The Kingdom of Loland, one of the most extensive powers in the neutral zone between the Empire and the Alliance, impressed Brunei when he looked at the map. But judging from what I have seen and heard in the last two days, Brunei feels more or less unworthy of the name.

There is a vast space between the scattered towns and the rarer ones, and the scarcity of communication between them is more directly manifested on the roads, if there are roads in between.

When Brunei was in the carriage, he was dizzy because of his state of being fast, slow, left, right, and even up and down, he couldn't help but wonder more and more deeply whether the country of Loland could be called a complete country.

At first he suspected that it was the coachman's fault, but when he saw with his own eyes the way they went, he had to admire the coachman, who had boasted of his skill before setting off now seemed more like a humble remark.

As it stands, when Brunei lifted the curtain and stepped out of the carriage, they saw a lush forest surrounding them. The carriage traveled on a rough, winding, uneven road that might not be easy for one to walk, and the only admirable width of the road was taken up by low bushes.

The coachman, on the other hand, was able to steer two horses that did not look very sturdy, and they were flying through the dense forest.

"Ah, Mr. Castro. Perhaps the driver heard his exclamation, but without looking back, he said to Brunei, who leaned out, "You are very uncomfortable to sit in it." Actually, there is another road that is a little easier to walk, but, uh, that road has other dangers, and it is not easy to go in the end. So I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you so much trouble by deciding on this path without permission. ”

As he spoke, the carriage suddenly tilted to the left, and Brunei grabbed the right door frame to barely hold on. He watched as the carriage skirted the trunk of an indescribable tree standing abruptly in the middle of the road in a mysterious way, and then he answered, "Nothing to be sorry about. It was decided from the beginning, you are professional, and the choice of path is of course up to you. As long as I can get to the port of Loland in three days, I have nothing else to ask for. ”

"Don't worry!," the coachman whistled quickly, "through this forest, we will reach the perimeter of Lorraine." The twin cities of Lorraine and Loraine, which are close to the national capital, are much easier to walk. With a little more than a day left at most, you can spend the day in Loraine. Hey, it's a place you've probably never seen before. ”

Brunei nodded: "That's good." But I don't have any plans to stay - I'm not in a hurry, but the sooner I think about my work, the better, hard work. ”

"Look at what you said!" Although the coachman seemed to be full of interest and talking, but seeing that he seemed to be getting more and more busy, Brunei finally decided not to disturb him anymore, and sat back in the carriage.

“......”

The coachman did not seem to have any memory of the night of the "hyena's" visit, did not know that he had been manipulated, did not know that he had attacked his employer, and it seemed to him that day was an ordinary day when he fell asleep after arriving at the hotel, was woken up by his employer in the middle of the night, and hurried on the road. Although he didn't understand the reason for such a hurry, he didn't mean to ask.

Brunei still doesn't understand why the "hyena" didn't kill the coachman like he killed everyone else. He had suspected it was a trap, but after four days where nothing had happened, he relented a little. After all, the innkeeper, who was also on the third floor at that time, was not killed, but just fell unconscious on the ground like the coachman, suggesting an optimistic possibility. No matter how cautious you are, if you always think about the worst-case scenario, you may not even be able to walk.

What will happen to Shad Town, where there are only about 100 people, and find out that more than a dozen of the adults are dead in the back of the hotel? Will the boss who was dragged to the utility room by Brunei to sleep be suspected? How will he be treated? Or, will he be suspicious of Brunei? It's not that he doesn't worry about these problems, he doesn't just worry about himself, it's just-

Whenever he recalls the scene of that night, Brunei seems to have a dozen people facing the moonlight, banging their heads against the wall one by one, and then falling to the ground one after another, some of the red and white substances in the skulls have been mixed together and turned into paste, while others seem to remain intact, agitating up and down. Immediately afterward, a sharp, distorted, hoarse, unreasonable, and therefore non-human voice is heard: "Even if they die, you won't be in pain!"

When Brunei came to his senses, his blurred vision gradually became clearer, and when he saw the situation in the carriage again, he could feel the cold sweat on his body, wet and sticky to his back, as if it was about to freeze, and the things churning in his stomach were about to rush to his throat.

“...... I am, what's wrong. Brunei closed his eyes and pressed his skull, muttering to himself.

It's been a long time since he's been able to really talk to himself, and today is no exception.

[Normally, we call this symptom — well, dreaming.] 】

“...... Dreaming?" Brunei sat up straight, no longer speaking, but asked in his heart.

[Dreaming: The cerebral cortex is not completely suppressed after falling asleep, and various fantasy scenarios appear in the mind, which is a normal physiological phenomenon of human beings. In your case, a more detailed classification would be called, "daydreaming". 】

Brunei thought the system was probably playing some joke, but he didn't understand it too much. Fortunately, he had long been accustomed to this situation, and he didn't take it to heart anymore, so he just sneered, and couldn't tell if it was a joke to cater to the system, or whether he expressed his disdain: "Huh." ”

["Daydreaming" is a common condition, and the main reason for the onset is because of lack of sleep. 】

[Seriously, you kid hasn't slept well in the last few days, has he?]

The system was right, but Brunei didn't want to answer the question or explain anything to the system.

As always, the system did not expect his answers and explanations, as if just talking to himself would be enough.

[Hehe, you should really look in the mirror, my little Brunei, I bet it's as obscene and haggard as a pervert who hides at home and watches little yellow films for three days and three nights without sleeping. 】

But Brunei knew that it was just an illusion, and the system would not be satisfied with being able to "talk to itself". The reason why it doesn't care about Brunei's one-word answer and explanation is because it's sure that Brunei will react, and it can't help but react, even if Bruneith itself is aware of it, and still won't fail to react – it's enjoying the process.

"Hmph. I'm not surprised that you don't understand guilt like you. ”

[Hey, hey, hey, I'm a little surprised. Although I felt a little bit before, I didn't expect you kid to be so hypocritical. Even the main character I personally chose was a little disgusting. 】

[You should really look at the people of the Gars Gang, both the number and quality of deaths far exceed the effect of the show created by the miscellaneous fish called "Hyena", and you don't have such a strong sense of guilt as now. Oh, I know what you're going to say, I did it, I deliberately misinterpreted your words, unlike these people who died because of your choice. 】

[Okay, then I won't mention that.] Haven't you ever killed people with your own hands? Although the quantity is not much, the quality is not bad. That sturdy little thug is called Qiang, right? Use fireballs to make holes in people's bodies, and his unlucky brother probably won't recognize who the corpse is, you don't care at all. The woman two nights ago, because of your miscalculation, a fireball turned to ashes, and there was not even a corpse left behind - you don't care at all. 】

[For the other dragons who were killed by the miscellaneous fish called "Hyena", all you did was ignore their deaths, and you were tortured so much that you couldn't sleep for days?

"......" Brunei's face twisted to refute something, but the system didn't give him that time.

[How about admitting that you are disgusted and scared by those things? Put down the skin called "Brunei Castro" in your fantasy, and take a good look at the real you, what kind of person the real Brunei Castro is, is it so reluctant?]

[I'll admit, "Because I'm Brunei Castro!", that's pretty kind of a thing to say. But I'm a little tired of it—a saint who doesn't hurt the life of an ant, or pretends, but it's not interesting at all. 】

"It's not disgusting. Brunei shook his head, "That's not pretending. ”

[Huh, do you want to keep pretending, don't do this, my little Brunei, let's be happy, right?]

Brunei suddenly laughed: "At first, when I decided not to kill people, I probably did have a little idea of wanting to make you uncomfortable. But now, perhaps too much, I do begin to feel that I should be such a person. Who do you mean by 'the real Brunei Castro'? The little kid who lived in the village of Taal more than a year ago? He never killed anyone, and he never even had the intention of hurting anyone. ”

"I'm Brunei Castro. He read the sentence softly, "What kind of person Brunei Castro is, of course, is up to me." ”

......The system was silent for a while, and then suddenly laughed again.

"The reason I can't forget the guilt I felt for those people that night — and not for everyone else — is because I didn't do anything. Brunei's originally frail expression gradually faded, and his eyes fell silent, as if he had fallen into deep thought, or began to meditate, "At that time, my actions seemed to have made a choice, but in fact I just let the 'hyenas' kill them. Even if the result is that they will all die, I should take action to fight for the possibility that they will live. ”

【...... Oh?】

"In retrospect, the Hyena's magic, or the set of spells formed by plural magic, was not entirely without flaws. The most obvious thing is that the coachman and the innkeeper were not later killed, but lost consciousness on the third floor. I didn't know that then, but after throwing the axe and then no longer acting, I know. ”

"Other than that, except for the person who communicated directly to me as a 'hyena', no one else spoke, and all the actions were almost synchronized - when some of them acted, the actions of the others should be very monotonous. It's not obvious – if I had looked a little more closely then, I should have had the opportunity to take action to prove it. ”

"In other words, the 'hyenas' are likely to have limited control over these people. This also explains the clumsy posture of the man on the first floor when he climbed out of the window. That's not just because the hyena doesn't want to kill me, it's because the hyena doesn't kill me so easily. ”

"He didn't try to control me, which probably means that his control is conditional, and there is a possibility that people can get out of it, and the amount of control he can control may be limited. On top of that, magic can be cast at a finite distance, and for all odd reasons I couldn't have imagined, the hyena would have attacked me in this way, and he himself would not have been as strong as a third-turn mage. It wasn't known what the magic was, but it was likely that his body was not far away at the time. ”

"There were many, many more – I could have acted on them. The means to counter the 'hyena', or at least the means to counter his spell, should be able to be found. If I had tried to save those people, I wouldn't be like this now. ”

For the first time, Brunei seriously recalled what happened that night in his statement of the system, and gradually sorted out his thoughts, at first his face became a little pale because of the nightmarish scene, and gradually calmed down, and by the time of the last sentence, his expression was no longer the slightest fluctuation like his heart, even if he only stated it in his heart, without the slightest superfluous emotion, as if he was simply stating such well-known facts as "the sky is blue" and "the fire is hot".

[Oh, my little Brunei, you think too highly of your own strength, and you underestimate your fighting level too much. Didn't that self-proclaimed dean or some old bastard say it? You kid is a fighting genius. At your level, you did everything you could that night without hurting those people. 】

"Not really. Brunei shook his head slightly, "'The premise of not hurting those people' is just an excuse for me not to act." What 'Brunei Castro' wanted was not to watch others die without a drop of blood, but to reduce deaths as little as possible. 'As little as possible' means taking action. ”

【...... Even if that means killing with your own hands?]

"Even if that means killing with your own hands. ”

[Huhuha

Bruneith leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes slightly, and fell asleep for the first time in days without resistance in the frantic jolting of the carriage and the frantic laughter of the system.

"Phew!"