Chapter 142 The Astounding Fiend Who Loved Life

"Am I being a bit too extreme?"

"Precisely."

Roland nodded and said, "What do you take human life to be?"

"Even if you possess power, you must never consider yourself an arbiter of justice. Once you cross that line for the very first time, you will never be able to return to the way you were."

On the path of enforcing justice, the greatest taboo is hypocrisy. Finn does not truly cherish humanity as passionately as Roland cherishes living beings as his own property; forcing oneself to do such things would merely reproduce the tragedy of Stratholme.

Moreover, the adventurers who have survived until now must have accumulated a wealth of experience in this disaster, and one can easily foresee that this experience will grow exponentially in the subsequent cleanup of the zombies.

There are already very few surviving adventurers left; if Finn gets another batch of them killed, where is Roland supposed to find such fresh leeks to harvest?

"But... preserving active forces to conquer the root cause of the dungeon should be the correct course..."

Finn wanted to say more, but Roland ruthlessly interrupted him.

"If you truly believe that some people's lives are more valuable than others, why are you even asking me? Why don't you just go and do it?"

These words, tearing away the veil of reality, left Finn completely speechless.

"This disaster is not your fault. You have already done more than enough. Just like a thousand years ago, when the gods had not yet descended, were the humans driven step by step to the brink of extinction by monsters brought to that fate because they didn't try hard enough?"

At this point, Roland softened his tone.

"This was already beyond their capabilities. So, at a time like this, all you need to do is entrust your heart to hope and miracles."

"Are you going to do it?"

Finn caught the subtext in Roland's words.

"Of course. There is no existence that loves life more than I do."

Roland said this with absolute confidence. Whether viewed from the perspective of a demon or a human, humanity constituted a very significant part of Roland's journey of growth.

"I'll have Ais and the others go and help you..."

"There is no need for that," Roland chuckled softly. "Finn, you seem to have misunderstood something. It is not that heroes represent hope and miracles; rather, those who bring hope and miracles are the true heroes."

***

Inside a sealed tavern, Eina was gazing around vigilantly at the surrounding adventurers. On days when such a disaster descended, order was the very first thing to collapse. Among a mixed bag of adventurers, bullying and oppression occurred frequently even in ordinary Orario, let alone now.

After retreating to a safe place, the surrounding situation immediately reached a deadlock. If it weren't for the roars of the zombies outside at the very beginning, which briefly united everyone to seal the tavern, conflicts among the survivors here probably would have erupted long ago.

Nearly half a day had passed, and seeing that rescue was not going to arrive immediately—though fighting hadn't broken out just yet—a leader inevitably had to be decided upon regarding the distribution of the remaining supplies in the tavern.

Although it sounded serious, it did not take much effort. A few burly adventurers belonging to the same Familia held a natural advantage in this regard and quickly seized the leadership of this temporary group.

As Eina was not an adventurer, she had little say in the matter, but she still hoped to protect the ordinary civilians behind her as much as possible.

"Eina-san... your complexion looks terrible. Are you alright?"

The one asking Eina with a cautious tone was a young man with rare white hair and red pupils just like Roland's, looking somewhat like a little rabbit.

"I'm fine, Bell-kun. Just a little worried about the situation outside."

Eina forced a strained smile. Come to think of it, the very catalyst that allowed her to enter this tavern and survive was none other than the boy standing before her.

At that time, he was searching for a Familia to join, only to be mocked and ridiculed by those exact adventurers in the tavern.

"With a scrawny look like yours, you want to receive a Falna? At least wait until you're an adult to dream about such things, will you?"

"You probably just heard legends of adventurers out in the countryside and came running. With a face like that, if you go work in the Pleasure District, you might even get a chance to join a Familia!"

They uttered the most obnoxious words, shoving Bell around and trampling his dignity without the slightest hesitation. It was only when Eina stepped in that she managed to extricate him, right before this crisis broke out.

Yet, Eina could offer no real help for Bell's predicament. Unlike a monster defying all common sense like Roland, the boy named Bell Cranel truly was, just as those adventurers had said, a simple and naive youth who had come straight from the countryside.

His face still retained traces of lingering childishness, his build was slender, and his combat strength was no different from any ordinary boy of his age. By comparison, the Sword Princess had possessed the ability to venture into the dungeon alone and fight before she was even ten years old. To fastidious gods, Bell indeed held no value.

Yet, even so, there was no despair in his eyes—only firmness and yearning.

"Bell-kun, why did you come to Orario?"

Eina leaned against a wine barrel behind her and asked with a hint of emotion.

Hearing this topic, Bell hesitated for a moment, but recalling how Eina had previously helped him out of trouble, he spoke up.

"Because, my grandfather said... you can find romantic encounters in the dungeon."

"Encounters with beauties of various races?"

Eina looked at Bell's blushing face, teasing the fourteen-year-old boy in accordance with his thoughts.

"It's not like that... Though I might have had a tiny thought like that occasionally, I... I came to Orario because I wanted to see a hero."

Bell said somewhat embarrassedly, "I heard that a living hero had appeared in Orario, so I rushed right over."

"The Hero of the Blade..."

Hearing Bell mention Roland, Eina wore an expression of vicarious pride. Just as she was about to recount Roland's glorious achievements to Bell, several heavy figures strode over.

"What do you want?"

Eina instinctively stepped in front of Bell to shield him, but she was ruthlessly shoved aside.

"Don't panic, Eina-san. We're just planning to let this kid play a useful role for once."

The leading adventurer stared at Bell with a malicious gaze.

"Kid, didn't you want to join our Familia? Well, I'll give you a chance. Things have quieted down outside now; go out and check the situation, then come back and report to us, and I'll introduce you to our patron god."

"You..."

Eina's expression changed, and she instantly realized what these adventurers intended to do. When order had not yet completely collapsed, these adventurers lacked the courage to engage in murder and pillage, but bullying the weak under the guise of rules was second nature to them.

"It's fine, Eina-san."

Knowing that resistance was useless, Bell did not struggle. Instead, he walked alone to the heavy doors, where a gap had already been cleared away by two burly men. He forced an awkward smile at Eina and calmly accepted his fate. This very demeanor instead infuriated the stronger adventurers, who shoved Eina toward the doorway as well.

"Half-elf, since you want to play the hero so badly, go feed the zombies with this brat!"

"Hmph."

Eina merely let out a cold snort without the slightest hesitation, stepping right behind Bell and casting a mocking glance at the adventurers who towered far above her.

"You still dare to laugh? Do you actually think there's a hero in this world who will come to save you?"

As if his own baseness had been highlighted by comparison, the sturdy man grew deeply enraged by Eina's righteous stance. His eyes bloodshot, he swung his fist straight at her.

"Eina-san!"

Seeing this scene, Bell screamed out instinctively.

However, the dull thud of an iron fist striking a delicate face never came. Instead, the sound of something snapping echoed through the air.

"Ahhhhhhh—!"

From inside the tavern, a high-pitched, agonizing scream erupted from a man.

Eina blinked in utter bewilderment and raised her head. The fist the man had swung at her stopped mid-air before instantly severing.

"Boom—!"

Immediately afterward, the doors—barricaded by stacks of heavy tables and wine barrels—shattered explosively as if struck by a battering ram. A biting, freezing sword light danced wildly like a silver serpent.

The sword light seemed imbued with life, instantly reducing the wide-eyed, half-gaping abuser into a cloud of debris. Flesh and bone fragments splattered into an unnatural pink mist in mid-air.

Amidst the smoke and dust, treading a path paved with flesh and blood, a dazzling hero spoke comforting words.

"What a pity. I am not an ally of justice."

Among everyone present, no one except Eina caught the hidden meaning behind those words.

Having spent a little time with Roland, one could truly appreciate his self-will and lawlessness.

Most of the time, his emotions were entirely subjective and one-sided. There was no such thing as a sense of justice in Roland's heart; he simply acted freely on his own whims.

Therefore, he would kill anyone who displeased him, and meddle in anything he found interesting.

The boundary between good and evil was extremely blurred in his eyes. For the most part, as he himself claimed, he was merely a hero driven by whim.

Seeing that their companion had not even left a corpse behind, the remaining thugs wanted to roar in rage, but their comrade beside them frantically stopped them with a panicked expression.

"You idiots, take a good look at who he is!"

At this stern reprimand, the rage over their companion's murder vanished abruptly. The remaining thugs hurriedly sized Roland up. When their gazes swept across his signature black hair and those magnificent, ruby-like pupils, they trembled violently, wearing expressions of sheer terror as ingratiating smiles instinctively formed on their faces.

"I'm sorry, Lord Hero of the Blade! We didn't mean to offend you; it was all that bastard forcing us. Thanks to you, we've been liberated..."

"It's fine... I forgive you. But hey, since I'm such a benevolent person, how lonely would it be to let your captain die all by himself?"

Roland spoke in a gentle voice, smiling as he raised the sword Est in his hand.

"As a family of a Familia, it's better for everyone to stay together, neatly packed."

"You bastard... We are humans, not zombies!"

"You and the zombies aren't fundamentally different anyway. If you really want to talk about it, the zombies only lost their minds because they were eroded by a virus. Should I hold back just for that?"

Hearing Roland's words, the remaining thugs backed away uncontrollably, yet they still could not outpace a sword light that surpassed the speed of sound, turning into puddles of minced meat one after another.

Until the very last thug, cowering in a corner, looked at the smiling hero walking toward him. Under the terror of death, rage finally overwhelmed his panic, and he let out a furious roar at Roland.

"You bastard, just how many people have you killed?!"

Bell would never forget today's scene.

The floor paved with flesh and blood, streets littered with corpses, and the savior descending from the sky like a light piercing the darkness.

And the hero's pupils, resembling a blood-red moon, along with a reply that sounded almost magical and worthy of adoration.

——"Do you remember how many loaves of bread you have eaten in your life?"