Heroes and Machine Girls Looking at Profiles

60 – Refugee

After summoning Kenji, a new hero, and starting to enter the battlefield, the empire’s war situation was gradually improving.

Of course, perhaps it was because the hero Kenji’s power was still immature, he even had his allies involved in the attack, but even so, he was able to repel the demon king’s army.

Furthermore, as his power grew, the frequency of his victories became more and more frequent.

From the empire’s perspective, it could be said that it was truly in a better position than before.

However, a situation occurred that poured cold water on the situation.

An ‘Apostle of the Goddess’ who suddenly descends onto the battlefield and looks like something out of a fairy tale book.

It appeared and ended up fighting the hero Kenji.

Because of that battle, the hero Kenji experienced a crushing defeat that surpassed the defeats he had suffered before.

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The hero Kenji was beaten to the point where every bone in his body was almost crushed, and an ordinary person suffered such damage that he would not be able to move from his seat for several months.

What’s more, it was even more fatal that this was the result of complete neglect.

There was no intention to kill the other person at all.

Even though he could hit his neck, and even though he could have put the weapon in his heart, he didn’t do anything and attacked the hero Kenji.

In the end, he stared at the hero Kenji, who was in such a state that he couldn’t stand up, and fell to the ground. Then, he released the barrier and threw him into the imperial army.

When the imperial army that protected the hero Kenji, who was literally turned into a mess, took him away and left, the goddess’s apostle was no longer there.

Prince Freud was sitting there holding his head in pain.

The great defeat of the hero Kenji.

Of course, Hero Kenji had suffered defeat several times in the beginning, so it would not be a problem at all if he suffered one more defeat now.

But this time the opponent was bad.

Not the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon Lord’s army, nor an executive-level powerful person, but an ‘Apostle of the Goddess’ who may have come from nowhere.

The fact that the hero Kenji returned after being defeated by the goddess’ apostle became a problem.

In the old story, the goddess’ apostles were humans’ allies.

A situation where the hero Kenji suffered damage from such an apostle of the goddess that would have been impossible to recover from if he were not a hero.

Under this situation, various words were exchanged about the hero Kenji.

Someone pointed out that the hero Kenji was a hero summoned by the power of the cult of fanaticism.

The story goes that because he was a warrior who received the power of fanaticism, the goddess’ apostle was hostile to him.

And someone else even suggested the theory that an apostle of the goddess came down to punish the empire.

This is a punishment for the Crown Prince Freud, who is in charge of the current empire, for accepting fanaticism and rejecting the goddess religion.

Either way, it was a situation that irritated Prince Freud, who was responsible for everything.

In addition, at a time when most of the Empire’s population were believers of the Goddess religion, the public’s perception of Prince Freud was already close to the worst.

In a situation where there was already strong antipathy towards the rejection of the Goddess Cult, the antipathy grew even stronger when an apostle of the Goddess came down to the battlefield and wounded her warrior.

All over the country, posts denouncing Prince Freud were secretly posted on bulletin boards.

What is even more troubling to the crown prince is that the hero Kenji preemptively attacked the so-called apostle of God.

This was a situation that was witnessed by all the soldiers on the battlefield, and the higher-ups in the military probably thought it would be a problem, but they tried to stop tens of thousands of soldiers from joining, but there was no way they could keep their mouths shut.

Of course, there were those who criticized the hero Kenji, pointing out that he was a hero summoned by the power of a cult.

To somehow appease her critics within her empire, Prince Freud eventually thought of using her.

Saint, Ciella Frost.

The intention was to use the words of the goddess of the goddess religion to defend the warrior Kenji, thus calming down some of the criticism.

But before we knew it, she had disappeared from prison.

She has been kept in prison and no attention has been paid to her, so it is impossible to clearly determine when she disappeared.

There was not a single clue left.

No one even saw her leaving within her castle.

Both Anies and Alessa shook their heads.

In the end, the plan to use Ciella Frost had to be abandoned.

Prince Freud’s next plan was to deny the very existence of the goddess’ messenger.

Because of the rumor that the person who fought the hero in the first place was an apostle of the goddess, this sad incident occurred.

So the Crown Prince announced as follows.

‘The so-called ‘Apostle of the Goddess’ who appeared on the battlefield is not really an Apostle sent by God, but a monster created by the Demon King.’

‘Hero Kenji immediately saw this fact and attacked to kill this abominable monster.’

Like this.

Surprisingly, this propaganda had some effect.

In the first place, the ‘Apostle of the Goddess’ itself was something that appeared in children’s stories and old legends, and it also lacked a sense of reality.

In addition, it helped to provide some explanation for the hero Kenji’s sudden attack.

Of course, there were some who did not believe this propaganda and instead raised the level of criticism.

‘Are you insulting the apostle of the goddess?’

In a way, it was a criticism that was natural.

In the end, we succeeded in suppressing some criticism, but it was also true that the hero was in a state where he could not fight for the time being.

In this situation, if the apostle of that god appears on the battlefield, it is literally a no-win situation.

We were on high alert, but no apostle of God appeared on the battlefield again.

Go back in time a little bit, after Zikrune invades.

After ultimately making the hero Kenji physically unable to fight anymore, Zikrune grabbed the hero by the collar and lifted him up.

The hero Kenji is trying to lift the fake holy sword in his hand with a face that shows no will, even though he is practically half a corpse.

But the damage to that arm is already so severe that it cannot even lift the sword.

Of course, I lost strength along the way and just became limp.

In the meantime, his hand never let go of the sword.

Zikrune felt reluctant.

It wasn’t magic.

For a hero with tremendous magic resistance, brainwashing or manipulation using any kind of black magic does not work at all.

Then is it a drug?

This side had potential.

Even if the body of a hero is resistant to most poisons, it is not completely defenseless.

Zikrune glared at the lifted hero once again.

…Even if something like drugs had caused this, there was no way Zikrune could do anything about it.

He doesn’t have the ability to separate toxins from his body like his sister Ross Weisse.

I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with putting them in a state where they can’t fight for the time being.

At this level, the warrior’s vitality would not cause him to die, and it could be said that the master’s orders were faithfully carried out.

Zikrune lifted the barrier and threw the hero Kenji towards the imperial army camp.

Immediately, several people from the imperial army rushed out and retrieved the hero Kenji.

“Retreat!!”

“Move the hero quickly!!”

The retreating imperial army.

As I was looking at the back, there was someone talking to Zikrune.

It was the Four Heavenly Kings, Frey, who had been watching this situation all along.

“Miss Rune, nice to see you again.”

“Ah, it’s been a while!! You remembered my name!”

Four Heavenly Kings, White Frey.

She and Zikrune met only once. It was only for a short time, but her Frey remembered her clearly.

He possesses tremendous fighting power and is a relative of the warrior Hans.

On that in itself, Zikrune was a person to remember within Frey.

And today, that thought turned into conviction.

Isn’t the skill that completely reduced the hero Kenji to a pulp comparable to that of Demon Lord Elaine?

“Thank you for your help in a dangerous situation.”

Frey bowed and greeted her.

A surprised voice came from the Demon King’s army, but Frey ignored the voice and expressed his gratitude.

Zikrune said as he scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“No, it would be difficult if the Demon King’s army was pushed back. Our master told us to help, so we only helped.”

“hahahaha…You made the warrior Hans worry for no reason. This is dishonorable.”

Frey smiles bitterly.

A person approaches her awkwardly from behind.

It was the red-blooded Roselia.

She appeared late after the battle was over and the casualties of the Demon King’s army nearby were taken care of.

Frey recognized her and introduced her Roselia to Sieg Rune.

“Miss Rune, this is Roselia, the Four Heavenly Kings like me.”

“Ah…Please take care of me.”

“No, it’s me…”

Roselia with a slightly pale expression.

Not surprisingly, the wings of light made of magical power extending from the armor Zikrune was currently wearing also contained some divine power.

Of course, it was fatal to Roselia, a vampire who was vulnerable to divine power.

Despite this, she was Roselia who did not show anything other than a pale expression, but Siegrune, who noticed this, hurriedly removed her wings.

The moment when Roselia, with a slightly relaxed expression, was about to express her gratitude and say something.

“Fray-sama!! Frey-sama!!”

“Hmm?”

The messenger of the Demon King’s army, clad entirely in black clothing, came running.

He was quick on his feet and came straight from afar, got down on one knee and spoke.

“Excuse me while I’m talking! Actually, the Four Heavenly Kings, Big Bull, has just arrived.”

“…I see. Please guide me this way…”

“…And actually, another problem arose…”

Frey looks puzzled at the messenger’s words.

The messenger continued speaking to Frey.

“Actually, Big Bull brought a group of humans with him.”

“Huh? Humans? Don’t touch civilians as much as possible…”

“…Big Bull said…That he saved a group of refugees because they were being attacked by human thieves.”

A group of refugees.

Of course, many refugees emerge from villages near the battlefield to avoid the aftermath.

In addition, this place is quite close to the ecliptic.

There will be a huge number of refugees, and those refugees can easily become prey for bandits.

Despite the war in which the human nation is in crisis, fellow human thieves hunt refugees.

Frey lowered his head, thinking it was a truly unpleasant sight.

“Okay. First, transfer them to the camp where they hold prisoners.”

“Yes!!”

Frey glanced at the group of humans in the distance.

Everyone was cowering and shaking as if they were so scared that they were surrounded by demons and monsters.

Pitiable people.

Frey clicked his tongue and decided to end the war quickly so that they would at least suffer less.

Among the group of refugees, no one paid attention to the person trembling and shaking in his robe.