Chapter 280: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It was a Mistake.
Chapter 280
Despite the long battle, the night was longer than expected. The sun had not yet risen over the horizon.
"Then we should do what we came for?"
Gloria tilted her head at Raven's words.
"What do you mean?"
"We didn't come here to hunt that Drake, did we?"
"Ah, right."
Gloria, Raven, and Rohan went down below the cliff. The place was full of traces of a fierce battle.
Fortunately, the cliff hadn't collapsed much, so it seemed they could just walk through.
"Before that, let's collect this."
Raven looked at the dead Drake.
The Drake was so large that when Raven stood next to it, she looked like a doll that children play with.
But with one wave of Raven's wand, the huge Drake was flipped over at once. As the Drake flipped, dust rose high into the sky and slowly fell back down.
"Drake's core is a rare elixir that even I rarely get to see."
Raven tapped Drake's side with her wand. Then a part of Drake's side shimmered with a green light.
"The core is here. Gloria, carefully extract it without damaging it."
"...I've never done this before. What if I damage the core?"
"You're going to eat it, so you should extract it well."
"You're not going to eat it, Raven?"
"It would be meaningless for me to eat it. You should eat it."
Gloria approached Drake's side much more cautiously than when she had cracked Drake's head earlier.
"Kos, please help me."
Red blood flowed from the joints of her armor and stuck to Flawless. Gloria carefully held the blood-soaked Flawless and stabbed Drake's side.
Ting!
But the Drake's scales seemed harder than expected, and as she approached carefully, the tip of the sword bounced off.
"The core is deep inside, so stab deeper."
Gloria took a deep breath and thrust the sword in forcefully.
Phew!
Only then did she pierce through Drake's scales and tear through the flesh.
Gloria made a long tear in the side and then dug through the inside of the organs.
Rohan turned his head away and retched at the foul smell of blood and the terrible sight. After digging for a while, Gloria was finally able to extract the core.
"Wow..."
The Drake's core was much larger than she had expected. Should I say it was about the size of Gloria's head? It was red in color with a mysterious silver glow faintly surrounding it.
"This doesn't seem like a 120-year-old Drake?"
"Pardon?"
"Judging by the size of the core, it seems this Drake lived for almost 200 years. I once had the chance to see the core of a 100-year-old Drake, but it wasn't this big."
"Ohhh..."
Gloria couldn't help but salivate at the thought of eating this.
"I should quickly take it to an alchemist to make it into an elixir."
"That would be best. But you don't have that luxury right now, do you?"
"Ah."
Gloria is currently facing a duel with the Vex family. She could upgrade her equipment specs through Blood Moon, but she needed to improve her physical specs as well.
"Barre just chewed and ate it whole."
"What? Something this big?"
"It was smaller than that, but he hunted a Drake in the demon realm and just chewed and ate it right away. That's when I saw the core of a 100-year-old Drake."
"I see..."
Gloria looked at the bloodstained Drake core.
To be honest, it was a bit disgusting to eat. It looked so tough that she worried if her teeth could even penetrate it, and besides, it was too big.
As Gloria stared at the core with a helpless expression, Raven casually took it.
"Cut it and eat it in portions. I'll cast a preservation spell on it."
"Thank you."
Raven didn't just put the core into her spatial pouch, but also the bones, scales, blood, and other parts that Gloria had carefully extracted earlier.
Since even a single Drake claw could be used as a valuable artifact material, she packed everything tightly up to the limit of what the spatial pouch could hold.
"Now let's go. Rohan, sorry, but could you wait here for a moment?"
Rohan nodded.
"Yes. I wanted to collect a few useful things from here anyway."
Raven and Gloria were satisfied with Rohan's smooth response.
Afterward, Raven and Gloria entered the cliff. The inside of the cliff was as dark as pitch, with not even moonlight penetrating, but this was no problem for Raven.
Raven illuminated the inside of the cliff as bright as day with a simple light spell.
"Wow..."
The inside of the cliff was quite impressive. There were traces of the Drake's shedding all over the place, showing that it was indeed a type of lizard.
The shed skins blended with the cliff rocks, making the already gloomy cliff interior even more eerie.
"Kos, can you find the Blood Moon here?"
Kos separated from Gloria's body. Kos took out a notepad and pencil and wrote something.
[I can find it.]
Despite the confident tone, the magical waves emanating from Kos that Raven could see had a subtle tremor.
"Be honest, Kos. Can you find it or not?"
Kos scratched her chest and finally picked up his pen.
[This damned Drake has eaten away so much of the cliff that it's a bit difficult to find?]
Raven sighed as if she had expected this.
Drakes don't primarily feed on living creatures.
Their main diet consists of minerals and the magic contained within them.
Having lived here for over 100 years, gnawing at this cliff, it wasn't strange that the topography had completely changed. Gloria looked at Kos with a suspicious expression.
"Are you sure the Blood Moon is here?"
[That's for real! I hid it in a deep cave.]
"How deep is this deep cave?"
[Should I say it's about a 30-minute walk? And I didn't hide it down here, but in a cave located about halfway up the cliff.]
Raven clicked her tongue and prepared his magic.
"Please, I hope you're right this time."
Raven's spell casting took quite a while.
Unlike before, when she would complete a spell with just a flick of her wand, this was different. It took about 30 seconds of casting?
A green magic circle spread from Raven's wand.
Dozens of blue birds emerged from it. The blue birds flew into the numerous cave openings scattered across the cliff.
"...Without Raven, it would have taken forever to find it."
After about 10 minutes? Raven opened her eyes.
"I think I found it."
"Really? Where?"
"Follow me."
Gloria and Kos followed behind Raven.
After walking for almost 30 minutes, they saw a blue bird circling in front of a cave located about halfway up the cliff.
"It's over there."
According to Kos, it was supposed to be halfway up the cliff, but it looked much closer to descend from the top of the cliff than to climb up from below.
"Kos, be honest. You didn't climb up from the bottom of the cliff, but came down from the top, right?"
[Uh... Did I do that?]
"From now on, your nickname is Grandma. A grandma with dementia."
[What?! A grandma with dementia?!]
"Nothing you've said so far has been accurate! How long would it take to climb up there! You demented old hag!"
Swoosh!
At that moment, with one wave of Raven's wand, Gloria, Kos, and Raven arrived in front of the cave.
"Magic is truly almighty. It's the best. So capable! A versatile MacGyver!" [TL/N: Author made an oopsie]
Kos felt jealous of the highly competent Raven. She wanted to score points with Gloria somehow, but felt like she was losing credibility as time went on.
"Enough, let's just go."
The blue bird slowly guided the way. Inside the cave, there were many branching paths.
This was because Drake had burrowed holes everywhere, moving around like a worm.
If not for Raven, they really would have gotten lost a lot inside the cave.
The deeper they went into the cave, the heavier Kos' shoulders became.
"It's here."
One blue bird circled around a sword deeply embedded in the deepest part of the cave.
As soon as Kos saw the sword, she scribbled hastily on her notepad.
[That's it! That! That's the Blood Moon!]
"Oh..."
Gloria's heart also beat cautiously.
Wasn't this the sword used by Wendy the Red Crescent, the hero who had illuminated humanity's path like a noble lighthouse during the time of the Devil of Plague when everyone else had given up and collapsed?
It was said that when Wendy appeared on the battlefield, even devils who knew no fear would hide under the shadow of the moon.
And knights who were losing hope like flickering candles would regain hope when Wendy appeared.
She couldn't help but feel excited at the thought of being able to use the sword of the legendary devil hunter, a goddess.
Gloria slowly approached the Blood Moon.
[The handle and guard of the Blood Moon were made by grinding the thigh bone of a Grand Devil Slaughterer. At that time, the blacksmiths of Shalibi, who had lost their homeland, could only bring hammers and anvils when they fled, so there were no materials to make a sword. It took over a week just to create this handle and guard.]
[And Wizard Hades, who was the greatest magician and devil hunter of that era, cast a special spell on the Blood Moon. It had the ability to instantly evaporate and purify devil blood.]
[The reason for using such magic was because at that time, most Disease Eaters transmitted diseases through blood and had the ability to turn people into devils, but it was safe if the blood itself was evaporated and sterilized with high heat. In other words, the Blood Moon was a perfect sword that combined both offense and defense.]
Gloria grabbed the handle. It fit her hand perfectly, as if it were a sword she had used for a long time.
[Now pull it out, Gloria. This is your sword now.]
Gloria took a deep breath and was about to apply force to the sword. At that moment, Raven said,
"Gloria, don't pull it out with too much force, carefully..."
Snap!
"Huh?"
When Gloria pulled out the Blood Moon, the sword broke in two. Kos fell to her knees and let out a silent wail.
-Nooooooo!
Raven sighed as if she had expected this.
"Of course it breaks if you pull out a sword that's been abandoned for over 100 years with so much force. Even if the blade was made of Terra alloy, pulling an old sword carelessly will break it."
Gloria suddenly felt a surge of heat and threw the Blood Moon aside.
"Damn it! Nothing has gone right since coming to the wilderness!"
Kos hugged the broken Blood Moon like a baby and cried.
-Waaaah! Wendyyyyy!
Raven's head throbbed at this total mess of a situation.
"Even if you had pulled it out carefully, we couldn't have used a sword that breaks so easily anyway."
Raven used magic to pull out the piece of blade stuck in the ground. The piece of sword embedded in the ground was rusted, perhaps from absorbing moisture.
"Let's go to Shalibi. There should be a way to restore it there."
Gloria sighed.
"Will we have enough time? We need to get to Count Vex's mansion by January 1st."
"It's November 7th... No, November 8th now, so it should be quite possible. If we entrust it to a skilled blacksmith, we can save time."
"We also need to go to Grezawa, the City of Sin."
"It's already too late to go to the City of Sin. I think it's best to finish your business first and then meet up with Caesar to go together."
Raven put the Blood Moon that Kos was hugging and the broken sword fragment into her spatial pouch.
"Time is short, so let's go back quickly.”
***
Caesar crossed the continent by carriage instead of taking the train.
The reason was simple: he wanted to avoid public attention as much as possible, and he had killed 'Smog,' Niflheim's valuable contact.
It's not that communication with other Niflheim devils was impossible without Smog.
But it's also true that there was no channel as discreet as him for exchanging information.
Moreover, since the secret letter that the King of Niflheim was supposed to deliver to the Emperor had also been destroyed, the King of Niflheim must be on edge.
In this situation, if Caesar unnecessarily revealed himself, he could be subjected to indiscriminate attacks from devils.
Of course, Caesar being attacked wasn't a concern.
The problem was that the devils of Niflheim wouldn't consider the lives of civilians around Caesar at all.
If Caesar could block the devils' attacks in advance like an omnipotent god, it wouldn't matter, but since he had neither the confidence nor the ability to do so, he chose to travel slowly but in seclusion.
"Hehehe! Give us everything...!"
Thwack!
Of course, the bandits did give Caesar some trouble. Caesar sighed as he wiped the blood off his Thunder.
"I don't know if these bastards have no eyes or no fear. Really..."
Caesar had done some very expensive decoration on his carriage. He decorated the carriage with the heads of notorious bandits from the area, so it was certainly expensive.
Just the heads stuck here might be worth 100,000 Del combined, wouldn't they?
Thanks to this, although the carriage was covered in blood, it was clearly much more expensive than the carriages that most nobles rode around in.
Caesar pointed to one trembling bandit and said,
"How much is the bounty on you guys?"
"The, the boss was fi, five hundred Del."
"I only collect from 3,000 Del and up."
"What?"
Thwack!
After blowing off the bandit's head, Caesar drove the carriage again.
Not long after, a half-broken signpost came into view.
[Welcome to Shalibi, the Village of Blacksmiths.]
Caesar let out a deep sigh.
"Where on earth is Raven?"
It was now November 27th.
Caesar had stayed for about two days in the 'Goddess's Plains,' the land where the City of Sin, Grezawa, was located.
They had definitely agreed to meet up with Raven by November 15th in 'Undertour,' the city of adventurers in the Goddess's Plains. But there was no contact at all, so he was heading to the wilderness to find out the news directly.
"First, I need to restock supplies."
Caesar drove the carriage toward Shalibi.
He wanted to meet the blacksmith Pesson after a long time, get his axe repaired, and also check if Theon, the technician he had sent, was doing well.
'And it's about time to call Theon back.'
It was now an era of competing warlords.
The imperial authority had collapsed, and tension was thick throughout the continent.
In such times, if he kept Theon hidden in Shalibi, the excellent devil hunting technician that Caesar had found might end up serving the Dre Order instead of Caesar.
'If possible, I'd like to bring Pesson along too.'
A skilled blacksmith is essential for the Knight Town plan.
Although Pesson is eccentric, it's true that his skills are good, so Caesar wants him to move to Knight Town.
Of course, the Dre Order wouldn't easily let go of a blacksmith who knows how to handle Terra...
'I'll think about that later.'
At that moment, a strange sound caught Caesar's ear. It was the sound of something approaching him.
There were presences, and quite a number of them. Thinking they might be bandits, he was about to draw his axe but stopped.
"Who's there?"
Those who jumped out from the bushes were all holy knights and the guards protecting Shalibi.
"I am a faithful follower of the Dre Order."
"Does a church member drive a carriage that looks like it could be used for demonic rituals?"
"Ah, you don't seem to like the decoration of my carriage. These are the heads of bandits. All of them have bounties..."
Bang!
A bullet lodged in the side of the horse. The horse was startled and reared up, causing a commotion. Caesar gripped the reins tightly to calm the horse.
"Whether you're a devil worshipper or not, we'll find out after interrogation. Remove your mask."