episode_0042

“Why are you so serious? After finishing two pending revenges. Oh, because of what Belle said as she died?”

“Let’s talk later. I don’t want to right now.”

Now is the time to focus, so I had to put aside my concerns about my identity.

“Ahem, did your conversation with the Demon King go well?”

“Matapju…”

I guess I think I’m talking to some invisible entity, sorry. I was just imitating my dead friend due to delusions and mental stress. Oh, but he’s still the Demon King. There’s a slight difference that he’s the 6th generation instead of the 7th.

Ha, you didn’t know that I would end up like this, did you?

“Yeah.”

“Then can we resolve this through dialogue? I don’t want to see innocent people shed blood.”

“…It’s amazing that you have the capacity to say it. Okay, I don’t want to do that either.”

“…Thank you.”

There seemed to be quite a lot contained in Matapju’s expression. Maybe he was carrying too much on his back like I used to.

“Isn’t this treason? If the emperor finds out, he’ll be furious and try to kill you.”

“Since you’ve already fled in the middle of the night, I’m the one who actually controls the empire. And, personally, I want to end things on good terms with you, warrior. Although I couldn’t help you, it’s definitely humanity’s fault that you’ve fallen apart like that.”

“…You don’t call me a whore.”

That made me feel a bit bad.

“That’s a ridiculous rumor.”

“By the way, it seems like you’re doing the conversation at your own discretion, Master of the Tower… But the wizards here seem to be your disciples, so can you talk to a traitor who turned against the demons in front of them?”

“My disciples follow me completely. The reason they participated in the Demon Defense Battle this time was because I wanted to. If I told them to dismantle this magic circle right now, they would do it.”

“I’m jealous.”

Leon didn’t have that kind of relationship.

Well, Noah and Leah had it, so let’s be satisfied with that.

“Then I understand that much, but why are you arguing with me like this?”

“That’s… going to be a bit long, so to speak.”

“It’s a bit long though.”

As he shook his silver sword as if he was going to break the magic circle, the magician started off by saying, “Tch, these days, young people-” and finished his sentence with, “As for the lattes-” and muttered that he had no patience. I can hear that.

“To put it simply, it’s because the Magic Tower knew from the beginning that the Goddess was not on the side of humanity.”

“…!”

“Warrior, did you find out too? No, you couldn’t help but know since you were with the Demons.”

“How did Matap find out about that?”

“…Noah, the savior of mankind who disappeared from all records… ‘We’ only found out about her by chance.”

…What?

“It started out as usual, cleaning up after a wizard who had embezzled donations. In the meantime, we found an ancient ledger. That idiot had been referencing old documents that should have been deleted long ago to prevent him from keeping double ledgers. There we saw. Records of donations worth tens of thousands of gold that clearly did not exist in any ancient books. ”

“Oh, over there. Wait a minute…”

“The disciples said it was too dangerous, but I didn’t give up. In the end, as a reward for our persistence, we learned about ‘Noah’ and the ‘ark’. And about the truth of this world. I don’t know how much you know.”

“…Just assume you know everything and keep going…”

Or just keep your mouth shut. I really wanted to crawl into a hole.

“Hmm? I see. The Goddess is trying to make this world worse than death, and to do that, she is trying to destroy it once… After learning all of that, we tried to be as neutral as possible. To hide the fact that we knew the truth. That we knew the existence of the Prophet…”

“…Prophet?”

“Prophet, yes. Because you wanted to know this truth before anyone else and save everyone. Didn’t you say there was no time?”

“…Right.”

That prophet or whatever, that’s me… I didn’t think it was necessary to explain. I don’t want to be bowed down to this old man who revealed it for nothing.

“Originally, I was walking a tightrope between the Demon King and the Goddess, and after finding the ark based on the information left in the Magic Tower’s literature, I tried to ask for the Demon King’s cooperation. However, before I could find the ark, the Demon King invaded the empire first.”

“…”

“I don’t blame you. It’s just that if things continue like this, the entire human race of the empire will be wiped out by the demons before we can even take action, so I’d like to borrow the power of the goddess to stop the current situation.”

“… Rather, it seems like you are welcoming the situation of talking to me.”

“How could that not be? You seem to be a pretty high-ranking figure among the demons. It seems true that the Demon King is protecting you. If you do it well, you can stop the invasion, stop the summoning of the goddess, avoid the goddess’s eyes, and ask for cooperation. Isn’t that more your way?”

My silver sword pointed at Ena outside the door. At first, Matapju didn’t know what it meant, but when the blade moved to point at Bell, he understood the meaning and his face turned pale.

“Do I still have that old belief? Matopju… I guess I don’t read the newspaper.”

“…”

It was quite a sight to see Matapju, who had nothing to say to that, just opening and closing his mouth.

“What… It’s okay. I’m joking. Even if I gave up my beliefs, I don’t want to kill the innocent people in the dirt.”

The belief was broken, but it didn’t disappear. If he had really completely abandoned his belief from the beginning, he would have persuaded Abel and a few acquaintances to get on the ark and leave immediately.

“Wow, didn’t you almost suffocate? What kind of trick are you playing on an old man who keeps wandering around!!”

The tower master was furious. As if his anger wasn’t fake, a crack appeared in the magic circle for a moment, and it was repaired by the terrified tower master.

“Then… Is this all I need to summarize? I am Abel… Stop the invasion of the Demon King’s army and cooperate with the Ark. The Demon Tower Lord will stop summoning the Goddess right now, and help persuade people when they find the Ark and burn it in the future.”

“Okay, that’s fine. You little shit. Hehe… You weren’t like that before. Those idiots have completely lost your personality…”

“…Grandpa, what are you saying?”

“What are you talking about? The contract is already finished.”

Swish, one of the two magic circles floating in the sky was turning to dust and disappearing. It would take about two hours for it to completely disappear. It was a large magic circle, so it seemed to take some time to disappear. Compared to what I did to block that one magic circle, it was quite trivial.

“The guards, and also… um. Many innocent people died from the Demon King’s army.”

“You haven’t abandoned your nature, have you? You fool. The Demon King’s army’s affairs have to be buried for the sake of the people who are left behind, and what you did…wasn’t it an urgent situation to begin with? I attacked your Four Heavenly Kings or something, and I heard they were saying a lot of mean things to you, too.”

“Still…”

“But what the heck! Get out there and stop the demon king, you idiot. It’s hard enough just maintaining defense! He must be older than me, but he keeps pounding on me because he’s still healthy and has strength left!”

“Okay. …Thanks for helping me. I’ll be back soon-”

“…Back! You bastard! Back!”

Sreung, Chaenggang!

The reason I swung the silver sword back at that moment was purely instinctive. I had to do it right now. Or I just felt like my body was being dragged along.

The holy sword, so familiar that it was hard to recognize, was in someone else’s hand.

“Matopju! What are you doing, betraying the goddess and the empire? Reactivate the magic immediately!”

“That guy…”

There’s no need to look any further. While I was fighting the Demon King’s army and blocking the monsters on my own, the warrior who was comfortably training was one of those two guys.

A man in heavy armor slashed with his sword in rapid succession.

Damn, that direction is the direction of the disciples of the Magic Tower…!

The first sound was the sound of metal clashing with metal. Up until that point, it was a good sign. It meant that the defense was successful. But the second sound was not so good. There was the sound of an arrow cutting through the air, and it hit the shoulder straight in. The lives of those who could not dodge because they were maintaining their magic were obstacles.

“Ugh…!”

“What? Are you traitors taking care of each other? Even so, under the protection of the goddess, you are all the same!”

It stings, it stings.

The shoulder that was hit by the arrow earlier started to hurt. Was it an arrow mixed with divinity? I have a comrade. This guy’s condition is clearly strange. Drooling, dilated pupils… Ha, right. Even a goddess is not completely ignorant.

That’s actually a fanatic who’s been so obsessed with the divinity of the goddess that he’s become nothing more than a doll. He must have sensed that things were going strangely, so he sent the best card he could in this situation.

The only one who can stop this is me. The wizards are busy dismantling the goddess summoning circle right now.

Yeah, the fights so far have been too easy. You’re not letting me go that easily, are you? Huh?

The blood-soaked silver sword flashed. Aha, do you really need more blood to be satisfied?

“Just a little harder. If we just stop him, it’ll be over, right?”

It seemed as if she heard someone whispering, but the sound was too faint to reach the exhausted Leah.

I thought today was the only day things would go well. That wasn’t to be the case. Today is the worst day ever.

*****

Damn, this is going to happen! Those damn imperial bastards.

Abel had been knocking on the barrier for an uncountable number of times.

My hands were getting sore, but what was more urgent was the current situation.

I don’t know what kind of medicine that damn goddess bitch took to do this, but if a goddess descended to the mortal world, Leah would…

No, I can’t let you die by the hands of the goddess this time either. I will make sure that doesn’t happen.

“Galvein, are we there yet?”

“…”

“…Galvein? No, this is…?”

“No way…”

Damn.

The barrier cracked for a moment, then was restored.

What was important was not that, but the strong divine energy and Leah’s energy that flowed out faintly within it. The two energies were clashing.

This clash of energies means only one thing. The owner of this divinity is fighting with Leah.

Abel’s spine went cold as he realized that fact. He had waited for thousands of years.

We finally met again?

There are so many things I haven’t done properly yet…

Already, a thousand terrible imaginations were running through his head. As each imagination overlapped, the anxiety inside Abel also began to thicken.

Please, stay alive. I’ll go there right now, no matter what.