Chapter 14: Unintended Consequences

Realizing where his thoughts were leading him, Luke frantically shook his head.

He couldn’t let himself be sucked in by the evil god’s words. If he listened to everything the evil god said, he would end up hurting innocent people. He couldn’t let himself be deceived.

“What a bother. I really thought you were going to listen to me this time,” the evil god said with a regretful tone.

That had been a close one. He had to be careful not to be dragged down by the evil god. Otherwise, he would end up a monster.

With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Luke couldn’t bring himself to fall asleep.

The possibility that the evil god would take advantage of his sleeping state to pull something nefarious kept him up wide awake. He didn’t dare to close his eyes longer than necessary and stayed awake the whole night.

When the sun rose, Luke sat up feeling utterly exhausted.

“I thought you wanted to sleep. You look worse off,” the evil god chimed in as if he wasn’t responsible for Luke’s current state.

Luke was too exhausted to cuss the evil god out and forced himself to his feet.

He set off to see if the wagon he took yesterday was ready to depart and found out that there was still some time before they headed out. They were also still willing to let him hitch a ride without having to pay. The driver was especially happy to hear Luke was a monster hunter.

Now that he had secured his transportation, he decided to make one last trip to the monster hunter base before they departed just in case he missed something.

Perhaps he could also grab some more missions in case the first one went well.

When he arrived, he was startled to see that a large crowd had formed at the entrance of the monster hunter base. He stared, wondering what could have happened to cause such a commotion.

As he approached, he heard a person ask, “Is it true?”

A different person said, “It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the heroes are on the move.”

At the mention of heroes, Luke tensed.

Was he finally going to obtain valuable information about his ex-comrades?

Luke briskly walked over, refusing to miss any details.

“Do you really think the evil god managed to break the seal?” one person asked.

“What nonsense are you spouting? There’s no way that the evil god could escape,” someone else said.

This wasn’t the first time he heard people discussing the possibility that the evil god was free, but what could have caused the monster hunters’ attitudes to change so abruptly compared to yesterday?

They hadn’t been like this when you registered to be a monster hunter before.

“What happened?” he asked the closest person next to him.

The person glanced at him and said, “I don’t think I recognize you. Are you a newbie?”

He nodded just as one person said, “I know him. He just signed up yesterday and nearly got on Deena’s bad side.”

That wasn’t the kind of reputation he wanted to cultivate, but he supposed it was better than them realizing who he really was.

“Oh, well, we just received some concerning news. Apparently, several of the monster hunters who had set out recently were killed,” the first person said.

“And not just any monster hunters. We are talking about big hitters,” another person chimed in.

“It’s never happened before in recent years. That’s why people are worried that the evil god has become active again,” a different person added.

Luke’s heart skipped a beat.

Was it really the evil god’s work? Didn’t they have a deal where he couldn’t harm innocent people?

He had to confront the evil god about this, but not there. Luke had to find a secluded spot to demand answers from the evil god.

Forcing himself to remain calm, Luke asked, “Then what does that have to do with everyone standing out here instead of inside?”

“They cleared everyone out. Whatever happened, they don’t want all the details to get out,” one person said.

“Isn’t it kind of late for that?” Luke pointed out.

Everyone was already panicking about the possible return of the evil god. If they wanted to keep everyone in the dark, the staff already screwed up.

“Well, it’s not official. It’s just rumors at the moment. No one can say for sure,” a different person countered.

Luke supposed the person had a point. They weren’t sure of all the facts, but it didn’t mean much in the face of rumors. Once rumors got started, it was hard to deal with them. He could already imagine that it had already spread to the whole city and other places.

He frowned as he thought of something.

Would the driver cancel the plan to head to Dornsbachwe?

If so, he would either have to find other transportation, remain stuck in the city, or travel by foot.

Luke quickly slipped away from the crowd to find a secluded spot and demanded, “What did you do?”

There was no response.

“Don’t ignore me. You were so chatty yesterday. What changed?” Luke snapped.

The evil god still didn’t answer.

He gnashed his teeth together, wondering if the evil god had run off while Luke hadn’t been paying attention.

While it was true that he had wanted the evil god to leave him, that didn’t mean he wanted the evil god to go around causing people’s death. It shouldn’t have even been possible with their deal in place unless the evil god never intended to keep his promise.

As he was considering the possibility that he had been duped, the evil god finally spoke.

“What’s the matter? I thought you didn’t want to speak to me. What changed?” the evil god said with an amused tone.

“Are you the reason the monsters got stronger and killed so many monster hunters?” Luke asked, cutting straight to the point.

“Maybe. Why do you ask?” the evil god said nonchalantly.