The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated
chapter-57

About an hour later, Shien returned to Lamdrion and reentered the town.

However, while walking on the streets of the town, Shien's expression was slightly guilty.

Around Shien, people passed by in twos and threes, and along with them came conversations like so.

"Has the knight brigades and adventurer's guild still not managed to figure out just what the anomaly from earlier was about?"

"Even through they've already returned some time ago."

"Looking at how panicked they were when they came back, something major must have happened, right?"

"It can't be something that the demons did, right?"

"Don't say such things. Even if it's the demons, right now they're keeping the peace with us mortals and the gods. Even though there are a bunch of troubles caused by problem children with them, supposedly the leader of the demons have been running around left and right for the peace of the three races quite a lot, so it's best not to accuse demons of such things without evidence."

"You say that, but besides demons, who else could make such a huge commotion?"

"Don't let it be some demonic problem child doing something headache inducing again."

"Maybe there's still the possibility of this being simply some kind of natural phenomenon?"

"Then the people from the knight brigades and adventurer's guild shouldn't have been so panicked, right?"

"It really does make one worry."

Conversations like that constantly entered Shien's ears, so Shien could only lower his head, tuck his neck in, and acted like a suspicious person who can't show himself to society. If he was seen by the town's patrolling guards, he would probably end up getting interrogated, right?

Or rather, back when he entered the town, Shien already got interrogated by the guards once.

"You're an adventurer who came from that direction, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you should have seen something strange, right?"

"W-What strange thing?"

"That strange earthquake and sound. If you witnessed something, please let us know. That's also a request from the higher ups. We hope that you adventurers will cooperate with us and do your uptmost to help us investigate the cause of the anomaly.

"I-Is that so?"

"Yes. So, did you see anything strange?"

"… No."

"Alright, please go ahead and enter the town."

"… Thanks."

That was the conversation that Shien had with the gate guards when he reentered Lamdrion.

With such a previous experience, and seeing the entirety of the town sunken into panic and instability as well as the citizens all talking about the same subject worriedly. As the main culprit, Shien felt that it was best for him to lower his head as much as possible.

"In the end though, I was just training a skill after all. I never did anything scary."

So why did thing end up like this?

Shien let out a long sigh with his head pointed in the air.

"Even though I didn't use the Holy Sword, and I used that skill with only the status of a level 10 adventurer. Even if I ended up "accidentally" using too much magic power due to [Magecraft] and [Magic Recovery], and then I "accidentally" leveled the skill up too much, that shouldn't have been enough to cause all this, right?"

Shien truly felt like he was wrongly accused.

Even though in other novels, when a main character would end up causing mass destruction or challenge the world willy-nilly, and the destruction that they caused were many times more terrifying than what he did, the result was that they would end up getting the respect and worship of the people. In that case then, why did it end up like this when it came to him?

"This is what reality is actually supposed to be, right?"

Imagine for a moment, when facing a real natural disaster, and that disaster is humanoid, people can't possibly end up respecting and worshiping it just because it showed terrifying destructive power, right?

What people would respect and worship are only heroes who use their mighty powers to protect them and maintain law and order. If such powers cannot be used for the sake of the world, then to most people, they probably wouldn't be any better than the Demon King.

Just like now, when people are faced with power and events that they cannot understand, what they'll end up showing is only terror and unease.

Thinking about those overpowered protagonists in novels who won't lower their head to anything, and is willing to challenge the universe itself. For them to still want to gain respect and worship is basically nothing more than wish fulfillment.

To put it in other words, if their every action would end up causing such unease and terror in everyone around them, then what do those so called protagonists have to be so proud of anyways?

Anyways, as far as Shien himself is concerned, after seeing the terror his "accident" caused in those innocent people, he felt really guilty.

No matter what, you can't go harming the innocent, right?

"Let's hold back a bit from now on."

For the sake of not causing a scene like today's, Shien though that he should first properly figure out this [Magic Sword] skill of his.

Although, after maxing out the [Magic Sword] skill, Shien could completely freely control its power, but when it comes down to just how much magic power will end up creating how strong a [Magic Sword], that was something that he needed to properly research.

Otherwise, if it ended up like today, and he ended up inputting a little too much magic power, things would probably end up terrible again.

The moment he thought about the earth and mountain that he split apart, Shien's mood felt very heavy.

"It ended up like this even at level 10, so now that my level had nearly doubled, if I used [Magic Sword] with all my power, then just what will happen?"

Even more, if he ended up also using his Holy Sword too, how would that turn out?

It must be said, although the Holy Sword can't increase Shien's magic power, it does have the effect of raising the levels of all skills by 10.

And the level 10 [Magic Sword] already has such power, if another 10 levels end up added to the skill…

"Spare me."

Shien almost didn't dare to continue that line of though.

"Hm?"

At that moment, Shien returned to himself and turned to a certain direction in surprise.

That's because, the [Magic Detection] skill that Shien just learned and maxed out gave off a very surprising reaction.

"What a powerful magic power."

That magic power didn't feel like something on the level of what a human was capable of.

"Was there someone this strong in Lamdrion?"

Shien stared in that direction.

He could also feel that the being with that mighty magic power was getting closer to him.

Then, not long after, the one in question appeared.

He was a tall and skinny man with long limbs, wearing a cloak, and a very feminine looking face.

That man walked slowly over with an emotionless face. His gaze did not stop on any one person, and in fact did not stop on anything at all, as if nothing around him was worthy of entering his eyes.

That attitude wasn't pride, nor was it contempt, but rather, it was hatred.

Indeed.

The man acted like he hated everything there, or rather, that he hated everything on this world. He wasn't even willing to properly look at anything around him.

That kind of person ended up passing by Shien.

Finally, the person stopped his movement.

"Was it you?"

The man gazed at Shien. His eyes that did not reflect Shien's figure seemed unbelievably dark.

That appearance, rather than speaking with a person, it was more like he was talking to a two-legged animal.

Shien narrowed his eyes and didn't say a word.

The other person didn't seem to mind either. He just gazed at Shien coldly and took out a piece of parchment.

The parchment had a person's picture on it.

Shien took a glance at the person in that picture, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

"You've seen that person, right?"

The man asked coldly.

That picture was indeed of someone that Shien knew.