The Hero Is No Fool
Until just a few hours ago, the street had been bustling with people and alive with energy — now, in the space of a heartbeat, it had become a battlefield.
Flames roared beyond shattered windows, and market stalls that never got the chance to close up shop lay overturned in the middle of the road.
As the crowd's feet trampled mercilessly over the fruit spilled across the ground, crushing it until a sour, sickly-sweet scent mingled with the overheated air and rose up so thick and foul it stung the nose.
"This way! Head for the western plaza!"
"Don't go over there!"
The guards screamed themselves hoarse, shepherding the citizens along.
A woman clutching her child ran past in tears, and an old man with a broken leg rode on a passing adventurer's back as they fled the smoke-choked street.
Those who hadn't managed to escape hid beneath their windows behind locked doors, pressing themselves against the walls.
"—!!!!!!!!!"
Behind them, a savage bestial roar split the air.
When an enormous monster swung its massive axe, the pillar of a shop snapped like a twig, and citizens crouched screaming beneath the collapsing roof.
But just before it could come crashing down on their heads, a single arrow buried itself in the side of the falling roof —
BOOM!
With a thunderous roar, the entire roof was blasted away toward the side where no citizens stood.
The smell of gunpowder drifted through the air.
And in the same instant, a second arrow pierced the monster's eye.
Instant death.
"Stop standing around gaping and run!"
A mercenary in leather armor shouted, kicking the collapsing carcass of the monster aside.
Quite a few adventurers and mercenaries had been in the city, resting up after finishing their guild commissions.
At first the sudden assault had thrown them into confusion, but soon enough each of them had grabbed their weapon and poured out into the streets.
"Haah, and here I thought I'd finally get some rest."
Ironically, most of those standing on that battlefield were people who had once belonged to the Hero's party.
Swordsmen blocked the alleys; archers climbed onto the rooftops.
The mages kept the fires from spreading while carrying the wounded to safety.
The city guard, too, had not completely collapsed.
From somewhere, a bell tolled without pause, and the guards pushed back the Demon King's Army in groups of several at a time.
Each time a monster fell, a tangle of cheers and screams erupted from the crowd.
Considering the enemy had breached the very walls, the situation looked hopeless — and yet, strangely, the Demon King's Army wasn't that numerous.
Thanks to the sudden ambush, they had succeeded in sowing chaos, but they were woefully insufficient to be an army meant to take the city.
And as time passed, the adventurers and the guard were steadily regaining their formation.
Give it a little longer, and the raiders would be the ones surrounded.
Even so, the Demon King's Army did not retreat.
They made no attempt to seize the gates. They made no move on the administrative hall or the armory.
They simply roamed the streets, smashing buildings, setting fires, and attacking anyone in their sight.
It was not the behavior of an army trying to take a city.
It was, if anything, an effort to produce as much screaming and chaos as physically possible.
And that was precisely the sight the one who had planned this attack wanted.
"Cough... cough... heh... heh heh..."
Among the stream of refugees, a figure staggering along with an uneven gait lifted its head.
The old coat was stained with soot and blood, and one arm was wrapped in bandages.
Going by the ghastly pale face and trembling lips, the figure was nothing more than an ordinary citizen who had barely escaped the monsters.
But the eyes alone were untouched by fear.
The people fleeing in sobs. The adventurers clashing with the monsters. The fires spreading through every corner of the street.
The gaze that took it all in was far, far too calm.
The city was holding out better than expected.
Far from being disappointed by that fact, the figure let the corners of its mouth curl faintly in satisfaction and breathed out a nasal murmur to itself.
"Good. Very good. Now, come to me—"
There had never been any intention of taking the city in the first place.
The force brought here today was a mere handful, chosen so that its loss would not hinder the Demon King's Army's advance.
Monsters and soldiers had been carefully selected — the kind whose deaths would cost nothing.
This much was enough.
There was no need to bring the whole city down.
So long as a single person could be lured here.
"O Hero."
Those who knew the figure's true nature had called it by many names.
The one who pursued truth and delved into forbidden things.
The one granted a forbidden grimoire.
And the vanguard of the army led by the Demon King —
one of the Four Heavenly Kings.
The mastermind behind this city's attack was none other than him.
***
The beginning of this whole affair was a story older than one might think.
"What do you mean, it failed?"
It had all started when the Hero appeared out of nowhere and turned the vast majority of their invasion operations to dust.
The monsters under their command swerved off their intended routes into strange places, or the marching columns of the Demon King's Army inexplicably ended up converging on the Hero's destination — and were promptly annihilated.
"Are you kidding me??"
Not just the Black Archmage — the other Heavenly Kings were equally baffled.
A destination they should have reached in no time flat, and they'd run into the Hero by chance after pausing for a short rest.
They'd picked up the pace because of rain, and run into him anyway.
They raided a village for supplies, and happened to clash head-on with the Hero's party there too.
It was enough to drive a man mad.
"We lost again?! This time it was a total wipe!!"
As time went on, the Black Archmage found himself sliding past the point of absurdity into something bordering on awe.
He had drawn those routes himself — maximum efficiency, success rates he'd staked his pride on — and yet the tiniest setback unraveled every plan, forcing him to draft fresh strategy after fresh strategy, again and again.
Worse, by the time contact could be reestablished, the monsters and troops he'd dispatched for assassinations were already wiped out to the last.
"Hahahaha....... Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!"
That was the day, for the first time ever, he smashed his beloved grimoire against the floor.
One might ask why the entire Demon King's Army didn't simply come down and kill the Hero themselves — but if that happened, the other powerful figures on the human side would pile in as well, and a war of total mobilization would break out.
That was exactly why the Four Heavenly Kings were scattered across the land.
To keep the formidable powers of each nation in check, and to hold the strategic strongholds they absolutely could not afford to lose.
But what if even one of them abandoned their post to kill a single Hero?
The humans' other champions would come flooding into the vacant front.
Conversely, if a war of total mobilization erupted around the Hero?
The numbers game was already an uphill battle — every new variable would deal the Demon King's Army losses it could scarcely afford.
Above all, there was no guarantee of victory even if they did fight that war.
"So long as the singularity known as the Hero exists....."
And so the Black Archmage had constructed a theory.
The Goddess. The Hero was a being chosen by the Goddess — and therefore, might he not be receiving information directly through her revelation?
"The Goddess who looks down upon everything. What if the Hero is communicating with her directly?"
If that were true, then no matter how meticulously the Demon King's Army drew up its plans, discovery was all but guaranteed — and every one of the hundreds of tactics the Black Archmage had devised to this point was so much foam on the water.
Besides, no one knew by what law, or in what form, those revelations even operated. A method utterly unknown.
Of all things in this world, the Goddess and the divine source alone were the taboo the Black Archmage — explorer of forbidden things though he was — had never dared probe.
No — closer to the truth to say he had never even allowed himself the thought.
"Until now, I'd rather not touch it at all than be hunted by those zealots foaming at the mouth over blasphemy."
Probing the divine was, quite genuinely, an act of madness.
But things were different now.
The Hero.
Possibly connected to the Goddess herself.
No — the one specimen in all this world most deeply entwined with the Goddess and the divine had walked into his view of his own accord.
And then — the unknown.
Of all things, that was what hooked the Black Archmage.
***
'Heh heh heh... no one suspects that a Heavenly King himself has come in person.'
To the Black Archmage, a seeker of truth, this was closer to a duty that demanded investigation — and so, almost on his own authority, he had siphoned off just enough forces that the Demon King's Army's advance would not be hindered.
He had told no one. He hadn't even breathed a word to his subordinates about the fact that he himself would hide among the civilians during the attack.
Besides, the moment the crisis began, the citizens — each of them preoccupied with their own survival — paid no mind whatsoever to the Black Archmage, who was to them nothing but a stranger.
An injured civilian, sitting here with no help from anyone.
So who would come running to the Black Archmage's aid?
'The perfect situation.'
Like the teeth of a gear meshing and turning, as though the very order of the world willed it so.
"H-Hero! Over there...!"
At the frail voice calling out to him, the Black Archmage curved his lips into a sinister smile.
'Yes, come. You couldn't just leave an injured civilian lying here, could you?'
The Black Archmage began casting at once — the moment the Hero came to save him, at point-blank range, he would hit him with a single powerful spell and take him down.
Even if it didn't kill him, it would leave him mortally wounded — and after that, he could subdue the Hero at his leisure and run experiment after experiment. No — research, for the sake of the unknown. Expectation swelled hot inside him.
'But.'
'Why.'
'Is he.'
'Walking.'
'That fast...?'
In the sliver of a moment it took the Black Archmage to blink once, the Hero had his sword raised — and brought it down.
"You insane—!"
He frantically threw up a barrier spell just as the blade collided with the transparent wall, and the impact rang out.
Even a seeker of truth like the Black Archmage had no choice but to curse.
"F***ing h***, how the h*** did he see through it?!!!!!
The Hero was no fool — not nearly foolish enough to be taken in by the Black Archmage.