The Villain Changed the Ending

058 A horn of warning sounded.

****[Oscar, the main character] ****

It has already been twelve years since he has been going back and forth between the royal capital and duchy.

Even if they don’t take the same route every time, more than half of them have passed through this city.

It wasn’t a misunderstanding, he remembered this castle and gate clearly.

Originally, it wasn’t like this.

If I remember correctly, there must have been a simple, thick wooden castle gate wedged between the walls.

In the corner of the wooden gate, there were cute traces of wood reinforcement in one or two places.

I remember asking Benno the first time I saw this castle, wondering if the original castle gate was reinforced like that.

I even remember Benno replying that he didn’t.

But why did it happen like this

Now the gate has been completely destroyed, and only the upper part and the hinged side are barely left.

The middle part is completely gone.

It looks like someone fired a mortar.

“This… I’ll look into it and come back.”

Even the captain of the escort seemed perplexed.

After instructing the soldiers to reinforce the perimeter, I entered the castle alone, leaving me behind.

After a while, the captain of the escort came out with a man.

He is wearing good clothes to look like a commoner.

Perhaps it is the official of the castle.

The official followed the captain of the escort, half-bent at the waist, bewildered.

The captain of the escort came up to me and opened his mouth with an absurd expression.

“They say that a few days ago, the Demonic Beast invaded the city. But that’s…”

The captain of the escort made a strange expression and said to the official.

“Now, tell the duke exactly what you told me.

At the words of the escort captain, the official bowed his head.

“Yes, yes, I understand. That… So a few days ago, a monster came out of the forest. Suddenly, it started to ram its horns into our castle.”

According to the official, a monster with large horns suddenly appeared.

Listening to his appearance, it was a demon I called a rhinoceros.

It is said that the rhinoceros did not stop even after hitting the hard gate with its horn several times and becoming a wreck.

In the end, he broke through the destroyed gate and wandered around the city, harming people and wreaking havoc.

It is said that the soldiers stabbed them with spears and shot arrows, but they could not pierce the beast’s thick skin.

that would have been

If the rhinoceros I knew was right what Lee said, it wouldn’t have been pierced by an ordinary soldier’s spear, sword, or arrow.

The skin of a rhinoceros is thicker and tougher than that of other beasts.

It would have been difficult for soldiers in such a small city to even scratch their skin.

I quietly looked into the official’s face.

The official’s eyes are moving back and forth as if swimming.

As my gaze fell on his face, the official’s face, which had been raising his head while he was talking, lowered gradually, as if he could not bear it any longer.

“…That, that monster continued to wander around and crash into buildings before eventually exhausting itself and dying.”

It is said that many people died at that time.

The lord of the city was also injured at that time, and now lies unable to move.

“So, uh, I’m sorry. Originally, our lord had to meet him personally…”

It’s summer, so the days are hot.

The sun was already setting, but the heat from the ground was still continuing.

The official looked at me, wiping his sweat from time to time, raising his eyes from time to time.

And when their eyes meet, they hurriedly lower their heads.

“Was this a place where demon beasts often haunted?”

When I asked, the official shook his head.

“Oh, no, Duke. This area is a forest, so it looks dangerous at first glance, but it’s a place rich in food. There are many small animals and fruits in the forest. Witch beasts don’t come often. It’s a safe city.”

It seems that he was wary of rumors that it was a city where witches often appeared.

This is a famous place to stay on the way to the royal road.

For that reason, even though it was a small city, there were luxurious accommodations for wealthy merchants and nobles.

As far as I know, it is a place where the lord runs it directly through someone else.

If there is a rumor that a monster is appearing, nobles who value safety will stop visiting.

That’s probably why the official puts on a desperate face and says that the monster doesn’t come out.

But the words before and after are different.

It was said that the Witchbeast had invaded the city for no reason a while ago, but this time it is said that the Witchbeast is not coming again.

Which one is correct?

Besides, if it is true that the rhinoceros appeared here, then what this official said is strange.

After hearing the official’s story some more, I let him go.

Watching the back of the official as he hurriedly headed into the city, I asked the captain of the escort.

“what do you think about it?”

“I don’t know. To be honest, I can’t believe that official’s words. That beast is docile and runs away rather than attacking people.”

“I think so too.”

As my gaze turned toward the castle gate, the captain of the escort saw it and frowned.

“But still… that door wasn’t broken by a person.”

No matter how strong the horns of the rhinoceros were, destroying the gates to that extent would have hurt him a lot.

The official also said that the beast was hurt because of it.

That was most likely true.

“The question is, why did you do that until you were about to die?”

Rhinos have very docile and quiet personalities.

I rarely had problems with people.

There are many demon beasts that eat people, but no one has witnessed a rhinoceros cannibalizing.

It would be correct to assume that people do not eat.

They preyed on things that were harmful to humans, like locusts.

Beasts that are beneficial to humans are rare, and rhinoceros belonged to such a small group.

For that reason, even when hunting monsters, rhinos are not caught.

It’s not just our dukedom, it’s like that in most of them.

Why was the rhino so angry and attacked?

I feel reluctant to poop and not clean it, but I can’t figure it out right now.

From the official’s attitude, it seems like he’s hiding something, but this is the domain of another family.

I couldn’t force him to tell me.

“…”

I gazed at the sky.

The blue sky is turning red in no time.

Anyway, it was too late to leave here.

The demon who attacked this place is said to be dead, so I guess there is no great danger.

If there is even the slightest possibility of a Demonic Beast appearing, it is dangerous to sleep or move in the empty field after dark.

Witchbeasts are bright at night and can follow us like in the daytime, but humans cannot.

In a dark space, humans are only prey more vulnerable than demon beasts.

Even if the gates were broken, it would be safe to stay in the city within the thick walls.

“I’ll stay one night and leave early in the morning.”

“All right.”

While the escort captain discussed the vigil and the surrounding borders with the magic captain, the duke’s civil servant entered the city.

In our procession, there is a civil servant who will take care of the troubles of entering and exiting other territories and check-in at the inn.

It was all the civil servant’s job to secure a place for my accommodation and escort to stay.

The civil servant stayed in the city for quite a long time before coming out.

“Accommodation is ready. It took us a while to find a decent place as there was more destruction in the city than we thought.”

A look of disappointment was evident on the civil servant’s face.

It seems that the luxurious lodging where they usually stayed was also slightly destroyed.

Saying that he had rented the entire lodging and its surroundings, the civil servant apologized several times even though it was not his fault.

“Other times, we negotiate to use the manor house in this case, but then we can’t surround the duke with only our soldiers.

I don’t know if it’s a small town.

When staying in a city, it is rare to rent the entire surrounding area.

Especially in cities with high-end accommodations.

Most of the luxury accommodations have a space for the escort to stay right next to or inside the room, and no matter how high-ranking a person is, there is no case of expelling the person staying in the accommodation and monopolizing the entire building.

It was the same when I stayed in this city.

This time is exceptional.

It’s not an exhibition, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything to be concerned about, but the people of the dukedom are overly concerned.

I smiled lightly and tapped the depressed civil servant on the shoulder.

“great job.”

It was dusk and it was dark outside the castle.

Unlike the cities on Earth, this world is dark everywhere as soon as the sun goes down.

because there are no lights.

In such a world, when you look up at the sky at night, the stars twinkle brightly, as if sprinkled with jewels.

While looking at the stars in the distant sky for a while, it seemed that the arrangement of the soldiers was all decided.

The captain of the escort took the lead and guided me.

I slowly rode my horse through the city.

The city was shattered here and there, with black marks all over the floor.

Beneath the flickering torches, the exceptionally black shadows were undoubtedly traces of blood.

People seem pretty dead.

It’s really strange.

I had never heard of a rhinoceros going wild and killing people like this.

Maybe the rhinoceros is crazy.

‘Can a witch go crazy?’

A civil servant leads the way.

The escort captain was right next to me.

Thinking the rhino’s behavior was strange, I headed toward the civil servant’s direction.

The place where the civil servants stayed was a clean building, if not a luxurious one.

The civil servant was sorry, saying it was a bad place, but it wasn’t bad at this level.

It seems that there was a guest staying.

I saw several people coming out of the building in a hurry.

There was no sign of dissatisfaction, perhaps because he had received an ample amount of money from the civil servants.

Upon seeing me, the expelled guests bowed and hurriedly departed.

Dinner was decent for the standard of this inn.

Maybe it was deliberately obtained from a luxury inn or permanent residence.

I felt the material was good.

Of course, it couldn’t compare to the duke’s, but it was delicious even though it was a simple dish with a little salt and herbs.

It might be that the people of the city are being cautious because a great nobleman is staying.

It was still early evening, but the area around the accommodation was quiet enough to hear breathing.

Somewhere, sometimes I heard crying throughout the night.

I turned off the light and lay down in bed, but I can’t sleep.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m worried about the witchcraft.

Apparently, the rhino’s behavior felt strange.

I tossed and turned, and eventually sat up.

I went to the window and stared at the distant sky, blankly, when I suddenly heard a very small sound.

I don’t know where you’re hearing it from.

There was only a small sound carried in the night air.

Whoops… whoops…

If there had been any noise from all directions, or if I had been in the room away from the window, I probably wouldn’t have heard it.

It was such a small, thin sound.

When I heard that sound, my heart went cold.

My heart hurts.

‘This isn’t just a sound.’

It was so thin and small that it was not accurate, but it was close to the scream of a beast.

I cast my gaze into the empty space of the night.

I listened again, but there was no sound.

did i hear it wrong?

no, that wouldn’t be it

I changed my mind, but this time the sound rang a little louder.

Although it is large, it is still as thin as a thread.

However, the feeling was conveyed more clearly than before.

It seems to fall somewhere in the middle between screaming and crying.

Maybe this is why I couldn’t sleep.

People’s senses are more sensitive than you think, so they gather information around you even when you are not aware of it.

Before I knew it, my ears might have picked up this sound.

“…”

As a child, I once heard the screams of dogs screaming after being beaten by people.

It happened in my previous life, when I was at the nursery school on Earth.

Near the nursery school lived a person who beat a dog at a certain time every day.

The screams of dogs in pain from being beaten resonate in the heart. The heart of the listener first suffers before the brain understands.

At that time, everyone in the orphanage, children and adults alike, suffered.

Even if I had no choice but to close the window and close the door, screams could be heard from the shabby nursery school building through it.

When I think of that time, my heart still hurts.

“…”

The faint sound spreading through the night sky now sounded more painful than that.

And although I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where it was, the sound was definitely echoing in this city.

It is not a sound coming from outside.

Perhaps the rhino’s strange behavior was due to this sound.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“Duke, are you okay?”

The escort captain outside the door must have noticed my movements.

After allowing entry, the captain of the escort opened the door and entered.

I sighed and spoke softly.

“Maybe the rhino raided the city to save his comrades.”

The escort captain’s face darkened.

Not because of my words, but he seems to have heard the screams of beasts carried by the wind.

It was then that the warning horn sounded.

Beep- Beep-

Duchy soldiers carry a small horn in case of an emergency.

The sound of the horn was tearing through the night sky.