Chapter 63

“Seems something bad has happened. The castle is nearby. Let’s discuss everything once we get there.” She guessed the story would be hard to tell and decided to put it off until later. Shinichi picked up his slumbering childhood friend and followed her to her castle. Goddess Elazonia… His brain started to turn now that they had temporarily escaped her clutches. She killed Fey. Based on Fey’s bewildered expression, she had known nothing about Elazonia using her. That made it the easiest for the Goddess to get close to them. When he had misled Clarissa during their Liar Detector with lies of omission, he had been using only the second-best method for deceiving people. The best method was when the con artist had no idea of what they were doing. Without ill will and lies, neither Liar Detector nor any interrogation skill could ever pick up that the person wasn’t speaking the truth. Even if it wasn’t the absolute truth, it was the truth to them. I bet she messed with Fey’s memories, too. When Bishop Hube got his powers from the Goddess, Shinichi heard that he had wiped the criminal’s memories and turned them into obedient dolls. There’s no reason the Goddess herself wouldn’t be able to achieve something similar. Fey, how much of you was her? Elazonia had called Fey a fake. If Shinichi’s assumption was correct, even her desire to be an explorer could have been manufactured… But you were so alive… She’d admired Shinichi as her mentor. She had shielded Rino when the legion attacked. Her eyes had sparkled when her dreams of becoming an explorer came true. And Elazonia killed her. She used Fey for nothing more than to create an opportunity to take Rino hostage in front of the Demon King. And it wasn’t just Fey. He looked at the face of the sleeping girl in his arms. She couldn’t kill me. If she had killed Shinichi, Rino might have lost control of her magic and blown Elazonia away. Either that, or the others would have stopped caring what happened to themselves, and the Goddess would have had to deal with the combined attacks of Arian, Celes, and even the Demon King. He wasn’t sure why, but Elazonia’s goal was to capture the Demon King, not kill him. Fighting him must have been very inconvenient for her. That was why she couldn’t kill Shinichi, but she couldn’t let him run his mouth, either. She had needed a way to silence him and had used Nozomi just for that purpose, opening old wounds in the process. …She won’t get away with this. His calm heart was starting to burn like molten lava. He had been fed up with all the times that she’d brought suffering to the heroes and with the corruption of the church, but he hadn’t even been certain of her existence. Back then, he hadn’t felt any defined hatred toward her. But he had watched her kill the explorer—their friend—in front of him and use his childhood friend against him. Things were different now. Goddess Elazonia. I will destroy you, no matter what it takes! It wasn’t for anyone else’s benefit. As he walked into the demon world, lit by the blue sun, Shinichi Sotoyama swore to defeat the Goddess who had created the undying heroes, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.