Just the Two of Us
The Hero, Olivia Reinhardt. She was strong. Absurdly strong. Strong beyond the reach of words.
Even looking at physical ability alone, monsters far outclassed her — and yet Olivia possessed the power to beat every last one of them into the ground by herself. The Demon King had been no match for her. She was so strong that one had to wonder whether even the Goddess or the God of Death, beings who had existed since the primordial age, could stand against her.
That strength was outrageous. That was why he had wanted to make her an ally by any means necessary. But she was a Hero in every sense of the word — the best sense, and the worst. There was an unapproachable aura about her, and beneath it an obsessive conviction that she would never forgive evil, even if it meant laying her own neck on the line.
And so Alex had been left with no choice. A weapon that powerful — of course he had wanted to bind her to the kingdom somehow. But in the end, she could never become a weapon that belonged to the kingdom alone. Someday she might recognize the kingdom's darker sides, and her sword might come to judge the kingdom itself as an evil that needed to be cut down. That was a possibility to be feared above all else.
"Come to think of it, that's rather strange."
"What is?"
"No matter how incredible the Hero is, could she really have made it all the way to East Port with injuries that severe? Wouldn't it make more sense to assume someone helped her?"
"……"
Alex fell silent for a moment at Velita's words. She had a point. He had been treating Olivia like some deified powerhouse, and so the simple possibility that she had received help had never even occurred to him. If someone had aided her, as Velita suggested, then reaching East Port so quickly might well have been possible.
No. Even so, surviving in that condition on top of the Curse of the God of Death was abnormal — but if it was Olivia, it wasn't impossible. If it was Olivia, it might be possible. That thought refused to leave Alex's mind.
"I see. In that case, it would be someone with medical skill. No one could have survived that bleeding and that curse otherwise. At the very least, they'd need enough medical knowledge to keep her hold on life — and they'd have to be a good person, the kind who couldn't abandon someone who was dying."
"I see."
"It might even work in our favor. If she were alone, who knows — but as long as she has a companion, the Hero won't be able to abandon them. He'll become her weakness, without a doubt."
"……"
"Have you gotten in contact with Rayna yet?"
"The signal is still unstable. The Eastern Continent is hard enough to get a signal from as it is. If she were near a village, we might manage somehow, but it doesn't seem like Rayna is near any village right now."
"Tsk."
Alex clicked his tongue. He wanted to reach her immediately, but it seemed that wasn't going to happen. There was no need to be so impatient. Olivia's condition was poor, and she had a companion besides. She wouldn't try to travel as fast as she had when she'd gone to Elvenheim before, and she would likely choose ordinary roads. That meant it would take a considerable amount of time — so he had plenty of leeway until then. There was no reason to be impatient right now.
Alex let out a long breath, as if to calm himself.
"Can't be helped. I have some business to attend to, so keep trying to reach her. Call me if you succeed."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to have an audience with His Majesty. He has a right to know about this matter as well."
Cromwell Clifort, like Alex, was a man who looked after the kingdom more than anyone. In that sense, their views aligned well, and it was thanks to Cromwell's help that they had been able to obtain the Goddess's Orb in the first place. But for all that they had severed the contract, it hadn't been long before Olivia had summoned the Holy Sword back to herself and formed a new one.
A Hero is a Hero, I suppose.
No — in a certain sense, there had never been a Hero among her predecessors more Hero-like than Olivia. It might not be very convincing coming from the man who had betrayed her, but Alex had held Olivia in high regard. That was why he had wanted to make her an ally somehow. In the end he had failed, and had been left with no choice but to kill her — and he had felt the regret of it.
She had been beautiful. She had been strong. And above all, she had been good.
She hadn't been without a certain self-righteous streak, and her short-sightedness had been a weakness — but more than that, she seemed to know by some instinctive nose for things what needed to be done. She paid no mind to politics or anything of the sort. She cared only about right and wrong, and if something was wrong, she would beat it down without caring whether it was a noble or anyone else.
If the other party was human, she wouldn't kill them unless the crime was truly grave. But if they had committed murder — then, in Olivia's eyes, that person would no longer be human. She would make some allowances, but only for things like self-defense. Malicious murder, she would never forgive. She did not forgive evil, and she had not a shred of flexibility. That was what made her a Hero through and through.
The one silver lining is that almost no one recognized that golden light as the Holy Sword. Even fewer people know that the Holy Sword, which should be in this castle, has vanished. If we can just control the information, somehow…
"Alex!"
At the rough voice, Alex turned his head. There stood Lilith, gasping for breath. He had a vague sense that she'd caught him like this once before, but unlike last time, Lilith's expression was unmistakably filled with hostility toward him. She was a person of sharp intuition, and she was a princess besides — so she would have some information coming in, one way or another.
"You're going to explain."
"Explain what, exactly?"
"Don't think I don't know anything."
"That's just it — I don't know what you want me to explain."
"The light that appeared at East Port was the light of the Holy Sword. And the Holy Sword in the castle is gone. Did you think I wouldn't notice that?"
"……"
Alex was silent for a moment, then spoke.
"I don't know exactly what happened either. We'll have to investigate from here."
"It's Olivia. If Olivia is alive, then your Hero party's claims fall apart. …I'm thinking something terrible right now. What do you think about that?"
"I can't even begin to guess what terrible thought you mean. But well — I hope it is Lady Olivia, but it might not be. Isn't there a possibility that a new Hero has been born?"
"……"
Lilith fell silent. One way or another, she didn't know the truth, and she lacked information. On top of that, her body was unwell, so she was in no condition for any real activity.
"Alex."
"Yes, I'm listening."
"I'll ask you one last time. The Hero… Olivia Reinhardt died along with the Demon King. That's certain, isn't it?"
"At the very least, that's what we concluded at the time. That there was no way she could have survived that explosion."
"……"
"……"
Lilith heard that answer and turned around without a word.
"Pardon?"
What was this, all of a sudden?
"That's the only way I can believe that people who did the right thing will find salvation."
"……"
"And."
Lilith turned her head and glared at Alex. Those were not the eyes of the frail princess who languished in illness day after day.
"……"
With that, Lilith walked away. Alex watched her go, and smiled.
Hell, is it.
Alex murmured to himself.
"I hope it does exist."
The Hero really is quite strong. Honestly, I had figured she'd subdue them in a matter of seconds. And yet.
"Fortunately, no one was hurt."
"What on earth did you do?"
"Hm? I-it would've been a problem if anyone noticed… so I went through at a speed ordinary people couldn't even see and just smacked them all in the back of the neck."
She said something outrageous as if it were nothing at all.
"Want to learn it too, Lois? It's a movement technique I developed. If you just use a bit of mana, you can get explosive speed for a short time. The only thing is, if you're not used to it, it's so fast even I can't control it."
"When did you learn that?"
"When I was ten, I think… I figured I needed a way to move fast, but none of the ordinary movement techniques were good enough. So I developed it myself. Pretty amazing, right?"
"It is pretty amazing, yes."
I'd thought this last time too — the Hero isn't stupid. She's just short-sighted. She picked things up quickly in all sorts of ways, and when it came to combat in particular, finding someone more gifted than her would be nearly impossible. If her physical abilities were that extraordinary, her technique should have been lacking to compensate — but her technique was extraordinary too, so everything she took in her hands was no different from a Holy Sword. At this point, even something like the Formless Sword — said to be the legendary apex of swordsmanship — might be within her reach. The Holy Sword would be fine even if its only real role was suppressing the Hero's curse.
"I was trying not to get caught, and I actually subdued the pirates without getting caught, so you can say I put some thought into it, right?"
"Well, it would be impossible for an ordinary person, but since it's the result of someone who can actually do it thinking it through, I suppose it's fine."
"Come to think of it, pirates on a ship out of East Port… that's unusual."
"It is… The maritime patrols come through this area fairly often, so pirates don't usually show up around here."
But that was exactly why wealthy people used this route so often — they might have come aiming to strike it rich in one go. One might call it stupid, a high-risk play and nothing more — but if they'd had the brains to realize that, they wouldn't have been wasting their lives as pirates in the first place.
"Let's head back. There's nothing to gain from standing out…"
"……"
"Livia?"
The Hero fell silent for a moment, then came closer to me.
"Someone's watching us."
"…Did they notice?"
"Incredible. Not only did they figure out I was the one who did it, I can't even pinpoint their location. They're quite skilled. They might even be stronger than you, Lois."
"Would you please not use me as a measuring stick?"
"But you're right at that, you know, the middle line between the strong and the weak."
I'd appreciate it if she didn't talk about me like I was some guy who could only handle fodder and got wrecked the instant a Named Monster showed up.
"So, is there any hostility?"
"Doesn't seem like it…"
I let out a breath. It was a shame we had nothing to go on besides the Hero's intuition, but it couldn't be helped.
"Let's leave them be. If there's no hostility, there's no reason for us to approach."
"Got it."
Getting to Elvenheim quickly was our objective. I'd rather not have any unnecessary problems crop up.