The Incompetent Hero and the Return to Yeom Kingdom
"Hmm~ Baekho?"
"What is it?"
"Have you had anything pleasant happen lately… or something special going on, by any chance?"
Lucy, who had been examining Baekho's condition, asked the question out of nowhere, and Baekho's face flushed red in an instant.
Her tail swayed gently back and forth; her ears twitched and shifted with awkward little movements.
Anyone watching would have seen how flustered she was.
Long-lived as she was, Baekho did not seem particularly practiced at lying.
"Well… I've been locked away this whole time, you know. Now that I've truly realized I can move about freely like this… I suppose that might be it…"
Even so, Baekho did her best to hide her fluster as she spoke. Of course, her voice grew fainter the further she went.
Lucy watched her, then seemed to catch on to something — the corners of her mouth lifting into a smiling squint as she nodded.
"That could certainly be it~. Actually, you see, Baekho's condition has become considerably more stable of late, so I just thought I'd ask. No need to get so tense~"
"Hmm… that's true enough. Baekho's condition does seem to be stabilizing quickly these days."
Seollin nodded in agreement with Lucy's words.
While Lucy used her holy power to check whether Baekho's vessel was expanding and the like, Seollin was responsible for brewing herbal decoctions to purge the residual aphrodisiac poison accumulated in Baekho's body. Thanks to that, Seollin could monitor Baekho's physical state as well.
Of course, Baekho felt as mortified as if she'd been caught naked, and fled toward Baekryeon in a hurry, as if escaping the scene.
"Hmm~"
"What are you looking at."
Lucy's gaze, which had been following Baekho's retreating figure, soon landed on me.
I brushed past her look lightly and thought to myself.
…She's right. After that one big release, Baekho's mental state does seem a lot more stable.
After we'd gone at it hard that one time, the cases of Baekho running off on her own to masturbate by herself had completely disappeared.
That said, it wasn't as if she was still bolting out every night, unable to endure her fever, to keep going at it with me either. After that one major release, most nights Baekho would slip out briefly, exchange some light conversation with me while I stood watch, and head back.
"Hero."
"Yeah, what."
"You did it, didn't you?"
Lucy said this with the corners of her mouth slightly raised, making a vulgar hand gesture utterly unbecoming of a nun.
Every time I see her, I wonder if this girl is really a nun.
…Ah, right — she's a vampire-succubus hybrid. Why on earth is someone like her a nun?
"Don't start with the useless talk. If you're done with your work, pack your things quietly."
"There's no reason to pack when everything just goes into the Hero's inventory anyway, is there?"
"And what if we shipwreck and you get separated from me?"
"So the Hero is the type who taps the stone bridge and then smashes it to pieces, I see?"
We had arrived at the village harbor and were spending the day there.
Outside the inn, the isolation edict had long since been lifted, so merchants from Yeom Kingdom were quite a common sight.
And most of those Yeom merchants were looking to purchase food supplies from Jo.
"What's the first thing that skyrockets in value when war breaks out?"
"Food, obviously."
"Meaning even ordinary merchants have caught on that a clear atmosphere of war is brewing in Yeom Kingdom."
"Well, of course. That Yang Jamun fellow said the Emperor of Yeom's capital was a complete mess."
After surveying the village surroundings for a moment, I looked out at the sea beyond.
Splash~! Crash!
With preparations complete, we boarded the ship and set sail without incident.
The weather was clear.
The waves were moderate — good sailing weather for cutting through the sea, according to the sailors, so it had to be true.
"Hero."
"What now."
I was looking out at the sea, recalling the fight with the Heretic Demon King during the pirate cleanup, when Lucy spoke up again.
"Aren't you being a little too cold to me?"
"Call it the consequences of your behavior."
"I thought I was just acting normally…"
Lucy, who had been putting on a show of fake tears and sadness, shrugged her shoulders as she spoke.
"Surprisingly, both Baekho and Baekryeon have pretty bad seasickness."
"True enough…. Baekho has the attribute of steel, and according to the Five Elements, steel and water are mutually generative…"
"My, you know quite a bit about the Five Elements?"
"I've picked up a lot of odds and ends."
But for Baekho, who possessed the steel attribute that was generative with water, to get seasick….
Was it because Baekho's own power was weakened? Or was seawater treated differently?
Come to think of it, I'd heard salt was bad for iron….
"Well, that's not the important part. First, I'd like to contact the Holy City — to report that I've found the Hero. Would that be all right?"
"You have a means of contact?"
"Of course."
Lucy nodded lightly and pulled something like a crystal orb from her robes.
"This is…"
I'd seen it in the game.
A communication orb, was it? I'd seen it in story cutscenes and the like. I'd never actually obtained one as an item, though.
"It's a communication orb. It can reach quite far, but unlike ordinary communication orbs, it can't project an image."
"Looks like it. So? Why are you asking my permission before making the report?"
At my question, Lucy smiled brightly.
"Isn't it obvious? The Hero crossed over to Yeom Kingdom without announcing his whereabouts. Wasn't that so that others wouldn't learn of your activities yet? Perhaps you thought the timing was still premature…"
"…Do as you like. The business in Yeom Kingdom seems to be wrapping up anyway."
"Hmm… all right. Understood. I'll do that. Then this sharp-eyed nun will take her leave."
What is she even saying.
Lucy vanished with that strange remark.
And not long after she disappeared, Seollin approached me.
"Leon."
"Seollin — Baekho and Baekryeon?"
"They seem to have settled down for now. They're asleep. Good thing we had seasickness medicine."
"Tell me about it."
Seollin looked out at the sea I'd been watching for a moment.
I looked at her in turn.
Seollin always carried herself with confidence, but right now she somehow seemed small.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm okay."
"When we get back to Sichuan… we might have to kill your brother."
"…"
At my words, Seollin fell silent for a moment.
Then she spoke quietly.
"I'm okay."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Really."
Crash!
A wave slammed into the ship.
The vessel rocked hard from the impact. Of course, neither Seollin nor I — both martial artists — made the undignified spectacle of falling over from something like that.
"If my brother really is a traitor, then he tried to kill me first."
That… was true enough.
The day I first met Seollin, she had been under attack by the Beastman Alliance, her life in danger.
From what the Heretic Demon King later told me, if Baekryeon and I hadn't passed through that place, she would have been dragged off by the Beastman Alliance and lived out her days as raw material for extracting her unique poison.
If that was the case….
If Dan Seollyun was the traitor….
"If I don't stop my brother, the other people of the Dan clan will be sacrificed."
"That's right."
"So I'm going to stop him."
As if making a firm resolution, Seollin nodded to herself, then shifted her gaze to me.
"So help me."
"Yeah. Of course."
Third day of the voyage.
Whether the seasickness medicine was finally taking full effect, Baekho and Baekryeon would occasionally come up on deck.
But most of the time they headed back down soon after.
And so, on one day of cutting through the sea—
"…Did you kill him?"
"Hah, that's the first thing outta your mouth the second we meet?"
The Heretic Demon King appeared.
Of course, he didn't make a flashy, chaotic entrance.
The man who had once crushed everyone present with an overwhelming presence now had an aura so faint that not a single passing sailor noticed him.
"Damn, kid — what the hell've you been eatin' to turn into such a monster?"
"Wanna fight?"
"Nah. Drop that killin' intent. My body's a mess right now, y'know. Try to take you on in this state and I'd get my head chopped clean off. I like a good scrap — I don't do fights I'm gonna lose."
Shrugging his shoulders, the Heretic Demon King lifted the corner of his mouth.
"Honestly, I'm lookin' forward to it. Wonderin' just what kinda chaos you're gonna stir up."
"Not sure I can live up to the expectations."
"You met her? That Sword Demon brat."
"You knew?"
No — of course he would know.
The Heretic Demon King had been in a cooperative relationship with the Beastman Alliance, and so had the Sword Demon.
If they'd both been cooperating there, they would have crossed paths at least once.
"Lookin' at it now, the swords you two use are pretty similar."
"We share the same master."
"Ooh~ now that's interestin'. Expectations just went up another notch. Feels good."
Easy to say from the spectator's seat.
From my end, it was nothing but a headache.
"Well, you look healthy enough, so I'll be on my way."
"Wait. Before you go, I want an answer to the question I asked."
"I've killed so many I don't know who you're talkin' about?"
"Dokzon… Dan Seolpung."
At my question, he nodded as if understanding.
"Ahh, that one. He was strong. Damn strong. Satisfyin' fight, that was. 'Course, the only reason he could even stand against me was a whole pile of luck stackin' up."
"So did you kill him."
"I drove him to the brink of death, yeah."
"Then who finished him?"
Figure that out yourself.
Leaving those words behind, the Heretic Demon King vanished.
"…Tsk."