The Hero Turned Into A Potato And The World Fell To Ruin

Chapter 44: Vividly Remembered

Liu Ji never imagined that a plot he casually mentioned about a Demon King and Hero falling in love would be something he would encounter here firsthand.

Myza summoned a few stone golems, and they were currently busy restoring the cemetery.

"Speaking of which, how did you deal with the moon later on?" Liu Ji asked, glancing at the red moon in the sky. "It seems very quiet now…"

"Well… Actually, it only calmed down not too long ago. You're probably wondering why I changed my mind about destroying the world later, right?" Myza said. "Actually, I'm not quite sure about the specific reason. My lover was a rather unlucky hero. Before being summoned, she had just been accepted into her dream school and was about to embark on the life she wanted…"

"That might not be the case," Liu Ji mumbled. "She might have had to deal with advanced mathematics… Oh, wait, maybe she and I are not from the same world."

"Haha, every school in any world has some headache-inducing subjects." Myza chuckled. "But I think she would have no problem because she was really smart."

"That's true… But, as a smart hero, would she have believed what you said?" Liu Ji wondered. "Even though you and I are both retired now, and you have no reason to lie to a fellow retiree, you were the active Demon King back then, and she was an active hero."

"She didn't believe me; she believed in herself." Myza shrugged. "She claimed to have what she termed it a 'scumbag detecting radar' and felt something was wrong with this world as soon as she arrived. The king introduced her to a prince, and she could smell the scum as soon as he spoke."

"Ah…" Liu Ji's mouth twitched.

"Later, she secretly investigated the prince and found that he indeed had a bunch of lovers outside," Myza continued, smiling. For some reason, there seemed to be a hint of pride when he recalled this story.

"Then, using her words, 'those shameless bitches can't keep a secret,' she deliberately got into arguments with all of the prince's mistresses and successfully overheard how the prince described her to them…"

"Ah, I can roughly guess what kind of stuff it was," Liu Ji muttered as countless dramatic soap opera scenarios flitted through his mind.

"Haha, yes, all sorts of unpleasant things." Myza sighed. "Those lovers all dreamed of becoming queen and of course wouldn't be happy about her, the 'official match.' The prince, wanting to pacify them as quickly as possible, said all sorts of things, such as, 'She's going to die anyway…'"

"Ugh." Liu Ji's lips twitched. "The king must have hated his son to death."

"No, he probably didn't get the chance to." Myza grinned. "Because I later took a trip to the royal capital, and after that, they no longer had to worry about such complicated matters."

"Huh?" Liu Ji blinked several times. He somehow sensed an act of justice…

No… It was more like a personal vendetta…

"So, what happened to you both afterward?" Liu Ji asked. "The hero rebelled, so why hasn't this world ended?"

"It's because… she was still a kind-hearted hero until the end," Myza replied. "She asked me to kill her back then, but I couldn't bring myself to do so as I had no reason to. And she realized this little thing."

"Ah?" Liu Ji tilted his head. "Realized what?"

"She realized that I was really just seeking revenge. Destroying the world was more of a ramification," Myza explained. "Just like I didn't kill her, she felt that perhaps there were many other people I shouldn't kill either."

Myza took a deep breath and went on, "Before appearing in front of me, she had traveled half the world, training herself as a hero. Along the way, she met many people; bad people, good people, interesting ones, annoying ones, happy ones, and pitiful ones.

"We sat at the peak of the royal capital, watching nobles flee in despair, and she told me long stories about her travels…

"But honestly, at that time, I couldn't really listen to her stories. The more beautiful her stories were, the more I could only think of my people back home, my parents and siblings. I didn't understand why they had to suffer, why those beautiful stories couldn't belong to them."

"What happened, then?" Liu Ji asked. "You changed your mind eventually?"

"Later, people from the Sanctum came," Myza said. "They brought the one who colluded with the duke to kill my family with the intention of making a deal. The deal was, 'his life in exchange for me stopping my dark magic.'"

"And you agreed?" Liu Ji raised an eyebrow.

"Haha, of course, I agreed." Myza grinned. "Guess what, that scoundrel was the son of the Sanctum's head at that time. That old fool, who thought he was bearing the responsibility of the entire world, handed his own son over to me, making a great show of sacrificing for the world…

"And so, I killed him, I killed the son right in front of his father, and in doing so, killed the last person I had a grudge against in this world."

"But, you actually couldn't solve this moon problem, right?" Liu Ji gulped.

"Yes, I still remember that old bastard's face turning pale when he heard me explaining the theoretical basis behind this moon." Myza laughed heartily.

"At that moment, I truly realized that I had reached the pinnacle of the world's arcane arts. I had fulfilled my dream and also killed off all my enemies.

"Then, I just laughed maniacally, watching that old fool tear off his last veneer of dignity. He tried to kill me with his own hands to avenge his spawn, attempting to destroy my only shackle and let the blood moon freely hover over this world, taking the entire world with it to the grave.

"But what I didn't expect," Myza said, "was that when even the 'self-proclaimed' highest authority of this world attempted to destroy it, the hero from another world became its last hope.

"She blocked that attack meant for me, and then dragged me all the way here, to this desolate land turned to desert by another calamity from earlier times."

"And then, you both stayed here?" Liu Ji asked.

"Well, yes," Myza said with a smile. "After all, by then, I had avenged my family and no longer had any other pursuits. There was nothing left for me to hold on to; I just wanted to lie down and wait for death. She brought me here, so I just laid here.

"Actually I thought that she just wanted to leave me here temporarily because as long as I didn't die, the blood moon would only hover over me. By leaving me here, at least until my death, nobody would be threatened by the blood moon as long as they didn't enter this desert.

"I expected that she would probably leave eventually. This wasn't her world after all, and she had already done more than enough. She should have been out there enjoying her life…

"But I never imagined her to stay in this boring place of endless sand with me. Back then, I asked why she wanted to stay here. After all, the world was bound to end sooner or later, and she might as well go out and enjoy her life while she could.

"As for the world, après moi le déluge. [TL note: A french expression which roughly translates to "When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care." Basically an expression to whatever happens after one is gone.]

"However, she said she still liked this world. Although royalty and nobility were all detestable, she believed that those self-righteous bastards didn't represent the entire world.

"So, she wanted me to find a way to save this world because I was the only one who could possibly do it. And until I changed my mind, she would stay here with me."

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Myza looked at Liu Ji. "The last hope to save the world turns out to be the very person about to destroy it.

"Sadly, I had no motivation to do such a thing back then. But she… I don't know how to describe it. She was from another world. Her race had a lifespan of no more than a hundred years, while I had nearly twice that.

"She truly stayed with me here as she said she would. As we spent more time together, we gradually fell in love. I made some magical constructs and held a wedding with just the two of us.

"She said it was perfect since she was 'someone who would die anyway,' and I was 'someone who constantly wanted to die.' We made a fitting pair.

"I spent her best years with her, watching her gradually grow old. Unfortunately, probably due to racial differences, just like the heroes in history, we never had a child.

"In the end, she spent the remaining time she had in this world here with me…"

As he said this, Myza gently caressed the tombstone beside him. Watching him, Liu Ji didn't know what to say.

"In her final moments, I asked her once more why she stayed here all this time… Her hair was as white as frost, and she said she had long forgotten," Myza continued, slightly lifting his head to gaze at the distant sky. "But she said she still remembered traveling across half the continent and wanting to share those beautiful stories with me…

"But, she was such an old fool… She had grown so old that she already forgot she had told me those stories countless times…"