Chapter 18: The Lifted Veil (1)
Chapter 18: The Lifted Veil (1)
"So what I'm saying is, could the water bottle have been poisoned?"
"That's a possibility! Set the water bottle aside separately for now. And find out who prepared that bottle!"
"Will do... Huh? Wait, now that I think about it, I prepared that water bottle myself."
"Ed, you bastard... How could you...!"
"No, hold on. Why is the suspicion suddenly flying at me?!"
Ah, come to think of it, Ben still hadn't fully recovered from the effects of the battle.
Which meant, in other words, he wasn't in his right mind.
'To call someone like that, were you trying to kill me?'
I shot Ed a slightly cold glare for a moment, but since he'd had my well-being in mind and looked genuinely flustered, I decided to take that into account and let it slide.
It was absolutely not because I was afraid the next adjutant might be someone like the 12th Legion Commander's adjutant, Dahareu.
Afraid that the two of them might actually start a life-or-death duel at this rate, I hurriedly stifled my coughing and called out to them.
"I'm fine, so both of you stop... *cough*."
"Demon-nim!"
"What in the...! You're not even bleeding, the magic stone isn't reacting... What on earth is it? Is the magic stone defective? I'll have to swap it out as soon as we get back, damn!"
No, it wasn't that.
Ah, damn it....
I burned it white-hot.
Burned what? My mental energy.
To think proving it wasn't poison would cost me so much mental energy.
Even so, the two of them didn't believe me to the very end.
They merely settled on something like, 'Our strong and steadfast Lord Demon must have overcome the poison on his own and is lying to keep us from worrying. So let's just pretend to be fooled this once.'
I really did appreciate that they stopped at that, but... why did I feel like I was going insane?
"And at that moment, Lord Demon went crashing down on top of the former 7th Legion Commander and fell right between them...!"
An excited, heavily exaggerated voice rang out.
Exhausted beyond measure, I sat on the cloak Ed had spread out for me, leaned against the carriage wall, and stared blankly as I listened to that voice.
A cool breeze blew in, ruffling my white hair. The wind, slipping through the strands, coolly caressed my scalp as if telling me to pull myself together.
Thanks to that, my head cleared a little, and the truth about 'my heroic exploits' began to fill the empty spaces in my mind.
'Yeah, that. That's why my stomach hurts again. I'm losing my mind, seriously.'
I didn't kill the Hero.
I didn't stop the Hero from trying to self-destruct, nor did I take his self-destruction into my own body.
The story about the former 7th Legion Commander was also heavily distorted, if I were being honest.
I'll take this chance to sort things out about myself once more.
My name is Deon Hart.
Currently, due to unavoidable circumstances, I'm living in the Demon Castle under the name 'Demon Arut'—
——and I was the 'last comrade' of the 'Last Hero.'
'The Last Hero, huh....'
I tilted my head back and leaned against the carriage wall.
The black sky, studded with three moons and crowded with stars, filled my vision.
'......Ridiculous, isn't it.'
'Last Hero,' 'last comrade.'
Those were terms coined by the Empire. The reason was nothing special.
The Empire liked things that sounded impressive. They must have thought that slapping on the modifier 'last' sounded weightier than just calling him 'the Hero' and 'his comrade.'
I thought the word 'last' held no meaning whatsoever. Even more so when attached to the Hero.
'Because there's no such thing as an eternal last.'
Say there's a household with two children. With just those two, the second child would be the youngest.
But what if another child is born? The title of 'youngest' that belonged to the second child then passes to the third.
It was the same with Heroes.
The World valued balance. The Demon King's power was so immense it threatened to break that balance, and so, as long as the Demon King lived, at some unknown point, the World would send another Hero.
When that time came, the word 'last' that had been attached to my dead comrade would simply pass on to that new Hero.
In which case, I wouldn't be the 'last comrade' of the 'Last Hero,' but the 'last comrade' of 'one of the many Heroes who had existed up until now.'
In short, it meant there was no need to pay much attention to the word 'last.'
Because it was nothing more than a kind of bluff meant to make things sound impressive.
"And then he just grabbed the self-destructing Hero by the shoulder—bam!"
Ah, was he still on about that?
I kept telling him that wasn't it. That was just me leaning in close because I couldn't hear the Hero's voice very well.
I mean... where should I even start explaining....
Right, beginning with the story of how I was chosen as the Hero's comrade and headed for the Demon Castle.
'......Now that I think about it again, it's a miracle I'm alive.'
Just recalling those events made me shudder involuntarily.
The path to the Demon Castle had been terribly treacherous. No, it wasn't something that could be described with just the word 'terribly.'
So many others chosen as comrades besides me had all died; how could I simply call it 'rough'?
In the end, by the time the Demon Castle came into view in the distance, I was the only one still alive, and the Hero trusted me, his sole remaining comrade, far too much.
When the reality was that I'd simply been lucky.
'Yeah, I was lucky.'
Watching the legion members chattering excitedly about me, I smiled bitterly.
* * *
"From here on, I'll go alone."
"......Are you serious?"
The question came out reflexively.
Could it be that the Hero couldn't see them now?
No, that couldn't be. Was a 'Hero' called a Hero for nothing? A Hero was a being born with overwhelming talent and an overwhelming physique, precisely to face the Demon King.
Right now, he must have been seeing that army even more clearly than I was.
I turned my head once more and looked at the enormous Demon Castle.
It was certainly majestic. So the Demon King lived right in there.
Then he should've just stayed holed up in there... why....
'Why did he come out here and cause this fucking mess.'
The enormous, majestic Demon Castle.
Normally, its sheer size and majesty would steal your gaze, but right now, something drew the eye even more.
The swarming black things gathered in front of it.
Yes, the 'demons.' They were obviously the legions that had come out, claiming they wanted to watch His Majesty the Demon King's fight.
Did you catch what I said? 'Come out.'
Which meant, in other words, the Demon King himself was currently out in front of the Demon Castle.
Normally, isn't the final boss supposed to be holed up deep inside?! Why was he out here?
"In the first place, the 'comrade's' role is to clear the path so the Hero can reach the Demon King. The battle is entirely the Hero's responsibility. So, Sir Hart, your role ends here. Thank you for your efforts."
"......."
"Still... if I win, I'll return here, so would you mind waiting here until the battle is over?"
"......You're stating the obvious."
Looking down at the staggering army once more, I became certain.
The Hero would lose. There was no way he could win.
The Demon King alone was overwhelming enough, and now he had to face that entire force? Even for a Hero, that was impossible.
There was one thing he didn't say.
Clearing the path to the Demon King was the comrade's role. Which meant, tying down that army so the Hero could fight the Demon King uninterrupted was also the comrade's role.
And yet, the reason he deliberately didn't mention it was probably to spare me a pointless death.
Since we were going to die anyway, it was better to die after letting at least one person live.
A truly Hero-like line of thinking.
"That...."
The words that were about to come out caught in my throat. I couldn't breathe, as if someone were strangling me.
What was I trying to do by calling out to him? I couldn't hold him back, and I shouldn't.
Even if I called him, I had nothing to say. I couldn't dare suggest we turn back.
A Hero was born to kill the Demon King, after all. For him to turn back in the face of the Demon King would mean discarding the very value of his existence.
That didn't mean the words 'I'll go with you' came out of my mouth either.
I had struggled so desperately to survive, had barely made it this far; there was no way I could say I'd walk into certain death.
Damn it all, I wanted to live.
"......."
I closed my mouth and organized my thoughts.
In this situation, the words I could say were....
......Nothing.
Nothing at all.
"Well then, I'll be off."
"......Yes."
By the time I barely managed to spit out the answer, he had already climbed down from the cliff where we'd been hiding and was walking toward the Demon King's army.
A gait carrying not a shred of hesitation.
His stride, brimming with confidence as if defeat was the furthest thing from his mind, only stopped once he had reached the Demon King's presence.
A brief exchange followed, and the Demon King made a gesture to his surroundings. At that, the legions that had been arrayed pulled back in a swarm, forming a massive circle.
'Looks like he has some conscience after all.'
Honestly, I hadn't expected it to be a one-on-one fight.
He was the Demon King, after all. A position where even cowardly acts could be nodded along to.
But not long after the battle began, my mind changed.
'Holy shit, what is that.'
He hadn't sent them away out of conscience.
He'd sent them away because he was confident he would win.
Only then did I understand why he was called the strongest Demon King in history.
He was overwhelming.
And his opponent was a 'Hero.'
As if an adult were playing with a child, the Demon King was receiving all of his attacks with a bored, world-weary expression.
The outcome, naturally, was the Demon King's victory.
The thing that had pierced through the Hero's stomach and out his back dripped with red droplets of blood. The Demon King looked down at him as if unimpressed, then grabbed the hilt of the sword lodged in his body, as if to finish him off.
That was when it happened.
"Who goes there!"
"!"
I froze for an instant. Goosebumps erupted all over my body.
A spine-chilling voice that seemed to scrape the vocal cords. It was clearly coming from behind me.
Reflexively, I drew my dagger first.
And once I confirmed my opponent, I immediately let the strength drain from my hand.
'......An ogre.'
There's no way I can beat that thing.
It even talks. Which meant it was a 'demon' influenced by the Demon King's power, and it must have possessed abilities far superior to ordinary ogres.
I had to run.
The one consolation was that I was better at running away than anyone else.
'Having survived this long on 80% luck and 20% nimble movement, that says it all.'
Though to be precise, 'escape ability' was more fitting than 'nimble movement.'
'But for my pride's sake, calling it "nimble" is....'
Whoosh!
"Ugh, shit!"
I really barely dodged it. Swinging a sword without any warning—wasn't attempting some kind of pre-attack dialogue the basic standard?
Thanking my reflexes that jerked my upper body back to evade and my flexible waist that supported the motion, I took a couple steps back from the creature.
And then I belatedly realized it.
'Right, this is a cliff.'
Crumbling. The ground that had been supporting my heel broke off and tumbled down below.
The only escape route was the path blocked by that bastard.
Noting the absurdly long sword it held, the bulging muscles of its upper body, and its leisurely attitude as if it knew exactly what the situation was, I nodded quietly.
'Regrettably, it seems my luck ends here.'
If the creature had been stupid, I might have been able to lure it into falling off the cliff somehow, but judging by its attitude, it didn't seem dumb in the slightest.
If I died here, it would probably be because of that thing right in front of me.
But my life was far too precious to give up.
'After everything I've survived until now!'
Being chosen as the Hero's comrade in the first place hadn't been something I'd wanted.
So I couldn't die feeling so wronged like this!
Dying together was just as wrong. You die, I'll live.
Gripping daggers in both hands, I charged straight at the creature. Naturally, I didn't do anything stupid like letting out a battle cry to announce my presence to the enemies below.
I simply kept my mouth firmly shut, eyes wide open, and rushed in silently.
Seemingly surprised, its eyes widened, but then it smiled scornfully and raised its sword once more.
As it took a large step forward and the fully raised sword came slicing through the air toward me, I, who had been watching without so much as blinking, counted the timing in my head.
'Now!'