Chapter Two

A Chance Encounter

On this particular loop, I was guiding a young man named Carmine, the son of a knight, to be the Hero. I knew Carmine would be famed for fighting the Demon Lord’s army and defeating many demons when he grew older. Although his sword skills were not quite on Leon the Sword Saint’s level, he had the sort of upbeat and easygoing personality that allowed him to get along with anybody, and he was good at winning people over to his side.

My many uses of World Revision had taught me that being the Hero involved more than just strength. Good character was essential as well. Leon the Sword Saint, Maria the Holy Maiden, and Solon the Great Sage possessed unbridled might, but their personality flaws had caused them to fail.

Leon was virtuous and upright, but he was too rigid with his thinking, making it difficult for him to adapt to new situations. He was strong in a straightforward battle but susceptible to underhanded attacks. In the end, he had died after suffering betrayal at the hands of his fellow human beings.

Maria appeared pure and innocent at first glance, but she was empty on the inside. Her relationships with others were superfluous; in her heart of hearts, she never trusted or relied on anybody. This made it impossible for her to forge any deep camaraderie with her companions, which had ultimately caused her death… Actually, it was doubtful whether she even intended to make friends in the first place.

Solon was lacking in social graces and found it difficult to interact with people, though he did have more common sense than Leon and Maria. More importantly, he was astoundingly clever. With hardly any allies on his side, he’d made it all the way to the Demon Lord through his own wits. Sadly, he was no match for the Demon Lord by himself, and he’d died after the Demon Lord demonstrated the vast power gap between them.

Strength alone is not enough. I need to look at what’s inside a person, too, I’d realized.

This gave me high hopes for Carmine. Not only did he have a knight’s upbringing, he possessed a healthy sense of pride and dignity. Having said that, he was not so lofty as to alienate others. The young man was easy to get along with.

When I’d declared him the Hero, he accepted the call to action with his head held high. His peers cheered for him as well. And yet…

At that moment, Carmine lay dead before me.

He had been attacked by a demon after he left the capital. Before he’d even reached the next town, his life came to an end.

He was not originally fated to die like this. In the other loops, he’d become a worthy knight and fought the Demon Lord’s army.

“Is this my fault…?” I muttered in a daze, staring at his corpse.

There was no doubt in my mind that naming him the Hero had influenced this course of events.

This was far from an unusual sight. The demons were no fools—as word of the Hero’s name spread, he increasingly became a target. Our kingdom was still safe, but the risk grew steeper in countries near the Demon Lord’s domain.

I’d made sure to warn each Hero beforehand, but this did not mean they could live their entire lives in hiding. The Hero was fundamentally a public symbol who put his life on the line to fight the monsters.

Carmine had been lacking as a Hero—when I put it to myself that way, my next course of action was simple. As usual, my chest felt heavy as I reflected on how long this loop had taken. Only six years this time. I wondered if I should restart immediately.

I’m so tired…

My efforts had been in vain once again. My passion for redoing these events had long since worn away. I was merely going through the motions out of obligation. The terrifying thought that I would never escape this eternal cycle had me by its claws.

Having sustained considerable wounds in his fight against Carmine, the demon was still nearby. He had a towering frame, his red skin taut with muscles. Two horns sprouted from his head. He wore enough armor not to impede his movements, and he held an enormous sword in his hands.

This demon appeared to be using magic to heal his wounds. There were some demons who could wield divine miracles. The major god regarded all living beings as equal, and so humans and demons alike could obtain its blessing.

The deity that specifically served humanity was worshipped only in secret in our kingdom. This fact was known to just a select few, and it could not spread any further.

The dark god worshipped by the monsters actually aimed to undermine that deity—the cruel goddess who made me repeat this world so many times over.

As I floundered over whether I should activate World Revision—in other words, kill myself—the demon used a divine miracle.

It was a strange impasse. The demon was not aware of my presence, of course, for the Prophet never showed themself directly. However, I was unable to leave the area unless I manipulated the Prophet’s phantom. I had to attach it to a human, for it did not work on demons.

At length, the demon stood up, having finished remedying its wounds. At that moment, I heard someone approaching.

“Too late, huh?”

It was a flippant voice, devoid of any tension.

The man who emerged looked to be about thirty, with sloppily groomed blond hair. Although he was of average height, his body was very muscled from what I could see through his light armor. The sword he held loosely in his right hand gleamed pale blue with magic. If not for that, he would have looked like nothing more than a bandit at first glance, but there was also something about the way he carried himself that gave off the unmistakable impression of a seasoned warrior.

Three more humans appeared behind him: a male warrior with a spear, a female mage with a staff, and a female priest wielding her rod like a weapon. This was most likely an adventurer’s party.

“Who are you?” the demon demanded as he drew his greatsword, baring his hostility.

“Leonard. But hey, what’s the point in knowing my name? You’re not gonna have a head for too long, anyhoo. Why use it at this point?”

“You think a puny human like you can best me?”

“Hey, I’ll give it a shot if there’s cash involved. You know there’s a decent price on your head, yeah? Makes sense since you’ve killed your fair share of Hero candidates. So who’s that by your feet? The poor kid the Prophet named the Hero?”

There was a pregnant pause, and then the demon said, “Indeed. I killed the Hero. No human stands a chance against me.”

The demon glowered with his red eyes, attempting to intimidate Leonard and his party.

“Bullshit. The Hero got killed by small fry like you? That’s no Hero, just a phony. You got hoodwinked, my guy. And I can prove it to you right now by giving you the second-worst day of your life. First place goes to the day you were born, by the way.”

Leonard shrugged dismissively at the demon.

He was wrong. I’d named Carmine the Hero. He had certainly not been a phony.

“But hey, I should thank you. Now your bounty’s even higher. Gotta say, my luck’s with me today. Sorry about you and the kid, though. This sorta thing happens, y’know? You and him oughtta commiserate in the afterlife. Real tearjerker stuff. Hell, I bet even God would feel sorry for you.”

“Cease your prattling!”

Infuriated by Leonard’s wisecracks, the demon swung his mighty sword.

Leonard must have seen it coming, however, because he swiftly stepped forward, closing the distance between himself and the demon in the blink of an eye.

He’s fast.

The thought ran through my mind as Leonard’s sword traced an arc through the air. Not many warriors were so quick on their feet.

The next second, Leonard swept past his foe. There was a deep slash wound right on the demon’s flank.

The demon attempted to swing around, his face contorted in agony, which only left him wide open for another attack. Having anticipated his opponent’s move, Leonard drove the tip of his sword straight through the demon’s throat.

“No hard feelings, man. Today just wasn’t your lucky day.”

Leonard was standing right next to his opponent, a cocky smile on his lips. When he yanked the sword out, blood gushed from the demon’s neck like a fountain. Slowly, he collapsed to the ground. For all his pride as a member of a hard-to-kill race, he had breathed his last.

“Nice taunting, as usual. You’re a world-class asshole, I’ll give you that,” the spear warrior, a tall man with gray hair, said with a chuckle. There was something languid about his expression.

“It’s good to be a world-class something, Evsei,” Leonard replied, unbothered by the warrior’s sarcasm. “Gets those demons killed and the coins in our pockets.”

“What did I tell you? The kid didn’t have the mettle,” the bespectacled mage declared with a hard tone. The purple streaks in her long black hair were rather eye-catching.

When I looked at Carmine’s body, I saw the red-haired priest offering up a prayer.

“…That so?” Leonard asked. He walked over to Carmine’s remains and started rifling through his pockets.

The priest reproached him with a sorrowful expression. “Leonard, you mustn’t steal from the dead.”

“Hey, I’m digging the dude a grave. Don’t you think I deserve a fee for my time, Nina?” Leonard retorted as he plucked a pouch full of coins from the corpse.

I felt sorely tempted to avert my eyes. This was not something a human being should be doing.

The priest named Nina chided him further. “Leonard, you do know that God is always watching us, right?”

“Guess he is.” Leonard flashed a sardonic smile. “But he only watches. He does jack shit otherwise. No smiting the Demon Lord’s army or lending the humans a hand. I’m so grateful I could cry.”

“Oh, Leonard…”

Nina’s face fell at Leonard’s utter lack of piety.

“It doesn’t matter if God is watching or not. Either way, your actions aren’t exactly praiseworthy,” the mage girl interjected, leaping to Nina’s aid.

“What are you saying, Sophia? No one’s getting anything out of it if we just bury him as is. Insects don’t eat coin. ’Sides, he won’t need money where he’s going. The living might as well use it.”

It appeared Leonard was just as money-obsessed as the stories said. He did not show the slightest hint of remorse even when his party members reprimanded him.

The mage named Sophia let out a long sigh of resignation.

“Oh? Look what we have here.” Meanwhile, Leonard’s eyes fell on the shortsword on Carmine’s person.

It was an heirloom passed down through Carmine’s family, a gift from his father. The sword was of a rare make, and it was even blessed with a magical enchantment.

Leonard drew the sword from its scabbard without an ounce of hesitation.

“Leonard! That has to be important to him. Please, just bury it with him. Or give it to his relatives,” Nina implored, her green eyes welling with tears.

“Nina, this dude wanted to beat the demon. He was willing to be the Hero, even. Wouldn’t it honor him better to use his sword to kill the demons? I’m carrying on his will. Now that doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

Leonard uttered this made-up excuse without batting an eye.

“…Are you telling the truth?” Nina asked slowly.

“’Course I am.”

Leonard shrugged. Frankly, this did little to show his sincerity.

Nina hesitated.

“…Fine.”

Even as her expression clouded over, the red-haired priest accepted Leonard’s excuse. She caved much too quickly—perhaps she was desensitized to his logic.

Unsurprisingly, Leonard’s party members were enablers.

After that, Leonard and Evsei dug a simple grave for Carmine. Nina offered another prayer—a beautiful one with a sonorous, songlike resonance that would have tugged the heartstrings of any listener. I suspected she had considerable skill as a priest.

To my surprise, Leonard closed his eyes too and offered a genuine prayer—even though just a moment ago he had spoken as if he did not believe in God.

I found myself feeling curious about the man. He had none of the traits I’d looked for in any of the Hero candidates I’d chosen thus far. Besides, there was still plenty of time left before World Revision activated of its own accord. Although my failure was already guaranteed, I no longer had the energy to start a new loop. I figured I might as well name this man the Hero and see where it took him.

Not too long in the future, this man was fated to die. He would reach a fitting, ignoble end. If I was going to restart the loop, it might as well be then.

Chapter Three

Arkand

I attached the Prophet’s phantom to Leonard’s shadow and began observing his movements.

After burying Carmine, Leonard’s party headed for a town called Arkand. All sorts of people gravitated toward there. Although it had not originally been a particularly large town, it was close to the battlefront between the Demon Lord’s army and the human nations’ allied forces. This had turned Arkand into a stopover point in the supply chain.

I knew this information secondhand, but I hardly had any opportunity to actually go there myself. Even in phantom form, it was my first time staying there.

In any case, the town was bustling and full of people: knights and soldiers on a break from the battlefield, mercenaries and adventurers looking to earn money by participating in the war, and escaped refugees from the countries invaded by the Demon Lord’s army. Because of the sudden influx of people, the governor struggled to maintain order, and the town was in a rather lawless state.

Chaos—that described it well.

“There’s a lot happening here. Pity it’s a shithole,” Leonard said, his voice ringing clearly through the main street. “The town’s a mess. There’s no order, which I’m guessing ain’t helped by that stream of refugees. You agree, Evsei?”

“They don’t have anywhere else to go. Seems the place grew too quickly to accommodate everyone. There’s not enough to go around.”

In contrast to Leonard’s cheery tone, Evsei’s voice was inflectionless, as if he felt nothing at all from the town’s state.

“Look, people are camping on the road. Bunch of nuisances.”

Leonard was pointing at a family that had clearly fled for their lives from another country. They were huddled under a single large blanket, not moving a muscle. A tiny child cast Leonard’s party an imploring look, but Leonard snorted and pointedly ignored it.

“It happens all the time these days. Nearly every country is using its resources on the war effort, leaving the citizens in the dust. It’s sad,” said Nina, who was walking a slight distance behind Leonard. She gazed at the refugees with pity.

“You’re gonna wind up like this if you’ve got no power or money. That’s the rule. Malika was no different. Don’t waste your pity, okay, Nina? A bit of half-assed help isn’t gonna go far. It’s like throwing water into a desert. Your money’s got better uses,” Leonard cautioned.

“It’s not a waste. Helping the people in front of me eases my soul.”

Nina walked over to the small child who had been staring at Leonard and gingerly placed a silver coin into their hand.

“Make sure not to tell anyone else about this, okay?” Nina said as the child’s face lit up. She was afraid of the other refugees swarming her, which I assumed she had learned from experience.

Leonard clicked his tongue at the sight. “You’re just feeding your own ego. You’re not solving the problem by only helping the people in front of you. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re being a nice person.”

Evidently, Leonard did not approve when his companions helped others. It was a waste of their hard-earned money, he claimed. He also made sure to glower at the other refugees to scare them off from approaching. What a profoundly ungenerous man.

“Their lives aren’t even worth the silver coin. No one with any cash to spare would buy them, not even at a discount. They’re not worth the trouble. Oh, sure, paying up would be easy-peasy, but the transaction? The paperwork? Nobody’s got time for that. Look away for one second, and those guys’ll kick the bucket. I bet you the governor of Arkand’s got more of ’em than he can shake a stick at. He’s thinking of a way to kick them out of town as we speak, I guarantee it.”

At Leonard’s harsh words, I stopped praying and returned my consciousness to my own body.

He had a point. It was fundamentally my duty to save the refugees. But it hurt to hear that from an irresponsible adventurer. What did he know about the pain I had endured?

I sank heavily into my chair and cast my eyes at the floor.

Everywhere you looked, crowds. Our party had to wade our way through all that human clutter to get where we wanted.

Arkand hadn’t been much of a big deal when it started out, but the town had turned into a hub for transporting goods after the Demon Lord’s army attacked. One man’s loss is another man’s gain, as they say. You see it all the time.

Unlike us humans, the demons knew what they were doing. Now that Arkand was an area of strategic importance, a demon had turned his sights on it. Hurting Arkand would give their side an advantage in the war.

Fortunately for the humans, the governor of Arkand had his head screwed on straight. He’d used the town’s profits to hire adventurers for its protection, which let them ward off the first attack. A lot of those adventurers had died, but at least the town survived. So then they’d started recruiting some new blood. The pay was decent, which I’m guessing was because they had funds left over when people dropped like flies in the last battle. They tacked on the extra as hazard pay given the assumption was that half of us would die. If you had the skills to fight the Demon Lord’s army, you could expect the money to come rolling your way.

I smelled an opportunity.

“We’ll take care of that demon, so how about you give us ten times the pay?” was what I said as soon as we met the client at our destination.

Well, sort of. Since the client was the governor himself, he wasn’t about to meet random people off the street. He’d sent one of his underlings—a knight—to us instead.

We were in a room at the guard station. It was a simple, no-frills affair with only a chair and table. Basically, the governor was telling us this was pretty much all we adventurers deserved.

“Ten times? That’s too much. Besides, we can’t treat you differently from the other adventurers,” said the knight. He was at the cusp of old age with white flecks in his hair and had a world-weary look about him.

“But you’re getting ten times the results,” I told him. “We’re seasoned warriors, survivors of the fierce battle at Malika. It’d be unfair to treat us the same as the other adventurers, don’t you think? We’re happy to go right back where we came—if you think you can survive another attack, that is.”

“You’re survivors of Malika?” The knight paused. “I’ve heard of you. Skilled adventurers, but you make unreasonable demands. Looks like the stories were right. You volunteered for that hellhole back then, but now you fight for money?” He frowned.

Nina looked hurt by the knight’s words, while Sophia shot him a glare. Evsei gazed out the window in boredom.

“That was an entire lifetime of charity work right there. Used up every last drop of goodwill. I reckon God won’t mind if I use the rest of my lifespan on earning that sweet coin,” I said, making it clear I wasn’t up for a discount. “But you know about our skills, so that saves us time. You know we’ve never flubbed a single request, right? Our record’s flawless. Leave it to us, and you can kiss that demon commander good-bye. You guys can rest easy, too. And isn’t that what you want? Peace? A good night’s sleep? You might not understand their value during peacetime, but those are the most important things in life. And you know what? It’s not very often you can buy that with money.”

I wasn’t bullshitting there. Peace really was important—and it was a pesky thing, slipping out of your grasp just when you thought you had it. Humans are geniuses at landing themselves into trouble.

“Miss this business opportunity, and there might not be a next time, you know?” I made a cutting motion across my neck with my right pointer finger.

The knight looked like he was swallowing a lemon. He probably wasn’t confident they had the manpower to fend off another attack.

“I’ll consult with the governor,” he replied with a heavy frown.

“We’re leaving here tomorrow. If the monsters attack before then, we’re skipping right out of town. We ain’t getting involved in a battle for free,” I said, standing up.

My party members followed. Nina gave a little apologetic bow, while Sophia had on her smug face. Evsei was as expressionless as ever.

I was pretty sure that’d done the trick. Now to have a drink at the tavern and wait for the good news when I woke up.

I didn’t even have to wait for the next day. That night, I got the word: “You can have ten times the regular fee.”

“The deal went through. Let’s nab that commander,” I told my party members at a table in the tavern. This was our usual routine.

“I picked up some intel, too,” Sophia added. “There were a lot of monsters in the squad behind the first attack. Last time, they retreated before the going got rough for them, so they’ve got plenty of numbers on their side still. Do you really think we can pull this off, Leonard?”

Sophia eyed me with mild condescension.

Her noble upbringing was obvious in the way she acted so full of herself. Behind the attitude, though, there was hesitance. In war, everything came down to strength in numbers—not exactly an adventurer’s forte.

“Sure I do. We’re getting paid handsomely—enough to bet our lives on. And isn’t that what adventurers do?”

“It’s not just about the money. The request itself is important,” Nina told me.

Nina didn’t place much weight on money. She picked jobs based on whether she felt they were worth doing. Pretty priestlike of her.

“You see the worth in it?” I asked.

“Yes, I do. This town has many people. I think we should fight to help them. Certainly not for the money…”

She didn’t seem to have any qualms about the job itself, but she did seem to think it was wrong to ask for too much money.

Evsei did his usual thing. “Your call,” was all he said. It was nice how he didn’t question stuff.

“Hey, it’s not complicated,” I said. “Just think about it from the enemy’s POV. The first attack was a bust, but you definitely left a mark. All you need is one more push and the town is yours. You’re not gonna bring any risky tricks or gimmicks to a fight like that. They’re gonna come at us head-on while the leader sits at the back looking pretty. That’s how this war business works. So all we need to do is target the back. No need to fight every single monster. Simple, right?”

“If it were that simple, war wouldn’t suck for anybody,” Sophia said with a roll of her eyes.

“You know how you make it simple? Be good at your job.” I tapped my arm lightly. “But yeah, you don’t have to sweat it too hard. If things get rough, we can just run. Let’s take it nice and easy.”

After that, we hashed out the specifics of our plan. Once I was done chatting with my party members, the only thing left was to drink my booze and sleep.

But then I got a strange visitor.

“So, what, does this inn come with free ghosts? This their idea of room service?”

I returned to my room at the inn to find someone in an antique robe. A heavy hood covered their face. They probably weren’t human. Their outline was indistinct, like I was looking at smoke.

I was guessing this was either a ghost or a spirit. Either way, it was bad news.

I drew my sword on reflex. My weapon of choice had cost me a pretty penny—it was a magic sword that let me strike enemies even when they had no physical form.

I was just about to land the first hit when…

“I am the Prophet.”

I couldn’t tell whether the voice belonged to a man or woman. Whether it was young or old. The face beneath the hood was completely shrouded in darkness.

“The Prophet? The thing that picks the Hero?” I asked.

“That I am.”

I’d heard about the Prophet. They heralded the Hero who defeated the Demon Lord, according to legend.

I had no idea whether that was true. These days, there were chumps who jumped up and down about how they were “chosen by the Prophet” or some crap. Apparently, Carmine, the young guy who’d been killed by a demon a few days ago, had been one such chosen person. The demons weren’t fools, so they went around killing all those self-styled Heroes.

But I couldn’t care less about who the Hero was. It didn’t mean squat to me.

“So what’s your business with me, O Prophet?”

“I acknowledge you, Leonard the adventurer, as the Hero,” declared the Prophet, as if they were saying something very important.

“Don’t lump that on me. Sounds like a pain in my ass,” I replied without missing a beat. I thrust my thumb toward the door at the back of the room. “Exit’s that way. Could you try taking that Hero search of yours more seriously? Did you live for so long that you felt like trying something different, or what? I ain’t gonna play along with your crazy game. By the way, I recommend Leon the Sword Saint for your Hero. I heard he’s a straitlaced kid, son of a noble, good with a sword, the works. I bet he’d happily strut that Hero stuff.”

“Why do you refuse?”

“There’s nothing in it for me. I’m an adventurer. I don’t work for free.” I shrugged, making a show of the sword in my hand.

“Should you defeat the Demon Lord…”

For some reason, I sensed some hesitation in the Prophet’s words.

“…you are guaranteed to become king. I believe that is a sufficient reward.”

“Why the hell would I want to be king? That’s my most hated occupation. You sit there all hoity-toity, doing jack shit. Besides, I don’t wanna marry some princess I’ve never even met. I bet you anything she’s a selfish bitch with a massive ego. Who’d pick a chick like that out of love?”

For some reason, this overwhelming aura of hostility came oozing out of the Prophet right after I said that. The heck?

“But the world will end unless the Demon Lord is defeated. Can you live with that?”

“You think that’s my problem? Leave the thinking to the king and the nobility and all those bigwigs. It’s not up to a random adventurer like me.”

“Leonard, the world will end if nothing is done. But you have the power to change the world. I will not say you should do it for humanity. Defeat the Demon Lord for your own sake.”

“My sake? What the hell would I get out of it?” I could feel the blood rushing to my head. “That right there, Prophet, is the crap a dumbass would spew. Twisting people’s arms by saying, ‘It’s for your own sake,’ when it’s actually for your own selfish gain—you’re a real lowlife, you know that? Get the hell out. Never show yourself in front of me again.”

The Prophet probably sensed my anger, because they vanished like a haze of smoke.

I had to hand it to them. Disappearing right when the going got tough—that was one of life’s most necessary skills.

I stayed ten days in Arkand. It didn’t feel so great when word of our party’s fees spread around town. We soon became known as the greedy adventurers who asked for ten times the going rate.

“It’s all your fault we’re being treated like villains,” Sophia complained to me, although it was entirely on her that our rep had worsened after she’d blasted some guys who picked a fight with us. She did not go easy with the magic.

Nina went around helping the refugees whenever she had time to spare. She probably thought I’d tell her off if I spotted her, because she did it on the sly. She’d gotten busted, though, when people had started saying she was like the Holy Maiden because of her good deeds.

Whenever Evsei wasn’t training with me, he killed time drinking. People tried getting a rise out of him at the tavern, but he made fools of them without even saying a word. He was the only warrior there who had survived the battle at Malika. The guys in the pub couldn’t put a scratch on him even if they ganged up on him.

We whittled away the time until eventually, our long-awaited guests arrived.

“It’s the Demon Lord’s army!”

The shout came from one of the watchtowers the governor had set up with his money.

We went up onto the ramparts and saw the army for ourselves.

“A hundred or two hundred people aren’t going to cut it. There’s a thousand on their side,” said Sophia. “It looks like the monsters came out from over there. They’re all lumped together—there’s no cohesion in their movements.”

Sophia had used magic to enhance her vision and quickly discern the enemy’s strength.

It was genuinely impressive how efficient she was. Normally, she just talked a big game.

The fact that the Demon Lord’s army wasn’t unified was great news for me. If the monsters were trained to work as a team, there wouldn’t be any gaps for us to exploit.

“Find the demon,” I ordered. “Look carefully—there might be more than one.”

You couldn’t use sniping spells multiple times. It only worked when the enemy was thinking they were the ones on the attack. Soon as they were on guard, you were finished. We had to kill the commander with the first shot.

“You forgot to say please,” said Sophia, wrenching her gaze away from the Demon Lord’s army.

I corrected myself: “Please, Young Miss, commence thy search.”

Granted, she was way too old to be called “Young Miss.”

“…There’s one demon. He’s sitting at the back, looking pleased with himself. The green body made him easy to spot. I’ve looked from corner to corner, but I don’t see anything else. You can tell from how energetically the monsters march if there’s a demon around. There’s no mistaking this one.”

From my experience, demons pretty much never took to the field simultaneously. The one exception had been in Malika, when the Demon Lord’s army had mobilized on a massive scale. The strong demons came in a swarm, which said something about how important that battle was to them.

A lot of humans had died in that skirmish, but the demon side probably suffered the same scope of casualties. It was obvious the demons were important to the army. They wouldn’t use multiple VIPs to take a single town.

“Right, then let’s go with the plan. The residents should be evacuating from the gates on the other side. We’ll slip into the crowd and take that demon down.”

It was the governor’s decision that the residents leave before the battle started. Not that this was unusual or anything. What else were you going to do with the noncombatants? It was crazier not to evacuate them, although to be fair, there was no shortage of crazy governors.

We hopped aboard the line of evacuees and skipped our way out of town.

Some people shot us dirty looks for slipping out the gate with the residents, but you can’t get hung up on every little thing in life.

“They don’t have anyone watching?” I asked Sophia.

“Nope. I can’t sense any monsters or magic around here. We should be free to move,” she answered promptly, scouting with precision.

Carefully, we extricated ourselves from the residents. Some of them gave us uneasy looks. They’d probably been expecting us to protect them if the worst came to worst.

I’m not a fan of people who rely on others to live. As I shot those guys a mild glare, I started moving toward the rear of the Demon Lord’s army.

Their side had been advancing across what you could reasonably call a flat plain, but the grass was tall enough that it was pretty easy to move through without exposing yourself.

The only thing left was to wait for them to attack. Their defenses would be at their lowest then.

The demon wasn’t an idiot, of course. He would keep a light squad of monsters around himself. I could only hope he kept the numbers as low as possible.

The last thing to do was pray. I did that every time.

The demon was convinced of his victory. In the last skirmish, he had succeeded in inflicting considerable human casualties. This time would be a repeat performance, right down to the number of monsters at his disposal. The humans had no way of defending themselves.

The demon gave a shout when he spotted the town the humans called “Arkand.” He communicated this not through words, but with a war cry designed to inflame the monsters’ lust for battle. It was, in other words, a command to attack.

The monsters bounded forward, as if to vent their frustration at being made to march against their impulsive natures. The monsters followed the same god the demons did. Although they possessed low intellect, they instinctively disliked the humans for adhering to the opposing god.

The demon in question was mainly in charge of goblins, oft described as the weakest of monsters. They were about as tall as human children, but what they lacked in strength, they made up for in numbers. They were a force to be reckoned with in large-scale battles.

The demon eyed the ten monsters near his person. They were hobgoblins—creatures that looked like goblins on the surface but possessed powerful physiques superior to a human male’s. They were also fairly intelligent among their kind and excelled at using weapons, which made even a single one of them more than a match for the average human warrior.

Much like the other monsters, the hobgoblins had started springing into motion at the demon’s shout, but then they quickly restrained themselves and stayed put. The demon nodded in approval. He knew the clever humans would be after his head, and the hobgoblins were there as a safeguard. He saw no chance of failure even if, against all odds, the humans managed to draw near.

The demons were the chosen ones of their god. They had nothing to fear from humans.

Accompanied by the hobgoblins, the demon casually sauntered toward the town. The battle had already started. Although the humans fought back desperately, they were at a clear numbers disadvantage. It was impossible for them to hold out.

The ogres pounded at the gates, even as arrows pelted their bodies all over. Ogres prided themselves on their strength; they were humanoid monsters with horns, and they were distinctly larger than hobgoblins. They ate humans, which made them especially feared by their prey.

The end was swiftly approaching. Before long, all the monsters except the hobgoblins were swarming the town. This posed no problem to the demon, however, for the humans didn’t possess any means of counterattacking.

Hmm? thought the demon.

Right then, he sensed a spike in magic. He felt this whenever someone was targeting him with a spell.

“O shadow born from the darkness, shield me.”

Chanting a simple incantation, he cast a barrier. A human’s capacity for magic came down to the individual, but all demons could use magic except for fringe cases.

Not a second later, a boom rang out, and a powerful spell collided against the demon’s barrier. Someone had tried to hit him with explosion magic, it seemed. The barrier was not enough to cover everything, which meant two hobgoblins perished from the attack.

So there’s a mage around. Do they have people lying in wait?

Magic did not come without drawbacks. It was possible to pinpoint the caster’s location to a certain degree by sensing the direction in which the magic spiked. This mage was situated in the opposite direction from the town.

They waited until the monsters left the area.

The demon thought this was a logical move. Although the town’s defenses would have held up longer if they had made their move sooner, it seemed his attackers had been willing to use the town as a decoy in order to get to him. It was an effective strategy to target the irreplaceable commanders of the Demon Lord’s army.

Naturally, the demon was not about to wait for a second spell. He pointed in the mage’s direction, and three hobgoblins sprinted off. Meanwhile, he drew his own sword, readying himself for the assault.

It was inconceivable that the mage was the only one hiding. There had to be melee fighters around.

The demon made the other five hobgoblins stay on guard against anything in their surroundings, only for someone to come lunging at them from above. The warrior plunged his spear right through a hobgoblin’s head.

With a single clipped shriek, the monster’s life came to an end.

The demon immediately attempted to rally his troops to encircle the warrior, only for another man to emerge from the grass and pick off a hobgoblin with a sudden thrust of his sword. Three hobgoblins remained.

The three that had gone after the mage did not return. The mage must have been defeated—the demon surmised this from the fact that he was no longer being targeted by magic.

With the demon included, it was now four against two. The situation was not too dire. He took on the swordsman himself while he directed the three hobgoblins to take down the spearman.

Demons preferred one-on-one battles if the situation allowed it. It was a testament to the confidence they had in their strength.

He swung his sword fiercely, as if attempting to bludgeon his foe. Many demons wielded giant swords in order to exert their strength. Very few humans, even those with excellent technique, could block a blow from a demon’s greatsword.

This particular swordsman chose to dodge at the very last second.

Then I just have to close in, the demon thought.

However much humans devoted themselves to the blade, they could not make up for the strength gap. If the demon used brute force to overpower his opponent, there would be no room for any fancy tricks to come into play. In fact, he was already transitioning into his next strike as soon as he saw the warrior dodge. This time, he aimed for the head. There was no opportunity for evasion.

The swordsman did not bother trying. Instead, he moved forward at the same time—faster than the demon. Anticipating his opponent’s next move, the man crouched and swung his sword. One blade sliced air, while the other cut through flesh.

“What foul play!” the demon roared on instinct as pain seized his leg.

Chivalry did not exist among the demons, but their battles still had unspoken rules. The general idea was to attack head-on with magic or brawn. A frontal collision would produce a clear victor, leaving no room for doubt as to who was stronger. As far as the demons were concerned, nothing was more important than establishing the power hierarchy—which was why they frowned upon sneaky tactics like aiming for the legs.

Fortunately for this demon, his wound was not deep. On the other hand, it was no longer possible for him to stand firm. Using only his upper body strength, the demon swung his mighty sword. Its range was long, making it still plenty formidable. But the warrior was uncowed; instead, he started searching the demon for openings. Whenever he found one, he came in close, delivered a strike, and then backed away—over and over again.

The demon’s body steadily racked up wounds. Thanks to the initial leg injury, he could not move how he wanted to. When he glanced toward the hobgoblins, he realized he had drifted away from them somewhere along the line. The spearman had lured them off.

The demon was about to call for help, but then he thought better of it. Prideful as he was, he could not bring himself to seek help from monsters he regarded as his inferiors.

He wanted to at least use magic. However, the swordsman must have read the demon’s mind, because he kept up the relentless assault, never giving his opponent enough time to chant spells.

This human knows much about our kind.

The demon sensed keenly that this warrior had approached the fight with a thorough understanding of demon psychology. The man picked his opponent off the way a hunter caught their game—by controlling the encounter from start to finish.

Finally, at long last, the swordsman came at the demon head-on. Their eyes met. At this point, the demon’s body was covered in wounds, and his feet refused to obey him.

There was something like pity in the warrior’s eyes.

Underneath it, however, the demon could sense deep, withering animosity.

“That took long enough.”

I only let out a sigh when the demon was at my feet, not even twitching a muscle.

Demons were a more logical bunch than humans, but you could still see something like pride in the way they fought. They weren’t unbeatable if you exploited that, provided the power gap wasn’t too huge.

If the demon had teamed up with even one of his hobgoblins, I would have had a way smaller chance of winning. But I’d gotten Evsei to take on the three hobgoblins specifically so I could fight the demon one-on-one. Part of that was my own pride speaking.

That said, it hadn’t been an entirely clean win. The demon’s sword scraped a bit of my side, which was a pretty serious injury by itself. I was keeping the wound closed by pressing some cloth against it, but to be perfectly honest, it was hard to walk.

“Right then, time to ride to the rescue.” I wiped the sweat off my body and stood up.

It was simple enough to kill one hobgoblin if you struck it unawares, but they were generally on the more powerful end. Taking on three of them at the same time was pretty much undoable. Evsei was keeping them at bay thanks to the range of his spear, but he was probably sweating bullets on the inside.

It was about time for Sophia and Nina to get back. The two of them had lured the hobgoblins away by running off into the distance. The monsters were pretty slow runners because of their weapons and armor, while Sophia and Nina were quick on their feet since mages and priests weren’t encumbered by anything. The women took advantage of that to maintain the perfect distance.

Evsei, Sophia, and Nina would drag the bodyguards away, and I would kill the demon. That was how our strategy went down.

“…Phew, I’m beat. Hey, Leonard, you do know a mage’s job is to use their mouth, not their feet, right? Running around is what a horse is for. Are you sure you know what our occupations are?” Sophia grumbled at me as she slumped on the ground in exhaustion.

“Even mages need stamina. Good if you can do a bit of everything.”

“Oh, then why don’t you try using magic?”

I shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”

“I’m exhausted, too. The hobgoblins might not have been fast, but they never got tired of chasing us. I started praying, ‘Help me, God,’ while we were running.”

Nina chimed in with a rare joke. She would have been buffing her physical capabilities with a divine miracle, but that took its toll on her.

I’d finished off those three hobgoblins with a back attack.

Meanwhile, Evsei sat on a rock, his spear leaning against his shoulder. His head slumped down, and he didn’t say a word. Walking such a difficult tightrope for ages must have wiped him out, both physically and mentally.

Once the rest of us had joined the fray, Evsei’s opponents went down without any trouble. That had all been part of our plan, too. Now we were dead tired, though. Nina had healed me a few moments ago, but the pain in my side still hadn’t gone away.

“Nina, I’m gonna call upon your prayers. Cure our fatigue, would you? If we keep hanging out here, the town is toast.”

The death of the demon didn’t change the fact that Arkand was in dire straits. We needed to get back to town and let the monsters know their leader was gone. Which meant we needed to not be immobile from exhaustion. It was nice that we’d beat the demon and all, but there was a very real chance there wouldn’t be a town to collect the reward from soon.

“Leonard, that wound on your side is serious. I healed it, but I’m pretty sure you’re still in pain, right? I think you should rest a little longer…,” Nina suggested, fussing over me.

“Worry about the reward, not me. We’ll run out of time if we don’t get our asses moving.”

I forced a smile, gritting my teeth through the pain. Nina stopped putting up a fight after that.

While she chanted her prayer, I glanced at the dead demon’s face. He sure looked ghastly, like an actual vengeful ghoul. It probably pissed him off that my cheap tricks had taken him out.

I had to cut off his head. Nothing spooked the monsters more than a decapitated leader.

“Don’t look so sour grapes, my man. You won’t see me go out in a blaze of glory, either.”

I was fully prepared for a miserable death.

The demon’s head worked like a charm. The monsters took one look at it and scampered. It made me glad we’d pushed ourselves to get back.

That said, the town was only hanging on by a thread. The old knight in charge of the city’s defenses handled our payment smoothly; his reaction was a mix of gratitude and anger. Acting on the governor’s behalf, he thanked us for killing the demon, but the guard force had suffered major casualties because so much time had passed since the town came under attack. Half the knights, soldiers, and adventurers had died in the battle.

“I don’t suppose you could have beaten the demon sooner,” the knight said.

He had a mournful look on his face. I reckon he’d lost someone close to him. Meanwhile, not a single one of us had died; he must’ve found that hard to accept. He probably wanted to say something like, “Why weren’t you willing to put your lives on the line?”

“Our job was to kill the demon, not save the town. We did what we were asked,” was all I could say. People weren’t capable of much, at the end of the day. Maybe the Hero would have been more self-sacrificing, but I sure as hell wasn’t Hero material.

The governor generously paid what I’d asked. The death of the demon commander meant peace for the town, however short it would last.

Interlude

Sophia

I used to run a little apothecary.

Apothecaries required a lot of general knowledge, which made them a popular profession among mages. The income wasn’t that great, but it was enough to get by.

The world was under threat by the Demon Lord, but I was indifferent to it all. I just focused on my peaceful, insular life. But then one day, this blond man came to the store. He looked like a total knave, but judging by his muscular physique, I got the impression he was a skilled warrior.

“Give me a healing potion. The good stuff.”

His order was vague, but I didn’t mind that from a customer because it meant I was free to choose.

I set down a somewhat pricey but effective potion on the counter.

“Will this do?” he asked, dropping three gold coins on the counter before I could even tell him the price.

My first thought was to question what my eyes were showing me. But I readjusted my glasses, and the coins were still made of gold. There was no mistaking it.

“…This is too much,” I finally spluttered.

A mage’s potions were expensive, but not that expensive.

“That so? Well, okay, then. Instead of change, how about I ask you a question or two?”

“A question about what?”

Not knowing what the man was getting at, my fingers closed around the magic staff underneath the counter.

“Don’t be so skittish.” He opened his hands to show there was nothing there. “I just wanted to learn a bit about you. Some folks told me you used to be a skilled mage. Got me wondering how you wound up in an apothecary in this neck of the woods.”

From time to time, people invited me to join their parties and serve as their mage, but I always turned them down.

“My life story’s not that interesting,” I told him. “It shouldn’t matter much to you.”

“Hey, I’ve got time. You don’t have any other customers around right now anyway. Why not consider it a bit of service? I’m not trying to hit on you or anything.”

True, I wasn’t getting customers at dusk. Although this man wasn’t my type in terms of looks, he did have the sort of roguish smile that endeared him to people. Looking at him, I found myself thinking, Why not? To be honest, three gold coins were nothing to sneeze at. It was a decent tip for telling a single story.

“Fine. I can tell you a bit about my past.” I picked the coins up from the counter. “I might not look it, but I used to be a noblewoman. A proper young lady, you know? I had all the servants and the fancy manor and everything. I could do anything and everything I wanted, although now I’m just a mage who runs an apothecary. Not that my story’s rare. Plenty of former nobles become mages since it costs money to learn magic. It’s not exactly accessible to commoners.”

“So it’s a job for the rich, huh?” The man’s mouth curled into a sardonic smile.

“Yep. I was pretty good at it, you know. I learned the ancient language for magic straightaway, and I cast my first spell at age six. Everyone showered me with praise back then. They called me a genius.”

The man shrugged. “Happens to everyone when they’re young.”

I giggled. “Yeah. But I realized as I grew up that you don’t actually need talent as far as the nobles are concerned. Especially if you’re a girl. They just wanted me to be a prim and proper wife and have kids. My parents kept telling me I was so great, but at the end of the day, I didn’t actually need to be good at magic. I just needed to pass on the talent to my children.”

“Well, that stinks.” The man frowned.

“I know, right? It sucked. So I left home, figuring I’d make my way on my own merit. I had it in my head to become an adventurer.”

“You make yourself sound like a sheltered girl throwing a tantrum.”

The man laughed again. His expressions were animated, showing he was engaged in the conversation.

“That’s exactly what it was,” I said. This guy was easy to talk to. “So anyway, I pulled some strings and got into an adventurer’s party. There aren’t many mages around, so I found an opening straightaway. Not to mention that I was a genius.”

I chuckled in recollection of my ignorant, reckless youth.

“So then I was an adventurer for a while. Just the ordinary routine of it took some getting used to—being a pampered noble girl, I had no idea what it was like to live as a commoner. It was pretty fulfilling since my party members complimented me a lot. All I had to do was point my staff at the monsters and blast them with my best spells. Just between you and me, I’m a big fan of attack magic. The exhilaration is like nothing else. Those were fun days.”

“The prime of your life, as they say.”

He’d described it perfectly. Those had been the days when I shined my brightest.

“But then that battle happened. You know the one,” I said. “From ten years ago.”

“Malika.” The man’s face took on a note of seriousness.

“Yep, that’s it. That pesky Demon Lord’s army invaded the Kingdom of Malika. The humans were having such a nice time—why’d they have to rain on our parade?”

“…That’s for sure,” he said, his voice hard.

“Me and the other adventurers joined the volunteer army. I convinced everyone by saying, ‘Adventurers ought to fight for the sake of the people!’ I got carried away since my life was going so well at that point. And I suppose a part of me also wanted to make a name for myself in that battle and flaunt how great I was to my family and the nobility, even though I’d said I was over them. I was ambitious like that.”

Deep down, I felt insecure about the fact that I’d gone from nobility to a commonplace adventurer. Perhaps I’d seen that battle as a way of wiping the slate clean.

The man silently urged me to continue.

“The rest, as they say, is history. We fended off the Demon Lord’s forces, but almost everyone in the volunteer army died. It was hard to call that a victory. I was lucky, but my party members weren’t. So now I’m done with fighting. That battle was enough for a lifetime. Hence why I’m a humble apothecary now. And that’s it for my story—was that enough to satisfy you?” I teased.

“No…” To my surprise, the man shook his head. “I want some specifics. Particularly about the battle at Malika. How did you survive?”

His face was smiling, but something about his gaze bore deep into me. It was hard to say no.

“It’s not something I like to talk about, but…” I closed my eyes and sighed. “Fine. I haven’t earned those three gold coins yet.”

Besides, there was something I wanted to tell someone.

“In that battle against the Demon Lord’s army, we had the better position at first. Sure, there were hordes of monsters, but with the adventurers working together, it was nothing we couldn’t handle. I used my best spells to mow hundreds of monsters down, and I’m just one person,” I began. “But it didn’t matter how many we killed—they just kept on coming and coming. They wouldn’t stop their charge even when they knew for a fact they were going to die. Fighting enemies like that wears you down, both physically and mentally. Eventually, the warriors’ blades started to go blunt, and the mages ran out of mana. I was no exception, of course, since I was blasting my strongest spells. And right when we ran out of energy, the demons showed up right under our noses.”

“I’m guessing that was their plan from the start. They’re cunning bastards. That’s how they operate.”

This man seemed to know a lot about demons. I wondered if he was an adventurer.

“Yeah. We underestimated the demons. Just like that, we were on the back foot. But we had something to place our hope in.”

“What do you mean?” the man asked.

“There was this adventurer in the volunteer army. His name was Luke, and everyone knew he was the strongest warrior in the squad. He never gave up the fight. Gosh, I can’t even remember how many demons he took down by himself. Everyone got their courage back when they saw him. And we all faced off against the demons.”

“If this were a play, that’d be around the time you’d make a comeback.”

The man had a sad smile on his face. He knew how this story ended.

“Yeah,” I said. “That would have been nice, but sadly, it didn’t pan out that way. Guts alone didn’t cut it. Our stamina and mana didn’t come back. Luke’s valiant efforts amounted to nothing. He was merely one adventurer. Just another name on the list of casualties.”

Even now, I saw it in my dreams—the sight of all my former companions dying one by one.

“A demon almost killed me, too. I couldn’t do anything but chant the spells I’d learned as a kid. I had no energy left. I tried my hardest to run, but I got out of breath straightaway. The demon caught up to me so easily. I was terrified…but then I was saved. By a female mage. She wasn’t a warrior or anything, but she was so quick to get between me and the demon. She covered for me while I was a sitting duck and duked it out with the demon. They ended up taking each other out.

“When she fell on top of me, all covered in blood, she said to me, ‘Stay like this until the battle ends.’ Her face was more motherly than my own mother’s. I guess she must have pitied me since I was still just a little brat back then. I was so young…”

I smiled faintly in self-deprecation. The man didn’t smile back, though.

“…Did you know her name?” he asked quietly.

“Rei. She was a distinguished mage, and she was married to Luke. When he saw her die, he let out this mighty howl and threw himself at the demons. I guess his wife’s death caused him to self-destruct. And he never came back…all because of me.”

It was definitely my presence that had triggered Rei’s death, which meant Luke’s fate was probably my fault, too. That thought weighed heavily on me. Even if other people forgave me for it, I would never forgive myself.

“Rei’s blood seeped through my clothes; anybody would have assumed I’d been killed. So yeah, I managed to survive by playing dead. Not exactly a heroic tale.” I let out a heavy sigh. “Is that enough to satisfy you? It’s totally dark outside now. Time to close up shop.”

At some point during the tale, the sun had completely set.

“Time flies,” the man said. “It’s already so late.”

He looked outside. I wondered if he’d finally decided to head back where he’d come from. At the same time, I felt like I’d gotten a load off my chest after telling him my story.

“Here’s the thing: I’m an adventurer,” the man said suddenly as he glanced back over his shoulder at me.

I wasn’t particularly surprised since I’d figured as much. Oh, I thought, so he’s here to recruit me after all.

What he said next, however, took me completely off guard.

“Your family asked me to look for you, Sophia.”

“What—?”

This guy knew about me. He was here at my parents’ request. In my mind’s eye, I could see their kindly faces. They weren’t bad people by any means. But still…

“They’re good parents, still thinking of their daughter even now. They’re looking to find you a husband if you’re still single. Not a bad prospect, you know?” There was a faint smile on his lips.

“You think I want to return to the nobility?”

I tensed, my magic staff in hand. I wasn’t about to change my mind after so many years.

“So did you want to be an apothecary?”

“…”

I couldn’t answer.

No, I’d never set out to be an apothecary. I’d wanted to live as an adventurer. But I didn’t have that right anymore, not after I’d killed Luke and Rei.

“The thing is, I’m looking for a party member. A mage who knows her stuff. Wouldn’t hurt if she’s a looker, too.” The man shot me a flirtatious wink; weirdly, I didn’t feel creeped out by it. “If I tell your folks where you are, they’ll come find you, and your fun little stint as an apothecary will be over. But if I tell them I couldn’t locate you, then you can keep doing what you want—as an adventurer. What’s it gonna be?”

The man pressed me for a decision.

“There’s one thing I want to ask you,” I said. “Why me?”

“I used to be friends with Luke and Rei. I was in their party.”

My breath caught in my throat. I hadn’t known a thing about Luke and Rei’s other party members.

“And I was the only survivor,” the man went on. “I need allies, Sophia. And I want you to be one of them.”

Was this man still willing to fight, even after experiencing that battle?

“I…don’t have any right to be an adventurer anymore.”

The knowledge that I was responsible for the deaths of Luke, Rei, and all my party members kept me bound to that day ten years ago. I didn’t have it in me to continue being an adventurer all by myself.

“Oh? So you are going back to the nobility?” The man broke into theatrics. “Deep down, you want those frilly dresses and sweets? Doesn’t sound like a bad life, sitting pretty and making other people do the fighting. No sweat involved. But I gotta say, it’d be a bit pathetic for you to be a pampered young miss at your age. I don’t exactly recommend it.”

…Ha, I see what he’s doing. He’s trying to give me excuses. After I abandoned my life as an adventurer.

“Rude. Watch your tone with me, you scoundrel. I hate rude men, you know.”

“Oops, excuse me for my peasant upbringing.” He cleared his throat. “Oh, beautiful young lady, will you please accompany me? Let us sally forth once more to that barbarous battlefield.”

The man extended his hand to me in an exaggerated display of noble-like pompousness.

“Weeeeell,” I said, “you might have a point. I’ve forgotten all that noble etiquette. Could be tough for me to go back to being a prim and proper lady. I don’t have much of a say there.”

Perhaps I’d been waiting for this—for someone like him to take me away.

“And besides, I have no choice but to go back to adventuring after a rotten man threatened me.”

I moved away from the counter and took the man’s hand. It was the first hand I’d touched in a long while—it felt hot against my palm.

“So what is your name, good sir?” I asked in an affected tone.

“It’s Leonard. Nice to have you on board, ex-pampered young lady.”

The blond adventurer winked again.

Chapter Four

Erdelia

“We’ve got our next job,” I said to my party members at the tavern table. “West of here, there’s a country that got occupied by the Demon Lord’s army. There’s this merchant stranded there ’cause he bit off more than he could chew. He wants us to get him and his three family members out. If we get a hundred gold coins for each person, that means four hundred in the bag.”

“They’re stuck in the Demon Lord’s territory? Doesn’t that sound dangerous?” Nina said anxiously.

The areas under the control of the Demon Lord’s army had bigger monster populations, and they were more active, too. A bit tricky for humans to get around.

“It only got occupied recently, so it shouldn’t be too bad yet. It is hard to slip out, though. If we go help them out, we’ll be angels as far as they’re concerned.”

“I didn’t know angels these days were strapped for cash,” Sophia quipped with a wry chuckle.

“But of course. Even God’s gonna prioritize saving people who have money.”

I shrugged. If faith alone could get God to save you, we’d have world peace by now.

“Anyway, we’ll need a horse and cart to get four people out. Do we have to arrange it? Or do they?” Sophia asked, pushing up her glasses. Her experience as an apothecary meant she was even finickier about income and expenditure than I was.

“We arrange it. They’ll reimburse the cost.”

“I see. Well, since the client’s paying, let’s have him travel in style. He’ll have a carriage fit for a king.”

Sophia sneered like a witch. She was clearly itching for an expensive carriage on the house.

“We’re not going to a ballroom at a castle,” I said. “We need a sturdy horse, not a fancy one.”

“You just don’t get it, Leonard. Those good-looking horses that cater to the nobility are plenty sturdy, you know? The priority is appearances and safety.”

Despite coming from nobility herself, Sophia apparently held a lot of disdain for her former company.

“If you say so. But we don’t want to stand out, or else the monsters will crash our ballroom. Best to keep things plain and simple.”

“Fine. We’ll get a magnificently average horse, the comfiest mount you could ask for. You’ll feel just like a load of cargo inside the wagon.”

“Hey, we’re looking for safety over comfort. We’re not fancy escorts. We’ll get things over with quicker if we do treat the merchant and his family like cargo.”

Our job was to help the merchant’s family escape with their lives intact. Service came second.

“If we’re going, then I suppose we should be quick about it. I expect they are hoping for a rescue,” Nina said in a benign tone. She was genuinely anxious for the merchant and his family.

“Mm-hmm. Our job isn’t slaying monsters. Their corpses won’t pay our commission. It won’t hurt to pick up the pace.”

Nina frowned at my dark joke, but she stood up, prompting the others to follow suit. Evsei finished his drink and reluctantly rose to his feet.

“We leave tomorrow, then. Pack your bags for a pleasant journey,” I said.

And with that, we went our separate ways.

That night, after I bought stuff for my travels, I found someone waiting in my room at the inn.

The Prophet. The person who heralded the Hero whenever the Demon Lord appeared.

“You again? Sorry, I ain’t the age for bed-sharing anymore. Go pick someone else to baby.”

The Prophet showed no reaction to my quip. They said just one thing:

“Do not head west.”

“Nothing gets past you, huh, Prophet? Think you’d be better off as an info broker?”

I had no idea where they’d heard it from, but apparently this weirdo knew where we were headed before we’d even left. Kinda creepy.

“Go east. Fulfill your calling as the Hero.”

Compared with the invaded lands of the west, the east didn’t have it so bad. Basically, she was telling me to head east, where there was still some hope, instead of west, which was beyond help. Sure, there was some logic to that.

However…

“East or west, it doesn’t matter to me. I go where the coin is. Oh, but don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to work for the kingdom or the world or whatever, no matter how much money’s in it. You have to be crazy to work for a larger cause.” I tapped a finger against my temple. “Sure, people might respect a self-sacrificing personality. Not that it does a dead person much good. The Hero is the epitome of that mindset. Flatter someone, call them a ‘Hero,’ and they’ll go and fight the Demon Lord for you. You’re so grateful you could cry. And when the Hero’s dead, do you think it’s enough to just put up a statue in his honor? My ass. If you want to save the world, fight the Demon Lord yourself.”

I took the finger I’d pressed against my temple and pointed it at the Prophet.

“You’re exactly the same, Prophet. Before you make people into Heroes, you should go out there and fight. Don’t just sit on the sidelines giving orders like a smug bastard. The way you only think about using people, I’d bet my life you’re a noble or a member of the royalty. Gives me hives.”

The Prophet looked slightly shaken by my words. Maybe I was right on the money.

Their body turned hazy like a ghost, and then it melted into the darkness of the room.

“I’m no goddamn Hero. Your Hero ain’t here,” I muttered at the spot where the Prophet no longer was.

Evsei and I drove the horses. We were taking it in turns with Sophia and Nina to hold the wagon reins. There weren’t any weirdo drivers around willing to escort us into occupied territory.

The group we were meant to rescue was hiding out in a village not too far from here, but life’s not so easy that I completed the job without a single hitch. When I spotted an obstacle in the path slightly up ahead, I signaled to my party members to slow the horses.

“A giant, huh?” Evsei said as he brought the horses in.

Giants were as stereotypically “monster” as you could get. Although they looked pretty hopeless with their bald heads, stooped backs, and sloped shoulders, they were absolutely massive both height-wise and lengthwise. About as big as a decent-size house. Their sluggish movements meant they were weaker than their size made them seem, but it always sucked when they were used to block roads.

“There’s goblins by its feet, too,” I noted.

There were thirty damn goblins where I was pointing, dancing around in an obvious attempt to provoke us. Being with the giant must have emboldened them. They were a bunch of wimps, normally.

“Hey, Sophia, burn ’em down,” I called out to our bespectacled mage just as she had stepped out of the carriage and was stretching.

“Don’t you mean, ‘Please burn them down’? You’re not one for people, are you, dear leader?” she grumbled as she readied her staff and closed her eyes. “Flaming red beacon, O spirit of fire, heed my chant. I call upon thee, roaring flames, and the secret wisdom of the ancients…”

Sophia’s purple-streaked black hair fluttered in the wind as she chanted her spell. She was speaking in the ancient language. It was a very difficult language to decipher, and I obviously had no clue what she was saying. A person’s talent for magic was determined by how well they could understand the language, and I had no desire to learn.

The tip of Sophia’s staff glowed. The goblins didn’t seem to have caught on yet. They were pretty unfazed about the fact that they were guaranteed to roast nicely.

The next moment, a tornado of crimson flames swirled around the giant and the goblins. The latter didn’t even have time to scream before they got burnt to smithereens. The giant didn’t die in one shot, predictably, but the burns left it in pain all over.

“All right, you finish it off, Evsei,” I said.

Evsei nodded silently. Then he and I kicked the horses into high gear.

The giant noticed us approaching and started swinging its club. It wasn’t fast, but you could kiss this world good-bye if you got a faceful of one of those.

I dismounted my horse and drew in close. As I dodged the club, I gave the wielder a bunch of small cuts with my sword. Evsei watched from a short distance away, but as soon as he saw that the giant’s attention was completely directed at me, he sprang into action.

Leaping into the sky was one of Evsei’s special moves. Meanwhile, he was defenseless in the air, so he needed me to be a distraction.

Evsei rose just above the giant’s head at the peak of his jump and plunged his spear down. Gravity did the rest. Any humanoid creature—giant, demon, you name it—had the same weakness. A spear through the head settles fights quickly, if you can believe that.

The giant was dead. It didn’t even twitch.

“Are you hurt?”

Nina promptly came running over to us, concern written across her face.

I gave her a thumbs-up. “Nah. It was a cinch.”

Meanwhile, Evsei pulled his spear out of the giant, using the momentum to twirl around in midair and land on his feet. There wasn’t a scratch on him.

Man, I wish I could do that, I found myself thinking every time.

With the giant done and dusted, we reached our destination without any further drama. The residents of this village had escaped to other countries after the Demon Lord’s army invaded, leaving the place a ghost town.

We soon got in touch with the merchant’s family hiding in town. So far, so good.

One problem did spring up, though. The merchant said he wanted us to help a village child escape.

“One child isn’t much extra fuss, right?” was his argument.

“What, you think the kid’s life is worth so little?” I shrugged. “We risked our skins to save you guys. Imagine you fell down a valley. We’re the ones helping you up. If we take on more than we can handle, we could fall right down with you. Sure, it’s dangerous, but hey, you’re paying us, so I guess we can put in the effort. But now you’re adding a kid on top of everything. You don’t think he could drag us down?”

“But he’s just a little boy! I thought you were skilled adventurers,” our client insisted. He seemed like a compassionate guy, as far as merchants went.

Nina had a look on her face that said she wanted to help. Evsei and Sophia each shot me a glance to signal, “It’s up to you.”

This was my compromise: “I want fifty extra coins. That’s a half-price discount.”

“You’ve already taken four hundred coins, and now you want more?!”

I was trying to meet him in the middle here, but the client still looked pissed off.

“Hey, it’s your funeral,” I told him. “We’re gonna head out. You never know when a demon’ll show up. If you don’t wanna come with us, whatever. The deal falls through, and we don’t get paid. You guys will probably die, and nobody’s happy. We can follow your original request and see your family out safely. Or you can pay extra, and the kid comes with us. So what’ll it be?”

I wasn’t lying about there not being much time. The Demon Lord’s army was bound to notice straightaway that their big old giant was down for the count. If the demons came out in full force, we were toast.

Sad as it is to say, the demons weren’t as brainless as humans. If the royalty and nobility learned a thing or two from them, the war would probably be going better right about now.

“…I’ll pay the fifty coins.”

The merchant said this with a huge scowl on his face, but hey, we’d gotten there in the end.

“Excellent. You get what lives are worth. We have ourselves a deal. We’ll protect the kid with the understanding that he’s worth fifty gold coins. Now get in the wagon—time’s a-wasting. It’ll be a little cramped since there’s an extra person, but you should be good if you ditch the luggage. And hey, what’s any of that worth next to a human life?”

I pushed for a quick departure.

We squeezed the extra child into the wagon with the merchant’s family, and then we set off—not down the road we’d come from but farther west. The merchant was trying to get to Erdelia, which was a hub of commerce. The road we’d taken to get here was safer for obvious reasons, but this was the nature of the job. Not much you could do about it.

Adventurers were drifters by trade. No one batted an eye when they crossed national borders. We would only backtrack to Arkand if I was taking a job in that direction.

That all depended on us making it to Erdelia alive, of course.

Not even an hour had passed when we saw a massive blockade of the road—the Demon Lord’s army. They sealed off the main roads in the lands they occupied to stop the humans from moving freely, which was the obvious thing to do in wartime.

These guys were thorough. No surprise that the humans were struggling in the war.

“What do we do? Go around them?” Evsei asked me as he approached the enemy squad on his horse.

“Nah, there aren’t too many of them. Only one demon. The monsters will swarm us if we pick the wrong road to get on. We’ll go with a frontal assault. ’Sides, they might hear us out if we talk to them.”

Demons could speak the human language. Some of them were surprisingly intellectual, despite their macho appearance. Actually, there was a nonzero number of times we’d resolved a conflict by talking, but the chances were pretty slim, admittedly.

The commander of this outpost had assembled a motley crew of monsters: goblins, ogres, and other faces I knew better than my own parents’ at this point.

I gave the signal to stop the carriage and called out “Get ready” to Sophia, who was in the driver’s seat.

“On it.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than I hit the road alone on my horse. I got just close enough to the Demon Lord’s army that I could still slip away, and then I raised my voice:

“Why, hello there, Mister Demon. Think we can put a rain check on this pointless fighting? We’re adventurers, you see. Pretty good ones, I’ll have you know. There’s only one way things’ll go down if we fight, and I reckon you won’t like the answer. But see, settling things that way is more time than it’s worth. Don’t you guys think that ‘eradicate every human that tries to pass through’ order was a bit overblown? Why not look the other way for a bit? Rest those weary eyes. Won’t take long, I promise. About as much time as you’d take for a piss. None of us get hurt, and nobody dies. It’ll be the fifth-best day of your life or thereabouts. What do you reckon?”

The purple-skinned demon, who towered a full two heads over me, gave me a nasty glare and slowly pointed his finger at me.

Then all the monsters under his command rushed at me in unison.

The negotiations had failed. You saw stubborn pricks like this guy in all walks of life. I promptly turned my horse around and scampered back to my party members, where I saw Sophia camped in the middle of the road, chanting a spell.

The same moment I galloped past her, the spell reached completion.

A bolt of lightning streaked out of Sophia’s staff and zipped straight at the monsters pursuing me, burning them to smithereens. The negotiations might have failed, but the part where I served as a decoy had still worked. Sophia’s spell took out half the enemies right then and there.

“All right, let’s do this thing.”

I turned the horse’s head around one more time and drew my sword. Evsei readied his spear.

This was where the warriors came in.

I galloped at the monsters, which were standing bolt upright from the sudden spell, and cut them down. Evsei went wild with his spear, too. In times like these, it was important to have the momentum. It meant we were able to dispatch the monsters handily even with all the numbers on their side.

We whittled them down pretty much straightaway, but then the demon at the back let out a shout—not in the human language, but a beast-like roar. Up until then, the monsters had been fearful, though at least they had been putting up a fight. At the demon’s shout, however, they instantly scattered. It must have been some kind of signal to retreat.

It was a pain in the ass to readjust my stance, so I ruthlessly slashed the monsters when their backs were turned to me. I wanted to take out as many as I could while I had the chance, but it was actually pretty hard to inflict a fatal wound on a target that was running away. In the end, more than half the monsters that were still alive at that point got away.

The demon came to the fore instead. His massive frame was covered in custom-made armor, and he had giant swords in both hands. I don’t know whether it was because he placed a lot of weight on his technique or because full body armor inhibited finer movements, but his joints weren’t covered, exposing his bare skin.

So he was a dual blade wielder, huh? It was hard to use a greatsword with one hand if you had a human’s arm strength, but it was no sweat for a demon. This one was even bigger than the one at Arkand. He seemed plenty scary, but not unbeatable if Evsei and I tag-teamed.

The demon seemed to account for that, though. He still had a lot of underlings left. He made them surround us, which meant their next move was either to attack our weak spots or target the wagon. Sophia and Nina weren’t experts at close-range combat, leaving the wagon in a tight spot. Either Evsei or I would have to back them up. Basically, one of us would be taking on that ripped, hulking demon without any help.

My gaze darted to the side, making contact with Evsei’s.

“This is where the leader comes in, right?” he asked.

Dammit, he’s passing the buck to me.

“Well, shit, I only just realized I’m not cut out for this. You know, I always thought you were a born leader, Evsei.”

“Sorry, gotta honor my dead dad. ‘Never be a leader,’ he said. I’m leaving this one to you.”

Evsei, whose dad was perfectly alive and well, backed away without even waiting for my response.

To be fair, I’d seen that one coming. We had our roles: He kept the monsters at bay, while I dueled the demons.

Seeing his opponents reduced to one single human, the demon smirked. He was probably thinking he had this battle in the bag.

I readied my longsword. The blade gave off a light blue shine, a sign of the magic stored inside. It was a quality item, expensive enough to buy a house. My plan was to sell this off one day and earn myself a nice, laid-back retirement.

Well, that all depended on whether I could beat this demon in front of me.

“So you’re finally taking the stage, eh, Mister Demon? You’re not looking so hot. Are you okay? Maybe you should rest up at home till all that purple goes away.”

A cheap taunt, but it seemed to work. The demon saw red and swung the greatsword in his right hand in a vicious arc. I did a light backstep to dodge it, but then he followed with a sweep of the sword in his left hand. I brought up my sword to block it, planting my feet firmly on the ground. The demon was just as strong as he looked; it left both my arms kind of numb.

Having swung at full strength, the demon was now leaning heavily toward the ground. I hopped onto his greatsword and launched myself at my opponent’s neck, aiming to cut off his head in one fell swoop. The demon brought up the sword in his right hand to block, but my decapitation attempt was just a feint. I was actually aiming for his left arm. Twisting my body around, I brought my sword down on the arm joints left exposed by his armor.

Blood gushed from the demon’s arm, the same red as a human’s.

“Gaaaaaah!”

With a startled cry, the demon sprang backward.

Not about to let him off the hook, I delivered a few more swings. I didn’t make as much of a dent as you’d think thanks to his armor, but the slash wounds were nothing to sneeze at. His left arm hung limply down at his side, now useless.

I wish I could say the battle ended right then and there, but life wasn’t so simple.

The demon’s mouth gaped wide in fury—I could literally see the quivering inside his throat. I jumped to the side. The next moment, blue flames erupted from his throat, covering the spot where I had been just a split second ago.

He’d brought out the breath attack. The effects were unknown, but they didn’t look great for your health, that’s for damn sure. I wasn’t about to give it a try.

Then the demon started swinging the sword in his one good hand like a pole. Blocking that with my sword was bound to break my arm. I got out of range, but then he tried another breath attack. Yikes, couldn’t a man catch a break around here? Keep my distance and he spewed his breath, get in close and he whacks me with his greatsword… What a pain in my ass. He would have been nothing special if my party members were around, but I was going to break a bone by doing this solo. Taking out his left arm in my first attack had been the right call.

Glancing to my rear, I saw the remaining monsters heading for the wagon. Even with Evsei there, my party members seemed like they were having trouble fighting and protecting the wagon at the same time. Sophia and Nina were keeping the monsters in check with their magic, but the wagon was almost completely surrounded. The merchant and his family were pale as ghosts. Things would probably go south if I didn’t swoop in to help.

It’s about time to get rid of this purple freak, I thought, just as the demon started gearing up for another breath attack. I dodged to the side after drawing his focus… Nice. I was getting the hang of this. His right arm took a break whenever he launched his breath, which was just the opening I needed. I’d close in, the greatsword would come flying, I’d jump backward, and then he’d use the breath—that was the pattern. Which meant…

I slashed at the demon. His sword bore down on me with pure brute force, no skill or finesse behind it. I waited until the very last second to dodge. Then, just as he was getting ready for his breath attack, I closed in. If I messed up the timing even slightly, those blue flames would roast me into a meal.

At that moment, with his mouth still gaping wide, a dumbstruck look crossed the demon’s face. If he’d spewed his breath without caring about what I did, I might have gone down with him, but that moment of hesitation ensured his downfall.

My sword cut right through the demon’s throat, freeing both red blood and blue flames from his flesh. His head caught fire from his flames, but I could tell from the way his mouth warped from his silent scream that he was still clinging to life. Humans were like squishy little bugs next to these guys.

His greatsword did a violent sweep, just as I expected. It was a wild, artless swing, but getting hit with that was instant death regardless. They never made it easy, huh?

I jumped out of the way, then closed in on the demon one more time.

“Rest in peace. I barely knew ye.”

I used up all the strength I’d reserved to relieve his head from his shoulders.

The wagon’s luggage compartment was built to be sturdy. The hood of the roof was the sole broken part, which made it easy to see what was happening. However, the family inside refused to open their eyes. The merchant clutched his little daughter, and his wife held on to their even younger son. They were all frozen to the spot.

The relentless roaring outside spoke eloquently to how dire their straits were. Only one passenger, a boy who appeared about ten years old, gazed vacantly out the back, his listless eyes taking in the monsters.

At the front of the wagon, a female mage and priest were attempting to ward their enemies away, but they seemed to be multiplying if anything.

“If these people give up and run away, we’re done for.”

The boy was afraid of how his life was in the hands of other people.

At that moment, his gaze made contact with that of a goblin, a bald-headed creature with skin that looked as if it were made of clumps of dirt. Its bloodshot yellow eyes exuded malice and cunning.

There was a rusted shortsword in its hand.

When it noticed the boy, the goblin let out a screech to its friends and pointed with its finger—as if to say, “Get him next.”

Banding together, five goblins advanced, slowly and carefully so as to avoid attracting the spellcasters’ attention. Wicked grins crossed their faces.

The boy held his breath and darted his eyes around, but there was nowhere to run. When he saw how the merchant and his wife sought only to shield their own children, a wave of sadness came over him.

The goblins were coming. Peering out the front of the wagon, the boy saw the mages and the spearman were desperately fending off the monsters. They weren’t about to come to the boy’s aid anytime soon, and there was no way to escape, either.

At last, the goblins reached the luggage compartment, their faces contorted in sadistic glee. The wagon creaked. The merchant and his family finally opened their eyes, trembling in fear.

The boy’s eyes met with the merchant’s. There was a vague sense of reproach in the man’s gaze, as if he wanted to say, “Why don’t you go sacrifice yourself for us?”

Before the boy knew it, a goblin was right there, raising its sword. The inevitable prelude to death.

The next moment, however, a sword suddenly sprouted from the monster’s stomach. Then, slowly, the malicious dwarf of a man collapsed.

“Whoa there, did you get a scare, Mister Fifty Gold Coins?”

A swordsman emerged from behind the goblin. His lips were curled in a smile, but that smile didn’t reach his eyes. His whole body was covered in blood, and his breathing was ragged. It was easy to see from his expression that he was tense.

“You’re injured…,” said the boy.

Some of the blood came from other sources, but it was clear as day that the swordsman himself was wounded. The boy hadn’t seen him until just this moment, which told him the man must have forced himself to sprint down here.

“What, this? Nothing our priest can’t heal. She needs to earn her keep, too. So yeah, these wounds’ll get patched up straightaway. No biggie.”

The boy could only nod repeatedly.

There was no more trouble after that run-in with the Demon Lord’s army. We arrived safely at Erdelia—another job in the bag.

The client seemed very unhappy about the whole thing, which I’m guessing was because the monsters had gotten all the way inside the wagon, although the kid who’d tagged along did thank us. But hey, you can’t eat gratitude, not in this economy. The kid was worth fifty gold coins, so of course I was going to rescue him. It wasn’t anything more complicated than that.

Erdelia was a bustling town, even with the Demon Lord’s invasion of the country next door. To be fair, Erdelia’s economy was probably booming because of the invasion. It didn’t matter who you were fighting—there was always money to be made from war. I’d seen this happen enough times for it to get old.

Anyway, me and my party members treated ourselves to the best grub in town, drank ourselves silly, and slept in the finest beds at the inn. After so many nights of camping outdoors, it was bliss. Then, after multiple days of R & R, we looked for our next job at the tavern’s noticeboard, the usual haunt for adventurers.

It would have been nice to get something with decent pay in the direction we were headed and which happened to align with our own goals. But those things don’t just fall into your lap.

As I was scouring the noticeboard from top to bottom, though, I happened to spot a certain job in the very corner. It was everything I wanted—was this what they meant when they said “heaven-sent”? Some of the smaller details were off, but all in all, it was the perfect gig.

I ripped the notice off the board and made a beeline for the tavern owner.

That night, the Prophet showed up again.

“Why did you choose a job without pay?”

The job I’d settled on would take me out farther west to a region called Gastan. Slaying monsters was the game. Apparently, the wagons supplying goods from Gastan were under attack. The war effort meant grain shortages, so soldiers had been hired to guard the supply chain, but they had all been wiped out.

The rewards posted were low for the danger, which meant that, frankly, the job wasn’t worth the effort. For obvious reasons, not a single other adventurer had taken it on.

“Oh, this will make money. Depends how you bargain for it. I’m guessing those folks in Gastan are in a spot of trouble. They’ll raise the reward if we push ’em.”

“There were better-paying jobs for your trouble.”

“Well, color me surprised. Are you picking our jobs for us now, Prophet? You gonna hook us up for work in our niche?”

The Prophet was completely unmoved by my sarcasm.

“Do not go west,” they said.

“Where we go is our business.”

“…What are you hiding?”

“Hiding? Kinda rich coming from you, Prophet.” I pointed at their hooded face. “Are you really one to talk when you conceal your identity and manipulate people from the shadows?”

“That is…”

The Prophet’s form flickered. Did their mental state affect their magical projection (or whatever it was)?

“Let me just say this, Prophet. I don’t trust you one bit. There’s nothing to prove that you’re even who you say you are. Got that? Now go on, scram. You want a Hero, go look somewhere else. There’s plenty of celebrities out there who fit the bill, you know. Leon the Sword Saint, Maria the Holy Maiden, Solon the Great Sage, you name ’em. Why won’t you choose them? Why me? Your decision-making is clearly out of whack.”

I drew my sword and ran it through the Prophet.

“Answer me, you son of a bitch. Who are you?”

I was talking to a phantom, but my sword did have magical powers. If I cut it, that could have an effect on whoever was on the other side. The possibility wasn’t zero.

Whether I was dealing with the real Prophet or a fake, I didn’t want them following me. Hopefully, if I gave them a real scare, they’d stop doing that thing where they vanished only to come back and haunt me all over again.

“I am…no one.”

To my surprise, the Prophet didn’t fade away. But they didn’t have their usual solemn tone. They sounded uneasy, somehow.

“You’re no one? Not the Prophet?”

“I am the Prophet. But I…”

It was impossible to tell from the Prophet’s face whether they were a man or a woman. Nor could you figure out how old they were. But just from the vibes around them at that moment, I could tell you one thing: They were growing hesitant about something.

The Prophet fell silent, not even reacting to the sword stuck in them. Then, after a while, their body disappeared.

They were going to appear again. That much I knew for certain.

Interlude

Nina

Back then, I was engaged as a priest in relief work for the refugees. When the Demon Lord’s army invaded, thousands of people were driven out of their homes. More and more people fell into this plight with each passing day, and somebody had to help.

When I was first starting out, support came from a variety of different nations, but as the war worsened, the countries had their own problems to worry about, and fewer of them lent a helping hand. We ended up in a precarious state—no country accepted refugees, and there weren’t enough rations to go around.

Such was my situation when two particular people approached me: a man and a woman, working together.

The man glared churlishly at the refugees, while the woman rushed over to me, evidently concerned about the sheer numbers. I had no recollection of the man, but I did feel as if I had seen the woman somewhere before.

“Are you Nina?” the man asked me. He had unruly blond hair, and though he wasn’t particularly tall, he did have a toned physique. He looked at me with stern, gruff eyes.

“I am, yes. And you are?”

“I’m Leonard.”

“And I’m Sophia.”

The woman was very pretty. She wore glasses and had purple streaks in her black hair that made a very strong impression. The male refugees were looking at her with interest.

“May I ask what business you have with me?” I said with polite coldness.

“Aww, chill out. We just wanted to have a little chat.” The man named Leonard flashed me a flippant grin.

I could see where this was going—I’d experienced it more than a few times already. The war had depleted the number of available priests, and so every country’s military was keen to recruit them. I was either being scouted for an army or for an adventurer’s party, where priests often earned money by taking on jobs like a mercenary. These two looked like a classic example of the latter.

“If you’re inviting me into your party, I must refuse. Right now, helping these people is my biggest priority, and I don’t have the means for anything else.”

I glanced toward the people sitting nearby.

Society scorned these individuals, calling them refugees. They had nowhere to live and nothing to eat. In so many ways, they had been left behind.

“Are you an idiot or what?” Leonard’s eyebrows creased into a heavy frown. “You might think it’s hip and cool to stick with these guys, but they’re at a dead end. There’s no helping them. They’ll just drag you down with them. What’s the point in doing that?”

“Because I want to do it. I don’t need any reason.”

“So you’re in it for yourself.” Leonard shrugged, a gesture of derision. Later, I would learn that this was something of a habit of his. “When it comes down to it, you’re not really trying to help them. You’re just reaching out to whatever’s in front of you, trying to feel good about yourself. Whoop-dee-doo.”

He did not mince words. There was some truth to what he’d said, which hit me in a sore spot. I had never met anyone who would open a conversation on such an awful note.

“Could you please leave? You are being disrespectful,” I said, turning my back to Leonard.

“Wait up a moment! Could you hear me out a bit?!” the woman named Sophia added hurriedly. “Do you remember me at all? We’ve never spoken directly, but we fought together in Malika ten years ago…”

Her words jogged some vague memories. When I’d participated in the volunteer army at Malika, there had been a young mage girl around my age. She had worn glasses, I recalled, and she’d had beautiful long black hair. That being said, I’d had no idea what’d happened to her at the battle since we’d been stationed at different posts.

“I remember you, yes. I see; so you lived…”

A tear ran down my cheek, unbidden. It was my first time meeting a survivor from that battle. Everyone said the volunteer army had been completely wiped out, and so I had always thought I was the lone survivor.

“It’s not worth getting sentimental about. I only survived because I played dead. I was a total disgrace,” Sophia said, as if it were an amusing anecdote.

Yet her eyes had welled with tears, too.

“I apologize for what this bozo said,” Sophia added, slapping the back of Leonard’s head.

Leonard scowled as he nursed his head. It made for a bit of a funny scene, and it got me thinking that perhaps he wasn’t quite as horrid a person as I’d imagined.

“Want to swap stories for a bit? Preferably somewhere not so public,” Sophia suggested, conscious of all the eyes on her.

Fair enough, I thought. We were the center of attention for the refugees at that moment.

“…Very well,” I said. “Come this way, then.”

I invited the pair to my worn-out tent.

“To cut to the chase, we’re here to invite you to our party,” were the first words out of Sophia’s mouth when we were in the tent.

“As I said before, my hands are tied. I’ve been with these people this whole time. I can’t just go off by myself out of nowhere,” I explained.

“You’re staying with them even though you know they’re beyond helping? Aren’t you just running away?”

Leonard’s attitude was harsh for someone who was asking me to be his companion.

“Shut up, you.”

Sophia tried to whack his head again, but he dodged it that time. It was endearing how much they acted like an old married couple.

When she hit nothing but air, Sophia clicked her tongue in irritation. “Anyway,” she continued, “I understand your position. But can we at least talk for a bit? I’ll tell you my story, too.”

And with that, she started recounting her past.

She told me she was a former member of the nobility. That she’d resented it and become an adventurer. That a mage named Rei had saved her life at the battle of Malika. And that, when she’d later struck up work at an apothecary, Leonard had dragged her away.

“Time stopped for me at Malika, and I found myself in a rut. This guy might be an asshole, but he gave me a reason to move forward again. He’s not as bad as he looks, you know. At least, I think.” Sophia gave me a cheeky smile.

“I see what you’re saying. I’ll share my story, too, then. I believe I can shed a bit of light on what happened to Luke afterward.”

At the sound of Luke’s name, Leonard’s expression turned solemn.

“I was a merchant’s daughter, so I grew up in a fairly affluent household. My parents were very nice people and devout believers of God. Because of their influence, I believed from a young age, too, and I prayed every single day. At a certain age, I learned the formal prayer method, and I discovered my hands would glow when I clasped them together. The light was very faint, but it was a divine miracle nonetheless. It meant I had it in me to become a priest.”

“Everyone and their dog gets the affinity handed to them on a platter,” Leonard commented grumpily. Sophia glared at him.

“You’re right,” I said. “I was blessed with my talent. Did you know I was in the running to be the Holy Maiden? That’s my one little brag.”

The current Holy Maiden was a girl named Maria. We had never met, but I imagined she was a purehearted and magnanimous soul.

“Why did you, a Holy Maiden candidate, go to the battle at Malika?” Sophia asked, cocking her head. She had gone because she’d been an adventurer, but that wasn’t the case for me.

“Because I felt it was the right thing to do. I believed it was God’s will that I fight the Demon Lord’s army and help people.”

“God’s will, huh…?” Leonard’s expression was downright nihilistic.

“So, Nina, how did you survive Malika?” Sophia asked.

I let out a single exhale. “I knew you’d ask that. It was a terrible battle, as you mentioned before. The monsters even came to our healing station, and I had to ward them off with my rod. That’s when I saw Luke. He slashed through his enemies like lightning, overpowering everything in sight. A single slash of his sword killed a monster every time. Even the demons seemed intimidated by him. Except…”

I glanced carefully at Sophia.

“…Rei was always with him, but when she suddenly disappeared, he went on fighting alone.”

Sophia made an audible gulp. This was the part she wanted to know—what had happened to Luke afterward.

“Most of the other adventurers had fallen by that point, but he kept up the fight all by himself. He really looked like the Hero. Sadly, he couldn’t stay fighting fit the whole time without any help. Between all the blood from his enemies and his own wounds, he was red from head to toe. He looked as if he was barely standing. It occurred to me that he needed my help. I had to make my divine miracle reach him…”

My voice trailed off.

“And then what happened?” Sophia pressed.

“Nothing happened.”

“What?” She was surprised.

Leonard grimaced.

“My legs were frozen, and I couldn’t move,” I explained. “At some point—I don’t know when—I’d become trapped by my fear of the battlefield. I was frightened stiff of the demons. I couldn’t step forward because of that. And so I left Luke to die.”

This was the reason I’d never gone to battle again. In truth, I was a coward who couldn’t lift a finger when it mattered most.

“It’s not your fault. You and I were both young.”

Sophia’s sympathetic words seeped into my heart. She understood how I felt because she had been through something very similar.

“So…how did it go down for Luke?” Leonard asked in a hard tone.

He had said he was once a member of Luke’s party, and so it made sense he was interested in learning the man’s fate, what had happened in that bloodbath. It was understandable that Leonard had lost track of Luke back then.

“He threw himself into the enemy lines all by himself. I suspect he was targeting the commander. It was the sole way he could have won, given his disadvantage. All I could do was watch him.”

“I see…”

Surprisingly, Leonard didn’t reproach me. If anything, he seemed downcast about the fact that he hadn’t been able to join Luke.

“And what happened to you, Nina?” Sophia asked out of concern.

“A demon mercilessly cut me down. The slash wound reached all the way from my shoulder to my torso.” My fingers ran down my body, tracing the scar.

Sophia’s eyes boggled. “How on earth did you survive that?!”

“The one thing I have talent in is divine miracles. After the demon cut me and left me there to bleed out, I must have unconsciously healed my wound. Apparently, it had already closed up by the time the royal army arrived at the battlefield to rescue me. The cleric who came along with the army had a lot of praise for me. ‘I can see why you chose to go to Malika out of your own free will, given your skills,’ he said.”

I shook my head.

“He couldn’t have been more mistaken. I’m a filthy girl who saved herself and no one else. I did nothing when Luke died. And that’s why I help the refugees now, because I want to do at least something for other people. I couldn’t possibly join someone’s party and fight.”

I closed my eyes, signaling an end to the conversation.

Leonard ignored that, however.

“What stupid logic is that? If your legs were frozen that time, then just move them next time,” he said, sidling up to me. “You failed once, and now it’s over? You’re not even going to try a second time? What kind of perfect life did you have?”

He was very blunt and to the point. I could feel his anger, as well as his sadness.

“Why are you so upset about that?” I asked.

“I’m not upset. I’m just pissed at people like you who run from their problems. Stand up and fight again, Nina. Are you really gonna settle for this?”

No, I wasn’t happy about settling. I knew I was being a quitter. Back then, I had genuinely wanted to fight for other people. And I couldn’t apologize enough to everyone who had died because I had turned my back on this world in its wretched state. Luke’s name was first and foremost among them.

When I stepped out of the tent, the refugees’ eyes were on me.

They had all accompanied me here, and now they were looking at me with distinct unease.

“…Even so,” I said finally, “I cannot abandon these people.”

Those were my true feelings as well.

“Even with you around, the only thing they can do is run. You’re not getting anywhere,” Leonard told me. “If you wanna save them all, then it’s more constructive to go out there and earn it with your body.”

My eyes widened in shock. What on earth was this person trying to make me do?

Sophia shot Leonard an affronted glare as well.

“No, wait! That’s not what I mean!” Leonard hurriedly insisted. “I’m just saying you need money to save people. You can buy people’s lives with cash. That’s why you should go back to adventuring.”

“I don’t see how earning high commissions from adventuring will save people.”

Besides, it only paid so much, certainly not enough to cover the expenses of this many refugees.

“Ten times.”

Leonard broke out into a fearless grin.

“I’ll earn ten times more than those other adventurers. And that’s not all. I’ll use the pay to save every last one of these guys.”

In a way, he was like the devil on my shoulder.

Chapter Five

Gastan

Gastan was famous for its grain exports, making it a significant source of supplies for the neighboring countries—and a prime target for the Demon Lord’s army.

As soon as we arrived, we headed to our client, the village chief, to negotiate. His house was only a little fancier than what the other villagers had. The thatching was simple, and even the chairs and table we sat at showed their age. It was clear he didn’t have it easy.

“Your reward ain’t gonna cut it,” I said to the village chief. “No knight or adventurer would take on this job, you know. We’ll clean up those monsters for you if you give us ten times more. What do you say?”

The Demon Lord’s army still hadn’t invaded Gastan proper. But the supply route, an important source of rations, was under threat.

You had to hand it to the demons. They knew how to get under the humans’ skin.

“Unfortunately, our village doesn’t have that much money at the moment. We’ve been selling our grain cheaply to serve as rations, and it hasn’t left us with much to spare.”

He might have been the village chief, but the man was dressed no differently from the other old farts in this town. His face and hands had the deep creases unique to people who had worked nonstop for many long years.

He didn’t seem to be lying. This village was obliged to shortchange itself “for the sake of the war effort.” I’d seen this song and dance many times. You could push all kinds of BS on people if it was for a great cause.

To be fair, though, if the humans lost the battle, the Demon Lord’s army would reach the village and burn the fields down.

“No big deal. You can pay me in grain. I’ve got connections with merchants. I’ll get them to buy it at a higher price than what the state’s gonna offer.”

“But that could make it impossible to secure the amount of supplies the country needs.”

This old guy sure took things seriously. He was the ideal peasant as far as the nobility was concerned.

“That’s easy. We just need to kill the monsters while we’re transporting the goods. Then we can take the grain. Solves everything, right?”

The simple, honest village chief had a look of abject disbelief on his face. “You mean to swipe the grain for yourself?!”

“You’re not keeping that grain either way. If we don’t guard it, the monsters’ll nab it. Do you want to keep getting attacked forever, or do you want to close your eyes to a bit of backroom dealing? I’ll leave the decision up to you.”

The village chief clutched his head in his hands.

I was totally the bad guy here. Oof.

“Give it a good think, Chief. If you turn down my offer, those monsters are gonna keep coming after that grain when it’s on the road. That makes nobody happy, other than the monsters gorging themselves on it. Besides, I bet they think it’s a pain in the ass to sit around waiting for the wagons, not even knowing when they’ll pass through.”

“…What do you mean?”

There was a dark look in the village chief’s eyes.

“I’m saying the monsters could start attacking Gastan directly. The soldiers aren’t gonna be at their best on an empty stomach. The Demon Lord’s army would be free to do whatever they want. They might change tack from attacking the individual wagons to burning all the fields. That’s what I’d do if I were them. Who wouldn’t?”

“I, well, that is…”

The chief had no words to refute my pessimistic prediction.

A short bit of silence later, the weary old man agreed to my proposal.

That night, the Prophet reared their head in my room once again. No matter how many times I swatted them away, they kept coming back for more. They sure didn’t know when to quit.

“Why did you ask for an unjust reward?”

The Prophet tended to be neutral with their word choices, but I could tell from their tone that they were pissed.

“Unjust? Nah. It was fair compensation. If you’ve got a problem with that, go do the job yourself. Pro bono. I’m sure the village chief would jump for joy. The kingdom would, too. The only ones losing out would be you and the monsters. Not a bad thing for humanity if the nonhumans duked it out.”

“…I do not possess that power.”

“So, what? You’re telling us to do what you can’t do yourself, and at a rip-off? Is your job to be a priest who gives cheap sermons or what?”

“I cannot be a priest. I do not possess the right.”

There was a slight tremor in that statement.

“Well, aren’t you full of excuses? It’s not about what you can and can’t do. Just go out there and try. You can save the smug lecturing for after that. Who’s gonna trust someone who’s all talk?”

“…The Prophet serves to guide the Hero. They cannot do anything else.”

The Prophet’s voice was getting weaker and weaker.

“Don’t be so presumptuous. Stop discounting yourself. You might be some weird ghost thing, but you could become human if you put your mind to it, eh?”

I shrugged. I wanted to cut this uncomfortable conversation short and go to bed.

“Then you could be an adventurer, find some party members, and go take down that Demon Lord. You won’t live long, and I can’t say I’d recommend it, but hey, isn’t that your idea of a productive life?”

“I am no ghost. I am a human, much like you. I cannot become an adventurer at my age. I cannot do anything.”

The Prophet took my jest seriously, and now they were getting all defensive.

A human, though? Was the Prophet really a human? That piqued my interest a little.

“What are you saying? If you can send illusions all the way out here, then you’ve gotta be an incredible mage or something, right? Isn’t there anything else you could be doing?”

“No. This is the only thing I can do.”

“You serious?! That’s your job, just showing someone illusions and propping them up as the Hero? You know I’ve said I’m not gonna be the Hero, right? You’ve made one hell of a mistake with your choice. So does that mean humanity is doomed or what? Man, you’ve gotta take this job of yours more seriously. Seeing as you’re a human too and whatnot.”

I was getting the impression that this Prophet was the real deal. They wouldn’t admit something like that to a skeptic.

Either way, I didn’t have the strength to defeat the Demon Lord. I was past thirty years old, and I knew I wasn’t getting any stronger. Not to mention that I didn’t fit the Hero template in any sense of the word.

“I am taking this seriously! I’ve done it so many times already! Over and over again!” the Prophet screamed.

And with that, they disappeared.

Anyway, it seemed I was finally allowed some shut-eye. But huh, I wondered what they’d meant when they’d said “over and over again.”

The next day, me and my party hid inside one of the wagons departing from Gastan. We felt like cattle being shipped off to a slaughterhouse. Then again, we were headed straight for a pack of monsters lying in wait—same difference.

“Did we have to hide?” the normally mute Evsei asked in annoyance.

The wagon was a no-frills affair, meant for carrying grain. I could see why he didn’t want to stick around in here for too long.

“Gotta take precautions. Even the monsters prefer the easy jobs. They might keep their distance if there are decent fighters like us out there on guard duty.”

“You’re a stickler for the weirdest things, Leonard,” Sophia griped. “You really would do anything for the money.” She didn’t seem too keen on riding in the wagon, either.

“Absolutely. You can’t do anything if you don’t have money. It’s what makes the world go around. Think about it, Sophia. You’d rather marry someone with money, right? Don’t tell me you’d pick based on personality, of all things. You’re too old to be a dreamer now.”

“There’s no point in a man with money if he’s senseless with it,” Sophia joked.

That hit me where it hurt. Nobody had nice things to say about my money-management skills.

“I’d pick someone based on the quality of their character,” Nina chimed in, which was unusual for her. Normally, she kept her mouth shut for the most part. I guess she had a lot of opinions about marriage.

“Well, how about that? Fits me to a T,” I said. “I reckon I’ve got the purest heart in the land.”

Evsei flashed a wry grin. “What part of you is pure?”

Sophia snorted. “If you’re pure, the rest of the world’s a tar pit.”

“Fair enough…” Only Nina had a straight face. “I’m sure you’re pure of heart, Leonard. Unfortunately, I have no interest in marrying you.”

As she spoke, Nina smiled like a sweet and innocent little girl—definitely not like the thirty-plus-year-old woman she actually was.

I was taken so off guard that I couldn’t muster a reply. Just then, however, the wagon came to a sudden stop.

Evsei clutched the spear sitting on the wagon floor. “Have the guests arrived?”

“Let’s go,” I urged.

I jumped off the cargo we’d been using to conceal ourselves and out onto the road.

The wagon had stopped in the middle of a forest path. To be fair, most uninhabited places were forests and wastelands. There were about ten other cargo-filled wagons lined up nearby. This didn’t look like a monster attack.

Past the wagon up ahead, I saw a fallen tree blocking the path. The Demon Lord army was probably up to its usual tricks. Being a common strat didn’t make it any less effective.

The wagon drivers were dithering about in hesitation.

“Aren’t those scary monsters gonna knock on our door?” I said. “They’re after the cargo. Now seems like a good time to make a getaway. Don’t ask us to protect you all.”

I wasn’t being a dick just for the sake of it. It was way less efficient to protect people while you were fighting, which made it just that much harder to win. Our job was to slay the monsters, not protect the cargo or the drivers.

The drivers took that as their cue to dismount their wagons and run off with their tails between their legs.

“Sophia, search the surroundings,” I called out to the bespectacled mage when she finally stepped off the luggage carrier.

“I’m already on it!”

Sophia was already using a search spell, it seemed. Nice, that saved us time.

“I’m sensing a reaction in the woods ahead of us. There’s about twenty or thirty of them. They’re going for a pincer attack,” she explained, quick to rattle off the results.

“I’ll take the right. You go left, Evsei.”

Some familiar faces showed up from the forest just as I broke out into a run. They were mainly goblins, but there were a few ogres here and there.

I cut down one goblin that was making a beeline for a wagon. That instantly attracted all the other monsters’ attention, and they moved to surround me.

That’s when Sophia fired a lightning spell.

Pierced through with a bolt of lightning, the monsters howled and writhed in pain. I waltzed up to them and started systematically mowing them down. Evsei was doing the same thing over on the left.

It didn’t take long before we’d dispatched most of these chumps, but obviously things didn’t end there. If this was all we were dealing with, then the soldiers and adventurers who’d previously guarded these wagons would have been enough.

I heard a horse neigh behind me. The real mission was just getting started.

“Heal us,” I ordered.

Nina nodded silently and did her stuff on me and Evsei. We were barely wounded, but we were growing fatigued. The healing was going to make all the difference in the fight that was coming up next.

When we circled over to the wagon farthest back in the line, there was a veritable horde of monsters bearing down upon us.

The battle’s starting…

Connecting her consciousness through the phantom, the Prophet witnessed Leonard and his party confront the monsters.

Having guided dozens of Heroes in the past, Leonard did not strike her as exceptionally powerful. His sword skills could not compare with those of Leon the Sword Saint. That said, he and his party did possess solid teamwork.

From what she had picked up from their typical conversations, they did not seem to be especially good friends, but they came together beautifully when it was time to fight. Still, their prospects of defeating the Demon Lord were slim.

I don’t know what I’m doing anymore.

The Prophet was exhausted. In the beginning, when she had guided Leon, she had tried to connect her consciousness to her phantom as much as possible, searching for something she herself could do to help him. But she could barely achieve anything. The most she could do was tell the Heroes about future events in order to win their trust. Not even this was perfect, given the future was liable to change if events played out differently in the present. Every single time, she was struck keenly by her powerlessness—by the realization that she was nothing but a shadow.

She had been spurned by the Heroes she was meant to guide on more than one occasion.

“I trusted you…,” some of them would spit at her like a curse as they died.

There was nothing she could say to defend herself. Because of her guidance, they had believed themselves the chosen ones who were guaranteed to defeat the Demon Lord. It was only understandable they would believe this when history recorded only the winners.

The reality, however, was different. Only after many iterations of trial and error did the Prophet find someone who could defeat the Demon Lord. Not even the Prophet herself knew who the Hero would be.

After rewinding time through a tenth World Revision, the amount of time the Prophet’s mind could stay connected to her phantom grew shorter. Ten loops might not have sounded like much, but given each use of World Revision covered ten years, it meant over a hundred years had passed. One had to admire the Prophet’s mental fortitude, if nothing else.

But there was nobody to pat her on the back or praise her. The events would all be forgotten by everyone save for the Prophet.

Redoing her life meant she physically accrued no fatigue, but her spirit had long since worn out. It was only natural that her window of time for guiding the Hero with her phantom was getting progressively shorter.

Leonard was clashing swords with the demon. He almost always faced off against the demons one-on-one. Perhaps it was the party’s general strategy.

“Let me guess what color your parents were! I’m betting your dad was red and your mom was blue! That’s how you came out purple, yeah? Or maybe your dad was blue and your mom was red. Do I have it right?”

The demon, who could understand human language, went berserk.

“Don’t get your knickers in a twist. What’s there to be so mad about? Wait, don’t tell me your dad was yellow or something? Shucks, sorry your mom’s a cheating hag.”

Leonard appeared to be having a good time with those…awfully cheap taunts.

He was a crude, unsophisticated man, hardly befitting the image of the Hero. It was why the Prophet had chosen him—as an experiment. There were plenty of powerful and noble-hearted individuals, but after many long years of working with them, she could see even they had their foibles.

So what about Leonard, the polar opposite? His personality could not be any worse, in her estimation. At the same time, she could glimpse a certain strength made possible by his abrasive qualities. He did anything to win, no matter the cost. He was even willing to use his friends like tools. Leonard was under no illusion that he was a good person, but that, too, was a source of his strength. He played dirty in sword fights. Instead of going straight for the neck, torso, or other weak spots against a strong opponent, he targeted their relatively undefended fingers and legs, chipping away at their strength slowly but steadily.

In fact, the demon currently engaged in battle with Leonard had already lost several fingers, and the lower part of his leg was bleeding all over. It was, frankly, an unbearable sight.

Leonard’s party members handled the other monsters, stemming their tide. Evsei, the spear warrior, possessed considerable skill. Spears distinguished themselves by allowing their wielders to attack their opponents from a distance, although they were less useful at close quarters. Evsei, however, was able to perform his thrusts so rapidly that it was as if there were multiple spears in view at the same time. This allowed him to wipe out the monsters before they could even get close. The technique was primarily suited for taking out weaker opponents, but it did allow Leonard to engage with the powerful demon unhindered.

Sophia, the mage, chanted her spells efficiently. She keenly chose which spell would be most effective for the situation, using explosion spells for the groups that hewed closely together, flame spells to ignite the trees and grass around the monsters in the forest, and wind magic to curb the foes charging her way. She was also very careful to keep the scope of her spells restricted so as not to overuse her mana. Evidently, she was conscious about maintaining enough stamina for a prolonged fight.

Nina, the priest, chanted very precise healing spells. She kept stock of her allies’ fatigue levels along with their wounds. The reason Leonard and Evsei were able to keep moving at full capacity was because of her support. She was also surprisingly capable of fighting with her rod, as made evident when she knocked out a goblin that came near her in one blow. This was perhaps why she took so boldly to the fore. Priests generally stayed in the back lines, but Nina made a point of staying close to Leonard and the others.

They fought smoothly and reliably, not showing any cracks in their teamwork or formation. They were one of the better parties the Prophet had observed in action thus far. On the other hand, there was not much room for them to grow, given they were each around thirty years of age. In all likelihood, they did not have it in them to reach the Demon Lord.

Realizing her growing disillusionment as she watched their desperate battle, the Prophet cursed herself bitterly.

At length, the demon let out a mighty roar—as if he simply could not stand his approaching unceremonious end. Leonard pressed on with the attack, totally uncowed. For him, even his opponent’s fury was yet another opportunity to take advantage of.

Leonard’s sword pierced the demon’s armor and ran straight through his chest—his heart.

Demons were far more durable than humans, but they seldom faced warriors capable of such a merciless attack. For just a brief, fleeting moment, Leonard’s face contorted with pure, undistilled animosity. Out of all the Heroes the Prophet had ever guided, this man despised the demons most. What lay at the root of this hatred, she did not know.

Leonard soon returned to his usual lackadaisical expression and went off to help his party members dispatch the remaining monsters.

Then, when all the monsters were slain, a surprising face appeared before Leonard and his party.

It was the Erdelian merchant they had rescued from the Demon Lord’s territory.

“Right on schedule,” Leonard said to him.

“You made quite a scene.” The merchant had an exasperated air about him as he surveyed the monster carcasses.

“Here’s the cargo I want you to take to Arkand. Wagons are included. Should be enough, right? You got all the drivers you need?” Leonard asked.

“Yes, they’re all here, just as you advised.”

Droves of men came out of the merchant’s carriage and took their positions at the wagons from Gastan.

“I got the word from Gastan’s village chief. Said it was okay to sell the cargo on the sly. He knows it’s going to the governor of Arkand. You just need to take it there and we’re all good. Job’s worth three hundred gold coins. I’m counting on you, pal.”

Leonard patted the merchant on the shoulder.

A look of ambivalence crossed the merchant’s face. “Leonard, just what are you—?”

“Hey now, don’t say more than you need to. I’m the kind of guy who’ll do anything for cash. Let’s just leave it at that, okay? I mean, it’s true. Money makes the world go ’round. And that’s why you’re taking the cargo to Arkand, yeah?”

Leonard wore a wry smile. The merchant’s round face broke out into a broad grin, too.

“Yes, well, I am a merchant, after all. I’m willing to do anything worth my time. The cargo will get to Arkand safely, I can guarantee you that.”

“Sweet.”

The merchant’s group took charge of the wagons and headed on their way.

“What was that about?” the Prophet asked.

Leonard’s party took the carriage the merchant’s group had arrived in. They did not make it all the way to the nearest town before sundown, however, and so that night, they camped outdoors.

When it was Leonard’s turn to keep watch, the Prophet appeared before him. Evsei and the others were sleeping soundly inside the carriage, too exhausted to be stirred from their slumber.

“What was what about?” Leonard replied quietly as he peered at the campfire. It was possible he was trying not to wake his party members.

“Why did that merchant arrive? And why did you send the cargo to Arkand?”

“Who cares? It’s got nothing to do with that end-of-the-world stuff you’re always on about.”

Leonard’s face, illuminated by the campfire, was peculiarly tranquil.

“I care. Tell me.”

“I’m not getting anything out of telling you…” Leonard tossed a nearby twig into the fire. With a crackling sound, it began to catch flame. “Oh, I know. How about we swap secrets?”

“Secrets?”

“You mentioned something about how this wasn’t your first time. What did you mean by that?”

The Prophet considered the fate of the world. This loop was probably another failure, which meant there was no harm in telling Leonard.

“I have been looping this world many times.”

She made up her mind and told him the truth, which went to show just how curious she was about the man before her.

“What does that mean? That went way over my head.”

Predictably, Leonard chuckled quietly—not to make fun of the Prophet but to poke fun at his own ignorance.

“When I told you I was powerless, that was a lie. I do have one power—the power to redo the world.”

Leonard frowned. “And what does that mean?”

“…Time resets whenever I die—to about six years ago. Then I look for a new Hero. Someone who can defeat the Demon Lord.”

“Whenever you die? So, what, you’re living life on eternal repeat?”

“My death will be permanent when it is of natural causes. Any other form of death, however, will trigger the loop. Unless the Demon Lord is defeated, I am guaranteed to die. Everything I do is meaningless. There is no way to stop the loop save for defeating the Demon Lord.”

“So what I’m getting from this is that you have no idea who this Hero who defeats the Demon Lord is.”

“I do not. I can only repeat time until the Demon Lord is slain. The same ten-year journey over and over again. I must have done it dozens of times now.”

“Seriously? That sounds like a pretty big deal. Is my measly story even worth your secret?”

Immediately after he said that, however, Leonard’s mouth twisted in realization.

“…Ah, I get it. You don’t think your pick has the chops to defeat the Demon Lord. Basically, you realized we aren’t cut out for it.”

“No, I chose a different individual to be the Hero. He is already deceased. It was the young man you buried not so long ago. Do you remember him?”

Leonard put a hand on his chin and thought for a short while. “Oh, the guy who was killed by that demon, huh? My bad. We might’ve saved him if we came quicker…”

“No, he would never have defeated the Demon Lord regardless. He did indeed meet his end quickly, however. It is too soon for the world to reset. And so I…”

“I see, so you decided to give me a whirl since you had the time up your sleeve. Now it all makes sense. That explains why you tried to pick me of all people to be the Hero.”

Leonard shrugged.

“You and your party are famous for being skilled adventurers. I was curious about your strength. Leonard, your powers are worthy of your reputation. However, the Demon Lord’s power is superlative. Leon the Sword Saint and Maria the Holy Maiden died without even reaching him. Solon the Great Sage fought the Demon Lord and perished in the depths of despair. Your powers do not reach theirs, and you are no longer young. I do not expect you will grow any stronger… My apologies.”

“Hey, I’m not mad.” Leonard picked up another twig by his feet and tossed it into the fire. “I’ve been saying it to you this whole time. I’m not the Hero. Look, I know an actual Hero.”

“Who?”

The Prophet’s tone hardened. She was always on the lookout for potential new Heroes, even if it felt like clutching at straws.

“A long time ago, I was in a party with a warrior named Luke. He died fifteen years ago. You can only go back six years, right? Fifteen’s too much for you?”

“I cannot go back to a time when I did not bear the Prophet’s mantle. The loop begins after I became the Prophet.” She paused. “By fifteen years ago, are you referring to the battle at Malika?”

“Yeah. That’s where Luke—my Hero—bit the dust.”

Leonard flung a slightly larger twig into the fire with considerable force. It was his way of showing his disappointment in the Prophet’s inability to travel fifteen years into the past.

“The thing is, I never fought in that battle.”

“What did you say?”

“I was pathetic. When I saw the Demon Lord’s army in front of me, I chickened out and ran.”

“But you said you were a survivor…”

“Hey, that part’s true, isn’t it? I did technically go to the battlefield. I just went home without doing any of the fighting. I never told any lies.” Leonard shrugged again. “But my party members fought. And they survived. I’m a phony, but they’re genuine. That’s why I asked them to join me. I begged them. Although they might’ve seen it as me threatening them.”

“You are strong enough to be a survivor.”

There was sympathy in the Prophet’s tone.

“Thanks. But here’s the thing. Strength isn’t about how good you are with a sword. It’s about how you live, y’know? The guy I saw as the Hero wasn’t just about brawn—he lived his life in style, too. I became an adventurer because I wanted to be a swell fella like him, but then I ran away when the going got tough. Because I was a scaredy-cat. Oh, and I was full of excuses, too. I was the lamest guy on the planet.”

As he spoke, Leonard flung another twig into the fire with all his strength.

“Let me just say that I don’t think what I did was wrong. It makes sense to turn tail when you’re scared. It’s only human. You wanna stay alive, have a drink, eat some good grub…et cetera. You can buy pretty much anything with money, and that includes lives. And that’s why money is the closest thing we’ve got to justice in this world. Am I wrong?”

“…”

The Prophet wanted to refute that, but she could not find the words.

After over a hundred years, she had lost sight of what was “just” to humans. The Hero was beautiful in how he put his life on the line for humanity’s sake. It was beautiful because it was so rare, because it fell well outside the bounds of expectation. The Prophet understood this.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you to say nothing back.”

Leonard smiled ruefully.

“You see, I’m living proof of what I said. After I ran away to save my own skin, there weren’t many adventurers left who could fight. People like me were in hot demand, so I made a killing out of it. Running away paid off big time. I sure lived it up—I ate my fair share of delicious grub and drank enough booze to swim in. Kept telling myself I was living the dream. But you soon get bored of most things you can buy with money. Doesn’t matter how great the food or drink was, you can barely remember it the next day. And then the memory’s gone before you even know it. The physical things, too—you take them for granted before long.

“So yeah, somewhere along the line, happiness slipped away from me. It wasn’t worth dirt at the end of the day. What did stick with me were the memories. Memories of how I abandoned Luke and ran away.”

Leonard lifted his gaze from the fire and toward the sky.

“I let Luke die. I killed the Hero.”

“That’s not—”

“I know. It would have happened regardless of whether I was there. But the regret’s still smoldering in my belly, no matter how much time it’s been. I can’t move forward unless I do something about it. Not that I’m gonna be the Hero, of course.”

Leonard turned his gaze to the Prophet.

“But I digress. You wanted to know about what was up with that merchant, right? You see, I gave him three hundred out of my four-hundred-coin reward to do a job for me. A bit of outsourcing. He would deliver the grain to Arkand. And not just that, he would take it directly from Gastan. Make it so the monsters took it.”

“Why would you transport grain to Arkand?”

“That’s an easy one. Instead of the monetary reward, I asked one tiny little favor from Arkand’s governor: Accept the refugees.”

“Refugees?”

The Prophet recalled the refugees she had seen in Arkand. At the time, Leonard had treated them scornfully, so she was puzzled by his current behavior.

“Those guys lost their hometowns from the war. They live in poverty with nowhere to go. Makes their problem pretty simple to solve—just give them money. They’re not worth much in that sense. Rough times we live in, huh, when even those cheap lives go unsaved. But, well, helping those people out was my promise to Nina.”

The Prophet was similarly concerned for the refugees. When World Revision first activated, she’d sworn she would save them one day. She had believed things would work out as long as the Demon Lord was defeated. However, she had turned her eyes away from them entirely in the meantime, sparing their plight no further thought.

“Thing is, Arkand doesn’t have enough resources to take in refugees left, right, and center. Food prices have inflated thanks to the war. The governor asked us to supply food in exchange for accepting the refugees. Fair enough. Even with all the money in the world, you can’t get anything done if you don’t have things. And right now, as it happens, the wagons from Gastan are being targeted by the monsters. So we needed to secure the route for delivering grain, plus the grain itself. Since the sales are overseen by officials, we had to go through illegal channels, which meant we needed a deliveryman with tight lips. That’s solved by finding a trustworthy merchant and paying them for their discretion. I knew I could count on that guy, seeing as he was nice enough to bring a child out of a war zone.”

“Did you go to Gastan specifically to help the refugees? Was that why you asked for such a high price?”

“Nah. Far from it.” Leonard snorted. “I’m just spending money how I like. Money’s a great thing. A literal lifesaver. It can save the lives those pompous kings and nobles won’t even touch. The way I see it, it’s a gift from God. As long as I’ve got cash, even some nobody like me can save lives. Even better, people’s lives keep going. They don’t just disappear tomorrow or the day after that. I can feel pretty good about myself if I think, ‘They’re alive now ’cause of me.’ Makes the booze taste better. It’s like those appetizers they serve with drinks. I mean, I’m not using all the payouts on other folks. The one hundred coins I didn’t hand to the merchant goes to us. That’s plenty to play around with. We’re just using the surplus, you could say.”

One hundred gold coins was enough to fund a partying lifestyle for several years. Leonard was not lying in that respect.

“Besides, we had other business in Gastan. Procuring the food supplies was something to do on the way. We have our own goal.”

“And that goal is…?”

“You’ll see soon enough. Don’t have to wait long.”

Leonard kept his mouth shut after that. A short while later, he swapped guard duty with Evsei and slumbered inside the wagon.

Interlude

Evsei

I didn’t feel like adventuring after the battle at Malika. I cringed at the idea of teaming up with anyone else. Everybody who’d skipped that battle was a phony in my book.

That said, I had to make money somewhere. So I looked for jobs I could do alone and earned enough to get by.

The human side had technically won at Malika, so there was peace for a while. Five years later, however, the Demon Lord’s army was on the move again. All those lives lost for a measly five years of peacetime.

It didn’t matter much to me, though. I figured I’d done my share of fighting already.

It was around that time I heard the stories about Leonard, the adventurer who tooted his own horn about how he’d survived Malika. He only took the high-paying jobs, and apparently, he would do anything for cash. I found it hard to believe someone who’d lived through that hell would see adventuring as profitable.

I saw him at the taverns where all the adventurers hung out. He seemed to be about the same age as me, a guy with a pasted-on smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

I don’t like him.

That was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw him. He sure didn’t have the look of someone who’d experienced what I had. What the hell was he doing, acting all carefree about life? How could he smile? Had he forgotten what’d happened back then?

That was when it hit me: Oh, right. The person I couldn’t stand was myself.

Me, a person who’d survived the battle at Malika.

The situation worsened by the day. The Demon Lord’s army relaunched its invasion, and the human side stayed on the back foot.

Not that I did anything about it. My world had ended at the battle of Malika. It was as if I had died there, too. I closed my eyes to the fate of the world and just swung my spear, silently earning a living. That was it.

But then he approached me. Leonard.

Just when I was about to walk into my house, he called out to me from behind.

“Yo. I’ve heard about you. They say you’re a survivor of Malika. How about you and I team up?”

I knew this guy didn’t team up with anyone in particular. He changed parties depending on the job, and he was famous for hogging the lion’s share of the rewards.

“Find someone else to bother,” I spat. “I don’t like you.”

I had no reason to act chummy with Leonard, obviously.

“Unfortunately, I happen to like you. Won’t you team up with me? Please?”

That wasn’t the reaction I had expected. I’d thought he’d get grouchy and stomp away if I turned him down bluntly, but no. He had his usual flippant attitude, yet his eyes were dead serious.

“I know your reputation,” I said. “You change party members depending on the job. There are plenty of other spearmen out there if that’s what you’re after. Why do you need me?”

“Evsei, I’m not in it for a one-night fling. I wanna get to know you. I won’t cheat on you, promise. Cross my heart and swear to die.”

He sounded like he was sweet-talking a woman. I was pretty sure he didn’t swing the other way, but I could have been wrong. I drew back, trying to recall what I knew about him.

“It’s not a bad idea, y’know. I have two girls in my party—and they’re both absolute beauties. You only get a chance like this once in your life. What do you say?”

Now he sounded like a tacky pimp in the red-light district. Definitely not how you’d invite someone into your adventuring party.

He was so forceful about the whole thing that he chased me all the way to the door of my house. I’d never had this happen to me before.

Just as things were getting dicey, somebody whacked the back of Leonard’s head with their staff.

“Ouch!”

Leonard clutched his head. Behind him, I could see two women.

“I was an idiot for leaving this to you,” came an exasperated voice.

It was the woman who’d bonked Leonard. Between her staff and the glasses, she was probably a mage. She was also very beautiful—her purple-streaked black hair caught my eye.

“Yes, I can’t say I was impressed at how you used us as bait,” the other woman added.

This woman had shoulder-length red hair and was dressed in a priest’s garb. Although she looked plain at first glance, she did have a nice, clean-cut face. There was a “good girl” vibe about her.

Were these the party members Leonard had mentioned? This meant he wasn’t necessarily lying through his teeth.

“Would you mind if we had a little chat?” the black-haired woman asked. “We’re all survivors of the battle at Malika. It’s not bad to talk about old times every once in a while, is it?”

With such a beautiful lady saying that to me, how could I refuse?

I let the three of them into my house. Leonard was a nuisance, but I could live with that.

Ignoring him, I addressed the black-haired woman named Sophia. “So what about the past do you want to talk about?”

Apparently, the redhead was called Nina. Which reminded me…I did get the feeling that I’d seen a young mage girl and priest around my age in the volunteer army.

Just when I was thinking of urging Sophia and Nina to take a seat and leaving Leonard to stand, he just went right ahead and plonked his ass down on one of my chairs.

“Just our life stories,” said Sophia. “It’s kind of a tradition, you could say. Everyone who experienced that battle has something weighing them down. Talking about it with others lightens the burden, basically. You can decide whether you want to join the party or not later.”

At first, Sophia came off as a snob, but she actually seemed to be a frank and good-hearted person.

“You’re making me spill my past to people I’ve barely met?”

No matter how beautiful she was, I did feel some reluctance.

“You have a point. Okay, I’ll start by telling you about us.”

With that, Sophia began recounting her own life story. Maybe she was used to telling it by now, because she was weirdly good at spinning her words. Nina was next to speak, although her storytelling was stiff and solemn like a priest’s sermon.

Although the two women came from very different backgrounds, I got the impression that they’d chosen to live very similar lives after surviving the battle at Malika. The way they escaped reality because of their survivor’s guilt—they were just like me.

When they finished their stories, I glanced toward Leonard, but he just shrugged and told me to start first. That pissed me off a little; however, it would have been a bad look on my end if I refused to speak after the two women had volunteered so much about themselves. So I sucked it up and started telling my tale.

“My dad was a mercenary. The spear was his specialty, so I picked it up, too. Swung it around for fun when I was a kid. The way I was brought up, I was fated to be either a merc or an adventurer. I picked adventuring. Part of it was ’cause my dad mentioned something along the lines of, ‘It’s easier being an adventurer than a mercenary.’

“Not to brag, but my skills were pretty good for my age. I’d been learning from an expert for way longer than everyone around me. So anyway, I joined a party that treated me well and made a nice, steady living. Same as you guys.”

I looked at Sophia and Nina; they both nodded briefly.

“And then, just like you two, I witnessed hell at Malika. All my party members who were so nice to me bit the dust there. Which I guess made sense. If you don’t have the chops, you die. That’s the adventurer life for you. But I couldn’t stand being on the back foot forever. So I decided to target the general of the Demon Lord’s army.”

Sophia and the others gulped. They were a good audience—that made the story worth telling.

“I found the bastard straightaway. He was this huge black-skinned demon who stood head and shoulders above the others in a crowd. Plus, he had a different aura. He reeked of danger.

“I stayed low and tried to avoid fighting as much as I could so I could get around to his back. I was gonna stick my spear right through that black demon’s head.

“Long story short, I managed to pull off the sneaking part. Not because I was actually good at it or anything; there was this warrior taking on the demons all by himself. Made quite a show.

“It was Luke—same guy from your stories. Humanity’s strongest warrior. He charged at the black demon head-on. It was reckless of him, no other way to put it. No way could he pull it off. But since the demon’s attention was focused on Luke, his back was open.”

At some point while I was telling the story, Leonard’s easygoing attitude had melted away, replaced by a brittle, tense expression.

“I jumped. Higher than the black demon was tall. Nailed it, I thought. My spear was pointed straight at his head. But then he swatted it away with a light flick of his arm, just like that. Like it was a fly. And you know what he said when I fell to the ground?

“‘It was right of you to target me. Sadly for you, you weren’t strong enough.’

“I was outclassed, basically. No wonder he was a general.”

Just the memory of it brought a shiver down my spine. No human stood a chance against him in a direct fight.

“So what happened?”

Sophia nudged me to continue. Curiosity had gotten the better of her, it seemed.

“I put on my best bluster. I said, ‘At least tell me your name.’ He was pretty good-natured about it. ‘It’s Berzera,’ he said, nice and clearly.”

I said it jokingly, but nobody laughed.

“So that good-natured demon swung his big, badass sword down at me. It had this black, malevolent aura around it. Honestly, I thought I was toast. I had my eyes scrunched shut. But when I lost all hope, this one warrior stood up before me. Luke. He stormed his way out of the circle of enemies around him and came all the way up to Berzera. It was unbelievable.”

I was never going to forget that sight of Luke with his back turned to me—not for the rest of my goddamn life. In my eyes, nobody else could possibly be the Hero. No matter what anyone said.

“Luke blocked the demon’s sword and said to me, ‘Leave this to me. You get to the rear and run.’ Sure, there weren’t many monsters at the rear. But if there’s one thing I hate, it’s being told what to do. So I tried to help Luke—at first.”

I shook my head.

“But it was no use. Luke and Berzera moved like lightning. I just…wasn’t strong enough to find an opening. And I wasn’t the only one; the other demons couldn’t even get close.

“The two of them were equally matched at the start, but Luke started to get pushed onto the back foot as time went on. Which only stood to reason. He’d had to fight furiously just to get to Berzera. It was pure adrenaline keeping him going at that point. But he shouted at me without even turning to look my way. He was like, ‘What are you doing?! Hurry up and run! Don’t die in vain!’

“I gasped, but I wasn’t able to say anything to him, and he didn’t say anything back.

“Then I heard Luke shout, ‘Don’t underestimate humans, demon!’ When I looked back, he and Berzera were practically on top of each other. Their swords cut each other’s shoulders. But Luke’s had only grazed Berzera, while Berzera’s sank all the way into Luke’s chest. I ran. And I didn’t look back a second time.”

I sighed heavily. The memory was a bitter one—not my finest hour.

“And that’s all there is to say. Technically, I’m a survivor, but it’s more like they let me get away. It wasn’t like I was strong or anything.”

A heavy silence fell over the room. At the same time, I felt like a weight had come off my chest, just like Sophia had said would happen. It wasn’t a bad feeling.

Then, after a short while, I turned my eyes to Leonard.

“It’s your turn now, Leonard. Honestly, I have no recollection of you in the volunteer army. Were you at the same battlefield?”

“I didn’t fight,” Leonard said with a hard expression.

“What? But I heard you survived Malika.”

The other adventurers had praised his abilities. No wonder he’d survived Malika, they’d said.

“That’s not untrue. I did come back from Malika—before the battle started. I ran away without even fighting. Because I was a scaredy-cat.”

That made me fume. So, what, he was tricking everyone? All to fashion himself as a seasoned adventurer?

Sophia’s and Nina’s eyes were boggling as well. Seemed like they’d had no clue, either.

“How dare you?! Who’d team up with a piece of shit like you?! Shameless bastard!”

I sprang up from my chair and tried to lunge at Leonard, only for him to grab my hand.

“I know. I’m a piece of shit and a shameless bastard. What about you, Evsei? What are you doing with yourself these days? Why are you in a dump like this?”

“The hell did you just say?!”

I tried to swat Leonard’s arm back, but he gripped me even tighter.

“You said they let you get away. That’s it? That’s all Luke died for? He kept the Demon Lord’s army at bay for five years, and you’re doing jack shit?”

“…What the hell do you know about me? You just ran away!”

“Well, well. I might know, or I might not know. But that doesn’t matter at all, does it? I ran away. It’s like a pebble in my shoe, always giving me grief. I can’t take another step forward unless I do something about it. You know exactly how that feels, don’t you, Evsei?”

Leonard’s words struck something deep inside me.

“So, what? What are you trying to do, Leonard?”

“I’m gonna kill Berzera. Lend me a hand, Evsei. I wanna make it so I didn’t run away that day.”

Chapter Six

Garnahazza 1

Leonard looked for his next job. This town was even farther west than Gastan, near the front lines of the conflict. The local tavern was a magnet for adventurers and mercenaries alike, creating a clamor of activity.

Amid the hustle and bustle, a lone man approached Leonard.

“Are you Leonard? I’ve heard you’ve been slaying demons across the land.”

The man was plump and had the sort of round face that made him look like he was smiling without his having to move a facial muscle.

“Yeah, that’s me. And you are?”

“My name’s Ralph. I’m looking for someone to do a job. Not just anyone can do it, though. I need someone with proven skill.”

Ralph gave an affable smile.

Posting a job in the tavern made it impossible to designate a specific adventurer. This was why some clients, like Ralph, recruited people in person. Not too many people did this, however, given the hassle.

“All right, cool, but you know our services don’t come cheap, yeah? We have a spotless reputation for getting the job done, but our clients are never happy. You sure you don’t wanna try someone else?” Leonard’s mouth lifted into a self-deprecating smile.

“Well, you know how it is. There aren’t so many adventurers who can actually fight these days. I’m looking for people you can count on, even if it does mean coughing up a bit extra.”

“That so? But can you really afford us?”

Leonard scanned Ralph from head to toe.

Although his clothes weren’t shabby, they didn’t give off the appearance of wealth. He looked like the sort of ordinary townsperson one would find anywhere.

“I’m just a go-between. The client is someone else. I’m obliged to introduce them to competent adventurers. You understand what I’m getting at, yes?”

It was fairly common for clients to have go-betweens. Wealthy merchants and people of influence needed others to do the smaller jobs for them.

“I catch your drift. So what kind of job is it? Gotta ask that first, right?”

“It’s a bit of a long story. Could we go somewhere else? This place isn’t bad, but it’s not ideal for talking. I know a good spot. We can borrow a room there and have a nice chat. I’ll cover the fee regardless of whether you take the job. You’ll get a night of free drinks and food without having to lift a finger. Not a bad prospect, eh?”

Ralph was a slick talker. Between that and his jovial expression, he had a way of getting past people’s guards.

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound too bad at all. But are you sure about this? You do know I’m the type who loves eating on someone else’s tab, right?”

“That’s the kind of people we’re looking for. It’s a bit of a difficult job for folks with scruples.”

And with that, Ralph ushered Leonard out of the tavern.

He took Leonard to another pub used by powerful and influential merchants. With its neat and trim exterior, it was obvious at a glance that its patrons required wealth and self-confidence.

Ralph opened the door without a hint of diffidence. The furnishings were of uniform high quality, and although there weren’t many customers, they were all dressed very nicely. This probably explained why Leonard received so many suspicious looks when he first walked in, as if he were some bloodthirsty animal.

They soon lost interest in him, however, when Ralph came in with a smooth greeting, prompting smiles in return. Ralph seemed to be very familiar with the place. After he had finished chatting with the patrons, he booked a small room and showed Leonard to it.

There was a table and two chairs inside. An employee swiftly brought over some alcohol and food, placing the tray deftly on the table. Then they closed the sturdy-looking door quietly and slipped away as if to say, “You can have your secret talk now.”

Leonard took a gulp from his cup without batting an eye. “So what’s this job about?” he asked without any preamble.

“Shall we discuss it after we’ve had some food? I’m feeling peckish, you see,” said Ralph.

And so they ate their respective meals over small talk. By sharing his own life story first, Ralph very skillfully coaxed Leonard into talking about himself.

Then, bit by bit, the conversation shifted into a more probing direction.

“I see,” said Ralph. “You have a point there. A society can’t function without money.”

The man was good at keeping the conversation going, agreeing at the right points, and showing the reactions and expressions the other person wanted to see.

“Yeah, and that’s why we ask for fair compensation, but other people just don’t get it. Gives us a bad reputation,” Leonard replied cheerfully.

Ralph lowered his voice slightly. “By the way, Leonard. Just between us, how do you think the warfront is going?”

“Oh boy, don’t even talk about it. The human side’s got no chance of winning. We can only hope that humanity doesn’t end in our lifetime,” Leonard said offhandedly.

“I thought that’s how you’d see it. It’s persuasive coming from someone who’s actually fought demons.” Ralph nodded repeatedly.

“Well, yeah. The demons are stronger than humans—that counts for both physical and magical strength. They’re smarter than us, too. Plus, they’re all united under the Demon Lord. Meanwhile, the humans are divided into different countries. We’re stuck dealing with our own petty problems instead of getting things done. It would be weirder to think we can win.”

“Yes, that does appear to be the direction things are going, sad as it is to say.”

“…Does that have something to do with the job?” Leonard inquired, dropping his voice.

“You’ve said you’d do anything to earn money. Is that correct?” Ralph asked instead of answering.

“Yeah, anything for the cash. Nothing matters more in this world than money. You can even buy lives with it. If you’re willing to pay the price, that is.”

Ralph placed a small leather pouch on the table. It made the dull clink of metallic objects bumping against each other.

“This is the advance fee. Think of it as the funds you’ll need for your preparations.”

Leonard tilted the pouch on his palm, causing the gold coins to slide out.

“Now we’re talking. So…what’s the job?”

“Murder.”

Darkness brewed in Ralph’s affable eyes.

“…Doesn’t sound pretty,” Leonard said in a low voice. “So who’s the mark?”

“The Hero.”

“The Hero? Who is the Hero?” Leonard frowned in bemusement.

“We don’t know yet.”

“I don’t see where this is going.” Leonard’s expression was turning severe.

“Think of it as insurance. As you’ve said, Leonard, the human side is in dire straits. The Demon Lord’s victory is probably a sure bet by now. But one point of uncertainty remains, and that is the Hero. My client is working under the assumption that the Demon Lord’s army will win. We can’t have anything overturning that at the last minute.”

“You want me to betray humanity and kill the Hero?”

There was a cold gleam in Leonard’s eyes. Ralph, however, was unmoved.

“You’re an intelligent man, Leonard. You see the writing on the wall. Why don’t you think of it as making the best of a bad lot? There are more people on this side than you’d think, including noblemen and big-time merchants. Think about what happens after humanity loses. That’s what every smart person is doing.”

Then Ralph whispered, “You’re not the only one.” He was attempting to erase any guilt Leonard might have felt.

Given humanity’s looming defeat, it was a difficult invitation to resist.

“If you join this side, your life will be spared even after the Demon Lord’s army wins. And if, by some chance, humanity wins, then we can just keep a lid on these dealings. What do you think? It’s a low-risk, high-reward venture.”

“I see, I see.”

In an instant, Leonard drew his sword, pressing it against Ralph’s neck.

“You underestimated me.”

Even then, Ralph showed no agitation, although a bead of sweat started to fall from his forehead.

“Was the advance fee not enough?” he asked.

“No, I can’t trust you to guarantee my life.”

“…What do you mean?” With the blade pressed up against his neck, Ralph’s voice trembled ever so slightly.

“You need to guarantee the demon will spare us. That’s my condition. I can’t trust you otherwise. I mean, the guy above you is a demon, right? Those folks have a lot of pride in themselves, just like knights in that sense. They don’t tell lies, not like humans do. But if they’re using you as a go-between, then things might get lost in translation, so to speak. Who’s to say you didn’t just make up that promise? I need to talk with this demon directly. All bets are off otherwise.”

“Talk directly with a demon? No, I—”

“It’s Berzera. Right?”

“…H-how do you know that name?”

Sweat was pouring down Ralph’s forehead now.

“Remember how I survived Malika? Of course I’d know the enemy general’s name. The Demon Lord’s at the top of the demon pyramid, but it was Berzera holding the reins during the invasion. If he’s the one you’re in communication with, you don’t have to worry about being discarded after the fact. Do I have it right?”

Ralph was certainly a more daring man than he looked, given he was in the process of calmly betraying all of humanity. Upon hearing Leonard’s words, however, he began trembling violently.

He knows his stuff about demons, thought Ralph.

Leonard was, in fact, right on the mark. Ralph was acting broadly under Berzera’s orders. There was quite a lot under the man’s discretion. For one thing, the logistics of assassinating the Hero were entirely up to him.

Ralph betrayed humanity because he believed it likely the humans would lose, but that was not the only reason.

There was an organization of humans who had switched to the Demon Lord’s side, but the hierarchy wasn’t determined by social status; it was by the fruits of their labor. As far as the demons were concerned, anybody powerful and competent could earn themselves a spot. Ralph had toiled for many years as a merchant’s apprentice, only for his master to keep brushing him off because he placed more weight on blood ties than merit. This had disillusioned Ralph with human society as a whole, prompting him to start working for the Demon Lord’s army. The more he accomplished for the organization, the more he rose in rank, and for the first time in his life, he received credit for his abilities.

What if the demons have the right idea? They respect power with no strings attached.

Such was what Ralph had come to believe, and it inspired him to work even harder for the organization.

At present, Ralph had oversight across the entire organization. His standing within the group was even higher than that of the nobles and major merchants. However, given he was a self-made man, there were many important jobs he took entirely on his own. So when he’d heard about Leonard’s reputation, he’d decided to do the investigating and headhunting himself. Ralph despised humanity, so he could not trust others to do the work for him.

When Leonard threatened Ralph with his sword, it reaffirmed to Ralph what kind of man he was. His investigations had told him Leonard was “a skilled but moneygrubbing adventurer,” but he also had a sharp mind and was very familiar with demons. Furthermore, after talking with Leonard, Ralph got the impression that he was capable of making logical decisions and that he held a strong distrust for human society.

It shouldn’t be a problem if he meets Berzera, was the conclusion Ralph’s scheming mind came to.

“Very well. I will make introductions,” Ralph said. “However, would you mind if we arranged the place for you to meet? I believe it will be an area under the Demon Lord’s control.”

This was the bare minimum—the one condition he could not compromise on. Although to be more precise, he doubted Berzera would come to a place under the humans’ control if asked.

“No problem.” Leonard sheathed his sword, a satisfied look on his face. “My three party members will come with me. I want their lives to be guaranteed as well.”

Ralph didn’t think this would be a problem, either. Even if they were skilled adventurers, there were only four of them. They wouldn’t think of something as harebrained as fighting Berzera when they were surrounded by all manner of powerful demons.

“What are you planning?”

The Prophet appeared in Leonard’s room that night.

“You were watching?”

“Yes. Is this what you’ve been waiting for this whole time?”

“At first, I thought you were trying to pull that same move. Pretend to be the Prophet in order to test me, then try to recruit me into the Demon Lord’s army. Or maybe you’d lure me out and kill me. Either way, I didn’t think for a second that you were the real deal.”

There was a rueful smile on Leonard’s face.

“Is this what you were aiming for?”

“Basically. I’ve been on the lookout for the chance to kill Berzera ever since the Demon Lord’s army relaunched its invasion. How would I get close to him? How would we get to fight him? For better or worse, I’ve got a seedy reputation, so I was privy to the rumors about a human organization working for the monsters. But still, they’re a cautious bunch. I’d heard their base was in the west, somewhere close to the warfront, but I didn’t know exactly where. So my idea was to head west, spreading the not-so-good news about me as I went. Well, okay, the bit about having a shitty reputation wasn’t intentional.”

“Do you really think just the four of you can defeat Berzera?”

“Do you think we’d turn coat to the Demon Lord’s army?”

Leonard’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“I don’t. You’re not that kind of man.”

“Ralph’s idea wasn’t bad when you think about it. The humans are at a disadvantage. It’s only a matter of time before the Demon Lord’s army wipes out every human country. Besides, it is possible to communicate with the demons. As far as I know, they don’t tell lies the way humans do. If anything, they might be saner than our nobles. They might not be averse to sparing some humans if they see the merit in it. In which case, it’s smarter to throw your lot in with the Demon Lord’s army.”

“If that’s what you figure, why do you plan to fight Berzera?”

Leonard stopped laughing and looked the Prophet straight in the eyes. “Who knows? I might just go against the plan and chicken out when I see a strong old demon in front of me.”

“…You didn’t run. It was your fate to die there.”

“I see; so you knew where I wound up. That’s why you kept telling me not to head west. You were being a sweetie.”

Leonard was unmoved even after learning his grisly fate.

“Don’t go, Leonard. Listen to me just this once. Berzera is a powerful demon. There is no shame in running.”

“No can do. My party members want this, too. Me and them lived through Malika, but we never moved on from it. It’s not about whether we can win. It’s about unfinished business. I gotta go settle the score. I’m never running again.”

“Wait for your chance. It doesn’t have to be now.”

“The human side won’t hold out much longer. Am I wrong?”

Leonard gazed at the Prophet with calm, tranquil eyes.

“That is…”

Leonard’s guess was spot-on. The Demon Lord’s army would begin a large-scale offensive soon after and wipe out all opposition in one fell swoop. There was probably a fork in the road, but it had never gone the other way in all the Prophet’s experiences.

Even Solon, who had managed to confront the Demon Lord himself, ignored the war as he carried out his journey. “You can’t address everything,” the one-and-only Great Sage had said. The Prophet believed he was right. No person was so all-powerful that they could accomplish multiple things at the exact same time.

“Even if you strut your stuff and find a Hero who can actually nab the Demon Lord, it won’t bring back the dead. The refugees we went through all that effort to save are cooked. I spent a fortune on them, you know. So you’re saying the whole thing was a waste?”

“It’s nothing for you to be concerned about. Your life and money are the most important things to you, yes? You said it yourself: Money is everything. Yet your actions contradict your words. Why are you attempting to fight, knowing you will die?”

“Lemme just get this out in the open. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon. You’re the only one saying I’m gonna die.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Oh, I do.”

“What?”

“I believe you’ll find the real Hero one day. I dunno how many hundreds of years you’ve been at it, but I do know you’ve been putting in the work to save the world. That’s some unbelievable effort on your part. I’m sure it’ll pay off one day.”

His tone was as jocular as ever.

“What do you know about me?! How could you possibly hope to understand the loneliness I’ve experienced across hundreds of years? Nobody remembers a single thing I did. Nobody. Everyone I journeyed with has forgotten all about it. I am powerless. Even now, you’re not listening to what I’m telling you. You’re going off to fight!”

The Prophet’s voice was ragged. This had never happened once throughout the hundreds of years she had lived.

“I’ve kind of got you figured out.”

“What?”

“I’m guessing you’re a woman, you come from a high social standing, and you’re beautiful. Does that sound about right?”

Leonard’s tone was gentle and breezy, like he was uttering a pickup line.

“…Why do you think that?”

“I got the beautiful part from the confident way in which you carry yourself. You never grovel, which I’m guessing is because the people around you have always held you in high esteem. I can’t tell your gender from your voice, but the way you choose your words makes me think of a beautiful, self-confident woman. A confident man would sound more boastful and pushy, but you’re not like that. Also, you deliberately put on this solemn tone of voice, and you seem familiar with how every word you speak is used. I can imagine you had a good education and the social standing that comes with it. That and, well, I guess some of the stuff we talked about. How about that?”

The Prophet took a moment to respond.

“I am not beautiful. I am a hideous woman who has only ever been a parasite.”

“So basically, I was right about everything? Called it. I’ve got good feelers for this kind of thing. Didja know I can spot a beautiful woman from miles away?”

Leonard snapped his fingers.

“Were you listening to what I said? I am not beautiful. I am past that age now—I have a daughter. Besides, beauty is about more than just outward appearances. I have sent many young Heroes to their deaths. I am hideous. I despise myself. I don’t want to keep doing this…”

The Prophet’s voice became progressively softer. By the end, it was barely above a whisper.

“Why should you get hung up about that? Soon as you hit reset, it didn’t happen. They didn’t die. One day, you’re gonna pull things off magnificently and that’ll be that. Besides, those guys became Heroes because they believed in you. There was no deception involved. Hey, maybe some of them caught on to you being a beautiful woman, just like I did. So perhaps they hopped on board because they thought you were worth risking their lives for. Don’t sweat it.”

Leonard shrugged.

“Do not try to comfort me! You know nothing about my feelings! Even after I have looped, the faces of the dead are still burned in my brain. I dream of them every night. I see them die in agony. Perhaps they are living now because I redid things. But I will always remember what I have done. I can’t pretend it never happened. My sins will stay with me for the rest of my life. Even if everyone forgets about it, I will never forget what I did to them…”

The Prophet’s smooth tone gave way to raw, choked sobbing.

Every other person in the world forgot her mistakes and sins, leaving only her to carry the weight. With every loop, that weight only intensified. The obligations of her clan, her love for her daughter, and her desire to atone for the fallen had carried her this far, but she could withstand it no longer.

“Then I’ll remember it for you. C’mon, it’s not that hard. You remembered all that stuff; you can at least let another person in on it. It’s not that weird, y’know?”

“It cannot be done. It is physically impossible. It is the goddess’s—”

“Sorry, but I have this condition, you see. I never forget a girl. You’re sticking in my memory—I’ll make sure of that. I’ll prove it to you after you’ve gone and toppled that Demon Lord. Here’s what I’ll say to you:

“‘You’re a beautiful lady, just like I thought.’ Now that’s something to look forward to.”

“Don’t go, then, Leonard. Listen to me,” the Prophet implored.

“Can’t. This is our battle.”

“Then let me guide you. I’ll do it however many times it takes for you to succeed. That way you’ll—”

“Don’t even try it.” Leonard smiled gently. “Even if you went back six years into the past, we’d never make it to the Demon Lord. I know that better than anyone. Don’t waste your time. Tread your own path. But hey, don’t worry. We’re repeating time right along with you. One of those times, we’ll succeed.”

“But that’s—”

Impossible, the Prophet wanted to say, although she swallowed the word.

“Prophet. Look elsewhere for the Hero. No matter how many times you redo this, I’m gonna make the same choice. Sorry.”

And with that, Leonard collapsed onto his bed, signaling an end to the conversation.

“Your meeting place will be near the Demon Lord’s territory. The story is that you accepted a job,” Ralph announced to Leonard in the same room in the same establishment. “You’ll be retrieving something of monetary value there. Happens all the time, yes? We actually will prepare the item for you there, and there are noblemen who will appreciate it. That should do as an alibi. Nobody will suspect that you met with a demon.”

Ralph snorted. With the world sliding further and further into chaos, he was unable to wrap his head around the nobles who wanted to get their hands on art pieces from fallen nations.

“Makes sense,” said Leonard. “I take it that’s where we’re meeting Berzera.”

Leonard’s cheeks loosened as he gulped down his wine.

“Yes. Lord Berzera will give anyone competent their due. He does not discriminate between humans and demons in that respect. He is aware your party has slain many demons. His respect for your strength is the reason why he agreed so readily to meet you.”

Ralph smiled brightly. He had not anticipated Berzera and his cohorts would be so willing to meet Leonard. The deal would have been called off if the demons had shown even the slightest hint of disapproval, at which point Ralph would have had no choice but to eliminate Leonard. He would have been in quite a tough spot.

“…They don’t have a grudge against us?” Leonard asked, his gaze dropping to his cup.

“Not at all. Lord Berzera is very logical. In fact, he welcomed the prospect of having accomplished individuals such as yourselves join his side. You needn’t worry in that regard.”

The demons are good sports, Leonard thought. Perhaps he would find them more agreeable than humans if he tried to meet them on their level.

“However…”

At this point, Ralph’s eyes turned serious.

“…might I remind you not to consider any funny business? As I’ve mentioned before, Lord Berzera will not be the only demon in attendance. He will have demon bodyguards, and there will be monsters around, too. They will kill you if you make the slightest wrong move. You will be found out in an instant if you try to give the other humans a heads-up. Don’t think you can worm your way around the safeguards. I hope you can be considerate of my position, too, given that I made introductions on your behalf.”

Ralph was a cautious man. Although he trusted Leonard to some degree, he did not fail his due diligence.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. The demons have us humans outclassed. They’re smart enough to know if we tip off any other adventurers or the knights, and they’re strong enough to hand our asses back to us if we try to take them on in a fight. No need to tell me twice. Or do I look like that much of a dumbass to you?”

“…You do not. Indeed, as you say, the demons are powerful. The humans have no prospect of winning at this stage. I sincerely hope that you act with appropriate discretion.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Leonard clapped Ralph’s shoulder. “I value my hide, and I’m always up for more cash. That’s all there is to it. Isn’t that what being human is all about?”

We all met up in one of the inn’s rooms. It was a high-end place, with a fancy-looking table and chairs. Sophia cast a barrier, so we didn’t have to worry about anyone eavesdropping on us.

There was a map on the table. I pointed to one particular spot on it.

“We know our final destination now: Garnahazza, capital city of Malika.”

My companions stared fixedly at where I had my finger. It was right around there that the fateful battle fifteen years ago had happened.

“That’s where Berzera’s gonna be?” Evsei asked. He looked at me; his eyes were slightly bloodshot.

“He won’t be alone. Apparently, he’s got friends with him.”

“As long as he’s there, that’s good enough for me. I couldn’t give a shit about those other demons.”

“It does sound promising.”

I chuckled. Berzera’s tagalongs were probably retainers of the Demon Lord, which meant they were crazy strong. It was debatable whether even the four of us working together would be able to beat one of them in an honest-to-God fight.

“Sophia, you ready?” I called out.

She was still staring at the map, stiff as a pole. “Ready as I’ve ever been. This is the day I’ve been waiting for. I’m so glad our efforts didn’t go to waste.”

Behind her glasses, Sophia’s eyes were pointed straight at Garnahazza’s location on the map. I imagined she had a lot on her mind.

As for Nina, she looked a little frightened. Which made sense since she was walking to her death and all.

“Nina, what’s God telling you? Run?” I asked half jokingly.

If there’s any part of you that wants to quit, you should, was what I genuinely thought. I wasn’t going to force her to do anything. It was best for her to follow what her heart was telling her.

For a moment, Nina was silent.

“…I won’t run. I’m not following God. This is my own free will.”

Then she glared at me, though her eyes still betrayed her fear.

I probably looked weakhearted to her, trying to lead her astray. I understood how she felt. A part of me was hoping someone would say, “Let’s call it off.” We could pretend none of this had ever happened. We’d run off into the distance and have nice, happy lives.

That didn’t sound so bad. It would’ve been great if that was where this was going.

But that won’t happen.

It wasn’t in our script. Sadly.

At some point, I’d gotten older than Luke. I didn’t have any kids, but now I could understand how he’d felt back then. He must have been scared; a part of him must’ve wanted to run away with his family. He might have been a hero, but he’d also been a human being just like any one of us.

Except in that situation, you kind of just had to fake it until you made it. Luke must have known how important it was to put on a show of confidence. It was his actions that had led us to this day.

There were things he had entrusted to me. Things I had forgotten.

A deserter like me could never become the Hero, but I could at least act like one.

“Now that stings,” I said to Nina. “You know how I ran without even fighting.” I shrugged.

Nina blanched. “I didn’t mean to—”

“I’m joking. Relax. But y’know, I’m kind of sad nobody said to give up. This party’s full of psychos.”

Evsei and Sophia laughed. Nina’s stiff face softened slightly.

“Let’s get going, shall we?” I announced. “Oh, but let me just say this—I ain’t planning on dying. Make sure you’re all packed and ready, you hear? Coming back alive is what all the good adventurers do.”

At present, Garnahazza was firmly under the Demon Lord’s control. It was far from the current warfront, which obviously meant it was quite some distance from the town we were at. We borrowed a carriage and traveled at top speed, and it still took us three days.

Weirdly, though, the monsters never got in our way once. The journey was eerily uneventful. Berzera must have given them orders, which only made things even more unsettling.

“It’s like we’re off on a little camping trip,” I said.

Everyone nodded.

It was a peaceful adventure. At night, we gathered around the campfire and chatted about pointless stuff over dinner. I wondered if everyone was hoping nobody would be there at our destination.

The night before we arrived, the Prophet appeared before me while I was standing guard.

“You have no desire to turn back?” the Prophet asked me.

As per usual, it was impossible to tell her age or gender from her voice, but her tone made me think of a kindhearted woman.

“No, sadly. Hey, maybe it’s not a great idea to keep sticking with us. Why not look for the next Hero-to-be?”

“I’ll keep looking. However many times it takes.”

I could sense a firm resolve in that voice. Nice to see she’d gotten her mojo back.

“Still, I have decided to use this loop to see you off.”

“Weird hobby you’ve got there. Considering I’m not even the Hero or anything.”

“No, you are the Hero. No matter what anyone says. Even if you are not the man who defeats the Demon Lord, you are still the Hero.”

“That’s one hell of an exaggeration. But hey, nice to get some credit from the Prophet. Feels like a childhood dream come true.”

Yep, that was the reason why I’d wanted to be an adventurer way back when. I’d wanted to be like the Hero from those fairy tales.

“I am not the only one who believes so. I’m sure the people you’ve met see the Hero in you.”

“You think? No one’s ever said anything that nice to me before. Guess it’s ’cause of how I act.”

Such was the path I’d chosen. I was the moneygrubbing adventurer, a guy shunned by ordinary society. The perfect recruit for the demons’ side. It was close enough to my true identity, so it wasn’t a particularly hard role to play.

Besides, it’d gotten me to where I wanted. Now it was a matter of reaching Berzera.

“Was there no other way?”

“If there was a smarter way of going about it, I would’ve loved to know. Berzera’s like a king, you could say. He’s usually all snug in his castle, surrounded by strong knights. Not to mention he can take care of himself. How are adventurers like us supposed to beat him? Only way to do it is for him to invite us.”

“What if you enlisted others for help…?”

“You saw Ralph, didn’t you? He looked like the sort of good guy you’d see anywhere. Competent at his job. If a guy like him’s working for the Demon Lord’s army, there’s no way of knowing who the traitors are. Doesn’t matter if you’re a noble or a peasant; everyone likes living a little longer. Imagine someone saying, ‘I’ll make sure you live.’ Pretty enticing, right? I can’t blame them for feeling the way they do. I was a chicken who ran away. It’s why I can’t place too much trust in anyone. I picked my party members because I respect them for surviving the battle I fled. There’s no one else I can count on.”

“…Some of the Heroes I guided were betrayed by their fellow humans. That was what happened to Leon, the first Hero I chose. Although he possessed the strength befitting of his Sword Saint title, he never conceived that he would be betrayed. His lofty ideals as a nobleman were his downfall. The young knight I guided on this loop was also a dignified man, but someone leaked his appointment as the Hero, which led to his death at the hands of the demons. It is very difficult to safeguard against such machinations no matter how many times I repeat these events.”

The Prophet’s words resounded like a heavy sigh.

“Humans are weak like that. The people who fight cleanly and honorably aren’t necessarily the ones who get things done.” I shook my head. “I reckon the Hero has to be a stubborn, no-frills sorta guy. The type who digs in his heels no matter what. He’s gotta be strong, of course—that’s a given—but that can’t be the only thing. There’s mental strength, too, y’know? I reckon that’s what the Hero needs.”

“Is there such a person like that in the world?”

“Sure there is. Put it that way and anyone can be the Hero. But people kill the Hero inside of them all the time. Like what happened with me fifteen years ago. But hey, there’s plenty of fish in the sea—or, in this case, humans in the world. I’m sure there’s someone out there who’s willing to stick it out and be the Hero, come what may.”

As I muttered those words, I heard a sound from inside the carriage, where my party members were sleeping.

It was about time to switch lookout duty. My conversation with the Prophet had come to an end.

Garnahazza, capital of the fallen Kingdom of Malika, had once been the site of a brutal war between humans and monsters fifteen years ago.

After their three-day journey, Leonard and his companions finally returned to where it had all begun. The scars from fifteen years ago were still plain to behold. Demons now roamed the devastated town.

Berzera, de facto leader of the Demon Lord’s army, possessed red eyes brimming with keen intelligence. It was hard to imagine he belonged to a monster race. He was twice the size of a human and covered in black scales that served as a kind of armor. At his hip hung a massive sword that put any human greatsword to shame.

Behind Berzera stood three demons who were slightly shorter than him. Although they possessed the same armor-like scales, theirs were of different colors: red, blue, and green.

The red demon grasped a long battle-ax in both hands, the blue demon carried an enormous spear, and the green demon wielded a long, two-handed club.

After dismounting from their carriage, Leonard’s party walked slowly up to the demons. There was a considerable distance between them.

“So you’re Leonard.”

Berzera’s voice was low, though it still boomed across their surroundings.

“Got it in one. I take it you’re Berzera?”

“Indeed. I have heard of your circumstances. I, Berzera, will guarantee the four of you will live. In return, you will kill the Hero when next he appears. Your methods are up to your discretion.”

Berzera spoke crisply, vocalizing no more than what was necessary.

“That’s nice of you, guaranteeing our lives directly. By the way, are those three your only guards? Aren’t you being a bit lax?”

“This will suffice. You might have refused to show yourself if I had brought too many guards. The best-case scenario is that you betray humanity. The next best case is that you scheme against us and we kill you. Both are positive outcomes. So which will it be?”

Berzera appeared to be goading Leonard and his party into a fight. It was the reason why he had brought only three demon bodyguards.

A light bead of sweat ran down Leonard’s face. “What? You thought we’d break our promise?”

“It is the human way to play at sophistry. You are an incorrigible fool. However, you are strong enough to have defeated multiple demons. There is meaning in killing you. Whether you betray humanity or renege your promise is fine with me.”

Berzera and his bodyguards both wore completely level expressions. They thought it was a given that Leonard and his companions would attack them.

“Aww, geez. You demons are much too thorough. I was hoping to give you a bit of a surprise.”

Leonard drew his sword. Evsei readied his spear. Sophia and Nina began chanting spells.

“So you choose to fight, human. You are aware you have no chance of victory, yes?”

Berzera drew his sword, too. A malevolent black aura exuded from the blade.

The demons waiting behind him sprang forward as well.

Thus began the final battle.

I have witnessed many battles throughout my journey. In the beginning, I prayed for the Heroes to win, but reality taught me repeatedly that prayers were meaningless.

I was powerless. I had attempted to use the Prophet’s phantom to distract the Hero’s foes before, but I could not move it freely, and it was hardly useful at all. Eventually, I started averting my eyes whenever the Heroes faced defeat. On some occasions, I even stopped synchronizing with the phantom.

That day, however, I prayed for Leonard’s victory for the first time in dozens or perhaps even over a hundred years. I prayed not to the goddess but to something I could believe in.

Evsei, Sophia, and Nina took on the three demon bodyguards. Upon reflection, the three of them had always lured the monsters toward them in their battles. They must have been envisioning how a fight with Berzera would play out.

Evsei might have been able to stand his ground, but the spellcasters were hopelessly outmatched in close-quarters combat against demons. Despite this, Sophia and Nina moved with a swiftness that belied their limitations. By using magic to bolster their bodies, they were able to keep apace with their opponents. But that was not all—this was undoubtedly the fruit of long training. On closer inspection, I could see their clothes and shoes were made for ease of movement.

Magical ability depended largely on innate talent, not to mention that Leonard’s party were all past thirty years of age. It was hard to imagine them becoming any stronger. The women had trained their bodies so they could reach greater potential.

Naturally, they did not use their speed solely to run circles around their opponents. They cast spells whenever they saw an opening. I could see their sheer strength of will to defeat a demon all by themselves.

However…that did not change the fact that they were skating on thin ice. Even when Nina and Sophia cast their spells directly on their opponents, the demons showed no signs of fear. They did look as if they were having some trouble handling the mages’ tactics, but if they landed even one solid hit, Sophia and Nina would lose immediately.

Evsei was in a similar position. He was locked in a spear duel with the blue demon, but compared with his opponent’s gigantic weapon, Evsei was practically wielding a piece of straw. Whenever they clashed, Evsei’s spear would bend dramatically, as if it was bound to break at any moment.

Just watching them made it hard for me to breathe. Yet Evsei kept up the fight, his spirit unflagging. He was trying his absolute best to keep the demon away from Berzera.

Evsei, Sophia, and Nina were all putting their lives on the line to buy time.

Because they believed in Leonard’s victory.

Speaking of Leonard, he was fighting with a rawer sense of desperation than he had ever demonstrated before.

He had no time for his usual wisecracks. He was doing everything he could to dodge Berzera’s greatsword.

It was my first time watching Berzera in action. Between the black aura emanating from his sword and his powerful strikes, he was a fearsome foe indeed. Whenever he brought his sword down, the earth split beneath him. When he swung it sideways, it would smash through the rubble, leaving nothing but fine dust in its wake. His attacks were the culmination of physical and magical prowess.

Leonard was uncowed by any of this. He tried to get in close on multiple occasions, twisting his body around like an acrobat, but it was like charging into a tempest, and he was forced to retreat.

Berzera was probably right—Leonard appeared to have no chance of winning whatsoever. Yet he forged onward anyway, forcing open the tempest by contorting his body and ramming his way through.

He was walking on a tightrope. One wrong move, and he would fall to his doom.

Over and over, he dodged and stepped forward, and every single time his efforts came to waste. Yet still, he continued facing forward. The reason he had clashed with demons on so many occasions was all for the sake of this very moment.

After dozens upon dozens of attempts, Leonard swung his sword for the first time.

It grazed Berzera’s fingertip very slightly.

This did nothing to dull the demon general’s movements. Undaunted, Leonard charged at Berzera once more. It was like trying to pierce stone with raindrops. Yet by piling on the damage, Leonard gradually induced some sloppiness in Berzera’s moves. Was it because of his wounds, or was it because of his mounting frustration? It was impossible to say.

Eventually, Leonard was one step away from Berzera. He swung his sword ferociously at the demon’s neck…

…only to meet his blade.

Leonard’s sword went flying—along with his right arm. Everything past the elbow was gone.

“It’s over for you.”

Berzera’s lips curled upward.

“Don’t underestimate humans, demon!”

Leonard was completely unfazed by the loss of his arm. If anything, he used the recoil from the attack to perform a tailspin and press in on Berzera. With his remaining hand, he drew a shortsword from his hip.

It was the weapon he had taken from Carmine’s dead body.

“I’m carrying on his will.”

The words Leonard had uttered when I first saw him raced through my mind.

Before I knew it, I was kneeling on the ground. Praying that the sword would reach its target.

It was just one fleeting moment, too short to even blink. In the time it took for tears to roll down my cheek, Leonard had thrown his entire body toward Berzera and stabbed through the black scales on his neck.

It was a miraculous strike—but the shortsword was lodged near the base of his neck. It was slightly lower than it needed to be in order to inflict a fatal wound on a durable demon; that much I knew.

For the first time, Berzera’s face contorted in rage.

Yet it was only for a split second, and then the demon sent Leonard flying with his right arm.

The shortsword was still buried in Berzera’s neck. After crashing to the ground, it took considerable effort for Leonard to hoist himself up with his left hand—which only made sense, considering the stub that remained of his right arm was gushing blood.

Berzera pulled out the shortsword. Red blood shot from his wound.

“You did well, human.” His voice betrayed no pain or anger. “I will acknowledge you as the Hero—who shall die at my hand.”

“Praise? Hey, I’ll take it…,” Leonard quipped, although his face was pale from blood loss. “But one day, the actual Hero is gonna show up. Even if it takes a thousand years, he’ll finish what I started.”

Was it a coincidence that Leonard’s gaze was pointed toward me, even though I wasn’t visible to him? He was smiling like he always did. That lackadaisical grin had ticked me off like nothing else.

Now, though, I found it so endearing.

“I fail to understand what you are saying, but this is the end.”

Berzera brought his greatsword down without mercy.

Looking around, I saw that Evsei and the others were lifeless on the ground, having fulfilled their role of distracting the bodyguards for the duration of the battle. The three demons soon returned to Berzera’s side.

It was over. This was the end of the loop.

Yet this time, I did not experience the usual wave of hopelessness.

Leonard believed in me. And he’d shown me how a Hero was meant to be. I would redo my mission, however many times it took—because I was certain I could change this ending, too.

I’d thought I had lost the fire in my belly, but now I could feel it. It was coursing inside me.

Interlude

Leonard

“I’m scared, Luke.”

Luke smiled when I said that. He wasn’t making fun of me or anything. His was a gentle smile, one that accepted even the pathetic side of me.

“I mean, it all goes to nothing if you die. You know, I became an adventurer because I wanted to be cool like you, not to fight for the sake of the world or humanity or anything like that. I wanted to be rich and popular with girls. That’s it.”

Luke listened to my shameless spiel and still gave me a quiet nod.

“I mean, hey, isn’t that what adventuring is about?” I went on. “It boils down to taking on jobs for money. That whole business of protecting the country or the world is usually up to those pompous kings and nobles, y’know? They live off the taxes of peasants like you and me ’cause they’re meant to get their asses into gear at times like this. We might work for money, but we don’t have to put our lives on the line.”

“I suppose so.” Luke looked as if he didn’t quite know how to respond.

“See, you agree with me! So yeah, why don’t we just run? We’re toast if we go in there! We’re crazy outnumbered, and we wouldn’t be up against just small fry, either. There’s so many powerful demons on their side. Even you know we’ve got no shot at winning, right? Now’s the time to scram. For sure!”

I respected Luke. He was the strongest and coolest guy in the world, without a doubt. He shouldn’t have been throwing his life away in a place like this.

“Listen, Leonard. It’s easy to run. It’s easy to do what you say. I’ve run away from things, too, like tough monsters, difficult situations—all kinds of stuff. It means you can have another shot later. You can beat a powerful monster if you get stronger, and you can overcome a tough dilemma with the right kind of preparation. But listen…”

Luke looked me straight in the eyes.

“This isn’t that kind of situation, Leonard. If we run, there won’t be a next time. If the Demon Lord’s army pushes through here, nothing will stop their momentum. I’m sure you know that, too.”

Yes, even I knew this was a vital battle. Losing here meant the end of the Kingdom of Malika. The surrounding nations had joined forces with the adventurers to curb the Demon Lord’s army, but if they fell, then it was very likely the other countries would collapse one after another.

But what did any of that matter? It wasn’t my problem to deal with. If the country was going to fall, why not let it? It was their fault for being weak. Besides, the Demon Lord’s army wasn’t endless. You could live to see another day and snipe at your pursuers from a corner.

Not to mention…

“Luke, you have Zack! You can’t just die and leave your kid behind. Rei’s here, too! If both of you die, who’s gonna be there for Zack? Shouldn’t your first priority be looking out for your son?”

Even I had to admit I was twisting the screws here. Luke and Rei, my fellow party members, were a married couple. They had a kid together, a boy named Zack. He was probably around six or so. I’d met him myself—he took after his parents, and he had kind yet willful eyes.

“I’ve left Zack with Rei’s family. Nothing to worry about.”

Even as Luke said that, though, his eyes were downcast. Clearly, there was something to worry about.

“You should all just live together as a nice, happy family—you, Rei, and Zack! You have enough strength to look out for yourselves, right? And I bet you’ve saved enough money, too. You don’t have to sacrifice yourselves here. All the nobles and wealthy merchants are fleeing like fugitives, you know. That’s the normal course of action. If you can run, why not do that?!”

People without any means were stuck where they were, but everyone with money and connections had already escaped from Malika. It was human nature to flee where they would be safe while abandoning the people who were fighting for the greater good.

Was it justified for noncombatants to run away? Or did that just make things unfair?

“Leonard. I told you about my old man, remember?”

“Yeah…”

Luke’s father was a guy named Vince, aka the Hero of the frontier. He was something of a local celebrity, famous for being an oddball. He wasn’t even an adventurer, but to keep the residents of the frontier lands safe, he’d agreed to slay monsters for a bit of cheap change. I was pretty sure he’d come from the Kingdom of Malika.

“My father’s hometown, Retin, was destroyed a while back. But he fought until his last breath to ensure the villagers escaped. I heard from a survivor that it was thanks to him so many villagers were saved.”

Luke’s expression was a mix of sadness and pride.

Maybe that was a noble thing for his father to do. Maybe it was worth calling him a hero. But…

“I don’t get it, Luke. I could never sacrifice my own life for others. Isn’t life about living?”

“I loved my dad. You say you became an adventurer because you wanted to be like me, but I became one because I wanted to be like my dad. You hit the nail on the head, Leonard. Putting your life on the line to fight for other people… It’s not something that makes sense to do. But that’s what made my dad so cool to me.”

Luke smiled. There was no sense of fatalism in that grin.

“…I hated my dad,” I said. “I never once thought he was cool, ever. He wasn’t the kind of guy people spoke fondly about.”

I hadn’t seen my dad once since leaving my hometown, and we didn’t keep in touch, either. He was an arrogant prick who only thought about himself. He wasn’t evil or anything, but he never spared a thought for a soul around him. He’d given my mother a lot of grief back when she was alive.

“Listen, Leonard. You should run.” Luke gently put his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think you’re a coward. We adventurers have the right to decide where we die. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the battlefield or our beds. But something tells me this isn’t the place where your time should end. Call it adventurer’s intuition. I just know you’re not meant to die here. Leonard, find somewhere you can make the best of your life.”

“C’mon, Luke. I just don’t wanna die. I don’t have a cool-sounding reason for wanting to escape like the one you made up!”

Luke was overestimating me. I was nothing but a hopeless layabout who couldn’t bring myself to fight for other people. No way would I ever find somewhere to make the best of my life. I was pretty certain when I croaked on my bed, I’d be all snively about it.

“Leonard, it’s fine if you feel that way right now. You’re not the pathetic man you think you are. So go. Leave this place to me. We need adventurers who will survive.”

We need adventurers who will survive.

Those words were my justification.

Almost all the adventurers here were at the peak of their game. If every single one of them got wiped out, then nobody would be left to do the hard jobs. Someone would need me. It was reason enough for me to survive, even if no one else did.

I turned my back on the battlefield.

“Sorry, Luke. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I have and always will be the son of a worthless blacksmith. I got a bit cocky in my skills and became an adventurer, but I’ve got the same selfish ego as my old man. I don’t have any heroic blood flowing in my veins, not like you.”

I was self-deprecating right to the very last word. I never stopped being a sniveling, self-pitying wreck.

“Leonard, I can take it from here.”

When I turned back around, Luke had one of his arms raised as he strode back to the campsite—probably to make it easier for me to get away.

Long story short, I ran.

Almost every adventurer at the scene died at that battlefield, Luke included. Still, they managed to buy enough time for the royal army to arrive and push back the Demon Lord’s forces. It only happened because they put their lives on the line.

The outcome wouldn’t have changed if I’d stayed. There would’ve been just one more dead body.

But sometimes, I had dreams.

What if I’d stayed there and fought with Luke, side by side?

Over ten years later, that what-if still haunted me.

Interlude

The Prophet

“Do you really mean to go?” the young man asked, confused. He was tall, burly, and had blond hair and smooth facial features—the very picture of valor and refinement. A large sword was slung across his back.

He was speaking to another young man with chestnut-colored hair.

“Of course, Leon. Remember what the Prophet said? ‘Save a man named Leonard.’ I have to do what they say, right?”

The young man named Ares looked back over his shoulder with a sheepish smile.

“But listen, Ares. We’ve heard about this Leonard guy on the road, and he sounds like bad news. Nobody in Arkand had a nice thing to say about him. The knight in charge of guarding the town seemed really disgruntled about him, remember? Do we really have to save someone with such a poor reputation?”

“I remember what that knight said. He mentioned how Leonard was ‘ruthless about his methods’ and how he ‘used everyone else as a decoy.’ The guy sure didn’t seem popular.”

Even as Ares said that, however, his feet did not stop moving.

“That’s not the only thing, Ares,” a black-haired girl in a white priest’s garb whispered sweetly into his ear from behind. “There was that merchant fellow who commissioned him directly. He said Leonard was ‘a money-grubber,’ ‘lacking in scruples,’ and ‘the furthest thing you can imagine from a Hero.’ He was basically warning us away from him, don’t you think? Shouldn’t we avoid getting mixed up with someone like that?”

She was a beautiful girl. Passersby stopped to do a double take at her, men and women alike. Any man would have listened to a girl like her whispering in his ear, but Ares’s demeanor did not so much as flicker.

“Something doesn’t quite add up to me, Maria. I don’t think those people were lying, but it didn’t seem like their feelings were completely negative. Maybe there’s something to this Leonard person,” Ares said, looking Maria straight in the eyes.

His gaze was unswerving, even when he looked at her. She found it endearing.

“Hmm? You think?” She giggled. “If you say so, Ares…”

“Speaking of which, the chief of Gastan did seem to act strange,” a very thin-looking young man interjected, striding up next to Ares. He wore a mage’s purple robes and carried a large staff. Between his humorless expression and his high-strung attitude, he gave off the impression of a stereotypical mage.

“When he said, ‘I don’t really want to talk about him,’ it sounded like he was trying to cover something up. The rumors said Leonard took the grain being exported from that village by force, but the chief never gave a straight answer about it. He probably could have complained about Leonard even harder and nobody would have batted an eye…”

“Yeah. You have a point, Solon. Everyone had bad things to say about Leonard. But they laid it on too thick, especially the people who’d dealt with him directly. This Leonard guy has clearly been taking on the hard jobs, but nobody said a word of gratitude for any of it—not the knight from Arkand, not the Erdelian merchant, not the Gastan village chief, nobody. They were good, honest people. It’s weird that they didn’t give Leonard credit for anything…”

Ares looked toward Solon. Maria pouted, but Ares was oblivious to this, and Solon was similarly unruffled.

“That does sound off. But listen, Ares. The Prophet told you to go to Garnahazza, right? That used to be the capital of Malika, but now it’s the Demon Lord’s territory. Don’t you think that’s a bit too dangerous? Besides, it’s hard to trust the Prophet when you’re the only one they show themself to…”

Solon appeared to be warier of the Prophet than Leonard.

“Don’t worry, Solon. The Prophet’s not a bad person, at the very least. I guarantee it.” A gentle smile came over Ares’s face.

“Are you sure? The demons have been murdering potential Heroes for years. That demon behind the attack at the Great Forest of Lozorof was after us. Not to mention that you’ve been acknowledged as the Hero not just by the Prophet but the king as well. You don’t know what lengths the demons will go to kill you. Who knows—maybe the Prophet is an act by the monsters. You could stand to be more careful.”

“I know, Solon. The demons have killed a lot of people, our classmates at Falm Academy included. Besides…”

A deep melancholy colored Ares’s brown eyes. Solon and the others figured he was thinking of their dead classmates.

“Either way, we have to beat the demons one day,” Ares continued. “There’s a general by the name of Berzera at Garnahazza. Right now, the Demon Lord’s army is on top, and if we want to turn the tables, then we have to beat Berzera. If Leonard really went off to fight him, then this is good for us. The Hero shouldn’t just defeat the Demon Lord; they have to save everyone. Slaying the Demon Lord doesn’t matter if the country is destroyed. So let’s go.”

“You’re right. Being the Hero is about saving people, not just about defeating the enemy,” Leon agreed.

“That’s what I’ve always thought.” Maria gazed at Ares’s face from the side with evident admiration.

“Personally, I think it’s best to prioritize beating the Demon Lord while his army is distracted by conquest,” said Solon. “But fine. You’re the Hero here. That would never change in my mind, even if the Prophet was a fake. My job is to make your path a little easier.”

Solon’s uptight expression loosened, and he kept up his stride alongside Ares.

I’ve finally made it.

I gazed at Ares through my phantom. Many, many months and years had passed since that fateful day—too many to count. On some of those days, I’d felt like I was getting closer. On others, my goal had felt more distant than ever.

Ares—no, Zack—became the Hero through pure coincidence. I did not choose this boy. He adopted the role through his own strength after his dear friend died. It took a considerable amount of gumption for me to appear in front of him. I would not have been surprised if he had battered me with curses.

But at the same time, I knew he wasn’t that kind of person.

“Zack, I acknowledge you as the Hero,” I said to him after the incident at the Great Forest of Lozorof.

Zack reacted with a face full of sorrow.

“No, Prophet. I’m Ares. Remember?”

“…Is that truly what you wish?”

“Of course. Ares is the Hero. That’s what I want you to tell everyone, if you can. Could you do that for me?” Zack asked with a rueful smile.

That was all he said. Zack made no mention of the fact that Ares had died because I’d made him the Hero. It was another item to add to my list of sins.

The next day, I manifested my phantom in front of a great crowd and announced that Ares was the Hero, just as Zack had asked me to.

When Leon, Maria, and Solon—all powerful Hero candidates themselves—joined his party, the king acknowledged him as the Hero. For all intents and purposes, Ares was the Hero.

I recalled what Leonard had once said: “I reckon the Hero has to be a stubborn, no-frills sorta guy. The type who digs in his heels no matter what. He’s gotta be strong, of course—that’s a given—but that can’t be the only thing. There’s mental strength, too, y’know? I reckon that’s what the Hero needs.”

Now someone had appeared who fit that description exactly.

Ares had already overcome many trials. He defeated every demon who sought to dispose of the Hero. A large part of this was because of the help of his companions, not his strength as an individual. Leon could slay any monster, while Maria could heal any wound. Solon saw through each and every one of the Demon Lord army’s machinations. Curiously enough, they all showed greater capabilities than when they had been the Heroes themselves. Perhaps they had it in them to defeat the Demon Lord.

Unfortunately, the war raged on all the while. If left unchecked, the Demon Lord’s army would crush its opposition. I knew many lives had already spilled from my grasp, but if Ares could save Leonard and defeat Berzera at this point, then countless others could still live—including the refugees Leonard and his party had fought so hard to protect.

Perhaps this meant a detour in Ares’s quest to vanquish the Demon Lord. Perhaps I was failing here as the Prophet. Even so, I wanted Ares to save Leonard.

Chapter Seven

Garnahazza 2

“So you’re Leonard.”

Berzera’s voice was low, though it still boomed across their surroundings.

“Got it in one. I take it you’re Berzera?”

“Indeed. I have heard of your circumstances. I, Berzera, will guarantee the four of you will live. In return, you will kill Ares the Hero. Your methods are up to your discretion.”

Berzera spoke crisply, vocalizing no more than what was necessary.

“That’s nice of you, guaranteeing our lives directly. By the way, are those three your only guards? Aren’t you being a bit lax?”

“This will suffice. You might have refused to show yourself if I had brought too many guards. The best-case scenario is that you betray humanity. The next best case is that you scheme against us and we kill you. Both are positive outcomes. So which will it be?”

A light bead of sweat ran down Leonard’s face. “What? You thought we’d break our promise?”

“It is the human way to play at sophistry. You are an incorrigible fool. However, you are strong enough to have defeated multiple demons. There is meaning in killing you. Whether you betray humanity or renege your promise is fine with me.”

“Aww, geez. You demons are much too thorough. I was hoping to give you a bit of a surprise.”

Leonard drew his sword. Evsei readied his spear. Sophia and Nina began chanting spells.

“So you choose to fight, human. You are aware you have no chance of victory, yes?”

Berzera drew his sword, too. A malevolent black aura exuded from the blade.

The demons waiting behind him sprang forward.

Evsei squared off against the blue demon. One could call it a spear duel…but compared with his opponent’s gigantic weapon, Evsei was practically wielding a piece of straw.

Evsei’s plan was not to win, however, but to draw the blue demon’s attention. In truth, he wanted to fight Berzera himself. But he’d ceded that role when he lost in a one-on-one fight to Leonard. At that moment, he fully intended to make sacrifices if it meant defeating Berzera. Luring his opponents away had been a mainstay tactic in many of his previous battles. The fact that he was only up against one demon actually made this easier.

The idea was to use his attacks to divert the blue demon’s attention to him. When their spears clashed, the sheer size difference between their weapons left Evsei’s arms numb. Then Evsei would jump back, goading the enemy to come closer, before he came in from a crouching stance and thrust his spear swiftly at his opponent’s neck.

The demon jerked aside to avoid the attack, but Evsei had anticipated that, using the opportunity to launch another flurry of thrusts. This time, however, the demon deliberately took a stab to the shoulder and then swung his spear like a pole, sending Evsei flying into the remains of a wall.

Evsei promptly got to his feet again and leaped backward. The demon drove his spear into the spot where Evsei had fallen just a moment prior. Blood spouted from the demon’s shoulder, but he paid it no heed as he swung his spear around.

“Why don’t you take better care of yourself?” said Evsei as he coughed up blood.

“This hardly qualifies as a wound.”

The demon thrust his spear with pure brute force. Evsei dodged the blow by jumping to the side, but when the demon launched yet another thrust, he only just barely managed to avoid the sharp end by using his own spear to block it.

This is rough.

Evsei was the superior spearman purely in terms of skill, but the fundamental power gap between them was too vast to overcome. Yet if Evsei tried to back away, the demon might return to Berzera’s side, and if he tried to block, the demon might hit him with a breath or magic attack. His opponent had too many options.

Which meant Evsei had no choice but to go on the offensive to some extent.

But hey, this is easier compared with back then.

Despite his overwhelming disadvantage, Evsei cracked a smile. He had been in a far worse place fifteen years ago, when he hadn’t been able to so much as scratch Berzera.

Evsei swung his spear. The demon easily deflected the strike with his monstrous strength, but Evsei kept pressing on the assault anyway. He forced his spear through, trying to create whatever slight openings he could, and used the full extent of his concentration to avoid the demon’s spear. The demon wouldn’t take a fatal wound from Evsei’s spear, but one proper hit from the demon’s would snuff out Evsei’s life.

Evsei’s precarious dance with death could not last forever. Although he successfully lured the blue demon away from Berzera, the end came swiftly and anticlimactically.

The demon’s spear sank into Evsei’s thigh. Even a shallow scratch from a giant spear penetrated deep. Evsei’s knees buckled.

This is it, huh?

Evsei figured he had done his job well enough. He’d bought enough time for Leonard. If the swordsman failed to bring Berzera down here, that was all on him. Evsei chuckled to himself as he broke out into a cold sweat.

The demon drew near, his spear swinging like a whirlwind. Evsei’s feet refused to stand, nor could he lift his arms.

I fought to the end. About damn time.

Strangely enough, Evsei had never felt better.

But then…

All of a sudden, the demon’s spearhead disappeared, leaving him to strike nothing but air.

“What?!”

It was the blue demon who shouted in surprise.

“Your spearmanship is sorely lacking.”

In an abrupt turn of events, a knight now stood near Evsei. He looked to be about twenty years old, and he had short blond hair and a sturdy physique. Clasped in both his hands was a broadsword brimming with magical light.

There was a harsh clang, which told Evsei that the tip of the demon’s spear had landed somewhere in the distance. Judging by the context, the knight must have sent it flying.

But neither Evsei nor the demon comprehended that in the moment.

“Who are you?”

The blue demon backed away.

“Leon. Sword Saint. Now draw your blade. You won’t win bare-handed.”

The man named Leon urged the demon to draw the sword at his hip. It was hard to say whether it was because Leon felt assured in his victory or because his sense of chivalry was deeply ingrained in him.

Clenching the pole that had once been his spear in his left hand, the demon drew his sword with his right hand.

“Are you ready?” said Leon. “Then let’s not waste any more time, shall we?”

Before Leon moved a muscle, the demon flung his tipless spear—only for his left hand to fly off at his wrist. Leon had darted forward and severed the demon’s arm within the blink of an eye.

Leon did not possess superhuman speed. He did, however, move with extreme precision—right down to his legs, arms, and even the tips of his fingers. He kept his center of gravity perfectly, and there wasn’t a single wasted movement in his sword swing. Everything about his technique was the result of obsessive refinement.

The demon roared his bloodlust, drowning out his pain, and cleaved with the sword in his right hand. Leon anticipated exactly where the sword would fall and countered with a slash that extended all the way from the left side of the demon’s stomach to his back. Then, as the pain drove the demon to his knee, Leon sliced off his opponent’s head in one smooth, flowing movement.

The demon likely perished without even knowing what had happened.

“…How did you get so good? What drove you to that technique?” Evsei muttered, panting.

“I kept drilling the basics, that’s all,” Leon answered nonchalantly. “A friend taught me the importance of that.”

The basics?

Come to think of it, Leon had not used any special techniques—besides honing his movements to the absolute ideal. But no human being could have possibly reached that pinnacle.

“Just who are you? Are you even human?” Evsei asked.

“Yeah, I’m human, but I’m the Sword Saint first.”

There was a dauntless smile on Leon’s face.

Sophia blasted her magic at the red demon’s eyes. She cast a wind spell, prioritizing a quick incantation over raw might.

The demon used one of his hands to deflect the blade of wind. The spell was weak enough for a demon to ignore, but since it was clearly aimed for his eyes, he was compelled to avoid it.

Sophia continued shooting off spells with immaculate precision. They were all on the weaker end, but the demon had to deal with everything aimed for his weak spots. He swung his ax around, swatting the spells as if they were flies, but he never quite managed to close the distance between himself and Sophia. For a mage, she was good on her feet—and she continuously chanted spells while on the move without getting out of breath.

This was something she had trained to do after joining Leonard’s party.

“Your magic’s not gonna get any better at your age. But your body still has a lot of untapped potential since you’ve never worked out. If you can cast spells while running, you’ll have more options in battle,” Leonard had told her, so she’d gone ahead and worked on her stamina. Rei had done the same training, he’d said.

Every single day, Sophia applied herself to running and chanting spells when she was out of breath. Although she’d struggled with it at first, half a year later, she was able to cast spells on the move. This had come in handy when she’d run away from the hobgoblins at Arkand.

“Now work on the accuracy of your spells. Your mana might be fixed at birth, but accuracy is all about the effort you put in. Even a weak spell is effective if it hits the right spot. That’ll help when you’re up against a demon.”

According to Leonard, Rei had also trained to use her magic this way.

At any rate, Leonard had spared nothing when it came to teaching Sophia how to fight demons. He was serious about taking down Berzera with just their party of four. They had planned for all kinds of situations: if Berzera had a lot of guards, if he had handpicked elites with him, or if they were lucky and he was alone. The fact that he had only three bodyguards was one of the better scenarios.

But that certainly didn’t mean this was easy. Under ordinary circumstances, a mage would never even think of fighting a demon one-on-one. It was thanks to her improved stamina and accuracy that she was managing to get by.

…Except she wasn’t. She had no prospects of actually winning.

Her weak spells were doing barely any damage to the demon. Leonard’s strategy was for his three party members to lure Berzera’s guards away while he took down Berzera himself. Then, if he succeeded, he would come around and help the other three. They had practiced this tactic in all their other fights against demons in preparation for this day. Looking at it another way, if Leonard failed to defeat Berzera, the entire party would die.

I wish he’d come help out soon, but…

To be honest, Sophia was not really expecting to be rescued. She doubted she would be able to hold out long enough even if Leonard did manage to win.

But that’s fine.

Even after Rei had saved her, she’d spent her life doing nothing. Leonard had dragged her out of her slump, and now she was an adventurer again. She had no regrets.

Although Sophia had been using low-cost spells so she could fight for a protracted period, her limit was approaching. As much as she’d built up her stamina, she was still a mage at the end of the day. She could not hope to match up to a demon. The berth she’d been able to maintain through her magic was steadily shortening.

Yeah, I don’t think Leonard’s gonna make it in time.

She funneled the last of her stamina into retreating. Her idea was to pelt the demon with the strongest spell she could use when it came after her. The spell in question was a forbidden one that converted one’s own life force into magical energy. The user was guaranteed to die, though it was possible for her to take the demon out with her. She tried to create as much distance from her fellow party members as she could to avoid getting them caught up in the blast.

As she sprinted with one last burst of energy, she spotted a man standing in her way.

Who’s he?

He was a thin, rather harried-looking person, dressed in purple mage robes and carrying a large staff. By all appearances, he couldn’t be anything but a mage.

“Were you trying to draw the demon away and use a self-destruct spell?” the man asked. “Not a bad idea for a mage of your caliber. I’d say it’s your only shot at winning. But I don’t think the demon would go down either way.”

Sophia wanted to shout, “Don’t spell out what I’m trying to do!” but the words died in her throat when the man began to chant.

“Red beacon, O spirit of fire, I call upon the roaring flames and the secret wisdom of the ancients…”

The incantation was abridged, but it appeared to be a flame spell that was already in Sophia’s arsenal. His chanting was so quick, too—would this actually cast it?

While Sophia was still processing her surprise, the man completed the spell with consummate ease. She whipped her head over her shoulder to see the demon being shredded by dense, crimson flames.

Demons had strong magic resistance, which meant it was hard to inflict significant damage even with a top-tier fire spell. Yet despite that…

“Graaaaaaah!”

If Sophia’s version of the spell had a range of one hundred on a scale, this man’s range was just one. In exchange, however, his flame turned into a tiny red light that pierced through the demon’s body. Sophia could tell its potency was on a whole other level.

“Only fools use magic exactly the way they’re taught. But when you completely understand a spell, control it, and make it your own, then you can make things like this happen. The research I did with my friend paid off.”

The man appeared to be sneering at both the demon and Sophia.

It ticked Sophia off to be condescended by someone who looked barely out of his teens, but there was no questioning his abilities. People had called her a genius in her youth, and yet she couldn’t begin to compare with this young man.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“You still don’t know after seeing my spell? You’re not very observant for a mage.” The man shook his head in exasperation. “I’m Solon. People call me the Great Sage.”

The inferno unleashed by Solon made its way into the demon’s heart with pinpoint accuracy. It was a quick, fiery death.

Generally, priests served as healers. They did not fight on the front lines, though it was not necessarily impossible. God’s might was great, making possible all manner of miracles.

It came at a cost, of course.

At that moment, Nina’s body brimmed with divine power, a technique known as “invocation.” She channeled God into her body and attained His power. Naturally, God did not literally descend onto the earthly plane—it was just a means of bolstering a person’s power by sensing the divine to their utmost capacity, strictly speaking.

Though it was considered an extremely effective ability, humans were not gods, which obviously meant there was a hard limit on the amount of power they could intake. It also placed a heavy burden on one’s body. If it was just a matter of strengthening the body, then using it on soldiers would be more efficient. Furthermore, hardly any priests could use the ability, even among the top practitioners.

Nina was one of the rare few.

Her body pulsated with so much heat, it felt as if it were on fire. If someone had told her that her blood was boiling over and her organs were melting, she would not have been surprised. She had experimented with the technique against monsters on many occasions so she could acclimatize to the sensation, but it was completely different now that she was up against a demon. A slight buff would have been meaningless. Only by pushing herself to the furthest end of her limits was she able to contend with the green demon.

Her foe was armed with a club. When Nina nimbly dodged his downward swing, the weapon collided against the ground with enough fierce momentum to rend it apart. Then Nina darted forward and bludgeoned the demon’s arm with her rod.

Although she had bolstered her body, she was still a priest, which meant her damage output was meager. But she was fine with that. Like Evsei and Sophia, Nina’s role was to draw the demon’s attention away from Leonard. As long as she could make her opponent think, What an annoying pest, that was good enough. She was also banking on wounding the demon’s ego by whacking him, something no mere priest could normally accomplish.

“Those demons are a prideful bunch, same as knights. If you manage to hurt them just a little, you’ll really raise their hackles,” Leonard had told her.

He was a terrible man. He’d always declared that money was the most important thing of all and that human lives could be measured in coin. It was rare to find anyone who would say that so frankly. Not even a merchant would say it, at least not in polite company.

But Leonard was right—money was important. They had used it to buy the lives of the refugees, just as he’d said. By exchanging money for food and a roof over their heads, the lives of the displaced were saved.

And right now, Nina was fighting to protect those lives. Part of it was a way of avenging what had happened fifteen years ago, but there were a lot of things riding on this battle.

I can’t let Leonard fail.

She whacked the demon with her rod again, prompting his face to contort in annoyance. Then when the demon made a swift retaliation by swinging his pole horizontally, she jumped backward to avoid it.

This is taxing…

She could move more nimbly than the average warrior, but she paid the price for it through the sheer strain on her body. This was on a whole different level from when she’d fought the goblins or run away from the hobgoblins. It was impossible for her to keep this up for long.

But Nina was satisfied—because she could fight on par with a demon, however briefly. She was no longer the person who shrank at the sight of battle. The thought cheered her heart.

The demon’s club came swinging her way again. She was just a moment too slow to dodge. When she blocked the attack with her rod, her whole body was sent flying with it.

For an instant, she was completely airborne, and then she hurtled to the ground.

She hardly felt the pain. The invocation caused such a tremendous strain that it dulled her senses. But the fact that she had been too slow was a sign that her body was no longer able to keep up. She tried to stand right away, only to sink to her knees.

I suppose this is it for me.

Nina was prepared for death. She did not fear it. To her, it was as if she’d died fifteen years ago. It was a miracle she had physically survived.

…No. She felt no wonderment at surviving, only a bitter taste in her mouth at her own continued existence. She had been too afraid to venture toward Luke, and so he had died while she had not. The only way she’d been able to stave off that guilt ever since was by helping people.

Only now did she finally feel absolved. Her regrets no longer chained her. Nina closed her eyes in the face of the incoming club.

“My oh my, are you using invocation?”

Instead of the blunt force trauma she had been expecting, Nina heard a woman’s voice.

There was a beautiful lilt to it. Thinking it was an angel that had come to greet her in the afterlife, Nina opened her eyes—and was greeted with the sight of a black-haired woman blocking the demon’s pole with a slender staff. Unlike Sophia’s purple-tinted hair, this woman’s was as dark as the night sky.

There was a golden, radiant aura exuding from her entire body.

“Who…are you?” Nina asked haltingly.

“I’m Maria. Just your ordinary, everyday priest. Oh, but I think you should stop that invocation of yours right away. It’s rather a sham.”

Hovering so close to the brink of exhaustion, Nina did not have to be told twice to stop. That same moment, an overwhelming sense of nausea, fatigue, and pain wracked her body.

“Ugh…”

Nina collapsed to the ground, unable to hold out a moment longer.

Maria watched her and smiled. “You were pushing yourself too hard.”

As she blocked the demon’s attack with the staff in her left hand, she reached her right hand toward Nina and chanted a prayer.

“Huh?”

Nina’s exhaustion and pain vanished in an instant—the very definition of a miracle. Yet Nina felt neither gratitude nor joy. She was too confused.

I’ve got to be dreaming. No divine miracle can be this powerful. She must be using a completely different technique from what every other priest knows.

She could tell how distinct this miracle was because of their common background as priests.

“Who are you, may I ask?” Nina demanded.

“Just your ordinary, everyday priest, as I said. Although some people call me by the ill-fitting title of Holy Maiden.”

Meanwhile, the demon retracted his club, readjusted his stance, and then took another swing—this time with all the strength in his body.

“How irritating…”

Maria held her staff up and pointed it at the demon, causing a golden light to wrap around his body. The next moment, his once-green body turned white, as if he were being purged.

“Aaaa—”

The demon tried to scream, but he could not even manage that before he became as immobile as a statue.

“What…what are you doing?”

Nina was aghast. Maria’s power was definitely of the divine sort, but that only made her display all the more menacing. The power of the divine had always felt like a distant, hazy warmth to Nina, but now it came across like a scorching hot flame at point-blank range. Fear was the natural response.

“What, you ask?” Maria looked back at Nina with a wan smile. Her eyes were the color of gold. There was nothing human about them. “I’m purifying the demon, as you can see. Until he turns to salt.”

Nina had never heard of a single occasion in which a priest had wielded that kind of miracle. It was recorded in the scriptures as an act of God.

“Have you…have you invoked God within you right now?”

“Yes, this is a proper invocation. I am using divine power.”

Maria’s eyes turned back to black. The golden light around her disappeared as well.

The demon who had turned to salt crumbled into pieces.

“Um…Holy Maiden?” Upon a second look, Nina could see that Maria was a stunningly beautiful woman, with long, pretty black hair and glossy white skin. “Why are you completely fine after using an invocation?”

Nina could not help but speak politely to this woman who was ten years her junior. There was no doubt in her mind that she was the genuine Holy Maiden—except that she was very different from what Nina had imagined. Rather than a strong sense of piousness or purity, Nina glimpsed a darkness like the depths of hell.

“Because of love.” Maria smiled, her pale cheeks blushing ever so slightly in bashfulness.

“Love? Toward God?”

“Tee-hee, what a funny thing to say.” Maria giggled. “God doesn’t need love. Nothing so silly as that. My love for the Hero is what gives me strength, you know?”

Her eyes were completely glazed over.

“Had I never met him, I would never have sought anything like power. So it must be love. Our meeting was fated by God…”

“Er…love?”

Nina was trembling. If Maria’s “love” could invoke God into her body, then it had to be way too obsessive. Nina felt sorry for the Hero on the receiving end of this affection.

“Indeed—love. Oh, but do keep it a secret that I invoked God, yes? I normally stay by the sidelines as a meek and purehearted maiden, so I wouldn’t want anyone thinking I’m capable of impropriety. My hand was forced today in order to save you. He told me, ‘I want you to go rescue that priest.’” Maria’s eyes shone golden again as she spoke.

“Yes… I understand…”

Nina wouldn’t dream of contradicting Maria. At some point unawares, her body had started trembling in fear.

“…But, um, if you have that power, Holy Maiden, why didn’t you save Leonard?” she asked, swallowing her trepidation. “He’s our fellow party member, and right now he’s fighting the demon Berzera.”

Nina’s goal was to defeat Berzera, nothing more or less. However much Maria frightened her, she had to get that message across.

“Not to worry.” Maria beamed. “Ares the Hero has gone to save Leonard.”

“Ares the Hero… Do you consider him dependable?”

“But of course. Even if he were to die, I would revive him. Then our bond would be ironclad. How wonderful that would be…”

Maria’s expression transformed into one of ecstasy.

Is this a distortion of God? No, wait, maybe she’s become like God…

Nina felt as if she had caught a glimpse of God’s depravity through Maria.

As he dodged Berzera’s giant black-aura-exuding sword, Leonard tried to get in close over and over again.

He was walking on a tightrope. One wrong move, and he would fall to his doom.

And he repeated it many times. Just when he thought he had closed the distance, Berzera forced him to retreat without breaking a sweat. It was madness to attempt something with such high risk and no return, but Leonard kept at it anyway, demonstrating an unbelievable strength of will.

Throughout these repetitions, Berzera showed some very slight gaps in his defense, which Leonard exploited to inflict cuts on the demon’s hands and legs.

Over and over again.

At length, Berzera’s movements began to show some sloppiness, either because of the wounds or because Leonard’s dogged persistence wore him down. Regardless, Leonard was now only one step away from Berzera.

Leonard swung his blade to inflict the decisive blow…

…only for Berzera’s weapon to cleave Leonard’s sword arm at the elbow, sending both the limb and the sword flying.

“It’s over for you.”

Berzera’s lips curled upward.

“Don’t underestimate humans, demon!”

With his remaining left hand, Leonard drew a shortsword from his hip. Then he threw his entire body at Berzera in an attempt to stab the demon’s neck.

Sadly, however, his blade only hit the base of Berzera’s neck, failing to penetrate deeply through the black scales.

Berzera flung Leonard away with his arm, sending him hurtling to the ground. Leonard promptly hoisted himself back up with his left hand, but it took all of his effort to lift his upper body.

Meanwhile, Berzera plucked out the shortsword from his neck, showing no hint of damage whatsoever.

“Damn, and that shortsword looked so pricey…”

Leonard’s face was deathly pale from the blood loss in his right arm, and now it contorted in frustration. If only the shortsword had a magical enchantment, it could have slain Berzera. Then again, it was rare to find shortswords with that level of quality.

“You did well, human. If not for Ares, I might have acknowledged you as the Hero.”

Berzera commended the man he had brought to death’s door.

Leonard cracked a self-deprecating joke. “Praise? Hey, I’ll take it. People have been calling me a piece of crap for ages.”

“You humans are so foolish.”

Berzera brought his greatsword down without mercy.

Sorry, Luke. I wasn’t cut out for it…

Leonard watched his impending death quietly. He had no regrets. All he thought about was how glad he was that he’d come this far and that he hadn’t run away this time.

But then…

…a harsh metallic clang rang out as somebody—a young man with chestnut-colored hair, wielding a sword and shield—blocked the attack.

Leonard had no recollection of him, but there was something about how he looked from behind that evoked a sense of déjà vu.

The young man’s feet sank into the ground under the weight of Berzera’s savage strike. The fact that his body did not waver in spite of that was a testament to his many long years of training.

“…Who are you?” Berzera demanded.

“Ares. The Hero.”

The young man’s voice was clear and dauntless.

So this is the Hero, huh…?

For some reason, it clicked for Leonard right away that Ares was the Hero—even though Luke was the Hero in his mind and nobody else could ever fill those shoes.

“Ares? You’re supposed to be in Arkand right now…”

Berzera was surprised at Ares’s presence, given he had been receiving detailed reports on the Hero’s movements.

Ares grinned. “I’ve got a scheming buddy who’s good at manipulating information.”

“…Hmph, no matter.”

Berzera retracted his sword and launched another furious blow. Ares blocked it again with his shield.

“I have heard that you owe a great deal of your strength to your companions. This is the perfect opportunity to destroy you.”

With that coolheaded decision, Berzera switched gears. Just as he pulled his sword back to deliver yet another strike, his face suddenly caught aflame.

“What?!”

Ares had cast a spell with his left hand. The shield had concealed his hand movements, and he had muttered the incantation quietly enough for Berzera not to hear.

The spell did hardly any damage to the demon, but it did obscure his vision, causing him to reflexively step back and adopt a stance to cover his vitals.

Ares saw his chance. He made a slash—not at Berzera’s head or heart, but at the right hand holding his greatsword.

“Ngggh?!”

The sudden pain forced Berzera to drop his sword.

Having waited for the perfect moment, Ares swung his own sword. His swordplay was nasty, always chipping away at his opponent’s strength without his ever overextending himself. There was no flourish or natural talent in his form—just plain, dirty, desperate fighting.

“Are you really the Hero? Can you really call yourself the Hero of the people with the way you fight?” Berzera groaned in the face of Ares’s underhanded technique.

Having lost his greatsword, Berzera was now attacking with the sharp claws on his hands, but Ares showed no surprise or consternation. He went on swinging his sword without comment.

Slowly but surely, Ares backed Berzera into a corner.

Flustered, Berzera tried to chant a spell, but Ares forcefully interrupted the incantation by shooting a magic wind blade into his mouth. Nothing the demon tried seemed to work.

“My strength is superior! Why is this happening?!” Berzera howled.

“I pity you.”

The voice came from behind Berzera.

That same moment, a blade ran through the demon’s chest.

Leonard, whom Berzera had completely forgotten about, had retrieved his scattered sword with his left hand and stabbed his foe from behind.

“Gah!”

Berzera stopped in his tracks, coughing up blood.

Without missing a beat, Ares delivered the decapitating strike.

“Thanks, Leonard. You were a big help in beating Berzera.”

Ares smiled as he chanted a healing spell. The makeshift treatment was enough to stop the bleeding in Leonard’s right arm.

Leonard stared hard at Ares. There was something strangely familiar about him. The way he looked when he fought, and those eyes—he was just like the warrior Leonard had admired all those years ago.

“Is your name really Ares? It’s not Zack, is it?” he said finally as he pressed down on the wound on his right arm.

Ares’s eyes fluttered wide in surprise, but a moment later, his face was back to its serene expression. “Zack is my cousin. People often say we look alike. Do you know Zack?”

“You’re his cousin? Really?” For a moment, Leonard was lost for words. “Anyway, I’ve met Zack before. It must’ve been over fifteen years ago. I was in the same party as his parents, Luke and Rei, way back when.”

“I…see…”

Ares’s eyes brimmed with sadness.

Assuming he was Zack’s cousin, Luke and Rei would have been his uncle and aunt. He probably had memories of them. Feeling that he’d touched a sore spot, Leonard changed the subject.

“So, uh… How did you know we were here?”

Leonard’s party had come to Garnahazza under the pretext of fulfilling a job. Ralph, their client, had kept their destination a secret, and they hadn’t informed anyone themselves.

“The Prophet told me about you.”

“The Prophet?”

Leonard didn’t like the Prophet, the dubious individual who existed to identify the Hero. All they did was give orders from the shadows, not lifting a finger themself.

“They wanted me to save you,” said Ares. “Because it would mean saving the people.”

“Me?”

Leonard had no clue why the Prophet would tell Ares to save him, though it did make sense that slaying Berzera would save many people. It wasn’t completely out of the question when he thought of it that way.

He was still pondering the matter when he noticed a robed figure standing behind Ares.

It was only for a brief instant. Leonard wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“…Hey, Ares. You’re not possessed by some weird ghost or something, are you?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so?”

“Right…”

That marked the end of their one-on-one conversation. After that, the others arrived.

Maria cast a spell that reattached Leonard’s severed arm. Having given up on being a two-armed man, Leonard gazed at Maria in wonderment and gratitude, only for the other priest in the entourage to chime in.

“Excuse me? How were you able to restore his lost arm?” said Nina. “No human being can cause a miracle like tha—”

She did not finish her sentence, because Maria silenced her with a smile.

Nina stayed far away from Maria after that.

Then Solon told Leonard and his party about their future plans. The mage knew about the organization Ralph and his ilk belonged to, and Solon’s idea was to use Berzera’s death to take down the whole conspiracy.

Solon predicted the organization’s moves so far in advance that it made Sophia grimace.

“Can you see the future or something? It’s kind of creepy.”

Solon looked slightly hurt at that reaction.

Meanwhile, Evsei and Leon got swept up in a conversation about spearmanship and swordplay. It was when they started actually sparring that everyone else rolled their eyes.

“You guys aren’t heading back to town?” Leonard asked Ares at length.

“Well, I’m the Hero, so I have to keep going until I beat the Demon Lord. Besides, now that the army’s commander is out of commission, we might be able to infiltrate deep into the Demon Lord’s territory,” Ares replied as if this was the obvious thing to do.

Although Berzera had been a powerful demon, he’d been assigned commander simply because of his leadership skills. Instead of just valuing strength, the demons delegated their roles logically according to their individual talents. There were plenty of opponents even stronger than Berzera waiting in the wings.

“Being the Hero sounds like a tough gig.” Leonard shrugged. “You’re fine with that being your lot in life, Ares?”

He was back to his usual wisecracking.

Leon, Solon, and Maria pulled slightly sour faces at that, but Ares smiled.

“Am I fine with it? Hard to say,” he remarked. “To be honest, I still don’t know whether I’m the Hero. Sometimes, I think, Maybe the real Hero’s out there somewhere. But I don’t think it matters whether I’m real or a fake as long as I beat the Demon Lord. Yeah, I know it’s hard, but that’s the role I’ve embraced.”

“Your role?” Leonard was somewhat bemused by Ares’s word choice, but he soon shrugged it off. “Well, okay. With your lineup, I’m sure you guys can win. I mean, if you can’t beat him, I’d say it’s time for the rest of us to pack it up. So what I’m saying is…take it easy, all right?”

Leonard gave Ares a little poke in the chest.

With the defeat of Berzera, the Demon Lord’s army fell into disarray, giving the human side the opportunity to reassemble its forces. This had a strong impact on the war effort, and in time, the incident was credited to the Hero as “the miracle of Garnahazza.”

Leonard and his party were the ones who spread the praise, concealing the fact that they themselves had participated in the battle. It was all to uplift the Hero’s name and give the people hope.

Meanwhile, Solon’s stratagems succeeded in destroying the organization that aided the demons. Leonard’s party played a key role in making this happen, although they certainly never wished to kill Ralph and many other humans.

Chapter Eight

The Queen’s Request

“Zack, do you remember an adventurer named Leonard?” the queen asked.

Six years had passed since the events of that day.

Several months after Zack returned to the capital, the queen left the underground temple and summoned the Hero to a room in the palace, where they had a private conversation. It was then when the queen asked Zack that question.

“Yes, I remember him. That’s the guy who fought Berzera at Garnahazza, right?”

“Indeed. He is the person you saved at my request.”

Zack knew the queen was the Prophet.

“Has something happened to Leonard?” he asked.

“I’d like you to bring him to the palace. Under normal circumstances, I would have gone out to meet him, but I cannot leave the palace as long as I am the priestess. Besides, I doubt he would go along with anyone besides you.”

There was an apologetic look on the queen’s face.

“I don’t mind. Do you happen to know where he is?”

“No,” the queen said crisply.

“Huh?”

“As far as my information network has told me, he does not appear to be within the kingdom’s borders. It is difficult to track down someone living in another country, as you yourself have proven.”

“Well…yes…” Zack scratched his head with a sheepish smile.

“But I believe your friends can find him.”

As soon as the queen said the word friends, three faces came to Zack’s mind. Certainly, they were a stalwart trio, but they were not the type to shut up and do what someone else told them to, even if that person was the queen.

Zack sighed. “I think they’re busy at the moment.”

They all had jobs that were important to the nation. They couldn’t go off adventuring at the drop of a hat.

“It’s fine. If you tell them you’re going, they’ll come with you of their own accord,” the queen assured him genially.

“Do I have to bring Alexia…I mean, Her Highness?”

Zack was asking about his fiancée, the princess.

“Not this time. I don’t believe she’ll be that useful.”

The queen declared that her own daughter was unneeded without batting an eye.

The two of them did love each other, but after her long and arduous experiences, the queen had a tendency to dismiss things quickly.

After a bit of fretting, Zack decided to ask Solon for his thoughts.

Just as he walked out of the room, he bumped into Maria, who happened to be walking by.

Maria wore a radiant smile. “Why, hello, Zack. What brings you to the castle?”

Although she pretended it was a coincidence, she was well aware Zack had been meeting with the queen. The timing of her stroll was, of course, very deliberate.

“Oh, hi, Maria. Her Majesty called me over for a chat.”

“What business did she have with you?”

Maria cocked her head slightly. The angle of the tilt and her subsequent upturned gaze was precisely calculated to perfection. Had a painter or sculptor witnessed this moment, they would have been seized with the desire to capture it for all eternity.

Not Zack, however. He had long since been desensitized to Maria, and so her affectations left him entirely unmoved.

“She asked me to look for someone. Do you remember that adventurer named Leonard? The one who challenged Berzera to a fight.”

“Oh, him? Yes, I do remember.”

This was a lie. Maria had completely forgotten about Leonard, though her mind worked furiously to dig up her memories.

“I believe I could be helpful in your search…”

“But don’t you have your job as a bishop?”

“Oh, that shouldn’t be a hurdle. The youngsters work so hard these days; I’m left with hardly anything to do. It makes me feel a little lonely, even.”

Maria’s shoulders drooped; she hung her head.

This was another lie, of course. Maria held the reins of the entire church, and she had established a system that was so dependent on her that it could not function without her.

“Oh, really?” Zack was well aware of Maria’s true nature, and so he did not take her claim at face value, although a part of him was inclined to seek her help. “Okay, I’ll ask you if something comes up.”

“Ah, yes, be my guest.”

With that, Zack took his leave.

Maria watched until he had entirely disappeared from view, then promptly made for the church. Her eyes were icy cold, the polar opposite of her sunny demeanor just moments earlier.

“Now then, who gets to enjoy my workload? This is a chance to pick out a good gofer, I must say.”

Maria’s mind started going through the list of potential victims.

“Hey there, Zack.”

After Zack parted ways with Maria, he came across Leon near the entrance of the palace.

“Hi, Leon. Rare to see you around here.”

“Well, actually, I was waiting for you.” Leon’s lips curled into a smile. “I heard the queen summoned you to the palace. I was worried she might have given you a weird job to do or something.”

Leon was a forthright man, and he spoke his feelings without deception. He was Maria’s total opposite.

“Wow, that was fast. Leave it to a count to know what’s up, right?”

“I suppose. Money is worth more than gold—especially when you’re in a position of power. I have a lot of ears on the ground.”

Ever since Leon had become the head of House Müller, his influence had steadily expanded. This was due in large part to his experiences from their quest to vanquish the Demon Lord. “You learn to stay on your toes when you know there’s people like Solon and Maria out there in the world,” according to him.

“So what did Her Majesty say? I don’t mind if you can’t tell me, but if there’s something I can help with, I’d be happy to lend you a hand.”

Zack cracked a smile at Leon’s candid demeanor. “You’re a really dependable guy, you know that? Okay, so I was asked to look for someone. Do you remember an adventurer named Leonard?”

“Oh, Leonard? Of course. He and his party were a big reason why we were able to achieve the miracle of Garnahazza. If he hadn’t defeated Berzera then, the human side would have suffered more casualties. I guess you could call him an unsung hero.”

Now that he was a count, Leon had a higher opinion of Leonard’s party than he had at the time.

“Her Majesty wants me to find Leonard and bring him to her. I suppose she intends to give him a reward, but he doesn’t appear to be within the kingdom. I guess she wanted me to put in the work since I’m not doing anything important.”

“I see. It certainly is later rather than sooner, but I like the idea of giving someone their well-earned praise. All right, I’ll join you on your search.”

“You’re coming in person? Are you sure? Aren’t you busy with all your count stuff?”

Zack was surprised. When Leon had mentioned lending a hand, he had thought it would be more indirect.

“Don’t give me that look,” said Leon. “I need to see for myself if my absence will cause problems. Can my territory run itself? Will there be political barriers? Best to check now while things are peaceful. And besides…”

“Besides?”

“I’ve been feeling like going on another adventure with you.”

The two of them exchanged smiles—as if they had been transported back to their student days.

“Okay, I get why you’re doing this, Zack, but why are you two tagging along?”

Solon, the owner of the mansion, had an all-too-obvious look of disgruntlement on his face. His legs were crossed in an exaggerated manner, and his chin was resting on his hands. It was hardly the way to act in front of guests.

“Oh, right. Leon said he’d help out, so I asked him to come. Maria is… Wait, why are you in Solon’s mansion?”

Zack and Leon had gone to Solon’s mansion after their conversation, but for some mysterious reason, Maria was already there when they arrived.

“I don’t understand your confusion. Did I not promise you that I would lend you my assistance?” Maria beamed.

Wait, was that how that conversation went?

Zack was pretty sure he had said, “I’ll ask you if something comes up.”Besides, how had Maria known to go to Solon’s place ahead of him when he hadn’t even told her about his plans?

All sorts of questions swirled in Zack’s mind, but it was nevertheless reassuring to have Maria’s support.

“…Uh, yeah,” said Zack. “Looks like you’re all willing to help me out. But I wanted some of Solon’s advice for this kind of thing. Could you lend a hand? This’ll be tough without you on board.”

Solon’s huffy expression softened. “Oh? You can’t do it without me? Well, that makes sense. You can’t expect much from a Sword Saint who’s all brawn and a Holy Maiden who’s only good at mind games. Getting advice from me, the Great Sage, is your best bet.”

The air in the room instantly froze.

Leon and Maria glared at Solon with open hostility in their eyes. Solon, meanwhile, was completely unbothered by the pressure exuding from the Sword Saint and Holy Maiden.

“So you’re interested in Leonard’s whereabouts?” Solon began. “Well, this should be obvious since we’re dealing with an adventurer, but asking around at the tavern is a good start. We just need to find a client with connections to Leonard. We know three people who fit that bill: the knight from Arkand, the merchant from Erdelia, and the village chief of Gastan.”

“But they didn’t speak well of Leonard, did they?” Leon pointed out.

“That’s what you might think if you take their words at face value, but there’s another side to it when you consider the context. You guys might not be able to relate, though.”

“Oh? Now that’s surprising, coming from you. You have hardly any friends,” said Maria.

“There’s barely anyone out there who can be described as a true friend. Most people use each other, and then they sugarcoat the relationship by calling it a friendship. What people say is no way to gauge their character. It’s only natural I don’t have many friends.”

Solon cast a meaningful look at Zack, prompting a self-effacing smile from the other man.

“I could be using you too, Solon…,” Zack argued.

“Doesn’t matter to me. Because I am your true friend. Our relationship transcends those trappings. What I said before doesn’t apply to us. I want to be helpful to you, plain and simple. I’m not expecting anything in return. It’s the same for you, isn’t it?”

Solon’s argument was passionate. For a moment, Zack was speechless.

“…Yeah, I guess,” he agreed, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

“Look at this weirdo, trying to explain friendship with logic. And the way you’re so convinced that you’re the only special one makes you painful to watch,” Leon said with a groan.

“Things like this are why people don’t warm up to you. Are you treating the girl from the confectionary store properly?” Maria looked down at Solon, her gaze icy.

“Shut your mouth! That’s got nothing to do with this!” Solon insisted with a bright red face.

Today was like any other day. Some penniless sod complained about a goblin nest in the mountains, so there we were on the hunt.

“Why am I still doing this adventurer gig when there’s no money in it?” I grumbled as I brute-forced my way through the mountains in search of the goblins.

“Because that’s your thing, right?” Evsei answered with a chuckle.

“It’s not my ‘thing.’ If anything, it’s like killing time. But I oughtta give up the ghost and retire already. I’m getting old.”

I was in my late thirties. My body was getting stiff and achy; it wasn’t cut out for this rough-and-tumble stuff anymore.

“Vince, the guy they called Hero of the frontier, was hunting monsters all by himself past his forties. What’s your excuse? There’s four of us.” Sophia jabbed me with her staff from behind.

Although she was a mage, she’d kept up her training since Garnahazza, so she had no trouble with hiking even now that she was getting on in years. They say staying active is the key to maintaining your health and looks, although I had no idea how true that was. What I could say was that Sophia had aged well, appearance-wise.

“Hey now, don’t even think of comparing me with a relative of the Hero. That whole family is a bunch of monsters. I’m just the son of a blacksmith. Apples and oranges.”

To me, Vince, Luke, and Zack were all Heroes. I could never hope to be like them.

“Aww, you’re a Hero, too, Leonard. Look, you keep fighting monsters for the sake of other people, even when there’s hardly any reward,” said Nina, peering over her shoulder at me as she cheerfully led the way. This woman jumped for joy whenever we took on a job that was all about helping people.

There was no part of me that wanted to take on low-paying jobs. The world was still in a rough state even after the Demon Lord had conked it, though, which meant there wasn’t much cash to go around. I was only taking jobs for cheap because most of the clients out there couldn’t pay up. We were just barely eking out a living to this day. I had no pretensions of being the Hero or anything.

“You don’t get the big bucks from being the Hero. We don’t even know if it made Zack happy,” I pointed out.

The story of how Ares the Hero was actually a different guy named Zack was famous around the land. It was an impressive, emotional tale—the kind that made it hard to tell whether it was fact or fiction.

I had a very different takeaway from it, though.

“Instead of going back to the capital,” I said, “Zack preferred to stay incognito in a farming village…”

The conversation cut off there when I spotted the cave we were looking for—except there were four people standing in front of it who looked like adventurers.

“Who are those guys? Did they take the same job from another village?” Evsei muttered, disgruntled.

Not that I cared about them beating us to the job. The pay was cheap change anyway. It wasn’t any skin off our nose if someone else had taken it. What did bother me, though, was that I recognized these people.

The guy in the middle with chestnut-colored hair was waving at me.

“Is that you…Zack?”

“I was looking for you, Leonard. I didn’t expect you to be slaying monsters for the poor,” Zack called out with a guileless smile.

He and his friends had already dealt with the goblins inside the cave.

Leonard, for his part, was unable to conceal his confusion. “What are you guys doing here? Can’t imagine the future king, the Sword Saint, the Holy Maiden, and the Great Sage would have a vacation out in the middle of nowhere, but hey, weirder things have happened.”

“Of course not, Leonard.” Leon responded to Leonard’s sarcasm with a very count-like dignity. “As Zack mentioned, we were looking for you and your friends under the queen’s orders.”

“The queen? Why her?”

Leonard was just a humble adventurer, which meant he was generally expected to pay his respects to Zack and his friends, who all had clout to their names. But instead, he doubled down on the informality. It was a matter of his pride as an adventurer.

“I imagine she wishes to bestow honors upon those who fought against the Demon Lord’s army. Please do come along,” Maria urged, smiling.

Her manner was gentle, but there was a forceful pressure exuding from her body. Nina shrank back on instinct. Even after all these years, her fear of Maria still hadn’t lessened.

“Honors? We didn’t do that crap for the sake of the kingdom. We just did what we wanted. Don’t get any ideas about us wanting a reward,” Leonard insisted, impervious to the pressure.

Maria’s eyes narrowed into slits.

“Well… It’s not as if I don’t understand your feelings,” said Solon, ever the contrarian with a bone to pick with authority.

Zack faced Leonard straight on. “But still, I want you guys to come with us.”

“Why?”

“I asked around about your party before we came here. We went to a bunch of different taverns, of course, but I also talked with people like the knight in Arkand, the Erdelian merchant, and the village chief of Gastan.”

“So…what did they say about me?” Leonard had to admit he was a little interested in what Zack was saying.

“That you’re unpleasant.”

“Heh-heh-heh…”

Leonard’s face twisted into a laugh. He couldn’t help but find it funny.

“They said the same stuff before the battle with Berzera, actually,” Zack went on. “Everyone said you were a selfish money-grubber who’d never fit in the Hero’s party.”

“Hey, isn’t that accurate? I actually am that kind of guy.” Leonard shrugged.

“Maybe so. But when I asked around again this time, I heard something different.”

“What’s that?”

“The knight in Arkand said, ‘He’s an unpleasant guy who plays dirty to win, but he fights for the people in front of him. If the Hero is a national savior, he’s a local one. That’s why I couldn’t recommend him for the Hero’s party.’”

Leonard said nothing. He recalled what he knew of that knight. His son had died in the battle, for which he had every right to blame Leonard.

“The Erdelian merchant was similar. ‘He kept asking for money, but the work he did matched the pay. He understood that life has a price tag. He’s an unpleasant guy to do business with, but I didn’t want him to die. That’s why I didn’t want him to join the Hero’s party.’”

That merchant did nothing but whine at me, Leonard thought with a rueful smile.

“The Gastan village chief said, ‘He was an unpleasant man. Did you know he threatened me not to breathe a word that he was helping people? He wanted me not to look complicit when he sold the grain illegally, just in case the word got out. He really was awful.’ He also mentioned that he hopes you’ll stop by again.”

Leonard looked blankly up at the sky. He hadn’t done those things because he wanted people to understand him or anything. He was fine with being the bad guy.

“Damn, now I look totally uncool…”

“You’re the son of a blacksmith and a good person,” Sophia told him. “It was pointless of you to act edgy.”

“That’s for sure.” Evsei chuckled.

“She’s right, you know.” Nina laughed, too.

Leonard shot his party members an exasperated look. “What’s with you guys? You want a queen to pat you on the head so badly?”

“Well, duh. It’s nice to be praised. You’re just a contrarian. This is a once in a blue moon kind of thing. Why don’t you just be a good boy and go see her?” said Sophia.

Leonard shook his head. “Go? Like, back to the kingdom? You know how far away that is? You wanna put in all that time and effort just for a damn compliment?”

Solon interrupted Leonard’s protests to say, “Oh, don’t worry about that.”

“What?”

“I can teleport us back and forth in an instant.”

The Great Sage had sealed off Leonard’s last route of escape.

Epilogue

Was this what it meant to be the Great Sage? Nothing was off-limits?

The man used a teleportation spell, a thing I only knew about from fairy tales, and it actually did take us back to the kingdom in a single instant.

Sophia was so shocked that her mouth hung wide open. Maybe she understood just how impressive it was, being a mage herself. People had once called her a genius way back when—not that you could see a hint of that nowadays.

“I have to use the magic circle in my mansion as the nexus, so it’s not that useful,” Solon said, though he still looked pleased with himself.

You really had to wonder what the hell this guy’s standards were if he was saying this wasn’t useful.

“He’s right. This is no big deal. One of these days, I’ll use a divine miracle to travel between this world and the next,” said Maria the Holy Maiden, as if she was trying to one-up him.

I shudder to think what she has in mind…

The weirdness didn’t end after we left Solon’s mansion. Right in front of the palace gates, there was a whole row of knights standing in a straight line. As soon as they caught sight of us, they drew their swords and held them toward us like an offering. Was this some kind of show of respect?

“Welcome, Sir Leonard. Her Majesty awaits you,” one of the knights announced, stepping forward. I was guessing he was the captain.

Seemed like they had been waiting around for us to show up.

“Why the fuss? Orders from above?”

The sarcasm slipped out before I could stop myself.

“No, this was our prerogative. Sir Leonard, the exploits of you and your party have spread far and wide through word of mouth. You are the adventurer who challenged Berzera in battle in order to save the people. We believe that you, too, are a Hero.”

I was about to say “You couldn’t be more wrong,” when I suddenly noticed the shortsword at the knight’s hip.

It was still in its scabbard, but I could tell it was a spectacular work of craftsmanship, a real vintage piece. It probably had a magical enchantment to boot.

The knight noticed my gaze. “Has my sword caught your eye? It is a family heirloom passed down through my house for generations,” he said, pulling out the blade and passing it to me.

The blade shimmered with magic, just as I’d predicted. There was something oddly familiar about the sight.

“That’s a good sword. It’s not up for sale? I could pay you handsomely for it,” I offered.

“Unfortunately, this sword is priceless. But I might sell it to you for an inflated price if my house were to fall destitute.”

The knight responded to my casual joke with a good-natured quip of his own. He was a pretty good guy, as far as knights were concerned.

I gave the sword back to him. “What’s your name?”

“It is Carmine, Sir Leonard.”

…I felt like I’d heard that name somewhere before. It was a common name, so that probably explained it.

We were ushered into a room inside the palace. It was clean, painted white as the base color, and filled with high-quality furnishings. It made me anxious as hell.

“I’ll lead the way,” Zack told me.

“What about the Sword Saint and the Holy Maiden?”

“Their subordinates accosted them as soon as they got back to the palace. I guess a lot of work piled up since they were away for a while. Even Solon’s apprentice dragged him off back when we were at the mansion.”

Zack chuckled.

Slowly, we walked down the long, white hallway. Strangely enough, I saw barely anyone else around.

Looking at the Hero striding forward with his back turned to me, it really brought back memories of him. I didn’t think they looked much alike at the time, but the influence was definitely there.

“Hey, Zack,” I mustered finally.

Zack stopped and looked back over his shoulder at me. There was a calm smile on his face.

Oh, yep, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. There’s a resemblance for sure.

“There’s something I should’ve told you a long time ago. I should’ve looked for you so I could say it sooner.” I took a deep breath. “You see, back when we first met, I was relieved when you told me you were Ares. I was glad you weren’t Zack.”

Zack silently waited for me to continue. I wondered how Sophia and the others were reacting behind me.

“…I ran away twenty years ago. Your mom and dad were my friends, and I abandoned them. Before the battle even started, I chickened out and ran.”

I clenched my fist hard enough to draw blood.

“The thing is, I was a cowardly piece of shit. Not the kind of guy who deserves praise. Everything I did, it was so I could copy your dad, Luke. Nah, I’m sure he would have done things better, but I figured out my own way by thinking, ‘What would he do in this situation?’ I wasn’t really in this to help people. I was just trying to fill Luke’s shoes. What I’m trying to say is that it’s wrong of me to get praise. I’m a fake.”

Moments before seeing the queen, I finally let out what was in my chest. Talk about bad timing. But still, I just couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore.

As for Zack… Well, he reacted with another calm smile. That part wasn’t a surprise.

“Leonard, you’re here now. Isn’t that enough? Nobody can tell whether someone’s real or fake. Not even God, I’m betting.”

Zack’s eyes brimmed with melancholy.

“I abandoned someone dear to me, too. I’m not without sin.”

Oh, right, I thought. If this guy was the Hero, then his struggles were probably way greater than mine. He probably had a bunch of things he regretted. There was no doubt in my head that Zack was still plagued by those thoughts even now. I wasn’t the only one who was trapped by his past…

For some reason, I could feel something like a weight disappearing from my chest.

“Let’s go. I bet Her Majesty is waiting.” Zack nudged me gently, as if that heavy conversation hadn’t even happened.

He took me to a grand-looking place. Apparently, it wasn’t the audience chamber used by the king, but it was still pretty darn big.

A woman who appeared to be the queen stood at the very far back. She had beautiful, flowing blond hair and blue eyes. She was cloaked in a white garb, and although she wasn’t wearing any fancy accessories, it made her feminine beauty all the more obvious. There was something very solemn and divine about the whole picture. I guess that’s the aura of royalty for you.

Next to her was a younger-looking girl with similar facial features. My guess was that she was the princess.

Weirdly enough, there wasn’t anyone else around—no retainers, no bodyguards, nothing.

At Zack’s urging, me and the rest of the party stepped up in front of the queen. I felt like I should probably kneel to her or something, but I didn’t know the first thing about etiquette. There was a chance that Sophia would know, being ex-nobility and all, but I didn’t dare look back over my shoulder just to see.

I walked up until I was about ten steps away from the queen. Her eyes were on me the whole time. Just as I was starting to get flustered, she said:

“How do I look? Am I beautiful?”

There was a smile on the queen’s face.

What’s she on about?

I mean, sure, she was beautiful. She looked so young it was hard to imagine she had such a grown-up daughter, and she had the kind of face you wouldn’t see from just milling around town.

But was that really the way you’d start a conversation with a guy you were meeting for the first time?

Wait, maybe there was a whole etiquette thing with highborn ladies where you had to praise their beauty when you said hello? But that didn’t make sense, considering her daughter, the princess, was looking at her mother in shock. So I guess this queen was asking a weird question.

Either way, this wasn’t my scene. As much as Zack had insisted on taking me here, I had no love for royalty or nobility. When the monsters attacked, they should’ve been the ones fighting on the front lines, but no, they always had to sit back and give the orders.

Feeling sorely tempted to turn around and leave, I glared at the queen. She held my gaze squarely, a smile on her lips.

Wait, that’s not quite it, I realized. She was desperately trying to keep a straight face, but the nerves were getting to her. She looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

Why? Why was she making that face?

I had no clue what was going on, but I figured I might as well agree with her and see what happened from there.

All kinds of words and phrases swirled in my head.

But what ended up coming out of my mouth surprised even myself.

“Yeah, you’re a beautiful lady. Enough to risk my life for.”