CH 164

On Ellis’s orders, Reeve and Frau came rushing into the hall alongside Su-chan and Fe-rin while in their human forms. Ra-chin in his human form followed closely behind and immediately sent out a telepathic message telling Ellis to jump into his shadow. Gise and Marionetta came in last taking up the rear.

Ellis yanked out her Mad God estoc from Dams’s back, clicking her tongue when she realized her weapon’s insta-kill effect did not proc, and jumped into Ra-chin’s shadow. She remained hidden inside her dragon’s shadow as she continued giving specific instructions to the others.

“Frau and Fe-rin, rush to the stage! Draw the attention of any demons that appear and take them down!

Reeve and Su-chan, block the entrance! Kill anyone who tries to escape! Ignore any pleas for mercy you come across!

Marionetta, go grab that dumbass Hero! Gise, you stay here and support Reeve!”

As Ellis was making her plans, demons had already started appearing from among the hedonists. Some of them had been possessing a human and had materialized after releasing their hosts while others were merely masquerading as humans and had now shed their disguises. Up on the stage, Dams had stood back up, brushing off the fatal-looking attack Ellis had dealt him, and now showed his true form as a large, intimidating demon.

Cliff once again started shouting at Gray.

“Hero Gray! Don’t you dare put your hands on the people of Skycastle!”

He then turned his gaze back towards the stage.

“Dams, we can manage if it’s just the Dragon Maidens. I’ll keep the Hero confused while you deal with those women!”

Cliff then ran over to where Gray had been standin alone and in a daze since a while ago. He grabbed the Hero’s shoulders, violently shaking him while yelling in his face.

“Hero, you shouldn’t be here! You are the King’s sword. Everything will be fine so long as you pretend you didn’t see anything, as long as you don’t ask anything! Do you understand what your duty is?”

Cliff’s words threw Gray’s mind into complete disarray. Why was he here like this? What was everyone trying to do? What was he supposed to do?

As the Hero remained confused and uncertain on what should be done, the demons that continued to pop out from the woodwork one after another had begun rushing Frau.

“Come at me all at once!”

Frau freely wielded her Dark Mithril halberd near the stage; the demons’ bodies putting up no resistance as its blade sliced through anything that got close to her. It was an instant death, unlike the blades of flame Fe-rin was conjuring which burned the flesh of any demons that got close.

As the demons were all attacking Frau, the other hedonists who really were human all ran to the entrance, screaming in fear and trying to escape. But there were two monsters even more heartless than a demon standing there waiting for them. Reeve and Su-chan had their blades at the ready.

The first hedonist to the door tried offering Reeve a 500,000 ril bribe, but her Dark Mithril katana mercilessly sliced through the man’s throat before he could finish his offer. Every hedonist, whether they be from a noble family or a wealthy merchant, were cut down one after another. Su-chan was creating blades of wind, and any hedonists that got close were instantly turned into mincemeat. It was an absolute death sentence.

Ellis’s instructions had been very clear. “Kill every single person in that room.” Reeve and Frau were both intent on following those instructions to the letter.

The screams of the damned hedonists echoed inside the party hall as a picture straight from the bowels of hell was painted with their blood.¹

Meanwhile the Hero had yet to move from where he had been rooted since all this began. His mind was still in complete chaos over what Cliff had said. He couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to do. He was supposed to kill the Demon Lord, but most of the people here were still human. And they had already seen that the King hadn’t been possessed which meant that the legalization of Sabbath was a true royal decree. Didn’t he have a duty to follow His Majesty’s orders?

“Gray, what are you doing!?”

Marionetta had arrived at his side and quickly started scolding him. The chaos ringing in Gray’s ears subsided slightly as he was able to turn his head and focus on the woman he loved.

“Marionetta, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”

“Then in that case let’s get out of the way and at least not become a hindrance to the Jewelry Box. Miss, I’m sorry for the trouble!”

“It’s fine Marionetta. I didn’t expect anything from that dumbass Hero anyway!”

Gray didn’t feel anything even after being called a dumbass. The only thing he was able to perceive was the girls’ battle as it unfolded right in front of him.

“Tch!”

Cliff clicked his tongue. He had managed to stop the Hero, but those Dragon Maidens were far stronger than he had expected. That female sorceress right in front of him was an annoyance in her own way, but he knew that if he so much as laid a hand on her the Hero would go into a rage. In that case

“Marionetta, take the Hero with you! You’re under the King’s orders as well, so remember! You didn’t see anything; you didn’t hear anything!”

Cliff shouted out his veiled threats to make sure the Brave Party remembered that to go against him was to go against the King before running in the direction of the stage.

The party hall had already become a sea of blood. Frau had almost completely cleared away all the demons that had attacked her, and any of the leftover human hedonists were killed by Reeve and Gise.

“Dams, we’re retreating!”

Dams jumped away from where he was fighting Frau and ran forward to meet up with Cliff .

“Ra-chin, don’t let them get away!”

Ra-chin started shooting out rock bullets towards Dams’s large frame, but the few pawn demons that were still alive jumped into the attack’s trajectory. They sacrificed their own lives to cover Dams and Cliff’s escape.

When they met each other at the center of the venue, Dams picked up Cliff and grew a set of large, black wings from his back. A powerful gust of wind slammed against the ground after a single flap from his wings, and the duo flew away out from a high window.

“It’s regrettable, but we’ll have to settle this another time! Until we meet again ladies!”

Cliff gave one last taunt as he disappeared into the night sky. As his voice faded away though, Claire’s sounded off from the doll on Ellis’s waste.

“I have eyes on something that just left the hall. Should I take care of it?”

“No, it’s fine Claire. We should take care not to shed too much blood out in the open. It stinks that they were able to escape, but for now it would be for the best if you prepare the finale.”

A few minutes later, the Jewelry Box girls and their associates were the only people left alive inside the assembly hall.

“Okay Gise, Marionetta, shitty coward Hero, let’s get ready to head back to Duke Marsfield.”

Gise gave Gray a hard glare in line with Ellis’s words while Frau and Reeve offered him only a passing cold glance. Meanwhile the man himself was numb while Marionetta gently pulled on his hand to get him to follow.

“All right Claire, we’re clear. Now give us a show!”

“Roger!”

Pi-tan was hovering in the air above the venue with Claire riding on his back. The two of them had been waiting there this whole time in preparation to destroy any evidence of what had really happened there that night. This could have been accomplished by simply setting the building on fire, but it really was for the best that it be destroyed as flashily as possible.

“Here we go! {Lightning Flash}!”

And there were few spells as eye-catching as {Lightning Flash}. It was a spell that brought down a powerful bolt of lightning accompanied with a flash of light capable of making even the dead of night as bright as a midsummer’s day. A destructive spell used almost exclusively for sieges, it’s bright light served as the signal to attack for many famous battles in the past.

The bolt of lightning caused the hall’s ceiling to collapse, filling the night air with the loud crack and explosion of wood splintering and stone cracking to match the spell’s bright light.

“And now {Flame Storm}!”

{Flame Storm} was a widespread tempest that covered a large area in swirling fire. It was another spell used mostly for siege battles that swallowed and scorched everything in its effective range.

Thanks to {Flame Storm}, the building hadn’t just caught on fire, it erupted into a full pillar of flame that shot up towards the sky, threatening to singe the very air around it.

“And lastly we need a fire extinguisher. Your turn Pi-tan.”

“Got you Claire. {Black Ball Breath}!”

Pi-tan released his breath attack, shooting out a small black ball that gained in size and mass as it accelerated towards its target. The impact the ball made from crashing into the ground sent earthquake level shockwaves while extinguishing the flames and crushing what little had remained of the building.

The next morning the Skycastle residents would worriedly gather to find a scorched pit–either the result of a God’s wrath or the Devil’s scheming.

Everyone was able to return to Duke Marsfield’s home without incident. Reeve and Frau were basking in the adrenaline that came out from getting to go wild and kill some demons after such a long time, so they were feeling a lot more lighthearted and didn’t share in Ellis’s sullen mood.

Walking in after the girls was Gray, who was looking like a stone statue with all his blood drained as it was, and Marionetta who was anxiously holding on to his hand as they walked. Gise held up the rear, visibly annoyed.

“I see, so the title of Hero wasn’t enough to put an end to the Sabbath.”

“Yes Duke Marsfield. If the trash Hero had been a little more forceful, we would have been able to force our way through without having to massacre everyone, but because he couldn’t do anything when it was really important, our hands were forced. Cliff and Dams managed to escape, but since we already knew about them anyway, it’s not that big of a loss. Our biggest issue from now on is this rotten Hero. I never knew he was so gutless.”

Duke Marsfield didn’t have a reply as Ellis continued to come up with new insults to mercilessly barrage Gray with.

“Miss Ellis, our apologies……….”

Marionetta tried apologizing on Gray’s behalf although her small voice was barely audible. Gise on the other hand wasn’t quite so calm.

“Even if Ellis forgives you, I won’t. Gray, retire from being the Hero! Move to Warren and spend the rest of your life living off of Marionetta’s work.”

“Gise that’s…….”

Marionetta wanted to say something, but her voice inevitably trailed off. Moments passed and a stifling silence settled. Until,

“We’re back nya!”

“We have a big haul here Ellis!”

Katie and Ah-nyan came bursting through the front door full of energy.

“Ah, welcome back. How was it?”

Making a complete about-face, Ellis gave Katie and Ah-nyan a wide grin while welcoming them in.

“We’re pretty sure this is a customer register nya.”

“It’s a record of every Sabbath held. The contents are a gold mine.”

The two gave Ellis a large stack of documents. Ellis rifled through them and handed over a list of customers to Duke Marsfield when she found it.

“This is awful. Nearly half of Skycastle’s nobles have already become customers.”

“News will spread after tonight’s massacre that quite a few names on that list will have ‘gone missing’. The castle should be fun tomorrow.”

“You’re right Ellis. Well, a little confusion should be inevitable, and hopefully the interest in Sabbath will wane. So what are those other documents then?”

“Different records for the Sabbaths that have been held so far. You can have them, but I’ve found something interesting first.”

After shuffling through the papers and pulling out a specific sheet, she smiled and walked over to Gray. She shoved the document at the top of the pile right in front of Gray’s eyes and pointed to a specific line on the page.

“This page gives information about the sacrifices that have been used so far. Do you recognize the name of the village that this little girl was taken from?”

The Hero was an empty husk with a vacant stare that barely passed over the paper Ellis was holding in front of him. But when Gray realized what it was that Ellis was pointing to, a little light returned to his gaze.

“No that’s…………why………….my village?”

Marionetta’s face froze when she peeked at the document herself from next to Gray.

The page was filled with the names of different little boys and girls who had all been taken from the very same village Gray had grown up in.

Gray recognized many of the names written on that list, so he went on to read everything written there following the kids’ names. Everything from how the children were taken, tortured, processed, and inevitably sacrificed were written there in excruciating detail.

The room froze over.

But then Katie’s voice wildly broke through like a pick through ice.

“I forgot nya! Uncle Marsfield, you have to come with me to the guard’s entrance nya!”

“That’s right Katie! We wanted to talk to Ellis about something special we picked up!”

Duke Marsfield and Ellis both followed Katie and Ah-nyan out of the building as the two of them bolted back to the mansion’s security office.

Meanwhile Frau, Reeve, Claire, Gise, and Gray continued reading through the leftover documents Ellis had left behind, each one of them sharing the same grim frown.

“I can barely stand to look at this.”

“Each one of these kids had consent from their parents, but none of these people would have been able to do anything if a noble had put even a little pressure on them.”

“This is too cruel.”

“Oi Gray, what do you think seeing all of this?”

Gise tried throwing another barb towards Gray, but the Hero didn’t hear him. The pale, wax-like expression he had on before had given way to bright hot anger that only grew with every word he read.

“Gray………”

“Gise, Marionetta……… While I was wondering what my duty was…………while I was thinking I just had to kill some demons, the kids from my village were…………”

“Open your eyes Gray! What have we been fighting for? If the Jewelry Box hadn’t killed all those brutes, how many more victims do you think there would have been!? Who are you supposed to be the hero of!?”

Gray started to shake. He jumped to his feet, biting his lip and clenching his fists. He really needed something to hit right now.

“BIG BROTHER GRAY!”

And then suddenly a small shadow jumped into the room from the front door. That shadow immediately ran towards Gray and clung to his waist.

“Eh, what, you’re………”

“The cat brother and sister saved me! But, I don’t know where everyone else is! Big Brother Gray, we have to find them!”

It was a young girl from the same village as Gray who looked to be about the same age as Ellis. Most likely she was brought to the capitol with all the other children. If Ellis hadn’t faked her capture to become the night’s sacrifice, then this girl would have probably been in that room instead.

“We found her crying in the office’s basement, so we brought her home with us nya.”

“But we didn’t know she knew the cowardly Hero.”

“Big Brother Gray isn’t a coward! He’s really strong!”

The girl had turned into a blubbering mess when she had found out Gray was there, but she was still able to sharply chide Ah-nyan when she heard him bad-mouth the Hero.

“That’s right, that’s right, that’s right…………..” Gray continued to mutter the same words under his breath as if repeating some kind of charm. After a moment he took a deep breath, finally steadied himself, and turned towards everyone else.

“Ladies, Duke Marsfield, Gise, and you too Marionetta. I’m sorry. Today I saw our enemies as people and didn’t know what to do. But those things in there weren’t human, and I’ve resolved myself. I’m the Hero, and the Hero is supposed to protect the people, not kill whoever the King orders. And I will never forgive them for the people the Sabbath has hurt.”

Marionetta buried her face into Gray’s back, leaking an excitedly joyful cry while Gise nodded his head finally satisfied.

“Well then we’ll leave you to it. Please take care of things here Hero.”

Ellis moved to make her escape, figuring her work was finished where the Hero was concerned. She moved to where the other Jewelry Box members and dragons were and tried hurriedly pushing them all out the entrance.

“Ellis, be ready for me to call you as soon as something happens!”

“I can’t hear you!”

Ellis shared one last exchange between herself and Duke Marsfield before she was able to sling Ra-chin across her back and jump on to the waiting Su-chan.

“Then let’s go home!”

From that day on the Hero would appear at any Sabbath, legal or otherwise, cut down the participants, and save the sacrifice. It was an action that caused the nobles to shake and fear as the commoners grew to cheer his name.

Those children the Hero rescued would find protection under Duke Marsfield with the boys supposedly taking up roles as the Duke’s guards and the girls training to be apprentice maids.

But after all this time, the Hero had finally come to be seen as a ‘Savior’ to the people.

1. I always love translating parts like this. Reminds me of my ninth grade poetry unit.