Chapter 121. < Hero. (3) >
=================
Translator: thursdays Editor: Yahiko PR: LightBrin
After hearing my request, my colleagues didn’t say anything for a long time. Maybe they were looking back at the lives they led. Their days that were stained with purges.
“…You’re asking us to take the harder path, really.”
After a long period of silence, the Black Dragon Master opened her mouth.
Her voice was nearly lamentful.
“People can become skillful with practice. If they try, they can become a moral person too. They can become powerful by working hard. But it’s nearly impossible for someone to be competent, moral, and powerful. It’s simply too hard… It’s truly a difficult path.”
“Someone told me that the road to h.e.l.l is paved with good intentions.”
I held out my hand to the guildmasters.
“If so, the road to heaven must be paved with countless sins.”
There would be countless people who become jealous of us. There would also be many who make trouble for fun. People who want power would fight, and those who come to agitate the Tower’s inhabitants would appear.
Such people existed.
Many of them.
Evil is both common and strong.
“But that isn’t a reason for us to give up. Let’s show a slightly better world to the people who have forsaken the outside world to come here.”
I pushed out my hand again. It wasn’t so that we could shake hands.
It was a pose for multiple people to join their hands at once.
Like a sports team cheering together before a game, I quietly extended my right hand toward the guildmasters.
“……”
“Aha.”
While the Black Dragon Master hesitated, the Heretic Questioner reached out his hand first. Touch. The Heretic Questioner’s palm joined the back of my hand.
“I don’t mind! It’s appealing if the ones in charge have moral legitimacy. And Death King is the only one who can gild us with morality. It’ll be a waste to miss this opportunity!”
“Ahem.”
The Venomous Snake put his hand on top.
“I’m now the successor to the Righteous Sect. The old man is always nagging me to think about the sect’s mindset or whatever when he sees me. Well, I guess I’ll partic.i.p.ate out of respect for my master who’s staying behind.”
“Mm.”
The Crusader laid her hand on top.
“I’ve been using my skill since before this conversation began.”
Lie detection.
“n.o.body here has let false words escape their mouths. And more than that, Kim Gongja. I know that you ran through [The Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] and [The Tale of Sormwyn Academy] with an upright heart.”
“……”
“I believe in your truthful att.i.tude, I believe in your true love, and above all else, in your character. All revolutions fail. But I will at least devote my life and soul to make our revolution be remembered as the most spectacular failure.”
“Mhm.”
The Count extended her hand.
“I can’t keep up with the romantics’ tale. But whatever. I’m just following the crowd. I don’t want my precious stocks to fall. Let’s do our best, everyone.”
“……”
Lastly.
The Black Dragon Master hesitatingly put her hand on top.
“…I can’t promise you much. I can’t guarantee our success. I can’t throw away the tools I’ve used so far. But… All right.”
Black eyes swept over us.
“If we fail. If someone among us must die… I will be the first to do so. I’ll promise you that.”
“Then I’ll also make you a promise.”
I smiled.
“I won’t let anybody here die. No matter where. No matter when.”
“You’re making an absurd promise, you…”
The Black Dragon Master smiled bitterly. However, she did not take back her hand.
The six of us.
Our hands were gathered.
“Mm. Very well!”
The Librarian smiled as he swam through the air.
“Death King. Black Dragon Master. Heretic Questioner. Count. Venomous Snake. Crusader. I designate these six as characters of [Me and Our Scapegoat]! When you open your eyes, you’ll be in a world that met its discontinuation at its height. Be careful. It’s very different from the Apocalypses you’ve encountered so far!”
The Librarian opened the book. Poof! Light flowed from the pages of the Apocalypse and onto our overlapping hands.
“The difficulty of this Apocalypse is A-Cla.s.s!”
The light wrapped around us.
“Unlike last time, I can’t bestow many blessings upon you. The Constellation of this Apocalypse is alive. Alive and reigning over the world. You will enter as a sort of invading army in this Apocalypse. Naturally, the Constellation will be hostile.”
The Librarian laughed lightly.
“Death King, the Constellation will treat you, especially, as a foe!”
‘A foe!’
Before I could understand what the Librarian meant, our vision was completely covered with light. Actually, I didn’t have to try to understand what the Librarian’s words meant.
As the world turned white, before we even opened our eyes to greet the new world—
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness detects invaders.]
A cutting voice flickered through our brains.
The voice continued like a tidal wave or an urgent siren, ringing one after the other.
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness issues you a warning.]
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness intends to eradicate the invaders.]
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness declares war on you!]
Me and Our Scapegoat.
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness abhors you.]
This fairy tale was ruled by the Constellation who invaded Raviel’s world.
3.
In a story with a hero and a demon king, the demon king is always careless.
The demon king never reveals his full power at the start. He sends off the weaklings to fight the hero. The hero, who is weak at the start of the story, grows by defeating increasingly strong opponents.
Until the hero finally confronts the demon king.
-I’ve been waiting.
The Constellation of this fairy tale was different.
-How dare you oppose my master!
This Constellation bared its venomous teeth to us from the beginning.
The first in our party to detect the crisis was my Holy Sword.
[s.h.i.+ny detects the presence of her sister sword!]
The hilt of the sword s.h.i.+vered at my waist as if to announce the crisis. Though our visions weren’t clear yet, s.h.i.+ny hastily shouted.
[s.h.i.+ny confirms that the properties of ‘The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness’ matches the properties of the ‘Sacrifice Sword’!]
[The Evangelist of Everlasting Happiness is the fourth sister sword left by Lefanta Aegim, ‘Sacrifice’!]
As soon as s.h.i.+ny’s warning finished, my eyesight returned.
A blue sky.
Our party was falling through the sky. We had been floating shortly after being put into this world, so we hadn’t realized it. However, our bodies were quickly dragged down by gravity.
Whoooos.h.!.+
The wind brus.h.i.+ng our foreheads. Blood rus.h.i.+ng to our heads. We were plummeting down.
“Mm!”
At that moment, the Heretic Questioner grabbed my forearm. The wind was pus.h.i.+ng our party apart, but he had caught me in a moment. The Heretic Questioner squeezed my waist tightly with his legs. Then, he made a hand sign.
“Death King, hold my right foot! Don’t ever let go! Sacred Technique, Transmission!”
I clung onto the Heretic Questioner’s right foot as he had instructed. The next moment, the Heretic Questioner had moved to the Black Dragon Master’s side.
“Black Dragon Master!”
“Yes! Hold out your leg!”
The Black Dragon Master grabbed the Heretic Questioner’s left foot like it was obvious.
“Aha.” The Heretic Questioner’s laughter mixed into the wind. I thought that the sound of his laughter made the gravity that threatened to crush us feel lighter.
“Sacred Technique, Transmission!”
The Heretic Questioner, in turn, brought in the Count, the Crusader, and the Venomous Snake. We clung onto the Heretic Questioner like baby pigs to a mama pig. In this situation, the Venomous Snake seemed very upset and yelled,
“Hey! Why am I the last one?!”
“It’s because you’re the most useless one here! Chen Mu-mun master! Our power won’t be affected even if you’re gone!”
“You s.h.i.+tty priest!”
With five people clinging to him, the Heretic Questioner couldn’t make his hand signs. He had no s.p.a.ce. He had no time. Even now, the ground was getting closer and closer.
“Good job, kid!”
However, the Black Dragon Master shouted as if she had only been waiting for all of us to be gathered.
“Everyone, say you consent to my skill! Quick! Hurry!”
“Yes!” “I agree!” “Got it!” “I agree.” “f.u.c.k, sure!”
“Teleport!”
Six people moved together. An instantaneous teleportation. Unlike the Heretic Questioner, who had to form hand signs, the Black Dragon Master’s skill could be activated with just contact.
It was the skill she had used to oppose the [Devil King of Fall Rain].
Thus, we safely landed on the ground.
-I won’t let you go!
But the ground was not safe at all.
-Sing, my apostles!
Ten thousand. Maybe a hundred thousand. Maybe millions.
In the horizon stood those in the shape of ‘children.’ Each of them was the same as the Apostle who invaded Raviel’s world. Possibly millions of children surrounded us in layers.
-La.
And they sang.
-La. La.
-Lu. Lala.
-La.
A million a capella tunes, all at once. A hundred thousand low notes, a hundred thousand high notes, and a hundred thousand whistles overlapped. The children danced in a circle like they were happy. With each step, the ground reverberated.
Boom. Thud. Boom.
-La.
This was the A-Cla.s.s difficulty Apocalypse.
A world that saw us as the enemy, was not careless, and tried to destroy us with all its might from the very beginning.
“Keugh!”
The party hurriedly pulled up their auras. However, it wasn’t enough. We were facing an all-out attack less than a minute after being transmitted to this Apocalypse. A wave of happy dreams, difficult to handle with just one’s aura, violently struck us.
“Count!” shouted the Heretic Questioner. “Give me money!”
“d.a.m.n it, my bank account is going to break…!”
“Yes! It’ll be better than breaking your head!”
“A 15 percent interest! Compounding!”
“I won’t take it unless it’s free!”
“What? That’s ridicul—”
“Nisha!” the Crusader yelled.
At first, I didn’t know what ‘Nisha’ was referring to. I realized it when I saw the Crusader’s gaze, directed at the Count. Nisha was the Count’s real name.
“Shut up and take out your wallet! I’ll kill you!”
“Ugh. d.a.m.n it! Withdraw, boundless!”
The Count took out a pouch. The pouch had a snail pattern on it. She undid the gold ribbon to open the pouch and flipped it upside down. Clink, clink! Countless gold coins spilled onto the floor.
“Change owner! Heretic Questioner!”
“Ahaha, thank you!”
The Heretic Questioner quickly made a hand sign.
“Sacred Technique, Devotion!”
A light burst from his hands. The white light encased the pile of gold coins, which became dust and disappeared. In its stead, the aura around us became unbelievably strengthened.
“Sacred Transfer: Aura reinforcement and mental attack immunity! Reinforcement targets: Count, Heretic Questioner, Death King, Black Dragon Master, Crusader, Venomous Snake. Reinforcement time: Uncertain. Gold will grab our hands. Technique complete!”
“Heeeeooooaaaah! Hiagh! My money!”
The Count screamed. Gold coins continued to pour out of her pouch, and as soon as they did, they became light and evaporated without a trace. She seemed so shocked that cat ears popped out of her head.
“My money! Nya! My lifeblood! My money, which is more precious than blood!”
“Aha. Should I donate my blood?”
“I don’t need it! If I go bankrupt, the Tower will also go bankrupt! You got it?! If you don’t want to eat dog food for breakfast tomorrow, go and attack already!”
Falling from the sky. A million songs. We succeeded in escaping the incessant crises.
Only now could we look at the main culprit who attacked our party.
-Tsk. Do you have enough skill to devour Idol, Compa.s.sion, and Prayer? Attempting to hide the senses and attack…!
The Constellation floated in the air.
Like the Prayer Sword, it was red all over. However, it was slightly darker than the Prayer Sword. The little child covered in dark red blood trembled in the air.
-But it’s no use! Leader of the traitors! My loyalty to Lefanta Aegim shall never break. I will kill you and ensure you don’t get in my master’s path!
Sure enough.
I grabbed the hilt of the Holy Sword and pulled it out.
‘Raviel became a Constellation by stabbing her heart with a fragment of [The Guardian G.o.ddess].’
This meant that even a fragment had the ability to make a Constellation.
If so, then it would be possible for the fragment itself to become [a new Constellation].
The Sacrifice Sword evolved from being a fragment of [The Guardian G.o.ddess] to [The Evangelist of Eternal Happiness].
-Apostles! Eliminate them!
And the Sacrifice Sword was still loyal to Lefanta Aegim.
Unlike her sisters who had been helplessly absorbed by me, the Sacrifice Sword had been ama.s.sing her power. She had ambushed me as if she had been expecting me to come. That was what had happened thus far.
“……”
I glared straight ahead, gripping the Holy Sword.
Literally hundreds of thousands of troops thronged on all sides.
Instead of yelling, the apostles sang, and instead of stabbing us, they danced. However, their songs were more threatening than any shout, their dance deadlier than any spear or blade.
Our forces were six people.
The enemy was innumerable.
“Count-nim.”
“What is it?!”
“You still have a lot left in your wallet, right?”
This was the best moment for me to act.
“What?”
“Please shoot this stage up big time.”
As the Count blinked, I quietly chanted.
“Hundred Ghosts Reincarnation.”