Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: The Saint's Drunken Confession
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"...Do you have any last words?"
Click. Kyle pointed the holy sword at the Phantom Dragon's nape as he spoke. He looked as though the battle was completely over, with severed limbs, but...
"Hahaha...!"
He instead laughed as if he felt refreshed.
"I met a strong opponent and fought with all my might. I have no regrets about such a life. Isn't that right, Harmless Mage?"
The Phantom Dragon stared intently at me as he spoke. Having read my memories, he was deliberately saying such things.
Among the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings, I had experienced the incident where all the people of my hometown were killed by the hands of Death Knight and Dullahan.
Even as my parents were beheaded, my neighbors had their necks torn out, and my friends' limbs were severed, I was a human who could do nothing.
"......"
I vowed in my heart that from now on, I would never let people die before my eyes again. That was my only atonement and revenge for the people who sacrificed themselves for me.
"...Shut up and just tell us the Demon King's weakness. If you do, we might just spare your life?"
I glared at the Phantom Dragon slumped on the ground. I was irritated that a being with the same face as mine was playing the role of the Demon King's lackey.
"Heh, what a ridiculous thing to say. Do you think I would do anything to hinder Lord Ergothum's great work?"
"Why are you bastards all so damn loyal...?"
I spat out a curse, finding it absurd. The behavioral patterns of the enemies I'd met so far were all similar.
Demon King Ergothum Cogito.
The target we were ordered by royal decree to subjugate, a being rumored to be immortal, reviving no matter how many times he was killed.
The demons and monsters said they could easily discard their own lives to achieve the Demon King's goals.
Even though, in reality, they were the ones who slaughtered and massacred innocent people, turning half the continent into a sea of fire.
"That lord took me in and raised me when I was abandoned by my parents as a child. Even a beast knows how to repay a debt."
The Phantom Dragon spoke with a hollow laugh. He said the only person who saved him, born with a weak body and nearly dying, was the Demon King.
"Is that your usual way of speaking? Earlier, you were deliberately mimicking my speech to provoke us?"
I leaned forward to observe the changed enemy more closely.
It was strange for a creature who had lived for hundreds of years, a dragon no less, to use such casual speech from the start.
"Yes, based on a week ago, you were someone who had absolutely no romantic feelings for that Saint, you see."
"...Earlier you were spouting nonsense about fighting and mating."
"I merely eavesdropped on your conversations to utilize them to make you fight among yourselves. I thought that would create an opening if I spoke like that."
The Phantom Dragon shrugged as if it were nothing. His specialty was perfectly mimicking the opponent, making them fight each other, and picking them off one by one.
Kyle having us move in pairs was also to prevent confusion or fighting among us beforehand.
"Wh-what, did we look that close? It's only been a day since we started dating..."
- What do I do! If an enemy who read all my memories judged it that way, doesn't that mean Astal likes me too?
Victoria kept glancing at me repeatedly. The moment our eyes met, she would quickly turn her head away.
Unable to hide her tomato-red cheeks and ears, her constantly darting eyes were tinged with embarrassment.
"Telling you that would ruin the fun. Why don't you think about it yourself, Saint?"
The enemy who possessed all my memories from a week ago chuckled and didn't give Victoria the proper context.
It was actually a relief.
Since I had never thought of her as more than a comrade from the start, if that fact came out, it might hinder my act.
"...Glory to Lord Ergothum."
The Phantom Dragon uttered those words and closed his eyes like someone who sensed death.
A face exactly like mine, as if looking in a mirror. Looking at the limbless Phantom Dragon, I couldn't help but feel a sense of déjà vu.
Swish—!
As soon as the Phantom Dragon's final words ended, Hero Kyle swung his sword, beheading him. The dragon, its mimicry undone, crashed its massive body to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
Thud—!
Looking at the beheaded dragon's corpse, I tried to shake off the strange feeling by kicking the ground.
"I can't shake off this uncomfortable feeling..."
I had just watched a human who looked exactly like me get beheaded. No matter how accustomed I'd become to corpses on the battlefield, I couldn't erase the fact that it was an unpleasant experience.
It felt like a prophecy that I would die like that at the hands of the Demon King. The Phantom Dragon, who died shouting Ergothum's name, felt detestable.
That's when it happened. The Hero suddenly looked at me and asked a question.
"Astal, that sword strike just now... Did you really teach yourself?"
Kyle frowned as if something was strange, his eyes opening in a manner similar to a snake's.
"Huh? Of course I watched your movements and copied them."
I thought Kyle, who thought that way, was the strange one. He must have known I'd been training my body constantly to fight unarmed since coming to the Demon Realm.
Moreover, perhaps thanks to the special eyes I was born with, my dynamic vision far exceeds that of an ordinary person.
I could understand the Hero's sword-swinging posture, technique, wrist strength, and angle just by watching a few times.
"...It's not something you can just copy."
Kyle spoke while resting his chin on his hand as if pondering something deeply. From his perspective, he had devoted his life to the sword.
It seemed he might judge the fact that I learned it so quickly as abnormal.
"Astal, swords suit you better than magic. Why don't you try training under me?"
The words that came from the Hero's mouth after finishing his contemplation were quite a shocking statement. Kyle recommended the sword to me, a mage, and began urging me to learn it.
"I'll pass. Swords are something you have to learn from a very young age for your muscles and body to grow accordingly. My arms and whole body are still aching from the pain..."
"That sword strike earlier was perfect even in my eyes. You have talent. You just need to swing it."
Kyle kept putting his arm around my shoulder, speaking as if telling me to just trust him. I suddenly thought of a cigarette and rummaged through my hood.
A single remaining stick.
"...Today, it's really confiscated."
"Ah, why? We caught that Phantom Dragon guy this time!"
However, as soon as I brought the cigarette close to my mouth, it transformed into a flower. I glared at Victoria.
I don't know why she does this. Even now, my hands are shaking and I'm so tense it feels like my blood is boiling.
Cigarettes made from magic leaves were said to be so strong that only heavy smokers who couldn't feel anything from regular ones smoked them.
"Isn't your manacore in an overloaded state right now? A little more and you would have gone into shock and your heart would have stopped."
"Isn't surviving enough...? This much will heal quickly with a few potions..."
"...Heal quickly? Don't talk nonsense. You need to rest without straining your body as much as possible to recover, don't you?"
Victoria was getting angry, biting her lower lip. I had tried to lie so she and the other comrades wouldn't worry, but it seemed to have backfired.
From the start, I had wanted to smoke a cigarette to forget the surging pain and aftereffects.
"...You knew. Sorry for lying."
It was an unavoidable sacrifice to catch an enemy who used the same method as me. If we had taken more time and effort to trap him, we could have caught him without such reckless methods.
"There was no other choice if I wanted to keep you all from getting hurt."
"That's exactly what I hate about you! Do you think we'll be happy if you act cool and sacrifice yourself alone?! We are comrades! Above all, you are my lover now!"
Even normally, Victoria would get angry when I pushed myself like this, but today she seemed especially severe.
Was it because we were in a one-month contract relationship? Tears were welling up in her eyes.
"...If you die, please think of me, who will be left alone. I beg you."
Her desperate cry, in a voice that seemed to reproach me, turned this place from one celebrating victory into something else.
- If you leave me too..., how am I supposed to live...
Hearing Victoria's inner thoughts, my heart grew as heavy as lead. Normally, I would have thought it was just natural concern from a comrade, but...
'...She secretly liked me.'
Even if it was fake, the current Victoria and I were in a lover's relationship. How could anyone not worry when such a person had just attempted suicide?
Feeling too self-righteous and selfish, I had no choice but to hug the crying Victoria.
If I didn't comfort her, she seemed like she would blame me and cry all night.
"I'm sorry. I'll try to take better care of myself from now on."
"Ah, Astal. The distance is too close..."
- He hugged me from behind he hugged me he hugged me...
As I gently hugged Victoria from behind, a sweet, enchanting scent spread. Seeing her make a small, cute sound as if surprised, my heart skipped a beat for a moment.
"So don't cry. You look really ugly right now. You're covered in tears and snot. You should wipe it off first..."
To shake off that strange feeling, I told Victoria a half-joking, half-serious remark. If we kept our bodies pressed together like this, I felt I might really make a mistake.
She smells nice. Her eyelashes are long. Her eyes are beautiful...
Things that wouldn't normally bother me kept flashing through my mind, making me see Victoria as a member of the opposite sex.
"...I'll get angry."
- The mood was good, but it's always like this...
Squish.
Victoria lightly stepped on my foot, subtly expressing her anger.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A few days later, we headed to a tavern when everyone was asleep.
We needed to soothe the fatigue from our long journey and sell the materials obtained from subjugating the Phantom Dragon on the black market.
"Victoria, you're drinking a lot today?"
"Does it not look like I'm drinking a lot? My first-ever lover almost died right before my eyes."
Gulp, gulp. Victoria began emptying her beer mug faster than I usually did. Of course, I was only allowed to drink water because of her complaints.
How much time passed like that?
"Ahaha! Victoria, your face is completely red...! Like a raspberry!"
"Who are you calling a raspberry?! You blasphemer..."
In the joyful space where glasses were passed back and forth as intoxication rose, I alone couldn't join in. Because I was the only one sober.
"I shall go up now. Please take good care of Lady Victoria."
Anima had become completely drunk and was being carried by her boyfriend, Taryon, dragged into their room.
The Spirit Mage's tongue was completely tied as she shouted, "I'm not drunk, I'm not drunk!" So it seemed right to stop drinking at this point.
"I'll head in too. I don't want to be a third wheel between a couple."
Thus, even Hero Kyle headed to the inn room upstairs, and beside me, Victoria was leaning on my shoulder, fast asleep.
"Huuuuuu... Astaaaaal..."
Victoria, with disheveled hair and a face red down to her neck, was drunk. I tried several times to use magic to remove her intoxication, but each time she took out her hammer and blocked it.
"Why are you calling me..."
Looking at Saint Victoria, who was trying to sleep with her face nearly planted on the table, I wanted to quickly go to bed, but...
"Aren't you... curious... why I drank enough to become this incoherent? Hehehe..."
As if sensing that point, she seductively traced her lips with her finger and brought her face close to mine.
The sweet scent of flowers and the alcoholic smell of liquor brushed past my nose.
"I have... something I want to ask you..."
"Ask quickly and let's go to bed. What is it?"
Looking at her unfocused eyes and slurred tongue, I crossed my arms, intending to humor her drunken ramblings one last time.
Since I hadn't used magic to remove her intoxication, was she really trying to muster courage? Her inner thoughts were quiet too, so I couldn't read what she was thinking.
"If it's for... defeating the Demon King... would you consider having a child with me?"
"...What kind of insane talk is that?"
Hearing Victoria's statement, I was so dumbfounded I cursed. My mouth moved faster than the thoughts in my head.
"Didn't the Phantom Dragon clearly say it? That you and I could surely create a stronger hero..."
- A baby with Astal... Hmm, we need to make at least eleven...
Victoria, who had been hiding her feelings for me, was now running wild after drinking.