Vol. 3 - Chapter 52 - Demon king Munch
<Slime Demon King>
]<Slime Demon King>
I wonder if this woman\'s inorganic voice was the voice of the world that happened every so often.
"D-Demon King?" Gaius muttered this, his both eyes dyed with intense agitation. Judging from the uneasiness flowing out from him and the others, it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had heard that.
At the very least, the probability that in a certain fixed range people could hear it was high. If that was the case, of course they would panic.
Nevertheless—
Demon King, huh. He once overthrew two battalions—
All of a sudden, a violent pain ran through my head as if someone had hammered a nail in my head. I unconsciously held down my head with my right hand.
Overthrew two battalions? Is there any such historical fact written in the books of this world?
It was true that the Demon King, the king of the demons, had appeared six times in this world. However, battalions weren\'t the only ones that were defeated. Generally, it was the countries themselves. It was because of these six threats destroying countless countries that the hero fighting the demon king for the fourth time established the Adventurer\'s Guild. It might not be wrong that two battalions were destroyed, but I didn\'t remember such a maniacal fact at all.
Am I tired?
"Yee-he-he-he, I\'m in a great mood. I feel like the current me can destroy anything. I can sense that feeling!"
Munch, who had dyed his whole body with the color of poisonous purple, looked up at the night sky with an euphoric expression.
"That\'s right. Unfortunately, it seems like there\'s still trash left to clean up. I don\'t have time to bother about small fry like you. Hurry up and come here so I can kill you."
The possibility of them being held hostage couldn\'t be denied completely either. It might be too late if I didn\'t hurry up.
"Did you say this new form is a small fry!?" Munch intimidated, his one eye wide open and his head tilted back.
"Hmph. Did you hear something else? Or does being a Demon King make it impossible to understand human speech? Well, I guess it\'s understandable since you have turned into an animal," I uttered my words of exasperation, shrugging my shoulders.
It wasn\'t like I was bluffing or anything. It was the fact. Munch\'s average status was B+. Surely, it was a certain strength, but to me who had [Evil Destroyer and Preacher] skill effect, nobody becoming a demon king wasn\'t a big threat . There was also the probability of him being a mere human.
Well, the title of hero, etc. included the ability of [Evil Destroyer and Preacher], and if the mastermind had intentionally made the demon king appear, the countermeasures could be easily taken.
In any case, my average status when facing Munch was S-. My magic power was S+. He wasn\'t even my opponent.
I put the invisible labyrinth into Gaius and the other adventurers while I slowly walked towards Munch, who was staring at me with an incessant evil look.
"Don\'t look down one me!!"
Myriads of mysterious liquid separated from Munch and rushed to my skin.
"H-hey!"
I approached Munch, ignoring Gaius\'s irritated voice and not bothering to brush off the purple liquid that had been attached to me.
"W-w-w-why it is not working!?"
After that, he fired countless purple thorns at me, but I easily offset them using wind pressure.
"Dammit!! Then I will just swallow you!!"
Munch\'s entire body contorted into a sphere and he swallowed me headfirst.
"How is it? With this you will be also going to end in my stomach—"
"Annoying."
I grasped the liquid and charged my mana into it.
"Babababa!!!"
Munch shattered with a bizarre cry, and as his pieces rapidly gathered and formed a humanoid form, he crawled to the floor and looked up at me, breathing heavily.
"W-why didn\'t it work!? I should have been able to control anyone with this!"
"I don\'t know."
I took my stance, lowered my center of gravity, pulled my right elbow, and began to rush with magic power in my fist.
Munch\'s body was shattered by the blow. I hit each and every drop that burst out of it.
I lowered my fist, confirming that water droplets had completely burst.
The droplets of water had gathered to form a human shape, but I felt no more power than before I became the Demon King. It seemed that the fatal wound was just now.
"You, what the....hell are you? Legendary hero....?" Munch asked, looking upward.
"Me, a hero? Sigh. Stop it. I\'m not that laudable person"
If anything, it was the opposite, considering the lives I\'d taken.
"Then what the hell are you!?"
"Human being, if you ask me."
"Don\'t shit with me! There\'s no way a human being can have such monstrous power—"
"It doesn\'t matter who I am. Rather than that, stand up. I\'m going to give you a good beating before I send you to Hades."
Munch stared at my face for a while as if he had heard something unbelievable, but then he spat out and said, "Nonsense—"
Munch\'s face turned mysterious, and he stood up and struck a fighting pose.
I clenched my right fist and carelessly smashed it into his head.
……
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"Hehe.......I lost, huh.....sigh..... just when I thought I\'m now stronger than Aku or anyone else..."
Munch\'s face was calm, as if the years of something indispensable had come off. If it was the current him, maybe he would be able to tell me what I wanted to hear.
"There\'s one thing I want to hear. Why did you sell that young boy named Badrack? It shouldn\'t be worth that much, right?"
That\'s right. This was the biggest mystery of this case.
It was a serious act of hostility against the guild to sell an adventurer who had no credit. The fact that the head of the slave trade accepted such a risk so readily was in itself quite strange. In short, the risk was clearly out of proportion to the profit to be gained by taking it.
"Well, isn\'t it because he was annoying?"
"Was that young man, Badrack, a spy of another organization?"
A slight crack appeared on Munch’s calm face. Bull\'s eye.
Even if he had committed the adventurers’ greatest taboo. If it had been just injury and human trafficking, Munch would have been captured immediately. Even then, Munch and the others didn\'t make a move for three weeks after I submitted the case to the guild. I had already submitted the documents that could be used as evidence. Even if the delay was due to the [Human Slime Incident], three weeks was a bit too long for a corroborative investigation alone.
"Badrack was a spy!? What do you mean!?"
The answer to Aku\'s scream was given by—
"The boy named Badrack was a spy from the Holy Kingdom of Esther. That\'s why he was sold off to criminal slavery."
When I turned around, I saw a man with a trademark bad eye and whiskers standing there.
"The dog of the investigation department, I knew you were here."
At my words, Count Haruko simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Of course, I am. Because it\'s our long standing wish to capture one of [Laguna] top superior, Poisonous Liquor."
It was an expected reply.
There was no way that this man was not involved from the beginning. He could have been waiting in the back of that room where Lilinoa and the others were.
"What does this mean? Make it clear!" Aku groaned, holding his head in his arms.
"I cut off the brat\'s right arm and sold it off. That\'s all."
It was Munch who answered with a sour look this time.
"I told you. The boy, Badrack, was an infiltrator in our nation who had been trained in combat and covert operations from an early age in the Holy Kingdom of Esther. His right arm was cut off as a result of your people risking their lives to stop him."
"Why is the Holy Kingdom of Esther aiming for me?"
Hearing Aku asking in a trembling voice, Gaius and Baron Hakuro exhaled a deep sigh. Well, of course. After all, the biggest source of the incident this time was Aku\'s unawareness. It was because he thought of this world as too sweet.
"It\'s because you\'re one of the only three S-rank adventurers in the world."
S-rank adventurers were like human weapons. The large nations that were trying to expand their armies would want them as much as they could get their hands on.
"So they are here to recruit me? But not even once I said—"
"It\'s obvious. Because what the Holy Kingdom of Esther has been trying to do is an intimidating recruitment, citing the revelation of your origins."
Baron Hakuro tossed a bundle of paper on the ground.
"Stopp!!"
As soon as that happened, Munch shouted in rage, changing his expression greatly. Aku, unconcerned, picked up the document and flipped through it.
"Because my parents were the son of the perpetrator who had caused the [Scrubheith] incident, so I was secretly taken to Straheim orphanage when I was a kid?"
The tragedy of Scrubheith. I think it was when the worst ruler invaded a neutral metropolis, Scrubheith, for apparently no important reason, and massacred and tortured thousands of its civilians.
Ultimately, he was then destroyed by the three strongest nations who brought their wrath, beginning with the Empire who had a trading agreement with them. His descendants were still on the wanted list. Were they going to execute innocent blood relatives? What a bunch of retards.
"Don\'t believe it!! It\'s all a lie!"
Even the thick-headed me began to understand Munch, who was trying to protect him with his desperate pleas.
Munch was, undoubtedly, a villain. From the information Krama had gathered, certainly there were more than a few amateur adventurers who had cried from Munch’s harassment and blackmail. Munch had probably taken advantage of the devil\'s sweet talk in order to save his own skin.
However, there was certainly one thing that was absolutely not compromisable even if his life was threatened by Aku.
And this was it.
"It\'s the truth. Don\'t underestimate our intelligence gathering ability," Baron Hakuro assured Aku, and Aku\'s shoulders slumped as he walked to Munch.
"You big idiotttt!"
Looking at Aku who broke down in tears, Munch sighed and bluntly said, "Shut up. I have killed them, after all. I\'m not your comrade or anything."
"You—"
"I guess it\'s about time for our idle chat to end."
Aku tried to say something, but he was interrupted by Munch’s words. Munch’s ankles had already turned into mush and weathered away.
"Hey! Get a grip!"
The collapse had reached his waist.
"Satori, take care of Aku."
"Yes."
Munch nodded multiple time as if relieved after hearing Satori’s confirmation.
"Oh, where did I go wrong? I was going to be a better adventurer than Aku and make all women in the country serve me."
"I see," Akuu interjected.
"Everyday was really fun, starting the clan with Aku and having more comrades joining."
"Yes, it was."
His eyes couldn\'t see anymore, and he was unable to hear Aku\'s voice.
It was uncertain that he was even conscious. But Aku kept nodding to Munch as he continued his monologue.
"That\'s right. It was what I thought. Why did I keep forgetting it? I prayed for that happiness to continue. That\'s why, I....."
"Hey, Munch!!"
Munch smiled at Aku\'s shout and said, "Because I\'m thier big brother, after all—"
With these words, he faded into the dust.
"Munch!!!"
Aku\'s sorrowful voice echoed around him.