"Looks like another wasted trip." Harris had long since noticed the internal conflict in Julius's heart, so he had been slacking off recently and hadn't been seriously inquiring.
But that was only how it appeared on the surface.
As a result, he still brought Julius to this place. He chuckled in his heart, waiting for the right time to remind Julius that the scenery at the villa was just an illusion.
No rush.
Because of Little White's monitoring system, he could obtain the other party's location at any time; they couldn't run away.
One had to admit, that spider's methods were truly terrifyingly strong.
Unfortunately, that young girl seemed to have discovered that Sophia was the eyes and knew there was surveillance nearby.
Now, the monitoring system could no longer see the images inside the villa. One reason was that the girl had strengthened her defenses; another reason was that the person currently controlling the monitoring system wasn't that fellow White. If White were controlling it personally, it would probably be updated in real-time.
That's right, Harris's true identity was the Dragon God.
He was a wisp of the Dragon God's soul reincarnated as a human, much like how Spider Child was a wisp of Evil God D's soul plus a spider's soul reincarnated. It used roughly the same principle, though his operation was simpler because he only needed to find a pregnant mother and send a portion of his soul inside.
It wasn't that easy for Spider Child back when she reincarnated. First, Spider Child's original soul strength wasn't up to par and couldn't travel through time and space, so D had to split off a bit of soul to fuse with Spider Child's.
But this fusion also required careful attention because it was D's soul after all. If the proportions during the fusion process weren't controlled, what would be reincarnated would be D's clone rather than Spider Child.
So, this was merely a similarity in technique.
The difficulty was on a completely different level.
"Do you think the direction of our investigation might be wrong?" Julius couldn't help but ask as the two walked out of the shop.
Harris couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
Wrong?
How could it be wrong?
This whole thing was orchestrated by the Night Sky Pavilion; he didn't actually believe that just because the other party did a few good deeds, they were a good person.
One had to remember that when that girl struck out at her former compatriots, she didn't hesitate in the slightest.
Though humans were a race with all sorts of individuals, where good and evil were starkly contrasted, there was no doubt that the girl was absolutely not a good person. Even if she had done many good things and even eliminated that elf for the sake of the world.
In his eyes, that girl couldn't possibly be a good person; a truly good person should be someone like the Hero standing before him.
"I don't think it's wrong. The Night Sky Pavilion definitely knows something. Investigating in this direction is correct."
"Did you discover something?"
Julius felt that Harris might have already discovered something; his intuition was very sharp. Harris had only let a sliver of his thoughts show on his face, and Julius had already noticed it.
"I suppose I've noticed a few things."
But it was just as well that he'd been noticed.
Harris said, "Follow me."
He had deliberately sent the others away because he didn't want them to discover the flaws he was showing.
Because in this matter, he might not be able to maintain his disguise as well as he had in the past.
Moreover, Ariel had ordered her subordinates to launch a full-scale assault, and the frontline fortress was on the verge of falling. Earlier, the Saintess Yana had contacted the two of them, saying the situation at the front was critical. They planned to set aside the current matter to help hold the front and urged Julius in the letter to temporarily abandon the investigation.
Naturally, he had privately destroyed that letter, so Julius never even saw it.
When people saw Saintess Yana and the others heading to the front, they assumed the entire Hero Squad had rushed to provide support; no one imagined the Hero was still investigating the incident.
He would never miss this opportunity.
If the Hero went to the front, he would surely be unable to resist using the power of the Holy Sword.
However, given Julius's personality, he would likely hold back the Holy Sword and end up sacrificing himself.
But whether the Holy Sword was expended or Julius died in battle, both were outcomes he could not accept.
After all, both were indispensable to his plan. Once a Hero died, finding a suitable replacement was not easy. It usually took a certain cycle for the system to automatically find a candidate who met the criteria for the Hero title, and he couldn't wait that long.
Because that girl's strength was progressing too quickly.
The magic she used was entirely beyond the system's specifications, even matching the quality of the power he used. Perhaps her power was insufficient now, but sooner or later she would reach his level of strength. By then, even if they waited for a new Hero, there would be no chance to kill her, as even unleashing the Holy Sword would be a pipe dream.
Why weren't they afraid of the Holy Sword, which was said to possess God-slaying power? It was because they knew the upper limit of a Hero's strength was weak; even if he held the Holy Sword, he wouldn't be able to unleash the power of that strike in front of them.
Thus, they had never feared the Hero or the Holy Sword. Aside from Ariel, who held the Demon Lord title and was restricted by the system, even Shiro, who had previously been the lowest-ranking god, didn't think much of the combination of the Hero and the Holy Sword.
Therefore, he had to make the Hero kill that girl now. To that end, he had already devised a script... While Harris and Julius were investigating the Night Sky Pavilion's background, Tsukasa had completed all the preparations.
The teleportation trap at the entrance, the magic altar on the plains—everything was ready.
And today.
The Hero's arrival was finally seen.
Just as the Hero and his companion passed in front of the villa, Tsukasa and Sophia were watching from inside the room.
Sophia also told Tsukasa.
She said that Harris's true identity was an avatar of the Demon Lords Army's Ninth Legion Commander, and that the Legion Commander's true identity was one of this world's administrators, the ancient Dragon God. He was the only True Dragon Species in this world; the Dragon Species they had seen, like Fire Dragons and Earth Dragons, were actually this Dragon God's subordinates.
"Is he on our side?"
"You could say that."
Sophia saw that Tsukasa's expression was somewhat grim.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just that I don't agree with you saying he's on our side. My intuition tells me he's here to kill me."
The moment Tsukasa saw Harris, the warning bells in her heart reached their peak. She knew immediately that this was the person bringing her this sense of crisis.
However, the attributes obtained through Appraisal were somewhat weak.
It wasn't until she heard Sophia reveal the man's true identity that she knew who she was dealing with: the Dragon God, who was even more ancient than the Demon Lord.
He was an opponent even more troublesome than the Demon Lord she had initially guessed. What had she done to deserve the Dragon God personally taking the field to deal with her?
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