Chapter 86: Morning In Uteska

Morning had arrived, and we were all preparing to leave Uteska. The village, once teeming with Demons, was now eerily empty.

Radakel's knights had discovered the burial site where the Demons had interred the bodies of already dead Humans. They used this grim revelation to further instill fear and hatred in my classmates against the Heroes.

Radakel had trained his followers well, and these particular knights were even more enraged by the fact that a Demon had defeated and 'killed' Radakel, though it had actually been me in disguise.

I hadn't planned any of this. My only intention had been to disrupt whatever schemes Radakel had in place, and while I succeeded, it had the unintended consequence of significantly heightening animosity and suspicion towards the Demons. Worse still, Radakel was alive and would likely exploit this failure to further manipulate Amelia and the others.

As I stood up, I groaned, feeling pain throughout my body. It wasn't from the previous night with Courtney but something else entirely.

"Probably the after-effects of the Temporary Raise..." I muttered.

Khione had warned me there might be consequences, and now I was feeling the effects. Every step seemed to tear at my legs, but I had grown accustomed to pain. I had fought countless monsters in the forest and faced death on several occasions, which some might call arrogance, but I saw it as sheer stubbornness.

This resilience had led to tremendous progress. The hardest part had been overcoming my fear of death—not eliminating it entirely, but managing to push past it. For anyone seeking to become truly strong and make significant leaps in power, overcoming this fear was crucial. Otherwise, the instinct to flee in the face of a stronger opponent would be nearly impossible to ignore.

Coming from Earth, a relatively peaceful world where wars were rare—though perhaps I was exaggerating, given my country's alarming trend of school shootings—I had the fortune not to be directly affected by such violence.

But my father's presence and the way he raised me was unique enough to set me apart from the rest despite all the pain I went through. The fear of death was something else entirely, and I had somewhat overcome it thanks to fighting stronger monsters and having Khione as my guardian angel, saving me from the brink of death at the last moment.

"Maybe I've become a bit possessive of my beautiful snow-white goddess," I mused with a small smile.

She had saved me, after all. Even though I doubted whether I would have died, I was sure the consequences could have been worse, given that I had used God-Rank Magic twice.

This begged the question: why did Liphiel save me? She could have left me in that state to rid herself of the thorn I was—a thorn, albeit a small one, in the minds of the Divine Knights. But she chose to save me.

Was it to gain the trust of the other Heroes? I didn't know, but I had no trust in any Divine Knights. Cecilia was the only one I trusted a bit, despite her affiliation with the Divine Knights. She was truly different from them. I was still searching for the reason why the Divine Knights took her in, but it might take time, and I didn't have much of that.

"Oh my, such a kind hero you are, Nathan, but I was only doing my job," Liphiel said with a smile.

That smile was too kind to be genuine.

"I heard what happened to Radakel. Is he alright?" I asked, feigning concern. I knew that bastard was alive, and I didn't care about him, but I had to play the part of the innocent hero for now.

"Radakel left in the morning, but yes, he is alright. You must have been truly worried," Liphiel replied almost sarcastically?

But something caught my ears.

Radakel left in the morning?

Why?

"You can't imagine how much," I said, plastering a smile.