09.5. Hero Summoning, Demon King Descends (1)
Hero Summoning, Demon King Descends
In a corridor lined with white marble, a dwarf was marching along so heavily that each footfall thundered against the floor as he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"That goddamn bald bastard!"
"P-please, Father. Calm down."
"Do I look calm to you?"
The Holy Knight walking beside him tried to restrain him, but the dwarf’s fury barely reached the level of her chest and showed no sign of dying down.
Even with his voice booming loud enough to make the corridor ring, she remained composed. It had already been nearly ten years since she had become his adopted daughter. She was used to his bellowing voice and his hair-trigger temper by now. Her ears stung a little, but if she reinforced her eardrums with a little Holy Power, she could just about endure it.
"That ill-mannered human bastard. So what if he’s the Pope? He’s not even half my age, and yet he’s got the nerve to— back in my day, I—!"
Here we go again...
She didn’t dislike him, exactly, but he was such a tiresome, infuriating man. From a distance, he looked so impossibly cool, but the moment you stood beside him and learned how he really was, he became endlessly aggravating.
He was one of the legendary heroes who had defeated the Demon King eighteen years ago, and the oldest cleric in the Papal See. He was also the commander of the Great Holy Hammer Knights and one of the eleven cardinals. In the Holy Kingdom, his status ranked among the top five most powerful figures alive.
Once, she had even thought it a tremendous honor that, like the other sisters, she could serve at his side. When she finally earned that opportunity after so much effort, she had been so happy she felt as if she could leap into the heavens.
But not anymore. If someone else wanted this place, she would gladly hand it over. No—if anything, she would even be willing to pay a little to get out of it.
"Ha ha... I can’t exactly help it—?!
"…?! T-this is…!!"
The two of them were both struck speechless by the immense surge of divine power that suddenly washed over them. Since they sensed it at the exact same moment, and since it was so vivid they couldn’t possibly mistake it for anything else, there was no room to dismiss it as an illusion.
"What on earth…?"
"That direction is the antechamber!"
The divine power quickly settled, but they had already pinpointed its location.
It was the largest prayer hall in the Papal See, the very one that housed the statue of the Goddess.
"Hurry!"
"Yes!"
They immediately sprinted toward the antechamber. Running was technically forbidden in the corridors of the Papal See, but they had no time to care about such petty rules.
Power on that scale could only mean one thing: a revelation from the Goddess. Naturally, that was exactly what they both assumed. The last divine revelation had come twenty-three years ago, during the height of the war against the demons, and had instructed them to search for the hero by describing his appearance.
Even though they had wasted three years after that revelation trying to find him, the hero it named had still gone on to defeat the Demon King brilliantly.
What will it be this time? If we’re lucky, maybe it’ll be something that points toward war!
But what the dwarf paladin found in the antechamber was a little different from what he had hoped for.
They were the first to arrive, so only three people were visible inside the largest room at the far end.
One of them was someone both of them knew well: the silver-haired Saintess Claudi, who had defeated the Demon King alongside the dwarf paladin Luciano. But the other two were strangers. Their unfamiliar faces were one thing; their clothes were strange as well.
"Uh…."
"Claudi? Who are those two…?"
Saintess Claudi had her eyes fully open instead of her usual slitted gaze. Just that alone told Luciano and Fiora that this was no ordinary situation.
Soon, an embarrassed, stumbling voice reached them.
"T-these two are... the heroes, she says."
"What?"
"By the Goddess…"
"……."
"Huh?"
Luciano and Fiora were left at a loss by the Saintess’s unexpected words.
The young man and woman were seated carefully on the guest-room sofa, speaking in hushed tones. The man, visibly excited, leaned slightly toward the woman beside him and asked,
"Hey. Do you know what kind of situation this is?"
"Idiot, were you asleep earlier? She said we’re heroes."
"So that means it’s right, then? Isekai transfer. Or maybe... a summoning?"
"…Something like that, I guess."
"Wooooow."
The sofa was absurdly soft, unlike the medieval atmosphere surrounding it. It was so comfortable that it actually made them uneasy, as if they didn’t belong there. It was the kind of situation people called sitting on needles.
"Damn it. I was in the middle of a really fun game, so what the hell is going on…."
"Why? Isn’t this great? We could become heroes who save the world."
"You... Haa. Never mind."
Yuri, who had been staring at her immature twin brother, let out a quiet sigh. Then she fell into thought.
It wasn’t entirely wrong, after all. They had definitely met the Goddess. Her memory of it was strangely hazy, as if there were noise over it, but the Goddess had clearly asked them to save this continent from a sinister darkness.
And they had been summoned to the Papal See of a world that worshiped the Goddess.
And the first people they met were a Saintess.
Two ordinary college students from the Republic of Korea, one obsessed with animation and the other with games, were asked for help by a goddess from another world, summoned to a fantasy world, and appointed heroes. They would adventure with their companions, defeat the enemies that stood in their way, and eventually bring down the Demon King.
Aside from the fact that she had called not one but two heroes, and even twins at that, it was a textbook isekai hero-summoning story.
It might have been a fortunate tale, but they had also truly been granted powerful abilities by the Goddess. A status window, of all things. There were also blessings that included all kinds of growth buffs.
…….
Still, she was uneasy.
Unlike her twin brother, who loved hopeful anime where the protagonist defeated the Demon King and became a hero, the games she liked and played were mostly the kind where female heroes were humiliated and corrupted by extras or monsters.
No, wait. Honestly, that kind of thing is too forced, isn’t it?
After a moment’s consideration, she shook her head.
However fantasy it might be, there’s no way a woman would fall so easily or react that way. Things like womb tattoos or aphrodisiac magic are just convenient contrivances, that’s all.
Reality—well, a fantasy world, technically. Either way, if abilities like that existed, they would be absurdly broken. And they wouldn’t exactly be elegant, either.
Thanks to that, her worries didn’t last long. In fact, she even found herself entertained by a mischievous thought.
If this world is like that, would that make it an NTR story for him? Family stolen, the person he likes stolen too? Heh.
While she was soothing herself with those thoughts and quietly laughing, the door opened and an old priest in clerical robes, completely bald, stepped inside. He looked powerful at a glance, the kind of man whose rank and influence were obvious just by his presence. The twins shot to their feet and bowed deeply in greeting.
Behind the old man came the Saintess, who introduced him as the Pope.
No matter that they had met the Goddess and become heroes; to them, he was still the Pope, and that title loomed far too large. Both of them stiffened instantly.
"Heh heh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, heroes."
The Pope soon vanished again, and the tension eased a little. Apparently, the Saintess was much easier to deal with than the Pope.
She was certainly a high-ranking figure as well, but to the two of them, who had spent their time enjoying games and anime, a Saintess felt less like some lofty authority and more like a potential teammate. Her appearance—she looked about their age, in her early twenties—only reinforced that impression.
"I’m sorry. Our Pope is an extremely busy man…."
"It’s okay."
"Y-yes! We actually feel more comfortable with you, Saintess!"
At her brother’s nervous stammering and unnecessary enthusiasm, Yuri let out another inward sigh.
That stupid bastard.
She glanced at Jinhyuk’s face and saw that he was practically grinning ear to ear. He clearly seemed smitten with the Saintess. She knew he was the type to fall in love at first sight, but she hadn’t expected him to be this easy. They had barely exchanged a few words twice, and already he was wearing the expression of a man thinking about marriage.
Her gaze drifted back to the Saintess.
...I guess she is that pretty?
Saintess Claudi really was beautiful.
The dense silver hair hanging down her back was unmistakably silver, not white, and somehow that alone made the distinction feel real. Her skin was porcelain-pale, and her bearing was graceful and refined. Her white, nun-like robe was spotless, without a single speck on it, emphasizing her purity. And with those slit-like eyes that made you wonder whether she could even see clearly, she looked like someone who had stepped straight out of a manga or a game.
"Oh, that makes me happy. Heh heh."
Damn. Even her smile is beautiful.
Yuri felt unaccountably deflated. If the Saintess accompanied them on the journey to defeat the Demon King, she would probably be compared to her at every turn.
Then she heard news that was both a blessing and a curse.
"Um... will Saintess join us when we go to defeat the Demon King?"
As if ignorance truly were courage, Jinhyuk asked the question bluntly, with no hesitation whatsoever.
"No. I don’t intend to go this time."
"Ah…."
Jinhyuk’s disappointment was plain as day. Yuri’s own feelings were a mixture of relief and regret at the news that the Saintess would not be coming along. Someone of her caliber would have been a tremendous asset.
And then she noticed something strange.
"This time, you say?"
"Yes."
"That means…."
"You’re quick on the uptake, Miss Yuri. That’s right. I once defeated the Demon King with the hero of that time, eighteen years ago."
That made sense. At the same time, it raised two more questions. One of them Jinhyuk asked out loud.
"Eighteen years ago? Then Saintess, your age must be…."
"My, asking a lady’s age isn’t very polite."
"Ah, I’m sorr—"
"Heh heh. I’m joking. I’m thirty-two this year. Back then, I had to set out on my journey just after becoming a Saintess."
The twins were shocked to learn there was a ten-year age gap between them. More thoughts followed in rapid succession: how could they send a girl barely into her teens onto a battlefield, and how could that possibly be the face of a thirty-two-year-old woman? But the most obvious question was this.
"But if you defeated the Demon King eighteen years ago... has he already been resurrected?"
They couldn’t understand how the Demon King had appeared again in just eighteen years. Or why they themselves had been summoned.
"Resurrected...? Hmm. I don’t know what sort of world you came from, but in our world, the term 'Demon King' simply refers to the leader of the demons. In other words, the king of the demons."
"Then…."
Was it a system where a new Demon King rose periodically?
"To be honest, it’s strange."
"Pardon?"
"Normally, the Goddess grants a hero only when the demons are launching an invasion. It has nothing to do with a new Demon King ascending or anything of the sort. But right now, even the demons haven’t fully recovered from the damage of the war, so they’re quiet."
…….
Both Jinhyuk and Yuri understood what the Saintess was saying.
It didn’t seem to be a fantasy mechanism after all. It was probably just a system where, when the demon nation attacked the other races and things looked dire, the Goddess would send down a hero.
Neither of them knew much about this world’s circumstances, so after hearing that, they wondered whether heroes were even necessary.
"And the revelation the Goddess gave me was only that the two of you are heroes."
"We did meet the Goddess, but…."
"What did the Goddess say to you?"
The Saintess’s expression had become utterly serious. The twins, in turn, tensed up as well.
"Well, what we heard was…."
"A threat is approaching the continent. Darkness is seeping into the land, and we must stop it."
"Ah, right. And she also said to defeat the Demon King again. Something like that."
After listening to them, the Saintess fell silent for a moment, lost in thought, then lifted her head.
"A threat to the continent... darkness seeping in... It seems evil has been stirring in some place unknown to us. And because it has been so subtle that we failed to notice it, the Goddess has sent down two heroes."
"Oh, I think that interpretation sounds right!"
"Yeah."
Jinhyuk and Yuri nodded in agreement. To them, the Saintess’s explanation sounded correct too.
With the limited information they had, there really wasn’t any other plausible interpretation. But the Saintess still had one thing she couldn’t understand. If that was all there was to it, there had been no need to send down heroes at all.
The Goddess could have simply delivered a revelation... so why did she send two heroes? Is there another reason?
Of course, the Goddess had no intention of answering her inner thoughts.
...No, what does that even matter? What really matters is...
Those filthy demons dare to scheme without even knowing the Goddess’s grace.
W-what was that?!
For only a split second, Yuri saw it: the sinister smile that had crossed the Saintess’s face. It felt less like looking at a cleric or a holy woman and more like staring at some wicked villain or terrifying schemer. It had only lasted an instant, and her brother didn’t seem to have noticed, but she was certain she hadn’t imagined it.
...Just in case, I’d better keep my guard up around her too.
"Aren’t you hungry? There’s a lot I need to explain, but for now, why don’t we let you rest a little?"
"Ah, yes! That sounds great!"
"...Thank you."
With the Saintess’s guidance, the twins summoned from modern Korea finally set foot in this other world in earnest.