The Fake Hero Is Too Strong Chapter 62

I asked,

“That kid’s descendant?”

“I have a bit of a connection to Patrick’s bloodline.”

“What are you talking about? You’re not even with the Holy Knights of Light. How could you be related to soone from Alkahad—ah.”

Noticing the look of realization on my face, she nodded.

“When we first t, didn’t you spout off my past like it was nothing?”

“Hmm. You definitely said you made a backdoor deal with Da thirty years ago…”

You also ntioned fighting Krotz Benjamin, the vice-captain of Alkahad, fifty years ago.

I had heard that story directly from Neril before the regression, but I never thought it would connect like this.

Neril continued speaking.

“Maybe his son… no, judging by the age, probably his grandson. I’m kind of curious what he looks like.”

“Wanna go see? Adwin wants to take a look too.”

“Do we have ti for that?”

“For the inauguration of the new Alkahad captain, every big na in the capital including the emperor is bound to show up. It’ll be a good place to gather information.”

Neril nodded.

We left the carriage to the coachman and headed toward the event on foot.

As we walked, Neril told stories from the past.

“Krotz was different from that Da guy. He actually knew his place. After a few clashes, he raised both hands and surrendered.”

“Hm.”

“Even so, for soone who was the vice-captain of Alkahad, it was funny how thoroughly he prostrated himself. So I let him live.”

This might be the first ti I’ve seen her talk about her own past like this.

Thinking about it, she’s lived a long life. There must be a lot of mories I don’t know about.

It’s a strange feeling.

[You know, Neril might be thinking the sa thing.]

‘Huh?’

[You’ve got a bunch of mories she doesn’t know either. Sa goes for the other party mbers.]

‘…’

[They’re precious comrades. Try to get to know them. Don’t wall yourself off like you did before the regression.]

I was a bit taken aback.

‘That’s surprisingly mature coming from you.’

[What’s that supposed to an?]

‘Exactly what I said. That it’s surprisingly mature coming from you.’

[You just repeated yourself, you punk.]

‘Did you have comrades or party mbers too, by any chance?’

Trail replied firmly:

[No. I never had comrades. And I doubt I ever will.]

I let out a quiet chuckle.

What nonsense—he already has us.

The inauguration ceremony was grand.

We arrived late and got a bad spot, so from where we stood, the stage was nothing but a dot. But my sharp eyesight let see it pretty clearly.

“It’s the emperor.”

At my murmuring, the others followed my gaze.

“That ant with the crown is the emperor?”

“That’s a hell of a way to talk about the ruler of the empire.”

“I didn’t an it in a bad way. He really looks like an ant.”

“You realize that still sounds bad, right?”

That’s when Adwin spoke up.

Riding on Offense’s shoulders, he narrowed his eyes toward the stage.

“My mom said he was quite the handso man when he took the throne. I don’t really see it though.”

Offense responded.

“Your mom’s that famous Mariana Ayn, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You call Neril ‘big sis’ but call ‘sir’? That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Hmm… sorry, sir.”

“Get off my shoulders right now.”

I smiled faintly and looked back toward the stage.

Even from this distance, I could see the blood script clearly.

‘Well, well. The emperor’s quite the monstrous criminal too.’

His blood script showed a shocking count of 581 victims.

Outside of outliers like Kaeld, he ranked among the worst I’d ever seen.

Before the regression, the emperor only had a private audience with Kaeld, so this was the first ti I’d seen his blood script.

If I had known then, I might have questioned whether the rewards he promised would even be honored.

‘Anyway, that’s not what matters right now.’

I shifted my gaze slightly.

Soone was being presented with the captain’s seal by the emperor.

That must be Patrick Benjamin.

They said he was handso, but… not really feeling it.

[That’s a very subjective judgnt.]

‘…’

[Huh? What’s wrong?]

Noticing the change in my expression, Trail asked.

I let out a quiet breath through my nose and examined Patrick’s blood script.

—“Has sinned against Da Seide and 231 others.”

Da Seide.

Head of the Holy Knights of Light and Xenia’s father. Alkahad’s current rival.

Patrick had sinned against him.

And, considering he was listed as the representative victim, it was probably the one sin he most wanted to keep hidden.

‘Trail. Tell the secret between Da and Patrick.’

[What? Da?]

‘I’ll explain later. Just check the secret first.’

[O-Okay.]

Soon, a screen appeared.

I first checked the date in the upper right corner.

‘Last night?’

A secret that had happened less than 24 hours ago.

In the vision, Patrick was facing Da.

Da sipped his tea before speaking.

“First of all, congratulations, Vice Captain Patrick Benjamin.”

“You should call Captain now.”

“The inauguration’s not until tomorrow.”

“You’re such a stickler. It’s less than a day away.”

Da frowned at his slick tone.

Clack.

Deliberately, he set down his teacup with a loud sound and continued.

“No one else is around, so let’s speak freely, Vice Captain.”

“…”

“A lot of people are curious how you rose so quickly in a giant organization like Alkahad.”

“Must be skill, no?”

“No. Frankly, you’re not captain material. Not even vice captain, to be precise.”

Patrick’s face twisted in displeasure.

But Da kept his sharp tone.

“I’m not saying this because I lead a rival organization. What did you do to the forr Alkahad captain to get this far?”

“What do you an? He just passed the position down to and retired.”

“That man was still in perfect health. He always used to say he’d only retire the day he entered his coffin.”

“Well, people change their minds.”

“Are you just going to keep dodging the question?”

Da raised his voice.

“And it’s not just the forr captain. I’ve heard that many within Alkahad resent or envy your rapid promotions.”

“…”

“The sa rumors float among the nobility. That you’re far too lacking to be the grandson of the legendary Vice-Captain Krotz.”

“Watch your mouth!”

Bang!

Patrick suddenly slamd the table.

But Da didn’t even flinch.

I’d only ever dealt with hero-rank party mbers, so I’d forgotten—but Da was still the third-ranked powerhouse in the Empire.

There’s no way soone like him would be intimidated by the fury of so greenhorn.

And to be honest, there wasn’t a single ounce of dignity to be felt from Patrick.

He opened his mouth, fuming.

“Grandfather, Grandfather! I’m sick and tired of being compared to that na!”

“Such is the fate of those born into great bloodlines. Vice-Captain Krotz was a respectable man.”

“That respectable man couldn’t even lay a finger on the Witch of Carnage and had to retreat!”

Da’s eyebrow twitched.

“Is that supposed to be a jab at ?”

“Oh, now that you ntion it, you went through the sa thing, didn’t you, Sir Da? Truly, the Witch of Carnage does give our organizations a hard ti. In so many ways.”

“……”

“Anyway. Hoo. Let’s move on to the real reason we’re here.”

Patrick cald himself and sat back down.

Then, with a rather vile-looking smile, he continued,

“Earlier, you said quite a bit—just because it was the two of us here. That’s fine. I’ll do sothing quite excessive too, since it’s just the two of us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Sothing like this, old man.”

“W-What?”

“Look into my eyes. Right now.”

Huh?

Suddenly, Patrick’s right eye began to glow red.

Even though I was watching through a screen, I got chills all over my body.

That light radiated a terribly ominous aura. It slowly faded… and then disappeared.

Da stood there, blankly, before asking,

“What on earth did you just do…?”

“And here I thought you’d fold quickly, even with your big reputation. You’re number three in the Empire, huh? I was planning to corrupt you further, but you held on.”

“C-Corrupt…?”

“Why don’t you roll up your pants and take a look?”

Even though Patrick’s tone had suddenly changed—so unnaturally—Da obediently rolled up his pant leg.

The fact that he followed the order at all… ant he felt it too.

Sothing very bad had happened to his leg.

“……!”

His eyes widened in horror.

Whoa.

[It’s almost too grueso to look at.]

Just monts ago, Da’s right leg had been perfectly fine. Now it was mangled.

It had blackened like rotten mud left standing too long—and was oozing.

That black, dripping flesh looked like the face of a demon straight from hell.

Sweating coldly, Da shouted,

“What did you do to ?!”

“I think you’ve already got a guess.”

“……”

“You’ve heard of the Demon King of Corruption’s authority, right? I corrupted part of your body. Originally, I aid to corrupt it up to your thigh, but it stopped at your knee. Still, not bad.”

Da bit down on his lip hard.

Blood trickled from his mouth, but he didn’t even try to wipe it as he shouted,

“How the hell are you using the Demon King’s authority?!”

“I had a stroke of luck a while back. No point in asking, though—I won’t answer, so don’t waste your breath.”

“Y-You bastard…!”

“Stop getting worked up and think carefully. What do you suppose will happen if that partial corruption spreads to your bone marrow?”

Da trembled, then spoke in a voice that was practically forced out of him.

“You think you’ll get away with this? This is an abnormal phenonon! Every last mber of the Holy Knights of Light will co after your head!”

“Heh. My forr captain said the sa thing.”

Oh. So that’s how it is.

‘That guy… He did the sa thing to the previous Alkahad captain.’

[Right. Everyone was suspicious of Patrick’s abilities. He was far too young to serve as a division captain.]

‘Exactly. That’s how he took control of Alkahad in the capital—using tricks like this.’

Makes sense. Who could possibly stay calm when their own body is slowly turning into a monster?

“I won’t bend to such threats! Even if my entire body becos corrupted, I’ll see to it that you’re punished!”

Huh. So he’s got so spine.

Even as Da shouted with burning rage, Patrick didn’t look the least bit fazed.

“Yeah. The forr captain said the sa thing.”

“W-What?”

“He tried to arrest too, even if it cost him his life. But then I showed him this, and he gave up.”

Shff.

Patrick pulled out a dagger.

Then, without warning, he lightly sliced his own palm.

Drip.

As a decent amount of blood spilled across the table, Da suddenly reacted.

“Urgh!”

He grabbed his leg and groaned in pain.

Hurriedly, he checked—and found that the corruption, which had reached only his knee earlier, had now climbed to his thigh.

“Do you get it now? If you try to harm , you’ll automatically transform further.”

“……”

“You can’t arrest . You can’t reveal my cris. ‘Harming ’ doesn’t just an physical attacks.”

“……”

“If you tarnish my na, or accuse falsely—any action that I interpret as being ‘targeted’ will trigger more corruption. From now on, until the day you die, you’ll have to focus solely on praising my na.”

Gnash.

Da ground his teeth.

Patrick chuckled and kept going.

“Oh, and by the way, it’s not just Alkahad.”

“…What?”

“There are people in the Holy Knights of Light who are already corrupted. So noble heirs, too. And of course, a few guild heads and guard captains.”

“……”

“Everyone who opposed—or might oppose— taking the position of captain is probably already walking around with a body part wrapped in heavy bandages. Heh.”

“……”

“So? Don’t you think everyone’s going to co together now… to celebrate my promotion to commander?”

I could only click my tongue at the guy’s sheer villainy.

Patrick’s right eye.

The Gem of Corruption can take many forms: a tree, a rock, a human, a monster—even the Black Sun.

And yes, it can beco a human eye.

Which ans…

‘That right eye of Patrick’s is the Black Sun that appeared in the capital before the regression—the Gem of Corruption itself.’

Hmm.

The Gem of Desolation I got from the Martial King has proven incredibly useful. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel{f}ire

I imagine the Gem of Corruption will be just as versatile.

Honestly, when I first ca to the capital, all I could think about was how to sohow deal with the Black Sun.

Even I hadn’t considered the idea of wielding the sun in my hand.

[Wait—are you saying…?]

I smirked and replied,

‘If it’s just an eyeball… I can carry it around, right?’