episode_0027

“Ugh…gasp…uh, uh-uh…”

“Aris!! Are you okay?”

Arthur, surprised to see Alice vomiting, used a prayer to calm her mind.

“Whew… Thanks, Arthur.”

Alice, who had come to her senses, began to organize the information she had.

Did you go back to the past? I haven’t heard of such a case in the trials… And this isn’t the first time…

He turned his head to the side and saw Arthur’s face looking at him with a worried expression.

“… ”

If I were to fight the Demon King with all my might now, I would lose every time I fought him ten thousand times. The average ability of a first-year student in the Knight Academy is around 30… Does that make sense?

Well… First, let’s think about how to defeat the Demon King. The only reliable information is that he has long-range attacks using magic, and overwhelming physical abilities based on high abilities. And the fact that even severed parts can be used with magic.

On the other hand, what do I have? A solid holy sword and the saint Arthur.

Arthur, seeing Alice’s expression getting worse, spoke in a worried tone.

“Aris.. How about retreating for now and coming back when your condition gets better?”

“Then… let’s go near that valley for now.”

… … …

Near the canyon, Arthur began to build a base camp, while Alice began to meditate, holding her sword at her side.

The attack that cut off my arms and legs at the end wasn’t even visible… In other words, if you fight without weakening the Demon King, you’re sure to lose.

Alice continued to fight the virtual Demon King, but was unable to withstand even a single blow and had her head cut off.

“Huh.. Should I just kill myself and leave..”

Yeah, this is impossible. Even if I win, there’s no reward… and I don’t even know what will happen if I get caught and sealed. Yeah, let’s just give up this time.

“Aris.. Are you okay..?”

“Yeah, it’s better now.”

After hearing Alice’s answer, Arthur took out an old book from his subspace pocket.

“This is a book written by the first warrior, so it might contain information about the Demon King.”

“… Why are you giving this to me now..”

Ha.. I thought the difficulty level was strange, I missed this.

“Sorry.. I actually forgot…”

“Okay.. Do you have anything else?”

Arthur began to shake his head at Alice’s words.

“You haven’t seen the content yet?”

“That.. Only the warrior can open it.. so no one knows the contents.”

Hmm… Is there anything I need in such an old book? What’s with this lock? That’s why I can’t open it.

As Alice touched it, she saw the lock disappear into dust.

As soon as he opened the book, a black shadow emerged from it and swallowed Alice in an instant.

… … …

A dark space where nothing can be seen.

But the only shining object was visible.

“Is that…? A ghost?”

It turned around at the sound of Alice’s voice.

“Are you worried?”

“I’m not that lowly?”

Phew… Something strange has appeared again. It could be an enemy, so let’s use the sword for now…

“Huh? My sword..”

The sword on Alice’s waist had disappeared.

“Wow… How can a warrior be this scared? ”

By the time they got here, Aristo couldn’t help but know his opponent’s identity.

“Are you a invited warrior?”

“No?”

“???”

“My name is..”

As soon as he spoke, the translucent ghostly body began to change.

-Flutter.

Alice saw a man wearing a pure white robe that reached down to his ankles, a pure white cone-shaped hat, and holding a wooden staff.

“Archangel Cassius.”

“Haha! You never imagined it, did you? How do you feel when you see me?”

“…”

“You’re so surprised you can’t even speak!”

“Aren’t you the one who created the Gate of Trials?”

“?”

“You…! Don’t you know me? You’re the one who made the door… You’re being treated badly!!”

No… well, I’ve never heard of him in my life, and I only saw him once in the status window… Is he famous..?

“Are you a famous person?”

“… ”

“Have you ever heard of things like the White Wizard or the Four Heroes?”

“I’m hearing these words for the first time..”

Cassius began to laugh at Alice’s words.

“Hahaha, let’s stop joking here, okay? It’s harder to find someone on the continent who doesn’t know me.”

Are you just crazy? This is a serious case of excessive self-consciousness.

At that moment, an idea occurred to Alice.

“Excuse me? When were you born?”

“Na? I was born in the year 342 of the Imperial Calendar.”

342 years? The imperial calendar is now over 1000 years old, so this person is almost from the ancient era…?

“It’s currently the year 1158 of the Imperial Calendar..”

The man looked surprised at Alice’s words.

“So much time has passed..? No, no matter what, how could you not know me..?”

This guy is definitely out of his mind… I should just ask him what’s wrong and then go back.

“I’m a bit busy, so… Didn’t you come here to tell me the Demon King’s weakness or something?”

“…?”

“Why should I tell you that? Aren’t you a warrior? You should be able to handle that on your own.”

“No.. How can I catch such a monster!! Even the Knight Commander couldn’t catch it!”

“And what kind of warrior is a warrior!! I’m only called a warrior here, in reality I’m not a warrior!”

“Aren’t you a warrior?”

Is this guy really crazy, what kind of warrior am I!!

“No, in reality, the Demon King is already dead, and I’m not a hero?”

“No way… My magic malfunctioned..? Are you really not a warrior?”

Wait, now that I think about it, I’m not a warrior, but… I know a real warrior.

“Not me, my boyfriend is a warrior..”

“…I’m sorry, but I’ll observe your body for a moment.”

After a while, Cassius’ expression began to harden.

“What the heck.. Why is your soul connected to the warrior? That’s why you malfunctioned.”

“Ha… Things have gone terribly wrong, and if this continues, the arrangements I made will be meaningless.”

“Arrangements? What arrangements are there?”

Cassius sighed and answered Alice’s question.

“What kind of arrangement is this? I prepared an elixir for a real warrior, but a thief suddenly showed up and things got messed up..?”

A… a thief? I really wanted to see it!!

“There’s something thorny about your words..?”

Cassius looked dumbfounded at Alice’s attitude.

“Huh? Are you going to hit me like this?”

“…”

“By the way, are you sure that the Demon King you mentioned earlier is dead?”

“Of course, that’s why the festival is held every year and the spirit of the demons is greatly diminished.”

Cassius narrowed his eyes at Alice’s words.

“No way, then why is there a warrior? If the Demon King is dead, there would be no reason for him to be there?”

Huh? Come to think of it… If there’s no Demon King, why is Arthur a hero?

“Looking at your expression, you don’t seem to know the details either. As expected, you still can’t kill the Demon King in the future? But why is there fake information from the Empire..? Hmm..”

As Cassius thought for a moment, Alice asked something she was curious about.

“But if you had such good things, why didn’t you just use them all to kill the Demon King?”

Cassius began to become serious at Alice’s words.

“That’s because you’ve never seen the Demon King. Even if you fought him there with everything you had, I think the odds of winning weren’t more than 10%. If you had lost there, humanity would have disappeared from history from that day on.”

“If there had been just one more genius like me, I might have won, but unfortunately there wasn’t.”

I feel like the story is a little bit exaggerated…

“So while I was alive, there was no way to kill the Demon King, so I thought I should help the strongest warrior among the warriors who would be born in the future. That’s why I made several of these arrangements. These were originally prepared for the warriors.”

Cassius looks at Alice as he speaks.

“Things are going wrong, so I need you to do me a favor?”

“Tell me first.”

“When you kill the Demon King and get the elixir from the treasure vault, give it to the warrior.”

“Can I take the items I get from the trials with me?”

Cassius nodded to Alice’s question.

“But I need to know what kind of elixir it is. What is its effect?”

“…A potion that greatly increases mana amount.”

A potion that increases mana? That kind of thing exists…

“Okay, but I don’t think I’ll be able to catch the Demon King in my current state… Do you have any tips?”

Cassius sighed deeply at Alice’s words.

“Ha… Are there no objects or people around you that support you?”

At Cassius’ words, Aris thought of the Holy Sword and Arthur.

“There is, but..”

“Even if you’re not a warrior, it shouldn’t be so hard that you can’t beat the difficulty level. You should definitely be able to win if you use everything you have. Because when I made it, I designed it so that you wouldn’t be able to make a trial that was too difficult to handle.”

-Oh my god!

At that moment, Alice heard the sound of the space around her breaking apart.

“It’s time to break up now.”

“Still, you seem to have a bit more talent than the warriors of our time. Anyway, please deliver the elixir well?”

-Wow, wow, wow!!

Before Alice could even answer, the space shattered with a loud noise, and her vision returned to the valley where she had been before.

-Passus..

I saw a book disappearing into dust.

“Huh?”

Arthur was seen looking surprised as the book disappeared from his side.

“Don’t worry, I got all the information I needed from the book.”

“The book disappeared as soon as I opened it..?”

“Anyway, there is something like that!”

Hmm… Then I guess I’ll have to catch the Demon King to get the elixir. Looking at it, it doesn’t seem like he’ll actually die even if he’s sealed.

“Arthur? I have something to tell you…”

Alice was defeated by the Demon King and died once, but lied to Arthur, saying that she returned to the past with the power of a warrior. She couldn’t let him know that this place was not real.

“So this time, I think we’ll have to use all the means at our disposal. Arthur, can you show us everything you can do?”

Arthur nodded to Alice’s words and began to speak.

“Uh.. As you know, there are healing and buff prayers, and there are techniques to bind the opponent..”

Since these were techniques she already knew, Alice pressured Arthur.

“Really? Is there nothing else? I’m saying that we can never win with our current power.”

Arthur’s pupils began to shake at Alice’s words.

“That…that…there is a prayer that makes the demons extremely weak…”

No, there was something like that? The Demon King was so strong, so there was an easy way! But why didn’t Arthur use it the first time?

“Then use that as soon as you enter. I will protect you no matter what.”

Arthur’s eyes began to moisten at Alice’s words.

“If I use that, I’ll die.. I’ll have to pay with my life for using it..”

“Huh?”

Then that won’t work..?