In the fifth year after entering the Papal Palace.
By now, Hyakin had become close friends with the other four heroes who had once looked down on him and dismissed him entirely.
“Muteric! I’ll focus on holding the barrier — you just concentrate on cutting the enemy down!”
“I know, Hyakin! Ciel, stack your attack enhancement magic on top!”
“I was already chanting the spell before you said anything!”
“While Ciel finishes the buff magic, I’ll protect him — so Muteric, focus and slash the demon commander’s throat without worry.”
The Papal Palace was equipped with a kind of simulation device designed to annihilate demons in the event of an emergency, powered by divine energy.
The five heroes regularly trained by fighting and defeating simulated demons, drawing primarily on the divine energy Hyakin had charged.
Against ordinary demons they won without much trouble, but the Demon King and the four Dukes who served him were extraordinarily difficult to defeat even in simulation.
Today, what they were up against was a simulated recreation of the Eastern Duke of the Demon Realm — Asmodeus.
Asmodeus, the Duke of Lust, was the natural nemesis of Holy Knights and paladins, and he launched an attack on Pesar in order to neutralize the heroes.
Foolish creations of the Chief God — even if you bring with you the vast divine power of light, do you truly believe you can withstand the power of a darkness far denser than that?
“Ngh……!”
Pesar, who had been holding the line as the tank, staggered — unable to endure the obscene illusion that Asmodeus had fired at him. He tried to resist, but Asmodeus’s viscous, crawling lust, which had invaded his mind like a blank white canvas, was more than enough to numb his thoughts completely.
As a result, an ever-so-slight gap opened up — and for just a single instant, Ciel was exposed to the demon’s attack.
“Screeee! Scree!”
The demons under Asmodeus’s command brought their sharp tridents crashing down mercilessly against the barrier around Ciel. The demons, with massive curved horns jutting from both sides of their heads and jagged fangs, were terrifying to behold just by looking at them.
“[Grant greater power to my dear friend Muteric… Aaaaugh!]”
Clang—
Since they had split into pairs, the barrier over Ciel was the paladin Pesar’s responsibility.
But in the brief moment that Pesar was swallowed by the darkness, the cunning demons seized the opportunity and tore freely into the weakened barrier.
As a result, the barrier on Ciel and Pesar’s side shattered completely.
“Ugh…… cough, hack!”
“I can’t…… I can’t breathe properly!”
Even against upper-ranked demons it might have been manageable — but in the case of the Four Great Dukes of the Demon Realm, their mere proximity exposed humans to the demonic poison emanating from them.
While Ciel and Pesar were suffering and unable to collect themselves, Asmodeus raised a long-handled axe to finish them off.
This is the end.
“Who says it’s the end?”
Clang clang clang clang!
The barrier of divine energy that had crumbled to dust appeared in an instant, as if nothing had happened at all — a perfect round sphere that enveloped Ciel and Pesar.
Thanks to it, both of them were unharmed even against Asmodeus’s assault.
Ciel and Pesar called out one name with smiles at the corners of their lips.
“Thank you, Hyakin!”
“You saved us again.”
Damn Saint……!
Ciel and Pesar regrouped and launched their attack on Asmodeus, while simultaneously picking up the attack support they hadn’t been able to finish.
“[Grant greater power to my dear friend Muteric!]”
“Hyakin! I’ve recovered now — I can rebuild the barrier. So……”
Ciel’s attack enhancement buff landed safely on Muteric, but Hyakin did not drop the barrier.
“Not yet, Pesar.”
“You……! Even if you are the best when it comes to divine power, maintaining two barriers simultaneously against a supreme-ranked demon is a massive strain even for you!”
“Massive, but not impossible, is it?”
“You……”
“Pesar, I know you haven’t fully freed yourself from Asmodeus’s darkness yet.”
Hyakin’s golden and ocean-blue eyes looked directly at Pesar. Pesar felt for some reason as though he could not meet that gaze, and quickly lowered his head.
“A weakened divine barrier isn’t enough to protect Ciel. So the right call here is for me to hold both barriers on my own.”
“But……!”
“If you want to lecture me, shake off the damage you took from Asmodeus first.”
Pesar bit down on his lip.
“You always…… do this.”
“Cut me some slack. It’s all to win, isn’t it?”
“……Damn it!”
Pesar joined Muteric’s assault. Muteric shot a glare over at the culprit Hyakin, and Ciel — while layering a buff on Pesar as well — scolded Hyakin.
“I’ve told you time and again that this kind of teamwork makes you the only one taking all the sacrifice, Hyakin!”
“Ah, sorry, sorry~”
“Sorry makes it all better? If this were real, you would……!”
Ciel swallowed the rest of that sentence. Partly to focus on taking down the simulated Asmodeus — but also because he couldn’t bring himself to actually say the terrible words: Hyakin might die.
Hmph. Even a Saint has his limits when it comes to maintaining barriers.
Whether Asmodeus had realized that Hyakin was the core of this party, he flung a relentless assault at him alone.
Crack. Craaack.
The barrier around Hyakin began peeling away like the shell of an egg.
Muteric screamed like a cry.
“Hyakin!”
“If you’ve got time to call my name, hurry up and cut Asmodeus’s head off!”
Hyakin smiled — that bright, stirring smile of his that never failed to move people.
“I’m really okay.”
“Damn it……!”
Muteric, Ciel, and Pesar had softened far too much toward Hyakin over the past five years, and they found themselves unable to refuse that request.
Muteric shouted.
“Pesar! You handle the mid-ranked demons that are swarming in! I’ll deal with the commander — Asmodeus!”
“Got it!”
“Ciel, you protect Hyakin and buy us time!”
“I know without being told!”
Pesar cleaved through the mid-ranked demons with his greatsword, and Ciel unleashed lightning magic to try to hold Asmodeus back.
But breaching the wall that was Asmodeus proved difficult.
Clang!
“Ugh……!”
“Hyakin——!”
The barrier finally shattered, and Asmodeus’s hand closed around Hyakin’s slender throat.
So this is the human most precious to you all.
“Stop!”
Then I shall kill this child and deliver upon you the greatest pain and despair.
Muteric sprinted forward and slashed at Asmodeus’s throat — but before he could, Asmodeus snapped Hyakin’s neck with a smile, the crack of it ringing out.
“No——!”
Even knowing it wasn’t real, Muteric cried out in anguish. The same was true for Ciel and Pesar.
Asmodeus crumbled to ash and scattered — and from within that disintegrating grip, Hyakin’s body fell to the floor like a dead leaf, delivering a pain to them all that couldn’t have been worse.
“Hyakin! Hyakin! Open your eyes!”
But Hyakin did not open his eyes.
At that moment, a notification appeared signaling the end of the simulation.
[Simulation A — Eastern Duke Asmodeus has been successfully completed.]
[Your grade is: A.]
Only after the score appeared did Hyakin exhale again.
“Phew—! Having your neck snapped is a first, even for me.”
“Hyakin, you……!”
Ciel ran over and flicked Hyakin hard on the forehead.
“How many times have I told you to value your own body?!”
“Ow. That hurts……”
“I hit you to make it hurt! Last time you died at a demon’s hands too — aren’t you afraid of dying? Even in a simulation, the pain is still real……!”
The face that had once been stained with contempt was now twisted in a complicated knot of worry and relief, self-reproach for failing to protect Hyakin, and resentment toward a Hyakin who threw his own life away without a second thought.
“I…… want you to at least not sacrifice yourself during training. Even if only then.”
At that, Hyakin tilted his head.
“What’s wrong with this strategy?”
“……What?”
“You used to say it, Muteric — dying in battle against the demons is the most honorable way to die.”
Muteric’s body gave a small flinch.
“That was……”
He had nothing to say. Those words had been said by his own mouth, when he had been sneering at Hyakin during his reckless days. How could he forget?
Hyakin smiled bitterly, and then his gaze turned serious.
“To subjugate the Demon King, there are greater dangers than this waiting for us.”
“……”
“So if sacrificing a life like mine is what it takes to keep you all alive so you can defeat the Demon King — that’s a cheap price to pay.”
“You really are……”
Muteric’s lips moved silently. He ground his teeth with a low gnash, then turned around without a word and disappeared.
Pesar watched Muteric go, then turned and scolded Hyakin in kind.
“This time you went too far, Hyakin. I know you’re always catching us off guard, but……”
“You of all people know this wasn’t a joke, Pesar.”
“……”
“I mean it. If any of you are ever in danger, I will be the first to lay down my body to save you.”
Pesar sighed inwardly.
……There were times I thought the reckless troublemaker from back then was better.
At least back then, he would have dodged around trying to preserve his own life……
Hyakin, having been reborn as far too perfect a Saint, placed far too little weight on the value of his own life.
All while acting as though the lives of his companions and others were things he absolutely could not allow to be lost……
Pesar reflected with regret, wondering whether their own thoughtless behavior from those early days had turned Hyakin into this — a Saint of such fanatic devotion.
Yet there was something he could never have known, even if he died and came back to life.
Ah, even getting killed by demons in a simulation — dying without any pain is so wonderfully convenient.
The truth was that Hyakin wasn’t driven by any noble sense of self-sacrifice — he was simply practicing getting killed (!) in any and every situation, so as to be ready for it no matter what.
