“I’m home.”
Karin walked into the house.
“You have returned, My Noble Lady.”
Lee Jeon-guk, the blond Knight, greeted Karin. Seeing as he was wearing rubber gloves, he appeared to be in the middle of washing dishes.
“Would you like to eat?”
“Yeah.”
Karin took off her bag and looked around as she headed to her room. As expected, he had not arrived yet. Of course, there was no way he would return in just one day.
Karin went into her room and changed her clothes. She had asked him to take her along at first, but the Coach had refused to bring her.
‘How long is he going to think of me as someone who needs protection?’
Karin bit her lip in frustration. She was a Saint who possessed Priest Power. She was the one with the greatest power to face the Immortal Demon King.
Her presence would have significantly reduced the threats he faced, so she was unhappy that he had left her here.
To make matters worse, he had even asked Im Jaejoon to arrange for personnel to guard the house and protect her.
“Lee Ja-rang, is school fun?”
Lee Ja-rang had started attending school with Karin. His actual age was eighteen by Korean age standards.
Of course, no one who saw him for the first time believed it.
“Lee Ja-rang likes school. They even give food. Friends ask if I have money. They worry about Lee Ja-rang’s asset management.”
“Is that actually asset management?”
“Lee Jeon-guk is stupid. This country has ‘friend fees’ by default. You still have not adapted to this Other World. I am extremely surprised and excited.”
Karin finished washing up, paying no mind to the bickering between Jeong-guk and Ja-rang.
By the time she finished her shower, the meal was already prepared. Karin sat at the table and looked at the side dishes.
Kimchi stew.
It was the food the Coach had boiled for her to eat before he left. Karin shoveled white rice into her mouth and took a large sip of the stew.
It tasted bad.
It should have been delicious, but right now, it lacked flavor.
“Do you have no appetite, My Lady?”
Lee Jeon-guk asked Karin. It was likely because her complexion had been poor ever since the Hero left.
“Noble Lady ate ten burgers at school. She even ate three bags of Ramen…”
Karin completely ignored Lee Ja-rang’s words and hardened her expression again. She truly had no appetite.
“For you to say you have no appetite now, My Lady…”
Jeon-guk’s words didn’t reach her ears either. She felt anxious for some reason. She felt as if the Coach might never return. If a new Demon King truly was going around conquering dimensions, this side would surely face a crisis eventually. If that was the case, the Heavenly Sword was vital for the Hero. She knew that, but her chest felt tight.
‘You need to come back soon, Coach.’
At some point, he had become the person who was always by her side. Now, he was like family. Being unable to see him for just a few days made her feel lonely.
“Dammit.”
A teenage boy spat out a curse as he looked at the bread he had been rationed. He didn’t even dream of luxury foods like meat.
He just wished there was something decent to eat. Two lumps of bread were clutched in the boy’s hands.
“Can you even call this bread?”
It was as hard as a rock — enough to kill someone if thrown at their head. To eat it, he had to boil a soup and soak the bread as much as possible to soften it. If he tried to eat it raw, he would surely lose his teeth.
“Theo, if you don’t want to eat it, give it to me.”
“Yeah, we’re starving to death here because we don’t even have that.”
The boy called Theo huddled over the bread, fearing his friends might snatch it away. Seeing that, his friends laughed even more.
Of course, they were joking, but if things went wrong, it might not end as a joke.
Food was scarce in the city. The only silver lining was that food was still being rationed to the city residents. That alone was something to be relieved about.
The boy looked up at the sky as he walked. Dark clouds always hung over the world. This scenery was natural to the boy.
He heard that, surprisingly, one could see clear skies in the past. The boy didn’t like those words — stories about how things used to be.
“Mother.”
Returning home from the distribution center, the boy saw his mother kneeling in the corner, praying. She was always like that.
“Please save this world. Under the Hero’s blade, help us find peace.”
This was the reason the boy hated stories of the past.
The Hero.
Saviors who reportedly appeared from another dimension, blessed by the System to save this world. The boy used to believe they could actually do it. However, he abandoned that thought when the Tenth Hero was defeated by the Demon King.
It would have been fine if the Hero was simply defeated.
Instead, the Hero was deceived by the Demon King’s sweet talk and turned into an enemy of humanity.
That traitor ended up leading an army that never died.
Since then, people stopped believing in heroes.
Despite receiving the Goddess’s Protection, those cursed heroes turned their blades against humanity. Because of them, the Continent was devastated.
“Hero, please help this world.”
“Stop looking for that kind of Hero. I’m going to boil the leftover stew.”
Despite the boy’s words, his mother remained immersed in Prayer. It wasn’t just the boy’s mother. For humanity, praying had become the only thing they could do.
They say there was a first Hero in the past. That first Hero, Bin, allegedly defeated the Demon King in just one year. They said he went on to achieve peace for the Continent.
‘Bullshit.’
‘As if someone would come to another person’s world and be that meddlesome.’
The story of how such a great person saved the world and returned to where he lived had become a legend. People said that if the first Hero were here, he might have defeated the Demon King’s Army. But the boy didn’t believe it. Looking at what other heroes did, it was obvious the first Hero was likely just as mediocre.
The Seven Kingdoms had been defeated by the Demon King’s Army. Now, there wasn’t much land left for humans to live on.
Only seven cities received the Goddess’s Protection. Only those places were lands where humans could live like humans.
However, there was no telling how long that would last.
A god’s power comes from humans. Humans believe in and worship the existence of a god, and that recognition is converted into power.
Because of the Demon King, much of humanity had been slaughtered. In other words, the Goddess’s power had weakened. The Goddess’s remaining protection was gradually being consumed, and it could eventually be cut off.
The boy put the bread into the stew and stirred. He saw the rock-hard bread slowly becoming soggy as it soaked in the stew. Even though it was tasteless bread, the sight of it melting into the stew made him salivate instinctively.
“Mother, eat.”
“Alright…”
He saw his elderly mother smiling at him with a haggard face. The boy handed his mother her bowl and frantically emptied his own meal.
Slurp
He felt like he could live again as the hot liquid slid down his throat.
Recently, it was said that a fallen Hero’s legion had arrived near the Goddess’s City.
Previously, they hadn’t even dared to attack the Goddess’s City, but since the Goddess’s Protection had weakened recently, they were able to approach the vicinity.
Because of that, the people of the city were very anxious. Of course, the city’s Noble gave firm words of hope, saying that the enemy would never invade this place, the last hope of humanity.
The walls were where Monsters could not easily cross.
The gates were where evil could not even touch. This was an inviolable zone that Monsters could not approach.
Everyone believed they would survive in this blessed city. It was an irresponsible hope that perhaps, someday, a small light would bloom for humanity.
Whoosh!
A corpse flew in from the distance.
Splat!
As soon as it touched the walls imbued with the Goddess’s Protection, the corpse burst like a tomato and slid down.
“Ah, those bastards.”
“I’m going to die from the filth. Why did I have to get guard duty at a time like this?”
The guards were watching the Monsters’ demonstration beyond the walls. The Ninth Hero, Taelder. He was a man who had once been a famous Knight of the Kingdom of Aitesos.
“Shit, no matter what, I’d rather not become a Monster like that.”
The “former” Hero, clad in armor that seemed to exude a gloomy energy, was attempting a siege.
“Go ahead and throw all you want. Do you think we’re going to come out just because of that?”
The guard mocked the former Hero, Taelder. Beyond the wall, an Undead army of 10,000 was shouting as if asking to satisfy their hunger. It was a spectacle, to say the least — albeit a horrific one.
They always attempted a siege like that and then left, only to try again a month later. Everyone had come to think of it as just a routine occurrence. They thought it would eventually stop, and the same daily life would return tomorrow.
Early evening.
It was the time when the sun was about to dip its head. Several men exchanged glances.
“Dammit. Is this for real?”
A man spoke in a voice trembling with anxiety.
“Even if they are enemies, they keep their promises. Look at the other heroes. They all became part of the Demon King’s Army and are living in luxury.”
As the men said, joining the Demon King’s Army was one way to survive. Among the cities that did not receive the Goddess’s Protection, there were places where humans lived.
Of course, they were not the same as the old human cities. While the people here lived in safety with bated breath, they lived as slaves.
“I’d rather do that than die slowly here.”
Those gathered in the early evening had been given an opportunity. That opportunity was to throw open the gates of this damned city. In truth, the city’s situation was not good. Food was an issue, but the population was also at a saturation point due to people flowing in from destroyed regions.
What made people even more fearful was the fact that the Goddess’s Protection was gradually weakening. No one had made an official announcement, but everyone already knew it subconsciously.
At first, the Demon King’s Army couldn’t even get near the city. But gradually, the Demon King’s Army was able to move closer. This meant the power of the Barrier was weakening. Now, they were even throwing corpses with siege engines.
It was a city without dreams or hope anyway. Those who were given the chance didn’t want to spend their days in fear anymore. They wouldn’t have to fill their bellies with bread as hard as a rock. They had heard that the managers of the slave cities subordinate to the Demon King’s Army were living quite decent lives.
“Let’s go.”
“We’re just going to do it. We’ll die either way if we stay like this.”
They decided to lower the drawbridge of the city gate today. If there were no dreams or hope, they just needed to grab a new rope.
The sun went down, and darkness slowly covered the city. It didn’t matter, since it had been cloudy during the day anyway.
“Those Monster bastards, they’re finally quiet.”
The guard protecting the gate was sick of the Monsters who repeated their nauseating antics all day long. Just as he was thinking about how he wanted to get out of duty for a while…
“I don’t think it’s time for the shift change yet. Why are you here already?”
His colleagues were coming up for the shift change. He was so happy to be free from the tedious duty that he didn’t notice his colleagues’ expressions were different than usual.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
The guard spoke, feeling puzzled.
Thwack.
Something pierced his abdomen.
The guard looked down.
His colleague had stabbed him in the stomach with a dagger. Because the sensation was so surreal, the scream only came later.
However, he didn’t even have the freedom to do that, as his mouth was covered by his colleague. As he died, he looked around. He had other guard colleagues nearby.
But there was no one who could help him. Almost simultaneously, the guards were being murdered.
Internal strife.
He closed his eyes as he thought of that word.
Pant, pant.
There was something felt even before the guilt of having just murdered a colleague. They could no longer turn back.
To ensure their own prosperity, the city’s traitors began to open the city gates that had been closed by the protection.
Just then, a passerby saw this sight.
Creak, creeeeeak.
As the drawbridge suddenly moved, the passerby looked at the guards in surprise. The passerby — no, the boy Theo — doubted his eyes.
“W-What are you doing…”
If the gate was lowered, the enemies could come inside. It was effectively the same as bringing down the protection.
“Raise it… you have to raise it…”
The boy mumbled, unable to scream as he witnessed the surreal situation.
“You crazy bastards!”
At that moment, other guards realized the situation. There were dead colleagues around them. They tried to stop it, but it was already too late.
Creak, thud!
The drawbridge fell.
“S-Stop it.”
In the darkness, Monsters scattering ominous glints from their eyes appeared.
“R-Raise it. N-No…”
The boy, mumbling weakly, trembled with fear. He regretted cursing that the hard bread was tasteless. He regretted hating the sight of his weak mother who only prayed to the Hero.
He saw a black horse snorting as it entered.
A man in black armor entered the city with such leisure. He drew his sword.
The demonic energy flowing from the cursed sword was visible even to the boy’s eyes.
He had to run, but his feet wouldn’t move. The boy shook his head and wept. He felt like he knew who the man was.
The traitor of humanity.
It was Sir Taelder, the Ninth Hero and a legion commander of the Demon King’s Army.
Behind the Hero who had abandoned humanity, the army of dark Monsters began to swarm in as if singing of the feast to come.