Since It's Come to This, I'll Use Myself
The news of the high orcs hunted by the royal palace's Red Claw reached the king through the adventurers' guild. By the time it arrived at the palace, it had already spread widely throughout the capital. Separate from the massive success of Milene's novel, ominous rumors about the Demon King's revival were swirling through the city around this time. It looked like the real deal. What were we supposed to do now?
If the Demon King revived and the world fell into crisis, the Empire—currently tied up in border disputes—would probably back off. But Glacia would have to select a hero and fight. After all, the legend of the hero and the Demon King was very much real.
The king let out a heavy sigh. He already had enough headaches because of his useless son, and now this.
Descendants, she said. The queen had chosen her words well. But that only led to another problem.
"Ah." The queen nodded. That was true. Schwald. He'd been rather clever as a child, but then he dragged in some brainless girl, threw a tantrum about marrying her, and his intelligence seemed to have plummeted. These days he only picked the most idiotic things to do. He cried out desperately for love and tried to solve everything with it. The other princes had been summoned to the capital, but with the succession crisis already underway, of all possible disasters, they now faced the Demon King. What could that incompetent fool possibly accomplish?
When the Demon King appeared, Glacia—the nation that possessed the Holy Sword—would have to prepare it. Then they would select a hero. Naturally, they would use that Holy Sword to defeat the Demon King. The longer it took, the greater the damage to the human world would become. Of course, Glacia wasn't the only country with a Holy Sword, so the burden was somewhat shared. Still, since they were closest to the Demon Realm, they would suffer the most.
So how should the hero be chosen?
And someone was secretly eavesdropping on the royal couple's conversation.
'Yes. This was it!'
It was Sophia.
The moment she overheard the king's private discussion, Sophia rushed straight to the prince.
Schwald's eyes darted around as he desperately tried to think of a way to restore his ruined reputation. Sophia's suggestion sounded like an excellent plan. The legend of the Holy Sword was real. If it had been only Sophia's words, he might not have believed it, but if the king himself had said it, that changed everything.
'Yes. That was exactly it.'
Schwald instinctively knew this was his chance to take it all. The reputation he'd been dragging through the mud until now had surely existed for this very moment. Without hesitation, he ran toward the royal couple's bedchamber.
The door suddenly burst open as the prince committed an act of extreme rudeness. That idiot son of his must have heard about the Holy Sword legend from somewhere. And of course, the fox Sophia was glued to his side.
But unlike what K had expected, the twisted inflection point in the original story existed not only in Part 1—where Milene was condemned—but in Part 2 as well.
In the original work, Schwald had been able to wield the Holy Sword partly because he possessed the talent, but mostly because the royal couple had essentially given up and left the matter to him. However, in this world where K existed, the king still held firm control of his power, and the other two princes were present in the capital. Besides, the hero had never been chosen from the royal family in the first place. They simply selected the qualified individual.
Yes. There had never been any reason for Schwald to be chosen.
Of course Schwald had nothing to say. Those rumors had terrified him so much that he could barely attend the academy. Especially since the newspapers had picked up the gossip spawned by that damned novel, including the article about Sophia losing control and threatening K. That said everything.
"Hik!"
Once again, the two of them were the ones being thoroughly scolded. Naturally, the original timeline in which Schwald claimed the Holy Sword had vanished completely.
Under the colorless sky, the hero Lars stood against the approaching jet-black waves with his entire body.
On a beautiful sunny day, I was scribbling away on my manuscript paper while fanning myself, then simply flopped backward onto the bed.
"This is killing me. I'm actually going to die at this rate."
It had been a while since my last day off. Thanks to the brutal training, my high-spec body felt like it had been stretched out like taffy. That oh-so-great master Decaron said everything from here on would depend on my own efforts. It didn't feel like he'd taught me all that much, though. One thing was certain—Schwald really had been carried by the Holy Sword. If I faced that bastard without it now, I was pretty sure I could knock him out in three seconds flat.
"Ow, ow, ow."
It didn't exactly hurt, but groans kept slipping out anyway. My whole body was stiff as a board. If even this body—officially certified as high-spec by that plagiarizing author—was in this state, that really said it all. At least the suffering let me add a touch more realism to the hero's training and growth arc in my novel.
Still, my body felt like it was dying. By the way, wasn't it about time for the Holy Sword plot to kick in? The ominous rumors spreading through the capital had only made my books sell even faster. They were even scheduled to be distributed to major cities outside the capital now. Portmus was doing an excellent job of marketing and selling them.
"Miss. Jerry is here to see you."
Ritz's voice tickled my ears. I'd grown very used to being called "miss" by now. Seriously, would it kill her to just call me Kay? Anyway, if Jerry had come in person, I should probably see him. There had to be a reason he didn't just use the communication orb.
"Jerry, welcome. Is something the matter?"
"Ah, yes. I came to inform you about the additional printing order for The Hero's Party Was Defeated after the latest defeat scene. And these are gifts from the president himself."
"These are...?"
He'd brought quite a haul. The table was covered in wrapped bundles and boxes. Upon closer inspection, one of them looked like some kind of potion.
"I heard you've been undergoing harsh training from the Sword Saint. And writing manuscripts on top of that. It must be incredibly difficult, so I purchased a coffee-flavored fatigue recovery potion from the capital's finest apothecary and a cookie set from the best dessert shop in the city."
"Oh, I've been craving something sweet. Thank you so much."
I happily accepted the cookies. The luxurious packaging suggested they were quite expensive. But it seemed Jerry still had more to say.
"Ah, by the way, have you heard the rumor?"
"What rumor?"
"It's spreading from the palace. They're saying a hero will be selected soon."
"It'll be Prince Schwald, of course."
The time had finally come. Until that pathetic pair somehow struggled through dealing with the Demon King on their own, I'd focus on accumulating wealth. Then, when everything was over and people started shouting "Wow, Schwald really was the Holy Sword's hero!" while praising him to the skies, I'd proudly step forward as the real Milene and reveal the truth. All I had to do was drive those two apart in the most humiliating way possible. The hero who saved the world was actually a fraud who had conspired with the illegitimate child of a whore.
"How can you be so certain?"
"Because the only person who'd rush forward to claim that Holy Sword is that guy."
"Um, actually... it's a little different from that."
"Different?"
A bad feeling crept up my spine. No way. It couldn't be, right? The original story wouldn't twist at this point. But the look on Jerry's face made my stomach sink.
"Because Prince Schwald went to His Majesty and declared he would take the Holy Sword, only to be immediately rejected."
Huh? What the hell happened? Wait. I had missed something important. In the original story, Schwald could claim the Holy Sword because the king had become a powerless figurehead. But in this timeline, the king had returned early thanks to the snowball effect I'd created. There was no way a competent king would hand the Holy Sword to such an incompetent prince. Damn it, why hadn't I thought of that?
Well, if the king hadn't returned, I might not even be alive right now, so maybe it wasn't entirely bad. The real question was what variable would come next. How would they select the hero of the Holy Sword now? Was there anyone else in this country besides Schwald who could wield it? Other members of the royal family, perhaps?
"Author-nim?"
"Ah, yes?"
"As expected, since you were once his fiancée, you seem to understand exactly what the prince was thinking."
No, that's not it at all. The wording was a bit too harsh.
"But with the Demon King about to appear, will everything be all right?"
"The legend will simply become reality. When that happens, sales of The Hero's Party Was Defeated will skyrocket even further."
That was true. The world had now entered the era of the hero and the Demon King. Sales would be enormous. People might even read my novels while trembling in fear of a possible demon invasion.
"No, no—if the Demon King appears, we could all die."
"This is the capital, so there shouldn't be any danger. Besides, the hero isn't limited to our kingdom alone."
"Ah. Right."
I never thought I'd hear those words. The other Holy Sword, the one that damn author had set up in a foreign country. In the original story, Sophia ended up seducing that hero as well. Since she only knew one side of Sophia, she simply held good feelings toward her, but Sophia had arrogantly misinterpreted it.
"Anyway, even if it's the Demon King, we'll be fine. The hero will take care of everything."
That was way too optimistic. Well, as someone who knew the original story, I was aware the Demon King wasn't some roguelike-level despair machine. But still. Normally, when a legend like this was about to become reality, shouldn't people be at least a little scared?
In a roguelike series, the Demon King would have driven humanity into utter despair. Unfortunately, this world came from a romance fantasy novel. Naturally, the Demon King wasn't some mindless monster but an intelligent being. Of course, he still ended up defeated by Schwald in the end. Now that I thought about it, if he could lose to those idiots, just how pathetic was he?
"Then we just need to keep writing, right?"
After all, this was all outside my world. Since I hadn't died, there was no chance of being resurrected by the Demon King's lich general or falling to corruption. Now that I was in Milene's body, I had to make sure this story reached a happy ending no matter what.