Chapter 286: Three Walk Together

These days, the old folks have no manners.

『A quote from Orsay Ranal recorded in the Academy’s first headmaster’s notebook.』

Regardless of Mara offering Yeomyeong the heart, the Saintess was considering the worst-case scenario.

“So the one behind the whole thing… was the U.S. military?”

Hearing this, Mara laughed in disbelief.

“If it had been the U.S. military, would I be teaming up with you guys? I’d have run away immediately.”

However, the Saintess was still looking at the helicopters, her expression confused. Yeomyeong, who was looking in the same direction, added.

“…It doesn’t make sense for the U.S. government to be behind this. There’s no reason for a country like America to stir up something like this.”

Of course, looking at history, it was not like the U.S. had never made mistakes. They’d waged wars on elves under the pretext of forest inhabitants, sold drugs to their own citizens, and failed to send support during the South American Dimensional Portal incident…

But this was on a whole different scale. This incident almost resulted in both Chicago and the Dimensional Portal being lost. Even the Demon King’s heart wasn’t worth such a risk.

“But no matter what, the number of the helicopters…”

The Saintess trailed off. Yeomyeong, without needing to hear more, already knew the rest of her sentence.

The question: Which organization, other than the U.S. military, could deploy that many attack helicopters on U.S. soil?

Yeomyeong narrowed his eyes and spoke.

“The State National Guard could.”

“The State National Guard?”

At that moment, Mara, who had been listening to their conversation, interjected.

“The Saintess doesn’t know what the State National Guard is? The State National Guard, you know, is based on the militias that fought in the American Revolution…”

Thinking it was the perfect time to mock the Saintess’ ignorance, Mara began to explain.

…Or rather, she tried to start.

However, before she could go on too long, Yeomyeong cut her off and summarized what the State National Guard was.

“It’s a State National Guard controlled by a local lord. Here, the governor is like a local lord.”

“…Ah.”

It wasn’t a perfect analogy, but it was enough to understand the situation. Mara, who had planned to mock the Saintess, was left with a bitter expression.

Whether or not she muttered something like “that damn summary freak,” the three of them were thinking the same thing.

It wasn’t the worst scenario, but it was dangerously close to it.

The first person to speak the possibility aloud was the Saintess.

“So, the mastermind behind this is the governor of Illinois…?”

The mastermind who manipulated Hamilton into commissioning the assassination of Darulma, collaborated with the Church to plant the Corruption Stone around the Chicago Dimensional Portal, and hired Mara and Poison Flower to target the Demon King’s heart.

The governor of Illinois, Alton Fyser Lincoln.

Thinking that someone they’d never even seen in person had just sent so many helicopters made the hairs on their necks stand up.

Both the Saintess and Seti, as well as Yeomyeong, looked at Mara as if asking, “Is this really true?” Mara grinned in response.

“What? Are you just now realizing you’re caught up in something shitty?”

“…”

“But don’t freak out too much. The governor isn’t an idiot. He won’t just come barging in when his plans are already in ruins.”

As soon as Mara finished speaking, the helicopters that had arrived on the island scattered, the sound of their propellers roaring, and began to encircle the entire island.

The target wasn’t the Dimensional Portal, but the headquarters building of Dungan Heavy Industries.

The helicopters aimed rockets and weapons at the building, and the egg-shaped craft descending onto the island charged toward the building. Seeing this, the three of them simultaneously glared at Mara.

At that, Mara raised the disgusting heart she was holding, as if she had been waiting for this moment, and spoke.

“Oh, right. Not everything has over yet, is it? This is still here?”

“…”

“To eat or not to eat it?”

The target of her words wasn’t Seti or the Saintess, who didn’t know what the heart was, but Yeomyeong.

“Browning and Freya Cahn can’t help you if the State National Guard decides to attack. Political issues are involved. As for the Holy Relics Keeper… well, he’s in the most difficult political position, so it goes without saying.”

Beneath her crooked eyes, a smooth voice whispered.

“Compared to that, the governor won’t stop until he gets the heart. You know Illinois has the strongest State National Guard in the U.S., right? Those helicopters are just the beginning.”

“…”

“Eat it. From the start, there was only one choice…”

At that moment, the Saintess pulled the trigger toward the heart. Bang! The blessed bullet pierced the heart and went through Mara’s hand, which was holding it.

“Ah! You crazy bitch… damn…!”

The blood from the heart mixed with Mara’s own blood and pooled on the floor. As Mara cursed in pain, the Saintess reloaded her revolver and spoke.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

Despite her words, there was no trace of apology on the Saintess’ face.

“But now it’s good, right? I destroyed it.”

“You crazy bitch! Do you think the heart of the King of Monsters is a toy? If it could be destroyed by one bullet, it wouldn’t have lasted this long!”

Mara screamed in frustration. But what really caught the attention of the Saintess and Seti wasn’t the curse, but the words King of Monsters’ heart.

“You were going to feed something like that to Yeomyeong in front of me…? Is that what you were planning?”

The Saintess pressed the muzzle of her revolver firmly against the back of Mara’s head. Having just regenerated her body, Mara had her head slammed against the floor.

“Let’s talk this out.”

“Shut up. I’m forcing myself to hold back from putting a hole in your skull right now.”

As the Saintess continued to crush Mara’s head with the gun, Seti picked up the heart that had fallen to the ground.

The heart, with the bullet hole already gone, was now expelling even more black liquid than before. The liquid was foul-smelling, like fish guts, and disgusting.

Seti, unconcerned by the disgusting liquid, continued to manipulate the pulsating heart, then turned her head to look at Yeomyeong.

“A hundred kisses—does that count for me too?”

“…”

It was unclear whether she was joking to lighten the mood or speaking seriously. As Yeomyeong blinked, Seti chuckled softly.

“What? Are you surprised? Anyway, let’s clean this up first. Can you put it in your inventory?”

Without hesitation, Yeomyeong reached out and closed his fist around the heart.

His inventory could even retrieve nuclear missiles, but the heart didn’t budge, continuing to squirm in Seti’s hand.

The heart didn’t respond to the inventory’s retrieval ability. Was it because it wasn’t his? No, it was…

“It’s alive. So, I can’t put it in my inventory.”

“It’s alive?”

Seti finally looked at the heart with a disgusted expression. Seeing her frown, Mara couldn’t help but laugh and say.

“It’s more effective if you eat it raw… Just kidding.”

Unlike the Saintess, Seti’s glare turned cold. Mara quickly backed down.

Meanwhile, Yeomyeong glanced outside at the egg-shaped shells swarming in the distance and spoke.

“Mara, I’ll spare you, but you need to tell me how to deal with this.”

“How to deal with the heart? I have no idea.”

“…No idea?”

Mara continued in a cheerful voice, as if the muzzle pressing against her head didn’t faze her.

“Maybe it’s possible in a place like Holy City or Hilaria, but here, getting rid of it is impossible. If something like that existed, the options would increase, right?”

“…”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? Whether you eat it and become the Demon King, or don’t eat it and let the governor take it from you… there are only two choices left, so I’m telling you this.”

At his half-delirious voice, the Saintess made a slightly disturbed face.

“Eat it. That’s your fate.”

Was she trying to prove her words? At that moment, Yeomyeong felt the presence of numerous people entering the building.

“…”

Yeomyeong didn’t respond. Following his silence, a scream-like stillness filled the office where the four of them were.

The sound of helicopter propellers narrowing the encirclement, the sound of sweat dripping down the Saintess’ forehead, the footsteps of the egg-shaped shells climbing the stairs, Seti’s shallow breathing, and…

Yeomyeong began to think from the perspective of the governor who had planned this incident.

The mastermind behind the series of plans leading from the assassination of Darulma to the Demon King’s heart.

Even though KGB or Yeomyeong himself had intervened at times to twist the plan, the governor had never shown his face and had steadily carried the plan forward.

It was as if no matter what setbacks occurred during the plan, he was confident that he would achieve his goal.

Yeomyeong didn’t know whether that goal was simply the Demon King’s heart or something more, but… what mattered was the process itself.

The audacity of it all, while remaining hidden just enough not to be caught.

If Hamilton hadn’t carelessly sent the egg-shaped crafts to Yeomyeong, or if Mara hadn’t given a hint, Yeomyeong would never have imagined he was behind it.

A person who could plot like that…

To the point of calling out the State National Guard and bringing out the egg-shaped shells at the end?

Was it because Mara that he became desperate? No, if it were something that desperate, the governor would have shown a weakness before this incident even started.

No matter how much Yeomyeong thought about it, the only answer he could come up with was one.

It’s fine now.

Simply put, there was a reason behind it. A reason to call out the State National Guard and retrieve the Demon King’s heart in front of the holy sword and Browning.

In this chaos, if the State National Guard didn’t intervene, who else would?

Outside the window, the helicopters that had surrounded the island were evidence proving this hypothesis.

Perhaps causing this chaos was part of the plan to get the State National Guard involved.

If that was the case, what Yeomyeong had to do here was clear. Overturn the justification.

Having thought this far, Yeomyeong snatched the heart from Seti’s hand.

The heart, pulsing unpleasantly in his grip, continued to squirm, and Yeomyeong stared directly into Mara’s expectant eyes as he spoke.

“Mara, my teacher once told me this.”

“…What did she say?”

“At a crossroads, you don’t always have to choose between only two paths.”

Mara, with a mixed expression of amusement and excitement, licked her lips.

“It’s a good lesson, but… it seems like there are only two choices now, doesn’t it?”

“That’s what you think.”

As Yeomyeong spoke, he immediately began to draw upon mana. Not the heart’s mana, but the twisted mana of the Skeleton Dragon residing in his stomach.

This wasn’t mana for magic or curses.

“Hey, no way…?”

The moment Mara realized what Yeomyeong was about to do, she opened her mouth, but Yeomyeong drove the mana he had gathered straight into—

The Demon King’s heart.

Saaah—!

With a chilling sound that seemed like a ghostly wail, the heart in Yeomyeong’s hand greedily absorbed the mana.

Then, it exchanged that mana for regenerative power, and blackish-red slime began spewing from the heart’s veins.

“…Wow, this crazy bastard.”

Mara muttered as she watched the slime, filling the floor and as disgusting as the monsters he had seen in nightmares.

“Hey, Saintess, are you just going to watch? That thing is resurrecting the Demon King!”

The Saintess, still aiming her gun, shrugged her shoulders.

“What? Who cares? It’s better than Yeomyeong becoming the Demon King.”

“…Shit, so this is how a Saintess would act.”

Meanwhile, the slime that the heart had spewed continued to multiply. At least, the fact that it seemed to flow away from Yeomyeong and his group was a small relief.

Eventually, when the mass of slime had swollen to the stairs where Yeomyeong had climbed, Yeomyeong threw the heart beyond the stairs.

The slimes, seemingly waiting for the heart, caught it and paused their wriggling to look at Yeomyeong.

“Is that thing testing if it can eat us or not?”

Before Seti could make a disgusted comment, the slime, covered in mucous, vanished down the stairs.

A moment later, gunfire echoed from the stairs.

It seemed that the Slime Demon King and the egg-shaped shells climbing the stairs had begun a battle.

“You crazy bastard… do you even know what you’ve done?”

“I gave the damn mastermind and the Demonic Human a taste of their own medicine.”

“Ha! If that thing regains its power, Chicago will look like Britain. You think it’s fine? It won’t end with just a few deaths.”

Despite his words of concern, Mara’s face was full of enjoyment.

Yeomyeong, feeling the emptiness in his stomach and a brief dizziness, leaned against the window. After taking a deep breath, he looked down at the building and replied.

“That won’t happen. This is an island, and the Big Three and Freya Cahn are here.”

As he said, Browning and Freya Cahn, who were organizing the victims below the building, looked up at the building with serious faces.

“No, this crazy bastard, you’re making someone else clean up your mess…?”

Mara gaped, then burst out laughing.

Puhahahaha – At the sound of that frivolous laugh, the Saintess let out a sigh of relief, and just as the gunfire from below the stairs started to fade…

A crow landed on the window.

“Apprentice, what in the world have you done?”

It wasn’t Yeomyeong, who was recovering his mana, who answered the question, but Seti, who had been injecting him with a potion.

“Something that’ll give you a headache.”

“That’s nothing new. What I’m asking is, did this monster that is eating the egg soldiers in this building, appear because of you, Apprentice?”

Without hesitation, Seti explained everything that had happened up until that point—Mara, the Demon King’s heart, the mastermind, the two choices, and the method Yeomyeong had chosen.

As soon as the brief explanation was finished, Corvus blinked her pearl-like eyes.

“You’ve used my teachings in that way?”

Meanwhile, Yeomyeong, who had recovered enough mana, ignored Mara’s words of “That bird thing was your teacher?” and nodded.

“Yes. This apprentice has been a fool for a long time, but I have finally understood your intention, teacher.”

“…Apprentice? Don’t even think about getting out of this with jokes.”

Then Seti, standing nearby, added a comment.

“…Don’t be fooled by his tone. He’s serious.”

“…”

Corvus, unsure whether she should be happy or sad, turned slightly and looked out the window.

The situation outside wasn’t good, even by empty words. The windows were shattered, and black slimes were spilling out of the building, while the dwarves, just waking up, were frantically fleeing toward the Dimensional Portal.

Meanwhile, Freya Cahn and Browning, each drawing their weapons, showed that there was no bigger mess than this.

Corvus turned back and looked at Yeomyeong.

“…Apprentice, may I teach you one more thing?”

“Yes, Teacher.”

“The mess you made, you clean it up.”

“…Don’t worry. That was my plan from the start.”

Despite Yeomyeong’s answer, Corvus didn’t look convinced. The Saintess’ expression alone said it all.

“Anyway, your failings are my failings as a teacher. I’ll help, but let’s deal with that first.”

Yeomyeong stood up from his seat. Just before jumping out of the window, he looked at the Saintess, who was pressing Mara’s head down, and spoke.

“Saintess?”

“What, Yeomyeong?”

“How about making a public appearance for the first time in a while?”

“…Huh, what?”