Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 76
“Then how are we supposed to break that statue?”
Derek and Elonen fell into silence.
If I were alone, I could just transform into a dragon and smash it. But that would expose my identity without question, so it was an option I absolutely couldn’t use.
I could use a simple spell instead, but since I didn’t know any spells by memory, I’d have to pull out a grimoire from subspace.
No matter how I thought about it, there was nothing I could do with those two beside me. What was the point of having power if I couldn’t use it. Clicking my tongue inwardly, I looked around.
“Then maybe we should go out first, tell them about this, and ask for help—”
“Leave it to me.”
Just as Elonen was speaking carefully, Derek suddenly strode forward. Elonen and I stared blankly at Derek’s back as he walked toward the statue.
The aura surrounding Derek’s body gathered along his blade, condensing into something resembling sword aura.
Just as he’d said it was still lacking, it looked a bit rough. Unrefined aura burst outward in all directions with a ferocious force.
“Haah!”
As Derek shouted and swung his sword, the sword aura wrapped around the blade stretched out and flew forward, crashing into the statue.
Clang! With a tremendous noise, the statue shattered into pieces. At the explosive sound, I reflexively raised my arms to shield my face and ducked down.
Stone dust and smoke swirled violently. When things finally settled, I lifted my head and looked around.
“Are you okay?”
Derek, who was standing in front of me, asked. What was this. I’d thought of him as a kid just moments ago, so why did he suddenly look so cool.
“Ah, yeah.”
I answered while awkwardly brushing my hair back.
Over his shoulder, I saw Elonen examining the remains of the statue. Soon, he pulled out something like a round glass bead from the pile of shattered stone.
“Is this the lich’s life vessel?”
I’d imagined something far more mystical, so it was almost disappointing how ordinary it looked. Derek and I stepped closer to Elonen to inspect the orb.
Inside the deep purple sphere, something like pitch-black smoke swirled, along with an unknown, sinister glimmer of light.
“If we break this, that witch will die, right?”
Derek asked as he adjusted his grip on his sword. He looked ready to shatter the orb at any moment.
I’d thought he was cool just a second ago, but now that I looked again, he seemed a little frightening. A kid saying something like that so casually.
Still, when I thought about what he’d been through, I could understand his reaction. The lich had cursed his father and even deceived him. Of course he’d want to kill it.
But we couldn’t kill the lich yet.
“No, we can’t break it yet.”
When I stopped him and grabbed his hand, his face twisted into a deep frown.
“Why not? Are you saying we should just let that witch keep running rampant?”
“That’s not it. There’s still a lot we need to find out from it. We can use this life vessel as a hostage and squeeze information out of it.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Elonen admired my strategy. Derek still looked dissatisfied, but Elonen was already on my side.
“Then let’s take this and head out. Gerard and Kyle are probably having a hard time.”
Elonen answered as he held the orb tightly against his chest.
With the life vessel in hand, the three of us retraced our steps. When we returned to the dungeon entrance, it was still noisy, as if the battle was ongoing.
“I’ll go alone, so Lysian and Derek, you guys should stay at the dungeon entrance. It doesn’t seem like the monsters are coming in here.”
After checking the situation outside, Elonen turned to us and said that.
I nodded, since I had no desire to get in the way. But the moment we stepped out of the dungeon entrance with Elonen— CLAAANG! A thunderous sound rang out, and my body was flung up into the air.
At the same time, the three of us were sent flying and slammed backward.
“Elonen, are you okay? The orb didn’t break, did it?”
Before I could even collect myself, I checked on Elonen and the life vessel first. Elonen tried to get up, then paused. It looked like he’d twisted his leg when he fell.
“I’m fine. This much can be healed quickly. Lysian, there’s no time, so deliver it to Kyle for me.”
“What, me?”
I never thought he’d entrust something this important to someone as useless as me. But Elonen pressed the life vessel into my hands and spoke firmly.
“Run to Kyle as fast as you can. You can do it.”
I bit my lip as I took the life vessel. I didn’t want to disappoint Elonen, who believed in me.
“…Alright.”
“Then go. Derek! Protect Lysian!”
As Elonen pushed my back, I started running. Derek knocked aside a monster that lunged toward me from the side.
