Do You Think Someone Like You Can Defeat The Demon King? Chapter 16

Various dishes were lined up on top of the table .

On the right side, there was a cream stew made with leafy vegetables called Harpos.h.i.+ .
It was an excellent dish which despite retaining its crunchy texture, the gentle taste of the cream could seep into it .
The main dish was placed in the middle of the table; it was a Genofish sauté .
The Genofish is a D-rank aquatic monster, but its largest recorded size surpa.s.ses over 2 meters .
That said, the size of the fish in front of Flamm and the others was a mere 50 cm, but it still packs quite a presence .
The surface is perfectly cooked with flavorful oil coating it, while thin steam rose from it .
As they inhale with all they got, the savory, spicy aroma spreads across their lungs .
Beyond the well-cooked skin, lies its soft meat .
It feels like they would drool if they just look at it .
Furthermore, there were also minced meat and vegetable stir-fry, a soup which broth was made with the Genofish’s head and some freshly-baked bread included—
As soon as the menu were all lined up on the table, the three people, Flamm, Eterna and Sarah immediately joined their hands together while saying Itadakimasu! and started eating .
Feeling happy from such excessive vigor, Milkit said go ahead and eat while smiling .

To fulfill the promise from some time ago, Sarah was invited to be treated with Milkit’s cooking .
Feeling that she had an expectation she must not betray, Milkit came up with a wonderful a.s.sortment as she put in more effort than usual .
When she was cooking, however, Flamm came up from behind and hugged her while peeking at her cooking . Additionally, Eterna stealthily tried to snack on the food she prepared, before she was followed by Sarah who tried to copy her, but as they were found out doing it, the girls couldn’t help but to wait restlessly for the food to be done .
To be completely honest, Milkit thought that the people other than Flamm was a slight bother, but she didn’t think too badly of it .
Since to her, it was the first time she met people who are waiting in antic.i.p.ation for her cooking .

“Ith gelishus.h.!.+ Mmmhmmghmmm, hmm?”
“Mmhmm, it’h gelishus! Milghit’s kookhing ih gelishus afther awll!”
“…ith gud . ”

As the three was stuffing their mouths while speaking, it’s completely impossible to figure out who is saying what .
But since they conveyed that the food was delicious, it was such a wonderful thing .
Milkit didn’t even lay her hands on her own portion as she looked at the three who had their cheeks stuffed .
As she did, Flamm who saw her and couldn’t leave her be, cut a bite-sized portion of the Genofish stew from her own plate, picked it up with her form and pointed it at the girl .

“Here, say aan . ”
“Master, I can eat by myself, it’s okay . ”
“So you say, but you’re not moving at all, aren’t you? Here, aan!”
“Aaan…”

In the face of the persuasive Flamm, Milkit opened her mouth .
As the meat of the fish entered, the mellow aroma of the spice spreads across her mouth .
It certainly is delicious, but because it was a food she prepared on her own and she was feeling embarra.s.sed, she couldn’t think about the taste at all .

“The’re getting awong so well, hmm?”
“They’re always like that”
“Her face was healed, but I don’t know why she’s still wearing her bandages . ”
“She said she doesn’t want to show it to anyone except of Flamm . ”
“…They get awong so well, huh…”
“Yeah, something like that . ”

The two people who was focusing on bringing food into their mouths, Eterna and Sarah, chatted to each other as they observed the two other persons .
Sarah was surprised when she was invited to the house only to meet the hero Eterna, but she had gotten used to the situation right now .
Perhaps it was because she was young, or perhaps the two were in the same wavelength .

“By the way,”

With a serious expression, Sarah stopped her hand that was holding the fork and asked Eterna .

“You were together with Maria nee-sama, right?”
“Yeah, more or less . ”
“How was she? Is she healthy?”
“I didn’t talk much with her, so I don’t really know . But…I feel like she’s hiding something . ”
“…hiding something…is she . ”

Sarah wasn’t really surprised .
The girl stabbed her fork into the Harpos.h.i.+ and carried it into her mouth .
Munch, munch, as the sound of her chewing, and after she swallowed, she continued .

“Unlike me, Maria nee-sama is a remarkable person, so she has more in the matter of circ.u.mstances with the church . ”
“I don’t believe in the church…but it might be bad for me to say that right in front of a nun . I’m sorry . ”
“It’s not a problem . I mean, I also have the same opinion . ”

After returning from Enichidae, Sarah moved around in an attempt to look into the research facility .

Yet she couldn’t find any information .
Supposing that the research of that beast is still being continued—then they must have made more progress than from the time that facility was abandoned .
They made an Ogre, a monster that wasn’t noticeably strong, into something that could finally be defeated by the power of two people .
If that power is implanted into a stronger monster or even an adventurer, then—

“It might be better if we leave difficult topics for later . ”
“You’re…right . I’ll enjoy Milkit onee-san’s food for now!”
“That’ll be great…chomp . ”
“Chomp, chomp . ”

The two emptied their heads and started stuffing their mouths with snacks and taking a bite of the bread .
On the other hand, for some reason, Flamm was waiting for the embarra.s.sed Milkit while holding the fork at her and saying “Aan,”

After everyone had cleaned up, the four sat down around the table again, held the tea brewed by Milkit with both hands and started to exchange information .
They wanted to end up with a fun talk before sending Sarah away if possible, but the situation didn’t allow for it .

“I looked into the research facility after that, but I couldn’t find anything . ”
“What about the doc.u.ments written down in the place of the Chialries?”
“I think those belongs to the bishop of the church in the Central district, but…it seems like it was just left defenselessly in that room by coincidence . ”
“Which means that the bishop knows about the situation . ”

To Eterna’s comment, Sarah said maybe, as she nodded .

“But even if I wanted to look into it a bit more, there’s a limit on what I can look into . ”
“Could we look into it from another approach? Like from another church from a different district for example . ”
“I think it’s definitely impossible to do it from the cathedral in the North district, so probably it’s going to be either the East district or West district . But the West district is…I know some church knights, but I don’t think that it’s a place for it . ”
“Why would you say that?” asked Milkit .

For the girl who was talking in a more positive way than when she was before, Sarah replied while being slightly surprised .

“It’s a joint establishment with an orphanage . See, the public safety of the West district is so bad that there are a lot of abandoned children, so the place also serves to protect those children . Actually I’ve been in there, so I think it’d be impossible for the information about the research facility to be included there . ”

Conversely, it could also be used as a front to hide the fact, but Sarah wanted to believe that the church couldn’t possibly be that twisted .
Besides, as far as she has seen when she entered the place, at the very least she couldn’t find anything suspicious in the extent of what she investigated .

“Then, for now we can only look into the church in the East district, huh…”
“There’s a lot of wealthy people in that district after all . I don’t think we can do anything to make us stand out though . In the first place, the research facility is built outside, so there are also possibilities that we won’t find anything even if we investigate the church . ”
“Well, that’s also true . There’s also no guarantee that the research is still being continued . ”
“I wonder . ”

It was then when Eterna interrupted .

“The history of human experiments in the kingdom dates far back, so I think there’s a bigger chance that it’s still being continued . ”
“It does?”
“At the very least, they’ve already started doing it ever since I was born . ”

Everyone in the room thought similarly; “But I don’t know when…”
At the very least, the research was older than everyone except Eterna .

“That facility had that grotesque creature with that core implanted . The fact that they built the facility underground is an evidence that both the empire and the church are wagering on it . I don’t think they’d give up after losing just one facility . ”

However, her words had a certain persuasiveness to it .
She’s not the type of person to lie or take a shot in the dark, so it’s probably better to think under the impression that the research is still being continued .

“For now I’ll try going to the East district and the cathedral to see if I can try investigating something . ”
“I’m sorry that we can’t do anything . ”
“Don’t mention it, I’m also interested in it in a personal level anyways . If the church that I belong to is doing something bad, I want to bring it to light . ”

The ones who raised her until now are without a doubt the followers of the Origin .
In actuality, perhaps she doesn’t even want to doubt them .
But after witnessing the beast and the countless corpses in that facility, she knows that the church is committing a grave sin in any ways .
The people of the church had taught her that evil must be judged .

“By the way, what about Dain? Have you thought of a way to demolish him?”
“About that…that guy has been awfully quiet recently . Thanks to that, the West district has been peaceful . He doesn’t even try to pick a quarrel with me . Conversely, it’s becoming harder for me to do anything against him…that, or he’s planning something that we can’t see . ”
“Nothing but bad premonition, huh…”
“Yeah, for now we could only either figure out what his plan is or just probe around as we take on requests . ”

In the end, they still could not secure enough concrete information as of now .
Flamm said we could only do this patiently, couldn’t we?, to which everyone nodded .
There are differences in the plan in dealing with the two, but be it about Dain’s faction or about the church, they are both something larger than Flamm’s group .
That’s why they couldn’t quickly gather important information, so they had no choice but to steadily investigate .
After that, the four spent the time together calmly, and after they finished their third cup of tea, the curtain for the dinner party descends .
Sarah insisted that It’s okay! but obviously they couldn’t leave a single ten-year-old little girl on her lonesome to walk through the West district .
Thus in the end, Flamm sent Sarah home .

Late that night, the hoa.r.s.e voice of a man echoed across the back alleys of the West district .

“S-Stay away……STAY AWAAAYYYY!!”

He looked like he was in the middle of his twenties .
As he was wearing a mantle and a set of light leather armor, it doesn’t take a genius to know that he’s an adventurer .
The man readied a hatchet he has been carrying and faced his enemy—but he couldn’t think of a way to fight the threat in front of him .
If only he’s facing against a person or a monster, he might have thought of a way to fight it off .
But what he’s facing are just…eyeb.a.l.l.s .
It’s not even a beast with the shape of an eye .
The rolling, human eyeb.a.l.l.s are solely intending to approach the man .
But their numbers are just too much .
Not only they are in the alleyway, the eyeb.a.l.l.s are flooding around him on the walls, and even on the rooftops of the building around him, while their irises are all facing at the man .
There’s no longer any way for him to escape .
He draws back slowly before his back was pushed against the wall, and by then,

“AaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH…!” The man was convinced of his looming death, so he lamented as he lies on his a.r.s.e .

Even still, his instincts are attempting to preserve his life, so he tried brandis.h.i.+ng his axe in vain .
Squash .
Some eyeb.a.l.l.s were crushed by it, but it was but a drop of the ocean .
Finally the moist sphere touches his body .
From his toes to his knees, from his knees to his thighs, and they kept crawling up to his shoulders, and when he thought they got where they need to be—
Slip, the eyeb.a.l.l.s slips into his body .
There were no pain .
Under the ticklish feeling and the strange sensation of foreign objects entering his body, the man gasps and pants .
And as they entered his body,
A new arm appeared on his torso .
It had tactile sensations, and he could also move it freely .
There were no complications; it’s now a part of his body .

“A…Aah…!”

It doesn’t make any sense .
He was just following Dain’s orders to threaten a researcher from the church .
But when he was going back and thought he saw eyeb.a.l.l.s falling, the number gradually increases .
And before long, the streets were flooded with them, and as he was cornered running away from them, they entered his body, and another arm grew on him .
From the start to the end, nothing made sense .
What in the world is he fighting right now?
But he couldn’t come up with an answer, and the eyeb.a.l.l.s are still rolling up on him and kept sinking themselves into his skin .
It doesn’t hurt, but that was precisely what scared him .
Rather, if it does hurt, and if he could have screamed, he probably would’ve been able to dissipate .

“Uaa…AA…AAAAAHH!!”

He grew another right thumb .
He grew another leg .
His stomach is bulging—no, perhaps he also grew another one .
He could also feel the timing of his heartbeat pounding in a lag .
Since a while ago, he had already grown five arms .
On top of that, as the eyeball enters his throat—

“UAAAAAHH!”
“AAH, AAAAAHH!!”

His two voices screamed in unison .
This time, he gained another head .
From the center of his neck, as if it’s the bark of a tree, another neck extends out, and two of the same faces were lined up .
Their breathing was mixed, and as they’ve gotten confused on whose body does it belong to, they lost their freedom to even crawl away .
If this is his retribution for threatening the researcher from the church, an atonement was supposed to be enough .

“STOP IT ALREADY!”
“KILL MEEE!”
“NO! I DON’T WANNA DIE!”
“KILL ME WHEN I’M STILL HUMAAN!”

Even as he begged, they didn’t stop .
The eyeb.a.l.l.s rushed to him and entered his body .

He kept growing more heads until he had three, even four, and he started to lose sense of who he is or what he’s feeling—all until his body and his mind turned into something that’s not human .

The next morning,
The subordinate that went to threaten the church’s researcher did not come back .
Hearing that news, Dain unusually started to investigate the matter himself .
He had the ambition to seize the entire West district, and he finally managed to go against the church .
Typically, as he advances his plan, his hara.s.sment against Flamm is slacking .
He must punish them for hurting his comrades .
But right now, there was an important matter that he should prioritize .

In order to seize control of the church, he has to corrupt those on the top .
He has done this for quite a while, so there has been some church knights and pastors who had fallen to his hands after he had bribed them or treated them to wine and dine .
Furthermore, he also had reached out to stores that had close transaction history and the wholesalers that sells goods to these stores West district, and he had made a solid ground from that .
If he strengthened his grounds, he could put pressure to the church and he could then raise his social status using the influence of the church knights and the pastors .
Right now, he’s in the phase of exerting pressure against the church—but even though he had predicted it, he didn’t think that they would use force this early in the game .

The reason he had to come out himself is also to investigate the movement of the church .
Just by looking at the methods of killing or hiding the corpse can give you a general idea of what kind of people the church or the knights are composed of .
Even if he was to be unlawfully abducted and confined, he could still figure it out .
Witness their modus operandi to know your opponent, and figure out who have to to take out .
He also must confirm it with his own eyes before he could progress with the strategy from now on .

“…hm?”

As he walked in the alleyway not far away from the church, he recalled a terrible feeling and snorted .
After he did, something smells fishy from somewhere .
It’s not the smell of a rotting corpse nor the smell of blood, yet it was still a strange smell .
If one was to describe it, it smells similar to kitchen waste, but it smells more severe and condensed—

Following his nose, Dain goes onward .
And after he turned a certain corner, he found it .

“What the h.e.l.l is that…”

He unconsciously let out that sentence due to the grotesqueness of what he’s witnessing .
The color of its skin and the parts of its body are that of a human’s .
Its hands are in the shape of human hands, and its legs are in the shape of human legs . It even has human face .
It’s just that they are not located in the normal place, and the number is also irregular .
In other words, it was but a lump of meat with dozens of arms, legs, and heads in a ma.s.s of meat wriggling about .

“Is he…Phil who’s been missing!?”

He realized that when he saw the man’s face .
Just to make sure, he attempted to scan the thing, and without a doubt, it’s the person he’s been searching .
But the thing he’s looking at is already unable to fulfill its own functions .
Body fluids flow out from its mouth, nose and eyes like an excretory organ .
Similarly with its other heads, it had its own thought, but they seem to have lost its consciousness .

“Dain-san, there you…are…wait, what the heck is that!?”
“It’s been here since earlier . Also, look at his face . ”
“Face…wait, isn’t this!?”
“I’ve no clue what happened, but the bunch we’re dealing with seems to be a lot more troublesome than I’d expected . ”
“The church, isn’t it?”
“I’ll bet . ”

They had heard some dark rumors about them, but they didn’t think it includes a creation of such creature .
Dain pulled a knife from his lower back and suddenly sunk its blade into the lump of meat that was wriggling restlessly .

“Dain-san!?”

His subordinate panicked, but Dain calmly cut open the lump of meat and confirmed its insides .
As he pulled his knife back out, those that flows out of the open wound were parts that belonged to a human .
What shocked him further was that inside the body, there were two beating hearts and three eyeb.a.l.l.s .
As he scanned it, the heart showed Phil’s status, but the eyeb.a.l.l.s showed a complete different status .

——————————————————————————

Retribution

Attribute: origin
Strength: origin
Intelligence: origin
Endurance: origin
Agility: origin
Intuition: origin

——————————————————————————

Dain scowled at such bizarre description .

“Huh? Origin? What the f.u.c.k, this is crazy . Oi, you, try scanning—”

Dain was about to ask the other man to scan the thing again,
but he was even more confused than Dain was that he was frozen still .

“Oy, don’t just stand there, c’mere!”
“U-Um…Dain-san…w-what’s happening to me now? I couldn’t move my neck and my right hand well…heck, I couldn’t separate ’em . ”

Dain couldn’t see him properly when he looked at the guy from the side, but now that he sees him from the front, Dain could clearly see the abnormality .
The man’s right hand is becoming one with his head .
He was trying to brush his hair with his right hand while Dain was using scan .
However, the right hand stopped moving, and his neck leans more and more as if it’s getting drawn to his arm .

“What’s with your expression, Dain-san? Hey, Dain-san, what’s happening to me! What’s happening!? A, I-it hurts…IT HURTS! AH…GII!”

His hand is getting swallowed by his head .
Even his shoulder is starting to similarly a.s.similate into his head, twisting his neck to an angle it wasn’t supposed to bend .

“SA…VE M…DAI…SA…, GGYAA!”

And then, with a dull Crack!, his neck completely broke .
Drool flows out from his mouth, drenching his collar .
However, the phenomenon that could only be described as an a.s.similation didn’t stop, and the man in front of Dain gradually started folding smaller and smaller .
Finally, in front of scene of carnage of the subordinate whose only head was left, Dain was left dumbfounded .
—It seems like he had touched something he shouldn’t have .
It was too late for him to notice that .

Splurt .

As Dain heard that sound, he turned his back against Phil’s corpse .
A lone faceless boy was standing there .
Instead of a face, the boy had a flesh vortex on his head .
Its elliptical shape wriggles, and a red blood-like bodily fluid flows out, soiling his white s.h.i.+rt .
The boy whose chest and shoulders are dyed red glared at Dain without even moving a muscle .

“Ha…haha…hahahahaha…”

Dain’s dry laugh echoed across the alleyway .
He could figure out just by looking…that this is not an opponent he can win against .
In front of an overwhelmingly powerful person, he was overcome with a sense of powerlessness, and he could do nothing but to laugh .
And then, the boy looked at Dain and stretched his hand forward .