Ch.129129. Something About the Voice of God… Something About Coexistence…

Hitting someone isn’t exactly a pleasant experience.

So honestly, I was starting to feel a bit sorry.

Of course, I knew he wasn’t a weak person, and I was well aware he was a criminal-minded bastard who tried to kidnap Lilith…

But as I kept beating him up, he looked increasingly haggard, perhaps due to the effect of my attacks, which made me feel like I was doing something wrong.

However, that hesitation was brief. Fanatic Zealot stepped in and began to ease my guilt.

“I heard the voice of God. Even if we cannot subjugate evil, coexistence is possible.”

At some point, instead of asking me to listen to him, he just started saying whatever he wanted.

I didn’t particularly care. I was going to beat him up either way.

But… listening to him was quite something. Setting aside how he heard God’s voice, isn’t coexisting with evil already out of the question?

The evil he’s talking about must mean the Demon King and the demon race. He thinks humans can coexist with them?

That would be impossible. There are a few exceptionally strong humans, but humans are fundamentally a weak species.

From the beginning, demons can’t even be properly controlled without the Demon King’s authority. As if a tiger would happily walk arm in arm with a fly.

“With your power, and by entrusting the Holy Maiden to the Demon King, it’s entirely possible.”

I was wondering what method he had in mind… but hearing it made my blood boil.

What? Entrust?

What nonsense is that?

He says “entrust,” but it’s no different from selling her to the Demon King.

For a method that might not even work, he’d offer up the Holy Maiden they claim to revere so much?

‘Is he insane?’

My feelings must have shown on my face, but Fanatic either didn’t notice or chose to continue his explanation.

“My comrades are already preparing the plan in Ritten. We’ve made contact with one demon, and in exchange for helping with his operation, we’ll receive information.”

“Which demon? Arpatustu?”

“That’s righ— Huh?”

He showed visible surprise that I knew the exact name.

“Yeah, I thought so. Continue.”

“Ah, yes…”

I had no intention of explaining, so I just brushed it off.

But listening to him, he really was working hard on something.

Even though Arpatustu might be eager for an academy invasion, he wouldn’t have revealed himself openly.

The fact that they managed to find him and negotiate shows they’re quite dedicated.

But… that’s where my appreciation ended.

He talked as if everything was settled after recruiting just one demon, but honestly, it was pathetic that such a minor success led him to do something this stupid.

I mean, seriously. Arpatustu is a demon that even Fanatic’s gathered comrades could handle.

And Arpatustu is relatively rational and sensible among demons.

He probably joined hands with them because he knew opposing them would just get him in trouble, but with other demons, there would have been no mercy. They would have attacked those arrogant humans immediately.

So here’s the question: If Fanatic had encountered a stronger demon instead of Arpatustu, would he still have tried to negotiate?

Well, maybe. But if he had, his head would have been separated from his body in the next moment, and he wouldn’t be here now.

Whether he knew this or not, Fanatic continued his passionate explanation.

Of course, I hit him once more before he could continue.

“That’s why I urgently brought the Holy Maiden. Since that demon said he would attack the academy she attends… I thought I should secure her safety in advance…”

Hearing that, I hit him twice more.

So, to coexist with demons, he’s practicing by joining hands with demons first?

Is that supposed to make any sense?

“And then you’ll sell the Holy Maiden you ‘rescued’ to the Demon King?”

“Sell? How could you say that? Don’t we need Ludion to ensure the safety of the Holy Maiden who will be entrusted?”

What is he saying?

At this point, I wasn’t even angry anymore. I was just dumbfounded.

“What do you think? Won’t you join me in saving humanity?”

But Fanatic seemed to have no idea what was wrong… which was truly frustrating.

Seriously, after spouting such nonsense, did he really think I would accept it? Seriously?

…He seemed serious. That confident expression, believing I was convinced by his words, was truly something to behold.

Sigh. Well, what can you expect from a fanatic?

“No thanks.”

I answered without even considering it.

Fanatic’s eyes widened as if he hadn’t expected my refusal, but I didn’t bother to look closely because I didn’t want to see his face.

And I decided to make those unpleasant eyes close.

WHAM!

I threw my fist with full force, thinking it would be the last one.

It was the cleanest hit so far.

Though it wasn’t particularly powerful… thanks to the accumulated damage, it was enough to make Fanatic lose consciousness and collapse on the ground.

Phew. Beating him up was somewhat satisfying.

As for the unconscious Fanatic… I’ll just leave him.

He’d been completely stripped of everything, and I didn’t even want to look at him now.

So I left the unconscious man and headed toward the two women who had been watching the situation.

“Feel better now?”

“Somewhat.”

“You worked hard.”

“Hard work or not, is it okay to just leave him like that?”

Just as I was healing from Celia’s kindness, Lilith cut in with a sharp comment.

“Him? He’ll probably be fine.”

I didn’t actually wound him, just kept dealing damage.

It won’t recover as quickly as if Professor Reina treated him, but he should heal naturally.

“…That ‘probably’ makes it completely unreliable.”

“If he’s not okay, well, that’s unfortunate.”

“What kind of…”

Even if he doesn’t recover, I wouldn’t feel sorry.

I’d just note that I need to be more careful with my ability next time.

After all, he’s someone who tried to kidnap a person based on uncertain information and offer her as tribute to the Demon King.

Why should I feel guilty about hurting him?

At least for me, preventing someone like that from running wild was more important.

“That’s… not like you.”

But Lilith, who didn’t know everything, seemed to find my words cruel.

No, if you heard the whole story, you’d understand my thinking.

“Lilith. Don’t say that. Ludion wouldn’t do this without good reason.”

As expected of Celia. She must have heard everything Fanatic said from that distance and started covering for me.

But since it was best to explain everything clearly, I decided to relay everything Fanatic had said.

About hearing God’s voice… about coexistence…

After I finished explaining everything, Lilith, predictably, began to rage.

“Is he actually insane? He was going to sell me to the Demon King?”

“There’s some distortion in word choice, but I think Ludion’s expression is accurate.”

“That crazy bastard! Just kill him!”

Lilith’s passionate reaction was entertaining to watch, so neither I nor Celia tried to stop her, and we just enjoyed the spectacle.

After fuming for a while, Lilith eventually calmed down and turned her head toward us.

“Thanks. For saving me.”

“Thank Celia, not me. Without her, we wouldn’t have been able to find you.”

All I did was beat up Fanatic a bit.

But Celia could have done that too… so really, Celia, who tracked Lilith down, did almost everything.

That’s what I meant, but… it seems I made a mistake.

“Huh? What are you saying? Of course I’m thanking Celia too. That’s some ego you’ve got there.”

Oh. She was looking at me while speaking, so I thought she was talking to me.

But thinking about it, that makes sense. There was no reason for Lilith to thank only me.

“Lilith. You’re not being honest. I wasn’t even in your thoughts, was I?”

“What are you talking about? That’s not true.”

“Is that so? Then never mind.”

Watching them whisper to each other, they were clearly teasing me.

Oh well, I made an embarrassing misunderstanding.

Feeling awkward, I took a stone from my inventory and tossed it at the unconscious Fanatic.

Following its trajectory, Celia… was still looking at me, but Lilith turned her gaze, so I used that to naturally change the subject.

“What should we do with him?”

“We should take him with us. We don’t know what might happen if we leave him here.”

Celia answered my casually thrown question.

Ah… right. We do need to take him.

“But we don’t have anywhere to put him.”

“Couldn’t we put him in the imperial dungeon?”

“Is that allowed?”

“You’re planning to keep today’s events secret until everything is resolved anyway, right?”

…Is she living inside my head?

Celia was right.

If news spread that Fanatic had been captured and his comrades started moving, it would be troublesome.

If possible, I wanted this matter to pass quietly.

“Then I’ll talk to my father about it. There’s plenty of space in the dungeon anyway.”

Celia. There’s a halo shining behind you.

Is this the power of an imperial princess?

“How many people in the world can use the imperial dungeon as a prisoner holding facility?”

“If Ludion wants, you could freely use other things too.”

“I’ll decline that much, it’s burdensome.”

“Well, you’ll get used to it gradually.”

I said I was declining, so why is she talking as if my free use of imperial resources is a foregone conclusion?

As I was wondering whether to argue about this or not, Celia changed the subject.

“Are you keeping the greatswords you collected?”

Come to think of it, I had put all the greatswords Fanatic pulled out into my inventory.

After the third greatsword was taken from him, he didn’t draw any more, but I still managed to farm some good quality greatswords.

I wonder if this is okay, but he tried to steal Lilith, after all.

Even if he loses these, he probably has plenty of good greatswords left… so I can consider this much as compensation.

So…

“Shall we head back?”

“Let’s do that.”

Since there was nothing more to do here, we decided to return to the academy.

Lilith started to ask something after hearing our conversation, but unfortunately, her timing was a bit late.

“By the way, how did you two even get here—AAAAH?!”

“Whatder”—her Western pronunciation is top-notch.

One more syllable and she’d sound like a native speaker.

With Lilith’s scream as we suddenly levitated dozens of meters into the air, our pleasant flight back to the academy began.

“KYAAAAH!! I-I don’t really like heights!!”

There was an accident where Celia, excited by Lilith’s intense reaction, performed some legendary aerobatic maneuvers that ended up making Lilith faint… but it was a pleasant flight nonetheless.