With new aspirations and goals, the heroes day ended. Andre took the holy sword and came back to the castle to officially start their journey to the demon castle.
The kingdom has started a parade for their departure, all the happy people cheering for them has make them to defeat the demon king for them, for peace and happiness of the kingdom.
Outside the royal capital, they all stared at the rising sun, they hoped to meet their savior again to thank him for saving their lives.
.....
" The demon has already occupied many parts of the kingdom as of now. " Andre said as they walked towards their first destination. It's been weeks since they have departed from the royal capital.
" Nelebes is a seaside village near the kingdom, it's been under the demon's reign for eight years. "
They arrived at a cliff and hear the waves from the ocean, a sea breeze greeted them as they grew near and saw a astonishingly beautiful view.
The vast blue ocean shining under the sun like jewels as the waves come ashore the village. The wide ocean was so beautiful and mesmerizing. It was such a disappointment for demons to occupy this place for eight years...
" Hide. "
They all hide behind the trees and saw the villagers working silently under the urgings of the demons.
Their clothes look like rags, they are skinny to the point that you can see their bones, they eyes were lifeless as they continue doing their works in the village.
They looked like they were just barely living...
Seeing the situation the people were in, Aera and Kato wanted to fight the demons immediately and defeat them.
On the way here, they have trained and gained more experience as they practice their skills on monsters.
Now, they felt that they can defeat these demons all by their selves!
.......
Seeing the dead demons.
Their eyes lit up in happiness after finally defeating a low demon and saving the village.
They did it...!
They can finally defeat a low demon without Mr. Mask's help! Though it's only a low leveled demon...
*cough, anyway, they finally killed one! Together!
Happy, they all looked at each other and smiled.
The people living in the village started walking out of their hiding place and looked around blankly, seeing the unmoving and blood filled ground beneath the demons. Their expressions turned strange and turn their head to look at them.
They scattered and looked around, the ruined houses and fields and the corpses of their own. Their expressions suddenly turn into anger and hatred towards the hero party.
Seeing them happy after killing the demons, they felt an indescribable rage bubbling inside them.
Then the villagers came to them, they thought that they were going to be thanked but it's the opposite, they accused them of being late that killed their families. Their blood runs cold at this and disappointed of the people.
" What hero!? They are useless! You can't even save my child! " A mother carrying her lifeless child.
" What have you done!? " An elder
" We got nothing left! You destroyed them! " A man
" My child!!! " A elder
" It's all your fault!! " A teenager
" What hero!? It's fake! They're here to destroyed our lives!! "
" Useless! Get out of our village! "
Arian and the other was stunned speechless, after they managed to defeat the demon and saved them. The villagers suddenly got angry and started throwing stone at them.
" We just-- "
" We did not-- "
" Let's go. " They all looked at Andre who was indifferent to this and started walking away after saying that.
They pursed their lips and followed him while still hearing the faint curses and angry voices of the villagers from afar.
They arrived at a river and stop, after a long silence, Aera finally couldn't help but ask Andre, " Why... Why are they like that? "
" That's normal. " He said as he sat and leaned on the tree as he started cleaning his sword and continued without looking at them.
" In the royal capital, we were too protected and this made us forget that half of the kingdom is already under the demon's reign for almost eight years. In those places, the people are already used to the demons reigning and was just awaiting death. Isn't that why we came here to take back those places? This is just one small village, what happened was... "
" They simply snapped, they were suffering and trying to survive under all that. To be free all of a sudden, they have no reason to live, has no food, no money and they are already dead inside... they will blamed us for everything that happened. This is normal in the places where the cities and it's people are already under the demon's reign for a long time. They got used to those days and blamed us for ruining it. "
" Explaining to them is useless, they won't listen, no matter what you say. " He added as he glanced at them with a cold expression
" That's... "
They all turn silent and sat on the grass with gloomy expressions.
" You should get used to their reactions. This is only the first and there's still many to come. "
They all nodded their head solemnly as they felt gloomy and sad.
It's been days since they saved the villagers on the seaside, Nelebes. On the way to their next destination, they have saved many people on the way, some thanked them while some...berated and hated them. They can feel their malice even from afar. This continue everytime that made them realized that human's hearts are ugly.
After experiencing this malice many times, they grew numb and used to it and ignored those people.
Their aspirations and hopes was dashed by the very people they once wished to save. Now, all they want to do was to end this farce, train to be stronger and defeat the demon king faster.
It was like surrounded by endless darkness with no way out.
But one person saved them again and again from this never-ending fight and malice, the man kept appearing when they were about to die and saved them everytime. His tall and straight back looked like the hero instead of them, he was their hero.
They continued fighting and wished to encounter him again, they wanted to meet him properly. They won't care about those people saved by them whether by accident or not, not care about the malice of those people or this world that made them realize how cruel it was.
In a mountain, there's a village that's been occupied by the demons for six years. It's poor but has a peaceful atmosphere, it's like they are not suffering at all even under the demons reign.
It's because this place is the slave merchants headquarters, the demons let them sneak humans inside for food and resources. Underneath the happy smiles and laughter above, the screams of countless children rang silently, unheard by them.
" Hmmm...."
" What should we do now? " Frances asked as he looked at the scene with narrowed eyes looking worried, however his eyes showed delight and sparkles whenever the wind swept up the fire.
" Eh, what else could we do? " Aera said as she flick the blood on her hands indifferently, she yawned as she leaned on France's back, sleepy.
" Ai, we accidentally killed them all. Is that okay? " Kato took out a clean clothe to clean the blood on his spear, he chuckled everytime he heard a scream coming from the village.
Andre who has a blood left on his cheeks listen to them silently, he raised his head and saw the once peaceful and full of happiness village burn into ashes in front of their eyes.
" It can't be helped, right? It's an accident. " Arian laughingly said as she leaned her head on Kato, her delicate and pretty face contained innocence in contrast to her blood stained priest robe.
She glanced at the remaining demons and humans alive scrambling around the burning village, screaming and killing.
They laughed, amused at their behavior.
They all knew.
They have all turned insane and they don't care, for them, killing demons and humans has no difference at all. It's to clean the world for their savior ah...
But they can't let their savior see them like this, he might not like them anymore...
" Clean them up. " Andre said as he glanced at Frances.
" Yes. " Frances raised his wand and chanted, " Etaretilbo! "
Everything vanished like smoke and was swept away by the breeze, what appeared was a big crater as they started to leave the place.
Meanwhile, Lucius still didn't know that his cubs has already turned into mad beasts.