Disappointing Teleportation Magic ~ Even Though The Movement Distance Is Only 1 Millimeter, I Will Rise Through Ingenuity ~ - Chapter 30.1

※ Kawamoto’s perspective

I survived.

Burning, running, burning again, running… before I knew it, I had run all the way to the upstream end of the island.

Under the sky beginning to brighten, several columns of smoke drifted.

I descended into an irrigation canal for the rice fields and roughly washed my face.

Scrubbing off the soot and sweat clinging to me, I removed my metal helmet, scooped up water, and poured it over my head.

Shaking my body like a dog, I shook off the water from my wet hair and looked up at the sky.

The clear morning sky, without a single cloud, seemed to promise another hot day.

“Ah, I’m starving…”

My body was utterly exhausted, but my mood was as clear as the sky I looked up at.

The deep, dark feelings that had been festering in the pit of my stomach had completely vanished.

At the same time, I felt as if something important to my humanity had also disappeared.

Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing…

Probably, if I were living in Japan, it would have been something I shouldn’t have lost, but to survive in this world, it was likely a hindrance.

“I wonder if there’ll be food when I get back? Or maybe I should have left some food unburnt instead of burning everything?”

Donning the dried helmet and climbing out of the canal, I saw a man about fifty meters away holding a tool like a hoe.

His clothes were more than half burnt, and his left arm and leg were charred down to the flesh.

His hair and the left side of his face were also scorched, and it seemed he could only see out of his right eye.

“I found you… I found you, murderer!”

On my way here, I had been mindlessly burning and killing.

This man had likely lost a loved one to me and had nearly been killed himself, but I had no memory of it.

When the man spotted me, he came at me with his farming tool in one hand, but his charred left leg wouldn’t move properly, making it difficult for him to walk.

Even so, he glared at me with his bl00dshot right eye and advanced, using the tool like a cane.

He was probably in terrible pain and in no condition to move under normal circumstances.

Yet, his hatred and determination towards me were driving him forward.

“Amazing, you can still move in that condition. Doesn’t it hurt?”

Seeing the man staggering toward me, I didn’t feel guilt or pity; my first thought was admiration for the resilience of human life.

“You… damn it, this… this…”

“Oh, sorry, did I make you remember the pain you forgot?”

“You… I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”

“Haha… impossible. You look like you’re about to die before you can kill me.”

“Shut up… even if I die, I’ll kill you…”

“Impossible, impossible. I have no intention of dying yet… I’ll put you out of your misery instead.”

The fireball I lightly threw with my right hand seemed more powerful than usual and quickly engulfed the man in flames.

“Gahhhh… damn… kill…”

The man, collapsing to his knees while engulfed in flames, clung to his tool, trying to stand, but fell forward and never moved again.

“See, it was impossible…”

I jumped over the man, who was blocking the path and still smoldering, and started walking towards the checkpoint downstream.

I killed a man, but it felt no different than swatting a mosquito.

After walking about a third of the way to the highway, I encountered a group of about twenty Yurefelt soldiers.