CH 211

As one of Ascanta’s ‘2 Empires, 4 Kingdoms, 1 Church’, Zeckelfen Kingdom possessed an enormous national power which could be said to be on par with the world’s most powerful nations, the Gritrin Empire and the Eyla Holy Church. And that said kingdom was where I was summoned at.

“This is nice…” I said as I enjoyed 38-year-old white wine that King Zeckelfen had prepared for me while submerging myself in a hot bath in the huge bath house surrounded by five dragons as well as eating the finest ice cookies prepared by the servants. 

By what qualification can I enjoy that much you ask? Of course with my qualification as a Hero.

After taking a bath, I put on my robe and left the bathhouse. The moment I stepped out, the female servants who were on stand-by around the bathhouse came up to me. They bowed their heads and said, “Hero… we’ll serve you…”

I was stunned by their words. Even though I’m a human trash, I don’t think I would ever stoop so low to get my way with women using my authority. So, I answered, “It’s fine, just go back to sleep.”

“Pardon? Is it perhaps because we are not attractive enough?”

After one of the maids said that, all of them began to weep simultaneously. Well, I think it was only natural for them to cry like that. After all, they are probably thinking what kind of punishment the King will hand to them because they couldn’t satisfy the Hero. 

I felt a bit sorry for that, so I said.

“Actually… I like men.” (P/n well, that explains his denseness)

“Then… then… we will send male servants…!”

“Do you want me to hit you?”

“I apologize, Hero! We will leave!”

I sighed as all the female servants left. In the first place, the reason I abused my authority as a Hero to the King was not because of money, women, or alcohol, but for other reasons.

After returning to the luxurious room prepared just for me, I equipped <Brilliant Season of the ‘Bright Season’ +5>. This armor, obtained from the SSS-class Luck Protagonist’s world, was made of materialized light. Hence, it constantly emits light like a luminous light, which gives it a very sacred feeling.

Then, instead of the black <The Setting Twilight of The ‘Lost Morning Star’>, the one I hung on my waist was the ether blade. The reason was because the ‘Lost Morning Star’ has an ‘evil’ attribute and contains a curse, which could cause discomfort to the people near it. While the ether blade was bright, which matched the feeling of ‘Light’ from the armor.

Once I wore the boots, I was fully armed. When I came out from the room, Aracelli was already waiting for me, wearing a black high-quality robe that the kingdom had prepared for her.

“Professor, did you enjoy the bath?”

“Yeah, It was refreshing.”

“I want to take a bath too…”

“Isn’t there another bathroom prepared for you? The one used by the princess.”

“But I want to take a bath with you…”

“…”

I facepalmed at Aracelli’s answer. This little girl had become bolder and bolder with every trip. She’s actually about the same age as me, but because of the side-effect of traversing dimensions without the correct spell, her appearance looked so young. Thanks to that, I could hold myself from jumping on her.

“If you are ready, let’s go see the King.”

“Yes…”

It’s been only a week since I arrived at Ascanta. It was not long by any stretch of meaning. But I’m sure from the King’s point of view, it must have been quite a frustrating time. After all, the Hero, whom they summoned to eradicate the Demon Kings, was only lazing around in his castle and indulging himself in extravagance without going out to do his job.

“Hero. May I ask when will you start your adventure?” As expected, that was the King’s first words as soon as we arrived in the throne room.

“Since I already have a plan in mind, maybe later.”

“But while waiting, can’t you defeat the Demon King’s servants and purify the land contaminated by their magic?”

What the King said makes sense. It’s the natural progression in this kind of story. At first, the Hero who doesn’t know anything had to go on an adventure to look for a suitable party member as well as hunting a low-level mob such as: slime, goblin, wolf, orc, etc. to level up. Although those creatures were also the servants of the Demon Kings, their power was so weak to the point that they only became the fuel for the growth of the Hero.

After hunting them, a slightly more powerful servants of Demon Kings will appear one by one. They were the likes of: ogres, trolls, wyverns, and werewolves.

The point was, the Demon Kings will somehow keep sending their subordinates according to the strength of the Hero rather than killing him outright, until eventually, the Hero becomes strong enough to even kill a dragon by himself.

But for me, that kind of progression was impossible. Even though I was given the role of the ‘Hero’ in this world by the system and at the same time was hailed as a saviour by the people of this world, it was nothing but a useless title. In fact, I didn’t even have the blessing of a Hero at all. Catching such miscellaneous mobs wouldn’t even raise my level. Therefore, there’s no point for me to go on an adventure.

In other words, I don’t have to take the ‘Level-up Arc’ for nothing. I just have to wait and make a thorough and perfect plan to hunt the Demon Kings. When it was finished and I got something like ‘Ah! I guess I can beat him!’ Then I’ll go on an adventure.

“Your Majesty, are the preparations ready yet?” 

“That preparations that you, just wha-”

“Did you do what I said?”

“Sigh… The kingdom, of course, is attracting wizards from the empire. But can I ask you why you wanted them?”

“The Demon King I wanted to hunt is ‘Kim Diablo’. He is the worst Demon King who can’t be killed easily. Therefore, adequate preparation is essential.”

“I understand that well enough. But Kim Diablo has built the strongest Demon King’s Castle ever. Even when numerous expert-level knights and famous adventurers entered there simultaneously, they did not come back alive. What are you going to do with only wizards?”

I nodded at the King’s words. Indeed, Kim Diablo was a very out-of-the-norm Demon King. Instead of nurturing his own power, he reconstructed his Demon King Castle into something akin to a ‘dungeon’ and made it into the most difficult dungeon ever. Once people entered his castle, their chance of walking out with their lives was practically null.

“Professor. What are you going to do?” Since it was Aracelli who received the briefing about the Demon King from the King, it seemed that she also worried a lot about what I was going to do.

The bottomless cliff of hell which would make you fall endlessly once you stumble!

A dragon guard who sleeps in the lava!

Cerberus, the three-headed gatekeeper of hell!

The gateway to the thorny hell where you cannot relax even for a moment!

The moment you choose the wrong path, you can’t get out of the infinite maze forever!

Each stage in the Demon King’s Castle was extremely difficult that fit the word ‘hardest’ very well. And it seems that Aracelli, who remembered it all inside her head, was actively researching about the most appropriate way to deal with it all.

To be honest, I didn’t even read the briefings. After all, I had no intention of entering the Demon King’s Castle in the first place.

“Araceli. Let’s say you are tasked to exorcise a ghost from a haunted house. What will you do?”

Aracelli fell silent and pondered for a few seconds before opening her mouth. “If I think about it in an ordinary way rather than with magic, I will first prepare an exorcist who can talk to the ghost and five holy knights to escort him. And then I’ll order the exorcist to resolve the grudge of the ghost. However, at the same time I will prepare a special salt in case the ghost becomes angry. Also, I will prepare a branch that has been struck by lightning.”

“Your method is wrong.” I smirked.

“Yes?”

“Why can’t you just fire a cannon at the haunted house and set it on fire?”

“Oh…” Aracelli let out a surprised gasp with her eyes opened wide.

In the first place, the ghost was clinging into the house. So why do you have to work so hard to get rid of the ghost? All you have to do is burn the house down. In other words, I had no intention of confronting the Demon King directly. I will prepare a very powerful shot which can destroy the Demon King’s Castle in one hit.

Although Aracelli’s mana circle was barely in the second circle, there were expert-class knights (estimated level 150-200) and grand-class wizards (estimated level 200) in this world. So it was possible to do that. In the first place, back in Vivienda Empire, magic which was labelled as a ‘strategic weapon’ was casted by several wizards at once rather than being casted by a single wizard.

For example,

“Professor, are you perhaps talking about a super strong magic like ‘Meteor Storm’?”

“Yeah, that’s right!”

I had no intention of jumping into a fight either if I could help it. Who cares about the title of a Hero? A Hero doesn’t always have to be honourable or dignified. Whether he struggled in the process or not, if in the end, he still killed the Demon King, he would still be hailed as a Hero. 

For that reason…

“I have received a call from the Magic Tower. They are ready to meet the Hero now.”

“Is that so? That’s good.”

Meteor Storm is a spell that literally summons and drops a meteorite from the sky. Those who did not know much about magic would say that Meteor Storm was an earth or fire type magic, but they were wrong.

That meteorite was summoned through a space-time magic and then was dropped and accelerated with gravity magic. It could be said that this particular spell was the ultimate spell for mages who specialise in spatial magic. Therefore, the prerequisite of activating it was also very strict.

Naturally, the spell requires a caster of at least 9 circles to cast it. On top of it, an astronomical amount of materials were needed. Therefore, It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that it would never have been possible to use it in normal circumstances.

However, isn’t there a magician who had once reached the top of the magical world next to me as well as a wallet overflowing with infinite money supporting me?

“If I want to use magic in the same tier as Meteor Storm, a super-giant magic circle is needed, right?”

“Yes, Professor. If you want to focus the magic on one point, at least six magic circles need to be built with the target point in the centre..” 

The Meteor Storm spell was by no means a simple magic. Even more so when I couldn’t rely on Aracelli. Therefore, I’ll have to go around the world and look for a medium which is strong enough to replace the mana of a 9 Circle magician.

And, that will be the goal of the adventure of Hero Yoo seodam.

There’s no need for anything like killing goblins, rescuing kidnapped villagers, or helping a damsel in distress and then falling in love after my adventure. After all, once the Demon King was killed, everything was going to be over. Why should I do such a useless thing?

“Then, shall we leave right away?”

* * *

A month has passed since Kim Diablo heard the rumour that a Hero had been summoned.

“…What are the goblin units doing now?” He said anxiously while biting on his nails.

-They are still waiting at the expected destination of Hero Yoo Seodam.

When the Hero begins his journey, it was an implicit rule that the Demon King had to send out his servants to hunt the hero. It was because, in the long history of Demon Kings, there’s quite a lot of Demon Kings who gained the greatest power ever after successfully killing a Hero who had become strong enough.

Kim Diablo’s thoughts were the same. He wanted to properly raise the Hero of this generation, Yoo Seodam, and lure him to his Demon King’s Castle so he could kill him. If that happens, he would undoubtedly become the strongest Demon King that no one in the world dares to defy!

However…

“What the hell is that crazy Hero doing?!” Kim Diablo’s scream echoed through his throne room. The Hero Yoo Seodam, even after 1 month being in this world, didn’t even hunt a single wolf—one of the weakest mobs.

Rather than adventuring, it was more apt to say that the Hero was on vacation. Green fields, refreshing mountains, and the songs of chirping wild birds as snacks. Drinking a glass of medicinal wine, meeting some villagers and playing Go with them. Cheating people by selling arrowroot juice as wild ginseng juice, building a sand castle on the beach…. He’s really just playing around.

It was ridiculous to the point that Kim Diablo doubted whether Yoo Seodam was truly the Hero or not.

“What the hell is this crazy Hero thinking…?” Kim Diablo bit his lips tightly. However, even when he was so frustrated because of Hero Yoo Seodam, he still had no intention of going out of the Demon King’s Castle and went to him by himself.

That’s right… He might be a tactician like me. What if all of that was part of his plan? A plan to lure the Demon King out of his Demon King’s Castle because of frustration?’

With that thought in mind, Kim Diablo firmly pressed his ass to the Demon King’s throne and sternly clenched his jaw.

No matter what kind of plan the Hero thinks of,

“…it will never work on me.” Kim Diablo smiled confidently. That was the well-founded confidence of the ‘protagonist’ who had defeated the forces of many adventurers and rival Demon Kings.