The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 344 – The Brother’s Story

Even with the hypnosis broken, consciousness wouldn’t return immediately.

「Leah, sorry, but I’m going to leave him tied up.」

「I understand.」

There was a chance he’d go wild after he wakes up.

「Yureena, thanks for healing him so quickly.」

「Well, his bones weren’t as badly broken as I expected.」

Yureena said as she looked over the so-called Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord’s bones were broken all over, but Leah’s brother wasn’t hurt that badly.

「He must have a strong skeleton.」

Even so, it seems that 30 bones were broken.

And Yureena’s healing was so fast it was supernatural.

I asked Leah,

「What was your brother’s name again?」

「It’s Leo.」

「I see, nice name.」

Leah’s brother Leo. Easy to remember.

After a bit, Luka, Vi-Vi, and Moofy returned.

「You find anything interesting?」

「Some weird magical machines…」

「Really complex, with transfer circles in them.」

「I see…」

We had to check those out.

After waiting a while, Leo awoke.

The reason he woke before the so-called Demon Lord was because of Yureena’s healing.

「…brother…」

「Leah? Why are you here?」

「Leo…I’ve been searching for you EVERYWHERE!」

She embraced him with tears in her eyes.

Leo still looked confused, and looked around trying to understand where he was.

Still, he tried to embrace her as well and looked like he’d tear up as well.

「ryaaa」

Shiggy just stood there, watching.

I waited for them to compose themselves as well.

Since he didn’t look like he would fight anyone, I released his magical bonds.

And after wiping a few years, Leah and Leo both bowed and said,

「We’re sorry for all the trouble we caused.」

「But thank you for saving my brother!」

「It’s what adventurers do, help each other, so don’t worry.」

Then Luka said,

「I do have something, I’d like to ask.」

「Whatever you wish…」

So she began asking them various things.

I just watched over the so-called Demon Lord and his underlings.

「Don’t say anything until I ask you, Leah.」

「Sure.」

Luka wanted to make sure both stories would match, that neither were lying.

「When did you first meet that guy?」

She pointed to the so-called Demon Lord.

「After the Demon Lord was defeated, I came to Elkay to work as an adventurer.」

「Huh, that’s strange.」

「Well, the money I got doing it was a drop in the bucket because of all the taxes on quest payments, but as the only B-Ranked adventurer, I felt like I was helping, so…」

The Guild Master had told us about the only B Rank adventurer, who refused to pay taxes, and then was killed.

Seems that he wasn’t killed, but was Leo, and was alive.

Even so, the Master said that there was a lot of blood and guts left at the spot.

Maybe that was all a ruse.

「So then how did you become one of his underlings?」

Luka added, but didn’t mention what the Guild Master had told us.

She wanted to make sure there were no contradictions.

「He lived in the castle and was collecting massive amounts of taxes. Both I and the Guild Master tried to tell him to bug off. Then the next day, a demon came, attacked me, and carried me off.」

「A B Rank adventurer would have trouble with a demon, that’s for sure.」

「Yeah, so they brought me to the castle.」

They hypnotized him, and made him an underling.

「After this Lord killed so many people, why didn’t he kill you?」

「He didn’t kill people…just kidnapped them and shut them in the castle…some of them he zombified.」

He kidnapped them and then hypnotized or zombified them.

Then he used them however he wanted in that condition.

With hypnosis, he could get them to do much more detailed tasks than a zombie.

And if the person wasn’t worth the time, he’d just zombify them.

After that, Leo was sent to Cruz’ realm to create all the Jack Frosts.

That plan went south, so he was tasked with finding, learning, and using magical machines.

He found Leah and put her under his control, and then used her.

The Lord must have thought these machines are just that important.

「What kinds of machines do you have?」

「Transfer circles, devices that create magical crystals and drugs, medicines.」

Then they would sell all the crystals and drugs to the capital and make a lot of cash.

There’s no doubt the Neglys were heavily involved in that process.

Seems that this so-called Demon Lord was really interested in making money.

「So you can’t make a magical machine that makes spirit stones?」

「Yes. Magical stones and crystals, sure. Spirit ones, no.」

So using Leah, he was going to try to make them.

When that failed, he tried to buy them from us.

「With that done, now I’d like to hear direct from this “Demon Lord.”」

「Sure. Yureena, can you heal him enough that he’ll just wake up?」

「That’s a really hard thing to ask.」

Bet even so, she started to heal him.

It took much longer than Leo did.

「I connected his torso…but left the arms and legs as is.」

「Good. We can’t let him run away.」

So I conjured and his face with some ice.

And he slowly came to.