## Chapter 1039 – A Man of Many Questions

In any case, I put aside the novel stimulation of that new play and began the full-scale demon hunt the next day.

It’s a little disappointing, but doing something new that I haven’t done before is as good as that novelty, so that’s how it feels. I can always do that kind of different play, so let’s move on for now.

First of all, Hilde hadn’t sensed the energy of the gate yet. Then, there’s nothing else to do but kill demons.

But I think it’s extremely important to find out the identity of this crazy monument I acquired as a trophy this time.

How long has it been since I found a clue?

If I’m lucky, I might be able to find out the identity of those vague heretics.

In the meantime, these bastards have been trying to control monsters, spreading strange cultists near Isvant to plot something, and even conducting inhumane human experiments to create a kind of undead, while also borrowing the power of demons, showing various terrible actions over the years.

It seems certain that there is a lich at the very top of them.

I think this monument will definitely be a clue, as it has been witnessed before. In fact, it’s a bit suspicious that those who hide their identities so well would leave something so important unattended.

Anyway, with that in mind, I took the monument and went to the church to inquire, but as expected, I couldn’t find out anything in the city. No one knew the letters engraved on the monument. So, I started hunting demons in earnest.

Demons know best about demons.

Since Hilde doesn’t know, there’s no one to ask except the demons who came over this time.

“Tell me what you know about the monument!!!”

For the past few days, I’ve been carrying the monument around and interrogating demons before killing them whenever I encountered them.

“Kuaaaak…!”

The high demon, with its neck in my grip, struggled and kicked my abdomen, but such a weak attack was just ticklish even without armor. My abdomen, already at the level of steel, doesn’t budge with ordinary attacks.

“I’m telling you, what is that monument!!!”
“I don’t know…! Kueueueuk!! What the hell is it that you’re asking…! Kahak!”

Even with my roar, the high demon only spat out that it didn’t know, and never gave me the answer I wanted. These damn bastards are really a problem! They never tell you anything properly!!!

“You still don’t know!!!”

ㅡKwaang!

“Keugak!!!”

I grabbed the high demon’s neck and slammed it into the ground, then stomped on it with my feet, breaking its limbs. Even so, it only screamed and didn’t reveal anything about the identity of the monument.

“I don’t know, I told you I don’t know, human!! Keuhaaaaak!!”
“Don’t lie!! You crazy demon bastard!!!”
“W-What are you doing!!”

ㅡWoodudeudeuk!!!

As soon as I grabbed and broke its horns, which were no different from the demon’s pride, it almost wailed and had a seizure.

“Kihyaaaaaaaak!!”
“It’s no use pretending you don’t know!!! If you don’t tell me about the monument, you’ll only die!!”

“Gerelelelelelek!!”

The completely ruined high demon tried to bounce its body.

Seeing that it still says it doesn’t know even after doing this much, does it really not know?

“This son of a bitch!”

ㅡKwaang!!

It seemed like it really didn’t know, so I punched it in the forehead and blew its head off. With the power of Fusion Confucianism burning more intensely than ever, there were no demons anywhere that could stop me.

“I’m curiousㅡ!!!!!”

As soon as I killed it, I crossed my legs and spread my arms wide, shouting at the Lesser Demon group that I had subdued in advance.

“I’m curious, curious, curious, curiouscuriouscuriousaaaaaaaat!!!! Why can’t you give me an answer when I’m asking!! Why!! If you don’t know, there’s only a painful death, you trash demons!!!!”

I’ve been slaughtering and interrogating demons for days, but not a single bastard knew about the monument…!

Unbelievable anger!!!!

“Keueueueuk…!”
“I, I can’t believe it…! Such a human!”
“It’s like looking at Andromalius!”

The subdued Lesser Demon group each said that and were shocked.

When Claudia and I first saw this monument, there was definitely one high demon, Rakshasha, and other Lesser Demon groups guarding the monument…! It doesn’t make sense that you guys don’t know!!!

“Kkieeeeeeeeeeeek!!!!”

ㅡKwaang!

I kicked off the ground and flew like a missile towards the Lesser Demons.

“Kuaaaaaaaaaak!!”
“Kaaaaaaaak!”
“Kieeeeeeeee!!!”

As soon as I landed like a meteor, the subdued Lesser Demons were smashed, scattering blood and flesh. Once again, I asked them about the identity of the monument, and when I didn’t get a satisfactory answer, I killed them all except for one.

“Now there’s only one left.”
“Kiiiiiiik!!”

Anyway, these bastards really seemed to know nothing about the monument. Then there’s no need to waste time. I can just catch other guys and ask again. If I keep catching them, I might eventually find someone who knows.

I’m going to beat all the bastards to death until someone who knows comes out.

“P-Please! Human! I’ll do anything if you spare me!”

The last remaining Lesser Demon desperately shouted, holding out its torn arm.

“What can you do?”
“P-Power…!”
“I’m stronger than you, you bastard.”
“Kueuk…!”

The last one left knows how to answer well.

“Our demon friend. If you want to live, tell me something that will interest me.”
“H-Human interest…! H-How to achieve wealth and glory?!”
“Forget it.”

Actually, there’s one more thing I’m curious about besides the monument. That’s why I left one last bastard.

“Why didn’t you run away?”
“Run away…?”
“Yeah. Why didn’t you run away after coming out of the gate?”
“Run away! I tried to run away! But there were too many humans, so I couldn’t run away!”

Okay.
It wasn’t an order, huh.

“Okay. Let’s skip that. Then, what about the location of the gate?”

I’ve been asking this every time I caught demons for the past few days. But I couldn’t have much fun.

“Y-You want to find the gate! It’s not far from here! But it disappeared right after we came out… so you won’t be able to find it!”
“Ha, damn it. Is that so?”
“Y-Yes.”

I’ve been hearing similar words for the past few days.

Every time I asked these small-fry demons, I got these answers. At first, I thought a very large and powerful demon gate suddenly appeared somewhere over there, and demons were pouring out of it like a tsunami.

But that wasn’t the case.

It seems certain that the big gate exists, but these small-fry demons didn’t come over through that big gate, but through sporadically occurring gates. In other words, unstable gates that appear and soon disappear.

Numerous sub-gates are intermittently appearing and disappearing around one main gate.

These demons are seizing that opportunity and coming over.

“Then what about the Archdemon? Did the Archdemon come over too?”
“A-Archdemon? I, I don’t know much about that!”

This is also the answer I’ve been hearing for the past few days.

“But it’s not difficult to infer… The Archdemons can’t not know that the demons of Pandemonium are moving in large numbers! Then they’ll eventually try to interfere somehow!”
“Yeah.”

Like this, most of the demons didn’t know anything about the Archdemon’s movements. They were really useless, and the reason they didn’t escape from this space was simply because there were too many humans and they were surrounded, so they couldn’t easily escape.

In other words, Pandemonium. The information here was not shared there. Most of the demons saw the suddenly created gate and came over here without knowing anything.

“The case is falling into a maze more and more.”

Is it some kind of smokescreen?

In fact, even if a general is carrying out a huge tactic, the low-ranking soldiers under him just move according to orders without knowing anything. This is also similar. Someone with a purpose opened the gate, and the rest are just secondary things.

“T-Then, are you going to spare me…?”
“This bastard.”

ㅡTseujeuk!

I immediately stabbed Vigal into its solar plexus.

“Let’s say those words after spitting out useful information.”
“Keuheok…!”

Because there’s a chance I’ll spare you if I like you.

ㅡChureureuk.

Soon, the completely melted Lesser Demon’s corpse turned into black blood. I cut the corpses of some demons that were still maintaining their shape with Vigal and absorbed their power.

ㅡKkumeulleok.

Vigal was smoothly absorbing the demons’ bodily fluids. But should I call it a kind of experience, I’m just catching and killing small fries, so there was no particular change.

“It’s a dud again.”

As I sat on a rock, Claudia came and sat next to me.

“What the hell is it? Do only a very small number of demons know about the monument?”
“I think that’s really the case.”

Maybe the monument was just there, and the demons might have come to see what was here.

I’m really seeing the evidence of the heretics again for the first time in years, but extracting information about it was more difficult than I imagined.

First of all, I told the paladins and knights to let me know if they find a similar monument, but I honestly don’t expect it.

“In the first place, there are almost no bastards who know about the gate or the Archdemon… Then, in the end, to find out about that, I have no choice but to go to the main gate that might be somewhere over there.”

So, I thought I could find out something by interrogating the high demons who appeared in the early days. But I can’t cover it all. The guys I’ve caught so far all said they came out of sporadic sub-gates.

Those guys all tried to run away, but they were already surrounded, so they just couldn’t escape easily.

But the guys who appeared at first are different.

They know the location of the main gate and guarded this area with some purpose. The guerrilla warfare must have been to slow down the advance of the humans. Could it be that they have already achieved their purpose and disbanded? There’s nothing I can know.

“Katt. Don’t worry. We’ll find out soon. You’re killing demons so hard, right? Then others will be able to explore this area faster. Then we’ll eventually be able to reach that main gate, right?”

Claudia said that in her usual soft tone, as if she wanted to comfort me.

“That’s true too.”

Whatever it is, reducing the number of demons will naturally narrow the encirclement, and we will be able to find the main gate. All I can do now is intermittent exploration and demon hunting. And asking about the monument.

“Then shall we go again?”
“Eugh, yeah. What’s the point of resting? I have to go catch demons.”

ㅡSsuk.

I immediately pulled out the monument, carried it on my shoulder, and moved again.

But this area was also contaminated by the influence of the sub-gate that appeared, and the land was polluted. I think the paladins who come here next will take care of this.

* * *

Of course, in the meantime, I occasionally entrusted Risha with research on the monument. I use it to show it to demons and interrogate them while carrying it around, but I sometimes ask Risha to analyze it to explore the identity of the monument.

“This is just my guess, but perhaps this is.”

Risha said, as if she had finally found out something.

“It may be an object that has already used up all the charged power. In other words, it was a monument used as some kind of energy source, but now I think only the shell remains.”
“A shell.”

Then, has it already been used and discarded?

The monument in the kobold dungeon was also like that? Ah, no. It definitely emitted light while we were examining it and collapsed the ground.

“I’ve done reaction experiments using various forces, but only scratches were made on the monument. And I don’t feel any kind of energy.”

So, you guessed it was an empty shell.

It makes sense.

“Oh… It makes sense.”

As Risha said, if it was used as an energy source for some purpose and then abandoned after it was no longer useful, then it makes perfect sense.

Perhaps the guy who is related to this monument tried to destroy the monument that was no longer useful by using demons, but I stopped it.

“Isn’t it too common to store energy in an object and then use it for a special purpose? Perhaps this monument was also used for that purpose and abandoned.”

Is it like a battery?

Anyway, I need to find out who used this monument.