“Such nonsense!”
Upon receiving the oracle, the Duke of West exploded in rage.
The hero’s power would be taken?
It was as good as saying that if Xion failed to produce proper results, his qualification as hero would be revoked.
He could not let the glory of slaying the Demon King be stolen by another. To be stripped of a mission once bestowed upon the hero, what greater disgrace could there be?
If it was going to be like that, it would have been better for the hero to have come from somewhere other than House West from the start.
The Duke wanted to shriek and smash everything in the castle, but he held himself back. The high priest who had come to deliver the oracle was still before his eyes.
Even though the high priest knew the Duke’s true nature, there was no need to expose the bottom of it. Showing such a side could become a weakness.
“Does anyone else know the contents of the oracle?”
“You need not worry about that, my lord. I came here straightaway the moment I confirmed it.”
It was a good thing he had bribed the high priest in advance. He was the one charged with receiving the high god’s words and proclaiming them to the world.
Had he not, overcoming this hardship would have been difficult.
‘Since I’ve put him through trouble, he had better produce proper results, Rexion.’
Grinding his teeth, the Duke shifted all responsibility onto Xion.
“We shall see that this fact remains hidden from the world.”
“We cannot conceal the truth forever, my lord.”
“You needn’t worry. The oracle’s content will not come to pass.”
The Duke, in words that might sound irreverent, that the high god’s oracle would prove wrong, did not hesitate to persuade the high priest.
“This oracle is a warning, nothing more. If Rexion produces results we can be satisfied with, it will be as good as an oracle that does not come to pass.”
“But…”
“Would you shoulder the blame if we publicly announce the oracle, only to inflame dissatisfaction toward the hero and then have its contents fail to become reality?”
“…”
That too was true.
If this oracle was merely a warning, its contents might not be realized depending on Xion’s actions.
The high god would not wish it to be revealed that the hero he sent into the world was so incompetent that he needed to replace Xion.
If this generation’s hero produced even a small proper result, this oracle would become false.
In that case, all the arrows aimed at Xion would turn upon the temple.
Could the temple bear that?
“…Just this once.”
“Good. Only remember that if this leaks outside, I will hold you responsible.”
“…”
In the end, the high priest left the ducal house in silence.
The Duke paced in unease, sinking into thought.
‘For now, the voices praising Rexion are louder. But the problem is from here on.’
The voices of doubt would only grow louder.
Before things became irretrievable, everything had to be set right now.
“What is the hero’s current reputation?”
“In cities and towns far from the capital, it’s still all right. However…”
“However?”
“There are bad rumors concerning how frequently the hero has been visiting the temple.”
There was no need to ask the rest.
Xion would stop by the temple every time he returned from the Demon King’s castle. There were several who claimed they had seen with their own eyes the hero’s miserable state on his way to the temple.
A hero whose shoulder blades had been savagely bitten, bearing deep tooth marks; a hero walking the streets with burns so severe they could not be healed in a single treatment even at the temple.
At first, people praised the hero who spared no thought for his own body and strove for the world’s peace; but as time passed, they began to doubt the hero’s qualifications.
The Duke laid all of this at Xion’s feet.
If he had any sense as a hero, he should have moved at times when there were no people.
No—he should have taken in a capable cleric as a companion from the start and received treatment without visiting the temple.
At this rate, it would be better if the hero did not set foot in the capital at all until the battle with the Demon King was concluded.
‘To act in a way that lays bare his incompetence.’
The hero’s incompetence was House West’s incompetence and disgrace. Xion could not be unaware of that fact.
Had the brat spared even a little thought for the family, he would not have behaved like this.
Suppressing the boiling rage as best he could, the Duke ordered his thoughts.
If no news came that the Demon King had been defeated, only rumors would spread that the hero, with skill not even reaching the Demon King’s soles, was recklessly hurling himself at danger like a moth to a flame day after day.
In the end, the Duke resolved to take extraordinary measures.
“We shall make use of the hero’s companions.”
He had, in secret, already forged ties with Xion’s so-called companions.
Xion, who paid them less attention than the grease stuck in a corner of the castle kitchens, had not noticed this fact.
Or else, even if he knew, he deemed them not worth that much attention.
Xion’s companion could handle a sword passably, but he was otherwise so lacking that one could not tell why he had been chosen—his character was not particularly good either.
As his character was poor, he unhesitatingly reported Xion’s every move, which was convenient, but from the Duke’s point of view, he was not trustworthy either. He was considered a piece to be used once and discarded.
If there was any one thing to rate highly, it was that he was full of resentment toward Xion.
“The hero always acts alone. He doesn’t consider us companions. Because of the frequent visits to the Demon King’s castle, our bodies and minds are in tatters. We might have to live like this for the rest of our lives. But because we’re of no help, the hero all but abandoned us. Being looked at as nothing but a hindrance to the hero stressed me so much I even started losing my hair!”
He did not hesitate to voice his complaints about the hero. Thus he inevitably became the first of Xion’s companions to be targeted by the Duke.
The more disgruntled a person, the easier to handle.
“So the time has finally come for me to act?”
“Yes. I grant you the honor of winning merit ahead of the hero.”
“But to enter the Demon King’s castle, I must go with the hero.”
Being the hero’s companion did not, in itself, confer the right to enter the Demon King’s castle.
Without accompanying the hero, the key that opens the path to the Demon King’s castle, he would not even be able to find the way, and would only wander the forest.
Of course, this was something the Duke had long known.
“There is a way for everything.”
The Duke took Xion’s companion to the High Temple.
In secret.
❖ ❖ ❖
On a late night thick with demonic energy, Reinhild was sunk in a deep sleep.
Because Xion always came during the day and left in the evening, sleep time had been pushed back bit by bit.
Just then, as Reinhild was dreaming a pleasant dream of neatly wiping out the world of humans…
A rustling sounded from the corner of the room.
Clunk.
“…Mm?”
Thud!
At a dull pounding sound, Reinhild rubbed his eyes and woke.
The strange noise was coming from beneath the carpet that hid the secret passage.
“Xion?”
Thud!
It was certain. It was the sound of someone pounding on the wooden door he had installed to conceal the secret passage.
If it were Xion, he would have come up as usual. Why was he only pounding on the door?
‘Did the steward discover the secret passage and block it?’
No, probably not.
If it were the steward, he wouldn’t have stopped at merely blocking a secret passage, he would have nagged Reinhild all day.
Perhaps he had strengthened the magic that defended the Demon King’s castle. The steward could handle that much on his own without Reinhild’s leave.
Though not on Reinhild’s level, the steward’s magic was fairly serviceable. It would not be strange if Xion who was weak for a hero, couldn’t come up and was only able to pound on the door.
‘If he’s trapped below, that’s bad.’
Thinking that Xion might be stuck in the passage, unable to come up or go down and struggling, Reinhild, still half-dozing, pulled back the carpet.
He shouldn’t. Even if he could not show the dignity of a Demon King, to show himself nodding off… Ah, it no longer mattered.
“Xion.”
Squelch!
At the very moment he opened the door to the secret passage, something pierced through Reinhild’s abdomen.
It was the hero’s sword.
“Ah—kh… Why… is… this…”
“Demon—”
Reinhild did not wait for the one who stabbed him to finish speaking. He simply swept his hand.
With a single light gesture, the enemy’s neck flew off.
Split in two, the hero’s companion fell down through the opening, all the way to the entrance of the secret passage that only the hero Xion used.
“Kh… hhk…”
Groaning, Reinhild grasped the hilt of the sword.
Just laying his hand on it burned his palm as if scalded.
The one who stabbed him was not the hero, but even so—the hero’s sword was a hero’s sword. Was that why? Every place the blade touched throbbed as if rotting and sloughing away.
Gritting his teeth, Reinhild pulled out the sword.
Perhaps because of the filthy aura of the high god clinging to the blade, even the Demon King’s characteristic natural healing could not mend the wound.
“Ah… damn…”
Clutching his bleeding belly with his palm, Reinhild curled up in pain.
He had let his guard down.
Had he grown too accustomed to that damned peace the humans loved so much?
He had relaxed his vigilance.
To have allowed an attack like that…
He had assumed, of course, that the one coming up through that passage would be Xion, and let his guard fall.
After all, the only one who knew of the secret passage was Xion…
‘…The only one who knows the passage is Xion.’
The hero’s sword Xion always carried at his side…
A secret passage whose entry by anyone other than Xion was not permitted…
He began to feel intensely ill at ease.
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