The Second Hero (4)
I was casually flipping through a newspaper in the village when I nearly choked on my own disbelief.
The Hero the Empire had recruited to replace me after kicking me out was Herald?
No matter how I turned it over in my head, it made absolutely no sense.
I sparred with Herald once, back in the day.
I knew exactly how strong he was. I'd fought him myself.
Back when I was still active as the Hero, Herald had asked me for a friendly match — said he wanted to learn a thing or two from me. It was a hassle, sure, but when a well-known veteran Knight Commander of the Empire makes a request like that, you don't exactly turn him down.
So we sparred, and I went easy on him. From the outside, it might have looked like I was being pushed back at times, but that was only because I was holding back. What was I supposed to do — go all out against a man past sixty and risk putting him in the ground? Who'd take responsibility for that?
Of course I had to pull my punches.
It ended in a draw.
In the Korea I'd come from, respecting your elders was basic culture. Herald hadn't done anything wrong to me. He was a hardworking Knight Commander of the Empire. Letting him keep a little of his pride didn't seem like such a bad thing.
So I held back, and the match was called a draw. I was perfectly satisfied with that outcome. Watching Herald celebrate like he'd actually won did make me wonder if I'd planted some unfortunate misconception in his head — but what did it matter? He was on the verge of retirement anyway.
Knights have a way of letting confidence curdle into arrogance, and I don't normally sandbag a fight on purpose. But for a man about to hang up his sword, I didn't see the point in sweating the details.
Seriously, though — what possessed them to make Herald the Hero?
Looking at the situation now, something had clearly gone very wrong.
Had Herald convinced himself he was as strong as me? Was that why he'd volunteered?
I was thoroughly baffled that he'd become the Hero, and even more baffled that the Empire had accepted him. What the hell had the Empire been doing this whole time? How blind did you have to be to appoint a man over sixty as the Hero? In what universe did Herald look like Hero material?
"Hah..."
Granted, it wasn't as if there was anyone better waiting in the wings. The moment I left the Empire, none of their remaining knights stood a chance against the Demon King. But Herald? Herald was a hard no. He was just an old man who knew his way around a sword. No matter how I looked at it, making him the Hero defied all reason.
Even a slim chance is still a chance. Sending Herald to the Demon King's Castle was a straight-up zero percent win rate. Were the Empire bastards actively trying to destroy themselves?
Forget it. Just forget it. Why am I even caring about Empire business?
I decided to drop it. News about the Empire kept finding its way to me and snagging my attention, but none of it had anything to do with me anymore. Whether the Empire defeated the Demon King and thrived, or failed and collapsed into ruin — it was none of my concern.
Judging by how things were going, the latter looked far more likely. But was I supposed to go save them now? I had zero reason to protect the Empire that had betrayed me. If anything, I might even look forward to watching them fall.
With that thought, I closed the newspaper.
Outside, full dark had already settled over the village. If I was going to farm with the villagers tomorrow, I needed to get some sleep.
I'd just lain down and was drifting off when it came.
Knock, knock.
At this hour? Who could that be? The village chief, maybe?
I had no idea who'd come calling this late, but ignoring it wasn't an option. I got up, went to the door, and opened it.
"Huh...? You? From earlier—"
The face on the other side was not one I'd expected. It was the girl who'd been watching me from a distance earlier, when the village chief introduced me to everyone. And now she was standing on my doorstep.
What was her name again? The chief had just said she was a child the church was looking after. If I'd known this was coming, I would have asked.
What was I supposed to call her...?
"My name is Ria. Hello. I'm sorry for coming so late at night."
While I was still wearing a vaguely awkward expression, the girl introduced herself first. The one who called herself Ria greeted me in a slightly trembling voice.
"Right. Ria, is it. What brings you to my house?"
I returned the greeting and cut to the point. What was a girl named Ria doing at my door in the dead of night? It wasn't as if she'd fallen for me at first sight and come running. I waited for her answer — and what I got was more surprising than I'd expected.
"Oppa. You're the Hero, aren't you?"
"...What?"
Apparently this girl named Ria knew something about me. Who on earth was she, to know my identity?
The first thing Herald did after being appointed Hero was sit down and talk with his party members.
They would only be together for the short stretch it took to bring down the Demon King, but they were still the people he'd be fighting alongside. Getting to know them was simply part of a Hero's job. After decades as a Knight Commander leading men, Herald understood the value of relationships better than most.
"Ahaha. The drinks here are really good, right?"
"This is our usual place. We're regulars."
Under Herald's initiative, a drinking party got underway, and a great deal of conversation flowed with it. Pleasantly buzzed, the party members talked about everything from idle gossip to matters of real importance concerning the Hero's party, and they shared it all with him.
Of course, every one of them was in her early twenties, so a man in his sixties had to bridge a certain generation gap. It was a little awkward on Herald's end, but not unpleasant. The gathering had definitely brought them a step closer as a party.
Not bad party members, all things considered.
Herald looked them over and decided he could live with people who treated him like a proper Hero. He'd worried they might refuse to acknowledge him because of the previous Hero, Lee Hansu — but that hadn't been an issue. He was genuinely relieved on that front.
They didn't freeze him out, and their characters didn't seem particularly rotten. They'd been wary of him at first, sure, but once he treated them well, they returned the courtesy. The mage called Luna still seemed shy around him, but she addressed him as the Hero all the same. On balance, Herald decided they weren't a bad lot.
Though they do have an awful lot of vanity.
That didn't mean there were no problems. Over drinks, Herald couldn't help noticing what they owned. Their gear alone looked absurdly expensive at a glance — armor, weapons, accessories, every piece of it top-shelf. And it wasn't just the equipment. The meat and liquor they ordered at the tavern were the finest on the menu, and from the way they talked, this was a regular habit.
Even with the generous subsidies a Hero's party received, was this really how they should be spending it?
I don't know about their skill, but they're not the kind of party members you'd want for the long haul. The previous Hero, Lee Hansu, never struck me as the vain type...
Thanks to their habits, the party's remaining funds were already running dangerously thin. To burn through that much imperial support and still be scraping by — Herald half wanted to call them on it. Part of him wanted to take over the finances himself and put a hard stop to the extravagance. In the end, he let it go.
As he'd reminded himself already: the Hero's party would dissolve the moment the Demon King fell. What did a little vanity matter in a group that would soon have no reason to exist? Better not to poke at minor issues and risk sowing discord.
What mattered was their ability.
Their skill should be more than enough. Lee Hansu kept them with him, after all.
As far as Herald was concerned, skill was the only thing that truly counted. Bad character, vanity — none of it mattered if they could fight. And he didn't need to evaluate that himself. The fact that the previous Hero, Lee Hansu, had traveled with them for a full year was proof enough.
Lee Hansu may have failed to defeat the Demon King, but he'd brought down every one of the Four Heavenly Kings and the high-ranking demons besides. The party members had surely been with him through all of it. Even a talentless foot soldier becomes a reliable veteran after a year on the battlefield. So Herald decided not to bother assessing their skills.
They'd manage on their own.
"Hehehe..."
"All right. Everyone should get some sleep."
"Whaddya meeean... I'm... not drunk..."
The drinking wound down, and one by one the party members started dropping off. Herald personally carried each of them upstairs to their rooms at the inn.
"We leave first thing tomorrow."
Then he retired to his own room. He had no intention of delaying. Tomorrow, Herald would take his party and set out for the Demon King.