I Can Hear the Saint’s Inner Thoughts

67 – To Avenge My Parents (4)

The moment I heard the Dullahan’s declaration, I realized all our careful planning had gone to shit.

In the first place, the illusion-breaking magic was useless against a mage of my caliber, and if the acting was even slightly off, they’d catch on.

This was supposed to be a place where the arena fights were over, a victor crowned, and everyone was celebrating the battles with abundant food and drink.

“Fight and kill! Fight and kill! Fight and kill!”

Instead, they were all chanting the same phrase, fists pumping, excited for an arena that hadn’t even started yet.

We’d even delayed our arrival to the territory, aiming for the time when they’d be most relaxed.

Realizing that, or maybe anticipating it all along, the Dullahan hadn’t even bothered with an arena. He’d gathered his people in one place, setting a trap to detect our arrival.

“The weak have no reason to live! The weak have no reason to live! The weak have no reason to live!”

“Waaah─!!”

No matter where I looked, there was no way out. Like fish caught in a net, the structure had been designed so we couldn’t escape from the moment we approached the bloodied man.

In the Demon Realm, swarming with demons and monsters, using a human like paint was so commonplace that no one cared unless they were a hero or another human.

The Dullahan used my thirst for revenge against him to identify us using the illusion-breaking magic.

“Prove your strength! Fight until only one remains!!”

“These b*stards, really….”

I cursed, lowering the man hanging upside down, dead, and closed his eyes. Judging by his state, he hadn’t been killed quickly and then toyed with.

His face was stained with suffering, his teeth all broken. It was clear he’d been slowly bled out on purpose, to maximize the pain.

Demons and monsters were like that, different from ordinary humans in their fundamental values and thinking. It was why I wanted to kill them all, even if it cost me my life.

“…Astal, stop it. Release the illusion-breaking magic.”

I gnashed my teeth, preparing a spell that would wipe out all the monsters and demons in this area at once, but Kyle grabbed my shoulder, gesturing for me to stop.

“Why the hell…? After being provoked like this, the obvious thing to do is crush them all without participating in their arena…”

“Look, there are children tied up amongst the crowd, and other humans sitting there crying. They’ve taken hostages so you won’t do anything rash.”

At Kyle’s words, I regained my composure as much as possible and started to calmly look around, and I soon saw that seemingly innocent people were indeed mixed in.

“Ha…. So this is how they’ve set the stage. That b*stard is terrifyingly meticulous.”

I sighed deeply as I looked at that scene. They deliberately provoked me with things related to my parents, and, anticipating that I would refuse their offer, they mixed in innocent humans.

I’m known as the ‘Harmless’ mage. I live with the conviction of saving everyone around me, making sure no one dies.

“Accepting the proposal to participate in the arena might be safer. If they’ve prepared a scheme of this scale, something even more horrific will be waiting for us if we refuse.”

“You trust what a demon says? That Dullahan brutally murdered my parents and is doing the Devil’s bidding!”

For the first time, I voiced a dissenting opinion to Kyle, the hero. In the end, our participation in Dullahan’s arena is what that b*stard wants.

An event where everyone but the winner dies. A gruesome scene of carnage where the weak are thoroughly despised and only the strong survive.

“That Dullahan b*stard just wants to see us fight and kill each other. We can’t fall for a scheme like that…!”

This was something you could figure out with just a little thinking.

But,

“…I’m the hero. I’m supposed to save as many lives as possible, even if it means my own death.”

As the cheers of the monsters and demons subsided, the sounds of people crying and screaming could be heard amongst them.

Kyle gave me a wry smile. Like a man resigned to his fate, ready to sacrifice himself to save the countless lives here.

“Besides, you don’t want to see someone die right in front of your eyes, do you? At least if we participate in the arena, there’ll be some hope of saving everyone, right?”

“But…”

“Besides. More than anything, I trust you. Astar, if you can sweep away all the demons with an incredible performance in the arena, then maybe no one among us will have to sacrifice themselves.”

Kyle was laying out his best-case scenario, trying to convince me and the others. A long shot, in the end. But we were the ones who’d pulled off the impossible before, things that seemed like they couldn’t be done.

Kyle was looking at me with more trust in us, in his comrades, than I’d ever seen.

Even though it was weird how he kept glancing away, not holding my gaze.

“…It’s too dangerous a gamble, Kyle.”

Victoria was the first to voice an opinion similar to mine. A troubled look on her face, she was already offering a prayer for the dead man.

“Ultimately, someone among us will die. Warriors in the arena aren’t afforded the luxury of honorable surrender.”

Victoria said she didn’t want anyone to be sacrificed, she was hoping we’d reject the Dullahan’s offer.

“Even if we’re exposed, we could just blast this entire area with holy magic and only kill the monsters and demons. That would be better…”

“That kind of scale would be a miracle, not just holy magic, Victoria.”

I could read Victoria’s true feelings, so I was the first to catch her lie. She went silent, like she had a mouthful of honey, after I said that.

If she could freely unleash holy magic on that scale, she would have purified the entire Demon World we were standing in.

“……”

– Even if a part of my body turns into flowers, I can endure any pain if it means saving Astal-nim…

Victoria felt guilty whenever I got hurt or felt pain, ever since my body started turning into flowers.

How much does love change a person? The saintess who seemed like you could stick her with a needle and not draw a drop of blood when I first met her was now tearing up for me.

“I’m against it too. Assuming the outcome will be good if we move according to the enemy’s intentions is a leap of faith.”

“Yeah. Last time we went to that movie theater run by Belamora, Astal and Victoria were nearly killed.”

Tarion and Anima also expressed opposition, similar to mine. No matter how much we wanted to save people, it was too high-risk of a proposal.

“…Let’s find another way, Kyle. There has to be a way to save everyone being held captive without us fighting each other.”

I said that to convince Kyle, but the situation was already spiraling towards the worst possible outcome.

The reactions around us made it clear: even with the perception-hindering magic, we were exposed as the Hero Party. And the scene unfolding was chilling – they’d kill all the hostages if we didn’t participate in the arena immediately, the b*stards were laughing like it was the end of the world.

“What options are there… Are you gonna combine Victoria’s holy magic with yours to blow this whole place to hell? The hostages will be dead before that happens, y’know?”

As always, Kyle’s deductions and situational awareness showed the most realistic perspective amongst us. In a situation where everyone could die, he was talking about sacrificing the absolute minimum.

“Just us, the Hero Party, fights each other until only one remains, then all the hostages get to live. Right, Astal?”

In that moment, Kyle closed one eye, sending me a silent signal. Seeing that signal, I finally realized what had been strange all along.

Kyle, the one always considered the most heroic among us, had readily accepted the Dullahan’s proposal without any resistance.

‘…The Dullahan is watching this whole thing. So Kyle is trying his best to turn the tables and give us an advantage.’

And the reason he was stalling for time with this back-and-forth flashed through my mind all at once.

A guy scheming this elaborately, trying to drag us into a fight, would be seen as even stranger if he *wasn’t* here right now.

Like the hint Kyle just gave, the Dullahan wanted us, the Hero Party, to fight.

More accurately, he wanted ‘one’ of us to kill everyone here.

That one was me. The man who survived alone when his village burned down, Astal Kaisaros.

“Only I will participate in the arena. On the condition that everyone’s safety is guaranteed!”

I smirked and released the perception-hindering magic, staring at the figure Kyle had been intensely focused on and declaring,

“…So, keep your neck nice and clean until then. Dullahan.”

“So you noticed. It would have been no fun if you all chose to participate in the arena without realizing my presence.”

Clap, clap, clap.

Then the Dullahan, who had been hiding in the shadows of some demon, clapped his hands and spoke in an excited voice.

“If you couldn’t even see through such a simple scheme, I would have deemed you useless as warriors and killed everyone here.”