Their limbs were torn off, their heads were severed, and their slimy entrails were scattered, staining the ground... But Vidar did nothing but stare silently at the scattered corpses.
Then, after a while, he heard a familiar voice.
[Mom...?]
The child staggered out of the dilapidated house, then fell to the ground and began crawling. He felt the ground, then the grass, then the bodies...
[…]
The child's small hands picked up the dark blood, and his innocent face quickly took on despair, as if it had been smeared with a brush of sadness.
And Vidar just looked, shocked, and left the village.
As if he was fleeing from something, he walked faster.
(What exactly did I do?
Why did they attack me?
You saved the baby.)
He returned to the Forbidden Forest, and sat in front of the clear lake, lost in thought. Then, slowly, he stared at his reflection in the water.
Two sharp horns sticking out of his head. Nails as long as razors. Blue eyes slit lengthways.
(Is that why they attacked me?
Because I'm different from them?
Because I'm not human?)
[Kill the monster!]
From that day on, people began to flock to the forest without stopping.
None of them survived.
At first, they were just villagers. Then guard patrols. Then soldiers from the imperial court, knights, and countless adventurers.
The death toll began to multiply. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.
At that moment, his nickname changed.
From “Monster”... to “King of Monsters”.
Everyone started whispering:
“In the Forbidden Forest resides the King of Monsters.”
“He spreads plague and curses, and kills people as if they were insects.”
(How did I end up with this?
Why are they attacking me?
Who was I trying to save?
Who gave me a name for those hungry and painful feelings?)
As time passed, Vidar even forgot about the child's existence.
But he didn't forget to wait. That boring, cruel, endless wait.
Wait for someone. He doesn't know who he is.
He fought wars against countless armies, the number of which is unknown.
Then an idea occurred to him:
(If a creature like me were born... perhaps this waiting would stop.
Maybe I won't be alone anymore.)
He collected human blood beneath the cliff in the north, where there was none before.
He spread his blood, filling the swamps with their bodies.
And thus, monsters were born.
But the waiting didn't stop.
No matter how much he killed, no matter how much he created, his heart remained empty and burning.
Some days, he tried eating humans…or monsters.
But even that didn't fill the void inside him.
Humans kept coming... as if the death of the King of Monsters was destined for them.
Even when Vidar didn't come out to them, they came to him.
He lived like this for thousands of years.
He kills... waits... then kills.
No reason, no hope, no end.
(Maybe I should die.)
He already tried. He cut his neck with his sword.
But as soon as he closed his eyes, he opened them to find himself as he was — whole. Immortal.
“Damn this cave...”
Thousands of years passed, and Vidar returned to this accursed place.
He sat...and thought.
(Why did it exist?
To be hated? To be attacked?
Did I exist just to live this deadly loneliness?
Where is that person I was waiting for?
Was it an illusion from the beginning?
Have you been deceived?
Did God make me? Is this my punishment?)
(If that person appears...
Will I recover?
Will my loneliness end?)
With these questions, he decided to isolate himself inside the cave.
And nothing happened after that. Didn't come out. He didn't attack anyone.
As for the Church’s lie, that one of the holy heroes “destroyed the king of beasts,” it is nothing but a myth.
The truth is that Vidar was the one who chose to disappear.
And so, another thousand years passed.
Then finally…
A thread of hope appeared.
[If you know Nidhogg, does that mean my mother knows him too?]
“…….”
Vidar's face, as he contemplated the question that Precipe had asked him a moment ago, was confused, criss-crossed with feelings that were difficult to describe.
[You looked like you were crying.]
Not all of his words to Preseppe were lies. He really met Vanessa.
For thousands of years, Vidar has wondered who the person waiting for him was. Does it really exist? If so, why has it not appeared yet? But, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find an answer.
At that time, he escaped to sleep. Not a peaceful or restful sleep, but a sleep closer to self-torture. Sometimes he stabbed himself until his insides came out, and sometimes he cut his own throat.
Because only then, during his reincarnation period, could he sleep unconsciously.
One of those nights, he did it again. He tore his body apart with his claws until his entrails were exposed, then he sank into a deep slumber.
But… he suddenly woke up.
(My body hasn't healed yet...so why did I wake up?)
He stared coldly at his not yet fully regenerated body, then raised his eyes to the black sky.
And there, the moon was full—pale and bright as he was accustomed to seeing it whenever he waited for that “unknown person.”
He came out of the cave slowly. Not a breeze blowing, not the sound of a cricket. The night was completely still.
But that silence did not last long.
[M-King of Monsters...]
That crying coming from afar.
When Vidar's eyes met the crying woman — Vanessa — he knew immediately.
The fetus in her womb… was not entirely human, nor was it a monster.
(But... how did you know who I was?)
He no longer appears to people in his true form. It was hiding its horns, claws and black mist.
[Nidhogg was the one who told me… about the King of Monsters.]
The answer was simpler than he expected.
(Should I kill her?)
Not that she knew him. Not for fear of spreading the news.
Just...because she was crying. Her crying was annoying.
[Monster Child…
Will he be born as a monster?]
Vanessa asked before he even touched her.
Vidar knew that there were rare cases in which a “half-beast, half-human” was born.
[No matter how hard you try to hide it...
He'll be found out, won't he?
Especially if he knew the Imperial Palace.]
She spoke as if she did not know how dangerous what she was saying was, especially in front of someone who could kill her with a word.
[Nidhogg said that the Monster King has not harmed anyone in a thousand years.]
This was not a lie. He entered the cave before the founding of “Atiloya.”
[I know…
Not all monsters are evil.]
(Evil people? Who determines good and evil?...Humans?)
His chest tightened. He wanted to kill her again.
[They will kill my child.]
[And even if he survives… he won't belong anywhere.]
[He'll be so lonely…]
“I was always alone, so I felt lonely.”
[Wherever he would be, he would feel extremely lonely…]
“But even you're always alone, aren't you?”
Vanessa's voice... and the words of that child from the past...
It started to mix in his ears.
(Will that child be half-beast...
Lonely like me?
Will he grow up the way I did?
Would he feel the way I felt?)
He didn't strangle her.
Instead, he just looked at her, crying bitterly, and then slowly opened his lips.
[Beasts...are not like humans.]
[Even if half of him is born a monster, he will not be ostracized among us.]
And that's it.
(What has changed?
Maybe I just wanted to see the offspring of the monster enter the Imperial Palace, the place that always wanted me dead...)
Despite this idea... he no longer had the desire to kill Vanessa.
He turned his back. But she asked him again:
[If I send my child to the Forbidden Forest...
Can he live among monsters? Even if he's not human?]
He didn't answer.
He just looked at her one last time... and then left, without a word, without remorse.
“I should have killed her...”
Vidar regretted that day for a long time.
But, he couldn't have known then... that the one in Vanessa's womb—
He who was neither entirely man nor beast—
He would be the one who made his life an unbearable hell.