Chapter 376: Another Hero
Chapter 376: Another Hero
Give up. It’s easier if you just give up. The atmosphere was so heavy that even I couldn't bring myself to make such a joke.
If I had, I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on even if he slapped me.
“Ah, alright, I get it. The only reason you can’t do it is because the princess refuses to, right? I’ll go and get that weird bet canceled for you, so…”
If the princess really wasn't sleeping with any other men, this couldn't go on forever. The queen's command to incorporate the Hero's bloodline into the royal family seemed to be a factor as well. If I let this continue, the situation could blow up into something much bigger than I anticipated.
Of course, that didn't mean I was going to admit I lost the bet and sleep with the princess.
After all, I had clearly said, ‘If you don’t sleep with any other man, I’ll think about sleeping with you.’
I could just say that I thought about it and decided against it.
Well, the princess obviously wouldn't accept that, but wouldn't it be fine if I brought Diana along?
Doing so would mean revealing that strange bet to Diana, but that couldn't be helped. I was the one who made such a thoughtless bet in the first place. I deserved to get an earful.
I steeled myself for it, but the man was still sniffling as he spoke, as if telling me to just drop it.
“I don’t need it! Even if I sleep with the princess again, I’ll just shoot my load and it’ll be over! Just like you said, it’s my destiny to never know the joy of making a woman feel good!”
Damn. It seemed I had touched upon a psychological issue that ran deeper than him simply being unable to have sex.
Even so, he looked at me with a subtle glimmer of hope in his eyes.
Hey. Don't look at me like that.
So you felt an explosion of inferiority when you heard the rumors, but deep down, you were still hoping, huh?
Especially now that you've experienced my power with your own body, your expectations must be even higher.
But this time, there was nothing I could do for him.
Even if I trained him like I did with Johan, his fundamental Charm stat was just too low. No matter how much he polished his technique, he would probably never get better.
“Hey. Uh… hang in there.”
“Hmph. Don’t pity me. I don’t need your pity… You said you had something to ask if you won. Sniffle. Just hurry up and ask.”
When I offered my words of comfort, the man’s shoulders slumped and he sniffled, but he still glared at me as he spoke.
Clumsy consolation at a time like this would only make him angrier.
I decided to just ask my questions as he suggested.
“Um… alright, first. What’s your name?”
“Y-You bastard! You didn’t even know my name until now…! Ugh. I am the world’s only Hero. Leon Plitus! You’d better remember it!”
My question seemed to make his blood boil all over again, but he shouted with a look of complete resignation, as if he had given up all hope in me.
Sorry. I’d been calling you ‘Trash’ in my head this whole time.
In any case, after confirming his name, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
His last name was different from Sara’s.
So they weren't from the same bloodline after all.
Separate from the pity I felt for him, it was a tremendous relief that this guy and my Sara were not related.
“Right. Leon. Now, I’m going to ask my real questions. Do you know what your race is?”
“What?”
He stared at me as if to ask what kind of out-of-the-blue nonsense I was spouting.
“Look. One of the abilities I received from the Goddess allows me to see other people’s race. And your race is called ‘Demonkin.’ I’ve seen countless people, but I’ve never seen anyone with a race that has a similar name. What’s more, that name, Demonkin… it sounds like it’s deeply related to the mission I received from the Goddess. Does any of this ring a bell?”
“Wh-Wh-What are you talking about? It doesn’t ring a bell at all! This is the first I’m hearing that my race is Demonkin!” he said in a flustered tone, desperately avoiding my gaze.
Come on. It’s so obvious.
Judging by this reaction, it looked like I might get a clue about the Demonkin today.
“Hey. Tell me the truth. You have to keep your promise.”
“Ugh… but… even so, this is…”
“I’m not kidding. The Goddess really did give me a mission and send me here. Your reaction tells me you know something. If you’re not careful, you could make an enemy of the entire world, you know?”
“Wh-What are you saying?! We would never betray the Goddess…! In fact, it’s the opposite!”
“Then tell me with confidence.”
“Ugh… I’ll say this first. This is absolutely not a lie.”
“I know. I’ll believe you, so just tell me.”
“And one more thing. I need you to promise you’ll never repeat this to anyone. You take it to your grave, no matter what. If you can’t do that…”
“I said I get it. I’m a Saint. A Saint. You don’t trust the Goddess’s messenger? Trying to look scary won’t work on me, so just hurry up and talk. For your information, if you try to harm me, you’ll face divine punishment from the Goddess.”
“…I truly only learned of the name Demonkin today, but there is a story that has been passed down in my family for generations. This story is probably related to that race.”
“Go on.”
He hesitated for a moment before continuing at my urging.
“Long ago, this world did not belong to the Goddess. It was the world of a cruel War God, where everything was decided by combat alone.”
From that first sentence alone, I sensed that what he was saying was true.
That was because the term ‘War God’ rang a bell.
It was from the description of Sara’s passive skill.
Hero’s Bloodline MAX
Passive Skill
A Hero born with the blessing of the War God. They grow faster than anyone through combat.
Greatly increases the growth rate of all abilities that can be developed through combat.
There was a clear mention of the War God there, too.
And the pieces fit together.
Sara leveled up exceptionally fast through combat.
If this world was originally ruled by the War God before the current Goddess, then the method of leveling up would have naturally been different.
Yes. In a world ruled by a War God, levels would obviously be gained through combat.
Just like in the ordinary games from my original world.
If Sara’s leveling was a remnant of that system, then it all made perfect sense.
“And our clan was the one that received the War God’s blessing and gained the Hero job. Through the power of the Hero, our clan reigned as the strongest in the world, like royalty in today’s terms. But one day, a new god appeared in this world. That was the current Goddess.”
The scale of the story had suddenly become immense, but I was starting to get the gist of it.
“So our Goddess and the War God fought, and you guys sided with the Goddess?”
“What kind of foolish thing are you saying? As if a mere human could interfere in a battle between gods.”
Oh. Huh? I was wrong?
“According to the stories, the War God’s power gradually weakened over time, and the world slowly became the Goddess’s. Our clan was then faced with a choice: to continue serving the War God we had always served, or to embrace the new Goddess. Most were in favor of continuing to serve the War God, but my ancestor, who had grown weary of the constant fighting, thought differently. He left the clan he disagreed with and chose to live alone in the world the Goddess was recreating. And…”
He trailed off, his eyes welling up with tears again.
Why is he suddenly like this again?
“That petty, cheap, and dirty bastard of a War God placed a curse on my ancestor! The worst curse imaginable: that for all generations to come, his descendants would be ugly! That son of a bitch should’ve just taken away our fucking fighting ability… He spouted some dogshit about making us feel how fucked you can be in the Earth Goddess’s world when you’re ugly but good at fighting…”
Having said that, he started sobbing his heart out again as tears streamed down his face.
I see. So that’s what happened.
I knew something was strange. The Hero job was supposed to grant +1 to all stats with every level up. Even if he was born with 0 Charm, at level 198, his Charm should be at least 198.
It was all because of a god’s curse.
In any case, I learned an incredible amount from his words.
Since there were no contradictions with the Hero skill description I’d seen through Sara, it was probably all true.
Though, since it was a story passed down through generations, some parts might be exaggerated.
At the very least, the existence of a War God was almost certainly a fact.
But now that I’d heard it, my head was a mess.
The biggest takeaway from his story was that my prediction about a Demon God wasn't just a guess—it was real.
A real Demon God. Does that mean I was really sent here to put an end to him?
No. Like this guy just said, how is a mere human supposed to fight a god?
From the sound of it, he seems to have been weakened considerably, and if my prediction that the dungeon is made of the Demon God’s body is correct, his power seems to be scattered all over the place.
Even taking that into account, it was a truth I didn't want to believe.
Furthermore, the mystery of Sara’s birth, which I thought would be solved, only deepened.
No, to be precise, I now knew what kind of bloodline Sara came from.
A Hero, a Demonkin, but not under the curse.
In other words, she was a descendant of the Hero clan that, unlike this guy’s ancestor, chose to serve the Demon God until the very end.
But if that’s the case, how in the world is she in this world?
Weren’t they all wiped out when the War God was sealed or whatever? That’s what you’d normally think, right?
No way. No. I want to believe it’s not true, but this isn’t going to be one of those endings where Sara is the final boss, is it?
The last pure-blooded descendant of the Hero.
The War God descends using Sara’s body, and we, having reached the end of the dungeon, have to fight that Sara… The fact that it’s a plausible story I came up with myself gives me the chills.
Dammit. Then what am I supposed to do from now on…?
The fact that the Demon God is real, and the possibility that Sara could be in real danger.
I had tried to investigate through this guy because I didn't want to believe those two things were true, but the more I heard, the more it felt like the facts I dreaded were becoming reality.
Even though I knew such thoughts were completely irrational, I started to feel a sense of resentment toward the guy who told me the story.
“Sob… sniff… sob…”
But the sight of a grown-ass man sobbing and sniffling with tears and snot running down his face immediately erased my resentment.
Right. What did this poor bastard do wrong? That’s enough. I should just let him go.
I had already heard everything I needed to from him anyway.
I decided to comfort him a bit and send him on his way.
“Hey. That, uh, curse. Couldn’t the Goddess do anything about it?”
“Sniffle. According to the records, that filthy War God poured the last of his strength into that curse, so even the Goddess… all she could do was grant us the blessing of not dying from sex… but what good is that! Waaah!”
Ah, so that’s why a guy with such low Charm didn’t die after sleeping with the princess.
“Calm down. R-Right. How about telling the others what you just told me? What’s there to hide? If anything, the church might even revere you for it…”
“Are you serious?! Do you think we’re idiots for having kept this a secret all this time?!”
“Uh, huh?”
“Try going around telling people you were born a heretic! And that you were royalty! Fine, being a heretic might be forgiven since we came into the Goddess’s fold. But if we go around saying we were royalty, we’ll immediately be viewed with unnecessary suspicion by the current royal family! And… and more than anything, telling this story means revealing the curse! The curse that the children of our family are guaranteed to be ugly! The only reason the royal family is trying to have the princess and I produce a child is because they don’t know about this curse. If they find out… our family line will be cut off completely! Who would want to marry us?!”
“No, but still, if your family has been ugly for generations, they would’ve found out even without knowing about the curse…”
“Right. Everyone was starting to think that way. That Heroes are, by default, ugly for generations. But because of his existence…”
“‘His’ existence?”
“The other Hero! Sairon Auden!”
What?! Auden?! Then does that mean he’s…!
“So we weren’t the only Heroes! Was this story passed down for generations all a lie?! What the hell was that guy?! A handsome Hero! Does that even make sense?!”
“Hey. Tell me more. That Sairon Auden person, is he now…”
“How should I know?! He’s just some bastard who died a long time ago!”
Dammit! So he really is dead!
It was a chance to learn more about Sara’s origins.
In any case, it seemed impossible to get any more questions out of this guy.
Diana would probably have information on this Sairon Auden person anyway. I should just wrap this up and send him home.
“Hey. Calm down. I don’t know if you heard, but I’ve already summoned the Goddess and had a conversation with her once. When I get another chance, I’ll call you too. Then you can also….”
“R-Really?!”
Don’t shove your face at me, you bastard. It makes me want to punch you.
“Yeah. So that’s enough for today, go home. I’ve asked everything I wanted to know.”
“Y-You’re a surprisingly good guy, aren’t you?!”
What do you mean, surprisingly? You were the one picking fights with me from start to finish for no reason. I’ve always been a good guy.
“Right. So go now. I need to sort out my thoughts.”
“Ah, alright. You have to keep your promise about the Goddess descending…”
“I said I get it.”
“A-And…”
“What now?”
“A-About what happened in the duel today…”
“I won’t say anything. I’m not petty enough to go around bragging about something like that.”
“Th-Then. I understand. A true messenger of the Goddess is truly magnanimous. As expected of the Goddess’s…”
“Just go already.”
“R-Right. See you later. Definitely! Definitely!”
Is that really the same guy who was picking a fight with me over every little thing just a moment ago?
How can someone be so simple-minded?