Side Story 3: A Thousand and One Nights
After the priests who had surrendered to the evil god who descended to the earth left, the holy war ended and the world became peaceful.
However, even then, the sixth apostle Peter Englov was always busy.
There were still many people who acted foolishly even though the god had come down to the earth.
Peter’s job was to exterminate them.
“The apostle of God has arrived–!”
Peter, who had descended from the moving sanctuary using a featherfall, swept away all the rebels in an instant.
The rebels could not resist properly against him, who wielded both the holy sword and the demon sword.
There were hardly any people on the continent who could keep up with Peter’s speed, which was enhanced by Dainsleif.
Peter had reached a level where he could proudly boast about his strength.
He had completely forgotten the days when he was treated as a horse by Estasia.
As Peter quickly annihilated the rebels and looked at the scene, the fourth apostle–Perin Shtait, who had led the sanctuary down from the sky, handed him a handkerchief with her pointed ears twitching.
“Good job! Demon Peter!”
“It’s nothing to me now.”
Peter took the handkerchief and wiped his sweat, then looked at the fallen rebels.
They were very foolish.
He, who had received the mark of the hero, had given up everything and submitted to him.
But how could they, who were neither heroes nor apostles, stand against him?
It was a stupid thing to do, no matter how he thought about it.
“Peter has become cool now!”
“Hmm.”
Peter lowered his hand in embarrassment at Perin’s praise and returned to the sanctuary.
After the work was over, he had to go back and pray to the great being.
Three years of constant prayer.
And constant dedication for the church.
That was the price of the wish that the great being had promised to Peter Englov.
“Are you going to pray now?”
As Peter was about to enter the shrine in the sanctuary to pray, Perin, who had been watching him, asked him.
Nod.
Peter agreed with Perin’s words and answered her.
“Yeah. I have to pray to the great one.”
“Peter, how many days have passed today?”
“41 days.”
It had been 41 days since he started praying along with dealing with the rebels who defied the great being.
There was still a lot of time left until the three years he had promised with the great being were over.
He had to pray to the sky whenever he had a chance.
That way, the great being, who was moved by his sincerity, might perform a miracle faster than the promise.
“Good luck today!”
“I have to. Thank you.”
Peter, who had a short conversation with Perin, entered the inside of the shrine and closed the door.
And then he immediately prayed to the sky.
The content of his prayer was always the same.
It was about how loyal he was to the great being and how much he missed his family.
“O great one. Today, I have executed those who disobeyed your will for you.”
“O great one. Please kindly restore my family, my village…”
“O great one…”
It was a sincere prayer, with every word.
As he listened to his own prayer sound ringing in his ears, Peter quietly closed his eyes.
The apostle’s prayer continued until the sun set.
***
Even after time passed, Peter’s day did not change much from before.
He executed those who defied the great being, and prayed to the great being whenever he had time.
That was most of the way he spent his day.
Of course, there were times when he had a conversation with Perin, who transported him, but the proportion of that in Peter’s day was not very long.
He usually finished the conversation within an hour.
“Demon Peter! How many days have passed today?”
“95 days.”
“It seems like there’s still a lot left!”
Peter nodded quietly as he listened to Perin’s story.
There would be at least a thousand days left.
He had no idea how long it would take for the time agreed with the great being to pass.
Sometimes he wondered if this was the punishment that the great being imposed on him.
“Peter, you must have a lot of stories to tell when the villagers come back, right?”
As Peter was having a disrespectful thought while leaning on Yggdrasil, Perin, who was sitting on a branch, asked him a different question.
Did he have any stories he wanted to tell the villagers?
That was the question that came to Peter.
“Stories I want to tell?”
“You have had a lot of experiences, haven’t you?”
“I have a lot to say.”
Peter recalled his experiences and answered.
He, who was nothing more than a rookie in a corner of the village, became an apostle of God and fought bloody battles with heroes.
If he told the villagers who knew him in the past, no one would believe him.
He felt like he could talk all night with the villagers on that topic.
Maybe they would all marvel at his changed appearance.
“They will be fascinated by my stories. I have a lot of interesting stories.”
“You must have a lot of stories!”
“I can’t tell them enough in a day. I have so many feats.”
As Perin listened to Peter’s words and agreed, she suddenly seemed to remember something and rummaged through the branches.
After rummaging through the branches for a while, she took out a thick book.
Peter looked at her with a puzzled expression as he saw the thick book in Perin’s hand.
“What is that?”
“Demon Peter! How about writing a diary?”
“A diary…?”
“It’s where you write down the details of what happened every day! To tell your precious people vivid stories someday!”
Peter looked up at Perin with his mouth wide open at the word diary.
He had learned some writing when he was with Utenia.
But he had never thought of writing such content as a diary.
Peter looked at the thick diary in Perin’s hand for a long time and said.
“A diary… Can I write well?”
“It’s okay if you write a little badly, right? It’s only for you to see!”
“Is that so?”
Snicker.
Peter snickered and reached out to the sky.
And then he gestured to Perin to hand him the diary.
“Alright. Let’s give it a try.”
“Writing a diary will help you pass the time better.”
“Fine. Fine. Just stop with that…”
“If you help me weed Yuto’s sanctuary, I’ll give it to you!”
But the diary was not free of charge.
A louder voice came out of Peter’s mouth, who was flustered.
“You’re not just giving it to me?”
“Nothing is free in this world.”
“…”
He had to clear the weeds of the sanctuary.
Peter leaned against Yggdrasil and looked at the vast sanctuary.
It didn’t seem like a quick job.
“What are you going to do, Peter?”
“I have nothing else to do, so I might as well pull some weeds.”
Peter said that and got up from his seat.
Thud-.
A heavy sound echoed from Peter’s joints as he stretched his body.
***
The same morning as always.
Peter got up from his seat and went out of the shrine to face the morning of the sanctuary.
The first thing he saw as soon as he woke up was, of course, Perrin, who was twitching his pointed ears.
“Good morning, Peter!”
“Good morning.”
“Master Peter! How many days have passed?”
As soon as he woke up in the morning, Peter recalled the date he wrote in his diary yesterday, in response to Perrin’s question.
He had not lost track of the days left for him since he learned the habit of writing a diary from Perrin.
The date he wrote yesterday was 273.
It would soon be a year.
“273.”
“It’s been almost a year!”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
It had been a long time since he started praying.
But even then, there was still more time left than that.
Peter’s diary was the same.
There were more pages to fill in the future than the ones he had filled so far.
As Peter pondered over the diary he wrote last night, Perrin pointed down with his hand and said.
“Today, I brought you to a place you would want to see.”
“A place I would want to see?”
“Lady Utenia said you would like it if she brought you here!”
At Perrin’s words, Peter stepped out to the edge of the sanctuary and looked down.
Before he knew it, a familiar scenery appeared below the lowered sanctuary.
The place where he first met Utenia.
The small rural village where he had been farming since he was a child.
He felt a complicated feeling in his chest as he faced the familiar sight after a long time.
“Utenia said I would like it if she showed me this place?”
“Yes. Don’t you like it?”
“She still has a bad taste. That person.”
Peter sat down at the end of the sanctuary and looked at the village below his legs.
There was no trace of people in his hometown anymore.
Only the sight of broken houses and neglected fields remained instead of him.
As Peter looked down from the end of the sanctuary, Perrin, who was watching him, also sat next to him.
And he looked down at the village on the ground with Peter.
“Is that where your hometown used to be?”
“It’s been ruined a lot… but it’s a place I miss.”
“It’s a miserable sight.”
As he saw his hometown, memories of the past came back to him.
He wanted to leave the small rural village when he was young.
He wanted to go out and wield a sword and write heroic tales rather than farming.
That’s how he became a apostle of God, who everyone looked up to.
“It’s because of me.”
But Peter realized something new only after he rose to a high position.
He didn’t know the value of what he had in his hand when it was precious.
He only regretted and lamented after losing it, and traced its traces.
Just like his small rural village that he couldn’t face now.
He kept chasing the traces of his family with the sin he exchanged for his dream.
“I wanted to go to the city back then.”
“Did you like the city?”
“I wanted to be a hero. But I thought I couldn’t achieve anything living as a bumpkin in a rural village.”
It was a foolish thought.
He was a young fool who didn’t know that the simple happiness was something that couldn’t be exchanged for anything.
In the end, he let a monster into his village.
The result was the ruin that Peter was facing with his eyes now.
“But no matter how great I become… there’s no one left to be happy for me now.”
What he longed for was still in his grasp.
What remained became the longing he had to hold on to.
In the reversed order, the path he had to take was decided.
He had to walk a journey of going towards the smallest thing, using the biggest thing as a stepping stone.
It was a trial that the being he served and the followers who followed him gave him.
“So I won’t give up until I get it back.”
“…”
“I won’t lose it again after I get it back.”
There was still two years left.
And during those two years, he would continue to build his story.
Someday, when the diary he wrote reached its last page.
He was going to tell the villagers his heroic tale with confidence.
It was a story that he had built up for several years.
It was not a story that would end in one night.
“Peter is amazing.”
“Uh, um…”
“I’ll cheer for you too!”
Perrin took out a branch and moved it to tap Peter’s head.
Peter felt his head clear up for some reason at that sight.
***
One evening, after finishing all his tasks and returning to the sanctuary, Peter encountered Perrin, who was waiting for him in front of the shrine.
Perrin had a trace of moisture on her lips, as if she had just eaten some fruit.
She waved her hand and asked a question to Peter, who was holding a diary and heading to the shrine.
“Peter! How many days have passed?”
“471 days.”
“That’s a lot!”
“I guess so.”
Perrin was right.
Compared to the beginning, when it was not even 100 days, a lot of time had passed.
Now, he did not need much time to reach the halfway point of the agreed period.
The content of the diary he had been writing was also thicker than before.
Since he started his ordeal, many things had changed.
“In a little while, Peter’s dream will come true!”
“Perrin, there’s still a lot left.”
She spoke with a hopeful voice to him.
But Peter scoffed and waved his hand at Perrin’s words.
Even though a lot of time had passed, the time of hardship he had to face was still longer.
It was not an easy situation for him to accept it positively like her.
“Peter. Are you going to write your diary again today?”
“You taught me that. And I thought it would be okay to tell everyone the story.”
“Is that so!”
Perrin, who was worried, threw an apple to Peter.
Thud-.
Peter caught the apple that Perrin threw lightly and looked at the apple in his hand.
The apple in his hand was something that the artificial divine tree Yggdrasil sometimes produced.
Perrin gave him one last word as he received the apple.
“Peter! Cheer up today! I’ll keep cheering for you!”
“Sure.”
Peter greeted Perrin with a drained voice and stepped into the shrine where no one was.
Perrin, who he saw, was always a positive person.
No, a positive fairy.
He could not tell if that was the average personality of the fairy race.
Perrin was the only fairy he knew.
“I miss them all…”
Peter entered the empty shrine and opened his diary and sat at the desk.
Rustle.
As he turned the pages of the diary, he saw many letters filled up.
The diary, which was already filled up by a third, looked dense and oppressive just by looking at it.
It was a completely different atmosphere from when he received a blank paper from Perrin.
“There’s a lot of content I’ve written so far.”
What was contained in the letters that were densely packed was the content that Peter had experienced since he started his ordeal.
He repelled the bandits who attacked the village.
He repelled the remnants of the six temples who tried to cross the Crossbridge border.
He answered the call of the great being and went to face the leaders of other countries.
They were all things that could be called nonsense.
“······They would be happy if I told them these stories.”
It was a hard story to hear in a small village in the corner.
There were hardly any professional storytellers passing through the village, so it was practically a story that could only be heard occasionally in the city.
If he told these stories to his family and villagers, they would be interested and listen with pleasure.
Of course, there would be some who would not believe that it was his own experience.
It would be very strange to them that Peter, who always claimed to want to leave the village, had grown so much.
“······.”
Peter, who had been looking through the diary he had written, looked at the empty page of the diary.
It was the page where he would write today’s diary.
Click.
Peter lifted his pen and lightly stabbed it into the ink.
And then he started to write down what he had experienced today on the empty diary.
“Today’s weather was… clear. The wind was also refreshing. It felt good to go up the hill and look down at the village on a day like this.”
Scratch. Scratch.
The pen in Peter’s hand moved busily and wrote letters.
Maybe it was because he had a lot of words in his chest.
The empty page of the diary was filled up in an instant.
Peter turned the diary to the next page and continued to write down the remaining contents.
“Sometimes I would go up the mountain with Bill and skip work, and then pick apples from Jay’s tree and share them…”
Now that he thought about it, it was not such a bad day.
He farmed, and watched the trees and grains grow day by day.
And some days he ran away to the mountain with his friends and had a little escapade.
And then he met a snake, and was scared and went back.
“Well… I guess I had… more than I thought…”
He had a fun day on a day when the weather was good.
He had a happy day on a day when everyone was noisy.
He had a lovely day on a day when Emma from next door came out dressed up.
He had an exciting day on a day when a wandering knight came to the village and told his nonsense.
“I shouldn’t have said I wanted to go to the city… I shouldn’t have thought I wanted to get out of this boring corner.”
Snap-.
The pen he was writing with broke.
Peter looked at the broken pen, and then sighed and bowed his head.
He felt unusually heavy in his head today.
Following the weight of his head that he could not bear, a drop of hot water fell.
“Ah, why all of a sudden…”
Tears flowed from his eyes as he wrote his diary.
His childhood self, who tried not to cry because tears were a sign of weakness, flashed through his mind.
Since then, he had tried to hold back his tears no matter how hard it was.
He was able to be calm in his own way while he was with the Order, thanks to that.
But now it felt strange.
“Why… won’t the tears stop…”
The tears that ran down his cheeks did not stop.
No matter what he did, he could not stop the tears.
The tears that fell on the diary blurred the letters.
The diary that recorded his day was ruined.
Peter desperately reached out his hand to his face and tried to wipe away the tears.
“I’m, actually, not feeling anything…”
He wiped the tears in his eyes with his sleeve.
But the tears did not stop and kept flowing.
As if to express his honest feelings that he could not spit out.
They continued to soak Peter’s diary.
“Ah, aah–”
A sigh burst out of his mouth.
He felt his emotions that he should not reveal trying to leak out.
Peter hurriedly tried to suppress his feelings.
And instead of letting out his true feelings, he clasped his hands and began to pray to the great being.
“O great one…”
Instead of the stories he could not tell, Peter spoke of what he really had to say.
His long wish.
His earnestness.
His only hope.
The huge and heavy price he had to pay for the dream he had in his foolish days.
“I, I… did wrong.”
And above all, his deep regret for his foolish self of some day.
Bang.
Peter bit his lip and slammed his head on the desk.
As if to vent his anger at himself.
Once. Again.
He kept hitting his head on the desk.
Twenty times in total.
When the act of hitting his head on the desk ended with the blood flowing down, the last thing that came out of Peter’s mouth was a desperate plea.
“Please… give me back my precious people…”
***
The huge sanctuary floating in the high sky.
The fortress that moved by the giant spirit called Buuto was protected by the fourth apostle Perrin.
So the first thing Peter saw when he opened his eyes after staying in the sanctuary for a long time was Perrin, who was guarding the sanctuary.
“Peter! It’s a good morning today!”
Day 871.
Peter looked at Perrin after adding one to the number he had written in his diary last night.
The fairy in front of him was waving his hand with a bright face since early morning.
She looked lively as always.
It was a completely different situation from Peter, who was half asleep from the fatigue that weighed on his body.
“Yawn… Yeah, good morning.”
“Did you sleep well yesterday?”
“Well. I don’t think I slept well.”
Peter loosened his stiff body and answered Perrin.
He did not sleep well yesterday.
He was immersed in a strange sentiment as he wrote his diary, just like some night.
Of course, the end of his day was the same as usual.
Praying to the great being who watched over him.
That was how Peter decorated the end of his day.
“Was there a problem?”
“Don’t worry. It’s just something that happens sometimes.”
Perrin asked with concern at Peter’s words that he did not sleep well, but Peter shook his head with a light smile.
It was not something he could easily tell to others.
It was also a story related to Peter’s own scars.
He thought he had grown up, but his heart still had a weak side.
He sometimes got lost in his feelings while writing his diary alone.
“Peter! By the way, how many days are left today?”
Nod.
Perrin agreed with Peter’s words and then asked how many days it was today.
He had calculated it beforehand, so Peter could easily answer Perrin’s question.
“871 days.”
“There’s not much left now!”
“I guess so.”
Perrin was right.
It was already over 800 days.
Compared to the time when it was not even 100 days, there was not much time left.
Only relatively not much.
But in Peter’s mind, it was still a long time.
“Master Peter! Today, there is a command from the great one!”
As Peter counted the remaining days and worried, Perrin clapped his hands and spoke.
The command of the great one.
It was about the mission that Peter performed every day.
Sometimes there was no such mission, but today it seemed that there was a mission.
“What is the command?”
“It’s to wipe out the bandits in the northern part of the empire!”
Bandit extermination.
It was one of the longest tasks.
He had to search around all day without a set time.
But Peter did not complain and spoke to Perrin.
“Okay. Then I’ll leave the north to you.”
“Yes!”
After finishing the conversation with Perrin, Peter went back to the shrine to get his sword.
It seemed that he would be busy today as well.
***
The last day from the promised three years.
Peter came out of the shrine with a determined expression.
He had worked hard to fulfill the mission of the great one.
Now, if one more day passed, the day he had been looking forward to would come.
The moment he returned to the village he had been abandoned for a long time, he would be able to see the result of his faith.
“Now… it’s the last day.”
Peter came out of the shrine and immediately began to loosen his body that had been stiff while sleeping.
It was the most important thing for a warrior to check his physical condition.
It was what his swordsmanship master Evan Allemier had taught him.
As Peter followed Evan’s teachings and loosened his body, Perrin’s voice suddenly rang out from the edge of the sanctuary.
“Peter, Peter!”
“What is it, Perrin?”
“It’s a disaster! The bandits are attacking the village!”
Perrin’s eyes were fixed on the scene below. It seemed that one of the nearby villages was under siege by a horde of bandits.
Saving the villages from the bandits was one of the tasks that Peter had been assigned as an apostle of the great one. He wanted to return to his hometown as soon as possible, but he couldn’t ignore a problem if he saw one.
Peter followed Perrin’s gaze and looked down. He was curious to see which village was in trouble.
“That’s…”
And what he saw in his eyes was the sight of the village he had been longing for.
His hometown.
The place where his heart belonged.
The place that he had lost once, but now was bustling with life and people.
Of course, he also saw the bandits that were surrounding the village, as Perrin had said.
“The village is being attacked! We have to hurry…”
“Thank you, Perrin.”
Peter thanked Perrin sincerely after confirming the sight of his returned hometown.
Perrin tilted his head in confusion, not understanding Peter’s words.
“Peter? What do you mean…”
“You’ve been a great help. I couldn’t have made it this far without you.”
“…”
“I mean every word I say. You know I can’t lie to you, right?”
Swoosh-
Two swords emerged from Peter’s scabbard: Dainsleif, the black magic sword, and the white holy sword.
The black and white swords.
The symbols of Peter’s identity.
He held them in his hands.
He heard Perrin’s faint voice in his ear.
“Master Peter…”
“So, if you ever need anything, just call me. I’ll help you as much as I can.”
He felt that he could end his diary of a thousand and one nights today.
From now on, he could tell his stories to the people he cared about.
That’s why he drew his swords and jumped to the ground.
Using Featherfall to soften his landing, he didn’t forget to shout at the bandits that were surrounding the village.
“The apostle of the evil god is here!”
It was a phrase that he had spat out in anger once.
And it was a phrase that he uttered with hope today.
Kaboom!
With a loud impact, he landed on the ground and flapped his cloak.
He saw the faces of the villagers and the bandits looking at him.
“What, what is that…”
“Could it be… Peter…?”
Peter smiled brightly at the people who were looking at him.
Tears of joy streamed down his eyes.
His lips were twitching involuntarily as he smiled.
But he tried to keep his smile as steady as possible.
He had to smile brightly, for he had grasped happiness in his hands.
“The sixth apostle, Peter Enklov, has returned to this place!”
The sixth apostle, Peter Enklov.
He raised his black and white swords and shouted at the bandits.
It had been a long time.
He had worked hard for a long time to show his grown-up self to the villagers.
He wanted to show off his swordsmanship to everyone.
He wanted to boast his dignity to his family.
He wanted to tell his tales of valor to the villagers.
That was the only hope that Peter had been chasing.
Even in the dark, a ray of bright future had guided his way.
“Peter… Enklov?”
“Who the hell is Enklov?”
“What are you babbling about while crying? What a weirdo!”
He didn’t care about the bandits who were mocking him.
He had nothing to fear now.
Neither the dark hardships nor the heavy trials and tribulations.
Nothing could stop Peter, the apostle of the great one.
“Let me say it again, I am the sixth apostle of the great one.”
He smiled as brightly as he could, even as he shed tears.
It was a brilliant smile that burned away all the sorrows he had accumulated.
He smiled and unleashed the power of Dainsleif.
And he shouted with all his might, so that the whole world could hear him.
“So get lost, you weaklings! This is the era of the apostle Peter!”
The young man who had been engulfed in the bloody battle became an apostle of the great one.
But still, the story of Peter Enklov was just beginning.
After this battle, he would gather the villagers and tell them everything he had achieved.
Even if the sun set and the bonfire in the middle of the village burned out.
His story would never end.
Just like the diary he had written for a thousand and one nights.
