The House of Duke West—a family founded by the first Hero who protected the world’s peace against the First Demon King.
Famous for producing the most Heroes in history, the House of Duke West once again received the honor of having the family’s heir chosen as the Hero in this generation.
The Hero, Jake West.
That name spread from the capital throughout the entire Empire. People believed without doubt that he would behead the Demon King and protect the world’s peace.
But now, the Hero who should be protecting the world was suffering, trapped behind iron bars.
“It’s been revealed that the Hero’s Sword went missing. The whole Empire is in an uproar about a fake Hero strutting around with a fake sword.”
The House of Duke West had gained the honor of safeguarding the Hero’s Sword solely because they were the family of the First Hero. When a new Hero was chosen, their duty was to deliver the Hero’s Sword to them. However, they had failed in this mission.
The whereabouts of the Hero’s Sword became untraceable after it was last seen in the hands of the previous Hero 500 years ago.
Instead of revealing the truth, the House of Duke West chose to deceive the entire world. So when Jake West was announced as this generation’s Hero, they held a more splendid appointment ceremony than ever before.
In front of all the Imperial citizens of the capital watching the ceremony, Duke West handed the Hero’s Sword to the Hero Jake. Not the blessed sword bestowed by the Lord, but merely a fake Hero’s Sword that only resembled the original in appearance.
When this fact began to spread, the Imperial citizens fell into terror.
The Hero’s Sword that should behead the Demon King is fake, and that grand ceremony was all a lie? Without the Hero’s Sword, can the Demon King even be defeated? Perhaps the Hero isn’t even qualified to vanquish the Demon King? What if… even the Hero presented by the House of Duke West is fake?
The people’s fear soon turned to rage.
That rage naturally turned toward the Hero Jake West and the House of Duke West that orchestrated all of this.
“Has the sword’s whereabouts been discovered?”
“I heard it’s at the Temple of the God of Abundance in Audrit.”
“The God of Abundance?”
Elijah felt anxious because Jake showed more interest in the sword’s whereabouts than his own situation.
“That’s not what’s important right now. The Duke is planning to pin all of this on you.”
“Pin it on me? Hiding the fact that the sword disappeared was my choice.”
“The sword disappeared 500 years ago.”
“But I knew the sword handed to me at the appointment ceremony was fake, yet I participated in the deception. I bear responsibility too.”
“But death sentence is too much when you’re not solely responsible for everything!”
-too much! -much! -uch! -ch!
Elijah’s cry echoed through the empty underground dungeon. But Jake didn’t even blink.
Swallowing her sigh, Elijah composed herself and continued.
“I bribed the knight guarding this place. We just need to pick a day and escape.”
“Bribed?”
“Did you think the Duke would have allowed a visit? Of course I slipped money to the knight.”
Jake’s opinion differed from Elijah’s confident assertion, unfortunately. He slowly shook his head.
“Father would have permitted this visit.”
“……”
Elijah couldn’t continue speaking.
It wasn’t because of Jake’s stubbornness in insisting he received permission she knew he hadn’t. It was because the meaning implied beneath those words pierced her heart.
“I can tell just from the fact that Father didn’t replace the knight guarding this place with someone else. That man probably took your money and reported everything. You wasted your money.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“……”
“Does it amuse you that I wasted the money I received from selling you out, trying to save you? I find myself ridiculous too. But…”
Her throat tightened and her words caught.
Elijah gripped the iron bars so hard her hands hurt as she hung her head low.
“I still want you to live.”
“……”
A long silence passed.
She would have had nothing to say even if Jake mocked her and hurled curses at her. No—she desperately wished he would. Getting a barrage of insults and then escaping this place with Jake would feel refreshing. She knew she didn’t even deserve to feel refreshed, but right now, nothing felt more urgent than that.
“Elijah.”
At the end of the silence, Jake spoke. Elijah swallowed hard and raised her head. Jake’s blue eyes were gazing at her.
Without any emotion in them.
“Let’s pretend today’s conversation never happened.”
With those words, Jake turned his back to Elijah.
Faced with this clear order to leave, Elijah had no choice but to turn away.
***
‘Am I going to die?’
Immediately after Elijah left, Jake looked down at the glass bottle in his hand and thought.
Hiding the disappearance of the Hero’s Sword, and deceiving the world by calling himself a Sword Master when he could barely even kill a single monster—even for a Hero, these were capital crimes that couldn’t escape execution. Even with the House of Duke West behind him, this time it would be hard to let slide.
‘I can’t die like this.’
Who would be happy to hear they’re about to die? But for Jake, it wasn’t a matter of like or dislike.
Jake had to survive.
Because he had a great mission he absolutely had to fulfill.
‘This is no time to be lying around.’
The ducal castle was protected by a dragon’s magic and couldn’t be damaged. However, recently Jake had discovered that in one corner of the dungeon where he was imprisoned, there was a space where the dragon’s magic didn’t reach.
This was an underground dungeon. In a place where digging would only lead to deeper earth, planning to escape by digging was reckless. But in this place where he could neither break through walls nor destroy iron bars, that small space—not even a hand’s span—was Jake’s last lifeline.
However, pounding the hard stone floor with his bare hands only injured his hands; digging through the ground wasn’t easy. He had tried forcing the stones out, but all he got from that was broken fingernails and torn fingers.
Jake poured the remaining half of the recovery potion over his right hand covered in dried blood.
Hissssss.
“Ugh,”
Along with burning, stinging pain, the wound on his palm healed.
‘I thought it was a mid-grade potion, but was it a high-grade one?’
Though it was a small wound, if the potion caused new flesh to grow immediately upon application, it was close to a high-grade potion. Where did Elijah get the money to obtain something like this?
The thought occurred to him that perhaps it was the Duke who sent Elijah here.
If that were the case, had he attempted to escape as Elijah suggested, he would have fallen into a trap laid by the Duke.
‘Even if that’s not the case, it’s better not to accept Elijah’s proposal.’
If Elijah truly wanted to help him out of pure intentions, it was even more right to refuse her proposal.
Because if he took her hand, the Duke wouldn’t leave Elijah alone.
‘I can’t involve an innocent person in my affairs.’
Without hesitation, Jake swung the glass bottle in his hand and smashed it against the stone floor.
Crash—!
The glass bottle shattered into pieces scattered on the floor. Jake picked up the largest shard.
“Good.”
A tool had been given to Jake, who had been letting time pass without being able to do anything. All that remained was to make good use of it.
Jake tore the thin cloth that served as his only permitted bedding and wrapped it around the glass shard. Then he began scraping the floor with the pointed end.
Scratch, scrape, scratch,
Of course, one couldn’t dig through stone by scraping it with glass. What Jake was aiming for was the small gap between the stones.
Jake scraped out the dirt in the gaps with the sharp glass shard. And when a gap formed between the stones, he immediately wedged his fingers in and pried the stone out. Even after removing a stone, the next stone was waiting for him, but it didn’t matter. This too could be dug out the same way with time.
‘If Elijah hadn’t brought the medicine, I would have died before my execution.’
He had learned of the one-week time limit, and he had obtained exactly the tool he needed.
Jake was genuinely grateful to Elijah.
Scratch, scratch,
The sound of hard stone being scraped by glass filled the underground dungeon. Jake continued working, paying no heed to his hands getting cut and wounded. He felt the sharp glass digging into his flesh and fresh blood welling up on his newly healed palm, but he didn’t care.
Anyone who saw Jake like this might mock him as foolish. After all, the hole he had dug after all this suffering was merely small enough to barely fit one arm.
But Jake didn’t give up.
Even if he spent the entire week just digging and was then dragged away, it didn’t matter.
Even if someone came to clean this room after his execution and laughed at the traces of his last desperate struggles, that was fine.
Rather than giving up everything and sitting idle because there was no way, wouldn’t betting everything on even the smallest possibility increase his chances of survival, even if just slightly?
If he did that, he could go satisfied even in the final moment when his head fell. That at least he had tried everything he could.
Scrape, scratch, scratch scratch,
Jake dug without rest, ignoring the pain in his palms and the cold seeping into his bones.
Cold sweat dripped down his chin.
He felt his body, which had barely cooled down, heating up again.
Scratch, scratch… scratch……
Thud,
In the end, Jake lost consciousness, unable to bear the agony of his entire body burning.
