Chapter 73 - So What?

I waved lightly at Ruen, who was staring at me intently with surprised eyes.

I wanted to ask if she was okay or approach her to check her condition, but…

Since black mages are so gloomy,

They could escape in an unexpected way, so I decided to focus on the woman crawling like a bug for now, and save catching up for later.

Then what would be the best way to do this?

Judging by Ruen's not-so-good condition, it seemed she had done many things that crossed the line, so it would be good to hold her accountable for this.

With that judgment, I grabbed the woman's head and lifted her up.

"Uurgh... Let go! Let go, you bastard!"

I heard a struggling voice.

Hearing that voice, I pondered for a moment, then something interesting came to mind, so I used shadows to grab her, then created a box shape and put her in it.

It would be better for Ruen to take revenge than for me to do it.

And above all, to get information, it was better to keep at least one person alive.

So I thought it would be better to take her along for now and compressed her.

Clearly, putting her in the shadow should have made her voice inaudible.

Strangely, even though I put her in the shadow box, I felt an illusion of hearing an echoing sound.

Of course, this was just an illusion and not really hearing a sound, so I ignored it and called out to Ruen.

"Are you okay?"

At my question, Ruen barely gathered her senses.

Then she slowly nodded and clung to me as if depending on me.

"Lord Damian..."

Then she buried her face in my chest as if acting spoiled and trembled.

It seemed she had been pretending to be fine until now, but in reality, she wasn't fine at all.

For a long time, she clung to me without saying anything.

It would be better to stay like this for a while until she calms down.

I decided to wait for Ruen to calm down while patting her back.

***

About a few minutes passed.

At some point, Ruen, who was covered in tears, came to her senses and left my arms.

With a swollen, bright red face, she urgently said to me, "N-no, this isn't... I was just so scared...!"

Ruen seemed embarrassed by the fact that she had clung to me and whined for a while, even if it was brief.

She couldn't gather her thoughts and fidgeted, then buried her face in her hands and apologized.

"I'm... sorry."

There was no need to apologize though.

I smiled slightly and was about to tell her it was okay, when Ruen clung to me slightly and spoke to me in an increasingly small voice, "Lord Damian, I'm really sorry, but... could I ask for one favor?"

I didn't know if she intended it, but Ruen made her huge holy power pouches... that was, her breasts, touch my arm as she spoke.

"...My body keeps trembling, so could we stay like this for just a moment?"

It was an unavoidable phenomenon to be unable to control one's body properly when consumed by fear.

So I nodded to indicate it was okay, and Ruen quickly nodded and strongly hugged my arm.

Because of that, I momentarily paused feeling that unique soft sensation strongly, but Ruen's face was not only flushed red, but had turned so red it looked like it might burst.

So I decided it would be better not to say anything and leave her be for now.

We should leave this place first.

Of course, I was planning to go deep inside and come back out, but considering Ruen's not-so-good condition, I planned to return to a safe place as quickly as possible.

I was looking at Ruen clinging to me and was about to start moving when…

"..."

I noticed Siren glaring at Ruen with sunken eyes beside me.

I was somewhat bewildered to see the usually expressionless Siren looking at Ruen like that, so I carefully called out to Siren, "Yeah. What's wrong?"

She quickly changed to her usual face and looked at me.

Seeing that, I thought about asking something but decided it would be better to leave it be rather than poking at it unnecessarily, so I decided to pretend I didn't notice for now.

We should get out of here first.

Lingering any longer wasn't a very good judgment, so I calmly left the room and started quickly searching this place.

***

I quickly searched the place where Ruen had been, thinking something might come up, but unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything like that, so I hadn't gained any particular results.

Then that means I need to search this shadow port city.

Thinking I didn't even have a clue how to search or what to search for, I pondered for a moment.

Having no choice, I decided to get help from my companions and asked them what to do.

"I'll use search magic."

Siren naturally started using search magic.

In Ruen's case, she compiled the information she had heard while confined and told me.

"From what I heard while confined, they said they could immediately notice where I was no matter where I was here. If I had to guess, there's a high possibility they synchronized the minds of the black mages throughout the entire shadow world."

Hearing those words, I could come up with one possibility.

Seeing that they're not counterattacking at all even though their minds are synchronized...

Perhaps when I first shattered the shadow city with a point explosion, there was a high possibility the black mages judged I was an enemy they couldn't handle and decided it would be better to run away.

That's why no one is coming near.

As that thought arose in my mind, I sighed, deciding that from next time, rather than shattering everything from the start, I should first encounter the enemy and then shatter them.

Anyway, this wasn't the important thing, so I was about to set it aside when Siren, who had been using search magic beside me, suddenly looked up at the sky of the shadow city and said, "I found it."

That was at least some positive news.

I asked Siren what she had found.

"The core of the shadow city."

An unexpectedly different answer came back.

Still, we would have had to find the core eventually, so judging it would be better to go seize the core in advance, I said to Siren, "Can you guide me?"

"Yeah."

Siren nonchalantly nodded and started moving towards the outskirts of the shadow city.

I was following behind Siren and slowly looking around when I could feel thick killing intent emanating from various places.

Seems like enemies.

It seemed the black mages had realized I would come straight for the core, so they were all waiting around there.

I slightly raised the corners of my mouth at that fact and showed a satisfied reaction.

I was a bit disappointed, but this is good.

I was just thinking my body wasn't loosened up enough.

Thinking I should use this opportunity to loosen up my body, I was about to create a shadow mace to catch the Chimeras appearing from all over when,

Rumble... Rumble.

I could feel intense vibrations echoing through the ground.

As the tremors gradually intensified to the point where it was essentially correct to call it an earthquake rather than vibrations, suddenly, the loud vibrations stopped, then a huge worm with tens of thousands of mouths burst out from underground.

"Kieeeeeeek!"

A cry so loud it could instantly deafen ears.

At that sound, I frowned and quickly checked if Siren and Ruen were okay.

Only after confirming they were fine did I turn my gaze and laugh hollowly.

They've put in all sorts of things.

I watched the huge worm, that was, the monster called a Worm, destroying everything around it.

As I was thinking how they planned to restore the shadow city later if they destroyed it like this, suddenly, one hypothesis crossed my mind.

Could it be that things created inside shadows can be automatically restored without having to repair them by hand?

Or to be more precise, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps they could create buildings without having to directly construct them.

Otherwise, there was no way they would have let loose a being that could destroy buildings in a place like this, in addition to shattering the foundation of the shadow city.

As that thought arose in my mind, I blankly blinked my eyes while looking at the shadow rippling beneath me.

...If so, I wonder if I could do something like that too?

Great interest welled up, but what was important right now was that worm monster thrashing about in front.

I grabbed my mace and was about to move forward to deal with that guy when I saw a gray-haired man leaning on a staff approaching me with a cynical smile.

I couldn't know exactly who that guy was, but one thing for certain was that he didn't look very friendly towards us, so it was clear he was an enemy.

The moment that judgment came to me, I was about to strike down on his head, but...

"Let's talk for a moment."

The man with the cynical smile made a proposal to me and slowly walked around.

Watching that scene, I found this proposal somewhat funny and laughed hollowly as I approached.

Smiling lightly at my action, he spoke to me in a calm voice, "As you know, heroes don't exist in this world."

Saying heroes didn’t exist must mean “real heroes” didn't exist.

At those words, I thought of Dasoon and nodded slightly.

He smiled slightly at my reaction, then looked straight at Ruen behind me and continued speaking, "And... Saints don't exist either."

At these words, I felt Ruen behind me flinch in surprise.

Noticing this, I could form one hypothesis.

Maybe Ruen isn't a Saintess chosen by the goddess either.

If even heroes were being selected by human hands, why would Saints be any different?

But well, at this point, I didn't think that really mattered much anymore.

As I was thinking this, he looked at me and smiled, then whispered softly to me, "It means everything is a lie. And what these point to is one thing. The goddess doesn't exist in this world."

At those words, I looked at him with somewhat surprised eyes.

He seemed to like my expression and raised the corners of his mouth even more than before.

I looked at that man and created a shadow hammer, then strongly struck his head while saying, "So what?"