“This is… what on earth?”
With trembling hands, Xion found and turned to the next page of parchment.
Spreading holy power through the Demon King’s castle was a little different from the simple notion of purifying demonic energy.
The duke had exploited the backlash that occurs when a large amount of holy power comes into contact with demonic energy over a short time, inducing a mana explosion.
That was why the Demon King’s castle had caught fire.
If Xion had left his companion’s corpse where it originally was, the Demon King’s castle might have gone up in flames.
Because Xion wanted to leave the corpse as far from Reinhild as possible and dumped it deep in the forest, the damage to the Demon King’s castle was kept to a minimum.
But the outcome did not change.
The duke achieved his objective perfectly.
From the beginning, the goal of this plan was not to set the Demon King’s castle ablaze, but to make Reinhild put the fire out.
[While holy power is infused, force the Demon King to expend an enormous amount of mana.]
The demonic energy required to extinguish a holy-power fire burning with the hero’s power would have been considerable.
By the time the flames were completely out, Reinhild’s body would have been all but emptied.
In that moment, the holy power that had been circling within seized its chance and spread through Reinhild’s body. Already exhibiting a rejection response to holy power, Reinhild could not endure it.
What’s more, as the blaze of holy power flared and died, a great quantity of holy power had dispersed into the air. As Reinhild attempted natural recovery after expending much mana and vigor, the holy power drifting in the air was naturally absorbed into his body.
What was fatal to Reinhild had, in effect, been forcibly stuffed inside him.
That was why Reinhild vomited blood and collapsed.
With the rejection response to holy power intensified.
‘So… that’s why he reacted like that.’
The fact that Reinhild woke up immediately when Xion came was because he felt discomfort.
Just having Xion, who exuded an aura closer to divine power than ordinary holy power, nearby would have made his heart throb and ache.
He had only taken his hand, yet the pain made Reinhild startle and swat Xion away while misunderstanding that Xion was the one hurting him.
‘No, it wasn’t a misunderstanding.’
Xion was hurting Reinhild.
He had become someone who inflicted pain on the precious Reinhild simply by drawing near.
If Xion were to visit the Demon King’s castle again and, in any manner, make contact with Reinhild, the Demon King would suffer and die.
And the record of all this would remain in history as a single line.
“‘The hero Rexion West succeeded in subduing the Demon King Reinhild.’”
“Aaaaaah—!”
Kwooooom!
As if venting on everything before him, Xion swung his sword.
His blade ripped apart the dragons’ magic and reduced a stack of parchments to scraps. Shredded into pieces beyond recognition, the parchments couldn’t withstand the rough wind stirred up by Xion’s sword and floated up into the air.
Even as he watched the bits of paper that had lain here for millennia flutter down, the mage made no move to stop Xion.
However precious ancient magic might be, he wasn’t tactless enough to throw cold water on a man who was weeping.
“Khuk, hff… Rein… Rein, aaaaah!”
Amid the shower of papers, Xion fell to his knees and sobbed.
He wept, he screamed, he beat at his chest as if stifled, and pounded the ground as if to smash it to pieces.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Unable to bear the sight of a hero on the verge of both sleep deprivation and malnutrition shrieking until his throat went raw, the mage finally patted Xion’s back.
“Calm down.”
As if he would calm down.
‘The duke really used his head.’
Beside the wailing Xion, the mage coolly analyzed the situation.
Killing a Demon King by addicting them to holy power was a method frequently used by heroes of past generations. It strained the hero as well, but it was also the quickest and easiest way to dispose of the Demon King.
The Duke of West, who had known of this method for a long time, was convinced Xion had no intention of eliminating Reinhild and thus concocted this plan.
Had he not discovered the hidden chamber, Xion would have gone to the Demon King’s castle and, without ever knowing, brought about Reinhild’s death.
If, the last time Xion visited the Demon King’s castle, he had attempted contact beyond simply holding her hand, he might already have driven Reinhild to death.
In the end, it would amount to the Demon King being disposed of by a hero from House West.
At the same time, Xion, who had defied the duke’s orders and failed to properly carry out his duty as hero, could have been punished.
Whether the duke grasped their relationship and set this in motion, or whether the High God enlarged the stage under the duke’s lead, it was, truly, a fine plan.
A plan fine only for the duke and the god.
“In times like this you need to calm down, hero. Think about what you’re going to do next.”
Feigning consolation, the mage laid a hand on Xion’s shoulder and infused mana to soothe him. It was an extremely discourteous act, seizing control of another’s emotions at will, but Xion did not grow angry.
If it didn’t concern Reinhild, nothing could stir Xion’s emotions.
Even so, the mage’s action was not without effect. As the agitation subsided and his head cooled, the situation came into slightly clearer focus.
Cooling his rage, Xion organized the information and thoughts he had just gained.
Hero and Demon King are bound to point their blades at each other. A relationship fated to end only when one dies at the other’s hand.
Xion had never pondered deeply the fate tied to the names hero and Demon King.
He simply loved the time spent with Reinhild.
He had arbitrarily defined the meaning of hero and Demon King as something that allowed them to be together for life and had tried to act accordingly.
Was this the price of such complacent judgment?
Xion despaired at the reality that his existence had become hell itself for Reinhild.
He had wanted to help Reinhild.
He had thought he alone could save him.
He was wrong.
A hero, in the end, can only be a being that drives the Demon King to death.
‘Would it have been better had we never met?’
Xion cursed the fact that he was a hero.
He resented the High God who had created this entire hell.
Even so, nothing changed.
The hero would slay the Demon King.
As fate had foretold.
In Xion’s hands, Reinhild would die.
“…”
Xion stared emptily into space.
Left alone like this, it felt as if he would sink into the void and never emerge again.
‘I should’ve just let him rampage.’
Clicking his tongue, the mage regretted having calmed Xion.
Better to rage and thrash than to sit there like a lifeless doll.
He might tear up all the parchments, but once he vented his anger he would at least come to his senses. Once all will was lost, there was no fixing it.
“First, calm down. You need a cool head if you’re going to take revenge, right?”
“…”
The mage blurted it out in haste and immediately realized his mistake.
Perhaps at the word “revenge,” Xion’s eyes once more flared with anger.
At this rate, he really might raze the duke’s castle from the foundation up.
No, he might not stop there; cursing the High God, he could smash the Great Temple to pieces.
Though venting was better, charging out to duel a god with real steel was hardly a desirable choice.
The mage hurriedly added,
“You have to save the Demon King!”
“…There is no way to save Reinhild. Even if I disappear, the next hero will appear. Unless we erase the High God…”
Good. He still reacted to the word “Demon King.”
Before Xion could grab the god-bestowed hero’s sword and rush out to kill the High God, the mage hastily added,
“Want me to help?”
A touch of life returned to Xion’s eyes, which had been growing darker by the moment.
The mage did not miss it.
“If there’s a way to help the Demon King, will you do as I say?”
“If it’s true, then whatever it is.”
Hope shines brightest when it appears before someone buried in despair.
With desperate heart, Xion clutched at the last remaining hope.
At the same time he looked at the mage with a gaze carrying a trace of killing intent as if to say that if this was a lie made up merely to keep him from rampaging, he would not let it pass.
That gaze felt like a hand tightening around his throat, and the mage’s skin prickled.
‘I must never turn this guy into an enemy.’
You don’t poke the truly crazy.
“This whole situation ultimately arose because that side is the Demon King and this side is the hero, right?”
“That’s right.”
“If you think a little more simply, doesn’t the solution jump right out?”
Xion furrowed his brow. He plainly didn’t get it.
If he drew this out any longer, he could enjoy a thrilling spectacle, but thinking that spectacle might end up including his own corpse, the mage quickly added,
“It’s a problem that’s solved as long as their relationship is no longer hero and Demon King.”
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