“See that over there?”
Klad pointed to a wooden defensive wall erected at the village entrance.
Though the defensive wall had claw marks left by monsters and traces of battle, despite being roughly made by binding wood together, it was intact without any signs of being broken.
“The fact that monsters couldn’t break through that defensive wall and enter deeper into the village means it was a level that could be handled just by the mercenaries who occasionally visit the village.”
“Then we can resolve it quickly and leave. That’s good.”
Klad stopped Jake, who was about to take the lead and walk forward.
“Good my ass. Since it’s such a simple matter, I’m telling you to stay inside. Are you planning to show your face to the villagers?”
“Ah.”
Only then noticing the villagers’ gazes, Jake subtly turned his head.
“Then I’ll prepare to leave, Klad. Please return safely.”
Jake, firmly believing that Klad would save the village representing the party, turned around without hesitation and headed back toward the guest house. He planned to help the horses digest their breakfast quickly by taking them for a walk and loading up their baggage.
However, when Jake arrived, the horses were nowhere to be seen.
“…Huh?”
A black shadow fell behind the flustered Jake.
Swoosh—
Before anyone could react, the shadow rushed toward Jake. And just as it was about to grab Jake’s throat,
“Keurk—!”
Klad, who had run out from behind, caught the assailant first and slammed them into the ground.
“Klad! Why are you already back…? Who is this person?”
“Who else would it be? An enemy.”
“N-no! I’m… kuk.”
Before the assailant could spout excuses, Klad struck the back of their head and knocked them unconscious. Then he immediately picked up a nearby stone and threw it at someone presumed to be the assailant’s accomplice.
Thwack!
The fleeing accomplice was hit squarely in the back and collapsed.
“What on earth is going on, Klad!”
“It’s a trap.”
Searching through the unconscious assailant’s belongings, a low-rank mercenary badge came out.
“A trap? Don’t tell me these people released monsters into the village?”
“No. There were no monsters.”
He had known there were no monsters here since the child came running. He had just pretended to be fooled because if someone was trying to trap Jake, their identity and reasons needed to be clarified.
Klad arrived at the village entrance, confirmed the residents’ reactions, and sent Jake back alone. After that, he put to sleep all the villagers who tried to lead him into the mountains to keep him far from Jake, then returned.
“These guys tried to kidnap you for the bounty. The villagers must all be in on it too. To think the wanted notice has already spread here—it’s faster than I thought.”
“These people are bounty hunters?”
“No. They’re just low-rank mercenaries. They must have crawled in here after hearing you were here while they were in another nearby city.”
When he mentioned low-rank mercenaries, something came to mind. The day before while training, a child had come and said something related to mercenaries.
Jake, who had judged the child nearby to be safe, was concentrating on swinging his sword and hadn’t properly heard what the child was saying. Jake pondered for a while trying to recall the child’s words.
“I definitely heard that mercenaries from this village are active in the neighboring city. This is terrible. If my identity and whereabouts have spread to that city, going there would be dangerous.”
“Rather, someone who noticed your identity must have run through the night to tell the mercenaries in the city that the wanted Hero is here.”
“That can’t be. The timing doesn’t match… Ah.”
There wasn’t zero suspicion.
Jake had consistently stayed hidden without showing himself to the villagers, but there was exactly one person. Someone who had seen his face.
That child who had brought fruit. The child had sat nearby watching the entire time Jake was swinging his sword.
The hair color was different, the clothes he wore were different, the atmosphere was different, but even a child could have noticed Jake was the Hero if they looked closely enough.
No, rather, precisely because they were a young child, they would have noticed. If it had been others, they wouldn’t have suspected Jake for reasons like: he didn’t have the well-known glamorous blonde hair, a Hero of noble birth wouldn’t wear plain clothes, the companion who came with him wasn’t a party member they’d seen with the Hero before. But the child recognized that he was the Hero just from Jake’s face and voice.
Because they didn’t have the prejudice that ‘if he’s the Hero, this couldn’t be.’
“Since this place isn’t far from the city, if the wanted notice spread to the city, the villagers would have known too. If the child revealed my identity to their parents or other villagers… they might have asked the city’s mercenaries for help.”
The villagers, knowing a large sum of money was on the Hero’s head, hatched this plan.
The village supposedly had one horse they maintained for emergency travel and communication with other places, so there must have been someone who could ride. That person must have ridden through the night to the city and brought back mercenaries.
While anticipating that an enormous amount of money would soon fall into the village.
“But even traveling round-trip to the city would take at least 12 hours no matter how quickly they moved. Since the child left before dinner time, even if they immediately sent someone, it would have been difficult to return in time. How did they arrive so early?”
“They didn’t arrive early.”
Instead of a detailed explanation, Klad pointed at the sky.
When he raised his head to look at the sky, the sun’s position had changed considerably compared to when the child had visited.
“Has that much time already passed!”
“That little brat must have overheard our conversation yesterday. Knowing we were leaving early in the morning, they lied about monsters appearing to keep us here until the mercenaries arrived.”
“Even knowing I needed to be careful, I failed to judge properly and put the party in danger. I’m ashamed.”
“The party I belong to won’t be endangered by just this much. And we didn’t fall for the village’s scheme. We pretended to fall for it to confirm whether those targeting us were the duke’s lackeys or not.”
Unlike Klad, Jake, who had genuinely been fooled, had nothing to say.
“…Perhaps it was my greed.”
“What?”
“I’m questioning whether trying to reveal the ducal house’s tyranny to the world was just my greed.”
“…What are you suddenly talking about?”
These villagers had tried to sell out Jake even knowing he was the Hero who would protect the world. That probably wasn’t because Jake had attacked the emperor, but because of money.
To them, a few gold coins that would make tonight’s dinner sumptuous were more precious than the Demon King who would lead the world to destruction disappearing.
Then how important would the truth that ‘the House of Duke West concealed history’ be to them?
To those for whom whether that noble would raise or not raise taxes was more important than a noble wearing the same clothes as commoners and sleeping in the same place—wouldn’t the truth or whatever be something they didn’t care about at all?
Rather than the truth being revealed to the world causing the Empire to become chaotic, division occurring between the imperial family and nobility, small-scale wars or battles breaking out, and the world becoming unstable—wouldn’t they consider just living under the House of Duke West’s command to be true peace?
Even if the House of Duke West manipulated the world as they pleased, if thanks to that today was safe and tomorrow was guaranteed, wouldn’t that just be fine?
Such thoughts occurred to him.
As a noble, as a Hero, everything he had believed about serving and protecting the imperial citizens felt like it was crumbling entirely.
“I’m supposed to protect the imperial citizens, but if they don’t want to be protected, I don’t know what to do.”
“……”
As Jake’s eyes turned red as if tears would spill out at any moment, Klad carefully offered words of comfort.
“If you want to cry, you can cry.”
“I don’t cry.”
“Is there some law that nobles can’t cry in front of others?”
“Nobles might be allowed to cry, but I’m a Hero before I’m a noble. A Hero must never shed tears.”
Jake’s expression quickly became resolute, as if asking when he had ever been dejected.
“A Hero must become a pillar for all imperial citizens. If I show weakness, won’t the people lose their support?”
“You’re not a Hero anymore.”
“But to them, I’m still the Hero. As long as the world still needs a Hero, I must take up my sword.”
Because that was the Hero’s duty.
If Jake had decided to stand firm and support the world, Klad had no justification to stop him.
Instead, he was willing to help so he wouldn’t fall.
Whiiit—
When Klad whistled a signal, the horses that had fled in fear at the assailants’ appearance returned.
“Let’s go. If we’re going to stop the duke and save the world, we need to move quickly.”
Jake nodded and mounted his horse. Now when time was of the essence wasn’t the time to be absorbed in such useless contemplation.
Now was the time to move.
Neiiigh—
As they passed the villagers who lay sleeping at the village entrance and entered deep into the mountains, his weakened heart became firm again.
Right. The Empire needs a Hero, and these people know me as the Hero.
Even if their vision was fixed only on today and tomorrow, when a world without a Hero actually arrived, greater chaos would come.
The world still needed a Hero.
These people needed a Hero.
“Wait.”
Neiiigh—
Klad, who had been leading, stopped his horse. Jake also urgently stopped his horse following him.
Klad’s face as he turned back was heavily frowning. Klad glared past Jake’s shoulder, deep into the mountains.
“What’s wrong, Klad?”
To Jake’s question, Klad answered in a deeply sunken voice.
“It’s a demon.”
