Volume 7 - CH 17.1

Volume 7, Chapter 7: The Devil’s Temptation, Part 1

The Hero of the North. The Hero of Earth. The Earth Hero.

There were many titles that she’d been called in the dozen years since she had been summoned as the [Hero] of Gamble, the northern country, as a beauty of about 15~16 years old.

She was confused at first. She didn’t cooperate, either. But, as she realized that she could fight in this world as if she was in a “game” world, since she was carrying the power of a Hero, she reached the conclusion she had been chosen as a “protagonist” in this world.

In less than a year, she was called the strongest in Gamble.

Naturally, they were popular with the women since they were strong in ability and had a powerful political position as a Hero.

However, she paid no notice to the women, and even had expressed contempt towards them.

She had been born in an old family in the Tohoku region, and had been the youngest of four siblings…… born as the eldest son with three older sisters.

Raised by their severe parents, their older sisters teased him like they would a pet cat.

Before she had become aware, she had been discretely dressed up in her sisters’ old clothes and had grown up while being treated like a girl, but she had gotten suspicious at some point.

[Why is my body different from my sisters’……?]

By the time she arrived at that question, her first love was an older boy in the neighborhood, and her heart by then was that of a maiden’s, it could be said that in every sense of the word, it was too late.

Her sisters didn’t restrain themselves against this troubled youth. Being told to take care of their “brother” because their parents were busy, they nurtured him into a fine “woman”.

However, unlike what her sisters wished for, she didn’t turn into a “trap”. Exceeding the height of an average adult in her senior years of elementary school, although she became a tall and beautiful youth, but with the appearance of a man and the heart of a maiden she became the exact opposite of a “Trap” and became something like a [Trans-Female] instead.

By the time her parents noticed everything, it was too late.

{App’s Note: Sorry to stop the action for a second, but as a member of the LGBT community, I just need to add a quick interjection that this isn’t quite how gender identity and sexual preferences (Different things) are determined, although I’m sure there are Drag Queens (Another, separate thing) who are cis, to which this origin may apply, thank you for your time}

Her strict parents, who were unable to correct her, gave up completely, and began to treat her as if she didn’t exist.

She suffered. Was it really such a terrible thing to have the heart of a maiden while being born a man?

Why didn’t her parents admit it themselves?

She suffered, with her parents who didn’t even look at her, and with her sisters who had toyed with her to this point…… she came to despise other women.

And then, she was summonsed as a [Hero] in another world.

As she gained strength, and everyone began to both fear and respect her, she realized.

[Oh…… I don’t have to pretend any more…]…

She bought women’s accessories and make-up that she so coveted and began to polish herself.

She didn’t care for what anyone said. Anyone who complained about it, she would silence and get rid of with the power and authority of a [Hero].

And with her spirit freed from repression and her physical ability rising as a Hero, her body grew to more than twice her previous size, and as a result of this, she thickened her make-up further, leaving her appearance craggy like a rock. With her interest in men and appearence, people began to fear her for more than her strength.

“…… Strange.”

More feminine than the average woman, Kanzo lightly tapped her face.

In a way, it was overdoing it, but Kanzo, with a maiden’s heart in a too-masculine body, used the full dialect of a noble lady.

Well, even though she didn’t fancy women, there were manyyoung noble ladies who were attracted to Kanzo’s feminity, and she got along well with them.

Kanzo was walking alone through the underground dungeon in the Dwarf country.

Even though it was called the Dwarf country, it was really just the largest settlement among the many dwarf settlements.

The Dwarves were somewhat like the template, with thick beards and stocky builds like a blacksmith, that’s the kind of race they were. Her first visit, Kanzo had come to order a large sword with a heart pattern on the handle for herself.

However, with her special ability as the Hero of Earth, Kanzo found a dungeon in the basement.

Threatening the Dwarf elders…… Kanzo had ferreted himself into the dungeon, sensually conquered it, and met the dungeon master.

He’d invaded the dungeon again by drilling a hole in pursuit of the [Golden Saint], but hadn’t been able to find her yet.

If the Golden Saint was here investigating the [Zombie Incident] then she should be headed towards the innermost chamber where the dungeon master was. Even though there were a few branch corridors and diversions. if the girl was aiming for the same location as she was, the trail should have appeared already. Kanzo, however, still hadn’t seen even the shadow of the Saint.

“…… Wouldn’t she be the Saint? Still, I think a fair number of people have invaded this place besider her……”

While Kanzo was walking towards the deepest reaches in contemplation, a huge zombie attacked him from the side.

“Ogre Zombie……”

Ogre. A demon-like monster with horns and fangs, with physical power similar to that of a high-ranking magic beast.

Its muscles were eye candy for Kanzo, but it stank from rot. Still, she wouldn’t dislike the smell of a more living man.

“Hmph.”

[Guoooooooooooooooohhhhhhh]

Kanzo grasped firmly to the Ogre Zombie and folded its back with her well-trained strength, snapping it in half and finishing it off.

Disgusting…… as the ogre zombie collapsed to the ground, Kanzo sighed.

“It’s just fake muscle…… As expected, “that person” is different.”

The profile of a particular man stuck in Kanzo’s mind.

The hero of wind, Fortellis.

The first person that Kanzo had given her heart to after coming to this world.

He wasn’t bothered by Kanzo’s lifestyle, and treated her sincerely, fostering a friendship as fellow Heroes protecting the world together.

But Kanzo wasn’t satisfied. She wanted to be in a relationship with him.

Kanzo who had her desperate desires rejected gently, didn’t hate him for it. However, she could not stand the thought of him becoming another woman’s, and killed him off to keep him for herself for all eternity.

He didn’t know what the other heroes’ motives were. Everyone just happened to want to kill Hero Fortellis, and so they conspired.

“…… That butt was more than any other woman deserved.”

If the hero who had been reincarnated to earth heard this, it might have stirred up his desire for revenge again.

Anyway, Kanzo managed to reach the dungeon master without ever meeting the Saint.

He had planned to embarrass the Saint who had received positive evaluations from everyone and place a curse on her that even she couldn’t remove with the [Hero’s Secret Arts]. This was the vigilante justice for women that Kanzo didn’t like, and in the past many of those cursed had taken their own lives.

Kanzo wasn’t some outrageous “villain”, and if she liked someone she could socialize normally, but she was a person who couldn’t help her “selfishness”.

“It’s Kanzo, open the door.”

As Kanzo called out in front of a huge door with finely cut motifs …… it opened slowly, with a creak.

In the dim gloom, there was a dazzling spectacle reminiscent of a royal palace.

However, neither the shine of spectacular decorations nor red of the carpets remained, and the rotten areas were abandoned, while on the throne, protected by a knight who had become only bones, sat a black figure.

[…… Why. If it isn’t the Hero of Gamble……]

It wasn’t a human. Sounding like a wind blowing through a cave, wrapped up in a jet-black robe that seemed as if it were cut from the darkness was a silver skeleton with a red glow in its empty eye sockets.

Elder Lich.

The culmination of a mad magician who had mastered necromancy. Among the monsters that surpassed death, it was said to be the greatest.

“You have a poor complexion, as usual……”

[…… Well, I’m already dead.]

It seemed that the Elder Lich didn’t want to hear such things from her either.

Kanzo and the Elder Lich weren’t hostile to one another.

In this place in the past, they’d fought, and the Hero Kanzo had won, but she couldn’t completely vanquish him, winning only barely while losing half of her subordinates.

Kanzo didn’t think that she’d lose now if they fought, but a flawless victory was impossible.

Although the winner and loser had long been determined between them, and they were cooperating now, there was a subtle tension between the two.

“Did that little girl pretending to be a Saint come here?”

[……Haha. She hasn’t been here. There seems to be intruders, but aren’t those your subordinates?]

“What…… Do you not have the surveillance camera footage of them?”

[Camera…… Is that a recording device that the Heroes from several generations ago spread? It’s only weaker, more recent dungeon masters who have such things. Well, did you manage to do *that*?]

Kanzo’s eyebrow cocked up a little at the Elder Lich’s last words.

“There was still that matter, huh. Here, look at this.”

The Elder Lich caught the thing that Kanzo threw towards him casually with a single hand.

[………Hohoh. Well done. Is it complete…?]

It was a small magic stone that had the glow and look of a gem.

Magic stones were usually things that were the crystallization of magic within magical beasts that were embedded within their bodies.

The magic beasts who could not use magic power techniques and didn’t exhibit their powers intentionally, but, rather, sent magic power throughout their bodies through their blood. Because of that, it gathered up in the heart and formed a stone, but since it was crystallized from blood, it was usually black or dark red.

At that time, Kanzo realized that a mana stone was attached to the ancient treasures of the Elder Lich, and that it was shining like a gem, and when she heard about it, she found out that it was possible to make a different color of magic stone with a special environment and controlling for the quality of the magic power.

Although the mana stone that was jewel-like had come out of the body of a demonic dragon that had lived for thousands for years, Kanzo thought that it could be artificially done, and repeated various experiments with different magic powers in zombies with the power of the Elder Lich.

Kanzo was dissatisfied.

Mana stones that were supposed to be attached to ornaments that were supposed to be beautiful could not be dirty black.

She didn’t think that there was any point for it as a magic tool, but if it was a beautiful gem there was nothing better for her.

However.

“…… It’s an accidental discovery. I bought it from the adventurer’s guild of Krishare, but the zombies that went there seemed to have absorbed some magic power and then turned out like this.”

[Hoohh……]

“I’ll give it to you. Since I’ll be in town for a while, please investigate what kind of magic power it is.”

[…… Got it.]

As the loser, the Elder Lich was reluctant but accepted it.

Those [Mass Zombie Outbreaks] that happened in Gamble and in the north, which had brought down a number of villages and caused a large number of deaths, had begun with Kanzo’s selfishness.

Kanzo didn’t stop it at all even though she knew that there had been a large number of victims.

[……Wait.]

“Oh?”

The Elder Lich stopped Kanzo, who had turned her back to leave to search for the Saint.

[……The middle layer…… I feel a strong magic power around the corpse warehouse. Is that the person you’re looking for?]

“…… The deadhouse.”

There was a warehouse where a large number of corpses were gathered in the middle layer.

It was impossible to use the usual procedures to enter, and the dead bodies were sent out of the dungeon one by one from there, and when Kanzo visited previously, a couple dozen zombies started to move at her, and it became troublesome.

“Oh, well. It’ll be quite amusing to see the little girl being attacked by zombies. Fufufu…… Well, I’ll be going with you then.”

[…… Don’t break too many things.]

“Fufu, I’m going to be careful.”

Not breaking things, would this be for the dungeon or the Saint……?

Kanzo thought that the Saint managed to get away *by chance* and headed there.

[………]

As he watched Kanzo leave, and the big door closed behind her, the Elder Lich quietly stood up from his throne, kneeling towards the darkness behind the throne, and gently and quietly bowed his head.

[It is as you said. ……Demon Princess.]

In response to that voice, the gloominess of the surroundings darkened a little. Cutting apart the darkness, a girl with beautiful golden eyes and hair stood.

“Yes, it was well-acted, Richard.”

Kanzo didn’t know, but the Princess of the Demon World, who had even given a “name” to this Elder Lich, bestowed upon him a gentle smile for his efforts……

And the Elder Lich received his signed autograph to [Richard-kun] from [Demon Lady Yurushia], carrying it as if it were a precious treasure.