Chapter 143

Therefore, the Demon King cancelled the order early, and the Shadow Zart also disappeared after the Demon King died.

"....Damn it! If I could find it, I would have wanted to learn some space magic!"

As he spoke, he beat his chest in anger as if he had lost 100 million.

His regretful look really made the two of them not know what to say.

Fulilian simply ignored him and squatted on the ground, touching the broken goddess monument: ".... There is actually a magic that can turn back time in this stone? The goddess' magic is really incredible."

"... Take some back and study them slowly. After all, isn't there still the goddess' magic on it?" Ash squatted down and picked up a stone and put it in his pocket silently. This made Fulilian follow suit and picked a stone she liked and put it in her pocket: "Yeah, since it's broken anyway, just take it back and study it."

"You two... actually took the goddess, the only remaining miracle in the world, as a souvenir for a tourist spot...?" Philen was behind the two of them, looking like he was about to say something but couldn't.

Seeing that they were going their own way and had no intention of returning the stone, and even wanted to walk away, he bowed deeply to the goddess monument to apologize, and then followed them and warned: "——What are you thinking about!? If you leave like this, you might be punished by God! Put the stone back quickly? Okay?"

"It's okay. If there is such a thing as divine punishment, I would have been punished by God a long time ago."

"What are you talking about? Master Ash! Please don't give up on yourself!"

"But I am a demon? No matter what, I will not be favored by the goddess..."

It's better to say that the real enemy of the demons is the goddess - although he wanted to say it directly, he held back to avoid being worried, and insisted on preaching, refusing to return the stone.

And Fulilian took advantage of this opportunity to tiptoe and ran to the front with the stone in her arms. She didn't want to put down the stone, but she was afraid of being affected by the fish pond, and she cruelly abandoned her accomplice.

...............................

After the three of them returned to the vicinity of the pass, they waited for two days before passing the inspection and happily stepped into the empire.

Originally, they should have walked slowly, but... in fact, not long after they passed the imperial pass, a passing caravan said that not long after they left, the kingdom's army had already built fortifications outside the pass, across the national defense barrier.

The kingdom's army, which was clearly looking for the right time to continue the war, also made Fulilian instinctively ask him if there was any way to temporarily mediate, but... he only got the answer that he could not help.

After all, the war was started by the empire, so it was naturally not so easy to end, and the empire would not easily watch the territory being lost without fighting back. It would be too unfair to the kingdom to just tie its hands and feet.

This left Fulilian speechless, and she could only speed up her pace and hope to see the emperor, and try to let him talk to the emperor to resolve this dispute.

So everyone crossed the mountains and soon arrived near the core area of ​​the empire - the imperial capital, but...

"Are you sure you didn't remember the wrong way? Why is this road so bad?" Ash, who was leading the way in front, looked at the mud under his feet and couldn't help complaining.

Philen also shook his body and sighed weakly: "... My feet are so sore, I can't walk anymore..."

"I can't help it. If I want to go to the imperial capital, this is the only way to go." Fulilian pouted slightly, a little upset: "And I'm trying to walk, right? Why are you complaining first? It's as if I took the wrong way. If you don't trust me, ask Ash to lead you."

"... But Lord Ash is not good at recognizing the way."

"No, wait a minute? This is the only way to the imperial capital? If you say it's a small path or a shortcut, I can agree, but now we are definitely going the wrong way, right?"

Looking at the weeds in front of us, it looks like a wild mountain road that no one has been to for a long time. , Ash couldn't help but stop and look back: "Is this really the road leading to the capital of a country? I think it has been abandoned for at least decades."

"Maybe it's mainly used in other directions? Anyway, I can't remember it wrong." Fulilian, who has an unexpectedly good memory, said firmly: "After all, forget about Philen, why do you, a soldier, complain? Shouldn't you show gentlemanly manners and help the girl in front of you at this time?"

"Girl...?"

"What? This attitude."

"It's okay... I was just thinking, how about I carry you?"

"Okay! It's decided!"

He just said it tentatively, and Fulilian pushed Philen to the front, letting him hesitate and half squat down.

"Really... really want it?" Philen felt at a loss, but after a little hesitation, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "Then, then! Here I come!"

The words were very imposing, but her actual actions were very slow, just gently lying on his back and reaching around his neck.

It was just as if she was worried, trying to keep her chest away from him, but it was difficult not to touch that huge stature, and...

Flillian ran up with a "Hey, hey!" and then lay on Philen's back, making her stick to him completely.

The soft touch he had felt before emerged in a much stronger way than before, making Ash try to ignore it in his heart, while shaking his head and sighing: "You all came up."

"Is it very, very heavy?" The girl with a red face hugged his neck and unconsciously rested her chin on his shoulder, and asked in a low voice.

"No, it's totally fine."

With two beautiful girls, one big and one small, on his back, a normal man couldn't say no, he could only stand up like this, and with Fulillian's inexplicable excitement shouting: "Oh~ This angle is good! Let's go~!", he quickly walked towards the direction where the village was probably.

Although he felt that it was not good to stick so close to Philen, who was so big, at the beginning, the soft touch behind him and the good smell of hair also made people inexplicably concerned.

However, Fulilian's commotion made him feel that he was just accompanying Ferren to take care of the child (Fulilian).

...............................

...............................

Although he was carrying two girls through the forest, Ash's speed was much faster than theirs.

Not long after, they saw an open area at the edge of the forest and found a few buildings.

And it was when the two people behind them hurried down and met villagers not long after that they finally understood why the road was overgrown with weeds even though it led to the imperial capital.

"Since the opening of the main road nearby, basically no one will take the mountain road here, but..."

The village chief, Radar, who looked kind and kind, scratched his bald head and looked at the three people covered in mud and looked embarrassed. He couldn't help shaking his head and laughing: "I didn't expect that after so many years, I could still see adventurers coming here."

"...I have to say, this road is quite difficult to walk." Ash glanced at Fulilian with mixed feelings.

Ladar smiled and explained: "That road has been abandoned for thirty years. Although the village used to be located on the main road to the imperial capital, now... you actually came along a road that has been abandoned for decades. Of course it was hard."

"Fulilian, what do you say? Do you still remember the sentence 'I can't remember it wrong anyway'?"

"I didn't remember it wrong! It's just a recent thing, how could I know..." The slap in the face came too quickly, leaving Fulilian with an indescribable weird expression.

Felen felt that she was a little pitiful, and couldn't help but stop her: "Lord Ash, don't bully Lord Fulilian too much."

"Yes, yes..." Ash nodded with a look of indifference.

Ladar stroked his graying beard and said calmly and friendly:

"It's rare for adventurers to come back, and you must be tired today, right? You're welcome, just have a good rest in the village today."

"But there doesn't seem to be an inn."

"There is no inn, but there is an empty house not far from the village, you can use it at any time."

When Ash showed a disappointed expression, Ladar warmly entertained the three people and took them to an empty house.

Ladar himself was helping, chatting, or playing with children in various places in the village again, looking like a lively old man.

Of course....this is the literal meaning - an old good man.

However, after everyone dispersed and walked around appropriately....when Philen went to buy food, Fulilian lay down by the window with him, seemingly observing the mountains in the distance, but inadvertently glancing in the direction of Ladar, and asked casually:

"I asked around, and the villagers all respected the village chief. They said he was steady and friendly, and in other aspects he was no different from ordinary people."

"What? Did you see that guy killed a lot of people?"

"Huh? Killed people? No... I just think it's suspicious..." The unexpected judgment made Fulilian turn her head in surprise.

This reaction made him laugh and cry: ".... So you can't tell."

"When I shook hands with him, I felt that his hands were like those of an active soldier, who was exercising every day. I couldn't feel anything else. The atmosphere and breath were also very ordinary... Did he use some special training method? But if it was the reaction of a soldier's magic detection, it shouldn't be different from that of a normal person."

Flillian stared at Radar for a while, but couldn't see anything special. Even if they hadn't shaken hands, just from the body shape... the thin old man didn't look like he was well-trained.

"Well, forget it if you can't tell. Don't worry about it. I will deal with it appropriately."

"That's right. With you here, what can I be afraid of~" When Fulillian heard what he said, she turned her head and looked at him with a smile: "By the way, I'll leave the night watch to you~?"

"Well, leave it to me."

"Oh... Really manly~" Fulillian was halfway through praising with a smile, but suddenly changed the subject: "Although it's not like you at all.

"... Whatever you say. ”

He didn't intend to pay attention to the teasing at all, but his thoughts had already returned to the shadow warrior assassination plan he had seen.

.............................

If Ash remembered correctly, there was once a five-person shadow warrior team assigned to this area.

Because the road on the edge of this village was once the only road from the south to the imperial capital, the team was arranged to disguise themselves in this village and wait, and their assassination list happened to include Fulian.

The ruined Qian Fuli and the lotus shrimp·'Golden My Country and +Empire Order: I Chapter

In this magical world, if you are a person with very keen intuition, or a person with professions such as a warrior or a magician, you can basically see the special atmosphere that normal people have after killing someone, or it is different. Feel.

However, the shadow warriors have a special way of hiding themselves in this regard. It is like they are still able to deceive Fulian's magic detection at this close range and cannot be recognized as warriors.

Therefore, Ash naturally couldn't help but suspect that the old man who looked like a nice and nice gentleman should be a shadow warrior... No, that's what it is at 80%, right?

"However, if it is really a shadow warrior, then you are too good at waiting, right? It should have been almost eighty years? Are you still waiting here??"

Looking at the old man mingling with the children not far away, Ash was a little surprised at the patience of these people and murmured to himself unconsciously.

But if he is a dead soldier of the empire, there seems to be nothing strange about this... he is a dead soldier after all.

The old man seemed to have noticed his gaze, and looked back with a puzzled expression, and raised his hand and waved at him with a kind smile.

"...Looking at his appearance, he is really a kind old man." Ash waved his hand indifferently, then silently dragged Frilian next to him back into the room.

And below, in the village square.

As the village chief, Radar walked out from among the children and sat on the bench next to the building. The old woman wrapped in a cloak over there, his wife, suddenly laughed and said:

"...Everyone really respects you, and the children have always liked you. You are completely different from the first."

"Is this a good thing? Nowadays, the guys in the village like to come to me as the village chief whenever something happens, and I am busy with all the extra work. It's really... how did they become the village chief without knowing it? Is it because he is the oldest?" Radal, who was nearly a hundred years old, shook his head with a wry smile, and suddenly looked into the distance as if in reminiscence and said slowly:

"Now that I think about it, you were the first person to lend a helping hand to me who was of unknown origin. At that time, you suddenly gave me a sandwich, which really scared me."

"Ara? You seemed very calm at that time."

"Suddenly there is a strange girl, and you are normally intimidated when handed a sandwich, right?" Radal smiled bitterly, shaking his head repeatedly: "And I still remember it... the sandwich you made was ugly. "

"Sorry, my sandwich looks so ugly."

"But the sandwiches back then were really delicious..."

"Really? But... what happened to you today?" Radal's inexplicable sighing voice made his wife look worried: "What happened? Normally you wouldn't say such things."

"...It's nothing, I just suddenly remembered that I still have some unfinished work and I have to deal with it." Radar closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, then quickly walked towards home.

His wife was left alone, with a worried expression on her face, and murmured to herself: "As expected... still can't give up?"

After being a couple for more than half a century, even if Radar hid it very well, she still discovered the differences between her husband from clues, as well as a book that was constantly marked with X's.

She once accidentally looked through it. It was a strange list. There were dozens of pages in the list. Each page basically contained four people, with simple portraits and some descriptions of their combat abilities.

Some of those people even had names she had heard from adventurers before.

Because most of them are heroes or outstanding talents, local heroes, and incredible magicians.

It's just that... every time the husband goes out, someone will be drawn with an X. Occasionally, adventurers who pass by and hear rumors of someone's death will continue to draw an X on it.

She could basically guess what was going on, but...

"I must come back safely..."

As a wife, although she also knew that this was selfish, she could only pray silently in her heart that her husband could return safely.

On the other side, Radar silently found the suitcase in the woods, which had recently been hidden in the bushes, and took out two daggers from it.

"Fulillian who was buried... actually came anyway. It seems that at the end, only the two of us are left."

Killed by rebel targets during the mission, or lost due to the passage of time, only the youngest of the entire team survived.

Now he looked at the list in his hand, which had become somewhat tattered, and saw the only remaining portrait that had not been crossed out, but he couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

To be honest, if it was just Fulilian, he would still be confident. Although his body was not as good as it was when he was young, his rich combat experience could make up for it.

After all, his opponent was just a magician, and he was best at assassination. He could sneak up on the magician and kill him quietly, which was basically no different from ordinary people, but...

"Maybe I will fail this time... It's really not good. I'm still uneasy."

Thinking of the boy who made his intuition feel extremely dangerous at the first glance, Ladar looked at his slightly trembling hands, but could only hold his wrist and try to calm himself down.

And after taking a deep breath, he slowly stood up and headed towards the target.

...............................

...............................

Ladar was mentally prepared and planned to take a small path through the forest and go to the wooden house where the three lived.

But he had just stood up and taken two steps when he suddenly felt something behind him. He instinctively raised his dagger and took a stance, retreating and looking back.