Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad-Chapter 121

Kiton is a city located not far from the Demon Boundary.

Due to war and magical beasts, mercenaries naturally gathered here.

It’s a commercial city where service industries catering to mercenaries have developed.

Looking around the streets, you could see groups of three or five people carrying weapons everywhere.

Those soliciting customers were running around frantically trying to catch as many mercenaries as possible.

In dark corners where eyes didn’t easily reach, vagrants wrapped in straw mats could be seen begging.

“Something feels… Unsettling.”

When Choi Hyun-seok entered the city, he first felt a strange discomfort.

“If you come to our Fairy Spring this time, we have a special service…”

“Move.”

A group of mercenaries roughly pushed aside the man soliciting customers.

“Please spare just one coin…”

“Our child hasn’t eaten for three days. Please help us.”

When the beggars approached afterward, the mercenaries frowned. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

“Why are there so many beggar bastards in this neighborhood anyway?”

“They’re losers.”

“Ah, just one coin…”

“How dare you touch me with your filthy hands!?”

The mercenary kicked away the vagrant who was reaching out.

The man who was kicked in the chest coughed and writhed in pain.

For a moment, attention from around them focused on them, but soon people turned away and went back to their own business.

As if it were just a natural part of their daily life.

Some people even clicked their tongues at the beggar.

“When are they going to clean up the beggars in this neighborhood?”

“I don’t know what the demons are doing. Not cleaning up trash like that.”

Choi Hyun-seok blankly watched the scene.

Honestly, it was a bit shocking.

He never thought the human world he left the Demon King’s Army for would be like this.

He wasn’t expecting paradise, but he didn’t expect such a stark reality to be waiting either.

“We’ve arrived.”

Frisch’s voice was heard.

Only then did Choi Hyun-seok realize that the carriage had stopped.

After getting off the carriage, he saw Frisch handing over the reins to someone who appeared to be a staff member.

“Have we… Arrived?”

“Yes. Let’s go inside.”

He almost spoke habitually politely.

Since Frisch was currently playing the role of a coachman, he didn’t show excessive politeness to him.

Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson followed behind Frisch and entered the building.

“Oh my… How could such noble guests come to our humble place…”

The innkeeper, thinking Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson were nobles, kept bowing repeatedly.

“We plan to stay one night, so give us your best room.”

“Our Warrior’s Rest is Kiton’s finest accommodation. You won’t be disappointed!”

After Frisch paid the fee.

The group moved to their assigned room.

“Then please rest well.”

The staff member who showed them around left.

Only then did Choi Hyun-seok breathe a sigh of relief.

“This is quite difficult.”

Even though he hadn’t done anything in particular, pretending to be someone else caused considerable fatigue.

“You’ll have to get used to it. There’s no easier role than nobles and their knight escorts in the current situation.”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded.

He had no choice but to follow Frisch’s words now.

Having come to this world and only stayed with the Demon King’s Army, he was ignorant about the human world.

This was the same for Abelson, who had been a princess and was designated as the next Holy Maiden.

Though not as much as Choi Hyun-seok, she too didn’t know much about the lives of common people.

“I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“Are humans originally like this? Or is it just this city?”

“So you noticed too.”

Frisch smirked.

He seemed to have expected Choi Hyun-seok to ask such a question.

“I wonder what you were expecting. Did you think a brilliant flower garden would be waiting when you came to the human world?”

“… I thought it would at least not be like this.”

The first glimpse of people’s lives here.

If Choi Hyun-seok had to express his impression in one sentence, it was gray without dreams or hope.

“The war has continued for over 500 years. The lower classes have borne all that damage.”

“…”

“You know what? While countless humans are dying of hunger in the streets, the leadership of this era is experiencing an unprecedented period of prosperity.”

“How is that possible?”

“You seem to not know much about human nature despite being human yourself.”

Frisch looked at Choi Hyun-seok and asked.

“Do you know why this war continues without ending?”

“I heard there was a secret agreement between the Demon King and the Pope of the Holy Empire.”

Frisch shook his head.

“More precisely, it was a secret agreement between the Demon King and the leaders of the human ‘Allied Nations’.”

Choi Hyun-seok’s eyes widened.

It meant that not just the Pope was involved, but the entire human forces had agreed to continue the war.

“I have a question.”

“What?”

“What do they gain from doing that?”

He couldn’t understand.

Why intentionally maintain the front lines and continue the war?

What do demons and humans gain from doing this?

Frisch’s answer was simple.

“The Demon King’s purpose is survival.”

Again, Choi Hyun-seok showed a puzzled expression.

Sensing that the conversation would get longer, Frisch sat down in a chair with a thump and continued his explanation.

“In the early days of the war. Humans united as one to stop the demons. The demons also fought desperately to claim new land. The war then was truly fierce.”

“As time passed, the war situation became unfavorable for the demons. There was a difference in war sustainability. It was a natural result since we were fugitives and this land was human territory.”

“Thinking the demon race would perish at this rate, the Demon King accepted the humans’ proposal. They decided to intentionally continue the war without ending it while watching for opportunities.”

Choi Hyun-seok, who had been listening to the explanation, raised his hand.

“Did you just say the Demon King accepted the proposal?”

“Yes.”

“That means humans made this proposal first… But why?”

Frisch clearly said humans were winning the war.

If they had continued the war as it was, the demon race would have perished and peace would have come.

Why did humans make such a proposal?

“For the past several hundred years, humans have been tasting unprecedented peace while waging war against demons.”

“What?”

“Ah. More precisely, I should say the human upper class, the leadership.”

“…”

“You still look like you don’t understand, but the Holy Maiden over there would know. The meaning of what I said.”

Choi Hyun-seok’s gaze turned to Abelson.

Abelson sighed and muttered in a weak voice.

“It’s not wrong. Since the demons appeared, wars between humans have disappeared.”

Frisch took over from Abelson’s words.

“Originally, this continent never stopped having large and small wars. Especially right before the demons came, a huge war was about to break out between the Empire and the anti-Empire alliance.”

“But with the appearance of demons as an external enemy, such dangers disappeared, you mean.”

“Yes. The disappearance of internal human wars was a great benefit. However, there’s another real reason why they don’t end the war with demons.”

Frisch paused for a moment and then grinned.

Choi Hyun-seok thought the smile Frisch wore looked somewhat pitiful.

“Those in high positions realized it. That the war with demons is too sweet.”

“How can war be this sweet…”

“Is it strange? Think about it carefully.”

Frisch spoke while still smiling.

“It doesn’t matter how much they raise taxes or squeeze the lifeblood from the people. As long as there’s the justification of ‘to eliminate the demon race!’, anything is permitted.”

“Resistance is impossible. Anyone who resists becomes a subordinate of the evil demon race, a common enemy of humanity.”

“In the end, all blame can only be directed at the demon race who caused this situation.”

“Thanks to this, the world’s leadership is accumulating unprecedented wealth along with peace. Without any risk factors. It can literally be called the greatest golden age.”

After hearing this far, Choi Hyun-seok roughly understood how the situation was unfolding.

“Being able to do anything using demons as an excuse… That’s frightening.”

“To put the current situation bluntly, it’s no different from humans farming demons. Out of necessity, that is.”

The war never ends due to just a minority of nobles and royalty.

After all, humans were beings who could do anything for their own safety and prosperity.

“You humans gave us the name ‘demon race’ meaning ‘devil’s seed’.”

“…”

“What do you think? In this situation, who is closer to being a devil?”

Choi Hyun-seok couldn’t answer.

Frisch, seemingly not expecting an answer anyway, stood up from his seat.

“I know…”

Frisch, who was about to leave after finishing his task, suddenly stopped as if malfunctioning.

‘Lady Hemis…?’

The connection with his master Hemis had been cut off.

In other words, it meant Hemis had died.

Although she had given him advance notice, experiencing the reality was far more shocking and empty.

“…”

As Frisch stood still for a long while, Choi Hyun-seok looked at him with strange eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

“… It’s nothing.”

Frisch turned around and opened the door.

“My role ends here.”

Just before stepping through the door, he looked at Choi Hyun-seok with mysterious eyes.

“It would be nice to see you alive again.”

With those final words, Frisch disappeared.

As if he had never existed there in the first place.

***

“The connection has been cut off.”

Motem said in a low voice.

Reidrun, who was sitting together, looked at him with puzzled eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Lady Hemis…”

No further words were needed.

Reidrun’s expression became even gloomier.

“Now I must step down from my position as acting Corps Commander. I wasn’t officially part of the Demon King’s Army to begin with.”

Motem was able to become acting Corps Commander solely because of Hemis.

While it’s true that Motem’s military power was stronger than a regular Division Commander, it still couldn’t compare to a Corps Commander.

Now that Hemis has died, a new official Corps Commander will likely be appointed to the 3rd Corps.

“What are your plans going forward?”

Reidrun asked.

Motem fell into thought for a moment while tapping the table with his finger.

“…”

After being silent for a long while, he finally opened his mouth.

“We should honor Lady Hemis’s wishes.”

“Did Lady Hemis leave any specific instructions?”

“Yes.”

Reidrun wasn’t the only one who received a letter from Hemis.

Motem also received a final letter from her.

“I plan to stay with you for a while. Since we need to complete the task Lady Hemis entrusted to us, we have no choice but to work together.”

As Reidrun had already expected this, he nodded.

Motem continued speaking.

“However, my ultimate goal is to become stronger.”

“Become stronger…”

“Yes. Strong enough to change the demon race of this rotten era.”

Motem’s words carried more determination than ever before.

***

The next day.

Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson left their room and came out to the inn’s hall.

They now needed to go out to the streets to find a coachman.

Since neither of them knew how to handle horses, they had no choice but to hire a coachman with money for their future travels.

“Lady Alien, do we have enough money?”

Alien Krishi.

That was Abelson’s alias.

Choi Hyun-seok deliberately emphasized the name Alien as if practicing.

“We have enough money.”

Abelson nodded and held out a rather heavy pouch.

Opening it revealed gleaming gold inside.

“Wow… How much is all this?”

Though it was his first time seeing the currency of this place, he could tell it was no small amount.

“One gold coin here can buy enough food to feed a commoner’s household for a year.”

“A whole year!?”

“Yes. Though that’s just what I’ve heard.”

“Anyway, how many of these do we have now? It looks like at least twenty.”

Greed flickered in Choi Hyun-seok’s eyes.

Like a true warrior from the Korean Peninsula, his innate capitalist instincts were awakening.

“Should we buy a house first? Since there are no apartments, maybe a modest house. We could rest for just a year, have a child…”

Slap!

Rachel, who had been listening nearby, struck Choi Hyun-seok’s cheek.

Since she was using magic invisible to ordinary people, to others it would have looked like Choi Hyun-seok was muttering to himself and shaking his head like a madman.

“Ah, thanks.”

Anyway, having returned to his senses, Choi Hyun-seok handed the gold coins back to Abelson.

“By the way, do you know where we should go to find a coachman?”

“Well, should we ask the innkeeper?”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded and looked to the side.

There stood the innkeeper, blinking while watching them.

“Ahem, hem! Innkeeper!”

“Yes? Yes!”

“We need a coachman. Where can we find one? We have sufficient funds.”

Choi Hyun-seok asked in an awkward tone.

Fortunately, the innkeeper didn’t seem to notice anything strange and answered while bowing repeatedly.

“If you follow the street up from the inn, you’ll reach a square. Coachmen looking for work often gather there, so you should be able to find one easily!”

“Ah, thank you.”

Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson immediately left the inn and headed for the square.

Walking through the streets, they noticed how crowded it was.

“There are more people than I expected, let’s be careful not to get separated.”

“Yes.”

That’s when it happened.

A boy and girl running quickly collided with Abelson.

“Ouch!”

“Ah!”

The girl, who looked about 10 years old, fell to the ground, and the boy, who appeared slightly older, and startled, helped her up.

They were probably siblings.

Abelson smiled while looking at the young siblings.

“Are you alright?”

“Huh? Yes! We’re so sorry!”

Recognizing Abelson as a noble, the siblings kept bowing and apologizing.

Abelson continued smiling and said,

“I’m fine, but be more careful in the future.”

“Yes!”

After the boy and girl left,

Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson watched their retreating figures for a while.

“Those kids are quite cheerful.”

“Young children are always the hope of the world.”

“I was like that once too.”

Abelson stared at Choi Hyun-seok.

“Ahem! Everyone’s cute when they’re young.”

Choi Hyun-seok cleared his throat unnecessarily and continued.

“By the way, Abel- I mean, Lady Alien, are you alright? The collision seemed quite hard.”

“I’m fine. I’m quite sturdy, you know.”

“Well, considering you knocked out a hero’s noggin, I suppose I shouldn’t worry.”

“Noggin?”

“Ah, it means head.”

“…”

Abelson blinked for a moment before turning away.

This time she cleared her throat and continued.

“Ahem, shall we go then? I’m fine…”

Suddenly, Abelson’s face turned pale.

“Lady Alien? Is something wrong?”

Choi Hyun-seok asked with a worried expression.

Abelson looked up at Choi Hyun-seok with pupils trembling as if an earthquake had struck.

“The money.”

“What?”

“The money is gone…”

It was the moment they first experienced the harsh reality of the human world.

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