The Truth

Kaori first approaches Sakura. She directs her hands toward Sakura. Sakura’s bleeding stops. After that, Kaori goes to Souta and does the same. Souta’s bleeding stops. Ren also does the same. Cruffciel speaks.

“Shall I close the dungeon now?”

“You can close it.” I say.

Suddenly, we appear outside. It seems our exit took quite some time because outside is extremely crowded. Haruto Tanaka is the first person to come to us.

“Did you manage to kill him?”

“Yes, but did you know he was a Kuruviel?” I ask.

“A Kuruviel?” Haruto looks genuinely surprised.

“Yes. He first tried to kill me. He cut my neck when I wasn’t aware. If I had taken a little longer to come to myself, I would have been the only person to come out of that dungeon. He was at least Ultimate level.”

“You mean the world’s strongest man could have been killed by him?”

“What are you trying to imply, Haruto?”

“I’m just talking. Calm down, Itachi.”

“First, we need to take the others to the hospital. I will go with them. I’ll explain what happened later.”

“Alright then.”

There are six ambulances waiting outside. After putting all of them in the ambulances, I speak with the doctor.

“Hello, doctor.”

“Hello, sir.”

“Is Itachi doing well?”

“Ah—hello, Itachi.”

“I want you to put these four in the same room.”

“If there’s space, I can fulfill your request.”

“Thank you.”

I walk slowly toward the hospital, hoping the treatment will be done by the time I arrive.

“I hope…”

I take a deep breath.

“I hope everyone will be fine.”

While walking, I look at the houses. Single-story houses, each with only one family living inside. Sixty years ago, it wasn’t like this. (Itachi is thirty years old.) They had buildings called ‘skyscrapers.’ After the monster invasion and the near depletion of resources, we moved to these structures. There used to be many countries, but now there are only five: Tokyo Kingdom, Moscow Federation, Ankara Republic, New York Federation, London Kingdom. Their leaders are the five strongest people in the world. All other lands are under monster occupation. After the monster invasions, human genetics changed. When I gain all my power… I will definitely save everyone.

I continue walking for a while longer and arrive at the hospital. I enter and go to the reception.

“Were four Stellizers brought here?”

“Ah… yes, five, they were brought about ten minutes ago.”

“Where are they now?”

“Downstairs, room four.”

“Thank you.”

After finding the stairs, I go down. I knock on the door of room four and enter. Souta and Ren are near the door, facing each other. Immediately to their right, there’s a partition. Sakura is on the right side of Souta’s partition, and Kaori is on the right side of Ren’s. They are all lying on stretchers. Sakura looks better.

“Hello again.”

They all nod.

“Now, I will tell you everything. Do you know the Shirogane family that disappeared twenty years ago?”

Sakura speaks. Judging by the expressions of the others, they clearly don’t know.

“Yes. They were wiped out by the monster’s memory attack. Their lowest ranks were SSS. They had strange special powers, but despite that, they were destroyed. What does this have to do with us?”

“My real name is Shirogane Itachi.”

Sakura’s eyes tremble with surprise and concern.

“I had a sister. She was five years old at that time. Shirogane Kurumi… I took her and somehow survived. I participated in dungeon raids until she turned ten, trying to earn money from there. When she turned ten, the place we lived was invaded by monsters. She died there. Or at least, that’s what I thought.”

Sakura speaks.

“So the Kurumi we saw today…”

“Yes. But no matter what, she was now a monster. She had to be killed. As for our resurrection, it is a blessing. The goddess gives blessings to certain special nobles. We have one resurrection per day. Kurumi revived thanks to this.”

There is a moment of silence. Then I speak again.

“I want to apologize for what happened. If I hadn’t been distracted, this bad outcome wouldn’t have occurred.”