43 - The Heroes worry

The butchered body parts were turned into a weapon overnight.

With a raging fire nearby, Hawkins repeatedly heats and pounds the spine and scales, an alien metallic sound rings out in the night sky.

Dorothy spared everything she could to help Hawkins in the hopes she would get the weapon as soon as possible, constantly moving around feeding the forge or drawing water to cool the heated material.

Eliza and Maria sat anxiously by the campfire, completely out of their element.

“Hey, Maria, what do you think of them now?” Eliza asked.

“I think they’re focusing too much on strength… I was happy to join a Hero on her quest… but this isn’t it.” Maria said.

“It’s feeling like we’ve joined the Demon King…?” Eliza asked, looking ill.

Maria silently nodded.

“Since I was little I’ve been raised to become a Hero like my ancestors,” Eliza said. “I’m sure Dorothy experienced the same. My parents told me so many stories about my ancestors. The Hero taking on the Demon King while gathering friends and allies. I could never get enough of them growing up. I imagined that one day I’d be like them, too.

“And now it’s happening before my eyes.”

Eliza throws a piece of firewood into the campfire, it sparks and illuminates her face.

Maria sees her sad expression, she feels uneasy as the fire settles down.

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“It’s become a reality very different from what I imagined,” Eliza said. “What kind of world has a Demon King that helps people?”

“What kind indeed?” Maria said.

“I was excited when I heard the Demon King was back,” Eliza said. “I thought that my adventure was about to begin. I was a fool, thinking about it now. I was imagining a vicious Demon King without morals. I was a fool, rushing in with weapon in hand. I just grabbed them and jumped in without a plan.

“And I lost. It was such a shock.

“Ah, but what was more shocking than my defeat was the Demon King’s appearance. She was a Demon King that looked like a small-town girl, far from what I had imagined. If there wasn’t a succubus next to her, no one would have thought of her as a Demon King.

“I haven’t seen any of them in person but whenever I heard the name ‘Demon King’, I imagined someone terrifying,” Eliza finished.

“To be fair, that’s usually the case. But what about the reality? That small-town girl is the Demon King,” Maria said. “It all feels like a sick joke.”

After a moment of silence, Maria asked, “… What do you think of the Demon King, Eliza?”

Eliza didn’t answer right away. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged herself, shrank as she stared into the campfire.

“–I thought I needed to defeat her.”

“And what you think of her is different now?”

“Honestly, it’s up in the air,” Eliza said. “If the enemy is a monster, I may have to defeat her. But did you hear what this monster is doing?”

“What?”

“She’s saving people. And because of that, we struggle to recruit anyone to slay her. All the applicants refused to fight the Demon King; on the contrary, some people called us the Evil beings. And in the end, we only had one recruit.”

At the edge of their vision is Hawkins, sweating as he pounds and heats the bones with a raging flame. His face is deathly serious as the bone and scales gradually transform into the shape of a saw.