Free Web NovelChapter 1583: Chapter 1583: Clochi
Luo’s memory of the battle process is not very clear.
But the words once spoken by the Hero remained engraved in his heart.
Luo could never forget the moment when the Hero, in a fit of rage, developed a murderous intent towards him.
What infuriated Luo even more at the time was that after he had forced the Hero into a retreat, the Hero had a sudden change of attitude, revealing his identity as the Hero and offering an alliance as a condition for surrender.
"What kind of Hero!
Do you really deserve to be called a Hero?
Is there a Hero who bullies civilians and imposes demands on them?"
When Luo came to his senses, he had already pierced the Hero’s heart with his sword.
The Hero fell silently, and as the blood on the sword blade flowed down to his fingertips, Luo realized what he had just done.
Fear and guilt surged through him, and Luo dropped his sword blade and fled in panic.
He retreated to his room, refusing to leave.
It all felt like a dream, lingering in young Luo’s mind, and he didn’t know what to do.
His uncle Clochi became a beam of light, shining into his heart.
Clochi traversed the streets, orchestrating matters and soon suppressed the incident, taking all the blame upon himself.
He helped Luo straighten his back once more and live in the sunlight.
But Clochi too brought calamity upon himself because of these events.
For a long time, Luo couldn’t understand why this uncle, who treated everyone so kindly, had turned into someone like that.
...Until Luo discovered the truth.
Several months after accidentally killing the Hero, Luo’s life gradually returned to normal.
Unfortunately, the peace was soon shattered.
One day, Luo accidentally triggered the Gift from the goddess to the Hero, allowing him to see the attributes others possessed.
Yet...the name on his attribute wasn’t his own.
After confirming with his childhood friend, who had been troubled by the Hero, Luo learned that the name on his attribute belonged to the person he had killed that day.
The person in the village that day was the true Hero, he wasn’t lying!
Immediately, Luo felt as if he had swallowed a bellyful of bitter water.
He browsed through the Hero’s System and inadvertently saw the main task of subduing the Demon King and the countdown to the Demon King Descent.
After pondering countless times, Luo finally decided to take responsibility.
Since he had killed the Hero, he should fulfill everything the Hero was supposed to do and save this world for him.
Luo explained the situation to his uncle Clochi, commenced hellish training, and subsequently embarked on his journey like a genuine Hero.
Throughout the journey, Luo befriended one reliable companion after another, adventuring alongside them.
When the Demon King descended, Luo ventured life and death with them, undergoing one brutal battle after another.
What Luo didn’t expect was that just as he was making heroic strides and fulfilling the Hero’s duties, people from the Village of Heroes sought out his uncle.
Due to Luo’s outstanding performance, the people from the Village of Heroes realized that the Power of the Brave had been inherited by someone unrelated, so they understood the true situation and learned that Luo had accidentally killed the Hero.
But the people from the Village of Heroes didn’t reclaim the Power of the Brave.
Instead, they used the threat of violently reclaiming the Power of the Brave to coerce his uncle Clochi into executing a dangerous Undercover task within the Demon King Army.
His uncle knew the consequences of refusal.
So that Luo could continue his adventure, Clochi "happily" accepted the conditions of the Village of Heroes.
After going undercover in the Demon King Army, Clochi made smooth progress and rose to the rank of the Demon King Staff.
The Demon King gradually took notice of this human who had submitted to them, and in order to pressure the Hero and test Clochi’s loyalty, the Demon King commanded Clochi to slaughter his own hometown.
Upon receiving this task, Clochi’s heart utterly collapsed.
He had sent messages to the Village of Heroes several times, pleading for them to intervene, but the response he received was...
"If the Demon King tells you to slaughter the village, then do it, and try to do it cleanly.
Intelligence now indicates that the Demon King deliberately released this information to let the Hero know of your village slaughtering, as a trap to ambush the Hero.
If...
Forget it, we believe you have your own judgment..."
Clochi had no choice; even if the Demon King didn’t appoint him, they would surely send someone else.
The Village of Heroes decided to stand by and do nothing, with the possibility of pulling the rug from under them at a critical moment. Just Luo and Clochi’s Strength had no way to escape unscathed.
"If I can kill the people in the village early and withdraw quickly, counteracting the Demon King’s plan, the Hero will have a chance to escape alive.
Although I won’t be executing according to the Demon King’s plan, I’ll surely be labeled as someone who seeks merit eagerly, allowing me to continue to gather intelligence within the Demon King’s army and contribute to the Hero’s effort to defeat the Demon King.
If I die in the end, I can take all the secrets with me to the grave..."
We often don’t know right from wrong when making a decision.
Right or wrong can only be known when the result is fully revealed.
When Clochi told Luo, he said he could never forget the expression of Luo’s parents, meeting death heroically after knowing his reasons for what he did.
At that time, Clochi had no regrets.
It wasn’t until Luo stared at him with utter shock that Clochi realized his decisions might have been wrong.
But, in that situation, a mistake could only lead to more mistakes, a mistake that continued forever.
To ensure the plan was fail-safe, the Demon King dispatched not only Clochi but other members of the Demon King Staff as well.
Clochi could only use his own life, coldly smiling, to tell Luo, "Lord Demon King is already on the way, you have no escape.
Today is just the beginning!
If you do not have enough Strength, you can’t protect anything.
It’s because I can’t protect anything that I devoted myself to the Demon King, seeking a higher level of Strength.
In this world, Strength is what gives you a voice, Strength is power, Strength is everything.
Nothing compares to supreme Strength."
Clochi taught Luo the final lesson on what happens to a person who becomes obsessed with Strength, while using his own Death to bury countless secrets.
If Luo hadn’t gradually come to understand things in his middle age, deciding to uncover the truth step by step, he might never have known the truth and would have remained in the dark forever.
The matters of the Hero and the Demon King are the same.
If such things hadn’t happened, Luo would never have considered uncovering the hidden truths behind each companion’s Death.
Nor would he have made the choice he did today, occupying Heroic Warrior Vorquis’s body, aiming to unite the fragmented Demon King and Power of the Brave.
