Chapter 67 – The Night Before
Now, two months and weeks after the banquet, Hero and his party were looking at the castle of the demon king in the distance from the deck.
Standing alone on a remote island, the Demon Castle was huge and luxurious.
If it wasn’t for a remote island at the end of an unexplored land infested with demon beasts, he wouldn’t be able to hide.
“Lina, how many days do you think it will take to get to the island?”
“Hmm… Two or three days at this rate?”
The hero, who was looking at the castle of the demon king in the distance, heard that and looked back at Lina and her other companions.
“Then… Let’s take a break from training for the time being until we reach the castle.”
“Are you okay?”
“It doesn’t matter if you’re impatient… Let’s take a break and make the best condition.”
It was difficult to plan any significant growth for the remaining two to three days until arriving at the castle.
In that case, it would be better to take a break now and do everything possible.
Besides, everyone was well aware that their strength had reached the limit of what humans could achieve.
“Then let’s do it. I’m thinking of having a drink after a long time, but what about the hero?”
“… I’m just blowing the wind here. I’m not in the mood right now.”
“Yes, then!”
When the hero refused, Lina entered the ship alone, followed by Mirian and Yuria.
“Huh?”
On her way to the bar, Lina, who felt the presence of two people following her, looked behind her and said,
“Are you going to drink too?”
“Yeah, there’s nothing to do other than training… And the cocktail Lina made for me. That… What was your name?”
“A bomb owner?”
“Yes, that! It made me want to drink it again.”
“I also felt like I wanted to have a drink because my throat was a bit damp after dinner.”
“This is what I learned when I went to the eastern continent a long time ago, and I seem to like it. Then I’ll roll up a drink for you, so let’s go quickly!”
So the three of them headed to the bar, and Lina went inside the table and took a pose as if she were a bartender.
“Hey, what is that…”
The two of them smiled and looked at them quietly, and Lina started to set up the bombshell liquor that Byul said the two wanted to drink.
– Push!
First, a small amount of alcohol was poured into the glass, and then, with exquisite hand movements, the carbonated liquor was shot into the glass, and along with a whirlwind of bubbles, the explosive liquor that Yuria and Mirian had been waiting for was completed.
Yuria, who was the first to take a glass of wine, glared at the drink she had been drinking in two months and drank it all at once.
“It’s great… !”
With an exclamation like that of an uncle, the glass was emptied in an instant, and as the alcohol went in, the time to empty the glass decreased.
When everyone drank a few drinks and the atmosphere gradually heated up, Lina asked.
“What are you going to do when this adventure is over?”
“… Are you saying it’s over?”
With the Demon King’s Castle just around the corner, this adventure is almost at an end.
To be honest, it wouldn’t have been strange if these things came out sooner, but I haven’t had the time to spare because I’ve been training so far, so I’m finally talking about this.
“I am… After this adventure, I plan to go on another trip.”
“… Travel? Oh, is it like samurai training again?”
YuRia, remembering her first meeting with Mirian, naturally thought that way, but the words that came out of Mirian’s mouth were different.
“No, regardless of strength or anything like that… I want to see more and experience more. That is all.”
During this adventure, Mirian learned that the strength of her body is not everything.
More than anything, she already had enough strength as a warrior, so she wanted to see and experience more things and broaden her knowledge.
“Hmm… In short, you want to broaden your knowledge, right? Then, there are a few places you recommend, can you tell me later?”
“Please. You can trust it with your eyes.”
As soon as Mirian’s answer was finished and Yuria’s turn came, Yurian looked at the staff she was holding and said,
“… She’s thinking of going back to the academy.”
“Academy? Didn’t you say you graduated?”
“She’s thinking of going back as a professor, not going back as a student.”
She has not yet been appointed as a professor, but if Yuria, a 7th Circle mage and a mage who participated in the subjugation of the demon king, applies to be her professor, she will accept it without hesitation.
“I went to the academy and did research… And I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have her love disciples if she’s willing.”
“I see. Can you imagine yourself taking up teaching… It seems like something goes well… It may not seem like it…”
“What does that mean?”
“No, it’s because I imagined myself giving a lecture while drunk.”
“Sometimes I think about it. Lina you… What kind of alcoholic do you think I am?”
“No?”
“No it’s not!!”
The glass was still in Yuria’s hand as she said that, but Lina and Mirian didn’t bother pointing it out and passed it on.
“More than that… We’ve said it, so it’s your turn next. What are you going to do after this adventure?”
After thinking about that question for a while, Lina said to Yuria as if she immediately remembered her.
“I’m going to take a vacation for a while.”
“Vacation?”
“Huh. I did a 100-year adventure in less than a year, so I’m going to take a vacation for about 10 years.”
“… 10 years?”
When the two of them were confused by the sense of gap that came from the huge difference in life span, Lina continued.
“Well, it’s 10 years, so if I get bored in the middle, I might go on an adventure again.”
“… I guess so. But do you have money to play for 10 years in the first place?”
“Hey, I’ve been adventuring for years, but I can’t believe I don’t have that much money. All the money I earned is deposited in the bank.”
She had been an adventurer for hundreds of years, and Lina’s savings were so large that she could play and eat luxuriously for not 10 years but 100 years.
“Uh… But where is the Horde? I wonder what he will do later.”
When Horde’s name came out, Yuria and Mirian’s faces instantly hardened.
However, the two immediately relaxed their expressions for a moment and spoke in a kiss almost at the same time.
“What do you know? A guy like that.”
“Do you know? A guy like that.”
*****
The warrior standing alone on the deck on a moonlit night stared blankly at the castle as if possessed by something.
The Mawangseong, covered in thick fog, was barely visible depending on the strength of the wind, but it seemed as if it was provoking the warrior to come quickly.
When the hero was distracted by the demon castle in the distance, Rose, who approached the hero before he knew it, asked.
“What are you looking at?”
“Huh? Oh, just…”
I was just a little worried about whether I could really defeat the Demon King.
However, since he couldn’t say such a weak voice, the hero said evasively.
“Just… I think it’s all over soon, so I’m just overwhelmed.”
“Yes, it will be over soon…”
In fact, Rose, who had only been at the party for a few months, wasn’t particularly thrilled that it would soon end.
However, there were quite a few thoughts about the fact that he would soon be separated from the hero.
“If you defeat the Demon King… Will this party disband on that day?”
“… Maybe so. The remnants of the Demon King’s army will disband on their own. Everyone will have a future they envision.”
“Future… Is there a place for me in the future you envision?”
“Uh?”
When the hero looked at Rose in embarrassment at the sudden question, Rose said with her face blushing.
“In the future I envision… There is a place for you right next to me…”
“… Rose.”
“Actually… I didn’t have the courage to keep talking. It’s over soon, so at the end, courage springs up.”
Rose, who twisted her fingers tightly, said while holding onto the sleeves of the hero’s clothes, fearing that the hero might run away.
“At some point… I was just thinking of you I like you, let’s go out with me on the premise of marriage.”
“…”
At her bold confession, the hero closed her eyes and Rose waited for her answer with her face blushing.
And moments later, when the hero opened her mouth, what she heard completely betrayed Rose’s expectations.
“… Sorry, I have someone I like.”
“… I see.”
She had always been a Rose who prepared for the worst, and she never expected that it might turn out like this.
But even though she expected it, the shock was so excessive that tears welled up in her eyes.
“Uh, can I ask who you are… ?”
When Rose asked in her trembling voice, the hero paused for a moment before opening her mouth.
“… If I overdo it, he always gets angry. A person who always cares about me The sincere smile that I don’t show to others is also very attractive…”
“Who… I can roughly guess.”
Judging from the characteristics just mentioned, she was Martha without a doubt.
Recalling that she had been disturbed by Martha until this day, Rose let out the tears she had been holding back, wondering if her hero had been taken away by that woman she hated.
“… Rose.”
Seeing Rose’s tears, the warrior took out her handkerchief and bent her back, placing her hand on Rose’s face.
“…”
The hero’s face draws closer in front of Rose, who raises her head.
Rose, who stopped her tears before she knew it, grabbed the warrior who was approaching her by the collar and pulled it straight.
“… ?!”
Rose’s red lips overlapped her warrior’s lips faster than her hero could panic.
The hero was taken aback by Rose’s sudden action, but that was only for a moment.
“Lo, Rose… !! What is this… !!”
“… Do you have someone you like? Did you think I would just give up on something like that?”
“No, of course I have to give up…”
“I am… !! I just can’t give up on that. I will make you like me no matter how many years it takes!”
Rose turned her back on the hero, shouting confidently as if declaring war, but her power disappeared the moment she saw Martha behind her.
“You you… !”
“Oh, Martha!!”
“… Whoops!”
Turning her back on the hero, Rose kept glaring at Marta on the way back to her ship, but Martha smiled and ignored Rose.
Eventually, Rose returned to the ship, and instead of Rose, Martha stood in front of the hero.
“… Martha, did you see that? As for how that happened…”
“Warrior…”
When the hero tried to make an excuse, Martha shook her head as if it was okay, and grabbed the hero by the collar, just like Rose did earlier.
Then, too, he pursed her lips, as Rose did, but this time it was a little different.
‘… Tongue?’
Martha’s tongue, which had squeezed through the warrior’s tightly closed lips, met her tongue.
“Uh, ugh… !!”
Martha’s tongue wriggled like a snake and coveted the hardened warrior’s tongue.
After mingling each other’s tongues for a while, when they opened their mouths, Marta’s mouth was dripping with a mixture of saliva from the hero and Martha along with hot breath.
Martha, who let out her hot breath and caught her breath, said, desperately holding back her heart that she wanted to go one step further.
“… I’m really looking forward to seeing you after defeating the demon lord.”
“… Huh.”
*****
‘… Uh, what should I do?’
Like Rose, Grindella, thinking that today was her last chance, hid behind the door and waited for an opportunity.
However, Grindella, who did not have the courage to confess and kept watching, lost the player to Oz.
It would be fortunate if it was only that, because of what Rose said while being kicked, Grindella was kicked by the hero before she even confessed.
Just as Grindella thought it was over, with tears welling up in her eyes, Rose returned to her ship with her wild steps.
‘… Awesome!’
Grindella, who forgot to hide from the shocking situation that just happened, met Rose’s eyes.
Rose, who looked at Grindella’s tear-filled eyes and roughly guessed the situation, nodded her head and said,
“… Excuse me.”
“Now, wait a minute… !!”
With her words at the end, Rose, who was about to leave, was stopped by Grindella without realizing it.
Rose stopped and looked behind her, not hiding her displeasure.
“… Whatever it is.”
“That, that…”
Grindella, who unwittingly stopped Rose, froze, unable to find anything to say to her.
However, after a while, Grindella mustered up the courage to speak to Rose.
“Are you really not going to give up on the hero?”
Rose herself had something to think about that, and after a moment of hesitation, she opened her mouth.
“… Can’t we?”
“There is someone the hero likes, but knowing that and continuing to push him…”
“There is someone else I like, so what do you mean?”
“Yes?”
“Even if I hear that I am a dirty woman who steals other people’s men, I have no intention of giving up. And… Why do you assert that you will be unhappy without living with me? At least I have the confidence to make the hero happier than that woman.”
With that said, as if Rose had nothing more to say, she turned her back on Grindella and went back to her own room.
“The confidence that will make you happy…”
She thought of Grindella, who was left alone in the hallway.
If she thinks of the hero’s happiness, should she step back?
Or should she, like Rose, bear the stigma of being a dirty woman, but she shouldn’t give up.
‘I, I…’
Like Rose, does she have the confidence to make the hero happy no matter what?
After a considerable amount of time, Grindella gave her answer to her own question.
‘I am confident…’
