Will I End Up As a Hero or a Demon King (WN)

Chapter 178

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Chapter 178 – Dinner Party

I was led into a large room that looked like a living room.

There was a big, thick wooden table and six chairs around it.

And then…

“Oh, you’ve come!”

As I sat down, the huge, intimidating mayor, in his usual stark black-and-white contrast, raised his hand to greet me.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Raymond.”

He then extended his right hand, so I replied, “Pleased to meet you. My name is Loki,” but his hand was so big that it seemed to swallow my hand.

His skin was also unusually tough, and I wondered what kind of gorilla he usually fought.

Judging by his aura, he would have been a hundred times fitter as a “high-ranking hunter” than as a mayor.

There were already two sets of dishes on the table, so I sat down without hesitation and checked my surroundings――

“(There’s something strange about this house…)”

――That was the impression I had both before and after entering the house.

When I asked people on the street, they all pointed in the same direction without hesitation, so I wasn’t lost.

The house in question was a two-story wooden house that seemed a little more affluent than the others.

However, guards patrolled the area around the house in a way that seemed unnatural, and the house was surrounded by such a heavy security presence that I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a particularly evil person hiding inside.

And for some reason, there was an old man in a more serious-looking suit of armor than the city gatekeeper guarding the entrance to the mayor’s house.

No, this can’t be right.

I can’t help but think that they should protect the outside first.

And then there’s this scene I’m being shown now.

To the right of the mayor is an old gentleman in a tuxedo with a small mustache, standing in a posture that makes you want to admire him.

He looks like a butler, and his eyes are fixed on me.

And to the left behind the mayor, there was a soldier wearing a bluish full plate armor, although only his face was visible.

The armor was clearly of a higher quality than the guards who patrolled around the mayor’s house, so he probably had his own private soldiers or mercenaries.

Two people wearing the same blue armor stood on either side of the door behind me, so I could tell that these soldiers were organized.

I wonder if it’s common for mayors to hire butlers and private soldiers?

I can’t help but think that this house is the headquarters of a mafia boss.

“First, I’ll do what I have to do.”

When the mayor glanced at the butler behind him, the butler handed him a beautiful leather bag with detailed embroidery that he was holding behind his back.

The mayor then pushed the leather bag across the table toward me, but for some reason, it seemed incredibly light and made no metallic sound at all.

The bag being pushed was limp as if to indicate that it was empty.

“This is your reward for saving the 22 girls.”

“Thank you very much. Um… C-can I check the contents…?”

I was worried and wanted to check the contents, but the mayor was full of confidence.

“Fuhah, of course it’s Loki’s property, isn’t it?”

When he says that with a smile as if it were obvious, there’s no need to be reticent.

Rummaging around in the bag, I see the coins I first saw when I sold the magic stone to the manager of Hanfarest, Wills-san.

There are two slightly white, shining platinum coins inside.

“(Oh, a sudden bonus of 2 million beeke!)”

I can’t help but let out a puff of air through my nose.

If you were to ask me if this amount of money is a lot or a little, I wouldn’t say it’s that much for me now.

I can get enough of it by hunting for two days, so if you were to say it’s about that much, you’d be right.

However, I don’t even really understand the means to obtain the platinum coins.

And because it’s money that I didn’t earn through hard work but just fell into the lap of fortune, I feel a joy that I don’t usually feel.

With this unexpected windfall, I fantasize about being able to eat as much potatoes and butter as I want, but then suddenly, the simple question arises, “Isn’t this too much?”

When I was in Bezart, I think it was 50,000 beeke for each of the three of Zink-kun and the others.

The mayor knows that I’m from another world, so it will be troublesome if he treats it like a bribe later.

That’s why I asked him.

“I’m sure not all the girls are from this town, so is this okay?”

As the mayor, he’s in charge of this town.

I think it’s unreasonable to give rewards to children from other towns and villages.

I tried to inquire about the matter, but he waved his hand as if to dismiss my question and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

When I looked at the soldier behind him on the left, he answered for him.

“We know that 14 of the 22 girls are from this town of Lipsum, five are from neighboring villages, and the remaining three have not yet been able to give a good answer, so we don’t know where they were taken from.”

“It looks like those three are the ones who wore the rings.”

“It seems so. If their minds are closed, it will probably take some time for them to recover.”

“Loki must have donated food and other supplies to the church, knowing that these people would be staying there, right? So you should think of this as a way to repay you for that.”

I see; that makes sense.

I donated the money because I didn’t have any use for it, and I didn’t have time to turn it into cash, so if it came back to me in that way, I would be very grateful.

“Well, now that I’ve given you all this stuff, let’s eat!”

From there began a strange time that felt like an experience but wasn’t.

There was a woman who looked like the wife, who was about 50 years old and a man who was probably in charge of the cooking?

He was also about 50 years old, and his forehead had something like a bar code from sweat. He looked at me with dead fish eyes as he brought me my food. It was fine.

If you’ve had experience entertaining people, it’s not exactly close, but you must have had times when you ate with a group of men you didn’t know very well.

However, this time, it wasn’t a business relationship, and yet we weren’t so familiar as to be friends. It was a time of equality between people who had never met before, something I can’t recall having experienced before.

However, the mayor had said at the beginning that he wouldn’t ask any unnecessary questions or make any unwanted requests and that I didn’t have to answer any questions I didn’t want to, so although I was initially confused by the mysterious personnel arrangements, by the middle of the conversation I was able to have a natural conversation without any tension.

I think the mayor is probably more interested in the sky, or rather in flying.

He asked me about the feeling of flying, the view you can see from the sky, and the state of the sky in the world I used to live in. I told him that iron masses carry people in the sky and that we have even started to expand into space. The mayor got so excited that he almost started to bleed from the nose.

He asked me how to get to the stars in the night sky while spitting out a lot of saliva, so I told him,

“If you go into a very hard ore and use the reaction of superpowerful magic to fly through the sky at a tremendous speed, you can escape the gravity of this world and go into space. However, you will never be able to return, and you will die.”

Although he was disappointed, he still said that he would like to go just before he died.

If he likes the sky so much, it might be a good idea to give him a chance to go on a flying wagon tour like I did before.

I think I could make a lot of money by dealing with rich people.

On the other hand, I have some questions that I think he would be able to answer because he knows the town so well.

I also asked him about the town’s tax revenue for future reference.

In guild training, I was taught that the money I earn from selling materials, which is my main source of income, is already deducted from taxes.

However, I have never been charged any other taxes.

At least, I’ve never been charged for entering or leaving the town.

However, I’ve been doing more and more air dives to my target locations, and I’d be in trouble if they told me later that I was evading taxes!

If I’m out hunting, at what point do I have to pay taxes?

The mayor’s perspective was quite broad, but even if I’d only been able to get a rough idea of the amount and the system from someone who knew the details, I think the dinner was worthwhile.

And as we neared the end of the dinner, the mayor asked me a question in a natural tone, without any sign of preparation.

“What do you want to accomplish in this world, Loki?”

I think this was a question that would normally be quite abstract and difficult to answer.

However, I had already thought of an answer to this question yesterday.

So naturally, my answer slipped out of my mouth.

“I want to defeat evil…”

“…Ah, it’s not that I have some grand idea to make the world a better place, it’s just that I personally hate evil.”

I immediately apologized, saying that I was ashamed of what I had just said, but the mayor stroked his beard and thought for a while.

“Evil, huh… I heard that many criminals were killed on the spot, but is that because Loki hates evil?”

“Eh…?”

“Oh, of course I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s allowed to take criminals who would be sentenced to death, and there are also situations where it’s necessary for self-defense or to protect others. But if you let the criminal live and turn him over to the guards, you’ll get a little reward when he’s convicted and becomes a criminal slave, you know?”

“…I see.”

I hesitate for a moment while continuing the conversation here.

I only killed the skinny guy. But the current situation is that the witnesses’ memories have been tampered with, and according to the men and Amalie-san’s statements, it should be that I killed all the men.

“(The other party is the mayor of a town with a certain status… there is a possibility that exaggeration can be used as a check.)”

“…I think I will try to judge the evil that exceeds the limit as much as possible myself.”

After thinking for a moment, I answered this:

I’m sure that’s okay.

By deliberately keeping some of them alive, those who hear this information will probably make their own assumptions about the line between acceptable and unacceptable life and death.

Even if they were to ask the captured men, they are my slaves.

Even though the result of the men who were spared was death, that doesn’t mean I will go around killing recklessly―they should think that I draw a line according to the magnitude of the crime.

I don’t want to be seen as a murderer who likes to go around killing criminals, and I don’t actually intend to do anything that extreme, but I think this will reduce the number of people who will take extreme measures for the purpose of recruitment.

After all, I’ve set an example by killing a large number of men who have done harm.

The mayor was silent for a while after my answer, but did he have something on his mind?

He didn’t look at me but looked down as he spoke.

“W-what if… I mean, there are people in this world called the privileged class, but what if those people were ‘evil’―what would you do, Loki?”

When he asked me this, I immediately replied.

“To be honest, I especially hate those who sit back and give orders and just take the benefits without getting their hands dirty. When they go beyond the limits of what is acceptable… I guess so.”

The privileged class is exactly what it says on the tin.

But if I were to hesitate here and say, “I’m not going to get involved,” I’d just be letting the privileged class do whatever they want.

If they end up being forced to participate, I’ll be the one who gets in trouble, and it will also be a hindrance to the development of civilization that the Goddesses want.

The common people are just pawns, and it’s probably the privileged class that starts wars and moves those pawns around.

It’s almost like I’ve declared that I’ll go after even those people if I have to, so maybe this reaction is inevitable.

Still…

It was clear that the air had suddenly become tense, and the room had frozen over at that reaction.

And for some reason, the mayor, looking down, silently lifted the corners of his mouth as if trying to hold back a rising smile.

▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽

After Loki returned from the mayor’s house.

With the heavy atmosphere still hanging in the air, none of the people in the room could move.

Count Raymond pushed his elbow, put his fist to his temple, and began to chuckle as if waiting for Loki to leave.

Loki’s earlier comments could be considered a provocation and a blasphemy against the nobility.

As a result, the people present were so frightened by the high-ranking nobleman who possessed both power and influence that they froze, almost forgetting to breathe.

“Seifon, what did you think of Loki?”

“H-ha! That arrogant attitude is just like what I’ve heard about people from other worlds… I think we should take some kind of action and punish that insolent person immediately! We cannot allow anyone to insult you, Your Excellency!”

“…Morgus, did you see Loki’s skill?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see anything.”

“I see…”

The silence that fell again made everyone feel uneasy.

However, while everyone else was preoccupied with their own thoughts, Count Raymond was calmly considering Loki’s existence.

Although his actual age is unknown, his attitude, behavior, and way of thinking are clearly inappropriate for his age.

Although there were glimpses of childishness that might be considered appropriate in certain situations, there is no doubt that he is an individual from another world who has retained memories of a previous life.

And whether he is ashamed of his sense of justice or simply unaware of it――

Although he immediately denied it, it was undoubtedly a sense of justice.

This is clear from the results of saving so many people this time.

He hates evil and condemns it without bowing to authority.

This kind of thinking is something to be praised in principle, but…

“The men Loki brought here didn’t say why they were let live this time, did they?”

Seifon, who received a report on the incident from the head guard, Alback, answers this question.

“That is correct. They seemed to have revealed the modus operandi, the structure of the organization, and even their past criminal activities with only a little torture, but no one will talk about why only those four were allowed to live.”

“If they don’t know the reason, they will probably say, “I don’t know.” In other words, it is natural to think that there is a reason, but they can’t talk about it.”

“…..”

“Morgus, what are the possibilities?”

“Possibly a mind control spell or forced slavery. However, if it’s the former, it would affect the other questions as well, so I think the latter is more likely.”

“…..”

Count Raymond had also heard from Nillow, the Chief Auditor of Malta, about the composition of Loki’s skills.

The Flight and Concealment shown before him were both very likely to be Heaven Class, with the highest skill level of 10.

There is no doubt about Flight, and given the boy’s appearance, his Concealment skill must also be at the highest level, or else Morgus’ Mind’s Eye would see through it.

There is also testimony that he was a considerable user of Lightning Magic, so it is highly probable that it was also of the highest level.

――As far as is known, there are a maximum of three skills that can be imparted to otherworlders.

Other skills can also be obtained through special blessings, but they are said to be of a lower level.

Count Raymond muttered to himself as he put the information he had received together like a puzzle.

“This is dangerous…”

Not allowing evil to exist―this ideology is a praiseworthy one that will surely capture the hearts of the people, but if he is already killing people to the extent that he possesses Slave Magic, then he is quite dangerous.

Loki seems to have told the chief guard Alback that it was the first time he had killed a human, but if it is confirmed that he has the Slave Magic, that would be impossible.

This is because Slave Magic is a special skill that can only be obtained by killing 30 people who are classified as a race―a person.

This is not the first time this has happened.

Although there have been no reports of any significant incidents in the area, it seems that he has been judging people in other places as well, and he is hiding the reasons for doing so.

Moreover, the fact that he is even targeting nobles who have been corrupted by evil suggests that the country itself could collapse.

Count Raymond, who has vowed not to become involved in evil, also strongly desires to support Loki’s ideology.

However, he also realizes that it could be a double-edged sword for the country.

The laws of this world were created for the privileged class, and the purpose of the law was to manage the common people and make them obedient.

Therefore, there are many nobles in this country, and if Loki goes too far, there is a danger that the country will cease to function.

And that could be a threat not only to the targets but to Loki himself.

If the idea of justice without consciousness were to topple…

“It would be if he received a great betrayal from those he had saved…”

Count Raymond muttered to himself, not really speaking to anyone, as he stared at the door Loki had just left.

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