Chapter 14: Promise

Kiit!!

Green Goblin, Amutar ran through the forest.

He wasn’t being chased by anything, but he ran forward without knowing what was going on.

Because he felt his life was in danger.

“Kurur….”

Amutar fell to the ground.

No matter how hard he tried to forget, the cold, angry gaze of the warrior came to mind, and Amutar couldn’t walk any longer.

The poisonous needle aimed at the witch.

It was clearly aimed at the witch’s chest, but the wind blew at the speed of light and the poisonous needle fell to the ground.

And then Amutar’s eyes met.

The witch staring indifferently at him.

And the warrior who seemed to be seething with indescribable anger.

He had barely managed to escape from the golden storm that the blond warrior had unleashed and survive, but he couldn’t overcome the fear engraved in his demon’s blood.

Fear of the holy sword.

Fear of great power.

Fear of death.

If the witch hadn’t made him her messenger, he would have definitely died.

“K, eeeee.”

“Oh my? Why is there a green goblin here?”

“Keruk…?”

Amutar raised his head.

There, Mine, dressed like a clown, was staring down at him.

The ridiculous clown, with his face painted white and red tear stains under his eyes, approached Amutar and smiled warmly.

“Hello! Are you a goblin from the village of warriors?”

“K, krut…”

“You seem to have intelligence? If you don’t tell me, I can kill you?”

Amutar quickly straightened his posture at Mine’s words.

“T-That’s right.”

“Okay. Then let me ask you something.”

When Mine snapped his fingers, mana began to take shape in the air like a picture.

“…A holy sword that looks like this, has it awakened?”

“W-Who are you…?”

“Me?”

The clown twisted the corners of his mouth and pointed at himself.

“The Demon King.”

Approximately 500 years since the death of Belphegor.

Times have changed!!

“Ha.”

“They’re all caught.

There’s no one inside now.”

“Well, good job.”

Lucius grinned while holding the Holy Sword.

Compared to the power of the Holy Sword, a den of 30 goblins was nothing, but for one human named Lucius, it was a huge achievement.

“Two people have never cleared a dungeon like this before.”

“Two? You did it all by yourself.”

“I just did as you were instructed, Master.

As expected of a Master.

How did you know exactly where the goblins would come out?”

“Pretend to be pretense.”

Even after 500 years, goblins are still goblins.

Compared to the goblins in the Underworld, the goblins in the Middle-earth were nothing more than gentlemanly traps.

If the goal of the Middle-earth was to ‘capture’, the goal of the Underworld was to kill.

It was fortunate that they didn’t lure the enemies into a cave and then use a magic bomb to collapse the cave and crush them to death.

And because I had to check those traps one by one, the raid time was considerably longer than the power of the holy sword.

About an hour.

Considering that the same number of goblins could have been swept away in the village with the golden storm of the holy sword in less than 3 minutes, it actually took a considerable amount of time to raid the goblin den.

“It actually took more time because of me.

Because I said that there were traps that weren’t there.”

“No. There were only those that seemed like there would be plenty.

In fact, there were traces of some of the traps being demolished, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“And it’s not slow at all.

At this speed, it’s almost like gold-plated mercenaries raided the goblin den.”

“You know that well, right?”

“I looked into various things to do once I left the village.”

Adventurer.

Going to dungeons to eliminate demons and beasts and taking the byproducts from their corpses, or taking the magic stones embedded in the hearts of demons, or taking gold and silver treasures from the warehouses that intelligent demons keep in dungeons.

Those who try to make a killing in one go are professions that didn’t exist in my time.

Similar to mercenaries, but more ‘adventure’-oriented than mercenaries.

500 years later, new professions have emerged, and adventurers hunt demons to make money.

That’s right, the demons who once brought humanity to the brink of destruction have fallen apart due to the demise of the Demon King, and are now hunted by humans!

“What’s going on, demons?”

When I was causing a ruckus, the battles between humans and demons were more like ‘wars’ than battles.

“‘How did I create the Demon King’s army!’

I, Belphegor, overcame all the restrictions of being summoned to the Middle-earth and finally managed to unleash some of the power of the Demon King.

I, Belphegor, did not do it alone, but formed the Demon King’s ‘Army’ and brought in numerous races from the Middle-earth to become the Demons.

I brought in a large number of those who were classified as ‘subhumans’ by humans, such as goblins, orcs, ogres, trolls, drakes, succubi, beastmen, vampires, lycanthropes, and nagas to become the Demons.

In fact, except for races that had close relations with humans, such as elves and dwarves, they all sided with the Demon King’s Army.

Some, such as goblins and orcs, were on the front lines of massacring humans, while others, such as vampires and lycanthropes, preserved their power and mobilized a very small number of people in exchange for cutting ties with the Human Union.

Humanity mainly attempted guerrilla warfare using a small number of warriors, but most battles with humans were basically large-scale battles involving tens of thousands of people.

Taking over a castle, waging a field battle on the plains, or raiding and taking over a port.

The Great Battle of Zodiart Plains.

All of the so-called Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s Army gathered, and a battle was representative of the battle where 30,000 humans, including countless warriors, fought against a large army of hundreds of thousands on the plains.

In fact, while I was recuperating in the Demon King’s Castle, my heart was torn apart by the Wind Holy Sword Warrior who suddenly barged in, but large-scale wars were the norm in my time.

But now it’s different.

-Dungeon?

Yes.

We simply call the place where the demons hide a ‘dungeon!

Humanity became the ruler of the continent.

The elves and dwarves who sided with the humans until the end and held out until the end established a kingdom in earnest and formed a constructive alliance with the humans.

So what happened to those who sided with the Demon King’s Army?

“They went to the mountains, caves, and the bottom of the sea.

“They fled to the northern continent, a place untouched by human hands.”

“Is that so… the lair they fled to is a dungeon?”

“Yes, Master. Just like this place.”

I entered the ‘Goblin Dungeon’ with Lucius.

It was about two days away from the Hero’s Village, unlike the goblins that attacked it.

We didn’t have a specific destination in mind, but if there were demons along the way, we couldn’t just pass them by.

Just as a sparrow can’t just pass by a mill, I couldn’t just pass by the Demon’s base.

‘I can’t stand magic stone farming.

Don’t say anything about harassing weak goblins.

Even weak goblins have magic stones embedded in their hearts, and I have to extend my life with those magic stones.

“Maybe humanity should have lived in caves like this.

It’s all thanks to you, Master and the Heroes.”

“What…”

Of course it was thanks to you.

Because I was defeated and killed by the Hero, and the Demon King died.

“After the Demon King died, the Demon King’s army collapsed, right?”

“Yes.

The Four Heavenly Kings who followed the Demon King were at odds with each other in less than a year and each declared themselves Demon Kings, while the Human Alliance was gradually destroyed, bringing peace to the Continent.”

“Tsk tsk, I knew those punks would do that.

They were always fighting among themselves, arguing over who would be number two…”

“Huh?”

“…We fought often before fighting the Demon King.

Hahaha.”

He spoke in a Demon King-like manner.

‘Still, it’s so absurd that I can’t speak.

Even if the four of them had divided the forces equally into quarters, each of them would have been leading almost three hundred thousand demons.

And they lost?

“The Heroes of the Holy Sword wouldn’t have been active…”

“Oh, they were active.”

“Huh?

Why?

Why?”

“Why…?”

Lucius tilted his head and asked me back.

“Fire, water, earth, and light.

After the Demon King was destroyed, the Goddess sent the four holy swords to each world.

The four holy swords met their respective masters and played a major role in defeating the four Demon Kings.”

“…..”

After all, isn’t there some kind of universal law that applies the formula of the number of Demon Kings = number of heroes?

“Then where are all the holy swords now?”

“…Are you trying to find another hero?

Have you changed your mind?”

“Rather than finding a hero, you’re trying to find the holy swords.”

I punched Lucius in the chest.

“In my left hand, the Holy Sword of Wind.

And in your right hand…

Is there something you want to hold?”

“What is that….”

“Why do you think each person can only hold one holy sword?”

This is prejudice.

“Back in my time, there were people who swung the holy swords as twin swords.”

Me.

“Is that possible…?”

“No one knows, that’s why.

Imagine if you could hold the holy sword in both hands.

Wouldn’t users of the holy swords start a war of attrition?”

“T, that’s…”

Lucius became lost in thought.

He seemed to be anxious, fiddling with the fourth finger of his left hand, thinking that someone was definitely trying to steal his holy sword.

“Heh, don’t worry.

I’ll protect your holy sword.”

“Yes?!”

“You just have to protect this one thing.”

I held Lucius’ left hand tightly.

“No matter who comes, you must not take this ring off?”

“No matter who?”

“Yes .Ah. Except me.”

I lightly flicked the ring with my finger.

“Just trust me.

I’ll let you swing twin swords with the holy sword.”