The Returnee Wants to Live Comfortably

Damn, You Talk Too Much (2)

Alois was appalled when Kang Hyun-seok's head was severed.

His head rolled at his feet, and his lips trembled ominously.

"Ah... No... No!!"

He had been a companion he had met in this world.

Xylo and Kang Hyun-seok.

In this world full of demonkin, they were about the only ones he could remotely trust, but now both had become corpses in an instant.

"What the hell did you just do!!"

Tears fell from the eyes of the one glaring at me.

He glared at me with that ferocious expression, staring as if he would kill me.

It was like watching the protagonist of a royal capital fantasy sincerely grieving the death of a comrade. Or so it seemed.

However...

"Pfft..."

"Huh?"

"Puhahahaha!!"

I couldn't help but laugh.

Isn't that obvious?

"He died because of you, so why are you complaining at me?"

"What...?"

"You should've run when you had the chance. You're the one who ignored his advice."

Kang Hyun-seok's actions just now were actually quite wise.

If he had been blocking me by himself, Alois might actually have escaped through the gate.

I wouldn't have been defeated by Kang Hyun-seok, but he was definitely capable of buying time against me.

'Proof of that is...'

I had approached in an instant and decapitated him.

But still, he managed to react to my speed even for a moment and activated a toughening skill on his neck.

Even though his head was cut off, the fact that he caught the movement even while distracted spoke to his ability.

And there was another thing.

Bzzzzt—

The golden dagger that'd cut through his neck... was shattered to pieces.

I'd attacked seriously this time, matching the force of revealing my horns, with a swing that broke the sound barrier.

Not only did he react, but also displayed high skill mastery.

If Kang Hyun-seok hadn't been arguing with Alois and had evaded my attack perfectly...

"If you'd only listened to him, you wouldn't have died so horribly."

In other words, Kang Hyun-seok would have succeeded in buying time.

If only Alois hadn't gotten involved trying to help.

And yet, listen to what he says.

"I couldn't just abandon my friend who wanted to fight alone... How could I run away by myself!"

Good grief... The more I listened, the more it sounded like a comedy routine.

If he quit being a hero and did stand-up, he might get rich.

"Sure, a comrade... must be precious."

"Grr...!"

"But what happened when you ignored your comrade's advice?"

"..."

As you can see. That comrade couldn't even buy enough time and lost his head.

"You were the one flailing around going, 'I can't leave you!' and pissed him off."

"That's not true..."

"And in the end, that comrade started yelling at you and got distracted, leaving an opening for me."

"It's not true..."

Everyone knows what a lapse in focus during combat leads to.

Alois, being a knight order executive, definitely knew that.

Which is why he was shivering even harder.

"You know, right? There's no such thing as cowardice in a fight."

"Ah..."

"So, who got in their comrade's way in this battle?"

"No...! This can't be! It can't!!"

It was all because of him.

Unable to accept reality, Alois pounded the ground with his fist, over and over—BAM BAM.

Then, he met Kang Hyun-seok's lifeless eyes, his decapitated head lying at his feet.

The severed head, full of annoyance and contempt, stared straight at Alois.

—It's all your fault.

"No, I just... I was worried..."

—If you'd listened to me, it wouldn't have turned out this way.

"That..."

—You could've at least survived...

"Ah..."

—It's all your fault.

It was all his fault.

Haunted by a hallucination that even Kang Hyun-seok's head, now with no body, was blaming his, he felt like he was losing his mind.

Because of his clinging, Kang Hyun-seok became distracted and was killed.

He was the cause of it all.

"This can't... be..."

The terrible truth filled his mind.

It's something you see a lot in disaster movies.

A building starts to collapse, and some guy shouts, 'I left my briefcase behind!' and runs back into the crumbling building.

Then the rescue worker trying to save him dies, sometimes even the protagonist gets killed in the process.

Right now, Alois was just like that guy.

'Not that I can't understand it, but...'

Anyone watching would find it endlessly frustrating.

Because his selfishness got someone else killed.

Of course, at least he felt guilty, which is better than many people, who just try to ignore reality.

"You... coward..."

"Hm?"

"You filthy coward...! Attacking by surprise!"

Alois barely managed to stand up with his paralyzed body and shouted.

He thrust his spear at me, eyes burning with ferocity.

"How dare you ignore an honorable duel! And you call yourself a hero!"

"I'm not a hero, though?"

Alois, suddenly whining about a fair fight.

He clearly wanted to believe this was not his fault, but just the enemy being dishonorable.

In short, he was suffering from cognitive dissonance.

"Yeah, the one who's unforgivable here is you. You're the one who, as a 'hero', stooped to dirty tricks!"

"Ha..."

"Prepare yourself!"

Alois stomped the ground and charged at me.

The tip of his spear was sharp enough to pierce even a steel wall.

I twisted my torso to dodge, and he followed up right away.

"Haaaat!"

With expert skill, he swung his spear.

As I sidestepped, the point tracked me, like a whip... No, more like a snake.

Well, he was an executive, so his spear technique wasn't bad.

But with my horns revealed, his movements were completely visible to me.

Ffft—!

A gruesome tearing sound as flesh split.

"Kyaaaaaak!!"

I tore off Alois's arm—the one holding the spear.

Ignoring the blood spurting from the stump, I unleashed a skill.

〈HELL BLITZ〉

A black thunderbolt crashed down from the sky.

"Gahhhhhh!!"

KRACK-BOOOM—With a roaring sound, Alois was charred black by the strike.

His body was already paralyzed, and now he couldn't move at all anymore.

"Huuu... huff..."

And yet, he was still alive—his vitality was truly tenacious.

Maybe that was only to be expected, since he'd managed to fight an S-rank hunter toe-to-toe.

"You coward... how dare... you take my arm..."

There he went again. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel•fire.net

Desperate not to admit his own mistake, covering his eyes, nose, and mouth.

A behavior typical of those from Mewzealand.

RUMBLE—

Suddenly the inside of the gate began to tremble.

Nothing had happened up until now, but now at last it seemed signs of runaway collapse were appearing.

At the same time, the open fissure started expanding.

And within that widening crack...

"Oh... Oh?"

People were walking through it.

They held spears identical to the one Alois had been wielding.

"Here... over here!!"

Alois's face lit up with hope, as if he was a drought-stricken field hit by rain.

If those reinforcements arrived, he'd make it through this crisis.

"You're finished now! For killing my comrades, you'll pay for it—just you wait!"

"You forgot your comrade died because of you?"

"Shut up! You're the killer! You!!"

Ignoring the one denying reality, I looked at the now enormous fissure.

People were literally coming through to this side.

I approached the fissure and reached my arm out into the air.

"What are you trying to do?"

To Alois's question, I answered simply.

"If vermin get into the house, you have to lock the doors properly."

I gripped the air, as if lowering a window.

The spot I grabbed overlapped with the corner of the fissure.

"No way... it can't be...!"

Seeing me do that, Alois was filled with foreboding.

And then...

"KROOOOOAAAR!!"

Letting out a roar, I unleashed all my magic power.

Not just magic power, but all the latent energy hidden within me.

Horns sprouted longer on my head, and black wings—like those of a bat—unfurled from my back.

RUMBLE—!!

The inside of the gate shook even harder.

I clutched the edge of the fissure, and even though it was normally intangible, I began forcing it closed.

"What is that...!"

With my hand, I was grabbing the fissure and closing it, just like drawing a curtain.

Alois's eyes widened in disbelief at the impossible scene.

[You have awakened the power of the demonkin.]

[You can now use a new stat: 'Demon King's Power' (皇魔力).]

['Demon King's Soul' series skills are now unlocked.]

I had awakened the power of the demonkin before.

Was it six years ago, at winter camp?

And even cutting off Kang Hyun-seok's head, I had clearly revealed my horns.

'But compared to then...'

This time, I had awakened it completely.

If that was phase 1, this was phase 2.

Now that I could perfectly control the Demon King's Power, I could even ignore the laws of physics.

Forcibly shutting the fissure right now was proof of that.

"GRAAAAAHHHH!!"

But it wasn't easy.

It felt like trying to tear apart a wall of solid stone with brute strength alone.

The harder I gripped, the more sparks flickered from the fissure, resisting me.

People beyond the crack seemed to sense something was wrong and started rushing this way.

BZZZAAAT—!

RUMBLE—!

Thunder raged and earthquakes rocked the gate's interior.

It was as if the world itself screamed at me to stop, but I ignored it.

"AAAAAARGH!!"

With a beastly howl, I poured all my strength into my arms.

A crimson light blazed from my bloodshot eyes.

The fissure, which once seemed immovable, slowly began to close.

"No..."

Like eyelids closing, the crack faded away.

Alois tried to move his body at this, but it was impossible with his body charred black.

"Kugh...!"

"Don't do it!!"

Finally, the people coming through were right at the threshold.

But they never set foot on Earth.

KA-THUNK—!

With a rough roar, the fissure closed completely.

Alois was left with a look of utter despair.

"Ah... how...?"

He looked at the demon who'd used both arms to close the fissure.

How could he display such absurd power?

"Wait... those wings..."

He'd seen them somewhere before.

Ominous black wings surging with a dark aura.

During the destruction of the Empire, there was only one being with such wings.

A figure with a mask, soaring through the sky, destroying the city—matching the Demon King.

"No... don't tell me...! You... you're the D-Demon K—!"

Realizing my identity, Alois stammered in horror.

I slowly approached his and asked,

"Your name is Alois Trace, isn't it?"

"..."

"Then by any chance, is your father's name Veronique Trace?"

"How do you know my father...?"

With his legs giving out, Alois slumped to the ground and asked,

"I know well. The third corps' knight commander of the Reveli Empire."

"Ah..."

"And when the guardian deity died, he was one of the first to bow his head to me and lead the veneration as a god."

"What...?"

Veronique Trace.

He had once been a powerful shield of the Empire and thus a bothersome foe for a time.

He was also decent at commanding troops.

He could've left quite an impression, but all that vanished after he prostrated himself to me.

Because of that, Mewzealand folks never left me with a good impression.

Most of them, at least.

"You're lying... My father would never... That can't be..."

"..."

"The brave hero of our Empire would never... never..."

"A hero? Sure, the heroes of the Reveli Empire were indeed brave."

That was true.

When it came to hunting demonkin, they did have beast-like willpower.

But that 'hero' title was only ever given to 'humans'.

"They never forgave the evil demonkin, didn't even recognize the word 'coward'—just like the knight order. True?"

"That's right! Demonkin like you are something Reveli warriors would never stoop to! And yet you..."

"But didn't you just say?"

—How dare you ignore an honorable duel! And you call yourself a hero!

"Huh?"

"You called me a hero, didn't you? Isn't that true?"

"..."

Accusing me of using dirty tricks, he'd denied reality.

Still, he called me a 'hero' without thinking.

As I said before, they never call 'demonkin' warriors.

Only 'humans' deserve that title.

"So you called me a hero, even though I'm demonkin. You get what that means?"

"..."

In other words, he instinctively thought of me as human when it wasn't in his favor.

Just like his father, who once prostrated before me.

"You called me demonkin up till now, so why did you suddenly call me a hero (human)?"

"That's..."

I slowly reached out my hand to Alois.

He turned pale, flinching back.

Spotting a fallen hunter's weapon on the ground, Alois snatched it up.

"Don't come any closer! You demon! Or else—"

He pressed a blade to the throat of a hunter who'd collapsed on the ground.

His chosen hostage was Yoo Cheon-hwa, S-rank hunter of the Angel Guild.

"I'll kill him!"

"Pfft!"

"I said stay back!!"

I ignored his bluff and took another step forward.

"I said STAY BACK!"

"..."

"Go away!!"

Even with a hostage, I couldn't help but smirk.

"Go away... please...!"

The reason was simple.

"Huh? What's this black fire...?"

WHOOSH—!

"Wh... wha... aaagh!"

〈Infernal Flame's Soul〉

From the moment I fixed my gaze, he was already dead.