Chapter 5
Has anyone ever felt the presence of a god?
Since setting out on this journey with the Hero, I've felt the existence of a god in this world every time we've encountered an enemy.
There was clearly a power in his body that couldn't be explained without the convenient setting of a god.
Every time I've faced a god since embarking on this adventure with the Hero, I've always wanted to ask the celestial being:
Why did it have to be this guy?
Wasn't there someone else more desperate?
Now, before me stands something that can provide that answer, something that defies all explanation.
Outwardly, she appeared human.
She looked like a woman in her prime, possessing boundless compassion and acceptance.
However, her presence was not something that could be contained within the vessel of a human life form.
A presence so overwhelming that even a child without any power would immediately sense something was amiss.
An emptiness where nothing could be felt—no mana, no life force, not even a hint of presence. Literally nothing.
The woman, embodying these two contradictory qualities with a halo shimmering above her head, was undoubtedly a goddess.
Though the being I had longed for and resented so much appeared before me, I didn't dare think of addressing her.
I was merely afraid that she might have heard all the curses I'd been hurling at her all this time.
"I'm not angry. You're a good child."
A voice resonated.
The sensation of having a voice directly hammered into my head rather than hearing it through my ears felt like my brain was being violated.
What an interesting metaphor.
The goddess opened her mouth with a slight smile.
This unnecessary action might have seemed considerate at first glance, but to me, it reeked of the arrogance of a transcendent being condescending to our level.
She's probably reading even these thoughts of mine.
I glanced sideways to see how the others were reacting.
The Hero seemed a bit surprised but was calmly accepting her presence.
Princess Meria and Karin, not particularly devout, were frozen like statues, staring blankly at her, their minds unable to catch up with the situation.
Only the Holy Saint showed a different reaction.
With bloodshot eyes, she was making the sign of the cross and uttering words that could have been either prayers or screams.
I involuntarily flinched at her appearance, which seemed to have crossed the boundary of faith into the realm of madness.
Should I pray too?
As I was thinking this, the Hero opened his mouth.
"What, did you come to congratulate us?"
His disrespectful attitude, as if addressing a friend rather than a goddess, sent chills down my spine.
The Hero's lovers, who had relatively similar sensibilities to mine, felt the same way.
Princess Meria covered her ears as if wishing she hadn't heard it, and Karin's face turned pale.
The Holy Saint remained unchanged.
Her mind had already reached its limit, so it seemed like nothing that happened now would make much difference.
"Yes, it's a day worth celebrating. Now the Goddess of Night can no longer interfere with this land. For the next thousand years, this star will follow my laws."
"That's great. But Goddess, since you're here anyway, can I ask for one favor?"
"A favor?"
The Hero gestured vaguely towards the Holy Saint, who was still repeating countless prayers that had lost all coherent form.
I made a somewhat plausible guess that he might be asking to calm the Holy Saint, but...
"It's about her. She's got a great body, but she hates demons too much, which can be annoying sometimes. Can you change her personality? As a goddess, that should be no big deal for you, right?"
"......"
The response was so outrageous that even the goddess was momentarily silenced—in a sense, something only the Hero could come up with.
...Is this guy even human?
A headache struck me at this statement that defied common sense.
From the moment I first met her, I had never once harbored good feelings towards the Holy Saint.
Yet even I felt sympathy for her, driven to such a state, and he wants to change her personality?
His intention was so transparent that no amount of eloquence could disguise it as goodwill.
What's going to happen now?
The Holy Saint, suddenly faced with the prospect of having her mind altered, continued to pray fervently towards the sky.
Like someone pushed to the extreme limits of fear, capable of only one action, she kept offering prayers.
As I searched for words to somehow prevent this, I stole a glance at the goddess's expression.
Her face was like a mask, devoid of any emotion, as if all the muscles in her face had been paralyzed.
With an expression that inspired fear beyond anger, the goddess sighed and spoke.
"...Wow, this isn't easy."
"Huh? Is it that difficult?"
At the Hero's words, the goddess regained her smile.
The sudden shift from expressionless to smiling, as if she had switched masks, sent chills down my spine.
"No, I mean you."
"What?"
"I'm called an evil goddess, but I like good people. When I see kind and gentle people, it makes me feel like I've become a good goddess too."
"What are you talking about all of a sudden? And what, evil goddess?"
"You weren't a good child. That's why I chose you. Because I like good children."
The Hero wasn't the only one confused by these sudden, contextless words.
Everyone held their breath, sensing a drastic change in the situation.
Even the Hero, who always acted like a wild colt, now seemed slightly cowed.
Something is about to happen.
As this vague premonition filled my mind, the goddess continued.
"I just can't bring myself to do harsh things 'with my own hands' to good children. On the other hand, I'm merciless to bad children."
"......"
"And you're a bad child, aren't you?"
The goddess smiled maliciously.
That expression, devoid of compassion or generosity and filled only with pure malice, foretold the Hero's future.
Though he lacked the power to see the future, the Hero could at least recognize the crisis right in front of him. He immediately turned and threw his whole body towards the outside.
He lowered his body and leapt towards the window, just as he had when we arrived at this castle, but...
"Ugh!!"
That superhuman leg strength wasn't manifested.
The Hero's body, which had lunged forward, quickly tumbled to the ground and rolled.
Simultaneously, the Hero's power, which had colored everything around him like the sun, faded away.
What remained in that enormous vessel was a small, weak light that could go out at any moment.
The Hero's face contorted as he felt his power disappear, his eyes reddening as if he might burst into tears at any moment.
The goddess—no, the evil goddess—approached the Hero and spoke weakly, as if complaining.
"You've killed 72 people so far? How did you manage to kill so many in just 10 years of life? And this is only counting the good people."
"Don't... Please don't...!!"
"52 rapes. Adultery with 32 people. Coerced 18 abortions. What kind of life have you been living? You were on the battlefield for 6 years, right? You shouldn't have had time for this, but somehow in 4 years..."
"I-I'll apologize... I'll live a good life from now on, so please give me back my power...!! T-That's all I have...!!"
"Why do you think it's your power? It's my power. And you haven't given everything back yet, you know? I actually wanted to play with it a bit more, but I guess that's enough now."
Is there still something left to take?
As the word 'death' flashed through my mind, the Hero suddenly started screaming.
"Ah, aaaaargh!!!"
A sound that would whet one's appetite when grilling meat.
However, the sight before our eyes would never inspire appetite in any human engulfed in flames.
No matter how much one hated or resented a person, such a sight could never provoke appetite.
The Hero's screams continued for a while.
During that time, we could do nothing but pray for this moment to pass quickly.
When the fire finally went out, what remained was not the Hero we had known all this time.
This wasn't a case of the corpse being too horrific to resemble the Hero.
Literally, what was there was not the Hero.
"Ah, aah...!!"
Unlike the Hero who had stood at 190cm, this was a small figure that might reach 160cm at best.
Unlike before, this plump figure looked like a short-legged pig.
This person is not the Hero.
But for some reason, looking at him, something deep in my heart recognized him as the Hero.
It wasn't simply because we had witnessed the Hero transform before our eyes.
Something different from magic made us recognize this person as the Hero.
The Hero, stripped of his power and even his appearance, literally robbed of everything, wailed.
"G-Give it back...!! I said give it back...!!"
The voice of the Hero, who had lost everything, was no longer the thick, dignified voice full of power as before.
The thin, fragile voice of someone just entering puberty carried no intimidation, instead evoking sympathy.
Though this was a sight I had longed for every night while hearing Karin's ecstatic cries, I could hardly bear to watch.
"...Why did you do this?"
I wonder who said that.
Surprisingly, those words came from my mouth—the one who had hated the Hero the most all this time.
The gazes of his lovers, except for the Holy Saint, all turned towards me at once.
Their eyes were a mix of surprise, as if to say 'you're the one saying that?', and reproach, as if I had gone mad.
"Oh my, are you feeling sympathy? After all the terrible things he's done to you?"
"...He was indeed a villain. But if you hadn't given him power in the first place, wouldn't everyone have been spared from getting hurt?"
If she likes good people, why did she create a result where good people suffer?
With some inexplicable courage, I questioned the evil goddess about this, and she calmly replied.
"The goodness of people shines brightest in pain and darkness. If there's no darkness, I can just create some, can't I?"
"But you said earlier that you couldn't do bad things to good people—"
"Yes, I can't do it with my own hands. With my own hands."
Seeing her treat humans as less than human, I could find no more words to say.
This wasn't just a matter of cruelty.
Just as the thought processes of birds and humans are fundamentally different, there was an enormous gap between her and us, even greater than that between humans and animals.
What is she?
What could she be to be so cruel and merciless to fellow intelligent beings?
I don't know.
Even if we gathered all the wise men of the kingdom for a debate, we surely wouldn't find an answer.
I just prayed that this indescribable being before my eyes would disappear quickly.
Perhaps hearing that prayer, the evil goddess smiled somewhat sadly, then spread her arms and said to me:
"By the way, I was really impressed by your courage to defend someone who tormented you and stand up to me! So I'll give you a gift as a reward!"
With those words, the evil goddess vanished.
Just as when she first appeared, without any warning, as if she had never been there in the first place.
I couldn't even think about checking what the evil goddess's gift was, and instead looked at the Hero collapsed on the floor.
The Hero fallen on the floor.
No, I looked at someone who used to be the Hero.
The Hero was dead, and now this nameless villain who was once the Hero began to wail so loudly it seemed like it would shake the entire castle.
"Ah, aaaaargh!!!"
On this day, the Demon King died, but so did the Hero.
And from this day forward, the final battle between the demon race and humanity entered a new phase.