Chapter 173. Preparing in Earnest
First Horn and Pastien joined the party!
Ba-ba-da-bam~!
Even Erol!
Ba-ba-ba-bam~!!
Yahoo~!
Our party’s combat power has increased massively!
Maybe I don’t even need to work anymore?!
“The Abandoned District.... This place is quite interesting.”
“Right? Isn’t it fascinating?”
First Horn looked around.
“You cleared this place too?”
“Yep!”
“Then I’m going in as well.”
“Huh?”
First Horn left for the depths of the Abandoned District!
I hadn’t expected that at all.
I never imagined he would suddenly leave just because he wanted to grow even stronger....
Our combat power dropped.
“I plan to head for the Isolated Sea.”
Erol continued.
“So we probably won’t see each other for a while.”
Erol left too...!
That part was expected, so I wasn’t particularly surprised.
Still, I thought he might travel with us for another month or so.
Our combat power dropped again.
“...Still!”
I turned.
“Pastien is still here!”
“....”
“Yeah, I hate you too.”
So she wasn’t combat power.
Uh.
Then...
Hmm....
Hayangi returned to me.
Oh my.
What wonderful news.
Although she had reached the pinnacle of Madness, she lost a huge portion of her strength after merging with me.
In other words, she had followed the classic trope of—
The enemy becomes weaker once they join the party.
[Hayangi: I was thinking the same thing, my friend. By the way, when are you going to finish my body? I’m looking forward to it quite a lot.]
Yeah.
This really was an adventure where I gained so much.
Wow, how exciting.
How could I possibly be this happy?
Look at this suffocating lump of frustration stuck in my chest.
That’s the result of this adventure.
Amazing, right?
“Wait a little.”
I frowned.
“It’s not like I said I wouldn’t make you one. Why are you so impatient?”
We were inside one of the buildings in the Abandoned District.
Maybe it had been prepared for me as the district’s administrator, because the inside was much cleaner than expected.
Should I applaud Aien’s parents for their impressive interior-design skills?
After I entrusted management of the district to Aien’s parents, the whole place had started developing a strong medieval atmosphere.
But the exposed pipes here and there gave it a steampunk feeling too.
I liked this version as well.
“Four hundred years...”
Pastien looked down from the building at the Hollow Tree screaming below and the dark Abandoned District stretching around it.
Her voice was bitter.
“So this is what became of the Road of Trials.”
She probably hadn’t first entered this place under pleasant circumstances either.
Still, watching somewhere she remembered become ruined seemed to leave a bitter taste.
“I collected all the records of the adventures you guys went on.”
I glanced at her.
“If you’re interested, go take a look later.”
“I will.”
You really never complain even once whenever the topic happens to be something you like, huh?
She had escaped from it on her own, but Choice and Freedom seemed to have left her somewhat bound to me.
Of course, since she was a Great Hero, if she hated something, she simply said she hated it.
I probably needed to learn how to handle her.
It would be a waste to obtain the strongest tool imaginable and leave it unused.
“Um, Great Hero of Patience.”
Aien stepped forward.
“May I ask you something?”
Aien was approaching her first?
That Aien?
She normally didn’t speak up first in situations like this.
She tended to think of them as “adult matters” and avoided interfering.
Even with matters involving her own parents, I did all the talking while she, the actual person involved, kept quiet.
“What is it?”
“That swordsmanship you showed during the battle....”
Aien hesitated.
“Was that the swordsmanship used by the Great Hero of Hope?”
Ah.
So she was purely interested in the swordsmanship.
Still, Aien wasn’t the kind of kid who usually approached people first.
Even at the training center, she only came over because the others started talking to me first.
She was becoming surprisingly shameless too.
Maybe that was what time did.
As time passed and people accumulated experiences, they gradually became more shameless.
Did everyone become that way with age?
She had once been a shy kid who dreamed innocently of becoming a knight and a Hero.
Compared to my first impression of her, she had definitely changed a lot.
Seriously.
Who did she take after?
Probably not me.
“I think you called it the Ethan Style...!”
Aien continued.
“Is Ethan the Great Hero of Hope’s name?”
Pastien shook her head.
“...No.”
“Hero never taught us his real name.”
“Ethan was merely an alias he used.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“So you kept traveling with someone who never even told you his name?”
“According to Hero, he did tell us.”
Pastien replied.
“We simply could not understand it.”
“He told us to think of him as someone without a name.”
“Weird guy.”
Pastien continued.
“The swordsmanship was also named after the person Hero saw and imitated when creating it.”
“It was not his own name.”
Then she looked at Aien.
“Why?”
“Are you interested?”
“Ah, yes!”
It definitely had been powerful.
The very first strike had been the strongest.
And after five sword movements, it unleashed explosive power.
But that Fifth Sword was just sheathing the blade, wasn’t it?
It was powerful...
But becoming progressively weaker with each stage sounded extremely risky.
“Could I... learn it too?”
Aien currently relied almost entirely on Certain Kill’s overwhelming defense-ignoring effect.
She didn’t really possess any special attack techniques beyond that.
Her basic stats were already high.
But most of those high numbers were concentrated in attack power, leaving her somewhat unstable.
Honestly...
I wasn’t sure whether that strange swordsmanship would suit someone like Aien.
What?
Couldn’t I just buy time for her?
I need to raise her to become independent!
What kind of parent raises a child to rely on them forever?
That’s overprotective!
...
Although, admittedly, I had spent quite a while carrying her in my arms figuratively speaking....
Part of the reason her defense was so low was probably because I kept acting as her shield.
“...Very well.”
Pastien nodded.
“Many powers are mixed within you.”
“You may actually find it easier to use than I do.”
Aien blinked.
“What? What do you mean...?”
“Originally, this swordsmanship was created by someone who wielded many kinds of weapons.”
Pastien explained.
“A dagger once.”
“A spear once.”
“An axe once.”
“A sword once.”
“And finally, an arrow to finish.”
“Apparently that was the preference of the one called Ethan.”
She rested a hand on her sword.
“The version I use was recreated by Hero using his own emotions.”
Aien’s eyes widened.
“Then... what was that final form?”
“That was Ethan’s last weapon, used when those five attacks still failed to defeat the enemy.”
Pastien explained calmly.
“Six precise and powerful arms created by a god.”
“Each wielding a different weapon.”
“And attacking simultaneously.”
...
Hmm.
Aien...
I hadn’t really noticed before, but she was surprisingly sociable, wasn’t she?
She had become comfortable with Pie almost immediately.
Now Pastien was happily explaining things to her too.
Back at the training center, she had practically acted like the class president.
Was this one of those things?
The idea that even parents can never completely understand their children?
[Hayangi: You weren’t like this before, but now you seem strangely obsessed with the word ‘family.’ Is it compensation for feeling that you never received one?]
How the hell would I know?
I don’t know any expression for closeness and intimacy above friend except family.
[Hayangi: Speaking of family, what are you planning to do about that nation made of monsters?]
Right....
What was I going to do about that?
Even Asset had failed at it.
And honestly, it wasn’t something I had thought through very seriously.
First, multiplying the creatures I had crammed into the Abandoned District would take far too long.
Let’s not focus on that side.
Then the first things that came to mind were the Badgers and the Goblins.
The Badgers....
Were hopeless.
But I had absolutely no doubt that our Goblins would prove useful.
“We’ll need land too.”
The Village Chief appeared in Aien’s place after she and Pastien apparently got along well enough to leave the room and continue talking elsewhere.
“Land, you say?”
Was adults’ eyes lighting up at the mention of land some universal trait?
“What kind of land do you require?”
The Village Chief asked.
“Is it for establishing a new kingdom?”
“Exactly.”
I nodded.
“Ignoring everything else, terrain that’s naturally ideal for defense would probably be best.”
Getting necessary supplies wouldn’t be a problem.
We could obtain them through this place.
What about the money needed to purchase them?
Didn’t becoming treated like a Demon King mean I could no longer profit from the arena?
That was why I had handed half of it over to the Duke.
Officially, the arena was now jointly owned by the Duke and me.
And since the Duke couldn’t afford to give up the profits coming from it, the arena was still operating normally.
Half the profits still belonged to me.
On top of that, an arena was soon going to open in the Alliance too, where they accepted practically anything as long as it made money.
Using our experience from Hopborn, we planned to make it larger and include even more facilities.
I already had plenty of money.
And I was going to have even more money in the future.
“The Empire and Alliance seem equally rotten to me.”
I sighed.
“I don’t understand why they’re so desperate to tear each other apart.”
The Village Chief chuckled.
“Hoho. The original Alliance began as a gathering of merchants expelled from the Empire.”
“That old hatred has now become engraved into people like indoctrination, even though those people no longer remember what originally caused it.”
That was terrifying.
Anyway, the Village Chief said he would look into suitable land and left the room.
I made sure to tell him it didn’t necessarily have to be land we bought.
He paused.
“By that, you mean...?”
I smiled.
“If necessary, we’ll take it~”
“...Hoho!”
His eyes lit up.
“In that case, our options have increased tremendously.”
“Hehehe....”
Look at him recovering the bold spirit of his youth.
How heartwarming.
“Looks like the land issue will be solved quickly.”
I leaned back.
“As for the creatures who’ll live on it....”
First, I should probably inspect all the rat kids and decide what direction to take from there.
Doll had been secretly depressed even though she hadn’t openly shown it because I had blown up all her dolls.
I should probably give her some kind of compensation.
Right.
And I should help Claw evolve a little too.
“It might not be bad to organize units according to each kid’s traits.”
Jayeon tilted her head.
“Like when we made unit types for the war game?”
“Exactly.”
I smiled at her.
“Looks like I’ll need loooots of help from our Jayeon.”
While traveling around collecting the Hall fragments, I had gathered all kinds of materials.
There were even chimera-like creatures I had created by collecting DNA information as I went.
Yes.
A true Demon King’s army.
Originally, I hadn’t collected them to destroy the world, so I had no idea how long it would take to increase our forces.
“Why is there so much to do...?”
Hayangi responded from inside me.
“Why complain? You have plenty of time.”
“Is the Chairman coming to eat you or something?”
“I’m pretty neat by nature.”
I sighed.
“When I see something dirty, I want to clean it up immediately.”
Still...
This was a fairly major undertaking.
It would be better to proceed carefully and thoroughly.
It wasn’t like destroying a world happened overnight.
And considering I was still in a position where the appearance of a single Demon King could make me tremble...
I needed to become much tougher.
First and foremost, I needed to improve.
That came before anything else.
All my kids were getting way too strong.
I was having trouble keeping up.
Maybe, like in martial-arts novels or old fantasy stories, I could strengthen my body by getting beaten up repeatedly.
To be fair, if I kept getting hit, my durability stat probably would rise.
“The summoned old man already hammered me that much, and I still need more....”
I sighed.
“Even the finest weapon is useless if you haven’t gotten used to wielding it, huh?”
[Hayangi: You have me, yet you’re worrying about the strangest things. Let’s just practice coordinating with each other.]
“...Hmm....”
Maybe we should.
Then let’s do that.
I should tell the kids to prepare immediately.
Since I’d probably die a lot, I should call the Undertaker too.
“Perfect timing.”
I smiled.
“The guys Aien dragged here still haven’t come to their senses and are apparently thinking about rebelling.”
“Let’s use this chance to clean house.”
I had been leaving them alone because it looked like it might turn into a pretty entertaining event.
But since things had come to this anyway....
“Then should I go tell everyone?”
I turned toward Levy.
“Levy...”
I stared at her emotionally.
“For once, you’ve said something admirable about going far away from me.”
“As a reward, I’ll let you go with Mallyangi.”
When Levy had nothing to do, despite being a maid, she would sit around somewhere and relax...
But she always made sure I remained somewhere within her line of sight.
And now...
She had grown so much.
“Go call all the commander-class ones.”
I added.
“Call the Holy Knights too.”
Levy blinked.
“All of them?”
“I’ll go find Claw separately later....”
Then I paused.
“But do you even know all the kids’ names?”
Levy smiled awkwardly.
“...Hehe....”
Mallyangi immediately raised her hand.
“I know them!”
“I’m going with her, so it’ll be fine!”
“Right.”
I nodded.
“As expected of Mallyangi.”
Most of them practically never left the Abandoned District.
So it wasn’t especially strange that Levy didn’t know them all.
If anything, Mallyangi knowing every single one was more surprising.
“Listen carefully, Levy! I’ll teach you!”
“Okay! I’ll listen carefully!”
“First, Mr. Claw is this rat monster with really huge claws...!”
“I know that much too...!”
Those two were both older than me.
So why was their mental age....
Had hanging around me lowered theirs too?
People say spending time around young people lets you absorb their youthful energy.
You also hear things like, The atmosphere really brightened once that young person joined.
Right, right.
If I thought about it that way...
I was having a positive influence.
Mm.
How rewarding.
I watched the two chatter away as they left.
Then I started preparing to head out as well.
“Pie, could you put a few curses on me?”
“Why?”
“You know that thing!”
I gestured dramatically.
“The protagonist who overcomes adversity and keeps getting stronger!”
“I’m going to do that.”
Pie stared at me.
“Don’t you already do that normally?”
“...Uh...”
I hesitated.
“I’m going to try doing it deliberately this time.”
“Fine.”
I would keep my equipment to the bare minimum.
As much as possible, I would fight using only my physical strength and Madness.
Huh?
Wasn’t Madness an insanely broken ability?
Well, come on.
I needed to get used to it again too.
I grinned.
“Let’s find out firsthand whether I’ve got what it takes to become a king.”
