The Intermediate Hero
It didn’t take long for my scattered consciousness to return.
“Jinho-nim! You’re awake!”
Maria’s face filled my vision the moment it cleared. Her breath was far too close, so I squeezed my eyes shut again.
“Aaaah! Jinho-nim!”
“I’m awake, so stop shaking me…”
When I sat up, two more figures stood around me.
Besides Maria, there was the armored woman who had just wrecked the convenience store again. And… the Demon King, who must have arrived while I was out.
Maria mentioned that Rafa had left to finish the remaining deliveries.
“Demon King, why are you here?”
It was a simple question, but she shot a sulky glance at the armored woman beside her.
“I came because of this woman.”
“…So the one who destroyed the store was your friend, Demon King?”
“Friend? How impertinent.”
The Demon King pursed her lips. The armored woman, who had been silent until now, cleared her throat and spoke.
“I am Patricia, an Intermediate Hero of the Human Alliance in the γ-Nefriheserd dimension.”
“Patrash?”
“…It’s Patricia!”
Patricia shouted to correct me. Whether it was Patricia or Patrash didn’t really matter. What mattered was figuring out how the store had ended up even more wrecked than before.
“So, what exactly is your relationship with the Demon King, Miss Patrash?”
I grabbed two intact chairs from the ruined table area and sat the Demon King and Patricia side by side.
Maria had gone to the entrance to turn away customers, explaining that the store was currently out of commission.
“Can you not tell? She is the girl’s insignificant rival.”
The Demon King glanced at Patrash as she spoke. Patricia kept her mouth shut and looked away. At a glance, she seemed a little younger than me.
The scar running across her left eye suggested she had experienced battles far beyond anything I’d ever faced.
Yet here she was, acting like this.
“What does ‘Intermediate Hero’ mean? Are there higher ranks too?”
I knew heroes existed in the Demon King’s world, but I had no idea what the ranks meant.
“They exist. And they are the most troublesome of all.”
The Demon King answered first. Then Patricia added her explanation.
“Among the mercenaries who fight the Demon King’s army, those who excel can rise to the rank of Hero. The ranks are Apprentice, Intermediate, and Transcendent.”
“And all of them come to fight the Demon King?”
“Indeed. They live only to take the girl’s head.”
She looked like a helpless child most of the time, but the girl in front of me was undeniably a Demon King with both power and status.
And the dangers that came with that status were just as real.
“So you tried to kill the Demon King, Miss Patrash.”
“Hmph. The girl would never fall to such a weak human.”
“I hate to admit it… but the Demon King is right.”
Patricia agreed.
“At my current level as an Intermediate Hero, victory is impossible…”
“I see…”
Then why did you two crash into our store and smash it to pieces?
“W-well… I didn’t actually intend to fight…”
Patricia coughed a couple of times after reading the doubt in my eyes, then began to explain.
Apparently, she had gotten lost in her own dimension and somehow ended up encountering the Demon King.
“I had wandered all the way to the Demon King’s castle and was enjoying a light duel when a dimensional gate suddenly opened behind me.”
“Wait, you got lost but still reached the Demon King’s castle?”
“I-it’s true…”
Patricia lowered her head, cheeks flushed. Whether by accident or not, after clashing with the Demon King, both of them had been sucked through the newly opened gate.
The fight continued even after they arrived in Sanctum City. Eventually the Demon King threw Patricia, and the impact point happened to be the convenience store.
“…Demon King.”
I glared at her. Naturally, she avoided my eyes.
“……”
I kept staring.
“…Ugh. F-fine, I’m sorry… Are we done?!”
Unable to withstand the pressure, the Demon King squeezed her eyes shut and apologized.
Even so, her pride was no joke.
“So. Who’s paying for the repairs?”
Now that I had an apology, I pointed at the half-destroyed store and asked who would be receiving the bill.
“The girl was acting in self-defense.”
The Demon King clearly intended to pin all responsibility on Patricia.
“B-but you’re the one who threw me here!”
“Hmph. Be grateful the girl didn’t take your life after you were thrown here.”
“…Demon King? Is that really something you should be saying right now?”
“Ugh.”
The Demon King flinched, shrank back slightly, then looked at me and tried to justify herself.
“W-well… it was already broken anyway. Throwing her somewhere already ruined would have a better cushioning effect than—”
“…You didn’t deliberately aim for our store, did you?”
“Of course not!”
“It’s Patricia, by the way!”
The Demon King and Patricia’s complaints overlapped.
Just as I was starting to get a headache trying to mediate the situation, Maria came running over from the entrance with a bright smile.
“Jinho-nim!”
She pointed at the two people standing by the door.
“Visor-nim is here~”
At the entrance stood Visor, who had been urgently called in despite it being a holiday because of the store’s partial destruction, and Yuria Bryant, the Demon King’s secretary, who had come to Sanctum City to retrieve the Demon King.
Both wore expressionless faces, but for some reason Visor looked even gloomier than he had two days ago.
Yeah. Being called in on his day off… maybe it wasn’t just my imagination.
“Tell them to come in.”
“Okay~!”
It was surprising that they had actually waited outside and listened to Maria. Maybe they really were the type who followed rules to the letter.
“This is an unprecedented situation.”
That was the first thing Visor said after entering and seeing the completely shattered right side of the store.
“Just so you know, Maria and I had nothing to do with this incident.”
The fact that even the machine-like Visor was reacting like this made me wonder just how impressive a feat they had pulled off.
“Before we begin calculating damages, I recognize Yuria Bryant as Hilde Bryant’s representative. Are there any other representatives?”
Visor looked at Patricia as he asked, but she shook her head.
“I don’t have any companions to begin with. I’ll handle my own defense.”
I was a little surprised by Patricia’s words.
I worried whether she could really defend herself against that demonic Visor and the Demon King’s secretary, but it wasn’t my place to interfere.
One act of meddling was enough. Unlike with Maria, this was our first meeting, and I wasn’t her guarantor.
And so the process of assigning responsibility for the store’s destruction began.
“Under Article 12 of the Unregistered Entity Management Clause, your dimension’s intervention incident is—”
“Objection. The Demon King is a temporary collision target caused by the opening of the dimension and cannot be classified as a ‘continuous intervener’ under the clause.”
As expected, Visor and the Demon King’s secretary brought up Sanctum City regulations I couldn’t understand and began their debate.
The discussion was so technical that the contract we had made the other day felt like it had been simplified for ordinary people.
“—Wait, so I should be judged by the same standards as the Demon King, right?”
But the most surprising thing was Patricia, who didn’t get swept up in their discussion and continued to voice her own opinions. She countered the secretary’s attempts to defend only the Demon King and refused to start from a losing position.
The secretary’s eyes seemed to narrow slightly at Patricia’s responses.
“…No objections.”
At the secretary’s reply, Patricia took a deep breath. It wasn’t only the secretary who found the sight interesting. The Demon King, who had somehow acquired a bag of potato sticks and was crunching on them one by one, was also watching Patricia with clear interest.
And I knew that look all too well. She had given me the same gaze when I resurrected and she found my soul fascinating.
Even afterward, while Visor and the secretary exchanged arguments, Patricia continued to interject at just the right moments.
For example:
“Of course I attacked first in the Demon King’s territory, but after we crossed into Sanctum City, the Demon King was the one who attacked first. Shouldn’t that be considered a separate situation?”
Or:
“In the end, I’m the one who was thrown into the convenience store. The one who threw me was the Demon King.”
Her ability to withstand the pressure from Visor and the secretary while firing back sharp replies was genuinely impressive.
“Patrash is pretty good. Demon King.”
“Hmph. I thought she only knew how to swing a sword. It seems she also knows how to read the battlefield cleverly.”
Her tone sounded dismissive, but the content was actually high praise. More than anything, the sharp gaze she had been directing at Patricia since earlier was the exact look she wore when she found something “interesting.”
After about ten more minutes, they finally reached a conclusion.
The result was Patricia at six, the Demon King at four.
Considering how hard Patricia had fought alone, this distribution of responsibility was actually a solid outcome.
“You. What did you say your name was?”
Before leaving, the Demon King looked at Patricia and asked. Patricia was wary at first, but after realizing there was no hostility, she introduced herself again.
“…Human Alliance, Intermediate Hero Patricia.”
“The girl will remember your name. Consider it an honor.”
Whether being remembered by the Demon King was a good thing remained to be seen. It was probably similar to having your boss or college professor know your name and face.
With those words, the Demon King left with her secretary. While I was wondering whether Maria and I would have to clean up this mess ourselves, Visor called out to me.
“Employee Yu Jinho.”
“Me?”
I was the one caught off guard by the sudden call. Visor looked around the ruined store, adjusted his glasses, and continued.
“Per orders from above, we intend to reinforce the convenience store’s security and durability.”
Even Visor had to admit that having the store destroyed twice in three days was unprecedented. I had no idea how they planned to increase its durability, but I silently agreed that reinforcement was necessary.
“Therefore, the store will be closed for approximately three days starting tomorrow. Employees will be required to relocate to a separately provided dormitory.”
“…You’re closing it?”
“Correct. Your salary will be paid as usual.”
According to Visor, that meant three days without work to pay off my debt. The best part was that Maria wouldn’t be working at the store during that time, so part of her debt could be cleared.
It was actually a good thing, since it reduced the risk factors.
“However, the company has a proposal.”
“…W-what is it?”
Of course there was a condition attached.
I looked at Visor with a somewhat guarded expression.
“During this period, we will conduct the investigation into employee Maria Anquines that was part of the previous contract. Both employees are to report to headquarters on Monday morning.”
“…An investigation?”
“Jinho-nim! Is everything finished~?”
Maria spotted me from the entrance and waved while calling out.
“Yes. It is an investigation regarding the ‘dimensional intervention special case.’”
It shouldn’t have been possible, but I thought I saw a meaningful smile on Visor’s face as he adjusted his glasses.