The Rising of the Scythe Hero

I'd been lying in the pool for, like, three hours already, lazily soaking and slowly regaining my strength. Something told me that the nun had underestimated my own regenerative abilities, 'cause at this rate I was definitely going to be fully recovered way before evening.

Once the pain faded, though, I was struck by another, equally horrifying problem. I was… bored.

Guess I'd already gotten used to constantly being on the move. Back in my old world, I could easily waste hours just zoning out, staring at the ceiling. But here… here I'd grown addicted to endless traveling and monster hunting.

With nothing better to do, I decided to tinker with my weapon and restock the potions I'd used up. Thankfully, Legendary Weapons were handy like that – they could store not only materials but also the consumables I crafted with them.

Honestly, I really should spend more time exploring the full potential of my weapon. Who knows, maybe I could discover something useful that wasn't shown in the canon? I'd been sticking to the canon way too much without even trying to break away from it. That definitely needed to change.

Though, it wasn't just the weapon that deserved attention. I still wasn't entirely sure how to approach it, but I really needed to understand my own nature and racial traits better. "Demon" sounded all cool and mystical, but in reality… nothing about me felt particularly special.

I was clearly not a "demon" in the religious or spiritual sense. For starters, holy water still worked on me. Though, that one's debatable. There's no proof it's "holy" in the literal sense – maybe it's just got healing properties or was monopolized by the church. History is full of examples of believers slapping a "holy" label on anything they liked. The water radiated some kind of magic, but I couldn't track its source.

Besides, the whole idea of a god existing in a world run by a system… yeah, that seemed like utter nonsense to me. Either that god had totally lost it…

Waves, Heroes, world merging, magic, different races, the system… It all still felt like the fever dream of a deranged gamer. And yet, no matter how ridiculous it seemed, there wasn't much I could do but accept it.

So far, I'd managed to identify a few distinct traits – clearly magical nature and, as a result, high aptitude for magic, considerable combat potential, and, obviously, impressive resilience. Though, I wasn't entirely sure about the combat potential – the Weapon factor complicated things. Still, putting aside self-flattery, as a race, I objectively ranked above regular humans – including in terms of intelligence. Combined with the Weapon system, that gave me a serious advantage.

It was a shame I couldn't fully tap into that intelligence yet. You can multiply zero all you want – the result, unfortunately, stays the same. Yeah…

Apart from messing with my weapon and self-reflection, I'd also been working on my Qi. Now I could sense it much better, which meant full control wasn't that far off.

As for mana, it had pretty much surrendered to me. I could feel it from a decent distance and manipulate it freely, enhancing my magic to varying degrees. I just needed to refine my magic skills to unlock its full potential. After all, there was Silent Casting – the ability to use magic instantly and wordlessly. The only downside was that such magic was noticeably weaker than its spoken counterparts.

I wondered if I could fix that flaw using my Skill system. Honestly, that system was a total cheat.

Skills gave me this weird, intuitive understanding of stuff. Take Scythe Mastery, for example. No normal person from my old world could've learned to wield such a bizarre, impractical weapon on their own. But in my case, the Skill handled that for me.

If I intended to master something and took steps toward it, the weapon (or the world itself) would grant me the corresponding Skill. After that, based on my experience, once I filled some invisible progress bar by actively using the Skill – it would evolve to the next level. Along with that came intuitive knowledge and details I'd never noticed or understood before.

If that's not a cheat, I don't know what is.

But there was one catch I'd run into not that long ago. Even after maxing out that invisible "progress bar," a skill could still stay stuck at its current level. At a certain point, simply grinding wasn't enough – I had to experience some kind of breakthrough, understand something, or have an epiphany… Only then could the skill break through the barrier and keep evolving.

That's exactly what was happening with my Scythe Mastery right now. It had leveled up pretty fast at first, but for quite a while now, I'd been stuck at level 8. I suspected I needed to get better at fighting humans – that might be the trigger for its next evolution.

So, summing things up, here's what I had skill-wise so far: Scythe Mastery, Language Knowledge, Blacksmithing, Mana Control, and… Qi Control.

The second-to-last one I'd gotten during the ogre cave cleanup, and as for Qi Control – turned out I received that skill during the fight with the Leper Undead. Back then, I'd just brushed off the notification and didn't bother looking into it until now.

The skill was only at level one, but it already let me sense both my own Qi and the Qi in my surroundings within a small radius. Meaning, improving in this area was now just a matter of time.

I spent about another hour lost in self-reflection. And yeah… boredom hit again. Guess I'd basically fully recovered by now, even though it was only midday. At least I wasn't stuck under a curse for months, like Naofumi in the original story. No way I would've survived all that constant suffering.

Trying to distract myself, I glanced over at Night.

The bird girl was lying nearby, lost in her own thoughts. Though sometimes, she just stared blankly at my face for no apparent reason. She did that a lot, actually.

It's worth noting, we were both completely naked in the water. So, naturally, my gaze wandered over her body.

Yeah… I always knew it, but Night was perfect. Petite frame; modest, yet clearly noticeable, perky breasts; now-clean, slightly pale skin; smooth, slender legs with surprisingly enticing thighs; and those gorgeous, silky hair the color of the starry night sky, cascading like a waterfall over the edge of the pool, with a damp strand resting across her face.

While I shamelessly checked her out, Night met my gaze and did the same. Slowly, her eyes drifted down from my face… and at one specific moment, her eyes widened in surprise, only to quickly return to their usual expression and lock back onto my face. And then…

The water rippled as Night shifted.

She leaned on my shoulder, gracefully swung her leg over me and…

Plop.

…just straddled me.

"?" I simply raised an eyebrow in silent question.

"I… I'm not sure, but I think I know what master wants."

Whoa. Was that… her instincts kicking in or what?

"And what about you? Do you want this?"

"Mmm…" The bird girl seemed to be listening to something within herself. "I don't know. But master wants it, right?"

Do I? Well, of course I do. I'm a perfectly healthy guy with perfectly healthy desires and very specific tastes, but… Something about this felt off.

Night wasn't even thinking about herself. Her only concern was what I wanted. First, second, third priority – all the same. Her own desires and opinions didn't even seem to register. It honestly felt like she never even considered what she wanted.

For plain old sexual satisfaction, I could just hit up a brothel. Besides, I didn't really struggle with… unsatisfied urges in daily life. Never even thought about it most of the time.

But it's a whole different story… when every single one of your fetishes is literally sitting on top of you, ready to do anything you want. To make matters worse, the little tease "accidentally" rubbed her perky little butt right where she absolutely shouldn't have.

Yeah… situations like this took real self-control. So I decided to start a conversation I'd been meaning to have for a while.

"We'll… discuss that topic later. For now…" I gently pressed Night's shoulders, settling her down onto my lap, mentally preparing for a serious talk. "Why did you do that?"

"My instincts told me to. Was I wrong?" She tilted her head, confused.

"I'm not talking about this situation. Jeez…" For some reason, finding the right words was surprisingly hard. "I mean when you threw yourself at that monster."

Night stayed silent. For about five or six seconds, she just stared into my eyes, her expression completely unchanged.

"I… had to help master."

"But you could've died. Most likely would've, if I'd been a little more injured."

If I'd taken more damage, I simply wouldn't have had the strength to carry her. Or I would've collapsed from exhaustion back in the church – right into our enemies' hands.

"That doesn't matter to me." Night answered without even a hint of hesitation or doubt. "Master bought me, raised me, feeds me, takes care of me. My life doesn't matter. If I can protect you with my life, master, then I see no reason to act differently. I belong to you."

That… was the longest sentence she'd ever spoken to me since we met.

"And I… I feel that you're above me."

"Huh?" That part I didn't get at all.

"It's… hard to explain. Something inside me, even at the moment I was born, recognized that the being in front of me… meaning you, master, stands above me. Submitting to you feels natural."

Well, that's… interesting. How the hell does that even work? Actually, wait a sec, didn't I think about something like that recently? And that incident with the nun…

So, what – I've got some kind of hidden ability that makes others submit? Another demonic perk? Or maybe it's the Scythe's doing? The only problem is… I can't consciously control it right now.

I got so deep in my own head that I completely forgot to control my body. Night, noticing my "pause," wiggled a bit on my lap, made an adorably serious face… Then, after thinking for a moment, her expression grew even more serious and, when I already started suspecting something was off, she, with full determination, lowered her hand – right under herself…

And I honestly don't know how far that would've gone, 'cause as she touched my stomach, clearly looking for something…

BAM!

We both turned our heads toward the noise.

Standing at the entrance was that same nun who'd saved us – whose name, by the way, I still didn't know.

Her eyes were wide as saucers, her whole face bright red, one trembling finger pointing in our direction. She kept opening and closing her mouth, struggling to force out even a single word.

And honestly… the scene she walked in on was pretty damn funny. Both of us – me and Night – completely naked, with the girl straddling me, hand already dangerously low, her perky little butt lifted just enough to be clearly visible… and both of us staring at the newcomer in complete confusion. A proper fanservice scene straight out of some cliché anime.

The noise, by the way, came from the tray of food she'd dropped.

"Y-you… WHAT ARE YOU DOING DEFILED IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES?!" she finally shrieked at the top of her lungs. "B-blasphemers! Heretic! Pervert! Idiot!" — And somehow, the multiple insults suddenly boiled down to just me.

"Haah…" I sighed, grabbed Night by the armpits and set her down beside me. "Looks like it's really time for us to leave. Get dressed, Night. The church alarm went off."

After a scream like that, there was no way we were going unnoticed.

"Don't you dare ignore me!" she yelled again, but then quickly shrank back, covering her mouth with her hand. Man… what a troublesome girl.

"I've already recovered, and I can finish healing Night myself." I shook a few vials filled with water from the spring. "Thanks for your help."

The nun silently watched our actions with a complicated look on her face – a whole mix of emotions I couldn't even begin to guess.

"By the way, did you free your friend?" Not that I cared all that much, but still…

"…I moved her to a safe place and gave her a sedative. She shouldn't wake up until evening."

Well, there's your church sister for you… She never stops surprising me.

"Yeah…" I chuckled philosophically, deciding to clarify one more thing. "You… do realize they'll probably kill you for helping me, right? And they definitely will find out."

"…" She said nothing, pressing her lips together and looking away.

Figured. She knew. She'd known from the start, but just didn't want to think about it. Foolish girl.

And that's exactly what she was. She couldn't be older than twenty, with soft, light brown hair, gentle, childlike facial features, and blue eyes. Why the hell did she decide to dedicate herself to such a stupid church? And worse – she didn't even agree with their beliefs.

"They… won't dare to kill me. I… I'm too important."

Then why, exactly, is your voice so lacking in confidence?

"I could take you with me."

"Huh?" She looked at me in surprise.

"You don't agree with the church anyway, and now it's too dangerous for you to stay here. I can get you out of Melromarc as thanks for helping me."

"I…" She hesitated for a moment, then, far too suddenly, seemed to calm down. "You know… now I'm certain I did the right thing." The girl smiled. "You shouldn't blindly believe rumors." Ignoring my offer entirely, she smiled again, turned around, and headed for the exit. "Take care, Scythe kiddo. And take care of that girl. You… this world needs you. And she needs you too."

With that, she left, closing the door behind her. A click of the lock followed.

She really was an interesting person – childish and yet so oddly mature at the same time… I just hoped the church bigshots wouldn't get to her.

"Will she be okay?" asked the bird girl, lifting her head.

"I… don't know, Night."

"I see…"

Just a couple of minutes later, I could already hear the sound of countless footsteps growing closer.

Just in case, I erased all traces of our presence to the best of my ability. And when the sound of footsteps was practically at the door…

"Portal Scythe."

A flash of light enveloped us, whisking us away to a completely different place. Turns out, Hero Weapons could teleport their wielder to any previously visited location, as long as they could clearly picture it.

And I hadn't forgotten my main goal – to claim the core of the dragon Ren had slain. So, I ended up… among the ruins.

Looking around, I quickly recognized the place. It was that same village where I'd fought the Leper Undead. The village I'd promised to protect…

"Master…"

"Yeah… We failed."

Night probably didn't manage to finish off all the monsters in time. She'd clearly prioritized coming to help me instead. I had no idea how she'd even sensed I needed help.

And after the fight with the Undead, I immediately teleported us out, leaving the village to be torn apart by the remaining monsters. But…

Even if I'd thought about it sooner – it wouldn't have changed anything. Night was dying, and I had no time to hunt down the monsters. I've already said it – she was way more important to me. It sucks that it turned out this way, but I couldn't have done it differently.

"Let's look for survivors. I still have questions."

"Okay."

And so, we split up, searching the village for people who, realistically, were probably long gone.