LVL Chapter 158

Zky9-12 minutes 28.05.2023

~Final Arc: The Level Idiot and Utopia~

[Foul Light]

The newborn baby was like a rock.

The color of his skin was pure grey and it was as hard as a stone, unthinkable that it was a baby’s.

It was a congenital skin disease.

And as though compensation for this serious disease, the baby was also born with corresponding gifts.

A superhuman body with muscles that passively grew larger and stronger.

Bones that continuously developed to an abnormal degree to keep up with his ever-growing muscles, yet didn’t harm the baby’s health.

Excellent perception supported by intelligence so incredible that the baby could learn ten things when taught one.

Magical power that was already several times higher than that of an average magician right when he was born.

No matter what path he took, his plethora of gifts would ensure his success, and his parents were astonished by the excellence the baby revealed as he grew older.

But while they were pleasantly surprised at how excellent he was, others didn’t see him in any positive light.

When the baby grew up and reached the appropriate age to be called a boy, his continuously growing muscles and overdeveloping bones made his body bigger than even a large adult, but his musculoskeletal growth required a huge amount of energy and he would quickly starve if he didn’t continuously consume food, forcing him to always eat something.

This caused his digestive system to change in a way that allowed a large amount of food intake to replenish energy through food more efficiently.

This, in turn, inevitably caused his internal organs to grow larger.

As a result, his stomach swelled like a pregnant woman’s, and the energy taken in caused his body to grow bigger at a faster rate.

After reaching a certain point, his body turned into something monstrous, seemingly as if chunks of flesh were tied together with strings.

Abnormal development also began to appear on his face.

Stretch marks that came with his growth were carved on his face like scars, and due to the imbalance between his facial muscles and bones, his face became asymmetrical and he was no longer able to close his mouth.

The tip of his nose turned upwards and the holes enlarged to keep his airway open, making his face look like a pig’s.

Additionally, he always produced a large amount of saliva because of his constant eating, which leaked from the corners of his mouth that he couldn’t close completely, and combined with his grey-colored skin, he appeared poor in hygiene.

He unceasingly grew uglier and dirtier as the days went by, it was not difficult to imagine how harshly others received him.

Despite that, he continued to demonstrate his excellence.

He believed that was the only way he could be accepted by society.

He understood that in this world surrounded by monsters, having the power to fight against said monsters and the power to protect and save people were the most prized possessions.

He believed that as long as he had such powers, there would be people who would accept him regardless of his appearance.

There was nothing he could do in regard to the root cause, so he just continued to put in effort in a straightforward manner.

However, the environment surrounding him continued to deteriorate.

He was rejected by all communities, just being there he was harassed. Simple harassment gradually escalated and violence became a daily occurrence.

The harm was not only done to him but also to his parents and their relatives.

He was ridiculed as a ‘monster’s child’ for his far from ordinary appearance, his mother was called ‘a slut who committed adultery with a monster’, and his father grew thinner and thinner as he shielded his family from slanders.

Worried about their own reputation, even their relatives gradually began to lead the attacks on his family, and even when his family moved to run away from them, they would find out where his family was and persistently apply social pressure on his family.

“That thing shouldn’t have been born, it is a stain on our family. Disgusting.”

These words came from the very same relatives—former aristocrats—who once celebrated his mother’s pregnancy with his father.

He still clearly remembered the tears on his father’s and mother’s faces when they said so.

He clearly remembered his mother sobbing in his father’s chest in the middle of the night.

His parents, who kept protecting him even as they continued to suffer, were dear to him.

Therefore, he decided to do what he could do for them, hone his martial skills and gain knowledge. To ask for guidance, he even cast his pride aside and bowed his head over and over again.

At times he deflected false accusations with arguments and evidence, at times he took unreasonable violence with his body, at times he helped the weak—only to be betrayed.

“Still.”

“Still, I will definitely.”

“I will definitely show everyone.”

“It’s not a mistake that I was born.”

“I must be born the way I am for a reason.”

“Someday, I will definitely.”

“Definitely…”

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to endure the abuses from those around him and preserved to better himself until finally, he acquired the strength to be called a hero.

His efforts paid off and he managed to join the knights, albeit on the bottom rung.

He smiled to himself at the thought that he could tell his parents that their tough days were finally over and they could puff out their chests again.

The smile faded when he arrived in front of their shabby house that was on fire.

Pushing his way through the people surrounding the house, he entered and found his father lying lifelessly on the floor, signs of vicious beating apparent on his body.

His mother was beside him, and though she seemed to have received a violent beating as well, she was still barely breathing. When he took her into his arms, she kept apologizing to him for having given birth to him.

She had inhaled too much smoke that by the time he brought her outside the house, she had already stopped breathing.

“It’s your fault.”

“How dare a thing like you go and become a knight behind us. As if you are more worthy than us.”

“This was what they got for keeping a monster like you alive.”

“They reaped what they sowed.”

“Justice has been served.”

When he asked the perpetrators for the reason they did such a horrible thing while carrying his mother’s body, what he got in response was jealousy and anger wrapped in ‘self-righteousness’.

Stunned by their blades of incomprehensible emotions, somethinginside his chest, as well as the body in his arms, fell.

He had nothing left.

Everything had been taken away from him.

Before he knew it, people, so many he couldn’t count, were strewn around him.

Even after seeing who they were, his heart was still and calm.

It didn’t make him excited.

Not that he had ever felt excited.

Enveloped in a darkness deeper than the overcast sky, he fell into evil and ended up joining the Black Sword.

Although he was also shunned within the organization, he followed orders as he was told. When he eventually attained the position of an executive, it didn’t bring him any sense of fulfillment either, he simply lived on for the sake of it.

The fact that he had immersed himself in evil didn’t matter to him, for he had lost his light of hope.

He just couldn’t abandon the creature that was himself who had been given birth to and loved by his parents, that was all.

“Yo, you free?”

Still, something must be smoldering in his heart somewhere.

One day, a man named Nanashino Katsumi came to talk to him. The man seemed to know of his past even though he had never talked about it with anyone.

The man said he admired him and praised him. He was skeptical but still gave an ear to him. A fatal mistake.

“I got a dream, see. I wanna be able to do whatever I want in this world without being tied down by anyone. For that reason, I absolutely need something.”

“Slurp~? So, you want me to help you procure it~?”

“Nah. It’s already here.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s you, Pygmalion.”

“Pardon?”

“Pygmalion Don Troll, I want you.”

Nanashino closed in on Pygmalion, whose eyes widened at his sudden words, and looked at him with eyes sparkling like a child.

Though most of the things inside the sparkles were far from innocent, downright evil even, there was certainly a desire for Pygmalion in there.

“I need you to make my dream come true. Come with me, Pygmalion.”

The genuine words spoken with an evil grin pierced through Pygmalion.

Even though he knew that they were deadly poison, that he was just going to be used, the fact stood that Nanashino wanted him.

“S-slurp… yes, all right. I will help you.”

That was enough reason to throw himself into the abyss.

As though spellbound, Pygmalion couldn’t turn himself away from it.

Therefore, he took Nanashino’s Katsumi’s hand and rebelled against the ‘Black Sword’.

Somewhere in his heart, something asked him, “Is this okay?”

“Is this what the people who loved me wished for me?” Its question tortured him.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” It kept crying in regret.

However, although Pygmalion understood it, he couldn’t let go of the foul light Nanashino had lit.

He could no longer escape, hence Pygmalion decided to end himself along with the light.

The end is just around the corner.

It must, so Pygmalion prayed in his heart.