DMHS 39

Aslan’s lips twisted into a bitter smile.

“Sir Kian. You are truly amusing.”

“Stop dodging the question.”

“No. I mean it. I thought a dragon’s mate would be some worthless scarecrow… but it is you. That makes me glad. So glad I can barely hold myself back.”

Crack.

The ground beneath Aslan split into several lines and began to collapse. But Aslan’s expression stayed calm. He slowly walked toward Kian.

Craaack.

With every step, the ground caved in, opening abyss-like holes. From those pits came eerie noises.

Waaah!

Kyaaaa!

Ehehehehe!

They were children’s voices, crying like infants and laughing in glee. Kian hurled his dagger, imbued with mana.

Swish!

Aslan tilted his head aside and dodged it lightly. But the dagger, flying past him, curved in midair and rushed back toward him. Sparks flew in Aslan’s eyes.

“You really are amusing.”

He reached back and grabbed the dagger by the blade. Blood dripped heavily from his cut palm.

Still smiling, Aslan muttered,

「Annihilate.」

Black smoke poured from his hand and wrapped around the dagger. What had once been a dagger crumbled into tiny fragments that scattered on the ground.

It was black magic of remarkable precision. Confirming his opponent’s strength, Kian no longer held back.

Whoosh.

Kian’s body vanished from sight. The next instant, he was above Aslan’s head.

From his inner pocket, Kian drew another dagger. He held it straight down, aiming for Aslan’s crown.

Contrary to the expected defensive spell, the dagger sank straight into Aslan’s head.

“……!”

Kian’s blade split Aslan from head to torso in a clean line. His body fell in halves to the ground.

Yet the smile at his lips did not fade.

「Now that I think of it, you asked why I deceived them.」

His voice flowed directly into Kian’s head.

「They were only bait, to draw you here. I prepared something entertaining in this place.」

“Entertaining?”

「Humans are so foolish. To think my grudge would vanish with the fall of a single city. I never forget my hatred. From now on, the play I prepared begins. I hope you enjoy yourselves……」

Aslan–or rather, the doll in his form–slid away into nothingness.

At the same time, the ground he had shattered began to rise.

The training ground returned to flat land. It was hard to believe there had ever been pits there.

But not everything was as before. The earth Aslan had broken had turned black.

It was not the soaked mud from rain. It was dark, sticky soil that reeked of malice. True demonization had begun.

“Ah……”

Land tainted by demonic energy could only be restored through a hero’s purification. It could not be undone otherwise, but there was still something that could be done now.

‘Slow it with a relic.’

Cursing under his breath, Kian ran for the temple. Pushing through the unending rain, he reached the door and grasped the knob.

Clack.

The door was locked from inside. Kian pounded his fist against it.

Bang bang bang bang!

“It’s me! Open the door!”

A trembling voice answered from within.

“N-no! You told us not to open it!”

It was the bandit chief.

He had done well to follow the order not to step outside, but locking the relic away was a problem.

Kian hit the door harder.

“I told you not to come outside! Stay where you are, and I will only take the relic for a moment!”

The matter was urgent. There was no time for long explanations. The chief misunderstood his words.

“Take the relic? Never! What about us sick men…ugh!”

His voice cut off. A moment later, the door opened.

It was Lucien. The chief lay sprawled on the floor, shoved aside by brute force.

“Wait a moment.”

Lucien snatched the relic from the chief’s hand. He tossed it to Kian, who caught it and tucked it into his pocket.

Then Lucien walked toward the relic set in the temple’s center.

The chief wailed,

“Stop him from taking it!”

The bandits rushed Lucien as a group. But Lucien slipped through their hands.

Those who tried to grab him ended up tumbling across the floor. Their frustration mounted.

“Trip him! Grab his hair if you must!”

“Just catch him somehow!”

Hearing that, Kian shouted,

“If you harm him, I will not stay still!”

By then, the chief had dragged himself up and seized the hem of Kian’s trousers.

“The answer is no, sir. You promised last night that you would let us leave safely. But now you suddenly come and take the relic, what happens to us then? We who are cursed, what are we supposed to do?”

“You are not cursed with a plague. You fell for an illusion spell and saw false gold. You touched the rotten soil and caught a skin disease, nothing more.”

“You say this is a simple skin disease? What kind of skin disease kills a man overnight?”

“Because that man was not your comrade. He was a fake in your comrade’s shape.”

“What? What do you mean by that…?”

“There is no time to explain. I will finish the work soon and return. Trust me and wait.”

Just then Lucien had the relic in his hand. The bandits, not knowing the situation, lunged toward it with glowing eyes. But Lucien was faster.

Thud.

Kian stretched out his arm and caught the relic.

“Thank you, Lord Lucien. I will be back.”

At that moment Daisy and Frederick, drawn by the noise, appeared.

“What is going on here?”

Kian turned toward Daisy.

“Do you have a relic?”

“Here it is.”

Kian snatched the relic from Daisy’s hand.

“I will explain later. No one is to leave the temple.”

He pushed Daisy and Frederick inside and closed the door. Voices rose within, arguing in muffled tones. But Kian had more important work than mediating.

‘There is still time.’

Back at the training ground, Kian placed the relics at three corners of the blackened earth.

His gloves began to melt where they touched the relics. At last, when he fixed the final relic, his bare palm touched it directly.

Ssshhh.

It was the sound of meat searing on an iron plate.

The skin on his palm peeled away. Blood dripped from burst vessels. But Kian did not stop.

‘Just a little more.’

To make a perfect triangle, he had to place the relics with precision.

‘More.’

Four fingertips, except his thumb, festered. Twisted and burned like scorched flesh, they poured red blood.

‘…Done!’

At last the three relics locked into position. Beams of light shot up, piercing the clouds and reaching the sky.

Around that light a miracle unfolded. The storm clouds cleared, and the torrential rain vanished as if it had never fallen.

Kian turned east. He bent his knees, facing the morning sun just risen, and prayed.

‘Goddess, please protect the kingdom. Do not turn away from the poor of this land. Do not let them be blinded by malice…’

Meanwhile, the wounds on his hands were nearly healed. When his prayer ended, Kian returned to the temple.

The atmosphere had changed. The door he had shut was wide open, and people sat on the steps outside with dazed faces, staring at the sky. Tears glistened at the corners of the bandits’ eyes.

Frederick, seeing Kian return, spoke up.

“Sir Kian, what in the world happened?”

“I should ask the same. Why are they in this state after such a short while?”

Frederick shrugged.

“After you left, the bandits rioted, insisting on going outside. Some lost their wits completely and ran out no matter what we said.”

“Hm…”

Kian let out a low hum. If they had interfered while he suppressed the land with the relics, things would have turned complicated.

The Demon Realm is fed by negative emotions. Especially the seven so-called virtues of the Demon Realm accelerate corruption of the earth.

If the relic’s suppressive power and human emotions had clashed, the result would have been dire.

“But fortunately, none of them reached where I was.”

“Lord Lucien did something strange.”

“What?”

Frederick gestured with a hand-chop.

“He struck the heads of two of the bandits like this, just a tap. Their heads slipped inside their necks and vanished without a trace. Only some small objects were left behind.”

“……”

“Since yesterday I feel like I am haunted by ghosts.”

Kian looked over at Lucien, sitting on the steps with his chin propped on his hand.

‘He is a strange one. He says he cannot use magic, yet he has tricks. He must have instinctively figured out how to erase dolls.’

Perhaps feeling Kian’s eyes, Lucien turned his head. His green eyes caught the sunlight and shined.