375 Ordering the folk (1/2)
As soon as the elevator hit the ground and its doors fell to the side, I threw the responsibility to the princess and bolted to the gate. With the part of taking care of hero not appearing done, I had to make sure to not only lead everyone away from this dimension before it would collapse but also figure out a way to not only save the rest of the slaves from the Overlord's city but find an excuse and a method to bring all those people away from the island!
While I initially thought that establishing an outpost on this island that could serve as a safe house if anything happened to my own island, the reality explained to me by the golem forced me to change this decision. I had no way of knowing if his shenanigans weren't monitored by those guardians!
What if the deaths of the heroes so far weren't caused by how weak their bodies were as compared to the requirements that this golem's host's mind posed, but by the timely intervention of those pesky guardians? What if this entire place was constantly monitored by them, and the fact of hero actually doing his work before disappearing was just a part of the ruse they were creating in order to keep the local population in check?
Without knowing the answers to those questions, the safest choice for me would be to disappear by myself! I would love to see guardians of both of the areas duking it out with each other whether I was under one or the other group as a candidate for God's warrior!
”Hero!”
”Hero has come!”
”All praise the ancestors!”
The moment I stepped outside of the gate, everyone has fallen to their knees, kowtowing before me. This was actually quite annoying, as not only I didn't like the identity of the hero, their crowded bodies were blocking me from passing through this dense group!
”Everyone, listen up!”
While it pained me to take care of it myself, it didn't seem like I had any choice. If I didn't do something quickly, not only the princess might be unable to lead them away from the dimension, but I would actually have to forcefully push those damned primitives around to just get past them!
”This place will soon be locked as per the will of your ancestors! As someone who doesn't carry even a droplet of the blood of your clan, I didn't receive the blessing, but the mission to help you all out. As such, I need everyone to move out and let me pass! I'm not going to give up on the people that were already enslaved, but my fight with the overlord may cause this island to be no longer habitable!”
Taking a short break to take a fresh breath, I looked around to make sure that everyone paid actual attention to my words, instead of just waiting for me to finish my words in order to keep praising the hero in their religious daze.
Fuck! Coming up with such bullshit on the spot was actually harder than I thought! While it would be easy to just make them let me through if I wanted my story to make an actual sense when they would compare it to the version of the people I already saved, I had to rack my brain for the complicated and vague words, that would force them to fit my story to their reality by themselves.
”You heard the hero! He will lead our folk to the promised land of peace, but not before saving our families that were caught by this evil overlord! Now make way for the hero as he needs to depart for his mission!”
Finally catching up with me, the princess didn't care about her almost fully naked appearance at which quite a few youngsters started salivating themselves, and supported my story with one of her own. Unable to stand by as such a crafty person had to humiliate herself like that, I tore the robe of the closest person standing beside me and threw it at the princess.
”Don't just stand naked like that. People are watching, you know?”
This simple gesture of kindness or maybe greediness - as I already considered that girl my possession in the corner of my soul - lead to a rather unexpected but a pleasant outcome.
”The hero chose the princes and granted her holy robes!”
”The princess will now ascend as the sole priest of the new hero!”