Chapter 161 – Hero’s Descendant (4)

“Nyaa, nyaa nyaa, nyaa-ah.”

In the end, Roa had eaten two Evil Hearts, so she felt as if she was on top of the world.  Her three tails continued to sway as she continued to hang around Artpe.  She was studying Artpe’s body.  She was trying to determine where she could perch on top of Artpe’s body.  She was trying to find a spot that was pleasing to her.

She could circle him for the rest of her life!  She wouldn’t be able to find a place where she could sit.

“What is this magical beast supposed to be?”

Promes sounded as if he had aged 30 years.  He asked Artpe a question.  Artpe smirked as he answered Promes’ question.

“She has the ability to eat and convert Demonic energy into her own internal energy.  She is a Greed Beast, and she is contracted to me as a familiar.  That is why you don’t have to worry about her.”

“The Evil Heart has tormented our family for couple hundred years, yet you simply…..”

It hadn’t been simple.  Roa had eaten Demonic energy in a progressive manner to grow this much.  She also had the holy priestess and Artpe by her side.  Both of them had the ability to suppress Demonic energy.  If they hadn’t been there, it was up in the air as to whether Roa would have been able to successfully absorb the Evil Heart.

Still, it was also true that his method had been much simpler compared to guarding the Evil Heart for several hundred years. Artpe shrugged his shoulders.

“Anyways, I want to congratulate you all for being freed from this place.  You guys did a great job.”

“It makes no sense!”

“Anyone that becomes involved with Artpe has that exact thought!”

“That isn’t a compliment, so don’t say those words with a smile on your face.”

Everyone was in a state of panic.  The only easygoing ones were Artpe and Roa.

“Anyways, our business with the temple is done now.  Vadinet, how did the stew turn out?”

“It is boiling right now.  Everyone can go out and enjoy it.   ……also Roa, you need to wear a more respectable clothing.  Please follow after me.  Quickly.”

“Nyaa!? I want to eat the stew too!  Nyaa-ah-ah!”

How respectable of a clothing was she going to give Roa?  Artpe was a bit curious, but he decided not to interfere.  He was already too busy worrying about the remaining people.

“My god.  The task assigned to our family······.”

“Everything was solved so suddenly.  Ooh-mmm.  Didn’t I want this to happen….  Ooooh-mmm, oooooooh-mmm!”

“Some problem will arise!  Something dangerous will occur!”

The two men had completely accepted the current situation, but the old lady was too shocked.  She was starting to deny reality.  Of course, Artpe understood why she was acting that way.

“Did she finally go senile? I guess it is possible.”

“Kyahhhhhhk!”

Artpe made fun of the old lady as he eyed the two men.

“Don’t be so absent minded right now.  You have to think about what you’ll have to do from now on.  You no longer have to reside in this temple.  Come out, and let’s go enjoy the stew.”

“Artpe, you….  It is as if you’ve become another person.”

Promes had spoken those words.

A guilty conscience needs no accuser.  Artpe felt guilty, but he schooled his expression.  Promes continued to speak as Artpe moved in front of him.

“In the past, you couldn’t be bothered to do anything.  Now you are actively leading from the front.  Moreover, you are using unconventional methods that can’t be imagined up by anyone else…  Did you change, because you became a hero?”

“It isn’t like that.”

Even now he didn’t want to be bothered.  He was lazy.  However, he had to go through all these troublesome tasks right now, so he could enjoy a lazy life as a dairy farmer in the future. He was acutely aware of this fact.  He just had to take care of the Demon King and the Demon realm.  He won’t have to lead any more after that.  He’ll live a simple life with the simpehearted cows!

“Hoo.  Anyways….  Let’s head out.  Artpe is right.  The temple no longer has the Evil Heart.  The heroes have arrived, and they solved the problem like heroes.  It isn’t as if this is the only task we can do.”

“A problem will occur!  There is no way the Evil Heart can be disposed so easily!  It is an evil item that hadn’t weakened after several hundred years!  It’ll continue to exist for couple hundred years!  That girl messed it all up!  I’m sure she messed it all up with the hero!”

“Fred, please knock out this ajumma.”

“Ok.”

The two middle aged men carried the old lady as they left the temple.  Artpe smirked as he led the rest of his party out of the temple.  Maetel still looked miffed, but she linked arms with him.  She followed after him.

Vadinet had stepped away in the middle of cooking the stew, yet the stew turned out to be more delicious than the stew from yesterday night.  For the past dozens of years, those that resided within the temple had to eat dry food and ingredients from the Demonic beasts of the desert.  The stew was sweet as heaven to the guardians of the temple.

“In truth, we moved the temple, because we smelled this food.”

“I knew it.”

“Dad, are you able to move the temple to anywhere you want?”

“No, the temple is an item that uses the Demonic energy of the Evil Heart as a power source.  Since there is no Evil Heart, the temple is useless. ······yes, we’ll have to destroy it when we leave.”

As if he had come to his senses after eating the warm stew, Promes finally acknowledged the reality of his current situation.  Fred was by his side.  He let out a bitter laughter as he agreed with Promes’ words.

“Let’s destroy it.  Then we can leave this infernal Demon realm.  Ah, my bad.  You guys are going to stay behind in the Demon realm, so I shouldn’t be saying such words.”

“No.  Each person has to go where we are suited for.”

“Even if we leave the Demon realm, we won’t forget our duty.  Did you say that a continental alliance had formed?  I’ll add my power to that cause.”

“It has been a while since we’ve fought.”

“That’s true…  On that note, please give me another bowl of stew.”

“On that note?  What do you mean by that?  I want one more bowl too.”

While the two ahjussi devoured their stew, Vadinet brought back Roa. Roa looked extremely unsatisfied.  She had been forced to wear clothes, and she was pulling at it.

“Nyaa-ah······.”

“I never expected you to put the cloth of a priestess on her.”

The attire of a priestess was known to be the most conservative and virtuous clothing one could wear.  Roa had appeared wearing it. However, there was a problem.  Maybe, it was because she had eaten too well during her development.  Even the baggy clothes of the priestess couldn’t hide Roa’s glamorous figure.

“This is restricting, nyaa-ah.”

“If you plan on staying in your humanoid form, you have to get familiar with the customs and etiquettes of humans.  A woman should not show that much skin to a man that isn’t one’s intended husband.”

It was very surprising!  Her words were very old-fashioned!  Vadinet had been so open in front of Artpe, because she considered him to be her intended husband!

“Master is my master, nyaa?”

“In this world, there are many men aside from Artpe-nim.  Also!  You have to be way more careful when dealing with someone that is your master!”

“Nyaa-ah······.”

Roa looked as if she hadn’t understood what had been said.  However, Vadient didn’t allow for any objections.  Roa’s eyes narrowed as she replied.

“I don’t like you.  Nyaa-ah-ah.”

“Aht.  Where are you going?”

Roa’s two cheeks were puffed out as she escaped from the grasp of Vadinet.  She curled up on top of Artpe’s knees.  The eyes of Vadinet and Maetel flashed, but Artpe found it to be ridiculous!  Those two did the same thing with impunity!

“I want to go back to my original form, nyaa.  They are so annoying.  Nyaa-ah-ah.”

“However, your aren’t confident that you’ll be able to control your Mana in your original form.  Right?”

“Nyaa.  I just need a little bit more time, and I think it’ll be fine.  Not yet.  Nyaa-ah.”

Artpe let out a bitter laughter as he stroked Roa’s head.

Nyaa~

She let out a pleased meow as she leaned in against him.  In the end, she was a cat.  He preferred Roa to Maetel and Vadinet.  They stuck to him with impious hearts unlike Roa.

“Master.”

“Mmm?”

At that moment, Sherryl had approached him from the back, and she had spoken to him.  Did she want him to pet her too?  He became nervous, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

“It looks as if the storm around the desert is receding.”

“······what?”

When he turned around to look, Artpe’s vision expanded in an instant.  He activated his Read All Creation to its highest setting, and he stretched out several dozen strands of Mana Strings.   He was able to use this method to extend his sight, and he was able to see the barrier that was separating Nirotacid from the normal Demon realm.

“It really is dissipating······?”

Why did such bizarre events occur whenever they started eating the stew?!  At this point, he wondered if the stew had some magical power!

“The barrier between Nirotacid and the Demon realm is dissipating.  Does this mean…”

“There is no ifs, ands, or buts.  The Evil Heart was tied to the magic formation!”

Artpe pushed Roa off of him, then he looked towards the ground.  No, he was looking deeper under ground.  As expected, there was a magic circle placed underneath this region.  The magic circle had a very close relationship with the temple, which the guardians had been riding around in this desert!

Of course, Artpe had known what type of spell had been placed over the temple.  However, he hadn’t known that the temple had a connection to the underground magic circle.  He wouldn’t have known it unless he was looking deep underground with his Read All Creation ability.

There was one obvious fact that was revealed to him.  The Evil Heart had acted as a power source for the temple, and at the same time, it had been a power source for the magic circle that had created a barrier around Nirotacid.  Basically, the enormous ‘barrier magic’ surrounding the entirety of Nirotacid had lost its power source.  The barrier was slowly degrading!

“Roa, you ate an item of this caliber!  Are you sure you are ok?!”

“I’m not ok, nyaa!  I was so bloated that I changed to this form, nyaa!”

“You could have melted it in your mouth…..”

Roa had decided to swallow it instead of melting it in her mouth.  At this point, the loss of the magic circle was inevitable.  Why was Artpe able to leisurely eat stew with a large army like this?  It was all thanks to the storms surrounding Nirotacid!

“Hurry up everyone.  Let’s move before the magic completely loses its effectiveness!”

“But the temple······.”

“If we destroy the temple, the spell will immediately dispel.  At that moment, those within the Demon realm will sense our presence.  That will be disastrous.”

Moreover······ The guardians of the temple didn’t know about this, but the temple held words that implied that there was another Evil Heart out there.

Artpe was adept at the Ancient language, so he was the only one that had recognized it.  It probably was talking about the underground world of the Dwarves, which was located under Diaz.  The previous hero probably wanted his descendants to know about it too.

‘Basically, if we abandon the temple, those that will find this temple in the future will find out about the underground world.’

They’ll probably search out the location mentioned in the temple.  It sounded preposterous, but Artpe wanted that to happen.

He had left behind a present in the underground world for such a scenario.

“Hurry up and move!  Don’t even think about taking the stew pots.  Just poison the stew!”

“Get in line!  We’ll immediately head towards the ocean!”

“Ahjussi, what are you going to do?  You have to make your choice before the barrier falls.”

“Ssssp. We have to move so suddenly…..   I wanted to spend couple more days cementing our family ties.  However, events are moving too fast thanks to you, Artpe.  It is as if we are being cooked by a lightning spell.”

Promes put the old lady on his back, and he firmly gripped Fred’s hand.  Then he took out a pair of earrings from his pocket.  It was a teleportation artifact.  It was to be expected.  If the descendants of the hero didn’t possess such artifacts, they wouldn’t have been able to travel between the Demon realm and Diaz.

“It doesn’t sit well with me that I have to leave you all behind, but I have no choice.  We’ll go back to Diaz.  We’ll fight the Demon race from there.”

“All right.  The Demons will probably try to infiltrate into Diaz, so I’ll leave it to you when that happens.”

“Mmm.  Artpe, I still have a lot I want to say to you.  Please come back safe.”

After he gave a firm nod towards Artpe, he looked towards Maetel.

“My daughter, thank you for growing into a fine woman.  You also chose an excellent son in law.  You just have to make a baby now.  If your task in the Demon realm doesn’t easily resolve itself, you can come back and take a 1 year break.”

“Yes!  I’ll make one soon!”

“You took the time to bring up that topic again!  What the hell!  If we take an one year break, the human realm would be razed to the ground!”

“I really am going now!”

The earring in his hand broke.  The three humans melted away.

At least, Promes didn’t educate Maetel on how to make a baby.  Should he consider himself fortunate in that aspect?  Artpe let out a sigh as he gave orders to his party.

“We’ll exit this place at full speed!”

“Understood!”

“Nyaa!”

Their first priority was to exit this desert.  Then they had to successfully re-enter the ocean.  That was their goal.  Artpe hoped the barrier would last that long.  He started running with his party.

After four days, the party was successful in entering into the ocean of the Demon realm.  They were able to do it before the barrier went down.  It was around time when couple Demonic beasts started to enter into Nirotacid.  They were wandering in from the outside regions through sheer ignorance.