Ch.29Chapter 29. The Second Demon Hero, Illusionist Adora

Strangely enough, all the demonic beasts passed by Lin.

They avoided only the spot where Lin stood, as if he were invisible, or as if there were an obstacle they couldn’t step on or cross over.

The demonic beasts surged forward, shaking the ground.

“I’ll introduce myself properly a little later.”

Adora reappeared beside him as he stood there bewildered.

She was an existence impossible to pin down—first a thief, then smoke, and now this.

“For now, I should verify whether the Hero is worthy enough to be entrusted with you for the time being.”

“Entrusted? I’m not some pet.”

When Lin responded sharply, Adora was startled.

“Of course not. I didn’t mean it that way at all.”

She gently caressed Lin’s left arm.

Given who she was, Lin had no choice but to allow it.

But as soon as Adora touched him, an overwhelming fatigue washed over his entire body.

“As I thought.”

Adora felt sorry for the struggling Lin.

“You haven’t fully recovered.”

“How did you… know that…?”

Suddenly, drowsiness overcame him.

As Lin struggled against the sleep magic, Adora comforted him.

“There’s not enough time to explain everything at once.”

It was too difficult to resist any longer.

Ever since the Epfalter incident, Lin had found it harder to refuse sleep.

“You’re at your limit. Even the Holy Sword determined it would be dangerous if you weren’t forced to sleep.”

The feeling of weakness was no joke.

As Lin collapsed like he was fainting, Adora caught him and sat down demurely, laying his head on her lap.

“I won’t let anyone disturb you, so sleep well.”

Of course, Adora had no intention of forgiving anyone who would interrupt her time with Lin.

—

“LIIIIIIIIIN-!!!!”

Lin was nowhere to be seen.

He had disappeared from sight instantly as the demonic beasts charged in.

Lucie had witnessed it.

She saw Adora approaching from behind Lin just before he vanished.

“That damn demon!”

From the moment she appeared at the black market, Adora had made no attempt to hide her demonic energy.

When Lin had directly asked if she was a demon, Lucie hadn’t sensed any demonic energy or suspicious signs.

She should have investigated properly when he specifically asked.

Instead, she’d been busy squabbling with Rabin, and now look what happened.

She couldn’t bear how angry she was at herself.

“Get out of my way!”

She grabbed the jaws of a demonic beast that came flying at her with its mouth wide open and tore it apart.

When one tried to bite her arm, she stabbed its eyes first.

A kick infused with magic created a crescent-shaped gap, but it was immediately filled with more demonic beasts.

“Hero!”

Fortunately, since Lucie blocked most of the demonic beasts at the front, the Valter Croix forces could easily push the battle line forward.

That’s not to say there were no civilian casualties.

Rabin, consumed with rage, searched for Lucie.

“Where did you leave Lee while you’re doing your one-man show?!”

“Did you know that Adora was a demon?!”

“The intelligence officer…?”

Lucie suddenly realized that despite telling him Lin’s name, Rabin stubbornly kept calling him “Lee.”

“Did you ever tell her Lin’s name? And why don’t you call him Lin?”

“Why would I tell her! And he never asked me to call him by his name, so how could I just use it on my own!”

“…Hah.”

In the end, it was her carelessness that had brought about this situation.

There had been plenty of clues—Lin’s suspicions, her casual use of his name—but she had dismissed them.

No, Adora had probably deliberately revealed these gaps.

Yet she had continued to think nothing of it.

Despite demons targeting Lin, she hadn’t noticed a thing.

Swallowing her tears, she had to admit it.

She was more useless now than when her limbs had been severed.

“Why are you just sitting there with your head down!”

Rabin wasn’t one to leave Lucie like this.

“Find Lee! You were so insistent he was yours, but now you’re just sitting there in despair?!”

“Rabin…”

“Oh, seriously!”

Even while scolding her, he cut down the approaching demonic beasts.

“Don’t call me so affectionately! Find him now!”

“But there are too many of them, I don’t know where he could be…”

“You…!”

Furious to the tips of his hair, Rabin yelled at Lucie.

“You shameless woman!”

His shout echoed throughout the open space that had once been the black market.

“Lee didn’t hesitate to save you, wondering if he could or couldn’t!”

“He saved me because he had to! Because he wanted to save me!”

“And what are you now?!”

Ironically, Adora didn’t attack them during Rabin’s outburst.

She simply had the demonic beasts prowl around them, watching as Rabin grabbed Lucie by the collar.

Realizing this, Rabin rejected Adora’s contemptible consideration and drew his dagger.

“Fine, you get lost. I’ll save Lee myself.”

“You can’t handle this alone…”

“But!”

Cutting off Lucie’s words, Rabin glared straight ahead with blazing eyes.

At a spot where demonic beasts were merely prowling around, just like they were around them now.

“If I save him, Lee is mine. I will never give him up.”

“What…?”

“Just watch from behind, little girl!”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

Lucie also sprang to her feet.

“I haven’t lost yet!”

“I don’t have time to argue with you!”

Rabin pointed at the unique mutant.

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll kill it, I’ll save Lee, and I’ll have him!”

Lucie shot back, refusing to back down.

“First Adora, and now you! He’s my only ally, my best companion, my Lin!”

Picking up a sword that had been lying on the ground after its owner died, Lucie unleashed her magic power and swung it wide.

“I’ll never let you take him from me!”

“Just try it!”

The two leapt forward simultaneously.

As they cut down the charging demonic beasts, the Hero and the Thief split in opposite directions.

The Hero added more red-gold light to her sword and leapt toward the unique mutant.

The Thief broke through toward the spot where she had noticed demonic beasts prowling earlier.

To overcome this situation and save Lin, they each made different choices.

Naturally, the demonic beasts persistently targeted Lucie as she jumped into the air to protect the unique mutant.

“Kugh!”

Having no choice but to swing her sword to deal with the demonic beasts, she lost her chance to deliver a decisive blow to the unique mutant.

Instead, a path opened for Rabin to charge at the unique beast.

“I’m only cooperating this once!”

He pulled out a crimson potion from his pocket and downed it in one gulp.

His heart pounded violently, and everything around him slowed down.

Stepping on the falling corpses of demonic beasts from the sky, Rabin reached the underside of the unique mutant’s chin.

Ultimate Skill

“Secret Technique: Thousand Stabs!”

Blood flowed from his eyes and nose, but his momentum didn’t diminish at all.

Countless stabs at a speed even Lucie could barely discern turned the unique demonic beast’s chin into a rag.

Not stopping there, Rabin bored into the beast’s head like a drill and finally broke through its crown.

Adora, startled by the unexpected coordinated attack, held her breath.

“There you are.”

This time, Lucie detected her position.

“Did you think you could hide with mere deodorant?”

Though nothing was visible, there was a faint stench of sewer water coming from that spot.

Lucie threw a punch toward it.

KWAAANG-!

“Kheuk!”

The demon took a direct hit to the abdomen and flew backward.

As the illusion broke, Lin appeared lying where she had been.

“Lin!”

There was no movement, but he was clearly breathing.

As she picked him up with relief that he was safe, Adora quickly reappeared after being sent flying.

“I’d prefer if you didn’t touch Lin with your filthy hands.”

“I hit you square on!”

Lucie felt the absence of the Holy Sword keenly.

While she could somehow damage demonic beasts with normal attacks, demons were different.

Without the Holy Maiden’s divine buff or the Holy Sword, physical attacks against demons were reduced to one-tenth and magical attacks to half, making it difficult to land effective hits.

The surroundings were still a scene of slaughter, with killing continuing all around.

“Huu… Huu…”

Due to the potion’s side effects, Rabin was kneeling and dripping blood from his mouth.

Yet his hostility toward Adora hadn’t diminished at all.

The struggle of the three guilds—Thieves, Mercenaries, and Merchants—continued.

An endless series of meaningless attrition.

And Lin, who had been protected by illusion magic, regained consciousness from the scent of blood and dust around him.

Adora knew it was time to wrap things up.

“You’re awake, Lin.”

“Adora.”

“You could have slept a little longer.”

She was impressed by his calmness even amid the chaos.

But Lin didn’t feel the same way.

“Rabin, you…”

As soon as he saw Rabin bleeding, Lin immediately understood the situation.

The side effects of the potion he had used on the day the Sewage Alley disappeared.

Even as he coughed up blood, Rabin felt like crying at Lin’s concerned gaze.

Conversely, Lucie had to grit her teeth at being treated like a sack of barley despite being right beside him.

At that moment, someone broke through the momentary lull.

“Now’s the time! Kill that Rabin!”

“Helping eliminate Rabin was part of our contract!”

It was the Mercenary and Merchant Guild Masters.

“You’re quite bold to make such demands in front of everyone.”

Even Adora was dumbfounded.

But the Merchant Guild Master didn’t care.

“You’re an illusionist anyway! Just as you filled part of Valter Croix with illusions, manipulating the memories of people here should be nothing to you—”

“Shut up.”

PUCK-!

The Merchant Guild Master’s head exploded pathetically.

Adora was genuinely angry.

Because of that scum, she had lost her timing for the introduction she wanted to make.

The timing to introduce herself to Lin…!

“Illusionist, this is a breach of contract! A violation of our agreement! If he finds out—!”

“I don’t care about the youngster controlling you. And actually, I’m quite upset that he acted so arbitrarily.”

It was Adora who had noticed Lin arriving in Valter Croix with the Hero.

She had shared the information because they were supposedly cooperating, but both the subordinate and his master had interfered with her through cheap tricks.

“I said I would handle it myself, didn’t I?”

The illusion was just a performance; from the beginning, Adora didn’t need to create elaborate hallucinations.

Simply projecting demonic energy was enough to grab the Mercenary Guild Master’s windpipe and slowly suffocate him.

“Kuhek, kuk!”

“This is a warning. A warning not to act so carelessly.”

Ahem, clearing her throat, the illusionist amplified her voice using black magic.

“I am Adora. An illusionist and member of the Demon Hero’s party.”

Despite the shocking confession about the Demon Hero’s party, no one dared interrupt her.

“Originally, according to my agreement with the Mercenary and Merchant Guild Masters, I was supposed to kill the Thief Guild Master Rabin, but since these two acted on their own, I’m going to make them pay the price for disrespecting a demon.”

“Keuok…! Illusionist, you bitch…!”

“Let me emphasize again. Two of Valter Croix’s three leaders—the Mercenary and Merchant Guild Masters—made a secret pact with me, a demon. Well, not anymore.”

[This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t it at all. Lin, I wanted to introduce myself to you more properly.]

The illusionist sent a telepathic message to Lin, Lucie, and Rabin.

To Lin, she pleaded with desperation.

“The goal of our Demon Hero’s party is to oppose the Hero’s party, resurrect our fallen Demon King, and achieve victory in the war.”

[Foolish Hero, do you think you can protect Lin from us without your Holy Sword?]

To Lucie, she sneered with contempt.

“So you guild masters are no longer needed. Die quietly.”

[It’s not just because you don’t have the Holy Sword that you couldn’t find me.]

PUCK-!

The Mercenary Guild Master’s head also exploded easily.

“I’ve lost interest, so I’ll be leaving now.”

[You’ve been forced to stay close to Lin since you lost your limbs. You’ve become accustomed to his energy since then.]

“Remember this: although the Demon King has passed away, we demons remain steadfast through the will of the Demon God.”

[Even now, Lin’s energy contains demonic energy—the Demon King’s demonic energy. That’s why you’ve become accustomed to high-purity demonic energy, and couldn’t properly detect me with the same purity.]

“And remember this as well: the next time our entire Demon Hero’s party reveals itself to the world, our Demon King will also have been resurrected.”

[You know very well why Lin became like that, don’t you?]

This wasn’t over yet.

The transgressions of Lucie and the Hero’s party were just beginning.

[It happened because you fools let him touch the Demon King’s horn with his bare hands.]

The Hero looked at Lin in dismay.

Lin remained silent.

Though she kept tugging at his sleeve, wanting to ask for forgiveness, Lin continued to ignore Lucie.

And Rabin, who had heard everything through telepathy.

Adora sent a special telepathic message to the thief who was inwardly sobbing, knowing Lin’s pain.

[You know why I came all this way to stage this obvious farce, don’t you?]

The thief’s bloodshot eyes turned toward her.

[One who has desires, Rabin the Thief. Coincidentally, what we want is the same.]

The reason Adora had infiltrated Valter Croix with this mediocre performance.

It was to recruit Rabin into the Demon Hero’s party.