"I see, so you just found her there under the ruins and the surroundings aren't destroyed or anything like that?" [Professor]
"Yes, professor. Of course I would have controlled my magic so that I wouldn't just destroy everything around me." [Raymond]
"No, I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about her." [Professor]
"What do you mean..?" [Raymond]
"I have been there, at ground zero of the wastelands. Where the first demon appeared. At the exact position when it became a demon. Everything around it in a mile radius was pulverized and nothing was left. There were no beasts around, no mana in the air- there wasn't even any air inside it. It was completely empty, devoid of any form of life may it be monstrous beasts or plants. It was emptiness itself." [Professor]
"How were you able to get inside it?" [Raymond]
"I'm still a grand wizard despite my appearance. If it weren't for heroes I would have been the most powerful person in the world." [Professor]
"Anyway, my point is- when someone turns into a demon. Everything and everyone around it would have been destroyed. And as you know, if a demon is left alive for too long it will desolate the area it walks on. But we don't have any reports of new desolated areas nor were there any magical explosions on the scale as the wasteland's ground zero." [Professor]
"Meaning…" [Raymond]
I clench my fist in hopes of hearing the answer that I wanted to hear.
"Yes, Elena is not a demon." [Professor]
"Then that-" [Raymond]
"However, as for her true identity. I have an idea on who she is." [Professor]
"She looks exactly like the demon in the prophecy. However I could give you a few explanations, and maybe a proof on who she might be." [Professor]
"Go on." [Raymond]
"A girl who lived in Alagos, a fortress-city run by a now defunct house of Dormer. Its head, Count Varyl Dormer, was rumored to have a daughter, but she was never seen in public for reasons unknown. People speculated about a lot of things, for example, what if she was sick? Or cursed? In Elena's situation, she looked like the demon of the prophecy. Wouldn't it make sense to hide her then in fear of retaliation from the people or have her be killed by the emperor?" [Professor]
"So you're telling me that Elena is a noble? What proof do you have?" [Raymond]
"I have a few. But for now, if what you've said is true and that her surroundings weren't destroyed when you found her. Then that would mean that her red eyes are the real thing." [Professor]
"Real thing?" [Raymond]
"All nobles in the empire have red eyes. Because that is the proof that they are blood related to the first emperor. Whether they may be a bastard child or not." [Professor]
"But her red eyes won't be enough proof. I still need more than just that." [Raymond]
"Then take this." [Professor]
The professor waves his hand and a locket with an insignia on it appears on my hand.
"What is this..?" [Raymond]
"A locket that I found when investigating the ruins of Alagos on my own. That insignia belongs to the Dormer family and the contents of the locket-" [Professor]
I opened the locket and what I saw was a slightly burned picture of a family, but it wasn't so burned that it was unrecognizable. After focusing on it, I realized that the girl in the middle was nobody else but Elena.
"This! This is it!" [Raymond]
"This should be enough proof for the emperor that Elena isn't a demon!" [Raymond]
"Then what are you waiting for, hero? Go out there and save the day once more." [Professor]
"You don't need to tell me." [Raymond]
Before I went outside, I stopped and looked at the professor one more time.
"Thank you, professor. From the bottom of my heart." [Raymond]
"My services aren't free, you know? You should come back here once in a while and tell me stories when you were still out there doing your hero thing." [Professor]
"Now go! Don't make your daughter wait for you." [Professor]
After he said that, I stepped outside and used Light Step and ran as fast as I could towards my house, to home, where my daughter is waiting for me.
I went past Alan in an instant and just waved him goodbye.
Just a bit more I'll be home, just a bit-
I stopped on my tracks as I saw large clouds of smoke coming from where my house is supposed to be.
My mind was being bombarded with questions and suspicions but I shaked my head and cleared my thoughts.
When I arrived at my home, what greeted me was a scene that was very similar to what happened to me 6 years ago.
"W-what happened here..?" [Raymond]
I looked around and saw the empire's knights surrounding my house.
"Oh? Hero, you're here! I thought you were going to take a bit longer so I took my time torturing it, too bad it just won't show its powers. You've tamed it well, huh?" [???]
"N-northram? W-what did you do?" [Raymond]
"What do you mean? We just shared your glory. You took our glory four years ago so this is practically payment for that. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, right?" [General Northram]
"Elena, where's Elena..?" [Raymond]
"ELENA!!!!" [Raymond]
I ran towards inside my burning house, frantically searching for my daughter.
"Papa…" [Elena]
I skipped towards the sources of the noise and found Elena, my daughter, lying down on her own pool of blood. I crouched and picked her up in my arms.
"N-no, Elena, stay with me!" [Raymond]
I couldn't think of anything I could do. Healing magic is not a be-all end-all solution to everything, all it does is quickly closes a person's wound at the expense of their own energy, it cannot fix blood loss.
I looked at the sword stabbed through her and touched it slowly- I cannot remove this or else it'll just increase the rate of her blood loss.
"Papa…" [Elena]
"Elena, don't speak. Conserve your energy. Papa will find a way to fix this, as I always have, okay?" [Raymond]
"Mmm.. it's fine, papa, no hero Raymond." [Elena]
What..? Come to think of it, I am not sensing any magic in her brain anymore. Was it dispelled due to her weakening?
"I remember everything now.." [Elena]
"Since I was young, I've always been locked up beneath my home's basement. It's to keep prying eyes on finding out that I looked like the demon in the prophecy. My own mother has tried to kill me multiple times- except my father." [Elena]
Elena stopped for a moment and raised her left hands to wipe the tears off of my face.
"When the monster calamity hit our city, he used his magic to shield the basement and protected me." [Elena]
Was that why the basement did not crumble despite the amount of monsters that came to the city..?
"I'm really thankful… to have two wonderful fathers in my life." [Elena]
"Elena, no… papa- papa is going to fix this." [Raymond]
"Thank you, for everything…" [Elena]
She slowly closed her eyes and her hand slowly fell, lifeless.
I held her in my arms and hugged her tight as I cried and cried.
I stood up and went outside of my house, carrying Elena's dead body.
"Have you said your goodbyes, hero? Now let's have move on. The emperor will most likely hold a banquet-" [General Northram]
"Eh..? My body..?" [General Northram]
Before he could finish his sentence, I swiped my right arm and cut off his head.
"W-what the- hero Raymond, what are you doing!?" [Knight]
"A hero is born through sacrifice. With enough sacrifice, the gods will bestow that person with heroic powers to save the world or lead it." [Raymond]
"A hero possesses tremendous power and yet, no hero has become a villain since the dawn of mankind. Is it because of their heroic characteristics? No, it's because they were bound by duty." [Raymond]
"What are you talking about!?" [Knight]
Do you want power?
"How do you think a demon is made? I just realized it now too." [Raymond]
Do you want revenge?
"It's through suffering. If a person suffers enough, they can turn into a demon." [Raymond]
Call out to me. I will give you what you desire.
"It's funny because the line between being a hero and a demon is so thin. The only thing that differs them from each other is how much a person has suffered." [Raymond]
I realized it just now, when the gods gave me my task. All they did was point at me and say, "Demon."
I think I finally understand what they want.
I can feel my hair slowly growing longer and turning silver-white in color, I looked at my skin turning from brown to pale. I conjured a mirror to confirm it and it seems that my eyes are turning into a bright red too.
"I've always thought that it's on a god's whims whether he'll turn a person into a hero or a demon, after all, countless people suffer every day due to various reasons. But no, I've realized that it's a choice. Of whether I decide to move on or suffer." [Raymond]
I started casting a new magic after gaining a tremendous amount of mana because of the demonification.
"And I choose the latter."