Chapter 151: The Sage Knows the Long Cherished Desire of the Demigod

“The Hero is dead, huh…”

I was thinking about the words spoken by the demigod.

Those were the words that had echoed in my heart.

To be honest, it wasn’t something I had wished to hear.

I felt an ache that was similar to pain.

“Did you forget the person you killed by your own hand? I had heard that the Hero of the Holy Sword was slain by the Demon Lord. And that the kingdom was also destroyed.”

“There’s no way I could forget about it — I killed the Hero.”

I muttered in response to the demigod’s pursuit.

I had effectively forced two Heroes to their death.

Both were the results of the choices I had made.

It was something that could have been prevented depending on my actions.

Throughout the ages, I have been despised by true justice.

However, it was my destiny, since I am now the Demon Lord.

Even justice must be used as fuel to move forward.

I wasn’t allowed to stop now.

I had already sacrificed too many lives to step forward.

Perhaps it could be said that I merely became defiant.

However, I had resolved to bear all the criticisms, grudges, and hatred the moment I became the Demon Lord.

That decision was not a lie.

I held the keepsake sword and declared.

“I will continue to reign as the pinnacle of evil. For all eternity, I have no intention of resigning from this position. Therefore, demigod, you'll have to die here.”

“To boast even in this situation, you sure are very confident.”

“If I didn’t have that kind of mindset, I wouldn’t have lasted as the Demon Lord.”

I walked with the sword in my hand.

Since I had been dragged into a subspace, it was strictly forbidden to waste magic.

Magic was hardly effective against him, to begin with.

What I did wouldn’t change fundamentally.

All I had to do was to get closer and cut him down.

As I approached, the demigod sighed.

He complained with a sarcastic look.

“…I really want to complain to the people of the Holy Scepter Kingdom. They gauged the power of the Demon Lord wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

When I asked him, one side of his cheek twitched.

It seemed he leaked a wry laugh.

“It’s about the information they had provided. ‘The Demon Lord of this generation is an abnormal undead, to the point that the Saint’s divine magic was ineffective.' That information isn’t wrong, but they had also said that you were weak at close quarter combat.”

“Hou.”

“'The Demon Lord is a typical magician who doesn’t go to the frontline himself and leaves most combats to his subordinates. Therefore, it will be advantageous once you force him to fight in close quarters.' I learned martial arts because of such information, but I merely disgraced myself.”

As I listened to the demigod’s story, I lost my words.

That was the first time I had heard of that.

It seemed those nations had misunderstood my ability.

I certainly hadn’t used the sword that often.

I rarely showed myself on the battlefield, busying myself with office work at the capital every day.

Even when I did participate, I merely commanded the undead.

Since my race looked like a Lich's, they seemed to have gotten the impression that I was a typical magician.

As a result, my swordsmanship wasn’t very well known.

The demigod seemed to have prepared countermeasures based on that biased information.

I could only say it was pitiful of him.

I could understand why he felt like complaining.

The demigod exhaled, but he soon gave me a sharp look.

It was a voice filled with heavy fatigue.

“However, I’ll never give up. As I have already abandoned everything, all that is left for this flesh is to achieve world peace. I only need to last until it is attained.”

“What will you do after killing me and dismantling the Demon Lord’s Army? How will you achieve world peace then?”

“I’ll just die gracefully. It will be the duty of the people who still remain to maintain peace. The demigod shouldn’t have existed in the first place. It will only become a reason for conflict and bring more trouble for the future world. I also didn’t want to be treated as a weapon.”

The demigod spoke with a mocking voice.

I could see his true feelings as a person there.

He continued his words as if doing a monologue.

“The duty of the demigod is to only dismantle the Demon Lord’s Army. I shouldn’t interfere more than that. To prevent a new demigod from coming into being, I destroyed all traces of that ritual magic. With that, that inhuman taboo can no longer be reproduced.”

At the underground magic workshop, all evidence had been thoroughly destroyed.

I had thought that the demigod had done that to prevent any possible weaknesses from leaking out, but it seemed he had done it to prevent another victim from emerging out of the ritual magic.

Although it was quite unexpected, his motive was a legitimate one.

Even if the end result couldn’t become as strong as a demigod, it would still be dangerous if there was a spell that could artificially create a Herald.

It would cause great turmoil in the world.

It would likely lead to new forms of discrimination.

At the very least, it was clear that it would lead in a direction opposite to peace.

In the sense of destroying such possibility, I could sympathize with the demigod’s action.

I stopped once I was at a certain distance from him.

Then I spoke to the demigod who took his stance.

“I can understand your thoughts and claims. I have something to say on top of that.”

“What is it?”

The demigod responded with caution.

I raised the keepsake sword and said with a cold voice.

“—I can’t entrust world peace to you. That will be my mission for the future.”