Chapter 67: I Let Down My Guard

"Roy! You did it!"

"No. We did it!"

"Yeah, but it was thanks to you that the Orc Emperor is finally defeated. We don't have to wait for reinforcement any longer."

"Reinforcement?"

"The other parties who weren't here are have retreated. I told them to help the defending team and return here with reinforcement."

"Really? But asking four parties is too much, isn't it?"

"I just asked one. The other three volunteer without consulting first."

"Well, at least we have defeated the Orc Emperor. With it thick muscles, I believe we can get a lot by selling its body parts."

"Yeah. That would be great. It's the first time Melk's hunter guild to receive the material from Orc Emperor. But what's so good about material from Orc Emperor?"

"…its bones?"

"You can broke them easily."

"Meat?"

"I Orc Meat taste terrible. I don't know about Orc Emperor's though."

"Well, we can just bring the corpse back to the guild. There might be some uses."

We're celebrating our victory and Kron and I are talking about the reward already. We were just enjoying the aftermath of fighting the Orc Emperor.

…and I let down my guard.

"Huh? Someone is coming. Maybe the reinforcement will arrive soon."

"You really have a good pair of eyes, huh? How much for one?"

"It's not for sale! Why do you think that I can give it to you? Do you think I will pluck my eye out of its socket and gave it to you?"

"After witnessing you plucking out the Orc Emperor's eye, I think that's plausible."

"Idiot… by the way, why is the reinforcement alone?"

"Huh? Well… maybe the guild sent a high ranked hunter alone here. In Melk, other than us who come here… there's no one else!"

Both of us alerted by the newcomer. That newcomer just looked at the dead Orc Emperor and seeing that he can't do anything alone, he throw some kind of magic tools.

That magic tool then melted as it touched the dead Orc Emperor's body and the dead body soon disintegrated.

Everyone then also alerted by the situation, but the guy has already started to run away. While Kron and I started chasing him, the others still in shock without knowing what has happened.

I grabbed my spear that has already been repaired, and throw it to the guy. It pierced through his body. But he's still alive.

Kron and I approached him.

"Who the hell are you?!"

Kron tried to grab the man, but the man just smiled.

"See you in hell."

I should have used my Divine Vision sooner. I saw that this guy has an explosive in his mouth just like other cult members that I saw before.

"Shit! Kron!"

I grabbed Kron and pulled him away from the man.

Kron was too close with him when he explode his own head.

I saved his life, but the explosion still hit him. His forehead and part of his hair got burnt.

If I was a little slower, the explosion will hit his eye and he will be blind. It was good he will alive. But the roots of Kron's hair won't.

"Kron! Are you okay?"

The others finally caught up with us and see the explosion hit Kron.

"Kayla! Heal him!"

"Okay!"

I asked Kayla to use her healing magic on Kron. Although healing magic can't heal burnt hair roots, at least he won't have a burnt mark on his head.

I checked on the dead man's condition. Well… he's dead. His head exploded but his body is still fine. I checked to see if he's carrying some sort of clue and I found nothing else other than two more of magic tools that he used to disintegrate the Orc Emperor's body.

"Damn! There's no clue about him at all. He doesn't even has a Hunter Card."

While I'm checking on the guy who explode himself, Kron stood up already healed.

"Have you find out about this guy?"

"No. He doesn't have anything on him other than one more of that magic tool."

I looted two of the same magic tools, but I only show him one of them. The other one is already in my pocket. It might be useful in the future.

"Can you guess where he come from?"

"I don't know. Possibly, from an organized group since his action is too precise. He came here and saw the corpse of Orc Emperor. Then he left right away after disintegrating the corpse. He also didn't hesitate at all to commit suicide. That's all I can guess."

I didn't tell him yet about the existence of Evil God Cult. Although he's a good man, I don't know yet if I can trust him. But I do hope that he will be on our side one day.

"Fuck it hurts! Thanks to your girlfriend the pain is gone. But it sure surprise me."

"Not just surprise you. Try touching your head. Just above your forehead."

"What's… AAAARGH!! My hair!"

"It got burnt all the way to the roots. My condolences."

"NOOOOO! Tell me that at least I still look like someone with large forehead!"

"Umm… nope. Not at all. You're bald. From your forehead until the top of your head, it's all gone. But the side and back is still fine."

"AAAAAAARGH! Roy! If you found the one organization behind this man, tell me. I will destroy anything related to them."

"Okay. I'll give you one of my knives. Whether you want to shave your hair or keep the knife as a keepsake, it's up to you."

I checked on the dead man again, and then gather everyone and told them all what happened.

I know for sure that this man is a member of the cult. As for why he disintegrate the Orc Emperor's corpse, my guess is that the cult doesn't want the body of their experiment to be taken by the guild.

I know that the Evil God Cult has done many kind of experiment. One of them is monsters mutation. After all, the monster that killed me was a mutated one.

I bet that the Orc Emperor is one of their experiment who run away. It then found a group of orcs and start building a settlement.

The cult doesn't want other to know that the Orc Emperor is a mutated one because of an experiment. That's why they decided to destroy the corpse.

Maybe I should have stayed longer at the governor's place. Then I could get some clues about them.

Before I talked to everyone about what to do, I excuse myself from the others and summoned Victoria who's still enjoying moving her bodies. I told her what happened and gave her an order.

"Victoria, I want you to go to the Governor's place and see if anyone is coming or reporting about the death of the Orc Emperor. Then see his reaction and remember everyone he interacted with after that."

"Damn. Can't you just kill this governor?"

"We still have no evidence of his relation with the cult. If you have done this mission, then you can search for some evidences. Then I will send a letter to the king about it and let him realize the danger we're facing. If the kingdom move against the cult, then we can have more allies helping us."

"Then I want a reward."

"What do you want?"

"I said that I will at least hunt monsters 3 hours a day. But let's make it so I don't have to do it every day. Just on the weekday when you're at school studying. For the weekend, I want to have free time."

"Fine with me."

"Oh! And I also want some pocket money. It's the master responsibility as I'm your contracted monster."

"Sure. We will be rich soon after all once we move to Cassau."

"Great. See you later then."

Victoria run through the forest back to the city. I told her to not let anyone saw her.

I returned back to where everyone is and told them to keep my strength a secret.

"I want you all to keep my strength as secret. I don't want to be targeted by the organization who doesn't hesitate to take their own life yet. We will only tell the guildmaster the truth and told him to keep it a secret. Just tell everyone that the Orc Emperor died because of the combination of fire and wind magic that makes a huge explosion, and destroy the Orc Emperor's body until nothing remained. Do you all agree?"

"I agree with Roy. At least if we said everyone did their part, none of us will be targeted by that organization. We don't know the goal of that shitty organization."

Kron agreed with me while his right hand is touching his newly shaved head.

"I agree as well. It was too dangerous for Roy alone to bear the burden of being targeted."

"Us too. None of the member of our party will tell anyone about you amazingly killing the Orc Emperor in physical battle."

"Thanks. Let's go home now since our mission is over. I'm worried about the defense of Melk city."

Everyone agreed to keep silent of my strength.

Thanks to this mission, we also got closer with each other. Even Kayla, Angela, and Sophie, is chatting about a desserts in a certain cafe with girls from the other parties.

As for the boys… we're making fun of Kron's new 'haircut'. He doesn't like it…