Chapter 188 - Noble Sacrifice (1)

I left the Shapir with Jul Goo and headed for Humbley’s office.

Humbley bowed deeply as if he was showing respect to an emperor as soon as I got there. The way he addressed me felt that way too.

“Ah, you’re here, your majesty.”

“Please don’t call me that.”

“But you are the Gokuri Empire’s emperor to me. (TL: It has changed to Gokuri Empire now) All of the citizens of the Gokuri Empire probably feel that way as well.”

I felt bitter thinking about that part. I had thought I could live as an emperor for a bit.

On the one hand, it was nice.

I already reigned over everyone anyway. Even the emperor of the now Batoru Empire could not look down on me anymore.

Furthermore, as Humbley mentioned, everyone within the Gokuri Empire considered me to be higher than the emperor of the Batoru Empire. (TL: Okay…it looks like the Batoru Kingdom and the Gokuri Kingdom combined to create the Batoru Empire? Not sure. The author is just jumping.)

That was enough.

I had all the power without any responsibility so how great was that?

I guess I’m more suited to being a free soul.

“I might not be able to return from this mission. Guild leader-nim, I need you to help General Genos, no, I guess we need to call him Emperor Genos now. Anyway, please help him out.”

“Is there a need to ask for something so obvious? The Gokuri Empire is already my home.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

It should be fine for a while if Humbley is helping out. I can control it again after taking care of the Demon Lord Heros issue.

And if things go south?

I don’t need to worry about what would happen then.

I took a deep breath and wet my lips with the sweet-smelling tea.

The door slammed open and Kaldera rushed in at that moment. Kaldera’s eyes were looking around fervently until they stopped on me.

She then froze.

She seemed to have come into the room with a lot of things to say but forgot all of it once she saw me.

Honestly speaking, I did feel a bit sorry for Kaldera. I had completely misunderstood her feelings.

I thought that she had just tried to seduce me for business benefit. I thought that she wanted to use my abilities to increase the merchant guild’s wealth.

But that wasn’t it. She had fallen for the person, Kang Hwi Ram.

The reason I feel that way?

I don’t really know. It was just a feeling. However, there were sometimes feelings that you could trust without any suspicion.

That was how Kaldera’s feelings for me felt.

My heart was shaken after I realized that.

But I had to hold back. I had already received the Demon Lord Heros mission by the time I found out.

In other words, I was someone whose future was uncertain.

Accepting Kaldera’s feelings now would just end up leading Kaldera into a terrible future.

I could consider Kaldera as a woman instead of a business partner if I manage to return alive after taking care of Demon Lord Heros.

But we had to remain business partners for now.

“It’s been a while, guild leader-nim.”

She had become the merchant guild leader not too long ago. Humbley had given everything to Kaldera so that he could focus on the Empire’s administration.

In some ways, Humbley had been promoted too.

I was still calling Humbley guild leader because it had become a habit and was hard to change. Basically, one was the former guild leader while the other was the current guild leader.

“Please let me go with you.”

I had a feeling that she would say that.

But does she really think that makes any sense? I understand where she is coming from, but she really should think about it more.

“Everybody has their roles to play and places to be. Guild leader-nim, your place is in Avanguarde.”

“I promise you that I will be of help.”

“Your staying here will be the best way to help me. Do you know how much more helpful it is for me to know that there is someone waiting for me?”

A small smile appeared on Kaldera’s face.

Kaldera seemed to have seen my shaking heart that I subconsciously described.

Yes. I won’t deny it. I felt like I would get strength from knowing Kaldera was waiting for me here. It was like I now had one more reason to make sure I come back.

Now that I said that, I wanted to show her a little more of how I felt.

“Please stay here. Do it for me.”

The smile on Kaldera’s face became a bit brighter.

She then nodded her head.

“I understand, but in return, please make me a promise. Please promise me that you’ll come back.”

I responded with a smile.

* * *

Avanguarde’s Magician’s Tower.

There were close to 5,000 humans, Dwarves, Shapirs, and others gathered here. We all looked different and had different personalities, but our determined expressions all looked similar.

All these talented individuals were looking at me.

I was looking down at them from a pretty high platform. It even made me wonder how a weakling like me who had been bullied by his classmate and just had a part-time job at a car wash when I grew up had ended up here.

On one hand, my life in Royal Roader until now seemed to be passing by like a fleeting lantern.

It was quite long if I thought about it. There were times it was so hard I wanted to die and a lot of thrilling moments I wanted to scream.

It now seemed time to finish everything.

Either I lose and disappear from this world or I win and come back to a changed life. I won’t have to live as if I was being chased by something, instead, I’ll be able to enjoy every moment.

Yes! Let’s finish it now!

But I feel like I should say something since I’m standing up here. All of them seem to be waiting for me to say something.

I felt a bit awkward but still managed to say something.

“1,000 years ago, our ancestors gave their lives to protect this world from the invasion of the Demon World. And the world still praises them as heroes and sings of their accomplishments 1,000 years later.”

There were many unknown heroes as well. They could have fought more valiantly than anyone else, but their names ended up not even in the history books.

But it would be different this time.

I picked up a book with the names of every single person here. There were exactly 5,043 names and information about them in this book.

Of course, even more people will participate in the battle against the Demon Lord, but they had already gone through the portal to wait around the Demons’ Mine.

These people did not want their names left in the world. They were born as one with nature and just wanted to return to nature.

“Your names will be remembered like that. Even after 100 years, or even 1,000 years, they will sing of your heroic tales.”

The words, ‘heroic tales,’ made the morale of the people gathered explode. They all seemed fired up and ready to go.

“Let’s go. Let’s go and write a new chapter in our heroic tale. We are the Soldiers of Heaven!”

I raised my sword and they responded by raising their swords and starting to cheer.

They were screaming, ‘Soldiers of Heaven!’ which meant that we were the troops of the gods.

“Soldiers of Heaven! Waaaaaaaaah-”

I listened to them cheer as I stepped into the portal first. The approximately 5,000 soldiers came in after me to head to the Western District’s Demons’ Mine.

But why the hell are these people following me?

Jul Goo and Eruni who had been freed from slavery long ago were participating in this war.

They weren’t the only ones. Jonna, Batoom, Goultan, and the miners were here as well.

Of course, they should be able to help. They were all easily over level 400. Even Eruni who was the lowest level was close to level 370 now.

But I still couldn’t expect much from them. The rest of the troops would be at least level 500 in human terms.

In fact, all of these people might end up as baggage.

But they all were determined to participate. Eruni even said that she would cook for everyone if that was what we needed, thinking back to our past expeditions.

I couldn’t say no because I found her determination to be trustworthy.

However, I made sure to give them a serious warning.

“Nobody will look after all of you once the battle starts. You must survive on your own. So stay back and take care of logistics in the back. That is how you can help me.”

“We understand, your majesty!”

“Sigh, I told you not to call me that.”

I then stopped thinking about them.

The entrance to the Western District’s Demons’ Mine.

“Oh! What is this?”

“My goodness. What am I looking at?”

The Dwarves and Shapirs opened their eyes in shock as soon as they came out of the portal. It was because a race that was not as mysterious as the Drakes nor Peria but almost just as mysterious was waiting outside the portal.

Elves.

There were not just one or two of them. There were over 1,000 of them.

The even more shocking part was that there were over 10 High Elves as well.

There were also creatures that could not be seen.

Stone Elves. Each High Elf usually controlled over 100 Stone Elves.

The Demon Lord’s army should not be much of a burden with this many people. I had fewer people than when I attempted to destroy the Demon Lord in the game, but each individual was much stronger.

Demon Lord Heros should have realized our existence by now.

Actually, he probably noticed it the moment the Elves got here. I’m sure he’s ready for us.

All that was left was to charge forward. We cannot stop until we hunt down Demon Lord Heros.

“Everybody, forward march!”

I was in the vanguard.

The strong Dwarves of the warrior race were in the front with me and the human soldiers and Elven brigade followed right behind us.

The Shapir were in the rear. They were slow, but they were talented in magic so they were not falling behind.

The Demons’ resistance started inside the Demons’ Mine. We had cleared it out last time but it seemed to be full of Demons again.

Of course, they weren’t much of an obstacle. It was because my skills were worlds different than the last time.

Furthermore, the Elves were faster than the Demons and suppressed their morale.

Thanks to that, we blitzed our way through the Demons’ Mine.

It was a wide prairie past the Demons’ Mine.

It was full of demonic aura. The sun shining down from above had helped the grass grow as tall as trees in forests, and we had to fight with the Demons hiding within the grass.

But the results were not different from the Demons in the Demons’ Mine. The Elves who were the race of the forest quickly found and killed the hiding Demons.

We passed through the wide prairie and entered the mountainous area.

The real battle finally started. There were thousands of Demons in formation waiting at the top of the mountain.

Many of my peers were sacrificed. Elves, Dwarves, humans, and Shapir, people shed blood and died regardless of their race.

However, I took a special team consisting of 500 total Elves and Dwarves and attacked from behind to change the momentum.

We managed to make it past the line of enemies in the mountainous area.

There was only one trial left.

The Cave of the Demon Lord.

We were all extremely weakened. We had less than 30% of the people we started with when we left Avanguarde.

The sacrifices were too large in the mountainous area.

However, we could not stop. The Demon Lord would strengthen that last line we passed through if we gave him time.

We needed to see this through until the end whether it ended good or bad.

The others felt the same way.

They were all ready to die should it happen. Goonto’s eyes were burning as he urged me on.

“What are you doing? Let’s go in.”

The Elves were the same.

“Let’s go.”

We started to move again. We headed toward the Cave of the Demon Lord, no, the Cave of Death.

But it was a bit unexpected. We thought that it would be a more difficult battle than in the mountainous area’s line of defense, but the Cave of the Demon Lord was empty. It was as if only the shell remained.

We managed to get deep within the cave with smaller than expected sacrifices and finally managed to arrive at the deepest area of the cave.

This area we arrived at was larger than three or four domed arenas placed together.

Then we saw him.

Demon Lord Heros.

He was sitting on a large stone chair, but he looked as large as ten Demons put together and he had an oppressive aura pressing down upon us that made him seem even bigger.

Was there a need for us to introduce ourselves? We each just wanted one thing. Each other’s neck.

We started to attack at the same time.

Demon Lord Heros got up and swung a weapon that looked like a steel hammer and showed off his strength.

Nobody could survive Heros’s attack. Even the strong Dwarves and the quick Elves were turned into mincemeat with a single attack.

The Shapir’s attacks didn’t even work.

I was the only one who could defeat Heros. Only I knew of his weakness. And I was the only one who could get close enough to utilize that weakness.

I just needed an opening.

I continued to roam around Heros. I was hoping that he would forget about me for a second while fighting the others.

Then, the opening finally came. I had ended up directly behind Heros.

‘Now!’

I hid my presence as much as possible and approached Heros.

Heros turned his head after feeling something, but I had already used the Ring of Darkness to hide.

Would it work?

It did. Heros was unable to find me and turned his head again to defend against the Dwarves’ attacks. (TL: Author went back on his word from 187.)

I managed to get next to Heros’s butt while he did that.

I then stabbed the center of Heros’s spine with Goonto’s Twin Blades. This was Demon Lord Heros’s only weakness.

It was the location of his demonic core.

“Rooooooooar!”

Demon Lord Heros could not withstand that one attack. He weakly fell over, making me wonder if that strong Heros could die so easily.

Boom!

He made a loud noise as he fell.

Something felt iffy.

‘There’s no way it would end this easily.’

There was something I had not used yet.

I took the item I had been keeping safe in my bag out. It was the item I received from god after being given the mission to defeat Demon Lord Heros.

[Soul of the Dead]

This item is a key to enter Demon Lord Heros’s territory.

Translator: Miraclerifle

Proofreader: Borderline Masochist