Ch.25Chapter 25. Lucy, Where on Earth is the Holy Sword?

# Demon Hero

Literally the opposite concept of a hero.

The entire party is referred to as the Demon Hero party, and they call each other only by their job titles.

Since they form a rival relationship with each member of the hero’s party, it was absolutely impossible to defeat them unless Lucy and her party members received DLC-tailored transcendent growth.

When entering Chapter 2, one of the Demon Heroes appears randomly and becomes Lucy’s dedicated rival.

Usually, a spear wielder appears to form a symmetrical relationship with sword-wielding Lucy, but sometimes a trickster type who uses magic, hidden weapons, and even poison might appear, making the future uncertain.

And there’s something else to be extremely careful about.

The thief’s path.

As soon as Chapter 2 begins, the thief receives an invitation to join the Demon Hero party.

At first, they refuse, but if the player fails to properly help the thief during the events of Chapter 2, they’ll face their greatest life crisis and turn to the Demon Hero side.

The game story cruelly creates a situation where Rabin has no choice but to become a Demon Hero to survive.

In other words, it was quite challenging—you had to take care of Rabin to prevent betrayal, and Lucy needed luck with which Demon Hero rival she’d draw.

While this was appropriate for DLC content, for Lin who had to push through into reality, it was absolute hell.

“Ah, I almost forgot. We need to avoid Linefold’s minions too, right?”

If discovered, they’d be forced to join the hero party before powering up.

Unlike Lin, who felt like he might suffocate from frustration despite his deadened emotions, Lucy was cheerful.

“How do I look, Lin? My hair turned brown!”

No, she was deliberately pretending to be excessively cheerful.

Lucy, who had dyed her hair to avoid being recognized as a hero, twirled around in front of Lin.

Lin smiled and nodded.

But Lucy’s eyes trembled anxiously as she looked at Lin.

Lucy clearly knew.

That she was no better than Rabin in any way.

Rabin was an upright person unlike herself—getting angry on Lin’s behalf about past unfair treatment, genuinely caring for him, engaging in trivial chatter, and laughing without reservation.

That cheerful, lively master thief suited Lin better than she did.

So she tried to act brighter too.

Moving beyond jealousy, she tried to smile sweetly, pretending everything was fine, acting like a normal girl.

Trying to show she could be like Rabin too.

But.

‘I feel so nauseated I might throw up.’

The world spun because she couldn’t feel his heartbeat.

Her widely spread arms creaked like a scarecrow because they weren’t holding Lin.

She took a deep breath through her nose, hiding the cold sweat running down her neck.

Her crooked smile was like a broken mirror.

Lin knew that Lucy was jealous of Rabin.

The reason he was quietly watching instead of focusing on comforting Lucy as he normally would was because of the holy sword.

As mentioned before, the holy sword is a bound item, so it doesn’t go into the carrier’s pouch.

Naturally, it doesn’t go into the regular inventory either.

But at the hero’s waist, who had supposedly recovered her limbs and summoned the holy sword again, there was no sign of the holy sword or even a small dagger.

The holy sword was gone.

The holy sword needed to face enemies that would naturally appear as the DLC story began in earnest, especially demons, was missing.

That couldn’t be right. Rabin had clearly said that the holy sword had soared toward Epfalter from the imperial palace.

“Lucy.”

When preparing for and executing a task, one should always assume the worst-case scenario.

But Lin wanted to avoid the worst-case scenario of the holy sword being missing.

So with desperate hope, he tried to ask Lucy.

“Where is the holy sw—”

*BANG!*

“Sorry for keeping you waiting! Haa, those damn Triumvirate people, seriously making things difficult.”

“One of the Triumvirate is the boss, you know?”

“Shut up, Adora.”

The question he was carefully trying to ask was interrupted by Rabin and Adora’s sudden entrance.

Lin closed his mouth again, and Lucy, who had been hoping to finally hear his voice, looked at them resentfully.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“…Hmph.”

When Rabin casually asked despite knowing the atmosphere wasn’t good, Lucy immediately turned away.

“What a funny girl.”

She was grinning despite the hero openly showing her dislike.

Just how thick-skinned was this woman?

Lin had wanted to stay quiet, but seeing Adora desperately signaling from behind Rabin, he sighed and stepped in.

“Good work. Is the annoying business finished?”

“No, more annoying business is waiting.”

“More annoying business?”

“There’s going to be a Triumvirate meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

The Triumvirate.

A term referring to the heads of three guilds representing wealth, might, and intelligence.

They correspond to the Merchant Guild, Mercenary Guild, and Thief Guild respectively.

What? Why does the Thief represent intelligence?

Let me emphasize again: Rabin is the woman who brought Valtercruz’s alias as the “Lawless City” to the surface.

In other words, she forced all the major figures from other guilds who claimed to represent intelligence to sleep permanently beneath the surface.

Whenever major issues arise in governing Valtercruz, the Triumvirate and their subordinate guilds gather for meetings to determine future directions.

That’s the Triumvirate meeting.

But it was suspicious that this gathering of city bigwigs was being arranged so suddenly.

“The topic is raising awareness about demon appearances and possibly rooting out any demons that might be hiding in the city.”

“Usually they give at least a week’s notice, but announcing it for tomorrow like this makes me think someone has already set the stage.”

Adora pointed this out.

“I think so too.”

“Boss, should we try to postpone the meeting then?”

“It’s useless. They’ve probably factored in a delay. Giving us more time would just let them prepare more numbers.”

“What do you think their real intention is?”

Rabin laughed incredulously.

“Information Officer.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Right, you’re the Information Officer.”

“Ah.”

Adora sighed as she caught Rabin’s meaning.

“I’ll gather information.”

“See you at midnight~”

As she was leaving, Adora glanced at Lin and gave a small wave.

Lin reflexively waved back without thinking, then shrank under the gaze of two pairs of eyes focused on him.

“I’ll look forward to your review~”

Why was Lin taking the hit when Rabin was the one who told her to go work?

Meanwhile, Adora, who had planted the poison, left the room without looking back.

“Are you two close?”

“Of course not.”

In a situation where he couldn’t trust anyone in this city except Lucy and Rabin.

Rabin seemed pleased with his immediate denial and relaxed her eyes.

“What do you think about this meeting?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes, Lee, I’m asking you.”

Lin reluctantly thought about it.

“Are the Triumvirate members friendly with each other?”

“What do you think?”

Not at all.

They put three heads in place specifically to keep each other in check.

“Are you the strongest?”

“More like the most annoying.”

An outsider who appeared relatively recently, took over the unremarkable Thief Guild, and catapulted it to Triumvirate status in one go.

That was Rabin’s current position.

“Then it’s obvious. Using demon detection as an excuse to expel Rabin.”

“Why are you using my name like that!”

“Because without you, this place would automatically revert to the old Valtercruz.”

“Haha.”

Despite his indifferent response, Rabin seemed pleased.

“You really are smart.”

“Anyone could figure that out.”

“A seasoned person could easily tell. By their instinct.”

Suddenly, Rabin pulled a large cloth from her pocket.

She brought a chair and offered it to Lucy, but the hero turned her head and ignored her.

“But you, Lee, made me realize and accept the reason through simple questions.”

Rabin tapped her own hair.

Only then did Lucy realize her hair was sticking out in all directions and had grown too long.

Reluctantly sitting in the chair, Lucy let Rabin wrap the cloth around her neck. Rabin then pulled out not a dagger, but a pair of shining silver scissors from her pocket.

“Now, Left Arm of Arsil. My greatest rival, Lee. What do you think should be done in this situation? Two heads of the Triumvirate are trying to set me up.”

Before cutting, Rabin combed Lucy’s hair.

Though she didn’t mention it, Lucy’s hair was smooth with no tangles because Lin combed it for her every morning or night.

“Since there’s no perfect or clean person in the world, they’ll push accusations about your corruption at the Triumvirate meeting. But since it would be too abrupt on its own, they’ll tie it to the most fitting topic for the current situation.”

“For example?”

“Why bother with examples? They’ve already told us everything.”

*Snip, snip*

The scissors made a pleasant metallic sound as they carefully trimmed Lucy’s unruly hair.

“Demon detection, right? They’ll connect you to demons. Either claiming you are a demon or that you’re dealing with demons behind the scenes.”

“Wow, that’s scary. So I just have to sit there and take it?”

What are you saying?

Lin knew that the thief, whose mind was as nimble as her movements, had already prepared countermeasures.

“You shouldn’t sit and take it, you should counterattack. Do I need to tell you something so obvious?”

“Lee, did I ask what I should do in this situation?”

“I know you have no connection to demons. At least not directly.”

Here, “connection” referred to the invitation to join the Demon Hero party.

Rabin understood and gave a bitter smile.

“Then that means they’ve fabricated evidence.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Skillfully cutting her hair and combing it to let the cut strands fall to the floor.

Rabin once said that if the world weren’t chaotic and she had been born into a normal family, she would have become a hairstylist.

“I’ve already figured out roughly what evidence they have. The Information Officer went out to find where the evidence is.”

“You’re quick.”

“Thanks for the compliment. Anyway, I need to prepare to refute this evidence, that’s what I’m saying.”

“What? You already had a plan. Why did you ask me then?”

“You never know, right? Maybe our Lee would have a better approach? As always. You were always one step ahead of me.”

*Snip, snip*

Rabin recalled something and giggled while cutting.

“Though I’ve won most of the time since Rina became the leader.”

“You’ve grown, Rabin.”

“No, you locked away your bag of tricks to please Rina.”

And then she shouted loudly enough to be heard:

“Just like you locked away your emotions in the hero party.”

“…!”

A cold dagger seemed to pierce through.

Lucy, who had almost dozed off from the gentle, languid feeling of having her hair touched, felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

“Why so off guard, hero?”

A whisper only she could hear.

Lucy bit her lower lip.

“Stop talking nonsense, Rabin. Shut up and listen to my thoughts.”

“Alright, don’t get too angry. I was wrong.”

Even Rabin became dejected when Lin got serious.

“Are you sure the other side has fabricated evidence?”

“Yes, I’m sure. I confirmed it myself.”

“That’s good.”

Lin gave a clear conclusion.

“You should preemptively claim that evidence shows their connection to demons.”

“What?!”

That was dangerous.

Lucy almost had her earlobe cut off by startled Rabin’s mistake.

“Why bother refuting it? It’s a waste of time and resources. Just make it yours.”

“Ah~”

This is why Rabin always coveted Lin.

“Slander and fabrication are easy, but explanation is difficult?”

And slander and fabrication were Rabin’s favorite political weapons.

Lin always provided strategies in the direction his lord wanted.

For Arsil, strategies that were straightforward but maintained loyalty.

For Rina… since she would do whatever she wanted anyway, he would deliberately propose obviously bad strategies and let himself be refuted, just to boost her ego.

Stupid Rina.

“I love it! I really like it!”

“I’m glad to be of help.”

“You must have been quite helpful in the hero party too, right?”

She redirected her resentment and anger about Rina toward Lucy again.

“Rabin, get out.”

But Lin wasn’t going to stand by and watch.

“Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t say such things again.”

“Leave. See you tomorrow.”

“That’s your problem, Lee! You’re hurting inside but you can’t even say one unpleasant thing…”

“No, I’m not hurting.”

“…!”

Rabin stared in astonishment.

Angered by his calm gaze, Rabin gritted her teeth and put the scissors back in her pocket.

“Finish trimming the rest yourself.”

When she removed the cloth, brown hair scattered everywhere.

After Rabin left, the two remaining people were silent.

It’s become even more uncomfortable than before she came in.

He couldn’t ask about the holy sword like this.

Lin sighed, and Lucy kept her head down.

Lin couldn’t tell what expression she was making or what she was thinking beneath that hanging brown hair.

But all Lucy could do was

just

fiddle with the red thread tied around her little finger.

No matter how red her nose became

No matter how heavy her eyes felt

Lucy could only despair.

She would never give up, but this was a moment when she felt once again that the world was not looking kindly upon her love.