The Hero's Bargain with the Devil

Connie felt something welling up from inside. The sweet metallic taste of blood filled her mouth and she swallowed it down.

The drawback of using the Art of Impermanence was because it was based on Buddhist scriptures, it does great damage to evil. And this was not restricted to the enemy. If the user was also evil, it will also do great damage to the user.

This contradiction caused her body to reject the Art and caused damage to her insides.

This too was karma.

Her body was messed up, but she put up a façade of being fine, even walking towards the dead Treant-Golem with relaxed steps.

"Milady, what are you doing?"

"I'm taking the Essence Crystal. I defeated it, no?"

"Oh, that's fine then. Need any help?"

"Wait a bit."

Connie felt the strong baleful energy calling for her. She reached into the now brittle Treant's upper half and pulled out a large crystal with deep brown color. Dark energy swirling around and within it, causing those who saw it to feel creeped out.

"I'll be taking this. Any complaints?"

No one complained or had any will to. That single slash had astounded and pacified them.

"Good."

Connie put the crystal into her item ring and called for her party. She told them to help gather what could be gathered. Barks, branches, leaves. These were great materials that could be refined or sold.

Though they were all tired and battered, they did not voice a complain and simply did as they were told. Their clothes and armor had rips and chips on them. Especially Illumca, who had to endure much. Burns and swells had marred her beautiful body, yet to Connie it signifies her eagerness to improve. Martell's clothes had also been half destroyed, exposing half his torso.

Connie was rather pleased with him. He was weak but had a grit that was rare to someone so young.

After putting all the materials into the item ring, she turned to Nick. "Can we use the same passage we used earlier?"

"Yes, we can."

"Wait, please!" Akira shouted. He was still holding Hannah, who had fallen unconscious from the pain. Her body was feverish and sweat came out of her by the buckets. "Take us with you."

"Why should we do that? Weren't you the one who said that you were going to fight us to the death?"

She looked at the Hero's party. Eleanora the mage was struggling to stay upright, leaning onto her staff, her eyes winced as she held her stomach with one hand. Whether it was from exhaustion or from the pain of being struck mercilessly in the stomach was inconclusive. Indeed, we would never know. Kaihaku had broken bones on the chest and the leg, as could be seen from the swelling and labored breathing. Akira himself had inner bleedings, his eyes were bloodshot from overuse of his True Clairvoyance and his armor was broken in parts. Even his sword had chipped so bad that it might as well be a club.

Clearly, they were in no condition to escape the dungeon. Sidonai came out less unfortunate compared to the others as she had largely stayed out of battle except for giving buffs.

Connie had ran out of pills herself and had no desire to stay long. Especially not with deadweights.

"Milady. Your party are exhausted. I think it would be better if we rest here until the next day."

"I hate to say this, Connie. But the monk is right. The only reason I can fire that many fireballs was because it was an elementary spell. Along with the fact that my natural Mana regeneration is faster than a human's. Right now, it won't be enough to return to the surface."

"No objection," Martell said.

The boy and Illumca looked dazed. Maybe having a bit of rest is good.

"Very well. But your party will stay here," she said.

Connie and her group gathered around a campfire made using the bark sloughed off from the Treant-Golem's body. Water was boiling inside a pot where Nick had dropped three jerkies into. He mixed in some dried bread and made a sort of thick soup. It had no other taste other than being salty, but it was enough to warm up the body.

That was the thing about Fasting Pills. No matter how great they were, nothing compared to a hot meal.

During the meal, they did not speak as they were too exhausted to do so. After eating their fill, Martell sat to the side with his knees against his chest, staring at Connie, appearing to be contemplating something.

Nick and Illumca took their rest. Nick leaned against the wall and slept like that. The dark elf chose to curl up with her back sticking to Connie's crossed legs.

As for Connie, she spent her time slowly stabilizing her condition, taking advantage of the down time.

While they were peacefully spending their time resting, a sudden visit woke Connie from her meditation.

"Am I bothering you?"

"No. Something wrong?" Connie asked.

"The Barrington's daughter's condition is growing worse. She just woke up and she said that she felt her whole body felt numb. We tried feeding her two bottles of potions. It healed her wounds, but her condition did not improve."

"I see. So why did you come for me?"

Sidonai grinned. "In my intuition, someone who knows about poison should also know a bit about medicine."

"Then your intuition is right. I do have some experience with medicines."

"Can I trouble you to have a look? None of us knew anything about this kind of thing."

"Oh? Is this request coming from the Hero?"

"I suggested it. The Hero was against it initially but he had to relent after seeing her condition. Then I volunteered to ask you there."

"Hmm? Alright, Sidonai. I'll have a look since it's you."

"Sid, please. Or is it disagreeable for me to think of us as friends?"

"Hmm…we shall see."

Connie gently caressed Illumca's cheek. She lightly moaned and curled up even further.

"Take care of them."

"Okay," Martell replied. His eyes never stopped looking at her.

Once the two arrived at the other side of the chamber, Connie saw Hannah being taken care of by a frantic Eleanora and an exhausted Akira. The self-important spearwielder was lying on her back on top of a fur piled on top of each other. Her face contorted in pain with sweat coming out of her feverish body by the buckets.

She was dressed down to her clothes with her armor placed nearby.

Some poultices had been placed on her limbs, wrapped around them with a length of cloth. She tasted the air and separated the smell of the poultices in her mind.

"Are they inflamed?" She asked Kaihaku. "Well done. Comfrey is good for inflammation."

The old monk nodded with a look of surprise. "How do you know that?" he paused before finishing. "Nevermind. This is just emergency treatment. I don't know if it'll work. Herbalism is not my field."

Then Eleanora ran up to her with a nervous look.

"M-miss Connie…"

"Hmm?"

"The thing you used to break through the Treant-Golem's bark…was it poison? Miss Sidonai said it was."

"Yes. I had some experience in alchemy. That was just a result of my dabbling."

"T-then can you heal Hannah?! Please!"

"Hold it. I came here just to have a look because Sid asked me to. I haven't agreed to treat her. After all, you people tried to kill us not more than two hours ago. Do you expect me to forget so soon?"

"I-I'm sorry!"

"Yeesh. Not the naïve little girl, not you. Why do you people say sorry so much?" She said.

"That girl?"

"No matter. We were enemies, now we are neutral. That's simply how the world works. If I wanted to kill you, you'd have died the moment I speared you with my hand. Or by breathing in the poison mist I suppressed. I bet none of you have thought about having antidotes."

"We have antidotes!"

"For a weed killer?"

"That was a weed killer?! I have never heard of a weed killer that can affect a Treant!"

"I am more capable than most," the girl said proudly, rubbing her chin. "So, how's the noble miss feeling?"

"Hrrgh…!"

"Not very good, I suppose."

She sat down cross legged beside the girl and saw the suffering she was enduring. She felt no pity for the arrogant little thing. Hannah's arrogance was a shield, while hers were a result of knowing her own strengths and weaknesses.

"You…!" the girl began to say. She blamed Connie for what she was experiencing. If it wasn't for her they would have obtained the sword and left before the Treant-Golem woke. Then she wouldn't have had to endure this pain.

"Her body felt numb and her back tingled. At first, we didn't think anything of it, but now she was in so much pain that we don't know what to do," Akira said with a haggard . He looked now to be a regular teenager who was helpless to do anything that he had to look for the help of his parents. "Please, can you have a look?"

"Alright."

Connie started touching her on some acupoints with her thumb. Starting from the foot.

"Can you feel this?"

"How about this?"

Connie kept poking at her body with her thumb. Sometimes she groaned, sometimes she did not.

"I see. I need to take off her shirt and turn her around so she's lying on her stomach. No buts, you men can look away. Sid and the mage, help me."

Though with reluctance, Eleanora helped to slowly turn Hannah around. Once they did so, a large redness could be seen on her lower back.

"Her spine dislocated," She commented while gently touching her spine. "You see the inflammation on her back, this red swelling? I think this happened because when she was squeezed by the golem, it dislocated parts of her backbone."

She told Eleanora to put her thumb on the place that she touched. "Feel that? That's not supposed to be there."

Kaihaku nodded with his back still facing them. "That is similar to my earlier guess. That is also why we monks trained our flexibility so that we wouldn't easily have spinal injuries on our bodies."

"If there is such a large injury there, why did the Potion not heal her?" Akira asked. "A potion could heal even the largest wound if we drink enough."

Sidonai commented. "Have you ever seen people drinking a Potion after dislocating their arm? Did it heal fine?"

"N-no"

"That's right. High Potions can heal broken bones. But not dislocated joints."

"W-what'll happen if we leave her alone?" Eleanora asked.

"…she'll lose her ability to move. Even eating will be a challenge," Akira said gravely. He had seen documentaries about this before. It was about a man who fell on his back and was paralyzed from the neck down 5 days later.

Hearing this, Hannah's pale face went even paler.

"N-no. I don't want that…! Death would be better!"

Her position as the first daughter of an Earl would be destroyed if she became an invalid. And then her father would look towards his second daughter to continue the Earldom. She would be thrown away, a useless doll. No one would want her. Not even her best friend would spare her a glance.

Not even the man she fell in love with.

To the side, Eleanora who had seen her teachers complaining everyday about the pain on their backs if they stand up for too long made a face. Mages who have reached the pinnacle of their arts. Yet none of them could heal their own backs. She could not imagine such cruelty happening to her friend.

"N…no!" Tears came out from her eyes, but the were punctuated by pain as each movement gave a shock to her back.

"C-can you do something about this?" Eleanora asked worriedly.

"Of course I can. What do you think I am? Reduce the swelling, return the bone to the right position. Put her on a splint and full bedrest for a few months. With a steady dose of my pills? She'll be right as rain."

"Can you really do that? Even for the Grandmasters, they cannot heal something like this. Broken bones, yes. But dislocated spine? No. One wrong move and she'll go blind. Or at the worst case, death," Kaihaku said with a surprise.

"I stake it upon my own name. That is…if I want to heal her."

Hannah's feeling was conflicted. On one hand she hated the girl, on the other, she could not accept being an invalid. But that thought was interrupted when Akira turned and knelt down with his forehead slammed to the ground. "Please, I beg you. Help her! I'll do anything!"

"Anything? The word 'anything' is cheap. You are young…and life has been kind to you. You do not understand the weight of the word 'anything'."

"I know. I know I'm average. All I have is my 'Cheat'. But she is precious to me! I-I love her!"

"Precious! Hahaha…! Love! Hahahah!!" Connie gestured towards Grunford that was lying on the floor by Martell's side. Quickly it flew towards her and she caught it by the handle.

No one knew how she could do something so magical. Not even the greatest mage in the world could levitate and control something with such ease and accuracy. Especially when her job was not a mage.

Those question went unasked because the next thing she did was stab the sword into the ground and asked, with a devilish grin.

"Then choose. The Sword of the First King or the girl's life."

Eleanora was about to complain about the suddenness. Connie's stare stopped her mid-track.

"No talking. This is a choice that I want him to make alone. No outside voice."

She pointed at the sword. "If you ask for the sword, then I will give it to you and she will be crippled for the rest of her life. She will not even be able to take care of her waste, much less stand. She will curse her life and more than that, you. She will live a life of suffering until the end comes for her."

She then pointed at Hannah's pale face. "Choose the girl and I will heal her. I will then use the sword to gain the full support of the Military Faction and destroy the Noble's thoroughly. Including her family. This is not a threat. This is a promise."

Only then did Akira understand the meaning of 'anything'. The choice between the life of a Hero of Justice or the life of the girl he loved. The cruelty of it. Or more correctly, the cruelty of her. The thing before him was the devil herself.

"There is no right answer here. Only a choice."

"I…" Akira was in despair. Should he abandon her to save the life of millions? Or should she abandon millions to save the girl he loves?

He was torn by the choice and wished that the 'Cheat' would help him choose. But he was out of mana and even if he still had it, he did not dare to see the future that would come out of the choices. He could not endure the regret that it might bring.

"Choose…the sword…" Hannah squeezed her voice out. "You must…become…the Hero. Forget…me!"

She knew that even if he helped her, that would mean she, a knight of the kingdom, would be a traitor. She would be a sinner who made the hero abandon the people.

"No outside voice, girl."

"I…"

"I am waiting."

Akira cursed his helplessness. Either choice would be disastrous. To himself and to her. She gritted his teeth so hard that his gum bled.

"Can I…can I bargain?" Finally, he said so. It was a stupid attempt.

"You want to bargain?!" her voice rose as if in anger. "You! Want! TO BARGAIN?!?!"

Her oppressive presence caused him to fall to his knees once again.

"I…I, yes! I want to bargain!" he squeezed out his voice.

"Fine."

"What?" he whimpered.

"If you used your True Clairvoyance. Do you think you'd have reached this conclusion?"

"N…no," if he had used it, he knew that he'd have chosen only one of the two. This choice was something born out of his desperation.

"You are a spoiled child who has been given power and status beyond your means and maturity. Thus, you became arrogant in your ignorance," The girl said, every word sounded like a teacher scolding a child. "Just this once, I will allow you to bargain. However, remember this. The world is not kind to the honest and fair."

Did she do it because she wanted to teach me?

That single line of thought was quickly destroyed when she leaned in, showing her fangs and long tongue. The very visage of the devil.

"And in choosing to bargain, you will have chosen a worse fate. Especially…when you bargain with me."