Do Heroes Need Welfare Too? - Chapter 196

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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 63

I had certainly expected we would encounter him in the Demon King’s Castle.

But not like this.

I grabbed the Sacred Relic and tried calling out to Adam.

However, Adam, who always responded with a bright smile, was not there before my eyes.

Only Adam, who had lost focus, stood there without moving.

“…Adam?”

Kyrillos, who had just noticed Adam, muttered quietly.

I realized that Adam’s condition was strange.

However, Kyrillos was so flustered that he stumbled over his words.

To ordinary eyes, they wouldn’t be able to notice the demonic energy beside Adam.

“Adam? Why are you over there!”

Adam, who had gone ahead to defeat the Demon King, was standing beside the Demon King in perfect condition.

Kyrillos couldn’t hide his bewilderment as he took a step forward.

“Lord Kyrillos, wait!”

I hurriedly grabbed Kyrillos’s arm and pulled him back.

Crack!

“You…”

The spot where Kyrillos had been standing was deeply carved by a sword.

Kyrillos looked at Adam as if he couldn’t believe it.

“He doesn’t seem to be in his right mind.”

“That’s right, if he were in his right mind, he wouldn’t try to kill his one and only friend who had taken care of him for three years.”

Kyrillos spoke jokingly out of habit, then hardened his expression.

He wanted to deny this situation, but it seemed too difficult to ignore.

“Don’t tell me Adam has sided with the Demon King?”

“How could that be? He’s obviously been brainwashed by a curse!”

“Of course I knew that.”

Really, if only he wouldn’t say such things!

But Kyrillos let out a small sigh of relief beside me.

He couldn’t really think that was Adam’s true intention.

“Adam always ended up killing people in the end, so this was the reason.”

Eventually, Kyrillos spoke as if muttering.

“Ah, did you know about it?”

“…Roughly.”

I answered with a pause to his words.

However, our small talk in front of Aphene couldn’t last long.

Aphene hadn’t moved since earlier.

As if saying ‘try it if you can,’ he was enjoying our reactions. Seeing how he called us ‘guests,’ it seemed he had intended to show us this.

If Kyrillos tried to attack the Demon King, Adam would surely block him.

And it would only end when one of them died.

‘That must not happen.’

Why did I come here in the first place?

Hadn’t I decided to prevent the worst-case scenario somehow?

I had to prevent Adam from hurting someone due to the Demon King’s curse.

If that happened, Adam would surely regret it even after returning to his senses.

Aphene, looking down leisurely from above, seemed to be anticipating how we would move.

Whether he would kill his friend, or be killed by that friend.

It was truly a wicked and twisted hobby.

I glared at Aphene behind Adam.

Unlike when we first met, he was full of mockery. He had become someone who didn’t match the foolish behavior he had shown me.

He must have toyed with and killed people in such ways.

At that moment, Aphene’s eyes sparkled.

He removed the hand supporting his chin and showed ecstasy, baring his teeth.

“You brought me a gift.”

Receiving Aphene’s full attention, I instinctively flinched.

Aphene’s core.

I had indeed found it correctly.

However, I hadn’t been able to destroy it yet.

It might simply be due to lack of power, or perhaps because Aphene’s currently moving body was intact.

“Bring it here.”

Then Aphene flicked his finger.

Adam, who had been still, slowly moved toward me.

I ran to the other side to protect the box.

And while Kyrillos blocked Adam, I attacked Aphene with divine power.

However, Adam futilely swung his sword and blocked it.

It wasn’t the holy sword Adam usually used, but an ordinary training sword. But since it was Adam wielding that sword, it was sharper than any other blade.

As long as the greatest Hero stood beside the Demon King, I couldn’t break through.

Moreover, divine power didn’t work on Aphene, whose power restrictions had been lifted.

Unless I thrust in a holy sword and channeled divine power through it as a medium…

“You cannot defeat me.”

“…”

“You too shall cry and blame your own incompetence like the Saint did.”

Aphene’s mockery pierced my mind.

Hadn’t I seen firsthand how helplessly the Saint had to accept her lover’s death?

…No.

That couldn’t happen.

Nermia’s face as a cold corpse was replaced by Adam’s.

I shook my head violently at the chilling imagination.

“Adam!”

I called out to him desperately, but Adam seemed to have completely lost his mind.

But I couldn’t give up.

I had to find freedom for Adam, who had lived his entire life doing what others told him to do.

Adam, exposed to the Demon King’s power, could no longer resist the demonic energy that had already accumulated in his body.

“Adam, snap out of it.”

I used divine power on Adam’s hand as he tried to swing his sword.

Adam swung his sword again to deflect the divine power.

And the moment the divine power hit the blade, the sword broke in half.

It was divine power that even Lawrence’s sword couldn’t withstand.

Having been hit twice, it wouldn’t have been easy.

However, Adam, who had lost his sword, still remained motionless.

Only his red eyes, consumed by demonic energy, were empty.

“Adam…”

It was the moment I took a step forward.

Adam, who had been perfectly still, also moved.

And in the blink of an eye, he drew the holy sword from its sheath.

“Maid!”

It was the moment when the horrified Kyrillos grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.

“Ugh…”

Clang!

Adam, who had dropped his sword, grabbed his own hand as if in pain.

Adam did not attack me.

That was not his will.

A small hope arose and then faded away.

Adam could not draw his sword.

The holy sword was rejecting him as he was consumed by demonic energy.

Having lost his weapon, the advantage was on this side.

However, to completely seize that advantage, ending his life would be certain.

But….

‘There’s no way I could kill him.’

I had never even thought of becoming enemies with Adam.

For Adam to look at me with those eyes.

Eyes that contained nothing, rather close to hostility.

I wanted to deny this reality to that extent.

Among the worst I had imagined, this was the absolute worst.

And the same was true for Kyrillos beside me.

‘I have to… kill him!’

Kyrillos looked at his trembling hands.

Was the past truly unchangeable after all?

Kyrillos, recalling the dream Lawrence had shown him—no, the memories of the past—clenched his hands tightly.

“In the end, nothing changes.”

Kyrillos said with a self-deprecating sigh.

“No, Kyrillos! There must be a way to break it without killing each other…!”

Realizing his intention, I grabbed hold of him. Kyrillos looked at me with a pained expression.

However, his face already showed he had made his decision.

“You’re the one who needs to come to your senses, Maid. If you don’t want to die, you need to send him away quickly. In the end, we cannot change predetermined fate.”

Kyrillos said self-mockingly.

“It’s okay. I’ve already done this before….”

Kyrillos pushed away me who was trying to stop him and raised his hand to attack.

A large sphere of magical power formed near his arm.

-“You at least have to believe in him, Kyrillos.”

“Ha, what a truly persistent ghost….”

Lawrence’s voice, which had been annoyingly persistent, now sounded like his own voice, slightly more mature than now.

It was like his past self who had killed the rampaging Adam.

The voice of him from the world where he had survived by killing Adam.

Of course, Kyrillos wanted to believe.

However, he had no choice. Rather than let Adam become known to people as the Demon King’s minion like this, it was better to end it with his own hands.

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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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