Belzerak (1)
"Ugh... huh?"
Ram stared at the scattered corpses of the Death Knights, unable to string a single coherent word together.
"I... is this Sagosul?"
"It's Julian."
His skill after returning to his homeland seemed to operate on an entirely different dimension compared to his time on Earth.
Of course, neither Ram nor Sam had any idea that this was the dimension from Julian's first hero run.
"Why did it suddenly connect to a dimension like this?"
"Because there's a limit to how much you can raise the difficulty in a dungeon-style format."
Gates were usually called dimensional passages, but the 'dungeon' structure served as the actual bridge.
In other words, traveling from Archidia to Earth required entering a gate, passing through a dungeon, and only then reaching Earth.
But the current situation was a direct connection.
Moreover, it was a named connection triggered by the prophet.
He would likely receive a rather difficult mission.
And the harder the mission, the better the reward.
"Damn... what if this guy doesn't die here either?"
If he survived even after that, things would escalate.
"Huh? Are you actually worried Julian might die?"
Sam looked utterly dumbfounded.
"If Julian dies now, we die too!"
"...R-right, of course."
If they failed to clear this gate, Earth would be lucky to regress to the Stone Age. It would fast-track straight into an ice age.
"S-so we should be rooting for Julian?"
"Right now? Absolutely!"
Clack!
Sam struck the Sagosul pose.
"Hurry!"
"Ugh... uwaah!"
Ram copied him despite the pain it caused.
Wishing for his success.
Clack!
A skilled killing machine that had lost its ego and moved solely on loyalty to a false lord.
The Death Knight.
They were objects of terror on the battlefield.
"Saying 'Death Knight corpses' should explain it, right?"
Thud—
That very being now lay shattered in pieces, rolling across the banquet hall floor.
Two of them, no less.
"Wh... what?"
"You really defeated both of them alone?"
"Nonsense. There's no way a hero who just arrived could be that strong."
"Is showing off this hero's only ability?! Ha! Look at that bizarre stance! Is that normal?!"
"Hey now! I suppose it's normal in other dimensions!"
The ministers looked like they couldn't believe their eyes.
The Constellations, hardened by endless F-rank slander, simply laughed at the ministers' disbelief.
"I will verify the truth."
A blond knight wearing a blue cape stepped forward.
At a glance, he was clearly a knight who enjoyed immense trust.
"Excuse me."
He picked up several pieces of the corpse fragments in front of Junil, examined them closely, then stared fixedly at Junil's face.
The knight, having studied Junil's expression, finally nodded and declared.
"They are indeed Death Knights. Both of them."
"!"
The hall erupted in murmurs.
Only then did surprise appear on the ministers' faces, and the banquet hall grew noisy.
"Wh-what?! Oh gods! Finally...!"
"This can't be?"
"A proper hero has finally arrived!"
"Then what was that pose earlier?! Some kind of greeting?"
Some rejoiced that a proper hero had come.
"Wasn't it just a pathetic knight who got resurrected? Does that even make sense?"
"Hmph. Death Knights vary wildly in strength depending on the individual. He must have simply gotten lucky."
"Look at that bizarre stance! It's heretical!"
Others openly expressed their displeasure.
'Well, they're using the pose as an excuse, but...'
Like any politicians, each had their own interests and agendas.
Junil carefully memorized the faces of those who kept nitpicking at odd details.
'There are probably some with different motives.'
Among them, some had likely already defected to the Demon King's army.
Those hearing this for the first time would be shocked.
The naïve thought: How could a human side with the Demon King's army?
Unfortunately, such humans existed in reality.
People who would betray their own country or species for extreme personal gain.
'I was so naïve in my first round.'
The Julian of the first round had believed all humans were on humanity's side.
That was why he kept getting stabbed in the back.
He was driven into traps and nearly got everyone killed.
This kind of deception and espionage was the specialty of Belzerak, Sirvelis's loyal servant.
'Not anymore.'
He would be different from the Julian of back then.
"...Does this align with the law?! The prophecy was wrong! It was supposed to be three...!"
"...Exactly! So isn't this the guy with the weird stance from the beginning...?"
The ministers kept bickering and nitpicking.
The reason they were losing the war?
It was simple.
The rot was coming from within.
"Silence!"
At that moment, someone entered through the door on the right.
'Huh...?'
Junil's eyes widened.
It was a familiar face.
'Draus...?'
While he didn't recognize any of the nobles, the king was identical to the previous king of Helket.
At his appearance, all the ministers bowed their heads.
"We greet Your Majesty."
The king's eyes turned to the one man who hadn't bowed.
"I am Draus... master of Helket. Are you the hero?"
Draus.
It was indeed the same name.
"...I am."
Junil bowed his head and spoke firmly.
"The hero... Julian."
"!"
The nobles stirred once again at those words.
"Isn't that the name of the traitor hero?"
"An ominous name."
"He could be a demon pretending to be a hero and mocking us by using that name on purpose."
"This is..."
"There was never any evidence that Julian betrayed us!"
"Either way, there's definitely something shady about him, isn't there?!"
Draus raised his hand and silenced them again.
"Everyone be quiet. Regardless, the hero has arrived as foretold. A name is nothing more than coincidence."
At Draus's words the ministers quieted down once more.
But Junil wore a strange expression.
'What...? No reaction at all.'
He had deliberately chosen the name Julian.
If anyone here knew Julian, they would surely react to that name.
And through that, he might naturally learn about Meyrin as well...
'Why does it seem like Draus doesn't know the name Julian?'
Was this truly some kind of parallel world?
If so, it was too cruel.
To be this similar yet not the same place...
If even her traces didn't exist here...
That would be far too cruel.
It would have been better if he'd known nothing at all.
"Everyone, leave us."
A short while later.
Only the king, the prophet, and the hero Julian remained in the banquet hall.
The king slowly walked to the end of the hall and gazed out the window.
Outside, painfully white snowflakes fell endlessly.
"Hero Julian..."
Draus murmured the name as if savoring it.
"It is a name steeped in misunderstanding and distrust, but my predecessor always spoke well of him after meeting him in person."
"...?"
Predecessor?
So that's how it was.
'He was Draus's descendant.'
He looked exactly like his father or grandfather.
While ministers' families changed, the royal line had continued, making him the only familiar face.
"Whatever his end was like, I was told he was a benefactor to our Helket."
Draus's descendant looked at him with the same eyes his predecessor had.
"I believe that you coming alone already holds meaning. Serien. What do you think?"
"Your Majesty's words are correct. Although he is not one of the five heroes mentioned in the prophecy. Yet he has accomplished what even the five heroes were thought incapable of."
This was likely referring to fulfilling a hidden quest condition.
Rather than simply evading the Death Knights, he had outright killed them.
But the king looked puzzled.
"Five? Wasn't it three?"
"According to the original prophecy, five enter, and three arrive here."
Junil finally realized it too.
'I wondered how anyone was supposed to outrun that speed...'
The speed of the demonic horses the Death Knights rode couldn't be compared to ordinary horses.
Outrunning them wasn't easy.
'So they were meant to be sacrificed.'
Five entered, two were discarded.
That was the original strategy.
"But..."
Whether five came and one remained, or two came and became three.
None of that was particularly important to Junil.
What mattered to him was something else.
"My predecessor... should I call him that? Why does the hero named Julian have such a terrible reputation?"
"He was suspected of compromising with the demons."
The prophet beside him, Serien, explained.
"There isn't definitive proof of that."
Draus countered, but Serien shook her head.
"There is no clear evidence, but there are things that can only be explained that way."
Draus gave a bitter smile.
"Even so, he was the only hero who drove the Demon King to the brink. That's why expectations were so high, and when that hope was betrayed, it led to the people's resentment. At least, that's one theory."
"I apologize, Your Majesty, but there are more specific reasons."
Serien was extremely polite to the king, yet on this matter she refused to back down.
'The prophet is directly tied to the heroes' oracles... If even they are like this, there must have been something to it.'
Junil could no longer dismiss it as mere baseless rumor.
He had many more questions.
But he had no connection to this place beyond the name, so persistently asking about it would feel too unnatural.
"Haha. I understand. I understand."
Draus waved his hand with a laugh and spoke to Junil as if to comfort him.
"It's an incident from over a hundred years ago. Besides, it has nothing to do with you. I won't allow any rudeness toward you over it, so don't worry."
'A hundred years...?'
A hundred years.
The number struck Junil's mind like a hammer.
'Fuck.'
In a hundred years... among the comrades from that time, everyone except Tou, who had dwarf blood, would be dead, wouldn't they?!
Serien nodded.
"Correct. You are a being temporarily dispatched. Your soul is bound by a divine request, and once that is resolved, you will naturally return to your original place."
She was explaining that once the quest ended, he would exit the gate.
Neither Serien's explanation nor the Constellations' messages reached Junil's ears.
'Crazy... a hundred years... fuck... those Fairy Corporation bastards...'
Had the Demon King revived after a hundred years?
If so, why had they told him to kill it?
All sorts of thoughts flooded his mind.
"If Your Majesty permits... I shall receive the oracle."
"Do so."
Serien spread both arms wide and tilted her head upward. A white glow filled her eyes.
She began muttering words that no one could understand.
"...! ...!? ...!!"
Thud—
Text floated into Junil's vision.
Cut Off Sirvelis's Right Arm!
The right arm of Sirvelis, commander of the Demon King's forces.
Remove it.
'Huh?'
Only then did he snap back to his senses and read it.
The same words flowed directly from Serien's mouth.
"Cut off Sirvelis's right arm!"
Both the king and Junil wore similar expressions at those words.
'What?'
This was a command to cut off the right arm of the boss monster of this area.
In effect, it wasn't much different from telling him to kill it.