Chapter 65
Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: The Liberated Alicia
Dyke was at Bluegate's city hall. It was Nine's intel, so it had to be accurate.
An evil character hiding in the heart of the city was a common cliché anyway. It wasn't all that strange for a progenitor like him to hole up in city hall.
'Infiltration's one of my specialties, after all.'
He'd infiltrated the Demon King's castle alone right after the heroines dumped him. A port city's city hall was nothing by comparison.
They probably thought their security was ironclad, but to him, the gaps were glaring. On top of that, he had a former hero's stealth skills.
Bluegate's city hall might as well have been wide open.
'There he is.'
Slipping through what seemed to be the progenitor's barrier, he began to sense the man's presence. Pinpointing the location was easy.
—Who goes there?
He stood before the progenitor's door. The man addressed him without him even entering.
—Have you come to kill me? If so, come in.
The progenitor opened the door himself. Dyke stepped inside and faced the man's wretched state.
"...You look like hell."
This was bad. The progenitor sat slumped in a chair, on the verge of death at any moment.
Without his racial traits, he'd have been long gone. His condition was that dire.
"Layered with holy spells, are you? Not that you need to bother."
The progenitor eyed him up, smirking bitterly at the overkill preparation to take down someone already half-dead.
"Did you know I was coming?"
"No, I didn't. I only noticed after you snuck into my barrier. Before that, I couldn't have cared less."
*Cough*—
The progenitor spat up blood. Even he, who wielded authority over blood itself, couldn't contain his own.
All those gifts from Nine had gone to waste.
"You look familiar."
The progenitor stared hard at his face, then nodded slowly.
"The Hero."
He'd cut down plenty of the man's underlings along the way.
Dyke might not know his face, but the progenitor likely knew his—subordinates would have reported it.
It'd be weirder if a monster didn't know the Hero's face.
Who knew when the Hero might come hunting? Basic caution demanded memorizing his features.
"Didn't you kill the Demon King?"
"I did."
In truth, it was a seal. One that would break in about sixteen years, per the first-gen accounts.
"Mission accomplished as the Hero, right? So why start up again now?"
"...Not really."
He hadn't ventured out for some grand quest to vanquish evil. It was purely personal.
He needed the progenitor's blood, so here he was.
No need to share his plans. It was tied too closely to his own shame, so he clamped his mouth shut.
He simply drew his sword in silence.
"Well, Hero kills the Demon King, Demon King kills the Hero. Call it fate."
The progenitor cackled. Laughing his fill before the end, perhaps.
"But I defied fate."
"What're you talking about?"
"Alicia. Don't tell me you've forgotten? Your comrade, the Saintess?"
Dyke grasped his point immediately. The man's expression mirrored the vagrants he'd seen outside Alicia's house.
"Heh heh heh. Because of that desire, I'll die by your blade without regrets. The seeds I sowed will never vanish—they'll sprout amid humanity's cracks."
"Yeah. They grew real nice."
Considering the first-gens' temperaments, Nine was practically a saintess. Close enough, anyway.
Not that she was good, per se.
Just better than Olivia or Charlotte. Treating Nine as a true sage would leave actual sages feeling hard done by.
If she didn't foam at the mouth, that was a win.
"...Doesn't bother you?"
"Not a bit."
"Even knowing I defiled the Saintess?"
The progenitor kept probing. Trying to toy with him by flaunting his violation of Alicia, it seemed.
Tough luck.
"Really doesn't faze me."
"Why...?"
"What, you expect me to rage?"
"Five years ago, I remember you furious at losing your comrades. You reined it in for your Hero's duty. But now... no emotion at all. Your heart's utterly still. Not even a ripple."
"Hm."
Lingering attachment to Alicia might have made the taunt land.
He'd have died gloating triumphantly.
'End of the line anyway. Tormenting the foe to the last—classic demon thinking.'
But it fell flat now. He'd fully shaken off any lingering feelings for Alicia.
Whether the progenitor fucked her or not, what did it have to do with him? Why waste emotions on it?
Even if she bore the man's child, why should he suffer?
"Too bad for you."
"Y-You...!"
"I'll put your blood to good use."
To boost his virility. Impregnate Nine and the other first-gens.
Make the Hero's abandoned heroines' dead ringers pay their mothers' debts by bearing his children.
One clean slash across the progenitor's throat. He excised impurities and extracted the blood.
No telling when he'd get more, so he aimed to harvest as much as possible.
The progenitor's death dissolved the barrier. The hidden mayor's corpse was revealed.
The guards snapped out of it too. Perception-lowering magic must have been part of the barrier's effects.
Dyke bolted from city hall.
He headed straight back to Alicia's house. Enough time had passed; their talk should be done.
But.
"Daddy, did you get the progenitor's blood?"
"......"
Alicia was dead. She'd hanged herself from the sagging ceiling of her rundown home.
Once Dyke left, Alicia turned to the woman remaining at her side.
Her deep gaze pierced the back-alley whore facade, seeing Nine's true nature.
"You've grown into quite the woman."
She was the spitting image of herself. Like a mold had been used.
Though Nine's eyes had inherited the progenitor's crimson hue.
Even so, Alicia knew. The holy aura leaking from Nine was strikingly similar to her own as a Saintess.
It'd be stranger if she hadn't recognized it.
"How did this happen?"
"Want the full story? It's a long one."
Nine replied to Alicia's question without inflection, her tone cutting like a blade.
She wouldn't be this cold to a total stranger.
Who'd believe they were mother and daughter, seeing this reunion?
Alicia smiled bitterly. Sane once more, she understood Nine's reaction.
"You love Dyke?"
"I do."
Nine answered firmly. The time she'd spent with him went far beyond simple "love."
Alicia sighed and nodded at Nine's earnest gaze.
"Dyke's a good man. Even when saddled with a duty he never wanted, he never gave up. He'd do anything to save someone."
"And you and your friends betrayed him."
"...It was a fate we couldn't escape."
Alicia didn't deny her sin. Just a faint, relieved smile—it had been necessary.
"Still, I'm glad. I regained my senses like this. No idea why, but the moment I saw you and Dyke, the fog clouding my mind cleared right up."
"......"
"Because of you?"
Nine nodded, ending it there.
The goddess who once controlled the world's fate had left a remnant in her and her friends. That sliver had briefly freed Alicia from her scripted destiny.
No lengthy explanation.
"Thank you."
Alicia cast a holy spell, purifying her filth-encrusted body.
Stripped of her Saintess title, she was no longer one officially—but her holy power was still pure beyond reproach.
"Nine... sorry to ask, but could you do one thing for me?"
Alicia pulled out a rope and looped it over the ceiling beam. Nine watched blankly.
"After I'm gone, could you clean up?"
"......"
Even if it was a daughter from a regression, was it right for a mother to ask this so flatly?
"Sorry to burden you when you owe me nothing."
"...No. It's fine."
She forced her voice steady in reply.
"You can do it?"
"......"
Nine nodded. Alicia smiled contentedly and hanged herself.
It was the only way. The path where Dyke, Alicia, and everyone walked away unscathed.
If Alicia lived, Dyke would suffer without fail. Fate-bound, she'd never be satisfied with his cock alone.
They had to part here.
Knowing that, Alicia chose death as a Saintess. Nine enabled it.
Explaining to Dyke fell solely to Nine.