Inside the Crystal Cube world, Yuma stood frozen while wiping the tears and sweat that had somehow appeared on his face.

Watching dozens of humans lose their lives in a gruesome way has been such a shock for him. To the point that his mind simply stopped functioning.

When he comes to his sense, Yuma realizes he has moved from his original place and is currently standing a few meters away from the half dead demon.

He recalled reading some sort of screen from the creator of Crystal Cube world and then unconsciously running toward the half dead demon’s corpse.

Realizing he currently stands in the midst of torn limbs and corpses. Yuma could feel his head turn dizzy while his eyes turned blurry from the smells of blood in his surroundings.

Slowly, he got used to the sight and smell around him as many thoughts formed in his mind. ‘Is this the thing I need to fight? Is this monster even something a human could fight against? If a demon is already this powerful, how does the god expect me to defeat the demon king?’

Those numerous doubts and chaotic thoughts finally combined into one thought. ‘I want to quit being a hero and live a leisurely life somewhere else instead.’

While silently watching the demonic chicken dying, the Basic System Screen he got opened on its own.

[Life Level: Lower Level 0

Exp: 3%

Potential: Lower Level 3]

The amount of Exp written on the screen rapidly increased for an entire minute before slowing down.

[Life Level: Mid Level 0

Exp: 73%

Potential: Lower Level 3]

“Huh?” Yuma muttered in confusion.

‘What has happened? My Exp suddenly increased?’ After looking at the chicken in front of him, he suddenly realized something and shouted, “The demon has died!”

Lacius who stood not far away, heard Yuma’s shout and repeated, “The demon has died!”

With the announcement from their king, the surrounding soldiers cheered and began moving toward the demon chicken while cursing and poking it with their sword.

Yuma watched the liveliness and felt a bit better. When suddenly, he felt a warm current that spread throughout his body. He followed his instinct and guided the warm current out of his body.

Behind him, Tsukiko’s panicked shout can be heard, “Yuma, you.. you’re burning!”

“What?” Yuma turned his head toward Tsukiko, who had a panicked face. On her face, several small lightning bolts can be seen. “Ah? Big sis Tsukiko, what happened to you? Did you get struck by thunder in broad daylight?”

He then raised his palm and saw several small flames appear around his skin. “What the hell?!”

He then waved his arms in panic and caused several small flames to float away while slowly dispersing in the air.

Seeing the two of them panicking, Rumina went towards them and slapped their backs. “Congratulations on awakening your blessed power!”

Yuma got shocked by Rumina’s voice and released flames all over his body. Some of the uncontrolled flames caused some part of his clothes to get burnt.

Rumina ignored Yuma’s shock and said, “Try to calm down. It’s pretty normal for you to get out of control the first time you awaken blessed power.”

Yuma and Tsukiko followed Rumina’s guidance, and their bodies finally returned to normal.

With her ability under control, Tsukiko happily played around with her lightning while chatting with Rumina.

While Tsukiko and Rumina were chatting, Yuma created a small flame on his palm and silently stared at it. His thoughts are in chaos as he felt a complicated heaviness in his heart after watching the previous battle.

“We shall return with the demon’s corpse as our trophy. Don’t forget to retrieve our deceased comrade with us!” Lacius’s sudden shout shocked Yuma from his trance.

Yuma silently followed the crowd and sat behind Alan while he controlled the horse to move toward

After another week of tiring journey, Yuma finally saw Winter City’s city gate in the far distance. He then turned toward Lacius and Tsukiko, who’re busy chatting with each other.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

If he hadn’t known Tsukiko for a long time, Yuma would’ve thought Tsukiko had forgotten her relationship with his brother and was trying to get closer with Lacius.

Tsukiko herself might not know it. But, after she became his brother’s girlfriend, Yuma has done some investigation on her. He is extremely curious what kind of severe nerve damage a woman must have to be interested in his trashy brother. With some basic investigation through the internet, Yuma could deduce Tsukiko is actually a nice woman that isn’t too interested in status and money.

She is absolutely a normal girl except for her weird penchant at taking handsome toxic men like his brother or her other ex as a boyfriend.

Because of Tsukiko’s penchant for having a relationship with a toxic man, he doubts someone that seems extremely serious like Lacius is within her hit range.

‘Well, unless Lacius is actually a two faced man?’ During the journey, Yuma continued to spend his time thinking useless thoughts. Otherwise, he is afraid he would recall the bloody scene he saw during the fight against that demon.

At last, the army finally arrived in front of Winter City’s gate.

Once the gate to the city is opened, many civilians can be seen gathering on both sides of the road that Lacius’s troops are going to pass through. Those civilians wore an excited face while talking among themselves. The instant they realized the gate had been opened and Lacius’s army could be seen. They began to shout, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

Among those civilians, many could be heard talking about the army’s journey to kill a demon. A monster of incomparable might that will cause havoc to the kingdom.

Lacius saw it and waved toward the surrounding civilians while riding his horse in front of the army.

He secretly glanced at the surrounding soldier’s expressions, and saw they had turned much more relaxed than before.

Lacius felt a bit relieved. ‘It seems following Tsukiko’s advice to create a victory parade to improve morale is a good move.’

‘Luckily, I’ve moved fast enough and sent Hars to arrive first and prepare for the parade.’ Lacius thought while looking at the city guards who tried to maintain order among the civilians.

After returning to the palace, Lacius stood in front of the door of his throne room. He is in a dilemma on whether he should enter the throne room and work or rest for a moment.

But recalling he has gone for two whole weeks, Lacius sighed and pushed open the door to the throne room.

***

While Lacius is busy handling official matters that have accumulated during his two week leave. Yuma has long since entered his room.

After bidding farewell to Tsukiko and the others, Yuma entered his room and quickly slept like a log. Even the hard and uncomfortable bed he wore doesn’t stop him from entering a deep sleep.

Not long after he slept, Yuma could be seen frowning as he entered a nightmare.

He saw himself standing in a crowd while a gigantic chicken killed the surrounding people. He even saw Tsukiko, his trashy brother, the senior in his previous workplace, Alan, Lacius, and many others among the people that had been killed by that chicken.

When he was the only one remaining, the gigantic chicken stood in front of him and pecked at his eyes.

Waking up from his nightmare, Yuma shot up from his bed while trying to calm down.

After wiping the sweat on his face, Yuma took several deep breaths.

After he calmed down, Yuma silently muttered, “I don’t think being a hero and killing demons is suitable for me. I should just open a farm in one of the villages here.”

Coincidentally, while Yuma mutters those words, Cedric has just prepared to move his attention away from Yuma after seeing he is sleeping. But after Yuma suddenly jolted awake and muttered those words, Cedric felt his nerve almost explode from anger and shock.

He quickly used [Divine Intervention: Word] and sent a message toward Yuma’s Basic System Screen.

[No! You’re the only hope I have to save this world!]

Yuma stared at the screen Cedric sent and held his urge to smash it. “Are you seriously expecting me to kill that kind of monster? I still have nightmares due to that battle!”

[But previously when I tried to send you here, you seemed pretty happy about it?]

“Well, yeah! I thought the demon would be a pretty calm humanoid race, probably with an extra horn or two. While the demon king might even turn out to be a woman I could take as my wife!”

Inside the Divine Space, Cedric felt the mental power he used to observe the Crystal Cube world almost collapse. That’s just how speechless he felt upon hearing Yuma’s answer.

Even the System felt the need to show their presence.

[The hero you got is truly something else.]

“Why do things turn out like this? Can’t he simply follow the plot I have in mind? I only want him to go on a simple hero’s journey before finally killing the demon king.” Cedric said in distress.

[Choosing a hero candidate with a good mentality is actually one of the most difficult parts while selecting a hero.]

“Well, things already happened.” Cedric sighed. “Is there anything I could do to help Yuma’s trauma?”

[The System isn’t a psychologist, so the best System could do is to recommend an item called Calming Pill that might be of help.]

Cedric followed the System’s advice and checked the Calming Pill they mentioned.

[Level 1 Consumable Divine Item, Calming Pill.

Cost: 1 GP

Details: Pill made with the help of spirit qi and several medicinal herbs. Has been processed into a Divine Item through special means. Effect: Calm the user, help the user enter a meditative state, and increase the chance of enlightenment during meditation. Effect will decrease with consecutive usage.]

Cedric read through the item’s details and felt a weird feeling. “System, don’t you think this [Calming Pill] sounds like an illegal drug?!”

[Of course not! Don’t compare the high quality items sold in the shop to those kinds of trash from Earth! First and foremost, the Calming Pill won’t cause the user’s state to deteriorate. Instead, it will increase the user’s comprehension! For your current hero, the meditative state could even help him control the power he has just awakened.]

Cedric should say what the System said convinced him. So, he spent 1 GP to purchase a [Calming Pill].

After losing 1 GP, a round grey pill around the size of a pea appeared on his hand.

He observed the pill and saw nothing interesting. So, he placed it on a nearby table for now.