A Party of Trash
The clash between the two heroes, Ronan and Jaxx, had naturally sent shockwaves far and wide.
Jaxx's utterly humiliating defeat. Ronan's complete victory. And, on top of that, the reason Ronan's hero party had fallen apart in the first place.
A duel packed with so many explosive revelations was never going to produce a simple outcome.
"This is all your fault, you bitches!!!"
Thud!
"Ghk…"
Jaxx seized Amy by the hair and drove another brutal punch into her stomach, his face twisted with rage he could no longer contain.
"You bitches are the reason I got humiliated like that."
The fight with Ronan had dealt a catastrophic blow to Jaxx's image. Until then, he had been the foremost of the three heroes—the most celebrated, the most respected. No one had dared look down on him. Now he was a laughingstock.
—He's nothing special after all?
—Did we overrate him this whole time?
Hearing those kinds of remarks flung at him from every direction, Jaxx could hardly keep his temper. And yet, if he was honest, the gossip barely registered. Reputation mattered, sure—but what truly enraged him, what he could not swallow under any circumstances, was the blow to his pride.
He had lost to Ronan. That single fact was something Jaxx would never accept.
"Get up, you fucking bitch."
"…Ugh… uurgh…"
So he was taking it out on Ronan's former party—the people he considered the root of every problem. He hammered Amy's midsection without mercy.
"Stop it…!"
"Please, Sir Jaxx. That's enough. She's really going to die."
Charlotte and Tricella could no longer stand by and watch. Amy had already taken more than a dozen hits; she was drooling, writhing in agony. Even so, Jaxx looked nowhere near finished. One more blow and the situation could turn genuinely dangerous.
"Hey. I'm asking nicely—stay out of it."
They stepped between him and Amy, pleading for him to stop… but Jaxx was never going to listen. If anything, their interference only stoked his fury higher.
"The only reason I haven't laid a hand on you two is because you're already banged up. Don't think that means I'm not pissed at you."
Charlotte's face, which Ronan had struck, had been treated—but her neck still hadn't fully healed. Tricella's arm, run through by Ronan's sword, was otherwise fine, yet she still couldn't strain it. Their injuries were serious enough that any rough handling risked reopening the wounds. And if that happened, they might be stuck even longer in the Imperial Palace—a place neither of them wanted to remain for a second more than necessary.
"Stay put before you get hit too."
That was the only reason he was sparing them. Not affection. Not favoritism. Jaxx glared at Charlotte and Tricella and told them, in no uncertain terms, to know their place.
"Oh? So you think you're completely blameless?"
Charlotte was never going to swallow that quietly. She squared up to him without flinching.
"You got your ass handed to you by Ronan first, and now you're blaming us? We lost that duel because of you."
Honestly, if Jaxx hadn't been the first one cut down, they might have stood a real chance of beating Ronan. Given Ronan's combat strength it still would have been an uphill fight—but not an impossible one.
"Aren't you the one most at fault here?"
The reason they had gone down without landing a single meaningful blow ultimately came back to Jaxx. Charlotte had hit him with pure, unassailable logic, and for once he had nothing to say.
"Ha. These bitches really don't know when to shut up."
Not that logic mattered to him in the slightest.
"I told you to stay put. I was trying not to hit the patients, but clearly you need a beating too."
"Kyaaah?!"
Rather than argue, Jaxx simply raised his hand high, ready to slap Charlotte across the face.
But Charlotte never took the hit.
"…Please stop using violence."
The one who caught the slap in her place was Tricella. Her cheek already beginning to swell, she fixed Jaxx with a hard stare.
"If this is how it's going to be, we're leaving the party."
If there was this little trust left between them, she said, they had no reason to stay—half threat, half ultimatum.
"Oh, look at you putting on a show."
Jaxx snorted.
"You think you can just walk out of the party now?"
Yes, the duel had savaged his reputation. But the party members' standing had taken just as bad a hit—if not worse.
"I'm fucked, sure. But you three are even more fucked, and you know it. Word's already out that you betrayed Ronan."
He'd been unconscious at first and hadn't known, but the story had spread too widely for him to miss it. Everything that had happened between Ronan and his party members was public knowledge now.
"You betrayed Ronan, now you want to betray me, and then go spread your legs for some other hero? Like hell anyone's going to take you."
What exactly did they think they could do if they left his party? No matter how he looked at it, Tricella's threat was absurd.
"…"
Tricella had no comeback. His words were airtight. Where could people who had already betrayed Ronan possibly go now? She simply lowered her head in silence.
"Fine. Whatever. I'll stop here. Beating you further won't change a damn thing."
Even in the charged atmosphere, Jaxx decided enough was enough. Push any harder and real problems would start cropping up.
"We're stuck partying with each other from here on out anyway, right? Trash with trash."
If the party fell apart, the one left holding the bag would be the hero himself. His anger still wasn't fully spent, but he would leave it at this. Besides, something else had begun to interest him.
"Hey. Amy. Get on the bed, strip, and stick your ass out."
He pointed a finger at her and told her to get ready. Fast.
"…"
There was no need to parse the meaning. He meant exactly what he said. The sheer crudeness of it left Amy and the rest of the party in stunned silence. They stared at him as if to ask what kind of garbage human being demanded that from a party member he had just finished beating.
"You've got to be—"
"Shut it."
Charlotte started to protest again, but Jaxx waved her off with an irritated flick of his hand.
"What, you gonna put out instead? You won't even put out yourself, Miss Noble Heiress."
There was a reason he always called on Amy. Charlotte might come from a fallen house, but it had once been a prestigious noble family—and she was currently its head. If he accidentally got her pregnant, the fallout would be more than he could handle.
"And the priestess bitch loses her holy power the second she stops being a virgin."
Tricella's virginity had to be preserved at all costs. The moment she lost it, she would be no different from an ordinary civilian.
"So unless you're volunteering, sit the fuck down, bitch."
That was why Amy had no choice but to be the one who serviced him. With her, he could do whatever he wanted.
"…You really are—"
Charlotte couldn't argue. As infuriating as it was, he wasn't wrong. One way or another, she couldn't offer herself in Amy's place. She was still fumbling for a response when Amy spoke up.
"It's fine."
Amy rose to her feet.
"I'm okay. You don't need to worry so much, Charlotte."
She rested a hand on Charlotte's shoulder and offered the brightest smile of anyone in the room—insisting she didn't mind, that she was grateful for the concern, that everything was all right.
"Should've just said that from the start."
Jaxx smirked and started getting ready.
So this is the place?
About ten days had passed since I left the Imperial Palace. Walking without rest, I had finally reached my destination.
I lifted my head, and a colossal fortress filled my vision—radiating an unmistakably ominous aura. Its name was the Demon King's Castle, the stronghold where the Demon King himself resided.
"Damn. That's grand."
My reason for coming here was simple: I needed to deal with the lifespan I had left. From this point on, I intended to walk into the Demon King's Castle and meet the Demon King. He was the one who could solve my remaining years for me.
How am I supposed to get this open?
But how was I supposed to arrange a meeting? I stared at the castle gates—solid, imposing, wrapped in a powerful barrier spell—and felt a flicker of uncertainty.
Rumble…
Fortunately, things seemed to be working themselves out. I wouldn't need to smash the barrier after all.
An invitation, then?
The gates of the Demon King's Castle swung open—almost as if welcoming the hero who had come seeking them. Or maybe mocking the foolhardy hero who had shown up without a scrap of fear.
I'm going in.
There was nothing to debate. My choice was obvious: walk into the Demon King's Castle.
"I didn't come all this way just to turn around."
I stepped through the gates.
It was time to meet the king of the demons—the Demon King himself.