I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

27 – [The Hero and I – 12]

“There actually is a place that fits your needs, you two.”

“Really?”

“There’s an old training ground a little ways outside the village. It used to be used often, but when the monster attacks got worse, they moved the training inside. The old ground should still be there.”

“I see. How far is it?”

“It’s about a ten-minute walk, easy.”

“Not far at all. Alright, let’s head that way.”

Just as we were about to move, it happened.

Suddenly, the light shining on us turned blood red.

“What the hell.”

“……!”

I quickly looked up at the sky and saw the full moon, stained crimson.

I couldn’t help but gape.

“This is fucked up……!”

“It’s a red moon!”

The seasoned warrior grasped the meaning immediately, while Sylphie, who seemed to have lived a life far removed from combat, only tilted her head in confusion.

“Um, what does the red moon signify? Why did you both turn so pale…?”

She understood, instinctively, that it was bad, but lacking knowledge, she didn’t know what it was.

If you lived without being involved in battles, you’d never see it, never know it.

The warrior grimaced.

“The red moon is proof of a ritual. To those within the ritual’s radius, the moon appears red. It’s not actually red, it just appears that way because we’re within its boundary.”

“Uh, so… what does that mean? What kind of ritual is it?”

“The desired result varies slightly from person to person, but the process of the red moon ritual is singular.”

“Which is?”

I broke out in a cold sweat.

“The magification of life. It turns people within the range into mana. What that mana is used for, I don’t know.”

“Damn it, mind control would have been enough… ! What was the point of using such a difficult magic like mind erosion? Wasn’t it so they could use us as limbs for the Death God Cult?”

“You know how it is, Rivia.”

A small sigh escaped.

“There’s no one with a rational thought process in this religion. They’re insane. And if they’re doing something like this…”

“It’s one of the three high priests…!”

The Death God Cult was led by three high priests in total.

One of them had been slain by the warrior during his journey to defeat the Demon King, leaving only two.

Well, even if their numbers dwindled temporarily, they had a strange way of popping back up like cockroaches, always replenishing to three over time.

“Let’s go quickly! If the ritual has begun, it’s no joke, people’s lives are in danger!”

*Derrrrrkkk!!*

The sound boomed, and the gates of Harp Village swung open.

Gates that should never be open this late at night.

“……!”

The Hero frowned.

“It’s monsters, monsters are coming.”

The Hero didn’t have any detection skills worth mentioning, but he seemed to just *feel* it, instinctively. The gates open just at the right time, and then monsters come just at the right time?

No matter how much he thought about it, it seemed like they had been caught on to.

For a split second, the possibility that Silphy had tricked them and brought them here crossed his mind, but Silphy looked genuinely bewildered, like she had no idea what was going on either.

At least it wasn’t a betrayal of good intentions, he supposed.

“Livia, please head to the training grounds, immediately.”

“What? But……!”

“If the Reaper Cult leader is really there, I can’t handle it alone. But you can defeat them, I’ll handle the monsters here. If you take care of things quickly, it’ll lighten my load, too.”

“…….”

“But be careful. Don’t let your guard down just because you weren’t mind-controlled last time. Right now, your condition is bad, so in the worst-case scenario I’ll have to fight you. … I don’t want to die yet.”

He said, laughing awkwardly, and the Hero laughed along.

“Okay, I’ll come back as soon as possible……!”

With that, the Hero moved, or rather disappeared, from that spot.

“Silphy, come out now. It doesn’t seem like there’s much point in hiding.”

“……I, I’m not good with fighting.”

“Maybe they didn’t fight, but they definitely trained. Right?”

“Uh, how did you know that?”

“Your hands don’t lie.”

“…….”

Her hands, calloused and rough, an unexpected sight on such a feminine face, were proof of hard work, day in and day out. And by the feel of those calluses, they were undoubtedly the hands of an archer.

Elves were famous for their archery skills, after all.

“Keerrrrrr!!”

“There’s a lot.”

“Way too many…!”

*Whoosh!*

With a flick of my fingers, flames erupted, licking at the monsters, turning them to ash. But this village didn’t have just one gate, and monsters pouring in through the others would overwhelm me alone.

“What are you doing!”

“……!”

“Ch-Chief!”

He was short.

With that telltale beard, it was easy to see the dwarf blood running through him.

“How dare you interfere with the ritual for the Death God! Sylphie!”

“Chief! No! You’re being controlled!”

“What nonsense!! I cherished you like family, and this is how you disappoint me!”

“Chief…”

“It’s a group. It’s incredibly difficult to make someone who’s undergone mental erosion aware of it. The fastest way is to take down the caster or tear apart the spell. We have to wait for good news from Ms. Lyvia.”

Trying to do anything to someone already eroded mentally could very well shatter their own mind.

Still, if someone resorts to mental erosion, they’ve already given up on being human at that point.

That’s why, legally, the punishment level for someone using mental manipulation and mental erosion is different.

“Monsters are coming!”

“Ah, this is the blessing of the Death God…”

“This life to the Death God…”

“Death God…”

Damn it.

If the villagers were at least resisting, that’d be one thing, but they were truly waiting for death as if it were salvation. To protect even these people from the monsters… it’s going to be tough.

“Gah!”

Thwang! Thwang! Thwang!

As I frowned, watching the monsters charging towards the villagers, something suddenly flew and pierced one of their heads clean through.

My eyes went wide in shock, and Silphy gave an awkward smile.

“Um, there are reasons. So… yeah?”

“You, that bow…”

She didn’t have a bow before.

It just appeared in her hand.

A bow and arrows made of magic power?

Elves each have their own bow, and elves who can make a bow with magic power are exceedingly rare.

And that extremely few elf was…

“Don’t interfere!!”

“We’re trying to dedicate ourselves to the Grim Reaper! Why are you interfering, Silphy!!”

“No! You’re all… Urgh! Let go! The monsters…! Lord Royce!”

“It can’t be helped.”

“Huh?”

“Saving people comes first, right?”

I placed my hand over my chest.

The number of monsters was high, and instead of resisting, the villagers were actually hindering us, the ones trying to help.

They believed without a shred of doubt that it was their will, so in their eyes, we were the strange ones, and we were the ones acting outside of common sense.

It was a complete truth within them, so persuading them wouldn’t be easy.

“Spirit Unification.”

WHOOSH!!

Flames flickered, not from my fingertips, but from within my hand, and my hand took on the very form of fire.

Not borrowing the power of fire, but becoming the fire itself, I passed through, burning all the monsters that had entered the village.

“Whoaah…! That firepower and precision…! Truly a Spirit Magician…! Huh? Lord Royce?”

Swoosh.

As I moved my hand, water sprang up around the villagers, binding them in place.

“Kuh!”

“Aah!”

The bound figures lost their balance and tumbled to the ground. Sylphie stared at me, her face etched with shock.

“Fire and water elemental magic at the same time… and not even low-level, using this much power simultaneously? And that body…”

“Like you’ve got your own reasons.”

I gave an awkward laugh.

“I’ve got mine too.”

A pain surged in my chest.

I can’t hold out for long.

All I can do is hope the Hero returns and takes out the caster before then.

If this drags on too long, I’ll be consumed by the power instead.

“Sylphie, let’s close the door first. While I keep it occupied, you…”

*CRASH!!*

A deafening noise erupted as a monster revealed itself.

“Karrr-urr!!”

“A, an upper-tier monster! A Basilisk!”

Sylphie’s jaw dropped, her face a mask of terror, like she’d never seen one before.

“What does it take to summon an upper-tier monster…?”

To say it was just bad luck is really ridiculous.

I stared at the monster.

Could it be… did they use mind erosion on the monster too?

They’re more powerful than I thought.

“At this rate, they’d break down the door even if it were closed.”

“Fine, let’s see them try.”

*

I ran through the forest.

And in an instant, I reached the training grounds.

Even if Royce and Sylphie were giving it their all, the villagers would be more of a hindrance than help, and someone might die.

That couldn’t happen.

No matter how pathetic my mindset was to even utter the title of “hero,” I couldn’t just stand by and watch people die.

As soon as I arrived, I read the flow of magic and pinpointed the location.

‘Royce’s hunch was right.’

It was around here, just as I expected.

I just needed to destroy the ritual.

I raised my wooden sword, ready to smash the ground itself. Instead of painstakingly locating the ritual’s core, it would be easier to just obliterate the surrounding area and let the ritual collapse on its own.

“Whoops, this is troubling.”

“……!”

*Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!*

Just as I was about to strike, someone attacked, and I quickly deflected the blows with my wooden sword.

“What, you blocked an attack with a wooden sword? Amazing…”

“…….”

The mark embroidered on their clothes.

It’s a Death Cultist.

That was all the confirmation I needed.

“Whoa.”

I moved fast.

That Death Cultist didn’t even seem to realize I was right in front of it.

*Thwaaang!!* The sound echoed as I split the Cultist in half. And the blood that gushed out, it turned black and vanished at the same time, which made me jump a little.

This is…

“Quite the hothead… I am the leader of this Death Cult, and…”

“Hmph.”

“No, wait a sec…!”

*Thwaaang!!*

I slashed it again, and again it turned black and disappeared.

And then, that same Death Cultist was standing right back in front of me, looking completely fine.

“Are you some kind of beast or what? You hack and slash like that without even knowing my abilities…”

“It’s a Voodoo Clone.”

“……!”

It was a forbidden magic that increased one’s own lifespan by absorbing the life force of others.

A technique that sacrifices one person’s life to add another life to one’s own. But there was a limit to the number of lives that could be absorbed, and besides, if you’d fought them before, it wasn’t easy to use the Voodoo Clone to fake death or escape.

First engagement.

In other words, this tactic is quite effective as a surprise attack, especially on an opponent you’re facing for the very first time.

“So, you’ve fought a Death Cult before? You know about Voodoo Clones, ugh!!”

*THWACK!!*

I sliced again, and it blackened, dissolving again.

“Don’t you have a function called ‘talking’ on you?!”

“No time. Rather than listen to a villain’s story, I’ll save one more innocent person.”

Whatever their reasons, they used the Red Moon Ritual, and even Voodoo Clones.

How many have they killed so far, anyway?

The way to break Voodoo Clones is simple.

Like I said, there’s a limit to how many lives they can absorb.

In other words…

‘If you kill it ’til it dies, it dies.’

The one I fought last time died after I killed it 13 times.

I gripped the wooden sword tighter.

“For those you’ve cursed, you can die here in vain, too.”

Saying that, I lunged in again.