Chapter 179: The Great Sinner Meets the Cursed Child
* * *
Giovanno Ack Toh, the wicked count!
It had been a year since that grand capture operation led by the 7-year-old prodigy Mereucce Runtart......there was likely not a soul in the Pokkeroce Kingdom now who did not know that name.
Mothers threatened their children with warnings that "If you misbehave, Giovanno will come kidnap you," and the expression "Giovanno-esque" became an idiom used throughout the Pokkeroce Kingdom to describe villainous conduct.
The great villain universally reviled by all citizens like a venomous snake or scorpion.
That was the man known as Giovanno.
Why was he so despised? First, it was because the criminal acts he committed were absolutely unforgivable.
He forcibly abducted his own impoverished subjects, illegally selling them off as slaves to make money.
At times he conducted slave hunts, destroying entire villages, with rumors placing his total number of victims at no less than a hundred people.
Moreover, due to propaganda from rival noble factions, blame-shifting by former allies, and the imaginative "rumors on the wind" spread by loose-lipped commoners, he was even accused of crimes he never committed, enshrined as the mastermind behind every single crime occurring within the kingdom.
Without even realizing it himself, he had become the supreme leader of a secret society plotting the Pokkeroce Kingdom's downfall.
When told of this during interrogations in his prison cell, even his signature sarcasm failed him as he was left momentarily speechless.
In any case, Giovanno's reputation within the Pokkeroce Kingdom was that of an "unprecedented great villain."
No wonder he was sentenced to banishment in the Zamago Forest, a punishment said to be even crueler than the death penalty.
However, no matter how much he was condemned for crimes he did not commit, he meekly accepted it all.
After all, there was no denying he had been involved in the illegal slave trade that led to his capture in the first place.
Countless people had their lives ruined because of him.
Back when he was count, desperate for funds, he had forcibly pushed such thoughts out of his mind, but how unforgivably sinful that was!
Thus, reflecting on that, no matter how much blame was heaped upon him, he felt no urge to make excuses.
Before he knew it, his heart had grown completely numb, but deep down, Giovanno undoubtedly still possessed a sense of goodness.
This is not to defend him, but it was not as if Giovanno engaged in the illegal slave trade out of desire.
Backed into a corner by his failure to manage his territory, he had clung to the worst possible criminal act as a last resort.
In the first place, he was originally just the second son of a viscount family distantly related to the Toh Count family, a man who under normal circumstances in the Pokkeroce Kingdom should never have been granted the rank of count by any stretch.
Yet for some reason, through power dynamics entirely unknown even to Giovanno himself in some shadowy part of the royal palace, the still young Giovanno found himself inheriting Count Toh's territory with no idea what was going on.
When informed of this as a fait accompli from above, Giovanno was naturally bewildered.
But in his youth, it lit a fire of ambition within him.
This was his chance.
He would use it to climb even higher, he thought.
However, upon taking up his post in the territory, he found Count Toh's economy in dire straits.
The subjects were already impoverished, farmland withered, and merchants beginning to flee.
It seemed the thoughtless extravagance of previous generations of Count Toh (whose current whereabouts were now a complete mystery) had utterly consumed what was once a prosperous land.
In the end, Giovanno had been a sacrificial pawn to extend the life of the moribund Toh Count family even a little longer.
Why go as far as forcibly installing Giovanno as count just to maintain the Toh Count family's existence?
Who benefited from such a thing?
Giovanno never figured it out in the end.
Without understanding, he worked desperately, was driven into a corner, resorted to crime, brought misfortune to many, and met his downfall.
Incidentally, after Giovanno's arrest, the Toh Count family was finally dissolved, apparently.
They should have......just done that......from the start!!
Hearing that news while in prison, Giovanno shed tears of blood.
* * *
(In the end, just what was my life even for......)
Stopping in his tracks in the forest, Giovanno had unwittingly lost himself in thought when a raindrop splattered on his cheek.
Startled, he glanced at his hands and saw he was holding a flabby purple fruit.
Wandering aimlessly through the Zamago Forest, he had found this purple fruit and, while gazing at it, began pondering his life up to now and what to do going forward.
"............"
Giovanno looked at the purple fruit in his hand again.
Resembling an eggplant, this fruit was called a donei.
A vine plant that grows in forests around the Pokkeroce Kingdom, it is sweet.
"Hah! How pathetically stubborn of me!"
Giovanno sardonically laughed at himself, tossing the fruit aside and resuming his trek.
The donei is said to be a sweet, delicious fruit.
And a violently poisonous fruit that will certainly kill a person within minutes of a single bite.
* * *
The rainfall grew heavier.
The droplets that had been lightly pattering against the leaves overhead gradually intensified, now pouring down on Giovanno like a waterfall.
He was completely drenched, of course.
And cold.
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Giovanno had somehow avoided monster attacks as he continued wandering the forest, but the frigid rain mercilessly sapped his strength.
"With this much......water, at least dying of thirst is out of the question. Many thanks, many thanks......"
Though he feigned bravado aloud, Giovanno could sense his own limits approaching.
Giovanno was a man in his forties who had rarely exercised to begin with, having been imprisoned in a jail cell for the greater part of a year.
It was a miracle he had managed to wander the forest for even a few hours.
(......[Invisible Hand])
To block even a little of the downpour, Giovanno tried activating his unique ability.
"Unique abilities."
Abilities of unknown principles that manifest in extremely rare individuals.
The renowned "Great Mage" defined them in his writings as "primitive magic that can be activated without incantation," but in any case.
Giovanno had been able to use such an ability since his childhood.
His unique ability [Invisible Hand] could create unseen "hands" to hold and carry objects.
Its effective range was a radius of a few meters centered on himself.
Thanks to this ability, he could cradle documents in both arms while levitating a cup to sip tea!
The young soldier earlier tripping over nothing was also due to Giovanno tripping him with [Invisible Hand].
In fact, a year ago, this [Invisible Hand] was the trump card he tried to use against Mereucce.
He had planned to grab the knife he purposefully missed with [Invisible Hand] and ambush Mereucce from behind.
That scheme was foiled by the maid uniform-clad woman named Viola, likely an agent of the Runtart family's dark side, though.
Now then, Giovanno played that trump card again.
Trying to create an awning with [Invisible Hand] to endure the rain.
"............"
But alas, how heartless reality could be.
The [Invisible Hand] he produced was......extremely small.
The size of his own palm at most, far too tiny to shield his entire body from the pelting rain.
"As expected......the menace of nature......is literally too much to 'handle'......"
His trump card had been defeated by the threat (rain) of the great outdoors.
The outcome was obvious from the start, in hindsight.
However, it would be cruel to criticize Giovanno for it as his consciousness grew hazy.
"Ugh, guh......"
And then Giovanno finally collapsed face-first onto the ground.
His tattered prisoner's garb was further sullied miserably by the muddy earth.
Covered in filth.
"......Puhah......hah, hah......"
Somehow lifting just his face, he avoided drowning in a puddle in his final moments.
"Hah......I really am pathetically, stubbornly clinging to life......hah......"
He had done things warranting death.
Talking to himself in his mind like that, he was still afraid of dying after all.
His instincts stubbornly clung to extending his own life despite finding no value in living.
He should not be alive anymore.
But he did not want to die.
Frightening.
Frustrating.
Why.
Curse you, Runtart.
Ah, ah, ah......
His mind was in utter turmoil, even he himself unable to grasp his own thoughts.
Yet his heart absolutely refused to stop beating.
And that desperate struggle of his instincts, that attachment to life, grasped a miracle!
(......Ah, is that......?)
Giovanno lifted his face with all his might, and in his line of sight, he discovered towering cliffs with a single cavern entrance gaping open!
Having pressed onward with no sense of direction, after several hours of aimless wandering, Giovanno had miraculously reached the cliffs at the western edge of the Nanga Mountains.
(Shelter from the rain......for now.)
His body, which he thought incapable of moving even a finger anymore, apparently still had a little strength remaining, for the moment a visible goal of the cavern was presented, his limbs began moving with desperate fervor.
However, his arms were still chained together.
More clumsily than a caterpillar, groaning with all his might, Giovanno crawled toward the cavern.
* * *
"Ugh, gnh......hah, hah......"
Mustering the last of his strength, Giovanno somehow tumbled into the cavern, lying on his back with eyes closed as he gasped for breath.
"Hah, hah, hah......"
He remained like that for a while.
Unable to think at all.
The sound of heavy rainfall could be heard from outside the cavern.
Along with the occasional rumble of thunder.
Meanwhile, the only sound inside the cavern was Giovanno's ragged breathing.
And the crackling of twigs in a campfire......
(............Campfire!!?)
A campfire in a cavern located in the Zamago Forest, a unexplored region at the edge of the Nanga Mountains!?
Eyes flying open in shock, as Giovanno turned his head toward the sound of the campfire, what lay there was a three-eyed creature the size of a bear with brown scales!
"A M-Mountain Topopolock!?"
It was a ferocious monster Giovanno had only ever seen in illustrated guides!
A dangerous being said to have single-handedly annihilated a Pokkeroce Kingdom platoon marching through the mountains with a charge from its powerful legs!
"I-Is this cavern the Mountain Topopolock's......den......!?"
Those words slipped out in the spur of the moment, but he quickly realized they were mistaken.
Because upon closer observation, this Mountain Topopolock......was already dead.
The light had vanished from its three crimson eyes, chunks of flesh torn out here and there exposing the bones beneath.
"What in the world......?"
Still at a loss, Giovanno somehow propped himself up and surveyed the cavern's interior.
The cavern had enough height for an adult to stand and walk unimpeded, but not much depth.
Currently rain was falling in the Zamago Forest, the lack of sunlight making the forest dark, but the inside of this cavern was bright.
Due to the campfire crackling in the center of the cavern.
"......!!"
And finally, Giovanno noticed its presence.
He noticed someone had claimed this cavern before him.
That person......or at least that human-shaped existence was roasting meat on the bone over the campfire beside the Mountain Topopolock, taking bites while it was still so undercooked that blood dripped from it.
Small in stature.
Wearing what resembled a girl's one-piece dress, with animal pelts somehow wrapped around the exposed areas of skin.
An appearance that could hardly be called civilized even compared to Giovanno in his mud-caked prisoner's garb.
Dressed in such attire was......a young girl.
And most notably, her appearance.
Drawing the eye first were her black hair and eyes, illuminated by the campfire.
In other words, this girl was a cursed child.
Had they met under less extreme circumstances, Giovanno likely would have grimaced from just having her enter his field of vision.
However, Giovanno was in no state to be acting disgusted by a cursed child or anything of the sort right now.
Thus, he noticed.
This girl was tremendously, outstandingly beautiful.
Slightly upturned large eyes, well-proportioned nose and lips, petite features, fair skin......
One could justifiably call her an unparalleled beauty.
Harboring both a repulsiveness that made one want to avert their gaze and a loveliness that prevented looking away, this girl sat beside the campfire, expressionlessly staring at Giovanno.
In both hands, meat on the bone from the topopolock.
Without taking her eyes off Giovanno, she nevertheless did not stop eating the meat.
Bringing the meat in each hand to her mouth in turn, consuming it at an astonishing speed.
(......Just what is this girl............?)
Giovanno was bewildered.
Fat from the girl's meat dripped into the campfire, sizzling as it flared up.