Five years had passed.
“Guh...gaaah! Agh...gaaah!”
It was midday, yet the forest’s depths were as dark as night. Even as I clutched my right arm—nearly torn off at the elbow—in agony, I doggedly willed myself forward. The pain from my gaping wound was so sharp, it was nearly unbearable. In fact, I would’ve loved to have passed out on the spot. But if I lost consciousness here, I was as good as dead. Luckily, the coarse screams issuing from my throat were as effective as a spell in helping to keep myself alert.
An enormous insect, nearly three meters tall, was hot on my tail. With glowing red compound eyes, gnarled black legs, and clear wings beating at a speed impossible for the human eye to follow, the monster had been dubbed Lord of the Flies due to the majesty of its appearance. It was a class of monster so formidable, news of its emergence would warrant the royal knights’ immediate dispatch. A Rank 10 adventurer—the lowest possible rank—would normally never even attempt to approach such a creature.
Blood, sweat, tears, snot, and urine—fear turned bodily fluid—all flew from me as I ran. I knew how pathetic I must have looked, but the terror of being chased by a fly the size of a small mountain overwhelmed me. As I frantically ran to and fro in an attempt to escape, I only had one thought: It wasn’t supposed to be like this!
Five years ago, after being exiled from my home, I had planned to become an adventurer out of spite. I’d dreamed of taking down monsters, protecting townsfolk, and building up my reputation as an adventurer until my father and the others who’d given up on me would have to acknowledge my strength at last.
Perhaps if things had gone to plan, I would have been well on my way to mastering the Illusory Blade and fighting the Lord of the Flies on even ground right about now. But as usual, reality had reared its ugly head, and the outcome had been the exact opposite of what I’d hoped. I was too busy trying to run from danger and keep myself alive to even think about facing the monster head-on, let alone protect the townsfolk. What’s more, I hadn’t encountered the creature by chance—a party of adventurers had sicced it on me.
Those adventurers, whom I’d once thought of as my comrades, had used me as a decoy. The reason my right arm was torn to shreds had nothing to do with the monster—it had been my fellow adventurers’ handiwork. As I recalled that fact, another emotion besides fear began to issue from the depths of my throat.
“Those bastards... Those bastards! Screw you all!” I’d certainly considered the possibility that I might die fighting a monster, but I had never dreamed my own comrades would use me as a decoy and leave me for dead!
I’d chosen the path of the adventurer to prove myself to my father and the others on the island, but that wasn’t the only reason. Adventuring was the profession that most closely embodied the ideals and teachings of the Illusory Blade—namely, to protect those who needed protecting. I’d heard that adventurers used their blades to keep the populace safe, which was why I’d knocked on the door of their guild. I’d wanted to be of use to the world. I’d wanted to be someone who protected others instead of always needing to be protected. That was the mindset that had led me to the adventurer’s life, and yet this was the result? The unfairness of it all, the cruelty, was just too much to bear.
But even as I broke into uncontrollable sobs, I heard a terribly ominous buzzing noise behind me. Despite myself, I turned to look. The four wings protruding from the Lord of the Flies’s back were beating furiously. Apparently it had gotten tired of zigzagging through the trees to pursue its prey and decided to use force to put an end to the chase.
Since it only had four small wings to support its massive body, I couldn’t imagine how the creature could fly at all. Yet it was clearly having no trouble staying in the air, because after settling on a direction where no trees would block its path, it launched itself at me in a straight line with the speed of a cannonball. By the time it occurred to me to dodge, it was already too late. As the thunderous roar of its wings ravaged my ears like a grenade exploding in close proximity, the insect slammed into me, tossing me into the air like a rag doll.
At this point, I no longer felt fear or even humiliation. As I hung in the air with a pervading sense of weightlessness, all I felt was crushing despair. Then I hit the ground. There was an instant of nothingness in between before an unbearable, searing pain assailed my entire body, and I involuntarily cried out in agony.
I writhed on the muddy ground like a man crazed. After what felt like an eternity, the pain finally began to subside, and I realized I had a mouthful of dirt and mud. “Ptoo! Urgh...dammit!” I spat out the mud and rose to my feet.
The instant I did, a jolt of intense pain from my torn arm compromised my balance, and I toppled over right into the wad of mud I’d just spat out. I felt an uncomfortable stickiness on my cheek, and the stench of my own spit assaulted my nostrils.
“Aggghh!” I screamed. “Why?! What did I do to deserve this?! Dammit!”
For some time afterward, I continued to cry out and curse no one in particular. It would surely draw the monster’s attention, but I was so distraught that it never occurred to me. Suddenly feeling a chill down my spine, I turned to look behind me and recoiled in terror. The Lord of the Flies was looming over me, looking down with its soulless compound eyes.
I shuddered from my very core. I’d finally realized the insect had never been pursuing me seriously—it had been toying with me all along. If it had really wanted to tear me to pieces, it would have done so from the very start. It hadn’t because it had been waiting for its prey to wear out.
One question remained: Why would a monster deliberately choose to do that? Suddenly, I recalled something I’d read back when I’d been studying up on monsters: The Lord of the Flies’s special trait, and the chief reason the guild regarded it as a disaster-class monster, was that the insect had an astounding fertility rate. If it was left to its own devices and reached adulthood, it would produce countless larvae, destroying its habitat’s ecosystem in the blink of an eye. Naturally, this would also affect the humans in that ecosystem, and indeed, there were previous instances of these insects bringing entire nations to ruin.
According to what I’d read, these creatures reproduced in a way that was similar to certain types of bees or wasps. They would sting humans or large beasts with a paralyzing poison, carry their prey back to their nest, and then feed it, still alive, to their offspring. If the Lord of the Flies caught me here, that same grisly fate would await me as well.
I moaned in despair. I wanted to make a run for it, but the monster’s intimidating glare from close up kept me rooted to the spot, like a frog being stared down by a snake. And the insect must have sensed my helplessness, because it gradually started to draw closer.
I unconsciously let out a yelp. A moment later, the creature’s sharp tail pierced my flank. I felt pain, but only for a second. It quickly turned to numbness, and the feeling soon spread from the wound throughout my entire body.
Where did I go wrong?
The last thing I recalled just before losing consciousness was what had happened at the Adventurer’s Guild three days prior.