Fuck! This is so embarrassing!
When testing out the new Skill, they found out that [Milk Clothes] couldn’t create just any kind of clothing. It could only create this type of suit. Which was fine; the suit looked cool, and Norm and everyone else thought so too, so he didn’t have any complaints regarding how it looked.
The problem was, the suit could only be summoned after he performed a set of nonsensical moves. Then, to activate the suit ability, he had to apparently backflip, do a pose, and spout silly lines. It was fucking embarrassing!
Ver, you little shit! What the fuck is your problem, man?!
Victor knew that he didn’t want to do any of this shit, so that left Ver as the only culprit. Desire, experience, and need. Those three things still applied to the conditions for activating a Skill. That meant Ver wanted this to happen.
A slight desire would be enough for the system. If that was what was happening here, Victor would be fine with it, because then the chance of this happening again would be small.
However, judging by how Ver immediately knew how to activate the Skill even though the system clearly didn’t tell him about it, and also how excited he clearly was, it was safe to assume that Ver really liked the activation condition.
Well, I’m also at fault. Ver is a lesser spirit, no way he could do those stupid moves. It’s probably because when I was a kid, Norm forced me to play pretend. He really liked the story where the [Hero] could transform and spout cheesy lines for some reason. Wait… is all of this my fault?
Even though Victor didn’t want to do it, he still wanted Norm to think he was cool and awesome. That… would be enough to fulfill the desired condition.
Fuck my life. At least I don’t have to dance or make a theme song.
If he had to dance… he would probably do it. It would be embarrassing, yes, but [Milk Clothes] was too powerful not to use just because he was embarrassed.
“[Thought Acceleration].”
When Victor set foot into what he assumed was the range of this fucker’s Skill, in less than a second, he felt hundreds, or maybe thousands of slashes hitting his suit. It was impossible for Victor to accurately guess how many had hit him; it was just too fast for him even with [Thought Acceleration] active.
However, the attack left him with only a few shallow cuts before being completely blocked by the suit and doing nothing at all. At least that was what Victor thought was happening. He didn’t even realize he had been injured. He only knew that the attack did nothing to him right now.
Every attack hitting the suit counts as hitting me directly. That’s why this fucker's attack became useless. [Gradual Resistance (Temporary)] really is my best Skill, not to mention [Payback]—
Victor immediately stepped back, noticing that Garron stopped attacking him. It was the right choice, as he barely dodged a slash that was clearly much stronger than the previous one.
[Payback] had stored a lot of energy, so Victor immediately punched the ground right at the barrier of Garron’s Skill. It was only a guess, but Victor was sure that the Skill would break if Garron moved. There was no reason for him to be staying still for the entire fight otherwise.
The punch created an explosion, leaving a crater a couple of meters deep. The strange thing was, only his right arm muscles were completely destroyed, and he didn’t even get blown away. [Payback] only increased the strength of his attack; it didn’t increase his own durability. That meant he could injure or kill himself with the Skill if he was not careful.
But right now, a punch that would have left him severely injured only destroyed the muscles in his right arm that would heal in a few seconds. The suit’s regeneration capability was way better than [Lesser Regeneration].
There was a pressure all over my body when my punch hit the ground. It definitely had something to do with the suit.
There was now a stone pillar in front of him. It was a perfect circle. That meant his plan had once again failed.
When Victor punched the pillar, it didn’t damage it at all. So he sighed and deactivated [Thought Acceleration] and [Milk Clothes]. [Thought Acceleration] ate away at his soul energy every second, while [Milk Clothes] only consumed a bit of soul energy at the start, but it consumed quite a lot of his mana every second he wore the suit. Victor hadn’t tested it yet, but he guessed that he could only wear the suit for three and a half minutes if his mana was full and he didn’t use his mana for anything else.
If he punched the pillar multiple times, he wasn’t even sure if it would do anything. He didn’t want to waste any of his energy trying it when there was a better way to solve the problem.
Well, it is his level 50 Skill. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy to counter. I guess he had quite a few Skills to support it.
“I—”
The words wouldn’t come out of his mouth. The plan was for him to say ‘I give up,’ tell Garron that he knew he had a Skill that would prevent him from dying, get close to him, and punch him in the face. It wouldn’t kill him or do anything, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be worth it.
Even though Garron definitely could evade death more than once, there was no way he could do it more than five times. According to Kairos, Garron could only do it three times. But Victor didn’t believe him. Kairos based that assumption on his little brother, Lucks, flipping a coin and landing on tails three times in a row. Lucks didn’t even use any Skill when flipping the coin. Victor understood what Kairos was thinking, but Lucks was not Norm, so he wouldn’t put his life on it and take it with a grain of salt.
After trying and failing to punch Garron, Victor would then try his best to assure him that he didn’t mean anything by it. He was just following his teaching and bla bla bla. If Garron didn’t believe him, it wouldn’t ruin the plan; it would just give Victor one more chance to punch him in the face.
Once Garron was completely convinced that Victor tried to kill him, Kairos would teleport to Victor’s location and hopefully catch Garron off guard. Then they would fight Garron together. If Garron called Elpis’s parents for reinforcement, Kairos would take care of them while Victor dealt with Garron. If Garron tried to run away, Victor would hold off Elpis’s parents while Kairos pursued Garron.
Norm, his parents, and the two adventurers were currently putting the entire village to sleep and making them drink [All-Healing Milk (Weak)] to hopefully cure them and prevent Garron from commanding any of them to kill themselves or from shutting their brains off.
That was the plan they agreed on. It was not perfect, but that was the best thing they could come up with.
Even if everything went according to plan, some people would still be dead, because, you see, when a demon died, their curse would die alongside them.
Killing Aria was fine, because Victor knew that the curse wouldn’t break since Garron was still alive.
For some curses, it would be fine to just kill the demon. But for something involving the mind, ending up in a coma would be the best outcome.
The victim would likely suffer severe brain injury if the curse was removed willy-nilly. That was why the standard procedure for taking care of a demon would be to cure the victim first before killing them.
Norm couldn’t heal a thousand people with the milk he had, and making Garron unconscious would be a bad idea because Victor knew Garron had a contingency plan in case he was incapacitated. Kairos also said that it was better to kill a demon right away if you didn’t have a Class specifically to incapacitate them. For some reason, almost every—if not all—demon had a way to cause more destruction when they were about to be captured or killed.
It was impossible to save everyone.
Victor already tried his best; there was nothing he could’ve done to save everyone.
But that is a lie, isn’t it?
A demon would always have a way to lift their curse without causing any harm to the victim. So if they managed to convince Garron to free everyone, then everything would be okay.
It was, of course, an impossible task. There was no way Garron would do that.
Stop lying to yourself, you selfish idiot! Is your pride really that important?! People's lives are on the line!
Making Garron become a good person was close to impossible, but…
If someone became a demon, they would be obsessed with doing the thing that turned them into one. A [Thief] would try their best to steal something even if it led to their death. A [Greedy Merchant] would care more about their wealth than anything in the world, even their own lives.
Obsession—that was a curse all demons had, and Victor knew exactly what Garron wanted.
“I win.”
A blade suddenly appeared right next to Victor’s neck, drawing blood. But he didn’t care about that at all; Garron wouldn’t kill him right now. Victor was sure Garron was fooled by his act.
What an arrogant idiot. He probably thinks there is a possibility that I love or care about him.
“I lost.”
The reason he gave for the ‘spar’ was for him to test out his close combat ability. But like the selfish and insecure man Garron was, he didn’t even let him test it out.
“Hey, dad, can I ask you a favor?”
Victor turned around to look Garron in the eye. For some reason, it made people believe you more if you did that.
He had no intention of lying. It would be far too risky. People's lives were far more important than his own feelings, weren't they?
“I can listen.”
Garron’s obsession was being known and admired. Even if he always preached how he did all of this to save the world, actions speak louder than words.
If Victor gave Garron what he wanted, he would probably do anything Victor asked of him. The problem was, Victor didn’t want to grant Garron’s wish. But what choice did he have?
Granting his tormentor what he wanted made him sick. But Victor didn’t show it on his face; he was good at that. It was a skill that his so-called parents taught him.
Since he was a kid, every day had been worse than the last. If he could endure all of his nails being plucked off one by one, they would find a new way to make him scream. Boiled alive. Live insects eating him from the inside. Peeling off his skin until there was nothing left. And… and…
He wanted to die. The suffering would end if that happened, right? What was the point of living if you suffered like this every day?
If not for Norm, he would have taken his own life a long time ago.
“Can you free everyone from the mind control?”
Garron immediately tensed, but before he could do anything, Victor continued.
“If you do that, then I promise to grant you your wishes. I’ll try to make sure if I’m in a history book, then your name would be in at least one of them. Besides, everyone in the village knows you’re my dad; they were better off alive and well, rather than the state they were in right now.”
“Why?”
The suspicion was obvious on Garron’s face, but his eyes also held a glimmer of hope.
“Didn’t you want me to be a hero? Besides, if you agree, wouldn’t that make me stronger? I could get an Achievement out of it. Isn’t that what you wanted?"
A hero, what a joke.
To be honest, he didn’t care all that much about the lives of those bastards. All his life, only one person had truly helped him. They should all just die for all he cared. Where were they when he needed them most?
Some offered comforting words, but what good did that do? They were just words at the end of the day. Without action to back them up, they were meaningless.
Garron and Aria could only control thought, memory, and emotions, not their actions. If not for Norm’s existence, Victor might have sympathized with them, but he didn't, because no matter how Norm felt about him, Norm would always help him.
All of them were just cowards.
Some part of him thought that they were just being smart. Garron or Aria could kill everyone on their own. If anyone tried to help him, they would end up dead. That was why they looked the other way until, eventually, none of them cared anymore. The hardest step was always the first, after all.
But… but…
“If I let them live, my life would be in danger.”
“If you killed any of them, I promise I won't try to kill a Demon Lord or a Demon King.”
Without realizing it, there was blood on his hands. It was self-inflicted, so he didn’t care.
Who knew saving people would feel this horrible?
Sacrificing something for people who wouldn’t do the same didn’t feel good. So what if they couldn’t do anything? So what if their life was on the line? ACHILDTRIED.
It was selfish of him to expect someone to risk their life for him. He knew that. But that certainly didn’t make him love or care about any of them.
“Fine. But promise me this: don’t try to kill me or help anyone else do it, now or in the future.”
“Sure.”
His heart felt calm, no, numb.
Victor didn’t feel any joy that Garron agreed, and if he was being honest with himself, he kinda wanted Garron to refuse. There would probably be children who would die if that happened, but he couldn’t find it in him to care all that much.
Garron and Aria would be remembered as his parents forever. Some would probably say that if not for them, the world would be doomed. Even though what they did was horrible, their actions ultimately helped save the world.
The author of those kinda books would even say that it was an unbiased retelling of what happened. Facts were facts; they were [Historian]!
If someone wrote that, Victor would break every single bone in their body. As if words that came out of someone pursuing fact would always be true.
They weren’t even goodteachers; they were just cruel.
If they hadn’t been so controlling and arrogant, Victor was sure he would have been much stronger than he was now. It had been obvious ever since he was a kid that Garron and Aria didn’t know what they were doing. They sucked at explaining things, didn’t know how to properly teach someone, had no idea how the brain and body worked when it mattered, and were all-around terrible teachers.
They always told him otherwise. Because they were older, they knew more than he did!
Which was true. Victor would give them that, but that didn’t mean they were always right.
Screaming and punishing him every time he made a mistake was not a good way to teach anyone. What could he even learn from that? Making a mistake would result in them punishing him? He already learned that the first time they did it.
Harming his body repeatedly would not make him stronger. It would only make him weaker. It also wouldn’t make him level up any faster. Maybe that was true for some Classes, but definitely not for the Class he had.
If they had just hired someone who knew what they were doing, like a level 40 [Teacher] or [Trainer], instead of wasting their money on useless stuff, there was a good chance he would have reached level 40 before even turning eighteen.
The only reason he had made it this far was because of Norm. He wanted to look cool in front of his only friend. That, more than anything else, even killing Garron and Aria, was the reason he was working so hard.
That is also the reason why I’m doing this.
Victor knew he was a piece of shit. He knew more than anyone else that he was not a good person. That was why he had to try his best to become one, so he could always stay by his best friend's side. No good person would care about some stupid, useless shit when children’s lives were on the line.
Norm was the kindest person in the whole world. As his best friend, Victor had to become one too. He didn’t want to feel ashamed to call himself Norm’s best friend.
If he turned into a demon, Norm would… probably still stay by his side. But that was not a future Victor wanted. He liked Norm because he was the way he was. He didn’t want Norm to turn into a piece of shit like him.
Also, he had always wanted to be like Norm. It was impossible not to. Who wouldn’t want to be like the cool hero they looked up to?
“It’s done.”
Victor didn’t pay attention to Garron this whole time, which was a mistake, but probably not.
After interacting with him, Victor knew that Garron would never kill him. It didn’t change anything about what he felt about Garron, because he had known for a long time that he was nothing more than a tool to him.
From what Victor had seen today, Garron was also affected by his looks, but definitely not in a sexual way.
Victor had become like this because of Norm's perception of him. That was why Norm’s parents weren't affected by his looks, because Norm believed that it was impossible for them to be interested in him.
He definitely thought that a parent should love their children. I wouldn't be surprised if Garron cared about me now.
“Thanks.”
Garron didn’t seem to be lying, and Victor could tell when he did by the sound of his voice.
Victor didn’t care one bit why Garron had agreed so easily, and he didn’t want to know. Whether Garron could change or not was irrelevant to him. Victor would never forgive him. It was too late for that.
Besides, Garron would soon die anyway.
The reason he had agreed not to help kill Garron so easily was because he believed Kairos could do it by himself. There was no way Victor would let Garron escape.
If Garron was allowed to run free, who knew how much destruction he would cause?
Looking into Garron’s eyes, Victor could tell he was worried. Not about himself, but about Victor. It didn’t make Victor happy.
He probably looked miserable right now.
I could even see regret and sadness in those shitty eyes. What in the abyss did I even look like to make even the most horrible person feel regret?
Garron slowly walked towards him, hesitation evident in his steps.
“Son, what’s wrong? If there is something bothering you—”
A spear pierced through Garron’s heart just as he was about to hug his son.
“[Rupture], [Lock].”
Kairos's voice came from behind Garron, and a second later, Garron fell to the ground, dead.
Sorry for the one-week break. A personal problem came up, but everything is okay now. The good news is, I think I can now go back to uploading three chapters per week.