Chapter 44

“—So… could someone explain what exactly is going on here?”

Arthur asked in a confused tone, glancing at Wilhelm, who had his arm around me, laughing without permission. Normally, I’d brush him off instantly, but dealing with this guy is such a hassle that I’m intentionally leaving it be. I’m holding onto the faint hope that he’ll stop on his own soon enough.

“Are you Arthur, the friend of my best friend?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s me. Nice to meet you.”

“Great! If you’re a friend of my best friend, then you’re my friend too! Just call me Vil!”

“Uh… sure. Nice to meet you, too.”

Even someone like Arthur, who’s the perfect “friend character,” is struggling to handle this musclehead. After a moment, Arthur whispered something into Wilhelm’s ear, then quickly made his way toward me.

“What’s u—”

“What did you do this time? The way he’s acting so attached to you is way too weird.”

“Hey, calm down. I’m still trying to figure it out myself.”

Arthur, looking more genuinely confused than ever, grabbed me by the shoulders and started shaking me. I explained things as clearly as possible.

“I fought in Hera’s place, won, and gave him an Elixir. Now we’re best friends.”

“Yeah, I still don’t get it. Especially the part where you fought for Hera and gave him an Elixir. Are you out of your mind giving away something like that?”

“Look, I—”

I gave Arthur the detailed backstory of how I ended up fighting and why I handed Wilhelm an Elixir. Eventually, he seemed to understand and let out a big sigh.

“I see… So that’s how it all went down. It’s impressive, but… I still don’t understand why you’d use an Elixir just for some broken bones.”

It seems the value of an Elixir in this world is even higher than I thought. I’ll be more careful about giving them out next time.

“Still… getting him on our side is a massive advantage for us.”

“Yeah.”

Not only is Wilhelm ridiculously strong, but the demon of wrath he’s contracted with, Satan, is absurdly powerful too. Having him as an ally is a real game changer. In the game, they’re known as one of the top three strongest characters.

Incidentally, the top three strongest characters in the game are Awakened Aria, me, and the Wilhelm & Satan combo. Though in this world, Aria doesn’t seem that strong, and Hera seems way more powerful.

Well, Hera is the strongest, after all. She’s cute, hardworking, talented, and yet somehow didn’t make it into the top three strongest characters. It’s a crime, honestly. Forget Aria—just swap her out for Hera already.

“By the way…”

Arthur suddenly muttered as if something had just come to mind.

“Where’s the most dangerous person gone?”

Hearing that, I glanced around. Arthur, Hera, Mireille, Wilhelm… Wait, where’s that trash Kurt?

“Tch… Arthur, I’ll leave them to you. And—Wilhelm.”

“Oh, what’s up, best friend!”

“Stay with Arthur for a bit and protect Hera and the others.”

“You got it! Anyone looking to cause trouble gets a beatdown, right?”

“That’s about the gist of it. Just don’t kill anyone.”

“Of course!”

I quickly headed off to wherever that scumbag Kurt was likely to be.

“This place still gives me the creeps.”

I arrived at one corner of the research lab in the main building of the demon academy. This was where Kurt’s little “research club” was based. Thanks to Kurt, the club only had about three members, making it as small as my martial arts club.

I found the hidden staircase leading to Kurt’s secret lab, and in front of me appeared a keypad and fingerprint scanner. I knew the code, but I couldn’t mimic his fingerprints, so I just fried the device with electricity. Hopefully, this gets him expelled. Then, I’ll take care of him for good.

“Alright, let’s go.”

I reflected the security lasers aimed at me with my sword, neatly cutting a hole in the wall to enter. True to Kurt’s vile nature, even the lab’s defenses were meant to be lethal.

The stairs, predictably, led downward. The only light came from magical torch-like devices, making the path dimly lit. After walking a few steps, about twenty more lasers shot out from the walls, all aimed at me.

But I casually blocked everything with a magic barrier and continued descending. I could probably just destroy everything and lure Kurt out, but that might bring the whole building down, so I held off.

“Oh, looks like you’ve finally arrived. My experimental monsters.”

After about a minute of descending, I reached an open space. Blocking the stairs were goblins with various body parts attached from other monsters, their seams fused together with machinery. Their eyes were wild, clearly no longer sane.

“You poor things… I bet he didn’t even give you anesthesia. Don’t worry, I’ll put you out of your misery soon.”

With a single slash as I passed by, I severed the goblin’s head. As it fell to the ground, blood spurting out, its face looked oddly relieved, despite being killed.

“…I’ll free the rest of you from this pain and humiliation soon enough.”

I plunged into the crowd of goblins, decapitating them all in a single stroke. Their heads rolled, and their bodies collapsed.

“Alright, let’s move on… Kurt, you better be ready. Trash belongs in the garbage. And that garbage is going to be the pits of hell.”

With those words aimed at Kurt, who was likely watching all of this, I continued down the stairs.

.

.

“W-what the hell is that monster…?”