82.

We were lead back into the castle of Melromarc kingdom and when I saw the king sitting on the throne with a pale face, I smirked at him before following a maidservant as she lead me to my quarters. She was about to 'serve' me but I waved her off as there are still things that he need to think about.

On the journey back to the kingdom, my mind was in turmoil. I didn't know why but it started when I smashed the man's head to the ground. I wondered to myself, why didn't I kill him? If it were others, they would be dead no doubt. The same as the Pope, why didn't I just kill him? It would be faster that way.

Accelerated thoughts started activating unconsciously as I didn't notice it due to my concentration to my problem. When did I turn soft? I asked myself as I scanned my memories for the crux of my problem. My present life started flashing through my eyes as I examined it all one by one. The only change I felt was when my family is now back to one piece.

Thinking deeper, it was not the crux of my problem, so I dragged my past life memories as I scanned them one by one, my life as a kid, a teenager, and a grown up. I forced myself to watch the tragedy that fell on my former family when I was young. When aunt took care of me, when I used anime and video games to at least take my mind off of my parent's tragedies. My sweet revenge to my parent's killers. I watched them all one by one. When I pulled up the scene before I arrived in this world, I finally found the crux of my problem as it enlightened me.

It was the final message of my family.

'Live life with happiness and no regrets'

I have forgotten the sole reason why I wanted power in the first place. Its because I was transmigrated into this world full of dangers that I forced myself to get stronger. Like my master, Vergil said to which I also share towards my disciples, 'Might controls everything - and without strength, you cannot protect anything; let alone yourself.'.

Also now I have a new family and now that I've got the power to do what I want, I can finally stop rushing my quest for power. I'm already pretty strong myself, so I should just live the way I wanted to.

What I didn't realize at that time was that my personality started changing, being somewhat more like Dante, a laid-back attitude but the difference is I can be ruthless when necessary.

(This is what I envisioned Vergil's attitude would be should they create DmC 6 as the two finally reconciled with each other and as brothers they take on the problems left to them by their father, Sparda, together.)

Although the man's head that I smashed into the ground just couple of hours ago is still alive, he is already brain-dead. Not even my Demonic Vitality could heal him back to full state.

After realizing many things, the sun was starting to rise up. I then decided to bring Latina, Soi Fon, and Amaterasu in this world to explore after the execution.

While I was pondering about my problems in the night, Mirellia explained the circumstances to Naofumi, why the shield hero was hated and despised and that every kingdom was supposed to summon only one of the four heroes but the king stupidly summoned the four altogether. She then went to every kingdom as the envoy to ensure that it was not done on purpose.

She then said to Naofumi, that if the summoning happened one for each Kingdom, then he would've been summoned to Siltvelt, a kingdom of Demi-Humans who loved the shield hero and worshipped him as well. Naofumi then considered settling down into that place and do his job from there as the queen didn't force her ideas to him and let him choose of his own volition.

Naofumi then asked Mirellia if the execution would stop if he went on his way to Siltvelt. Mirellia shook her head. Even if Naofumi said to stop it, there is still me who had grievances against the king. When Mirellia said this to Naofumi, his heart shook as he remembered the promise he made to me when I trained him.

To make sure that Naofumi's revenge was interesting. Naofumi was skeptical about being ruthless as he really did not want to do it. He left the queen's room as he slept, he was then assaulted by a nightmare consisting of Malty and Aultcray.

It was close to noon as the execution was about to happen. The civilian outside started shouting their grievances towards the king and her daughter. Naofumi and his companions entered the place as the other three heroes' companions were barred from entering and pointed towards Naofumi's companion who entered but the guard simply said the queen allowed it.

I was on the second floor of the place as I waited for the main actors of todays execution. The first one to come in was Motoyasu who started shouting and asked where Malty is but no one answered him. He was told to wait for the others first before the criminals were brought into justice.

Soon the place was packed and I saw Naofumi entering the place. I also met with Filo, Raphtalia and Melty as Naofumi explained that I was the one who toned Naofumi's body, as well as his reaction speed and reflexes. He also admitted embarrassingly that the sword style Raphtalia was using, was derived from my sword style and she was shocked by it.

Soon the offenders were brought to the throne room. Aultcray and Malty started struggling as they were dragged to the room.

"The trial for the foolish king consort and the first princess will begin!"

The queen then stated their crimes, every single one of it, but the most heaviest of it all was conspiring with the church to kill the heroes.

The queen also cleared my and Naofumi's name as Mirellia started asking Malty who was stamped with a slave seal. Malty then tried to tell them that it was not true but the slave seal activated as she screamed in pain, meaning she is lying. The queen then asked her if Naofumi really r*ped her. She said it was true and the slave seal activated again. The queen then asked her a few more questions and the slave seal deemed her lying.

After the interrogation of Malty, the queen then turned towards her former husband as she interrogated him, the king didn't answer but only pleaded that it was all him and they shouldn't take it out on Malty.

The queen then nodded towards the executioner as the final verdict of the two were guilty.

"I find Aultcray Melromarc and Malty Melromarc, guilty of high treason and conspiracy and strip them of their status, and I sentence them to death! Their execution will be carried out immediately!" All of the people in the room were shocked except me as they thought that being sentenced to death was too much.

'Heh~ quite a decisive ruler. Just to appease Naofumi, she sentenced her daughter and husband to death.' I thought as the knights took the offenders into a makeshift Execution stand just in the courtyard, the people outside were able to see it with magic projection as they yelled their grievances. The process was carried out smoothly.

The executioner was about to strike down when Naofumi stopped the execution and I frowned. I hear the princess begging for her life towards Naofumi and the slave crest didn't activate.

"Don't you think death penalty was too light for them? I hereby propose another punishment! The king would now be called "Trash" and the first princess would now be named "Bitch", and hmmmm her adventurer name should be "Slut"." Naofumi said as I found his proposition lacking.

"Hereby I declare that the king would now be Trash and the first princess would now be called Bitch with Slut as her adventurer name." The queen said with a sigh. Even if she's a decisive and ruthless ruler, seeing her daughter and husband being executed in front of her tightened her heart, its just bad luck for her that I was in this place.

I jumped towards the platform with Yamato in my hand as the crowd become silenced thinking who had the audacity to just jump through the execution stand. The beheaders also became tense and made their stance because they thought I would take the prisoners away from them.

Mirellia and Naofumi's heart tightened. Mirellia because she knew that the man is more than powerful than anyone in this world. He could even stop the waves all by himself and wouldn't resort to summoning the four cardinal heroes if he was at the frontline. While Naofumi, because he failed to deliver an 'interesting' revenge for me to watch and was going to punish them himself because he found them lacking.

The crowd was silenced as I spoke.

"Naofumi, you've really disappointed me now. You're proposal was indeed interesting, but it was not enough." I said as I walked towards the king and squatted. I made sure that my voice could be heard by everyone.

"Since, I was the one who captured the pope, shouldn't I have some rights regarding their punishment?" I said making the king's face pale and his body trembling as he tried to get out of the beheader's lock.

Mirellia's heart tightened as she clenched her fist that was at her back but decided to oblige, if not for him then the four heroes would've been killed or injured.

"State your wish." She said as I looked towards the king.

"You, who dared to steal Yamato from mine, should have your hands severed." I didn't wait for them as I slashed at his hands with Yamato as he screamed in pain.

"Yeah sure, the shield hero was suppressed because of the king, but how about the citizens of this kingdom? Do you think just changing his name to trash would bring back your family? Your estate? Your future?" I asked them as they slowly nnodded Mirellia has been holding back her tears impressively but I can feel it with observation haki.

"So what I propose is the king would be stoned to death. 5 stones with large sizes for every person that was offended by the king." I said calmly, I don't have grievance against the first princess as it was Naofumi's business but I could not say for the king, the idiot tried to steal Yamato away from me.

I walked away from the platform and as I crossed Naofumi, I simply said to him.

"This will be the last time we'll meet as acquaintance, Naofumi. You've disappointed me greatly. I admired your realistic mindset, turns out you're just like them." I said as Naofumi clenched his teeth, not daring to look at me as I left the place.

The guards took the King and tied him to a cross, just like crucifixion and dragged him outside before stabbing it into the ground and those with grievances were given large stones as they threw the stones towards Trash as they said their grievances to him one by one.

When I was out of the place, I decided to just check out Siltvelt and have our outing in there as I bought a map to Siltvelt. It was more pleasing there I guess rather than in this place.

Meanwhile when Naofumi walked out of the place, he was greeted by the three idiots with the queen walking behind them.

"Naofumi, do you know him? Why did you defend him when we were about to strike him back then?" Motoyasu asked in displeasure.

"You wouldn't understand." Naofumi said emptily.

"What do you mean we wouldn't understand?! That was basically murder when he sentenced the king to death!" He continued.

Mirellia was also intrigued about the man as Naofumi seemed to know him, if she can get his help then the waves would be much lighter, saving so many lives of every nation. Although, she is currently grieving for the loss of her husband, it didn't stop her from doing her job as a queen.

"He... He is a demon indeed. Though, a hybrid of a human and a demon. Although he has demon blood, he is not one of those kind of demons like the legend says. He isn't wishing for destruction, he isn't in for a massacre, rather... I think he just wants to live his life the way he wants. That's how I assessed him." Naofumi then waited for them to digest what he said.

"Then he is still a demon and should be subjugated!" The sword hero said.

"You don't understand. You asked me that I have low-level but I can still keep up with you. HE is the reason for that, the way he taught me is gruelling, spartan, and cruel in any single way, but the effects could be seen when I kept up with you although behind by so many levels." Naofumi said once more before pausing.

Everyone were shocked to the core except Mirellia as she realized that there's more to Naofumi's story. Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty looked at Naofumi worried but shook them off as he continued.

"That was not the most ridiculous of them all. All of what I said were just icing on the cake. That man, Vergil, had a father, who is a full-blooded demon, was the one who taught me how to fight with a shield while Vergil improved my physique, Reaction Time, as well as my Reflexes. And that man owned a time dilation dimension, do you know what a dimension with time dilation means? I trained there for 2 years, not even a second have passed when I came back. Also although this is a speculation of mine. I think, Vergil is also a blacksmith as he realized the function of my shield and even gave me an ore with a vibranium that could absorb attacks and reflect it back twice, if lucky, then thrice. He also gave me an ore of demonic origins which is my supposedly trump card against the pope, but decided not to use it." Naofumi paused before looking at their faces.

Mirellia was shocked to the core because of what he said. A person with a time dilated dimension? A mage that have reached the pinnacle of Space and Time is a legend for every mage out there, and a living one is a national treasure. Unfortunately for her, the man named Vergil seemed to be displeased at this country. Mirellia released a sigh, she didn't greed for Vergil as the consequence was the same as Aultcray but now she was interested in the demonic ore that Vergil gave Naofumi.

"What is the function of the shield then?" Asked Motoyasu. Naofumi was skeptical about it as it was a card that was hard to deal.

"In a certain range of sphere with me as the center, no one will be able to cast spell or any magic at all. I can also designate a target and drain all of his mana." Naofumi said as shock were plastered on their face again.

"Then why didn't you use it?!" The bow hero exclaimed and Naofumi immediately regretted telling them about it.

"Using it would make all of you unable to use magic and would lose our momentum in attacking the pope, thats why I didn't use it." Naofumi said but he was ashamed of himself, his master was disappointed in him and would never be able to see him once more.

Mirellia was still stunned from Naofumi's trump card and even more so when it was me who handed it to him.

"Are you sure you'll not work with us? At least receive your rewards." Mirellia asked Naofumi

"No thanks, I would still work with this country to fend off the waves as it was our job as the heroes, but I will also work with other nations." Naofumi said as he left the place.

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Chapteeeeer.

I'm going to slowly change MC's attitude overtime, he won't grow as a psychopath for V's sake. He would be a laid-back individual with trolly attitude while being ruthless when necessary. I already knew that there will be many who will be disappointed by it but I will stand my ground about it.

Let me know your thoughts in the chapter and ways to improve it. If there are typos/mistakes let me know as well.