Evade The Hero and Flee!

Chapter 280

Chapter 280 

31. It is most fun to watch fights(5)

One news story started spreading across the continent.

<Demon King Parfasey died!>  

<The Demon King was defeated by the empire’s warriors!>

“Damn! What the hell is this nonsense?”  

Curses came out naturally in this situation.

“Why are you doing that? Isn’t it good for the master if the Demon King dies?”

Good. It’s very good news.  

“But this isn’t right, is it?”

Even if the original is the former disciple guy, and this guy is just a fake.  

“He died too fast for a mid-boss.”  

It was a too fast withdrawal to think of him as a dragon-born Demon King.

Really, really fast!

“Isn’t it good that a strong enemy disappeared quickly?”

“It also means that another enemy is that much stronger.”

Even though I heard the news that they knocked down the Demon King, I couldn’t laugh at the situation at all.

“Originally, he’s a character who should hold out against the protagonists and put them in crisis longer than the final boss.” 

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean he shouldn’t go down so easily.”

The final boss tends to go down futilely. Despite having great power, they pathetically lose to protagonists who have already awakened to their full potential. 

But in the case of mid-bosses, there are times when the protagonists are defeated multiple times before they are perfectly matured.  

For example, if the mid-boss targets the protagonists’ fatal weakness, or they are defeated due to the overwhelming difference in power.

Even the HeroesI watched in my childhood were severely defeated at midpoint, facing a great crisis, but they overcame it with new weapons or robots several times!

I can’t believe this perfect mid-boss character, a former dragon, would go down so futilely against the Demon King!

“The final boss wouldn’t go down more futilely, would they…?”

“Hmm… At the current combat power of humans, they might be taken down at once too…”

“That can’t happen…”

The Demon King has to inflict the most damage to humans and go down while fighting them. That way, time will be needed to recover after defeating the Demon King, and they won’t be able to chase me either. 

“You want people to die just to buy time for your escape…”

“They don’t necessarily have to die. Rather than dying, leaving them severely injured holds back the allies better.” 

In cases like wars where there are many casualties, the bodies are often buried or cremated in masses.  

Ideally, they would retrieve and bury each body and pray for them, but realistically that is impossible.  

Bodies that are too mutilated often decay before their identities can be confirmed, which also risks spreading epidemics. 

On the other hand, the severely injured who are alive but could die if left untreated can hinder the allies better.

“As many severely injured as possible. And many dead too, if necessary. So they can’t even think about coming after me!”

“The master just turned the ruined kingdom against us as enemies.”  

“With the Empire and Demon King raging to catch me, what do other kingdoms have anything to do with it?”

Moreover, they were kingdoms that did not even hear what I said.

“And it’s normal for kingdoms to be scary when they perish.”  

What is scary about power is being able to freely manipulate state power.  

If you mess with nobles or royals, you violate the laws of the kingdom. Then soldiers and knights mobilize to condemn it.  

Since long ago, what was the most important thing a villain must avoid?  

Not getting mobbed.

No matter how strong a villain boasts to be, if they get mobbed, they pathetically lose. 

You can see from my senior villains in the previous life who fought 1 vs 5 on average, or successive Demon Kings who died gloriously fighting dozens or hundreds of heroes!

There is no free lunch with mobs. 

That was an unchanging truth in my past life and this one as well.  

However, things change when it comes to nobles and royals who cannot mobilize soldiers because the kingdom is gone!  

It is said that when it rains, it aches in every joint in old age, but nobles with little military power can be assassinated anytime.  

Even with my experience as a senior agent in what used to be the most evil secret organization of the Empire, I can still pull that off!  

“You have no plans to do that.”

“Well, that’s true.”  

What you are capable of doing and deciding to do are separate matters. Taking action personally at my age would be so annoying.

And there were far more important things right now anyway.

“We need to tie them down so they can’t move fast.”  

Rather than possible future events, I need to deal with what has already happened.  

“Although information is lacking, it should be correct to some extent.”

I continue to look at the map with various information marked.  

Since the God of Nature could hit me from behind anytime, I discarded even Shuttle and came here so the map may not be perfectly accurate but still correct in general.

“It’s been completely demolished.” 

The marked areas on the map were places where battles took place between the evil god’s army and Imperial army, all ending in the complete annihilation of the evil god’s army.  

“If this is just a rumor…” 

“At minimum, it must be 1.5 times or more areas that were tidied up.”

In my past life, there were crazy bastards who took photos of monsters popping out of Gates, but there are none of those nut jobs here.  

Thanks to that, information cannot spread quickly, and it can be blocked as much as I want.  

At best, all I get is what is officially announced at each temple, but I wonder how much the temples will deliver the exploits of the Imperial Army.  

“The temples have to make a living as well.”  

Just as the metal bat said.  

Why do people make offerings to temples and pray to the gods? 

It was to borrow the power of the gods when an incident occurred that cannot be solved by human power.  

But with the so-called power of gods, heroes, losing battles after battles, and the Imperial army suddenly popping up and sweeping the evil god’s army, how would the gods save face?

The more the Empire wins in a landslide, the more the gods would feel as tense as I am!  

“From now on, heroes should mainly move while the Imperial army is tied down as much as possible, but can those guys actually do that job well?”

Judging only by the past skills and talent, the hero surpassed Mirea by far.  

But somehow, there was something indistinct about Mirea.  

What to call it…? Should I say it’s protagonist buff?

Clearly looking at all the conditions and saying this is a novel, the hero should be the protagonist, but somehow Mirea felt like the protagonist with some inexplicable blessings and favor.  

Actually, when I heard from Aria and the hero about when they were captured by Mirea, the difference had widened to the point where they couldn’t even think to confront Mirea.  

“Did I make an unnecessary enemy…?” 

I broke the contract to move the Imperial army not expecting it would be this strong. 

The main force hasn’t moved and one Demon King is gone with the evil god’s army completely destroyed!

“Now what?”  

“Hmm… Not enough cards…”  

What I have now is just a bit of cash, some gold bars, expensive jewelry to sell for good money, the metal bat and 2 scrolls of geas for all.

It’s impossible to cause changes to the forces of the hero, the empire’s army, and the evil god by doing this. 

In the end, only one thing was needed. It was someone who could bring change to these forces.  

“There’s no way such a person would appear.”

“That’s right.”

At least they would have to be my disciple to become decent fighting power, but most of them already belonged somewhere.

Whether it’s the Demon King, a hero, the imperial army, or a mid-level boss of the evil organization established by Sia.  

“I raised my disciples wrong….”  

“I admit it.”

It was just as the metal bat said.  

It seems my so-called disciples are full of thoughts of catching me and offering me up rather than helping their master.

The only ones whose whereabouts I don’t know are Aria and Rudna, but would those guys be in a shabby inn like this?

“Ah… should we drink?”

Personally I don’t like alcohol. No, I hate it.  

I often told my disciples that no matter how strong you are, if you get drunk you lose your sanity.  

Losing your sanity means you can’t judge calmly, and not being able to be calm means for villains it could mean losing your life at any moment without knowing.  

That’s why I recommended not drinking alcohol.  

There may be unavoidable cases, but I taught them to refrain from drinking as much as possible in normal times, and if they do drink to only have one or two glasses.  

But a person has times when it can’t be helped.  

I was like that now. I just wanted to get dead drunk on alcohol and pass out without any worries.  

And it seemed I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“Guh!”  

“Come at me! Wimps!”

It was a rundown bar that would likely be near a rundown lodging.  

“What, did another one pass out? Next!”

In that place, a woman wearing shabby clothes was shouting while raising a glass of alcohol.  

“Did Mesic lose too?”

“Damn! Already 7 people have lost!”  

“Mo, more alcohol!”

Ignoring the people moving the guys who had collapsed around her, the woman kept calling for more alcohol.  

“He’s doing pretty well for a guy who still has blood on his head!”  

At that time, a man who looked to be in his 50s approached the woman.  

“If blood dries on my head I’m screwed!”  

Looking at the man, the woman held out her glass with a cynical smile.

“Hahahaha! You’ve got a point.”

The man who took the offered glass downed it in one shot.  

“It’s best to get dead drunk on alcohol if you want to be screwed.”  

“For a guy talking like that and looking like that, think you can handle it, gramps?”

“My training isn’t so shallow that I’d lose to a young chick like you.”

Hmph!  

The woman who let out a quiet snort filled her own glass to the brim and tipped it back cleanly.  

“Then come show me what you’ve got.”

“Febrea! You’re our hope!”  

“Hang in there, Febrea!”

“Don’t lose to another outsider!”

All the people in the bar cheered for the middle-aged man.

– Boss, you’re not drinking?

It was a question from the metal bat in the form of a bracelet, trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible.  

– Yeah.  

I had intended to get dead drunk and pass out for the first time in a while, but after seeing that situation I couldn’t bring myself to drink.  

Because,

– What I needed appeared.

Now was not the time to be drinking alcohol nonsense.

#7 Their Circumstances: The Circumstances of a Certain Drunkard

“Guh!”

“How, how can this be!”  

“Febrea, even you!”

He was a tough opponent. To not collapse after continuously drinking this much straight alcohol.  

He couldn’t be dismissed as an average person.

“Uwaaaaaaaah!”

But I made him collapse.  

The joy of making a strong opponent collapse penetrates my mind.

“Ohhhhh!”  

“A god has appeared!”

“Um, excuse me but… You can pay the bill, right?”

As I shouted, people all around started praising me.  

Of course the last voice I heard was the bar owner’s worry.

“I might~ *hic* look like this but~ I’m not a… mage! I’m a well-off mercenary!”  

I took out a gold nugget from my pocket and handed it to the owner.  

It was enough money to easily pay for cheap alcohol like this.  

“Drinks are on me tonight! But only people drinking with me can come!”

Seeing the gold nugget, the owner’s face lit up with joy, and the drunk patrons were excited to get free drinks from me.

I got drunk… and caught up in the mood.

“Let’s drink! And forget!”

I’d only ever heard negative things about alcohol before.  

I didn’t know drinking could feel this good, that getting drunk could make me feel this elated.

I could easily banish the tipsiness with magic if I wanted, but there was no need to.  

It would be a waste to get rid of such a nice feeling.

“Here, drink! More!”

I pour drinks for the newcomers who’ve come to challenge me.  

This challenger couldn’t handle more than 7 glasses before kissing the floor.

“What! Are all the guys here only capable of this much?!”  

My tongue is starting to get twisted. But I can still drink more.

“I can’t back down after hearing words like that!”  

“Hahhah! That’s right! That’s right!”

I make the challengers who took my taunt one after another collapse.  

I didn’t know I was this resistant to alcohol.  

To make most of the people in the bar collapse even though they’re untrained people.

“As expected, I’m a genius!”

Kkhhhahhahah!

Was it because I was drunk on alcohol? I was feeling amused and making strange laughter sounds.  

“Mind if I join you for a drink?”

Then a new challenger came.  

“Sure. Alwaysh welc… 

I looked up at the new challenger with a smile to welcome them.

“Welcome?”

The welcoming smile instantly disappeared. I couldn’t believe the existence before my eyes.  

“As expected, that’s right.”  

“Huh? What?”

Did I drink too much? Is this why they say not to get drunk on alcohol?

“We were destined to meet, sis!”

In a moment, a silver-haired girl rests her hand on my left shoulder. And at that moment, the drunkenness disappears like it was a lie.

“Why… Why… Wh…”

My trembling lips couldn’t form words. And my eyes started to fill with tears.  

At the same time,

“You’re supposed to learn about alcohol from your parents or master, you know.”  

“Ah…”

I heard Instructor’s voice right next to me, and slowly, very slowly, drank from the glass Instructor handed me while thinking,

I’ll never get drunk on alcohol again.