Evading the Hero’s Party with Full Effort

Chapter 172

Ch.172 Icira… You Fool! 

“Grandfather?”  

Innocently looking up at Auros, Aria.  

The girl said with a bright smile.  

“Mom isn’t here right now!”  

Auros gently patted Aria’s head.  

“I know.”  

Deep regret filled his voice.  

If he had stepped forward first, the story might have been different.  

Was the problem that he returned to the lair to rest for a while?  

If he had kept watching Ice Dragon and Hans?  

No matter how much of a dragon she was, she couldn’t watch someone 24/7.  

Could it be because Auros had suppressed the enemy Liches in the Imperial Capital until now, and whenever there was hardship, he actively stepped forward?  

Dragons possessed strong power, but paradoxically their bodies were aging.  

His body couldn’t follow his mind, and there were moments when he had to rest, and at that moment, this incident broke out.  

“Then what’s the matter?”  

Aria carefully asked Auros.  

“I have something to tell you.”  

Seeing Auros’s appearance that looked anything but normal, Aria felt her heart sink.  

‘No… it’s not… Mom is strong, right? Then… who is it?’  

Intuitively sensing that he had come with bad news, Aria.  

The girl’s shoulders trembled slightly.  

“N-no? It’s not our mom, right?”  

At Aria’s voice, Elena covered her mouth.  

The situation was more serious than she had expected.  

‘Lady Icira… passed away?’  

As she was overwhelmed with shock, Aria felt confused.  

She had the intuitive judgment that if something bad happened, her mother would have come personally.  

Though the girl’s thoughts were childish, intuition did exist.  

Auros lowered his body to meet Aria’s eyes.  

“Aria… listen well to what I say.”  

Auros’s voice was full of sadness.  

“I don’t want to! I won’t listen!”  

Aria, with a pale face, stepped back one step.  

“It’s about Icira…”  

As Auros continued speaking, Aria sat down and covered her ears.  

“I won’t listen! I won’t hear it!”  

The girl shouted loudly as if she didn’t want to hear Auros’s words.  

Even if she did this, would the facts change?  

Aria’s voice mixed with crying.  

“Mom would never leave me! You’re wrong! Don’t lie!”  

“Your mother, Icira, was killed by Roy, the King of the Dead.”  

A straightforward manner of speaking without considering the child.  

But because he was a dragon, such words were possible.  

Though the girl looked young, she was the strongest race on earth.  

He thought that even if her heart was fragile, she would overcome it well.  

Though Aria tried hard to cover her ears, Auros’s words reached her, and she kicked the ground and stood up.  

“No! No! Grandfather! You said lying is bad! Mom said dragons are a race of promises, so you can’t lie!”  

The girl grumbled angrily.  

The girl who always giggled and was pure now had blood vessels showing in her eyes.  

“Why are you lying! When mom comes, she’ll scold you! She promised me she’d come back every time she left! Mom doesn’t lie! I hate grandfather!”  

“Aria?!”  

Elena urgently called out to Aria, but the girl had already left the garden.  

Young Aria couldn’t accept her mother’s death.  

The girl ran up the mansion stairs at full speed with her short legs.  

“Haa, haa.”  

Her heart beating hard and her breathing becoming shallow.  

All of this was unimportant to the girl.  

Aria… Aria wanted to run away.  

The girl ran to her room, breathing heavily.  

—Bang!  

Aria opened the door roughly.  

The girl ran toward the bed where she slept with Icira.  

The girl entered the neatly arranged bed.  

‘It can’t be, it can’t be. Mom would never leave me alone? She said she’d stay with me for a long, long time. Mom doesn’t lie!’  

Rubbing her face against the pillow Icira used to sleep on, she recalled her mother’s scent.  

‘Certainly grandfather Auros is lying!’  

Thinking so decisively, Aria.  

“Hmm! Then he’s playing around! Like Sister Leah or Sister Cecilia!”  

Thinking that Auros was playing around like Leah and Cecilia, who always teased her, the girl rubbed her face against the pillow, thinking she would tell everything when her mother returned.  

—Drop… drop.  

Tears flowing down the girl’s eyes.  

“No! She didn’t die! Our mom didn’t die. She’ll come back soon.”  

While trembling on the bed like this.  

“Aria, I know it’s not easy for you to accept this.”  

Auros’s voice came from the room, and Aria’s body twitched.  

“But this is not a joke. Who in the world would joke about a parent’s death?”  

“Eek!”  

Aria came out from under the blanket and hit Auros’s leg.  

“Don’t lie! She didn’t die! I said she didn’t die?! Why are you tormenting me?!”  

—Sss! Sss!  

Was it because her emotions were shaken?  

Scales appeared on Aria’s beautiful face, and her hands gradually turned pure white.  

A tail slowly came out.  

—Sss…!  

Like showing Aria’s mood, the tail swayed roughly.  

“I don’t want to torment you either.”  

“Eek! Then don’t lie?!”  

“It’s not a lie. What good would there be in lying to you with such things?”  

Auros gently embraced Aria.  

“The reason I came is because of your mother’s death and the funeral.”  

“F-funeral?”  

“Yes. We need to hold a funeral.”  

Aria felt like her heart stopped.  

‘Really… did mom really die?’  

The girl’s body completely returned to her hatchling form.  

“Ah… really… did mom really die? Really?”  

At the girl’s tearful words, Auros nodded slightly.  

“That’s right, child.”  

At Auros’s words, Aria’s eyes glowed ominously, and the building began to shake.  

—Earthquake!  

—Run away!  

As magic fluctuated according to the girl’s emotions, Auros gently embraced Aria and calmed the magic.  

“Why?! Why did she die?! Who did this?!”  

“King of the Dead. The God of Death’s apostle.”  

“Where is he?! Where is that guy?!”  

At Aria’s expression distorted with anger, Auros stroked her head.  

“Hans’s group is chasing him. They’ll probably catch him soon. If not, everyone will die.”  

“I want to go too! I’ll take revenge for mom! So mom can rest in peace!”  

At Aria’s words, Auros shook his head.  

“Leave this to Hans. He is the opposing force and savior established by the gods.”  

“No! He killed my mom! I’ll take revenge!”  

“You’re still young. Your mother’s revenge will probably be fulfilled.”  

“Eek! I won’t let it go! I absolutely won’t let that bad guy go!”  

Aria shed hot tears.  

The girl cried into Auros’s clothes, sobbing.  

***

Together with Edward, I headed to the Demon King’s castle.  

“How much longer?”  

“Maybe one more day until we arrive?”  

Though flying with the Fly spell at a fast speed toward the Demon King’s castle, I complained due to anxious feelings.  

“One more day… it’s farther than I thought.”  

“Still, this is fast enough.”  

At the guy’s words, I nodded.  

Damn… I need to chase Roy quickly…  

Since he’s hiding, it’s hard to find him right away.  

So I need to go to where the God of Death is sealed first and defeat him.  

I looked slightly at Edward and said.  

“At least I’m fortunate you’re here.”  

“Huh? What do you mean?”  

“You don’t get tired or need sleep like humans, right?”  

At my words, he scratched his skull with his bone hand.  

“That’s true.”  

“So we’re moving relatively fast thanks to that.”  

No matter if Leah had the Altarion’s Staff, she still needed to sleep.  

That was separate from being able to cast Dragon-level magic freely.  

I slightly took out a notebook from my spatial bag and sent a message to Leah.  

—How’s the situation there?  

About five minutes passed.  

The notebook emitted a faint light.  

—All enemies have been dealt with.  

At her words, I felt relieved.  

Faster than I thought. I was worried about the number.  

I thought joining with the Guardians had been effective.  

I wonder how Icira is doing?  

While thinking about her, I wrote on the notebook.  

—Good to hear. How’s Icira?  

As the notebook didn’t react for a long time, I became curious.  

She must be busy.  

If they finished dealing with the enemies and entered hell, they’d be busy.  

But… where should I send them?  

Since I couldn’t confirm where Roy had gone, the situation was unclear.  

While worrying about what to do with them, I couldn’t think of a proper method.  

“Ugh…”  

“Is something wrong?”  

At Edward’s words, I replied.  

“It’s just that I don’t know where Roy went? But the Hero party seems to have entered hell, so I’m wondering what to make them do. Should I call them to where the Demon King is? But the distance is quite far? Since Teleport only works to places you’ve been once, it’s hard to use…”  

My head was so complicated that I ended up talking incoherently.  

“Don’t worry about Teleport. If I mark the magic coordinates and send you there, you can teleport to that location.”  

“Huh? Really? Can you use Teleport?”  

At my words, Edward shook his head.  

“How could that be?”  

“Really?”  

Hearing the guy’s words, I organized the schedule.  

Tomorrow, I’ll catch the Demon King, torture him or whatever, find out where the God of Death is sealed, and kill Roy there.  

But… why no reply?  

I slightly took out a pocket watch and checked the time.  

It had been about an hour since I asked.  

But even after an hour, the notebook showed no reaction.  

I opened the notebook and looked at the last thing I sent again.  

—Good to hear. How’s Icira?  

Maybe busy?  

Or maybe…  

Feeling something strange, I wrote again on the notebook.  

—Don’t tell me… something happened to Icira?  

With a fearful heart, I left the message again, and after a while, letters slowly appeared in the blank space.  

—Master, you mustn’t be surprised when you hear this.  

At the short phrase, my heart sank with a ‘what if.’

“A-ah, no?”  

What happened to Icira?  

She said she was fine? No way. Didn’t Cecilia say she avoided a fatal wound?  

As a Saint, she should easily heal that level of wound.  

So I convinced myself that the worst possibility I was thinking couldn’t happen.  

—Lady Icira has passed away.  

At those letters, my heart seemed to stop, no, the world seemed to stop.  

What? Icira died? Why? That’s impossible?  

With trembling hands, I tried to write letters on the notebook, but my mind went blank like a white sheet, unable to think what to write.  

I… I must ask. Since Cecilia was there, why did she die?  

—Why? Why did she die?  

Though it might seem heartless, this was the best I could do with my mind stopped.  

—That… her Dragon Heart was shattered…  

“Aaah… Icira… you fool!”  

My voice filled with rage echoed loudly.

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