Reborn As The Villain

Chapter 129 - 113: I Can Be A Hero Too!

Chapter 129: Chapter 113: I Can Be A Hero Too!"—Then he punched the air and flames came out of his fists! It was amazing! Flames! Out of his fists!"

A young boy who had long black hair and wore a sweater too big for his frame cheerfully said while walking next to a carriage with several other people. The carriage was way too fancy for ordinary warriors like the ones escorting the carriage.

One could see that it was from a noble household since there was an insignia in the back.

A golden lion, in other words, the Berkley House.

The curtain behind the coachman opened, revealing a woman with beautiful long brown hair and honey brown eyes. She looked like an older version Norn.

"Nait, would you stop that? They have to stay alert. You should know that we're travelling with a lot of stuff so being attacked by bandits is highly likely." A young woman's voice came from inside the carriage, "Ugh, I regret refusing Lady Anna's suggestion to bring their household knights."

"Miss Teresa, you should've seen it! He was so cool!"

"Yes, yes. All the girls talk about it whenever we have to do chores in the mornings."

"You're saying a mere adventurer did that?" one of the hunters, a recently new inhabitant who began living in the village a few weeks ago, asked. He sounded doubtful. Well, all the migrates who came to their village were doubtful since they didn't witness Nova's greatness.

"Yeah!" Nait cheerfully replied to the man, "He was like a knight! No, hero! No, Hero Knight!"

All of them laughed.

"You really admire that guy, Nova, don't you?" Gut said with a smile, "Well, who can blame you, I admire him too. The guy managed to make such a name for himself in the same year joining the Guild. No adventurer can claim they've faced a fully grown wild dragon on equal grounds when they were newbies. Not just that, he killed demons that even S-rankers would struggle against."

Nova's achievements spread to nearly every city, village and town.

The reports of the demon attacks were officially released yesterday to every nation on the continent. According to an official statement from elite mage, Melissa Frin, there were several similar cases that were kept secret since it would cause a big disturbance if others knew of new races of demons appearing in this world.

There had never been this kind of thing ever since the war against the demons.

Unlike their village, the other regions of the Duke that were attacked suffered more severe casualties. That portal wasn't the only one this far west after all. Many sightings were reported to the Imperial Force and Magic Tower.

Some of the many women who were captured by the demons managed to make it out alive but the problem was that they were pregnant. Because of this the Second Magic Tower told their families that the women had to come to the facilities in the empire to receive proper help.

As said by Nova, the demon offspring don't come out like humans do. They literally claw their way out of the woman's belly. A few women have died because of this.

Although the offspring, which resulted from those abnormal births, had lived. They were currently being kept in cages at the headquarters of the Self Defense section in the Second Magic Tower building. The Overseer of Re

"What's going on?" Norn seemed to be so absorbed by her book that she didn't hear what Teresa said.

The carriage door opened, revealing Gut and the other hunters, "Why did we stop? Is nature calling?"

"We need to turn around. Something's wrong in the city. There aren't any people going in or out and the gates are sealed shut."

"Crap. We can't take a separate path since this entire road is covered in hundreds of meters of trees and vegetation."

"So we have to go all the way around?"

'We can't do that. It's almost nighttime.' Teresa looked up at the sky. The clouds were being bathed in orange light as the sun was setting. Dusk was already here; it was only a matter of time before it was night.

"Yes, miss Claudia. I suspect bandits probably attacked people on the highway to the city. That means that this road is dangerous—"

A deafening vibration assaulted their ears, followed by roars from different locations.

Claudia, Norn and Teresa immediately left the carriage to see what was going on. They could see hundreds, nay, thousands of pillars of lights rising up to the sky.

Teresa looked back the way they came. The pillars were rising from there as well. In fact, there were more there than up ahead.

"What's going on? Is this an attack on the empire?"

That was the most reasonable question to have considering the sheer scale of what was happening. The pillars of lights were even reaching as high and far as the mountains.

"M-Maybe it's just a lightshow? M-Maybe there's a special event in the empire that we're unaware of." Norn spoke nervously as if to convince herself.

The horses suddenly started neighing louder and louder when the trees towards everyone's left started parting as a giant shadow came closer.

"I guess we're about to find out what's going on." Gut unsheathed his sword, his companion hunters following suit.

*

Nait looked up at the trees that reached 15m and higher in the air. Something was easily bending those trees just by walking.

Was it a wild dragon that was considered the top predator down here in the farmlands?

Or was it just a mutated troll that grew way taller than its brethren?

Nait formed all kinds of scenarios in his head about what was going on.

His legs trembled.

There was a voice that told him to run and not look back.

His entire reason for coming here was to escort Lady Claudia and her two daughters. All three of them were incapable of fighting so he took it upon himself to fight for them.

He loved Lady Claudia. If possible he wanted to marry her but he knew that was only a dream.

She was a grown woman and he was a boy.

But he still wanted to show her that he was capable of fighting. Perhaps then she would see him as a man.

He looked up at her.

She was standing directly behind him and holding onto his shoulder.

Perhaps it was only a reflex to grab onto the nearest person to her but Nait was happy that she was relying on him.

He felt powerful.

Nait threw aside his wooden sword and unsheathed the dagger on his hip that was hidden underneath his sweater.

It was a small dagger he saved up for during the last four months.

Nait couldn't work since he was only 10 years old at the moment so he hunted rabbits and birds and went to sell the carcasses in the town near their village.

The branch guild only gave him a copper for each hunt regardless of how many he brought but he was happy getting any money at all considering that he was still a child.

His dagger glistened in an orange light as it faced the sun.

Nait looked at Claudia.

She was also looking at him with widened eyes.

"N-Nait, why do you have a dagger?"

Nait only smiled and said confidently, "I'll protect Lady Claudia, Miss Norn and Miss Teresa!"

A confused expression appeared on her face before a warm smile spread on her cheeks.

'Beautiful...'

She was just too beautiful.

Nait's face instantly reddened so he turned his face forward in a hurry.

Claudia's hand was still on his shoulder.

But.

The trembling had stopped.

Did his words reassure her?

Nait felt confident for a second but he was forced to swallow that confidence once that "thing" emerged.

"What the fuck is that!?"

"A-A mutated monster?!"

Two hunters reacted instantly when they saw the behemoth monster that appeared beyond the trees.

It was probably more than half the size of the tallest trees in the forest.

It was a tall skinny monster with grey skin, a tall neck with long face and long sharp claws. It looked like there were worms where its face ought to have been. There was a large gash in its stomach that looked like a surgical injury.

The monster didn't seem that strong at first glance considering its skinny limbs. How was it able to make so many trees move out of its way?

"P-Protect the ladies!" Gut shouted.

"Roger!"

All of them formed a half moon in front of the three women, their weapons ready to strike at any given moment.

The monster only looked towards its left, in the direction of the city.

It suddenly looked at the carriage, specifically at the horses.

The horses neighed wildly and tried to run away but the reins attached to the carriage prevented them from doing so. The monster slowly walked towards the horses.

The gash in its stomach suddenly burst open, with two tongues sprawling out. It had rows of teeth meant for ripping apart steel and bone.

"Shit! If it gets the horses then we can't move the supplies! Attack it now!"

The hunters responded to Gut's command with an affirmative.

The monster stopped after it heard their exclamations. It turned to face them.

It looked at the horses and then back at the group. For some reason, drool began leaking from its mouth.

"Eek!" Norn fell onto the ground when it looked at her.

Although it had no eyes, they could somehow tell that it was looking at them like they were food. The wormy things in its face wiggled around as if it was smelling something.

A bloodcurdling scream erupted out of the stomach which sent shivers down their spines.

The hunters who bravely unsheathed their weapons retreated backwards.

The monster didn't outright attack them but it was slowly moving towards them.

It stretched its long claws out towards them while growling.

"Move back!" Gut roared at them to move backwards, "Once you're far enough I want you to run as fast as you can!"

"W-What about you, sir?"

"I'll find a way to kill this thing. For now I want all of you to prioritize protecting the women. There are definitely more of these things, I can hear their footsteps in the forest. Kid, you go too! You'll be useless against this thing."

"N-No! I can help!"

"Nait, don't be foolish," Nait heard Claudia's voice, "We need to leave as soon as possible."

The monster was moving slowly even though it could rip them all apart in one swing. Maybe it was just slow in general?

But whatever the case—

'A hero doesn't run away from monsters when there are people in danger!'

That was what he believed. A hero only backs down once everyone was safe and the danger passed.

Nait's life was on the line right now but he wanted to believe that some god out there was willing to give him power.

If he believed hard enough then maybe he would receive a blessing.

This was his chance to find out if heroes really could be anyone.

"I can be a hero too!!!!" Nait held his dagger in a backward grip and ran towards the monster that towered over 7m.

A boy had the courage to stand up to a monster that could kill them all ten times over.

It was laughable how the adults were afraid but Nait wasn't.

"—Admirable. But not today, kid."

A voice suddenly entered Nait's ears as if the person was right next to him.

He stopped.

A sudden gust of wind swept past Nait, heading straight for the monster.

The monster continued approaching while drooling at its mouth.

However, the next moment they knew an arc of power rose from the ground after that gust of wind swept by.

It cut the monster into two halves.

The one responsible for that one slash that could decimate the monster just like that wore a long black coat, had blue eyes and silver hair that danced in the winds.

Monsters were approaching them from all around after hearing the commotion from earlier. The man jumped lightly, although he actually flew towards the monsters at breakneck speeds.

He severed the heads of ten monsters with one strike each. The monsters that tried to attack him were also dealt with easily.

One after another the monsters fell.

The self-proclaimed strongest swordsman on the continent, Nova of Misteltein landed in front of the group.

"Is everyone okay?"