Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 194
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 61
There were no traces at all.
Nothing was damaged except for the broken door, and it only looked like the usual quiet night at the Imperial Palace.
Kyrillos muttered quietly.
“The Demon King wasn’t there from the beginning…”
“No. The Demon King was definitely there.”
I said while looking around.
The Imperial Palace was quiet.
As if nothing had happened at all.
However, it looked different to me, who could sense divine power.
‘There’s still demonic energy remaining.’
And there was still faint divine power remaining as well.
However, compared to the thickly remaining demonic energy, it was only faint.
An ordinary Hero’s divine power couldn’t feel this faint.
Since he was a Hero who inherited the Saint’s power, it should be similar to the amount of my divine power, but if it’s this little…
‘Has the curse worsened?’
I don’t know if it became worse after meeting the Demon King, or if it had already deteriorated as much as it could.
However, seeing how Adam left without a word, it’s definitely the latter…
Adam moved first because he was worried about harming me even a little.
Even though I told him not to act like he was going to sacrifice himself alone.
Adam and the Demon King clashed here.
And judging by the remaining demonic energy, not much time had passed.
‘But there are no corpses either.’
There was no Demon King, and though it’s a terrible assumption, there was no Adam’s corpse either.
Would it have been better to come to Adam rather than looking for the core?
Now that Adam had suddenly disappeared, I felt anxious instead.
The messages that had been continuously blocking my vision had also disappeared at some point.
The only consolation was the Quest still positioned in one corner of my vision.
Hidden Quest – Take responsibility for the Hero’s welfare!
If there were no Hero, that Quest wouldn’t be valid either.
Whether it failed or disappeared as invalid, I wouldn’t see it again.
“How about we try breaking the core again?”
At Kyrillos’s suggestion, I carefully took out the box we had found while searching Adam’s mansion.
Judith narrowed his eyebrows and asked.
“What is that? You didn’t come to the Imperial Palace all this time just because of that thing?”
“It’s a secret weapon that can kill the Demon King.”
I said calmly.
A small joy flashed across Judith’s face at the words that it could kill the Demon King.
However, that was the end of it.
It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought about destroying it since finding it at the mansion.
From when I discovered the box in one corner of Adam’s room, I had tried to destroy the core first.
“However…”
“It won’t open. When I tried to open it with my uncle’s sword, it did break a little, but…”
Kyrillos said while gritting his teeth.
“It seems right that it responds to divine power.”
At Kyrillos’s words, I took the box instead.
Then Kyrillos put his hand into the air and spun it around.
At some point, there was a sword in his hand.
It was the holy sword recovered from Lawrence.
It was also something Adam couldn’t receive due to going missing.
“Please try flowing divine power into the sword.”
Following Kyrillos’s words, I thought about flowing divine power into the sword.
It wasn’t as easy as I thought.
If I made even a slight mistake with just a tiny bit of force…
“…Ah.”
The sharp blade shattered down like glass.
Lawrence’s sword, unable to withstand the divine power, broke completely.
Even if it was a sword made by a master craftsman, he was only human.
I needed a holy sword that was praised as being directly bestowed by God.
I sighed while looking at the holy sword with only the handle remaining, then realized what I had done and looked at Kyrillos with a creaking motion.
“…I broke a keepsake…”
“Hey, it’s fine! I gave it to you knowing this would happen.”
Kyrillos said while waving his hand.
He really seemed not to mind.
“If it weren’t for you, Miss Maid, I might not have been able to get it back. It’s cheaper than the price of a life.”
Kyrillos said with a grin.
However, he also seemed a bit dejected, as if he had some expectations.
“As expected, an ordinary sword won’t work. We need Lady Nermia’s sword.”
Kyrillos shook his head as if it wouldn’t work.
To withstand having divine power infused into a sword, a holy sword that the Saint directly imbued with power was needed.
“That… Adam has it.”
Adam always carried his sword around, and this time he disappeared with it too.
After hearing the explanation, Kyrillos let out a small sigh.
“In the end, we have to find the missing Hero.”
Kyrillos said with an awkward smile.
I expected it, but I didn’t know there would be nothing we could do like this.
He disappeared without saying anything to me, but it was the same for Kyrillos.
Despite all the things he had done for him.
Kyrillos had reason to feel disappointed.
“Acting alone again!”
Kyrillos shouted loudly as if frustrated, then closed his mouth.
Since I had the same thought, I could only smile bitterly.
Even in the game, Adam, who sometimes moved alone, would die.
Nevertheless, through that sacrifice, he discovered easier routes and ultimately reached the present…
Kyrillos, who vaguely remembered the previous cycles, probably recalled something similar.
After a brief silence, Kyrillos spoke in a deliberately bright voice.
“In the end, we have to start looking for the missing Hero. Well, as a god, don’t you have any good abilities?”
“A god?”
Before I could answer, Judith asked first.
Kyrillos made an “oops” expression as if he just remembered his presence.
“…Adam serves respectfully like a god, something like that.”
Kyrillos made a rough excuse.
Whether Judith knew my identity or not, the most important fact that Adam had disappeared wouldn’t change much anyway.
“Actually, I’ve been trying since earlier, but there’s no response coming back.”
The last message that appeared only contained anxious content.
What could be the reason for words I couldn’t even understand being combined?
“Didn’t you sense anything strange?”
“Adam has never gone out without telling me anything in the first place…”
I muttered quietly.
The content of the curse that always tormented Adam.
Until now, he had been hiding that appearance, but in the end, it had begun to consume Adam.
“Could it really be because of the curse?”
“If that’s the case, he might end up in the same situation as the uncle we met before. Because of the curse, Adam would lose his reason with just a little more demonic energy injected into him.”
Kyrillos said, picking up on my words.
Time was running short.
If he confronted the Demon King and Adam’s body was exposed to even a little demonic energy…
No, he might have already been affected.
“So what are you two even talking about…”
Judith expressed his frustration.
It was when I was about to open my mouth to explain to him.
“…!”
At that moment, both Kyrillos and I simultaneously looked up.
Judith looked up at the blackened sky a beat later.
Even though it was far away, the skin exposed to the air stung.
Terrible demonic energy thick enough for even ordinary people to see was spreading densely across the sky.
Sparks flew as holy power and ominous demonic energy seemed to clash against each other.
“…The Demon King’s Castle.”
I muttered quietly.
Far in the distance, the sky above the forest was turning black.
The source was the Demon King’s Castle.
* * *
The Demon King had been resurrected.
No one in the Empire could deny this fact.
The sky above the forest where the Demon King’s Castle stood was completely covered with black demonic energy.
Birds that had been flying through the pitch-black sky fell dead, and the only living things were monsters that could withstand the Demon King’s demonic energy.
And that demonic energy was gradually growing stronger.
Eventually, the demonic energy began spreading to nearby villages.
However, just before the villagers could fall into panic, mercenaries appeared.
As if they had anticipated such an event, the prepared mercenaries began evacuating the bewildered people of Dainil Village.
“If any monsters break through, block them from reaching the village!”
“Yes!”
Iselda issued evacuation orders to the village residents near the Demon King’s Castle, preparing for any possible situation.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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