Chapter 82
Chapter 82
What shattered the moment was the arrival of an unwelcome guest.
“Gasp…”
He seemed to recognize Adam at a glance.
It was the man we’d met earlier.
And also, the most difficult person in this village.
‘That noble from before.’
Everything the nobles had said about Adam had been nothing but negative.
It seemed best to keep them from meeting.
Lindel must have thought the same, as he stopped walking.
The hand gripping his crutch was trembling aimlessly.
The haughty noble from before was gone, and his eyes wavered like a sailboat in a storm.
He covered his mouth as if afraid a shriek might escape, yet his gaze remained fixed on Adam.
“Your Imperial Majesty the Former Emperor…?”
…Huh?
What came out of the noble’s mouth, which I had expected to call him “Hero,” was completely unexpected.
If he said “former emperor,” that meant Adam was the current emperor’s older brother.
He had been the first prince, and despite being the child of a concubine, had risen to the throne with the overwhelming support and trust of the ministers during the succession dispute.
But I had heard he suddenly fell ill and died tragically.
That noble must’ve just developed premature aging at a young age. Sure, Adam and the emperor did look alike.
And if the former emperor was related by blood, it made sense he’d resemble him too.
But Adam wasn’t the former emperor.
The ages didn’t match. If anything, Adam could maybe be the son of the former emperor, judging by age.
‘And more importantly, I know who Adam’s parents are.’
It was that tenant farmer who always mistreated Adam. Constantly picking fights and forcing all kinds of labor on young Adam.
Even though he had another son around Adam’s age, he especially tormented Adam.
‘Thanks to him, I’ve seen bad endings just because I didn’t deliver the divine message right away at the start of the game.’
Still, trashy father or not, he was Adam’s father.
Former emperor? That’s absurd.
When the voices of the villagers reached Lindel’s ears, he hurriedly left.
Though he limped with his crutch, he kept glancing back over his shoulder.
As if trying to figure out whether what he saw was real.
Or as if afraid the illusion would vanish if he looked away.
I didn’t understand why the noble wore such an expression.
Maybe he mistook Adam for someone he knew.
I tried to stop him, but missed my chance when the villagers arrived first.
When I looked back to where the noble had stood, he was already gone.
“Eveline? It is you, Eve! Thank goodness. We found Ben, but we were worried when we couldn’t find you.”
“The one they call the Mercenary Queen is amazing too. She ran into the flames and saved people as soon as the fire broke out.”
“Yeah, if the hero had made her a companion, he might’ve taken down the Demon King even easier!”
“Then is she stronger than the hero? She climbed up four floors like a jaguar. According to recent rumors, the hero—”
“What about the hero?”
The villagers, unaware that Adam was quietly standing behind me, were gossiping freely about him.
I felt a little ashamed.
It was bad enough that the nobles slandered Adam, but to hear the villagers I trusted speaking like this…
It was funny that someone a head taller than me was hiding behind my back.
I deliberately grabbed Adam’s arm and pulled him forward.
He wasn’t someone meant to hide in the shadows.
And he especially wasn’t someone who should silently listen to people spouting nonsense.
“Oh my! H-h-h-hero?!”
Only then did the villagers realize Adam was present and jumped in surprise.
Some even coughed awkwardly, clearly recalling the things they’d just said.
Adam gave them a slight bow.
He looked tired, but he acted upright and polite.
His composure was admirable, but thinking about how he had lived in a world where he couldn’t say he was hurting even when he was, made me quietly sad.
“Hero? Hero, my foot!”
A shout rang out from a short distance away.
It was the voice of an elderly man.
Then a younger voice followed, sounding like it was trying to stop him.
I leaned out to see what was going on.
‘That man… isn’t that Grandpa Pendel?’
An old man was surrounded by villagers.
When someone said something to him, the old man shouted loudly.
It was the same old hunter who had excitedly told Ben he’d seen the hero at the Demon King’s castle.
And someone who absolutely adored the hero.
The Demon King had returned in less than half a century.
Which meant there were people still alive who had seen the last Demon King.
That was Grandpa Pendel.
His eyes, foggy with age, locked onto me.
“You wretched girl! It wasn’t enough that you brought the Demon King here—you even survived!”
His bloodshot eyes bulged as he yelled at me.
He looked like he was about to grab my hair and drag me when Adam made a simple move to stop him.
With his arm around my shoulders, Adam pulled me into his chest and extended his other arm to block the old man.
When Pendel saw Adam, his bloodshot eyes bulged even further, and he began to thrash wildly.
I had no idea how such energy came from such an aged body.
But Grandpa Pendel, like a foolish pup unafraid of a tiger, charged at him.
Judging by his confident expression, he seemed sure the other villagers would take his side.
His face when he spoke of the hero now was different from before.
It was filled only with rage.
“This is why I was against some nameless commoner becoming a hero!”
He now pointed and shouted at Adam too.
But Adam, used to such insults, remained calm.
The old man flinched at that, and then turned his fury back on me.
“We never should’ve let you into this village!”
“I should never have given birth to you!”
The old man’s voice overlapped with someone else’s.
It was a scene I could never get used to.
Someone shouting at me, and me quietly accepting it.
Because here, I was the one in the wrong. No one would step in to defend me…
“Why are you yelling at my child?!”
“Oh, so you were in on it too! You were a minion of the Demon King! You’ve come to destroy our village again! To kill us again!”
Grandpa Pendel lunged forward, trying to grab me by the collar.
But the villagers stepped between us, and Adam shielded me from the old man’s sight.
“What Demon King nonsense!”
“Do you know how much Eveline has done for us?”
“Eve is like a daughter to us!”
The villagers stood in front of me and shouted one by one in my defense.
A warmth spread inside me. Someone was yelling, someone was pointing fingers.
Maybe it was because I was scared by all this, or because I’d almost died in the fire earlier.
Even as my body trembled uncontrollably, I couldn’t hold back the tears when they stood up for me.
“The Demon King is dead! The hero over there killed him! Grandpa Pendel, you saw the black smoke in the forest vanish with your own eyes!”
Yurina pounded her chest as she spoke, clearly frustrated.
But the old man, filled with fury, shouted with bulging veins in his neck.
“I saw him! That same face, exactly the same! That unforgettable face!”
Repeating the same words over and over, the old man shook all over.
He was no longer looking at me.
His unfocused eyes stared blankly at the ground.
As the last of his rage vanished, the old man’s legs gave out and he collapsed where he stood.
Because he’d nearly hurt someone, no one stepped in to help him up.
Instead, they came over to me and wiped the ash from my face.
Even though no one paid him any mind, the old man continued to mutter incomprehensibly.
“It was the Demon King… I’m telling you it was the Demon King… Please believe me. It was the only choice I had. Eveline…”
Seated on the ground, the old man broke into sobs like a child.
He looked like a madman, and yet—it also felt like the last desperate cry of someone with no place to lean.
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
That didn’t mean I agreed with the old man.
‘There’s no way the Demon King is still alive.’
I mean, I saw the holy sword pierce through the Demon King’s stomach with my own eyes.
Just like the villagers said, it made more sense that the old man had gone senile with age and mistaken someone else for the Demon King.
And yet… seeing the pale old man sobbing like that, a tiny seed of doubt began to sprout.
‘Right before killing the Demon King…’
Come to think of it, I remembered some of Adam’s strange messages.
[Your hero picks a flower and shows it to you.]
[Your hero mumbles softly, wondering what the god likes.]
[Your hero cautiously asks if you heard what he said earlier.]
I recalled those messages and how they conveyed every tiny action Adam took.
‘Even though the messages told me all those little things… not once did they say the Demon King was dead…’
All I’d ever been told was that I’d seen the ending after hundreds of retries.
There had been no message saying the Demon King was dead.
As the unthinkable possibility crept into my mind, goosebumps spread all over my body.
“There’s no way…”
I unconsciously murmured to myself.
Without realizing that Adam, who had been watching me silently for a while, now had a strange look in his eyes.
