Chapter 246
- Ah, is that so? (2)
“It’s over.”
Without a single wound, he swept away hundreds of the Demon King’s army alone.
As expected, this guy is also a monster. It’s just that there are more monsters around him.
– That’s not around him, but around his master, right?
– Since he’s also around me, it’s the same thing.
– Is that so?
– That’s right.
To be precise, this guy is also one of the monsters around me.
“Is the treatment over?”
“Yes.”
I nodded and pointed at the man sprawled on the floor, sticking out his tongue.
“I treated him perfectly.”
“I suppose his looking half dead is just psychological?”
“Of course.”
He already looked like a corpse when I first saw him.
He had small wounds all over his body, and even a small hole in his stomach.
But who are we! The strongest healer combo, the metal bat and Shuttle!
As Shuttle emitted a brilliant light, and I hit him with the metal bat, we brought the half-dead guy back to life.
Look! At him sticking his tongue out and begging us to kill him!
He’s speaking just fine, and breathing too.
“Laria! Is Peshe okay?”
“Heril! He’s alive! Peshe is alive!”
A handsome man jumped out from behind the hero.
– Does God look at their faces?
– Of course not!
– Right?
– Obviously! If gods chose their apostles by their looks, there’s no way my master would be an apostle of evil!
– So it is the face after all.
Yes, that must have been an unavoidable choice for the gods too.
Just try choosing guys who look obviously evil as heroes and sages. If they went to some rural village and asked to stay the night because they’re this order’s heroes, the villagers would be scared and run away.
Then the heroes would end up homeless, and the accumulating fatigue would prevent them from fighting properly!
Therefore, heroes must be pretty and handsome.
-Don’t you get into more trouble because you’re handsome? Even the master’s disciple almost got caught up in it.
– Oh right, that’s true.
I automatically nod at the metal bat’s words.
Heroes have a position higher than most nobles as the symbol of their order, but that doesn’t mean there are no nobles who ignore that.
There are those who can’t tolerate mere commoners becoming heroes and gaining a similar status to themselves, and princesses who fall for heroes.
Good looking and powerful, and having someone fall for you.
This is pretty much a death flag.
Most flags I’ve seen originated from cartoons, novels, and movies I saw in the past, but this one I’m certain of from experience.
So the gods should replace the good looking hero candidates with more plain ones. It’s for the sake of world peace.
“Save… me…”
“Peshe!”
“Don’t worry! The army of Demon King were all annihilated by Hero Swin of the Nature Religion!”
The dying warrior finally regained consciousness.
“Save… me…”
“Sir, that is…”
“Ignore him.”
“Yes, sir.”
The warrior experiencing his first metal bat in life drooled and repeated his plea to be saved with unfocused eyes.
Seeing that, the warrior tried to say something, but quieted down when I raised the metal bat in my hand slightly.
“His condition was too severe. I healed him, but the shock from such major injuries seems to have affected his mind.”
After silencing the warrior, I approached the other members of his party with a gentle smile.
“Is that right, Your Holiness?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.” said Shuttle, who had been healing together with the metal bat, nodded awkwardly.
“Your Holiness?”
“Yes. This is the saint of the Nature Religion, called Hil Shuttle.”
“So you really were a Holy One!”
A woman who looked like a priest gazed at Shuttle with shining eyes.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
“No, I didn’t do much.”
That was true. All he did was create a holy aura to hide the act of hitting with the metal bat as much as possible.
“That can’t be. Thanks to you, my comrade survived.”
But to others, it probably looked like Shuttle healed him with his powers.
As even warriors from other orders bowed their heads, Shuttle looked at me with an embarrassed expression.
I can’t do anything about it even if you look at me like that. So deal with it yourself.
“It’s fine. If fellow believers don’t help each other, who will?”
After glancing at me, Shuttle forced an ambiguous smile and asked them not to feel burdened.
Right, they shouldn’t feel burdened.
“Speaking of which…”
I quickly take advantage of the opening Shuttle created.
“Why don’t we join forces to save the world?”
“Join forces?”
“Yes. The world is in crisis. The Demon King is acting completely differently from before, and the orderly movements of the Demon King’s army. To stop this, warriors must also combine their strength and fight back.”
While I did this to survive, it was also helpful to the warriors.
In reality, the one called the Demon King now had a sound mind, allowing the armies he commanded to move systematically.
Evidence of that was the group of armies the warrior just annihilated.
Originally, the Demon King’s armies were monsters without egos, so while small groups separating from the herd sometimes moved alone, a hundred or more never gathered and moved together like that.
“You mean gathering warriors?”
“Yes.”
“But you are…”
“My name is Naran.”
“I see. As Mr. Narran says, the Demon King’s army is moving completely differently than in the past, dividing their army and dispersing their troops.”
“That’s why we must gather our strength even more.”
“No. That’s exactly why we can’t gather our strength.”
“What do you mean?”
That was an unexpected response.
While there is an occasional arrogant young hero drunk on his own power who thought he could do anything, this one didn’t seem like that kind.
“The enemies are now attacking multiple villages and cities simultaneously in a dispersed formation. If we concentrate our forces in one place in this situation, it will lead to more victims.”
I hadn’t considered that line of thinking. I didn’t expect them to be moving with the safety of ordinary citizens in mind.
The hero race really were a bunch of goody-goodies beyond my comprehension.
-The personality of a master who protects people makes them a hero…
– Before judging his personality, look at reality. It’s good that they’re fighting to save normal people, but only if they win. If they lose, it’s all over.
Think about it the other way around.
Why would the army of Demon spread out and move like this?
If the Demon King didn’t know my exact location, I could think he dispersed his armies to search for me.
But that’s not it, is it?
In that case, it means he dispersed his troops to divide and conquer the heroes.
A situation the enemy intended. Having no choice but to fight in such a situation is the fate of the heroes.
What a pitiful life.
“I see.”
Still, I couldn’t criticize their pitiful lives.
I felt frustrated and wanted to hit them with the metal bat in a deserted place, but I had to endure it. My goal wasn’t gathering a few heroes, but dozens, hundreds of them.
I had to stimulate the goody-goodiness of the ones not susceptible to the metal bat and make them move on their own.
“But at this rate, the damage will only increase. The enemy is the Demon King who worships evil and stains the world with evil. If the Demon King isn’t defeated, the evil troops will continue to grow.”
“Even so, we can’t abandon ordinary citizens.”
“I’m not saying to abandon them, but to move strategically. Our goal isn’t the evil troops. It’s removing the more fundamental cause.”
“By fundamental cause, you mean the Demon King?”
“Yes. More precisely, Hero Swin, the strongest hero, directly defeating the Demon King.”
When I nodded, the hero looked at me with an expression that said he had a lot to say.
Didn’t I already tell him?
– Nope, you didn’t. You said you’d gather heroes and defeat the Demon King, not that master and disciple would defeat him.
– He’s a hero too. So if you include heroes, it counts as telling him.
And this guy, he did say before that he would defeat the Demon King alone.
– He gave up on that because the continent’s elites couldn’t do it, right?
– But a man shouldn’t go back on his word!
– You’ve given up on men, Master!
Hmm… Let’s make words for survival an exception.
“This Demon King is different from others, possessing reason. If he’s in danger, he’ll surely gather his troops to protect himself.”
“That’s possible. But if not, the damage to ordinary citizens would be unimaginable.”
That’s true.
Just one corrupted ogre appearing could flatten a small city.
Three of them grouping up would be enough to target a large city without knight orders or swordmasters.
But accepting that is tantamount to giving up on my plan!
“It’s fine. The Karan Empire is on the move now.”
So let’s make use of the empire.
“The Karan Empire?”
As expected, making use of the empire has great effect. Even the warriors are this surprised!
“Truly?”
“The priest can pray and ask the gods to confirm. I heard the vanguard army of thousands has annihilated over half the Demon King army.”
Has he not heard this news yet? He looks really shocked.
“It’s true, hero! The God of Nature says the Demon King army moving around is being massacred by the empire army!”
“The empire army indeed…”
The hero began to waver.
Well, as a hero he couldn’t defeat even hundreds of troops, so it was understandable for him to falter hearing ordinary soldiers sweeping away the Demon King army, no matter how strong the country.
Though they aren’t ordinary soldiers, contrary to the rumors, but heroes would see them similarly.
– Isn’t it weird to equate swordmasters and archmages who summon gods, archdemons, and spirit kings with ordinary soldiers?
– We know their capabilities, but he doesn’t, right?
I have no intention of explaining, and it would be difficult anyway.
They aren’t knights, but a unit for kidnapping people. Yet their average ability can compete with swordmasters and archmages.
Trying to explain would likely deal an even greater mental blow.
“Now is the opportunity while the imperial army is on the move. If the imperial soldiers defeat the Demon King army and you heroes combine your strength to take down the Demon King, the Evil god apostle! We’ll be able to live in a peaceful world again!”
It’s for my peace, but also for the world’s peace. So I’m not lying.
Look. At these pure eyes striving to save the world!
“Understood.”
Was it because he saw my pure eyes? The Earth hero who was pondering nodded and expressed his intention to join us.
And so, starting with the Earth hero, we began moving together, saving and persuading warriors in crisis, gaining allies one by one.
At first, like the Earth hero, other heroes also refused to unite, but I persevered and persuaded them with sweet words.
Before long, with dozens of heroes gathered, the number of refusing heroes decreased, and heroes who came looking to unite soon emerged.
In this way, starting with the Earth hero, as our number of warriors grew one by one, passing 100,
“To take down the Evil god apostle! Charge!”
“Ohhh!”
The hero troops advanced.
