Chapter 60 – Never Laundry
“…”
The hero who came out of the workshop, which was now nothing but dust, headed for the gate of Turbulation Turbulation.
While heading to the gate where everyone was waiting, the warrior’s eyes caught sight of the ruined base and the remnants of undead soldiers who were once human.
Even after death, those countless poor souls, thinking that they became the limbs of the enemy who killed them, involuntarily clenched their fists.
‘… Let’s bury them later.’
You need to clean up the wreckage of the building and deal with the corpses in the pits and the corpses of trolls or orcs so that the plague doesn’t circulate, so ask the lord and he’ll build a cemetery for you.
Even if his name is not left on the tombstone, it is very heartbreaking to be treated like garbage after being worked as a subordinate of the Demon King’s army.
And especially the corpse in the pit, I had to hurry up because I didn’t know what he had done.
The hero was completely ignorant of black magic, but it was common knowledge that even a child knew that curses and plagues would occur in places where many corpses were gathered.
‘Pot location… Good thing I remembered.’
While walking through the ruined base with such thoughts in mind, the hero arrived right in front of the castle gate in an instant.
Thinking of his comrades restlessly waiting outside the castle gate, he approached the tightly closed gate and raised his hand to unbolt the gate.
‘… What?!’
Behind the empty warrior, I felt a sense of intimidation that surpassed that of the Behemoth I had dealt with a while ago.
His hand stopped for an instant, the warrior lowered his hand on the bolt and slowly turned his body to look behind him.
Behind it, a monstrous hunk of meat made of trolls or beasts’ corpses clumped together like minced meat, was looking at the hero with its head bowed.
The head of the huge chunk of meat, which could have been about 10 meters long, turned round and eventually turned into large bloody eyes.
The eyes of the chunk of meat and the eyes of the hero met.
And soon after, let alone the vocal cords, a voice that could only be described as ominous came from a lump of meat without clothes.
“… Are you a warrior?”
The hero didn’t answer that question and just pulled out the sword he had inserted into the scabbard earlier.
“You’re more impatient than I thought.”
Seeing the sword, the chunk of meat twitched and twisted.
-Pajijik!!
As the magic power of the sword was put into it, electricity crackled and sparks flew.
The stance warrior spoke to his chunk of meat one last time before swinging his sword.
“I will see you soon. Enjoy the little life you have left.”
There was no answer to the warrior’s words.
The warrior who got into his posture jumped high, but the meat began to break down on its own first, as if it were running away, faster than the meat could be cut into two pieces.
When the chunk of meat collapsed, only fragments of the chunk of meat remained in its place, but the intense ominous feeling that I had felt just a moment ago had disappeared.
“… Bad guy.”
As I muttered that, I turned around and suddenly the gates began to slam with a thud.
“What, what?!”
The hero was flustered for a moment, and soon a fist that radiated light penetrated the castle gate through the bar and came out again.
When the bar was broken and there was nothing blocking the gate, he opened the gate from the outside using the hole he had made with his fist as a handle.
“Hero!!”
The gates opened and the first to enter was Martha, who was sweating profusely.
Her Martha’s complexion was paler than she had ever seen, her breathing rough and her hands shaking.
It was not only Martha who was trembling with anxiety to the extent of being strange, not to mention the comrades who came after her, as well as the soldiers who had camped outside, some even fainted.
“… What the hell was going on inside?”
Before the hero could answer that question, he looked at the piece of meat that had been looking at him a moment ago.
The eyes of Martha and her companions naturally turn to the piece of meat that has been tossed around on the floor.
The ominous feeling he felt a moment ago had gone, and now it was just an ordinary piece of meat, but it was still the only proof that he was here.
The hero said, looking at the pieces of meat lying on the floor with his back turned from Martha.
“Maybe… There was a demon king.”
Although he hadn’t heard that from himself, the hero didn’t know what to call such an existence other than the Demon King.
He probably noticed the death of the corps commander and used the corpses of nearby monsters to do something similar to his possession.
“By the way, did you feel it outside too?”
“… Yes. Suddenly, I felt an ominous energy from beyond the door, and my body stiffened and wondered what was going on.”
The memory of his body stiffening and the soldiers fainting one by one could only be described as a nightmare.
The warrior said he was a little unsure if he could do the same thing if asked.
‘What… I don’t even want to.’
While thinking about that, the soldiers began to come to their senses one by one.
Lina said as she watched the soldiers rise one by one as they brushed off the soil on their bodies.
“Hero, how was being that demon lord?”
“… I’m not sure if it was the demon king, but it was much more threatening than the corps commanders and demon king soldiers put together.”
He hadn’t been attacked in any way, just stood still and talked to him, but just by being in front of him, the warrior felt threatened for his life.
“… Can you win?”
“… I have to win.”
When the hero, who had always been full of confidence, looked gloomy on rare occasions, Lina changed the subject and said,
“… Anyway, that’s it and now that we’ve won, let’s just be happy. Thanks to you, no one died.”
“Okay… It should be.”
Anyway, there was no change in defeating three corps commanders and capturing the supply base without killing a single person.
“We won, so let’s be happy.”
Now, the demon king has discovered its existence, and it has gained enough strength to easily defeat the corps commander.
The day has finally come when he announces his existence and becomes a true hero.
*****
“Hero! Next, ask for the wreckage over there!”
“Yes!”
When the hero raised his hand, a huge amount of debris rose into the air, which would take days and days to clear.
It’s been several days since the supply base was captured, but the clean-up of the supply base is still not over.
Starting with the hero’s current job of clearing the rubble of collapsed buildings, and burying the bodies of those who were used as soldiers.
In addition, finding and capturing the weapons that the demon army was making, and finding confidential documents that might be in case.
There was no end to mentioning all the other miscellaneous things one by one.
It wasn’t just the hero who helped clean up, but the other colleagues also helped clean up by making use of their own specialties.
Thanks to that, it seemed that with a few more days of hard work, this captured supply base could be used by mankind.
“By the way… The messenger sent to the capital is a bit late.”
“I know.”
First of all, since it happened in the Kingdom of Biltan, an emissary was sent to report the incident, but no answer has come back yet.
It took a considerable amount of time to reach the royal capital of the Biltan Kingdom, so considering the round trip, it seemed like we would have to wait a few more days.
“By the way, warrior, why don’t you take a break now? You skipped this morning and continue.”
“I’m not particularly hungry, so it’s okay.”
“No, not that. It’s because you don’t rest, so other people notice and can’t rest.”
Originally, the warrior who didn’t have to do this kind of work skipped breakfast and continued to help clean up, so other people couldn’t rest in peace because they noticed.
“… It would be nice to just rest without worrying about it. Shall I go and talk to the labor foreman?”
“No, if you do that, it will be more difficult to rest. Just go and get some rest.”
“If you say that…”
At Lina’s persuasion, the hero went into the tent and rested. As if they had waited, several people followed suit and applied for a break.
And when the hero entered the tent, the Horde requested a rest and followed as if they had waited.
Ever since I heard about the hero’s hometown from Lina a few days ago, I’ve been trying to ask the hero about it.
However, the hero was very busy, and the Horde had their own business, so it was hard to find time.
Of course, if I had to force myself to make time, I would have been able to find some time before going to sleep, but for some reason, whenever I tried to go to the warrior’s tent, my feet didn’t come off.
‘… I have no choice but to ask now.’
Although the answer from the hero’s mouth was a little frightening, the Horde mustered up the courage to enter the tent the hero was in.
“Mr Horde? Horde, are you also here to rest?”
He might get angry if his rest was interrupted, but the warrior asked with a gentle expression.
When Horde did not answer the hero’s question and looked at the hero in silence, the hero tilted his head slightly and said,
“Why are you like that? Whatever you want to say…”
Horde, whose words seemed to have encouraged Horde, barely opened his mouth and spoke to the hero.
“I… Actually, I came here for a while because I wanted to ask the hero.”
“… What do you want to ask? I don’t know what happened, but please tell me without reservations.”
“Yes… Then that… Perhaps the hero’s hometown is… Is it the same Azul kingdom as me?”
When the word hometown was mentioned, the warrior’s expression darkened, as if an old memory he wanted to forget came to mind.
Seeing that look on his face, Horde seemed to hear the sound of a truth he didn’t want to believe approaching him.
Perhaps lost in his old thoughts for a while, the warrior kept his mouth shut, and as time passed, cold sweat began to form on Horde’s hands.
“… Ho, is it not?”
“No… My hometown is the same kingdom of Azul as Mr. Horde. But suddenly why…”
Azul Kingdom.
Horde’s heart fluttered at the mention of the name of his old home, which he did not want to recall.
At the same time, the things she had done to get revenge on the hero behind her back, and the days of swearing at the hero by crushing them every night passed by.
“Ha… Ha…”
Horde’s breathing became rough as the guilt he had been ignoring hit him all at once.
Seeing that, the hero thought something was strange, got up from his seat, and approached Horde, who seemed about to collapse at any moment.
“Ho, Mr. Horde?! Why are you?! If it’s sick, shall we call Martha soon?”
“Oh, no… It’s okay. Just… Suddenly, my breathing became so rapid…”
When the warrior worried about herself, it only made her feel more guilty because of it.
As Horde’s breath quickened even more, he told him not to worry, and Horde became more worried after seeing that, and said as he headed towards the entrance of the tent.
“I will go and get Martha. Please wait.”
Saying that, as the hero headed out of the tent, Horde grabbed the hero by the ankle.
“Mr Horde?”
“… I’m really fine. There is something I want to ask more than that.”
I don’t know what’s at the end of this question and answer, but Horde wanted to see the answer no matter what.
