All for the Hero
After the Hero left the Imperial Palace, the corners of Emperor Pastus’s mouth curled upward.
“Heh heh heh. What a fool. To think he’d accept it so meekly.”
Things had gone even more smoothly than expected. Who would have thought the Hero would swallow it without a fight? Pastus had stationed troops throughout the palace in case of resistance—apparently, that precaution had been unnecessary.
“Well. What would a man who’s spent his whole life swinging a sword know about anything?”
Of course. When the Emperor commanded, one was meant to shut up and obey. Even if that command was built on a false charge.
“All that remains is to broadcast the Hero’s crimes across the entire continent.”
“Our congratulations, Your Majesty!”
“Yes. Everything has gone according to plan. We may rest easy for a while.”
At those words, the ministers bowed their heads. In truth, every man gathered in that chamber already knew: every crime written in that letter was a lie.
There was no one on the continent who did not know of his deeds. Hero Kyle—hailed as the strongest of every Hero who had ever lived, a monster who had annihilated eighty percent of the Demon King’s forces in a mere five years. He had toppled every high officer of the Demon King’s army and then defeated the Demon King himself in single combat—an achievement no Hero before him had ever managed. The Demon King’s fierce resistance had left him half-dead, and Kyle had let the dying creature slip away; but a corpse that could barely crawl was no threat. Finding him and finishing the job would be trivial.
So when the report reached him, the Emperor had been certain. The war against the demonkin was nearly over. And at the heart of that victory stood Hero Kyle, whose popularity now soared across the entire continent like a storm.
For the Emperor, that was hardly welcome news.
In truth, the Emperor’s standing among the people of the Empire had scraped the bottom of the barrel. Unlike his predecessor, Pastus was self-righteous and arrogant, drowning in wine and women while neglecting the affairs of state. Corruption among the nobility had become routine; the common folk went hungrier by the day. Discontent piled higher with every sunrise—and yet no rebellion, no revolution, ever came.
The reason was the Demon King’s army. By turning the people’s eyes outward toward an external enemy, the Emperor and his nobles had redirected every spark of rage onto the demonkin. While the masses burned with that borrowed fury, the throne and the aristocracy had lived in luxury, sucking honey from the land. But that, too, was about to end.
Once the war concluded, the people’s anger would swing back toward the imperial family and the nobility—and the longer it had been suppressed, the more violent the backlash would be. If a revolution came, who would stand at its head?
The man who had slain the Demon King and restored peace to the continent. The Hero beloved by every soul under heaven.
From the Emperor’s perspective, it was the worst scenario imaginable.
“Tsk. A lowborn commoner who doesn’t know his place, daring to cast his eyes upon Us.”
But that danger was gone now. The Hero had been stripped of his title under a false charge. By tomorrow, his crimes would be known across the continent. No one would revere him as a hero any longer. Even if a revolution rose, he would not be the one to lead it.
Certain of this, the Emperor issued his command to the ministers.
“By the name of Emperor Pastus, We decree: every soldier of the Empire is to be deployed at once to the search for the Demon King.”
Thanks to Kyle, eighty percent of the Demon King’s forces had already been destroyed, and the Demon King himself was said to be on the brink of death. If the Empire’s armies alone finished him off, public favor would recover—and the prestige of both the Empire and the Emperor himself would soar. In short, this affair was a chance to catch two rabbits at once, and Pastus had no intention of letting it slip away.
“If anything even slightly suspicious is found, comb every inch of it.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
The Emperor gazed out the window with a look of deep satisfaction. The sun was warm, the sky clear of clouds—and there, in the distance, he could see the Hero’s retreating back. Savoring the sight, he took a slow sip of wine.
“Keh. The idiot. He’ll never even dream who handed him that letter.”
In his hand lay a sheet of parchment. Written upon it were the very crimes of the Hero that he had just recited. Every word of it was false—and the Emperor knew it, as did every man in that room. They had simply chosen to make use of it. The one who had actually submitted the petition was someone else entirely.
And who had written it? Only the Emperor knew. Those people were currently staying at a certain inn within the Empire. To deliver the news, Pastus immediately sent a letter by magical tool—informing them that Hero Kyle had admitted to every charge.
The message arrived at the inn where the Hero’s companions were lodging. In a room thick with tension, it was Muni, the Hero’s comrade, who finally broke the silence.
“It’s done. They say the Hero’s crimes have all been accepted.”
“Really!?”
“Hell yes!”
Everyone in the room exhaled in relief. Yuli the thief even whooped aloud.
And yet every person there had been the Hero’s companion—comrades who had journeyed beside him for five long years. And every one of them was celebrating the news of his downfall.
“Hah… Thank goodness it went according to plan.”
“Right. We can finally breathe a little.”
Jaine, the Knight Commander, and Emilia, the Elf Princess—both of them comrades the Hero had trusted completely. Especially the two who had traveled with him from the very first day of the journey; their shared memories ran deep. And now, hearing of his fate, they were the ones sighing in relief.
“Th-then… what happens from here?”
Alice the Saintess asked carefully. With the matter grown so large, she seemed worried about the aftermath.
“The palace will issue an official statement soon. Within a week at the latest, it’ll have spread across the whole continent.”
Muni answered flatly, her expression unchanging. But she could not quite hide the tremor in her voice—the relief that the plan had succeeded, and the guilt she felt toward the Hero. And that same mixture lived in every heart gathered there. Everyone’s, that is, except Yuli the thief.
“Keh. Before long, every crime that bastard Kyle supposedly committed will be ringing out across the continent. Tomorrow’s gonna be fun, huh?”
“Yuli. Watch your mouth. The Hero never actually committed any of those crimes.”
Jaine snapped back at once. The other companions glared at him with open condemnation. He only grinned, oily and shameless.
“Aw, come on. Why the long faces? You all joined this plan too. We’re all accomplices here.”
“We didn’t do it with garbage motives like yours.”
“Th-that’s right! We did it for the Hero! All of us!”
Yes. All of it, for the Hero. Everyone except Yuli shared that same conviction.
One week earlier—right after Kyle had cut down the Demon King and claimed victory in the war—a single letter had arrived for him. The moment the women saw it, they froze solid.
— Envelope Inscription —
Princess Yulia’s Proposal of Marriage
The woman of highest station on the entire continent had proposed to the Hero. This was not something they could laugh off.
In truth, the Hero’s female companions had sworn a single vow among themselves at the start of their journey: never confess to the Hero first. Anyone who broke the vow would leave the party of her own accord. They had kept that pact because every one of them loved him. For five years they had held the line—until the Princess shattered it in a single stroke.
Of course, the Princess was not one of the Hero’s companions. She had never made such a promise and had never even known it existed. Still, the women felt a betrayal they could not name. They had bottled up their feelings for so long—and now the Princess had confessed first.
Worse still was the timing. A marriage proposal the very moment the Hero had slain the Demon King? Wasn’t she only writing because of the glory he had won? The thought that she had sent it so lightly made them all the more furious and indignant.
They stood waiting, taut with anxiety, until the Hero finished reading. Then, in trembling voices, they asked:
“H-Hero… how will you answer? You’re not going to…?”
“Well. Nothing’s completely finished yet. For now I need to focus on the Demon King.”
At that answer, every one of them pressed a hand to her chest in relief. But they could not truly rest easy. What he had said was not a refusal—only a postponement. Once the Demon King was dead, he might accept the proposal after all. That dread kept them from sleeping properly.
And the letters only piled higher by the day, stacked like a mountain. Most came from noble daughters and dignitaries of every nation, each of them seeking a serious relationship with him. Appealing as mere comrades was nowhere near enough against rivals of that caliber.
Among them all, the Princess stood in a class of her own. Jaine, the Knight Commander—who had often been charged with guarding her—knew it well. The Princess was flawless not only in rank, but in beauty and character. Her talent with the sword was exceptional; had she not been a princess, she would have more than earned a place in the Hero’s party.
With a rival like that, the women had no choice. Yes. They had no choice. There was nothing else they could do…
“You all know this already, but I’m warning you—the Hero must never find out. Understood?”
Emilia looked at each of her companions in the inn room, one by one. It was less a reminder than a threat. No matter what happened, Kyle must never learn the truth—that the ones who had submitted the petition filled with the Hero’s fabricated crimes… were them.