“Why...?”
“The Kingdom of Valschein is a flawed kingdom built upon countless sacrifices. Such a kingdom should’ve never existed in the first place.”
I could understand why he would regret his falling out with the Demon Lord, but destroying a whole kingdom felt a little overboard. Wouldn’t it be fine if the person who made the sacrifice says it’s fine? I wondered and glanced over at the Demon Lord.
“He’s not the only one,” the hero continued. “My younger brother established the Hillrose duchy because there would be stability in the kingdom if we established an opposing force. His descendants are devoted to playing the villain, all while knowing it’ll end in ruin.”
“Well...”
“How does that make you feel? I’m sure you had no idea, but there are plenty of stories like that about the kingdom.”
No, I do know. A descendant of your younger brother is at my house. The family’s been ruined already. I should tell him all about the commotion that the duke caused, since I was heavily involved in all that. I turned to look at the hero and...I gasped. I felt like his eyes were going to suck me in, and my words were caught in my throat. How did I never realize he had such soulless eyes?
“The regrets I had at the end of my life won’t disappear, no matter what,” the hero said, looking at me with his firm, lightless eyes.
I moved to betray my ally for the umpteenth time. It probably didn’t need to be so deliberately shown, but I stood beside the Demon Lord and faced the hero.
It now felt better than earlier, but the hero’s gaze was still terrifying. He tried to appease me with an affable smile as he stared at me with his soulless gaze.
“I’m not trying to burn the kingdom down or anything,” the hero explained. “I just want to destroy the system set up by the royal family of Valschein.”
“I don’t have even a speck of loyalty towards the kingdom, but...this has been a good opportunity to reconsider coming back to life.”
After seeing what the hero had become as a result of his regrets at the end of his life, I knew that I couldn’t just go along with him and return to the living world.
“Shouldn’t you be prioritizing your own resurrection?”
“I don’t need to come back to life anymore.”
Even if I did, I was going to grow old in several decades and die once more, probably with plenty of regrets. If I were to make coming back to life an option at this moment, I would probably choose to come back alive once more at that point in the future. I would probably obtain a false immortality, coming back to life over and over again until I felt I could die without regrets.
That would be wrong. I couldn’t give a logical reason as to why, but I couldn’t let such a thing happen.
“I don’t need to come back to life,” I repeated. “I think we should both accept our deaths.”
“I really thought you would be on my side,” the hero said, slowly unsheathing the sword on his hip. I’d thought that it wasn’t a practical sword because of all the embellishments on the hilt and the sheath, but the blade had a cold, sharp glimmer to it. “Well then, en garde!” The hero swung around his heavy looking sword as he braced for combat.
He doesn’t seem that strong, I thought as I stood and watched.
“Be careful!” the Demon Lord said in a panic. “He’s coming!”
I’ll be fine. You know how strong I am, don’t you? I might only have my left half, but I’m stronger than I was back then. The hero’s still taking his stance, and he’s pretty far, so I don’t need to be—
“Wha—!” The hero was right in front of me. He’d closed the distance between us much quicker than I’d expected, and his blade was closing in on my neck.
I was able to perceive his attack, which was as fast as the speed of sound, but my body couldn’t react in time. Even though I didn’t feel any issues just walking around and existing, there were probably some negative effects to only having my left side.
The hero swung his blade with all his might, sweeping sideways at me. “So you can see me. I knew you were strong.”
As his atack landed, I jumped away, successfully avoiding the force of his blade. As I jumped away, the hero’s mumbles faded into the distance. I somehow managed to land on my left leg, then I hopped back to the Demon Lord’s side.
“I can’t believe you’re without a single scratch after one of his attacks.”
“Is my head still attached? He didn’t slash me?”
“You do look like you’ve been sliced in half vertically.”
Then I’m fine. I’ve been in half from the beginning.
Though his attack hadn’t worked on me, it didn’t change the fact that I couldn’t dodge it. He was way too fast.
“How’s he so strong?!”
“He’s the man who founded the kingdom. It’s only natural for him to have such strength.”
I’d expected the hero to be about the same as the Demon Lord in strength, but he was incredibly strong. I thought he sealed away the Demon Lord because he couldn’t beat him... Oh, right. He sealed him away because he didn’t want to kill him.
Despite the hero’s impressive strength, I still could win. His attacks weren’t doing much against me, and as long as I braced myself, I could probably react to his speed.
Sensing that I had a handle on things, the Demon Lord leisurely opened his notebook and said, “From how you’re acting, it seems that you won’t have any issues... Hmm?”
Hey, now’s not the time to be writing in your diary, I thought, but before I could complain, the Demon Lord handed his notebook to me. “There’s a message for you.”
“For me?” I glanced at the notebook, and in familiar penmanship I saw the—worrrrrgggggaaagggh...