The Hero Stole My Lover, So I Decided to Steal the Hero's Lover Instead - Chapter 70-71

Chapter 70: The Hero Party’s POV

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Thud! A jolt ran through his body. He had bumped into someone. He’d been lost in his imagination and hadn’t been watching where he was going. He almost fell, but managed to keep my balance.

“Whoaaa!”

Someone shouted.

“You bastard! Get out of the way!”

The one who had landed on her butt was a red-haired woman. Beside her was a blue-haired man, who twisted his upper body sharply and threw a punch. His fist, moving in an arc, slammed into Cain’s temple.

His hearing went out for a moment. Cain collapsed to the ground. In the process, he smacked the other side of his head against the ground. A different kind of pain throbbed on each side of his skull.

“Yowch, that hurts.”

The red-haired woman stood up, grinning carelessly.

“Good evening, Mr. Bigshot—oops, I mean, former Hero Cain-san.”

“Damn it! You bastards, are you the Demon King’s lackeys?!”

“Exactly.”

The blue-haired man replied and then drove a kick into Cain’s face. Cain rolled along the ground, and as he did, the red-haired woman unleashed an electric-type spell.

“Bzzzzzt~~”

His body jerked violently for a moment, then wouldn’t move properly. He was paralyzed.

Something wriggled out from inside the blue-haired man’s cloak and approached Cain. At first Cain thought it was a snake, but it turned out to be an extremely tough-looking rope. It was being manipulated by magic to move like a snake.

Disgusting.

In the blink of an eye, the rope wrapped tightly around Cain’s body.

“All wrapped up nicely.”

“Yeah.”

“So, where are his three little buddies?”

“Let’s just ask him directly.”

Both of them smiled the same way and stepped right up in front of Cain. Perhaps out of consideration for Cain sitting on the ground, both of them crouched down to meet his eye level.

“Where are your buddies? Tell us.”

“Go to hell, you—”

Before Cain could spit out another foul word, the blue-haired man’s straight punch slammed into his face. The inside of his mouth was cut, and he tasted blood.

The Demon King came over to the two of them. Three against one. No way he could win. No. If he could somehow get the Holy Sword back, maybe he’d have a chance… But he had no idea how to get it back, and even if he did, with his current broken mental state…

If I sold the other three out…Would I be spared?

The three in his party were comrades, sure, but ultimately just other people. Compared to himself, they were worth less than dirt. If selling them out would save him, he’d do it gladly. But even if he told them where they were—would that really save him?

“Oh, I know. Should we go ahead and do a little torture?”

“Hmm, sounds good. If he’s going to die anyway, a little extra suffering won’t make much difference.”

“You two, don’t torture him in the middle of the street.”

The Demon King stopped the two of them. No, she didn’t stop the torture itself—just told them not to do it here. She grabbed Cain by the hair and dragged him along toward Alicia’s house.

“Hey, Luke.”

The Demon King banged loudly on the door, and a fully dressed Luke appeared.

“Huh? What, you gave up already?”

“Hey, Sharon. Next time, stop him before Cain opens the door, okay?”

“Well, I was checking on how things were going between you and Alicia, and just when it looked like you two were about to start, I figured I had to proceed with ‘Project NTR’… Plus, Cain showed up right on cue.”

“Wait, checking on us—”

“More importantly..”

The Demon King hoisted Cain up and held him out toward Luke.

“We’re about to start torturing this guy, so let us in.”

“Uh, yeah…”

Cain was hauled in by the two lackeys and thrown into the house. Still bound by rope, he couldn’t move freely and couldn’t even brace himself. He hit the floor hard on his back and rear.

“A-Alicia…”

“……”

Their eyes met and Alicia quickly looked away. The red-haired woman and the blue-haired man licked their lips like demons. They were clearly looking forward to the torture, grinning like it was going to be fun.

“All right, shall we get started with the torture?”

“S-Stop! I’ll talk! Those guys are staying at—”

Cain gave up the name of the inn and the room number where his three companions were staying. He didn’t feel bad about it. It couldn’t be helped. He’d been caught, after all. The other three should be caught too, dragged down with him.

The two subordinates of the Demon King left to capture Cain’s three companions.

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Chapter 71

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“Well then.” 

Sharon said. 

“What should we do with this guy?”

Cain, collapsed on the floor, glared at me and Sharon in turn. His eyes were full of malice, as if we were the root of all evil. But he had brought this upon himself. No matter how much he glared at us, it wouldn’t change the reality.

“If you want to torture him, go ahead.”

Sharon said to me.

I shook my head. I no longer held enough hatred toward Cain to want to torture him. What I felt was pity. If only he had lived more rationally…. But precisely because he had followed his impulses, things had ended up like this.

Still, it wasn’t as if I felt no negative emotion at all. So I clenched my right fist and swung it once. Cain’s face was a mess of blood.

“Ughhh…”

Cain groaned, or was he crying? Alicia stood by my side. Perhaps she was shocked from having our lewd scene (?) witnessed earlier, as she kept her head down and said nothing.

“…I apologize.”

Cain said in a small voice.

“I apologize for everything I’ve done until now. I’ll accept any punishment. So… Please, I beg you, give Alicia back to me…”

“It’s far too late for apologies now.”

I said.  Apologizing wouldn’t erase what Cain had done to me. It wouldn’t wipe away the many sins he had committed.

He should have apologized much earlier. Apologized and truly reflected. Besides, Alicia didn’t belong to Cain. In fact, not once had she ever belonged to him. So there was nothing to return and nothing that could be returned.

“You will die while regretting your sins.”

When I said that, Cain burst into tears. He no longer cared about dignity or appearances. Like a child, he wept, muttering apologies over and over like a broken record.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

To the sniveling Cain, Alicia spoke.

“Cain-san.”

“Alicia! You really love me, don’t you!? Luke and the Demon King threatened you! That’s why you went along with—”

“A sinful man like you has no right to keep living. Please, just die.”

With those words, Cain’s mind shattered.

“Uwaaoaaoueaaaooaauaaoooaeooaoeuoaeeoauaaae—!”

He let out a nonsensical scream. His voice was so loud it gave out almost instantly. A scream that tried to vomit up everything inside him. Perhaps annoyed by the racket, Sharon brought down a knifehand strike.

Cain passed out.

“Let’s hand this one over to the Holy Kingdom’s army.” 

Sharon said. 

“And cash him in.”

“While we’re at it, let’s cash these people in too.”

Before I realized it, Elna had returned. In front of Elna and Elma were Cain’s three companions, bound with rope. Judging from the situation, they were probably captured while sleeping. If they had resisted, it would’ve taken longer to subdue them.

“Please, help…”

“We’ll give you all the money we have…”

“I beg you! At least spare our lives—!”

“Beg the army for your lives.”

“Yeah. Begging us is pointless. The right to decide whether you live or die lies with the king. …Well, since you killed the king, I guess that’d be the crown prince now.”

Elma said this, then activated a spell.

“〈Puppet String: Marionette〉”

The four members of the Hero’s party stood up. Their bodies were now being controlled by Elma. The three conscious ones tried to resist, but they began walking like a puppet out of the house.

“Let’s go deliver them to the national army.”

“Ah, right. What about Demon King-sama? Are you going to come with us too?”

“…Hm, for me, the Demon King, to claim the bounty for capturing the Hero… Heh, that sounds rather amusing.”

Cackling gleefully, Sharon stepped outside as well. Then, glancing back as she closed the door…

“Sorry to interrupt earlier. Feel free to continue where you left off.”

Alicia and I looked at each other—and turned bright red.

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