At the Duke’s words, Jake snapped to attention.
“How do you intend to face the Demon King without a Hero!”
Now was not the time for self-reproach.
First, he had to survive.
If he didn’t live, he couldn’t make up for his mistakes or save the Empire’s citizens who would die without knowing anything.
“Without me, the world will belong to the Demon King. Are you saying that’s acceptable!”
At Jake’s desperate cry, the Duke raised his right hand.
The knight who was about to behead Jake stopped his movement and stood behind Jake with his sword gripped.
Even if he wasn’t right behind him, Jake couldn’t escape, but the fact that someone who could take his breath at any moment had seized his back tightened Jake’s windpipe.
“Does that orb allow you to catch the Demon King in my place?”
“Regrettably, that’s impossible.”
“Then how do you intend to handle what comes after?”
“You still don’t understand, Jake.”
The Duke approached. Even if he wanted to step back, even that wasn’t permitted to Jake.
The Duke placed his hand on Jake’s shoulder and spoke softly as if soothing him.
“This world no longer needs the Hero Jake.”
“What do you…”
“The Demon King has disappeared.”
It was absurd.
A lie. It had to be a lie.
It was the Hero who defeated the Demon King. That was a rule established by god.
No matter how much stronger than the Hero someone might be, no matter how much effort they made, they couldn’t defeat the Demon King.
Because it was ordained that way.
“No, I should say he will disappear soon. If you wait a little, a world without the Demon King will arrive. Isn’t it exciting, Jake?”
“Do you think I’ll believe that?”
“What can you do if you don’t believe it?”
Anyway, you won’t be able to confirm the truth.
The Duke swallowed his next words and raised his right hand. It was a signal to the knight.
Jake, guessing that the sword would soon cut off his neck, squeezed his eyes shut.
“I’ll give you a chance.”
The Duke waved his hand, and at that signal, the knight stepped aside instead of swinging his sword.
As if opening a path for Jake to escape.
“You may have become useless, but that name ‘Hero’ still has value. Cooperate with me. If you obediently admit all crimes and climb the execution platform, I’ll spirit you away just before your head falls.”
It meant to shoulder all the arrows aimed at the Duke’s house and become a dead person. If he did that, he could preserve his life. But what meaning would there be in a life obtained that way?
In the first place, he couldn’t trust the Duke’s words about sparing his life.
“However, if you can’t believe what I just said, I’ll give you one chance to escape.”
“What are you plotting, Father?”
It would have been more trustworthy if he said he’d kill him right now.
Jake glared at the Duke’s leisurely face, trying to grasp his intentions.
“Would ten minutes be enough?”
“For what?”
“Try running away somewhere, Jake.”
“What do you…”
“I won’t chase you for ten minutes.”
“……”
This was a trap.
It was obvious he just wanted to toy with him and mock him.
Anyway, Jake didn’t have the ability to escape the Duke within ten minutes, and no matter how hard he tried, he would be caught quickly.
But even if this was a trap, Jake had no other choice.
Tap—
Jake turned around without hesitation and ran.
He couldn’t escape this place avoiding the knight no matter what he did anyway. Then he had no choice but to bet everything on those ten minutes, even if it was a trap.
If heavenly fortune followed, he might be able to escape.
Yes. Just in case, if the chief god helped him.
“Hk, heok,”
If he just ran down the corridor and got through the door, he could get to the open area where many people passed by.
No matter how much he was his father, he wouldn’t drag someone known as a Hero in front of many watching eyes. If he just escaped that far, he could get out of this place.
If he just got out of the lord’s castle…….
“Heok—!”
Suddenly, he felt dizzy as if his vision was spinning.
Jake staggered trying to keep his balance and fell forward.
“Hts,”
His body went limp as if strength had drained from his entire body.
As if something that composed his body and made it move had suddenly disappeared.
‘…This can’t be.’
The power given by god was disappearing. As if the Duke’s words that a Hero was no longer needed were true, all that power that had filled his body since the day he was appointed Hero was disappearing.
Was it a trap? Could the ability of the black orb be this? No, it didn’t make sense.
Taking away his meager mana was one thing, but taking away the power given by god was something even the Duke couldn’t do.
Then there was only one answer.
God was directly taking back that power he had bestowed.
‘No… I can’t….’
The exit to escape the lord’s castle was right before his eyes, but he couldn’t collapse here.
Even if he lost his strength, he had to lose it after getting out.
He had to collapse in front of many watching eyes to avoid dying immediately.
“Kheuk,”
…But his heart wouldn’t obey.
Jake’s heart had serious problems from birth, and mana leaked out smoothly with every breath. As if his heart had been stabbed by a sword.
The inability to handle a sword was partly because of that, but more serious was that his basic stamina was severely lacking compared to ordinary others.
To such a Jake, god’s power was another heart. If he relied on that power, he could walk and run normally.
And now, deprived of that power, Jake felt his body was five times heavier than usual.
‘Surely before god bestowed his power, I also walked and moved… was it this difficult?’
Having become accustomed to relying on new power for just a few months after being appointed Hero, the original state he’d lived in his entire life felt heavy, burdensome, and awkward.
Thud.
Was it because he had been running, rolling, and suffering all day? Perhaps accumulated fatigue had built up, as his legs finally gave out and he collapsed.
Perhaps his body had frozen from the murderous intent he felt from behind.
‘Have ten minutes already passed?’
Clatter, clatter,
The knight grabbed one of Jake’s arms, who hadn’t even made it outside the lord’s castle, and dragged him.
Being dragged along was shameful and miserable, but Jake had no ability to resist.
The knight, who had dragged Jake like luggage back to the reception room, threw him at the Duke’s feet.
“Didn’t it turn out as I said, Jake?”
That was the Duke’s final greeting to his son.
Jake watched the knight drawing his sword and closed his eyes.
This is the end.
Until the last moment, there was no salvation from god.
Swoosh—
And at that moment when the knight’s sword flew toward Jake’s neck, the entire lord’s castle shook with a thunderous roar.
KWAAAAANG!
Clang—
In that wind, the knight’s body swayed greatly and the sword aimed at Jake crashed into the floor.
Kuuuuuung—
The lord’s castle exploded.
Kugugugugugugung,
Walls crumbled and the ceiling collapsed.
Jake moved his body immediately taking advantage of the chaos. However, the knight, whose reaction speed was faster than Jake’s, couldn’t have missed that movement.
Jake West is trying to escape outside the crumbled wall. Having judged so, the knight picked up the sword stuck in the ground and swung it quickly.
Swish—
The knight’s sword cut through empty air instead of slashing Jake’s back.
Contrary to the knight’s expectation, Jake charged toward the knight, not outside the lord’s castle.
“Kk,”
When Jake charged and collided with his whole body, even the off-guard knight’s body had to sway.
But it was only for a moment. An attack like a feather landing couldn’t give the knight even a bit of shock.
The knight sneered at Jake, who had thrown away a precious opportunity with a useless act, grabbed him, and hurled him toward the collapsing wall.
Hoping Jake would be crushed to death under the pile of falling stones.
KWAAAAAAANG—!
A dust storm rose with the explosive sound, obscuring the view.
The knight swung his sword and charged toward the pale shadow beyond the dust storm.
The tip of that sword accurately penetrated the target.
Clang—
KWAAAANG!
“Aaaaak!”
The knight received a huge shock to his entire body at the same time he thrust in the sword and was blown away.
Just as it had been when he attacked Jake in the lord’s castle garden.
“Kheuuk…”
He barely endured without fainting, but he couldn’t move his body due to the severe pain. The knight could only watch as the target disappeared far away.
“Jake West!”
How resentful he was, shouting that name loudly.
But that cry didn’t reach Jake’s ears as he disappeared at tremendous speed.
“Ah, seriously so noisy.”
Regrettably, Klad, whose ears were several times sharper than Jake’s, had to hear all that desperate shouting.
Klad, holding Jake secured with one arm, ran quickly and fled to a place far from the lord’s castle.
“Wait, Klad. If we leave the lord’s castle to collapse like this, the territory’s people will…”
“Did you know I would come to save you?”
“…No.”
“Then why did you do such a reckless thing?”
By reckless thing, he must mean when Jake charged at the knight.
Jake answered calmly.
“I guessed you had come.”
The moment the wall exploded, what Jake examined wasn’t the collapsing ceiling or the pierced wall, but the knight’s eyes.
A wall that had been still wouldn’t collapse without reason. In that situation, the only one who could burst the wall was Klad, if not the Duke.
Reading bewilderment in the knight’s eyes, Jake could notice that Klad had arrived.
From the moment he realized that fact, an action like charging at the knight was by no means reckless.
Because he knew he was being protected.
“Klad.”
“What.”
“I intend to find a descendant of the Duke’s house and place him in the position of the next Duke West.”
“What?”
Klad, who had been running searching for a deserted place, stopped right there and put Jake down.
Jake calmly brushed the dirt from his clothes and turned his head toward Klad.
“I wanted to tell you this first when I met you again.”
With this, Jake had laid out all the cards he held.
He wanted to let Klad know through this.
I trust you.
