Ch.125Amidst Destruction (1)

*

It took Alice a full week to return to the city where the Papal State was located.

For the first two days, she walked without rest.

On the third day, she barely managed to find a pack horse tied up in a stable in a village that had been ravaged by demons, but it was just an old, sick farm horse from the countryside, far from a fine steed, so she couldn’t expect much in terms of speed.

But Alice had no time to complain.

Instead, she used the long travel time to think continuously, pondering one thought after another.

To save as much time as possible, she prepared and memorized everything she would report after arriving at the Papal State, and planned routes to obtain the items she would need after making her report.

Since she couldn’t be certain whether she could get a swift steed for her return to the forest, she created time constraints considering both possibilities.

In truth, time was extremely tight no matter how she looked at it, but if she could receive help from the Pope or the entire Church, it wouldn’t be impossible to complete all preparations within the time limit.

During the remaining time, she constantly contemplated formations and tactics while estimating the combat power of the three people who would go to the Demon King’s castle.

No matter how long the journey took, there was far more to think about, so Alice’s mind was spinning without a moment’s rest.

Of course, her body was being pushed just as hard.

She only slept once every three days, and when the horse was about to collapse from exhaustion, she forcibly infused it with holy power to keep it going.

However, when she finally arrived at the city where the Papal State was located,

Alice had to be certain that things would not go according to her expectations.

“…Good heavens, Goddess.”

Where the Papal State had once stood, only large pillars and walls covered in soot barely remained standing as traces.

Throughout the streets, human corpses and chunks of demon flesh were scattered and mixed together, and all houses and shops were either empty or collapsed.

The only people occasionally found were those wandering around in a daze, having lost their minds to the grief of losing their families, and robbers trying to attack such people to steal their clothes and tiny possessions that amounted to little more than dust.

Alice was aghast.

Reporting aside, in this situation, it was clear she wouldn’t be able to obtain a sword or armor, let alone a horse for her return journey.

Even the old pack horse she had ridden collapsed immediately upon arriving in the city and died on the spot.

“…Am I too late?”

Alice murmured calmly in a dazed voice.

Even before the Demon King had been resurrected, the country was already as good as destroyed.

Seeing the collapse of the Papal State of the Goddess Religion, which was the center of basic common sense and ideology shared by all people in this country—no, this entire continent—perhaps what had been destroyed was not just the country but the entire continent.

Perhaps even all of humanity. This cold thought roughly scratched through Alice’s mind.

It was then.

“Alice.”

Hearing someone call her name, Alice slowly turned around.

From inside a tavern with furniture strewn about, someone was looking at her through a door with fallen hinges that dangled loosely.

The man slowly rose from his seat.

In his hand was a large bottle of alcohol, heavily stained on the inside.

“…Eric?”

“Where have you been all this time?”

“What on earth happened…”

“Enough, keep quiet for now… Let’s move somewhere else first. Follow me.”

Eric put his index finger to his lips in a gesture to stay quiet, then wiggled the same finger at Alice, indicating for her to follow him.

*

Inside the tavern Eric led her into, not a single piece of furniture remained intact.

Chairs and tables all had broken legs and were tilted, and shards of broken glass were scattered everywhere.

A corpse sat in the corner, slumped over like a decoration, with flies buzzing incessantly around it.

Eric opened a door installed in the floor behind the tavern counter.

It was a space normally used as a storage room.

Alice followed Eric into the underground storage.

“Cozy, isn’t it?”

Eric made a nonsensical comment with a bitter smile.

While it was nice to see her friend maintaining a sense of humor even in this terrible situation, everything in Alice’s field of vision was far more suited to the word “mess” than “cozy.”

Alice didn’t bother to play along.

There was no time.

“What happened? How could the Papal State disappear? What on earth occurred?”

“What? Since you’re not wearing the Goddess Church armor, I thought you knew the situation.”

“I lost the armor.”

“So that’s why you’re dressed so lightly?”

Eric sat down on a large barrel with a snicker.

Alice nodded as she looked at him.

“I thought what I experienced while away from the city would be one of the most shocking things in the world right now, but things here are just as bad.”

“There’s nothing particularly shocking about what happened here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The entire country is in this state now.”

“…What?”

Though she had anticipated it, hearing it confirmed directly made the shock all the more profound.

It seemed this country had indeed fallen.

“Where should I begin…”

“…A riot?”

“That’s right.”

“The cause?”

“…”

Eric brought the large bottle in his hand to his mouth and drank it in one go.

It must have been a clear glass bottle originally, but now it was so cloudy and dirty that the contents were barely visible.

It clearly wasn’t proper drinking alcohol, but it was probably the only alcohol Eric could get at this moment.

The taste must have been terrible too, as Eric’s swallowing was rough and jerky, unlike when he drank beer months ago, and occasionally he seemed on the verge of regurgitating.

“Ah, shit.”

Eric roughly wiped away the alcohol that had spilled around his mouth.

The smell of the alcohol that fell to the floor was unbearably foul.

Eric spat out the saliva pooled in his mouth and said:

“The Demon King.”

“…!”

“Ha, judging by your reaction, it must be true. Has the Demon King been resurrected? Or did he never die? Or has a new Demon King appeared?”

“…How did you know?”

“Rumors spread. At first, I thought it was just nonsense born from the chaos as demons ran wild and the world became turbulent,”

Eric let out a deep sigh.

The pungent smell of alcohol stung Alice’s nose.

“But the truth is, those with good intuition all felt it—that something terribly big was about to happen.”

“…”

“Of course. It’s not easy to ignore this atmosphere, is it?”

Eric’s words were true.

The people of this world had lived through a time when the Demon King was still active just a few years ago.

So they remembered clearly.

The scent of doom floating in the air.

They might not have known the exact facts, but it was instinct rather than information, skin rather than mind, that sensed it first.

“At first, people all flocked to the Papal State and churches everywhere. Thanks to you, the Goddess Church was quite popular.”

“..”

“Then some crazy thief broke into the Papal State.”

Alice detected a certain familiarity in Eric’s cursing.

Her mechanical heart began to beat slightly faster.

Alice barely suppressed her anger as she asked:

“…Was it one of your organization members?”

“Sadly, yes.”

Her heart beat even faster.

“Did you… order it?”

“Nobody ordered it. It was the independent action of an idiot who thought there would be a lot of donations with so many people gathering.”

“…”

Alice lowered her head slightly.

Her fists, which had been clenched without her realizing, were trembling.

Alice took a deep breath and slowly unclenched her hands.

Eric continued his explanation, paying no attention to Alice’s reaction.

“But among the items that bastard brought back was the Pope’s handwritten document stating that the Demon King wasn’t actually dead.”

“That must have caused an uproar.”

“Ha, an uproar indeed.”

“Did you spread it? Sell it to an information broker?”

“Are you crazy? Of course I tried to silence everyone, but I couldn’t stop some drunk from running his mouth. Hell, our organization is just a collection of losers—there’s no way we could keep everyone quiet.”

“…”

Eric said this and gave a self-deprecating smile before taking another drink.

“I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Naturally, all hell broke loose. We’re talking about the Demon King here. There was no way people would accept the fact that such momentous news had been hidden from them.”

“The Pope…”

“Dead. It seems it was a secret even within the Papal State, as the priests took the lead in beheading him.”

“…Good Lord.”

Alice covered her mouth in shock.

“Every statue of the Goddess was completely destroyed, and there were at least a hundred terrorist attacks targeting high-status individuals every day. Nobles had their heads cut off daily while protesting that they knew nothing about it.”

“How could ordinary citizens overpower nobles accompanied by soldiers…”

“Those soldiers were at the forefront of beating the nobles.”

It made sense.

That’s the kind of entity the Demon King was.

A name that brought such intense fear it paralyzed human reason.

The reason people were so helplessly swept up in this whirlwind of madness was the absence of hope.

During the time when the Demon King was active, the Hero was also active.

But now there was no Hero.

There was no one who could defeat the Demon King.

Alice could now understand why the Pope had kept the Demon King’s existence such a secret.

“Oh, and your pig farm was also completely destroyed.”

“…Were they released?”

“No, they were all killed.”

Eric stared at the nearly empty bottle for a moment before throwing it forcefully to the floor.

The bottle shattered with a loud noise, sending glass shards flying in all directions.

“I told you it’s not just chaos here. What about the capital? Where do you think the anger toward the higher-ups who hid such premium information was directed?”

“The king…”

“And wasn’t there a royal at your pig farm too?”

That was true.

The port town where she had gone to capture Balder.

Instead of Balder, she had found the kingdom’s third prince, Veron Siorid, and imprisoned him at the pig farm.

“The people at the pig farm were all doing terrible things to others. People’s anger reached the sky. They all died horribly. Your pig farm would have seemed like heaven in comparison.”

“…Ha,”

“Well, thanks to that, your popularity was somewhat maintained. If you had been here then, this madness might have subsided a bit.”

“…”

Alice wasn’t even angry anymore.

She was simply dumbfounded at how the timing could have gone so wrong.

She couldn’t blame Eric or the organization he belonged to.

It was impossible to determine whose responsibility it was.

The Goddess Church that hid the truth,

Eric’s organization that spread the truth,

Alice who was absent.

No, the responsibility for all this lay with Silvia.

She failed to kill the Demon King and crushed and bound Alice.

But, sadly, she was also the only one who could resolve this situation.

If there was any hope for humanity, it was ultimately only that damned woman.

“Well, that’s the end of the briefing.”

Eric looked at Alice with slightly unfocused eyes and asked:

“So where the hell have you been and what have you been doing all this time?”

“…”

Eric spoke to Alice with curses mixed in, but despite his harsh expression, he showed no anger toward her.

Eric must have known as well.

That this situation was no one’s fault,

Or perhaps he knew his organization bore some responsibility for the situation and couldn’t press her too hard.

Alice was about to speak while looking at Eric but had to suppress a laugh that was about to burst out.

She thought she had news that would surprise Eric, but given the scale of the story he had just told and the current situation, her own story seemed almost trivial in comparison.

“…Haha,”

“…?”

“…It’s nothing major, Eric. I just found Ash, that’s all.”

Eric’s alcohol-glazed eyes widened slightly.

“…What?”

“He’s alive, Ash is.”

“…”

Eric didn’t seem to understand Alice’s words.

Was he surprised that Ash was alive, or was he too drunk to comprehend?

Alice looked at Eric and said:

“It’s not just Ash, Eric.”

“…Then?”

“Before I tell you…”

“…?”

“That organization you were in. Is any part of it still functioning?”

“No, it’s all completely destroyed.”

“Hmm, so it’s just you then.”

“…?”

With the Goddess Church gone, and no blacksmiths to make swords and armor or merchants to sell them, the only person she could rely on now was Eric standing before her.

Eric, the nimble thief and excellent information broker.

“I need a sword, armor, a horse, and information that requires investigation.”

“What, are you asking me to get them for you?”

“Yes, I need them, Eric.”

“Use your eyes and look around. How am I supposed to get such things now?”

“We have to manage somehow, you and I. Together.”

“What?”

Alice took a short deep breath, then opened her mouth.

“Ash is with Silvia.”

“Who’s that…?”

“You don’t know?”

“I know there’s someone with the same name as the Hero. So?”

Eric tilted his head.

Alice spoke with all humor gone from her face:

“What if I’m talking about the Hero herself?”

“…”

Alice could see the drunkenness clearing from Eric’s eyes.

Alice felt a strange sensation in that moment.

The key to saving the world lay in the hands of those small-town folks from Goldfield territory.