For a while, Damon breathed in ragged gasps, then began walking again. His steps were headed toward Sergei, who stood there with a stupefied expression. Damon came to a halt, his face twisted terribly from extreme pain and blood loss. It was only natural; his entire body was drenched in blood flowing from his wounds. Yet he looked Sergei straight in the eyes without the slightest wavering.
“There shouldn’t be anything in the way now, should there?”
“………”
“I was originally going to make it a hundred blows, but I don’t have the strength. Instead, I’ll make just one count. You’ll probably be shitting blood for a month.”
“Truly astonishing. To think you defeated Helbertron……”
It was a remark Sergei barely managed to force out. In truth, he had been certain of Helbertron’s victory. He had never dreamed that, contrary to his expectations, Helbertron would be the one to fall. Watching Damon repeatedly crack his knuckles, he grew serious.
“I have something to say.”
“What is it? Speak.”
“Help us with our plan. The plan to save Truvenia.”
“What?”
Damon’s eyes widened. Paying no heed to Damon’s reaction, Sergei continued.
“Originally, we intended to carry out the plan only with the Sword Masters and mages we had carefully selected. But after seeing your ability, it seems we must include you as well. Of course, I do not believe that defeating Helbertron means you are stronger than him. But when it comes to facing mid-sized monsters, there seems to be no one more suitable than you.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
Curses burst one after another from Damon’s mouth, but Sergei did not care in the slightest.
“First of all, sacrificing Carnatic’s eighty thousand troops was unavoidable for the sake of the plan. We desperately needed time.”
“So badly that you had to drive eighty thousand men to their deaths?”
With a hardened expression, Sergei nodded. Then he gestured behind him. At that moment, a voice extremely familiar to Damon reached his ears.
“It has truly been a long time. I never imagined in my dreams that you would become this strong.”
Startled, Damon turned his head, and there stood a man he could never forget—Shreckheimer—smiling forlornly.
“Y-you are?”
“Surely you have not forgotten me. You must have been deeply disappointed in His Grace Duke Sergei, but please understand. There were reasons of our own.”
“Reasons of your own?”
“I will explain that to you. So for now, please go inside and have your body treated first……”
Only then did excruciating pain surge from his wounds. In any case, Damon was very glad to see Shreckheimer again. Beside him, Sergei opened his mouth.
“If you take part in the plan, I will receive you as an honored guest. By my authority, I promise you a title equivalent to a baron and treatment befitting it. You will not be dissatisfied.”
Damon stared fixedly into Sergei’s eyes for a while, then silently nodded. Just as Sergei let out a sigh of relief at the sight, a cold voice brushed past his ear.
“However, I cannot give up the punishment I promised under any circumstances. Understand.”
At the same time, a heavy impact slammed into his abdomen. A single Magic Missile—fired at some unknown moment—had mercilessly threaded its way through the Royal Guards standing in front and struck Sergei.
“Ugh.”
Sergei suppressed the pain with all his might. The agony was so intense that the food he had eaten at noon threatened to force its way back up his esophagus. Thinking that he could not show such an unsightly scene before the nobles, Sergei clamped down on his stomach so hard that the veins in his eyes bulged. Unfortunately, Damon’s Magic Missile had already thoroughly shaken the Sangok acupoint in his lower abdomen, where the nerves were densely clustered.
“Blaaagh!”
In the end, Sergei was forced to suffer the humiliation of confirming before the assembled nobles what he had eaten for lunch. The Royal Guards and nobles let out snickers as they delightedly admired another side of Sergei, who was renowned for his dignity. It was, by oath, the first time Sergei had ever shown such a 모습 before others.
After finishing his retching, Sergei wiped the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and smiled at Damon.
“That was quite a biting blow. I shall remember it for the rest of my life.”
“Damn. You’ve got a fair bit of spirit, worthy of a nation’s prime minister.”
Having relieved at least some of his resentment toward Sergei, Damon soon followed Shreckheimer’s guidance into the inner quarters. Though Sergei was indeed the one responsible for driving eighty thousand lives to their deaths, he apparently had his own reasons, and there was also something that had to be done from now on, so Damon set aside his grudge for the time being.
Though he looked somewhat haggard, Sergei’s face soon returned to its characteristic expressionless state.
“Now then, let us begin the meeting.”
At his attitude, as though nothing at all had happened, the nobles clicked their tongues and began taking their seats one after another. Helbertron’s unconscious body had already been carried away by the Royal Guards.
Soon after, the meeting began. However, one among them paid no attention whatsoever to the meeting. It was Marquis Briggs. With extremely pleased eyes, he was stroking the shoulder of Dietrich, who sat beside him.
Though emergency treatment had been administered, it seemed the wound on his face would likely never disappear for the rest of his life. Because of the sword scar crossing his face, his youthful, handsome appearance had changed into something rather sharp. The marquis lowered his voice and spoke.
“Your face is ruined. Are you all right?”
“I am fine, Father. If anything, I’ll look like an experienced swordsman now.”
“You brat.”
The son he had thought lost had returned, grown so much, and the fact filled his chest with pride all on its own.
Guided into the inner quarters, Damon received treatment he had never experienced before. After washing away the dust completely in a splendidly decorated bathroom, he was provided with new clothes, and as the next step, he was treated to a sumptuous meal. They were the finest dishes, the sort only high-ranking nobles could enjoy. They were foods he had not tasted since being demoted to a wall guard.
“Well now, isn’t this something, for the treatment to change this much?”
Since he happened to be extremely hungry, Damon did not refuse and began cramming food into his stomach. Compared to their gorgeous appearance, the flavors were not especially outstanding, but they were still edible. Even as he kept picking up food and eating, Damon did not forget to add a word.
“What a waste of ingredients. If I’d cooked this, I could’ve made it far tastier.”
After finishing his meal, Damon lifted his sleeve and wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth. A snow-white handkerchief had been placed on the table as if for him to wipe his mouth with, but he did not particularly feel like using it. Watching out of the corner of his eye as the serving attendants were horrified, Damon slowly rose. The splendid noble attire kept getting in his way and was terribly cumbersome.
“I wonder how I look now.”
Suddenly curious about his appearance, Damon walked toward the mirror placed in the corner of the room. Looking into it, he saw an extremely unfamiliar face staring back at him. Damon gave a bitter smile.
“My appearance has changed quite a lot.”
With not a single eyebrow or hair on his head, and with blisters covering his skin, it could scarcely be called a human face. Because he had been scorched by fire, his skin had taken on a reddish hue, and wrinkles that had not been there before now filled his face. At a glance, he looked terribly aged. He thought it was probably because he had overused Haste.
“Looks like I won’t be living that long either.”
As he shook his head and grumbled, a shadow appeared in the mirror. Without even turning his head, Damon spoke.
“You’ve come?”
The one who had entered the room was Shreckheimer. Seeing the way he stared intently at his face, Damon soon realized what Shreckheimer was thinking.
“My appearance has changed a great deal, hasn’t it?”
“Th-that it has.”
Shreckheimer wore an awkward expression. Perhaps it was because he felt guilty for having brought Damon here and then abandoned him without paying him any attention.
In truth, Damon, this powerful being from another world, had shown Shreckheimer truly astonishing ability. Though he had lost all the power he once possessed, his tenacity in finding another solution here and rapidly growing stronger left Shreckheimer with no choice but to admire him.
“It is astonishing that you were able to learn magic in such a short time.”
Damon shrugged.
“Well, it was quite difficult in its own way. That bastard Sergei followed me around and interfered…… On top of that, mages as a breed are terribly closed-minded. If I had not met Master Doyle, Truvenia would probably have lost a powerful ally.”
A strange light flashed through Shreckheimer’s eyes.
“You learned magic from the black mage Doyle?”
“Of course…… Hm. Come to think of it, that makes me a black mage now too.”
Shreckheimer’s expression stiffened slightly. In truth, as a priest, the existence most antithetical to him was none other than a black mage. If they had met fifty years ago, the two would probably have had to fight until one of them died. A priest who served Berhazel and a black mage who served the Demon King could never coexist under any circumstances.
But now, the human world was facing a crisis of survival. For the sake of humanity’s fate, it was a time when they had to join hands not only with black mages, but even with beings worse than them.
“Mm! It would have been better if you had learned divine magic or white magic. Of all things, black magic……”
The moment Shreckheimer finished speaking, Damon’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Hehehe. High Pontiff Shreckheimer. It seems you’ve gotten much better at spouting nonsense while we haven’t seen each other. Do you think there was a single mage here in Feldrian whom I did not seek out? Most of them treated me like a madman. Some did not even treat me like a person. But just one man—Master Doyle—was the exception. He alone accepted my passion to learn magic. Thanks to him, I was able to learn magic.”
“………”
“If you’re going to say that kind of thing, I won’t participate. In any case, the me of now is a black mage to the bone.”
At the other man’s unexpectedly fierce reaction, Shreckheimer hastily waved his hands.
“N-no, that is not what I meant.”
“You people abandoned me far too hastily.”
Damon shot Shreckheimer a burning glare.
“Though I lost my power, I still possessed intact the experience and knowledge of someone who had reached the seat of an absolute master. Was his name Emperor Crossen? Though I do not know what sort of mana cultivation method and swordsmanship he left behind, at the very least, I had a mana cultivation method that did not fall behind his in the slightest. Judging from the circumstances, he must certainly have been a figure of the orthodox sects. When it comes to rapidly raising experts within a limited time, the internal energy methods of the orthodox sects can never surpass those of the demonic path under any circumstances.”
“………”
“If you had treated me properly, I would have done my utmost to help you. Even if I could not help directly, I could have done plenty indirectly. For instance, training swordsmen. If that had been the case, by now I could probably have raised about a hundred Sword Masters. With the Asura Death Spirit Method I remember, even if it could not bring them to the absolute peak, it would be more than enough to train them to the peak level. Think about it. If over a hundred Sword Masters had joined the war, how do you think the situation would have unfolded?”
With a heavy expression, Shreckheimer silently listened to Damon’s words.
“But you people threw me away like an old shoe. Under the pretext of testing my abilities, you set me against countless monsters. To protect my pride, I decided to survive. And to become stronger, I decided to learn magic by any means necessary.”