Chapter 25
Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Secret of the World
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What exactly is a hero party?
In this era of a million hero parties, with so many different kinds out there, it's hard to pin down a clear definition.
But there are characteristics that most hero parties share.
A hero party has to go on adventures.
Honestly, wouldn't one-on-one lessons from the empire's greatest swordsman, the Knight Commander, be more effective for improving skills?
Hero parties weren't allowed to do that sort of thing.
They had to start fair and square in a forest crawling with kobolds and build up their strength step by step.
Of course, I wasn't fair and square, and that unspoken rule of hero parties?
I had no idea about it.
That's why, while I didn't take the Knight Commander's lessons, I threw myself enthusiastically into training the hero party members.
“Ack!”
“Milady, your dynamic vision is excellent, but your reaction speed is too slow.”
“It's not that I'm slow—it's that you're fast! How am I supposed to dodge when all I see is an afterimage of your sword?”
“You have to dodge it to survive the perils of adventure, Milady.”
Laura looked up at me with a look of utter disbelief.
“Why do I have to go on adventures? I'm going back to my family in five years anyway.”
“You said you wanted to join a hero party.”
“That was just a hope. You think a girl basically exiled like me is going to get picked? They won't take me.”
“…You're more objective than I thought, Milady.”
“Mages are guardians of reason and truth. Of course I am!”
That said, the memories of her childish moments were still vivid.
I didn't nitpick, though.
Instead.
“Ow!”
“You can't let your guard down. You have to stay focused until the end.”
“Grr…”
I just swung my wooden sword hard enough to make a sharp smack on Laura's calf.
***
“Demon… You're a demon…”
“If I were really a demon, I wouldn't have been able to handle your holy power, Saintess…”
“…”
After giving Laura a taste of the Justice Sword's sting, I returned to the lord's castle to find sweat-soaked Rainy whining at me.
Yumi, ever the seasoned instructor with her red hat, must have really put the frail Rainy through her paces.
Training Rainy probably wasn't much for an assassin renowned as the darkness of Mastain.
I plopped down next to the drenched Rainy.
“Saintess, did you work out hard?”
As I approached, Rainy made space for me to sit and gulped down water before answering.
“Yeah, I ran like a maniac.”
“How far?”
“One full lap around the territory running, and one walking.”
“Really?”
I was genuinely shocked.
Who was Rainy?
The whiny Demon Queen who complained her legs hurt after a little jog.
It was hard to believe she'd completed even one full lap.
Rainy, soaked in sweat, leaned in and whispered in my ear.
“I think I need to watch out for that guard.”
“Huh? What did Yumi do?”
“I was running ahead, and she was following behind, but she was giving off this scary killing intent. With that aura pouring from behind, I ran like crazy out of fear.”
I pictured it.
An assassin famed as Mastain's darkness chasing her with murderous intent?
Oof…
Even I would've bolted like mad.
“You did great.”
“Right?”
“Please keep suffering just a bit more!”
“Fuck…”
With her foul mouth and surprising cowardice, Rainy must have run right up to the brink of death.
That meant even running for her life, one lap was her limit.
It wasn't enough.
I'd keep Yumi on her until she could handle at least two laps with ease.
“By the way, good instincts. Yumi's nickname was something like 'Mastain's Darkness'—she's an elite assassin.”
“What? No wonder she reeks of blood. An assassin, huh.”
No sooner had Rainy said it than she ducked behind me.
I wondered why, and there was Yumi passing by, bowing her head our way.
Quiet only at times like this.
***
Daven Baron's lord castle basement.
Amid the dripping water seeping even underground, Nania—bound tight head to toe—wore a terrified expression.
“Ptoo. Ptoo.”
Rainy, looking more delinquent than saintess, sat beside her, spitting nonstop into a glass vial.
I smacked Nania's pristine white feet with a wooden sword wrapped in holy power.
Each time, her dainty feet twitched.
I felt a strange thrill.
If she writhed in real pain, I'd feel bad, but being a born succubus, her cheeks even flushed.
She didn't seem to hate it, so no revulsion—just pure, odd pleasure.
‘So that's why Laura swings that whip whenever she gets the chance.’
In some other world, they apparently purged heart demons with SM play.
Indeed, watching a succubus flinch under the whip had that addictive quality to dispel heart demons.
The kind that might lead you across a river of no return if you indulged too much.
“It's done.”
Thankfully, before I fell too far, Rainy announced at the perfect moment that the holy water was ready.
“Thank you.”
“Don't get tempted and drink it yourself.”
“Now that I know what it is, I don't want it at all.”
The shocking truth about holy water, worth dozens of gold per vial: it was just the saintess's spit.
A revelation as earth-shattering as holy knights getting physically gender-swapped.
If this spread across the continent, holy water's value would probably plummet.
Who with a sound mind would want spit?
Shaking the full vial, I got an oddly familiar feeling and asked just in case.
“This… isn't it the same as that red puddle on your room floor when you were dying…?”
The liquid Rainy had puked up all over her room floor back then.
It looked just like this “holy water” she'd extracted.
Rainy scratched her head, embarrassed, and nodded faintly.
“Yeah… probably… I puked a bit then…”
“Oh…”
I nodded in understanding, then sat in front of Nania, holding the vial and sloshing it around.
“Succubus.”
“Y-Yes…”
“This is genuine holy water extracted by a saintess.”
“Eeeeek!”
“Behave yourself?”
“Please, anything but water torture…”
Her teary eyes pleading so desperately stirred a dark urge to torment this succubus mercilessly.
I barely held back and whispered in her ear in the most lascivious voice I could muster.
“No need to worry. Just agree to a few things and cooperate, and I'll guarantee your safety.”
“Th-That's…”
“It's fine, nothing too hard. Just insult the Demon God and praise the Goddess.”
Our all-purpose saintess Rainy had a terrifying ability called Heresy Conversion just from hearing the name.
Word was, using it on a subdued Demon God follower forced them to insult the Demon God and praise the Goddess, engraving a mark on their body.
The saintess who marked them gained full control over their life and death.
It had nearly a year cooldown, but it was up, so we'd use it on Succubus Queen Nania.
Most saintesses only knew the theory, passed down orally, without the power to execute it.
But our genius saintess Rainy could use it once a year.
Despite my threats, Nania bit her lip in defiance.
“I surrendered to my husband, not the Goddess! No way!”
Husband again.
Rainy's glare stung, but I ignored it and splashed a bit of holy water by Nania's side.
“Hiiieeeek!”
She screamed even though it didn't touch her.
“We can resolve this peacefully, right? Just close your eyes once and do it. Yeah? I'm not asking too much. Just say the words.”
“Sniff… sniff…”
Nania trembled in fear at my words.
I felt like a textbook villain.
But threats were needed now.
“I don't want to see blood either, succubus. Just close your eyes.”
“Sniff… sniff…”
“Will you say it?”
Nania's lips quivered in deep conflict.
When I dripped more holy water, she couldn't hold out and surrendered.
“Sniff… The Demon God is a bald, shiny-headed loser…”
“Uh… keep going.”
“He couldn't die as an undead, got jealous of the Goddess, and became a petty Demon God…”
“…”
Is this for real?
“The petty Demon God, unlike him, the Goddess is a busty babe… so attractive…”
“…”
“D-Done…?”
Fwoosh!
No sooner had she finished than holy power shot from Rainy's hand, forming a heart mark on Nania's stomach.
The mark shimmered with holy light.
I didn't know much, but it looked incredibly impressive.
Rainy, who'd left the mark, widened her eyes in wonder.
“Whoa, the Goddess seems super satisfied? First time moving holy power, and I got Her help!”
“I-Is that so?”
Her satisfaction suggested the Goddess harbored quite the grudge against the Demon God.
Even gods have tough marriages, huh.
Prayers for a smooth reconciliation.