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<But… I still can’t believe it. How could Fabian do that to you! What’s more… He even lied to me. This is… This is unforgivable. A betrayal of friendship and trust, a betrayal of the expedition…!>

Even though he was so angry, April only smiled…

A smile that seemed to dissipate as soon as it happened, a shadow of its once powerful appearance gone.

And yet, the gentleness with which she worried about Deca…

How hurt April must have felt to know that she was about to die at the hands of a man she had no doubt was her childhood friend. How betrayed she must have felt.

As for April, it was only natural to regard Deca as a group like Fabian.

However, she visited Deca and deliberately let him know the truth… She must have been worried about Deca.

However, he worried only about Fabian, without knowing anything about her so far. Deca’s eyes were turned upside down by the terrible betrayal that this fact gave him, and with a sense of sorry for April.

“I’ve always thought it was strange. You didn’t want to see April again…”

Deca spoke in a low voice. Deca’s hand trembled as the blade pierced Fabian’s abdomen.

Fabian stared at Deca, covered in blood. His eyes burned hot as if on fire.

How could Deca know about April? He certainly took care of her… He stabbed her and buried her in the ground.

Fabian’s mind was in turmoil.

The blood with the blade that pierced his abdomen pooled at the bottom before he knew it.

Fabian, who seemed to be really dying at this rate, urgently begged Deca.

“D-Deca… Please listen to me…”

But Fabian’s request only ignited his anger. Deca cried in a rage.

“Is it painful? Does it hurt? Do you now know how painful it must have been for April? You’re… Keuk!”

As soon as Deca criticized Fabian for a moment, Fabian’s eyes changed, and in an instant, he pulled out the dagger behind his back and cut Deca’s neck.

It was a quick and precise procedure, unlike an injured person.

Pssh, blood gushed from Deka’s throat like a fountain. Deca stammered and tried to stop the blood, but his efforts were futile.

“Ha, haha…”

Deca laughed in despair.

When he thought about it, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be caught off guard at such close range against Fabian, a prosecutor.

Did I not see this coming?

No, he would have known… As April had warned him, there was no way that Fabian, who had tried to kill her, would not kill him just because it was him.

And yet…. he had hope.

Thinking about the memories of you and me, I expected that you wouldn’t be able to point a blade at me.

I really saw through your gut. Deca’s lips twitched at his own stupidity.

“How did this happen…”

Deca turned to the cold, numb face of Fabian, who was staring at him nonchalantly beneath the red pouring streaks of blood, and sneered to himself.

April. You saw the same thing I did. The malice lurking in the heart of a best friend masquerading as a hero. What I have been protecting, what I have believed in, was not goodness…

A flash passed by. All their friendships and memories of the 20 years they had spent together ever since they were young children when they began to have memories of walking together were shattered.

At the end of his own scheduled life, Deca cursed Fabian with a gasping laugh and his last ounce of energy.

“You’re… You are no longer a hero. Someone like you cannot be a hero. Someone as corrupt as you are…”

Finally, with those words, Deca was broken down. Deca’s body, which had collapsed, poured out the rest of the blood, and there was no movement.

Fabian brushed past the figure of Deca lying on the ground and pulled out the blade firmly tucked into his abdomen.

“Keuk…!”

Fortunately, it was not poisoned. Then he could fully recover with holy water in his hiding place.

“I can’t just collapse like this, I can’t just…”

Murmuring, Fabian waddled toward the hideout at hand.

When he entered the hiding place in such a manner, all that welcomed him were the broken holy water bottles. Fabian rushed to find something, but every single thing soaked into the floor.

Fabian trembled with anger and denial of reality, and he immediately turned his anger toward those he believed to be the originator of this disaster.

“Deca!”

However, Deca was already dead, so he could not hold him and reprimand him for his sins.

Perhaps it was his mistake in believing in Deca. He should have realized that there was no one person he could trust. Even though April betrayed me, it was my mistake to get my hopes up for Deca…

Everyone abandoned me. Why?

No. All of this, all of this was because someone had distorted and warped their rapport.

“Jun Karentia…”

Fabian clenched his teeth.

Still, there was still energy left to move more. If so…

Fabian limped out of the safe house.

A shadow hung especially long behind him as he stepped with each step, with the determination and persistence to crawl if his limbs would not move.

***

“Didn’t you find Fabian?”

“Seeing that it is difficult to find even with Sevi’s ability, it seems that he has escaped from the capital. At least he doesn’t seem to be in the capital.”

“It’s too tight to search the suburbs outside the capital, isn’t it?”

“That’s the way it is… Well, it looks like he’s given up on the Demon King battle. There’s nothing he can actually do.”

“… I don’t think he’ll give up so easily.”

I stroked my chin. The movement scrolls disappeared once you used them, making it that much harder to come back if you ran off to a faraway place. Now that the Demon King Gate is open, will Fabian honestly give up the opportunity?

But… He had lost everything, and it was surely near impossible for him to rise again. No matter what he did, he could not do it alone.

“But after the Demon King battle, it would be very difficult if he tried to take a chance to kill you…. After the Demon King battle is over, I will put a large bounty on his head and track him down.”

Meyer clicked his tongue in frustration. He seemed horrified at the mere thought that I might be in danger.

I felt the same way about dealing with Fabian. There was no need to keep the latter alive for long.

First of all, though, it was important to come back alive in the battle against the Demon King… No, it was more important that we had to decide on the last seven….

With Tragula declining, the long-distance dealers were fixed at Axion and the Sevi. The only thing left was the tanker.

The problem with Robur, Julieta, and Nova… was that all three had their own strengths, and all three were comparably good tankers.

Julieta was relatively small and lacked defense, but she could play the role of melee dealer because of her ability to heal independently and her inherently strong offensive ability. Moreover, she could hold her own for quite a long time because her somewhat lacking defense could be adequately covered by her own heals.

The stats were uniformly good for Nova, who had improved his ability much more than the first round.

He was particularly good at the skill of drawing monster aggro, which would have been useful to get to the Demon King and deal with the finer demons, even though aggro was not as necessary in the Demon King battle.

Robur, above all, with the diversity of experience and proficiency cultivated over the years was outstanding. She was the most tanker-like person, if I thought about it, with superb defensive skills, living up to her title of Oak Citadel.

‘How can I choose two of them…’

This was the last, and biggest challenge for me.

It was really hard for me to decide this on my own. I asked for Meyer’s opinion, but he also only clicked his tongue.

In the midst of all this trouble, Robur brought Julieta and Nova to me.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m trying to ease our Vice Commander’s anxiety.”

“Oh… Did you read my mind?”

I smiled awkwardly. It was a disqualification for the Vice Commander to let a member of their unit visit them first.

“The fact that the roster hasn’t been announced yet, even though it’s almost finalized, is probably due to our shields. So we tried to be reasonable about it.”

Robur shrugged lightly. Then she pushed Nova and Julieta, who were standing behind her, forward and said,

“Take Nova and Julieta.”

“Robur!”

I cried out in surprise at the unexpected remark.

Nova and Julieta also looked at Robur with curious eyes to see if she could really do this. But Robur was calm.

“I thought about it too. I know because I tried to teach Julieta and Nova. Their abilities are almost the same as mine, and… I dare say that the only advantages I have are experience and firmness.”

She knew exactly what I was thinking. While I was at a loss for words, Nova and Julieta hurriedly dissuaded Robur.

“But we still have a lot to learn from you, Robur.”

“That’s right. We’re still lacking…”

“A great warrior does not lie in their ability.”

Robur was firm.

“You guys will soon overtake me.”

There was a strong, unbroken sincerity in her words. Robur comforted the children’s shoulders and looked at me and said,

“Usually an experienced shieldman takes the helm in the dungeon, but in the last unit, Jun will take it anyway.”

“The Commander is here, too, but… yes. I’ll carry it by all means.”

“Then there is no reason to choose me.”

Robur persuaded me again and again. She also seemed to have thought a lot about herself.

“Unfortunately, I am the only one of the three leading the Corps unit. So it would be much more efficient if I led the lead unit outside to deal with the demons. Oh, did I just utter the word efficiency? Oh dear. Jun has rubbed off on me.”

Then she chuckled.

She pretended as if nothing had happened, but she couldn’t really be alright. I asked anxiously.

“Are you okay? We’ll treat our skills and hard work equally, but still, these are the last seven. They’ll be praised as heroes in the future… It’s a position like that.”

“Well, I’m not one to care about personal prosperity…. Of course, I am not here only for world peace. I am here because the restoration of my tribe rests on my shoulders…”

Robur’s gaze drifted away, as if reminiscent of her own tribe, which she had left behind. She was from the oak tribe, a minority tribe remaining in the empire.

“But my tribe doesn’t isn’t like that. It’s actually very small. So, I don’t need the honor of the last seven. It’s enough to guarantee the autonomy of my tribe. Our Vice Commander Jun won’t say anything less than that, will she?”

“… Well, of course!”

I said, at Robur’s awkward smile.

No matter how much she says it’s natural, she may be nervous, but to willingly trust me with the future of her tribe… I was thrilled to feel how much Robur trusted me.

Julietta then suddenly raised her hand, and made a shocking remark.

“I don’t particularly care for my parents, nor do I have any attachment to the Klawa family name. I will be the adopted daughter of Robur, and I will play in the Demon King’s Castle with the surname of Castrum.”