The Decision to Head to the Royal Capital
According to the game’s setting, only one official nation existed on the entire continent. There were a few autonomous regions where elves and beastkin lived, of course, but even those ultimately fell under the rule of that single kingdom. At the heart of this vast territory stood the royal capital, the true core of the realm. It was home to the king, his family, and his most loyal vassals. Naturally, no place was more vital.
If the king were to die suddenly, the royal family scattered, and the capital itself brought to ruin, the chaos that followed would be impossible to describe. My disciples—the heroes—could not possibly be ignorant of that fact. Yet even as monsters were summoned inside the palace, demonic humans ran wild, and a Fragment of the Demon God appeared, they had failed to act at once. It could only mean they had made no preparations and had not even raised their guard properly.
At first I wondered why. The answer came to me soon enough.
“From the royal palace’s point of view, you must be anything but welcome. You claim to fight for the continent, for the kingdom, for the people, for justice, and for peace!”
“…”
“In the end, a hero is a powerful being who stands outside the palace’s control. Those who follow that hero form an armed group loyal to an individual rather than to the royal family. Am I wrong, Gerard?”
“You have seen it exactly. That is the reason.”
I wasn’t incapable of understanding the royal family’s position. History is full of rebellions that began exactly this way. An armed faction that wins more popularity and support than the throne itself. At first they may have had no such intention, but eventually—whether by choice or necessity—they turn their blades around, and the country flips upside down. When that happens, the previous ruler loses his head.
Given that the atmosphere inside and outside the kingdom was already grim and public sentiment was wavering, the last thing the palace wanted was a group of so-called heroes who had dropped out of nowhere seizing the people’s hearts. On top of that, an armed following had formed behind them. If those heroes ever harbored different intentions, the nation would be overturned and a new master would take the throne. The heroes possessed both the power and the reputation to make it happen.
“They’re idiots,” Iris grumbled from her seat beside me, voice thick with displeasure. “They could just come out and hunt monsters like we do.”
“That’s a foolish thing to say, Iris.”
“Why is it foolish, Master?”
“The royal family cannot simply hunt monsters the way we do. If they pull troops away from the capital, the nobles could easily plot something else. Even without that, the palace’s own defenses would weaken. It would actually make it easier for the Enemy’s Will to invade.”
“So what? They can’t do this, they can’t do that. That’s why we step in and clean everything up for them, isn’t it? They should be grateful. Instead they treat us like threats?”
“…I feel just as frustrated about that part.”
“Master. I’m not the only one who wants to crack those bastards’ skulls, right?”
Of course not. The frustration made me want to applaud. I, too, felt like marching over and beating sense into every last one of them. But this world had its own rules. In a land that still had a king, nobles, and commoners who supported them, the king’s safety and the stability of the royal house meant the stability of the entire nation. I could not blame them for curling in on themselves to protect that. If the king truly died, the resulting collapse would be something not even heroes could stop. Everyone in the capital knew it; that was why guarding the palace came before all else.
“Um, Senior Iris. They have their own circumstances too. That’s why they gave you and the others formal authority to punish wrongdoers. They even granted you the right to punish nobles in the name of the royal family, didn’t they?”
Iris (Regression) pointed it out cleverly. The authority to punish not only commoners but nobles in the royal family’s name meant the palace would shield the heroes at least once no matter what they did. Even if the heroes earned the people’s resentment, the royal house would bear that resentment themselves. The nobles must have protested fiercely. It could have damaged the palace’s own authority. The fact that they had gone that far was proof that the royal family was treating the heroes with a certain level of respect.
Yet because of the very structure of power, they still disliked the idea of heroes approaching the capital. Even if the heroes came with no ulterior motives at all. History showed that letting down one’s guard in such moments led to catastrophe and the fall of nations.
“A rather troublesome problem,” I muttered.
“Therefore, Master, if you are determined to head to the royal capital, it would be best to reduce the number of people accompanying you.”
“Explain exactly what you mean, Gerard. How should we reduce it?”
“It’s simple. We pull back all the accompanying personnel.”
“Will that be enough to put the capital at ease? A hero doesn’t become unable to fight just because he lacks a following.”
“The real part comes next… Honestly, I don’t really want to suggest it, but…”
Whatever it was, I had to hear it before I could decide. When I urged him to speak, Gerard continued cautiously.
“We announce our visit to the capital in advance. When we reach the vicinity, we move together with the royal capital’s troops and the royal knights.”
Bang!
The moment Gerard finished, Iris shot up from her seat so violently that her chair toppled backward.
“Senior Brother. What the hell are you saying? You want us—Master included—to be monitored by those weaklings? You want us to act like criminals being escorted? Is that it?”
“…If I must use a metaphor, yes, that’s what it amounts to.”
“What kind of nonsense is that! Master, are you just going to sit there and listen? He needs to make sense!”
Iris glared at Gerard, breathing hard. The idea of the strong bowing their heads to the weak was something she would never accept, even in death.
“Gerard.”
“Yes, Master.”
“I roughly understand what you’re thinking. You want to show the royal capital that we are lowering our heads and swallowing our pride. That we harbor no other intentions.”
“…That is the general idea.”
“We are not going there to do anything bad. Is it really necessary?”
“You are correct, Master. I do not like it either. In fact, I hate it. But if we wish to reach the capital without causing any disturbance, this is the best method.”
“Ugh, Senior Brother! Seriously! Master! Let’s just barge in openly. Why should you—why should we—have to do this? After everything we’ve been through, after how strong we are, why should we bow our heads?!”
Thump. Thump.
Raising my voice would accomplish nothing. I tapped the table lightly with my fist. Iris flinched, let out an irritated “Agh!” and finally righted her chair and sat back down.
“I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it.”
“Iris feels that way, Gerard.”
“I understand. I don’t wish to do this either. However, the fact that you insist on going to the capital means something will happen there, does it not?”
“…It probably will.”
“Then entering the palace itself may be necessary, which makes the method I suggested even more optimal. The royal palace already knows. They know that with their own power they can barely stop even one hero. No matter how many capable individuals they station in the capital, together they still could not easily claim victory against any one of us.”
“So you want to give them a plausible picture and justification. Because if it comes down to it, we can break every chain with raw power anyway.”
“Didn’t you tell us, Master, that simply being strong is not enough to be a hero? That we must take away the world’s malice and calm its chaos.”
Just as Gerard said, I had certainly told my disciples that. No matter how well one fought, without the rest a hero was only half a hero. One had to know how to care for people, how to lead them. Even if both were impossible, one had to at least pretend. If the world was to lean on the heroes and refuse to surrender to the Enemy’s Will, they needed to be capable of that much acting.
“Iris.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Try to guess why I’m heading to the royal capital right now.”
“…Pardon?”
“Tell me why I would choose to go to the royal capital—the very place that finds heroes uncomfortable. Give me any answer that comes to mind. Throw out whatever you want.”
“Uhh… um…”
Iris racked her brain hard. I could have worried whether she would find the right answer, but I knew my Iris. She would reach it in the end. Her luck stat was strangely high, and her instincts were excellent.
“Is it possible… that a strong enemy is going to appear, Master?”
Yes. Exactly like that. She arrived at the answer in the most absurd way.
“Correct.”
“Wait, really?”
“The possibility is very high. The royal capital is the most important place on the continent, which also makes it the most heavily fortified. But if it is breached even once, everything after that will proceed without a hitch.”
“If the royal capital falls, not only the surrounding area but the entire kingdom could collapse,” Iris (Regression) added.
“Exactly. That is why I wish to go there. So, Iris? Strong enemies that even I would be wary of may appear in the capital. In that case, would you want to go, or would you rather not?”
It was a pointless question. Even if it meant bowing to the weak. Even if it meant becoming a spectacle for the disgusting people who lived for their own vanity. Iris was not the kind of person who could turn down a fight against the strong.
“We have to go. We absolutely have to go! This is non-negotiable!”
The girl who had just declared she never wanted to go to the capital had vanished. In her place stood a bull with a flushed face, breathing roughly, ready to charge straight into the royal capital and smash through the gates.
“That’s what I thought. Then Iris will go. Iris (Regression)?”
“Of course I’m going. Even if we must bow our heads, it is for something greater.”
According to Iris (Regression)’s memories, the royal capital had already fallen by the time I and the other heroes arrived. During that delay Jenia, Daisy, and Lily had barely managed to stop the crisis, but all of them had been injured. This time we had to arrive before any of that happened. Knowing that, Iris (Regression) was willing to swallow her pride.
“Gerard? Are you all right with this? Your knights will be terribly disappointed.”
“What can we do? If we say it is to avoid needless suspicion, they will understand.”
“Good. Then both of you, Iris and Gerard, explain it properly to the people under your command. We will set out for the royal capital the moment that is finished.”
“Master?”
I was about to stand when Iris (Regression) caught my sleeve. When I turned to see what she wanted, she mentioned the one person I had forgotten.
“What about the Grandmaster?”
“…The Grandmaster? Why her?”
“If we talk about offering our hands and feet to the people of the royal capital, wouldn’t she be the one most displeased?”
…Ah.