Dinner First, or a Bath First?
Dinner First, or a Bath First?
003
The bird fights its way out of the egg.
The egg is the world.
Who would be born must first destroy a world.
These were sentences deeply engraved in the memories of 28-year-old cargo truck driver Kim Taeyoung.
Of course, he couldn't remember which author of which novel wrote them.
Regrettably, 28-year-old cargo truck driver Kim Taeyoung was not a man of deep humanities education.
However, with the sight before his eyes came a voice.
And along with it, a single fragment of memory dragged itself in.
"I'm sorry...!!!"
"......"
Ah, right.
It was Demian.
Anyway.
The sole reason why Amelia was apologizing with her hands clasped together, and why I had to recall such a quote, was simple.
Jijijijik—
The egg sitting on the iron skillet was burning pitch black.
The bird trying to break out of its egg had ultimately turned into a lump of carbonized matter.
A true tragedy indeed.
If I had to strictly assign blame, a portion of this disastrous scene was my fault as well.
While dealing with that out-of-the-blue knocking, I had entrusted the egg's destiny to Amelia.
"Well, it's fine. We can just eat bread."
"......Yeah."
And so, breakfast began with a forced vegan diet.
"By the way, who was it?"
Amelia asked about the knocking from earlier.
Ajak-ajak— as she munched on a sandwich overflowing with wild greens.
"Just a peddler."
"A peddler? All the way out here?"
"Right? They actually came all the way up here."
It was only natural for Amelia to ask back in utter disbelief.
A cabin that took a good thirty-minute climb from the nearest village to reach.
What kind of peddler coming to such a place could possibly sound sensible?
"I see. That's strange."
Yet Amelia simply nodded without offering much of a rebuttal.
It wasn't that she was some fool who would believe me even if I said beans grew on trees.
It was more like she figured, 'Well~ there must be a reason he's saying that.'
"Are people really that scary to you?"
"......Yeah. A bit, I guess. Hehe."
Amelia let out a sheepish smile.
There was a good reason why I had dashed out, leaving the house owner behind.
The former Hero was currently suffering from severe social anxiety.
Just moments ago, she had cowered in the corner, trembling at the sound of a knock.
However, at least in front of me, she didn't try to hide such facts.
Feelings like embarrassment had completely evaporated over the past few days.
"Well, I can just answer the door for the time being...... Besides, this is the first time anyone's visited like this anyway."
"For me, it's the second time."
"Ah."
Since from Amelia's perspective, I had also dropped by rather out of the blue.
Perhaps my arrival was even more flustered for her than today's visit.
"Right. I never even imagined it......"
"While I was thinking only of you, Hero-nim?"
"A-Ah, no! I didn't mean I wasn't thinking about you all this time, Deron......"
"I know. I'm just teasing."
"......"
Glaring at me with a slightly pouty face, the former Hero let out a deep sigh.
"Anyway, I shouldn't be like this. Even knowing that, it's so hard."
"You just need time."
Wajak—
I said as I chewed through the last bite of my sandwich.
"You might deny it yourself, but Hero-nim really is an amazing person."
"......Do you know how terrifyingly burdensome that sounds?"
"Well, could it be as burdensome as the old days? Surely it's lighter than the expectations of 29 million kingdom citizens."
"Is that so? Hmph."
Pisik—
Snorting softly, Amelia nodded her head.
Regardless of her reaction, however, I had zero doubt about her extraordinary nature.
She was crafted to be such a person from the very start, and I had personally watched over Amelia for these past four years.
Far from crumbling because of this, she was someone who would break past her limits several times over.
The visit from earlier was also part of that trajectory.
Proof that someone else shared the exact same evaluation of her as I did.
The only issue was that this 'someone' happened to be the Demon King—a massive stroke of misfortune for this world.
"Hmm."
Of course, to me, it wasn't particularly bad news.
The Demon Army was actually quite a decent workplace option.
In the original work, once the story reached the midpoint, Amelia joined the Demon Army outright.
Even considering the countless tragic misfortunes that occurred on her path there—
It meant that the Demon King of this world didn't just possess the face of absolute evil.
If he were, no matter how corrupted Amelia became, she would never have joined the Demon Army.
Because of that, Rotty just now.
The reason I blew away someone who held the title of 'Demon World Great Duke' in an instant wasn't a strict rejection either.
'......Piss off.'
'Uaaaaahk!'
It was merely a reenactment of the original first meeting between Amelia and Rotty.
It was simply recreating a scene that was supposed to happen.
In truth, joining the current Demon Army wasn't a good idea anyway.
Why?
Because it was a total shitshow.
Right now, it must be suffering from working conditions as abysmal as a sweatshop black company.
Three years later at the earliest.
Assuming the butterfly effect caused by my possession was minimal.
Only after that much time passed would the Demon Army stabilize.
......Of course, they might collapse before then too.
I already knew that not everything rolled along strictly according to the original novel.
Whether it was a butterfly effect originating from my actions or some other factor, I couldn't tell, but......
Anyway.
"Hero-nim."
"Yeah?"
"Come to think of it, how much money do we have?"
"......U-Uh."
At the mention of money, Amelia's pupils unfocused rapidly.
Just seeing that rapid shift in status was enough to guess our current financial situation.
"We're broke, aren't we?"
"......"
In situations like this, silence was usually an affirmative.
It wasn't particularly unexpected either.
Being banished penniless was something both she and I shared in common.
"You've been surviving by selling off your jewelry up until now, right?"
"You knew everything.....?"
"It's obvious."
She probably pulled a robe low over her face and sold off whatever jewelry she had left on her body for dirt cheap.
Unable to bargain against buyers who gleefully ripped her off, she must have scraped by until now on the meager pocket change handed to her.
That was how shattered former Hero Amelia's (22 years old) mental state was.
Deol-deol-deol—
"S-Still...... with this, at least a few years......"
What she gripped with her trembling hands was a sword.
The former Hero's sword.
The peerless masterwork blade referred to as the Holy Sword according to tradition.
"Hero-nim, can I say something a bit harsh?"
"U-Uh.....?"
"Cut the bullshit."
"Okay......"
Where in the hell did she think she could sell that?
Having ceased her bullshit, Amelia shrank into a defeated curl.
Anyway, it would be impossible for Amelia to start working anytime soon.
As befitted the protagonist of this world, she was destined to become stronger as time went on—becoming the undisputed strongest in the world—but right now...
"I'm trash......"
Right now, she couldn't even work a part-time job at a local convenience store.
Which meant, in terms of this world, she couldn't even handle being a restaurant server.
When it came to labor, her self-deprecating monologue wasn't all that wrong.
However, I possessed a single solution.
"I'll just go earn the money."
"Huh?"
"I mean, aren't I already doing everything around here except making money anyway?"
I was doing all the housework.
Granted, it wasn't that much work, but to Amelia, it seemed like an insurmountable hurdle.
"Might as well be the one to bring home the bacon and feed us too. Hero-nim, just roll around the house and do some training once in a while."
"......"
Amelia looked at me with the face of someone who had committed the second-greatest sin of her life.
For the record, her single greatest sin face was shown last time, when she listened to the story of my past four years.
Yet despite that declaration that day.
And after Amelia's tear-filled lamentation and mental breakdown of "I'm just a freeloader leeching off you,"—
"Have a good dayyyy......"
"Yes. Keep a good eye on the house while I'm out."
"Please stay safe out thereeee......"
"Welcome back! Would you like dinner first, or a bath first?"
"I'm the one who has to cook dinner, though."
"......I-I warmed up the bathwater! Hand over your coat!"
Short of calling me "Dear~", it was a shockingly familiar dynamic of greetings.
I found myself looking at Amelia, dressed neatly and standing at the door to greet me.
Twice a day, every morning and evening.
Me.
That is to say, Deron was not a regular member of the Hero Party.
Since the original Deron had naturally quit and left early on, that was only expected.
However, in my case, I had actually seen more combat deployments than the regular members.
The main duty of the Hero Party was subjugating demonic lands and dungeons.
The demonic realm that infested a whole third of the northern continent.
While fully subjugating it was naturally impossible, stepping up to prevent further encroachment was our primary mission.
Therefore, Deron was strong.
In all seriousness, about half of the regular members of the Hero Party were below me in rank.
The only reasons I wasn't inducted as a regular member were political motives and my lowborn origin.
While I couldn't compare to a powerhouse of Amelia's caliber, I was still proud enough to consider myself a top-tier warrior.
"Uwah, uwaaaaahk! Wait? Eeek?!"
"Isn't this broken?!"
"Damn it, he's too strooooong!!!!!!"
"......"
Hence, the heavily exaggerated anime-style reactions unfolding before my eyes were not the work of professional actors.
However, I desperately wished they would dial back the over-the-top fuss.
"Wait, twenty-five years old?!"
"He looks older than he is, but that's still so youngggg!!!!!!"
Your voice.
Don't raise your voice like that.
It's seriously embarrassing......
They reminded me of middle-aged Chilean men seeing an automatic taxi door for the first time.
Middle-aged men bombarding me with a barrage of questions, eyes wide open.
My head throbbed painfully from the gazes gathering alongside the commotion.
At this rate, I feel like I'm going to develop social anxiety too.
Dozens of pairs of eyes were all staring exclusively at me.
"His rank is......"
"No need to ask! It's obviously S-Rankkkkk!!!!!!"
"Oi, oi, he's the very first S-Rank since the branch opened!!!!!!"
"Everyone, raise a toastttttt!!!!!!"
"......"
Please make sure to spend this money wisely.
Amelia.