication I had with others in my quiet days, and it reminded me of communicating with others when I didn't need to hide anything and count every sentence. I don't have to think about the consequences of every sentence as a saintess, that should be like to please the other party, but just express it according to my original idea. Tartarus watched my performance quietly and listened to my talk, he wasn't surprised, maybe he knew these things as well, but he didn't take his eyes off until the end of my dance and the talk, like it was a rare opportunity to seize every moment. The contrast between those pure eyes and his usual chaotic and world-weary eyes even made me think he was a little cute, maybe for him I was also his rare 'alike'. In this violent and bloody era, this red maple forest did not have a trace of blood, but unexpectedly made people feel a moment of peace.
I shared with him what I have seen so far, my efforts and brilliance in ancient times, and my current downfall. I thought he was going to ridicule me, he seemed to have planned this, but in the end he showed a very confused expression and just said: "...you're trying too hard. It's the right choice to give up, and there's no turning back now."
I still don't know if that's true, but his words brought me a sigh of relief.
In cruel times, life is like a consumable item, and in order to survive, sin and betrayal are common. This is the purgatory on earth, no one has any spare energy to help others, but can only do his best to avoid being consumed by the emperor's punishment and avoid accepting orders.
In order to make everyone absolutely surrender to him, Meliodas, the Lord of Daemon, killed the original ruling nobles in the territory to recover the jurisdiction and property of the territory to achieve centralized power, and levied heavy taxes on the people, so no one in the country has the economic ability to resist the emperor. Those who have fighting strength are either conquered by the fear to the emperor or killed by the emperor. This is an era of absolute obedience to the Emperor. Therefore, the poor people have to engage in sin in order to survive, and once they are caught, they need to accept serious punishment. Punishment like being locked up in the arena.
Although Claudin has always been kind to others and has always tried his best to help others, he is still betrayed. The person who betrayed him was a thief who was still a child. He escaped and hid in Claudin's house. Due to a lot of movement, Claudin discovered the existence of the thief. The discovered thief begged not to tell him what happened here. Claudin may have overlapped the figure of the thief with that of his younger brother and sister. He felt pity, so he didn't tell his family about the thief.
But the thief who escaped and was found was then accused Claudin of ordering him to steal, and put several charges on the Claudin family in a row. Claudin, who had no evidence, refuted, only able to carry all the crimes by himself in exchange for the innocence of his family. Although his childhood sweetheart defends him, he has no effect in front of the blind and greedy judge, and the two are finally sentenced to the arena.
"This time he should be desperate. ." Tartarus just said this when he saw this happened, his tone was subconsciously disappointed.
"Please don't despair of human beings, they will stand up again." I can't forget my character as a saintess, Persuade Tartarus not to despair of humans.
"Have you never been betrayed by humans so that you can always trust them?" I didn't expect Tartarus to respond to me like this, I should have known that he had been betrayed before he lost confidence in everything.
I was silent, I've never thought about it, because I can't despair of them because of my duty, and I'm the betrayal, so I'm not qualified to lose faith or despair in them.
"No, I'm just not qualified to do so." I don't know what kind of expression is on my face at the moment, but it must not be a good-looking expression. He didn't ask any further, just watched the next development in silence. Claudin was forcibly pulled away by the soldiers. Although the younger siblings usually do not respond to Claudin's tenderness frankly, when Claudin was about to be forcibly taken away, they all cried and expressed their most sincere feelings.
"Brother, I love you! Don't go!"
"Claudin, I will always believe in you!"
The disappointment on his face After hearing what his younger brother and sister said, he seemed to be moved and cried with joy, but he immediately changed his face, but he could not make his younger brother and sister worry about him. Although his face was full of tears, he tried his best to show a smile and responded: "I will definitely try my best to come back."
After that, he was transported to the arena, a hell completely different from his life so far.
"He really doesn't know how to despair." Tartarus said this, but the corner of his mouth was still smiling, unlike the He usually smiles evilly, but he shows a smile that is really happy for his friends. He may not just like to see people's misfortunes, as he himself said, but he can't help but feel happy when he sees very hard-working people successfully overcoming difficulties.
"What are you going to do next? Your figure will be easily seen by the daemons, and the gladiatorial arena is a place full of daemons."
"YoI can only watch it as an audience, you seem to be familiar with the gladiatorial arena though."
"Of course, that's my residence."
"Huh?"
I was surprised at the moment, but now that I think about it, it's naturally reasonable. It's the most normal thing for him to live like a daemon in the place where the daemon exists the most.
" Ha, that's a rare expression on your face."
Tartarus looked at me and laughed, the first time I remember seeing him laugh.
"What, it's rude to look at people's faces and laugh."
"Haha, I never care about such a thing. Seeing your usual perfect saintly appearance, the expression just now was really impressive. It's funny, haha!"
"Hmph, that's too much..."
"Okay, I won't laugh at you, sorry."
Hearing his troubled apology made me feel nostalgic. It's been a long time since no one talked to me on an equal footing. .
"Hmph, I'll forgive you if you take care of Claudin in the arena." On a whim, I pretended to be still angry and made a request to him.
"Ugh, that's sly... well, I don't hate that guy."
Incredibly, a sudden turnaround didn't make me despair, I couldn't watch Claudin every day for the rest of the day, instead, I watched his family. The loss of Claudin should have taken a toll on their family, and if Claudin comes back and sees his family in grief and despair, he should feel the same grief, at least I can help them while he's gone.
The day can't be considered good, but we still have to live on.
I heard Tartarus say that the arena allows all kinds of people to become gladiators, some are free gladiators, they are free to accept duels, but most of them are Slaves and criminals, because it is a life-threatening job, normal people would not want to enter them and become gladiators, but even criminals can use the money they win, whether it is for their family members or for their own redemption. In the arena, your life is not your own, it is decided by the audience and the owner of the gladiator, and a 'game' can only be ended if one of them falls to the ground. Fighting as a gladiator has a sense of honor, but this profession is a slave after all. As long as you are a slave, you can only help yourself. But for Tartarus, this is the place where people can watch the painful expressions and struggles of human beings at the closest distance. He can also train himself by the way, so he lives in the arena, he doesn't have to worry about losing, because he has enough strength to always be the winner. He just told me so frankly that he likes to see the faces of human beings struggling to stay there, his existence is really like a daemon, with distorted thoughts. As if he wanted to keep me away from him, I realized that our values are different, but he promised me to take care of Claudin.
Initially, I heard that Claudin was not suitable for this environment full of slaughters, he is far less powerful than the opponent. In the first battle, he was nearly beaten to pieces by his opponent. Fortunately, there are many people in the audience who know him and have been helped by him. As the crowd of audiences interceded, and under the pity of his opponent's master, Claudin barely survived. That battle made Claudin deeply feel his own weakness. In order to prevent Claudin from dying in the arena, Tartarus gets Claudin, conducts special training and teaches him the basics of swordsmanship. Although he promised to take care of Claudin, Tartarus was very strict in special training, basically saying that he abused Claudin every day is also correct. Whenever Claudin was about to give up, he used the presence of his family to arouse Claudin's fighting spirit, which almost made him feel tired every day when he couldn't eat and fell asleep immediately whenever he got to his bed.
In the case of daily special training obtained, Claudin's second battle came, I heard that the opponent is a very strong person but only medium in the arena. Claudine adopted various 'wear-and-tear' strategies and aggressive methods to consume the opponent's power. The opponent did not have enough power to kill him at last. They both fell to the ground. Seeing his struggle, some merchants from the Gladiator Training Center took a fancy to Claudin and bought him. Now Claudine officially broke away from his criminal identity and became a gladiator.
On the other hand, Claudin's family encounters the same predicament as when his brother was forced to build the Great Wall. All I could do was sneak a little food and medicine for them, and they were struggling to survive. It seems that their family can't see us seraphim, but the mother insists on teaching the children to be grateful for the protection of the Empyrean, and the supplies that they secretly bring every day are regarded as the salvage of the Seraphim. With faith and my secret help, even on hard days, they are able to smile more and make their life less sad. Being able to uphold faith and kindness in this situation is the result of the mother's persistence. Claudin's kindness and strength must also depend on his mother's education. They live in a remote area from the city center. They are not well informed, it took a week for the news of Claudin's presence in the arena to reach their home. After receiving the news, they took the family savings to go to the arena in the center of the city. Technology and transportation were not developed, it had been a week since they arrived, and it happened to be Claudine's third battle.
Claudin's opponent is a man who has killed several criminals who became gladiators in succession. He is nicknamed "The Executioner". Although he is not the most powerful, he has considerable experience. He will not hesitate to kill his opponent. It seems that he can completely restrain Claudin. Compared with the previous two battles, the atmosphere in this audience is relatively more tense and exciting, because this duel is held in a larger arena and the publicity is more extensive. Audiences who were looking forward to seeing the bloody scene bought tickets. Most of the spectators who will come to the arena are as distorted as Tartarus. The concept of the law of the jungle is deeply embedded in the life and culture of the entire country. In this showdown, no matter who wins, many spectators want to see one of them die. It's the culture of the arena~ Violence and bloody killing, Claudin is really lucky not to die in the first two games.
The difference from before is that Claudin has received training from the training center this time, and he is still fighting against Tartarus every day, and his fighting skills are much stronger than his past self who knew nothing before. His family paid a lot of money to buy the most acceptable front row position, in order to be able to see Claudin's battle at the closest distance.
The first is the appearance of "Executioner", who is two meters tall and has many scars on his body. At the moment of his appearance, he showed his strong body to the audience, cheered and shouted, and the audience immediately cheered and welcomed his appearance. Claudin's appearance was not so warmly welcomed, but he didn't care, he just wanted to return to freedom as soon as possible. At the start of the match, Claudin took the lead, slashing the 'Executioner' in the waist and then the shoulder. The Executioner immediately fell down and let go of his weapon, it looked like he really fell, but Tartarus told me that falling down at the beginning was the 'Executioner' style, the purpose was to make the opponent relax . Of course, Tartarus had naturally reminded Claudin before the game that at the moment, Claudin knew that the opponent was pretending to faint, so he did not relax his guard but prepared for the next step. Claudin first approached the opponent's foot, then slashed down toward the ankle.
The executioner screamed loudly, venting his pain and anger, kicking the little Claudin hard with his legs. Although he was prepared, his physical strength was limited, he was kicked heavily in the chest and flew to the wall.
"Brother Claudin!" The family looked worriedly at Claudin who was sitting on the edge. Not knowing if he heard their voices, he got up again, the executioner was already up, he picked up his weapon angrily and rushed towards Claudin. I saw Claudin not evading, picking up the sword and leaning against the wall vertically, like a protruding nail.
The executioner hit the sword head-on, and the sword was deeply inserted into the executioner's fist by the power of the executioner. The executioner danced in pain, but Claudin didn't let go of the sword, and was pulled into the air by the sword that was deeply submerged in it.
The executioner dragged Claudin to the ground indiscriminately. The sword was Claudin's only weapon, so naturally he couldn't let go easily. Now that he had no power to fight back, he was repeatedly hit to the ground with the weapon he had been holding. The body was hit hard, coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, and the dust of the battlefield was instantly dyed bright red. With a few vigorous swings, Claudin was thrown together with the sword and hit the wall again.
The executioner's ankle injury has not healed, and he dragged his pace a little slowly, walking to Claudine as if he was doing the execution.
"Brother...Brother...stand up!!! Don't die!!!" The brothers and sisters in the platoon were all looking at Claudin. This time, the wall that Claudin hit was where the brothers and sisters had been recently. He seemed to be gradually losing consciousness, but he seemed to regain consciousness under the call of his brothers and sisters. His vision gradually blurred. In the sound, the family's calling became incomparably clear.
"Stand up, Claudin, you don't only have such strength, right?" Tartarus also shouted loudly from the entrance of the arena battlefield.
Claudin looked at the two voices and looked in the direction of Tartarus, then looked at the direction of his family members, and inadvertently I seemed to meet his eyes, as if he saw my presence.
For a moment, Claudin's eyes were full of joy and hope. His body was extremely weak, but he couldn't let himself give up in front of his dear family.
"I'm strong, I'm strong... I'm strong!" As if self-improving, he endured the pain and stood up again.
The sun shines on Claudin like a beam of hope and blessing. He has an idea and uses his shield to reflect the light to the eyes of 'the executioner'. The strength of his whole body affected his muscles, he jumped in front of the executioner, slashed again at the ankle, and repeatedly slashed the same position. The executioner finally fell to the ground in agony. Claudin sent the last hit and the man couldn't get up again.
The battle was clearly a victory for Claudin, and he looked wearily at all the audience, all cheering, including his family. His family was congratulating him on the victory.
He felt the victorious joy, the joy of survival, lasted until the cheers changed.
"Kill him! Kill him!" All the cheerleaders except his family unanimously demanded a brutal and bloody ending.
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Claudin was stunned at his ground. It was only when he realized that everyone present had gone mad, and he looked at the person who was watching him in the auditorium. It was the owner who bought him in the first place, and the owner signaled him to kill him.
"Claudin, do it, now you have no choice." Tartarus, said coldly, not very loudly, but Claudin could hear him clearly.
The whole world told him to kill his opponent, but his conscience would not allow him to do so.
As the winner, he has the right to take the opponent's life, but he has no right to give him a chance to survive.
The surrounding scenery was distorted, the cries of madness were bewildering, and for the first time Claudin's hand with the sword trembled so violently.
Tartarus is right, he has no choice, he is a bought criminal, he can only execute the orders given by his master, otherwise he can only die... How can he let his younger brother and sister see his death? But he also doesn't want them to see himself killing people.
"Son, you have to live." The mother present understood that this was a complete reversal of the values her son had known since he was alive, but even so, as a mother, he hoped that he would live. While saying this, She covered her children's eyes, couldn't bear to let them see the cruel picture, and took them out of the arena.
"I'm sorry." The 'executioner' who was about to be executed in front of him had lost consciousness, and he had long since heard this apology with powerless regrets.
After the family had left, Claudin, with tears on his face, raised his sword and cut off the executioner's head.
This was his first murder. He realized the value and weakness of life, and knew that as a gladiator, he could only help himself, and even life and death could only be decided by others. He considered himself guilty after this.
Even so, his mother's words of "you have to live" still remain in Claudin's heart. From then on, he is more eager for freedom and strives to become stronger. He tried his best not to let his power of life and death fall into the hands of others, in order to usher in the day of redemption for himself.
Tartarus thought Claudin would collapse, but on the contrary, events had honed his will and made him stronger. He has never lost a battle after that. I heard that he also made friends in the training center, and many of them. After all, his character is gentle and kind, and he is the type who is easy to get acquainted with others. In Tartarus' eyes, this seemed to make him quite envious, and his tone of voice when he stated this was somehow angry.
"Didn't you have me and Claudin? You're not alone." I looked at him with such a jealous mood and said with a smile, and he looked at me a little surprised and said: "...the first …This is the first time someone told me that."
"Hehe, let's get along well."
On the other hand, Claudin's family stopped going to the arena games, mainly because the mother objected, thinking that it would definitely bring bad influence to the children. She couldn't expose her child to such distorted values at such a young age, but she tried sending a letter to Claudin, and the whole family was delighted when she got a reply. One day, an unexpected guest came to visit Claudin, who was named Melchior who was rescued by Claudin when he was in labor. It seemed that it took him a long time to find their home, and he was here to thank and give thanks, But when he knew everything he was angry and announced to rescue Claudin by any means.
Claudin's mother is proud that her son made such a friend while he was in labor, but she doesn't believe that he can save her son. To rescue Claudin requires huge amounts of money, which is not easy to get, the pharmacy run by the Melchior family cannot easily earned. But Claudin's mother is very grateful to Melchior. After Melchior found Claudin's home and told his family about the labor period, his family agreed to help the Claudin family and hired them as pharmacy employees. That way they don't have to worry about income.
It seems that Melchior is secretly colluding with the businessmen, presumably if something goes wrong, it will affect the whole family, but he insists on doing so, and wants to hook up with the gladiator training center. The bigger the reward, the higher the risk, and his family has no objection. In this era, money and power are both survival needs and weapons. In these times, distorted values are very common; however, the values of the Claudin family are peculiar.
The owner of the training center, where Claudin is, also trying to curry favor with politicians, I heard that he wants to infiltrate the political arena. With the help of the ruler's sideshow with gladiator fights, he can meet some politicians, but being able to curry favor with them is another matter. For this he needs some good gladiators, and after many fights, Claudin also became one of the best gladiators, and he was often qualified for competitions and appeared in the public eye many times. He was lucky enough to participate in several competitions attended by government officials and their families. Some officials seemed to like Claudin, so Claudin was also present at a private party hosted by the host and the official, and it was said that the official's family appointed Claudin to attend their private party.
Claudin will be attending the party as a guest in a special exhibition match, and the events of that day change his mind even further. In the exhibition match, he competes with the childhood sweetheart who went to the training center because of defending him. This is an exhibition match , usually ended without dying, but that day the official's son asked Claudin to kill the losing opponent. Claudin was by no means afraid to kill, in fact, in the previous games he killed the opponent at the request of the audience and the host, he felt sorry for the other party, he always apologizes before killing them. He can't change their fate, the world is unreasonable. But it was his childhood sweetheart who was asked to kill after the exhibition match. They chatted A lot of things, we talked about the family, they grew up together, and they share the vision of freedom, they would encourage each other and stop each other from doing stupid things, they spent 3 years together in this prison-like training center, it's a pity Now only one person can survive and continue to pursue freedom. Claudin can't help but kill him. If he doesn't kill, he will die because he violates the order. The one who eventually perform the murder was Claudin's childhood sweetheart himself. He expressed his true blessings and wishes to Claudin at the end, and then grabbed the edge of Claudin's sword to kill himself. The atmosphere around us ushered in warm joy with the death of Claudin's childhood sweetheart, and Claudin was completely incomprehensible. And to share any joy, something must be broken in this world, he feels that he is out of tune with this world, and he sinks deeply into the sadness of the death of his childhood sweetheart.
The death of his childhood sweetheart brought a big impact to Claudin. He became depressed and had no interest in training or fighting. Sending him to the arena was bound to be a dead end. The owner of the training center suspended him from participating in the competition in order not to lose a talented fighter.
"It seems that this time he will really despair..." Tartarus said to me with emotion when he saw such a depressed Claudin. Unlike the previous jokes, I think now he is confused, as if he doesn't know what he can do for a friend. He really doesn't like to see someone try hard and be crushed by reality. Maybe he was a hard worker and then also failed in front of reality.
"Let's visit him together, I want to help him too."
"Why did you say it like I wanted to help him?"
"That's exactly what your expression told me, and I believe it."
"It must be your delusion."
"Even so, I believe you will help him. After all, you have promised me that~"
"Oh, yes, then let's go together, you can help him."
"Thank you, I hope so." I smiled and thanked him for affirming my abilities.
Hiding from sights, I secretly came to the interior of the training center. Some of the gladiators were daemons. They could see me, so I had to pretend to be able to enter and exit the training center normally. With the help of Tartarus, I wore slave girl clothes to enter the training center. Even if I was seen by daemon as a slave girl, I was not a strange existence. Tartarus said that sometimes slave girls were called to serve and take care of gladiators.
When I asked what services female slaves provided to the gladiator, Tartarus looked at me silently, then grinned, "...you are so pure sometimes that I want to defile you. Are you sure you want to know? ?" Simultaneously he raised my chin.
Seeing the abyss and cunning hidden in his eyes, I was startled for a moment, and hurriedly replied: "No, I don't want to know now!"
"Hehe~ What a good girl. Here we are." He said, showing me a prison-like room surrounded by iron bars and stone bricks. In the humble prison cell, a depressed teenager huddled in the corner.
Tartarus took out the cell key like it is a normal thing and opened the door, and let me enter the room. I heard that he copied all the keys in the entire training center and held it in his hand.
"Claudin, how long are you going to be depressed? I brought you a beautiful girl." Hearing him introduce me like this, I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry, didn't know whether to be angry or happy.
"....I'm not interested in that kind of thing." Claudin said without raising his head, it seems that a slave girl's presence here means something bad.
"Would you look up first?" Tartarus said helplessly.
"Hello, can you see me?" I tried to greet him first.
Claudin looked up at me slightly, he thought for a while and then opened his mouth slightly, as if he was remembering something.
"You're...the mysterious beauty standing next to my mother then?!"
Not sure where his impression came from but I'm going to introduce myself formally to him.
"It seems that you can indeed see me. My name is Alice, and I am a seraph." In order not to make myself suspicious, I did not reveal too much information about my identity. Considering that my previous name as a saintess was too loud, I reported my fake name.
"Sera… ph?!... It's what my mother always said... The gods who will help us..."
I can't help but feel ashamed to hear Claudin's description, human legends really deify us.
"It's a little different, I'm not as omnipotent as a god... I only know a little bit of magic, but I really want to help you." Saying that, I showed my most basic abilities to Claudin, and I let the little flames gather in my hands, and let the remarks of "I am a seraph" not become an unfounded thing.
"Alice sama, are they all okay?" Claudin seemed to quickly decide to believe me and asked me about the situation at home.
"Don't call me like that…Call me Alice."
After I told him everything, he felt a lot more at ease, and his initial depression was gone.
He then told me about the recent incident in the arena that had frustrated him for a while.
He said that he didn't know if he would be able to kill his childhood sweetheart like this next time, and he was not confident that he would not collapse. He never wanted the same thing to happen again, either to others or to himself.l
"Rebel if you hate it, you don't want to be manipulated all your life, do you?" Tartarus said lightly.
But Claudin appeared to be surprised as if he had woken up suddenly. I'm afraid he hadn't thought about this option.
"You're such a good boy, you didn't think about resisting at all~ Under their orders, I don't know how many lives you have to take away when you didn't want to take away~" Tartarus said teasingly, and Claudin's expression turned gloomy for a while.
"Tartarus! That's enough! I'll do what I can to help you, if you want to." I stopped Tartarus from trying to make Claudin a daemon, and promised Claudin my support.
"...Well, let's rebel, and let everyone else here be free too." Claudin said with determination.
Training together every day allowed Claudin to develop an affection for the other gladiators in the training house as well, because he was easy going, knew the stories behind different people, and had empathy for them. The killings here didn't kill his kindness either. Kindness just made him gain greater power and guide him on the way to becoming a king.
From this day on, he seriously planned a plan to resist and let the slaves here return to freedom. With the assistance of me and Tartarus, the plan went very smoothly. In addition, in order to let Claudin return to freedom, Melchior had already infiltrated government officials. The information of Melchior, who had many connections with them, allowed the entire gladiator training center to escape control and was occupied by Claudin. They were all reunited with their families.
That day turned everything around and a lot happened in between. When the Rebellious War was raging, Innominat woke up once because of the malevolence, and we tried our best to open up a protection realm, but only protected Claudin and Melchior from being affected by sedation. The recovery of Innominat brought the Lord of Daemon down at once, but it also had a great impact on the forces on Claudin's side. After losing feelings and thinking, Claudin's army was also disintegrated. Even if this were the case, we killed the Lord of Daemon and ended his era with the help of a therion who retained his emotions in this situation. But there is nothing we can do about the rest of the tragedy, and finally Claudin and Melchior make their own oaths to gain the ability to live long, waiting for Innominat to sleep again and then build civilization.
In the process, the continent of Desolation was invaded by foreigners, who seemed to come from a faraway continent, which did not seem to have been influenced by Innominat. In the process of the Innominat being asleep again, human beings were unable to organize an army without thinking and feeling, and were unable to fight against resistance, so foreigners from all over their country quickly occupied their respective territories, and finally turned into a situation of chaos. Among them, the Rangetsu family obtained quite a high reputation.
All efforts start from zero again, coordinating the army, pacifying the war, and helping the civilians.
The waiting time is extremely long, we study different artes to prepare for any future situation, and also want to find a way to reduce malevolence other than letting Innominat eat. We have visited the old seraph 'Zenrus' living in hidden space in the mountains to learn more seraphic arte knowledge for research purposes. One of the researches was a way to make a person who is quite daemonized back to a normal state. Melchior, Tartarus and I researched a spell that would allow a person's spirit to enter the spirit world of another body, which I assumed was a positive guidance of emotion in the spirit world that can eliminate malevolence. In fact, it can do this, but the risk is very high. I was flattered that the technique was named after my fake name Alice.
When I asked the reason, Tartarus said that it was researched under my bold assumption, and there happened to be a famous story called 'Alice in Wonderland', so they decided to use my second name as the name of the technique.
In addition, Tartarus also studied the reversed version of this technique: the intrusion of dreams into reality cognition, that is, illusion, the name is a simple and rude naming, which is Alice's inversion, Ecila.
Arte 'Alice' is both dangerous for the caster and recipient, so we try not to use it. Instead, Melchior is very interested in 'Ecila' and has developed into another level by himself. He was originally a bit of a paranoid and twisted person, always doing various invisible things behind Claudin's back to 'protect' him. After learning this, he began to use illusions to torture and control others. He's changed so much over the decades that I can't see him in a way I used to, and I feel terribly alien, but I try to ignore it and continue to be with him as usual.
We spent about 50 years lobbying for the integration of various ethnic groups and helping people of different cultures to exchange understanding. We finally united to overthrow the strongest dictatorship at that time, and finally unified various ethnic groups and unified the mainland. We respect the culture of the Seraphim, reuse the culture and traditions left over from the old times, and strive for the harmonious coexistence of all cultures and races, and establish the Asgard Kingdom. I can see the glorious phantom of the Kingdom of Divine Right, where everything is flourishing.
But Claudin, who has not abdicated for 200 years, looks like a monster in the eyes of ordinary human beings. Claudin used the power of the seraphim to perform miracles to help the people many times, and with this power he built a country where everyone felt happy. But the power of the seraphim is unknown and dangerous to the commoners. The king who exercises this power is like a monster in their hearts, a monster who will kill them at some point in time. Melchior has been secretly shutting up those who say these things behind his back, and his extreme methods have contributed to the rumors to some extent.
Even though Claudin worked hard to implement a virtuous government, there were still many different negative rumors about the king, and the historical blank period caused by the power of Innominat deepened the public's fear. They thought the gap was because of what Claudin had done to keep history from passing because they didn't know when he was alive.
The kind-hearted Claudin can forgive such people, but Tartarus, who fought with us, cannot agree. He is very angry that Claudin's efforts are not recognized by the people. He who has been helping Claudin will know how hard he works. He said that human beings let him down, and sure enough, no matter what era, human beings are just as stupid, ignorant and arrogant.
We don't know anything about his past, we just fought together like-minded, until now he has confessed his origins and opinions.
I suddenly felt like I never really knew him or everyone around me. Even though I've been around them for a long time, I haven't seen them through. Did the years change them slightly in places I don't know or did they just look like that long before I knew them?
He was very angry and threatened to destroy the country and make the whole era return to the era of Meliodas, so that human beings will know how to appreciate what we have done.
He expressed his hatred for the world and now the behavior of human beings made him realize that human beings should not be expected. He said that Claudin had united the hope of humanity, and then he would shatter that hope and teach the world to feel pain again.
Tartarus was originally a violent person, but now it seems that it is only one-tenth of what he has suppressed. I've never been able to spot his hidden anger, maybe that's because I've never really looked into the depths of everyone here, and I'm still used to prioritizing responsibility.
None of us were able to stop him, just dropped the words and he disappeared.
His origin is irrelevant to us, even the mixed blood of human and seraph can't change the fact that he is our friend, but we must stop what he will do next.
Due to rumors and the chaos created by Tartarus, the country was in chaos and a civil war broke out. The belief in the seraphim disappeared again, and the phenomenon of the recovery of the 4 Empyreans finally returned to sleep one by one. He quickly and easily overturned everything we had worked so hard to build together, and quickly allowed malevolence to arise at the Kingdom.
He made me realize again the fact that I had been trying to keep my eyes peeled: the success that I had tried to build was always easily undone by the fickleness of human beings. I no longer want to work hard for the inevitable demise that will come one day.
There was nothing we could do about the chaotic tide that Tartarus had caused, and it took Claudin, Melchior and I a long time to leave the palace to find Tartarus. We tried to convince him to stop, but nothing could reach his heart. Our actions to stop him were viewed by him as hostile and betrayal. We had to bring him down, and Melchior persuaded Claudin that he should be killed to save the trouble. Although Claudin swore not to kill, he would not break the oath as long as the murderer was not himself. But Claudin is determined not to kill, he requested me to seal him with a spell. I could do nothing more for Claudin or Tartarus, just feeble obedience.
We were surprised at how everything had changed after we returned to the imperial capital. The government announced our death because of our long-term disappearance, and it was a declaration of righteousness that Claudin would sacrifice his own life in order to pacify the disaster. While the rest of the royal family are fighting over their succession, the public is reassured of knowing the king's death. As the king, Claudin was betrayed by the people he had always tried his best to protect and was exiled abroad. As someone who has repeatedly witnessed the prosperity and annihilation of human history, I can understand the reasons why Tartarus is angry with mankind, but I can't think so because of the responsibility to bear.
Seeing this, Claudin sighed deeply, decided to be a "dead king" and not take care of any affairs of the country, and Melchior and I traveled around the world with the goal of restoring faith. He and Melchior each took an apprentice on the way, and Claudin finally broke his oath to save his apprentice Artorius and died.
Having lost the contractor, I lost the motivation to start again. I tried so hard to smile again, but when I thought about what I lost, the people I betrayed, the faces of those ungrateful humans, and Lord Musiphe who was sleeping again, tears kept falling.
I don't actually think what Tartarus said is completely wrong, I just keep pushing myself to think it's wrong because of my duty, that I have to save humanity.
Yet I was tired and no longer wanted to repeat the desperate performance of duties. I can no longer follow the dreams of the long-unfamiliar Fire Empyrean and the dead Claudin.
I didn't want to live indefinitely, so I went back to my Flame Pedestal and destroyed it so I wouldn't be resurrected after death, and then I started my last wandering.
Relinquish the protection of the vessel and allow myself to be swallowed up by malevolence, hoping that this will be somewhat atonement for those who have been betrayed by me. If I become a dragon, maybe I can make amends to Tartarus, who was sealed by me. At that time, I will turn into an indestructible dragon and bring disaster to the world!
Only how the world has become has nothing to do with me anymore.
—-----------------TBC—--------------
A.N.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKw9APwiKGX
Thank you for reading this chapter to the end, I feel that my skill is not able to set up a too grand plot, although some of the writing here is the result of letting go of myself and it seems to be very grand, but you should see that the update speed is relatively slow…. It’s a lot slower. After all, I’m not a particularly talented person in writing. (you see other stories in the scale of chapters number have much more kudos, and their vocabulary are richer, and great characterization….and not that much typo like I did ….)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6lkka7eWFv
If I hadn’t been for various references to other works and history, I wouldn’t be able to get to this progress. And I believe that a long story chapter without a protagonist is not interesting for everyone. try to compress and write the events like a dull description of events (like Eleanor’s prequel chapters ). Although I also very carefully conceived the settings, because it is a chapter based on original characters and original history, I always feel that many people don't want to read it. If someone directly skips the whole chapter to watch my post Author’s Note (I guess not?!), then I would kindly write concluding paragraphs for you guys!17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ziH1WDBh4
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Reference:17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmSgfmKGXUH
History Timeline reference:17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnJZHaDJtCh
https://kisechuu.tumblr.com/post/132045752912/heyo-ive-done-some-more-zestiria-world-guidance17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCavD0NozNh
Meliodas( Dark Age= Pax Meliodas+Dark Period) Refer: Qin Shi Huang/'First Emperor of Qin17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡamUeALnWLw
Claudin:17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjVJCn0EJhH
Setting reference: Tanjiro Kamado( Demon slayer)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhSAjv0WD6D
growing events and background reference: Alibaba's training 1(Magi 2nd season), Spartacus(TV series)(I only watched the summary on youtube tho…)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgxhydyKXg8
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Before becoming a dragon, the seraph was called Vermillion, the first Lady of the Lake: the Saintess, the guardian of Empyrean Musiphe . After countless failures, she gave up her duties as a Saintess in the Dark Age ruled by Meliodas, wandering and observing humans. (Yes, it was the Dark Age in Mayvin’s message in Ch22)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEBFGni12o2
Vermillion(fake name: Alice) met Tartarus and Claudin in this era, and after some observation decided to help Claudin.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJZpxP97ff
The period before Claudin became king was probably the most normal time for Tartarus to live. Don't know if I explained it clearly for why Tartarus is not that bad in the Dragon’s Memory. After his mother died, he was assigned (exiled) to the world as a observer, enjoyed watching people's pain but not completely desperate and hated human beings to the extent to destroy world. And he happened to observe that Claudin had a good impression on him, and in the middle he met Vermillion who treated him equally because she didn't know anything about him, so he would act as a friend. No one is born a completely bad person, I can't let Tartarus become a simple villain without reasons. I heard that a villain without reasons is too low-level character, and a villain with a ‘three-dimensional’ personality is attractive. And I have always written Claudin thought of him as a good friend. I have to think of reasons for that. In the reminiscences, he has a much better character than he is now, but he thinks that he was betrayed and the anger he felt wiped out all the good memories.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKunTeKh0o
People in ‘Pax Meliodas’ are very twisted, like Tartarus and Melchior, who are also friends of Claudin. They are all of the same nature, this trait was normal under Meliodas but abnormal after the fallen of Meliodas, plus the longevity trait will make them more and more twisted. Their twist became the shadow of the country after Claudin became king, which is also a part of the country's malevolence.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVcmrWS9qDt
Humans can't accept what they don't understand at all, so they regard Claudin as a monster, which makes Tartarus, who has been watching Claudin's efforts to build and protect this country, very angry, as if he saw his own Reflection, rekindling his hatred. Thus he wanted to destroy the world for Claudin even if Claudin didn’t hope for that.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK3qxEsN58j
At the same time that Tartarus was blocked and sealed, Claudin was betrayed by the people he was protecting and so he was wandering, and then it was the journey with Artorius mentioned in Berseria.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSRbpTZ2gdb
This part is actually the setting I came up with after thinking about it since writing Ch11 and thinking which era Velvet belonged to. When I saw that Claudin is the Hero King in the setting, but traveled with Artorius, I felt very strange. How can the king of a country have time to travel?! (with such a big united nation, it would be too busy every day!)17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxiTVDID0Jg
Then I wondered if there was a contradiction between the original setting of the longevity he exchanged for the vow and the time of death in history (Zestiria setting referred to the website: Claudin died in “Era of Asgard”). Because the trip with Artorius doesn't seem like a public death, and Artorius's era looks like the "Asgard Unification Period", which Claudin should have died and that would contradict with Berseria settings - Claudin should be traveling with Artorius before "Asgard Unification Period". In the end, I came to the conclusion that because the technology was not developed in the past and history was written by people, it is not surprising to have wrong information, biased or fake information in Zestiria setting, so the death in the history of Claudin should be fake. That mean Claudin was announced to be dead in Era of Asgard but actually died in the beginning of "Asgard Unification Period".17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHmQ4qx6sPG
This time in the memory seems to be full of hope, but from the perspective of Vermillion, it touches the despair in the heart of her. Claudin failed to visualize the inner darkness of Tartarus, Melchior, and Vermillion, and died without doing anything with that. People lost their guidance and marched toward the darkness in their hearts, becoming future Calamities. Just like everything in history collapsed rapidly after the death of Alexander the Great. The setting of this part is also quite dark, but the Lord of Calamity in Zestiria and Berseria was the hidden danger left by the previous generation of Shepherd, and I want to follow this dark tradition.17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJz2lOYdsNj
Dragon's despair is only because she doesn't want to work hard for futility. I wasn't as seriously affected by my mood as I was writing ch30, so the emotion of this chapter should not be as strong as before. It is not a good thing in writing, but under the epidemic, I don't want to make everyone feel gloomy after reading this chapter! I was trying to add fun interaction between Tartarus and Vermillion, they are a bit like Shipping of Rogue/Princess .17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgDSWTHDR2Y
This chapter is really long, even the author's note is very long XD17Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFnrXxx2edu
I am surprised that I can finally condense the events of several eras into one chapter. I referenced Qin Shi Huang and the Gladiator Spartacus (TV series) and one of the episodes of Magi(anime), hoping to be as realistic as possible. Because it is already too long, I will leave the reaction part after the memory part to the next chapter.
