The Weight of a Hero's Resolve
The goblin lay crushed between us. For a split second, both the other goblin and I froze, staring at each other in mutual confusion.
“Huh?”
“Kie?”
Neither of us could quite process what had just happened. But while my mind was still reeling, my body moved on instinct. The plate in my off-hand left my fingers with a sharp whoosh.
Crunch.
“Yelp! Whine!”
The wolf that had been charging toward me had its leg pulverized. The sound of its agonized cry snapped me back to clarity.
“Ah. So that’s why it felt so light.”
I’d thrown the plate so effortlessly that the goblin must have assumed it was light and tried to block it. But with my strength exceeding two hundred, whether the object was iron, stone, or wood made no difference as long as it had a similar shape.
‘This is… unexpectedly effective?’
I knew absolutely nothing about proper fighting techniques. Yet I quickly realized that my raw power was so overwhelming that ignorance of technique didn’t matter in the slightest.
So I gripped the barbell my ancestors had so graciously provided in my now-empty hands.
“Headshot!”
Crunch.
“Ke-puk!”
Another goblin’s skull caved in like a dented pot.
The barbell turned out to be a surprisingly decent weapon. Thanks to its excellent non-slip grip, it never flew out of my sweaty palms and caused a catastrophic accident. Not slipping while swinging a weapon was far more important than I’d realized.
Thud.
“Guh!”
A goblin with its temple caved in like a gourd went flying like a foul ball. The barbell weighed twenty kilograms. Compared to a medieval longsword that weighed around three kilograms, the fact that the goblins weren’t instantly pulverized on impact meant I was already showing remarkable restraint.
“Agh, it bent again.”
It wasn’t exactly restraint for the goblins’ sake, but still. The barbell was sturdy, yet it lacked the various design features of proper weapons meant to reduce recoil, so it was quickly becoming warped and useless.
“Can’t even call this a weapon anymore!”
I hurled the now half-shattered barbell with all my might. The final remaining goblin’s head simply vanished.
“See? I’ve gotten stronger, haven’t I?”
“Indeed.”
There was no room for doubt. Even the goblin that had tried to ambush me was sent flying by a casual swing of my arm and died instantly. Even without a weapon, my muscles had already become lethal weapons in their own right.
“Did I underestimate my own stats that badly?”
The result was so overwhelmingly one-sided that my earlier hesitation now seemed ridiculous. It was only natural that Diana placed such immense trust in me.
“That may be part of it, but this is a world where mana is commonplace. You probably felt similar to fighting without a weapon.”
“I suppose…”
“And yet, despite that hesitation, the fact that you still stepped forward is precisely why your actions shine so brilliantly.”
“What did you say?”
I’d heard her perfectly, but I pretended not to so I could hear it again. Diana gave a small, knowing smile.
“Oh, it was nothing~ Just…”
She paused for a moment, then continued with a bright, sunny grin.
“Just that you looked really cool.”
“Hmm…”
Her words tickled something deep in my chest. That single phrase had simultaneously stirred both affection and passion within me.
“S-Savior! Thank you! Thank you so much for saving me!”
Before that warm feeling could even fade, the herbalist who had been hiding in the corner came rushing over and dropped to his knees before me.
“I-I really thought I was going to die! Thanks to you, I barely survived. I have nothing to give you, so all I can do is offer these words of gratitude. I feel endlessly ashamed!”
“No, it’s quite all right. It was only natural. There’s no need to keep bowing like that.”
“I must! If I have nothing material to offer, then I should at least do this with all my heart!”
The herbalist was truly a man of thorough reactions. He kept bowing repeatedly, now even lowering his head all the way to the ground.
‘So this is the power of a single word that can repay a thousand-gold debt.’
Honestly, as a human being, I didn’t exactly dislike being praised so highly. But beyond the gratitude, something more fundamental inside me was being stirred.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
His face was filled with the joy and relief of having survived. The handmade knot tied at his waist. The gentle lines of his aged face. The joy of life and the traces of family visible everywhere on him ignited my inner passion even more fiercely.
Helping others truly was this rewarding.
“Just knowing you’re safe is enough.”
For the first time, I came to understand the deepest desire hidden within me.
“…Why is the atmosphere so heavy?”
The moment we arrived at the entrance of Solbera, I could feel the tension in the air. It wasn’t that I was nervous; rather, the nervousness of the people around me had rubbed off on me.
Especially when an imperial knight was standing there, staring only at the carriage regardless of who passed by. How could my wariness not rise?
“It’s probably because of you, don’t you think?”
“Me? Why?”
“You look suspicious.”
“No way.”
I had simply spent two months living in the mountains, gotten a bit dirty, gained some bulky muscle, and was now traveling with an incredibly beautiful woman beside me. That was all.
“…No way.”
“Hehe. In a place where surprise attacks happen all the time, don’t you think that appearance is plenty suspicious?”
“I guess…”
The man who had been a savior in the mountains had become a potential terrorist in the city? …It was a bitter truth I couldn’t deny.
“Then we’ll be on our way.”
“Yes, thank you for your cooperation.”
Fortunately, we were able to pass without any major misunderstanding.
“The security seemed pretty tight even with just the family crest. How did you manage it?”
“I told them in advance that we would arrive today. Since everything was already arranged, they let us through even if we looked a little suspicious.”
It was all thanks to Diana’s prior preparations. But that alone didn’t explain everything. The knight had naturally asked for my identity as her companion, and I had answered truthfully.
“But the fact that I was kidnapped hasn’t disappeared, has it?”
“Oh my, were you still hung up on that?”
“No, regardless of how you interpret it, it’s an objective fact.”
If the youngest son who had said he was going to the academy went completely silent for two whole months, it was only natural for the family to raise hell. Especially since the academy was a hotbed of kidnappings, terrorism, violence, and threats. Both the family and the academy would have been on high alert.
Therefore, my disappearance should have been announced throughout Solbera, and the knight should have said at least something about it. Yet the knight only seemed to doubt whether I was truly Helio, showing no concern about the fact that Helio had gone missing.
“Isn’t it about time you told me your secret?”
“Trying to uncover a magician’s tricks is a rather naughty habit, you know.”
“Come on, you’re not going to tell your assistant anything?”
“That would be unacceptable. I could never neglect my assistant.”
Diana immediately revealed the secret as if it were no big deal.
“I bribed them in advance.”
“…Bribed?”
The method was so absurdly simple that I had trouble processing it.
“Yes. It’s the easiest and simplest way. I contacted your father beforehand and explained the situation to the academy as well.”
“So everyone knew except me?”
“In short… yes, that’s correct.”
“…………”
No wonder she had agreed so easily when I said I wanted to go to the academy alone.
“I also sent progress reports during your training.”
“Hah…”
It was absurd. I naturally wanted an apology for being the only fool left in the dark, but—
“But this was the surest and fastest way.”
Diana didn’t even blink, speaking with a perfectly confident expression. It was unfair, but I couldn’t even complain.
‘She’s a regressor. What am I supposed to say to that?’
Moreover, she wore an expression full of confidence, as if she had optimized everything perfectly. It made it hard to grumble.
“It was quite difficult to optimize it this well, you know.”
Correction—she had even said it out loud.
“…So, what’s the plan going forward?”
What else could I do but accept it and move on to constructive conversation?
“Hmm… Well. There are quite a few things we can do in this phase.”
The way she openly laid out the choices felt strangely surreal. After all, this very moment was the process of designing my life.
It evoked conflicting emotions. The instinctive displeasure of having my freedom infringed upon. The rational sense of security that came from being guided to the correct answer. Usually the former emotion was stronger, leading people to rebel fiercely against the designer.
But she smiled.
“Hehe, you’re staring so intently.”
“Isn’t it fortunate that I’m only looking?”
“I don’t do this for anyone but you.”
Both emotions felt distant to me. Above all, the fact that I held affection for the designer, and that the designer held affection for me, neutralized any displeasure.
“What do you think about revenge?”
“Revenge?”
The word that came after her long contemplation was completely unexpected. But the moment I heard it, one person immediately came to mind.
“I know that, in most cases, it’s not good.”
That wasn’t for others’ sake, but for my own. Imagine getting shoulder-checked on the street. You’d feel annoyed. You might even curse. But what if you carried that grudge for seventy or eighty years, grinding your teeth and waiting for a chance to get even? Or what if you immediately ran them over with a carriage for the crime of offending you?
‘Wait, that actually sounds pretty satisfying…’
Well, it might feel good, but it wouldn’t do your reputation any favors. I was currently pouring blood, sweat, and tears into reaching a level on par with the Diabeluna family. If I couldn’t even control my own temper and ended up charging with a carriage, what would that make me? It would be the very definition of a pathetic, low-intelligence act.
Holding onto hatred toward others for a long time was not only ugly, it was simply burning yourself from the inside. Therefore, it was usually better to just let it go. If it was a trivial grudge, that is.
“But if it’s not trivial, the story changes.”
Anger was an emotion that easily evaporated, but hatred was different. That dark, sticky emotion had no explosive power, yet it refused to disappear, refused to fade, refused to be neutralized or diluted.
Therefore, once hatred had latched onto you, you needed to spit it out whenever the opportunity arose. After all, carrying around resentment toward someone for a long time was no different from slowly devouring your own body.
“Then, what do you think about me giving you the chance to take revenge?”
“Who?”
I already knew the answer, and the expected reply came right back.
“Let’s go right now.”
Because that bastard didn’t fall into the category of trivial grudges.