This Kind of Hero Chapter 56

A Heart to Heart

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Besides humanity’s Bright God Church, there were other races and powers that possessed prophets or soothsayers. The beastmen shaman offered sacrifices to their Beast God with scepter in hand, the elven astrologer gazed up at the moon and the stars, the sea creature sorcerer plucked away on a magical harp, while the dragon race looked towards the skies. They viewed the skies that had once brought them such glory when the many gods had still roamed it, their long lives giving them a keen intuition and premonition for the current situation.

The demon race’s current state was unnatural.

The Demon King might be dead, but he also might not be.

About a month ago, the dark elements began to wreak havoc upon the Continent of God’s Blessing. At the time, the event had not caused much of a stir. After all, ever since the Demon King’s appearance, the dark elements seemed to be on a cycle and came every few months. Everyone had gotten used to it.

However, what they did not know was that the dark elements this time were as strange as **. No one could have imagined that it would envelop the entire continent for a whole month.

The sunlight appeared as if it were behind a layer of fog while the rainwater appeared dark and polluted.

Immediately after, any self-proclaimed psychic began to act. A few of them pinched together their fingers and calculated that the Demon King had become stronger. Furthermore, he must have plotted some great conspiracy, which was why he had allowed the dark elements to run rampant.

Perhaps he wanted to use this method to crush the other intelligent races! After all, ordinary, intelligent races could not withstand the element of darkness!

Within the short span of a month, human cities both small and large could no longer bear the burden and their medical facilities were bursting full of people. Low-level pharmacists were in a bad position as the medicinal herbs required to treat colds, inflammations, and other diseases were beginning to run out. The combatants were barely affected since the condition of their bodies were much better than that of normal humans, but the common people were weakening and dying.

Therefore, the Demon King was definitely using the element of darkness to grind away at his enemies’ strength and willpower, before leading a great army of demons in an all-out offensive.

However, there were soothsayers that, after meditating and racking their brains for a long time, came to another conclusion: the current abnormalities were not caused by the Demon King. His life signs had disappeared approximately a month ago and his fate could not be found.

“However. . . an even darker star is rising. Awoken from the abyss, it is completely black without a single trace of light.”

These soothsayers had many opinions about the matter. Some claimed that as the Demon King had already died, a new Demon King had been born. Some claimed that the demons had a civil war, during which the Demon King was killed. In addition, there were those who proclaimed, “It was the Brave! He killed the Demon King out of his own ambition! Standing in the Demon King’s treasury, his eyes were blinded by greed, and so he claimed the treasury as his own, becoming the new Demon King!”

–From a certain angle, they were not wrong_(:зゝ∠)_

There were a multitude of opinions within the human race alone. Almost everyone had joined in on the discussion. The element of darkness had not only infected peoples’ bodies, but also made their emotions more easily excitable. Take the Golden Flag Empire’s capital for example. In only a month, the number of violent incidents had increased by a fold. Additionally, topics such as “did the Brave kill the Demon King” or “was the Demon King killed by his own subordinates” had permeated the streets. Gambling dens had even opened up bets on the matter.

Your kingdom is done for.

Originally, the Bright God Church’s Pope faction was desperately trying to gain back public opinion and instill positive energy. They encouraged people who were sick and unable to get medicine to believe in the Bright God. Their plan was effective, but it was just a shame that some of their “own” were dragging them down. The elders of the Elders’ Circle, acting as if they were bemoaning the state of the world, began spreading rumors. On the surface, they appeared to be calming the masses, but in actuality they were questioning the Pope’s authority, secretly increasing the people’s dissatisfaction towards the Pope’s rule.

Thus. . . the Pope no longer cared about promoting the Bright God Church. Rolling up his sleeves, he prepared to properly fight against the Elders’ Circle!

–Come back soon, Daeniste! Come help me, your dear father! ← This was the inner voice of the Bright Holy Son’s adoptive father, His Holiness the Pope.  

However, it was to no avail. Currently, Holy Son Daeniste was happily mingling with the Holy Light Elves in the Sacred Highlands. Perhaps it was because he and Nar had fought hard during the brawl with the Moonlight Elves that the Holy Light Elves now looked at them favorably. Before, they had still rejected “those two soft and weak humans,” but now the Holy Light Elves no longer rejected them, and instead treated them quite warmly.

These young, lower-class elves knew not of the difficulties and pressure that their higher-ups faced so they thoughtlessly promoted to Daeniste a certain book about Brave Xu Jun and Demon King Rozenke.

Xu Jun’s expression towards this: . . . =.=

However, hiding within his body, Demon King Rozenke’s gaze towards the Holy Light Elves became much gentler.

Towards the change of an epoch, people’s feelings often lag behind. Even if some great event took place, with many people caught amidst its tides, those people would not think much of it and only find it normal. Just like a frog being cooked in warm water, people will also slowly become used to the gradually rising temperature of the pot they’re in. The world, or rather the Continent of God’s Blessing, was undergoing a tremendous change. 

During the month when the dark elements had covered the entire continent, both the Holy Light Elves’ and the Moonlight Elves’ Tree of Life were corroded by the element of darkness. Furthermore, it was unknown if similar occurrences took place amongst other races. These were exceptionally abnormal events.

Yet due to the various races being on guard against each other, making it impossible for them to tell outsiders what had occurred internally, Xu Jun only knew the aforementioned information. 

He was a qualified Brave and a powerful fighter, but towards the analysis of these kinds of situations. . . all he could say about the increase in violence amongst humans and the opening of best by gambling dens was “the world’s morals are in shambles.”

He could not make any meaningful analysis.

Demon King Rozenke sincerely believed that talking with Xu Jun about such matters was like playing music for a bull. This brave was clever, especially with regards to cleaning people out and killing, burning, and looting everything, on which he had methods on methods. He could come up with a philosophy such as, “how can it be stealing if a Brave did it?” Towards this, the Demon King could only click his tongue in amazement. However, whenever he wanted this Brave to consider proper matters, such as politics or the current political situation, this Brave would always display a slow-wittedness that surpassed the common person.

However, nothing could be done about it. After all, back when Xu Jun was in high school, politics was his worst subject_(:зゝ∠)_ 

On one hand, Rozenke thought it was fine if Xu Jun could not learn these things, since amongst the two of them, it was enough for one of them to be smart; on the other hand, he also felt that even he, His Majesty Demon King Rozenke, would be unable to constantly protect Xu Jun. What could he do in those situations?

Should he let Xu Jun take shelter amongst the Holy Light Elves. . . ?

Rozenke wasn’t requesting for Xu Jun to grow into some mature politician, but he couldn’t remain like he was now, able to accidentally sell himself out at any time! 

Demon King Rozenke thought of a problem he believed was quite obvious and tested Xu Jun, “Killing the Demon King might be a heroic feat for you, but do you understand what impact it has on the world?”

Xu Jun racked his brains before clapping his hands together and replying, “Such as the matter of gambling dens around the world opening up bets on how many days it took for me to kill the Demon King?”

Demon King Rozenke: “. . .”

“Furthermore, why were the Golden Flag Empire’s gambling dens the first to open up betting? How come the gambling dens of the City of Darkness had no reaction? Shouldn’t they be the ones to lead the world’s betting trends?” Brave Xu Jun continued, but then his voice settled down quite a bit. “I know what you’re trying to say, Prince Ryan. You probably think I’m stupid and don’t understand what I’ve done.”

“I. . . at first I wasn’t really clear on how my actions would affect the world,” he pinched his right index finger with his left hand and involuntarily became nervous. “However, it seems that the Demon King’s death isn’t something that’s good for the Continent of God’s Blessing.”

“There are so many races in this world and their relationships with each other are so complex. Therefore, their relationship with demons definitely isn’t as simple as just being enemies. If I had known this earlier. . .”

He was a bit depressed. If he had known that he would transmigrate, if he had known that after transmigrating he would have to deal with this kind of mess, if he had known that after the Demon King’s death, the element of darkness would proliferate— 

Then he would not have killed the Demon King. So what if he didn’t complete the main plotline, he could just go directly to White River Village and improve his relationship with the girl he liked before proposing.

Xu Jun couldn’t be blamed for his sudden dejection. Truthfully, this morning, after sending the Moonlight Elves to jail under the pretext of gathering a mob and disturbing the peace, the Holy Light Elves’ Elders and Queen Ellie led Xu Jun to their Tree of Life and made their last effort to save it.

All the elders united under their queen’s lead and performed the sacrificial rite, Praising the Holy Light, but failed. 

They were unable to save their Tree of Life.

Praising the Holy Light was the highest-level sacrificial rite that the Holy Light Elves had grasped. It was a legendary magic said to be the only way one could communicate with the ancient Sun God. 

It had failed.

After working together to cast a spell of such great magnitude as the sacrificial rite, the elders seemed to have aged a thousand years. Queen Ellie also wore an unsightly, weary expression. Originally, they had not wanted to cast this kind of magic, not because they could not afford the cost, but because the Holy Light Elves could only display this power once in their lifetime.

Additionally, only those who had received recognition beneath the Tree of Life, the queen and the elders, could cast this magic. 

This was their last card. 

And it had failed.

Xu Jun had wanted to pour Divine Spirit Elixir onto the Tree of Life, but was stopped by Queen Ellie. Although the Praising of the Holy Light had failed, a dense amount of the holy light element had converged. . . it was just that it had been unsuccessful in expelling the large quantities of the dark element from the tree. “This area has already been saturated with holy light. Adding any more would create an explosion,” Queen Ellie replied in a weak, mournful tone.

Looking at the young woman’s pale and sallow face, Xu Jun felt terrible.

According to Ellie’s words, although the element of darkness had been slowly increasing over the past few years and even started to corrupt their Tree of Life, the situation had only gotten serious during the past two months.

Which matched perfectly. . . with when the Demon King had died.

“I know what killing the Demon King has brought about,”he replied low-spiritedly to the question “Prince Ryan” had just asked, “perhaps I shouldn’t have killed the Demon King, perhaps it was wrong to do so.”

However, “Prince Ryan” replied to him with a steady and comforting voice. 

“You weren’t wrong,” he said. “As a Brave, killing the Demon King is not something to fault yourself for.”

Also, the dark elements’ sudden burst of abnormality. . . has nothing to do with the Demon King’s “death.”

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Author has something to say: Congratulations to Demon King Zeze for gradually growing into a family-oriented man!

Brave Junjun: Author, you–sigh, I’ll hold him down. Hurry up and go eat a good meal! 

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