The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Late at night, Shien came out of the Latrard house's large baths.

"This bathroom really is huge. It's practically like a hot spring."

Shien took a towel, dried his hair, and put on his clothes. He felt seriously refreshed with warm vapors still clinging to him.

After finishing dinner, the butler set up times for everyone to have their baths. He also let Shien know that there was a huge open air bath, here, which Shien should properly take the chance to enjoy.

The baths are split up by time. The early half of the evening was restricted to women, and the later half for men. However, the butler and servants naturally aren't allowed to use it, so in the past, it had always been pretty much the head of house Megis alone who used it late in the evening. Today, Shien added to that by one.

However, Shien didn't really want to go and share a bath with another guy, so he ran in to bath on his own during the time when Megis said that he needed to take care of some work.

Originally, Shien even imagined whether there might be some cliched fanservice gag, and let him get a good look… No, it's properly rebuke the girl in question and make sure she knows to pay attention in the future. However, there's no way something like that would actually happen.

"They already clearly know that the later half of the evening was for men, so what kind of girl would be stupid enough to run in and use it then of all times?"

If it's just split up by physical areas, it's possible to have gotten lost, but when it's a matter of time, it's really unlikely that anyone would end up forgetting things to the extend of giving fanservice, right?

Shien wasn't really disappointed though. A bath by himself was pretty comfortable.

However, during this bath, Shien did discover something that he didn't have the chance to notice before.

"I actually leveled without noticing?"

Indeed.

Shien leveled again.

Although it was only from level 24 to 25, Shien did indeed leveled up.

"It should be because of that battle with the princess, huh?"

Even though he obviously killed so many of the Old Demon Faction before, which included the level 84 Baydr, he still didn't level from that at all. This time, it was just a spar, even if it got a bit noisy, and yet it made him level up. Shien did not expect that at all.

"But, if I think about it, it seems actually quite normal."

I's been previously told to him, but it depends on one's personal potential and status. Some people just level slowly, while others level quickly. And while combat is an important factor for leveling up, it's not like it's in a game where one could get experience just by fighting. Instead, it's because one experienced a real fight, gained personal experience from that, and from that trained themselves further and gained growth that they managed to level up.

Only though abundant combat and training could one level up. If one just lopsidedly crushed one's foes, then leveling speed will drop a lot.

Thus, the best way to level up is to fight with opponents with equal or greater power than oneself. Training and learning could also help on level up as well. In general, so long as one had grown, they could level up.

Given that, Lucy was definitely the opponent whose strength was closest to Shien that he had met thus far. In the spar against her, Shien seriously pulled out all his strength. That he was properly tempered by that experience seems fairly natural.

Putting aside everything else, Shien felt like his [Magic Sword] has gotten even smoother. His understanding of his various skills have also improved some.

"This is proof of my growth after experiencing a real battle, huh?"

In that case, leveling up is only normal.

Compare that to the battle with the Old Demon Faction. Shien basically just lopsidedly dominated without any effort. In the end, it was basically just him playing around.

Since it's playing, then it's only natural that he didn't grow much from the experience, right?

Compared to crushing foes much weaker than him, Shien might be better off learning a few more skills. That might in fact give him more growth more quickly, which in turn translates to leveling up.

Back when Shien was learning skills from Diere, this was the main reason that he leveled up a bunch then.

Of course, if one constantly and repeatedly fought, then even if it was against weak enemies, it would still end up having some effect in raising one's abilities, right?

Take back when he first came to this world and was trapped in that damned forest for example. There was also during the time when they were transporting Jillian. Shien basically did just that, repeatedly defeating weak demonic beasts, and leveled up from that.

One more thing. Repeated training and practice, no matter how boring or unremarkable it is, will still give one definite gains.

Thus, whether or not one could level up depends on whether or not one has grown. The common knowledge that the fastest way to level up is through life and death battles isn't due to having killed enemies, but rather because a fight with one's life on the line stimulated one's potential, allowing one to receive greater growth in exchange.

"In other words, going with sneak attacks or assassination to kill people much stronger than yourself to quickly level up is no good huh?"

Shien was a bit disappointed.

"And here I was thinking about finding someone unpleasant and playing assassin."

That particular urge was still there after all.

"Eh?"

Shien continued to randomly mess about in his head, but just as he was passing through the hall on the way back to his room, he noticed a familiar magical power appear nearby, so he looked on over.

"Isn't that Diere?"

Shien was a bit nonplussed.

Diere was still wearing the same old black robe, covering up everything except the bottom half of her face. However, she was heading toward the gate as if she was getting ready to go out.

"Where's she going at this time of night?"

Shien's brows creased.

Then, Shien couldn't help but remember what had happened back in the royal reception room during the day, as well as what Lucy had told him.

"… Let's follow along and see." Shien hesitated a moment before making such a decision.

Then, Shien unhesitatingly used his [Stealth] skill, turned into an undetectable phantom, and followed after Diere.

"Too bad I can't backstab here."

…

The capital is still bustling even late at night, filled with people everywhere.

This was especially true for adventurers. After a day of hard work, they'd generally all go out and have a few drinks at around this time and vent the pressure and stress from their work.

The capital was the origin place of adventurers. It's also the location where the adventurer's guild headquarter is situated. The number of adventurers here far surpassed that of Lamdrion, and one could basically find drunken adventurers stumbling about pretty much everywhere one went. It seemed even less orderly than it was during the day.

Thankfully, there are still plenty of knights on patrol, so the citizenry don't particularly fear that an adventurer might end up causing an incident. Thus, they just avoided the drunk adventurers and continued on their business.

Diere was walking along the streets of the capital. Her head was lowered, giving off a cold aura. She was as cold and distant as ever.

On her way, a number of drunken adventurers spotted Diere and ended up calling out to her.

"Oy, that little girl over there. Where are you going?"

"What are you wearing so much black in the middle of the night for? You'll look much better if you take some off!"

"Come here to big brother. I'll give you some money to buy some candy, okay?"

"Want to come play with us?"

"Hehe…"

"Haha…"

Despite all the pickup calls, none of those adventurers dared to actually do anything. Otherwise, those knight watching solemnly from the side would definitely not mind moving in and dropping them to the ground.

Diere ignored those adventurers. She went into a small side street by herself.

Finally, Diere arrived at a graveyard.

"This is…?"

Shien who was following behind Diere saw it. Certain thoughts popped into his head.

Especially when he saw Diere stop in front of a certain grave. He just quietly watched.

Diere just stood still before that grave.

Soon enough, crystalline tears seemed to drip down from beneath her hood.

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