The Hero's Fury
Just those two words—save me—were enough.
Ashtain muttered coldly.
“Didn’t even need three warnings. Looks like you crossed the line all on your own.”
Step. Step.
He walked.
Straight toward the Cardinal and the Bishops.
The sudden appearance of the Hero threw the secret chamber into chaos.
Even Mavlof was visibly shaken.
Why was the Hero, who should have been undergoing the Holy Sword’s trial, here of all places?
Even if he had finished the test quickly, this was a restricted area forbidden to outsiders.
How had the Hero reached it?
And where were the Holy Knights who had been stationed precisely for a situation like this?
There was no way the entire order of Holy Knights had been subdued by a single man.
Deciding to buy time until they arrived, Mavlof opened his mouth.
“Hero… sir—?”
Schlick.
The Hero had already closed the distance and severed Mavlof’s wrist in one clean stroke.
It was a ruthless, unhesitating action.
Blood sprayed from the stump like a fountain.
Mavlof felt a searing burn rip through his flesh.
Even so, he reached desperately toward Aria beside him, clearly intending to take her hostage.
Ashtain was not about to allow that.
He sliced off the Cardinal’s other wrist as well.
The cut was impeccably clean.
Both of Mavlof’s hands tumbled uselessly to the floor.
Gritting his teeth, the Cardinal staggered backward.
“Grrrrrrgh—! Hero! What the hell are you—!”
Ashtain flicked the blood from his blade with a single swing and answered.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
Within those cold eyes coiled a ferocious, seething rage.
It was no clumsy emotion.
It was restrained. Condensed. Pure hostility.
Mavlof tried to regenerate the severed hands using Holy Power.
But against his will, the wounds refused to heal easily.
It felt as though someone were deliberately delaying the recovery.
He had no choice but to panic at the unexpected turn of events.
“W-why isn’t it… healing…?”
Ashtain walked toward him with a perfectly calm expression.
“Strong monsters tend to have tough hides and excellent regenerative abilities. So how do you kill them? Simple. Destroy the brain, or prevent them from regenerating at all.”
“What kind of nonsense is that!”
At Mavlof’s shout, Ashtain let out a sigh.
“I didn’t think I was being particularly complicated. You’re slow on the uptake. I stopped you from regenerating. That’s what I said.”
The face that had always been brimming with confidence and arrogance twisted into something hideous.
Aria found the sight both astonishing and strangely wondrous.
She had believed Cardinal Mavlof would remain composed no matter the situation.
This was the first time she had ever seen him backed into a corner like this.
“D-do you really think you’ll get away with this!”
At the desperate threat, Ashtain gave a cynical laugh.
“Do you think you will?”
“You crazy bastard!”
Ashtain’s gaze sharpened, piercing Mavlof like a blade.
His eyes were thick with murderous intent and the metallic stench of blood.
“If you hadn’t driven me insane, I might have stayed quiet.”
At his sneer, Mavlof roared in a voice mixed with equal parts fury and terror.
“An outsider like you—! What justification do you have to commit such atrocities!”
Atrocities?
What a ridiculous thing to say.
Had anything they had done to Aria ever been justified?
“Is gang-raping the Saintess morally acceptable, then?”
“Shut your mouth! There were perfectly legitimate circumstances for—!”
At some point, Ashtain had already closed the distance.
He skillfully swept Mavlof’s legs out from under him and mounted his fallen body.
“Ughhhk—!”
Mavlof’s face flushed red as he thrashed beneath him.
But Ashtain didn’t budge, as immovable as an ancient tree.
“There are no such circumstances. Almost everything is just an excuse in the end.”
His voice dripped with mockery and disgust.
“You insolent, disrespectful—how dare you mock me—!”
Thud.
A heavy, dull fist slammed into Mavlof’s face.
Ashtain stared down at the man pinned beneath him with an expression as blank as a doll’s.
“Who asked you to beg for a beating?”
“Who would dare—!”
“Who do you think?”
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Ashtain rained down merciless punches.
Each blow was powerful enough to turn the man’s face into pulp.
The nearby Bishops could only watch in breathless silence.
They were completely overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
Aria, too, stared at the scene in a daze.
How many times had he been hit?
By the time Mavlof could no longer even groan and was merely whimpering in pain—
“………Please stop.”
A young boy’s voice rang through the secret chamber.
Ashtain paused his fists and turned his head.
The boy who met that beast-like gaze felt his entire body shrink in fear.
Makarof was terrified of Ashtain.
It wasn’t strange at all.
Even the most renowned Holy Knights of the order felt instinctive dread toward him.
For a young boy, the wild bloodlust was simply too much to bear.
Even so, he could not back down now.
This was for his own sake—and for Aria’s as well.
“Why should I?”
The question was venomous.
Makarof steadied his trembling body and stared straight at the Hero.
“……If you don’t, you will end up killing my father—no, His Eminence the Cardinal.”
“That’s right.”
Though Ashtain’s calling was to slay monsters, he was more than willing to kill humans when the situation demanded it.
And the current situation more than justified his murderous intent.
“That is not the right path. If you surrender to momentary rage and ruin everything, the reputation and trust placed in both you and the Saintess will hit rock bottom. Therefore, His Eminence the Cardinal must be judged through proper legal procedures and receive a punishment befitting his crimes.”
Ashtain looked down at the shivering Makarof with icy eyes.
“What a smooth-tongued speech.”
Makarof spoke with great effort.
“Yes… I know.”
“Smooth words are usually empty. Like the flattery a merchant spits out without meaning it.”
It was a harsh, skeptical remark, but it was also the truth.
Makarof understood that as well.
Which was why he had to argue even more forcefully.
“But even if you take such crude revenge, it won’t improve the Saintess’s situation or circumstances. On the contrary, it will only make things far worse. You understand the importance of justification, don’t you, Hero?”
The golden-haired boy refused to yield, countering every point.
His eyes were unwaveringly upright.
Ashtain inwardly admired the boy and shook his head.
“Aria asked me to help her.”
“She asked you to save her. She never asked you to kill everyone here.”
That, too, was a perfectly reasonable statement.
For a moment, Ashtain was rendered speechless. He slowly studied the boy.
“The reason you’re desperately defending this piece of trash— is it because he’s your father?”
Makarof bit his lip.
“I cannot claim there is no such aspect to it. And even if I denied it, you probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. However, the biggest reason is my belief that the victim—the Saintess—must not be turned into the perpetrator.”
It wasn’t a perfectly fluent answer.
His voice trembled in places, and his tone cracked now and then.
Yet Ashtain felt a strange weight in those words.
The victim must not become the perpetrator.
For a child to say such a thing, it struck surprisingly deep.
“Aria.”
So Ashtain called out to her.
He wanted to give her the final say.
“Yes, Mister Ashtain.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Me…?”
“Yeah. I want to hear your opinion.”
Aria fell silent.
She looked around at everyone present.
Aside from Ashtain and Makarof, every single one of them had ignored her will and violated her by force.
There was no way she could feel any goodwill toward them.
“………I… I wish the Cardinal were dead. I wish everyone here were dead. Because it was hard. Because it hurt. Because I suffered.”
With every word she spoke, Ashtain’s aura grew more ferocious, while the Bishops’ faces turned deathly pale in turn.
Makarof listened to Aria’s words with a pained expression.
She continued.
“But… that wouldn’t be right. It would be throwing a tantrum. That isn’t the Saintess that Makarof admires. A Saintess who wishes for everyone’s death? That’s simply absurd.”
Ashtain rose from his position and looked at her.
“Don’t worry about any of that. Just do what you want.”
His seemingly indifferent yet deeply considerate words drew a faint crescent smile across Aria’s lips.
“Do you know that those words make my resolve even stronger?”
“……?”
“I want to stay by the side of the kind Mister Ashtain. For that, I still need the title of Saintess.”
“I don’t care if you’re the Saintess or not.”
“Because I want to help as much as I’m able.”
Ashtain glanced at the Cardinal he had beaten to a pulp.
Honestly, he wanted to kill him.
But Aria did not wish for that.
“You’re lucky.”
Schlick.
Ashtain swung his sword horizontally, slicing through both of Mavlof’s eyes.
“I won’t kill you, but blinding you should still be within acceptable bounds.”
He had taken both hands and both eyes.
Since the wounds were inflicted with such care, even Holy Power would struggle to restore them.
They would be a massive hindrance for the rest of his life.
Ashtain let out a long sigh.
Was this matter finally settled?
He was just about to feel relieved when—
“Kyaa—!”
“My, my. The great Hero took his eyes off the prize.”
It happened in an instant.
Bishop Ronin had seized Aria by the waist and pressed a dagger to her throat.
He was skilled at concealing his presence, which had slowed Ashtain’s reaction.
Ashtain growled, glaring at Ronin.
“You religious scum really do keep pulling the same boring shit until the very end.”
“That’s rich coming from the man who overturned the board I had so carefully set up.”
Ronin’s face was twisted in a horrifying grimace.
He looked like a man who had just realized the grand feast he had been anticipating was nothing but hollow chaff.
“That’s what being a Hero is like. Ruining perfectly good meals by sprinkling ash on them is just part of the job.”
“How spiteful of you.”
Hostility.
The two men stared at each other with eyes full of murderous intent.
Ashtain spoke.
“Take that blade away from Aria’s throat if you don’t want to die.”
“Then kindly step aside.”
“If you let go of Aria, I’ll step aside.”
Ronin clicked his tongue and answered in a tone laced with contempt.
“Negotiations have broken down, then.”
Squelch.
Ronin drove the dagger straight into the side of Aria’s neck.
Metal tore through skin, slicing through muscle and blood vessels.
Blood spilled forth.
Aria’s eyes flew wide open, but she couldn’t even let out a final scream.
Then her head lolled forward limply.
Dead?
Aria?
The relaxed expression on Ashtain’s face instantly turned savage.
He immediately prepared to charge, but Ronin yanked the dagger free from Aria’s neck and waved a blood-stained finger.
“Stop right there. She is still alive.”
“………Make some fucking sense, you piece of shit.”
His voice trembled with suppressed rage that threatened to explode at any moment.
Ronin regained his composure somewhat and replied.
“It is not a lie. Ah, just in case of misunderstanding, let me clarify—the Saintess possesses exceptional Holy Power. A wound like this will not kill her. She has quite the tenacious life force. Still, as a human, a few more stabs would certainly put her in danger.”
Ashtain’s heart burned with urgency.
Even now, blood was gushing from Aria’s neck in heavy spurts.
“Let go of Aria. Right now.”
“Haha, do you really think I would release my lifeline so easily?”
It was an utterly filthy feeling.
In Ronin, Ashtain saw the image of the noble boy who had once taken his sister from him.
The Hero spat his words at Ronin as if chewing them up and spitting them out.
“You. I have to kill you myself.”
“How frightening, Hero.”
Ronin slowly edged backward toward the broken door of the secret chamber.
“But you must be frightened too, aren’t you? The thought of Aria dying.”
He wanted to deny it, but it was true.
Ashtain did not want to lose someone precious to him in such a hollow way.
“Originally, I had expected you to feel disillusioned by Aria’s state. It is regrettable that your mental fortitude is stronger than anticipated. Ah, if only I had been given a little more time, the story might have taken a far more pleasant turn. Who would have thought time would be this short?”
Ashtain followed the retreating Ronin and asked.
“What are you planning to do after taking her?”
“Hmm. I intend to lock her away in a secret location and remind her of despair once more. Given her current condition, it would be best if she avoided public activities. Although it deviates somewhat from the plan I had prepared, I still intend to squeeze out whatever I can…”
Ashtain furrowed his brow.
“As expected of a disgusting bastard—your ideas are just as repulsive.”
At Ashtain’s insult, Ronin laughed and twirled the dagger between his fingers.
“I am flattered. So, how long do you intend to keep following me like this?”
“Until you let go of Aria.”
Ronin’s snake-like, bewitching eyes curved into crescents.
“Do you truly wish for Aria to die?”
“From the way you’re talking, it sounds like you’re quite attached to her too. Could you really kill her?”
Suddenly, Ronin burst into laughter.
It was the kind of laughter that suggested he could no longer contain his delight.
“Ah, yes. Attachment. I am deeply attached.”
Ronin paused for two breaths before continuing.
“However, if I cannot have her… wouldn’t it be better to destroy her?”
A chill ran down Ashtain’s spine.
The other man’s eyes were utterly serious.
What lay within them could only be called madness.
He was the type who would actually carry out the words he had spoken.
Damn it.
It was a stalemate born from carelessness.
He had no options.
Was he really supposed to stand by and watch Aria get kidnapped?
After he had boldly declared he would save her?
How pathetic.
It seems you're in quite the predicament.
“………Kgh?”
Ronin let out an unexpected groan and released Aria.
At some point, the Holy Sword had flown in from behind and pierced straight through his shoulder blade.
Why the Holy Sword had flown all the way here was not important.
What mattered was the opening it had created.
And Ashtain was not one to miss it.
He gripped his sword.
He condensed his strength, his mana, compressing it tightly.
He gathered the maximum firepower he could release in a single instant.
His blade pulsed like a beating heart.
Black aura wrapped around the sword.
It looked like a burning black star.
This was all because of you.
The fact that Aria had harmed herself.
The fact that she had constantly watched others’ moods.
The fact that she had acted with such resignation.
All of it had happened because you existed.
Because you had suppressed her freedom.
So I will erase you.
So she can move forward.
So she no longer clings to the past.
“Disappear, you damn ghost.”
Ashtain closed the distance to Ronin in the blink of an eye.
Impaled by the Holy Sword, Ronin had no means to resist.
Ashtain swung his blade.
Ronin could only watch the scene unfold.
The world moved in slow motion.
He thought,
Aria, I wanted to see just a little more of your tormented face.
A black flash swallowed Ronin.
That was the last sight he ever saw.
The black aura exploded outward, erasing Ronin’s entire existence in a single devastating blow.