Wolfrang stopped me as I was about to hit the boy with a chair. If I had continued in my rage, the boy would have been crippled. I may not like lolis, but it is everyone's responsibility to protect them.

I picked up Lulu and turned away, leaving the boy tied to the chair.

I had been in a good mood recently, and I wouldn't have lashed out if he hadn't been rough with a young girl. I took a moment to reflect on our conflicts with the kingdom. Are they truly irreconcilable?

Lulu sat on my lap, her dirty little face now marked with two patches of highland redness. Children have a better tolerance for the cold than adults, it seems.

"Lulu, am I really a good person?"

"Yes, Raul helps us build houses~"

"But I have killed many people..."

"They were all bad people."

"No, they weren't. They just...mistook us for bad people."

"Well...we're not bad people either."

"Lulu, listen to what Raul says. When you grow up, never kill anyone, no matter what."

"Okay, Lulu understands."

"After you kill someone, you can never be a good person again."

Before coming into this world, I didn't know what it felt like to take someone's life with my own hands. Now I do, and it's a feeling of eternal guilt. I wake up from nightmares at night, unable to forget no matter how much I try to vent. I can no longer be called a "good person."

"Why are you telling Lulu such things?"

I looked up to see Sasa wearing a coffee-colored wool coat, rubbing her hands as she spoke to me.

"Big Sister Medusa!"

"Yes, Lulu, be a good girl and go back now."

One important trait of Medusa is her maternal instinct, she loves children. Sasa sometimes acts like a mother to me. In the past, she taught me to read and speak, a latent manifestation of her motherly nature.

"What's wrong? Who did you anger now?"

My wife looked at Lulu, who was happily skipping away, and casually asked.

"You know me so well."

"I am your wife after all."

"Yes, my dear wife. Today, your husband got into a fight with a little adventurer."

"What's there to be angry about?"

"I can't express my thoughts to him."

"Then tell me."

My wife sat beside me, her nose red from the cold, the little snakes in her hair tucked into the collar of her scarf.

"How did you feel the first time we killed someone?"

"No feeling."

"How could you feel nothing?"

"If they didn't die, it would have been us. Do you think anything is more important than staying alive?"

"What if they could have been our friends?"

"Well, that would have been fine, we wouldn't have needed to become one-eyed monsters."

"I have changed, maybe because I have spent so much time with you."

Sasa fell silent after my remark. What did we do wrong? From the current results, it seems that we did nothing wrong. This is a truly cannibalistic society. But now, when I interact with others, I have skipped a step, the most important step for me, which is communicating with goodwill.

I no longer engage in meaningful conversations with strangers. Even if I couldn't accurately express my ideas with language before, I still tried to befriend those humans. Now, as a couple, we have developed a habit of considering all unknown humans as enemies, and attempting to communicate with them is pointless.

Impatient, irritable, suspicious, and other flaws are finally exposed, and we need to calm down.

"Should we go and see that adventurer?"

"What can I do by going to see?"

"Let's go and see. I think we can learn a lot from talking to the enemy."

With my arm around Sasa's waist, we returned to the bar. The teenager who threatened to kill me was still tied to a chair, his eyes filled with hatred and surprise. Sasa and I sat down, took off our pistols, and placed them on the table.

Simmon was busy arranging the cups at the bar, Wolfrang had already left, and in the center of the hall was the teenage adventurer with his luggage piled up in the corner. Three humans and one monster were in silent silence.

"Simmon, prepare some food for him."

"Well, I'm cooking porridge now~"

"Give me and this kid two bowls later. Honey, are you hungry?"

"I'm not hungry, you go ahead."

"Well, just two bowls then. Sasa isn't hungry."

The teenager turned his head and occasionally glanced at Sasa out of the corner of his eye. It's normal, anyone who hasn't seen a Medusa would definitely take a few more glances. After all, Medusa is a monster with a perfect female upper body.

"Have you never seen a Medusa before?"

"......"

"But I advise you not to look too much. Didn't your parents teach you that it is rude to peek at someone's wife?"

"Uh, huh!?"

This time the teenager didn't secretly glance, but stared at me and Sasa openly, and kept repeating the cycle. My wife was a little displeased and tightened the collar of her coat.

"So it's true... You really are..."

"What do you mean true or false? I am Raul Chen, and this is my wife, Sasa."

"But you don't seem to know magic."

"I never knew magic in the first place. I am just an ordinary human, just like you. Hey, wait a minute, why did you believe I am Raul when you saw my wife?"

"Everyone knows the story of Raul and Medusa..."

It turns out that the story of Sasa and I had already started spreading since our first visit to Night Fall Town, but at that time, not many people believed it. Later, because of our travels, there were more and more eyewitness reports about us, and people began to believe. It wasn't until after the Forging Roses incident that the kingdom started to take it seriously.

But most of the adventurers and magicians who had seen us were dead, and people's embellishments became more and more unreliable. The attention towards "Raul the Great Demon King" was now clearly higher than "the love story between Medusa and a human."

"So, what are your thoughts now that you have seen me today?"

"I still can't believe it, that Raul is just a human."

"Whether you believe it or not, my wife and I are sitting right here. We won't kill you or torture you."

"But you killed Forging Roses and the Six Holy Spirits..."

"Not just them, we have taken many lives. My wife and I have blood on our hands."

"You will also kill my family and friends in the future."

"So what?"

"So as long as you die, we'll be safe."

The teenager was right, this kind of thinking is normal. Our hands are stained with blood, and after killing the Six Holy Spirits, I did think that maybe we were too selfish. To survive, how many people have died by our hands? If Sasa and I were dead, perhaps peace would have come long ago.

But if you open my diary, a few pages have been folded up, one of which is the one where I found out that the kingdom was going to exterminate monsters. Bloodshed and sacrifice had been inevitable since that day, even if the Six Holy Spirits and Forging Roses hadn't encountered us, they would have surely appeared on the battlefield. However, I couldn't explain these hidden conspiracies to the young man in front of me.

"Have some porridge first."

"Why are you giving me food?"

"Whether you eat or not, it's up to you. If you don't, Raul will have it all."

Sasa has always had a bad temper towards adventurers, so I quickly signaled her.

"Young man, hurry up and eat."

"But I still don't understand why you didn't kill me."

"If it was a few months ago, I might have shot you dead already and wouldn't have thought I did anything wrong."

"......"

Simmon untied him, and this time he behaved well, holding the warm oatmeal and started drinking.

Although you say you want to kill me now, you haven't actually decided whether or not to kill me yet."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you've been saying you want to protect your family and friends, but have I harmed them?"

"No."

"Not only now, but I won't in the future either. Where do you live in the kingdom?"

"In the southern part of the third-tier territory."

"So, you just farm and raise livestock?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"The humans here are just like you, even werewolves and orcs are the same as you. No one wants to harm you."

"I don't believe you."

"If I wanted to harm you, I would have killed you already. Why would I give you food to eat?"

"What if you control my mind?"

"You know what, if I made you strip now and go outside to learn how to bark like a dog in the freezing snow, would you go?"

"No."

"Then how would I control your mind?"

Controlling minds is ridiculous. I'm not Lelouch, the champion of the high school chess team, and Sasa hasn't given me any ability to kill chickens and ducks. Today, all I want to do is have a good conversation with the future of the kingdom. This conversation with the young man won't make any substantial changes, the war will still continue, and the humans of the kingdom will still fear the monsters who never intended to harm them.

But someday, the rise and fall of Kingdom Inslay will be in the hands of young people like him. I don't want these children to lead the development of the kingdom with hatred towards me.

And most importantly, their hatred towards me is blind.

"Now that you're done eating, follow me and see our way of life."

Sasa and I took the young man around the town, and he saw more monsters in one day than he had seen in his whole life. I don't expect him to respect us, but at least I hope he can understand us.

"Kid, you can pick up your sword now and come at me."

Back at the tavern, I lifted my chin, letting him go get his belongings and sword.

"......"

The young man was silent all the way, contemplating something. Now that he has retrieved his sword, he makes no other move.

"You should understand now, Raul, this human, just like you, is protecting his family and friends, protecting a peaceful and happy life."

"But, but those who have died, they! They..."

"Whether it's the Six Holy Spirits or Forging Roses, they all had the resolve to leave the kingdom's territory. The fallen vanguards were the same. They were soldiers, and soldiers should sacrifice their lives for the emperor. But you don't have the authority to give up your precious life. Now, go home. It's the best protection for your family and friends."

In this world, Sasa is my only kin, so as long as we live and die together, there will be no regrets. But this child is different. He has his own family. His life is not just his own.

"Why must it be..."

The young boy raised his sword. I guessed he wanted to ask why we had to sacrifice our lives to protect our family and friends.

"If I can avoid war and death, I would definitely be able to see Sasa's beautiful eyes right now and hold our child. Go home, young man. Our era is destined to be one of guns and magic, but your era is up to you."

I held Sasa tightly and watched the young boy's back, finding a bit of solace.

"Husband, as a Medusa, I suddenly feel happier than when I was a human."

"Perhaps it's because you've met me."