Itsuki’s negative legacy was still here, rooted deep. From Armor’s point of view, Miyaji probably wasn’t a dictator at all. Armor probably blamed the four holy heroes for everything, including the loss of his reputation due to Itsuki’s mistakes, not being able to receive the blessings of being a hero’s companion as a result, and not being able to remake the world as he desired. Not to mention, my promotion of the betterment of Melromarc through trade being evaluated as a good thing was clearly pissing him off. His rage seemed purely based in being unable to obtain authority for himself.

I’d had enough of dealing with these crazy idiots. I just wanted to punch them and keep punching until they fell silent.

“Shield Demon . . . no, Shield Demon King and your minions, we true heroes will defeat you!” Armor shouted. Looked like I’d been promoted to a demon king. That did seem fitting for the opponent of heroes, but these guys weren’t up the task of defeating such a monster.

Then, with some appropriate clanking and clacking, Armor pulled out an axe set with a dull gemstone.

“That axe! I’ve seen that before!” It was identical to the axe that Takt had taken out and attacked me with! Why did this guy have one of the seven star weapons?

“You seem surprised,” Witch said with a chuckle. “That womanizer was hording all the weapons, so I decided to liberate some of them from him. You’re the foolish demon king who let me get away with it,” she taunted. My conversation with her had been cut short thanks to Armor, but now I returned my focus to her.

“Witch, what are you doing here?! How did you obtain that axe?” I asked. She belonged to a different world. There should be no way to move between them without a wave—not unless she had some other means, like we had.

“What good will telling you that do? You can’t expect a woman to give up all her secrets,” Witch replied, smiling as though she had already won this battle. Of course, I recalled that I was dealing with the type of bitch who never, ever told the truth. “That womanizer treated people like property. He was so condescending. The women around him were fawning and annoying. He deserved to die, but we were supposed to be the ones to do it.” This “womanizer” she was talking about had to be Takt, of course. She had somehow learned of his defeat and pulled her own vanishing act.

It also sounded like she had been planning to kill him. From my point of view, she had just looked like another one of his harem members. But she made it sound like she’d been setting a trap for him, just like she had with the other heroes.