Chapter 253: A Desperate Hope

Yeonhwa paused, lips pressed together in thought.

Yeonhwa’s gaze, unreadable, swept over Sareen. Sareen met her gaze unflinchingly, as if daring her to find fault.

A strange tension filled the air between them.

……

……

After a long moment of silent, unreadable stares, Yeonhwa finally broke the silence and looked away. Her belated response to the earlier comment followed.

“…Killing Deon Hart is a given, but…”

She subtly watched Sareen’s expression.

“But I get the feeling that’s not quite what you meant.”

“No, what I mean is that Deon Hart needs to be killed as the ‘top priority.’”

Her expression was firm and resolute.

Sareen harbored a personal vendetta against Deon Hart, it was her only flaw as a strategist. The King of Sanguo wondered if her current insistence was driven by personal feelings, and a sense of caution crept into his mind.

Sareen was no fool. Even without being asked for a reason, she proceeded to explain as if it were obvious.

“What will be different if we just defend and hold out? You know as well as I do, time isn’t on our side. A war of attrition only benefits them, not us. Humanity needs to drive the demons off this land, and quickly.”

……

“Honestly, the current situation is pretty hopeless. Especially since the Hero and the Demon King are in league.”

This wasn’t something to simply brush off with a, ‘That’s shocking.’

“The Hero is the only one who can stand against the Demon King. Simply holding our ground won’t solve this, and holding our ground is hard enough as it is. Just look at the battlefield out there; you can see that for yourself.”

She glanced at Deon Hart wreaking havoc across the battlefield.

Corpses marked his path like gruesome breadcrumbs. Even generals were no exception. In fact, if not for the distinct armor, one wouldn’t even realize they were generals, so easily did they fall.

“If things continue like this, there’s no hope for us.”

No one could find a glimmer of hope in that scene.

“Our only hope lies in killing Deon Hart.”

In the face of such despair, declaring ‘killing Deon Hart’ as the only hope might sound a bit far-fetched, but…

It makes sense if you think of him not as ‘Deon Hart,’ but as ‘the Hero.’

Yeonhwa, catching a glimpse of Sareen’s thoughts, shifted her expression, a mixture of understanding and uncertainty.

“There can’t be two Heroes at the same time.”

……Indeed.

So, she’d guessed right. She nodded.

There’s only one Hero per generation. A new Hero can only be born once the previous one dies and passes on.

Since a Hero who’s our ‘enemy’ is as good as having no Hero at all.

“So, our only hope is to kill the Hero who’s sided with the Demon King, weaken the Demon Realm’s forces, and hope for the birth of a new Hero.”

“Yes, exactly. I won’t deny there isn’t a personal element in this, but… surely this is reason enough, Your Majesty?”

……Indeed.

Enough reason, indeed.

The problem is… how do we kill that monster?

Just as he was about to delve deeper into thought, the communicator blinked to life. Their eyes snapped towards it.

“This is…”

A communicator linked directly to the current Emperor of the Empire.

Sareen, recognizing the communicator, remarked casually.

“Looks like someone else is on the same wavelength as me.”

……Figures, it’s probably an alliance proposal.

They must have heard about Deon Hart by now.

Yeonhwa hesitated before answering the call, pausing to consider.

“Even if it’s not, we still need to form an alliance. Sanguo can’t handle the Hero alone. Don’t you agree?”

“That would be ideal. It’s best to be thorough, after all. Deon Hart is here in the Human Realm after ages; this is our chance. Once he retreats, who knows when another opportunity like this will arise?”

Thoroughly, huh…

Yeonhwa, her gaze fixed on the blinking communicator, finally looked up at Sareen.

“Are you confident that we can actually kill Deon Hart by joining forces with other nations?”

“…‘Confidence’ is a dangerous word, isn’t it? My mistake. I’m not sure, as we’ve never tried to kill a Hero this way before. But unlike the Demon King, this Hero is still human, and he’s here in the Human Realm. I believe it might actually be possible.”

……Hmm.

A thought suddenly struck the King of Sanguo.

In all of history, has a Hero ever been killed by a human?

…Even once?

***

Heroes who slay Demon Kings are so revered they become almost god-like figures, practically deities. Countless rulers, feeling their thrones threatened, have tried every conceivable method to eliminate them.

From sheer numbers to exploiting the most human of weaknesses—manipulating them into love, then turning their beloved against them.

Yet, only a Hero can kill a Demon King, and only a Demon King can kill a Hero.

But all these schemes proved futile against a Hero’s inherent talent, survival instincts, and fierce will to live.

Massing ordinary troops against a Hero was pointless, and those with fragments of the Hero’s power were far too few to overwhelm by force.

So, they turned to psychological tactics and, digging deeper, discovered a common thread among Heroes: an intense will to survive.

Investigations concluded that this ‘will to survive’ was also a form of ‘talent’ inherent to Heroes.

History books showed that every Hero possessed an exceptionally strong survival instinct.

One loyal knight, once willing to die for his lord, became a Hero, and when that same lord tried to kill him, the knight turned around and took *his* lord’s head instead.

Another Hero, hopelessly in love to the point of offering up the world, found his beloved trying to kill him. Instead of succumbing to heartbreak and despair, he was consumed by betrayal and killed her instead.

Thus, some say,

Perhaps… a Hero’s weakness is another Hero?

━ From ancient texts ━

***

‘…Just a load of nonsense.’

Elpidius slammed the book shut.

He’d been hoping to find actual cases of Heroes being killed, but it was all irrelevant drivel. He felt like an idiot for reading it to the end, just in case.

‘And it’s the last book too, what a waste of time.’

He tossed the book onto the desk, a dull thud. It landed atop a growing stack of books.

Leaning back in his chair for a moment’s rest, his eyes fell on the desk, devoid of even a single piece of paper. Supposedly the Emperor’s desk, yet it was covered in ancient texts, not official documents.

The chancellor would have a fit if he saw this. He glanced at his own stack of finished books, then turned to his sister. She seemed to be nearing the end of her own pile, flipping through the last few pages of what looked like the final book.

‘Guess I’ll wait a bit then.’

Elpidius’s eyelids drooped languidly.

The peaceful quiet of the room was punctuated only by the occasional rustle of turning pages. Thoughts began to drift in unbidden.

‘These were supposed to be all the books on Heroes. Guess I can only hope Aletea found something useful in her pile.’

The reason for their sudden dive into ancient texts was obvious enough.

Deon Hart, who’d been holed up in the Demon Realm since killing the late Emperor, had finally emerged into the Human Realm. And he was making quite the comeback in Sanguo, they said.

This news meant one thing to the two royals: an opportunity to finally kill Deon Hart. At this chance, which might never come again, Aletea and Elpidius’s eyes gleamed with anticipation.

Their train of thought mirrored Sanguo’s.

[After all, a Hero on the Demon King’s side is useless. More harm than good, really.]

[To pave the way for the next Hero, we have to kill this one.]

One Hero per generation, and this one is on the Demon King’s side. Based on this, their plan to usher in a new Hero conveniently aligned with their personal ambitions.

[Deon Hart must die. And as the ‘top priority.’]

The only problem was…

‘But could humanity even kill a Hero?…’

Just then, he heard Aletea close her book; she seemed to be done too.

Lifting his gaze, Elpidius saw she had no more books left and immediately spoke.

“Find anything?”

“Nope. Found cases where a nation, or specific rulers, or powerful factions tried to kill a Hero, but…”

“No successful cases, though.”

Surely, a Hero who slays a Demon King and gains renown would be the ultimate thorn in the side of any ruler, yet history is utterly devoid of any successful assassinations.

Even entire nations had failed to kill a Hero, and often crumbled trying.

“So, in other words, the ‘Empire’ alone won’t cut it.”

……

Silence descended for a moment.

Their moment of despair was brief. As if they’d never been discouraged, the two royals’ golden eyes lit up with renewed thought.

……Then…

“Then, we’ll need a force greater than ‘one nation.’”

Right.

If not just one nation, but a coalition of nations, perhaps then it might just be feasible?

It wasn’t a broad, long-term goal like ‘driving the Demon King’s army from this land,’ so if everyone focused their efforts for a short time, it might actually be achievable.

“We need an alliance.”

A large-scale alliance, at that.

Elpidius reached for the communicator.

***

A week was hardly enough time to plan and execute anything substantial.

From the moment Derniban decided to sneak the baby away, he’d been working tirelessly. Avoiding the 9th Corps Commander Trober’s notice complicated things further, making progress even more difficult.

Still, he’d somehow managed to find a few humans he deemed suitable to entrust with the baby within the short timeframe. On the night before the week’s end, he laid out the profiles of these individuals before Oel.

Having disregarded status, profession, age, gender, and affiliations, the individuals he’d selected were a diverse bunch with little in common. Among them, the one he recommended most was an elderly man.

“Apparently, he used to be a court physician in the Imperial Palace. He retired due to age shortly after the war broke out and now lives peacefully in a quiet village. Being a physician, he could handle any health issues the baby might have immediately, and his village is far from any active battle zones, minimizing the chances of him getting caught up in the war.”

It wasn’t a guarantee of ‘zero risk,’ just ‘low probability,’ but in these times, that was more than enough.

…But Derniban,

Oel, who had been flipping through the documents with a curious look, suddenly paused and looked up.

“The most crucial thing is whether this guy would actually raise a baby himself, right? Did you check on that?”

“Everyone on that list I gave you are fundamentally good people, Lady Oel. They’re not the type to ignore a baby left on their doorstep, and they certainly wouldn’t mistreat a child in their care.”

Well, if that’s the case…

Oel nodded, then flipped back to the documents, checking the details of the person Derniban had pointed out. She’d been skimming through them smoothly, but she paused when she saw the age listed on the profile and tilted her head, a frown forming.

“Derniban, this guy you’re talking about… he’s over seventy?”

Isn’t that too old, for a human? How long do humans even live, normally?

She vaguely recalled hearing about the average human lifespan, and her brow furrowed slightly. He was practically on death’s door.

“Won’t he just die before the baby even grows up?”

“Apparently, he was well-respected both as a former court physician and in his current village. So, even if he were to pass away, I reckon there’d be others willing to take in the baby. There’s a saying in the Human Realm, ‘birds of a feather flock together,’ right? His friends would likely be similar sorts.”

Is that so…?

She wasn’t entirely convinced, but if Derniban said so, then maybe.

Knowing there wasn’t time for endless questions, Oel swallowed her doubts, gave a curt nod, and tapped the documents.

“Alright, decision made! Let’s go with this human.”