The Former Hero Begins to be Re-evaluated

‘There’s nothing particularly special written here.’

I found a document with the official seal of the Kingdom of Artes stamped on it among the group that looked like bandits.

What is this? I started reading the document, but there wasn’t really anything special written.

With the subject and object omitted, it only said [Eliminate those who interfere with the kingdom’s existence], so it was a bit perplexing.

How are they supposed to protect the kingdom’s existence by doing what? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand the reason.

However, I could guess who the “interfering person” this document was referring to.

In other words, I seemed to roughly know who they were ordered to kill.

“Ria. Why are these guys targeting you?”

“What? What do you mean?”

The target was undoubtedly Ria.

I looked at Ria and asked what this situation was about.

At my words, Ria seemed to be evading with her mouth saying she didn’t know, but her actions couldn’t do so.

When I looked at her, Ria had an expression like she was caught off guard.

So there was a connection after all.

“Ria. There’s privacy and I wasn’t going to ask, but don’t I need to know at the point of being attacked? Can you explain what kind of relationship this is?”

I knew Ria had some circumstances she couldn’t talk about.

I had noticed from before that she was clearly hiding something from me.

But I didn’t try to find out.

There was no need to know about issues that didn’t concern me.

Moreover, I had no intention of forcibly finding out when she didn’t want to tell me.

But now it was different.

I was clearly attacked.

Of course, if you ask whether such attacks were a crisis for me, I could say they weren’t a crisis at all, but still, at this point of being attacked, I couldn’t say it wasn’t related to me.

I looked at Ria and spoke.

I asked her to tell me who these people were and why they were targeting her.

“Um… I don’t really… Maybe they were targeting you, hero?”

Though I tried to persuade her, Ria continued to evade.

As if she really didn’t want to say, she made a guess that maybe they were targeting me, not her.

“No way, there’s no possibility of that. You know that’s not the case if you think about it a little.”

But that’s definitely not it, right?

They recognized me and attacked? That was too absurd.

I can’t say I’ve lived so kindly that I haven’t received grudges from anyone anywhere, but at least not enough to have a grudge from guys like these.

Moreover, how would these guys know I’m a hero? It’s not like I went around announcing I was a hero, and there aren’t many people who know me.

At least not enough for guys like these to recognize.

If they knew I was a hero in the first place, they wouldn’t have sent such pathetic guys.

Even if I was stripped of my hero position, they wouldn’t think a former hero would lose to a few guys like these.

There were many more reasons why these guys wouldn’t have attacked me, even without explaining to Ria.

“Ugh…”

It seems Ria has nothing to rebut to my words.

Though young, she’s a fairly smart child.

She probably knows best that she’s just evading as best she can now.

“Tell me quickly. What circumstances are there?”

I asked Ria once again.

Unlike before, I urged her somewhat forcefully.

“Um… There’s nothing particularly special…”

Finally, at my urging, Ria started speaking while fidgeting with her fingers as if she had no choice.

It seems she judged she couldn’t hide it anymore.

So what exactly was she hiding?

I started listening to Ria’s words slowly, and learned a shocking fact.

“Just that I’m the third… no, now the first heir to the Kingdom of Artes…? Haha…”

The first heir?

Nothing special…

It’s extremely special.

#

‘Is this… the being called the Demon Lord?’

The Demon Lord who declared she would get serious, those words were certainly not bluster.

In an instant, the Demon Lord started overwhelming everything.

Strength, speed, magic power, etc. She showed a clear difference from Herald.

As if proving that she had just been playing along until now, she drove Herald back.

“Ugh…”

Herald was basically a strong swordsman, and an experienced swordsman.

He was a swordsman who had gone through many battles, and a veteran who had won countless difficult battles.

Among those battles, he had many experiences of defeating opponents stronger than himself with wisdom.

No matter what opponent he met, there must be a way to win.

Such wisdom was the greatest weapon and strength for Herald as a knight.

But even he couldn’t find a way to win this time.

How could one defeat such a monster?

No matter how much he used his head, just as an ant can’t defeat a human, the difference between the Demon Lord and himself was clear.

“Aack…!”

The outcome of the battle was decided really quickly.

In the end, Herald could no longer withstand the power of the Demon Lord before his eyes.

Herald’s sword broke without even withstanding three exchanges.

And it wasn’t just the sword that broke. Herald’s strength also reached its limit.

Just from blocking the Demon Lord’s attack, his whole body trembled and his mind became distant.

The Demon Lord’s attacks were on a different level, requiring him to use all his strength.

Now he probably couldn’t block the Demon Lord’s attacks anymore.

Herald confirmed his defeat.

He couldn’t win against the Demon Lord.

“I have no hobby of tormenting the weak.”

Looking down at Herald like that, the Demon Lord simply raised her hand silently.

“I shall end this quickly.”

To end this boring battle, now she should kill him.
That was the utmost consideration for a defeated opponent.

“Let me ask one thing, Demon Lord.”

Is this the end now?
Herald accepted his death.
But before that, he had something to ask.

“Was the hero who came to find you before really strong?”

Herald was curious about Han Soo.

From his experience, the Demon Lord is unbelievably strong.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she’s the pinnacle of living beings.

Even if all the knights of the Empire were mobilized to fight the Demon Lord, they might not be able to scratch her.

She’s truly a being worthy of the name monster.

Because she was such a being, he couldn’t help but be curious.

About Han Soo who met the Demon Lord and returned alive.

“I’m so curious. I want to hear the answer.”

This question wasn’t particularly Herald trying to buy time, or asking anything to survive.

The Demon Lord would kill him anyway. It’s natural for the Demon Lord to kill the hero. Herald had no intention of begging for his life in this situation.

He wouldn’t live much longer anyway. Even if he somehow survived, with his old body and the strength drained from this battle, it’s obvious he wouldn’t live long even if he managed to survive.
Rather than that, he thought it would be better to die honorably here.

So, his question now was purely out of curiosity.

“Hmm… You ask if the hero who came to me then was strong…”

At Herald’s question, the Demon Lord thought for a moment.

Honestly, the Demon Lord had no obligation to answer Herald’s question.

But she decided to answer anyway.

Although it didn’t suit her nature, Herald was a hero.

There should be some courtesy to keep between the Demon Lord and a hero.

She was willing to accept the question of a hero about to die.

“He wasn’t weak. To the point that our match wasn’t decided…”

Herald’s question of whether the previous hero was strong, the Demon Lord’s answer to that question wasn’t very long.

It was an answer from the Demon Lord as if asking why he was asking the obvious.

“Is that the answer you wanted?”

“It is.”

Herald who heard the answer from the Demon Lord.

With that answer, the conversation between the Demon Lord and Herald didn’t continue any further.

“How very boring.”

The battle between the hero and the Demon Lord came to an end.

It took quite some time, but the result was too simple.

The Demon Lord’s one-sided victory, an unequivocal victory.

But even with such a victory, she wasn’t particularly happy or anything.

Rather, the emotion she felt now was emptiness.

“As expected, you’re the only one who can stand against me.”

The reason was obviously because the hero she wanted didn’t come.

For the Demon Lord who had been waiting for Han Soo, not another hero, Herald wasn’t welcome.

The battle with Herald wasn’t very enjoyable either.

It was too boring. She tried to enjoy it somehow, but still couldn’t.

How could one enjoy when the battle itself wasn’t established?

So in the end, she could only wait.

For the only being who could give her a fight.

“Hero. My patience is not particularly deep.”

Because he made a promise.

The hero who came in the past promised he would come to her.

He said he would settle the match that wasn’t decided.

Of course, there was talk that he’s not a hero now, but anyway, he’ll have no choice but to come eventually.

To stop her, that is.

Until then, she could wait with a somewhat leisurely mind.

The Demon Lord, looking forward to the day she would meet the hero again, started preparing the banquet to serve him when he eventually came.

#

Meanwhile, the hero party members who parted with Herald.

“What…? What do you mean?”

“Hero Herald died?”

“Yes. It seems that way.”

“Oh my goodness…”

The hero party members realized that Herald had died.