The Hero's True Colors
The brain matter scattered into the air. But it wasn't Leonhart's. It was Mapharlok's.
“Holy Arrow!!!”
‘Huh…? Isn’t that my skill…? Oh, right. Werther must have implanted my skill into that girl… So I’ve been completely abandoned. Haha… hahahahaha.’
Sharon watched the arrow streak forward wrapped in sacred light and laughed like a madwoman. The fact that the arrow pierced straight through the Balrog’s head and sprayed spinal fluid everywhere only made her laughter look even more unhinged.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiiiik!!!!”
Leonhart’s mind went blank at the sight of the Balrog’s face half-blown away right in front of him. No matter how powerful a demon might be, losing its brain meant instant death. That was a universal rule for any living creature.
Leonhart slowly slipped from Mapharlok’s grip. Even though the demon’s hand alone weighed nearly ten tons and hadn’t been reinforced with demonic power, it no longer had the strength to hold anything. The King of Balrogs was already dead.
“Pfft! Puhahahaha!! Serves you right, you fucking idiot! Die, you piece of shit! Puhahahaha!!”
Leonhart hurled insults and middle fingers at the corpse, as if his earlier pathetic begging for mercy had never happened. But he wasn’t fully recovered mentally. His face was stiff with tension, and when Mapharlok’s body toppled forward, he shrieked and curled into a pathetic ball.
“Werther oppa. Is this good enough? I don’t know any of these people, but at least I can tell that this Leonhart guy didn’t need to be spared.”
“Hmph… I didn’t save Leonhart. That Mapharlok bastard was so full of openings that I just told her to strike at the right moment.”
In truth, Leonhart surviving had been completely outside expectations. I’d fired the arrow almost at the exact instant Mapharlok was about to crush his skull, but the Holy Arrow had flown far faster than anticipated. No… that wasn’t quite right. If it had been the Sharon I used to know, it would have arrived exactly on my calculated timing. But she had grown stronger again in the meantime.
Ever since Vanessa joined my party, her speed had been upgraded repeatedly, throwing off all my calculations. The buff was too powerful. It ended up extending Leonhart’s lifespan.
“Die!! Die, you idiot! Puhahaha! How dare you challenge the Hero! If you’ve got a problem, get up and try me!!”
Watching Leonhart arrogantly stomp on the already-dead demon’s corpse filled me with the sudden urge to shoot another Holy Arrow.
“Mapharlok!!! This can’t be!! My comrade of three hundred years is dead!!”
“A man who stood at the pinnacle of the Balrog race despite his rough nature… to die so meaninglessly. I cannot forgive this…! At the very least, we must retrieve the body and give him a proper Balrog funeral.”
“You’re right. Get lost!!”
The grief-stricken Morphino and Lucy flew in from both sides. Morphino launched a shockwave at the Hero who was mercilessly kicking their comrade’s corpse.
“Uwaaak!!”
Even though the air cannon had been fired from a distance, Leonhart was sent tumbling backward like a feather caught in a breeze. He rolled and rolled until he stopped right at my feet.
“Ow ow ow… W-Werther.”
“…You really are like a living barometer created by the gods just to show how much uglier humans can become…”
“Y-you son of a bitch. You really got lucky, huh? You abandoned me earlier?! I get that you’re jealous and resentful of me, the Hero who received an official oracle, but you crossed the line. Who the hell do you think you are, a mere porter daring to climb above your station? Come here. Let’s have a little chat with our fists.”
“Ha? Is your intelligence really on the level of a cockroach?”
“Ugh!!”
Leonhart threw a sloppy telegraphed punch, so I countered with a clean hit to his gut. He dropped to his knees and dry-heaved.
“No, even cockroaches don’t attack opponents stronger than themselves first. So in other words, you’re lower than a cockroach…”
“Ugh!! Uweeeeck!!”
“You wouldn’t know this, but I used to box. Since you never exercise—not even stretching—you’re no match for me in a bare-handed fight. By the way, what you just ate was an uppercut.”
“Kuhuk!! My… my stomach! It’s all coming back up—ugh!!”
“Besides, I don’t have time to waste on trash like you right now. Look… the demons are glaring at us like they want to kill us.”
The vampire Morphino and the dark mage Lucy had revealed their true forms, triggered by their comrade’s death. When Morphino spread his cape, it transformed into bat wings, and his fangs extended down to his chin. Lucy pulled a staff out of the darkness of night, proudly displaying her identity as a dark mage.
The two wings of the Eight Protection Army charged toward their enemies like bullets from the night sky. Fast.
“Kuh! Kuhuk! Fuck… Werther, you’re dead too now. While you’re getting your ass kicked, I’ll do what I always do and run. Once I make it back to the Empire, I can spin the narrative however I want. I’ll just put together a new party. Kiki-kik. You idiot! Everyone who saw my humiliation today is going to die! The upper echelons of Lydorphia have no idea what happened here anyway! The battalion commander’s dead too! Puhahahaha!!”
“Hey… Leonhart. Do you know why I killed Mapharlok?”
“Ha? Who the hell cares, you moron. You were probably just scared I’d kill you next.”
“Because I made a promise. I said I’d take on one of the Eight Protection Army myself.”
“What? A promise? Who the hell did you make that kind of promise with?”
“With that guy over there.”
“?”
Leonhart turned his head in the direction I pointed. Right between the rapidly approaching Morphino and Lucy, in the empty space where nothing should have been, he tilted his head in confusion. At that exact moment, two pillars of red vapor suddenly erupted from the ground and swallowed the commanders of the Eight Protection Army.
“Uwaaaaaaaaak!!!”
“What the hell is thiiiiis!!”
From between the pillars that trapped the demons emerged the Guardian Duke Zero, dressed in a pristine white tailcoat. The guy was still as elusive as ever, as if he were using some kind of light-foot technique.
“Thanks for splitting up nicely to make it easier to attack. Taking you both on at once would’ve been a bit difficult. Hmm… but the situation seems to be flowing a little differently than I expected. I thought I’d be acting as support for a fiercely fighting Hero Party.”
“You called me here precisely because you considered the possibility that it wouldn’t turn out that way. Even going so far as to form that annoying contract… Anyway, I’ve kept my promise and killed one of the Eight Protection Army. Now you keep yours.”
“Actively cooperate in the search for the Rune of Resurrection… right? Of course. I clearly witnessed the shocking scene of Mapharlok’s head being blown off. Once that thing starts rampaging, this entire area would’ve been reduced to ashes. Killing it in advance was the correct choice. Werther, you performed the task I requested admirably. Naturally, I must cooperate. However…”
“Y-yes?”
The Guardian Duke Zero looked down at the Hero kneeling on the ground with eyes full of contempt. Not even a trace remained of the fake politeness that every noble was supposed to carry.
“O proud—or rather, one who should have been proud—Hero. I think I just heard something strange… What did you say? Manipulate public opinion? The upper echelons of Lydorphia won’t have seen anything anyway? Listen here. I saw every pathetic moment of you being completely helpless against Werther’s ordinary punches. I saw your disgusting selfishness, willing to sell out your comrades just to survive. I had my suspicions, but you really are just an ordinary person. A coward, a scoundrel with no power whatsoever… To think that such garbage was our Hero. Has Lydorphia really been pouring enormous sums into someone like you…? It’s absurd.”
“W-wait, Duke Zero! It’s a misunderstanding! I can explain everything! This is all a conspiracy Werther cooked up—I’m the innocent victim here!”
“Shut your mouth. Are you trying to insult my intelligence? Your punishment will be decided once we return to the Empire. Furthermore, your true nature will be made public. The investors you deceived will likely file lawsuits all at once. There is no hell worse than a life drowning in debt, so I won’t kill you here. However, I warn you—say one more word and I will. This is advice from the Guardian Duke, who holds the right to execute anyone who interferes with the war during wartime.”
“……………Hic.”
Leonhart began hiccupping intermittently. Well, it was understandable. The Guardian Duke was the second most powerful person in the Empire after the Emperor himself. No matter how much of a Hero he was, Leonhart couldn’t possibly silence Zero. This time, the truth about Leonhart would spread across the entire world.
“Hic. Hic. Hic.”
“Hey Zero. Don’t you have any magic that can stop an idiot’s hiccups?”
“Well… even if I did, I wouldn’t waste mana on a fool like this. There seems to be a rather formidable opponent still left.”
The Guardian Duke Zero stared at Beelzebub, who was sitting quietly at a distance. Even though his comrades were being attacked, the demon hadn’t moved an inch. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
“The Rune of Resurrection is somewhere in this forest. Searching for it will require time and manpower. And to conduct the search without interference from the demons, we’ll need to ensure safety…”
“I’ll take care of the third condition. I came here planning to fight the Eight Protection Army anyway. As for manpower, make use of the Hero Party that still has plenty of stamina left.”
“Then… what about time? How much can you buy us?”
“How much?”
A rare battle-crazed gleam appeared in the Guardian Duke Zero’s eyes. The instincts of a renowned archmage who had crossed countless lines of death before becoming a politician seemed to have awakened in the face of a powerful enemy.
“As much as you need. Because I will win.”
“Then… I’ll leave it to you.”
I kicked the asses of the party members who were crying beside Jeanne’s corpse and the still-hiccupping Leonhart, then gestured for them to follow. They looked completely dazed, but they followed more easily than I expected. In Leonhart’s case, he probably just wanted to get as far away from the Guardian Duke as possible. He wouldn’t want to get caught up in the fight between Zero and Beelzebub and die here.
“Listen up, all of you. There’s something I’m looking for on the trees in this forest. Don’t ask what it is—just cut down the trees and look at the growth rings. If you see a unique pattern of characters, that’s what we’re after. This forest has thousands of trees. Spread out and start cutting.”
Leading the party from the front and even giving orders made me feel strangely like I had become the leader. I had always been the one following at the very back, carrying a mountain of luggage.
—As we crossed the base camp heading toward the forest entrance, one problem arose. To enter the forest, we had no choice but to pass right by Beelzebub.
I walked past the demon as if he were just another unrelated passerby, sitting on a tree stump. My gaze instinctively drifted to the face hidden beneath his robe. He had a surprisingly ordinary build and the face of a rather decadent but handsome young man.
Then, in a husky voice that didn’t match his neat appearance, Beelzebub spoke.
“You’re not going to fight?”
“…I have other business to attend to.”
“I see…?”
That was all. He showed no further interest in me. He didn’t block my path. He simply turned his gaze away from me and fixed it on Zero. The battle between monsters was probably about to begin. It had nothing to do with me.
The Hero Party members scurrying after me like squirrels had nothing to do with me either. Since it would take too long for me to check every single tree in the forest alone, they were nothing more than tools I was using to divide the labor. Even Vanessa was the same. None of it mattered.
The events happening here. The battles taking place here. The people I was meeting here. None of it had anything to do with me.
Right now, right here, I would find the Rune of Resurrection and bring my little sister back to life. That was the only thing that mattered to me.