episode_0096

“Haha! Thank you so much! Thanks to you, I survived!”

“Uh… what was that about…?”

Marie laughed, patting my back.

Sylphy still had a puzzled expression, not knowing what had happened to her.

I pulled Marie and Sylphy out of the dimensional crack one by one.

It was a bit of a risky gamble, but ultimately, Marie’s decision saved us all.

“I never knew you could teleport us all with spatial magic.”

“Haha! I, the greatest mage Marie. I excel at running away from fights!”

“You seemed to be good at fighting earlier.”

“I had no choice. I don’t like fighting. It hurts when you get hit.”

“By the way, where are we?”

I asked Marie.

We had definitely escaped from Bloodstain, but we had no idea where this forest we arrived in through teleportation was.

“I don’t know either!”

Marie confidently replied, placing her hands on her hips.

“It was Marie who used the magic.”

“Well, in that situation, it’s not easy to pinpoint the exact location, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Marie did her best to ensure the teleportation spell didn’t fail for the safety of everyone. So, adjusting the destination or creating an opening big enough for a person to pass through was difficult. She poured all her strength into keeping the crack open until everyone safely escaped. As a result, all four of us ended up in a state where we couldn’t leave the dimension through normal means.”

Was that how it was?

Even though she was smiling so calmly, she had actually chosen the best option to ensure the teleportation spell didn’t fail. If I hadn’t been able to reinforce her magic, besides Milaia tearing through the dimension with force, everyone else could have been trapped and faced a terrible fate of annihilation… But there wasn’t really any other way.

Anyway, Marie was like a savior to us.

It wasn’t the time to question where we were.

“Judging by the types of grass and trees here, it seems like if we head east, we might come across a path leading to a village.”

Milaia said, kneeling down and touching the grass on the ground.

We all agreed with her words and decided to move east until we found a path.

* * *

Crash!

“…Ah!”

In the central church prayer room of the kingdom’s capital, Piphnel.

Saint Selena, who was in prayer, opened her eyes wide at the sound of a cup containing holy water falling and shattering.

Selena, who had quickly become a saint and identified a hero through the goddess’s revelation, had been praying diligently to the goddess even after finding the hero.

She felt responsible for the hero staying at the central church and committing all sorts of misdeeds.

Perhaps because she had identified the hero too quickly, there was no doubt in the goddess’s revelation.

Having led a devout life of faith in the church since she was a child, she was overjoyed when she was chosen as a saint.

And as soon as the saintly ceremony was over, it was as if a bright light pierced her mind, and she heard the goddess’s revelation.

Selena thought it was the goddess’s response to her faith she had cultivated all these years.

However, the hero she had identified was so wicked and childish in his actions that there was no precedent in history.

Selena had even almost been insulted by the hero.

The hero spat on the face of the knight commander and threw objects at the bishop’s head.

He gathered female adventurers to touch their bodies or make lewd remarks.

If he didn’t like something, he would immediately get angry and demand financial support from the kingdom for his extravagant lifestyle.

Nevertheless, she prayed every day with a firm belief that the goddess’s prophecy could not be wrong.

One day, the hero started gathering people to help him defeat the demon king.

At first, she thought her fervent prayers had finally been answered.

It was as if the goddess had responded to her prayers for the hero’s success.

The hero embarked on a journey to subdue the demon king with a famous female adventurer named Mileia.

Although there were many differences from the heroes recorded in history, he succeeded in finding the holy sword and had a strong determination to defeat the demon king.

Among the people in the kingdom who had often been mistreated by the hero, there were many who doubted him.

Some even came to Selena to inquire if the hero’s prophecy was truly accurate.

“Oh, goddess….”

It had been quite some time since the hero had left.

Every day, the saint Selena prayed to the goddess for the hero’s safe defeat of the demon king.

However, as time passed, she began to feel an unknown sense of unease creeping into her heart.

And now, the chalice containing holy water that had been placed on the prayer shelf suddenly fell and shattered.

She tried to reassure herself that it was just an accident, but she couldn’t shake off the ominous feeling.

No matter how hard she prayed, the goddess had not answered her pleas for a long time.

This was not what she had hoped for.

Was the story of the brave hero and the saint just a fairy tale from the past?

Like the shattered chalice on the floor, doubt was beginning to tarnish Saint Selena’s faith.

* * *

“What! Is that true? You killed the hero?”

The demon king’s face turned pale with anger.

Returning from battle, Bloodstain reported the hero’s death to the demon king Versella.

Listening to the report together, the deceitful lord Javiel pondered.

‘How strange, did that hero really die? Was the power of fate not as strong as I thought?’

“Are you sure you killed the hero? Could you have mistaken him for someone else?”

The demon king Versella asked suspiciously.

“Krrr… It’s true. The hero was completely crushed and there was no body left… I also brought evidence, my lord.”

With that, Bloodstain placed a dusty sword on the ground.

The sword caught Javiel’s eyes.

The holy sword of the hero.

The only weapon in this world that could destroy the demon king.

Upon seeing the sword, the demon king Versella instinctively turned away with a sense of revulsion.

“Ugh… get that away from me. Just looking at it makes me feel sick.”

“It seems that the hero has truly been dealt with.”

Javiel said to the demon king.

Bloodstain put the sword away and spoke confidently.

“Now there are no heroes left. There is no one who can harm you, my lord. This is our chance. Let’s wipe out humanity and create a world of demons.”

“Uh… do we really have to do that?”

When Versella questioned, Bloodstain looked puzzled and raised his head.

“Krrr… What do you mean by that?”

“Well, if the hero is dead, then there’s no one coming to kill me. If we start a war, many demons will die. I don’t really want to attack the human kingdom at the cost of such sacrifices.”

“My lord, what on earth…”

The demon king Versella’s reaction was somewhat hesitant.

“Um, do we really have to do that?”

Bloodstain was in shock and lost for words on the spot.

To hear such words from the Demon King’s mouth, it was truly a moment where even the Devil himself would jump up and the ancient Demon King would rise from his tomb.

Bloodstain, with a horse’s head, trembled.

On the other hand, Javiel, who was listening to the conversation, thought to himself.

‘Indeed, if the hero is dead, there is no existence in this world that can threaten the Demon King. As Bloodstain said, attacking the human kingdom now would require many sacrifices. Even if there is no hero who can harm the Demon King, there are many humans who can harm the demons.’

The demons are the people of the Demon Realm.

As a Demon King, valuing the lives of the people is not strictly wrong.

But there was also a worrying point.

‘Even if the hero is dead… there is no guarantee that the next hero will not appear…… If the Demon King wants to maintain the status quo like this, I may need to hide in the human world again to see if a new hero appears.’

If a new hero does not appear, Javiel also wanted to support Bersella’s decision.

If there are no heroes, the power of the Demon King’s soul hidden in Bersella will infinitely strengthen someday.

At that time, he thought that he could easily drive humans out of the continent without unnecessary sacrifices of the demons.

“Anyway… the hero really died…… Now, I don’t have to worry about dying horribly like the ancient Demon King……”

Bersella muttered, still unable to grasp the fact that the hero had died.

For Bersella, who had escaped the fear of death, war was no longer of any interest.

Now, she wanted to live in the Demon Realm, doing what she wanted to do, away from the anxious days of not knowing when the hero would come.

“……”

However, Bloodstain, who killed the hero, silently looked at the Demon King like that, then turned around without a word and left the room.

He did not really like the Demon King’s decision to let go of the opportunity to exterminate humans, a chance that would never come again.