The Hero's Unyielding Heart
Olivia Reinhardt.
The eldest daughter and only child of the Reinhardt family.
If I were asked what first impression the Hero Lady left on me when I met her, the answer would be that she appeared completely arrogant.
Overbearing. Arrogant. Self-centered. Every single word I could use to describe arrogance had been crammed into the shape of a human being and turned into a lone general who refused to yield. She never knew how to compromise, her temper was explosive, and she could flip from pleasant one day to completely unbearable the next depending on her mood.
Accommodating that kind of mood was somewhat difficult, which was why a subtle sense of camaraderie had formed among the companions during the early days of the journey—except for the Hero herself.
But I never disliked her.
She was the first to rise in the morning, swing her sword, and put in genuine effort every single day.
Even when everyone called her the born Hero, I had no intention of using that phrase.
I knew how much effort she had poured into it from behind the scenes.
Of course, not everyone who put in effort could become a Hero like her. Behind that monstrous strength lay monstrous talent combined with effort.
She had not merely been born that way. She had striven to become that way.
And most of all, regardless of her personality, her disposition was kind.
She had fought desperately to save people, and no matter how unreasonable the situation, she had always placed human lives first.
Her most striking example had been the time she saw a child offering acorns as a reward and beheaded the disguised monster wearing that child's face. Well, in that case the monster had been disguised as a bear, but the principle remained the same.
……
……
The carriage rocked violently. For some time now the Hero had not uttered a single word.
Since the Black Bear attack, her condition had deteriorated in every possible way.
She had lost the omnipotent power she had once believed in, and now, even though she had only about a month left to live, she seemed to have realized that her courage did not spring from deep within her own spirit but from the power she held in her hands. She was despairing.
Perhaps a brave person was someone who was merely strong and therefore brave.
From my own standpoint, the Hero who continued to shed blood and save lives still seemed brave to me. But those words would never reach her ears now, and they were not what she wanted to hear.
The girl who had been forced to be born a Hero and live as one had already begun to feel she was no longer a Hero. It would not be easy for her to stand up again.
“Livia-sama, we have arrived in East Port.”
“Mm.”
I caught the staggering Hero as she tried to rise and spoke.
“Livia-sama.”
“What is it?”
“Hah.”
I let out a small sigh, draped her cloak around her shoulders, and gently placed a mask over the Hero’s face.
“What is this? A mask?”
“East Port is a place where many people gather. Even if your hair color has been changed, there may be people who recognize you. Besides, your skin has already deteriorated. Depending on who sees you, some may worry about an epidemic.”
The Hero’s skin had turned ashen, and it was easy to stir fear in the hearts of passersby.
The God of Death Poison had no infectious properties to begin with, but human psychology did not always act purely rationally.
It was not for nothing that countless witch hunts had been recorded in history under the pretext of something being “unlucky.”
More importantly, if the God of Death Poison had been contagious, I myself would have contracted it and died long ago.
The village we had left behind was temporary anyway, and the Hero had almost no opportunity to appear before the public. But in East Port there would be some time for people to see her.
……
After descending from the carriage, the Hero looked up at the sky.
Sparse clouds floated across the clear blue sky, and a few of them were moving quickly.
Since I had picked her up, the weather had remained fine, but judging by the speed of those clouds, it seemed possible that rain might come.
Hmm, I wonder if it will be all right?
The day rain came was the day the Hero had been betrayed and lost everything. A mentally unstable person was likely to be swept into disorder by memories of that same kind of trauma.
It could be interpreted as the sudden, shameful thought suddenly flashing through her mind.
Even recently, but with the Hero in her current state, she might be in some danger.
“Eh? Oh, it’s Lois!”
“Madame Florence, it has been a long time.”
“Heh heh! The little brat from back then has grown into quite the man!”
“Thank you.”
Madame Florence.
I did not even know her real name.
She had been the person I owed during my childhood.
It was she who had given me a job when I had nowhere to go as a child, and she had brought me books on spirit arts once she learned I could converse with spirits.
That had been the beginning of my path as a Spirit Summoner, so to me she was a benefactor.
But how old was she now?
She was someone I had known since I was a child, yet her appearance had not changed in the slightest.
She seemed to have frozen in age somewhere around thirty-six.
“So, what brings you to East Port?”
“I’m heading toward the Eastern Continent.”
“The Eastern Continent? You’re a Spirit Summoner, so that’s not a big worry, but the land is quite rough. Are you all right? What brings you there?”
“Because someone needs help.”
Madame Florence finally noticed that there was someone hidden behind me.
The Hero, wrapped in a cloak and wearing a mask, hunched over and looked like a small animal.
Who would mistake that for the Hero?
In addition, the cloak was not particularly powerful, but the recognition-suppression magic inscribed on it made her invisible to the eye.
Well, as I had said, the magic was not powerful, so it only made her presence faint.
“A woman, huh? So you’re finally going to find a woman to date?”
“No. I have a serious illness and am heading to the Eastern Continent. Only there can I obtain the medicine I need.”
“Really? You must be good at catching women with big chests.”
“……!”
The Hero, who had been silent until now, suddenly trembled at the shoulders.
Please, no.
“Madame Florence, please.”
“Heh heh!”
It was true that the Hero had above-average chest measurement, but I had never once looked at her with strange eyes.
Given how ill she was, the more primitive question—“How is this body even staying alive?”—had been the first one that came to mind, so the feeling had never arisen.
“Is there a ship heading to the Eastern Continent?”
“Would you be willing to take me? ……To be honest, my pockets aren’t exactly full.”
I spoke quietly to Madame Florence, out of the Hero’s hearing.
It was not that I was completely broke, but renting a carriage, getting here, and then continuing to the Eastern Continent would certainly cause serious financial trouble.
It was not yet at the level of worrying about tomorrow’s meal, but it was still a heavy burden.
“All right. Come in the morning. I’ll prepare a ship that can leave immediately. For the sake of that girl, prepare a room with a bed.”
“Thank you, Madame Florence.”
“……”
Madame Florence glanced at the Hero for a moment.
The Hero, sensing the gaze, instinctively hid behind me.
The small-animal-like figure was adorable, but given her condition, the first feeling that came to mind was pity rather than cuteness.
Where had that confident, arrogant Hero gone?
At the moment of betrayal, had she truly survived? Or was the person standing here nothing more than the remaining shell of a dead Hero?
That thought sent a chill down my spine.
“She’s rather wary.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. A person with a wounded heart isn’t someone I’d scold. It reminds me of your old self.”
“……”
“Oh dear, I’ve said something unnecessary. Anyway, at sunrise tomorrow there will be a ship. Don’t be late.”
“Yes. I will definitely repay this kindness, Madame Florence.”
Still smiling, Madame Florence waved her hand.
“Kindness is nonsense. It’s not something you ask a family member for.”
“……”
I watched Madame Florence leave and smiled faintly.
The Hero was also watching the departing Madame Florence.
Hmm.
It might be better to speak to her a little rather than leave her as she was.
“Madame Florence is my adoptive mother.”
“Not related by blood?”
“Yes. When I had nowhere to go and was dying, she took me in. Since then I have lived working at Madame Florence’s shop. Then, thanks to Madame Florence’s eyes for seeing my talent as a Spirit Summoner, I walked the path of a Spirit Summoner.”
“……A benefactor, then.”
“Exactly. There is a debt I can never repay to that person, no matter how long I live.”
That aside, she seemed to have gained weight.
I worried that she might suddenly fall ill with something dangerous and pass away.
She wouldn’t start drinking again just because I was gone, would she?
“……”
“Livia-sama.”
“What?”
“Let’s walk together. Are you all right?”
“……I’m fine. I’ve been traveling in the carriage so long that I actually feel like walking.”
You have a torn wound, eyes that could fly out, a heart pierced through, and an arm missing, all while poisoned with a poison that should have killed you instantly.
Is that even a person?
But her breathing was somewhat unstable, and sweat was trickling down inside the mask.
To keep going was truly remarkable, but she was relying solely on the vitality and stubbornness she had left. And now the mental strength that had been holding that stubbornness together was crumbling, and if one side collapsed, death would come sooner.
It may sound foolish, but a human life is sustained by both a sturdy body and a healthy mind.
If the mind collapses, some diseases that could have been cured become untreatable and fatal.
The human will is something that cannot be ignored.
“……”
The Hero was looking around and watching me, as if assessing the situation.
“You recovered quickly, huh?”
“……!”
The Hero looked at me with a startled expression.
“There is a legend about the Hero Olivia Reinhardt even in East Port.”
“Not quite a legend.”
“You defeated one of the Seven Great Demons here. The village suffered some damage, but thanks to you doing your absolute best to protect everyone, there were no casualties.”
“……”
“I don’t know the full details since it happened after I left. But what maintains this commotion—whose doing is it?”
“……”
Walking slowly, we reached the park and sat on a bench.
The Hero sat a little distance away, following me.
I had thought of a poetic phrase—“That distance is not the emotional distance between us and the Hero right now”—but in reality it was probably farther than that.
“Back then the soldiers helped. ……They worked hard to evacuate the citizens. And the subordinates of that Seven Great Demon charged with their lives to block my companions. ……My companions.”
“……Is that so?”
“Yes. The fact that there were no casualties was truly a miracle. I never imagined no one would die.”
“Perhaps the soldiers who rushed at the demon didn’t expect to survive themselves.”
“Really?”
The park was filled with lively puppies and children, elderly couples strolling leisurely, and families smiling warmly.
Their laughter and chatter blended together like the sound of one song.
It was not especially elegant because it was a cacophony, but still.
“Those soldiers also believed they would die and still charged forward. No matter how noble that courage was, it didn’t change.”
“Of course. They knew their own weakness. They believed in me and risked their lives to protect the citizens.”
“Yes. ……So, Livia-sama is also a noble person.”
“……”
“Everyone believed in you. They believed that if it was you, you would defeat that demon and save everyone. And in fact you did defeat that demon, and countless other calamities and monsters.”
Even during the time I traveled with her, although she appeared arrogant on the surface, she was a person who cherished human lives above all.
Especially when Alex tried to abandon a few people under the pretext of efficiency, she had deliberately ignored the plan and charged forward alone to reduce the number of casualties as much as possible.
She was clumsy, arrogant, and awkward in many ways, but she was not without nobility.
“What if that heart had fear in it? What if courage came from power? You weren’t even using it to your advantage, were you?”
“……”
“And I might start crying in front of that Black Bear if my spirit powers suddenly disappeared.”
“Eh?”
“I’d be swinging a big branch like a club.”
“I don’t want to know that kind of thing.”
“What a shame.”
I smiled.
“In the end, that’s what it is. No matter what emotions or circumstances were inside you, you performed a noble deed.”
“……”
“Originally you were the one betrayed, and you are the victim. Why are you blaming yourself like this?”
“I have to be the Hero.”
“Yes, you are the Hero. You are already a Hero—what problem is there? ……If you entrust your entire value to other people’s evaluations, one day you will no longer know who you are.”
“I don’t know.”
It was difficult.
Negating the life she had lived until now was not an easy thing.
Especially in her current painful state.
“I hope you can extend that noble heart you once called soldiers to yourself.”
“……Myself?”
“Yes. I hope Olivia Reinhardt can be kind to herself.”
“……”
The Hero looked at me. Through the mask, her remaining red eyes trembled.
Then she raised the only hand she had left to her face and spoke to me.
“You haven’t changed, then or now.”
“Eh?”
“You’re trying to see the Olivia who is not a Hero.”
“But you are Olivia.”
“……R-Right.”
Although the mask hid her expression, the Hero seemed to smile faintly.
But I thought it was not a smile of amusement or joy, but an awkward, strained one.
“Let’s go. I’m starting to feel tired.”
“Yes. Let’s rest well today. We have to travel by ship starting tomorrow. You don’t get seasick, right?”
“I’m fine.”
“Then let’s find a place to stay for the night—.”
CRASH!!
Suddenly, a flash of light flared at the edge of my vision, and a massive explosion erupted.
“Kyaaah!”
“What!?”
“Look over there! The clock tower has exploded!”
The Hero and I turned toward the clock tower at the same moment.
The explosion had sent up a huge pillar of smoke that reached the sky.
Dark clouds were beginning to gather over the previously clear sky.
And in that sky, countless things that looked like birds appeared.
But they were not birds.
It was—
“Demons.”
“Demons? Why here…! At this timing…!”