The Skill Collector

In the heart of the small city there is a square, where there is a bronze statue of a majestically standing knight.

The bronze statue, which looks as if it is raising its sword and roaring, mimics the knight, the hero who saved the city.

The hero was a member of the Knights who had accidentally visited the city, and only one of him remained in the city in the midst of an important mission following his life from the King.

Because we have information that a vicious demon is approaching the city.

The battle against the demons that fought in cooperation with the soldiers lasted hours, and the knight's blow became a toddler and the demons died out of breath.

However, the knight is also said to have suffered major injuries and taken his breath away.

The inhabitants of the city built bronze statues in the square in honor of his achievements, and began to celebrate as heroes.

It happened more than a decade ago, but most people in the city respect him and tell boys to "be like him".

There are those who disgust him and look down in such a city.

He still stares at the bronze statue and spits on the ground.

It's an act that makes everyone frown, but no one blames it directly.

On the side of the young man revealing discomfort - there was a shadow of a hero.

"What is a hero? I would never die like you."

I heard a young man whining abominably.

He is the son of a hero and uses his gifted body to do adventurers, but there are many reckless actions that do not value his life and are hated by his peers.

While he is the son of a great hero, many people complain about his attitude toward hating his father furiously, but he is not willing to change that idea.

I walked up from the park bench to the young man still staring at the bronze statue.

"Hello"

"That's you. What are you doing in a city that's not even this funny, collector?"

When you check my face sideways, you sigh like a fright.

He interacts with his father, who is a hero, and is also familiar with the youth because he was on the spot just before he took his breath away.

"A little, for wild use. … Can't you forgive your father yet"

"Ha, you're a great hero. You were there, too. You know how I feel, don't you?

I shrug my shoulders and laugh bitterly.

At that time, my son, who had come with his mother to this city to drop off his father, was sobbing in his bloody father's chest.

Until that moment he was an adorable boy who respected his father.

"When any man sees death..."

"I'm not! I don't want to die like that.

Block words, youth scream.

People who were in the square looking back at the size of too many voices.

And make sure you look like a young man, exhale small.

The look on the part of the city's people as if they were talking about why that hero's son had become like that.

"Always a habit of not knowing who the real jerk is!

Kick him on the ground and he leaves.

Even today, the son of a hero will make dangerous requests in the Adventurer's Guild.

I've asked you before why you repeat such reckless behavior.

That's when he said this with a serious face.

"We want the ideal way to die. I'm sorry I died."

I guess that footage burns in the back of his brain, which was just a boy, and he won't leave.

- Enough to overshadow his outlook on death.

One end of the blame for my father's death lies with me.

My heroic father decided to stay here because I sold some skills before.

I wouldn't have even been on the front line if I hadn't gotten that power.

I am gravely aware that it is only a theory of results and that it is the father of the youth who chose it, but it is still not divisible.

When you stop hitting and crying in despair and see the boy's face at the time stained with despair......

I can't keep an eye on him at all times though, and this is how I try to be concerned when I visit the city.

While I'm in the past with my thoughts, I distance myself from him, who came out of the Adventurer Guild with the requisition, activate 'Cover-up' and follow him.

As he continues to tail without being noticed, the young man is talking to you at a stopover in the adjoining carriage.

Looks like a carriage escort.

I'm not too worried if he goes on an adventure on his own. He's looking for a place to die, but he's not willing to die alone.

I want to die clean in front of people. Because that's what he wants.

I eavesdropped on "Listening Ears," but it looks like a carriage headed to a pretty dangerous area.

I would otherwise remain anxious if the escort were alone, but I guess I have a client's nostalgia. Few people put their lives at risk by cheating on the commission, even if it's a little reckless.

Bracket the height that if the demon doesn't show up, there's no problem.

"Destination… you're close to your next appointment"

I was concerned about the distorted grin of the young man when I heard what he was asking for and where he was going, and I decided to keep following him.

The first night is going to be safe.

Your husband and client are sleeping in a front carriage, but the escort sits in front of the burning fire and stares out at the night sky.

Youth have all their skills and strength is just a step away from advanced adventurers.

As a result of repeated battles, which can be described as privileged talent and recklessness, his prowess is to the point of being comparable to that of his father at the time.

The future would have changed if the youth had stood next to my father with their current strength, but there is nothing we can do where we have set an unlikely example.

When he stood up with firewood added to the fire, the young man took the sword in his hand and began to wave barely.

That sword is the relic of my father, as well as the sword that took my father's life.

What do young men who wave their swords with an impatient look think? Is that final period still creeping at my head and trying to erase it?

Sometimes the wounds in his heart healed, but in his case they did not.

By putting yourself in a predicament and touching death, the video doesn't feel clearer.

"Is it painful to live..."

His appearance was painful enough to leak a voice that could not reach him.

I want him to grasp happiness. But that's not for me to decide.

I'll give him all the support he can if he wants raw, but all he thinks about is dying.

It is not surprising that there are those who can only gain peace by living in pain and dying. Because my values are not absolute.

"Dad...... Mother......"

I hear a young man crying and I look up into the night sky.

Countless stars were shining in the night sky.

Two, three days and I'll be safe.

The demons have appeared, but they exterminate them all without struggle. With his arms, that degree of demon is the opponent you can defeat in one hassle.

I'll be at my destination in two days. A demon appeared on the carriage's path as if it had anticipated such a timing.

A dog-shaped demon with a huge body with three heads.

The flames leak out of the three mouths every time I breathe.

"Ke, why is Cerberus here? ⁉"

He who sees the appearance and screams.

I can't help it. Cerberus is a monster hunted by advanced class adventurers. An encounter means death.

Besides, for the inhabitants of that city, Cerberus is a symbol of fear.

- Because the hero is the one who risked his life to defeat him.

"You're a good match!

The emotions that come to mind in the face of a young man who has moved such a powerful enemy forward - joy.

If you have the strength now, it also involves the element of luck, but the difference in strength whether you can win the critical.

If I give you a hand from the shadows, you can defeat it for sure...

"You're here, collector! If you get your hands on me, I'm gonna hurt myself here!

A young man who barks his voice like a roar with his back turned.

I didn't know they'd noticed.

"Since when?"

"After all, did you jerk off? Ha, I haven't even felt a sign. But you always showed up when I was fucked or in trouble. That's why I thought you might be here this time."

Got hit. Did you just scream with no certainty?

Now, you can't fall in love. Show yourself and line up next to the carriage.

"Now don't die in peace! The carriage, please!

Without hesitation he turns to Cerberus.

If you try him for a place to die, the stage is suitable for you.

"I don't know who it is. You're strong enough for him to entrust you with it! Then help him! Help him!

Your man has begged me with his desperate form.

I don't need to be told. I want to help, too.

But he wants the ideal death. Even if he bets on the possibility of changing his mind...... not now. We have to keep an eye on this place.

Hold your fists. Keep your eyes peeled out of the fight.

Whatever the end awaits, I have an obligation to see it through to the end.

A young man's sword slashed off one of Cerberus's heads while I was grinding, crushing both eyes of the other.

His right arm doesn't move anymore at that price. There's a lot of blood out there, and if it stays like this, I can't move without enough blood in a few minutes.

"Ha! You're dying!

There is no fine dust in the colour of fright that death is imminent at present.

Instead, the hips of the facing Cerberus look drawn.

"Don't run away! If you're a demon, show me your guts!

I guess people's words didn't make sense, but they seemed to understand only that they were being provoked, and the last remaining head intimidates the youth.

Keep the first aid and self-formulated restorative medicine sneaked in your pocket so that you can take them out at any time.

Cerberus squeezes and jumps the last force.

The young man unleashed a thrust with all his weight without even trying to avoid it.

The cutting tip pierces Cerberus' face, but a last-minute, swinging nail chooses the young man's chest.

A young man is kneeling next to Cerberus' body lying on the ground, but it's not strange when he falls, just with his sword in his support and hard to maintain his posture.

"You were brilliant. I'll make allowance."

He shook his neck weakly to the side as he rushed over and urged the youth to show his wounds.

"Yes, that's okay. This wound won't help anyway."

"No, we'll still make it"

Sure, it's serious, but now it's possible to somehow take my life.

"Leave me alone. I die clean. My father and I... are not"

His willingness to refuse treatment is unlikely to waver.

"Again, can you remember that time"

"Oh yeah! Um, you saw the pity in death, too!

I couldn't give anything back to the way I screamed while spitting blood.

At that time, yes, at that time, his father, known as the hero, exposed himself - in front of his children and his wife - to ugliness.

There is a man who has been seriously wounded and has waited for his life to run out. My family and I were the only ones left in a small room with a bed to keep me.

"Father! Don't die, Father!

"Damn it! Ugh."

A son who clings to his father and a wife who weeps by the bed.

First aid stopped his blood, but a broken bone broke through his gut, and only a few more lives have been found in his' medical 'skills.

The man's eyes, which merely closed and repeated rough breaths, suddenly opened as if to respond to the family's call.

"Father..."

"I don't like it... I don't want to die! Why would I have to die for someone else! Ouch, it hurts! I need your help! Hey, somebody help me!

My son and wife lose their words to the appearance of a father begging for help with his bloody running eyes.

"What a fool I did! Cold, scary...... I don't want to die! You guys, why are you living when I'm dead! Give me your lives! Why do I have to die alone!

A pitiful calling father.

Cursing from despair of death to jealousy of the living.

A son who loses his complexion and pokes his knee with a flashing face.

Now his father sees death and regret fills his chest.

For me, who has dealt with many deaths, it is no surprise to see him disturbed like him.

People spare their lives as soon as they become aware that their lives will be lost. Not everyone can honestly accept death.... even if it was a man called a hero.

But the fallen figure of the Father, who has seen it as an ideal and longing being, impacted his son's heart irrevocably.

On the face of his wife, who moved so much next to his son - there is no expression.

Taking the boy's shoulder outside the room, only she came back.

"Ouch, painful...... Somebody help me. Oh, I don't like it, I don't like it. Ahhh. I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

The wife stands beside her husband and gently strokes his head.

When his eyes capture his wife, he blurts and weeps.

"No. No. I don't want to die...... Ouch no"

"You don't have to suffer any more. I'm not lonely. I'm with you."

When his wife said so and smiled, she took the sword that was on her pillow and stuck it in her husband's chest shortly after I stopped.

My wife, who nursed him dead in tears, turns to me and bows her head deeply.

It is not uncommon on the battlefield for a companion to stab a stomach to save the seriously wounded from pain. But I didn't think she was going to lay down her own hands.

"Apologize to my son."

"Wait..."

Pulling out the sword she stabbed at her husband, she stabbed a wet cut in her husband's blood into her chest and fell into bed to overlap.

I'll take care of the ex-post.

The hero quietly took his breath, and his wife followed her husband. So.

For a while I was shocked and my son's memory was vague, but for a while he returned to me and began to hate my father.

- That's how he laughs at death.

Let go of your sword and cast your body into the earth, mocking that you are not like your father.

"Are you sure? If you don't do something in a few minutes, you'll be dead for sure."

"That's okay. Oh, my body's cold. Right, this is the feeling of dying...... Right, you miss me so much, and you're scared... But I'm, I'm fine... I don't resent or hurt anybody... so I'm dying... How to die pitifully..."

I guess his consciousness has become hazy. Eye focus is not defined.

The young man who saw his father die seems to enjoy death.

I guess I've already lost my ability to talk, my voice won't leak just with my lips open and closed. I just hear a slight breath.

I listened to his lips and tried to hear the words.

"Dead..."

That was his last word.

What were you trying to say?

"I don't want to die" "I want to die"

Either that, or it was something different, there's no way to know anymore.

I'm just certain that this is the kind of death he wanted in his lifetime.

The young man had always respected his father. And I wanted to go beyond him.

Thoughts have been distorted, but I was not trying to transcend my father, whom I admired for his cleanliness at death. I think about that.

"But I wanted you to live, pitiful or raw."

I let him close his eye lid and squealed pompously.