The carriage carrying the Saintess arrived. As soon as it stopped, the Saintess stepped down along with two priests. Including the priest driving the carriage, there were four of them in total.
"Brave, I can be of help. Please reconsider."
"That's right. Brave, only the Brave and the Saintess together can defeat the Demon King!"
"The Demon King has grown even stronger over the past hundred years. Please think this through carefully!"
I stood there with my arms crossed, listening to their nonsense. If the Temple hadn't hoarded magic tomes for itself, how could the previous generation have lost? All of this was just a lie to strengthen the Temple's influence.
Then Ethefelis returned. I bent down and asked her quietly,
"Did you find out who they are?"
"I'm not sure. Their hair has three colors. They're not human."
Three-colored hair and not human—then they could only be demon race. Most likely the same demons who attacked the village: the tri-colored ones.
I leaned closer to Ethefelis's ear and gave her a new order in a low voice.
"Good. Go see if anyone is watching us. If you find them, kill them."
This was an assassin's territory—finding enemy scouts and eliminating them. Ethefelis nodded and disappeared into the forest. I then drew my sword and gave Grace a new instruction.
"Grace, protect Jacob."
"Yes."
Ignoring the Saintess and the priests, I turned around to investigate. Just then, one of the priests called out to me.
"Brave, what is the matter? Why have you drawn your weapon?"
"If you don't want to die, go back right now."
"Are you threatening us?! We know that a Brave chosen by Lady Fatelis would never harm others! That's why we're not afraid of you!"
Did the Temple grow flowers in their heads or something? That kind of fairy tale only exists in stories. No wonder they wouldn't give up—if they thought stubborn persistence would win, they were truly foolish.
I hadn't intended it as a threat, but I was too lazy to explain.
"...Then wait for death."
I left those words behind and turned away. Immediately, a voice I had never heard before rang out. When I looked over, I felt disappointed—it wasn't the yellow-pink-purple trio I'd been hoping for, but green-red-yellow.
"Hey, which one of you is the Brave? Come over here and let us kill you nicely—wait, guys, do you smell that?"
The green-red-yellow demon stopped mid-sentence and turned to ask the others.
"Yeah. It's the scent of our kind."
"But half of it smells human."
"It's that blonde woman."
One of the demons pointed at the Saintess. Their voices were loud, so we heard everything clearly.
The Saintess pointed back at the demons and shouted angrily,
"Who are you?! Why are you trying to kill the Brave?!"
Her reaction was puzzling. Was she angry because she knew her own race and was trying to change the subject, or did she simply not understand what the demons were saying and only heard their threat?
The green-red-yellow demon ignored her and continued,
"She clearly smells like a demon, yet she's human. A half-demon."
The more I listened, the more excited I became. I raised my hand and spoke to them. Since they were looking for me, they should listen.
"Um, hello. I'm the Brave. May I ask you a few questions?"
"Karen, what are you saying?!"
Jacob was shocked by my behavior, so I told him to be quiet.
"Shh. Don't talk. This is important."
The green-red-yellow demon pointed at me and replied magnanimously,
"So you're this generation's Brave? Since you're about to die, I'll allow you to ask."
A final mercy? How arrogant. Still, I took the chance.
"The half-demon you mentioned—does that mean a mix between demon and human?"
"Yes. To unite with humans is a disgrace to demonkind."
"D-Demon?!"
This time Grace shouted, but I ignored her. I pointed at the Saintess and asked the green-red-yellow demon,
"And this blonde girl—is she a half-demon? How can you tell?"
"We can identify races by scent. She's half demon."
Just like I'd suspected as a child—demons have an extremely keen sense of smell.
That confirmed it. The Saintess wasn't human.
So the Goddess of Fate doesn't choose a fixed race for the Saintess? It didn't matter. I still needed to confirm her usefulness.
"Then is dark-attribute magic something only the Demon King can use?"
"No. Every demon can use it."
"Half-demons too?"
"As long as you have demon blood, you can use it."
So the Saintess could use dark-attribute magic. Perfect. If I let her join, we'd have all elements covered.
"That's great. Thank you for answering my questions. Now please die."
I thanked the green-red-yellow demon as I walked toward them. The moment I finished speaking, I raised my sword and charged.
"What—?! Aaaah—!"
The green-red-yellow demon died with a final scream. The others were killed in an instant as well. The demon blood is blue.
When I returned, I saw the two priests staring at Alice in disbelief.
"The Saintess is a demon...?"
"...Have we been deceived all this time?"
"I—I'm not...!"
Alice desperately denied it, reaching out toward them, but the priests slapped her hand away. With hateful eyes, they shouted at her.
"Don't come near us, you demon!"
"We need to go back and report this to the Archbishop!"
One priest grabbed the other by the wrist, preparing to leave. I quickly moved behind them.
"Good, hurry up..."
The priest who had been shouting had just agreed when I swung my sword and cut off both their heads.
When Alice saw their heads hit the ground, she staggered back in terror, her legs giving out as she collapsed. Then, once it registered, she screamed.
"Aaaah—!!!"
"Mr. Karen, why did you—! Ugh—!"
Grace tried to shout at me in anger, but suddenly she threw up. What was going on? Right after that, Jacob gently patted her on the back.
"Grace, why did you throw up? Are you okay?"
"No…"
I didn't even wait to hear the rest of what Grace was saying. I ran over to the priest who had been driving the carriage, kicked him down from the seat, and killed him. After that, I buried the body.
"Light of healing, grant health to the wounded and restore them to their original state. Greater Heal"
When I returned, I saw Alice chanting magic toward the dead priests. Don't tell me she was trying to heal them? That was way too Saintess-like.
But this was healing magic, not resurrection magic, so nothing changed at all.
"Why isn't it working?! Light of healing…"
The Saintess stared at her trembling hands in panic, then tried to chant again. I cut her off.
"Enough. It doesn't work on the dead."
"Brave, why did you kill them?! You're not supposed to harm people!"
Alice shouted at me angrily. I replied casually.
"That's what you said. I never said that."
I spoke while continuing to bury the priests.
"Aren't you supposed to be someone who protects humanity?"
"Listen carefully. The Brave's mission is to defeat the Demon King, not to protect humanity. I have no obligation to protect humans."
The idea that the Brave protects humanity is nothing more than wishful thinking. From beginning to end, the Brave exists solely to defeat the Demon King. Once the Demon King is defeated, the Brave no longer has a reason to exist.
So why do people think otherwise? Because the Demon King is humanity's enemy. By defeating the Demon King, the Brave indirectly protects humans. That's all there is to it.
The Temple, for the sake of its own influence, took that a step further and fabricated the story that the Brave would absolutely protect humans, never even laying a finger on them. What kind of saintly nonsense is that? Thankfully, I retained memories of my past life. Otherwise, I would've been tricked into throwing my life away long ago.
"This is wrong. The Temple says the Brave protects humanity! You're not a real Brave!"
Just as I said—the Temple's tactics are all the same.
But what was going on with Alice? She had insisted so stubbornly before, yet now she turned against me in an instant. I couldn't help snapping back at her.
"And what about you? The Saintess is a half-demon. Did the Temple ever say only humans could be chosen as the Saintess?"
"I'm not a demon! I'm human!"
Alice vehemently denied it, her voice filled with anger as she insisted that she had no demon blood.