Chapter 441: The Hero Climaxes in Defeat Again Today[R-18] (31)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 441: The Hero Climaxes in Defeat Again Today[R-18] (31)
By the time I arrived at the territory, everything was already over.
“The monsters… they’re all taken care of?”
At my question, Eira cautiously nodded her head.
“Yes…”
“…Who did it? Don’t tell me it was the Seven Nights Knights?”
“Well… it was Marienne.”
“……Marienne?”
My face hardened at the unexpected name.
“What was she even doing there…? No, more importantly… that should be impossible with her skills. How in the world…”
Eira paused for a beat before speaking, as if she could hardly believe it herself.
“…They say Marienne… has awakened as the Hero.”
The moment I heard that, I put a hand to my forehead.
“…The Hero?”
“Yes…”
“Where is Marienne now?”
“Well… the Order of the Pale Star took her.”
I let out a sigh and tried to sort out the situation.
Marienne awakened as the Hero? And the Order of the Pale Star took her?
This was an unexpected development. When I couldn’t find the Hero here, I’d assumed they were on another route—in the Empire or somewhere else, for instance.
But Marienne awakened?
“Eira. Explain in detail. What exactly happened?”
“……At first, they say there was another Hero. …His name was Rubian.”
Eira began to speak cautiously, and I listened in silence. Her explanation was long, and the more I heard, the more absurdly complicated it sounded. Seriously, at least half of it sounded like bullshit.
“The Knights… they also brought a composite sketch of the, uh, former Hero.”
I took the paper and unfolded it.
Half the face was a woman’s, the other half a man’s. From the facial features to the body structure, it was all very familiar.
…So two playable characters were mixed into one.
I put the paper back down and looked at Eira.
“When did they take her?”
“Four days ago…”
I tapped my fingers on the desk. The situation had become complicated.
Marienne has become the Hero…
The Hero is a special existence in this world. Regarded as the only one who can defeat the Demon King, not just the religious orders but entire nations are hell-bent on securing the Hero for themselves.
“And, Marquis, I have an additional report.”
“Go on.”
“Yesterday, an urgent message came from the royal court. They said via magic communication that more Heroes have appeared.”
I furrowed my brow slightly.
“How many?”
“That… I don’t know for certain. All the communications officer heard was a single sentence: ‘New Heroes have appeared.’”
“Hmph… If there’s nothing else to report, you may leave.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The door closed, and the room fell silent. I stared into the empty air for a moment before speaking.
“Bi-yeon.”
Bi-yeon materialized.
“What, you called?”
“What… martial art did you teach Marienne?”
Bi-yeon shrugged and answered.
“The Heaven-Shattering Divine Art. I took it off some old guy I beat to death. I taught it to Mari, but… I only showed her a few half-baked forms and the basic breathing method. Why are you suddenly asking about martial arts?”
“It occurred to me that when Marienne awakened her power as a Hero, her affection level… and her addiction to my traits might have been reset.”
“…You think Mari might become hostile to you?”
“It’s a possibility, not a certainty.”
I looked out the window at the sky.
“The power of a Hero… as it’s usually described in stories, typically comes with an ability of purification.”
Bi-yeon tilted her head.
“Purification?”
“Right. A function that washes away not just things like demonic beasts or curses, but also externally imposed mental influences. Well, I doubt the Libido App would be affected by the powers of a fictional world, but you never know.”
“Even if that’s true, you’re just going to fuck her again anyway, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“Then why are you worrying for nothing? Just make her your cunt again. You were just whining about being bored lately.”
“This bitch, is that any way to talk to your husband? Get over here. I’m going to fuck your cunt raw today.”
I grabbed her wrist, forced her down onto the desk, and pulled her panties down to her knees before ramming my cock into her pussy.
-SQUELCH!
“Ohk♡”
*
The Partisan Knights returned to the royal capital, and I made my way to the site where Marienne was said to have awakened as the Hero.
“Eric.”
“Yes, Marquis.”
“The Knights and the territorial army. What’s the damage report?”
“The territorial army. Of the ten thousand men deployed… about five thousand were killed in action. There are over thirteen hundred missing and nineteen hundred seriously wounded.”
“…The losses are quite heavy.”
Eric’s expression darkened.
“They are. The Seven Nights Knights suffered many minor injuries, but there were also a significant number of deaths. The loss of Sir Barzes is particularly painful.”
“Holding off a horde of nearly sixty thousand monsters with only ten thousand men is worthy of the highest praise.”
I continued quietly.
“Compile a list of the families of the dead and missing. Prepare a compensation package for them, along with posthumous medals of honor.”
“Yes, Marquis.”
“And convey my formal condolences to the Barzes family. See to it that his funeral is held with the honors befitting a Knight Commander.”
“Understood.”
“And… the remnants of the orcs and goblins?”
“After the orc called Graz was killed by… the Hero, the monster horde completely scattered. However, Graz’s children have fled in all directions… The various noble territories are currently searching for them.”
I gave a quiet command.
“Tell them not to leave a single one alive. Kill them all.”
“Yes, my lord.”
I scanned the forest one last time. The smell of blood, black ash, and a powerful aura that still lingered.
I turned and mounted my horse.
“We’re returning to Alcladion.”
*
After handling most of the post-battle cleanup in the territory, I left the remaining tasks to Eira and immediately set off for my next destination.
My destination was Lienos, the heart of the Holy Kingdom.
I was going to get Marienne back from the Order of the Pale Star.
I suppose it was too difficult to find information on the other new Heroes.
Inside the carriage, I skimmed through the documents on the other Heroes who had appeared besides Marienne. But as expected, the information was incredibly sparse.
“Ivril.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Is this… all the information you have on the new Heroes?”
Ivril bowed her head cautiously and replied.
“Yes. It hasn’t been long since we began full-scale operations with the Shadow Knights, so our capabilities are still lacking. Furthermore, the locations where the Heroes appeared were on the borders of the Empire and other kingdoms, remote areas where our information network has difficulty reaching.”
“…I suppose that can’t be helped.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
“What about information related to Rubian?”
“I have the compiled report here.”
Ivril carefully handed me a single sheet of paper she was holding.
I took it and quickly scanned its contents.
From Ruen Village…
The report continued:
From a young age, even his own family shunned him due to his deformed appearance and body structure. His parents eventually died of illness, and he grew up being treated as a monster by the village. After leaving the village at fourteen, he lived in seclusion in a small hamlet, with almost no contact with the outside world until his death.
…So that’s why I couldn’t find him. They used a mix of a male and female name, and his appearance was completely different from the description I gave.
I folded the paper, tucked it inside my coat, and let out a quiet sigh.
In any case, the Hero Rubian was dead, and in his place, other Heroes, including Marienne, had appeared.
So… what happens to the Seven Deadly Sins?
The Seven Sins.
They were high-ranking demons who embodied the seven great sins of this world, the true final bosses who were central to the final chapter.
Each entity was born from one of the seven primal evils: Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Gluttony, and Lust.
In the original scenario, the power of the Seven Deadly Sins was designed to be released sequentially, in proportion to the Hero’s growth past a certain stage, or if the Hero became corrupted and met specific conditions.
But that restriction hadn’t always been in place. When I first played Yong-Oh-Pae, there were mentions here and there that ‘such a restriction didn’t exist before.’
The problem was that there was never a direct in-game explanation as to why or how it came to be.
That part was left vague in the lore books and side quests, and in the end, users had to accept it as an unresolved plot point and move on.
And the structure is that a new Hero only appears when the previous one falls to corruption…
As you progressed through the game, if you chose the corruption route instead of the growth route, the Hero would eventually become completely corrupted, lose their authority as a Hero, and side with the Demon King.
At that moment, the gods would immediately summon a new Hero, creating a confrontation with the former one.
The problem was, that route was brutally difficult. The new Hero was overpowered in every aspect compared to the former one, which led many players to either give up at that stage or just delete their save file and start over.
Don’t tell me the new Heroes are that overpowered… The demons wouldn’t stand a chance…
As far as I knew, there was only one way to win. If you corrupted the new Hero as well, the game would end with the Demon King’s army victorious.
“It’s no fun when you know everything, but it’s a fucking pain when what you know gets twisted like this.”
The sealed status of the Seven Deadly Sins was unclear, and the power level of the newly appeared Heroes was also an unknown.
For now… I have to secure Marienne, no matter what.
I needed to have at least one powerful card in my hand.
*
Lienos, the capital of the Holy Kingdom.
The Sanctuary, covered by a celestial dome; the Palace of Sacred White, where the breath of the divine realm was said to linger. In its hallowed hall of council, the leaders of the three great orders sat facing each other at a single table.
Pope Delpir Vanadel of the Order of the Pale Star.
Grand Inquisitor Seraphin de Levna of the Ash Covenant.
Commander Cradius Harken of the Black Chorus.
As always, it was Pope Vanadel, clad in silver vestments, who spoke first.
“……Have you all received the oracle as well?”
Immediately, the Grand Inquisitor of the Ash Covenant, Seraphin de Levna, continued.
“A star, two yet one, has fallen, and eight new stars have risen in its place. One among them harbors a deep darkness and will bring ruin to the world—”
Her gray eyes glinted coldly.
“How do you interpret the meaning of this passage… Cradius?”
Across the table, Cradius Harken, after adjusting the collar of his black ceremonial robes, slowly raised his head. He remained silent for a moment before speaking in a low, heavy voice, as if reciting a line from an opera.
“The star that was two yet one… it likely refers to the one who possessed both male and female bodies, the Hero Rubian we recently discovered. And that star has fallen. It means that on the day he died, eight new Heroes rose to take his place.”
Pope Vanadel added to this.
“The only one we have secured so far is the Hero Marienne. The other seven…”
Seraphin picked up where he left off.
“The Heroes identified so far are one in the Empire, one in Kairosen, and another in the kingdom of the elves. The locations of the other four are still unknown.”
Cradius quietly clasped his hands and spoke.
“In the end, the key is to find which of them is the dark star that will bring ruin to the world.”
Vanadel nodded slightly and continued.
“The problem is, we don’t know in whom the signs of that darkness will appear.”
Seraphin’s gaze turned to Pope Vanadel.
“In that case… what of Marienne, who is under the protection of the Order of the Pale Star? Have there been any particular signs?”
The Pope took a breath before shaking his head.
“None so far. However… the fact that she displays power far superior to previous Heroes in their early stages is a matter for caution.”
The council hall fell silent. For a moment, no one spoke. On the table lay three seals of different colors: the silver-white of the Pale Star, the gray of the Ash Covenant, and the dark black of the Black Chorus.
At that moment, Seraphin spoke quietly.
“Hmph… What a headache. In all our long history, there has never been a case where so many Heroes have appeared at once.”
She fixed her gaze on the hazy sky beyond the window and added.
“Even during the Great Cataclysm 500 years ago, which had the most on record… there were only three.”
Pope Vanadel closed his eyes and murmured softly.
“Three Heroes… one fell in battle, one was corrupted, and the last turned his blade on humanity.”
Cradius spoke in a grave tone.
“But this time, there are eight. Such a number is not a blessing… it means an uncontrollable variable.”
Pope Vanadel quietly wrote something on a piece of parchment before looking up again.
“The problem lies with the Heroes secured by the Empire and the other kingdoms. The Empire, in particular, has a history of causing tragedy by trying to use the Hero as its own weapon. Everyone sitting here is well aware of that fact.”
Seraphin frowned slightly and retorted to Cradius’s point.
“Tsk. It’s as if the emperors of that damn Empire have some hereditary disease that makes them itch to unify the continent.”
“Such is the nature of human greed. We will conclude for today. Each order is to mobilize all available means and focus on securing the Heroes.”
Pope Vanadel quietly signaled the end of the meeting.