Chapter 247: Revisiting the Den

“Ah, is that so?”

To give a more detailed explanation, Deon dredged up more of his memories, touching his lips as he listed the building’s features.

“It’s a two-story building… if I remember right, the first floor was a gambling den and the second was a bar.”

“Ah, I think I know the place you mean. Please, follow me.”

Immediately, the demon took the lead.

It seemed to be closer than he thought, as it didn’t take long to arrive.

“Is this the place?”

Standing in front of the building, the demon turned to look at Deon.

“Right. Thanks for the escort.”

“Yes, then I will take my leave.”

“Sure. See you around.”

It was indeed the building from his memories. Deon scanned the familiar building with his eyes, gave a casual greeting to the demon who had guided him, and stepped inside.

Perhaps they had been expecting a new customer, as subtly gleaming gazes gathered, only to freeze in place.

“….”

“….”

A hush fell over the interior as they seemed to recognize him. An uneasy silence settled.

‘Commander of the 0th Legion…’

‘…Deon Hart, isn’t it?’

‘I heard he’s the commander-in-chief, why would someone so busy be here…’

Why had he come back to this place? Could it be that he was finally here to punish them for what happened before?

At least, none of the demons who were present back then failed to recognize him. The memory of that time was too shocking to forget.

How could they forget the one who had plunged the entire building into terror by killing just one demon? The incident at that time was so deeply etched into their minds that even now, many demons still experienced it in their nightmares, causing them to anxiously exchange glances, wondering if they should kneel down right now.

And then, in the heavy tension, Deon moved.

With those familiar red eyes, he scanned the room, then walked purposefully towards someone he seemed to recognize. Everyone’s gaze followed, focusing on the same spot. There, standing frozen, was Miles, the guy who’d foolishly offered him spiked alcohol long ago.

‘Why… why?’

Miles shrank back, his face ashen as if he were about to cry.

‘He just took the drug back then and left. Wasn’t that the end of it?’

Deon Hart was getting closer and closer. As the light shifted, shadows fell across his face, making his eerie red eyes even more prominent. His appearance was no different from a demon, and Miles, who was frozen and couldn’t even get up from his chair, instinctively recoiled, eventually falling backward with a thud.

The unexpected loud noise startled him, and as he scrambled to get up, a pair of shoes stopped in front of him.

As if kindly trying to meet his gaze, Deon slowly bent his knees and sat down, making eye contact. His scarlet eyes took on a crescent shape, as if he were smiling.

“Hello, junkie. Long time no see?”

“Y-yes, yes!”

“There’s a favor I’d like to ask…”

Facing him like this, memories of the past resurfaced. Deon smiled faintly and recited the words he had said back then, verbatim.

“If you don’t want to die…”

“…….”

“Hand over all the drugs you have.”

***

The drugs were quickly prepared in response to the veiled threat—hand them over or make them if they didn’t have any.

Perhaps he had even paid attention to the casual remark that drugs in cigarette form would be preferable, because in a separate cigarette case, apart from the pouch of drugs, Deon quietly looked down at it, then raised his head and smiled at Miles as if praising him. Miles, for his part, was horrified and avoided his gaze, but anyway.

He opened the drug pouch and lightly sniffed the scent.

“…….”

Deon’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

“Open the window.”

“…Yes?”

“I said open the window.”

I can’t check because of the stench of blood.

The demons who had been pretending to be nonchalant but were actually watching with bated breath, hurriedly moved and opened every window in the building. A cool breeze drove out the warmth of the room.

Facing the refreshing breeze head-on, Deon lightly brought the drug pouch back to his nose.

“A mix of paralytics and sleeping pills. Looks like you still haven’t given up on that trick.”

“……!”

“Well… I doubt you mixed them on purpose, and it was me who told you to hand over all the drugs you had, so I’m not going to complain.”

However, storing drugs mixed together was still not good, no matter how you looked at it. Even if it wasn’t for his own consumption.

“Anyway, thanks for your trouble.”

“Th-then, are you… leaving now…?”

“……Maybe.”

He was originally planning to leave, but seeing the desperate eyes that wished for him to go, he actually felt like staying longer.

He crooked one corner of his lips upward.

“I’ve got some time to kill anyway… Shall we play a game or two before I go?”

Despair washed over the faces of the demons in the building.

….

The game he played to mess with the demons had ridiculously become a tool to gauge his own luck.

Deon stared silently at the cards in his hand.

‘…My luck has definitely dropped compared to before.’

Could it be that the world was withdrawing its blessing because the Hero who should be killing the Demon King and working for humans was turning his weapon towards the Human Realm? His luck was not what it used to be.

Seeing Deon’s less-than-pleasant expression, his opponent raised the stakes. Deon chuckled and accepted, placing his cards down.

‘Even so, it seems it hasn’t been completely withdrawn yet, though.’

Full house.

His opponent’s face soured.

Considering the past when he used to get four-of-a-kind and straight flushes like eating meals, and occasionally even royal straight flushes, his luck did seem to have declined, but that was only when compared to his past; it wasn’t bad now either.

In any case, as long as the Hero had the intention to kill the Demon King and had not yet done so, the world would not be able to let the Hero die before achieving its goal. That minimal blessing was manifesting itself as luck.

‘Of course, there’s no guarantee that it will continue to be like this in the future, though…’

If more countries collapse and more humans die, would the world abandon the Hero then? Or would it choose me, a special case even among the many Heroes?

He smiled faintly and stood up from his seat. Unlike before, the pile wasn’t mountain-high, but he filled the pouch he had brought just in case with gold coins piled up enough to fill both hands and slightly overflow, then turned his back.

“I’m leaving now.”

“Y-yes! Please come ag—…”

“……”

“Please… please come ag—…”

The guy hesitated, as if he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘come again’ even as a formality.

His expression, as if he had dug his own grave, was quite amusing, and Deon chuckled and waved his hand.

“Let’s hope we never meet again.”

“…Yes.”

***

He returned to Demon King’s castle safely, and time passed until the day of departure dawned.

Now that there was no longer any need to hide his skin with a robe, Deon thoughtlessly reached for his usual simple and plain combat uniform, but paused when he saw the outfit Ed presented to him, saying it was the official combat uniform. A hollow laugh escaped him at the familiar design.

Well, now that he had cast aside the robe that was practically a symbol, it was understandable that they would focus on the attire….

“This design… who came up with it?”

“Lord Demon King prepared it.”

“Ha.”

That Demon King bastard is really nasty… At this point, it was beyond malicious and almost perverted.

A design that was exactly the same as the Empire’s official combat uniform, except for the color. Even the fact that the top was slightly shorter to accommodate the sheaths for the daggers that would be mounted crisscross on his back and for the convenience of drawing the swords was perfectly identical. Just like when he displayed the screen last time, he was really making good use of it. If the Empire saw this, they would foam at the mouth and have a fit.

“…Damn black color.”

“…Do you… not like the black color?”

“No, it’s not that.”

It wasn’t that he disliked it, but he just didn’t like that it was being used as a tool by the Demon King to reveal his affiliation with the Demon Realm and provoke the Human Realm.

To reassure Ed, who still looked uneasy despite his answer, he accepted the clothes and immediately undressed. Dan reached out a hand to help, but stepped back when he saw Ed. He must be considerate of Ed, who couldn’t go on the expedition together. Whether Ed knew this or not, he remained focused on faithfully helping with the change of clothes.

In the silence that had settled, Ben, who had been watching this, suddenly raised his head and called out to Deon.

“Ah, um… Sir Deon.”

“Huh?”

“……”

He showed that he was listening and waiting for him to speak, but the next words didn’t follow. A gaze filled with bewilderment turned to Ben.

Instead of speaking directly, he hesitated and fidgeted with the mana stone necklace. A necklace that would immediately send a signal if something went wrong with Deon Hart’s body.

Seeing this, Deon cocked an eyebrow.

Ben slowly began to speak, with an expression as if he was struggling to find the right words.

“…I heard a ban has been issued.”

“……”

“In the case of the cigarettes Sir Deon favors, signals were coming so frequently that they were set to be filtered out, so we don’t know how often you smoke them, but…”

It wasn’t just Deon Hart who was present in this place right now.

As if carefully choosing and refining his words, being mindful of Dan and Ed, Ben paused for a moment, then spoke in a rather abbreviated and roundabout way.

“…Still, I hope you will refrain from them.”

“……”

Deon didn’t answer and just stared at Ben. He understood clearly what he was trying to say, so he had no choice but to observe him more closely.

The issued drug ban. In the midst of that, he went to the First City and used a different kind of drug than his usual cigarettes, so a signal must have been sent to the necklace.

Deon Hart had violated the ban issued by the Demon King, and Ben had indicated that he knew this but wouldn’t say anything. The evidence was that he didn’t immediately go to the Demon King to report it or threaten to do so to stop him, but simply stopped at saying he hoped he would refrain.

The silence was broken when Ed took his hands away from the clothes he had just finished arranging.

“All done.”

“…Thanks for your hard work.”

When did he even get around to equipping the weapons? Deon ran a hand over the equipped weapons and turned to look at Ed. His expression, even darker than before, as if he was deeply regretful that he couldn’t go with him, caught his eye.

‘…’

He touched his lips and then called out to him.

“Ed, there’s a mission I want you to take on while I’m out in the Human Realm.”

“Yes? What… is it?”

“Report to me every piece of new information coming in from the Demon Realm. Even trivial information like ‘Legion commanders fought again’ is fine.”

“……!”

“We need to have at least one reliable information relay left here.”

It was already a decided matter, but he deliberately gave the reason of a ‘mission’ to create a reason for him to stay in the Demon Realm.

Consideration to lessen his feelings of inadequacy. A considerate order that seemed to say, ‘It’s not because you’re useless that I’m leaving you behind,’ made Ed’s eyes widen, and he soon smiled, as if crumbling.

“Thank you for saying you can trust me. I will do my best to live up to your expectations.”

“…Alright. Then shall we go now? Dan. Pack Ches-s.”

……Chess?

Ben and Ed tilted their heads. Seeing their questioning expressions, Deon corrected the misunderstanding.

“Not chess, but Ches-s.”

“……?”

He knew that it was a game he developed himself, but… why would he bring that to the battlefield? Their questions only grew.

However, Deon seemed to have no intention of explaining further and turned his head.

At first glance, it may only look like a game derived from chess, but Dan, who knew that it was also useful as a tool for strategizing, wordlessly packed Ches-s.

He was about to leave as he was, when a forgotten presence grabbed his ankle.

“Squueak.”

“……?”

Green vines wrapped around his body and hung him up together with the flowerpot. Deon paused and looked down at the carnivorous plant.

“Squueaaaak! Squueak squueak squueak! Squeeeak!”

“…You want to come with me? You’re telling me not to leave you behind? If I’m going to abandon you, I should just step on you and go?”

“Squueak!”

“…….”