Preventing the Summoning Ritual (3)

The other world was vast.

And also, shabby.

There were only broken stars, remnants of ruined gods, and monsters overflowing to the point where counting was unnecessary.

It wasn’t for nothing that demons turned their eyes beyond dimensions.

Boredom was like rat poison to transcendents who had lost the concept of death.

How desperate must Erihazad have been to try descending into the shabby frontier called the labyrinth with so many restrictions attached?

Rielymos also yearned to go beyond the crack, but.

He decided to wait patiently.

To overcome boredom, what Rielymos chose was ‘pleasure’.

True pleasure comes after waiting patiently.

Ecstasy and the lethargy that follows.

That was the amusement to be enjoyed infinitely for an eternity of time.

While waiting for the ritual to finish progressing.

He played with the toy Berda had thrown in.

But then.

Suddenly, a strange? sound was heard from beyond the crack.

It was enough to pique Rielymos’s interest.

Rielymos soon raised his huge body and pressed the smallest of his countless eyes to the narrow crack.

“Urgh!”

“Why won’t the sword cut?”

“Ahng!”

“Agh! Stop! Stop moaning so much!”

Demon worshippers are greatly influenced by the demons they serve.

The demon Berda serves, Rielymos, is the demon of pleasure.

Whether it was sadistic.

Or masochistic, it didn’t matter.

“Haa, haa. The ritual will be performed. So if you want to stop the ritual. Haa, haa.”

Berda, with a flushed face and drooling from the corner of her mouth.

Pointed at herself with her thumb extended.

“You must defeat me first.”

“What a pervert… No, more importantly, it seems you can speak without pausing when you’re hit.”

“It’s because my boredom has been relieved after a long time. Hnngh!”

The great demon envied his apostle.

Direct physical blows to the body.

It was a stimulus Rielymos hadn’t felt since the seeds of brave challengers to the other world had dried up.

If the ritual is completed and he goes over there, perhaps he could experience it too.

Rielymos, who was expecting so, soon shook his head.

The current man seemed too weak to provide Rielymos with meaningful pleasure.

“Hah! Hah!”

“…Should I just stop?”

“Ah, no!”

“Geez, you scared me!”

“Hnng!”

Of course, the man was blessed by the evil tree.

At this rate, there was a high possibility that Berda, immersed in pleasure, would collapse.

If the apostle falls, the summoning ritual will be interrupted midway, and Rielymos may have to spend more time of endurance here.

When that thought reached him.

Rielymos called Berda.

“O, O Great One!”

Berda seemed to snap to her senses.

Even while being hit, she ran towards the crack.

And she touched the crack to confirm the will of the one she served.

The content was roughly this.

[I’ve confirmed there’s something good, so let’s postpone the ritual.]

[I want to taste the ultimate climax at the end of patience.]

It was Rielymos who had been urging Berda to force the ritual lately.

Berda asked again if he was really sure.

Rielymos sent his feeling of satisfaction to Berda.

“Understood. I will wait for. The time of harvest.”

The red energy flowing from Berda’s body disappeared.

The ritual had been cut off.

“My master. Has ordered to stop. The summoning ritual.”

“?”

“I will withdraw now. Ah… wait.”

She entered the crack and.

“Urgh… haa, haa. Be-Berda?”

Pulled out the battered Keli.

“A gift. Bestowed by my master. Let’s end it here.”

“Berda? Wait!”

Berda opened her parasol wide.

With a snap, she closed it and disappeared.

Soon after, the crack closed as well.

‘What on earth is this.’

Ethan was bewildered.

He attacked with all his might, but the blade didn’t cut properly.

It was the same for the children.

The opponent seemed somehow excited even while saying no.

While feeling bad about being used for perverted play.

On the other hand.

‘Was this a situation where we could have been wiped out if we weren’t careful?’

Fear washed over him.

The opponent was clearly strong.

So much that Targan looked pathetic in comparison.

But Ethan couldn’t continue his worries.

Because the knights, soldiers, and Inspection Bureau agents rushed over in a crowd and cheered.

“Victory!”

“We prevented the summoning of a great demon!”

“A hero! A legendary hero has appeared!”

It was a situation where anyone could see that Ethan and his wards had driven away the demon worshipper.

Even the burdensome title of hero appeared, but.

Even if he said he wasn’t, people wouldn’t listen.

“A true hero never calls himself a hero.”

“A hero is someone naturally revered by those beneath him, so Ethan-nim is truly a hero!”

Strange misunderstandings piled up.

And.

There was still something left to deal with.

“Urgh, ugh…”

Around Keli, who was left alone.

Knights and Inspection Bureau agents emitting aura gathered.

“You vicious demon worshipper.”

“How dare you try to summon a demon in the royal capital?”

“Ethan-nim! We will take care of this one!”

Stab stab stab.

Crackle.

Keli was crushed by swords and magic flying in again before she could regenerate, no, even if she regenerated.

No matter how high a demon worshipper’s physical defense and magic resistance are.

That’s only when they’re in perfect condition.

Even a common soldier’s spear was effective against Keli, whose whole body was crushed and had just started regenerating.

“Ra…ther… kill… me…”

That day, the Kingdom of Etrion received two skulls of demon worshippers.

As the situation settled.

The people trapped in iron cages were liberated.

“Oros?”

“Miss… Ethan-nim…?”

“You were here. First, drink this.”

Ethan took out a <Miracle Recovery Potion> and put it in Oros’s mouth.

“Gulp!”

An all-purpose recovery item that heals minor wounds and even restores vitality.

Its effect appeared instantly.

“Thank you, Ethan-nim.”

“You’ve been through a lot. Let’s go out now.”

Ethan, who saved him as if it was nothing, like helping up someone who fell on the street.

Not understanding what had happened, Oros looked at Levi.

“He never abandons his people.”

“!”

The Special Forces, whose iron rule is not to rescue comrades captured by the enemy during operations.

For Oros, who had lived half his life as such a Special Forces member.

This situation was so touching.

“…I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. Given who the opponent was.”

If he had been captured during a normal covert operation, it would have been entirely the fault of that Special Forces member.

But encountering demon worshippers like this was no different from a natural disaster.

“Thanks to you, we gained something too.”

Berda had obtained a teleportation artifact, and.

They grasped signs that demons from the other world were trying to cross over to this world in earnest.

“In the past, we would have had to report this to the old folks in the forest… but keep quiet about it.”

“Yes!”

From this moment on.

Oros was reborn as a faithful servant of Ethan and Levi.

There were people clinging to Ethan as he came up to the black market.

“…What did you say?”

“We will follow you!”

“Please give us your guidance!”

They were the former pillars of the underworld.

No, it’s awkward to even call them ‘pillars’.

While stopping the fight between the Wandering Troupe leader who had completely lost his mind and the Scavenger group trying to choose a new leader.

The remaining pillars were only Baron Degron and the one-armed knight Lauren.

“Hey, you bastards! Is Ethan-nim your friend?”

Even Tom, who had shown minimal courtesy to Baron Degron, who was a noble until now.

From now on, there was none of that at all.

Convinced that Ethan was the newly born ‘hero’, he treated these mere criminals harshly, riding on the hero’s radiance.

“You’ll serve at least 30 years in the underground prison. You can’t wash away all the evil deeds you’ve committed with just words!”

“…Inspection Bureau Director. I heard there’s a way to get a reduced sentence by the director’s authority.”

“There is.”

Tom pointed up with his index finger and said.

“Name the upper-class nobles who made you toil in the shadows. And provide evidence.”

“I’ll tell you. The evidence is in the ledgers and contracts.”

“Right, I knew you would… what?”

“I said I’ll tell you everything. So please reduce our sentence as much as possible.”

“???”

Tom, who never imagined such a day would come in his life.

He was dumbfounded and said “Whoa, wait. Puhaha!” as he lit his tobacco.

“…Really?”

“That’s right. I’m a person who hates wasting time very much. I don’t waste time with unnecessary words.”

“I’ll confess everything too. There are quite a few trash to clear out, including the upper echelons of the royal knight order.”

“…Why? What are you going to do with just a few years of reduced sentence?”

He was very curious about the reason.

It was foolish to expose the shameful secrets of the high and mighty just to get a few years of reduced sentence.

Even if they’re safely released, it’s obvious they’ll be assassinated soon by the nobles they’ve wronged.

Baron Degron and Lauren answered in unison.

“We owe our lives to the hero of this era. From now on, we want to clear our dirty past and live properly.”

“I’m the same. I called myself a knight while doing thug-like things. Seeing him makes me not just ashamed of my life, but miserable. That’s why I’m doing this.”

Their gazes turned to Ethan again.

“We will wash away all the dirty past of the underworld.”

“Thank you for giving us enlightenment, Hero-nim.”

“???”

• Ding!

  [The main story’s hostile force, ‘Five Pillars of Etre’s Underworld’ has been prematurely eliminated.]

  [Kingdom of Etrion, Etre Underworld Story cleared.]

  [Congratulations to ‘Ethan’, who ranked 1st in contribution.]

  [The title ‘Light of Etre’ is bestowed upon ‘Ethan’.]

  [Special rewards will be given.]

  “Ah.”

  ‘The blood-like experience points to feed the kids!!!’

  It disappeared.

Etre Royal Castle.

King Pellis II was preparing for evacuation due to the ominous energy rising from all over Etre.

Even if the royal capital falls, shouldn’t the royal family be preserved somehow?

The royal family members just packed the king’s seal, treasured swords, and such, and got on the carriages.

As they were about to depart like that.

“Y-Your Majesty?”

“What’s the matter, why haven’t we departed yet!”

“The red energy has disappeared.”

It vanished without a trace.

“…Has it been resolved?”

As he got off the carriage and waited for a moment.

An Inspection Bureau messenger came running in a hurry.

“Report! The underworld subjugation team encountered and killed demon worshippers in the underground of Etre!”

“?”

It was absurd enough that demon worshippers appeared.

But saying they killed them made his head spin unable to keep up.

Then another messenger arrived.

“We successfully repelled the demon worshipper conducting the ritual, prevented the ritual, and closed the crack. Additionally, we killed one more demon worshipper!”

“Are you saying there was such a capable person in our kingdom that I didn’t know about?”

It was he who gave the final approval for the underworld subjugation this morning.

Therefore, he knew better than anyone how many troops were being deployed.

The most capable were just a few knights barely entering the expert level.

“It wasn’t the achievement of the subjugation team.”

“Then whose achievement was it?”

“It was the achievement of a young man named Ethan who previously defeated the demon worshipper Targan.”

“Oh my.”

He had only called him to give a formal reward.

But to detect the danger that had come to the royal capital and eliminate the enemy.

If the report is true, he has already dealt with three demon worshippers.

“Has a true hero of the era been born?”

Hero, no, such a common title is not enough.

What else could there be…

As the king pondered, he thought of an appropriate word.

“That’s right, a Chosen One!”

Ligrion, the homeland of warriors, trembling.

The Holy Spirit Realm, anxious.

The existence desired by all continental countries.

If such a person could be kept on the kingdom’s side, it would be an enormous benefit.

“Hmm.”

The king’s gaze naturally turned backwards.

And he stared at the princess who had just gotten off the carriage.

‘Binding him with an engagement would be the surest way.’

It was the moment the level of reward changed.