Not All Heroes From Earth Are Bad [EN]: Chapter 98

“Those goddamn bastards!”

It didn’t take Choi Hyun-seok long to grasp the situation.

He could feel magic power woven like a spiderweb around the wooden fence.

They might have been hiding it until now, but now that the attack had begun, they seemed to have no intention of concealing their magic power any longer.

“Squeak! It’s hot! It’s hot!”

“We have to escape!”

The Tepos fled outside the wooden fence to escape the flames.

But waiting for them where they fled was the messenger of death.

Knowing this, Choi Hyun-seok desperately tried to stop the Tepos.

“No! You can’t go out there!”

“Squeak! Run away-!”

“Save me!”

However, the Tepos, already paralyzed by fear, did not listen.

In the first place, they were a race steeped in peace, far removed from combat.

There was no way they could maintain a clear mind in a situation where flames were soaring.

Rachel, who was next to him, stamped her feet.

“Hero! At this rate, everyone will die!”

“I know!”

Choi Hyun-seok alone couldn’t stop the Tepos fleeing in all directions.

If so, there was only one way.

Catch the humans who caused this situation and deal with them.

The moment he made that decision.

Confusion set in.

‘What is right?’

The situation was different from before.

They didn’t come to target Choi Hyun-seok or Abelson, but to hunt down the Mazoku [demons].

They were doing their part in their own way, and it had nothing to do with Choi Hyun-seok.

“Damn it! I don’t know!”

Choi Hyun-seok kicked off the ground.

There was no time to leisurely indulge in contemplation.

He couldn’t stand by and watch this massacre, regardless of humans or Mazoku.

First, he would act.

‘It’s endless if I try to catch them one by one. I’ll catch the commander and deal with him.’

The gathered humans numbered roughly five hundred.

A battalion-sized force.

The Tepos, whose total population was barely 200, were swept away in an instant.

The screams and blood of the Tepos never ceased in all directions.

“Kill them! Wipe them all out without leaving a single one alive!”

Choi Hyun-seok’s eyes gleamed.

That’s him.

The man shouting with a sword in his hand over there is the commander.

The magic power he felt was also overwhelmingly powerful.

‘It won’t be easy. It’ll be hard to win, let alone subdue him…’

The man’s magic power was similar to Choi Hyun-seok’s total magic energy.

He didn’t think he would lose the fight, but he wasn’t an opponent he could easily guarantee victory against.

However, it didn’t take long to realize that these concerns were unnecessary.

“Kuhahaha! Kill the Mazoku! Burn them all and slice them…!”

The commander, who was shouting, suddenly stopped.

Before his eyes stood a huge, muscular cow head over 2.5 meters tall.

“Uh…?”

He had heard of it.

Red skin.

Huge muscles.

Flames spewed from the horns rising above his head.

“Red Nightmare…”

Paang!

The commander’s upper body exploded from Raidrun’s punch.

The commander, with nothing left above his waist, collapsed.

After that, another massacre began.

“Kkyaaaak! Run away!”

“It’s the Red Nightmare!”

“S, save me… Keuk!”

Raidrun mercilessly slaughtered the enemies.

He grabbed their arms and crushed them, tearing their heads from their bodies.

Up to this point, it was the same Red Nightmare Raidrun as usual, but there was one difference.

Crack!

Raidrun crushed a soldier’s head with his grip.

His gestures rarely contained anger.

It was a different look from before, when he always carried out massacres like a machine.

“Please spare me!”

“Do you spare the Mazoku?”

“That’s…!”

“Don’t resent me. I won’t resent you either.”

That day, no humans survived from the mountain.

***

The day dawned.

The small village where the Tepos lived was completely ruined.

“It’s terrible…”

The surviving Tepos numbered less than twenty.

A tribe that had been close to two hundred.

Most of them had been massacred.

Of course, not a single one survived on the human side.

Just death and death.

All that remained were corpses.

“…”

Abelson closed her eyes without saying a word.

She was confused.

The death of the Mazoku, two hundred of them, was sadder than the death of five hundred humans.

It seemed it would take Abelson Marriott quite some time to collect her emotions and sort out her thoughts.

“What happened?”

Choi Hyun-seok was talking with Raidrun and Roiger.

Why did this happen?

“Didn’t you say that this is still the Demon King’s army’s territory?”

“That’s right.”

The front line is where the boundary between the Demon King’s army and humans is unclear.

Yesterday, a Demon King’s army fortress becomes a human fortress the next day.

The opposite was also common.

But not here.

Even though it was close to the front line, there was still some distance.

It was rare for human armies to push this far in.

“They seemed to be familiar with these kinds of operations.”

Roiger said.

As he said, the human army was quite skilled in these encirclement and annihilation operations.

In other words, this wasn’t the first time they had carried out such a massacre.

If Choi Hyun-seok and his party hadn’t been here, the Tepos would surely have been massacred without even resisting.

‘I can’t understand it. What is the 8th Division doing?’

Raidrun was also puzzled by the situation.

This place was the furthest rear area in the 8th Division’s jurisdiction.

In other words, unless the 8th Division had disappeared, it didn’t make sense for humans to come this far into the rear.

‘Could it be that the 8th Division has really collapsed?’

He hadn’t been able to contact the unit for a week while traveling on foot.

But it was hard to believe that an entire division had disappeared in just a week.

“We’re going to Gadrak Fortress immediately.”

In the end, there was only one answer.

The 8th Division headquarters, Gadrak Fortress.

Going there would reveal the truth.

***

The enraged group rushed to Gadrak Fortress in one breath.

They were about to meet the 8th Division Commander and demand an explanation, but when they actually arrived at Gadrak Fortress, their momentum waned.

“Hero. Doesn’t the atmosphere here feel eerie?”

Rachel said.

As she said, Gadrak Fortress was giving off a dangerous scent.

The huge castle and the thick walls surrounding it.

The history of the war that had continued there for hundreds of years remained intact.

“Caw-!”

The eerie atmosphere unique to the battlefield blocked the group.

“Let’s go in.”

Raidrun stepped forward first.

At those words, the group nodded and stood in front of the castle gate.

“Who is it!”

The passage procedure was simpler than expected.

The soldiers who recognized Raidrun moved in an orderly manner.

After a simple passage ritual.

An unexpected person greeted the group as they entered.

The 8th Division Commander, Grat.

He stood in front of the group.

‘He’s big…’

Choi Hyun-seok’s mouth opened without him realizing it.

The 8th Division Commander, Grat, was an enormous giant.

A height and size that overwhelmed Raidrun.

In addition, his crocodile head with a long snout was intimidating just to look at.

Moreover, he was one-eyed with a long scar on one eye, and his unfocused white eyes flashed sharply.

Raidrun stepped forward on behalf of the group.

“I greet the 8th Division Commander.”

“Raidrun. You’re barging in without contacting me.”

Grat said in a cold tone.

It was clear to anyone that he wasn’t welcoming them.

His gaze swept over the group behind Raidrun.

‘Hero. It looks like we’re openly disliked?’

Rachel’s voice echoed in his head.

Choi Hyun-seok nodded.

As she said, Grat seemed quite dissatisfied.

In particular, his eyes were full of hostility when he looked at Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson.

‘It’s not surprising anymore.’

Choi Hyun-seok brushed it off.

It was nothing new.

There were plenty of people with hostility wherever he went.

What was important now was that the crocodile head in front of him was the division commander.

And that Choi Hyun-seok shouldn’t get on his bad side in order to survive.

“Raidrun. What brings you here? Dragging humans along behind you.”

Grat said.

“It’s the Corps Commander’s order.”

“Order?”

“Yes. I think it would be better to tell you the details separately.”

“Come to my office.”

Grat turned around.

He seemed to be heading straight to his office.

Raidrun looked back at the group.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll talk to the Division Commander and come back.”

***

Grat’s office.

Raidrun’s atmosphere was somehow subtle.

He had always valued etiquette and showed a respectful attitude towards his superiors, but now he was exuding coldness.

“Before I tell you about the order, there is one thing I would like to ask.”

Raidrun looked at Grat with cold eyes.

“Today, I encountered a human army on the road.”

“Is that so.”

“Villages were burning everywhere, and residents who were not soldiers were dying.”

“What are you trying to say.”

Grat’s expression was indifferent.

“What is the 8th Division doing?”

“Protecting Gadrak Fortress.”

“Humans are committing massacres in our own backyard. Why aren’t you stopping them?”

“I can’t stop them. Just holding out in this place is all I can do.”

Grat’s attitude was confident.

No guilt or shame could be found on his face.

That composure made Raidrun even more angry.

“What’s the reason?”

“Reason? Did you say reason? Hahaha!”

Suddenly, Grat laughs loudly.

“That’s funny. Why don’t you guess? What do you think the reason is?”

“…”

“It was exactly 8 days ago. A large-scale human offensive began.”

Raidrun’s face hardened at the mention of 8 days ago.

Conversely, Grat’s smile deepened.

“Did you notice?”

“Could it be… because of the battle at the Black Star?”

“Yes. 8 days ago, the human offensive began, and at the same time, supplies and support from the 2nd Corps were cut off.”

Raidrun grasped the situation.

8 days ago was the day Hemis killed Rotark, the 2nd Corps Commander.

With Rotark and the Skevin clan, the core of the corps, annihilated, the 2nd Corps would have been paralyzed.

Taking advantage of that gap, the humans advanced.

Raidrun couldn’t help but be shocked.

‘How far have human spies infiltrated…!’

Rotark’s death cannot remain a secret forever.

But the timing was too fast.

They advanced as if they had been waiting for Rotark to die.

It would have been impossible unless they had prior information.

‘Still, no matter the situation, this man is still the same.’

Raidrun stared at Grat in front of him.

This Mazoku, who had served in the military for 300 years and risen to the position of Division Commander, was paradoxically not Mazoku-like at all.

On the surface, he seemed like a cheerful warrior, but inside he was an old fox.

You can tell just by the fact that he locked the doors as soon as the war situation became unfavorable and holed up in Gadrak Fortress.

A typical Demon King’s army commander would have fought the enemy with death.

“I’ll tell you more about the war situation later. Right now, I want to hear about that order.”

Grat said.

He remembered that Raidrun had come because of the order in the first place.

Raidrun took out the order from his chest and handed it over.

“Here it is.”

“What does it say?”

“It says that Gadrak Fortress will be used as the temporary headquarters of the 3rd Corps.”

Grat’s face contorted.

“Then where am I supposed to go?”

Gadrak Fortress is the headquarters of the 8th Division.

If it is used as the headquarters of the 3rd Corps, the 8th Division will have nowhere to go.

“Are the division headquarters and corps headquarters merging?”

“No. The Division Commander will have to leave this place and set up a temporary headquarters elsewhere.”

“What nonsense are you talking about!”

Grat, who couldn’t stand it any longer, jumped up.

Suddenly appearing and telling him to leave because they needed to use the division headquarters.

No matter how high-ranking the unit was, they couldn’t do this.

Moreover, the human’s blade was now at their throats.

Gadrak Fortress was the safest place in the entire 8th Division.

“That can’t happen. I’ll speak to Hemis-nim [esteemed one] directly.”

“Hemis-nim has left a message about that in advance.”

“What is it?”

“From now on, I’m not speaking my own words, but reciting Hemis-nim’s words as they are, so please don’t misunderstand.”

Raidrun continued with a blank face.

“Crocodile head. If you’re stuck in Gadrak Fortress by the time I come, be prepared. I’ll skin you alive and make you into a bag.”

Raidrun spoke in a very blunt tone, without any emotion at all.

“She said this while smiling.”

Suddenly, a deep smile appeared on Raidrun’s face.

Grat’s face, who was looking at him, gradually turned red and blue.

“Raidrun. You bastard…”

“I hope you will vacate Gadrak Fortress as soon as possible. Division Commander Grat.”

Raidrun bowed once and left the office as it was.

***

As Raidrun came out, the group who had been waiting rushed over.

Choi Hyun-seok stepped forward as a representative and asked.

“Did the conversation go well?”

Raidrun shook his head.

He briefly conveyed the conversation he had with Grat.

“The 8th Division Commander is like a fox. It won’t be easy.”

“I see…”

“Choi Hyun-seok. Do you remember Hemorn Fortress?”

Choi Hyun-seok nodded.

Hemorn Fortress.

There was no way he could forget.

It was the place where he first fell into this world and lived as a slave.

“At that time, our Demon King’s army was defeated, and only the commander survived and barely escaped. Thanks to that, we had no choice but to hand over some areas, including Hemorn Fortress, to the humans.”

“Uh… could it be…?”

“Yes. The commander who led the battle at that time is the 8th Division Commander, Grat.”

Now that he mentioned it, he vaguely remembered.

The day he first met Hemis at the Black Star.

She had said this.

“The 8th Division Commander. That crocodile head shamelessly came back alive?”

“So I’m thinking of making him into a leather bag. Bags made of crocodile heads are in fashion these days. Hoho.”

He had casually dismissed it, but he didn’t know there was such an inside story.

“Then what do we do from now on?”

“It depends on how Division Commander Grat will react. I don’t think he’ll leave willingly.”

The 8th Division Commander is a clever man.

He would definitely try not to leave this safe Gadrak Fortress.