Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 78
“What I want to ask is why you’re looking for the five sacred relics.”
The lich we’d met before had never mentioned anything about five sacred relics.
“Th-that is…”
“Can’t you speak properly?”
When the lich stammered and couldn’t get his words out, Gerard kicked him in the knee. Since there was nothing but bone there, it was Gerard who ended up hurting himself, like he’d smashed his little toe on a doorstep.
“Let’s just cut everything off and leave only the mouth. I saw it grow back earlier, so how about chopping it into pieces completely?”
Derek said threateningly as he swung his sword around. It didn’t sound like something a kid should be saying. Feeling dizzy, I pressed a hand to my forehead.
“Everyone, be quiet! No one says anything until the lich opens his mouth.”
Since I rarely raised my voice like that, everyone’s attention shifted from the lich to me instead. It was uncomfortable, but at least it got quiet, so I’d achieved my goal to some extent.
Letting out a sigh, I asked the lich, who was still trembling all over.
“Being told to find those five sacred relics. That was the Dark God’s order, right?”
“Th-that… yes, that’s correct.”
At the lich’s answer, murmurs rippled through the party.
“The Dark God? What’s that?”
Kyle asked with a puzzled look, but there wasn’t time to explain something like that now.
“What are you planning to do with them?”
“Do I… really have to answer that too?”
When the lich muttered gloomily, Gerard swung his staff threateningly. Seeing that, the lich’s face went pale.
Of course, since he was a skeleton, that was just how it looked to me.
“We intend to resurrect the Dark God.”
Only then did everything fall into place.
The reason the Dark God was building an army was probably so he could rule the world with it once he was resurrected.
Sudden fatigue washed over me, and I pressed a hand to my forehead. Kyle, who had been watching me, grabbed my shoulder and asked with concern.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?”
My head hurt, but it wasn’t physical pain. I brushed Kyle’s hand away and asked the lich.
“Do you know the locations of all the sacred relics?”
“Ah, really… do I have to say that too?”
Worried about being severely punished by the Dark God, the lich pleaded while rubbing his hands together. He did look pitiful, but getting information out of him was more important.
If he hadn’t done something wrong in the first place, he wouldn’t have anything to fear like this. I buried even that trace of sympathy and pressed him firmly.
“If you answer just this question properly, I’ll let you go alive. I swear it on my honor.”
After hesitating, the lich clenched both fists as if making up his mind and carefully opened his mouth.
“From what I’ve heard, the Black Flame Dragon has two of them, one is with the hero’s party, and another is with the Devotees of Darkness. And the last remaining one is said to be in a place called the Ruins of the Fallen Kingdom, but I don’t know much about that either.”
The Black Flame Dragon had two of them? One was definitely the one taken from Elonen’s holy hall, but I had no idea where the other came from.
“The Ruins of the Fallen Kingdom…”
Gerard flinched and muttered to himself. He seemed to know something.
“That’s all for my questions. Derek, say your last piece.”
I tapped Derek’s shoulder lightly as he stood quietly beside me. He had something to confront him about regarding his father.
“I don’t care about anything else, so hurry up and lift the curse you put on my father!”
“Th-that I will, of course. It wasn’t a curse that endangered his life to begin with.”
The lich bowed so deeply it looked like he was about to smash his head into the ground as he answered in a fluster. Derek looked like he wanted to punch the lich a few times, but barely held himself back.
“Alright, then. If we’ve learned everything, should we wrap this up?”
As Kyle stepped forward with his sword, both the lich and I flinched in shock at the same time. Gerard had clearly said earlier that he’d return the life vessel and let him live.
“Kyle, you promised to let him live!”
I grabbed the hand holding the sword to stop him, and he turned his head with a deep frown.
“I don’t make promises with monsters.”
“Even if it’s a promise made to a monster, you should still keep it.”
Righteous and kind as he was, Kyle was cold and merciless when it came to monsters. No matter how deep his hatred ran, refusing to keep even a promise was too much.
On top of that, Gerard, who’d been the one to say he’d spare him, was watching this calmly from the side.
