"What’s gotten you so angry, Onee-sama?"

  Leonor asked with an innocent young girl’s face with a smile full of ill intent.

  "Leonor! Even if you hate me, and I understand if you hate Geyserik and Ririnrara as well …… but you are still a Veronian royalty! You actually intentionally cut off the bloodline of the Veronia royal family!!"

  "Eh so what?"

  "Wha ……"

  "To add on, after King Geyserik dies, I plan to yield the Veronia Kingdom to these two Asura."

  "Why."

  "Why?"

  "You were obsessed with the queen position of Veronia. Was it not to secure your son as the king ……?"

  "Fufu …… Onee-sama can still say such things after I’ve done so much to you. You’re such a simple person."

  There was a soft noise of discharged air.

  I swung my copper sword and struck down the dart that was shot from Leonor’s left sleeve.

  There was not much force but it was probably coated with poison.

  "Unfortunately, even an ugly old woman like you has a knight. Albeit one with quite shabby equipment."

  Leonor commented as she pointed at my copper sword and laughed.

  "Queen Leonor."

  Leonor stopped laughing after I called her name.

  "You are?"

  "Red, just an apothecary. I am not a knight."

  "Is that so? If you are an apothecary then please look after Onee-sama’s health. I would be sad if she dies of illness before I kill her."

  "Queen, you are a lump of greed. But it seems that you have no goals for the power you obtain."

  "What would a mere apothecary know? It’s natural, I am the queen. Governing can be done by anybody other than me."

  "That is why I said you have no self-interest. I can’t imagine how much magic and alchemy you use to maintain your body like that but it should be extraordinarily painful …… it would not be to maintain the favor from Geyserik which you do not love so it must be to maintain power. That obsession is chilling."

  "Get to your point."

  "Even if your purposes were evil, your vitality is in a realm where ordinary people will never reach. I am purely just praising you for that."

  " …… "

  "But what comes after that? What do you gain after all that hard work, battles and pain? It wasn’t to pass on the power to your descendants nor was it to gather wealth for material enjoyments. And it was not for the sake of your royal blood."

  "Yeah, those are all wrong."

  "It isn’t the impulses from your divine protection either. Your divine protection is definitely 『Warrior』 …… I was surprised but there is something else influencing your actions other than the role your divine protection wishes of you."

  "Of course, this is my own will and not because of my divine protection."

  "Leonor, what exactly do you gain? What remains of your life that is about to burn out?"

  Leonor looked at me and then looked up in the sky and laughed.

  That laugh, although still with ill intent, was different from her previous laughs that maintained elegance.

  Leonor bared her teeth and opened her mouth wide enough to tear it as she laughed.

  "Ahahahaha …… sheesh, I was wondering what you would say."

  " …… "

  "Gains, leaving legacies behind …… I do not need such things in my life. The only reason I live in this world is for me. There is no meaning in thinking of what remains after I die. I exiled Onee-sama just because I wanted to do so. I will give the country to the Asura because of the same reason. Like deciding to eat apple or grapes first in the morning, do you think of reasons for every choice you make? You don’t. Even if the people suffer or the country collapses, I don’t care. In my life, I always do whatever I want to do, that’s all it is."

  Leonor said it.

  That was Leonor’s true nature.

  Leonor didn’t place value on anything apart from herself.

  She did everything for her own sake and did not care if anybody died or anything broke as a result.

  "Leonor!!!"

  Mistome-shi screamed.

  Leonor glared as she raised her staff.

  "Did I anger you, Onee-sama? Eh, I guess it’s natural that I did. Onee-sama gracefully left the country because you thought I was still Veronian royalty even if I’m evil. Royalty exists because the country exists so there aren’t any idiots who would destroy their own country."

  "Yes, that’s what I thought. I lost to you and lost everything. But I believed that Geyserik and Veronia would remain."

  "Although I didn’t know any of that, it is quite entertaining to rub that in the face of a person I ruin."

  "What a sad life."

  "Only I can decide the value of my own life, even if all the hatred of the world gathers on me, I had a happy life …… and will continue to have! I will pass a blissful life after I end you, Onee-sama!!"

  Mistome-shi made a seal whereas Leonor merely ordered the Asura Demons to attack.

  It would take 5 seconds to complete the spell.

  Garadin and I dashed out to stop the Asura Demons in their tracks.

  "Scatter, human!"

  The Asura Demons attacked like a storm with a barrage of greatswords swung using their six arms.

  The trick to breaking through was not to focus on defense due to fear of their momentum.

  Because it was one sword against six swords, it was disadvantageous to receive one sword at a time.

  "Ha!!"

  So I attacked.

  I parried Gashasura’s attacks and caused him to pull his body back.

  Because of his change in posture, the attacks from his 3 right arms missed.

  Even if I knew that it would be blocked, it was advantageous for me to block multiple of the opponent’s swords with one of my own.

  "You bastard, you are accustomed to fighting against Asura."

  Instead of answering, I continued with an upward swung from below.

  I left Gashasura with a shallow cut on his thigh because I could no longer endure and retreated.

  Then, Mistome-shi’s spell was complete.

  "Come, flames from the seven layers of hell! Purgatory flame that destroys everything! Ultimate Magic Demon Flare!!"

  Jet-black flames were released from Mistome-shi’s staff.

  "Advanced Demon Arcane Magic!!"

  Chugara shouted and crossed his swords to create a barrier against the spell.

  "I did not plunder the Dark Continent just for show!"

  That was a Demon Magic that releases all the remaining magical power in her body to burn her enemies.

  It was a large scale spell that I’ve seen only once when I fought against the Demon Lord Army.

  I guess Mistome-shi got the chance to learn Ultimate Demon Magic while traveling around the Dark Continent.

  The jet-black flame swallowed Leonor and the others and formed a black vortex.

  Even the Asura Demons could not move and had to endure.

  That was when Ruti leaped in.

  "Impossible! This is the strongest spell in the Dark Continent!!"

  Gashasura shouted in surprise.

  Within the jet-black flames, Ruti’s goblin blade shimmered twice.

  The Asura Demons could not move freely within the Demon Flare flames and were incapable of defending against Ruti’s sword.

  "This strength is just as though the real Demon Lord’s ……"

  "Gaha …… It is also fate that the great warrior Taraxon became the Demon Lord."

  The two Asura Demons collapsed.

  "Leonor!?"

  It was a flame that even the robust Asura Demons could not withstand. Leonor, a mere 『Warrior』, should not be able to withstand it.

  But Leonor was smiling as usual.

  The crimson jewel in Leonor’s left hand sucked in all of Mistome-shi’s flames.

  "This is the Veronia royal family’s treasure, 『Sage』 Riris’ Heart Stone. This jewel can absorb any spell and even reflect it!"

  "『Sage』 Riris!? A legacy from the previous generation hero’s companion!!"

  Leonor directed the jewel at us.

  "Regret being an 『Archmage』 and die!"

  The ultimate spell flames were about to be sent in our direction.

  But the next instant.

  "Gya!?"

  Leonor screamed.

  The knife Tise threw pierced Leonor’s hand and Riris’ Heart Stone rolled off and sank into the bottom of the lake.

  "It may be an impressive magic item but the person using it isn’t."

  "Yo-you dare to injure my flesh ……!"

  Having lost her fleet, her army, the Asura Demons and even the Veronia treasure (her trump card), it seemed that Leonor had exhausted all her means.

  In the end, Leonor held up the thin dress sword in her right hand and thrust it in Ruti’s direction as she was standing between her and Mistome-shi.

  That strike was elegant and a textbook thrust in appearance.

  But of course, it could not compare to the strikes from the Asura Demons and was inferior to an average warrior.

  "Eh?"

  But Ruti received that slow strike.

  Leonor’s sword grazed Ruti’s skin but it failed to leave a scratch on Ruti’s body strengthened by 『Hero』.

  Nevertheless, Ruti retreated and looked at Leonor with an incredulous expression.

  "What’s with that expression? To a brilliant hero like you, I am nothing but a shabby opponent."

  "O-Onii-chan! Leonor’s divine protection level!!"

  Ruti was being pressured.

  Tise and Garadin seemed to have noticed as well as they stopped moving in surprise.

  I stood to cover Ruti and answered her question.

  "Yeah, that’s right. Leonor’s divine protection is 『Warrior』. And her divine protection level is 1 …… even after doing all this, Leonor has not killed a single person before."

  This world was filled with fights.

  All living things kill each other to grow their divine protection.

  Leonor was evil.

  She deviated from the laws of man, of royalty and of God.

  But her hands and divine protection was innocent and unsoiled.