I Saved the Demon King Who Was About to Commit Suicide – Chapter 35

“Did I not get enough sleep?”

After Evan returned from his walk, he glanced at Lucia, who was getting ready to go out, and asked.

“…Did it look that way?”

“You have a deep fatigue etched on your face.”

“I just moved around a bit while trying to sleep in a different bed. It’s nothing to worry about. I can move just fine today.”

She stood up, draping her robe over her shoulders.

“I’ll head out first, so you should get ready and follow.”

“Got it. I’ll be out soon.”

Once Lucia stepped out of the room, Evan began changing his clothes.

He was rather slow about it.

The water in Cordelia was still causing his clothes to float up, making it a bit of a hassle.

‘How do people even live in Cordelia with this situation?’

His clothes kept rising to the ceiling as he struggled with them for quite a while before finally managing to get dressed and leave the room.

“You’ve taken your time for someone who said they’d be quick.”

Lucia was waiting outside, pointing at a clock and giving him a hard time.

“I tried to hurry, but with all the water, it slowed me down.”

“Why not just use magic? You could stabilize your clothes with it while changing.”

Demonstrating, Lucia briefly took off her robe and, using magic, secured it from floating away before putting it back on.

“…I didn’t think of that.”

“Given how your head isn’t working, it seems like you were the one who didn’t sleep well.”

Her teasing tone mixed in with her words made Evan cringe slightly as he replied.

“Let’s move faster.”

“Do you even know where we’re going?”

“When I met that guy yesterday, I infused a bit of magic into the Trident. If we go to where that magic leads, the Trident will be there, and we can find the Apostle of the Sea as well.”

“Looks like your brain isn’t completely offline.”

“Just follow quietly.”

*

The flow of magic could be felt a short distance outside of Cordelia.

So Evan and Lucia swam out for a bit.

Not far away, they could see Akada.

However, the two couldn’t approach him.

He was standing in a graveyard, about twenty graves around, looking sorrowfully at the headstones.

“We might as well wait until Akada finishes whatever he’s doing.”

Evan said in a hushed voice, keeping his distance while watching him.

“…”

Whether Akada was oblivious to the magic flow or focused solely on his task, he continued what he was doing.

He placed seaweed on one of the gravestones and poured something from a jug that looked like it was made of stone.

From the way the jug looked, it seemed to be alcohol.

Then, he closed his eyes and prayed.

“…Comrade. You gave your life for Cordelia, so I have no doubt you have ascended to heaven blessed by the Lady Undine. May you find peace there.”

He prayed for a fellow comrade he fought alongside.

Akada went from grave to grave, repeating this process.

When he finished praying over the last headstone and turned around, his eyes met those of the two who had approached him to talk.

“I told you. If it’s about hunting monsters, there’s nothing more to say other than ‘no.'”

“I’m not here to make that proposal today. I just want to chat for a bit.”

“If so?”

“…Given your reaction when monsters were mentioned and the scratches left on the Trident, it seems you’ve faced that monster before.”

Akada fell silent at Evan’s words.

However, judging by the tremor in his body when the subject came up, Evan could tell it was true.

“I want to hear your story about fighting that monster.”

Once again, Akada remained silent.

But his reaction didn’t seem to indicate outright rejection.

It was more like he was pondering.

“On the day the monster appeared for the second time, I went outside of Cordelia with my comrades, intending to capture it.”

After a long silence, Akada finally broke the quiet.

“I thought we would definitely succeed. My comrades were strong—they could easily be called powerful—and though I hesitate to say it, I was also an Apostle of the Sea.”

“But you failed.”

“…Yes. It was too strong, and I couldn’t even land a significant hit before I was utterly defeated.”

Akada let out a deep sigh, gesturing to the gravestones.

“My comrades all died, and I barely survived to bury them here.”

Losing to a strong foe and the death of comrades.

“Your hesitation to step forward is…”

After hearing the story, Evan felt he understood why Akada was reluctant to take charge.

“You probably don’t want to feel the helplessness again that you felt back then, as well as the guilt about your fallen comrades.”

Three years ago, Evan found himself in a somewhat similar situation.

“…That’s right. Embarrassingly, I ran away after that day.”

Akada nodded.

“That’s all I have to say. If you were hoping to convince me otherwise, I wish you wouldn’t.”

“Are you really not planning to step up?”

“Unless you bring the Trident of Atlan, I have no interest in joining you.”

The Trident of Atlan.

Hearing that word sparked something in Evan’s mind.

“If I brought it, would you really be willing to join?”

“A weapon that sounds like it’s straight out of a childhood legend? Enough with the nonsense. The Trident of Atlan doesn’t exist.”

“No, it does exist.”

Just before he was about to be stripped of the forbidden book by the Pope, he had briefly skimmed through it and saw something related to the Trident of Atlan among other legendary weapons that truly exist.

He couldn’t see the details due to flipping the pages quickly, but the fact that it mentioned not just the Trident of Atlan but other legendary weapons as existing was significant.

“You must come with me. Only you, as an Apostle of the Sea, can obtain it.”

“I have no reason to believe that and act on it.”

“There is a reason. You may not realize it, but deep down, you want to erase the guilt you feel for your comrades.”

“Hmm…”

Another silence fell.

However, this time it didn’t linger as long.

“…Yeah, I think you might be right. Just look at how I’ve drowned myself in alcohol since trying to forget that guilt.”

Akada acknowledged it.

That he wanted to erase his guilt.

“And don’t you want to strike back at the monster that killed your precious comrades?”

“That’s definitely true.”

And deep down, he wanted to kill that monster more than anyone else.

“If I can bring the Trident of Atlan, I want to pierce that monster’s neck with it.”

Akada’s blue eyes, hidden beneath his long hair, sparkled with life.

“Then let’s go together. We’re going to find the Trident of Atlan.”

Evan extended his hand to Akada.

Soon, Akada clasped that hand.

“Alright. To kill that monster.”

*

“So, where exactly do we need to go?”

Back in Cordelia, while looking at the Trident in a shop, Akada asked Evan.

“I don’t know the exact location. It was written in a riddle-like manner.”

“What did it say?”

“It mentioned a sunken city located in the deepest waters where God’s heart resides. It stated that it was embedded in the center.”

Lucia, who was beside Evan, replied instead.

“The deepest waters where God’s heart resides…”

Akada muttered softly in response to her answer.

Then, as if something clicked, he used magic to draw a line on a map and spoke up.

“I think I got it.”

“Where is it?”

“Here.”

Akada pointed to a spot on the map.

However, the area he pointed to was a lake in the middle of the continent, not the ocean.

“It’s not in the sea. It contradicts the title of ‘God of the Sea,’ so is there a reason?”

“According to the myth, this place, Lake Resea, is where the spirit, Lady Undine, decided to become a goddess by sacrificing her heart.”

Evan thought there was some sense to his claim.

He initially thought that the Trident of Atlan was a weapon that existed only in legends, so it was possible there really could be a Trident there according to the myth.

“It seems like it will be a long journey. Just traveling from Cordelia to the land will take quite a while…”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.”

When Lucia spoke, he came out of the shop holding the Trident he had purchased.

Then, he spun the Trident above his head in a circular motion.

A hum filled the air as the surrounding magic resonated, and a small portal formed.

“This is…”

“I connected it to the nearest sea to get to that lake. If you go through the portal and swim up a bit, you should reach the beach.”

“Then let’s go right away.”

Lucia jumped off the ground first, leaping through the portal.

After her, Akada followed, with Evan being the last to cross through the portal.

Immediately as he followed them through, he felt like he was much closer to the surface.

Unlike the depths, the water was clear enough to see ahead, and the temperature felt warm.

‘This is quite a convenient ability for transportation.’

Evan thought as he and the others pushed up a little further.

They could see the shimmering surface of the water ahead.

They were nearly there.