Altania's 3-Minute Hero
“Nngh…”
My second daughter was born.
Another girl.
Unlike Mirua, who had burst into the world with a mighty cry, this one's wail was endlessly timid.
She was so hesitant that even when Silvina tried to offer her breast, she clamped her tiny lips shut and just gazed up at her mother.
“Suck now, little one. If you don't drink the colostrum, your already frail body will weaken even more.”
Only after Silvina scolded her once did she finally start nursing.
“Daddy! What're you gonna name my little sister?”
Mirua, standing by my side, hugged my arm and asked.
She had already grown from elementary school size to about middle school age.
“In my old country, there's this naming tradition called a 'family name' to give a sense of unity among relatives.”
“Ooh? Sounds cool! So?”
I had a name in mind already.
Combining mir, meaning dragon, with nae, meaning stream: Mirnae.
It was a pretty famous word, but I wasn't going to use it exactly.
To keep the dragon feel with Mir... but Ne has a nicer ring than Nae...
That settled it for my second daughter's name.
“Mirne. That's your name from now on.”
Smack!
The little one, suckling vigorously, paused and looked up at me.
“Mi... Mii... Eh!”
True to her dragon blood, she understood my words even as a newborn.
I tickled Mirne's cheek with my index finger, proud of her.
“You truly have a gift for naming, my dear. Even we dragons must humbly observe and learn when it comes to that.”
“Yeah, well... Come to think of it, your full name was Silvina Ryuark, right?”
Just hearing it made me want to add a 'kukuku' chuckle at the end.
“...Do you take issue with the name my mother and father bestowed upon me?”
“It's so beautifully given that us humans could learn a thing or two from it.”
Mirne's growth proceeded smoothly.
But Silvina's warning that she'd be ten times weaker than Mirua wasn't an empty one.
...No, that 'ten times' was Silvina being generous.
While Mirua handled Silvina's training with a bright smile,
“Hah... Hah...”
Mirne struggled even with the intensity dialed back to a tenth.
Thinking about it, Mirne had been carried to full term—forty weeks in the womb.
A month after her birth, Mirua looked like a ten-year-old, but Mirne was barely five.
“We'll have to change her training regimen. She won't help much with breaking the seal at this rate.”
“H-How can that be... I tried so hard...”
“Look on the bright side. You'll get easier workouts from now on. Good news for you, always struggling.”
At Silvina's cold verdict, Mirne clenched her tiny fists in protest.
“No! Even if it's hard, if it helps Father, I don't mind harder!”
“Spend that training time studying human society with your father instead. Far more productive.”
In the end, Silvina wrote her off as unreliable and excluded Mirne from the seal-breaking plan.
Mirne turned away, deeply dejected.
Her little shoulders slumped.
I went to her and scooped her up in my arms.
“F-Father...! I'm not a little kid anymore! I told you, you don't have to do this...”
“Looking all pint-sized like this, and you say you're grown?”
At least Mirne matured mentally faster than Mirua.
Her way of addressing her parents, her speech—despite being at an age to crave hugs, she was incredibly shy about it.
“What? Don't like being held by me?”
“It's not that... It's just... Sister and Mother are watching...”
I glanced up, and right on cue, Silvina and Mirua suddenly looked away, pretending nonchalance.
They'd been staring the whole time, huh.
“Mirne, don't stress too much. Life isn't equal for everyone, after all.”
“Hng...”
“Just focus on your strengths and hone them diligently. Instead of cowering at vague worst-case scenarios, think of the best move right in front of you.”
“The best move in front of me over vague worsts... Thank you for the wisdom!”
She seemed cheered up. Good.
“Hero? Oh Deok-hun Hero!”
“Kuh... Kuh... Huh?”
In the Tarantiel Order headquarters in the capital of the Altania Kingdom.
A high priestess shook awake Oh Deok-hun, who had dozed off in the temple's lecture hall.
“You can't sleep during lessons.”
“Huh? I wasn't sleeping? What're you talking about?”
His shameless attitude made the high priestess grimace in annoyance.
“Then do you remember where I left off?”
“Uh...... Dehet?”
Oh Deok-hun stuck out his tongue and mock-slapped his forehead with his fist.
The high priestess ground her teeth quietly, then forced an awkward smile.
“I was explaining that demons grow by feeding on human fear.”
“Ahh! Right, that! I just forgot for a sec.”
“Please, I beg you... If the hero doesn't study properly, it falls on me too...”
To fight demons as a hero, one must first study them.
But Oh Deok-hun conked out in three minutes flat once seated.
“Argh! Not feeling it today! No motivation, y'know, no motivation!”
Creeeak.
Belnusha entered from where she'd been watching outside.
“S-Saintess...”
The high priestess looked mortified.
Belnusha waved it off reassuringly, then turned to the hero.
“So, Hero. What would motivate you?”
Managing the hero's schedule fell to the Tarantiel Order, backed by the kingdom.
As the order's de facto leader, Belnusha was desperate.
The political situation was already chaotic.
Yet the hero who needed to produce results hadn't even seen his first battle.
Just a leech sucking kingdom taxes and order donations dry.
“Hmm. Oh yeah, I'm a hero, right? Can't save the world without me?”
“Yes. So you must step up...”
“Then why the shitty treatment? Teacher sucks first off. Get me a woman instead of a guy to perk me up. Young lady type, ideally.”
Belnusha kept her composure at his lecherous grin.
“...Understood. That enough?”
“Nah? Think that's all it'd take? All this training and studying's got me stressed. Need a girl to cuddle and sleep with. Get it?”
Belnusha's eyebrow twitched.
“This is a holy order. A sacred space under the Goddess's gaze—what nonsense is this?”
“If the order can't handle it, beg the kingdom! Anyway, no cooperation from me if you don't meet demands!”
In the end, Belnusha had no choice but to request kingdom aid.
Thus, on days the hero craved release, he'd get an inn room and spend hot nights with kingdom-provided women.
“Hey, heard the thing? Overheard at my usual brothel... New summoned hero? Total premature! Lmao, lasts just three minutes, they say~”
“What? How'd you know? Hero went to a brothel?”
“Kingdom secretly hired top aces. Problem is, too many—word spread among the girls!”
The sleazy rumors about the hero soon fueled public anxiety.
“Can we really trust this hero?”
“Months of 'not ready' training. Previous hero deployed after a week.”
“Weird rumors everywhere. Flee to another country now?”
They had reason to worry.
Altania bore the brunt of the Demon King's army assaults.
As unrest grew, word reached the king.
“Sorry to summon you amid your busy schedules, but the matter is urgent. Bear with me.”
The king called the hero's party to the audience chamber again.
Obviously excluding Oh Deok-hun Hero.
No point; he'd just preen as "the hero" and ruin the mood.
The so-called hero-less hero party.
“Public anxiety rises daily. Diligence is good, but sometimes decisiveness is needed.”
The King of Altania eyed one in particular.
Saintess Belnusha, kneeling foremost as party rep.
“Saintess. Isn't it time to deploy the hero?”
“Yes...”
“We must hurry. Growth time is over—results now. Your feats will ease the people's worries.”
After the audience,
as they headed from the palace to the hero's temple,
“Coco?”
Unlike the others, Coco stood frozen in place.
“I can't do this anymore.”
“What do you mean...?”
Coco exploded at Clepin's question.
“It's gross! I hate being lumped with that fake hero Oh Whatever! Everyone mocks me too!”
“You're not the only one suffering. We all are. And he's the real hero, chosen and summoned by the Goddess.”
“Skipping classes 'cause he doesn't like 'em! Sneaking to back alleys for girls! What kinda hero is that?! The hero I knew was never lazy!”
Silence fell like honeyed muteness.
No one felt the previous hero's absence more keenly than Coco.
Tears welled in her eyes.
“From the start... I'm not like you sisters... Money and fame might matter to you... But I don't care... I joined 'cause the hero was cool and I wanted to be with him...”
Snapping to, her idol was gone—only hero's-comrade duties remained.
Coco wanted out.
“I'm quitting.”
“Coco!”
Hailey called, but Coco turned away heedless.
“You sisters prop up that idiot hero if you want. I'm walking my own path.”
Shh-shh!
She vanished in a blur, leaving an afterimage.
The rest stood speechless awhile.
“...Better this way.”
Clepin broke the silence.
“Better how?”
Hailey asked; Clepin shrugged.
“Everyone was uncomfortable with Coco anyway. Only one not in on the 'revelation.'”
Revelation.
The Goddess's command to seal the hero with the Demon King.
Coco would've opposed knowing it.
So they'd kept her in the dark.
Everyone thought it lucky then.
She'd gotten knocked out by the fake Demon King's attack right when they needed her out of the way for the sealing.
“......”
Lonne quietly pressed down the wide brim of her hat.
“Lonne?”
Clepin asked with a kind smile.
“Your face looks bad too. Wanna leave?”
“N-No. I'll stay. I have to... After betraying the hero...”
“Of course. We're in this together. Backing out now's chickenshit. At least cute Coco never took bribes like us.”
Clepin shifted gaze to Hailey and Belnusha.
“I don't like that Oh-whatsit otaku either. But he's the Goddess-chosen hero. Gotta back him, like it or not.”
Belnusha nodded agreement.
“Yes. The Goddess has her reasons. Let's all push on.”
“Hailey thinks so too, right?”
Hailey sighed wearily, face shadowed.
“I've got my title from His Majesty. No backing out now.”
Clap!
Clepin clapped to liven things.
“Great! Topic closed! Borrowing old hero lingo—off to see the Torturer Hero!”
Soon after,
the party dragged their reluctant hero to the capital's western outskirts.
To reclaim an outpost lost to the Demon King's army.
Not a tough mission.
They'd scouted the enemy's full strength perfectly.
Only one real threat: a single Middle Demon.
The rest? Slime to the party's power.
The kingdom's experts had deemed it easy.
Yet,
“Too early by a century to challenge the Demon King, fledgling hero.”
Slash.
Three minutes into battle.
Hero Oh Deok-hun's head sailed skyward.