Chapter 78: Legendary Warrior (3)

It happened in an instant.

“──!”

The moment Toric pushed me to the ground, Ibi and Rine quickly drew their daggers and staves.

Miki and Lily, although they didn't immediately take a battle stance like those two, were on high alert.

Despite this, Toric didn't even glance at them, only glaring at me.

I first extended a hand to my companions, signaling that I was okay.

“See.”

Then I looked into Toric's eyes and said nonchalantly.

“Even though your body is like that, your movements are still alive, aren't they?”

At that, Toric, as if telling me to cut the crap, pulled on the collar he was holding and slightly lifted my upper body.

“Say that, one more time…!”

As he said that, Toric's thick hand was trembling.

“What, is alive…?”

“Your nemesis, Stras, is still alive.”

“Cut the crap!”

When I answered as calmly as possible, Toric's two eyes also began to tremble.

“That bastard… that bastard, I definitely, chopped his head off myself…!”

At the same time, the grip on my collar tightened, and the pulled clothes began to choke me.

“Unfortunately, it seems that wasn't the case…”

I answered, barely squeezing out my voice.

“Because he’s not just alive, he’s even taken the position of a Demon King's army corps commander and is trying to cross the wall…!”

At that moment, Toric gritted his teeth.

“Bullshit!”

Then, as if he couldn't listen anymore, he lifted me up and threw me.

“M-Mr. Yubin!”

Hearing Miki's panicked shout as I flew, I crashed into a nearby tree and was thrown off.

Crack!

The upper part of the broken tree fell right next to me.

I saw Miki and Lily, surprised, rushing towards me.

“Hey, old man! What the hell are you doing!?”

At the same time, a provoked Ibi demanded, but Toric ignored her and strode away.

Meanwhile, Rine, without even such a protest, had already aimed her staff and was casting a magic circle.

“R-Rine, stop…”

While I was urgently raising my arm to stop her, Toric, who had entered the house, slammed the door shut with a loud bang!.

“A-Are you okay…?!”

“N-No… it hurts……”

I wanted to coolly answer that I was fine and brush myself off and get up, but I couldn't.

I felt like my back was broken. ……It really f*cking hurts.

No matter how much of a pot-bellied drunkard he had become, as befitting a ‘warrior’, his ‘Strength’ stat must have remained the same.

So only after receiving Lily's 「Healing」 could I finally get up again.

“Hey, you okay?”

“It hurts.”

“You baby. …But what the hell did you do? Why did he suddenly act like that?”

Ibi, who had approached belatedly, had a look of incomprehension on her face.

“Suddenly, he seemed like a different person….”

Seeing Lily's reaction, it seemed that our conversation had not been clearly heard since Toric had thrown me to the ground.

Well, I had barely managed to squeeze out my voice.

“Why did you stop me?”

Meanwhile, Rine had her usual expressionless face, but by now, not only I, but also the other companions would have noticed that she was inwardly angry.

“It was him who showed hostility first.”

“…No, it's my fault.”

From the side, it might have looked like Toric had suddenly thrown me, but in fact, I had brought it upon myself.

“I touched a raw nerve.”

However, sometimes, to remove a deeply embedded arrowhead, you have to open the wound.

* * *

The two stone towers in the backyard of Toric's house were graves.

Although no one's bones were buried underneath, they were small markers he had erected to honor those he had buried in his heart.

To remember the wife and child he couldn't protect.

…I wielded my axe as a Kaper to protect the world, but in the end, I couldn't protect anyone.

Not even my precious people.

This was what Toric would say later when he revealed his true feelings.

─How can a guy who couldn't even protect his precious people, protect the world?

As you can see from this, he felt a great sense of guilt.

─Some people praised me as a hero of the world.…It was all bullshit.

I am just a loser who couldn't protect anything.

About 19 years ago, as a member of the Kapers, he fought against a great evil to protect the world.

The identity of that evil was Stras, the current 4th Corps Commander of the Demon King's army.

Although not all of the beings that humans called ‘devils’ were actually like devils, he was a person who was indeed the devil itself.

Well, since he tried to summon a monster from another world by sacrificing all the people living in one of the 12 cities, I guess he was that kind of person.

As a half-demon born inside the wall and living with humans, he had outstanding talent, but due to being a half-demon, he had been discriminated against since he was a child, or maybe he had an innate personality flaw, or for various other reasons, he tried to destroy the world by sacrificing a city.

And the ones who fought against him and stopped his plan at the conspiracy stage were the Kapers.

A secret society of justice, but ironically, everyone knew of their existence, the apostles of justice.

Toric, as one of these apostles of justice, wielded his axe against the threat of Stras.

As a result, he succeeded in capturing Stras with his comrades and protecting the world.

However, he couldn't protect his beloved wife and child.

Subordinates under Stras's command tracked down Toric for revenge, and his wife and child were caught up in it.

A large explosion occurred, and not even their bodies were left.

In the end, Toric, enraged after losing his two loved ones, immediately brushed off his comrades who were trying to stop him and went to the imprisoned Stras.

And without any resistance, he chopped his head off.

It was a very personal revenge.

Thus, having abandoned his oath as a Kaper to strictly follow the law and walk the righteous path in any case, he went to Haim Village, his wife's hometown, and cut off his ties with the world and went into seclusion.

Leaving his axe, which had been the cause of losing his family, buried in the ground.

Having lost everything… he spent every day drinking to forget even a little of the reality that was as painful as death.

──But unfortunately, the Stras whose head he had cut off was a body double.

After the Kapers had stopped Stras's conspiracy, Stras's name was no longer heard inside the wall, but this was because he had simply retreated beyond the wall.

And now, he was trying to cross the wall again.

This time, as a loyal subordinate of the Demon King.

The next morning, I took my companions to the entrance of the village.

To wait for Toric.

Ibi grumbled with a sleepy face, saying what a waste of time this was, and how I knew he would pass by here, but I was confident.

Toric would come here.

And indeed, not long after, he really did appear.

“Are you going alone?”

Of course, he tried to ignore my words without even turning his head.

“You know too, don't you?”

I had no intention of letting him.

“In your current state, you will never achieve your revenge. Your opponent is a Demon King's army corps commander.”

And the current Toric is a level 6 warrior, just like us.

So, let alone meeting Stras.

“You will surely die facing a monster before you even cross the wall.”

Despite this, Toric continued to ignore my words as if he hadn't heard them and strode past us.

“Actually, are you just hoping for that?”

“…!”

At these words, he seemed to have no choice but to turn his head.

Toric finally stopped in his tracks and turned his gaze to me.

It was the same murderous gaze as when I first mentioned Stras's name.

I met that gaze head-on and deliberately said in a more provocative tone.

“Because you’re scared to face him?”

“You damn brat…!”

“Afraid that you won't be able to kill the man you couldn't kill even in your prime? ──Ugh!”

Toric kicked me in the shin, making me kneel, and immediately grabbed me by the collar.

I had already asked my companions not to show any hostility towards him no matter what happened.

So, I continued nonchalantly.

“So, are you just thinking that it would be easier to die before you even meet him?”

“Don't just run your mouth because you have one…!”

Of course, Toric probably still didn't completely believe my words.

So he would probably try to find his old comrades and confirm whether the rumor that he was alive was true first.

And when he found out it was true, he would head to the wall alone.

This time, without anyone by his side.

Even if he died, so that he wouldn't lose anyone.

So as I said before, he would fail.

“──We can help you.”

Because more than wanting revenge, he was too afraid of losing someone around him again.

“…What?”

“As it happens, we are also on our way to the Demon King's Castle. To stop the Demon King.”

For a moment, Toric's eyes, which were glaring at me, widened.

It was a look that said, what are you talking about.

Well.

“But as you know, in our current state, we are not enough.”

in his eyes, we would just be fledglings.

“So, let's join forces.”

When we first arrived in Haim Village, I had said that one of the reasons it was peaceful despite being in the middle of a dangerous mountain path was because there was a guardian.

That guardian was, of course, Toric.

However, it wasn't that Toric had deliberately volunteered to be a guardian.

In the first place, as he had said, he had put down his axe for a long time.

Nevertheless, he unintentionally became the guardian of the village.

Why?

Because before he settled in this village and completely buried his axe in the ground, he had once used that axe to cut down the monsters that had threatened him on his way to the village.

Of course, since he hadn't taken a single step out of the village after settling down, he had no chance of encountering monsters, but the intimidating aura that Toric exuded 19 years ago had imprinted an instinctive fear in the monsters of this area.

‘We should never approach the village that the dwarf entered’, a new way of life that was advantageous for survival was passed down to their descendants.

“So that we don't have to suffer meaningless deaths.”

So he was just rustier than before, not broken.

“You, will regain your prime skills while traveling with us. …And your body, as a bonus.”

(As part of the game's tolerance) his level had dropped, but he could just raise it again.

He could regain his former skills.

Furthermore, he could become even stronger than before.

“And we, will become stronger with you.”

Just as our party will continue to grow in the future.

“So── let's kill that bastard properly this time.”

Together.