The Hero's Complaint
At the Hero's chamber door.
"Elysium... Ah... Elysium...!"
Saintess Sera couldn't help but furrow her brow at the pitiful wailing leaking out from beyond the door.
"Tsk... So the Holy Sword really is rejecting him..."
The fact that Rian was being rejected by Elysium didn't surprise Sera in the least.
She had anticipated it to some degree for quite a while now.
If anything, what had kept her up worrying was the fear that the sword might activate in the middle of the Demon King Subjugation—but since it had done its part all the way through slaying Belzegor, she had no complaints on that front.
It was a blessing, even, that its rampage had stopped where it did, and that it had returned to the Church without causing any further trouble.
Well... it's only because the sword never touched him directly that it failed to recognize the truth...
Surely, by now, it had figured out who its real master was.
Which means I must never let it out of the Church again.
All she had to do was keep the Holy Sword quietly enshrined in the Hero's chamber. Having settled the matter thus, Sera—
"Ah... Ah... Elysium..!!!"
—realized she couldn't simply leave the idiot groveling before the sword forever, and opened the door to step inside.
"Hero."
"Sera...?"
"That's enough. Calm yourself now."
"Calm down...?"
"Yes. Staying cooped up in here like this is bad for you in every possible way..."
Sera tried to soothe him gently, to bring him back to his senses.
But Rian's face twisted as he lashed out in furious protest.
"Calm down!? How am I supposed to calm down! Elysium won't come out of its scabbard! It won't move an inch!!!"
CRASH!!!
He slammed his fist down on the side table beside him, spilling out all his bottled-up rage.
"The Holy Sword won't draw! I apologize and I plead and still Elysium just lies there!!!"
Sera's head throbbed at the sight of him carrying on like a child throwing a tantrum.
It was exactly why she couldn't help but regret having chosen this man in the first place.
But what was done was done. The Demon King Subjugation was already over and done with.
And yet.
"I am the Hero! I'm the Hero, and you're telling me I can't draw my own Holy Sword!?"
She couldn't keep leaving this man to scream and rage, so Sera took another deep breath and gently tried to reason with him.
"Hero, please, compose yourself... Elysium was merely startled and has fallen asleep for a time."
"Startled...? Asleep...?"
"Yes. As you well know, Hero, the Holy Sword exists for one purpose: to slay the Demon King. Its mission is complete, so it has simply gone to sleep."
"Is... is that so...?"
"Yes, of course it is."
At Sera's gentle words, Rian slowly began to nod.
That's right. There was no way Elysium would ever turn its back on him.
They had slain that wicked Demon King together, hadn't they?
Just as Sera said—it had fulfilled its purpose and now slept briefly, gathering its strength as it waited for the next Demon King's revival.
...That was the story Rian tried to make himself believe.
VMMMMMM!!
KWAAAAAANG!!
But the moment he recalled the explosion in the conference hall, he couldn't help but reject it on instinct.
And so, with a look of utter despair, Rian pushed back.
"But if that's true, then why did Elysium explode the moment I drew it in the hall?!!"
Even if it meant wounding its own master, the one true wielder of the Holy Sword!
"And... and why... why was I... the only one hurt...? Don't tell me..."
In the instant the Holy Sword had exploded, a vague image flashed through Rian's mind—Logan lunging toward him.
At his visible confusion, Sera hastily cut him off.
"Hero, stop those terrible thoughts and listen to what I have to say."
"B-But... Sera...!"
"Hero."
With a firm voice, Sera cut him off again before he could raise more questions.
Even the biggest idiot would have figured it out by now...
That he was not the true Hero.
But the moment he accepted that fact, Rian would collapse completely, breaking beyond repair.
And if that happened, this fool would lose all his usefulness.
That much she had to prevent.
"You already know, don't you? Elysium exists to protect people. That's why no one else was harmed."
"Th-then why was I—!"
Tsk... could he just shut up and listen for once...
Rian's constant denials were grinding on Sera's nerves, but she maintained her kindly expression and continued in a gentle voice.
"As I told you before, it was sleeping soundly when you suddenly drew it out, Hero. That's all this is—the poor thing was startled."
"So it's just startled...?"
"Yes, exactly. People are the same way, aren't they? If you're sleeping soundly and someone shakes you awake, you get cranky."
"Ah... right, yes... that's true... When I was a child, I'd get angry too whenever someone woke me up out of a deep sleep..."
"Exactly, that's precisely it. Elysium isn't a mere weapon—it's a Holy Sword with a will of its own. And you pulled that child out suddenly, when the war is over and it was finally resting. Of course it lashed out in alarm."
"Ah... ah... I see now..."
Only after Sera had coaxed and coddled him for a long while did Rian finally nod and accept her explanation.
Doubt still gnawed at him beneath her words—but whether it was because he couldn't bear to face the uncomfortable truth, or because he was truly that naive, Rian chose to accept rather than argue any further.
After all, love him or loathe him, he was the one who had cut down the wicked Demon King Belzegor himself.
"I... I am... the Hero..."
"Yes, of course you are, Hero. You are the 'true' Hero, the one chosen by the Goddess herself."
"That's right, that's right... hahaha..."
"Yes. So please, calm yourself and gather your thoughts. You have so much left to do, Hero."
"Things... I need to do...?"
"*Sigh...*"
"Sera...?"
At the sight of this fool echoing her words back like a parrot, Sera couldn't hold back the sigh bursting up from her chest.
Archbishop—how on earth did that old man raise him to be such a blockhead?
Sera made a mental note that once everything was over, she would need to have a proper word with Bertrand as well—and then began softly laying out the plan ahead for Rian.
"The Demon King is dead, but there's still so much to clean up in this world after everything the Demon Army did, isn't there?"
"Ah, right... yes..."
"Exactly. That's why you were so angry in the conference hall, remember? Deciding what's to become of the Empire."
"Yes, the Post-War Imperial Reconstruction Project..."
"That's it. And do you remember what will happen to the people once that begins?"
"Ah!!!"
At Sera's question, Rian finally snapped back to his senses.
Ah, how could I be so foolish.
He was the Hero—the one whose duty was to devote and dedicate himself to the people above all else—and here he was, wallowing in pathetic despair in his room over the Holy Sword being in a temporary sulk!
"Right! I can't just sit here moping like an idiot!"
"That's the spirit, Hero!"
"...Then what should I do from here on out?"
"...I—"
"Sera...?"
The Saintess truly felt as though her head would split open. An intense migraine came crashing over her in waves.
All because of this moron.
But this fool's role was far too important.
Steadying her expression once more, Sera slowly opened her mouth to explain what came next.
"Yes, Hero... as for what you must do from here..."
"*Haaah...*"
The moment she stepped out of the Hero's chamber, Sera let out a long, deep sigh.
If she had known he was this utterly hopeless a fool—
Back then, no matter how much sweat it saved me, I would never have made that choice...
The choice to pick him.
Sera had long since given up counting how many times she'd had this thought.
If I'd known his heart would stray to that stupid woman, I would have moved first...
And worse, the woman he'd transferred his affections to was none other than Imperial Princess Anastasia herself.
Her stomach twisted tighter and tighter.
What an absolute idiot. Just how horribly did she treat him, for a man like that to give up on her?
Try as she might not to, she couldn't help but curse Irene.
She'd heard it all without even asking—stories of just how devotedly Logan had served Irene throughout the Demon King Subjugation.
He had rescued her as an orphaned child from a life that could have ended in utter misery, paid her way into the Empire's Magic Tower Academy, and tended to her every need for years on end—and still...
She turned her gaze elsewhere. Incredible, truly...
And to Rian, no less—the pathetic wretch still whimpering in that room right now.
Well... I suppose the fool had ambitions of his own...
But were those ambitions truly so precious that he'd cast aside Logan, who had sacrificed everything for his sake?
Sera prided herself on having ambitions greater than anyone's.
And yet she couldn't help but feel she'd have to bow to Irene on that count.
As she walked down the corridor lost in such thoughts—
a priest approached her slowly and whispered a report into her ear.
The moment she heard it, Sera couldn't suppress a burst of incredulous laughter.
"Ha...! Is that really true...?"
"Yes, without question. The report came directly from the Lindemarck Ducal House."
"Haha... I see. Very well. You may go attend to your duties."
"Understood, Saintess."
After the priest departed, Sera remained where she stood, sinking briefly into thought.
It was simply too absurd.
"Ha... and here I was agonizing over how to convince her..."
There was no longer any need.
Because—
"That crazy woman... truly...?"
—she had just heard that Irene had fallen head over heels for that degenerate prince at first sight.
"Ha... if I'd known this was coming, I should have just properly treated that blockhead instead..."
Sera regretted leaving that scar on Rian's face when she'd healed him.
Irene was a woman who cared a great deal about looks.
The measure had been a calculated one—to make Irene give up on Rian for good and drive her into the prince's arms.
And she'd gone straight for the prince, just as intended.
And yet Sera felt nothing but hollowness.
"Ah... seriously... this is so annoying..."
She couldn't help but regret it all over again.
If she could return to the past—
if only out of pity for Logan, who had devoted himself to such a woman—
she would have changed her plans without question.
But he had already given his heart to someone else.
And her heart seethed with nothing but bitterness.