Chapter 242
- In a villainous world full of cunning, the clumsy cannot survive (8)
Tap, tap, tap.
I could not ask the cat-like rascal leaping up the stairs to let go.
It wasn’t that I didn’t worry about my daughter. The problem was if I let go here… I would definitely die.
The speed was already fast enough to reach the ground floor.
Just leaping up the broken stairs but the speed alone exceeded aerial movement of magicians.
“Arrived.”
The cat that arrived on the ground put me and the shuttle down then immediately turned its body.
“Hey, wait a sec!”
“Oh, Eunin told me to relay that she’s waiting for you at the Demon King’s Castle.”
Ignoring my words, the cat leapt into the hole as it was.
In the end, the ones left on the ground were me, the still dizzy shuttle, and the metal bat.
-What will you do? Will you go back down? Will you save your daughter?
-I don’t know.
It was not something I could think of easily.
If I had the ability to leap down there like the cat, that would be one thing, but I had to take the stairs to go back down.
Would I even be able to arrive on time?
And even if I did arrive, would I be of any help?
Would I just get in the way of my daughter’s plan and cause harm?
“Let’s just bounce.”
Ignoring the metal bat grumbling about abandoning her younger sister, I looked at Hil who was still confused. He wasn’t unconscious but he was still disoriented.
Times like these, the almighty metal bat is the best.
“Do you want to get hit?”
“No!”
Taking the now focused Hil, I leapt into the darkness.
“We escape this kingdom as fast as possible.”
“Understood.”
I couldn’t bring the hero status high pass but the shuttle guy is also a Sage of Nature Religion.
Given the state of affairs, he’s not as valuable as a hero but still nothing to scoff at.
“Strange.”
As I dashed through the forest using the faint moonlight as a guide, I tilted my head realizing there were no signs of people nearby.
“What is strange?”
“There’s no one here.”
At my words, Hil was the one who tilted his head instead.
“Wouldn’t it be stranger if there were people in a place like this?”
“There should be people chasing me for escaping, don’t you think they’d prepare for that?”
“Wouldn’t thinking you could escape from the previous situation be stranger?”
They were certainly reasonable arguments.
Deep underground, in a space they prepared. Plus the opponent was someone who couldn’t use magic.
The metal bat has limits in dealing with inanimate objects rather than living creatures.
It can inflict endless agony on living beings but it’s not a weapon that buffs me in any way.
To put it bluntly, if they lock me alone in a perfect confinement and keep me there until I collapse, I wouldn’t be able to do anything and would be captured.
It’s just that the guys who have been hit by bats and metal bats can’t think logically because of their trauma.
Well, I did use the bats on the kids knowing that.
“Yeah, there should be.”
As I said before, the wooden bat and metal bat are sacred items to these guys.
Despite the absurd situation, they can’t help but think ‘what if he has the metal bat?’.
Especially if the opponent is Sia.
“There’s no way they wouldn’t?”
People still didn’t appear even as we broke through the forest, and my head became even more complicated.
Is this a trap? Or did Sia really think I wouldn’t be able to escape so she didn’t prepare people?
Damn! I don’t know.
At times like these, the best thing is to hide and observe the situation, but I’m with the shuttle right now.
Unlike me who is unaffected by magic detection due to my lack of magic, the shuttle is overflowing with magic.
Not just that? He’s a guy who is always watched over by the God of Nature.
If things go wrong and the hero guy gets captured, he could pray to the God of Nature to find Hil’s location and chase after him.
Can’t be helped.
“Let’s keep it simple.”
“Huh?”
“For now, let’s just bounce.”
“Understood.”
There was no time to think too deeply.
It was the escape route my daughter created.
The opportunity she made by fighting Sia, the final boss of the underworld, in order to protect me! I can’t miss an opportunity like that!
Taking deep breaths, I try to calm my heart that is pounding like crazy after so long.
I can’t help it. I’m already 50 years old now.
More than anyone, I understand my vitality and physical abilities are degenerating.
But I am who I am! A person who spent most of his life in evil organizations and unluckily spent his later years half under the royal family’s command!
My body is conditioned to be a villain.
Full of evil in my blood, and mental strength is steel!
Despite going through numerous crises, undefeated!
Never once captured, never once failed to escape! Therefore, I will succeed in escaping!
And so, 10 minutes later.
“Cough!”
Yeah. Age is something I probably can’t overcome.
“Mr. Naran?”
As I started coughing from breathlessness, the flustered Hil came over and casted a recovery spell on me.
But recovery spells don’t work on me.
Should I rest after all? But the pursuers might be catching up…
There is a way.
Even now, I could abandon the shuttle guy and escape alone, that would let me evade the pursuers. But without the shuttle, I wouldn’t know the Demon King’s location.
For the present, I have to abandon the shuttle, and for the future, I need to take the shuttle with me.
The present or the future.
I have to choose one.
“Do you want to rest?”
I looked at the shuttle who spoke to me.
Looking at the guy who hasn’t broken a sweat, I’m reminded of the unfairness of the world once more.
A Sage definitely has combat ability too.
For it to be a Sage accompanying none other than a hero.
Being by the hero’s side means being on the frontlines fighting against enemies of the gods, threats to humans, or dangers to the world.
Therefore, Sages need excellent situational judgement, basic combat abilities, and especially tremendous evasion skills.
Think about it – when playing games in your past life, didn’t you want to kill the healers and damage dealers first to start off! The firepower healers who could revive and heal the dying were more fearsome than anything.
And in this world, Sages are those kinds of existences. Beings who can revive and heal even those on the brink of death. No, those with the potential to even resurrect the dead.
Why do you think evil organizations fighting heroes always make killing the accompanying Sage their first plan?
It’s all from experience.
That’s why Sages also need combat ability.
However… Even if a Sage has combat ability, it’s not something attained through pure training like me.
It’s just basic knowledge and ability to utilize magic, and instincts and experience built up because countless enemies try to kill them.
Without the overflowing magic, they’d probably lose to a farmer in physical ability.
Yet that guy is more unharmed than me who was conditioned by life in an evil organization! Even though he’s just a shuttle!
“Huh?”
At that moment, an enormous idea flashed through my mind and I trembled.
There was a way to choose between the present and the future.
And so, 3 minutes later.
“Um… Mr. Naran?”
I bring the metal bat to the neck of the shuttle who is shivering with a trembling voice.
“Do you want to get hit?”
“No!”
Let me say it again, magic is almighty.
Even a 10 year old girl, if her magic is sufficient, can enhance her body to freely wield large broadswords bigger than herself.
The reason why the shuttle whose physical ability is inferior to mine isn’t breaking a sweat is all because of magic!
In other words, with magic, the shuttle would be able to carry and run with me on his back! That’s how almighty magic is!
Yes,this is why the shuttle called a shuttle!
In Starcra*t, the transportation for the aliens that carries units around is called a shuttle!
It’s used for dropping off crazy warriors next to tanks, and throwing away worms that are jackpots when enemies use them but duds when I use them! That’s the shuttle!
That’s right. The shuttle is a means of transportation. It exists to be ridden.
Therefore,
“Run!”
“Mr. Naran?”
The shuttle probably didn’t expect this simple request to carry me would lead to this.
But what can I do? When we don’t know when the pursuers might catch up.
And we also don’t know when the Demon King might appear again!
If I wanted to escape with the shuttle, this was the only method left.
“Run if you don’t want to get hit!”
“Ah, understood.”
The shuttle started running after tightly closing his eyes while looking at the metal bat in my hand.
Ah, as expected of a quick shuttle. Really fast.
#9 Their Circumstances: A Certain God’s Circumstances
-Run, run!
I look at the bastard shouting voices that sound slightly excited. Anyone would think it’s riding a horse and galloping.
“You bastard ….”
Tears blur my vision. It’s because I can still hear the voices of believers blaming me.
-Oh God of Nature, please save your lost lamb.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m so incompetent.”
It was a request from my believer, no different from an apostle.
That faithful apostle who still desperately believes in me despite being involved with that evil human!
Even with the earnest plea from that devout apostle, I could do nothing.
-What is this! Why do I have to go through this! This is all because of the damned God of Nature!
“Hil… my apostle Hil… please don’t get corrupted.”
Tears stream down again at all kinds of curses coming from the other side.
The hero had little faith in me from the start. And after meeting that evil guy, the hero completely abandoned me.
To be honest, even if they are members of an anti-god evil organization, they don’t usually swear at gods this scathingly.
“I chose the wrong hero….”
I declare. In this world, the one who swears at me the most is my own hero.
But what can I do?
“It’s all self-inflicted.”
Drip.
I wipe away the tears that fall again.
I’ve gone crazy. If I could just go back to the past, I would have told the hero’s party and those damn guys to go their separate ways the moment they met.
I was too greedy. I thought I could monitor them because the hero was purely selected by might.
If I didn’t threaten the hero guys, if I just…
“I’m sorry, kids….”
These terrible things wouldn’t have happened.
-The speed is too slow!
-Understood!
“Once the Fragment of Evil falls back asleep, I will definitely reward you.”
Looking at the Apostle being treated worse than a horse, I firmly pledged.
I have no choice right now.
Until we re-seal that existence called the Demon King to humans, the Apostle of Evil god to demons, and the Fragment of Evil to the gods, I can’t leave that evil thing alone.
If the Fragment of Evil feeds on and grows from those guys, the world really will fall into ruin.
“Damn bitch! Rotten bitch!”
This is all because of that damned demoness.
She’s shamelessly going around causing danger again after nearly leading the world to ruin just to satisfy herself.
-Please, God.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
At Hil’s prayer I hear once more, I can only apologize.
But I have no choice.
If those guys get captured here, in the worst case the Fragment of Evil could even gain divinity.
So the only thing I can do
“You absolutely must not get captured.”
Is to fully bless my apostle to not get tired.
