10 – The Black Magician and the Liar Warlord.
“Hero.”
“Yes?”
“You shouldn’t spend all the travel expenses provided by the church on dice gambling.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s public money.”
“But it’s fine if I win, right?”
“The Goddess’s blessing isn’t there for winning in gambling, is it?”
“Ah, come on, this much is fine. Besides, it’s the cheats who are in the wrong, isn’t it?”
The hero was not a severe gambling addict betting public funds on dice games. Of course, that wasn’t entirely without reason, but there was a separate nominal purpose.
It was to screw over the cheating scoundrels. The hero had declared that themselves.
By the nature of dice games, it’s impossible to know who will win until the cup is uncovered. That applies as much to the gambler who throws the dice.
The hero’s blessing was to pierce through the ‘truth,’ but it couldn’t perceive the truth that not even their opponent knew. The only ones the hero could trick were the scam artists who could manipulate the dice.
It was, of course, a ridiculous joke. There was no reason for the hero to go after such petty criminals. They were probably just doing it out of boredom.
“Also, it’s so stiff to keep calling me the hero. Call me by my name, please!”
“By name… you mean?”
“Yes, by name! You do know my name, don’t you?”
“…Lady Canaria.”
“Just call me Cana.”
“Lady Cana.”
“Drop the ‘Lady.'”
“…Cana.”
“hehehe, that’s much better!”
The hero’s name was Canaria. She bore no surname, not being of noble birth. The name of the small bird with yellow feathers matched her quite well, with her gold-thread-like shimmering hair.
“Anyway, I would prefer if you refrained from participating in dice gambling.”
“Ugh, such a nag.”
“To the hero—”
“Name.”
“…to Cana, it’s necessary advice.”
“Che. Fine, got it.”
The hero accepted my advice more readily than expected. A sharp contrast to their earlier stubbornness about not needing any companions.
Eventually, the thought that even heroes are kids at heart made me inadvertently smile.
“What’s that smile for?”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Don’t smile. It makes me feel attached.”
“Understood.”
Well, the adventure with the hero might not be as bad as I thought. It even feels like I’ve become the protagonist of a heroic tale. If this were an old story where the hero was the main character, would I be roughly in the position of a thief who joins the hero as a condition for amnesty? The fact that I will gain freedom when the hero defeats the Demon King does make it seem somewhat similar.
Even as a villain, we’re similar, I guess.
“If you don’t like playing dice, want to go for a dungeon raid? I’ve already cleared the nearby dungeon by myself, though.”
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound too bad… but somehow, it seems like there’s suddenly something that requires your hero’s strength.”
“A task?”
“Yes. I’ll explain more quietly.”
Something was evidently off about this village.
The village chief kept the hero busy by spinning a web of rumors and asking him to solve various problems.
The overly abundant number of swindlers compared to the village size.
The village, curiously located near a deadly dungeon where a few may die and no one would blink twice.
Combining all this information that I have discreetly gathered while aiding the hero.…
‘Slave trade… perhaps?’
Apparently, there was some illegal activity going on in the village.
The hero being enticed by gambling was unlikely to be a simple folly. This must be the ‘Hero’s Fate’ that is often spoken of.
A nasty fate that pushes the hero into adversity to strengthen him in times of hardship. What a disgusting character this Goddess is. Whether it’s a Devil or a Goddess, I wish they would just choke. You two should marry each other and give birth to a half-human half-devil god.
‘The hero hasn’t caught onto it yet….’
Now that I’ve figured it out, I no longer need to rely on vague blessings to navigate this winding path.
Even if the criminals involved in slave trade are hiding extremely carefully….
It won’t be as discreet as the continent’s largest secret organization, nor as thorough as infiltrating the Four Heavenly Kings as a spy.
It’s time to dig up the fox’s den.
*
That night, after a self-proclaimed demon possessed me, I had a dream.
As always, it was a nightmare. A dream of people who died in my stead.
I wished they would curse me. Regret dying for the likes of me. Resent me for letting them die.
I had these thoughts for a moment while looking at the smiling images of the past.
However, my insight as a hero didn’t allow me to deceive myself.
All I could see was the bitter reality.
My mother pushed me inside the closet. I wanted to protest but for some reason, I couldn’t open my mouth so I just watched.
Tears running down my face, my mother showed me a warm smile.
-“My lovely daughter, the Goddess will protect you. Our daughter… is a hero. Our daughter becoming a hero has made me so happy. My daughter, shall we make a promise? From now on, no matter what happens, don’t cry. Because a hero… is everyone’s hope.”
I broke that promise.
A figure of a child crying huddled in a devastated village came into view. Then the scene shifted.
It was a back alley in a free city. It was a place so familiar to me.
A warrior yawning on my behalf, pierced by a sword, passed on his last words with a voice that seemed to break at any moment.
-“Hero…. Run… please… You are… our… hope … can’t… die… in… such… a place…”
Again, I couldn’t grant his request.
Lastly, I saw a girl lifting up her sword instead of running.
I woke up from the dream.
Cold sweat was flowing all over my body.
.
.
.
“Can you stop calling me a hero? It’s too stiff. Just call me by my name!”
“By your name… you mean?”
“Yes, by my name! You do know my name, right?”
“…Canary.”
“Just call me Cana.”
“Cana…”
“Without the honorific.”
“…Cana.”
“hehehe, much better!”
*
It wasn’t hard to grab the tail of crime if I moved under the assumption that a slave trade was happening.
We found a girl who was imprisoned in the basement of a deserted warehouse. Her entire body’s ligaments and tendons were shattered, leaving her immobile. Even if she continues to receive treatment from the church, it would take several months of recuperation to return to normal life.
“The state she’s in, it’s horrifying…? If she was left like this, she wouldn’t have survived for more than a few days?”
The hero was right. The injuries were not simply meant to be healed later on.
Something was off.
If the purpose was slave trade, they wouldn’t have made the ‘merchandise’ completely incapacitated.
If it only breathed, it seemed to imply that the state of the ‘merchandise’ didn’t matter.
And, as far as I knew, there was only one kind of commerce that dealt with this type of ‘merchandise’.
“Dark magic…?”
Among all nations of the mortal realms, it is a taboo classified as a Class Zero illicit act.
The forbidden craft, so perilous in nature that even in the demon realm, most of its magic is banned.
Dark Magic.
Someone was studying dark magic.
“Do you understand anything?”
“Kana.”
“What’s wrong?”
“This, we can’t handle it ourselves. We need to report this to the Holy Kingdom immediately and ask for support…”
“Looks like we’ve got rats in here.”
Damn. Talk about lousy timing.
Turning towards the direction of the voice, I saw a man cloaked in a black hood staring at us. If we were lucky, this person would simply be a courier transporting ‘goods’; but if luck was not on our side, this person could be…
“So you’re the brats who’ve been meddling with our ‘business’ lately. The hero they call a whelp and… cursed kin? What a laughable pairing.”
…likely the dark mage himself.
On guard against the man in the black hood, it was the hero who spoke first.
“Is it you? Are you responsible for imprisoning this person?”
“Imprisonment? Well, I suppose it might look that way. This one will be sacrificed to our great lord. He, too, will rejoice, knowing he’s part of the foundation for our grand undertaking.”
“What in the world are you talking about…?”
“Unfortunately, you’ll have to die here. This operation needs to be executed flawlessly. I can’t leave even a single variable unchecked.”
From Noble mtl dot com
At the man’s indifferent words, the hero grasped his holy sword. The blade, as white as the hero’s golden locks, radiated a golden light.
I, too, grabbed my weapon. A quarterstaff, also known as a six-foot pole.
It lacks lethality, but it’s a tool I favor for its versatility in many situations.
…though it is an uneasy weapon in circumstances such as these.
“O Flame of Vesuvius.”
With a sweep of his hand, the man conjured a dark red flame that surged forth, aimed at both the hero and me.
The flame felt similar to magical energy.
I dodged by rolling away, but the hero, attempting to block it head-on, swung his sword where he stood. And just as the hero’s sword, ablaze with a golden aura, neared the magic—
─Whoosh!
“Urgh?!”
The hero’s golden energy clashed with the magic, igniting a massive explosion. A great flame erupted from the blast, engulfing the hero.
Luckily, it seemed he wasn’t seriously injured, but red, burning marks where the scorch had kissed his skin remained scattered across his body.
“Why does the hero’s power…?”
Damn it. Instead of panicking, I should swing my sword.
The energy within that magic is similar to demonic energy, but not quite the same.
It’s a kind of demonic energy that’s more pure and closer to the source than any that exists in the demon realm.
If the hero’s power is the natural enemy of demonic energy, then the power of the hero and the demon are in perfect opposition to each other. Even if one is a hero, without closing the distance, victory is unattainable.
I charged at the dark mage and shouted loud enough for the hero to hear.
“Hero! Snap out of it!”
“O Fire Brick born of flames, build a wall before me.”
The exterior of the quarterstaff, swung towards the wall of fire, heated up to a red glow. Although it was a more useful weapon than a sword when it came to breaking something solid, it could not break through that wall.
With my own power, there was no way to penetrate this dark magic.
Ultimately, we needed the hero’s strength, but for some reason, upon hearing my cry, the hero seized up even more!
Surely it wasn’t because I had spoken informally.
“O flowing fire that devours all that crawls, O sluggish death boiling from the largest furnace…”
“Hero! Only you can do this!”
“I, I am…”
“Kana!”
In an instant, the trembling in the hero’s eyes ceased.
And after taking a deep breath, the hero steadied his sword. It’s good to brace oneself, but could he do it faster? Over there behind the wall, that guy is obviously chanting something dangerous, isn’t he?
“O Goddess, open the path with starlight that illuminates the ocean. Holy Sword, rend!”
“…O most perilous calamity among all that does not burn, The Flame of Vesuvius.”
A tsunami of flames that seemed intent on devouring the entire warehouse collided with the golden energy that flowed from the hero’s sword swing.
And with an ear-splitting explosion as the finale.
I lost consciousness.
…
…
When I opened my eyes again, I was still inside the warehouse.
The difference from before I fainted seemed to be the utter chaos around me and the sight of the sky through the completely shattered ceiling.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a basement…?
“Woocheon, wake up, Woocheon!”
“…Am I alive?”
“…Heuaaang – I thought you died! Heuk, hoooo…”
Why is he crying?
I wish he would stop beating his chest with his fist. I feel like I’m going to keel over…
Feels like all my bones are shattered…
“Sniffle, my bad! It was my fault!”
Cough.
Stop hitting me!
I will really die at this rate!
Is the brave hero aiming to finish me off now even when the four heavens and earth couldn’t?!
“Kana… What happened to the victim who was trapped…?”
“He’s okay, fortunately. You should worry about yourself first!”
“Alright…”
Can’t he treat me a bit more gently if he was really concerned about my condition…?
Because I am a patient…?
.
.
.
The kidnapped little girl and I were moved to the altar and received medical treatment.
There was a slight hiccup when the priests, who saw the demi-human for the first time, used an attack method. The healing itself was a torture because of the pain I experienced every time the holy power seeped into my body filled with magic energy.
Anyway, besides gaining another discriminating experience for being a demi-human, there was a slightly distressing part left over.
That black magician.
Surely.
– “You too, you will be happy to become the fertilizer for accomplishing ‘our’ great cause.”
He had said ‘we.’
Apparently, this issue seems to be dragging on more than I expected.
My retirement… Peaceful retirement life… Where did they go…?
“Thing Heaven! Are you okay?”
“I am not okay.”
“You are lying.”
“…I’ve now recovered enough to be able to walk.”
“That’s such a relief… From now on, don’t get hurt! If you get injured again, I’ll just abandon my umbrella and start walking alone again!”
“I understand.”
“…Why are you laughing?”
“The sunshine feels nice, that’s why.”
“Another lie. Sigh, lying so much just because you’ve been lying down.”
“……”
“Pfft.”
“Ahem.”
“Ah, you just scoffed at me, didn’t you?”
“Not at all.”
“Liar!”
Well, even so.
It seems not too bad to enjoy this kind of life.
Before retiring.
Just for a short while, that is.