TFHITS Chapter 242

The Primordial Demon King can manipulate the Hero System.

The very fact that he made the demon king Idria descend even when the negative energy was still far from sufficient was proof enough.

He realized that merely targeting me or the people at the research institute would not make me give up.

If I would not give up, then he would deceive me instead.

That must have been what he was thinking.

Kaeld’s knees trembled violently.

“Kh, kkhk!”

“After regressing seven years, the first time I saved the girl named Rena, I gained about 330 fame. But was 330 really the correct value?”

“……”

“No. At that time, I gained 3,300. But you cut that number down to one tenth. And the Hero System only granted me power appropriate to 330.”

“Stop it. Stop.”

“It was the same for everything. The fame my party members and I gained while traveling the world was actually ten times what it is now!”

“Aaaargh!”

Kaeld foamed at the mouth and charged at me.

It was not a technique or anything fancy, just a punch.

But that fist carried enough power to raze the capital to the ground.

Tap.

I caught that enormous force with one hand, far too easily.

Crunch.

Crushing his hand, I continued speaking slowly.

“For 230,000 years, as the Hero System evolved, it was set up to automatically recover if a system error was discovered. You just have to find it. Simply discovering it corrects the error.”

“Aaagh. Aagh!”

“And I have now discovered an error. So….”

Tap.

A status window appeared.

<Mide Mohan / Total fame: 561,201,020>

My original fame was not fifty-six million.

It was five hundred and sixty million.

And once this error was corrected, the system began granting me power worthy of five hundred and sixty million.

“It hurts. It hurts. It huuurts!”

“That is the one thing in this world I care about the least!”

“Mide. Mideee!”

Something surged within his body.

He was planning to use the three hundred billion negative energy once more.

I looked at my party members.

“Xenia. Set up a prison spell with about a hundred meter radius, centered on me and Kaeld.”

“Huh?”

“If this bastard lets his energy explode, it’s the end of the world.”

“Oh, okay.”

Xenia immediately cast the prison spell.

Her fame had probably already surpassed one hundred million.

No matter how much Kaeld rampaged, he could not break this spell.

I looked around at everyone and said,

“Honestly, I don’t even need to go this far. With my current fame, I could kill Kaeld with just a finger.”

“…….”

“But I don’t think that would satisfy me.”

“One hundred percent agree. Smash him for our share too.”

At Neril’s words, I let out a small laugh and kicked Kaeld.

“Guhk!”

He flew a hundred meters and slammed into the wall of the prison spell.

Crunch.

Rolling my wrist, I said,

“Smash him, huh. Sounds good. I will do it literally.”

Kaeld propped himself up on the ground with his hand.

Even that annoyed me.

“Hey. Who told you to put your hand on the ground.”

Pow!

The wrist I kicked snapped like a bundle of straw.

“Aaaagh!”

“You’re dirtying the ground.”

“Kkh. Th, this is impossible.”

“For beating you up, fists seem better than a sword. Since I won’t be ‘no-killing’ anymore anyway, I might as well throw away the title of ‘Swordmaster’ too.”

“Mide.”

“Let’s just have a dirty brawl. This kind of ending suits you.”

I charged at him.

First, I drove a fist into his face.

Kaeld screamed and crossed his arms, but my hand had already struck his face and withdrawn.

Crack.

“Khk. Ughh.”

His nose was crushed, and his teeth scattered everywhere.

His entire face looked caved in.

“Where should I break next?”

“Stop. Stop it.”

“No need to think about it, I guess. I will break everything.”

Thud! Pow.

Khk. Kkh.

Crack. Crunch.

From head to toe, I meticulously “beat” Kaeld.

Not enough to kill him in one blow.

But enough that the pain was unbearably intense.

“Aaah. Spare me. Spare me.”

“I already spared you several times. At Hasphil, and at the starting point.”

“Please. Please.”

“There were reasons not to break my no-killing rule, but even so, I regret those choices.”

“Mide, please spare me.”

“I should have found you and killed you the moment I regressed seven years. So that I would never have regrets again, this time I will make absolutely sure to kill you!”

I was clearly aware of it myself.

I was unmistakably in an excited state right now.

My long, cursed connection with Kaeld.

Two hundred and thirty thousand years ago, and seven years ago.

This bastard is my enemy, and the very disease of humanity itself.

I kept beating him as I shouted.

“Why! Why!”

“Ughhh.”

“Why did you do such things? Why did you betray humanity 230,000 years ago, betray us again before the seven-year regression, and betray us even now?”

“Please. Khk, please spare me.”

“What is wrong with you? Jealousy? Inferiority complex?”

“Mide, please.”

“Everyone lives feeling those things! Ordinary people, nobles and emperors! Even I and my party members must have felt jealousy or inferiority toward someone at least once or twice!”

Pow.

My kick slammed into his jaw.

He crashed backward and collapsed.

“But no one does insane things like you. Your inferiority complex is not an excuse, nor something that can be forgiven!”

“I, I was wrong. I will never do it again.”

“Yeah. You will never do it again. Because I’m going to kill you.”

Thud thud.

Pow. Thud.

The beating continued, blow after blow.

At some point, Kaeld stopped begging for his life.

His jaw tore loose and fell to the ground with a dull sound.

His tongue had been stomped so many times it had turned into minced meat.

His arms and legs were twisted in grotesque directions, and his head was slightly split open, sticky blood oozing out.

He writhed on the ground like a single insect.

“Ughhh.”

“Try to heal. With the negative energy.”

“Ughk. Khk.”

“You can’t, can you. I’m faster than you can recover.”

By my senses, the beating lasted over thirty minutes.

But in reality, not even ten seconds had passed.

He did not even have time to heal himself.

But the moment I stopped beating him, the negative energy began restoring him once more.

Bone and flesh filled back in where his jaw had fallen away.

His tongue seemed to have recovered a bit as well, because somehow he managed to speak in human language.

“Mide. I just wanted to be loved.”

“That again.”

“No one ever truly liked me. Not the humans who worshiped me as a savior 230,000 years ago, not the people of this continent before the seven-year regression. Not even those party members over there who traveled with me back then!”

“…….”

“I know. I know it myself. Compared to you, I am lacking. Lacking in every way.”

He writhed desperately as he continued speaking.

“My head is worse than yours. My thinking is shallower than yours. My behavior, my voice, my appearance, my charisma. Everything about me is lacking. I know that. I really do.”

“…….”

“For someone as lacking as me, there was only one way to be loved. Only one.”

Cough.

He spat out blood once and went on.

“Overwhelming power. Power so vast it crushes everything!”

“…….”

“I don’t care whether it’s the negative energy or fame. Two hundred and thirty thousand years ago, I tried to be loved through the negative energy. Now, I tried to be loved through fame.”

“…….”

“If you have power so great that no one can oppose it, power that rules the world, you can be loved. People will love me even if only because they are afraid to die. If they don’t want the world to be destroyed, how could they not love me? If they don’t want to see their family, friends, and relatives die, they will love me. If they don’t want their empire to fall or natural disasters to strike, wouldn’t they love me?”

I turned away sharply.

Then I retrieved the sword I had set aside before beginning the beating.

Shing.

I drew the sword from its scabbard.

The hero’s sword.

I am the hero.

That thing is the Demon King.

‘Yeah. This really should end with this.’

Even as I thought that, Kaeld kept shouting.

“This is the only way! For someone as lacking and pathetic as me, this is the only way to be loved!”

“That’s enough. Stop talking.”

“Mide, you wouldn’t know. You grew up loved by the world and by people. You could never understand this feeling. Only someone who has lived their entire life under gazes of contempt, scorn, and curses can understand me.”

“I said stop.”

“Waaah. Please love me. I’m trying this hard. I’m struggling this much. Love me. Love me.”

I walked toward him.

He was slowly recovering, but the speed was endlessly slow.

At least compared to the speed at which this sword could pierce him.

Then Kaeld muttered, as if to himself.

“Love me. Mom… please love me.”

“……?”

He was already out of his mind.

But precisely because of that, those words alone were probably sincere.

For a moment, I hesitated.

‘Should I look?’

If I used the Eye of Omniscience, I could easily see Kaeld’s secrets.

Why he became so twisted.

Why he so desperately craved love.

Why he chose immense power as the means to obtain that love.

What the word “mom” he muttered at the end truly meant.

“…….”

But I abandoned the thought.

“Kaeld. Honestly, I did get a little curious just now. About you.”

“Uhheheh. Uheong. Mom, mom.”

“If I wanted to, I could find out.”

“Hheeeh.”

“But I won’t.”

I raised the sword high.

“Because you are a Demon King.”

Whatever story a Demon King might have, humans have no obligation to care.

Whatever story humans might have, a Demon King has no obligation to care.

“But I will tell you just one thing.”

Clack.

I leveled the sword at his head.

“To become a hero, you have to accumulate fame. And the best way to accumulate fame is said to be the greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

“……?”

He lifted his head.

His face, a grotesque mess of blood, saliva, and tears, was a sight to behold.

Yet in his eyes, there was a trace of seriousness.

His reason had returned.

I continued.

“And a hero is someone loved by everyone.”

“Mide.”

“In other words, for you to be loved.”

I put strength into my arm.

My sword flew toward his head at terrifying speed.

“All you had to do was make everyone happy.”

Thud!

The sword sank deep into the crown of his head.

Kaeld’s entire body trembled violently, as if struck by lightning, as he spoke.

“I was going to make them happy. Once they loved me first.”

Slash.

I pulled the sword out.

Kaeld collapsed to the side.

After waiting a moment, his body began turning to ash.

I muttered absentmindedly.

“They only love you after you make them happy.”

I signaled to Xenia with my eyes.

She nodded and canceled the spell.

Just then, a gust of wind blew.

The black ash that had been Kaeld, the Primordial Demon King, scattered beyond the sky and vanished.

I watched the sight briefly, then casually threw the hero’s sword aside.

And flopped down flat on my back.

“Mide!”

“Mr. Mide.”

“Waaah. You did it. Finally.”

“Kaeld himself was the core of the Primordial Demon King, right? You just annihilated the core.”

“It’s really over, right? He’s not going to suddenly revive and cause trouble again, is he?”

“Don’t worry. He was ridiculously persistent, so I understand the concern, but this time it really seems to be over.”

My precious party members came running over.

Still lying down, I raised my thumb at them and said,

“Yeah. Now it’s really retirement!”