Chapter 61
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: The Hero Who Truly Repays Favors
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Grape leaked demonic energy.
I couldn't see it with my eyes, but Ashy perfectly grasped the flow.
She gathered her aura and spread out her magic power.
Tracking where Grape's demonic energy had flowed.
"Aaaah, aaaaah! No! This fucking, no!"
Grape screamed to interfere.
A rolling head—if you didn't know the inside story, it'd be enough to make you faint.
"Puppy, wait just a moment. I'll wrap it up quick and come back."
Ashy flung open the inn window and leaped out.
That left me alone in the inn room with Grape.
I grabbed the bastard by the hair and plopped him on the table.
He glared at me with bulging eyes.
"You think I'm a joke too? Huh?!"
Grape stirred up demonic energy.
Fierce killing intent pricked my skin sharply.
"Oof!"
Smack-!
"Guhk...!"
I swiftly smacked him.
Slammed his head down with full intent to kill.
There was no hesitation.
"Ow...."
I'd hit him so hard that blood soaked my hand from Grape's head.
Worried for a second if I'd killed him.
I checked Grape's condition.
Fortunately, he was using demonic energy to regenerate his head.
He wasn't dead.
I let out a sigh of relief and examined my hand.
The sudden impact had turned my palm red.
A slight sting too.
Chills ran down my spine.
Even so, I never imagined I'd smash Grape into the floor without a shred of doubt.
Me, someone who'd never hit another person before.
'...I had no choice if I wanted to survive.'
I rationalized it in an instant.
Ashy, who'd been protecting me, had stepped out briefly for business.
Right now, my safety was on me.
'Gotta be careful.'
If Grape tried anything else, I'd have to stop him.
I was ready to kick him anytime, anywhere, in any position.
Grape's head trembled violently.
Drooling like he was in shock.
Too filthy to touch much.
I roughly shoved him into the corner and waited for Ashy.
She returned soon after.
I'd half-expected her to bring back another black mage's head, but she was empty-handed.
"What a coincidence."
Ashy seemed in high spirits.
She must've had some fun killing that black mage.
Thinking that, I waited for her to speak.
"Guess who I ran into while off to kill the black mage?"
Ashy giggled, bragging like always.
"Met the big sis who helped me regress."
"Helped you regress? Who?"
"One named Chloe."
Chloe—a name I'd never heard.
Meant she hadn't crossed paths with Luke.
Ashy continued right away.
"The big sis I met back when I was learning black magic to save Puppy. She was in a similar spot, so we hit it off. Fought a little at first, of course."
Even with Grape in the corner, she didn't hide talk of regression.
No reason to.
Grape was just a head now—a worthless shithead who couldn't even piss or crap.
'...Wouldn't fight anyway.'
A few sordid scenes flashed through my mind.
I shook my head to shake off the disgust.
Ashy chattered on happily.
Overjoyed at finding her big sis, she was acting all girly.
"She never talked much about her past, so I had no idea where she was. But boom, we meet like this."
"You seem way happier than usual."
"Yeah, duh. She let me regress—meeting her again and all..."
Ashy gazed at the ceiling with a wistful look, lost in old memories.
Could almost pass for spacing out.
"If we met again, I wanted to repay that debt for sure. Like how I got happy, she'd let go of her sadness and start a peaceful new life..."
Ashy's words sounded downright positive.
Coming from her—from the original story to now—I was shocked.
"Must be someone you're really grateful to."
I had to admit that this big sis was as precious to her as pre-regression me.
Just a difference in direction.
'She helped Ashy regress, so she's the one who saved me, right?'
Regression had changed so much.
Even now, little bits of history were rewriting themselves.
First-round me got raped by Gertong and suffered all sorts of humiliations...
But I'd escaped that fate.
Thanks to Chloe—gratitude welled up inside me.
"Yeah, so I'm gonna help her however I can."
Ashy nodded.
Her face and voice brimmed with resolve.
A sudden question popped into my head.
"But help with what, exactly?"
The Ashy I knew moved only by necessity.
She only helped if it benefited her.
In the original story, that trait stood out even more because of Luke.
'She's been playing hero a bit lately, sure...'
She wanted to help her big sis.
But you need something to help with, right?
In other words, her big sis was going through some serious hardships.
"Hmm, well..."
Ashy stroked her chin.
She hadn't considered that you can't help if there's no need.
"Better if nothing like that ever happens in the first place..."
"Do you know what happened to her?"
"Of course."
Ashy replied confidently.
"Chloe big sis lost her son. The kid she barely made with her beloved husband..."
Chloe had given birth.
If her womb had been healthy, no issue—but it wasn't intact.
She'd been kidnapped by a black mage as a child long ago.
The black mage extracted her demonic energy, and that horrific ordeal left permanent damage.
Her womb was ruined.
A child born from a womb eroded by demonic energy couldn't possibly be fine.
In fact, the baby hadn't lived long.
Her husband followed soon after.
I hadn't heard the reason, but I could guess.
Probably constant exposure to the demonic energy emanating from the child.
Left alone, Chloe turned to black magic to bring back her husband and son.
It was her only remaining option.
"...The church sees death as the natural order."
What Chloe was attempting defied reincarnation itself.
The church was bound to see her as an enemy.
So she'd chosen a brutal path.
'That's why she never ran into Luke.'
She walked a path utterly different from world-ending black mages.
No clashes with heroes, so she survived even after Demon King Baal was defeated.
"Did she succeed in reviving them in the end?"
"No...."
Ashy's expression darkened sharply.
She must shudder just thinking about it.
"But it's fine. I got a clue from what you said, Puppy."
Ashy grinned mischievously.
"Just make sure nothing like that ever happens."
"Solving it at the root works, yeah."
For example, stop the kidnapping before it happens.
Then the womb damage never occurs, and the child never dies.
"That's impossible, so another way..."
A method flashed through my mind.
"Restore the demonic-corrupted womb. Then a healthy kid gets born, right?"
"Exactly. Puppy, you're smart."
This must've been what she came up with from my words.
But there was a problem.
"Normal methods won't heal it, though."
Humans who can't handle demonic energy can't recover corrupted areas on their own.
That's why almost everyone except black mages is defenseless against it.
What about holy power?
The answer was no.
Most wounds from demonic energy are physical, like piercing trauma.
But Chloe's wasn't physical.
Soul damage? Aftereffects?
The corruption from demonic extraction was a different kind altogether.
A wound even holy magic couldn't heal.
"Big sis told me the method before."
Ashy scanned the room for something.
She picked up Grape's head from the corner.
Grape, still regenerating.
"Chloe big sis could only purify the corruption after becoming a black mage herself. More precisely, it wasn't purification—she extracted every last bit of demonic residue from her body and expelled it."
"...Ah."
Ordinary people are vulnerable to demonic energy.
Even those who handle mana can't do anything with demonic energy.
But what if it's a black mage who wields it themselves?
Current Chloe wasn't a black mage.
She didn't know how to use black magic at all.
She needed someone to clear out the demonic energy completely in her place.
A black mage. One available right now. Grape.
"Hey, snap out of it."
Slap, smack-!
Ashy slapped Grape's cheeks.
So hard my own cheeks stung in sympathy.
'...The spankings on my butt were actually playful.'
With every swing of Ashy's hand, Grape's facial skin stretched wildly.
Healed just to get torn up again.
"Ugh, aaaah, aaah...! Stop, stop...!"
His shattered head mended.
But the battered cheeks stayed as they were.
Blood dripped from Grape's mouth.
"Told you you'd die if you pulled any crap."
"Ah, I didn't do anything!"
"If you did nothing, why'd Puppy hit you?"
"I-it's true...!"
Grape protested like he was truly wronged.
He seemed so sincerely indignant it gave me chills.
His mindset treated simple threats as nothing at all.
"Whatever. Need you to do a quick job."
Ashy got to the point.
Ashy enjoyed threats just as much as Grape.
Pointing a holy sword at his throat didn't even qualify as one.
"Hiiik...!"
"Let's go for now."
We headed to Chloe's house.