Chapter 24: [Vol 1] Chapter 22

The proxy war between the Hero and the Demon King occurs every 50 years it seems. Information about this enigmatic presence is usually eluded and unclear, as no one except the heroes had been able to venture deep enough into the Dark Territories where the Demon King's Castle is located. It wasn't as if this endeavor had a lack of participants, for fame and riches accompanied those who had made it out alive with any kind of information about the enemy lands. But entering terrains that no one is known to come out from, not even the bravest of warriors were able to live past a week in there. The topography, level of toxicity in the air, and even the scarcity of food in its barren lands were clear hazards against humankind. No amount of preparation could prepare them for how disadvantageous it got as they ventured deeper into the center of the Dark Territories.

Thus, no one knows how the Demon King is born till this day, only that it was an ancient evil, the inevitable herald of destruction.

However, from what the heroes had described, the Demon King is a different individual every cycle, each time with different animalistic features that accompany its mantle as the embodiment of evil, and they supposedly represent the seven Cardinal Sins which holds the source of the Demon's powers. It seems that the intent of the goddesses had been transmitted clearly, as the Demon King is a natural entity that spills forth darkness and desires. Either through its overflowing charisma or its absolute power, the Demon King controls authority over all living demons, disallowing their independent invasive desires until they are aligned with his own. Although the Demon King would be defeated over and over again, it would only be sealed temporarily and never killed, returning to its throne with another cursed soul 50 years after.

On the other end of the spectrum, the chosen Hero is born from the lowest ranks in human territory. With the mark that appears during the Baptism Ritual for their coming-of-age ceremony, a child is wreathed with the honor, the fame and responsibility of the destined one. 

There was even a comprehensive list of skills that a Hero had received and learnt through their journey. When looking through the list, I felt a strange feeling of defeat. Each hero received the extremely cheat-like blessings of all four goddesses. 

「Altair's Insight」, which grants an all-seeing status appraisal ability. The hero sees all known and hidden skills, talents, traits and access to a skill library unique only to them.

「Ennieus' Ambition」, which grants one hyper-growth in experience gain and an unlimited level ceiling.

「Diana's Empathy」, which allows one to speak and understand language universally.

「Cardinal's Commandment」, which grants the hero the special abilities based their Cardinal Virtues.

No—They weren't just cheat-like, they were actual cheats. Which made the next part a little strange.

The fights recorded in this book used to have the hero end in his victory with a single slash. But for some reason, the fights became harder, more brutal and less simplistic as the hero, or heroes faced each generation of Demon King. See, the tradition of having one hero had changed drastically since its roots. 

A ritual called the "Hero Summoning" began to take place shortly after the hero from the first generation. Unlike the blonde-haired hero Articus, the second hero who had come from another world had black hair and black eyes, both unseen and was considered a peculiarity attributed to the variant that was not born in Insinity. Despite that, and the fact that rumors calling the hero 'cursed' had spread, the raven black hero was able to use the hero's blessing to comprehend all languages. He properly accepted the mission, his calling to slay the Demon King well. And after that—

The records say he was returned to his original world with rewards for his achievements. Hm...

I stopped my finger on the line of text where I had stopped at.

The context of this proxy war seemed far more serious that it had described it to be—It is said that the Demon King that each generation of heroes face become stronger, but if the records prove to be accurate, none of its skills had changed at all.

Feeling a sudden wave of urgency, I suddenly became even more engrossed in this topic than I had anticipated.

(...The source of the Demon King's powers...)

It took me a bit of time because there were few descriptions of it besides the Demon King being 'strong' and 'evil' that was marginally useful. But I finally flipped to a page which caught my interest.

(The Demon King, inverse to the Hero... powers... Cardinal Sins.)

None of them were described very well here either, but at least all seven of them were named correctly. Just like how it was known on Earth, the Demon King embodies, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride. Both sides progressed linearly, no matter how much progress they had made with their powers, all of that would end in that cycle. Just like how a martial artist would find it difficult to grow stronger as he reaches the peak, it was similarly impossible for the Demon King to achieve so much within the confines of time.

That's right, there was a 'time limit' for each acting Hero and Demon King. So if both counter-forces were bestowed with similar powers each time, how is only the Demon King getting so much stronger from every defeat? 

Had no one ever thought about what would happen many years from now? What if there was a day when the Demon King would tip the odds to an unfair degree, just like how the Heroes have done up till now? Would peace continue to be upheld? Would the goddesses reset the world again when that happens? What was the condition to divine intervention? How much time was left before the next Demon King was summoned?

I scratched my head in irritation because I wasn't getting anywhere with more questions. I marked the page where I was reading and sighed deeply.

Lyndel was currently reading a book beside me, she seemed pretty focused so I didn't want to bother her. I sat up from the couch with the book in hand to brew another cup of coffee. It has gotten a little chilly before I knew it, I pulled my robe even tighter and nestled myself in the animal fur on my shoulders. It had been stitched from a new method Richard had invented, inspired from the clothes I had given him.

While waiting for it to dispense, I looked outside the window. I could see the two suns setting. Silhouettes of birds flew home across a sky that was now magenta; the orange gold stretches far and wide, the colour of fire hearths and tangerines. It really sold the impression that I was truly in another world. But I've grown used to this sky scape, and the city for a month now. After all, humans are very adaptable.

The coffee was done, I put it close to my mouth and with my free hand I cupped it close together and blew on the surface. The warmth of steam rose to my nose, leaving me just a tad bit warmer. 

I shuffled back to my seat, and placed the extra cup I had brewed on the table. Lyndel seemed to have noticed, as she perked her face up from her book momentarily and nodded shyly as a gesture.

"Drink it while it's hot." I reminded her, and she put the book up to her face again, pretending to ignore what I just said.

Grinning from ear to ear, I returned to the book feeling less heavy-hearted.

(Focus, I need to focus...)

(...The power of the Demon King... ...Seven Cardinal Sins...)

How about looking at it from a different perspective? What if the Demon King could absorb power from somewhere else? And it had to be a reliable source that he could continuously siphon off of for years, centuries? Ability steal? Energy drain? Pretentious ability names that I had read before sprung up in my mind, and I was almost hooked to the easy answer. But I immediately recalled what I had learnt; When the Demon King was defeated, they lose their powers. It was impossible to keep whatever they've accumulated since it resurrected as a different person each time.

The Heroes had described it as an expunction of dark miasma, as if a possessed person had the ancient evil banished from their mortal soul, lost, dissipated into the air. That was the sign that the Demon King had truly been defeated.

Huh...? Watching the steam rise from the cup of coffee, my eyes widened in sudden realization.

(Wait a second... into... the air.)

My eyes widened. This sounded just like how a defeated monster would be drained by the atmosphere of its mana, only to redistribute it again to create another monster. I squinted my eyes while looking away from the book. Something about this was a little off. This wasn't a coincidence,right?

When a Demon King is killed, was the Sins within it really 'erased'? What if the evil remained, and only accumulated with time? When I flipped the page, my body stiffened instinctively at an insert drawing.

It was a little crude when written on papyrus, but I could still tell what it was. 

The image of a monster draped in a large robe—With the horns of an antelope, tusks of a boar, scales of a snake, wings of a dragon, legs of the sabbatic goat, a snake as its tail, snout as a nose.

"Demon... King—" Those words leaked out of my mouth as I trembled slightly.

I had an ephiphany. The Demon King was stockpiling the powers it had lost each time.

A player starts a new character, and the game provides him with a set of exclusive items for them to start their journey. But what the player does next, is abuse the system. He goes to an open field, and kills himself by provoking a large horde of monsters. The player creates a new account with a different email address, collects the same set of exclusives and goes to where he had committed suicide. After picking up the items, he provokes the same monsters and dies. The cycle repeats itself, until...

When he has enough, he uses them, to wipe out the entire field of monsters.

"..."

"White-san? ...A-Are you feeling well?" I turned my pale face and looked over at Lyndel. She was looking at me while knitting her eyebrows together. I...

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Should I tell anyone about this?

"..."

"White...-san?"

I calmed down my breathing and shook my head. After raising my head, I gave the girl a dry smile and stood up.

"Don't worry." I said.

"I just thought, it's about time I go back."

Thinking about it more carefully, why did I care?

At the end of the day, those remained as conjectures of mine. And besides, I wasn't the hero. I wasn't really thinking of 'saving the world' or anything. For someone who was worked to the bone as a manservant around the city, this was way above my pay grade. I wanted to have an adventure, but I didn't want to risk my life so brazenly just to do so. Besides, someone must've already known all this. This wasn't really a groundbreaking revelation. It was just simple inference that anyone would get with a bit of research.

And for trouble, it was best to stay away from it as far as possible.

Yep, as far as possible. That had always remained as one of the most important rules I've abided by that kept me alive till this day.

I closed the book and placed it on the table with a sigh.

"A-Ah..." Lyndel jumped up in shock. When she looked at the sky outside, the girl frowned for a moment but it returned to her usual, panicky demeanor. She had probably realized that it was way past opening hours too.

"I-I'm so sorry, I sh-should have reminded you..."

"Relax... I was also a little bit into what I was reading so it's not completely your fault."

"B-But what should I do..." Lyndel put her hands on her head with a half-crying face.

"Y-Yama-san is going to scold me again!"

"True." When I replied nonchalantly like that, Lyndel's face grew even more pale.

"She's pretty uptight about the rules, I still remember the time when she walked right into the mess I made. Haah... It can't be helped, be a good girl and accept her punishment, okay?" I pretended to nod with a grave expression.

"Awawawawa..." The girl looked so frightened that I couldn't help but pull on her face cheeks lightly.

"Hw-weehhh?!" Lyndel made a stupefied expression, when laughter escaped from my voice. 

"He...huhaha..."

How could a girl be this cute! I had covered my mouth, but it seems that Lyndel had already saw me laughing at her.

"White-san?! M-Mouuu! It's not funny, Y-Yama-sensei is super scary, you know?" Lyndel said with a pout, her hands sneakily trying to pull my hands off, but never gaining enough courage to commit to it. It ended up as a strange messaging motion on my wrists.

"...Uhm... Lyndel-san, I have already let go."

"...Mm..."

"L-Lyndel-san?" I smiled awkwardly as Lyndel was still seemingly engrossed in that strange action of hers. She was pinching my pinkie and index fingers and trying to tug at them with the strength of a toddler. She didn't seem to have heard me, so I called for the third time.

"Lyndel-san!"

"Mm... a-ahh!!" The girl jolted out from her trance and stared at my face. She looked at the hand she was holding, and then she returned to my face. 

"I-I-I'm so sorry, White-san! I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry... aahhh! Did you get hurt? Did you get hurt, White-san?!"

"U-Uh... no, I'm great... thanks." I leaned back onto the armrest of the couch as Lyndel pressed forward in a fluster. It was only in the next second that she had immediately regretted doing that, as a cloud of steam blew out from her overheating face. 

Retreating to the far end of the room, Lyndel hid her face behind a book again.

I stared at the girl with a helpless smile. 

(This girl... doesn't change at all. Does she realize that she often gets like this only because she overthinks everything in her head? Well... I'd know because I've been there not too long ago...)

"Also, are you sure you're still not going?" I reminded her since if I had left her alone, her mind would overwork itself unnecessarily again. 

"O-Ohh rightt!!! I-I'm leaving now! I'll see you again next week, White-san!" With a mad dash, Lyndel left, or was it more accurate to say that she had escaped from the room?

"Yeah, I'll tidy things up myself. Don't worry about it." Watching the retreating back of the cowardly girl reminded me of the stereotypical literature girl I had read so many times before. 

So tropes really exist. 

Just when I was about to start returning the room to how it was before, the door that was closed had creaked open again. A tiny head popped out from the side. 

"B-By the way..."

"Hm...? Lyndel-san, did you forge—"

"—Good night!"

The door shut tightly with a thump, and I was left there, dumbstruck.

She came back, just to tell me that? 

"...Good grief." That girl never fails to make me smile.

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