Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau ch 33

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33. Chapter 33 – Muddy Eye

Walm felt something was wrong with his mouth. Then his brain hurt intensely as if it had been repeatedly hit by a war hammer. His limbs couldn’t be moved freely and his chest felt hurt when he exhaled.

“A, u… uhhu, uuff”

A feeling of suffocation and oppression enveloped Walm’s entire body. A thick, earthy and foul smell clung to his nose.

As Walm moved his body, the darkness cleared up after a slight resistance.

Walm exhaled the air from his lungs as if he had been craving it. Clumps of earth and water came out. It took Walm some time to realize he was stuck in the ground. But even after he escaped the ground, half of his field of vision was covered by darkness. And the other half was the night sky.

The smell that Walm was used to smelling on the battlefield, was stronger than usual. Moving only his right eye and looking around, he saw the ruins of what had once been, and many soldiers had been jumbled and tossed about.

Walm felt a dull pain like a vise tightening his head, and a pain at his eyeball as if it had been pierced by an ice pick. He saw his face in the reflection of the longsword blade he had pulled out. There were no noticeable wounds, but one of his black eyes was muddy, and discolored.

Nothing was reflected in the muddy eye. 

Walm remembered that the stream of light came from the left. 

Aaa, I guess it must have been because of that…

Oddly enough, Walm was convinced that his eye was burned by magic. He was hit by an attack of excessive and dense mana. Fortunately, it was only one of his eyes.

Walm checked the condition of his body. His head might be cracked after all. Oddly enough, the laceration had already begun to regenerate. The fingers of his left hand pointed in all directions as they wanted. Every time he took a breath, he was in excruciating pain. He was certainly not in good shape. After checking the condition of his body for some time, Walm looked up at the sky again. It was a full moon. The shape of the moon had changed from what he remembered.

“How many days, have passed, since that?”

Walm asked a question. But no answers, around him was only death. Corpses were thrown into the hole created by the magic attack.

The corpses that couldn’t be thrown and the corpses half burried on the ground had begun to decompose. Rats and maggots covered the surface of the corpses and devoured them.

They all belonged to the Highserk Empire army.

I guess they didn’t care much about the corpses of the enemy…

Walm suspected that they had been poorly buried because they were the enemy. After all, the smell of holy water was barely there.

A large amount of earth and sand created by the explosion hid Walm in the ground, preventing damage from vermin and enemy soldiers.

“Ah, a, aaagh, Reinus, Tibird, Danfan……”

Walm mentioned several names. They were the three oldest members of the Duwei Squad. He wasn’t particularly close to them, but it was a fact that he had been on the deadly battlefield and on the brink of death together for almost a year.

They were far from comradeship, but they were true to their desires. That was the impression Walm had of the three of them. Still, it didn’t change the fact that they had once saved his life.

A bright red alert was screaming in Walm’s brain. 

Stop it. Don’t look any further!

―― He saw bright red hair, a shattered bow, and a broken Squad Commander Duwei’s battle axe.

“U, ughh”

The empty stomach tightened, and stomach acid rose. The feeling around the mouth was the worst.

Unknowingly, Walm joined hands. 

What to do now?

The weakened Walm didn’t have much time to think.

All the flags illuminated by the moonlight belonged to the Four-Country Alliance. Most of the layers had fallen, and the layer Walm protected had changed into a huge graveyard.

It can’t be so quiet on the front lines… I guess, it must have been a safe haven in the area completely crushed by the Alliance.

Walm could understand that the main force of the enemy was stuffing soldiers into the layer, which was still protected by the army of the Highserk Empire.

How far is it? Is it all? The one left, only the walls? What should I do? Should I keep pretending to be a corpse and run away when I see a gap? Or should I surrender?

When Walm looked down, he saw the empty eyes of his companions, with whom he rarely spoke. There lay a corpse that hadn’t even retained the original shape of its face. It wasn’t the only one.

At such a moment, Walm remembered what his brother had told him. That those who had lost both eyes while alive couldn’t reach the Hell Gate, let alone the Netherworld, and would wander in the darkness of the void for the rest of their lives.

Walm didn’t know whether the eyes had been hollowed out before or after death. The hands of the corpses were tied behind, which meant that they were killed after detention.

Perhaps it was some rampaging soldiers? ….Or was it intentional?

―― Soldiers who couldn’t contain their emotions and were rampaging even after the enemy surrendered weren’t uncommon even in war. Food, space, lookout. Walm, who had dealt with POWs, had learned how costly POWs were.

The Highserk Empire officially refrained its army from killing POWs in order to improve the mood in the occupied territories and to secure manpower. Walm had often seen POWs killed even in the Highserk Empire because they lacked supplies and to appease some of the soldiers.

This time, countless soldiers of the Four-Country Alliance were killed or injured in the 3rd layer. Just that alone, Walm could imagine that the Alliance Army didn’t have a uniform chain of command. And that resulted in a different treatment of the POWs. So, an annihilation of the POWs in some places wasn’t that odd. Still, Walm couldn’t understand why the eyes of the corpses had to be removed.

“It’s a war. It’s not that strange, but…”

Is it necessary to despise the enemy to that extent?

……Everything is “Justified” in a war, huh?

When these words came to his mind, Walm showed his teeth and laughed loudly.

“HAHA, U, Hii, iick”

Even though I’ve killed humans too, yet, why do I still keep my belief and morals?

Walm didn’t really know how many days had passed. Still, in his mind came the squad members who had been joking until just a few hours ago.

“Aa, that’s right. Death always comes suddenly. It was the same as before. Besides, this is a war. It’s a war. You killed others. And you could be killed, too.”

Walm tried to sort out the situation, but his emotions prevented him from doing so.

At the same time, Walm knew that the light was coming toward him, who was in a dark area.

“Oi, look, something is standing.”

“Is it undead again? Even after being killed, those Highserk soldiers, are still giving us trouble.”

“We’ve crushed the eyes and limbs of those around here. For sure, he can’t move well. Let’s go crush his head quickly.”

The conversation of the unconcerned Ferrius soldiers could be heard. Walm flickered with the thought of surrendering and begging his enemies, but he saw once again what his dead comrade with bound limbs looked like.

“Surrender? F*ck it. Don’t joke with me. They’re the ones who tormented them.”

Even if you beg for your life, they won’t give you an easy death.

“It’s all or nothing, huh? ……Should I cover myself with maggots and pretend to be a corpse? Hah, not bad.”

Not a bad idea, if only Walm could ignore the fact that he was surrounded by over 10,000 soldiers in the middle of enemy territory.

Duties, Responsibilities, Vengeance.

Prayer to the squad, Loyalty to the homeland, Hatred to the enemy.

『”What do you wish for with the muddy eye?”』

“…..”

“Oi, isn’t he, muttering something?”

“He’s just moaning.”

“He’s dirty, but his eyes aren’t crushed. Maybe the one they missed?”

“Huh, once we surround and hit him, the result will be the same.”

Words circled in Walm’s head. 

Ah!

Walm came up with something. 

He remembered that 《Demon Fire》 was also called《Fire of Hell Gate》.

If I ignite it on a grand scale, those guys won’t get lost, right?

With a hope that his comrades would be able to reach the netherworld, Walm declared to his comrades who had no eyeballs.

“Even if you can’t see, you can still feel my 《Demon Fire》. I’ll specially make a bonfire. A grand bonfire.”

As Walm spun words for his comrades, the Ferrius soldiers finally realized that what they saw wasn’t undead.

“…not an undead. He’s still alive.”

“The battle was five days ago. He’s just a coward who survived by hiding as a corpse.”

“5 days in such a place…?”

Something hit the foot of Walm who was standing still. He lifted it up and muttered happily to himself.

“Aren’t you so thoughtful? Wanna come along? It’s a grand bonfire from now on.”

The mask made a loud noise as if it agreed. Walm slowly put on the mask and exhaled. Perhaps because of the stimulus of breathing, or imagining the bonfire that was about to unfold, the mask trembled violently.

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TN: For me, 『”What do you wish for with the muddy eye?”』even though it is Walm who muttered the words, I think its Takakura Raizou in Walm asking Walm.

TN: Join my discord channel if you want.