NOVEL NEXT chapter 62
62 – You Dare Use Me as a Side Dish (3)
The culprit who brutally murdered my parents and burned my hometown to the ground.
Just thinking about the Dullahan made my hands tremble, my body reacting before my head could even process it.
“Astal…”
Victoria placed her hand over my trembling one, trying to calm me down.
Her soft, warm touch spread, and the unpleasantness that had been rising up inside me subsided for a moment.
I remembered that there was something more important than just burning with revenge right now.
“There’s something I need to tell you all.”
“What is it? Don’t tell me you’re going to marry Victoria? That’s something for after we kill the Demon King…”
“No, it looks like the Demon King has someone backing him.”
I shook my head and spoke to Kyle, who was chuckling, in a serious tone. At this rate, we could fall into even greater danger before we killed the Demon King.
The reason why the gods couldn’t influence the mortal world, and the being depicted in the mural in the Forbidden Library.
“…Otherwise, there’s no explanation for why my hometown was attacked by the Dullahan. There’s no way a Four Heavenly King would come just to burn down a tiny, insignificant village, right?”
“This is also something the Celestial God vouched for. She said its existence is the reason they can’t affect the real world.”
Victoria added to my story, showing her trust. Her expression was one of grim determination mixed with composure.
Hearing us, the hero Kyle propped his chin in his hand, wearing a serious face.
We already struggled so much to subdue Bellamora, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and now a new enemy was emerging.
“…So, to summarize, there’s someone backing the Demon Lord from behind? Not a demon god or a devil god, something that’s known to the public?”
“In the murals in the forbidden library that Victoria and I saw, even the gods of the demon world were fighting a mysterious being like shattered glass. It’s highly likely.”
I spoke, recalling the mural in the forbidden library. A secret place where things the Holy Kingdom classified as heretical, or things that shouldn’t be known to the world, were stored.
The murals in a place like that couldn’t possibly be meaningless, and if such a being existed, all the questions would be answered.
The reason the Demon Lord didn’t target the hero Kyle’s or Victoria’s hometowns, and instead targeted me, a country bumpkin mage.
And why Bellamora said she could never beat the Demon Lord, and why all the previous hero parties were wiped out.
“So, just trusting you and Victoria’s words, I have to be wary of the mastermind behind the Demon Lord?”
As Kyle said that, he slowly looked at me as if trying to see right through me, then his lips curled up as he noticed Victoria and I holding hands.
“…Judging by your actions, it’s not a lie. Well, I was expecting it to some extent.”
Kyle then gave an unexpected answer. As if he’d already guessed what we were saying, he gave a small nod.
“You knew about this beforehand?”
“Well, it’s a guess. Otherwise, how could gods who can’t even affect the real world be worshipped and designated as national religions, or choose heroes and saints?”
Kyle, who had been chosen by the main god as a hero since childhood, said he had tried to find an answer while agonizing over this fact on his own.
Just like Victoria was chosen by the Celestial God and could use miracles, but couldn’t escape the misfortunes surrounding her.
“…I was a cripple in my family who couldn’t even hold a sword properly. In the past, I was so afraid of people’s eyes that I wore a helmet to avoid them.”
Kyle may have been chosen as a hero, but all the power and ability given to him was just a holy sword in the shape of a flame.
“So, I worried a lot about it when I was younger. What the hell are the gods thinking, why pick a guy like me as the hero to execute this demon lord killing plan, y’know?”
Kyle sighed heavily, pulling out a crumpled letter he’d kept tucked between his cloak and his clothes. It was creased and worn, the tattered paper showing the marks of being unfolded and read countless times.
“It was Stella, my girlfriend back home, who saved me from wallowing in resentment, blaming the gods who chose me as the hero.”
It was a reply from Stella, Kyle’s lover. He contacted her regularly using enchanted messenger birds, but it had already been a year since he left the continent.
“Even if the previous heroes mostly died at the demon lord’s hands, I hated the thought of my girlfriend’s continent falling into that b*stard’s clutches even more…”
Kyle would secretly wipe away tears, or when drunk, would call out his girlfriend’s name, clearly missing her desperately.
“…So I decided to participate in this demon lord subjugation. To protect my precious love, for a world where the person who saved me can live safely.”
Kyle swallowed down a bitter expression, trying to force a bright smile, but it looked strained and awkward, a visible, jarring effort.
“Kyle…”
“I understand your feelings a hundred times over.”
Victoria offered Kyle words of comfort. She seemed to have grasped how much he cared for his lover from his words and actions.
“Even I, for Astal-nim’s sake, would try to shatter the demon lord’s skull, regardless of some fate the gods decided!”
– And then, in a peaceful world, we’ll build a small cabin and inside, we’ll spend every day engaged in animalistic, sticky coitus, giving birth to children…♡
Victoria said, placing a hand over her heart.
Then, she glanced sideways, flashing a playful wink while looking down at my crotch.
“…Victoria. Aren’t you being a little too simplistic? According to legend, the demon lord is a being capable of reshaping the world with a flick of his wrist.”
I rubbed my throbbing temples with my fingers, watching Victoria. The fact that this guy’s still around after hundreds of years means he’s an incredibly powerful and terrifying enemy.
“What problem would that be? With Astal-nim, our party is invincible. Didn’t we behead Bellamora, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, first?”
Victoria confidently predicted our victory. It seemed she placed more hope in an uncertain future than in realistically assessing the situation.
“Are you saying you trust the dying words of that slutty whore… no, Bellamora, more than the words of your beloved lover?”
“No, well… Shouldn’t we be a little more careful? We both almost died this time.”
“It’s nice of you to worry. But… shouldn’t we look at things positively, especially at times like this?”
Victoria puffed out her cheeks and snuggled closer to me, pressing her chest against me again.
– I think eleven kids would be good. I’ve always envied large families, you know.
– By then, you might not be able to touch my boobs as much… Hehe, Daddy shouldn’t steal what belongs to the kids…!
– Should we name our granddaughter Merak, and our grandson Sirius? Or should I ask you and discuss it…? Ah, just imagining it makes me so happy.
Victoria’s runaway mind had already finished our child-rearing plans.
I even felt a chill as I watched her hum the names of the grandchildren she had already thought of.
“…Anyway, while dealing with all this, I noticed that the gods were hiding something. It feels like I’m finally getting a clue.”
The Hero Kyle cleared his throat, seeing Victoria trying to shove her tongue into my mouth while kissing me, and then shifted the atmosphere back to the main topic.
“But, after all, our next goal shouldn’t be the mastermind behind the Demon Lord, but eliminating the Death Knight Durahan is the priority, I think.”
The Hero Kyle opened his mouth to me again, stating his thoughts. He was moving his finger through the map of the Demon Realm, calculating the war situation.
“See here? Durahan’s territory is the closest to us, and according to the stories, it’s a strategic point that can keep sending troops.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that soldiers never die in Durahan’s territory and that they’re resurrected.”
I nodded, looking at the place Kyle pointed to, and he did the same, tapping the map twice with his finger.
“I’ll send a letter to His Majesty the Emperor, saying that there seems to be a supporting force backing the Demon Lord. Maybe something will come of it?”
Kyle smiled, as if telling me not to worry, and every time he did that, I thought it was fortunate that this guy was the party’s leader.
“So don’t worry too much. We can kill the Demon Lord and make the world peaceful. Astal, you trust me, right?”
No matter what anyone said, this guy was the hero most fitting of the heroic image.
“Yeah, I’m counting on you in the future too.”
I took Kyle’s hand, a gesture meant to convey my trust in his words.
* * *
As we prepared for the journey, Anima stealthily approached Victoria and whispered in her ear.
“Victoria… Aren’t you getting a little too close to Astal lately? You usually act like you hate him….”
Of course, I’d suspected Astal and Victoria had grown closer during the Bellamora subjugation, but what Anima saw this morning was something else entirely.
Astal, his face flushed, touching Victoria’s breasts. And her, releasing moans and breathless gasps.
“Ah, about that? We engaged in a little physical dialogue. It allowed us to be a bit more honest with each other.”
“Physical dialogue meaning….”
“Astal-nim didn’t let me sleep last night, berating me as a lewd little b*tch and s*xually tormenting me.”
“…….”
“Well, he wasn’t impotent as feared. He used his incredibly sturdy staff and firm muscles to pin me down…♡”
Victoria was deliberately telling her companions all of this, solidifying the facts so that Astal couldn’t break their contractual relationship.
Making sure that if he tried to leave her now, he’d be the biggest b*stard in the world, she was slowly preparing to make Astal a baby daddy.