Chapter 251: Alcarte (3)

Chapter 251: Alcarte (3)

Although Aroth was also in the middle of actively developing its own brand of magic cars, the ones already racing at the forefront of this field were Helmuth’s dark-power cars.

These mechanical contraptions were a product of the magic engineering that Helmuth was so proud of, and they were also fueled by the dark power of the Demon King of Incarceration. Babel, the ninety-nine-story building that stood tall at the center of Pandemonium, served as a transmission tower, relaying the infinite dark power of the Demon King of Incarceration to the various sectors of Helmuth.

The Black Towers, which served as landmarks in the sectors of Helmuth, received and amplified the dark power sent to them by Babel, and relayed it throughout the entire city via magic cables buried underground.

The dark-power roads that were built like this, as the name suggested, had dark power flowing through them. The reason why Helmuth had been able to surpass all other countries on the continent in successfully commercializing automobiles was because the need for a magic engine to run their automobiles had been replaced by these dark-power roads.

Thanks to that, the dark-power cars didn’t need any fuel, and even humans without any knowledge of magic or mana were able to drive them.

“An essential course of tourism in Helmuth, the flower of all vacation trips! To all the tourists who have come to take part in the Demon King Tour, I bid you welcome!”

The wealthy and relaxed-appearing tourists who alighted from a huge tour bus were greeted by this grandiose welcome. The neatly dressed demonfolk guide who had gotten off before them wasn’t using anything like a microphone, but his magically amplified voice was still able to clearly reach the ears of all these tourists.

“The place where we have now arrived is the castle of the Demon King of Carnage. Among the five Demon Kings who lived three hundred years ago, the Demon King of Carnage was particularly tyrannical and ruthless. As his name suggests, this Demon King particularly enjoyed carnage…,” the guide paused to raise his finger and point to the hideous Demon King’s Castle behind him.

“Three hundred years ago, the heroes of the continent, led by the Great Vermouth, infiltrated the Castle. While the knights from the continent faced the Demon King’s army, Vermouth and the other heroes climbed up to the top floor of the castle and battled the Demon King of Carnage. Their battle lasted for three days and three nights….”

Even now, Eugene could still vividly recall the memories from back then.

That was the first Demon King they fought, and the first they defeated, but it wasn’t just the Demon King of Carnage who came close to death. An existence on the level of a Demon King wouldn’t die even if you killed them over and over again. They had cut off the head of the Demon King of Carnage dozens of times over those three days, but he still refused to die and kept on getting back up, driving Vermouth and his companions close to death.

If it wasn’t for Anise’s holy magic, let alone three days, they wouldn’t have even lasted a day. Although his body carried none of the scars from back then, when Eugene looked up at the Demon King’s Castle, his perfectly healthy left shoulder started to ache.

This was due to an injury that had been inflicted on him by the Annihilation Hammer Jigolath. If Hamel had been hit directly by the blow, half of his body would have disintegrated, but in a desperation-powered move, Hamel had barely managed to deflect the blow. However, just from that slight brush, a scar that could never be erased had been left on his body.

“All of you may already know this, but three hundred years ago, the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle completely collapsed into a ruin. However, our Demon King of Incarceration said that there is no future for the demonfolk if they forget their past, so he rebuilt the three Demon King Castles that had been turned into ruins…,” the tour guide paused.

“Three hundred years ago, the demonfolk were the one to start the war. Everyone, whether it’s as a race or as individuals, we demonfolk have committed enough crimes that it will take us hundred or even thousands of years to redeem ourselves. This reconstructed Demon King’s Castle is a symbol of the unjust war that was started by our race, and it serves to remind us of our long legacy of sin….”

As the guide’s speech continued in that vein, Eugene lost any desire to continue listening. While fiercely grinding his teeth, he lowered the sunglasses that had been resting on top of his head.

“How dare they advertise it as a tourist attraction if they claimed to have rebuilt it in order to never forget their sins,” Eugene growled in complaint.

“Why are you making such a fuss? Don’t the people on the continent do something similar? When I heard about the entrance fee they were charging for Sienna’s mansion, I felt disgusted by my fellow humans. And I’ve always hated Yuras’s hypocrisy even before they dared to create an icon of my image,” Anise said with a derisive snort as she got down from the driver’s seat of their car.

In Helmuth, where carriages had been completely abandoned, even tourists were able to purchase dark-power cars if they had money and a license.

Surprisingly, Kristina — who had served as the Assistant Bishop of the Alcarte Parish, which was adjacent to Helmuth — actually had a driver’s license for a dark-power car.

So they had gone ahead and bought one, a massive off-road dark-power car. Warp gates were used for long-distance travel, while the dark-power car was used within the cities.

Anise really liked this mode of transportation, which was completely different from riding a horse, and during their trip she had started alternating driving duties with Kristina, until they finally arrived at the parking lot of the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle.

Eugene grumbled, “Seeing this terrible Demon King’s Castle restored to perfect condition gives me a stomach ache.”

“The Demon King Castles were rebuilt about one hundred years ago. At that time, it was said that there was intense resistance to the restoration of the Demon King’s Castles from various parts of the continent, but the Demon King of Incarceration stepped forward personally and persuaded the continent. He claimed that they weren’t doing it to glorify the war from three hundred years ago, but instead to prevent themselves from forgetting the sins that they committed back then,” Kristina explained, having exchanged places with Anise once more.

With a wry smile, Kristina took off her own sunglasses. Currently, Kristina was dressed in a fashion that made it difficult to imagine that she was even a priest, much less the Saintess herself.

The same went for Eugene. The Cloak of Darkness, which originally had thick fur, would have stood out no matter where they went on the continent; in Helmuth, where the culture was so different from the continent that it felt like a whole other world, it would have been even more noticeable. Thus, the Cloak of Darkness currently looked like an ordinary, large coat.

Eugene’s gray hair, which could even serve as a form of identification for the Lionhearts, had also been dyed black. This was because, while they were not able to use fake IDs, he still didn’t want to advertise the fact that he was indeed Eugene Lionheart.

“The Demon King’s Castle and its nearby facilities are all classified as tourist attractions, but the Kazard Hills aren’t included within those tourist attractions,” Eugene reminded Kristina, having done his research and investigation in advance.

Three hundred years ago, this whole plain collapsed in the aftermath of their battle with the Demon King of Carnage. It was also then that they found the ruins where the Moonlight Sword had been sealed.

Although they turned the ruins upside down, apart from the single Moonlight Sword, nothing else, ancient artifacts or otherwise, was found. They weren’t able to find out the origins of the Moonlight Sword or of the ruins, either.

At that time, they just left the ruins as they were, but… in the current era, no ancient ruins remained at the Kazard hills.

‘It must have been Vermouth,’

Eugene guessed.

The fragment of the Moonlight Sword that Eugene had obtained from Aroth’s auction house was said to have been found at the Kazard Hills. In the process of shattering the Moonlight Sword, Vermouth had probably also destroyed the ruins and buried some of the shattered fragments underground during the process….

“…As expected, are you really planning to sneak in?” Kristina asked with a stiff expression.

“That’s the cleanest way to handle things,” Eugene argued.

The Kazard Hills weren’t included in the list of tourist attractions, but they also weren’t just left open for anyone to easily enter.

From decades back, the Kazard Hills had been made the private property of a tribe of demonfolk. Those demonfolk had carried out major construction work on the entire hillside and developed it into a huge mine.

The master of the Kazard Mine was Rhode Lonick, a demonfolk who had served under the Demon King of Carnage three hundred years before. Eugene also had a vague recollection of him. He was one of the daemons[1], and they had met on the battlefield several times.

At those times, Eugene’s—no, Hamel’s skills couldn’t be described as having been in their prime. Especially since it was before he had fully familiarized himself with fighting the demonfolk, who didn’t die easily even when dealt an otherwise killing blow; Eugene had still thought that as long as he cut off their limbs, stabbed them through the heart, and cut their throat, they would definitely die.

Of course,

most

demonfolk would die once all that was done to them. However, Rhode was a demonfolk who had just barely crawled beyond the standard set by the majority of demonfolk, so he hadn’t died from all of that.

But that was all he ever managed to achieve. He was as durable as a cockroach, but he only posed about the same level of a threat. Rhode took part in their battle against the Demon King of Carnage three hundred years ago, but he couldn’t even follow them up to the top floor of the castle, and after lurking around the battle going on below, he ran away as soon as Carnage was killed.

‘It really has been a long time,’

Eugene thought nostalgically.

‘To think that guy is now a businessman, in name at least….’

The Kazard Mine was still called a mine, but no mining was actually taking place there. At the very least, in recent years, the Kazard Mine had failed to produce any ores.

Even so, there were still plenty of demonfolk going in and out of the Kazard Mine, and it was an open secret of how this supposed mine was really being used.

Helmuth really was a two-faced place, or at least that was what Eugene thought.

It was considered the most developed country on the continent; a human-friendly empire that promised so many welfare benefits to humans that it was hard to believe that it was a land of demonfolk.

Such standards of welfare were also applied to the demonfolk. The demonfolk and humans of Helmuth lived a far more stable life than the inhabitants of any other country on the continent.

However, at the same time, Helmuth still hadn’t completely broken out of the mold of the ‘Devildom’ that it had been just three hundred years before. Just like how a beast was still a beast even after it pulled out its own fangs and claws, in the end, a demonfolk was still a demonfolk in nature. In Helmuth, the original demonfolk culture was still on open display.

‘…But are humans really any different?’

Eugene thought with a click of his tongue.

Deep within the mine was hidden an arena where low-level demonfolk participated in fights. The demonfolk who fought there sought to increase their own strength by killing their opponents. Life-force was used as a prize for these fights.

If any of the fighters managed to stand out, they could even end up being recruited by Rhode, who portrayed himself as an ‘old hand[2]’ in the business world. If not, they could at least earn a recommendation from Rhode and become a member of a different demon tribe. For gutter-rat members of a low-class demonfolk tribe with no future ahead of them, it could be quite worthwhile to lurk around the arena.

Of course, such an arena wouldn’t be open every day, and today was one of the days that the arena was closed. Eugene had no desire of doing the tiresome thing of trying to sneak into the arena along with the crowds, so he planned on infiltrating the mine tonight.

“Even if you try to persuade me, I have no intention of changing my mind,” Eugene insisted. “Since we’ve managed to enter Helmuth, there’s no reason for me not to do it.”

There was a possibility that fragments of the Moonlight Sword were still there. If he managed to find even one more fragment and added it to the rest of the Moonlight Sword, well… it still wouldn’t be as strong as it had been in the past.

Yet, even so, the power of the Moonlight Sword was too attractive to just give up.

Kristina began worriedly, “If you get caught—”

Eugene interrupted her. “If I get caught, I just need to run away.”

Eugene didn’t have any great concerns regarding that possibility. No matter how the situation might turn out, he had the confidence that he would be able to escape, and in the unlikely event that he couldn’t escape….

Eugene brought up the faint memories that he still had of Rhode Lonick and went over them again.

….All of the demonfolk who had lived during that era of war had definitely grown stronger over these past three hundred years. Eugene had gone through enough encounters to realize that these three hundred years were far from a short period of time.

After all, he had received a one-sided beating from Molon.

Then there were Gavid Lindman and Noir Giabella. Those two monsters who had been close to the Demon King level in the first place had gotten even stronger over the years.

Even someone like Iris was stronger than she had been three hundred years before.

Eugene was silent as he pondered the risk.

Yet when he considered the risks soberly, Eugene realized that, the way he was now, he was fully capable of putting up a fight against Iris. In comparison, when they met just a year ago, there was still such a difference between them that it wouldn’t have even counted as a fight.

However, Eugene’s White Flame Formula had risen all the way up to the Sixth Star and he had even developed his own Signature.

In his current condition, as long as he was prepared and gave it his best shot, Eugene felt that it wouldn’t be impossible for him to even kill Iris. Of course, there was no way to tell that without trying it, but this meant that they were now close enough that Eugene could make an estimate of his chances of victory.

As for Rhode… Rhode Lonick? The Rhode whose head Hamel had been able to send flying three hundred years before, when Hamel wasn’t even in his prime and still unfamiliar with fighting demonfolk?

‘How strong could that shitty bastard have become even after staying alive for three hundred years?’

Eugene scoffed silently.

After considering how Rhode compared with Iris, Eugene couldn’t help but feel dismissive. He smirked at Kristina, who still had a worried expression on her face.

“Don’t make that face. It won’t be dangerous and it won’t even take that long,” Eugene assured her.

Kristina hesitated. “…However….”

“Don’t worry about me and just wait for me here at the inn,” Eugene instructed.

The Bishop of Alcarte, Eileen, was indeed somehow immune to it, but ordinary demonfolk were allergic to divine power. As such, back three hundred years back, any missions involving infiltration and reconnaissance were left exclusively to Hamel and Sienna, with Anise being left behind.

The same was true this time as well. While Kristina accepted their circumstances, it was instead Anise who expressed her displeasure.

[In my past life, it was at times like these that I really hated Sienna,] Anise confessed.

‘Huh?’

Kristina responded in confusion.

Anise explained, [Molon was an idiot, so infiltration and reconnaissance were impossible for him, and Sir Vermouth needed to stay with the main group in case of an emergency. As someone who isn’t much different from a civilian if I’m not able to use divine power, I was, of course, excluded from taking such missions.]

Not much different from a civilian? Kristina wasn’t sure about everything else Anise had said, but she was having difficulty accepting that claim in particular.

[That’s why Sienna and Hamel were always the ones who went out on patrol,] Anise continued. [Whenever that happened, that bitch Sienna always seemed so happy that she could die, but she would forcefully keep her cheeks from moving and hold her lips together so that they couldn’t twitch in order to act like it was nothing to her. Her blatantly pleased expression seemed intended to piss me off. You don’t know how many times I had to hold back the urge to give her a few good slaps….]

Eugene had already decided to try and infiltrate the Kazard Mine after dark, and he had also done his reconnaissance. Even so, they still had quite a lot of time left, so he decided to remind himself of the old days. That was why they had come here, to the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle.

It was forbidden to ride a dark-power car within the castle walls. As such, all dark-power vehicles had to be parked in the parking lot outside of the castle walls.

“So this is the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle… where their legend first began…,” Mer said slowly, her mouth hanging open as she looked up at the castle.

The group of tourists led by their tour guide had already entered through the gates of the castle ahead of them, but Eugene and his companions weren’t members of the tour group in the first place. Eugene and Anise were living witnesses of what had happened here three hundred years ago, so why would they even need a guide?

“This really reminds me of the old days,” Eugene said as he patted Mer on the head and approached the castle gates.

Although he had been indignant that this castle was being advertised as a tourist attraction, it seemed like there wasn’t any entrance fee needed to enter the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle.

“In that aspect, they’re actually better than Yuras or Aroth,” Eugene muttered with a smirk as he led them forward.

The first thing they saw after passing through the castle’s walls was a memorial stone that was as tall and sturdy as the castle itself.

“This memorial stone records the names of the heroes who lost their lives here during their challenge to bring peace to the world three hundred years ago. While we can’t guarantee that the names of every hero who perished here has been recorded, the Demon King of Incarceration swears to honor all those who gave their lives for peace….”

The guide who had entered ahead of them was giving an explanation for the memorial stone in front of the tourist group. Kristina turned her head, concerned that Eugene might just go crazy after hearing such words, but Eugene’s expression was as calm as ever.

“What a load of bullshit,” Eugene spat out a curse with that same calm expression.

In this Demon King of Carnage’s Castle that the Demon King of Incarceration had personally rebuilt, Eugene recalled the last time that he had left this place, three hundred years before.

The day after they had killed the Demon King.

Everyone had worked together to destroy the castle. Molon had blasted apart the walls with a swing of his giant hammer, while Hamel had focussed on tearing down the castle towers. Sienna had also let loose with her spells, and even Vermouth had fired off his Thunderbolt Pernoa and the Dragon Spear with a hearty laughter.

It wasn’t just them either. Everyone who had fought and survived in the taking of this Demon King’s Castle had participated in the destruction of the castle. All of the bodies of their comrades whose names had been placed on this memorial stone had been carried outside beforehand. While everyone else united together to demolish the castle, Anise and the other priests were reciting prayers to honor the souls of those who had passed away.

[I thought that I would never see this castle again,] Anise muttered inside Kristina’s head. […I’m only saying this now, Kristina, and I’ve always kept this a secret from Hamel, but I… I really thought that all of us would die here in this castle.]

At these words, Kristina unconsciously halted her steps. Fortunately, they had already entered the castle and were now waiting for the elevator that led up to the roof.

[Right now, this place might have elevators installed for the sake of convenience, but three hundred years ago, there wasn’t anything like that in here. At that time, we… we felt like we were facing our certain deaths. We were a suicide squad with the sole mission of killing the Demon King. In order to send the five of us up, more than a hundred times our number were fighting to buy us time outside of the castle.]

Kristina listened silently.

[However, that didn’t mean that the Demon King of Carnages Castle was left completely empty. High-rank demonfolk serving as royal guards were stationed within the castle. But even that meant that we had successfully accomplished the preliminary part of our plan, and that we had made enough preparations. Since his army had been led outside, we only had to defeat a small number of high-rank demonfolk before facing the Demon King of Carnage.]

The elevator arrived on the first floor.

[Our battle against the high-ranking demonfolk… wasn’t all that difficult. At that time we were still inexperienced, but even so, the enemy was well within our capabilities to face. Since the Demon King of Carnage was ranked fifth among Demon Kings, that meant his followers were also weaker than those who served the higher-ranking Demon Kings.]

‘Sister…’

Kristina quietly called out.

[That’s right. It was just for a short moment, but we really were being overly arrogant. That was why the shock that followed so easily sent us into despair. As the fifth-ranked Demon King, the Demon King of Carnage was indeed the weakest of the five Demon Kings. However, upon meeting such an existence for the first time, the entity known as a Demon King made me fear for my life from the very moment that I first encountered him,] Anise confessed.,

Kristina hesitated. ‘

…However… Sister, you and the others — no, all of you heroes from three hundred years ago, didn’t you eventually succeed in killing the Demon King of Carnage?’

[Yes. In the end, we did succeed in killing him. After fighting for three whole days and nights and going through countless life and death crises, that is.]

The elevator climbed upward.

Inside of the spacious elevator, there were many other tourists besides Eugene, Kristina, and Mer. They were all humans. With excited expressions, they chatted about the Demon King Castle’s scenery as well as the legends of this place.

[I’m having a lot of mixed feelings,] Anise whispered. [We killed the Demon King and destroyed his Castle. Now, three hundred years have passed and the fragile peace that we managed to achieve still continues undisturbed. In that era, blood and corpses piled up like small hills in the Demon King’s Castle, but now, what was destroyed back then has been rebuilt and has become a tourist destination. I died, leaving behind just my soul, and Hamel has been reincarnated… but we’re now back here.]

‘…Is all this situation causing you distress?’

Kristina asked cautiously.

[I think it’s only natural for me to feel displeased. The very existence of this place is offensive to both Hamel and myself. After all, doesn’t it seem like the battle site where we all fought so desperately is being treated inappropriately? However…apart from that, there are many other emotions. I’m also feeling proud. Because we fought here…and we won. It’s because of that, that we can be here now.]

At these words, Kristina unconsciously burst into laughter. She nodded her head in agreement as she clutched the rosary that was hidden inside her jacket.

The elevator soon arrived on the top floor and the doors opened to reveal a rooftop that was spacious and fully open to the sky.

Mer unconsciously let out an awed exclamation at the sight that lay in front of her.

“Whoaaah….”

This was the landmark of the Demon King of Carnage’s Castle.

The Death List.

Three hundred years ago, everyone worked together to destroy the Demon King’s Castle. However, one of the walls was left standing. This was because everyone was instantly convinced by the idea shouted by one of the knights who had fought at the castle — that something should be left behind so that no one would forget this day.

—Let’s write down our names.

Molon was the one who proposed this idea. At first, his intention was to write down all of their names, but the commander of the allied forces at the time shook his head. The commander insisted that only the names of the five people who had managed to kill the Demon King should be written down, because the fewer names there were, the easier it would be for those names to serve as role models.

Vermouth, who wasn’t very eager to play along with this idea, was still the very first to get pushed forward. In the end, with a bothered yet helpless expression on his face, Vermouth wrote his name on the wall.

Vermouth Lionheart.

Hamel Dynas.

Sienna Merdein.

Anise Slywood.

Molon Ruhr.

Their five names were written on the wall.

Then in red, the names of the Demon Kings were also written down.

The Demon King of Destruction.

The Demon King of Incarceration.

The Demon King of Fury.

The Demon King of Cruelty.

The Demon King of Carnage.

Next to the name of the Demon King of Carnage, which was written down at the very bottom, a cross was drawn. The list was thus engraved into the only bit left standing of the castle, and everyone chuckled as they looked at it. Thinking back on it now, it was childish of them to have done something like that, but at that time, everyone had been full of laughter.

Wasn’t it only natural?

That was the first time a Demon King had been defeated. This was the first time that the humans, who had been one-sidedly trampled by the Demon Kings and their armies, had managed to kill a Demon King.

At that moment, everyone held hope for the future. Hope that one day, they would be able to defeat all of the Demon Kings.

Eugene didn’t get close to the Death List. Just why had they moved it up to the rooftop from its original resting place down below? With a wry smile, Eugene turned to look around at the top of the castle walls.

It wasn’t hard to find what he was looking for. It seemed that Anise had also felt the same urge. Kristina was currently looking in the same direction as Eugene.

Following the battle that had lasted three days and three nights, when Vermouth’s Holy Sword finally pierced through the Demon King’s heart…

At that time, Hamel had been standing right next to Vermouth.

Hamel was piercing the Demon King’s throat with the spear that he was holding in both hands. Molon was blocking the Demon King’s Annihilation Hammer that was attempting to crush Vermouth with his bare hands. Sienna was holding the Demon King immobile with her magic, and Anise was utilizing her divine power to keep the Demon King from regenerating, while also keeping everyone alive.

This scene had repeated itself dozens of times over the past three days and nights.

Finally, at dawn, when the sun had just begun to rise, they succeeded in killing the Demon King of Carnage.

Eugene could clearly remember what Vermouth had looked like at that moment, when he had pulled out the Holy Sword that he had stuck through the chest of the Demon King of Carnage.

At that time, Vermouth’s light was as bright as the dawn itself. Everyone was excited about defeating the Demon King, but Vermouth’s appearance with his back to the light had appeared sacred enough to suppress everyone’s sense of excitement.

It was rare to see Vermouth laugh. However, at that moment, he was smiling so brightly that it was hard to believe that this was still the usual Vermouth.

—Thank you.

—For accompanying me here…and for not dying…thank you.

Eugene and Anise were both looking at the place where Vermouth had been standing back then.

The sun was floating high in the sky. Today, it didn’t seem particularly dazzling. However, the two of them felt like they were now looking at the dawn that they had seen back then.

“On that day, this is where the legend began,” said the guide who was standing in front of the Death List

At these words, Eugene laughed unconsciously.

Although he felt that the word ‘legend’ was too grand of a description, it was true that, on that day, something truly had begun here.

A promise to kill all the Demon Kings.

The resolve to save the world.

A hope that they would be able to achieve the seemingly impossible.

It all started here, three hundred years ago.

1. The demonfolk race that all known Demon Kings are said to be members of. ☜

2. The original Korean text uses OB, which is short for ‘old boy’ and is used in much the same way as English uses ‘old hand’. ☜