Why Are You Doing This to Me?
“There’s a possibility,” I said.
Good. They’re finally listening to me.
“Besides, think about it carefully. There are clear reasons why one of the princes should do this instead of me.”
“Spit it out.”
“First of all, the scandal between Prince Schwald and Lady Sophia has thrown the line of succession into chaos. That means we need to select a new heir.”
At my words, both Heintz and Leon flinched slightly. Well, of course. Some unknown swordsman had suddenly brought up the topic of succession. It was only natural for the two princes to find it unpleasant. Still, I knew their personalities, so I pushed forward. Unlike that idiot Schwald, these two could actually be reasoned with.
“Do you even realize what you’re saying right now?”
“It means I cannot become the Hero.”
“And?”
“If you want to name a prince who isn’t the firstborn as heir, he needs some kind of achievement. Conveniently, the Demon King has appeared and the capital is in turmoil. So His Majesty decided to hold the Hero Festival to calm the people’s anxiety and select a Hero. And he included both of you in it.”
“Hold on.”
Leon, who had been listening quietly, cut me off. Even a damn dog doesn’t interrupt when someone’s speaking, but sure, a prince would lack basic manners. Still, it was better than Schwald.
“Yes?”
“According to what you’re saying, did you assume from the very beginning that either I or my brother Heintz would become the Hero?”
He was really digging in. Fine. I’d expected a storm. I knew this was coming. At this point, I had to dazzle the princes with my silver tongue and wrap this up neatly. Back in Korea, I used to suck up to important people all the time. There was no reason those business skills wouldn’t work here.
“Both of you.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps His Majesty knew that as well, which is why he pushed for it?”
“Answer my question properly. This concerns state secrets.”
“Those who became Heroes were mostly from the Glacia royal family. In other words, it’s related to bloodline.”
If this didn’t work, I’d really have to beat the crap out of both of them and run away. After all, this was a world without proper IDs, certificates, or even real resident registration. I was prepared to escape by force if necessary.
“By that logic, doesn’t that make you a member of the royal family too?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“Didn’t you just say that drawing the Holy Sword is related to bloodline? Are you mocking the royal family right now?”
Heintz narrowed his eyes. His hand was already on his sword hilt. Leon, on the other hand, was still watching calmly, a smirk playing on his lips as if he were enjoying a show. Ugh, how annoying.
Even so, I didn’t stop.
“The defining characteristic of the Glacia royal family is their exceptionally high Holy Power.”
“Ah. So in your view, Holy Power is the standard?”
“Yes. The Glacia royal family has been specialized for Holy Power for generations. I’m certain that even Prince Schwald would have been able to draw the Holy Sword. Wouldn’t you agree, Prince Leon?”
“That Schwald? Leon, I’ll stick the sword in the rock. Try pulling it out.”
“Hmm. I wonder if it’ll come out.”
The moment Heintz finished speaking, he drove the Holy Sword into the rock. Leon still wore that unreadable smile. I knew that was just how his character was, but still…
Shiiing.
Leon pulled it out flawlessly too. See? I told you it would come out.
And now both brothers were staring at me again.
What the hell. Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want to drop ranks and throw down right here?
“It really came out?”
“Yes. And while I’m not sure about the exact criteria, I believe it can be divided into ‘density of Holy Power,’ ‘volume,’ innate, acquired, and so on.”
It was mostly guesswork, but at this level, it sounded somewhat plausible, right? Everything I’d speculated so far had been roughly correct. That gave my words credibility, and these two had no choice but to believe me. Besides, since other countries had their own Heroes, what I said could eventually become accepted truth.
“You’ve done quite a lot of research.”
“I really, really didn’t want to become the Hero. I wasn’t even planning to participate in the main tournament.”
“I see. So that’s how it is.”
“Yes. Therefore—”
Please, for the love of god, just let one of you become the Hero.
At first, I thought I could just slip through like that. Honestly, it wouldn’t be good for either of them if I became the Hero. The line of succession was still unstable, so if there were princes as Hero candidates, they should naturally take priority. Yeah. That’s what I thought.
At least, if they had any sense, after seeing what Schwald had done, they would realize how bleak the kingdom’s future looked and quietly agree between themselves. That’s what I expected.
“Ohhh, to think three Heroes have emerged! This is truly a great blessing for the kingdom!”
In front of me stood the king. More precisely, because three Heroes had been selected, the king himself had appeared.
It felt like when Xiang Yu was surrounded by Liu Bang’s army. Yeah. This was a complete dead end.
“Why did things turn out like this?”
All I could do was grumble.
“No matter how much you hate it, since it concerns the Hero, it was bound to reach His Majesty’s ears. If you hadn’t said anything, you would have been guilty of disrespect as well.”
What kind of crime is that, damn it?
I scrunched up my face as much as I could at Heintz’s whisper. He probably couldn’t recognize me inside the helmet anyway.
“And to think it’s that rumored figure—the disciple of the Sword Saint. How impressive!”
“It’s surprising enough that both princes became Heroes, but the Sword Saint’s disciple as well? Indeed. Could you remove your helmet?”
Ah, I should have told the king in advance. The helmet. It had finally come to this. What should I do?
The princes were staring at me intently from the side. Both of them. As if they’d been waiting for this moment. These unbearable bastards. Did they really want to see what was under the helmet that badly?
“Take it off already. Since you are a Hero, no matter what crimes you may have committed, these two will surely forgive you at least once.”
Now he was even framing me as a criminal. Hey, I’m not a criminal, okay?
Leon was still wearing that inscrutable smile.
“At the very least, I have never committed any crimes within the kingdom.”
“Then there’s no reason you can’t take it off, is there?”
I decided to think it over for a moment. Let’s run the numbers. At this point, refusing to remove it wasn’t an option. But I still needed to calculate the efficiency. If there was no benefit, it would be worse than not doing it at all. If there was nothing to gain, I might as well just run away.
Honestly, I had already decided to live as K. So even if I did a full Milene-out here, it wouldn’t change much. After all, the author K had used “K” as her real name too. In gaming terms, Milene was basically my sub-character. Of course, my official ID was still Milene, but the people in Fortmus were handling that well, and since I mostly lived in the capital, I hadn’t really needed any identification anyway. Having another avatar called Milene wasn’t such a bad thing.
So I took it off.
“Oh, there’s such a beauty inside that armor?”
“Hey, Rota. Weren’t you the one who said she was probably some strong but ugly woman?”
“I never said that.”
That damn brat is hated wherever he goes. More importantly, even the Red Claw guys had come to watch. This was total confirmation killing. It would’ve been nice if they’d seen me at the palace. Anyway, never mind them. The problem was me right now.
“M-Milene?”
“Milene. Why are you…?”
The king and queen were so shocked their mouths hung open. In other words, the question was: why was the girl who should’ve been quietly writing books causing a scene in the main tournament and pulling out the Holy Sword? That was probably the ultimate question on everyone’s minds. It looked like author K might get summoned again soon.
The real issue was public sentiment. This kind of thing depended heavily on public opinion. By now, everyone in the capital would know the name Milene. Especially after Sophia had spread so many rumors. So an infamous villainess becoming the Hero? Wouldn’t that shake the people’s hearts?
On top of that, a huge crowd from the capital was watching right now.
Huh? Wait, what? This is… actually going better than expected?
Could it be that the novel I wrote to push Sophia and Schwald was actually helping me now? Was the novel carrying me? Since I was the same person as the author K, it was basically me carrying myself. Anyone who knew the truth would say I had drawn the big picture all along.
Now that the public sentiment seemed fine, I was curious about the king and queen’s reaction.
“Hmm, Milene? How did you…?”
The king looked at me and winked several times. It seemed like he was telling me to make up an excuse and he’d play along. As expected of a sharp king. If I handled this well, I might be able to reject the Hero position after getting properly scolded. That would be better for the king’s position too.
“Well… the truth is, I had nowhere to go. While wandering outside the capital, I was taken in by the Sword Saint and became his disciple.”
“And then?”
“After training hard as his disciple, my master told me to go to the Hero Festival and prove my strength as the Sword Saint’s disciple. But since I was a sinner, I couldn’t participate openly, so I wore armor and joined.”
I added a few sniffles here. I was crying as if appealing for sympathy. If I was going to get criticized anyway, I might as well earn a little pity. Besides, neither Schwald nor Sophia was here. Perfect. And a woman’s tears were an excellent sympathy-inducing skill.
“I see. So that was the situation.”
“Therefore, this sinner is satisfied with merely having touched the Holy Sword, so—”
“Father. May this son offer his opinion?”
Suddenly, Leon cut off my performance. What the hell is this guy thinking?
“Speak.”
“Originally, only those with powerful Holy Power can draw the Holy Sword. The Glacia royal family possesses a bloodline rich in Holy Power, and according to past records, those who drew the Holy Sword were beings who possessed Holy Power. What is Holy Power? It is a power that an evil person can never possess. No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t make sense that Milene, who drew the Holy Sword, could be a villainess.”
This bastard?
It was clear that Leon and I must have been mortal enemies in a past life. Even my little sister back in Korea wasn’t this bad. How could he screw me over like this? According to my original plan, I was going to pretend I hadn’t drawn it from the rock. If that didn’t work, I was going to drag myself down by asking how a villainess could possibly have drawn the Holy Sword. But now it was getting complicated. I’m definitely going to tear him apart someday.
“Hmm, that does make sense.”
“The citizens of the capital here seem to think the same, so I believe an investigation is necessary.”
“An investigation?”
“After all, wasn’t it during the time when both of you were away on your tour that my older brother Schwald committed those acts? Something smells fishy.”
No, stop it. I’m not even asking for help, so why are you talking? Was Leon always like this in the original setting? I really shouldn’t have drawn that damn sword.
When I glanced at the king, he wore an intrigued expression.
We’re screwed.
“Now that you mention it, it does seem plausible. There’s no helping it. Reexamine the judgment against Milene.”
“Um, isn’t this supposed to be the Hero selection event? Shouldn’t we first select the Hero who will subjugate the Demon King?”
“As for that matter, since three candidates have appeared, we will discuss and decide later.”
Damn it. This is a complete disaster. At this rate, I might actually end up writing an autobiography.