Chapter 278
- It is most fun to watch fights (3)
#4 Their Circumstances: Circumstances of a Certain Hero
I barely, just barely managed to persuade Mirea.
“I guess you really don’t know.”
With an expressionless face, Mirea looked down at me with a slight hint of belief in her eyes.
“R-really?”
Of course, in return I had to give her my body and mind.
“To be honest, I still don’t quite believe it….”
“What? Isn’t this enough for you to believe me now?”
I endured all kinds of mental magic.
As my mind was rummaged around in strange ways, I endured it over and over again while showing her evidence, so why doesn’t she believe me?
“Well, your opponent is Instructor after all.”
“You read my mind just now, didn’t you?”
If it had been earlier, it would have been fine, but right now my magic was perfectly dispelled.
And yet, how is she able to read other people’s thoughts like this?
“It’s a technique.”
“What kind of technique is that…?”
“That’s confidential business information.”
Shh.
Mirea brought her finger to her lips and whispered in my ear.
“Shut up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I had no choice but to nod my head at Mirea’s chilly voice. That’s how much compelling power was contained in her words.
“To be frank, considering it’s Instructor, there’s a possibility he manipulated your memories with mental manipulation.”
“No, that’s….”
I was about to say what nonsense she was spouting, but I ended up thinking that would be perfectly plausible coming from Instructor.
“And because you’ve been continuously beaten by the metal bat, you have a high pain tolerance. Ordinary torture wouldn’t get you to open your mouth.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted….”
“What you want doesn’t matter. What’s important are the results.”
“I-is that so?”
Just like before, I couldn’t get any words out in response to Mirea’s dispassionate nod.
“But for now, I’ll believe you.”
“Wh-what? Thank you?”
It felt like my actions were being compelled by some kind of magic.
“If you’re thankful, work hard to find Instructor. That’s your job.”
“Um….”
That wasn’t my job at all.
My job was to get away from Instructor and, while I was at it, take down the Demon King in order to save the world as a hero.
“Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
But I didn’t have the strength.
What good is being the strongest of heroes?
The comrade before my eyes overpowered me in both might and authority.
“Good. Now we just need to find Aria….”
For the first time, Mirea made a satisfied expression as she pondered the whereabouts of the last remaining comrade.
“Do you think she’s in the Magic Tower?”
If it was anyone else, it would be different, but Aria was a comrade while also owing us fellow continentals a slight debt. So she’d probably happily welcome us as comrades, right?
It definitely wasn’t because I didn’t want to suffer alone.
Probably.
“We already searched the Magic Tower.”
Aside from being a comrade, Aria was an extremely talented person.
It seems like the imperial forces were moving to try to find someone like her, but they haven’t been able to. As expected, she had Instructor’s disciple-like escape skills.
“If it’s the Magic Tower, don’t you think there might be spaces you can hide in?”
“That’s possible. To be honest, the forces searching for Aria are practically non-existent.”
Not only her pure abilities, but in terms of finding and capturing people, Mirea’s subordinates were the best on the continent.
However, I heard they were all moving to target one person.
Instructor.
“That’s why the still immature members who haven’t finished their training are the ones searching for Aria.”
“What level are the immature members at?”
“Still at the level where they haven’t graduated from Yugrasia?”
“Uh… is that so?”
I heard that after the Demon King’s descent, all the academies on the continent, focused around the 4 great imperial academies, went on break.
“Yeah. It’s a terribly insufficient level.”
Apparently Yugrasia wasn’t like that.
“As expected of the academy Instructor attended….”
For the reason of being associated with the Instructor, it couldn’t even take a break and kept rolling forward.
I shed a few tears for the situation of the Yugrasia students, whose futures were looking increasingly grim.
Of course, I’m not one to talk!
“Now, tell me. What bait did Instructor dangle in front of you?”
Mirea had already arbitrarily rummaged through my memories.
She knew about my contract with Instructor and was planning to take advantage of it.
“First of all, it’s to lure out the Demon King.”
“I already know about that since I saw it. He’s using himself as bait to draw in the Demon King.”
“Yeah. And he left everything regarding that matter to me.”
The Demon King’s adversary could only be the hero. So everything had to be resolved by the hero’s hand.
That’s what Instructor told me, and
“He pushed it onto you, huh?”
“Yeah. He pushed it onto me.”
I was able to realize that Instructor was trying to push all the work onto me.
“Instructor knew I would come here.”
“That’s right.”
“Then he also knew that I would try to use you to capture both the Demon King and himself at the same time.”
“I suppose so.”
“Yet he still made his move like this, so….”
“It means he’s that confident.”
The Demon King’s movements were always consistent.
I didn’t see it directly, but after going to the continent looking for Instructor, he mobilized all methods and means to solely target Instructor.
“As long as the Demon King is around, Instructor can’t escape.”
Just as Mirea said.
The Instructor was an existence that even the gods couldn’t locate, but the Demon King alone was able to accurately find the Instructor’s location.
Instructor would never just leave such a dangerous element alone.
“Instructor will probably lure in the Demon King while wandering around heroes like us, and escape the moment he’s dealt with.”
“That’s right.”
“He won’t believe rumors.”
“That’s correct.”
“Then he’ll want to directly confirm the sight of the Demon King being defeated….”
“The moment right after the Demon King is defeated will be the best timing to capture the Instructor.”
At the same time, it could also be the last chance.
“We’ll need to concentrate all our power.”
The premise of this entire plan was defeating the Demon King.
In the situation where an unprecedented Demon King with sanity appeared along with multiple other Demon Kings, defeating the Demon King seemed like an extremely difficult task, but
“I’d better catch him quickly.”
Mirea didn’t think about defeating the Demon King.
“Before Instructor runs away.”
What would other heroes think if they saw her focusing everything on Instructor under the premise that the Demon King would fall?
At this moment, when countless heroes have died, kingdoms have been destroyed, and the world is under threat!
“I guess I should, right?”
But I thought the same as Mirea. It didn’t seem like she would lose.
And of course,
“Let’s send senior off comfortably.”
Even if he’s called the Demon King,
“He’s a senior who has only been learning for a year?”
“That’s right.”
He was educated by the instructor for the short period of one year,
“Never been hit by the metal bat before.”
“That’s right.”
With no experience of being hit by the metal bat,
“Just a kid.”
He was just a kid.
#5 Their Circumstances: Circumstances of a Certain Demon King
“What?!”
The eyes that were closed opened wide.
Something unbelievable happened.
“What the hell is this…”
I couldn’t say anything as I felt the aura of the rapidly disappearing army.
What the hell is going on?!
“Parfasey!”
“What’s the matter that you’re shouting like that?”
As I shouted, another Demon King named Parfasey appeared.
“It’s time to move.”
“Already? If it was according to plan, shouldn’t we have maintained this state for a while?”
Although called a Demon King, Parfasey was not a perfect Demon King.
He was more like my disciple, to whom I had given a part of the fragments of evil.
So he didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation.
“The army of evil is disappearing.”
“It’s very common for an army to disappear in war.”
“It’s not that level of problem.”
“What is it? Did the elves or something show up again?”
A while ago, hundreds of thousands of troops were annihilated in an instant by what was presumed to be an elven army, but,
“It’s on a level that can’t even be compared to back then.”
“What?”
“The army can’t even be sustained because it’s so serious!”
After that incident, I had the army of evil split up into smaller groups as much as possible and spread across the continent.
The army of evil was strong. Except for heroes and elves, there were few who could defeat the monsters and such included in the army.
There were few who could confront the army of evil, and the army of evil had tens of thousands more compared to those strong ones.
Plus, while the strong ones who would die if they were killed couldn’t be supplemented, the army of evil increased in number whenever the army passed by.
Crows that tore at corpses in ruined villages turned into the army of evil, and orcs simply living in the passing mountains were corrupted and integrated into the army.
So even now, when countless small-scale battles were taking place, the army of evil was not losing numbers but rather expanding its power. That is, until just now.
“Just what on earth is happening that you say such things?”
“About five armies of evil per second are disappearing.”
“What?”
“Even as I speak right now, tens of armies are disappearing!”
It wasn’t that many armies disappeared at once like last time.
Neither the time nor the place was regular. All the armies on the continent were simply being eliminated at a rapid pace.
“Is that even possible?”
Parfasey, realizing the gravity of the situation, had an astonished expression.
Simultaneous disappearance of the armies of evil.
It means that there are those who can defeat the armies of evil, grouped together in units of at least hundreds.
In units of at least hundreds!
“Could it be that even the gods have stepped up?”
Sometimes the gods would lend their power to heroes.
When I defeated the dragon as a hero, the god of struggle lent me his power.
That powerful energy circulating my whole body. If only that was there, the heroes who were scattered may have been able to confront the armies of evil.
“It probably isn’t that. There aren’t many veteran heroes left. No matter how powerful a force they gained, basics would still be needed to use it.”
“Then….”
It definitely wouldn’t be dragons.
As Parfasey said earlier, dragons shouldn’t be moving.
“Yes. That’s what it must be.”
As if reading my thoughts, Parfasey nodded his head.
“All the humans on the continent….”
“Must have joined forces.”
It was faster than I expected.
I thought that when I had taken over at least half of the continent, mankind would form a united force, but….
“The only place that can unite them is the Karan Empire, and other kingdoms would have tried not to unite with the Karan Empire, so just what on earth happened?”
The Karan Empire was strong. They had military might that even made me feel threatened.
That’s why I judged that humans would not be able to unite. The kings of each country would be afraid.
It’s good to defeat the Demon King under the Karan Empire. But after the Demon King is defeated, there is no guarantee that the Karan Empire will not absorb them.
If that happened, the Karan Empire would be able to unify the continent devastated by the army of evil, and could remain as the first country on the continent to unify the continent.
I thought that no king, no matter how greedy, would leave such a small possibility alone.
That’s why I judged they wouldn’t unite until pushed to the limit, and deliberately didn’t reduce the army to small scattered numbers.
Instead of annihilating kingdoms at once, my goal was to steadily gnaw at the fighting power of powerful forces like the Alliance of Heroes!
“Could someone have noticed our plan…?”
“As expected, humans have superior ability to survive crises over any other race.”
Even now, the rate of disappearance was becoming faster than the rate armies were supplemented.
At this rate the armies could be completely annihilated within days!
“The fact they’re disappearing so quickly means the enemy has also split up and positioned troops. So Parfasey….”
“Oh…I know.”
Crisis also meant opportunity at the same time.
While the armies were disappearing quickly, it also meant the enemy’s main force was split up and active.
If Parfasey could eliminate them, it would be very easy to remove those who could be active in the final battle, which benefited us!
…That’s what I thought, but
“Huh?”
Parfasey’s aura disappeared days later.
