The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason - Chapter 68



Imperial Expedition (2)

We are continuing the expedition. An expedition to subdue the Four Heavenly Kings.

However, there was one peculiar point: this time, we were heading not to the edge of the demon realm, but to the center of the human world.

In this way, the fight against the puppet master could happen anywhere, at any time.

His abilities were quite unique, and being unique, he was well aware of his own strengths.

Indeed, he could become the Four Heavenly King that I despised the most.

Not knowing when things would blow up, we had no choice but to remain tense, and as we remained tense, our interest in him grew.

“If we find him, can we subdue him right away?”

One day, Lily asked this.

I immediately shook my head.

“That’s impossible.”

I’m not discussing his strength.

It’s because he wouldn’t be the kind of fool to enter the human realm without any preparation.

“He must have at least one return scroll. There’s no way he would come into a den of danger without such preparations.”

“Then does that mean we have no choice but to let him slip right under our noses…?”

“That’s not the case.”

I shook my head at Ulysses’s question.

“At the very least, we should be able to track the location where he teleported. That way, we would naturally find out where the puppet master’s castle is. That makes Lily’s mission all the more important.”

“Me, me?”

“Yes, you need to find out where the coordinates are.”

The location of the castle where the puppet master resides is always random. That’s part of why he’s such a nuisance. Therefore, just figuring out his whereabouts would be a significant gain.

“By the way…”

As we were having that conversation, Camilla spoke up from beside us.

“He’s really not showing up…”

“…Indeed.”

I couldn’t help but agree with that statement. This was already the fourth territory we had investigated.

During our search of these four territories, we hadn’t seen a trace of him.

At this point, it was starting to feel like we were chasing phantoms.

However, based on the footage that Lily brought, he had certainly been inside here. Yet, if we still hadn’t found a trace, we had no choice but to consider one possibility.

“Looks like he headed straight for the center.”

“···That’s right.”

At the center, all wealth and power were concentrated. It wasn’t quite like the capital of South Korea, Seoul, but still, various powers were intertwined in the center of the human realm.

So if he were to unleash his abilities in the center of the human realm… who knows what kind of disaster could unfold?

‘Thinking about it now… that could have been a real catastrophe.’

As I pondered this, I suddenly felt a sense of relief. The situation was bad, but it was certainly not the worst.

What if Lily hadn’t discovered the video?

What if we had allowed the Cloud City to be destroyed?

What if Olek’s human sacrifice had succeeded without any interference…?

No, what if we hadn’t even sent support in the first place…?

Chills ran down my spine.

I felt a natural shiver creep up my back. We nearly faced the worst without even realizing it.

If we hadn’t stopped Olek’s sacrifice, we would have faced at least five times more monsters than during that wave.

The sudden onslaught of a monster army would have led to the inevitable downfall of the Cloud City.

Thus, the fear of monsters would spread like dominoes from the Cloud City, naturally drawing the attention of the human army towards that direction.

And when the army was organized to quell the disturbances there, the puppet master would have already come dangerously close to the heart of the human forces.

In this way, humanity would be caught half-defenseless in the middle of the capital, facing one of the Four Heavenly Kings. With just one cunning move, humanity nearly faced total destruction.

In short, we almost faced annihilation.

I felt a renewed fear of his schemes. It felt like I was finally starting to read his game.

Thinking this way made the situation seem more hopeful than I expected. After all, we were aware of the puppet master’s existence, and we had learned that he was targeting the center, hadn’t we?

We just needed to gradually gather information like this.

With this in mind, we moved on to the next territory.

*

Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth.

Having learned of the puppet master’s schemes, we quickly moved to the next territories.

Now that we knew his target was the center, there was no reason to waste time in the outskirts.

Of course, to prepare for any contingencies, we made sure to conduct thorough investigations with the knights and clergy of each territory. After all, if there were any brainwashed individuals, it would prevent any major incidents.

After moving swiftly for several days, we were able to cross into the empire directly from a foreign land.

“Sure enough, the further we go inside, the better the infrastructure becomes.”

“···Infrastructure?”

“There’s something like that.”

As I arrived and took in the scenery, I let out a light gasp of admiration. Indeed, an empire is an empire. After seeing the rural towns, crossing the borders of the empire revealed a dazzling array of buildings.

Still, the capital of a foreign land had its own charm.

Of course, being on the outskirts of the empire might have contributed to that. The opulent nobility was nowhere to be seen. If they were around, they were likely holed up in their castles, not venturing out.

I thought this as I resumed my steps. Having moved closer to the center, it was time to conduct a proper investigation.

I would observe the clergy, knights, and wizards. Once again, I would unleash the one-eyed bug to explore the back alleys and the red-light district.

As I was investigating, I briefly frowned.

They say that where there is strong light, shadows grow stronger.

No matter how grand the empire might be… no, it was precisely because it was an empire that the scenes in the back alleys felt all the more intense.

On a deserted street, an old man afflicted by disease was dying right there.

In another alley, assaults and thefts were happening without a care.

Somewhere, the cries of the unfortunate echoed, while in a completely different place, a slave trader strutted about with confidence.

For reference, slavery is legal in this country.

As I mentioned before, this game leaned towards dark fantasy. If you lift the veil of a bright and lively city just a little, you uncover a filthy and sordid underside.

It was quite a sight detrimental to one’s mental health. I frowned for a moment and continued my investigation.

It seemed there were no findings today. After rummaging around for hours, I felt no signs of anything.

‘Maybe I should take a break…’

Thinking this, I sat down on a bench in a nearby park. After days of just watching videos, my mind felt a bit off.

“Haah…”

As I sighed and looked around, I noticed children playing in the park. Perhaps because it was closer to the city, they wore somewhat shabby commoner clothes, but they all looked lively.

Their innocent laughter was a pleasant sight.

From this perspective, it was indeed a beautiful place.

“What are you doing here?”

As I was lost in thought for a moment, a saint nearby asked. Turning my head, I saw her approaching me.

It seemed she had spotted me while walking and investigating.

“I’m a bit tired. Just taking a short break.”

“Oh, I see.”

She replied and naturally sat down beside me. If it were someone else, they would have immediately scolded me for slacking off. Fortunately, she seemed to have no intention of doing that.

However, a more complicated situation had just arisen.

“…”

“······.”

An uncomfortable silence lingers for a moment. Since I shed tears in front of her, our relationship has remained awkward.

It wasn’t that we had fought or that feelings were hurt, but the memory of that day kept tormenting me. To put it simply, it was embarrassing.

Why does she sit next to me awkwardly if she has nothing to say?

“···Has there been any progress in the investigation?”

Still, I tried to be as sociable as possible and opened my mouth.

“No, not yet. I need to make direct contact for the investigation… It’s taking longer than I thought.”

“Well, that makes sense.”

To infuse divine power and elicit a reaction, I first need to get close. That’s why the investigation is bound to be slow.

“···The kids are cute.”

As I was thinking that, she finally spoke up. It seemed the saintess also disliked the awkward silence.

“Yes, they are.”

I responded appropriately and continued the conversation.

“Even with the Demon Lord’s forces rampaging, there are still people who smile.”

“That’s why we’re going on an expedition to the demon realm.”

Yuliss said with a chuckle. It was true.

This was the scenery she wanted to protect. A landscape filled with the laughter and chatter of everyday life. We were risking our lives just to preserve this one thing.

“Rud, Rud! Let’s play house!”

“Okay, sure!”

As I was lost in thought, the little ones in front of us spoke up.

“What are we going to play?”

“Let’s play family! I’ll be the mom, and you’ll be the dad!”

“Alright!”

From what I could hear, it seemed they were planning to play house. I used to play like that when I was little too. We looked at the children in front of us with affectionate expressions.

And then…

Smack!!!

The sound of a slap echoed sharply. The girl in front of me had just slapped the boy, her “husband.”

“Honey, how could you do that?!”

The husband’s face turned away, and his cheek flushed red. We stared at the two children with a mix of shock and disbelief.

The shocking situation didn’t end there.

Zzaak!!!!

This time, the husband slapped his wife’s cheek!

He hit her so hard that the child playing the role of the wife fell down with a thud.

What the little brat said was even more outrageous.

“Damn you, woman… How dare you slap someone?”

I’m going crazy.

Is this really the average personality of the Empire’s people?

No matter how much it’s a children’s game, this is too much.

Thinking that, Yulris even stepped in to mediate.

“What is this… I need to stop it…!”

But I raised my arm and instead blocked her.

“No, the situation is getting interesting, so let’s wait a bit.”

“What? What’s interesting about that? No matter how kids are, this is too much. They need to be educated right away!”

“Exactly, so let’s calm down for a moment and observe. We need to understand the cause before we can educate them, right?”

I continued speaking while blocking her.

“It’s often said that children are a mirror of adults.”

I don’t believe that one can create something from nothing.

Similarly, children couldn’t directly adopt a scene they hadn’t seen into their play.

Thinking about it, it was a rather strange scene.

What on earth did these kids see to come up with such a play?

In modern times, it would be understandable. Nowadays, there are various media, including TV, everywhere.

Even I grew up watching morning soap operas on TV before going to kindergarten.

Other families might have been similar, as domestic quarrels often became a regular theme in their games.

But here, it’s different. There are no plausible media, and no decent plays to watch. The fact that such a plot emerged means they must have witnessed such scenes frequently nearby.

Naturally, the subjects must be their parents.

“You, it’s because of you that our son was sold…”

“Damn you, how is that my fault?! I don’t even have money to live on, what do you want me to do?!”

“That’s…!”

“Do we have land to farm? Does the landowner give us enough food? If only the taxes were lower, it would be different. They take away everything we can grow… At least they pay well for slaves, that’s why we sold him, right?”

“······.”

Ulyss was at a loss for words. Perhaps it was because she had spent most of her life sheltered in a church. This scene seemed to be a great shock to her.

From what I gathered from the children’s chatter, the lord’s exploitation was severe. The slave market was thriving. The lord was buying slaves. It could be summarized like that.

“…Let’s stop this game. It’s not fun anymore.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Hey, Rud… what if I get sold too?”

“It’s okay, you’re not pretty enough to be sold.”

“…Heh, I really hope that’s true.”

The two children, who had been chatting like that, quietly left the park. The laughter they had shared no longer seemed innocent.

I quietly spoke up.

“It seems we have a problem to solve.”

I still had no way of knowing whether the puppet master’s influence had reached this territory.

From noble mtl dot com

But regardless of that, shouldn’t we resolve the issue?