The Late Game Healer Is Way Too Strong – Chapter 171

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕𝟏: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠’𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

Oh, God. . . Have you finally come to see us, the pitiful ones?

The king looked at Pre with a complex expression.

He was already dead in the flesh, but his body was still full of thoughts and obsessions, so it wasn’t difficult to read feelings of gratitude and resentment in his expression.

The king had a pitiful look in his eyes, as if demanding an explanation.

Pre was taken aback.

【𝐖𝐡. . . 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭?】

Premade a gesture at Siwoo, as if asking him to do something, but Siwoo pretended not to see it.

【𝐖𝐞. . . 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐝. 𝐈 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐝. 𝐈’𝐦 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚. . . 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐇𝐚𝐡𝐚. . . 】

Pre smiled awkwardly and hid behind Pumirmir.

“Do you feel ashamed?”

【𝐎𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭! 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝. 𝐈’𝐦 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝. . .! 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐬!】

“You should learn some humility while you’re at it. You even have followers now.”

【𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬! 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬! 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐦, 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰!】

Pre shouted at Siwoo.

Pre usually liked it when people flattered him, but he didn’t want to feel that kind of pressure.

『Oh God, why do you turn away from me? Isn’t this the kingdom you promised to save?』

When Pre turned away from him, the king became even more aggressive.

His face, a mixture of sadness, anger, resentment, and despair, was heartbreaking to see.

【𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰. . . 𝐈 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞! 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐆𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞! 𝐈. . . 𝐈 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐝!】

Pre declared himself human and rambled on.

“What are you talking about? And why is the old man calling you a god? Is that what your god looks like?”

Siwoo couldn’t take it anymore and asked the king instead.

The king looked back and forth between Siwoo and Pre, then let out a long sigh.

『Did I. . . Did I make a mistake? I thought you were our god.』

“Don’t you think he’s too incompetent to be called a god? You can find these things in any old claw machine.”

【𝐒𝐡. . . 𝐒𝐡𝐮𝐭 𝐮𝐩!】

The king, who had been gnashing his teeth until a moment ago, suddenly spoke in a bitter voice, as if he had changed.

『Really. . . You’re not ‘Ancient Diablo’?』

【𝐎𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.】

『Oh. . . My God?』

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

The king opened his treasure vault.

The small room was filled with treasures, from various gold and silver treasures to artifacts of unknown origin.

“Are you sure we can take all of this?”

『It’s all useless now. Take it if you want.』

The king answered Siwoo’s question indifferently.

“Then we won’t hold back. Han Tae-chi, Si-joon, focus on the artifacts. Lo-an, you and Benedict focus on the gold and silver.”

“Yes, sir!”

“. . .Yes, Master.”

The group nodded at Siwoo’s words and immediately began exploring the treasure vault.

“Hey, South Korean comrade, what are we doing here. . .”

“Oh, do you guys want to take anything you need?”

“Oh my! We’ve come this far because of you, comrade from South Korea. We don’t need anything!”

When Ryu Hyeong-myeong waved his hands and refused, Siwoo chuckled.

He wouldn’t have minded if they had been shameless, but when they acted like that, he felt like giving them something, even if it was small.

“Ri Sin-hyok, why don’t you pick one first? It doesn’t look like your men are paying attention.”

“No, I don’t have a conscience as small as a rat’s sh*t. If it weren’t for you comrades from South Korea, we would have died a long time ago. Even if you guys take everything, I won’t complain, so don’t worry.”

Ri Sin-hyok cleared his throat and waved his hands.

Siwoo nodded.

“I understand how you feel. I have to talk to the king for a while first, so can you play with Sion while you wait?”

“Don’t worry about it, South Korean comrade. We’ll take good care of Sion, so don’t worry.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Siwoo stepped away from the group and continued his conversation with the king.

“So, the old man said that ‘Ancient Diablo’ was like a god to your kingdom?”

『To be precise, it’s different from the god worshipped in the temple. ‘Ancient Diablo’ was more like a savior who would save us from the clutches of the demons.』

The king calmly explained what he knew.

When the king was still a young prince, the demons first appeared in the kingdom.

They were few in number and not very strong.

They showed no hostility or intention to wage war against humans.

━How did you come to our kingdom?

━Your Majesty, we fled here to escape the persecution of our oppressors. Please have mercy on us and let us live in peace.

None of the ministers saw the demons as a threat or suggested that they should be punished.

After all, the demons were weak, and the kingdom was strong.

Therefore, the kingdom gave them a barren land and ordered them to live there quietly.

So several decades passed. One day, the king, who had inherited the throne from the previous king, visited their village and was astonished.

The demons were no longer a small group. They had become a large group of several thousand.

That wasn’t all.

‘𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴. . . 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦.’

The village was as prosperous as any of the famous cities in the kingdom.

And what was most surprising was their physical change.

They looked nothing like the beggars in the slums. They were all fit and healthy.

If that was all there was to it, it would have been fine.

But the king’s instincts, honed from a lifetime as a warrior, were screaming at him.

The greed in their eyes.

It was all due to complacency.

The land they had given them was so barren that no high-ranking official would even think of visiting it.

The demons were weak, but they always paid their taxes on time, and the demons who came and went from the castle always looked thin and pitiful, so no one could have imagined the extent of their development.

It was later discovered that the demons had been using portals to trade with distant countries and had secretly grown in size without the kingdom’s knowledge.

In the end, as the king had predicted, their invasion began soon after.

The demons were incredibly strong physically, and their magic was far more vicious than that of the kingdom’s wizards.

And so, the kingdom fell in less than a year.

“Oh, so that’s why you worship ‘Ancient Diablo’ as a god.”

Siwoo frowned when the part he was really curious about didn’t come up.

『There was one time when the tide of the battle turned. An unknown race came looking for the demons.』

“That must have been ‘Ancient Diablo’.”

The king nodded with a tired face.

『They didn’t want anything else. All they wanted was the death of the demons, and they wanted to go to the battlefield to fight. We helped them and together we drove out the demons. ‘Ancient Diablo’ only numbered a few dozen, but they were relentless against the thousands of demons. We saw victory. . . for a while.』

“But why did you hide in the dungeon? You said you had already won.”

When the king remained silent for a long time, Siwoo asked again.

The king, who had been lost in thought about a past scene, answered Siwoo’s question with a wry smile.

『They suddenly said they had to go. They said their hometown was being invaded. We begged them to stay a little longer, but they said they would be back soon. . . and then they disappeared.』

Siwoo looked at Pre, who had been listening silently to the king’s painful memories.

Pre was motionless, as if lost in thought.

“So that’s why you thought he was a god? But he doesn’t look exactly the same now, so how did you recognize him so easily?”

Pre’s current appearance was not his true form.

Since he was receiving magic power from Siwoo, he was able to be present only in a very simplified form.

『The basic appearance is similar. Red eyes, horns, wings, tail, and so on. And it’s more like I recognized it instinctively. I’ve been waiting for so long.』

【. . .𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠.】

『Oh my God. . .?』

Pre, who had been listening silently to the story, finally spoke up.

【𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐦𝐲 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 ‘𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐨’. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐫. 𝐌𝐲 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝.】

『Is that so. . . But why did you come so late?』

Pre paused at the king’s question.

Siwoo, who knew Pre’s circumstances, patted Pre’s head.

【𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧.】

『Destroyed. . .?』

【𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 ‘𝐀𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐨’ 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐝. . . 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞. . . 】

『Ah. . . 』

The king covered his face at Pre’s confession.

He had waited for the god who would save him, but he had also harbored much resentment.

He had cursed them for abandoning and forgetting them.

But when he heard this, the king realized how shameful his own empty actions were and how greedy he had been.

The king knelt down with a grim face.

『I’m sorry. . . I’m sorry, my God.』

【𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐨𝐤𝐚𝐲. . . 𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐫. . . 】

『I’m sorry. . . I’m sorry.』

The king shed hot tears at Pre’s words of apology.

The god had not abandoned them.

The kingdom had not been forsaken.

That fact alone made the king feel saved.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“What is this?”

The king broke the hilt of the greatsword and handed the stone inside to Siwoo.

『It’s the treasure of our kingdom.』

“Treasure?”

『Even if you combine everything in that treasure vault, it wouldn’t be worth this one thing.』

Siwoo took the stone and examined it carefully.

Some kind of writing was densely engraved in the center of the stone.

『A stone that eats fire, also known as a ‘fire stone’. I used to use it by embedding it in a sword because I couldn’t use magic, but you should be able to melt it into your body.』

“You’re giving it to me even though it’s a treasure of the kingdom?”

『Thanks to you. . . I and my people are free, so consider it payment.』

The king’s expression had softened considerably.

It was clear that he had been freed from the emotions that had been oppressing him.

“I see. Thank you for the stone and for everything in the treasure vault, old man.”

『You’re the only one who can call me ‘old man’. And thank you, my God, for coming here.』

【𝐍𝐨, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐈 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞’𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬.】

『The kingdom is gone, but please. . . I pray to you from the afterlife to destroy them all.』

【𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭.】

Pre answered the king’s wish with a determined face.

“Anyway, stay safe. We’re leaving now.”

『Go ahead. I’ll go to my people now.』

The king closed the door after seeing Siwoo and his group out of his room.

They walked together until they reached the fork in the road, passing the Sphinx with its blank expression.

“I think we should go our separate ways from here. This way is south, and this way is north. And this. . . I took a few of your shares.”

Siwoo took a few of the treasures the group had collected and gave them to them.

“Oh, you don’t have to, South Korean comrade. We don’t need this stuff. Don’t you agree, comrades?”

“That’s right, Comrade Ri Sin-hyok. We don’t need it.”

“You South Korean comrades can have it all.”

“Take it. We found it because of your guidance, so think of it as a reward.”

Of course, they wouldn’t have been able to enter the king’s room without Siwoo, but since it was the location it was, it seemed like giving them a small reward would prevent any problems in the future.

They thanked Siwoo profusely and disappeared in the opposite direction.

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