The Hero (5)
"Please stay in my territory. Both of you — the Hero and the Warrior."
When Hero Eve heard those words from Offen Termin, head of the Termin family, she thought, So it's come to this after all.
She had seen that look countless times in her life as a Hero — the greedy hunger reserved for exceptional talent — and she felt it now, radiating from Offen Termin as he spoke.
As the lord of a territory and the head of a house, wanting gifted people under his banner was hardly strange. Eve knew that. And yet her body trembled all the same.
Because right now, she was terrified of fighting.
What Baron Offen wants from me as the Hero is obviously my combat power. In exchange for telling me how he destroyed a Great Rift, he's clearly trying to claim my strength as his own. Everyone who's ever wanted me has been the same.
In her years of activity as a Hero, Eve had traveled the entire world, and every time she stopped at a noble's territory she had been showered with invitations. In an age of chaos, there was no power-holder alive who did not covet a single individual whose strength surpassed entire armies — a true hero of that caliber.
They had piled gold and jewels into mountains before her. They had offered carefully raised sons. They had pressed the rarest relics of the world into her hands. Eve had accepted none of it.
A Hero, she believed, must belong nowhere. A Hero existed only for the sake of humanity.
That conviction had taken root the moment she — then just an ordinary country girl living a quiet life with her younger brother Gid — grasped the Holy Sword that fell from the sky, and it had stayed with her through every day of her work as a Hero.
The Hero's power was not something earned by effort or talent. It was a gift from the heavens, and it must never be used for selfish gain.
That had been the creed Eve carried for as long as she lived as a Hero.
If this were before, I would have refused on the spot… but what meaning is there in refusing now, still waving the title of Hero around? I'm nothing but a pathetic wreck who got lucky enough to grab a Holy Sword…
But that upright heart no longer lived in Eve's chest.
Ever since her spirit had broken in the Abyss of Despair, everything she had once worn with pride as a Hero had become an unbearable weight crushing down on her.
When her comrades had their hands severed, their arms torn off, their legs blasted away, their vocal cords ripped out right before her eyes, Hero Eve had been able to do nothing but beg them to stop.
What kind of Hero can't even protect a single comrade? That's right. I'm not a Hero anymore.
Hero Eve no longer existed in this world.
What sat in this room now was simply Eve the human — a woman whose heart had been completely broken by a horrific defeat, left with nothing but hatred for the Great Rifts.
If it meant she could destroy a Great Rift — if it meant she could repay that day's defeat — she was willing to throw away every principle she had ever held as a Hero.
"I-I…"
Having steeled herself, Eve opened her mouth to accept Offen's request that she stay.
"I-I underst—…"
But the words I understand. I'll stay in Baron Offen's territory caught in her throat and refused to come out.
B-but if I do this, I'll become Baron Offen's sword. I'll have to f-fight. I might end up on a battlefield, a war front, a G-Great Rift. And I don't even have my comrades anymore. A-alone, going back to that horrible place… A-aah…
Accepting this deal meant she would inevitably be sent to fight.
The last battle Eve had endured could not even be called a battle. It had been an overwhelming, one-sided beating.
The Hero's party, once called the hope of humanity, had been able to do nothing in the Abyss of Despair but scream.
Mockery. Violence. Total domination.
Faced with an enemy whose power she could not even begin to measure, Eve had fallen into complete despair, and her heart had shattered.
Ever since, even imagining combat was enough to send her into a panic.
Just like right now.
"Hah… hah… hah… hah… hah…"
"Big sis?"
The moment Eve's face went deathly pale, her breathing turned ragged, and cold sweat soaked her entire body, Warrior Gid — who had been standing guard at her side — caught her by the shoulders.
He asked if she was all right. The words never reached her.
I d-don't want to fight. I'm scared. I hate it. I hate people dying. I hate arms and legs getting cut off. I hate vocal cords being torn out, wrists flying off. I'm scared. I'm scared. I don't want to lose anyone again. I don't want to be helpless. I don't want to fail the people I care about…!
The mere thought that she might have to fight locked Eve inside the memory of that day and plunged her into a full panic. Shoulders hunched, body shaking violently, she whispered over and over that she didn't want to — and anyone looking at her could see how unstable she was.
"Hah. This won't do. Sorry about this, Lord. Doesn't look like we'll be able to stay here."
Seeing how badly Eve was unraveling, Gid cut the conversation short on his own. He had already figured out that Offen's offer was what had pushed his sister this far.
"Well then, we'll be on our way. Shame we won't get to hear how you destroyed that Great Rift, but my sister matters more to me. So we'll just—"
Gid took Eve by the arm and turned his wheelchair, ready to leave the Termin mansion with her.
He didn't make it halfway around.
He stopped cold.
"…Big sis?"
Eve wasn't moving.
Her heart might have broken and her will might have collapsed, but her body was still a Hero's. There was no way Gid — a man with no legs — could drag her anywhere once she had decided not to move.
"N-no. I have to hear it. I-I want to hear it. H-how you destroyed a Great Rift. I have to hear it…"
Eve was terrified of fighting. The mere imagination of her comrades falling in pieces before her eyes was enough to make her gag.
But greater than her fear of combat was her fear — and her hatred — of the Great Rifts.
"Big sis, you're barely holding it together. Why would you—"
"I-I-I c-can do it."
Standing before Eve right now was Offen Termin — the first person in human history to destroy a Great Rift.
The only chance at revenge for that day. The only clue. The only hope. It was right in front of her.
So Eve spoke, her face bone-white with terror, her breath short, her voice shaking so hard it nearly fell apart.
"I-I-I-I'll s-s-stay— h-hurghk— I-I'll stay!"
She stuttered wildly, gagged halfway through, and bit her own tongue at the end — but she chose to remain in the Termin Territory all the same.
"…Hah. If that's what my sister chooses, then fine. Alright, Lord. I'll stay too."
Naturally, Gid — Eve's younger brother — decided to stay in the Termin Territory as well.
The deal was sealed.
"Hero Eve. Warrior Gid. Allow me to offer you both a heartfelt welcome to the Termin Territory."
Only once the agreement was struck did Offen — who had kept silent until then — break into a gentle smile and welcome the two of them.
U-ugh… Look at that satisfied smile. That's the smile of a man thrilled he can work me to the bone. B-but he wouldn't throw me onto a battlefield right away, would he? On the way to the mansion I didn't see a single soldier, and the whole territory felt so peaceful. Even if he puts me to work, he won't do it today. Y-yeah. Let's go with that, Eve.
Offen's soft smile filled Eve with dread. Clinging to the peaceful scenes she had witnessed on the way to the Termin mansion, she forced herself to believe he wouldn't put her into combat immediately.
If she didn't believe that, she was certain she would panic all over again.
"Well then — since the two of you have decided to stay in our Termin Territory, I suppose I can finally start on something I've been wanting to do for a while?"
"Hyaaagh…!"
The words, delivered with that same gentle smile still in place, shattered Eve's faith in him in an instant.
I-I trusted him! I thought he'd at least give me the first day to rest and pull myself together! I believed he'd have at least that much basic humanity!!!!
Eve was learning, right then and there, just how greedy a man could become once he had a Hero in his grasp. To put her to work on the very day the deal was made — Offen Termin was a thoroughly ruthless man.
But the one holding all the cards in this room was Offen Termin, destroyer of a Great Rift. If Eve wanted the Great Rifts broken, she had no choice but to obey him no matter how hard he drove her.
"Heh. You truly cannot imagine how long I've been waiting for this day."
While Eve shook from head to toe, Offen rose from his chair at the reception-room table and walked toward them.
I can't even imagine how long he's been waiting? Just how ambitious is this man? How hard is he planning to work me? I-I'm scared! B-but I have no choice but to follow him…! U-ugh. Damn it…!
The closer Offen came, the deeper Eve sank into terror.
Step. Step. Step. Step.
It was only the length of a single table. Four strides were all he needed to reach her.
H-he's coming too fast! At least give me a second to prepare myself! U-ugh. W-what do I do? Is he going to drag me out right now and throw me onto a battlefield? Am I going to swing my sword however Baron Offen wants and hand other territories over to him? I-I really don't want that. U-ugh. But I have no choice but to obey…!
That short distance felt impossibly brief to Eve. Before she could steel herself even a little, she found herself face-to-face with him.
"Well then — would you come outside with me for a bit? There's something I'd like to discuss."
"A-auh…"
Discuss. He means war, doesn't he? He's going to tell me which battlefields I'll be thrown onto and which territories I have to conquer. S-so in the end I'm just going to become a weapon he swings however he—
"Warrior Gid."
"Huh?"
"…Wait. M-me? Not my sister?"
The person Offen had chosen was not Eve. It was Gid.
"Yes! Gid, you were my idol! There's so much I've been dying to talk about! Come outside with me — let's have a good long conversation!"
"Ha-hahaha! Fine by me! You're the first lord who's ever picked me over my sister when she's standing right here!"
The two of them roared with laughter and strode out of the reception room together.
"…Uweh?"
Left alone in the reception room, Eve blinked several times — then let out a thoroughly vacant sound.
Being treated as second priority was something she had never experienced once since becoming a Hero.