Chapter Twelve: Double Reflection
I turned at the voices to see both the Demon Dragon and Filo there. They had saved us, just before we—quite literally—hit the wall.
“Well, well, well, reinforcements? I guess you do have the home-field advantage. Just floating there makes you lovely targets though,” S’yne’s sister shouted.
“Eat this!” Enemy of the Week launched a barrier right at us. He was persisting in using these barriers for a range of cutting attacks, making me think they were fundamentally something else entirely.
“Stardust Mirror!” I said. The cool down had already finished, so I put my own barrier back up and stopped his attack. Sparks proceeded to grate out around us. I had stopped the barrier itself, at least. What was the original purpose of a barrier, anyway—to defend? But he could use them to attack all he liked. There was no way he was going to break through my own barriers. They were focused entirely on defense.
The Artificial Behemoth had landed and followed up its attack with more nasty growling. Its claws slashed down at us.
“Enough of this! Universal power of my core! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power! I am the Emperor Dragon who rules this world. Create walls that block my foes! Demon Dragon! Encompassing Mirrors!”
The Demon Dragon unleashed the same protective barriers that she had used against us so long ago. The Artificial Behemoth crashed through them one after the other, but the speed of its attack was definitely slowed down.
“Hey! Watch out!” Filo didn’t really need to shout, as we were all already moving out of the way. This wasn’t an enemy that I was equipped to face head-on! It had to be extremely enhanced—to a crazy level! All our hard work enhancing ourselves recently just felt completely pointless!
“It reaches us so quickly there isn’t time to imbue enough magic to make a spell that can stop it,” the Demon Dragon analyzed.
“Leave monsters to me! Instant & Massive Monster Exclusive Pit Trap!” Kizuna thrust her hunting tool into the ground and a pit trap suddenly appeared right in front of the Artificial Behemoth. It fell in, burying itself up to its middle. Kizuna immediately made a surprised noise.
“What’s going on? It’s so powerful! It’s going to force its way out!” she exclaimed.
“Well, well, well, I don’t think you’ll be able to hold it for long,” S’yne’s sister mocked. The Demon Dragon perched on my shoulder and stared at the chest of the Artificial Behemoth.
“Indeed. You’ve created quite the twisted creature here,” the Demon Dragon spat at S’yne’s sister, her voice twisted in anger. The Demon Dragon always looked down on humans but generally seemed to think of monsters as allies.
“I don’t know about any of that. I just brought it along to test it out,” S’yne’s sister replied.
“Toying with monsters in such a fashion . . . you have exceeded the level that I, ruler of all monsters, can possibly permit!” the dragon raged.
“I bet we have! This is an artificial monster, created using all of the holy weapon and vassal weapon power-up methods from this world. It was developed as an experiment by my people,” S’yne’s sister explained. I gave a start in surprise. That meant this monster had all of the heroes’ power-up methods applied to it!
“That’s pretty much what I was expecting. Shield Hero, let me tell you something interesting,” the Demon Dragon began. Then she looked at the Artificial Behemoth’s chest again. “That part there houses a corrupted holy weapon from this world, which has artificially turned the monster into one of the four holy heroes and has allowed it all the power-up methods. It’s basically the monster version of a holy hero.”
“What the hell?!” I exclaimed. No wonder it was so strong! I might be the Mirror Hero, but I still had high defense—even if it wasn’t as high as with the shield. This monster had to have some serious firepower to be breaking through my defenses so easily. If we had to fight a monster that had the power-up methods of twelve weapons, the vanguard of the waves with the cutting barriers, and S’yne’s sister and all the other women present, any amount of home-field advantage wasn’t going to be enough!
“This is still just a prototype, of course. We haven’t been able to replicate skills or magic yet. I just wanted to see how well it would fare against you,” S’yne’s sister explained. Human testing seemed a bit extreme for something so dangerous!
“Do you think I could revoke its authority, Naofumi? That thing you were talking about?” Kizuna asked.
“Probably not. It’s pretty corrupted. We have to destroy the source first,” the Demon Dragon warned. Taking that under advisement, Kizuna placed her hand on the hunting tool.
“You’re right. I can hear a voice from the hunting tool. It said it’s impossible,” Kizuna replied.
“This is the best you heroes can do?” Enemy of the Week said, laughing maniacally. “You’re far weaker than I expected!” He cackled down from his perch.
“This monster being so strong doesn’t mean you’re strong yourself!” I shouted back.
“The weaker the dog, the louder the bark! If you have a problem with that, prove your strength! You moron!” Enemy of the Week shouted.
“That crap again! Survival of the fittest is your base template, is it?” I retorted. These guys just thought so little of us. I was sick of these vanguards of the waves and their cookie-cutter personalities! They were all the same! Maybe they were like the monster that caused the waves, something other than a human—they just looked like one.
“Hmmm, they seem pretty confident that they can defeat us. That said, I will brook no insult of the Shield Hero,” the Demon Dragon said. I wondered why the representative of all monsters was sticking up for me—a representative who had a pretty similar attitude herself.
The Demon Dragon floated up into the air and raised a claw.
“Shield Hero’s humming fairy, lend me your strength,” she said.
“Huh? What are we doing? I don’t really want to help you,” Filo responded.
“You and your friends are being supremely mocked! I am still weak. I need your strength to achieve this,” the dragon admitted.
“Don’t want to!” Filo retorted.
“Gah! You annoying wretch!” The Demon Dragon was glaring intensely at Filo. It was like she had completely forgotten what she had done to her.
“You’re planning on absorbing me again? I don’t want that, no way!” Filo retorted.
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I just want you to lend me some strength! Sing like you always do and bring out some magic! Sing something close to the ‘Hero’s Melody.’ The one the Bow Hero always plays,” the dragon said.
“Huh? Okay,” Filo finally agreed. She landed on the ground and started singing.
“If I’m seeking raw power, your shikigami will also be quite efficient. Do you both understand the situation?” the dragon asked them.
“Raph!” said Raph-chan.
“Pen!” said Chris. Both of them nodded in response to the Demon Dragon and moved over toward her. The two of them then became semitransparent and appeared to be bolstering the power of the Demon Dragon. I really had no idea what she was planning.
“I still don’t have enough participants or magic yet to cast a high-level incantation. You sisters, the water dragon’s miko priestesses, also lend me a hand,” the dragon demanded.
“Oh dear. Little Naofumi, what do you think we should do?” Sadeena asked me.
“Oh my! Getting ordered around by a dragon feels a bit too close to home!” Shildina said. The two of them turned to me for advice.
“Go ahead. Help her out,” I told them.
“Okay. But what exactly should we be doing?” Sadeena asked.
“I’m going to perform something close to ritual magic. While I’m doing that, use your gemstone and ofuda to incant your own magic,” the dragon instructed. This was all starting to feel like we were working under orders from the dragon—a bit of a risky proposition. “Hunting Hero, you understand full well which weapon has selected you! You defeated the Demon Dragon, a mighty beast seeking to dominate this entire world! If you can’t defeat one pathetic little creature like this, you aren’t worthy of the title of hero!”
“Come on!” Kizuna gasped. “You’re really asking a lot with that one!”
“Just so arrogant . . .” Glass also complained.
“I am the Dragon Emperor and Demon Dragon! If you’re looking for humility, look elsewhere!” the dragon shot back.
“Kizuna can’t handle that thing alone, surely,” I said.
“Huh. Shield Hero, you don’t seem to understand what the Hunting Hero means to this world,” the dragon said. Kizuna squatted down, readying the hunting tool in dressing knife form. The Artificial Behemoth roared, dragging itself out from the confinement of the hole. It had looked ready to leap again at any moment, but seeing Kizuna’s stance, the beast suddenly dropped back.
“Oh, sorry . . . my gathered power was leaking out a little. I’ve still got a lot to learn,” Kizuna muttered. I wondered what was going on. The Artificial Behemoth was clearly incredibly powerful, and yet it looked concerned about the prospect of fighting Kizuna.
“Well, well, well. Whatever has gotten into you? You shouldn’t be afraid of anything. Perhaps your specs aren’t as high as we thought?” S’yne’s sister said.
“The hunting tool has given up the ability to fight humans in exchange for unmatched power when fighting monsters. That includes in regard to defense and speed,” the Demon Dragon replied. When fighting Kyo, at least, I hadn’t really felt that Kizuna lacked in strength. Glass and the others obviously placed a great deal of faith in her. She just couldn’t fight humans. “Shield Hero, you should concentrate on protecting those others around you.”
“Yeah, I’m on it,” I said. Even in that moment, Enemy of the Week unleashed another barrier attack toward us. It didn’t look like he was interested in mixing it up with a little close combat. I could imagine that any trouble he had faced so far, he had resolved with exactly the same attacks he was using right now.
“Don’t forget about us!” Enemy of the Week taunted.
“That’s right, that’s right!” Woman B added. I was already wishing she’d just blend back into the background.
“I’ve got this! Stardust Blade!” Raphtalia shouted.
“I’ll help too! Circle Dance Empty Formation: Moon Break!” Glass joined in. The star Raphtalia’s Stardust Blade unleashed and the slice Glass’s skill unleashed landed squarely on Enemy of the Week’s barrier attack and shattered it.
“Bah! I didn’t put enough into that one. But that won’t work again! Don’t underestimate my barriers!” he snapped back. Then he unleashed a second barrier, and the same attacks from Raphtalia and Glass were unable to stop it this time.
“He changed the pattern . . .” Raphtalia mused.
“These barriers are so hard it’s going to be difficult to shatter them all head-on,” Glass confirmed. I cursed to myself. I’d managed to use Stardust Mirror to block the position he could place the barriers, but that still didn’t mean he might not get lucky, pop one out neck-high, and lop off someone’s head. Fighting this guy was going to be a real pain. I also had to wonder if he was a feminist like Takt, because he seemed to only be attacking me.
In any case, the fact he wasn’t going for Kizuna and the others actually suited me quite nicely. If all he was going to do was long-range attacks from behind his barrier, it was actually easy to defend against him. He also probably didn’t want to make a wrong move and kill the prototype monster that his female companion was so happy about.
Glass was providing some support to Kizuna in her battle with the Artificial Behemoth, while Raphtalia circled in to give aid.
“Glass! Watch out!” Raphtalia drew her second katana and defended Glass from the attack of the Artificial Behemoth using haikuikku state. The three of them were buying me some time with the formation of Kizuna on the front line, Glass in support, and Raphtalia defending.
Someone shouted, “Heroes!” Then I saw some soldiers from the castle come running toward the battle.
“Don’t try anything, you guys!” I shouted. “If possible, just stay out of this!”
“But—” one of them started.
“Who knows what L’Arc will say if we get all you guys killed? This isn’t even a good enemy for some supporting fire,” I told them. Picking up on my thinking, the soldiers obeyed my warning and fell back, starting instead to quell the unrest in the rest of the town.
“Talk about bad timing,” I muttered. Why couldn’t we have Itsuki, Rishia, S’yne, or Ethnobalt come running up to help us? It would be harder for L’Arc and his party to sense that something was going on. As I stood annoyed at the situation, the Demon Dragon spoke to me.
“It is time for you to fully understand exactly what I am. I am the Emperor Dragon, ruler of evil, the one who knows all about the magic in this world. Now I will show you the truth of magic. Magic in its ultimate form!” The dragon started to incant magic on my shoulder while also looking at me at the same time. “In your world, Shield Hero . . . I believe this to be a technique that the staff seven star weapon is most proficient with. This will give you something to tell people about, a story of how wonderful magic truly is!” At the same time, I heard a voice in my head. It was the telepathic conversation technique that Gaelion sometimes used. “You told me about this before, didn’t you, Shield Hero? That technique you pulled off recently on that woman who you hate so much. That is what we are about to do here,” the dragon told me. Something I had done to Bitch . . . the dragon had to mean reflecting Bitch’s magic using a mirror. Bitch had launched fire magic at me, full of hatred and anger, and I’d reflected it back at her and turned her into the burning version of a snowman. Seeing her rolling around on the floor, literally cooking by her own fire had felt exceptionally good.
Putting that aside, anyway, it seemed the Demon Dragon wanted to go for the same effect.
“You can use Float Mirror, correct? I will perform an attack first and some support second. You must make good use of what I give you,” the dragon said. So now she needed my help too. That said, the plan was actually a pretty good one. Confirming my acquiescence with a nod, the Demon Dragon raised her right claw and lightly rotated it, then started to incant the magic.
“My universal collaborators! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power!” I felt a powerful field of magic deploy, and a raw lump of magic power formed in front of the Demon Dragon’s eyes. I could feel a vast volume of magic being sent to the Demon Dragon, presumably because of my understanding of the Way of the Dragon Vein. Power was flowing to her from somewhere. We all felt the Demon Dragon take the magic she was receiving and start to mold and shape it, almost like clay. This was very different from when we had fought her back in our world. She was also borrowing power from Sadeena and Shildina and constructing some kind of magic that was similar but ultimately different from cooperative and ritual magic.
“You’ll never break my almighty defense, no matter what tricks you try to pull!” Enemy of the Week cackled.
“That’s right. Give up now or you’ll regret it! Eat this!” Woman B was still entwining herself around Enemy of the Week while she taunted the Demon Dragon’s incanting. Enemy of the Week launched a barrier attack at Kizuna, Glass, and Raphtalia, but the three of them were too quick and moved out of the way before they got sealed in. He wasn’t aiming for their necks, but their legs and arms, which was why he couldn’t hit them. That said, he couldn’t try the trash compactor again because the Artificial Behemoth was still in the mix and because that same Artificial Behemoth’s attacks would break the barriers.
“You’ve stopped doing the shield attack that blocks the barrier’s movements,” S’yne’s sister noted. She was starting to read what we were planning! I willed the Demon Dragon to get to the point quicker!
“Your power of blazing flame, the truth of magic that eradicates all, now become the technique to eradicate my foes! The Emperor Dragon, ruler of this world, commands you! Burn like the sun!” Even as the first spell was cast, I heard another one at the same time.
“Your power that foreshadows victory, the truth of magic that eradicates all, now become the mercy that I lay upon those beneath me! The Emperor Dragon, ruler of this world, commands you! Receive all of my power!” I wondered if I was the only one thinking this was all very much like when Shildina used magic.
“Oh my, very impressive. Simultaneous incanting,” Sadeena said.
“I can do that too,” Shildina muttered. The two of them were chatting even as they incanted themselves. I could feel different flows of magic coming from that being handled by the killer whale sisters, by Raph-chan, by Filo, and by Chris.
“Here we go, Shield Hero! Don’t make me waste these!” the Demon Dragon shouted.
“I’ll do the best I can, but don’t expect too much!” I replied. At my shout, the Demon Dragon tossed the first burning hot cluster of magic right at me.
“Oh man! They can’t work together for shit! They are treading all over each other’s feet! Morons!” Enemy of the Week crowed.
“I think they are fighting among themselves now!” Woman B cackled. “What idiots!” They both pointed and laughed, but that clearly wasn’t what was going on.
“Well, well, well,” S’yne’s sister chimed in and turned her chain into a ring and . . . stepped through it. Immediately after that, she vanished. That was a movement skill. No doubt about it. Her instincts were on the money, I would give her that. Still, I was more focused on wiping out the annoyances she had left behind.
“You had better make good use of this!” the Demon Dragon roared.
“I will!” I replied. I adjusted the two Float Mirrors that I always kept out during combat . . . and then smacked away the incoming magic ball with a roar of my own. I’d never really played baseball, but the feeling of impact was maybe like getting a solid hit on an incoming ball. It felt quite good.
Basically, I filled the mirror with power and swung it like a bat.
Then I placed Float Mirrors to adjust the angle of its flight. The first one reflected the magic, and the second one sent it flying.
“Formation One, Formation Two: Glass Shield!” I shouted, creating Glass Shields imbued with sufficient life force to intercept the magic unleashed by the Demon Dragon. The angle looked good too. Still, the whole process had really zapped my life force.
The magic hit the first Glass Shield with a cracking sound, and even as the mirror shattered, it reflected the magic in the desired direction, leading into the second shield. Each time the magic the Demon Dragon created hit a mirror or Glass Shield, it grew larger. The expression on the face of Enemy of the Week did become more serious for a moment, but when he eventually saw the magic flying off toward the horizon, he relaxed again and started laughing.
“Formation Three: Glass Shield and Transport Mirror then . . . Mirror Cage!” As the finishing move, I used two Glass Shields along with a third . . . and this time I was able to place one inside the enemy barrier! I had been thinking that wouldn’t be possible. But I’d pulled it off. So then I changed the one inside the barrier to Transport Mirror, which turned into Mirror Cage.
“What? Inside my barrier—” Enemy of the Week started, and then he and Woman B vanished inside the Mirror Cage.
“Hey, Bitch’s minion!” I shouted. “When I reflected Bitch’s magic, it increased in strength, didn’t it? And that was when I used just one mirror. If you really know all about Bitch, you should have proposed running away.” The complete failure of these two to realize what we were planning showed the marked difference between them and the cunning of S’yne’s sister. If they had dropped the barrier and made a run for it right away, they might have gotten away from this. Woman B, in particular, had been given plenty of time to warn Enemy of the Week, since S’yne’s sister had already evacuated the area.
“Cowards, seeking to seize the initiative in such a fashion! Learn your place. I have nothing but disgust for you,” Sadeena spat.
“These are the ‘winner writes the history’ types,” I commented.
“I’m sure they are. Little Naofumi, maybe we should use the people from the castle to capture them,” Sadeena said.
“You bet,” I replied. There was no room to drop our guard at all—a point S’yne’s sister proved by suddenly reappearing from somewhere.
“Well, well, well, so you wiped them all out. Prototypes can only get you so far,” she muttered. Then she extended her chain and drew out something from the body of the Artificial Behemoth that looked like a core of some kind. I guessed that was probably the corrupted holy weapon.
“Hand that over!” I shouted.
“You really think I would?” she replied. Of course, she wouldn’t. She gave me an incredulous look while she slung the core, still wrapped in her chain, over her shoulder. “I’m thinking that S’yne and your other little friends will be arriving by hourglass pretty soon, so I should probably leave you to it. You’ve highlighted some real problems for us, like avoiding pitting our creations against the Hunting Hero.” Kizuna had pretty much kicked the thing’s ass. “I am even more upset that we let you get away from us in the first place.”
“Well, it’ll be you who won’t be getting away this time!” Kizuna said, staggering to her feet and selecting Hunting Weapon Zero. “This weapon is effective against that accessory, I can tell . . . and I’m going to release it.”
“Well, well, well, that sounds very scary,” S’yne’s sister mocked, but I wondered if it might actually work. In either case, it felt like she was going to get away.
“Oh my,” Sadeena said, looking at S’yne’s sister from the sidelines, suddenly interrupting their conversation. “I can tell this is all very serious, but can I ask a question?” I had no idea what Sadeena could possibly want with this woman. Maybe she had noticed something important about her.
“Whatever do you want?” S’yne’s sister asked.
“You put on quite an attitude, but I’m starting to wonder how much of it is what you are truly thinking?” Sadeena asked. S’yne’s sister did not reply, quitting her normal arrogant act and glaring at Sadeena with an offended face. “In the very least, you seem pretty different from the girls who were just here. Pretty different from the girl that little Naofumi hates too. You have a different intent from them. I can sense it. What did you really come here for today?”
“Well, well, well. Playing detective isn’t in your best interests. You might get all sorts of funny ideas,” S’yne’s sister replied.
“Do you really think so? The longer we talk, the more certain I become that I’m not imagining things,” Sadeena said. S’yne’s sister had no response to that. Perhaps pissed off by this assessment, S’yne’s sister dropped her comedy routine and just glared at Sadeena some more. The two of them glared at each other for a while, and then S’yne’s sister just let her menace fade and turned her back to Sadeena.
“I’ve lost my taste for this. I was leaving anyway,” S’yne’s sister said.
“Really,” Sadeena replied.
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t get along well with people like you,” S’yne’s sister admitted.
“Oh my, is that so? I don’t dislike people like you at all. In fact, I think we could get along quite well,” Sadeena responded. This was taking a strange turn.
“I hate being knocked off my game. I’m leaving now,” S’yne’s sister stated.
“And I said . . . that’s not happening! I’ll grab her! Everyone, back me up!” Kizuna still had the support magic on and charged at S’yne’s sister at considerable speed. However, S’yne’s sister easily detained Kizuna with her chain. Kizuna slashed it off and dashed forward again, but S’yne’s sister stepped lightly on Kizuna’s back—clearly just toying with her—and jumped over behind us all.
“She’s too fast!” Kizuna gasped. “I can’t hit her at all!”
“Ah, something else I should mention. You seem all hopped up and happy with your magical buffs, so I need to warn you about those again. I have the power to nullify those, remember?” She proceeded to perform an incredibly fast incantation. Her own innate speed was probably factoring into it.
“What?!” The Demon Dragon looked surprised to see this magic being used.
“Disarming Shot: Earth Evasion Explosion 4!” S’yne’s sister shouted. I’d seen magic like this somewhere before from the first guy we encountered in the force behind S’yne’s sister! It seemed to be an area-of-effect spell, because a band of magic appeared and then passed over all of us.
“Huh? The effects of the support magic . . . have gone?!” Kizuna exclaimed.
“Oh . . . I can’t even sing ‘Hero’s Melody’ anymore. What kind of magic is that?” Filo said, who had still been singing up until that moment.
“Even if you’ve debuffed us . . .” Raphtalia started.
“We’re still taking that back from you here!” Glass finished. The two of them moved to leap at S’yne’s sister.
“Please. Give me a break. You do look stronger than when we last met, but you still aren’t a match for me. If I stay and play with you though, S’yne and the other heroes are going to show up. Then I might be at just the slightest disadvantage, so I’m leaving before that happens. You should think yourselves lucky,” S’yne’s sister taunted, glaring at Sadeena again before waving her hand in the air. “Bye-bye now!” The next instant, she was gone. Just as she had declared, she had used a movement skill or something of the like to leave.
“That is the foe we face,” the Demon Dragon said. “She certainly does have some fearsome powers. Right now, we are only alive at her whim.” I couldn’t really disagree with that. Not to mention, I didn’t think S’yne and the others turning up would have been enough to make a difference. Based on Sadeena’s reaction to the proceedings, S’yne’s sister did seem to have some kind of method to her madness . . .
“I wonder,” Sadeena muttered, still looking at the spot where S’yne’s sister had been standing.
“Wonder about what?” I asked her.
“I hadn’t talked with her for very long, so I can’t make a definite statement on this, but she doesn’t have any intent to kill. Just like she said, she was just here to play around with us,” Sadeena replied.
“You almost sound like you’re talking about yourself,” I said. Sadeena rarely displayed any strong intent to kill during battle either.
“Oh my,” she replied. Maybe her nature as a drunk who was exceptionally hard to read meant she shared something with S’yne’s sister after all. I’d thought S’yne’s sister was just an overly strong moron, but maybe she did have some kind of secret.
That was that, anyway. Onto other things.
“Raphtalia! We finally rubbed out one of Bitch’s allies!” I gave a thumbs-up and a victory smile. She hadn’t been a major player, perhaps, but eradicating such a shitty woman from this world, as well as one who had a long relationship with Bitch, really did feel good! I wasn’t celebrating murder. She had tried to kill me and my friends on many occasions. Not to mention, there were a number of victims she had actually managed to kill. So she wasn’t worthy of my pity.
“I’m not sure that’s something to boast about . . . but they are causing all sorts of problems. It’s a difficult situation,” Raphtalia said. I took that as an endorsement and allowed myself an evil smile, and then an evil chuckle.
That was when the Demon Dragon started to laugh with me. I stopped, without even thinking about it.
“Stop that! Why are you laughing too?” I asked her.
“If I can’t laugh when some foolish humans have been wiped from this world, when can I?” she inquired back. She was originally a ruler on the monster side, after all, standing in opposition of humans. I couldn’t fault her on the “foolish” part, either. We were looking at a guy who spouted some extreme ideal of survival of the fittest while being manipulated by stupid women. These were women who tricked men for their own convenience and then threw a hissy fit when they couldn’t get their way. The worst possible people I could conceive of. “Not to mention, I’m laughing alongside the Shield Hero. How could I not feel anything but pleasure?” The dragon really did have a thing for me. I wondered if that might become a problem in the future. “Laughing together like this shows how well matched we are. Let us crush the foolish humans together and create a better world!”
“Hey, come on. I don’t consider all humans to be foolish,” I replied. The dragon chuckled.
“We’ll see how long that lasts, Shield Hero,” she commented. I wasn’t going to get lured over to the dark side so easily . . . but I would concede that there were a lot of stupid people in the world. “Don’t you think that becoming a Shield Demon King with me might be best for everyone?”
“Stop giving Mr. Naofumi strange ideas!” Raphtalia warned the Demon Dragon. The dragon shot back a thorny glance.
“That is for the Shield Hero to decide,” she spat.
“I’m not really bothered about becoming a Demon King. However, from our enemies’ point of view, I guess I already am,” I pondered. Those connected to the Church of the Three Heroes had been big on calling me demon this and that.
“For now, let’s just laugh together!” The dragon broke out into fresh evil chuckling.
“. . . The moment has passed,” I said. I shook my head, wondering why I had to be surrounded by so many people—and creatures—intent on whittling down my motivation.
“You two seem to be getting along well,” Kizuna said. That was a comment that perhaps struck me as the most painful of all.
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