Chapter 253 – The Reason We Fight (3)

Different races. Even monsters and animals.

Every living being in this world was looking at me.

At me. That is, it had to be me.

Dressed in rather fine clothes, I was declaring something to them.

Some faces twisted upon hearing my words, while others brightened.

I couldn’t hear what I was saying, even though the words came from my own mouth.

But I knew their meaning.

I was deciding matters of life and death.

I didn’t know if I had such a right. But I certainly didn’t want to say those things.

The people crying out were demanding hope from me.

I could offer them no words.

As I turned away, a goddess shimmering with golden light watched me with a sad face.

She whispered to me.

-You are always given the hardest roles.

What could her words mean?

What was I doing?

At that moment, I heard a piercing scream and my eyes shot open.

“Gaaah, khahaha!”

A demonic being, screaming in a way that made it impossible to tell if he was laughing or crying, clutched his severed arm.

Ah, I must have dozed off.

After being attacked for days on end, I hadn’t had any time to sleep properly.

Looking around, I saw properly armed and armored demonic knights surrounding me.

“Well, you knights certainly have good manners. Is it a rule not to attack a sleeping opponent?”

“…”

“……”

The demonic knights stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.

The one who appeared to be their leader spoke in a low voice.

“It may be cowardly, but we did attack you.”

“Huh?”

Looking at the ground again, I saw splattered blood and bits of flesh from corpses scattered in a fan shape.

Looks like I took care of them in my sleep.

“For days on end. The number of demonic beings you have killed exceeds twenty thousand.”

They counted?

“At this rate, the losses are too great. Though it shames us, we wish to extend a hand to you.”

“A hand?”

“Yes. You must know that facing our Demon King Alliance alone is a suicidal act.”

The knight captain bared his teeth in a smile.

He was probably trying to look friendly, but it just oozed cunning.

No, the thoughts in his head were actually being transmitted to me.

“Let us make a truce. You may not believe me, but I have the authority to…”

“As the legitimate heir of the Demon God, I suppose you do have a say.”

“…How did you know that.”

The knight captain asked back in surprise.

The Demon God was the original, pure Demon King before they split into factions.

In human terms, he was something like royal blood.

“The Demon Kings didn’t send you here to defeat me.”

I said, raising the cracked Sainchamsageom.

“They sent you here to die at my hands. You already attacked first, so why bring up a truce now?”

“The Hero is exhausted! The one who first hunts the tired prey shall gain the greatest honor!”

I threw the Sainchamsageom at the kinsman who had quickly revealed his true colors.

The captain was too shocked to even dodge and took the sword straight to the face.

The Sainchamsageom had served its tour of duty.

I wanted to use the Holy Sword, but to use a sword without a blade, I had to use pure mana.

In other words, it was fine for a short battle, but in a protracted fight or a war of attrition, it drained too much stamina.

Even for me.

I snatched the weapons from the charging knights and slashed, butchered, and killed them.

By the time the morning sun rose, thousands of knights had been wiped out at my hands.

Enemies they may be, but they were impressive.

Impressive that they allowed themselves to be annihilated.

Normal enemies would choose to retreat rather than fight me.

But these chose to lay down their lives here, upon the corpse of their master.

*Ptoo.*

I spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground and walked through the field of corpses.

It was time for the Demon Kings to make their move.

It was obvious I was growing tired.

In other words, the all-out war with the Demon King’s army was about to begin.

“Did you sleep well, Sir Hero?”

Just then, someone blocked my path.

“Do I look like I slept well?”

“Oh my, I suppose not.”

With short black hair and red eyeshadow, a choker tight around her neck, an out-of-place woman stood with her arms crossed, grinning.

“Don’t you need someone to stand watch for you?”

The Company Man, who hadn’t shown his face for a while, had appeared before me in this situation.

***

“I knew it was the case, but you truly are reckless.”

“Now that we’re both Villains, you won’t behead me, will you?”

“An adventure is always best with a Hero’s party.”

“Protein, you eat that for a meal? Let’s see what I brought in my inventory. Ta-da, Sir Hero?”

She talks way too much.

I doubted this was the same Company Man who had been walking around as a man, coolly and awkwardly telling me to buy lottery tickets.

“Ah, that time? That was… I might have been going through a bit of a phase. And I had to go around as a man to not get caught.”

She joined me in the morning and has been chattering away next to me until lunchtime.

I honestly felt like smacking her on the back of the head.

“It’s not that I’m talkative, it’s just that being in front of you, Sir Hero, naturally makes me talk more.”

“I get it, so shut your mouth and walk.”

“There’s only one way to make me shut my mouth.”

As she said that, the Company Man puckered her lips, so I clenched my fist. I was about to swing it at the speed of Mach, but she must have sensed my killing intent because she backpedaled away.

“Just go home.”

“Isn’t it better to have even one more ally right now?”

I wasn’t even sure if she was an ally. It felt like she was draining my energy by chattering away next to me.

“Why are you even here in the first place?”

“Well, I have a foot in both worlds. Human and Demon King.”

The thoughts inside the Company Man’s head, who was smiling and twirling as she spoke, flowed into me.

-That light I saw back then… I can’t miss the chance to see the real thing.

At least she didn’t come to backstab me. I could definitely feel that she was here to help me, which was strange.

From here on out, a real war with the Demon Kings awaited.

This one would probably die at the hands of the Demon King’s army, even if I didn’t kill her.

They must have confirmed she was with me.

“Are you perhaps worried about me?”

“Whether you die by my hand or the Demon Kings’, it’s all the same.”

“Don’t worry. It’s been my dream to become a member of the Hero’s party even before I awakened my powers.”

That was also the truth.

“If I’m going to die anyway, I’d prefer it to be at your hands, Sir Hero.”

That was also the truth.

This one really did have a few screws loose. She was not well.

It was awkward to constantly feel the emotions of others, whether I wanted to or not.

I was more used to it now, even applying it in battle.

“If you wanted to die by my hand, I can kill you right now.”

“You always have to make such grim jokes.”

“I’m not joking.”

I tightened my grip on the shovel handle, and the blade began to tremble.

Seeing this, a smile formed on the Company Man’s lips.

“Is that really the weapon for someone going to war?”

“It kills just fine.”

“Are you the type to eat soup with your hands, saying you can eat just fine without a spoon?”

With that cheeky remark, the Company Man pulled weapons out of her inventory.

They looked somewhat familiar.

“I was given these, just in case you needed weapons.”

They were special weapons made by the dwarf, Graham, the current Guild Master of Hanul and a former weaponsmith for the Demon King’s army.

The decommissioned Sword No. 1, the Longsword; Sword No. 2, the Two-Handed Sword; Sword No. 3, the Dragon Slayer; and the titanium bolts for the recurve bow I used as Sword No. 5 were delivered.

“He said he also made a mass-produced version of what you requested before.”

The additional weapon I received was a Rapid Wire. It looked like a simple metal wire, but when infused with mana, it became a rather tactical weapon.

The Sainchamsageom I used as Sword No. 4 was broken, so this would have to do as a replacement.

-You look happy.

Uh, of course I’m happy.

I may be a master of weaponry, but I’d still rather fight with good weapons.

I was sick and tired of fighting with strange farming tools and chipped, poorly maintained swords.

I held the weapons up to the sunlight a few times to check their condition. Good, they were well-maintained.

No, they were the best-maintained weapons Graham had ever made for me.

-You damn bastard, come back alive.

The old man. Leaving a letter, how unlike him.

It said there was a postscript on the back, so I flipped it over.

-The Graham 2.2 version punching bag awaits your challenge. This time, its frame is made of Psycho-Mu, it blocks attacks with a shield, and it shoots lasers. We have decided to call this revolutionary punching bag system ‘Gandamu.’

Has this crazy old man gone senile?

That’s not a punching bag anymore, that’s a mobile suit.

“That secretary of yours was really mad. She said you ignore a woman’s texts, and that’s why you’ve been single your whole life.”

“That’s ridiculous. Me, single my whole life?”

This was truly absurd.

Honestly, if I had wanted to, I could have dated and gotten married a long time ago.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t popular; I simply made a choice.

“In any case, it’s a fact that you’ve never been with anyone.”

“…”

“And the world has agreed to call that being single since birth.”

Dammit.

“Shall I take this one?”

A group of assassins was surrounding us, preparing for an ambush.

“You’re not going to talk big and then get yourself killed in one hit, are you?”

“Oh my. You do worry about me.”

She always uses that weird tone of voice that gives me goosebumps.

But right now, she’s genuinely happy. What kind of pervert is she?

“The salvation you offer isn’t just about killing someone.”

The Company Man muttered to herself as she drew a skill pattern in the air.

“It also helps someone stand up, and guides someone toward hope.”

In her childhood, she believes she was saved by me.

“And the person who was so inspired became a serial killer who goes around murdering people?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard this a lot. Kill one person and you’re a murderer, but kill many in a war and you’re a hero.”

Just as the Company Man finished her skill pattern, enemy arrows rained down from all directions simultaneously.

“So don’t die.”

I never thought I’d hear something like that from an enemy.

It was natural for them to see me as reckless for entering the enemy’s den alone.

It must look like I’m walking to my death.

That’s probably why that Demon King from the modern world sent this useless support through her.

The arrows flying from all sides were deflected by the shadow the Company Man created.

Her shadow, which had suddenly swelled in size, was rising up as if it were alive.

“Aaaargh!”

The archers of the Demon King’s army were screaming.

Their own shadows had transformed into spikes and were piercing their masters’ bodies.

Screams erupted from all over in an instant.

The Company Man leisurely drew skill patterns in the air, overwhelming the surrounding enemies.

She was much stronger than before.

I don’t know what she did, but this was not the same Company Man I had beaten and captured.

Of course, I wasn’t the same me from back then either.

In any case, she was skilled enough to cross over to this world on her own.

*Clang, chaang-!*

The dark warriors who had been on standby drew their swords, forged from the black ore of the demon world, and charged all at once.

The Company Man cast a shadow bind on all of them as they charged.

The warriors, experiencing the bizarre phenomenon of being attacked by their own shadows for the first time, were flustered.

However, the warriors with magic resistance broke free from her bind and continued their charge.

Even in this situation, the Company Man remained composed.

*Swish!*

A charging dark warrior was torn apart by a black ore sword.

*Vwoom-!*

A blond knight, holding a cursed demon sword that generated a pitch-black magnetic field, looked at me and chided.

“Were you planning on leaving me behind again?”

Siegfried was cutting down the warriors who had broken free from the bind one by one.

With the Company Man, a shadowmancer, applying debuffs and Siegfried, a dealer, carving through them, the enemy forces were being cleaned up in an instant.

It was something only possible because they were both monsters.

Shouldn’t a Hero’s party be filled with dreams and hope, and have at least one beautiful saintess?

Yet here was my party in my later years, in this sorry state.

“A corpse and a psycho…”

Well, it’s not bad.

“You pass.”