episode_0164

The clash between the dwarves and elves ended more easily than expected.

There were several reasons, firstly, our party’s combat power was higher than expected, even excluding me.

Secondly, when the dwarves, marked and berserk, tried to attack us, they took out all sorts of weapons from their shops or warehouses, so the preparation for the engagement was quicker than expected.

Because of this, the advantages that could be gained from the ‘surprise attack’ operation were not that great, and the elves retreated after a brief engagement.

“…Retreat, huh.”

Retreat.

This retreat was quite strange.

The marked demonic beasts are… well… their existence itself is close to acting on instinct, but even the dwarves with intelligence lost their reason once marked and rushed at the target indiscriminately.

These elves felt the tide of war turning against them and chose to retreat.

That was very strange.

Having the intelligence to judge and retreat is a bit different from other cases.

“It’s not impossible to rule out the possibility that the elves went senile and invaded the dwarves’ underground city… but if that’s the case, that dark skin is bothering me. At least as far as I know, there were no dark elves in the ‘Incompetent Hero’s Success Story’ setting.”

Besides, after the battle was over, Levia, who had woken up, took a look at the elves she had captured for information and confirmed it herself.

The existence of the mark engraved on them.

“For now, Levia is going to erase it… once they calm down, we can find out the full story.”

Waiting for more information to come in, I quietly closed my eyes.

Even though my body has changed to a monster level, there have been few opportunities to properly rest on this forced march starting from the Eastern Continent.

Even the few opportunities I had were caught up in one of the three major human desires, lust. I may have satisfied my lust, but I have rarely satisfied my need for sleep…

Knock knock knock

“…Aish.”

The sound of knocking rings out exquisitely the moment I try to fall asleep.

I let out a soft sigh and told them to come in, and Lucy was standing there.

I couldn’t hear footsteps, so I thought it was Lucy…

“Did the investigation come out?”

“Um… I have bad news and worse news, which one would you like to hear first?”

“…What?”

Bad news and worse news?…

Looking at Lucy, she doesn’t seem to be joking. Well, even if Lucy is usually playful, I’ve never seen her joke about things like this.

“Then tell me anything. I’ll have to know anyway.”

“I guess so. Then I’ll tell you the bad news first. It seems that the elves have confirmed all of the dwarves’ underground passages. Not only that, but the surface is full of marked elves… dark elves for short, thoroughly hunting other races or demonic beasts.”

“Hmm… Well, I expected that much.”

Of course, the part about ‘hunting other races’ is a bit bothersome, but it’s somewhat expected, so it doesn’t have much impact.

“The worse news is that it seems Levia is in a state where she cannot use her divine power.”

“…What the fuck?”

What the hell are you talking about?!…

* * *

Bang!

“Levia!!!”

“Hhyat?!…”

I heard that Levia couldn’t use her divine power and went straight to Levia’s room.

I forgot to even knock and opened the door as it was. Levia was shirtless, apparently receiving treatment from Sullin, and Sullin was touching her back, feeling the flow of energy.

“Kya…”

“Levia! Is it true that you can’t use divine power?!”

“She’s taking her clothes off! Get out now!!!”

The pillow Sullin threw flies at high speed.

As expected, someone who has thrown a lot of hidden weapons throws things well, and the pillow hit my face exactly.

I think I was too excited, so I quietly closed the door.

As I stood blankly in front of Levia’s door, Lucy, who had approached, shrugged her shoulders and said.

“You messed up, Sir Hero.”

“I know, you little brat.”

“Anyway… do you want to hear more?”

“Do it.”

It wasn’t a good idea to keep talking in front of Levia’s door, so we changed places and continued the conversation.

“What do you mean she can’t use divine power?”

“To be more precise, she can’t use it ‘temporarily’.”

“So why can’t she use it?”

“Um… I don’t really know either.”

Lucy shrugs her shoulders.

If Lucy, who knows the most about divine power here, doesn’t know…

“Did she lose her qualifications as a saintess?”

“I don’t think so. In the first place, the goddess wouldn’t suddenly take back her qualifications as a saintess for what the saintess did…”

“Then why can’t she use divine power?”

“Her meridians are twisted.”

It was Sullin who answered that question, who had been examining Levia’s body until just now.

“Her meridians are twisted?”

“Yeah. In the Eastern Continent, there are ‘meridians’ through which energy passes. You can make energy flow throughout your body through that meridian and use energy. Magic… isn’t much different.”

Sullin seemed a little tired and threw herself into a comfortable chair while relaxing her body.

“Does divine power also ride the meridians?”

“Well? I’ve never used divine power. But when I let my energy flow into Levia’s body, there were some places where the meridians were cut off. Levia doesn’t do anything like energy cultivation, and the only time she suddenly drew power was when she was a dwarf. Maybe she hurt her body by using too much divine power at that time.”

“…Does divine power also harm the body?”

Looking at Lucy, Lucy nodded.

“Of course. We blood demons spit blood every time we use divine power.”

“That’s because you’re blood demons!! Does it also harm humans!!”

“Hmm… There are ways to attack using divine power, so maybe it’s not impossible.”

“In my estimation, Levia’s ability to control her energy is insufficient compared to the energy she has, so her meridians were damaged because of the discrepancy.”

After listening to Sullin’s explanation, I sighed and said.

“…Can it be fixed?”

“It’s not that bad. It’ll be cured if you feed her some elixirs and take good care of her body.”

“…Elixir?”

“Yeah.”

Looking at Sullin, who nodded lightly as if it was nothing, I sighed and looked at Lucy.

“Okay… let’s skip that for now… is that all the information you got from the elves?”

“Would you like to check it out yourself? I think you can see something interesting.”

“…?”

I’m already dying of a headache because of Levia’s situation, but what is this kid talking about again…

Anyway, to clear my head, I followed Lucy’s words and headed to the place where the captured elves were.

Dwarves with weapons were guarding the place.

In addition, I could see a familiar face.

“Dain.”

“Oh, you’ve come. Have you come to see the elves inside?”

“Lucy said that you can see something interesting if you see it yourself.”

“I don’t know if it’s ‘interesting’… but I won’t stop you if you want to go in.”

I passed Dain and the dwarves and went inside, where the dark elves were captured.

Their eyes were quite fierce, and they frowned even more when they saw me.

“Human!!”

“Yeah, I’m human.”

“A sinful race that distorts the world!…”

“Go die!”

…What’s wrong with these guys?

“What is it? Is there a system in human society where elves are enslaved?”

“Have you ever seen a slave while traveling around Central Continent, Sir Hero?”

“…I don’t think I’ve seen one.”

Thinking about it, there was no mention of a ‘slave system’ even in the game. There wasn’t even a character like that.

…There was a masochistic elf who wanted to become a slave.

“Then why are they acting like this?”

“You’ll know if you listen. They tell you everything even if you don’t try to find out.”

“?”

What are you talking about?

I turned my gaze from Lucy to the elves, and the elves did not hide their venom towards me and spewed out indiscriminate curses.

“Pest of the world!”

“A doomed race that should not exist in his perfect world!…”

“You are enjoying a brief victory now, but soon he will kill all the sinful races in this world and create a perfect world!”

“Is the one you’re talking about ?”

Lucy was startled by my question and said.

“Ah, you shouldn’t say that word.”

“…What?”

Before I could ask why Lucy said that, the three captured elves began to spit out words like a machine gun.

“Devil!”

“He is the !”

“He is also the who will purify the world tainted by murder!”

“You such a vulgar race can’t speak his name so carelessly!!”

“Who are you calling , you sinful race that only commits murder every day!”

“Devils are you!!”

…I think I know why I shouldn’t say that word.

They were saying that I shouldn’t say that because this shit is happening…

Anyway, I know that there is a behind these guys. And I also know that the purpose of the dark elves is the destruction of the world… or more precisely, the extermination of races other than themselves.

However, the point that bothers me here is…

This is the purpose of the dark elves, not the purpose of the . The purpose of the is still unknown.

“Haa…”