Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

89 – No Matter Who Tells Me That, It Will Not Get Through

「Mark.」

「Yeah.」

The two of them start running.

Instead of running side-by-side, Mark is following behind Philip.

From the movement of Magical Energy, White Magic is applied only to Philip.

It seems that he has increased its effectiveness by reducing the number of people it’s cast on and narrowing down the areas to be enhanced.

He probably enhanced his attack power.

Not only did he avoid the division by running closely together, but he also ensured the offensive and defensive power needed in order to break through Berith’s counterattack.

He is the Diamond Hero. A swordsman with excellent defense ability.

He also knows his sister’s magic. Did he judge that it’s possible for him to break through?

「Berith.」

「Yeah.」

We also start moving.

We split up and I approached Mark in an arc.

A number of cones protrude diagonally from the ground in the same way the wall is created.

Philip still didn’t stop.

He holds his sword sideways, cuts the cones right in half, and jumps over it.

Mark changed his direction at the last minute when I entered his blind spot. Then, the Holy Paladin rushed towards me.

While Philip rushed to Berith without any hesitation.

「If their combination is excellent, then we shouldn’t let them cooperate.」

Right.

It’s a simple solution. But it won’t be easy.

If our cooperation is a nuisance, then they can just interfere with it.

There are loopholes, or more like conditions, in our cooperation.

If I start to fight, my thinking ability for magic will be reduced.

If Berith supports me, then at the same time, the durability of the wall that is activated and the attack power of the fist will decrease, the amount of time it takes for the magic to activate will also become longer.

Helping each other means using some of your abilities for the other.

During that time, you will become more distracted by yourself than before.

It’s not good or bad, just a fact.

If there are people who win by helping each other, interfering with them would be an effective move.

Especially since I’m a Black Sorcerer. The magic that I have shown so far wouldn’t be able to force my opponents to leave the field. Even when my magic is combined with the combat abilities that I’ve shown so far, it’s still not comparable to someone with an actual combat-oriented Job.

First, break the cooperation between Berith and me, then defeat me, after that defeat Berith that has lost her support.

It’s an ideal and realistic strategy.

That’s why we’ve decided…

「?!」

I saw them trembling for an instant.

Even though Mark is getting closer to me, while Philip is getting closer to Berith, we aren’t paying any attention to each other.

「…Are you insane?」

Mark murmured in an angry voice.

Well, that’s just natural. Although Holy Paladin has an Aptitude for White Magic, it is generally said to be a degraded version of Paladin.

However, by no means is he weak. He’s still not an opponent that a Wizard can handle with a sword.

And yet, here I am confronting him with a sword staff.

Without Berith’s support.

In other words, this is the same as declaring that I would win against him, while ignoring the disadvantages of my Job.

The more serious and harder they work, the more irritated they would be.

Do you think you can win?

Are you looking down on me?

I also understand that he’s getting angry. I mean, I know what I’m doing.

「Is this a battle of sanity?」

I dare to say it in an agitating way.

I know I can’t win against him in terms of sword techniques.

The barrier of talent in relation to combat is thick, and even the result of effort might not be able to surpass my opponent.

Still, there were situations where I had to win.

At such times, persistence alone is not enough.

That’s why I use whatever I can.

Even if I can only take less than half a step forward.

For the sake of getting closer to victory.

「…Fine. If you want it to be that way, then I have no other choice but to defeat you with all my spirit.」

Mark probably noticed that and agreed.

He’s planning to win this, on top of accepting all my plans.

The battle begins.

◇

「I think you were called Miss Berith, right? I once saw a Hero who fights in a similar way with you a long time ago.」

「…」

I had a giant fist to-…Philip’s fist is approaching!

It’s fast!

I promptly deployed the amount of silver needed on my arm and protected my abdomen, which the fist was aiming for.

The impact.

The silver wrapped around my arm cracked and shattered, then my body flew far backward.

「That Hero aspired to become an Adventurer just because her brother affirmed her childhood dream and chose a style that did not suit the times and the person herself, consequently she was forced to experience failure.」

I tried to create a shield from the ground-…!

I jump backward right away.

An instant later, the wall that was in the middle of being created was sliced and he came from the other side.

『I want to become a Hero. No matter how big, scary, many, strong opponents she has, or no matter how tattered she is, she will win in the end. It’s so cool, right?』

『Ahh, you can achieve that.』

I recalled a memory of my childhood for a moment.

「That foolish brother didn’t know the reality. Even after he failed, he didn’t interfere with his sister because he was still hopeful that if it’s her, then just maybe. It wasn’t until she reached the stage where her failure was apparent that they finally met again. That older brother was foolish, extremely foolish. He encouraged her, even when he himself couldn’t accomplish anything.」

He continued speaking in a small voice that sounds like it’ll disappear if the wind blows, so that I’m the only one who can hear it.

「A Hero that is abandoned by his allies is miserable. Because without a Hero, a party can’t be formed. Even though he’s an essential existence, they have determined that he is unnecessary. They have judged that he couldn’t become the center of the Party and that is nothing but a denial of his value of existence.」

『You won’t become popular, why can’t you understand that?』『We are fighting while matching you, that’s why everyone is always tattered. Although the Avatar repair expense is not something insignificant. Even after we’ve done all this, the number of views is still not increasing.』『I don’t care if you win or not in the end, if you are a Hero, you should become the focus of a strategy that can be profitable.』

There is nothing wrong with what my old allies were saying.

However, I didn’t stop and I became full of regrets.

At first, everyone agreed with my method. They said,『Okay then, let’s become a cool party.』

But, we need various things in order to continue living in reality.

And when they found out that my way can’t fulfill those needs, that they can’t acquire those things, they felt dissatisfied.

It can’t be helped.

No one was interested in the Hero I wanted to become.

There was one girl who remained. It was the Thief Leila. She’s the only one who stayed with me before and also after I changed my methods.

The only part where our opinions slightly differ is that she seems to like the Silver Prince.

「In the face of his sister, who was exhausted but still tried to smile when she saw her brother, the man made up his mind. That he will never again spit out words that are just kind, but useless. And that he would make sure to let her existence be known to the world. Because, unlike the foolish brother, his sister had beauty, wits, and fortitude. He would make it impossible for anyone to ignore her. That became the man’s goal.」

His swing gouged the ground and the ground around him rolled up.

With that, I pretended to have my stance be thrown off balance and strike him with a backhand blow.

The moment he notices it and reacts, I strike him using my feet.

From the beginning, I intended to hit him with a roundhouse kick instead of a fist.

「…」

His eyes slightly widened, but immediately defends against the kick that is aiming at his temporal region with his arm.

His body drifted and the distance increased slightly.

「Well, I don’t really understand it, but if I was that child, hearing her older brother say『You can achieve that.』would be a good memory for the rest of her life. Even if there are some things that I regret doing, it would be impossible for me to resent being supported by him.」

「That is what I don’t like.」

He said, while having a really pained expression. That expression immediately disappeared.

「I shouldn’t have shown her a dream.」

Honorifics have disappeared. The words that were for Berith are now for his little sister.

「Dreams are what that person sees on their own. It shouldn’t and can’t be anyone else’s fault.」

While refining the Magical Energy needed to form the giant fist, I form a separate silver arm and attack him.

「No, it should be. If everything is her own responsibility, then what’s the responsibility of those who supported her? Being gentle, flattering her, challenging her, and pretending I don’t know once she failed? I can’t do that, I definitely can’t do something like that.」

「That child made the decision, right. It’s all her own decision.」

「Yeah, and I’ll do what I have decided.」

Slashing and cutting all of it, he is getting closer to me once again.

「Didn’t you already succeed in doing that?」

「No, it seems like my little sister…is still dreaming.」

The distance between our hearts has become separated once again.

「What’s wrong with that?」

The destroyed silver became liquefied, then it wriggled and gathered like slime.

「I thought she’d find a common ground between dreams and reality someday, but I was wrong. She’s planning to waste the present that we have built with great efforts just because she was instigated by a man that she accidentally encountered.」

Aah.

I see. So that’s what it is. That’s when I realized it.

To him, Lem looked like his past self.

He doesn’t deny his little sister’s reckless dream and irresponsibly affirms it.

The only one who would suffer from that would be his little sister.

That’s why he said something like that even though Milla was also there. He was so angry that he forgot to put on the mask he usually wears when he’s in contact with ordinary people.

「Heh.」

「…Did I say something amusing?」

「I think your sister is grateful to you. I think she just wanted you to know that there are things that she can’t give up on.」

Really, at first, I was just going to talk.

Philip once told me to form a party together with him and I was the one who agreed.

I’m also the one who performed the character of the Silver Prince. It’s not like I didn’t like it.

However, I felt a sense of estrangement from my ideal self. As I continued, it became more suffocating.

I was once persuaded that I needed to be popular first so that I could someday become the person I wish to become.

I’ve become more popular and I thought it would be okay for me to once again aim to become the person I wish to become.

But this is what happened in the end.

「I know, but I have no intentions of approving it. You have to wake up from that worthless dream.」

「I’m certainly not going to wake up. I want it to come true.」

The destroyed silver gathers and becomes a gigantic arm.

The arm is swung down in front of him.