I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

52 – 52. Guardian of the Territory

“…Then stop it, I beg you.”

Arsel said that right away, closing his eyes.

“What, without even hearing what the cost is?”

“I don’t care what the price is. Besides, I don’t have to worry about your words anymore.”

I was able to do that because I firmly trusted Alfred.

He said he didn’t have to listen to anything in return, and he was ready to give anything of himself to Alfred, so he was able to say it.

Even if he wanted his body and mind, that didn’t matter anyway.

“What if I destroy the kingdom myself instead of stopping Grandma Clen?”

Alfred said mischievously, as if slightly steaming.

However, Arcel smiled and laughed.

“I know you can’t do that. If you wished for the destruction of a nation in the first place, it would have already perished.”

“Then you mean everything else is fine?”

Alfred comes closer and speaks.

Even if he stretched out his hand lightly, he was within reach.

Sometimes it feels a bit strange to say something floating in the sky and looking upside down.

Alfred’s eyes moved as if scanning Arcel from top to bottom.

It looks as if an arm or a leg will be torn off.

Even so, Arcel didn’t even move.

The response was that he would give up at least one arm or leg if necessary.

“Yes, it doesn’t matter if it’s you.”

“It’s different from the reaction I expected… I’m a bit lethargic, but I can’t help it.

“Wait a minute, but can’t you tell me what the price will be in advance so that I can prepare my mind?”

“No, knowing in advance is no fun.”

Still, I couldn’t just stay calm.

I would be lying if I said that Alfred didn’t feel nervous as Alfred came out like that on purpose.

What the hell are you thinking about getting paid for, so you’re saying that it’s not fun and that you’ll tell me later?

“Spoilers are like whispers from the devil. It’s easier to enjoy life when you don’t know the future. Of course, it’s more enjoyable to know him to some extent.”

Alfred whispered in Arcel’s ear.

It’s a bit ticklish, and it seems like I’m going to be possessed, but whenever I hear that whisper, I feel like I can’t understand it.

“Because what the hell is the way to stop her…”

“Certainly I can’t stop Grandma Clen, but there are ways out anyway.”

Alfred warmed up lightly as he circled the sky.

“It would be best to prepare an umbrella in advance, before the sky collapses.”

Then, when he handed Arsel an umbrella and a dry towel, regardless of where he got them, he became curious about the meaning of Alfred’s words.

Are you trying to prepare before something happens?

Or is it that there is a way to survive even if the sky collapses if you prepare for it?

It seems like it means that you can respond to any disaster if you are prepared, but it also sounded like it had a different meaning to Arcel.

However, the different meaning was difficult to understand in many ways.

Maybe it’s a true literal story.

This means that the sky could collapse at any time, so take an umbrella.

“Then I’ll be back. The other thing I’m confident about is attacking the elderly, because I’ve been practicing steadily as his grandmother since the old days.”

Alfred waved his hand and flew straight to Clen.

It seemed that Alfred had nothing to do with words that could be misunderstood by others.

In the first place, it was not a misunderstanding, but a fact.

Looking at Shion’s reaction as he held onto his broken arm, it seemed like this wasn’t the first time or two.

Rather, Alfred, who carries a stake in his pocket, might be on the better side.

‘What the hell are you trying to do?’

I was worried all over again.

It’s not that I’m worried about Alfred, it’s that I don’t know what other crazy things Alfred will do.

I hoped that I would not irritate Clen as much as possible.

†††

There was a girl in the far distant past.

A vampire born after drinking all of its mother’s blood.

The girl was born as a strong person, and has grown stronger than anyone else since she was born.

Because she was born without knowing anything like that, when she was just living her life, the girl suddenly had such a question.

‘What was I born for?’

I was born as a strong person.

The girl was unique from her birth, to the point of instinctively drinking all her mother’s blood and eventually causing her to die.

From the time she was born, she already possessed her powers beyond those of her own father, and was so strong that she was incomparably stronger than other demons, so it seemed that no one would dare to compete with her.

That’s why I was even more curious.

There must be a reason why I was born with such strong power.

She was born with such power that people feared her as a mutant.

There’s no way she could have just had that kind of power, wasn’t it something special given to her?

Of course, I couldn’t figure out the special meaning.

The girl thought she struggled to realize the meaning of her every day she was born herself.

Thanks to that, his personality gradually became ferocious and dirty.

-He’s a pretty talented kid, maybe he’ll grow up to be the lumber that will lead our demons in the future.-

Even so, the girl’s father didn’t worry at all.

Even though her position could be threatened by her child if she did something wrong, her father did not care at all and raised her girl with the utmost care and love.

Then one day her father called the girl and said.

– Now you will be managing this land. This is the place where the light of the stars descends, the place where the fate of the world passes. We must protect this land no matter what.-

-Father, did you get dementia before your grandfather did?-

Suddenly, such an absurd sound made the girl completely unable to understand.

This is a land of nothing but a small castle.

Aside from being able to see the stars well at night, it was a land with no special advantages.

Nevertheless, my father said that this land is a very important and precious place.

There have been attempts to build villages and cities by forming a community like humans on this land several times before, but it wasn’t that easy due to the nature of demons moving as a tribal society.

The girl couldn’t understand why such useless land was so precious and important.

-It seems that the humans made up their minds this time. Maybe that’s why the demon king is calling me now.-

The girl came to understand her father’s words after the demon king suddenly called her father one day.

The Demon King has as much power as his name.

Because he had such power, he reigned over the demons and was able to defend his position from the hero, the hero that humans created.

-Probably, if only the hero is defeated, he can come back soon, anyway, so far, the hero has never defeated the demon king, so there is no need to worry.-

And the girl’s father never returned.

-Still, if something happens to me, then I will ask you for this land.-

I couldn’t come back.

Of course, as always, the hero was eventually torn to pieces by the demon king, but from what I heard, it seems he struggled quite a bit this time.

Most of the demons were cut down by the party of warriors who broke through the demon castle head-on, and among them the girl’s father was included.

I heard that even the demon king was seriously injured and was in danger, so there is no need to explain how threatening his power was.

The hero could not defeat the demon lord no matter how much time passed, but he gradually became stronger and stronger, which meant that he had become that much stronger before he knew it.

In this way, naturally, the girl took over the land that her father had managed.

Under the teachings of her retired grandfather, the girl kept her land from being polluted by her foreign enemies, and she became strong enough to take the place of the Demon King, fearing many of her demons.

-It’s boring.-

But still, the girl had no particular interest in managing this land.

Managing the land was simply following her father’s will, but it did not contain the will of the girl.

Every day managing the land was like torture for the girl, and she thought it would be nice if she could just get rid of everything.

It was thanks to the characteristics of vampires that they have been able to maintain their lives until now.

By drinking the blood of others, you feel pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.

The girl took the lives of others by force and savored her blood.

Of course, there was a limit to filling an empty heart with such things.

-Should I rather destroy the world?-

It was because the girl still couldn’t figure out why she was born.

It has more power than the demon king of the time, but all it does is manage this small piece of land.

There was no need to have that much power to manage this land.

Simply managing the land was enough for the father, who was said to have been defeated by a hero.

It was at this point that I even thought that maybe it would be better for me to be a demon lord than a manager of the land.

The girl spent her days savoring her own blood with such trivial thoughts.

Other than that, she only occasionally watched the stars and drank her grandfather’s wine, and she still couldn’t find the reason for her life, so she eventually lost even the reason to live.

-The end is coming!-

As if her grandfather had become senile, she came to find herself one day carrying a full of strange books.

-Now everything is over!-

At the time, the demons were in their heyday.

Under the rule of a new demon king called the enemy demon king, the demon tribe became stronger than ever by stealing land from threatening humans and strengthening their power.

Even so, the girl couldn’t understand why her grandfather suddenly made such a fuss.

The end of the world is coming all of a sudden.

The end of the world sounds really funny.

I don’t know if either of the humans or demons will perish, but the world itself has never come to an end.

-The end is really coming!-

But soon the girl came to understand her grandfather’s words.

Looking out of her window, she saw white snow falling.

She is an existence called a witch walking in the white snow.

-See, the real end is coming!-

She called the witch ‘the witch of ash’ in the public.

The witch of ash burned everything in the world and was now approaching the land where the girl was.

The white snow falling from the sky turned into white flames as soon as it touched the ground.

Whether it’s a human, a demon, a forest, or water, its white flame turns everything it touches into ashes.

The white flame showed no signs of going out until it turned the entire world to white ashes.

In the midst of boring days, the girl looked at the scenery and left an impression without even realizing it.

-Is it a dream?-

It was summer.

“By the way, wouldn’t it be too reckless to call yourself a girl at that time? You know that even an elf is considered an adult if she is over 200 years old, Grandma Clen.”

As she looked back on her past with her eyes closed for a moment, an uninvited guest’s voice came from around Clen’s shoulder.

It wouldn’t be strange if his body melted just by coming closer, but he leaned back, shaking his legs as if there was no problem.

“Oh, it’s hard. I can’t even sleep properly because of this. If you sleep here, your shoulders will be stiff.”

It was Alfred.

Alfred casually lay down on the blanket about Clen’s thigh, but protested that he couldn’t sleep at all because of the hard upper.

“It’s good that it’s large enough to lie down on, but isn’t this too hard?”

Alfred taps the chest area with his hand.

Clen remembers her past, where she doesn’t return without saying anything, and she tries to head to Hermode Kingdom quietly.

“Besides, the sting smells strange too?”

He noticed Alfred’s arrival from the middle, but he didn’t care because he knew that even if he was a bastard, he couldn’t stop him.

I tried to treat them like flying insects in the air.

In reality, no matter what kind of attack Alfred made, flying insects flew in and hit his body.

“It smells just like a chicken coop.”

Kwaaang!!

However, being a bug by nature, the slight flapping of its wings irritates the nerves.

Clen says, striking the blade so hard that the earth splits in two.

[Before destroying the kingdom of Hermod, I will tear you to pieces and throw them as food for wild dogs.]

“…It’s been a while, but didn’t you have to tell me this when you proposed to me? Of course, refusal would have been the same. That’s why you’re still a virgin at that age.”

[Next time, I’ll skin you, tie your arms and legs together, and make you a plaything for the nymphs.]

“Ah, not just a virgin, but an old maid.”

Alfred smiled broadly as he passed Clen’s words lightly.

[Must be…!]