The Hero is Disappointed in You – Chapter 68

Ch 68: The Hero Arrived at the Dwarf Village

“It hurts….”

Karen mumbled, looking at her finger that had been bitten by the skeleton lizard.

Kwajik.

Seeing that her condition didn’t seem good, I immediately approached Karen and stomped on the waist of the lizard that was biting her finger, killing it.

Even as red blood dripped from her finger, I couldn’t help but frown at Karen’s blank stare up at me.

It was because I was unintentionally disappointed in Karen, who was a magician but seemed to have a much weaker mental fortitude than expected.

‘Is she like this from just this much?’

All Karen had done was climb the mountain diligently.

Of course, in the process, there was some assault, and I deliberately pushed her into a corner until her stamina reached its limit, but I never imagined that her mind would break down to this extent.

“Get a grip, Karen Cross.”

“Uung? I’m fine?”

I lightly clenched my fist towards Karen, who was grinning at me.

Flint.

Feeling fear instinctively, Karen’s body shrank, and I felt a little sorry, but in her current state, it would be better for her to just pass out.

“Uwet!”

Karen, who had been punched in the stomach without realizing it, made a strange noise and slumped down, and I took out a potion from my bag and sprinkled it on her finger.

Indeed, since Zenoa prepared it, the effect was better than expected.

After confirming that Karen’s tattered finger was quickly recovering, I looked at the skeleton corpse of the lizard, which was still wriggling on the floor even in its broken state.

“This is amazing. It doesn’t seem like a machine.”

I heard James muttering as he came to my side before I knew it, examining the skeleton lizard here and there.

Of course, it wasn’t a machine or anything like that.

“It’s the influence of the Demon King’s Army, specifically Bahamonz.”

“Bahamonz?”

James tilted his head and looked at me at my almost certain words.

Come to think of it, the dwarves also knew nothing about the Demon King’s Army.

I had no choice but to explain about Bahamonz to the dwarves.

“He is a lich, the Lord of Death, who raises the dead and makes them his subordinates.”

“…That’s just a lizard?”

One of the dwarves asked me, looking at me with a ridiculous expression at my words.

The dwarves’ sense of humor seemed very different from that of humans, and I could see the other dwarves holding their stomachs and laughing at his words.

“Haa….”

I sighed, looking at the dwarves who showed no signs of tension.

Eventually, James, unable to watch any longer, elbowed the dwarves who were laughing next to him, and the situation began to calm down.

“Of course, he doesn’t use lizards as subordinates. No, he has hundreds of lizardman undeads under his command, so it’s not necessarily wrong.”

“Hundreds of lizardmen. Hmm.”

Only then, at the mention that Bahamonz had hundreds of lizardmen as subordinates, did he realize the seriousness of the situation and began to roll his large eyeballs.

“Then, what is this lizard?”

In the end, it was James who asked me the question in that situation.

As expected of the person in charge of the group, he seemed to have a faster mind than the others.

“Perhaps, this lizard was awakened from death by the influence of Bahamonz. Bahamonz has the ability to awaken the corpses around him even if he doesn’t do anything himself.”

I recalled Bahamonz, who had troubled me terribly in my previous life, and answered that way.

In fact, Bahamonz had the power to automatically awaken the surrounding corpses even if he didn’t create monsters himself.

Thanks to that, the soldiers who rushed to strike him down and died would immediately rise as corpses, turn their spearheads towards their allies.

‘Besides, Bahamonz is the best choice for attacking the dwarf city.’

I frowned and looked back at the situation again.

In the first place, the dwarf village was located high in the mountains, and the reason why the dwarves were showing such a nonchalant attitude was because their city was an impregnable fortress that was difficult to capture under normal circumstances.

In fact, in my previous life, most of the Demon King’s Army were exhausted before they even arrived at the dwarves’ village.

But Bahamonz’s subordinates were all dead, so they wouldn’t get tired.

‘The idiot Demon King wouldn’t have thought of that, so is it Baal?’

I began to draw a rough picture, roughly inferring the situation of the Demon King’s Army.

Bahamonz’s movements were quite secretive, to the point that Lilith didn’t even know, and as far as I knew, only Baal could induce such a situation.

The problem was that Baal was starting to act faster and more actively than I had expected.

Perhaps Baal had also noticed that the Demon King had regressed, or had even confirmed it directly.

‘It’s a relief that I asked Zenoa for help.’

I scratched my head and recalled the conversation I had with Zenoa before leaving Kalian Territory.

^^^

“I, I want to go with Hero-nim too.”

It was only natural, but Zenoa wanted to go to the dwarf city with me.

“Then, what about this territory?”

“It’s a territory where nothing major happens anyway. Even if I’m away for a while, my subordinates will do well.”

I looked at Zenoa and fell into thought.

As she said, there was almost no possibility of anything major happening in Kalian Territory right now.

Because the Demon King’s Army was targeting the elves and dwarves.

Besides, in a situation where Bahamonz might pop out, the joining of Zenoa-ssi, the Holy Knight Captain, was quite welcome.

But instead of recommending Zenoa to join, I decided to ask her for something else.

“Zenoa. I have another request for you.”

“…If it’s a request?”

Zenoa asked me that way, her eyes sparkling.

Even though she couldn’t accompany me, it seemed she was a little happy that she was receiving my request for the first time.

“Go to the Imperial Capital and bring the Saintess.”

“…The Saintess, you say?”

Zenoa frowned at my words and asked back that way.

Only after seeing Zenoa’s reaction did I remember that her relationship with the Saintess Marian wasn’t very good.

“Yeah. We might need her in this battle.”

I answered that way towards Zenoa.

In fact, I hadn’t intended to include Marian from the beginning.

If I had such a thought in the first place, I wouldn’t have left her in the Imperial Capital.

Moreover, it was uncertain whether the current Marian would be of any help when fighting Bahamonz.

Nevertheless, there was only one reason why I told Zenoa to bring Marian.

‘Because it’s completely different from the first round.’

Even when I was doing crazy things with Zenoa the night before, Marian was clearly watching me.

If she had the ability to skip the distance that would take days to travel by horse and monitor me, it seemed like it would be okay to put my hopes on her.

“Yeah. You’re the only one I trust to ask.”

“…Only, only me. Haa.”

As I stroked her head and spoke, Zenoa started to repeat my words with half-unraveled eyes.

Whether it would be helpful or not, I could only hope that Marian would arrive in time.

‘No, maybe she’s already left.’

I thought so, confirming Marian’s spirit body that I felt inside me.

^^^

“Hero, please take care of us.”

“…Suddenly?”

I asked that, looking at the dwarves lined up in front of me.

It was because the dwarves, who had been whispering among themselves while I was briefly recalling my time with Zenoa, had changed their attitude and suddenly said such a thing.

“Ah, a lich and hundreds of lizardmen. Even though our kingdom is strong, that’s a bit much.”

“Don’t worry. Didn’t they say that the Hero took care of everything when the previous Demon King appeared anyway?”

“Yeah. I remember hearing that from my grandfather too.”

I frowned, watching the dwarves naturally pass the work on to me as if they were chatting.

These lewd dung bags were bringing up the work of the previous Hero, hoping that I would take care of Bahamonz on my own.

“I don’t know what the previous Hero did, but it’s impossible for me alone.”

“…Huh?”

“Surely the dwarves, who are men among men, aren’t avoiding a fight, are they?”

“…I, isn’t that right? We’re not those kinds of guys!”

If there was anything better about the dwarves, it was that they were much less shameless and more considerate than the elves.

Besides, if they were going to force me to fight, they would provide me with the best weapons on their own, so there was no need to get angry.

“By the way, is the city far?”

“Ah, we’re almost there. Just a little further.”

At James’ words, I put Karen, who was lying on the ground, on the horse and climbed onto it.

And as James said, after climbing the mountain for a while, the dwarves’ city, carved out of the entire cliff, revealed its appearance.

At that moment, I felt Karen waking up behind me, so I spoke to her.

“Karen. We’ve arrived. Wake up.”

“Ugh, huh? Ah….”

I heard Karen, startled by my words, open her eyes and exclaim in admiration.

The dwarf city was so beautiful that she forgot about what had happened before and was surprised.

‘This is spectacular even when I see it again.’

I thought so, looking at the dwarf city, which could only be described as beautiful.