THE HERO
The trudge back had been rather uneventful. Any monsters that had approached the group were eradicated immediately. The biggest annoyance was the lustful stares of the guys in the class and the hero who had chosen to walk alongside Ivan in front of the class. By extension, Hajime was there with them too, and subsequently, Kaori Shirasaki who had practically attached herself to his hip.
Ivan's hope for the cloaks was to keep the identities of his group and himself a secret, the side benefit being that the girls wouldn't have to deal with the lustful stares of anyone that went by. Felis, he understood, considering she was barely even wearing the thing, instead draping it over her shoulders and leaving her chest and toned stomach out in the open. He kind of understood why the boys stared at Tio, but at the same time, the curves and mounds protruding from the mantle shouldn't have been enough to attract this much attention. And as for Yue… well, that one he couldn't get.
His thoughts evaporated the moment he felt the cold stare of the companion that had linked her arms with him, sweating slightly. With Yue at his arm, Felis who had gotten bored of walking and chose to sit on his shoulders, and Tio who took pleasure in being ignored, Ivan felt happiness he didn't know existed. And with that happiness, he forgot about the hero who had been pestering from behind him. Hajime smiled wryly from the corner while chatting with Kaori.
"We want you to join us! Think of the lives we could save, the futures that could be restored. As a member of humanity, we should all strive to eliminate the Demons and take back the life that had been stolen. So you have to join us! Use your strength for good, I'll even make sure the Kingdom gives you the greatest gear we could offer! So what do you say, do you want to join our team?"
Once again Kouki extended the olive branch, his signature smile radiating as he extended his hand to Ivan. Ivan only stared at the hand for a second before turning his stare back in front of him. The last thing he wanted to do was join an alliance with this 'hero' that had yet to do any saving. On a side note, he had been dragging the unconscious demon lady with a rope tied to his left wrist. It was a crude way of transportation that made all the boys offer to carry her instead but met with cold stares from the girls in the class they put an end to their lascivious plan.
Before restraining her Ivan had cleaned her pockets, the sand dagger was a decent blade with unique properties but other than that he found a few basic potions and a locket with the picture of a man inside. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any documents or other things that would give him information but what was better than the person themself? And in the end, if she didn't have any useful information she would still have good use as a bargaining chip. The search for poison or toxin in her body had been much more gross but successful in the end, having found two different poisons in her mouth.
At first, Kouki had begged for the custody of the demon lady, exclaiming that as a hero it was his duty to turn her in. It would've been a pathetic excuse for taking credit if Ivan didn't know that this guy was serious. But in the end, when Kouki saw his attempts fall on deaf ears he went on to the next best thing. If he managed to convince Ivan to join them then they'd have unlimited access to powerful artifacts and strong members if they included his team. Subsequently, if Ivan worked for the heroes Kouki would have the power to order him around as the leader of the heroes.
If Ivan had known about that last thought he would've laughed aloud.
"Hey, Iv-Paracelsus-san, if you don't mind what do you plan on doing now? If I'm not mistaken your business has been going well and with this dungeon being cleared you seem quite unoccupied. So I'm just curious as to what you're going to do now."
The one who had spoken was Hajime, whose words made Kouki and Kaori's eyes as wide as saucers as they looked at Ivan. It never occurred to them that someone other than them would be able to clear the dungeon. And now Hajime was claiming that this figure in front of them had made it to the end. It made a bit of sense to them when they thought about the strength of himself and his group.
"What I'm going to do huh….. Well, it's as you say, my business will run just fine without me. And so far my team and I have cleared two dungeons. So our current objective should be the third dungeon. Huhuhu~ I wonder what kind of secrets we'll find there!"
Ivan spoke as if to tease the two that had indescribable looks on their faces, even Hajime who didn't know he cleared two dungeons showed a surprised expression. They were wondering where this person no one heard of came from. Captain Meld was considered the strongest in the Kingdom, and with Kouki having surpassed him that meant he was now the strongest. But now they stood face to face with a person that held strength better than both of them combined.
'Where did he come from and why did he appear only now?' They thought to themselves. To them, it was impossible that this person hasn't been exploring the dungeons for years. It hadn't even occurred to them that someone had cleared two dungeons in the time it took for them to clear half of one… not that they knew they were only halfways.
"Y-You've cleared two dungeons… impossible, Meld-san said that the dungeons had never been cleared in centuries!" Kouki's confidence wavered under the information, refusing to believe that someone had surpassed the goals he was meant to reach.
"Impossible? Who decided that? Why should you know who clears the dungeon, are we meant to report the status to you people each time we clear one? If I remember correctly it had never been stated that the dungeons were the exclusive property of the Kingdom and Holy Church. Hell, I assume the whole reason these Demons learned how to tame monsters was by obtaining one of the ancient magics at the bottom of such dungeons. And I can assure you if it had been this lady who obtained the ancient magic you all would have been dead before I got there."
While Ivan had been able to ignore the boy's requests and demands, the diminishment of his and Yue's hard work was not something he was going to tolerate. Kouki trembled a bit under his stare, trembling at the prospect that his enemies had already reached the goal he and his team sought.
"So what do you say, 'hero'? Knowing all this will you sit back and cower away in the bosom of the Kingdom that had breastfed you so far. The very same Kingdom that had gassed you up into believing that YOU, and only YOU, were the sole savior this world needed. Take a look at this locket here, do you see this man? Here take a closer look~"
Ivan threw the locket at the paled Kouki, who stared at the picture of the man in the frame before holding his mouth closed to repress the lunch that had nearly spilled out.
"What's wrong? This was just something I found on the body of the woman you were about to kill. Or what, did you think they were just beasts in human form? If so then are you sure you can really trust the Holy Church and its teachings? Their judgment to declare you savior? I suppose it hadn't occurred to you to even think of why these two parties are fighting, despite possessing the same emotional capabilities and the capacity to dream. Even if you are the hero to the people of humanity, just remember you are no better than the monsters you declare as evil in the eyes of the Demons With your mindless and prejudiced actions, can you really say you are different from these monsters?"
Kouki's breathing turned erratic, his face pale as he grasped the locket in his hand to the point where the glass nearly shattered. Concerned classmates caught up to him as they showed their concern, antagonistic glares turned toward Ivan as he continued walking. Apart from Hajime and Kaori who had heard the conversation, as well as Captain Meld whose senses allowed him to listen even far away, they had all assumed he had done something to harm Kouki.
However, those negative thoughts were pushed away the moment Kouki laid their concerns, exclaiming that he was alright and no one was to blame other than himself. Then without another word he caught up to Ivan, this time with a serious expression and none of the pestering he had done before.
Captain Meld watched from afar, his eyes glimmering as he contemplated the words Ivan had said. Though they may have been blasphemous to the teachings he had vowed to, he still saw it imperative to see the other side. And for a second he agreed with Ivan's words, while he didn't know exactly what the Church had been teaching them he knew it'd be false to say that the demons were heartless creatures. In fact, the only reason they were having a feud besides things like resources was because of their differing ideological beliefs.
The Demons who saw no race greater than their own and the Holy Church whose beliefs were prevalent in almost every human that saw everything other than the human race as evil. Both claimed to be doing the work of their god, the human god praised as the one true god and the demon god hailed as the lord of the world. Ehit versus Alva.
He knew that if he was going to turn them into the greatest heroes they could be then he needed to teach them things other than fighting. Already he was feeling the regret of not teaching the children to kill, as the lack of such resolve would have likely led to their deaths. And now he felt it his duty to teach them not to look at this battle between humans and demons as something black and white as 'we kill them because they're demons' or 'they kill humans because they're humans.'
As for the statement of Ivan and his party having cleared two dungeons, he had no choice but to believe them. The strength they had was enough proof to him. And if his guess about the demons having obtained ancient magic from the age of gods were true then that spelled trouble for the human race. Though he had no idea what strength these magics held he had no doubt they were capable of turning the tides of war. He made a mental reminder to ask this shopkeeper if he may know what magics were given to those who cleared the same two dungeons.
Captain Meld was suspicious of the close relationship between Ivan and Hajime but in the end, decided it'd be rude of him to pry into it. There was always a slight chance that they just became close friends in only a few encounters, such a thing was not uncommon for even knights that fought alongside each other while synchronized despite having met that day.
The group continued their venture back to the surface. Everyone aside from Ivan's group tired out almost immediately, their cries for breaks and timeouts annoying him as he didn't want to be down here when there were other things that required his attention.
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