Chapter 62
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: The Hero Who Truly Repays Favors
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“If you're going to kill me, then just do it.”
Death is the great equalizer.
No matter how hardened someone might be, they can't deceive their final emotions.
From the moment we're born, we'll all one day feel that terror.
No matter who you are, everyone regrets in the face of death.
'This woman's insane.'
For the first time, Ashy reconsidered her own thoughts.
A completely different kind of being stood before her than anything she'd seen up to now.
'Just like me.'
Chloe, a deviant black mage she'd encountered while searching for others of her kind.
A black mage who hadn't shown her face even once during the war.
A woman who didn't reek of vengeful spirits at all.
“...You're suitable enough.”
Ashy sheathed her holy sword.
She decided to learn black magic from her.
She was starting to feel the limits of studying it alone.
“What?”
“I said you're suitable enough to be my teacher.”
Chloe had lost to Hero Ashy in battle.
With the blood of the heavenly race awakened, no one could defeat Ashy.
Not even Luke, the hero called the strongest in the present day.
The hostility Ashy had been radiating vanished in an instant.
Chloe frowned at the sudden shift in atmosphere.
The hero who didn't kill the black mage, Ashy, dragged Chloe around everywhere.
She pried information out of her, asking about black magic and such.
Chloe began adapting to Ashy's demeanor.
She realized Ashy was a woman on a completely different track from ordinary heroes.
“You learned black magic because of a boyfriend who died in the war? Even though you're not married? A hero?”
“Yeah.”
“That's impressive.”
About half a year after traveling together.
Ashy and Chloe shared their pasts.
It hadn't been long since they met, and even Ashy herself found it hard to understand.
'For some reason, I feel drawn to her.'
Only after spilling her true feelings did she realize why.
The reason Chloe had always felt so familiar.
“Have you been wandering alone all this time too, sis? Looking for a way to bring back your husband and child?”
“Well, yeah.”
Ashy found solace watching Chloe.
Knowing someone in the same boat made her feel less alone.
It was a selfish thought, but it turned out to be greater comfort than expected.
Someone precious lost, left utterly alone...
Someone who knew how immense the pain of loss could be.
And a woman prepared to sacrifice even the hard-won peace to get it back.
Now she had someone to share even the tiniest speck of guilt with.
That alone gave her strength.
Ashy truly hoped for it.
She hoped Chloe could reunite with her husband and child.
A year passed.
Chloe had gathered everything needed for the resurrection.
From that day she vowed to revive her dead husband and child...
She had thought of this moment.
“Darling, darling...!”
The violet magic circle spewed demonic energy.
To defy the natural order, what she offered wasn't continental peace, but the blood and flesh of the heavenly race.
“Kang Ajin...”
Ashy offered her own wrist as a sacrifice, very lightly.
It was nothing compared to ending her long, endless pain.
Bodies engulfed in black flames, burning away.
The black flames transformed into radiant light, raising the corpses.
“......”
Among them, Kang Ajin's body burned completely to ash.
He did not return from death.
“Why, why...?”
Chloe felt doubt even as she embraced her child.
With her husband revived too, she couldn't understand why only Ashy's lover failed to resurrect.
Was the ritual flawed?
No.
If it was, her husband and child wouldn't have returned either.
The ritual was perfect.
Yet Kang Ajin did not revive.
Then, there must be some other reason just for him...
“Ha, haha.”
Ashy gave up on everything.
There was no point anymore.
“...If I kill even a god, will they give him back then?”
The city of Demer was a nature-friendly place.
Or so it was described positively; the actual impression was different.
'It's really rundown.'
Compared to Yuteron, the scenery was shabby overall.
The lifestyle and atmosphere were similar, but the buildings and roads were in poor shape.
We walked to Chloe's house.
I had stuffed the black mage Grape's head roughly into my backpack and set off.
Chloe's home was on the outskirts, far from the city center, near the outer gate.
It wasn't a slum.
A well-maintained stone house—that was where Chloe lived.
She seemed to be living quite comfortably.
“Sis!”
Ashy flung open the door and strode inside.
No permission was needed in the process.
She acted as if she'd already given prior notice.
“...Pardon the intrusion.”
I followed behind Ashy.
With Ashy already barging in like a declaration of war, my greeting was meaningless.
“Hello...?”
“...Y-Yes, hello...”
Inside the house stood a woman who looked like Chloe, clutching her swollen belly.
A woman with long brown hair draped down—Chloe was a pregnant woman carrying a baby in her womb.
Even walking seemed difficult for her.
She bowed slightly toward me.
While shooting Ashy a side-eye.
“...I'm the hero's sister...?”
Chloe asked back.
She looked a bit scared.
A hero she'd just met today was approaching so casually.
I'd be on guard too.
'Without the holy sword, she'd just seem like a burglar.'
Thanks to the holy sword, identity verification was easy.
Even so, it was hard to control the trust each person felt.
Ashy's nonchalant attitude was inexplicable.
On top of that, there was no husband in the house.
The sun was setting, so he must be out working.
A group of unfamiliar heroes visiting a house with a pregnant woman alone?
If I were the husband, my neck would stiffen.
Whether she knew that or not, Ashy giggled.
She chattered excitedly on her own.
“Chloe sis, I couldn't talk much earlier, right?”
“Y-Yes... You left so suddenly...”
“You were so shocked, sis. And I had to kill a black mage nearby too. Anyway.”
It felt like chatting with a long-lost best friend.
Ashy alone, that is.
'They're both women, so not balls-friends—womb-friends?'
Fortunately, she didn't say it out loud.
I instinctively realized it was a rotten joke and stayed cautious.
Chloe was intimidated by Ashy.
“I-I'll get some tea.”
Chloe brought tea, leading her swollen belly.
It was probably brewed from high-quality leaves.
With the guests being heroes, Chloe was doing her best to entertain them properly.
Of course, Ashy had no such thoughts.
She gulped down the tea roughly and asked Chloe.
“Sis, where's your husband?”
“...He's on guard duty. At the gate just ahead...”
“Aha!”
That explained living near the gate.
As a city guard, he'd bought a house here.
“Normally, this should be done with the husband here.”
I still hadn't taken out Grape's head.
Ashy was being careful in her own way.
To an ordinary person, it'd just be one shocking scene.
Ashy up to something.
Chloe jumped in surprise at Ashy's offhand remark.
“Why my husband...?”
“No, I was thinking it'd be better with him here since I need to touch a pregnant woman's belly.”
“...The hero touching my belly?”
Chloe hugged and protected her hugely swollen belly.
I knew nothing about pregnancy, but I could tell Chloe's condition was unusual.
It felt like birth was within a month.
'Lucky timing.'
Would the child grow healthily?
I couldn't be sure.
The first might die, but from the second onward, they'd be healthy.
If Chloe's womb was purified, then from the second...
'What about the one in her belly right now?'
It had spent nearly a year in a womb corrupted by demonic energy.
The child's body likely had accumulated demonic energy.
'Physical damage can be purified with holy magic, but soul damage...'
Would a fetus born from a womb eroded by demonic energy have physical issues?
Or mental problems, or defects in the soul?
Even the original story didn't clarify.
Childbirth only appeared in the epilogue.
I'd only read up to the final battle where the Demon King's head was severed, before the epilogue.
“Well, we'll try everything we can. If it doesn't work, nothing we can do.”
Ashy said matter-of-factly.
Even if the child died, it was beyond her control—she acknowledged that.
My head agreed with Ashy, but my heart hoped for a turnaround somehow.
“Chloe, Chloe!”
Someone kicked the door open and burst in.
A man wearing chainmail like a soldier.
You could tell at a glance he was the husband.
“Why is the hero in our home...?”
“Delric, you looked much better before you got sick. Not as good as Puppy, though.”
“Pardon? How do you know my name, Hero...?”
Delric glanced at Chloe standing behind Ashy.
Chloe shook her head slightly.
He knew without being told.
On the surface, it bordered on stalkerish.
“Come on, we need to hurry and finish this so we can head to Alvheim. Don't make me explain twice, or even sis won't stay quiet.”
Saving Chloe's baby was a key part of repaying the favor, but getting seed planted in her own womb right now was more urgent.
The reluctant Chloe couple complied.
“Mind if I touch Chloe sis's belly from here on?”
“Pardon?”
“Don't keep asking back—listen properly the first time I say it.”
“Yes...!”
Ashy glared at Delric.
There was a clear difference between her rapport with Chloe and with Delric.
'Delric feels almost like an outsider...?'
Ashy rummaged in her backpack.
She grabbed the black mage's hair and pulled out the head.
“Hero, Hero! What the fuck did you do to Gain?!”
“Gain? The black mage missing one eye?”
“G-Gain's features... What did you do to Gain... Did you kill him?”
“Killed the bastard.”
Grape's head, completely severed below the neck, came into view.
And he started blabbing on his own.
“Chloe!”
Chloe, witnessing the sight, fainted.
Delric rushed to support her.
I looked at Ashy reproachfully, and feeling my gaze, she grinned awkwardly.
She carefully set down Grape's head.
“We need to get to Alvheim...”
“...We can't leave today anyway.”
“True.”
We chatted idly, waiting for Chloe to wake.
Ashy seemed to find the whole situation amusing.
Her giggles wouldn't stop.