The NTR Hero Knelt Before the Demon King – Chapter 154

Countless attacks of shadows continued endlessly.

With every moment, the increasing wounds and the resulting decrease in stamina were gradually chipping away at Helena’s combat power.

Black blades poured in from all directions.

No matter how quickly Helena swung her sword, she couldn’t fend them all off, and the attacks she missed mercilessly slashed at Eliza’s body.

Piercing through her armor, tearing her skin, and shearing her muscles, the shadows devoured her body at a rapid pace, reaching her bones and tendons.

A storm-like offensive that offered no room for evasion or any chance to turn the situation around.

Amidst it all, Helena’s face became increasingly colored with horror, and at the same time, the word began drifting through her mind.

The word “defeat.”

“How… how could this happen… am I… losing? Just like this… I’m going to lose?”

It came at her in a way she had never anticipated.

Not by the Demon King’s hand, nor by the hands of someone from the Magic Kingdom.

But by her rival, Eliza, whom she thought she could easily defeat…

The conclusion known as defeat had arrived for her.

Yet, despite standing right in front of it, she couldn’t fully grasp the unbelievable situation.

A light smile began to creep onto Helena’s lips, almost automatically.

And then—

*Thud!*

In an instant, Eliza’s shadow pierced straight through Helena’s chest.

With the shock of it, Helena’s body collapsed to the ground.

“I lost…”

An unblemished, perfectly clean defeat that offered no room for excuses.

The one feeling this left Helena with was but one.

Despair.

An alien emotion she had never felt throughout her battles, yet at the same time, it was exactly what she had yearned for, having never tasted defeat before.

It was bitterer than she had ever imagined and yet inherently painful,

but it also conveyed a strangely exhilarating thrill.

“So this is… defeat? The sensation of kneeling before an enemy stronger than myself…”

The feeling of being forced to lower her head beneath a power she could not overcome.

Humiliating, yet at this moment, Helena felt as if a heavy burden she had always carried in her heart was being lifted from her shoulders.

“Ah… so that’s it…”

Something she could never speak of to others,

or rather, something she hadn’t even recognized within herself.

It was—

The fundamental truth behind her oft-repeated words of wanting to understand defeat.

“I hated it. The title of being the strongest…”

After entering the military as per her family’s wishes for about ten years,

as she victorious over all opposition she faced, her position kept rising higher and higher.

Eventually, she reached the topmost rank among warriors, the title of the strongest warrior in the Empire.

But this title of “strongest”

only drew awe and jealousy from everyone,

instilling a sense of distance that left her isolated.

This was never what she desired.

And at this moment,

the feeling of defeat she experienced through Eliza had neatly discarded this painful burden weighing on her back.

At the same time, she felt a profound sense of relief.

In the feeling of that which had brought her suffering for so long dissipating, Helena began to smile pleasantly as she lay on the floor.

“What a nice feeling… this defeat… is even better than I thought…”

Though it was quite regrettable that her opponent who forced her into defeat was a woman.

Still, Helena found herself feeling even greater satisfaction with the current situation.

Even if death awaited her ahead.

She felt, perhaps this too wouldn’t be bad, preparing peacefully for the death that was to come.

At that moment…

“…”

She felt the sharp shadow of that woman, Eliza, against her neck.

In this moment of blood loss and her body weakening, Helena quietly looked up at the woman’s face.

The form of the one who was the first to give her defeat.

A beautiful girl of the Demon Race, with red eyes and skin as white as snow.

She approached the collapsed Helena, not lowering her guard, and with a cold voice asked her a question.

“Why… exactly what was the reason for this?”

“…”

Helena began to smile quietly in response to the question filled with a sense of confusion.

“Was it Cassandra’s command? Surely you wouldn’t want to make another enemy of our Demon Kingdom, would you? Or perhaps… are you an agent of the Magic Kingdom?”

Eliza started tossing around the names of those suspected as the dark mastermind behind this.

However, Helena slowly shook her head and replied.

“That’s not the case… This matter, is solely for my personal goals. It has nothing to do with anyone else.”

“… Are you asking me to believe that? You and I are practically seeing each other for the first time. There’s no memory of even a chance meeting. Why would I harbor any grudge against you to the extent of doing something like this? Is it just because I dislike demons?”

“I’ve never had such racially prejudiced thoughts. There’s only one reason I attacked you. You possessed something I desired. That’s all.”

“… What are you talking about? What could I possibly have…!… No way?”

As she wore a confused expression, Eliza began to recall something.

“No way… you… that man… the one I changed…?”

Then, with visible astonishment, Eliza seemed about to say something, but Helena interrupted her with a smirk.

“Indeed, what I wanted was that position you hold… the seat right next to the Demon King.”

“… Huh?”

Eliza’s face momentarily went blank at Helena’s words.

However, without noticing Eliza’s response, Helena began to pour out the story she had always wanted to tell her… the story of her life.

Having lived through the loneliness of being the strongest, she wished to be united with someone capable of bringing her down.

For Helena, the Demon King, known as the world’s absolute power, had appeared as the only one who could fulfill her desires, thus she schemed to defeat Eliza and seize that seat beside the Demon King.

After finishing her story about her life,

Helena looked at Eliza with a refreshing expression.

“But… I truly never expected to lose to you in that process. No… to be precise, I guess I was too careless. I recklessly challenged someone capable enough to stand against the Demon King while simply over-relying on her strength. Hehe, it seems I’m just a woman blinded by love after all.”

“…”

“Now, go ahead and kill me. Even if I didn’t achieve what I wanted, there’s nothing wrong in meeting my end at the hands of the one who has given me such a perfect defeat.”

Thus, while she did not achieve what she desired, Helena began to wait for the death approaching her with a feeling of satisfaction.

However,

“…!?”

Immediately after that, instead of stabbing the shadow into Helena’s heart, Eliza simply lifted her fallen body effortlessly.

“… Wh-what…? What is this… you’re not going to kill me?”

“…”

As she expressed her bewilderment, Helena noticed that Eliza silently began to carry her, her body about 1.5 times larger than Eliza’s, in a princess carry fashion, moving towards Castle Macedonia.

And witnessing this, Helena suddenly recalled one fact and began to smile with a different meaning.

“… I see. You want to turn this into a diplomatic issue… Well, the fact that the strongest general of the Falcon Empire attacked the Demon King’s companion could be quite a solid reason…”

“Damn it! You’ve been so loud since earlier, shut up already!”

“!…”

Eliza, who had been getting irritated for the first time at Helena’s words, showed a sudden shift in her demeanor.

Confusion overtook Helena’s face, and with plenty of annoyance in her voice, Eliza said to her.

“Stop saying all that nonsense about companions! It’s not like I’m actually close with the Demon King! I’m already in a foul mood over that and you’re blabbering on without knowing a thing!”

Real anger was evident in Eliza’s posture.

Seeing the fierce fury from the woman who had defeated her caused Helena to involuntarily shrink back in fear.

“What… what is this… this woman… is scary…”