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

Chapter 290

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Chapter 290 – Readiness to Accept

(Hidden Weapon Technique, or whatever—I don’t know who that old guy is, but he’s awesome!)

I wiped the blood-soaked floor with a big grin after acquiring a new skill.

I didn’t break anything, but my clumsy technique left the floor pretty filthy.

What would’ve been the best move back then? Should I have electrocuted them with Lightning Magic? Or drown them with Water Magic?

Hmm… I’m still way too limited in my skill range and adaptability.

There’s a lot to learn, even from villains. I need to keep honing my skills.

“U-um, Loki-dono? You really didn’t have to go that far…”

“Y-yes! You saved this house, so we should be the ones doing this much!”

Rad-kun and the stout lady, Ravella-san, said that, but I immediately shook my head.

“No, no. There was a problem with how I handled the cleanup. You won’t learn unless you face the consequences of your mistakes.”

“Ehh… By the way, where are the bodies, including those you took care of outside earlier?”

“Ah, I’ve collected all the bodies, including those around town. They’d be quite a shock to most people, hunters aside.”

All right, that should do it.

Rad-kun is still communicating with his mother in some mysterious way, but I need to get back to base soon to check my new skills and loot.

I urge him to hurry up as I push him toward the various rooms inside the mansion.

The mansion naturally looked completely different compared to when Rad-kun was here. As a token of thanks, I proceeded to “store” all the unnecessary personal belongings, like the woman in the cage and the inexplicably overpowered butler, emptying rooms entirely.

I’d already taken the magic recovery potion.

Storing hundreds of corpses was nothing; I could handle much more.

Collecting skills was fun, of course, but this kind of loot recovery was exhilarating. I couldn’t stop feeling excited.

After searching all the rooms, I still couldn’t find the “money” I was looking for. So, I went back one last time to the room Ash used most.

According to Ravella-san, almost all the furniture and furnishings here had been replaced with high-quality items.

But even so, it’s ordinary.

There was no sign of a safe in the room, and the Investigation didn’t pick up any suspicious reactions.

There are other buildings within the special zone, but would he really hide it somewhere he never goes?

It doesn’t seem likely that a man as cunning as he is, who doesn’t consider his own comrades as such, wouldn’t keep a large sum of money within his reach.

“Rad-kun, there aren’t any more rooms in this mansion, right?”

“Ah, absolutely not. Unless they built new rooms while I was imprisoned, but…”

“If they’d done that, we would’ve noticed—we worked here every day.”

“Exactly. This room is still the most suspicious. Besides the furnishings, is there anything else that seems unusual from a noble’s perspective?”

“Hmm. Well, then—”

Rad-kun scanned the room desperately, trying to find something.

His face clearly showed signs of panic.

He genuinely didn’t know, and failing to find it would cause him the most problems.

No matter how much he wanted to inherit the estate, he could do nothing without money.

“Ash should have paid last year’s taxes to the country, impersonating either my father or brother. So it must exist. The money has to be somewhere…”

“Excuse me!”

Amidst this, Anri, the woman who had initially shielded Rad-kun, raised her voice sharply and extended her right hand with a sharp snap.

“It’s more like a feeling that something is off. Wasn’t the old office on the third floor?”

“Hm? Ah, yes. Father’s room was on the third floor. Right, so this is the second floor.”

“Did you hear why it was moved?”

“I heard someone mention that it was a hassle to go upstairs every time.”

Maybe he’s in charge of outdoor work. I pondered the words of Young Cyral, whose body was covered in grass. However, I couldn’t help feeling that they offered no real clues.

The reason itself is understandable enough. If the third floor were replaced by the first floor, I’d understand the logic. But if it’s just the second floor, the environment hasn’t changed much.

Rooms are on all sides, top and bottom, with no odd gaps. This actually proves that it’s impossible to build a hidden room.

Physically, there’s nowhere to carve into the walls. Outside the window is a grassy, wooded slope. Even I, a hole-digging specialist, see nothing amiss. Even if you dug a hole, it’d be incredibly difficult unless you had Flight.

If the window and slope were closer together, I might suggest a secret cavity in that space. However, with over ten meters between them, that’s definitely out of the question.

If it were closer to the ground… Hmm?

“Have you seen Ash carry a leather pouch stuffed with money back to his room?”

“Plenty of times.”

“Yes.”

“He held it very carefully.”

“Have you ever seen him take money out of it?”

“Now that you mention it, I haven’t.”

“Me neither.”

“I haven’t seen him do that either.”

“…”

That’s why he chose the second floor over the third.

If that range is accessible by jumping, then going down to the second floor makes sense.

Without thinking, I jumped out the window and landed outside.

Looking around, I saw that only Ash’s room, where he’d moved, had a large bathtub directly below it. There was no window there.

If the premise was that no one would see him, then this also makes sense.

This meant that he couldn’t move freely left or right, where there were windows, and he couldn’t stray far from the building. The only place he could hide was near his feet.

Looking at the ground, I saw no conspicuous weeds; just soil resembling sand, seemingly devoid of nutrients.

Recalling old games where hidden staircases were often found behind buildings like this one, I swept the soil away with wind magic.

Haha!

Retro game knowledge comes in handy sometimes!

I couldn’t help but shout to the four people leaning out of the second-floor window.

“Hidden room found!”

The construction was simple.

I understood it instantly because I tend to build things that resemble what I know well.

The hidden room was beyond a wooden cover that appeared once enough soil had been cleared away. I illuminated the slanted hole with magic as I advanced and entered a space enclosed by stone walls.

It was positioned beneath a cliff where the slope continued.

However, it wasn’t a structure that could be reached by simply digging sideways into the slope.

Ash had his staff, and he had likely used his earth magic to create this secret space known only to him.

I don’t dislike things like that at all.

At the same time, I kept noticing little things in common with Ash, which made me frown involuntarily.

The reactions of the four beside me varied.

“Well now, this is quite a sight…”

“Rad-sama! It’s… dazzling!”

“Ah! There are things besides money!”

“H-has that man… taken this much?”

From surprise to excitement to curiosity to anger, no emotion felt out of place here.

This space was extraordinary.

The 16-square-meter room was filled with stone boxes lined up in rows. Inside each box, every visible space was tightly packed with vast amounts of money.

There were large gold coins, gold coins, and silver coins, each type neatly separated. There was even a box filled with platinum coins.

“This side is all money, huh?”

“This side is precious metals. But this is a substantial amount.”

Who could they have taken it from? Thinking about it now wouldn’t yield an answer.

Peering inside, they saw that the contents were pure ornaments, dominated by jewels of various colors. Because they weren’t things one saw often, their brilliance was dazzling.

But that was all.

Other than that, only the aforementioned barrier magic tools were placed there; they radiated a strong presence.

There was likely a reason they could only carry small, valuable items. But what about the “book” and “high-grade materials” I sought?

And the “magic gems” I would have negotiated for if they had been there? None to be found.

“Looks like there aren’t any hidden rooms beyond this either. I guess that’s it, huh?”

“Yes, I can’t even begin to guess the total, but with assets like these, there should be more than enough to fund the town’s reconstruction. I can’t thank you enough for finding this place, Loki-dono. Now, about the distribution of this gold—”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. The real hard part starts now, after all.”

“”””Huh?””””

It was just a casual remark, but it must have been incredibly unexpected.

Not only Rad-kun, but the three servants as well wore expressions of shock.

For a second, I thought, “Is that really so strange?” But this money is basically savings accumulated by squeezing and collecting from the townspeople, so most of it belongs to the town anyway.”

I came here because I saw the request for 30 million Beeke. On top of that, I’m taking everything from the rooms of the dead servants—literally everything; no sorting involved. So, I don’t feel like I’m losing out at all.

If I want something, I’ll demand it without hesitation. However, I’m not interested in ordinary jewelry or decorative items.

“N-no, no, that’s not right, is it?”

“Yes. I’m on Rad-sama’s side, but that’s still a bit much. Isn’t it just too convenient for us?”

“Yes, if it weren’t for Loki-san, we would never have found this place…”

“But even before that, Rad-sama would still be locked up in the basement, wouldn’t he?”

Something feels off.

Why am I the one getting the accusing looks?

I have no idea how much it costs to run the town, and in this situation, there’s no way I could just say, “Well, then I’ll take about 10% for now.”

No matter how you look at it, the four of them can’t manage this alone. They’ll need money to hire a lot of people from now on.

“This is like repaying kindness with ingratitude. At least 20%, no, 30%—”

“No, no. If the town stays in shambles, I’ll feel bad, too. So, how about this?”

“?”

“Right now, cash is the most convenient for anything, right?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so.”

“Then, like with the rooms in this mansion, would it be okay for me to recover assets held by other villains, too? For example, the personal belongings from the house the younger brother Ask lived in or the contents of the confiscated and transported warehouse. I don’t think I can be that proactive about the town itself since there’s no time.”

“If it’s just stuff, I don’t mind, but won’t converting it to cash be a hassle?”

“Hahaha! You don’t get it, Rad-kun. The hassle is the real thrill. Handing over cash would be boring, wouldn’t it?”

“”””???””””

Everyone’s clearly scratching their heads. But if you’re an MMO fan, you’d probably agree with me.

The idea of a player retiring and handing over their entire fortune? Just thinking about it makes my heart race.

Well, just imagining it… As a solo player, I didn’t have a single acquaintance like that.

After that, we returned to the mansion, and I told them what the soldiers were doing in town.

I told them that the noncombatant members of the gang were still hiding in town.

I told them that the soldiers had been made into slaves and were searching for and gathering them.

I also told them that the soldiers and the town guards had switched sides to the villains.

“So, first, we need to deal with the soldiers…”

“Having absolutely no fighting force is definitely a problem. For now, I’ll give you the slave master, Rad-kun.”

“My ignorance is unforgivable. Is that even possible?”

“Well, it doesn’t mean they’re completely restricted in their actions. I think it’s reasonable to set conditions such as ‘do not harm the master,’ ‘protect the town of Guinier,’ and ‘search for the remnants.’ Also, the Hunter Guild seems willing to help, so I’ll ask the guild master for assistance.”

“Truly, I’m sorry for everything…”

“Not at all. The enslavement is only temporary. Besides, there are things I want you to handle instead, Rad-kun.”

“What kind of things?”

“Dealing with the remnants we’re gathering in the center. You will be in charge of that task as the new lord.”

“I see. Right. Understood.”

I deliberately didn’t ask how he planned to handle it.

Asking would only stir up an unnecessary desire, and this “heat” really needed to cool down first.

That’s how I felt.

I told him I’d show my face again sometime, then proceeded to pack everything inside the buildings in the special zone—everything except what seemed to have originally belonged to this house.

There was also a house for the soldiers. I packed everything in there, too, leaving only the bare essentials.

Keeping them alive was just a fluke. They were definitely going to be executed anyway.

As for the four large warehouses, Rad-kun will be responsible for cremating the bodies there. Upon retrieval, I dumped the scoundrels’ corpses right here.

I stripped everything of value—money, potions, and armor—and placed perishable food, like meat, in a separate warehouse away from the corpses.

There’s a huge amount of cat meat, for instance. It won’t help to recover it since there’s no way they’ll eat it. If this ended up as the town’s emergency food supply, that would be a real problem.

Then, while rewriting the soldiers’ slave contracts, I paid a visit to the “Gang’s House” that was caught by the Investigation.

I pulled out those hiding under the bedding and, naturally, stored everything in the house.

I didn’t store the place where the presumed “white” family was, but I repeated this process until the contract rewrites for all the soldiers were complete.

At dusk,

With my magic barely recovered, I headed to the Hunter Guild.

The Mercenary Guild’s request had been completed, and Rad-kun was the sole survivor of the Nogmaia family.

Nevertheless, it seemed they were moving forward with rebuilding the town, so I asked them to lend a hand.

To confirm, the guild now only has “white” members, including Horace-san, and they seem unusually motivated. This should improve the situation.

That wraps up the job.

Finally, I stopped by the town center to see the remnants of the gang that had gathered there.

There were already over fifty people, partly because they had been forcibly brought there. Four soldiers stood guard, but the atmosphere was extremely tense.

The onlookers were also wondering why people had been gathered there.

From their common traits, the onlookers were probably beginning to guess the reason.

If word got out, they might come out of hiding and start a witch hunt right then and there.

The gathered remnants seemed to understand this, too.

Some broke down crying the moment they saw me.

(Haha, it’s like I’m the villain here. Well, I’m not doing anything I dislike, so maybe they’re not entirely wrong.)

I kill people en masse and revel in imagining the consequences without a shred of regret.

I’m only tolerated because I target scoundrels. What I do is no longer the act of a sane person, though.

Frankly, I didn’t come here to save this town. I came because the “spoils of war” looked tasty. At this point, my thinking is anything but virtuous.

“E-excuse me!”

“?”

I turned toward the voice and saw a familiar boy standing with a woman who must be his mother.

His legs trembled slightly from fear, yet he clenched his fists and stared straight at me.

“I-I’m sorry you had to save me! I’m so sorry for saying such awful things!”

Hearing this, I slowly closed my eyes once more.

It must have taken tremendous courage for this boy to say that.

But there’s no need to apologize now.

“Don’t worry about it. In the end, a lot of scum got eliminated. After all, what I do is kill people.”

“Huh?”

“Besides, your words kind of woke me up… or rather, helped me make up my mind. So, honestly, I’m actually grateful.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“If you can reflect on your actions and apologize, you’ll surely grow into a good adult. Don’t become a ‘villain,’ okay?”

With those words, I disappeared into the crowd.

From now on, I probably won’t need to hide my black magic power in public any more than necessary.

Reactions vary.

Some people, like Rad-kun and the others, clearly saw it but didn’t seem to care. Others reacted with caution or kept their distance.

However, hesitating to use my power when I need to and losing something because of it is far more frightening.

I’ll use it when necessary and accept the consequences.

If they judge me as a monster and attack, then I’ll simply judge them as enemies and defeat them.

(There are people who truly understand, and that’s enough.)

With that in mind, I teleported back to base.

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