Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 79
“So you’re saying we should just let this thing go on harming other people?”
When he put it that way, I didn’t really have anything to say.
I looked at the lich, who was huddled there with its shoulders hunched in fear, and asked,
“Are you going to keep doing bad things from now on?”
“Yes, well. If it’s something the Dark God orders, then I have to do it…”
Even the hero’s party lied sometimes, but for a monster, it was pointlessly honest.
Kyle tried to pull his hand away from mine with a look that said, ‘See, I told you so.’
Whether the lich lived or died had nothing to do with me, but somehow, if we didn’t keep our promise, it felt like it would leave a bad taste in my mouth.
So I stopped Kyle’s hand and hurriedly spoke up.
“You promise you’ll live quietly from now on. If we come looking for you again, we’ll definitely kill you.”
“I-I’ll try.”
He didn’t say he understood to the very end. Still, a promise was a promise. I looked at Kyle and firmly tightened my grip on his hand.
“It wouldn’t be too late to kill it the next time we meet.”
Kyle clearly didn’t like it, but he couldn’t bring himself to shake my hand off. He lowered his sword and nodded as if he understood.
The matter of the lich was settled like that, for now. With the whereabouts of the Black Flame Dragon once again unclear, the party put their heads together again.
“So the Black Flame Dragon wasn’t here either, in the end.”
Elonen murmured like a sigh. Gerard clicked his tongue irritably, as if he’d expected it.
“That’s why you shouldn’t chase rumors. We need to find a place the Black Flame Dragon would actually have a good reason to go to.”
Even as he said that, it seemed he didn’t have any place in mind himself.
“It can’t be helped. Let’s split up like we did when we last found the Black Flame Dragon’s lair. I’ll go to the Information Guild, Gerard, track the Black Flame Dragon’s miasma. Kakaros, map out routes to likely locations, and Elonen…”
“As payment for sparing my life, may I at least offer you some modest information?”
While Kyle was busily laying out the plan, the lich, who had been cowering timidly, suddenly spoke up.
The eyes of everyone gathered in discussion turned to the lich at once. Feeling pressured, it hunched its shoulders and spoke while cautiously reading the room.
“The Black Flame Dragon is probably gathering the sacred relics as well, so how about going to the Ruins of the Fallen Kingdom?”
“And where exactly are these Ruins of the Fallen Kingdom?”
Kyle asked the question I wanted to ask, right on cue.
“Yes, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s one of the five ancient kingdoms that once received sacred relics from the Lord God. It fell long ago, so I’ve heard only ruins remain now.”
It was the place the lich had mentioned earlier as holding the last remaining sacred relic.
“Yeah, there’s a good chance it went there.”
Seeming fairly convinced, Kyle muttered while rubbing his chin.
“What do you think?”
Unaware that this could be a wild goose chase, Kyle asked as he looked around at the party.
“But if it needed the sacred relics, why wouldn’t it have gone there much earlier, and only now?”
Elonen raised a rather sharp question.
“There is a very powerful monster there.”
As expected, it was the lich who answered. Gerard groaned as if he truly hated the thought. Sure enough, he seemed to know something about the Ruins of the Fallen Kingdom.
“You mean the Blood Demon, right?”
At that shocking name, my shoulders twitched reflexively. The Black Flame Dragon, the Dark God, and now the Blood Demon. The names just kept escalating.
“The Blood Demon? What’s that?”
Kyle tilted his head, as if he’d never heard the name before.
“You’ve really never heard of it? It’s a pretty famous monster. In the east, it’s as well-known as the Black Flame Dragon.”
This was information I’d never seen in the original story. Well, I’d only read up to just after the Black Flame Dragon was defeated. If it showed up later, there was a good chance it was even stronger than the Black Flame Dragon.
A sense of crisis started creeping in. I’d thought I could chill and tag along with the hero’s party, assuming the Black Flame Dragon was the strongest villain. But what if this thing was actually stronger than me?
“Recently, there’s been a rumor that the Blood Demon has lost its power.”
But then the lich gave me information that restored a bit of courage.
“Why?”
“I don’t know the reason either. However, it used to be that just approaching the Blood Demon’s territory would lead all living beings to their death, but recently, its power has weakened, and I’ve heard monsters have begun moving in and out of its domain.”
By nature, lower-class monsters instinctively gathered to live in places where miasma was strong. It seemed they had naturally begun flocking to that territory where powerful miasma lingered.
