Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 63: The Birth of a Hero

The Demon King of Ashes was taken care of.

The Demon King of Thorns got properly finished off by the hero Sheera too, it looked like.

The real pain starts now with the cleanup. I mean, the whole city’s in awful shape.

Still, first things first—gotta deal with the injured people closest by. So I jumped over to where Sheera was.

“H-Haro-sama! Are you okay…!”

“Looks like it, right?”

“Ughh, thank goodness, really thank goodness…! That’s amazing, taking that monster down all by yourself…!”

“Hey, don’t cry.”

Sheera was straight-up bawling.

Big fat tears just kept pouring out from the corners of her eyes, streaming down her cheeks nonstop. Even though she basically took down a Demon King almost single-handed, she seemed to have totally forgotten that part.

But even while she was like that, Sheera kept casting healing magic on her teammates without stopping.

The mages whose skin had charred black and looked like corpses. Normally they would’ve gone into shock and died from fluid loss, but she was somehow keeping them hanging on with magic.

Good job. I gave Sheera’s head one gentle pat, then held the hero’s right arm out toward them.

“Normally I’d get the person’s consent first… but this is an emergency. I’m making you my proxy, Sheera. Heal them for me, Ink.”

The moment I said it, Ink swelled up.

The ink that had built up magic power in my right arm multiplied, then wrapped straight around the charred bodies of the mages and started turning into their missing parts, regenerating them.

Like watching a video played in reverse, the mages slowly got their original shapes back. Sheera let out another “bwahh” and fresh tears spilled as she clung to her friends, sobbing loudly.

Meanwhile, while I watched her—

Right then, I became certain something was different with Ink.

“Ink… you’ve really started developing intelligence, haven’t you?”

Here’s the thing: I can’t actually use alchemy myself. This arm used to belong to the hero—it’s not originally mine, so obviously.

That’s why I’ve been using this workaround: I programmed Ink with a magic formula that says “make the same thing as whatever’s next to you,” basically letting Ink handle the alchemy for me.

If there’s flesh next to it → make flesh.
Blood vessel next to it → make blood vessel.
Skin next to it → make skin.

That’s the rule Ink follows to reconstruct and regenerate bodies.

But there’s a big flaw in that method. Like right now—when almost all the outer tissue is burned to charcoal, there shouldn’t be any “neighboring skin” left to copy from. No reference material = error. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

And yet somehow, it was working perfectly this time.

The charred skin came back completely clean. Even the hair that should’ve been totally gone grew back to the exact same length down to the millimeter. My usual method can’t do that. Which means—

“Ink thought for itself. Based on its own memories, Ink deliberately tried to recreate another person’s body on purpose.”

That’s what happened.

There’s no doubt anymore—intelligence has definitely awakened in Ink. Over the last six months or so, Ink had started showing little bits of independent movement here and there, so I’d figured something like this might happen eventually… but damn, the timing couldn’t be better.

Maybe it got a huge growth spurt from devouring all that massive magic power from the “Demon King of Ashes”?

“Well whatever. Right now this power is exactly what we need. You’re awesome, Ink.”

When I stroked Ink, it shivered happily. I pulled a slightly scorched dried fruit out of my pouch and gave it a treat, then looked back at Sheera.

Actually—she was already looking up at me. Her face was all puffy and red from crying so much.

“What’s up?”

“H-Haro-sama, please take this…!”

“This? Oh, a magic stone.”

What she held out was a beautiful deep-red gem. Probably the magic stone she pulled from the Demon King of Thorns.

Yeah, that’s exactly what I’d been wanting. She remembered and kept it safe for me. What a thoughtful student.

“It’s all yours, Haro-sama. I could kill the Demon King, everyone could come back… it’s all because of you… so the magic stone, a-and me too… everything belongs to Haro-sama…!”

…Isn’t that going a bit far?

I took the magic stone she basically shoved at me, but I kinda recoiled. Those wide-open pupils, the intense way she was coming at me like her brain was flooded with happy chemicals—it threw me off.

Well, she’s just a girl from a farming village at heart.

Only trained in magic for a single year in the kingdom. Never even held a sword before. Facing life-or-death situations over and over like this… expecting her to stay totally normal would’ve been asking too much.

Anyway, I said “thanks” and accepted the gift from her.

“Alright then, I’m heading out.”

“G-going? Where are you going?”

“To heal the other injured people. Stay here, Sheera. Someone needs to watch over your friends until they wake up.”

When I said that, Sheera nodded. “O-okay, got it.”

I spread out my ricochet pinball magic circle. Stepped on it with one foot and jumped—destination: the front lines where the city had turned into a battlefield.

“See ya, Sheera.”

“…?”

For my last goodbye, Sheera just tilted her head.

Whether we’ll ever meet again, I don’t know. Even if we do, it’ll probably be a long time from now. Because today I’m leaving this city for good.

I leaped high into the sky.

The problem is that I’m the one who ended up killing a Demon King.

Only a hero is supposed to be able to defeat a Demon King.

Me breaking that common-sense rule is… kinda bad.

See, in this world, “hero” is basically a kind of status symbol.

The only force capable of killing a Demon King = the hero.

So the more heroes a country has, the more international influence it gets. Small countries without any heroes have no choice but to depend on hero-owning countries to protect them from Demon Kings.

But if word spreads that someone who isn’t a hero killed a Demon King—

That single fact could chip away, even just a little, at the trust everyone has built up in heroes. And that would weaken the diplomatic power of this kingdom that actually does have heroes.

So my position right now is a bit shaky.

Sure, plenty of people will probably praise what I did. But at the same time, there are definitely quite a few important people in the kingdom’s central government who’ll find my existence inconvenient.

…Well, even before that, the fact that I once forced the “Golden Hero” to submit is already just as damaging to the whole “hero credibility” thing.

“Huhh? So because of that you’re just gonna sneak out tonight? Haro, you don’t have to go that far!”

Right after we met up, I told everyone I was planning to leave the city today, and Zaria—the red-haired one of the duke sisters—puffed out her cheeks in protest.

“I mean, yeah… but like, I hate to say it myself, but the people in this city really like me, don’t they?”

“Yeah. Come to think of it, Haro, it’s kinda turning into a whole religion thing around here.”

Walk around town and it’s “Haro-sama! Haro-sama!” from every direction. I’m grateful, but it’s also a little dangerous.

“If those folks see me getting pressured or punished by the kingdom, I’m scared they might lose it. Like, the whole city starts a rebellion and everyone gets beheaded—I really don’t want that ending.”

“Ahh…”

It wasn’t just me being full of myself. Even Zaria and the others had to admit the vibe felt that way.

“So for the sake of the neighbors, the best thing is to slip away quick. Egiy, can you arrange a carriage? Oz, go confirm blanket medical consent from the lord for all the residents.”

“R-roger that!”

“Understood.”

“Noiche, please pack up the luggage. Just toss all my research materials into the spatial pouch too.”

“Okay, got it.”

Zaria still looked a little grumpy, but she’s my bodyguard from here on. I’m about to dump a ton of magic resources into healing, so I want her watching my back completely.

Once everything was sorted and I was about to head to my spot, Noiche and Zaria peeked in at me from both sides.

“…Haro. You’re really okay leaving Sheera behind?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t she actually wanna come with us?”

Their sharp words made me stop walking for a second. But still…

“That girl’s position is way too different. It’s not good for her to stay with me.”

“I know, but still.”

“She’s the first Demon King slayer of this generation—‘Flower Hero’-sama. She’s gonna be super busy from now on.”

“That’s not what I mean. Won’t she be sad? If you just disappear like this?”

…Yeah, maybe.

But even if we meet again, the goodbye’s still gonna happen. And it’s not like it’s forever. Once the Demon King mess settles down, I can see her anytime I want.

“Sigh. Fine, fine. You’re so stubborn when you get like this, Haro.”

“Thanks.”

“When you see her next time, you better apologize properly, okay? She’s definitely gonna cry.”

“Yeah.”

I remembered the messy, tear-streaked face I’d seen earlier and smiled.

Zaria let out an exasperated sigh. Noiche stayed quiet, just staring at me with worried eyes.

Then—squeeze.

Before I knew it, Noiche had wrapped her arms around me from behind, and Zaria closed off any escape from the front.

Softness pressed in from both sides, squishing my head between them. Tonight, I decided not to resist.

“Haro, we’re always on your side. Even if this whole country turns against you, we’ll throw away our house and follow you.”

“You’re allowed to be way more selfish, y’know? We’ll do whatever you say.”

Thanks. That really meant a lot.

These two have always been saving me.

A little while later, I jumped back into the sky again. I scattered the swollen Ink outward. Black rain fell over the entire city of Teranon.

“Ink, heal them. Every single person and animal.”

For whatever reason, intelligence had taken root in Ink. I didn’t even need to give it detailed control through me anymore. The black rain poured down in parallel, fixing every patient at once.

Wounded residents, people missing body parts. The thorn-infested sections got cut away and replaced with new parts from Ink.

Same with the livestock. This city can’t lose its cows and sheep—they’re the lifeline. Ink ripped out the rooted thorns and filled in the gouged spots.

Feels weird saying this about myself, but—

That day, Haro Swampman became the hero of the city of Teranon.