The Heroes Had Admired Him
The war against the demonkin had naturally given rise to countless heroes.
The war chief of the elves’ Blue Moon tribe, the master of the dwarves’ Steel Hand Forge—figures of that caliber.
Naturally, the Empire had produced equally outstanding individuals of its own.
If she had to name just one among them, Michaela would have chosen this name.
Sir Lethe.
A man who had appeared like a comet. A figure who had slaughtered the demonkin in an instant with overwhelming martial might.
Wherever he went, only the corpses of demonkin remained. Only the banners of victory fluttered.
Even though he had never so much as taken the knight’s examination, every knight in the Empire affixed the title of “Sir” to him.
Those high and mighty nobles groveled and used honorifics toward a man whose very origins were unknown.
Even the prideful elves and the dwarves—who were ordinarily indifferent to humans—treated him with the utmost respect.
A supernova and the strongest at once. The Empire’s great war hero.
That was the gaze with which Michaela regarded the man named Lethe, and the words that summed him up.
She had admired him. Intensely. To her, Lethe’s existence was like a shining sun she desperately wanted to reach.
Born with the destiny of a Hero, she wanted all the more to become like him. She wanted to become a hero.
She wanted to erase every last demonkin who brought chaos and destruction to this world.
Suddenly that time came to mind—before she had yet been chosen by the destiny of a Hero.
Those she had only just grown close to had been attacked by demonkin and dragged away.
After enduring every kind of hardship, she had barely managed to escape just as she was about to be sold as a slave.
If she hadn’t escaped and had been sold off, she would have become their plaything, or emergency rations….
Those damn demonkin bastards. I should slaughter them all so they can’t even open their mouths… Ahem. Ahem.
It seemed thoughts of the past had surfaced. Calm down, Michaela. Calm down.
There’s nothing good about letting your true nature show. I’m a Hero. A Hero.
Once, from afar, she had seen Lethe fighting the demonkin.
She had thought that when the time came, she would fight alongside him. She had never doubted that, as a Hero, she would stand by the war hero’s side and strike down the evil horde of demonkin in a single blow.
So she had trained until her bones ached, pouring in effort until she sweated blood.
Yes, there had been a time like that….
“Michaela. Did you hear the news?”
Haniel sidled up beside her and whispered in her ear.
Thinking she was about to spout some more nonsense, Michaela was about to tell her to hurry up and get out of the way when—
“About the demonkin. They say they’ve given up on the war?”
“…What?”
It sounded like complete nonsense. Who was giving up on what? The demonkin, on war?
She laughed. Michaela laughed from sheer disbelief. She thought Haniel was playing another prank.
The demonkin giving up on war? That was the same as elves abandoning the forest, or dwarves giving up blacksmithing and beer.
Beings who couldn’t stay still for a moment, existences extremely far from peace.
Souls that only sowed chaos in the world and ultimately sought to create a world where everyone bled and fought.
That was what demonkin were. That was the common opinion shared among humans, elves, and dwarves.
“Haniel. Stop joking around.”
“It’s not a joke, Michaela. I just heard this news!”
“Where did you hear it?”
Fine, go ahead and babble. Michaela still asked in a tone that said she couldn’t believe it.
“The Magic Tower. I went to pick up some scrolls, and magical communications were pouring in endlessly. And the content was that the demonkin had stopped the war and, conversely, proposed peace.”
“Haniel. Go quietly do your magic research.”
As if there was nothing more to hear, Michaela herded her toward the laboratory.
Even when Haniel protested that it was true—“Ah, I’m serious! They really gave up on the war?!”—she didn’t listen.
She had already seen and experienced the cruelty of the demonkin to the point of nausea.
But before long, she came to realize something was strange.
“Looks like we’re out of a job.”
Lighting a cigarette, Selaphy opened in a serious tone.
“The fighting’s stopped. The pointy-ears and the shorties have all pulled back their forces, they say.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I thought so too, but I just heard it from an acquaintance. Apparently the Empire’s side has also completely withdrawn their troops?”
It was true. Really, truly, the war had suddenly ended.
Looking into the situation, it turned out that four strange Demon Kings had abruptly purged all the hardliners.
After eliminating everyone clamoring for war, they had immediately proposed a ceasefire and peace, bowing their heads.
Thanks to that, this side—which had been bewildered at first—had welcomed it with open arms. That was the story.
“….”
That the war was over, that no one else would die or get hurt—of course that was a good thing.
It was the moment everyone had so desperately wished for. Now no one needed to tremble in fear of annihilation.
Yes, so she should be happy. Laughing was the right thing to do.
Grit—
Michaela found herself clenching her teeth without realizing it.
Because she couldn’t get revenge? Because all her efforts until now had come to nothing? Yes, that could be it.
How could she not be angry? She had a past where she had nearly been sold as a slave to the demonkin.
And how could she not feel empty? She had worked and worked for years, only for the reason to disappear.
But the cause of this rage burning now was neither the desire for revenge nor the emptiness.
I can’t fight alongside him. That man. The Empire’s war hero!
Though he had withdrawn from the front lines, she had heard it wasn’t because anything was wrong with his body.
He had simply stepped back for a while to raise new sprouts.
Which meant she could still fight alongside that great man whenever she wanted.
Lethe. She had wanted to fight with that person. She had wanted to take down the demonkin together.
Because she had come this far looking up to him, she wanted recognition, and she wanted to share the same battles.
How long had she waited to stand on the battlefield with the object of her admiration, her ideal?
“What do we do now?”
“Do we just say ‘live well, everyone’ and go our separate ways?”
“….”
Her comrades were just as confused.
They weren’t showing it, but they would be furious. Empty.
And hadn’t they hoped to fight alongside Lethe, whom they had met once before?
Michaela, Haniel, Selaphy, and even Meta. All of them ended up disappointed.
“…About how things turned out like this.”
At that moment, Haniel carefully raised her hand and offered her opinion.
“How about going to the Academy?”
“The Academy?”
“Yes. We don’t have anything to do anyway, and if you think about it, we’re just the right age for enrollment.”
At first she thought it was absurd. But thinking about it, it made quite a bit of sense.
Everyone must have thought at least once that they wanted to live an ordinary life.
Not preparing for fights that went back and forth between life and death, but wanting to spend time with peers.
Not fretting over how to kill a Demon King, but fretting over whether that guy likes me?
They wanted to choose. What they wanted to do, what kind of future they desired.
“Come to think of it, the war hero happens to be an instructor there, doesn’t he?”
Unable to wait, Selaphy—who had been tilting her glass—muttered that.
Michaela’s ears perked up for a moment, but no one saw it.
“What do you think, Michaela? Since it’s come to this, we need to find a way to live too.”
“That’s true.”
“Then let’s go to the Academy. Go there, study a bit, make some new friends, and think about what we should do with our lives from now on.”
Pouring the strong alcohol straight from the bottle down her throat, Selaphy finished speaking.
Meta, who had quietly handed her a handkerchief, also seemed to inwardly agree with the opinion.
“….”
The Academy, the Academy. A possibility she had never once considered until now.
She had thought she would spend quite a long time on the front lines, believing there would be no ordinary life.
But now that the demonkin had proposed peace, she couldn’t continue the war alone.
“It doesn’t seem bad.”
With the decision of their leader Michaela, the Heroes’ next destination was set as the Academy.
After that, well, it wasn’t bad. It was fine. Actually, it was good.
There was no need to wake up at dawn to train, no reason to receive daily reports on the war situation with the demonkin and coordinate when to sortie.
As an ordinary girl in her prime, or as a student curious about everything in the world.
Ultimately, as someone who would live ordinarily like everyone else.
The Heroes never doubted that the Academy would be the starting point for that.
“Welcome, Heroes. We sincerely welcome you to the Academy.”
And they saw a face that was extremely welcome, greeting them.
Lethe. The Empire’s war hero. A kind of senior who had been fighting the demonkin first.
“Sir Lethe. You may just call me by my name.”
Michaela spoke as calmly as she could, suppressing her excitement.
As a junior who had once admired him—no, who still admired him—she hoped he would do so.
“Ahem. Then, Michaela. Haniel. Selaphy. And Meta. Welcome to the Academy.”
Welcome to the Academy. Those words sounded like “You’ve worked hard until now.”
To Michaela, to Haniel, to Selaphy, and even to Meta. Everyone understood it that way.
It felt like permission from their great senior that they could now live a little more leisurely.
He was still one of the role models the Heroes wanted to emulate.
“Uncle!”
“Big brother!”
“Master!!”
The next day. Until those beings called “Demon Kings,” who made their blood boil just by looking at them, suddenly clung to Lethe.
“Sir Lethe.”
Why? Just why? For what reason? Wasn’t he a war hero?
“Why… why are you with the Demon Kings.”
It was the moment when the illusion of the hero she had known until now—the one she had intensely admired—shattered.