Plan
Plan
"That side... must be the attendant from Itisel."
"I don't know who you are, but I can tell you're an unbeliever."
I had not believed in religion in my past life.
I was an utterly ordinary person who might accept that something divine could exist, but never for a moment thought it had any effect on daily life.
I wasn't exactly in a position to refuse to believe it.
Naturally, in keeping with Itisel's fundamentally polytheistic principles, I affirmed the various gods. At the same time, I was a man who knew gratitude—always thankful to the unknown entity that had given me a second life, and always ready to offer sincere faith the moment I properly learned its identity.
Maybe that was why. No matter what political friction existed between nations, it was still absurd to see them start from prejudice and dismiss the Hero, who was undeniably the product of a miracle.
"An unbeliever? I'll have you know I have faith too."
"Don't tell me you believe in that monotheistic faith that even a passing dog wouldn't believe in?"
"A, a passing... what did you say?"
"The monotheistic faith that even a passing dog wouldn't believe in?"
I didn't really think he'd asked again because he genuinely hadn't heard, but still, I repeated it for him.
Even the Empire's state religion was simply the Imperial Divine Council; they did not ignore or deny the existence of other gods.
But these bastards had called the Hero all hype from the very first meeting, hadn't they? Given their reaction, asking whether they followed a monotheistic faith that insisted only their own god was real was neither prejudice nor an unfair question.
"...Hoo. Devoutness is good, but you're still young. You say you were born and raised in Itisel, yet you believe the oracle that a single Hero will truly defeat all the Demonfolk and bring peace?"
"You've never even come near Itisel, so what do you know to be running your mouth like that? Hell, the way you're twisting the oracle makes you sound exactly like a cultist."
"Wha, what did you say! Retract that at once!"
Right. Calling them monotheists could pass as an insult, but being called cultists was a life-or-death accusation they couldn't brush off. But what else could I say? They really were acting like it.
"Are you not? If not, then don't casually spew oracles you can't even remember correctly. The exact oracle is: 'The Hero shall drive out the Demon King and bring stability to humanity.'"
"What in the world is different about that...!"
"What are you talking about? He doesn't bring 'peace,' and he doesn't 'wipe out' the 'Demonfolk.' He brings 'stability' by 'driving out' the 'Demon King.' In what way is that the same meaning as that cultish statement you just claimed?"
I'd said cultist to mock him, but did he seriously not feel the difference between the two? I was starting to genuinely suspect he might actually be a cultist...
"P-please, stop saying cultist, cultist! I cannot tolerate any more of this!"
"Isn't doubting the Hero, a product of a miracle, the same as doubting the God of Light worshipped by the Imperial Divine Council? Taken further, it implies the Empire deceived a god and forged the oracle. You're the one who threw the first insult, so why are you turning around and acting like the wronged party?"
"Ghk...!"
Apparently they weren't complete idiots. The blunt facts I'd thrown at them made them falter. Only then did Siegfried, who had quietly listened to the exchange, briefly step in front of me.
"Hold on. Nothing's certain yet, so I think we need to verify it."
"Check?"
"I told you. There are some bastards who consider it a fraud, but there are also friends with the idea that while they acknowledge the Hero, they don't believe he can do everything himself, so they step up personally."
Even with the ones denying his existence right before his eyes, Siegfried's calm response made the envoys stare at the Hero with strange eyes. In their view, his nonchalance in the face of doubt rather than worship could only appear bizarre.
"Exactly what part of this do you doubt?"
The phrase 'How much did you find out?' naturally surfaced in my mind. I barely held back a hollow laugh at that response, but the unbelievers flung sneers.
"Frankly, we suspect that the Demon King and the Demonfolk are nothing special, and that Itisel colluded with the Empire to lie, treating them as a threat to humanity just to pressure the neighboring nations."
At the sight of the unbelievers brazenly speaking as if boldly revealing their oh-so-clever deduction and agreeing with one another, Siegfried's face, completely ordinary just moments ago, crumpled in an instant.
"You motherfuckers!! If the Demon King's threat was bullshit, would I be suffering like a goddamn dog with the goddess grabbing me by the hair?!"
Truly seeing red, Siegfried adjusted his grip on his sword and charged without a shred of hesitation.
Yeah. This time, he was honestly justified in getting angry.
◈
Even watching Hero Siegfried charge at them wielding that massive greatsword, the envoys remained composed.
Of course, his approach was somewhat fast for someone holding a sword no different from a giant slab of iron, but they were aura users themselves, so they had sufficiently accounted for that.
"We'll shut down his spirit arts and magic first!"
The kingdoms had not sent them to the Empire without thought.
They had guessed the Empire would surely arrange a venue like this to show off the Hero, and for that reason, they had gathered all the information trickling out of the Empire, sifted truth from lies, and completed every preparation to oppose the Hero.
Even so, the preparation itself was simple: take away the Hero's unusually rare talents for magic and spirit arts.
Fortunately, sealing stones to block communion with spirits and Mana suppressors already existed in the world, the conditions for their use were not special, and even their performance was certain.
With just that, two-thirds of his abilities would be sealed, and with their own skills, there was no way they could lose to a Hero left with nothing but swordsmanship. In that confidence, the attendant from the Pazsn Kingdom took the two tools he had kept in his chest and tossed them into the air.
The two magic tools that had just left his fingertips would absorb the surrounding Magic Power and activate.
"Oh my. You pulled out all sorts of things, didn't you."
Just as I thought that and went to adjust my grip on my sword.
The attendant from Itisel, who had been standing behind the Hero, muttered lowly and swung the sword he was holding through the empty air.
"Huh?"
And the magic tools fell to the floor as if broken, causing no change whatsoever.
Having already finished their prior planning and set the activation of the magic tools he threw as the cue to move, the entire envoy party froze, unable to grasp the sudden situation.
If they had done absolutely nothing and it just hadn't activated, they would have moved thinking it was simply bad luck.
But with a single word, the attendant from Itisel turned the situation into something they had never anticipated.
Because of that, everyone's feet were tied for just a very brief moment, and the Hero took one more step forward.
"Ghk!"
The first to regain her senses and feel the danger, Sebella leapt forward and sang.
"-------!"
The moment a bard's song leaves the mouth, it sheds the form of language and manifests as magic. Because that process was a wholly different form from ordinary magic, it was free from the influence of the Mana suppressor, and according to the original plan, they should have been able to deal with the magic-sealed Hero more easily.
They hadn't known it would warp into such a dumbfounding form, but still, it was nothing. Whether magic or spirit, they just had to strike before he tried anything.
Sebella smoothly adapted to her suddenly enhanced body and thrust her spear toward the Hero's left thigh. From the target's perspective, the visible strike seemed to accelerate without warning. How many people had fallen to that attack?
Sebella was confident that at this close range, it was an unavoidable blow.
"What made you so damn slow?!"
That lasted only until the massive sword swung at an absurd speed and blasted her away with the pressure of the wind.
-WHAM!
She couldn't even scream.
First she doubted her own two eyes as the world seemed to spin around, and then she simply doubted everything.
In the shock no different from being bashed by a slab of iron, Sebella flew straight into the wall. In the brief moment before she fell to the ground, she could not stop all kinds of thoughts from flooding in.
But the conclusion was simple.
A sword as large as a person had been swung as casually and rapidly as a shortsword, swatting her away like an insect.
That was all it was.
'M...magic...sword...?'
There was no way that was it. A weapon whose weight was removed by magic loses the power derived from that weight. That thing was nothing but an ordinary sword. Even with her head struggling to process things from the shock, she could clearly tell that.
But... no matter how much aura he wrapped around it, wasn't that speed abnormal...?
"Hrk...!"
Forcing her creaking joints to power her body upright, she looked at the Hero. What entered her vision was the wretched sight of the envoy delegation being beaten one-sidedly. Not only that, the Hero wasn't even using magic or spirit arts—simply swinging that slab of iron over and over, pummeling them.
"Get up, you fuckers! You were so goddamn full of yourselves, can't you even match up to kids?!"
"Kuaaak!"
They had no way to stop it. Despite years spent training with swords, they were sent bouncing into the walls by swings with no technique at all. They couldn't even react well enough to dodge, let alone block; it looked less like fighting a person than facing a huge monster.
"You said he was all hype, you bastards!! Why can't you great knights beat a Hero who's done nothing but laze around?! At this rate the Empire will swallow your countries whole! Get up!!"
Even while recklessly swinging a sword no different from a slab of iron, the Hero showed not the slightest sign of fatigue, simply raging on furiously. And no one could oppose the Hero running wild with those frenzied shouts.