(Why are they fighting each other?)

(Master, judging by the color of their armors, I believe there are two different armies.)

Now that you mention it, majority wear crimson armors or armors covered in crimson colored decorations. The side with lesser number had purple instead.

Although they were heavily outnumbered, the purple side looked to be barely keeping the battle at a balance. There were five outstanding groups on the purple side, three of them being led by someone I recognize. They were the trio that came to look for Liz before. Demon general Nourrie and her two attendants plus two more who should be her attendants as well.

While having far greater number, the crimson side on the other hand, was only being led by two commanders, thus the balance. But it seems there is no need to contemplate on which side to help.

I descended right in the middle of the battlefield filled with flying magical projectiles and arrows to much surprise of everyone present. Some hit me, but the armor repelled them like it was nothing as most were only lower level advanced class magic, and I don’t even need to mention how arrows fared.

For now, my enemy is the crimson armored group, so I ignored their surprised gasps and used icicles and black lightning bolts. It seemed that now I can use magic even if I just chanted the spell names in my mind as long as it doesn’t exceed advanced class, thanks to leaving most of the processing to the powered up Azanthys and Mareritter. I can feign chantless magic with this, I don’t know how it will be useful though.

I used combination of close combat and magic, and due to their slowed reaction from the surprise, I managed to thin their number by somewhere around 100 in one go. The purple side was dazed at first, but after I took down some more 100 or so, they decided to join in and resumed their attack on the crimson side. Like this, it should be just a matter of time before the crimson side will be annihilated.

It took time, but right after I killed one of the enemy’s leader, Nourrie and her attendants managed to kill the other one. And so, the battle ended with a small number of survivor on the crimson side raising the white flags. If it was me when I was a hero, this battle would have taken many times longer. The demon generals were formidable enemies, but now if I have to compare, the current Albert should be stronger than even Berudis as I knew of. If not for the revelation from Praesia about there being some Ar Daenocens in the empire, I might just go and declare war on them.

Just how much difference is there between the me right now and back then, though? Hero growth cheat has been going strong, not that I am complaining about it.

Since the battle has been concluded I decided to leave since I can’t talk and thus unable to gather information by asking around. Before I could fly away though, Nourrie and an attendant of her, a girl, approached me.

“I don’t know who, or why you are even here, but one thing for sure is that you helped us. You have our gratitude.”

I just looked back at her and nodded. While I did end up helping her group, she talked like she has no qualms at all on my identity, maybe because I used pseudo-chantless magic she thought that I was someone from the demon race?

“This is presumptuous of me, however, if I may have your help once again…”

Deciding that I could at least listen first, I gestured a ‘go ahead’ and she continued.

“Beyond this forest to on that tower’s direction is the human’s territory, there is a town called Arx Norr right at the base of that tower. the pri… someone very important to us might still be over there and yet I failed to prevent many enemies from going there. It will still take time if we were to go there by foot through this dense forest and I saw you descending from the sky, so…”

I wanted to say that the enemies she mentioned has indeed attacked Arx Norr and that they have mostly been annihilated. But I can’t talk! I tried my best to gesture it out. I pointed at the direction of Arx Norr and then at myself repeatedly. After Nourrie and her attendant looked at each other, they nodded and said “You came from over there?” So I returned the nod.

I continued by pointing at the dead enemies, myself, and did some slashing movements, then at the enemies again. After that I put Mareritter down and gave a thumb up while nodding.

Damn, gesturing is harder than I thought it would be. Please let my speech return soon!

“Uhh, can I take it as that you have taken care of things over there too?”

I responded by nodding again, a big one this time.

Maybe because I was trying hard at gesturing, I just noticed that more purple armored guys have gathered behind Nourrie and they said “Oooh.” in unison after I nodded. No sense of disbelief could be felt from them since they saw what I just did to the crimson armored side.

“If that is so then, Ruui, Qealsa!”

““Yes, ma’am.””

The male attendant I saw back then and another one, a female, stepped forward and faced Nourrie.

“You two take back our troops and the POWs back to Estria. Don’t forget to get to our supply camp and clean things up as if we were never here. The new demon lord and Berudis might realize it sooner or later anyway so bolster our territory’s defense.”

”I am sorry, but what about you, ma’am?”

The Ruui guy asked hesitantly at Nourrie.

“I will take Fiel and Leena to confirm the Prin… the condition of Arx Norr and our important person’s safety. I will immediately return after that”

Eeeh?

Yep, it wasn’t Nourrie’s attendants’ but my ‘Eeeh?’. Ruui and the other one answered with an “understood”.

I immediately pointed at Nourrie and made a ‘she’s okay so there is no need to worry’ gesture by pointing at Arx Norr and then continuing with a ‘guts’ plus a thumb up.

“Y, yes… it is not that I can’t trust what you said, but there is something I want to confirm directly.”

I shook my head and pointed back at Nourrie and gestured another ‘it’s okay so there is no need for you to go.’

“Ah, yes… thank you. I am perfectly fine as you can see.”

Not good, it didn’t get through.

But wait, why am I trying to not let her go to see Liz? Let’s just go back for now.

While Nourrie were still looking at me in wonder, I took off and flew to the direction of Arx Norr, ignoring whatever they were saying at me.

***

As soon as I reached the vicinity of Arx Norr, I landed at where people wouldn’t notice, just outskirts of the town before walking in. It seemed that cleaning up activities has begun, and most people were gathering at makeshift clinics scattered around the area. This time I could see some civilians helping out by carrying the injured or cleaning the street from corpses or debris. I heard that the guild’s building is being used as temporary hospital and it was the place closest to where Liz was, hence the reason I’m headed over there.

Many guild staff, mostly medical staff were also busy going here and there. I could also sense many people in the direction of the tower while overall I think that there are many times less people in Arx Norr right now. I doubt it was because they were dead, most probably the guild caught wind of the previous battle and thus they urged people to evacuate beforehand. The ones still in the tower might be refugees and they have finally started moving out from the tower.

“There you are.”

I looked to the source of the voice that called to me as soon as I entered the guild building. It was Martlea. It seemed that she was helping the injured but she switched with someone else and stood.

“Liz is not here. She’s in my office.”

After urging me with her eyes, she turned around and walked away. I guess I should follow her to see Liz.

Not long after, we left the busy atmosphere filled with a mix of sweat and blood smell, and reached the third floor. There were several number of injured people here too, resting by sitting or laying down on the floor, but they were on the better side of things. The first and second floor were filled with the heavily injured, so I guess the third floor which is a lot smaller was enough to accommodate the small number of lightly injured.

“Ah, so he really is back.”

“H, hey… just so you know, the little lady is not in danger. So please spare us.”

In front of the door to Martlea’s office were Lloyd who was not so surprised to see me, and Kaldor who hid behind Lloyd as soon as he saw me. Oy!?

“Well, don’t mind him. I just gave him some motivation for the fight before. What he said was true, however.”

I just waved my hand to the two and entered the room after Martlea who had gone ahead.

There I saw Yusa and Eldys who were watching over Liz who was laid down on a sofa, sleeping soundly. Her breathing was normal and color has returned to her face. In hindsight, I should have realized that Liz’s condition wasn’t as bad as I previously thought. At worst it seemed to be a severe mana exhaustion. Well, Mareritter didn’t actually lie either. While the end result would have been the same anyway, as in I would go and end the battle myself, it was just that his wording made it so I would immediately act. Damn you.

Mareritter just smiled when I looked at him with squinted eyes. I bet he knows what I was thinking, yup.

Yusa who noticed me showed a scared look but then she returned her gaze at Liz. First Kaldor, and now you? Eldys on the other hand just kept her worried gaze on Liz without doing as much as glancing at me who stood next to them.

“Remember to see the guildmaster tomorrow. There is something he wanted to ask you. I need to supervise and help with the treatment of the injured, so I have to leave for now. Yusa, and uhh, you too… can you help me?”

“U, understood.”

“Okay.”

Yusa and Eldys left following Martlea. Mareritter also took the reluctant Azanthys outside, saying that he wanted to ask her about the events in the tower. Hm? Were they trying to be considerate?

For now I just sat on a small wooden chair next to the sofa.

“Uuuu…”

Liz’s face suddenly started distorting and she groaned, it looked like she was having a nightmare. I leaned closer and stroked her head. I continued patting her head even after her expression relaxed once again.

That’s when I contacted Mareritter, asking him to tell me of everything that happened while I was gone.

***

Midnight, except for some medical staff who were working on urgent patients, things have finally quieted down. Most people, especially the adventurers who participated in the battle were already asleep to recover from both physical and mental weariness accumulated during the ordeal.

People filled the adventurer guild building. Most were sleeping on the floor or even on the table but some few were lucky enough to have the softer couch or even bed, albeit saying they were lucky might be wrong when considering their worse physical condition.

In a particular room, there were only two person, both asleep, but the young girl on the sofa slowly opened her eyes. She was asleep for several hour bells already so her body naturally resumed activity. Without the need to adjust to the surrounding darkness, she immediately noticed the young man who was asleep while sitting on a chair next to her, and she opened her eyes wide.

In a normal situation she would be careful not to wake him up, but this time, the teary eyed girl sluggishly raised her body and jumped on the young man, pushing him onto the floor.

“Erik!”

“Whoa!? Liz? Wait, I can speak?”

Without noticing the out of place remark Erik just uttered, Liz who seemed like she has no intention to stop hugging Erik buried her face on Erik’s chest. Maybe it was a grace for her that the metal part of erik’s armor has mostly been reduced to almost nothing from his many battles in the tower.

In response, Erik only stroked Liz’s hair and smiled before saying

“I’m back.”

“Un, *hic* un…”

“This would be an irresponsible remark coming from me, but you’ve been through a lot eh, Liz?”

“Un…”

“You can let it out on me, if you want to.”

“*hic* There’s a lot.”

“I don’t mind.”

Liz continued to speak without raising her buried face, and Erik chose to keep lying down while stroking Liz’s hair.

“I was worried... “

“...”

“I was lonely…*hic* I wanted to see Erik so badly.”

“Sorry for taking so long...”

“A hero took my hand and almost kissed it.”

“What?! I’ll have a ‘civilized’ talk with him later.”

Liz shook her head.

“Yusa prevented it. Another hero, a woman also helped. So it’s fine.”

Unknown to Erik, Liz smiled briefly with her face hidden when she heard Erik saying that he will have a ‘civilized’ talk in higher tone.

“I see…”

However, as Liz raised her face and looked at Erik’s eyes directly, her expression darkened again while saying the next sentence. And the accumulated tears finally flowed down without restraint,

“I killed… many people, of my own race.”

“... I heard about it, but what you did has saved many others, am I right?”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I’m a killer! I did something that can’t be undone!”

“Liz, what you call a killer is someone like me. Moreover, I’m the worst kind of it who don’t feel any remorse. But you’re different. You did it to protect others, and the result was that you did save many people. It’ll be different if what you did was something meaningless, but it wasn’t. And most importantly, you have the feeling of regret. Never forget that regret, and there is no need to run away from it either. Just don’t feel chained by it. Heh, that’s rich coming from me, don’t you think?”

Erik added a demeaning joke at himself but Liz was listening seriously nevertheless.

“*Sob*”

“It was a hard and long struggle, but you did your best, Liz. I’m glad you are here right now, safe and sound. Just so you know, Liz, if something worse were to happen to you, I’m sure that I would add another target for vengeance.”

Liz’s expression finally softened, however, when she heard what Erik said about vengeance, she felt both happy and sad at the same time. Happy from the fact that Erik would do so much for her, and sad that the only path Erik would choose was vengeance. She does not wish for such thing. And the only way she could think as to prevent that is by getting stronger, strong enough to prevent anything that might lead to that conclusion. Never for a second did she forget that she wanted to be strong enough to stand side by side with him, and not just being protected as well.

“Once again, I’m back, Liz.”

“Un, welcome back… I’m glad that Erik is also safe.”

Liz raised her body while wiping her tears with her sleeve. Erik also stood up, they then sat close to each other on the sofa.

“Let’s change the topic, Liz. Do you have any interesting story to tell me?”

“Let’s see… Kaldor is now scared at the mere sight of cakes.”

Erik wanted to ask on what caused Kaldor to have a cake-phobia but Liz already continued. Perhaps she understood why Erik proposed to change the topic as the mood surrounding her has also changed.

“Yusa and Eldys was caught by a patrolling guild staff when they were peeping into Martlea’s house, at night. Fortunately, their target, the bathroom was further in.”

Erik doubted that the two were aiming for Martlea and was 100% sure that their target was Liz instead.

“Erik…”

“Hm?”

“Can Erik tell me about what happened in the tower too?”

“Hmm, why not?”

Erik thought that it was fine to tell her most as long as he is concealing the matter about Praesia. He felt that the burden of that knowledge is too great for her. He also thought that it should be fine to tell about Albert and his friends as he was planning to visit them later. But then, what Liz asked was something else.

“Erik was together with Azanthys all the time… tell me… what happened between you two in the tower, okay.”

Liz was smiling but her eyes were telling of another dark emotion. Erik started sweating even though he felt that there was nothing suspicious to hide as far as his memories could tell.

***

I fell asleep on the sofa with Liz who also fell asleep with her head on my lap. I woke up late since we talked until it was almost morning. And the very first thing that came to mind as I stretched my upper body was ‘why is it that I felt like a husband who was caught cheating, again?’

Right at that timing, somebody knocked at the door. I could tell who it was so I just told them to enter. It was Mareritter and Azanthys.

“I trust everything is well, master?”

“Well, I think so. Can you two look after Liz for a bit? I have to see Teobaldur.”

I carefully held Liz’s head and accepted a pillow from Mareritter’s 4 dimensional pocket to replace my lap. No, seriously, where did he take out that pillow from? Just another of Mareritter’s enigma, I guess.

“I believe that the guild master is currently resting in his office, I have seen him enter with an adventurer and Martlea about an hour bell ago.”

“I see, thanks for telling me.”

“Master… Azanthys… will accompany…”

“Nah, don’t worry about that. Just stay here with Liz and Mareritter. I ended up having both of you spend the night out there after all.”

Azanthys seemed like she sulked for a bit to hear my answer but she complied. And so I left the room and headed to Teobaldur’s office which was just several meters away.

I knocked on the door but nobody replied. I could sense that there were three people in there though. I was about to knock again but then the door was opened, by Martlea.

“You’re late… *sigh* anyway, come in.”

Teobaldur was in his seat, with his hands clasped under his chin.

“You’ve finally come. There is just many things I want to ask you, but before that.”

I unsheathed a dagger and put it behind my hip, then with a clanging sound, a sword hit my dagger with a force just enough to cut through bones of a normal person. Having the sword swung with full force deflected, the assailant lost balance and fell backwards.

“I was about to ask why was another person sneaking up behind me but… what the hell is this, guildmaster?”

“Just put up with this for a bit.”

Martlea who said so, suddenly took out her knife and started attacking me as well. To add up to it, the guild master took a long sword that was behind his seat and brandished it at me. The first assailant also stood back and fixed her stance.

“It seems you guys have no intention to explain, eh?”