Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Turning Point (2)
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She'd always swung her sword in a straightforward manner.
She'd never resorted to cowardly tactics herself, nor had she ever fallen victim to them.
Roel, whose very mindset was honest to a fault, probably hadn't even imagined such a thing.
Well, ignorance isn't a crime.
She's still a student, so she can learn.
That would have been the case originally.
"It's strange. I could have sworn I shouted it loud and clear."
This was real combat.
With a lack of experience leading straight to death, "I didn't know" was no excuse.
Roel had to make a choice.
"Drop your sword. Or this human dies."
Drop the sword, or kill the village chief.
"......"
Her hands trembled.
Her mind froze.
Having never faced anything like this before, Roel could only recall her lessons.
'......Never negotiate with demons.'
The teaching she'd barely managed to remember came from Professor Cigarette.
Demons taking humans hostage was commonplace, and it usually ended with the hostage dead.
Thus, the wise choice was to abandon the hostage.
Roel's thoughts began to clear a little.
"Okay."
She knew what the most efficient action was.
She knew, but she couldn't do it.
Sacrificing a cow for the greater good?
That wasn't a value a hero should uphold.
A hero had only one task: save as many people as possible.
She had no intention of abandoning the village chief—who was still very much alive—just because he was a hostage.
Roel tossed her sword far away.
"She actually dropped it."
The demon stared at the sight for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"You're seriously trying to become a hero, aren't you?"
Its grotesquely long limbs shook with mirth.
Whatever it found so amusing, the sight of its gaunt frame heaving with cackles was deeply unpleasant.
"I can tell. Only 'that kind' of human would comply with a demand like this."
The demon approached Roel, still gripping the village chief's throat.
"You fools. You think if you just give in once, an opportunity will come later. That's you, right? Huh?"
The demon reached out its hand.
Instinct screamed that she mustn't let it touch her.
Even knowing that, Roel stood still.
"I've killed about thirteen humans who fancied themselves heroes. They were all strong, but all weak to hostages. Just like you."
Just as the demon's hand was about to touch her.
Roel took a deep breath and swiftly swung her arm.
In a diagonal slash, as if wielding a sword.
Slish.
"......Gurk."
The demon's torso was bisected as cleanly as if cut by a blade.
Its lower body remained standing while its upper half slammed into the ground.
It had all happened in an instant.
"Hoo......"
She'd channeled sword aura into her hand.
That was how she'd managed to cleave the demon barehanded.
Of course, it wrecked her hand in the process, but this wasn't the time to worry about that.
Roel pulled her already-ruining hand behind her back and immediately grabbed the village chief.
"Are you okay?"
"N-No. No. I-I'm gonna die. Gonna die......!"
"Village chief......?"
"It's all your fault! Because you did something stupid, now everyone in the village is......"
The village chief was in full panic.
Why? The demon was already dead.
"I told you. I've killed thirteen humans like you."
Then, an ominous voice came from behind her head.
Turning around with growing unease.
"H-How......?"
The demon stood there, its severed body rejoined.
Thwack!
The demon kicked Roel in the gut.
The intense impact sent her body crashing through the wall and out into the street.
Roel rolled on the ground three times before barely regaining her balance.
"Urk......"
Her head rang fiercely.
She couldn't comprehend the situation.
Its clearly severed body had rejoined?
......Damn it, regeneration.
'Get it together.'
She hadn't saved the hostage, and one hand was ruined.
It was the worst possible scenario, but there had to be a way out.
"Still alive? I've got something to show you."
The demon dragged the village chief out through the broken wall.
Just as Roel braced for whatever it might do.
The demon hurled the village chief straight at her.
"Huh."
Mystifying behavior.
Roel caught the village chief amid her confusion.
"No. No. No. No."
The village chief still hadn't regained his senses.
But it was fine. As long as the hostage was secured, she could win──
Splat.
The next instant, the village chief's head exploded.
It happened without any warning.
The man who had been alive moments ago became a corpse in Roel's arms.
"......Ah."
Blood splattered all over her face.
The acrid stench of blood made her stomach churn.
Roel couldn't tear her eyes away from the dead village chief.
"I've planted the same thing in every human in the village. Every time you disobey me, one of them dies."
Her heart plummeted.
She had no idea what to do.
This time, her mind froze completely.
"It's weird, isn't it? Killing me and ignoring the hostage would be the right answer, so why don't you? Because of your superior 'morality'?"
Gazes poured in from all over the village.
Residents hiding in their homes, watching the scene.
"Anyway...... Let's keep playing. I've got so much I want to do."
As the demon spoke, Roel's mind was a chaotic mess.
Rage, sorrow, guilt. All the emotions tangled into deep despair.
Her vision blurred slightly.
She realized it was tears.
"Huh? Are you crying? Krhahat!"
The demon laughed maniacally.
It guffawed for a long time, as if it were endlessly amused and delighted.
Roel spoke.
"......You think this is funny?"
A single sentence laced with quiet fury.
The demon didn't hesitate. It answered as if it were the most obvious thing.
"Yeah!"
Unmeasurable rage boiled up.
How many people had died at this demon's hands?
Just imagining it made her want to vomit blood.
"You know what happens if you move, right?"
Even so, she couldn't move.
A twitch of her finger, and a villager's head would explode.
All she could do was glare at the demon's laughing face.
"Oh, I just thought of something fun."
The demon clapped at empty air.
Then it shouted.
"Everyone, grab your weapons and come out!!"
At the curt command, the residents emerged with weapons in hand.
Weapons that were just farming tools.
Hoes and pickaxes, that sort of thing.
"Kill that woman. I promise freedom to anyone who joins in."
The residents' gazes focused on Roel.
"You......!"
"And if you die obediently!"
The demon pointed at the inn this time.
"I won't touch your comrades."
An obvious lie.
It didn't even pretend otherwise.
If Roel died, the villagers would follow, and her sleeping comrades would suffer the same fate.
She wasn't an idiot.
"Why not just trust me and die? You can't beat me in that state anyway."
An idiot......
"Think about it. You're saving them all with your life."
No, maybe she really was an idiot.
"Please, please......"
"P-Please die......"
The residents approached, clutching their farming tools.
They were the same people who had greeted her with smiles during the day, but now they showed only thick despair.
Powerless.
Stab.
Something pierced Roel's abdomen.
A sickle swung by the resident who'd given her dinner earlier.
Then a pickaxe smashed into her shoulder, a hoe scraped her back.
Blades flew at her from all directions.
"......Coward."
Blood poured out in torrents.
She felt herself growing dizzy.
The pain throughout her body was vivid.
She wished it were a nightmare, but it wasn't.
Roel realized it fully.
That she was dying.
That all her journey up to now would end today.
"Farewell, my fourteenth hero."
With the demon's parting words, Roel's consciousness faded.
"She's dead."
Even after her breath stopped, Roel's body didn't fall.
The residents had swarmed her, swinging weapons wildly, propping her up in place.
The demon found the sight ridiculous.
What hero?
What 'goodness'?
In the end, just a dog's death, protecting nothing.
"Hmm, now shall I go kill her comrades?"
The demon turned to leave.
The same method would be boring.
First, plant bombs in their heads and kill all but one.
Savor their breakdown, then finish them off.
"Perfect!"
Laughter bubbled up naturally.
"......"
Regrettably.
That laughter didn't last long.
The demon halted abruptly.
An inexplicable chill stabbed through its entire body.
Cold sweat poured down its back.
"I thought Roel wouldn't need me anymore after this."
Behind it.
Something was there.
The demon turned warily.
There, the corpse that should have been dead was speaking.
"I figured she'd pull through somehow this time too."
"Hey."
"I was wrong."
"Stop. Say one more word, and I kill a villager."
"Actually, this is all a mental illness too. Obsessively trying to save everyone. Really......"
The corpse pulled the sickle from its body.
No, it was no longer a corpse.
The wound where the sickle had been healed at rapid speed.
"Her protagonist syndrome is stupidly pure. Right?"
Doubt crept in.
Was that thing even human?
Of course, it had definitely been human until moments ago.
Right up until it was stabbed by fellow humans and on the verge of death, that woman had been unmistakably human.
But now it was different.
Too alien to be human.
"......I said I'd kill villagers if you tried anything."
The future hero who had died for humans.
That hero sliced a villager's throat in one stroke.
"Go ahead."
Not a hint of hesitation.