I Became the Hero Who Banished the Protagonist chapter 38

38. The protagonist and the saint (2)

It’s only been a few months, coming here.

Isis smelled the fishy smell of the distant sea breeze. summer sea. The wind blowing from the sea to the land during the day was stuffy and hot. As we reached the edge of the forest, the wagon slowly slowed down. Baktins was a port city built on a deep bay formed by a narrow sea route. In the distant past, glaciers were swept away and created the terrain.

“We are almost at Bakhtins now.”

The coachman’s voice came. Isis turned her head from the window and looked at Arjen sitting across from her. The mercenary didn’t look very happy all the way here. Isis tried to call Arjen, who was still deep in thought, but soon gave up and looked out the window again. swish A tree passed by. It was a broken, no, completely crushed tree. A large boulder was placed next to the tree.

The traces left by the flying shrapnel during the battle were just the beginning. There must have still been a long way to go to the port, but the debris had already devastated everything in front of them. There were also rocks that didn’t seem to have the weight to fly from the harbor, but they wiped out the forest entirely and left huge craters in their place.

“… It’s terrible.”

Isis murmured. Isis’ horse was blown away by the sea breeze. It was a battlefield where I was confident, but visiting this place again brought up not very good memories.

How did I come here again?

Isis rested her chin on the window sill. A conversation she had with Bishop Andrew a few weeks ago in a restaurant slowly came to Isis’ mind.

—

“Where are you trying to take Isis?”

Bishop Andrew sighed as he looked at the mercenary blocking him. He was usually always smiling and smiling, but he had no choice but to harden his expression a little at Arjen’s persistent attitude. If Arjen was at a level that could be ignored in the first place, it would have been, but as a strong man who could not be ignored was openly trying to intervene, it was inevitable for the bishop to be concerned.

“I don’t know why you want to ask that. I told you, you are a total outsider now.”

Bishop Andre resolutely cut off Arjen.

“I’m not trying to disturb you, and I’m not trying to punish you, so please stop. What do you mean, you, a mere mercenary, intervened in the affairs between the Holy Kingdom and the Kairos Kingdom?”

Arjen’s expression twisted. Isis was restless between them and looked at the two of them alternately.

“… It wasn’t that I wanted to be an outsider. If you unilaterally kick me out and come out like this, it’s not like I don’t have anything to say.”

“Nope. I don’t think you have anything to say. I’ll tell you, Mr. Arjen. If you intervene beyond this, the Kingdom of Kairos and the Holy Kingdom may work together to arrest you. Be aware of your position. Be aware of the power you possess.”

Between Bishop Andre’s narrow eyes, gray eyes flashed.

“You are not at the level where I can properly tell and send you off my line. Are you deliberately wanting to make things bigger?”

“yes? If you came out like that, you must have thought that I would easily withdraw.”

“stop.”

Unbearable, Isis reached out and separated the two of them. Isis breathed in slowly. It felt like thoughts swirling around in my head. Isis sighed and turned to Bishop Andre.

“Please take Arjen with you too.”

“Isis. We cannot always smile and say yes to your stubbornness.”

When Bishop Andrew answered, Isis raised her voice.

“This is a mercenary I personally hired to protect myself. Please do so.”

“… .”

The bishop looked at Isis quietly, then sighed as he regained his sharp momentum. Arjen kept his mouth shut, as if he finally realized that Isis’ position would be very difficult if he went on a rampage.

“Well, good. Because I can only listen to the story.”

Bishop Andrew allowed Arjen to accompany him and turned around.

“Come with me, both of you.”

The place we arrived at following the bishop was an ordinary-looking restaurant. Arjen was constantly on guard, and Bishop Andrew looked at Arjen with a sidelong glance and shook his head. The bishop calmly ordered a bean salad and looked Isis in the eye.

“… What is my job?”

“Go back to Baktins.”

Bactins? Isis widened her eyes in surprise, then frowned.

“Why Bakhtins suddenly… .”

In response to Isis’ reaction as if he didn’t understand why, Bishop Andre let out a long sigh.

“You really don’t know, Isis.”

In Isis’ head, the first thing I heard was a sense of repulsion. It was because I couldn’t understand why Bishop Andrew was uttering such a sigh. However, she soon realized that the bishop’s sigh was not a sigh from ridicule or frustration, but a heavy sigh from criticizing himself and feeling sorry for Isis. Isis’s face was stained with embarrassment.

“It is about repairing the damage done before and after. The deep scars left by the third plague.”

At that time, Isis’ expression collapsed once.

“This is the Kairos Kingdom’s job, but we can’t just sit idly by that disaster. If you are a member of the Puritan Church, it is right to care for those who are hurt.”

Arjen’s face was still venomous, but his mouth was not open.

“When you arbitrarily followed that mercenary and left the party, the hero did not bother to find you. Instead, they hoped to support postwar recovery and care for the wounded.”

a warrior? Illroy? When Isis announced that she would leave the party, she remembered Illroy. He said something to catch himself, but then frowned and thought about something. And he remembered how he had just let himself leave the building.

“… No. I really couldn’t have thought of it that way.”

He was the therapist at the party. A healer who quickly healed wounds from battle and made them fight again. I thought I couldn’t be under the dictator named that hero.

“Whether you thought so or not, the hero said that, Isis.”

The bishop picked up the red wine.

“Your mercenaries… Well, it doesn’t matter if you follow me. I don’t think they will act as they please even at the post-war recovery site.”

“I’m sorry, but it wasn’t me who acted arbitrarily, it was the hero’s side.”

“follow your heart. Now, no one will cover you for being part of a party of warriors. And, your employer, Isis, will be fully responsible for your actions.”

Bishop Andrew snorted as if he didn’t want to deal with it any more and drank the wine. Isis was still looking down at the table with confused eyes.

“I will prepare a carriage to Baktins, Isis. I will send a few more priests from the Holy Land, so go see what you can do and act.”

—

Approaching the suburbs of Baktins, the coachman stopped the horse. drooling. The sliding door connecting the carriage and the driver’s seat opened, and the driver’s wrinkled face appeared between them.

“I can’t go any further from here, saintess.”

“What is it?”

“The road is completely ruined and the wagon can’t go. I think you should get off.”

The coachman nodded forward and said. Isis opened the carriage door and got down to check the road ahead. The coachman also stopped his horse for a moment, got off the driver’s seat, put his hand on his waist, and shook his head.

“… It’s a mess.”

“It’s a mess. I don’t know if they will come to see the saintess from this side. What are you going to do?”

Isis looked behind her. The carriage of the priests who had followed her to support post-war reconstruction also stopped.

“Saintess, you will have to walk from here.”

At the words of the priests, Isis nodded heavily. Arjen slowly got out of the carriage she was riding in and looked around. The expressionless mercenary’s eyes did not contain any sentiment.

“it’s okay. After all, all the dangerous roads have been passed.”

Isis looked at Arjen. Arjen shrugged and walked towards Isis. The wind was blowing his dark hair.

“The road is rough, but not impossible to overcome. I think I can clear the road that seems difficult for you to go, so let’s go that way.”

Arjen looked ahead and said.

The road to the heart of Bakhtins is literally gone. Debris and the remains of collapsed buildings. That was all Isis could see in front of her eyes. Isis blinked and looked at the horror, then hardened her expression and took a step forward.

“let’s go.”

Arjen started walking. Isis looked at his back and recalled what had happened when she was fighting the third catastrophe.

—

Arjen and Illroy didn’t get along very well by default, but they managed to maintain a narrow balance until they fought the third plague. yes. It was the battle with the Third Plague that really made them split. From that day on, Arjen and Illroy seemed to have truly hated each other.

“You shouldn’t let that monster approach the shore. Of course, you can’t do it in the open sea. You have to face it in a narrow strait. You can use the islands between the straits.”

“Are you meaninglessly wasting your men, Illroy? Even if you fight him in the strait, you’ll still have to face him at sea. To really kill the Kraken, wait until he’s on the shore, then go to both land and sea. You have to hit him at the same time, otherwise there’s no way.”

And the two fought really hard. The conversation between the two, which usually ended in an argument, became more and more violent, and Georg, who tried to pass it off, and Nella, who usually attacked Arjen and Isis on the side of the hero, just kept their mouths shut.

“That is unacceptable, Arjen. Follow me.”

“You don’t want to defeat that calamity? Please, wake up, hero. It’s not a fight that can be won by showing off your courage. You’re not strong enough to defeat that calamity by yourself, so what kind of fight are you going to fight?”

“Then wait for that monster to come from the land alone. I will tell the commander-in-chief that I will go out to sea with my party members.”

Arjen grabbed Illroy’s shoulder as he tried to stand up ignoring Arjen.

“Don’t be bored, Iloi. If you want to commit suicide, do it alone, you are a dog.”

“If you want to kill everyone in Baktins, so be it.”

“It’s been three days since Baktins was ordered to evacuate, Illroy. There’s no one in the land right now.”

Illroy gritted his teeth and began to speak.

“Do you know that when the Kraken lands, only the Kraken lands? .. They will catch up with everyone who evacuates within two days, and they will be slaughtered by monsters without anyone to protect them.”

Illroy takes a step forward.

“And, more soldiers who step out to stop him will die. All of the meaningless soldiers you mentioned will die then.”

Illroy reached out and grabbed Arjen’s collar.

“Let’s say we land the Kraken and tie it to the land to defeat the calamity. Then what will the rest of us do? Who will be responsible for the victims of the landing?”

“If we don’t go out and kill that monster, the outcome will be the same anyway, you stupid bastard.”

Arjen shakes off Illroy’s arm and distorts his face. Then he drew his sword and pointed it at Illroy. Illroy also drew his sword and confronted him. The two fought as they were. However, there was no way Illroy could defeat Arjen purely with swordsmanship, so after defeating Illroy, Arjen pushed ahead with his strategy and reported it to the Commander-in-Chief, who trusted mercenaries more than warriors.

And- Kraken landed on Baktins.

I was lucky. It was really good. Mages and knights risked their lives, tying up the Kraken’s movements. The Kraken, who had been stranded, swept away everything in sight without distinguishing between friend and foe. Due to the rampage of the Kraken, many of the Kraken’s men who tried to land were killed. Those who remained attacked the main body of the Kraken. Arjen took the lead, and Illroy suffocated the Kraken with a holy sword.

that was the right way.

Those who defeated Calamity said that they were able to defeat the Kraken because they allowed it to land. Isis, who was only thinking about defeating the Kraken, also thought that was right. The warrior party was escorted as soon as the battle was over. The joy of defeating the calamity covered Isis’ eyes like an eyepatch.

—

Isis sighed heavily as she looked at the beach of Baktins, which was submerged in the sea. The terrain has completely changed. What used to be a city is in ruins. The area close to the sea was completely submerged, and it was unthinkable that it was land. The whole land was hollowed out into a huge bay.

Was this place originally like this? Isis, who was looking at the sea with a blank expression, was approached by the governor of Baktins.

“Holy Lady, welcome. I heard you went to Bakhtins to help with damage restoration.”

“… Nice to meet you.”

The district official, who was watching Isis’ blank expression, opened his mouth in a bitter voice.

“With the landing of the Kraken, the city was virtually without Baktins. If it had continued its destruction activities a little longer, the whole province would have been devastated or flooded.”

The governor said something as if he was grateful, but Isis didn’t hear anything.

“Residents… .”

“Many of the residents who said they would not evacuate and would support the expedition also died. Not to mention the troops at Bakhtins.”

The governor sighed as he looked at the pile of stones he was kicking.

“Even those who were evacuated returned one by one… There were quite a few people who were injured while evacuating. Some were attacked by demons that escaped the scene, and many were killed by flying debris. I don’t know what the royal palace will think of this.”

Isis tried to ignore the crushing headache and followed the prefect. There was a makeshift settlement far from the city.

“Please have mercy on the wounded, saintess.”

Painful groans from all over the village rang in Isis’ ears.