Chapter 262 – Not a Hero #04

Karen, who was suddenly urged to commit suicide by a fighting enemy, was speechless.

And since that was the reaction Eldritch wanted the most, he was watching Karen without hiding his pleasure her.

[Why? A chance to save everyone here with your one life. Isn’t this kind of generous offer an opportunity that won’t come again?]
“…Now, are you really saying that you really proposed that ridiculous proposal?”

In the first place, the other party is not a trustworthy existence.

The moment Karen took her own life, it was obvious that she intended to blaspheme after harvesting the souls of the warriors.

Besides, even if that statement were true…

“Such a stupid offer, I have no intention of accepting it.”

In this short gap, Karen, who gave his body a little break and was able to afford it, lifted the holy sword. Her divine power her emanating from the tip of her sword her seemed to be proving that she was still her hero her.

[Is it? That’s really strange.]

However, Eldritch laughed at Karen.

[He sacrifices himself to save as many of those bugs that want to parasitize him. Wasn’t the existence of a hero always like that?]

As the eldritch finger pointed at the boat the students were on, Karen roused her senses and prepared to slash and slash any magic that might come flying at her.

However, there was no magic speech that followed. Eldritch’s gaze was the only thing directed at Karen, who used defense magic with enormous mana that ordinary people could not handle.

[Look, aren’t you wasting your mana and strength to protect those parasites?]
“…”
[Poor thing, if it weren’t for those parasites, you would have had a chance at least a little.]

The words of pity that Eldritch said and that there would be a chance of victory were sincere.
After Artin Ludwig disappeared, the battles used to flow surprisingly evenly.

[Actually, you’ve had the opportunity to mortally wound me several times, I’ll admit it. You are also a monster enough warrior, if not as good as Artin Ludwig.]

In terms of physical strength and mana alone, it was good to say that he surpassed Artin Ludwig.
Even if it was not just a hero, but a dragon lord who did polymorph, he had convincing physicals, highly trained combat skills, and even superior divine magic and spirit magic.

If the hero in front of him had been 1:1, and if he hadn’t released all of the demon lord’s power, Eldritch would have been defeated on this spot.

[So, how long are you going to do that pretentious play? Is that petty deception more important than your life?]
“..What?”
[Stop now, slowly reveal that ugly face. Fake.]

─Keying!

In an instant, magic consisting of a ray of blue light shot from the Eldritch’s fingertips and rushed toward Karen.

“Chit, shallow numbers!”

A sudden surprise attack, but Karen, who judged that it was not fatal because the amount of magic contained in the magic was not large, tried to simply block it with the dragon’s magic resistance.

At that moment, an ominous intuition passed through Karen’s mind her. An attack aimed at one’s own gap can only be blocked with magic resistance?

“…!!”

When Karen leaped through space with her magic and avoided the blue flash, the flash soon lost its power and fluttered in midair. She disappeared without even reaching the ship behind her.

But her instincts were clearly warning her. If I had blocked that magic with my body, something terrible would have happened.

“What, what is it? What about that magic? What were you trying to do to me?”
[No big deal. It was just a very simple…Transformation cancellation magic.]

──When Karen’s complexion turned blue, Eldritch laughed madly.

“Uh, since when?”
[Since when, when I strike my sword with a swordsmanship that has not been united with the body? Or when you figured out the gap caused by the body imbalance that you sometimes saw during the fight?]
“You you…!!”
[If that’s not the case…Yes, it would be when the male hero appears as a woman and glances at Artin Ludwig with female eyes, right?]
“Shut that mouth!!”

Karen’s sword scattered into dozens and poured toward the Eldritch. The precision of her sword was destroyed as much as Karen’s emotional agitation of her, but on the other hand, her murderous intent and sharpness of her were incomparably more menacing.

[Yes, this is the point! The arrogance of hiding one’s true face and not exerting one’s power in the subject of fighting to protect people! Fangs exposed when I uncovered my private parts! At a critical moment, you make selfish judgments without even realizing it!]
“Shut up…!”
[Cayenne Silver Sword! You are a good warrior and an excellent swordsman! However, you are unfit for being a hero! Because your principle of action is based on personal desire, not sacrifice!]
“I told you to shut up!!”

The holy sword and the famous sword were swung with a cry close to screaming. The dazzling divine power and boundless mana that formed on both ends were ferocious enough to cut down a hundred demons in unison.

[So, I would have said there were a lot of gaps!]
“It’s big!?”

The Eldritch, having destroyed all the attacks, struck Karen with a huge grip.

Karen managed to cross her swords to block her fatal wounds her, but she heard a cracking sound coming from her chest her.

Did my sword crack, or did the bones inside my body crack? Whatever it was, it wasn’t a good thing in this situation.

[Isn’t it strange? You don’t feel the ambition to save everyone, nor the self-sacrifice that is close to ruin. All the warriors I’ve seen are like that.]
[I prioritize hiding myself at the moment when I have to risk my life to fight, and I don’t even worry about risking my life to save everyone.]
[Rather——I thought Artin Ludwig was more suited to being a hero. Are you really a warrior? Cayenne Silver Sword?]

——Beep, whether it was because of the excessively violent movement or the shock that had just been blocked, tinnitus filled Karen’s ears, but that lich’s mental waves were not covered by the tinnitus.

Sophistry, a bunch of contradictions, words that don’t deserve to be heard. Even if he wanted to turn away like that, Karen couldn’t ignore those words.

No matter how much she tried to refute, her mouth her would n’t open. No, even when I opened my mouth, I couldn’t think of what to say.

…Because those words were true.

*

A person who rejects injustice, does not ignore people in trouble, and works for justice and good deeds. Karen was originally such a person.

Of course, justice without power is just a scarecrow, but Karen’s justice, who obtained the dragon’s power by chance, was a sure belief.

Naturally, those around him praised his fame and good deeds his, but—
As time passed, the hero Karen’s soul was drying up.

“Thank you for defeating the demons! Thanks to you, we were able to protect our family’s livelihood!”
“Thank you for stopping the rebellion of the insignificant peasants. For collaborating with a black magician, shouldn’t those who have touched such evil powers be exterminated just because they are starving?”
“Thank you! Thanks to you, we were able to get rid of those filthy beasts. An inmate of the Demon King’s army? Of course, those furry guys will side with the demons! Do you need proof?”

As the Demon King’s offensive intensified, the righteous people gradually died. In the end, as time passed, those who stayed by Karen’s side began to be filled with self-seeking and greedy people.

Of course, it was not without her ancestors who supported her. However, every time she saw the greedy spirits who insulted her justice by using her to fill her own teeth, and whenever she realized that she was being used by them, she Karen felt herself dying.

It was a murder and a suicide. Because it was like a defense mechanism that she tried to endure by killing her own emotions and mind, the pain she suffered from others.

In the end, Karen’s inner world became more and more empty as time passed. She did nothing but do her mechanical good deeds with her goodwill and obligatory responsibility that remained. The end result was the arrival of the demon king army.

However, the goddess did not give Karen rest. Suddenly coming to her senses her, she was able to recognize that she had returned to her past time with her faint memories of her.

“Ahhh…”

I was happy at first. Because it was an opportunity to save people who could not be saved, who had to die due to ignorance. However, the more she chewed on her past and made plans for the future, the more complicated Karen’s mind her became.

‘Who should I trust and who should I beat? If you move carelessly, more blood may flow than before. The nobles of the empire are corrupt, and the nobles of the kingdom are incompetent. The Hwajok of the Republic are greedy, who the hell…’

Between her faint good will and clear malice, and the many options in between, Karen couldn’t get her way. She was a warrior who believed in people and fought, but her nature to doubt others was unlearned and untalented.

A ray of light fell on her.

“Remember, you just have to trust me and follow me. Okay partner?”

Artin Ludwig, after meeting the man, her Karen life her could change.

“You stupid! Are they trying to use you? Don’t help, stop losing!”
“What if I protect people there! And what if you get hurt? Take care of yourself first!”

A man who endlessly did himself a favor, even though he doubted and rejected him.
He is a man who has worked hard to stay by his side of him, vomiting blood and cutting bones.
He was the one who made it possible for him to remain as a warrior.

With Artyn by her side of her, Karen was able to do good and fight back with pure forgiveness.

She no longer had to doubt anything. Freed from her pressure her, Karen, for the first time, recognized her steady back in front of me.

‘…Why are you doing it for me?’

Leaning against her firm, firm back her, Karen began to have new doubts about her. Why is this man doing this for me?

One day, when Karen, who couldn’t overcome her doubts her, asked her directly, Artin pondered a bit before answering.

“Yes, it is because I am the hero’s partner. Need some other reason?”

Maybe Artin said it without thinking about it. He probably gave an appropriate answer because he did not want to reveal the fact that he was a possessor and a regressor.

However, that answer came to Karen differently.

‘Warrior. Yes, for Artin to show me such kindness…’

Karen was special. Even if it’s not what she wants.

And the moment he realized that Artin’s favor was established through the relationship between a hero and a partner, that specialness became a shackle to Karen.

Do good and punish the wicked, do justice and fight against the devil. You have to save the person you see in front of you even if you are forced to, and fight against the impossible for Dori.

We have to fight. It should be done. It has to be done. Because you are a warrior. What if I’m not a warrior?

─────────────────
Quest: The Hero’s Secret

You are the warrior chosen by the goddess to save this world.
The status window is the power given to you, but you must not let anyone know about it.
If someone discovers your true identity, the hero’s power will be withdrawn.

Quest condition: Defeat the Demon King without letting anyone know your past and status window.
Penalty in case of quest failure: Disqualification of the warrior, recovery of the status window.
Reward for completing the quest: 1 desired wish that can be granted with the power of the goddess.
─────────────────

Termination of Eligibility. At first, I thought about making it myself, but now it felt like a punishment more fearful than death.

Even if I did good deeds from a certain moment, I didn’t enjoy it very much. The purpose has become the means.

It was the same now too. She didn’t really train to be a warrior, she fought against the eldritch as her body was in disrepair.

She also knew that if she returned to her male body her, she would be able to fight the eldritch more evenly. However, Karen insisted on fighting as a woman.

‘Why me? The way I am now is my true self and the one I am loved.’

What if Artin finds out that he has returned to his male form his?
What if Artin, waking up from a daydream at that sight, refuses to associate with herself? What if you showed regret right in front of your eyes?

The despair she felt at that moment terrified Karen. She said that, but she revealed herself and was afraid of being disqualified from being a hero.

I was afraid no matter which one I chose. No, maybe Artin has gotten used to a life where important matters are decided. She seemed to have lost the strength to walk on her own as she chased after him.

── In fact, she had always wanted one thing, but it was so painful that she had to give up nothing to get it.

[You look so ugly, did you finally realize that you are a disgusting person?]

Seeing Karen in despair as she blamed herself, the Eldritch couldn’t help but ridicule her!

Yes, that’s the expression that suits such lowly beings. Despair and frustration, fear and sadness.

It is clear that the fact that the cheeky humans held their heads stiffly in front of me was actually out of the ordinary.

[It’s ugly. If I can’t risk my life to fight, if I can’t even sacrifice my own life to save it… It’ll be quicker to kill it with these hands.]
“…Kuu?!”

The eldritch claws swung at Karen’s head her. In response, Karen hurriedly swung her sword to block it, and Pajik! And once again the crackling sound rang out.

[Pride too! Confidence too! At the very least, I don’t want a worm without tenacity to stand in my way!]

Bang! Bang! Bang! Every time the blades and nails collided, a roar spread and echoed across the sea. Karen’s sword barely blocked the attacks, but it didn’t take long.

──Zeuong!

And finally, the sound of a sword breaking was heard.

“Sir, the holy sword…?”

The broken one is the holy sword Elendar. The holy relic of the church, which always radiated divine light, could not withstand the lich’s attack and was torn in two.

Elendar was a sword that was like a conviction that had not been broken even once in his last 4 lives, but now even the divine power that was shining brilliantly from that sword was being disturbed.

[Khahaha! Have you lost even the Holy Sword? A hero without a holy sword, isn’t he a great hero!]

Karen looked at the half-broken holy sword with trembling eyes. The Holy Sword, which had been used as a proof of being a hero from the past and a pride, had been shattered.

──What was even more miserable was the fact that the Holy Sword was broken because he was in a state of disarray. If he hadn’t lost his composure, the sword wouldn’t have to withstand the attack of that corps commander alone.

[Why? Why are you staring at the broken sword? Come on! Wear that hideous mask of hypocrisy and die as a hero! Then at least other humans will continue to remember you as a hero!]

Frustration crept up inside the shocked Karen.
What should I do now? Should I even swing a broken holy sword? Can we fight and win with only the sword Artine gave us?

“Stupid mortal bastard, still can’t come to his senses? So who are you going to fight with?”
[…?! Who, who are you!?]

At that time, Eldritch was started by the woman’s voice coming from the air.

It’s not just a woman’s voice. It was because the level and presence felt in her voice were incomparable to those of the Southern Church’s Transcendentalists.

“You’re arrogant, you dare to behave like that to me. It would take a million kills to forgive that sin.”

Chiik, the space of reality was torn apart and a woman appeared. She became a woman waiting for Artin, hiding her body her in imaginary space.

[Meh, Mephistopheles…!]
“Shut that mouth, he is not a name to be called by your trivial mouth. For now just call him the Great Overlord.”

Overlord of Hell, usurper, most powerful being in Hell.
Mephistopheles appeared.