‘You can do it.’
‘… Priestess.’
‘You can.’
In the end, the boy succeeded.
Finally, he defeated the Demon Lord.
‘So… how does it feel to have defeated me?’
When he was young and when he had not wanted to be away from his family, Riley thought he might have been better off if he had just died. Not a day went by without him thinking like this. His battles were that brutal. Literally, he was coughing blood, shedding tears of blood and fought in battles that seemed to have no end. In the end…
‘If you insist on asking…’
In the sky, the Brave Hero had defeated the Demon Lord. Riley responded to the Demon Lord’s question.
‘I’m exhausted.’
Ever since he held the Holy Sword, ever since many people had pleaded with him to defeat the Demon Lord, the Brave Hero had never been honest with how he had truly felt. For the first time, at that moment, he mumbled honestly.
‘I said I’m exhausted. Honestly, I’m exhausted.’
The Demon Lord met his end by Riley’s Holy Sword. Soon, the Great Demon was going to fall to the ground and disintegrate. To the demon, Riley mumbled honestly.
‘Finally…’
The Brave Hero fell along with the Demon Lord. The Brave Hero closed his eyes. It seemed that he had shaken off all burdens from his shoulders. He looked so peaceful.
‘Ah… It is finally over.’
* * *
“Well, there is no need for you to be so wary.”
It seemed that the boy had felt Riley‘s glare on him. The young boy was staring at the fishing rod and vacantly reminiscing about his past life. The young boy mumbled,
“It has not been very long since I realized that you were also born into this world”
The boy who had introduced himself as Abyss pointed to an empty wooden chair next to him and then glanced at Riley.
“Why don’t you sit down?”
Riley was standing there with a blank look on his face. Abyss asked if he would like to sit down. After that, Abyss looked at Andal who was standing next to Riley. He then nodded his chin once.
“Ah, you there…It is fine if you want to leave.”
“What?”
Having heard Abyss, Andal furrowed his brows.
“Hey, I don’t know what’s going on here, but if Riley is the old friend that you wanted to meet, then…”
Andal suppressed his anger as much as possible. He then walked to where Abyss was sitting as he asked,
“… isn’t it about time you tell us what we want to know?”
Abyss felt Andal’s deadly aura. Abyss was still sitting in the chair as he looked right into Andal’s eyes. Soon, as if Abyss was finding it to be such a bother, he scratched his hair and mumbled,
“If you are talking about what you lizards want…”
Abyss said ‘lizards.’ That made a vein to pop on Andal’s forehead. It seemed that Andal could not take it anymore. He was trying to use magic to attack Abyss. At that moment, Abyss lifted his right hand.
“What?”
With that hand, Abyss opened his index finger and pointed at something. Andal was infuriated and was walking toward Abyss, but he flinched and stopped moving.
“I already handled it.”
Having heard what he had just said, Andal asked back,
“You handled it?”
Andal turned his head toward where the boy was pointing to with his finger. Andal had a look of disbelief.
“It cannot be…”
“… She was suffering so much, so…”
Abyss was pointing to the girl with the dark blue hair who had led the way for Andal and Riley to this place.
“I took her under my wings.”
“You took her under your wings?”
“In the process, her memory became blurry, but it is actually a good thing.”
It seemed Abyss had confirmed that fishes were biting. Abyss strained his eyes and carefully held the fishing rod. He was checking for opportunities.
“That rascal is… excessively kind and innocent like a certain someone.”
It looked like he felt something on the fishing rod. Abyss wiggled his brows and pulled the rod with all of his strength. However, the fishing hook had nothing on it.
“… Ugh.”
Abyss saw the fishing hook dangling in the air. He crumpled his face. He then clicked his tongue before swinging the fishing rod to send the hook back into the lake.
‘There is no bait on it?’