Heroes and Machine Girls Looking at Profiles - Chapter 73



73 – A Moment in the Past

After the battle with the hero Kenji and the new generation hero party.

I was still staying within the Demon King’s army camp.

There is no information yet regarding the relics of other goddesses.

I thought about going back to the Republic and joining Rossweisse, but the border was currently in disarray.

Incredibly, the empire started a huge antagonism with the Goddess Church.

At first, I thought it was because of the rumor I had spread, but it was nothing more than a gentle back-slap.

From what I heard, the empire sided with the cult in earnest and attacked the facilities of the goddess cult, even causing casualties.

Because of this, there was a difficult situation between the Goddess Church and the Empire.

The Goddess religion is a mainstream religion that spread not only in the empire but throughout this continent.

Of course, not only the Empire, but also the Republic, Principality, and even the Kingdom of Cloeti have a majority of people who believe in the Goddess religion.

It was natural that negative views would be cast on an empire that was in open conflict with such religious forces.

The conflict with the Goddess Church did not develop into a major problem, but due to this attack on the Goddess Church facility, voices criticizing the empire grew even in other countries.

In such a situation, the atmosphere with the empire was becoming unusual not only in the republic but also in principalities and various small and medium-sized countries.

Even the Kingdom of Cloeti was in a situation where it could not openly take the empire’s side in this incident.

Naturally, in this situation, the Demon King’s army also slowed down the invasion speed for a while and was watching the situation carefully.

This was because there was a possibility that it could turn into a three-way match.

We were watching the movements of both sides and assessing when to move forward.

The place I often stayed was a prisoner of war camp.

I often visited this place, thinking that I had to at least look squarely at the victims of the war I caused.

There was no need to be careful about the risk of being discovered by Siella.

The group of refugees, including Saint Ciella, had already been sent back after completing protection.

He was sent back while cleaning up after the battle, so he may have already crossed the border and left the empire.

POW camp.

Most of the prisoners were in good condition, but some were seriously injured in the aftermath of the battle.

For the most part, those walking around inside the camp have minor injuries, and there are those deeper inside who are receiving treatment without being able to stand up due to serious injuries.

Of course, there was no way my heart wouldn’t be pricked after seeing something like that.

“Master, are you okay?”

“…Yes.”

Zikrune, who was coming with me, seemed worried as if he had sensed my feelings.

He nodded and shook his head.

This is a revenge story that started with the knowledge that a big war would break out.

If my conscience is pricked by each and every one of these things, there is no way I can continue pursuing revenge.

Isn’t it a good idea to go around the POW camp in the first place to accept everything head-on?

I thought I had gone all the way around, so I was walking down the road to get out of here.

Zikrune called me.

“…Master.”

“Yes, it’s because of the sign that’s following me right now, right?”

“Yes, at first I thought it was following me, but it seems it is following the master.”

Saying that, Zeke Rune lowered his head.

It’s not something for Zikrune to apologize for.

There are three people secretly following us right now.

They were doing a good job of hiding their presence, but there are Zikrune and the warrior here who are very sensitive to their presence.

Perhaps they were those held in a prisoner of war camp.

In that case, if we leave the camp like this, they won’t be able to follow us anymore.

However, since they were clearly following us, we couldn’t go on.

Zikrune looked at me as if asking for permission, so I nodded.

Immediately, Zikrune disappeared from the spot.

“Kyaaa?!”

After a while, Zikrune reappeared with a scream.

Three women were caught in her grasp.

One of them was a face I recognized.

A girl I met on the battlefield who was part of the warrior party that attacked me with that one-handed axe.

From what I heard in passing, her name was definitely Katya.

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I’m not sure about the other two women.

“I caught it.”

“Yes, good job.”

The girl named Katya looked visibly embarrassed.

The other two women had different reactions.

One of them, Katya, seemed a little calmer than her child, but she was still nervous.

But the other one was shaking her body as if she had seen something incredible.

“Everyone calm down.”

Because she looked so pitiful, I spoke to her to calm her down.

It didn’t have much of an effect, but I noticed that the tremors were slightly less than before.

“…I was just trying to talk to you because you were following us. Why were you following us?”

“That…That…That…”

While the woman who was shaking the most could not speak properly, a girl named Katya opened her mouth.

“… I followed Celicia because she seemed like she knew you. The two of us basically just followed Celicia.”

“Celicia?”

“He.”

Saying that, she pointed to the woman whose body was shaking.

Is it called Celicia?

Although she was disarming, the well-proportioned muscles on her body made it clear that she was a fighter of considerable skill.

When she looked at her, she gathered her body, which had become even more trembling, and looked in this direction.

Then, as if she had made up her mind, she swallowed her saliva and opened her mouth.

“…Excuse me if it’s not true…Aren’t you the warrior Hans?”

“It’s surprising that a path like this was hidden beneath these ruins.”

Iola and his party destroyed the unbreakable goddess statue with the power of the warrior Kenji and discovered the hidden path below.

She thought as she walked down the deep road.

The idiots of the Goddess Church would never have thought of destroying the statue of the Goddess.

That’s why you can’t find this important thing and miss it.

Stupid things.

As I went underground with that thought in mind, it got increasingly dark.

The believers were holding torches, but the darkness was not something that could be managed with just a torch.

However, Iola could not shine as a magic sword.

Because Iola concentrated on learning her combat-type magic, she did not know how to use that type of magic well.

In the end, she had no choice but to carefully go down, relying on the brightness of the fragile torch.

No one would be able to survive if they rolled and fell down a series of stairs like this.

The stairs were already so long that I couldn’t see clearly below, and as I proceeded carefully down the dark path, taking breaks in between, the speed of progress naturally became longer.

When they reached the bottom, it seemed like two hours had passed.

Although their legs were as heavy as a thousand pounds, the sight of the place they arrived at made them jump to their feet.

“What on earth are these?”

Went up and looked at her with astonishment on her face.

Furniture fixtures? Things that appeared to be broken were scattered around.

The shattered room looked as if it had been bombed on Tsushima Road, with iron debris scattered here and there, making it look miserable.

There were a few things on the ceiling of the room that gave off soft lights, but most of them no longer worked.

The reason we were able to know that they were emitting light was because there were a few things left that survived a little and had light coming in and going out.

To that extent, the condition inside the underground space was serious.

In the center of the underground space, there was something like an iron door installed.

The reason it could only be described as something like a door was because the door was also mostly dented and tattered.

The door, which was tattered but still strong, did not open even when Iola pulled on it.

“Hero, may I ask you a favor?”

Hearing Iola’s words, the warrior Kenji stepped forward and pulled the door open.

The door was so tattered that it almost seemed like it would fall off, but it was also rusty and did not open easily.

How long has it been?

In the end, the warrior Kenji gave up trying to open the door, pulled out his holy sword and struck the already half-broken door, causing it to fall apart.

The sound of the iron door falling apart and collapsing echoed loudly throughout the space.

The door fell apart, and the dust that had accumulated over a long period of time spread out enough to create a dust cloud.

“Cough…Cough…!!”

While all the cult members other than Iola were inhaling dust and coughing, the warrior Kenji swung his sword and blew away the dust.

Iola, whose vision was secured, stopped coughing and looked inside.

“…A corpse?”

There was a woman there, motionless, with her body half buried in the wall.

The beautiful red-haired woman did not move at all, as if she were dead.

It didn’t feel alive, so Iola decided it was a corpse.

Then, does this mean that this is that woman’s grave?

The appearance of the corpse, as if it were alive, was quite bizarre, but there was nothing strange about it.

In fact, mummified corpses are often found in ancient tombs.

Even so, it’s my first time seeing something this vivid…

Thinking like that, Iola approached her corpse, and the warrior Kenji also joined her.

It was that time.

The red-haired woman I thought was a corpse seemed to be squirming.

When I went up and looked at her again, wondering if I had seen something wrong, the red-haired woman suddenly raised her head.

“Wow?!”

Iola was surprised, but her followers who followed her were even more surprised.

When they were startled and tried to attack her by screaming, she went up and raised her arms to stop them.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute.”

Iola stops the believers and looks towards the woman.

The woman was looking in her direction, raising her head and opening her hazel eyes.

After a moment of silence, she went up and opened her mouth.

“…Who are you?”

In response to Iola’s question, the woman said nothing.

Are we really human? I couldn’t feel her life, but I could feel the magic flowing from her. As she was looking at her with suspicious eyes, the red-haired woman suddenly opened her mouth.

“I am a combat weapon born to fight against demons.”

She looked at Kenji, the hero behind Iola, and smiled.

“There is someone who can unseal me. Can you unseal me?”