Summoning the German Army! 〜The Former Strongest Dragon Summoner, Who Lost Everything to the Heroes,

Chapter 8

It's the art of living

Translated by SoundDestiny
Edited by SoundDestiny

The rain is pouring down.

Nasser, who had been on the verge of freezing to death, finally woke up to the rapid deprivation of his body heat.

It was still daylight when he witnessed the execution of his parents and the burning of his captain.

The sky was dark with mist and the town was quietly in darkness.

It had taken more than half a day for him to regain consciousness.

It seemed that night had already fallen for quite some time. As time passed, no one would have tried to help him.

Nasser  has been left unrestrained and unattended.

If he was still being restrained, he doubted anyone would dare touch it, seeing the branding of a heretic onto his chest. The citizens didn’t want to have the punishment laid upon them.

But he was wrong, judging from the number of stones scattered around me, he knew some of them tried to harm him.

Was it a coincidence that he didn’t freeze to death?

“Captain….”

After the burning, which is still hot.

Not even a bone remains of the captain who was burned by the hero…….

The only thing that remains is the charred remains of the Church Cross.

She was the one who protected him after he had lost everything.

And he remembers about his parents.

The tears, which he thought had long since dried up, began to flow again.

The loss of his dragon was such a small thing compared to losing the people he loved and cherished.

On the freezing night, he felt the heat of the captain and his parents’ embrace and could not move an inch.

And then.

“Hey, look! He’s still here, you heretic scum!”

Bun ──── Becha.

A food waste was thrown at him, still seeing Nasser couldn’t move well.

“HyaHahaha! Look at that! The shit got hit by the shit!”

It’s the drunkards who laugh vulgarly with ‘Gahahahaha.’

Some are dressed as soldiers, others as civilians.

One after the other, they throw food scraps, horse manure and stones at him.

At first, Nasser did not resist, but when he was hit in the head with a stone, he could only stagger away.

The bodies of my parents had been cleared away, but the wreckage of the burnt captain still remained.

Although he felt it was difficult to leave, he had no choice but to flee from the stone-throwing soldiers and civilians.

“Please don’t do this…….”

Those were the words he squeezed out of his mouth that  made the crowd grow bolder. 

They kept throwing stones at him until they got tired of chasing him, and his body was covered with bruises.

Finally, by the time the citizens had dispersed, he was swollen all over.

He escaped to a strange bridge in the town.

He hid himself in a pile of dead branches and rubbish, trying to keep warm at the same time.

Despite some protection from the freezing outside air, it is doubtful whether he will survive tonight.

But the town has not yet gone to sleep.

There’s no telling what they’ll do to him when the drunks wander around.

Fortunately, his body was still feverish from the beating, and the chill in the air seemed just right.

“I can’t last more than a few days…….”

Nasser laughs to himself as he imagines a future where he will soon die, in a notorious death.

Seeing the bruises all over his body made him aware of his position, even if he didn’t like it.

It is the policy of the state.

Heretics are thoroughly disliked.

In this country, being slandered as a heretic means social extermination.

The reason for this is to reveal the brocade of the Demon King.

It’s probably a precautionary measure to make sure that anyone who cooperates with the demon king is thoroughly exposed to what will happen to them.

In fact, there are some soldiers who have been taken prisoner by the Demon King’s army and have returned home after being brainwashed.

In the past, they have been manipulated by the Demon King’s army to carry out terrorist activities and assassinate important people in the country.

For a while, a method was devised to break the brainwashing, but it was not perfect.

In the end, only the precautionary measures were taken to prevent further followers, and only the tendency to hate heretics remained.

This is why the soldiers of this country extremely avoided being captured by the Demon King’s army.

“Live and do not humiliate the prisoners” ── Although a policy was proposed, nothing happened.

But people are just afraid of being treated as heretics.

However, there are still some soldiers who become prisoners of war because they lose their fight during the battle.

After their return from captivity, they are treated as heretics, and can only die… in the field, or surrender to the Demon King’s army with a grudge against the world of mankind -or just become desperate and disappear quietly into the path of evil.

In other words, his future is probably one of those….

For now, though, the chance for him was dying on some street. 

It is not easy to find a job when he have lost my rights in the kingdom.

Now the house and property belonged to Alicia …….

With his parents dead, he had nowhere to go.

“Would I really die ……?”

In the end, Nasser was resigned to the fact that he would die, but then he suddenly remembered Liz.

She is the only one who survived.

“Liz …………”

He couldn’t save her.

It’s his fault for bringing Liz into this.

“I’m sorry, Liz!”

Liz was horrified by the murder of her in-laws. Nasser never forgot the look on her face after she admitted that he  was a heretic.

He refuse forget it.

That’s why Nasser rejected any of those options – dying in the field, surrendering to the Demon King’s army, or going down the path of evil. He musn’t do so.

─ …… Get it off your chest! Live, live, live through it!

The Captain’s voice echoed back to him as she shouted to Liz. Her words spoke more to Nasser than they did to Liz.

“I know,────, I know, Captain!”

I don’t want to die ……, I don’t want to die!

Everyone’s disappointment, my disappointment, Liz’s disappointment.

I can’t help but get rid of it!!!!!

“I’ll live. I’ll definitely live!”

Even if I have to start slurping mud or licking maggots, I’ll live.

And…

I will take revenge on this world…

I will not fall into evil.

Not out of desperation.

I have no intention of falling into the Demon King’s army.

This is my revenge.

This is my revenge, and I’m not going to let anyone get in my way.

I’m sorry, captain.

I can’t be proud. I will not crawl through the mud with my heart on my sleeve!

Whatever it takes, I’ll survive ………… and get my revenge, no matter how many years pass.

So I live for today.

And tomorrow, and the day after ──────.

I’m not going to die until I get my revenge on this world!

Nasser vowed his revenge and felt that his Captain was standing in front of him, smiling.

“That’s just like you, that smile…”

“Liz. I’m sorry ……, I can’t help you now. But…”

“But ──── after my revenge, I will find a place for you Liz!!”

So!!!!

“Bear with me…………At least I’ll never forget you – and I’ll never give up!” …… as long as I’m alive.”

By midnight, Nasser crawled out from under the bridge and was walking unsteadily towards his house.

To confirm the flame of revenge that has smoldered in his heart, he went to…….

His home.

No, it’s now his ex-home …….

When he looked through the window into the brightly lit room, he saw what he expected to see────.

A man and a woman laughing together ……. The Hero Kōji whispering in the woman’s ear and ──── making sweet noises was Alicia’s ……his ex-wife.

“You mock me,my family, my friend so much, and then you leave us for dead, and then you start flirting ──── all in a span of one day.”

Alicia even seems to be enjoying the guilt.

“Fucking bitch ……”

Seeing the end of his parents and the captain, the end thoughts that Nasser’s brain could not process because of despair, the anger that had once disappeared began to pump again.

He would like to impulsively break in and punch him, but the pain of the melted wounds from the burn of the spell and the reality of the……unwinnable situation make him grit his teeth and hold back.

There was nothing he could do now but leave, with a dark resentment burning in his heart.

“Damn it!”

The sound of Alicia’s sweet voice echoing outside drove him insane.

“It’s my room of all places.！！！”

There was an unquestionable betrayal and the few feelings he had for Alicia have disappeared completely.

After that, he wandered aimlessly around the city.

A few days away from the public’s eye.

He wandered around the depths of the country with only the desire to live and take revenge in his heart.

Nasser’s life is no better than a rat’s, and more miserable than a worm’s.

Nights spent resting, seeking the heat of the manure in the dumps to warm his freezing bodies.

Mornings when he approaches the communal well for a drink of water, only to be heckled and stoned by the citizens.

When he went to the church, which advocates helping the poor, he swallowed his resentment and asked for a bowl of porridge, only to have filth thrown at him and be speared blocked by the guards.

In the evening, when he was hungry and wanted to drink the water of the river, the people of the city started to pee into the river as if they were waiting for him to do so.

And another night sleeping near a manure pile ────.

How many days have passed……?

A few days?

Or a few weeks?

Nasser, who had vowed revenge and was determined to live no matter what, had his spirit torn apart in just a few days. 

And there’s no improvement in his worst of living conditions.

These days will continue until he dies.

At midnight, hungry and cold, he wandered the streets at night.

The only thing that keeps him warm is by walking.

But sooner or later, he knew he would run out of energy to move.

Nowadays, the townspeople and the soldiers of the police force have grown tired of assaulting him and have begun to ignore him.

Probably, they even tend to avoid him because of his smell.

He took advantage of this by walking around the town, picking through the rubbish and asking for alms from the odd person.

That odd person, it was her.

A nameless receptionist at the adventurer’s guild.

She was one of those rare people who would secretly give me a meal.

As soon as she noticed he was wandering around town, she would quietly leave him a loaf of bread, a piece of fruit, or something else that would last.

In anticipation of such charity, he began to wander around the Adventurer’s Guild, his former workplace.

He would wait for the receptionist to show up, feeling the warmth flow from inside.

But he knew that if he was too obvious, she would be annoyed, so he tried to keep a low profile and hid in an alley.

From there, he watched the townspeople in a daze until it became dark, while the bustle of the guild caught his ear.

The guild was still in business, it seemed, as it had a tavern.

But by the end of the night the crowd had thinned out and it was as quiet as the city.

This was the que for him to start moving, his  hand on the still-painful burn on his chest.

“Come to think of it, when’s the last time I had a proper meal ……?”

He thought he hadn’t eaten for a long time before all this.

When he realised that he hadn’t eaten for a long time, he felt an unbearable hunger in his body for normal food.

In spite of this, the guild’s receptionist did not show up.

He began to think that maybe she was off duty today…….

He had no choice but to go through the rubbish bin from the guild tavern.

In the dark, he fished through the unidentifiable rubbish.

It smelled horrible, but he was lucky to be able to keep it in his stomach.

He felt nauseous several times, but by the time his stomach was full, he was so physically and mentally exhausted that he finally sank into the mud and fell asleep in the bin.

Fortunately, the food waste, which had begun to ferment, was terribly warm.

In the morning, when he woke up to the presence of people, he was surprised to see a shopkeeper from the guild’s tavern looking into the rubbish bin.

He must have come to take out the early morning rubbish.

Ignoring his face completely, Nasser entered the guild with a ghostly gait.

Apparently, he was stunned.

It was not long ago, he believes, that he got a job here.

Nasser entered the adventurer’s guild in a foggy state of consciousness and stood there for a while in a daze.

“Hmm? ………… ghe, Nasser Virginia!?”

It was the early hours of the morning.

There were only a few people inside, including adventurers who were drunk from last night and early risers, but it was not completely deserted.

In addition, it is likely that people already know about Nasser.

The guild’s staff looked shocked, and the adventurers were sparse.

Although no one can talk to Nasser, who walks unsteadily with a terrible odor and eyes …….

But still, after all – this is an adventurer’s guild. There are some people who will get involved with him as promised.

“Yo, yo, yo, yo!　You’re a heretic, a womanizer, and a pathetic A-adventure!”

“Look at that, guys!　And a demented adventurer who is deliberately surprised.”

“I don’t kno..-It’s true!No wonder he is stinky as hell. It reeks of the same shit as the Demon Lord’s army, man!”

Ora!!!

A poorly thrown roundhouse kick strikes me, Nasser tried catching it instead of avoiding it, but his weak body couldn’t withstand it.

When he rolled on the floor, drunken adventurers and scum adventurers took advantage of the situation and kicked and stepped on him.

When he started to urinate in the guild, the staff finally stopped them because of the smell in the guild. But not for assault, but to keep the guild clean.

Nasser, which was already in a state of mush, slowly got up and started to walk, despite emitting a terrible smell.

It was the receptionist who had always fed him who greeted his ugly sight with a grimace.

His arrival at the guild office means that some people have to be told.

Secretly, she wanted nothing to do with Nasser in this state.

“Ah … is that for this guild?”

The young receptionist replied, her eyes glazed over, as if she had just finished a night shift.

The twitching face shows that she is avoiding me, probably in her mind saying, “Uwah…, this is a nuisance.” Normally, she would have given me her food without saying a word, even if it was in a casual manner.

She did not expect Nasser to come to the guild in such a state.

In fact, he may be a bit of a stalker.

But Nasser doesn’t care.

He has lost everything and has nothing to fear or be ashamed of now.

“Give me a job…..”

That’s all he can squeeze out.

“You are …… Nasser Virginia, aren’t you?”

He nodded his head, and the receptionist said fearfully

“I’m sorry. You are no longer eligible for the Adventurer’s Guild–”

“…give him a job.”

“—-please go home.” The receptionist was about to say this when a voice interrupted her.

“Ah! Well, Master !? But … that”

“It’s fine. Just give him those free quests. You know, the free ones where you don’t have to qualify?”

The Adventurer’s Guild has a number of free quests that can be done by anyone, not just registered adventurers.

Free quests are available to non-registered adventurers, such as mercenaries who are asked to escort people from town to town, or to collect medicinal herbs, which can be done by children. There are also free quests for killing sewer monsters that pop up in the city year after year, and goblins that spring up in the woods outside the city.

“A,okay…….then, here you go.”

Nasser noticed the receptionist glanced at his face, but his eyes weren’t concentrating on her.

He was looking at the guildmaster at the back of the room.

“You ……”

“Hm, You should be grateful that you’re still alive ……”

The guildmaster replies sullenly.

He was one of the people he bore his grudge against, the one who testified against him and falsified the information about the hero’s infidelity.

The whole thing went wrong when he sent Kōji to stay at his house in the first place.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What do you mean? It was your fault that your wife was taken. We’ve got a legendary hero lodging with us. Normally, that achievement would have put you higher up the ladder.”

“Aahhh! You…….You knew Alicia was an ass-whipping bitch when you sent her to us!”

“If you go that far. I won’t …… give any job.”

After that, the guildmaster gives instructions to the staff while ignoring Nasser presence and disappears in the back.

Nasser couldn’t stop staring at him, but when the receptionist spoke to him, he finally accepted the quest.

He was offered a job as a “goblin slayer” because she thought that Nasser could handle it, although it was not a good job.

“oi, can’t you see? I’m bare-handed, remember?”

It would have been nice to have something like collecting herbs, but instead, she told me to subdue the monsters.

“S-sorry, You’ll be put into a few parties with you, and well…Mr. Nasser used to be an A-level adventurer,  master wanted me to do this because of your achievements…”

That bastard…..

Nasser was reluctant to accept the quest, feeling that it would be useless to negotiate any further.

He thought that one day he would curse the world and die, but …… that would be too unreasonable.

He knew from experience that when he was in a messed up state of mind, he didn’t think much of anything, so his goal was to just get on with his life.

Of course, there were some dark feelings swirling around in his chest. ……

After confirming the order of the quest, Nasser sat down in a corner of the guild and waited for the party to assemble.

As soon as they are ready, they will go to the forest on the outskirts.

Nasser was grateful to the receptionist for secretly offering him a stamina potion, as she could not bear to see him so weakly.

He drank it down quickly so that no one would see him.

After a while.

“Is that you? Who’s your partner today?”

There were about five men who spoke to him.

All of them are shabbily armed, but the atmosphere is not sober. They’re probably ex-criminals or something, and like Nasser, they’ve been disbarred from the guild.

So they’ve been given free quests to do.

“…. That’s right. Nasser is fine.”

That’s all Nasser was going to say, and he’s going to avoid getting involved.

The leader of the group seemed to raise his eyebrows for a moment, but without saying a word, he quickly walked on ahead.

Four of his men hurriedly followed him, and Nasser slowly followed.

In the meantime, the adventurers who have begun to gather at the guild are whispering to each other.

“Hey, it’s Nasser. Apparently he fucked up before….. and became a heretic.”

“That’s it? Seriously, he was class ……A, right?”

“Then his wife was taken from him, and the …… church and the king burned a spell on him. Now he can’t even summon dragons.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. ….. Does that mean it’s over?”

“Probably, but don’t mention……this stuff too much, okay? I hear he’s been framed by the big boys.”

“You mean, Alicia the bitch,the hero……and then there’s the Guildmaster, right?”

“Yeah, yeah,…..shhhh. You can’t say too much or we’ll be in trouble.”

“Aaa, Kuwabara Kuwabara ..”

(TL: He’s praying to avoid any misfortune)

But their conversation had been overheard, but Nasser just left the guild to block it all out.

He has to live……………… for now.

One shadow watches Nasser as he leaves the guild.

The guild master was watching Nasser’s movements with a suspicious look in his eyes.

He is alone, he pouted.

“… It’s becoming a hassle to kill the hero quickly.”