Chapter 102 – A Knight’s Duties

“What are these guys like? Holy Lady.”
“A by-product of the Demon King.”
“By-product……?”
“The evil energy that collects while the demon king is alive and breathing is dripping like water droplets.”

Claire was quite surprised to hear the saintess’ story.
That way, naturally occurring monsters are level 2500?
It’s not fair.

The demon lord is originally a creature that seems to have collected all the absurdities of the world,
People say they saw it, but……

When I actually saw it, I couldn’t speak.

‘Is it really impossible to kill? But the mission given by the princess…….’

“We’re almost there. Just strengthen the seal and get out.”
“Seongguk doesn’t seem to think at all that Claire can kill the demon lord?”

Liana said at once.

“What?”

Claire was startled and tore off Liana.

“Stop it. Captain Liana.”
“They say we came to kill the demon king, but you didn’t even listen, did you?”

Claire knew too.
The Knights of the Kingdom came to kill the Demon King,
It was because the saintess of the warriors’ party was consistent in not giving her faith in important parts.

“Yes. At least I think it’s impossible.”

She said it as if Essilado had no intention of hiding it.
Caught between them, Efana was restless.
Liana smiled brightly, but the eyes looking at each other were very sharp.

“Why did such a holy nation suddenly have the heart to cooperate with the kingdom and touch the seal?”
“I don’t mind if I let you know.”

The saintess muttered as she looked at the pitch-black road ahead.

“The seal has weakened. Recently suddenly.”
“A seal…?”

It’s not enough that the demon lord is alive, even the seal has weakened?
It was a word that warmed one side of her chest.

“I think Escalia has stored up quite a bit of power. She must have tried to break the seal on her own.”
“Did she think it was possible?”
“I don’t know. We’re just here to close the lid again. So that the demon that tore the northern part of the continent apart will not be released again.”
“……Stir.”

Claire cautiously raised his hand and said.

“We heard that the seal will last for a hundred years.”
“…The calculation wasn’t wrong.”

One hundred years.
Maybe longer than that.
Seal the wounded Demon King and hold off killing until you find a way to kill him.
The highest light attribute sealing magic 〈 Light Sealing Flesh 〉 is magic created with that intention.

Listening to the story, it seems like it will break the seal any minute…….
In fact, there was no way that would happen, and it shouldn’t even have been seen.

“In the first place, we had no intention of reopening this place…”

However, the demon king himself shook the seal.
This incident turned the kingdom upside down,
It was the decisive factor that led to the urgent request for cooperation from the kingdom.

“Who would deliberately try to touch the demon lord?”
“It would be interesting if this phenomenon had something to do with the new demon lord.”

An unexpected perspective.
Seeing Liana who mentioned the ‘second demon king’ here,
Essila spoke sparsely with surprised eyes.

“Uh… Well… Is that so… If there’s a corner where the demon lords can communicate with each other. There’s no such precedent, but…”
“Everything is unprecedented the first time it happens.”
“There was also the second demon lord problem… Guys, is it okay to leave the capital empty?”

Claire nodded his head.

“I left it to someone I can trust.”
“When fighting the demon king, the person you can trust dies first.”

Essilla murmured quietly.

“I don’t think the Prophecy Saint said anything, but…”
“Mother….”
“We’re going to strengthen the seal and go out. Show my daughter how to use the seal.”

Stroking, stroking.
Efana smiled bashfully as if her mother’s hand caressing her head was pleasing.

“Her daughter will teach my grandson. She will carry on her seal like that. Is she a coward?”
“No.”

Claire shook her head.

“I’m also afraid of the Demon Lord. If all I could do was seal it, I would have done the same.”
“You mean there’s something else you can do?”
“Wouldn’t it be worth trying the white flower?”
“……We’re almost there.”

Her labyrinth suddenly widened.
Everything goes dark
In a dizzying sense of floating that seems to fall into darkness even if you are a little vigilant,
Bloodshot red eyes rose like the red sun that devours everyone.

Flash.

“Hello, Escalia.”

Device device gig.
With a grotesque sound,
For an instant, the entire space brightened, and a sword made of light was driven into the gigantic struggling body.
Countlessly, endlessly, continuously.

Even though it was so bright, the main body of the demon king could not be properly identified as if it was submerged in a black abyss.

‘I’ve only heard that it’s sealed, but this….’

Claire thought the system resembled primitive torture.
A structure in which the sword of light, which is generated infinitely as you struggle, penetrates the body of the demon king.
Simple but effective.

The more you yearn for life, the more you face a ruthless blade that tries to end your life.
Escalia’s red eyes did not lose their ferocious hatred even in the midst of the blade.
Claire had forgotten that he was breathing.

Cold sweat runs all over the body.

[Wolf of Destruction, Escalia Lv.9999]

‘I fought against this and won…… ?’

Claire was one of the closest watchers of the hero,
I didn’t know the weight of the hero at all.

The demon king….
It was a much more terrifying existence than a twenty-year-old silver-haired girl thought.
I don’t have the confidence to stand still even looking straight into those hateful red eyes.
At that time.

An unknown hand groped Claire’s butt.

“Hyap!”
“Are you nervous, Claire?”
“Ah… Captain Liana…!”

Liana smiled.

“Because I’ll look after Claire. Kill the demon king.”
“…Thank you.”

Her companion’s light play relieved her stiff body.

…… If it’s white, it can kill.
I thought so until I saw Claire too.

But even if Baekhwa has the same characteristics as the Dragon King’s fire that burns life force…….
Its power is not at all comparable to 〈 original 〉.

Essila is right.
Who dares to imitate the flame of Nimuel, the creator of the world?
Claire had seriously thought about why she was given this power.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t figure out the answer….
If it is to kill the demon king,
Shouldn’t this power be used in the right place?

Claire somehow came to believe that it was her responsibility.

“Going.”

Everyone turned to Claire.
The silver-haired, blue-eyed knight took out a white dragon sword as fine and beautiful as ivory,
She prepared a single sword with all her strength.

‘I can kill the demon king with my own hands.’

Escalia’s red eyes are bloodshot.
It only pierces the white flower of power into an opponent who cannot resist.
Essila reached out and gave Claire all the buffs she could.

Same goes for Liana.
Pale starlight is wrapped around the white flowers.

“Haaaaagh!”

Claire swung her sword.

*

The saintess and the others on the way to Rune Kingdom.
Claire kept her mouth shut.

“Claire~ Don’t die.”
“…”
“The Knight Commander did his best….”

The result was, unfortunately, a failure.
Escalia is not dead.
But she screamed in agony until she died, and there was a figure struggling to extinguish the white fire attached to her body.
Then, the sealing flesh of light tore Escalia’s body apart……

The cycle repeated infinitely.
But Claire’s heart was heavy.
I didn’t go to torture the demon king, I went to kill him.

Why am I so disappointed and angry?
Because I couldn’t live up to the princess’s expectations?
She couldn’t kill her after all. It didn’t seem like a difficult task to go to spread the word.

But what is really unforgivable is…….

“It was like a puzzle where everything fit together, right?”
“…”

Saint Esilla’s words pierced Claire’s heart.

“Because there is no offensive skill you’re unhappy with in the kingdom. There’s nothing strange about it even if it looks like the last piece of the puzzle to kill the demon lord.”
“…Yes.”

Looking back…….
The vague belief that he was going to save the world was arrogance itself.
Even if you are one of the strongest people in the kingdom, if you look at the world as a whole, there will be people who are stronger.

Standing at the pinnacle is the warrior.

The demon king that even the hero couldn’t do anything about,
To think that he can reverse it only by skill compatibility.

As for Esilla…….
It was nothing strange to think that a kid who had never fought a demon king was acting like a passenger.

“I don’t think it’s something to be so pessimistic about~. That high-level demon lord. Didn’t my court stay still even if I put my court in the eyeball?”
“Kuh-kuh, yes, in that sense it was very pleasant.
“…”
“Thinking that the Demon King will suffer until he burns all his remaining life… It’s pleasant.”
“I… Failed in my responsibilities.”
“Duty?”

Essila blinked her eyes.

“…I thought it was something that only Baekhwa could do. Because it’s a holy white fire… Because it’s the dragon king’s fire.”
“It doesn’t matter.”

Less so less.
The wheels of the carriage carrying four people shake.
Esilla said with a rather serious face.

“Killing the demon lord is a warrior’s job. A knight’s duty is to protect the people in the meantime.”
“Isn’t that related to killing the demon lord?”
“No, protecting and going to kill are different. I heard about you from Ethan, did your hometown really disappear because of the demon king?”

Claire was speechless.
Although the demon king provided the cause, the one that destroyed Claire’s village….
Called the [Terrible Luther family], He was the former corps commander of the Demon King’s army.

The hero defeated the demon king, but
I couldn’t stop the secondary damage that followed…….
The nearby village was helplessly destroyed by the Demon King’s retaliatory attack.

There were no survivors.

Only one place.
Except for Nora Village, where the girl who killed Luterga with white fire appeared.

“You’re strong, but Ethan didn’t take you. Now you know why.”
“……The reason the hero didn’t take me… You mean…?”
“I don’t know?”

Claire remembered his childhood.
At that time, the reason why the hero did not take him,
He thought it was because he couldn’t get a girl who was only twelve years old into the party.

But was it really so?
Could the hero not know the anger and hatred of the girl whose hometown disappeared?
The pain of people who have no place to return to…….

Even though the girl’s eyes vividly captured it.

“Captain of the White Flower Knights. You still don’t know what you’re carrying on your shoulders. That’s why you can’t.”

… What do you carry on your shoulders?

“Fulfill your responsibilities first”

Responsibility….

“Is it your duty to kill the Demon King?”

The carriage stops.
Claire’s eyes knew where to go.

“Let’s go first!”

Liana smiled troubledly at her colleague who left like her wish.

“We have no choice but to do what the princess tells us to do. Isn’t that our responsibility?”
“What would a guy like you without romance feel in this conversation?”
“Um~. Romantic~?”

The eyes of a woman who obeys the rhythm seem to shine brightly and brightly,
Sometimes it’s very empty. Sometimes it feels like nothing.
She smiles with her mouth, but always sees the cold side of the world with her eyes.

“There’s only one thing I can say from my experience. The nobler the ideal, the easier it is to get dirty. Saint lady.”