I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake. Chapter 163

I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.

Chapter 163

I never thought such worries would be hidden behind that stoic face.

If Caesar were in Pepe’s position, his lips would be dry with anxiety every day.

“Humans believe in God. But for me, if there’s someone above God, it’s Elijah.”

Through psychometry, Pepe’s emotions were transmitted to Caesar.

Pepe was terrified of Elijah’s whims, someone he didn’t know well.

“He can kill me anytime. No, more precisely, he can make me as if I never existed in this world.”

Caesar finally understood why Pepe started cooperating so actively.

Pepe wanted to escape from Elijah’s grasp.

“Earlier, you told me to rely on you anytime, right Caesar?”

“…Yes.”

“Then I have one request. I don’t want to die. I want to live. Find me a way.”

For almost 4 years, Pepe had no complaints about living as Elijah’s avatar.

Pepe always thought his life was fake, so he believed it wouldn’t matter if he disappeared anytime.

But the moment he learned the truth, he began asking himself the philosophical question, ‘Is it really okay for me to disappear like this?’ and he had finally found his answer.

Of course, Pepe’s desire for life itself lacked a certain ‘desperation’.

It was dry, like a computer generating an answer.

However, this emotion would grow stronger, deeper, and clearer as time passed.

Because both Pepe and Caesar knew this frighteningly well, Caesar could only give one answer.

“I’ll definitely find a way, Pepe. No matter what happens.”

Pepe was satisfied with Caesar’s answer.

“Thank you, Caesar.”

***

Caesar and Pepe arrived at the village where Arang was staying.

The beast people villages looked different from human ones, and each tribe had its own distinct appearance.

The Mountain Tiger tribe used rock magic to live in caves carved under cliffs or large rocks.

The Grey Wolf tribe lived in tents made from animal skins and dead branches.

Lastly, the Red Fox tribe lived in houses made of baked mud bricks.

If the Shadow Otter tribe had been here, we could have learned about their habitat too, but unfortunately, they were nowhere to be seen.

Though made with different materials, these dwellings had one thing in common, they were extremely open.

Doors and windows were wide open, and they didn’t even block entrances with common cloth.

Whether it was to maximize the sunlight hidden behind the leaves above, or for some other reason, this seemed to be their tradition.

Just then, Arang approached from the brick houses where the Red Foxes lived.

“Have you already visited Agatha, Caesar?”

Ah, right.

I forgot I was supposed to visit Agatha.

I’ll have to contact her once today’s work is done.

“No, I came because I urgently needed to ask you something.”

“What do you want to know?”

“The sealing technique you used to seal Yan. Can it be used on the Black Horn tribe?”

Arang quickly deduced Caesar’s concerns and solution.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. You want to gather the Black Horn tribe members, seal them, and let them die, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Is it possible?”

“To conclude, it’s impossible.”

Caesar nodded as if he had expected this.

Well, if it had been possible, the beast people would have sealed Geotech long ago.

Now the important thing was the reason why.

“Can you explain why?”

“First, to use the sealing technique you mentioned, we need the combined power of four tribes – the Red Fox tribe, Grey Wolf tribe, Mountain Tiger tribe, and Shadow Otter tribe. However, the Shadow Otter tribe was nearly wiped out by the Black Horn tribe. Unlike us, they fought to protect their territory without losing a single warrior.”

Damn it.

I wondered why I couldn’t see any Shadow Otters here, so that was the problem.

“I know that all surviving Shadow Otter tribe members have become slaves to the Black Horn clan. If you want to use the sealing technique, you’ll need to find and rescue the Shadow Otter tribe.”

“So if we rescue the Shadow Otter tribe warriors, will we be able to use the sealing technique?”

“No, there’s a second problem. To use the sealing technique, we need a kind of medium. In our language or that of the troll shamans, we call it a ‘totem’.”

“Is it difficult to make that totem?”

“No, making it isn’t too difficult as long as we have good quality magic stones. However, the problem is that we need to individually place these totems around the perimeter of the area we want to seal. Of course, we can’t place them just anywhere, it completely depends on the range, function, and conditions of the magical formula.”

Though I couldn’t understand exactly what all this meant, the conclusion seems to be that they need magic stones to make totems, and these totems need to be placed individually in the area they want to seal.

This is quite a challenging task.

“Is there anything else?”

“The totems need to be replaced periodically.”

Even maintenance is required?

We haven’t even gotten into the details yet, but I can’t even imagine if this is possible.

“So give up on the sealing. It would be better to strike once and exterminate them completely.”

Despite these adverse conditions, Caesar believed in Raven’s genius.

“I understand that your capabilities alone are insufficient. But what if our wizards helped?”

Arang exhaled dismissively.

“Huh, so you’re saying human wizards will learn the sealing technique and help?”

“Yes. It might be impossible for ordinary wizards, but we have a genius wizard.”

“Don’t say such nonsense. Setting aside the difficulty of the sealing technique, there are very few warriors who know it. I’m learning it, but I don’t know if there are any warriors among the Gray Wolf tribe or Mountain Tiger tribe who are learning it, and especially among the nearly extinct Shadow Otter tribe, I don’t know if there are any warriors learning the sealing technique.”

“Even so, if there is someone learning it, can you let us know?”

After deep consideration, Arang spoke.

“To be honest, I don’t want to resolve this issue with humans’ help. However…”

Arang paused before continuing.

“If Queen Agatha orders it, we would have to teach it.”

Now I understand why this one is a fox.

He was trying to appeal their usefulness to Caesar while hoping that Caesar would suppress Queen Agatha’s anger.

If there’s a king of the beast people, Arang might be right.

No, it’s a queen.

“I understand. I’ll try to talk to her about it.”

Caesar and Arang shook hands.

***

Caesar and Pepe entered a cave that had a strong animal smell, as if large beasts had used it.

“Let’s rest here for a while.”

Pepe, seemingly too exhausted to speak, sat down right there to rest.

Although they wanted to return to headquarters as quickly as possible, flying through wind and rain wasn’t an easy task.

Of course, it would be nice if they could feed Pepe stimulants like Whitey, but those stimulants were made exclusively for Whitey, so they couldn’t give them to Pepe.

After staring at the campfire for a while, Pepe carefully spoke.

“Do you think Agatha will accept the beast people?”

“Agatha isn’t completely closed-minded. If the beast people approach with humility, she’ll likely be willing to accept them.”

Caesar tossed twigs into the campfire.

“Of course, they’ll have to endure some of Agatha’s anger. That’s something they need to handle themselves, so we don’t need to step in.”

This is why Caesar wants to maintain leadership.

Without leadership, you get pushed around like the current beast people.

Caesar will absolutely not be pushed around by Elijah.

“By the way, it seems the owner of this cave has arrived?”

Caesar looked outside the cave.

A huge bear was standing in front of the cave, staring directly at Caesar and Pepe.

Must be the owner of this cave.

Caesar stood up.

“If we’ve rested enough, shall we go?”

“Yeah.”

Neither Pepe nor Caesar wanted to kill that poor bear.

Strictly speaking, Caesar and Pepe had illegally invaded the bear’s sanctuary.

After taking someone’s home, killing the owner would make them no different from psychopaths.

Pepe, who was about to go outside, stopped suddenly.

“…Wait a moment, Caesar.”

Pepe carefully observed the bear that was watching Caesar and Pepe.

“Isn’t that a doppelganger?”

“A doppelganger, you say?”

Caesar observed the bear carefully.

As Pepe said, there was something familiar about it.

It’s a doppelganger.

Caesar drew Thunder from its holster.

“What’s going on here?”

The reason Caesar drew Thunder was simple.

Among the doppelgangers currently existing in the demon realm, it’s rare to find one that isn’t Elijah’s clone.

The fact that it approached likely meant it was Elijah’s will.

“There’s something I’m curious about, Caesar.”

The bear’s body transformed into a jelly-like form before changing into a tiger.

Of course, it was almost three times larger than a normal tiger, creating an intimidating presence just by looking at it.

This was clearly not an ordinary tiger but the ‘Mountain Lord’ that ruled the Red Mountains.

Caesar didn’t know exactly why it changed into the Mountain Lord.

He could only guess from the killing intent flowing from its body.

It was targeting Caesar.

“Can you protect Pepe if that cave collapses?”

Boom!

A massive explosion erupted above the cave, and the ceiling collapsed instantly.

Smoke-like dust billowed out from the cave entrance.

The moisture-laden air quickly settled the dust.

The Mountain Lord carefully examined the collapsed cave.

Meanwhile, ogres and nine armed humans approached the Mountain Lord’s side.

They were all doppelgangers.

“Is he dead?”

“No way.”

The Mountain Lord crouched low, staying alert.

“The one who killed the devilized Twin-headed Ogre wouldn’t die from something like this.”

At that moment, the collapsed entrance exploded, sending rocks flying.

The doppelgangers with swords and spears deflected the rocks, the Mountain Lord crushed them with its massive front paws, and the ogres just took them head-on.

A small mouse crawled out through the cleared entrance.

It was Pepe.

Pepe glared at them.

“What are you doing? Caesar is our comrade.”

“True. But we had no choice.”

“What do you mean no choice?”

“That’s difficult to explain. Lord Elijah ordered us to keep quiet about it.”

At that moment, a man walked toward the entrance.

With each step he took, the small mountain they had just collapsed shook entirely.

The doppelgangers tensely watched the entrance.

A man’s voice flowed out from the entrance that gaped like a beast’s maw.

“Then I’ll have to beat you until you tell me.”

Pepe turned around.

This wasn’t Caesar’s voice.

It was much rougher and wilder than Caesar’s voice.

A man walked out from the dark cave.

His shoulders were supporting the collapsed ceiling, and his sturdy thighs had become massive pillars holding up the mountain.

“…No way.”

Pepe’s jaw dropped upon seeing the man’s face who emerged from the cave.

The traitor who killed the Demon King.

The man known as the nightmare of vampires.

The Barbarian Knight Barre.

“You…”

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you earlier, Pepe.”

As Barre came out of the cave, it collapsed behind him.

Barre held Thunder and Lefty in both hands.

“First, let’s beat those bastards, then have a proper talk.”

When the doppelgangers, including the Mountain Lord, met Barre’s eyes, their bodies instinctively trembled.

They were Elijah’s clones and had no attachment to life.

Yet their bodies froze and trembled because of Barre’s aura manipulation technique ‘Intimidation.’

“…I hadn’t heard that Caesar was Barre.”

“This makes our plan meaningless.”

The Mountain Lord spoke to the other doppelgangers.

“Everyone run.”

Unlike the other doppelgangers, the Mountain Lord was experienced.

Not only had it participated in the demon realm war, but it had also lived as Elijah’s loyal servant and mount for 10 years.

It knew just how ridiculous Barre’s abilities were.

His firm and tough skin would only get scratched by sword energy, and even vampires’ ‘Sword Force’ couldn’t cut off his limbs.

Moreover, having absorbed all sorts of spirit medicines, he showed troll-like regenerative abilities even with deep wounds.

It was impossible to win against such a monster.

Therefore, the Mountain Lord’s decision to flee was correct.

However, it was a bit late.

When the Mountain Lord turned to flee without looking back, Barre was already beside it.

“…What!”

“You look like the leader here.”

Barre grabbed the Mountain Lord’s nape.

Though the Mountain Lord’s breath was caught, it slashed at his side with sharp front claws.

But Barre’s firm abdomen only got scratched, not reaching the muscle.

“Just pass out for now.”

Barre slammed the Mountain Lord into the ground.

Bang!

With an earth-shaking boom, the ground trembled and dense trees fell.

The Mountain Lord coughed up bloody foam and closed its eyes, using the fallen trees as a blanket.

TL NOTE:

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