The Second Hero (5)
Back on Earth, where I used to live, a celebrity showing up in their own neighborhood was enough to draw a crowd.
In an information age of social media, famous faces were known to just about everyone. If you were a celebrity and didn't hide your face, being recognized was only natural.
So how the hell does she know who I am?
This situation, though, was a little off.
I was famous, in my own way. The one and only Hero on this continent—that was me. Banished from the Empire or not, if you ranked the most well-known people after the Emperor, the Imperial Princess, and the Saintess, I would still be near the top of the list.
But this world had no social media. So even for someone as famous as me, being recognized out of nowhere was strange. That a mere village girl could pick me out was downright startling.
Who was she, that she knew my face? Had we met before? I was starting to wonder.
"You're the Hero, aren't you?"
"Mm… no, I'm not. What Hero?"
I decided to deny it. No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't remember ever meeting this girl. A little white lie wouldn't hurt.
The moment I said I wasn't the Hero, she stared at me like I'd just said something completely absurd. She looked absolutely certain I was the Hero—and I was just as determined to keep insisting I wasn't.
I had come to this village to live a quiet life farming. Admit I was the Hero and the odds of my life getting complicated shot straight to one hundred percent. For the sake of my peaceful days, I was prepared to be a little stubborn.
Just play along for me, kid…
"Liar. You are the Hero."
"I told you, I'm not."
She was persistent, though. The girl didn't back down for a second. Somehow she was convinced I was lying, and she remained just as convinced I was the Hero. It wasn't mindless parroting—it was something more stubborn, and far more annoying.
"What makes you say that? If I were the Hero, why would I be in a place like this?"
"That's…"
"I'm just an ordinary guy who came here to farm. Maybe I look a little like him."
Come on. Did it make any sense that I was the Hero?
I laid it out for the girl who had decided I was the Hero with zero logic and zero evidence. If I were the Hero, why on earth would I be trying to farm in a backwater village? Did she really think a perfectly functional Hero got banished from the Empire for some ridiculous reason and took up farming? This wasn't a novel. That kind of story didn't hold water.
I gave her a thoroughly sensible, perfectly reasonable explanation for why I was not the Hero.
"Ugh…"
And for a moment, the girl had nothing to say. Even I had to admit it was airtight reasoning. I was quietly congratulating myself when—
"You are the Hero…!!!"
—she refused to give up. Logic or no logic, she just kept insisting I was the Hero. Relentless.
I was staring at her, wondering what I was supposed to do about this, when a knock came at the door.
"Mr. Hans? Are you in? Ah…! Ria. So this is where you were."
Just in time, someone arrived who could put an end to the whole mess. With the knock, a woman stepped into the house—the village nun in her habit. Her name was… Adel, I think? Whatever it was didn't matter. What mattered was that she was this girl's guardian.
The moment the nun spotted Ria, she spoke as if she'd finally found what she'd been searching for. Apparently she'd been combing the village for the girl who'd vanished in the middle of the night. Relief crossed her face first—then, a second later, pure fury.
"Ria. I told you not to go wandering around at night…!!!"
"Ah… um… Sister Adel. I'm sorry."
"Next time, you are not doing this again, understand? Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"Yes…"
Ria went silent in front of the angry nun. Even she seemed cowed by Sister Adel's temper. A kindly nun who rarely raised her voice, scolding her that hard—and all because she'd been worried—was more than enough to shut a child up. In the end, Ria took a step back and submitted.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Hans. She didn't bother you, did she?"
"Not at all."
"That's a relief. Well then—have a peaceful night."
The nun apologized, took Ria by the hand, and left.
Whew… now I can finally breathe.
Watching them go, I let myself relax. A random girl showing up in the middle of the night to call me the Hero had been a real headache, but it was over now. Time to wash up and get some sleep. I was just settling into that thought when Ria, already walking away, whipped her head around to look at me. She waved and called out:
"I'll come see you again tomorrow!"
…Tomorrow? She was coming back tomorrow?
Apparently this wasn't over. If anything, it felt like something thoroughly annoying had only just begun.
The newly formed Hero party, with Herald at its head, set out at once for the Demon Realm where the Demon King resided.
The party members would have preferred a little more rest in the capital, but Hero Herald had no such intention. He wanted the Demon King dead as soon as possible, and in the end the others fell in line behind him.
"So this is the Demon Realm…"
And now the Hero party had arrived. The land in the Empire's far north, said to be home to the Demon King. Herald had heard the stories, but this was his first time setting foot here himself.
It was a place where no living thing could be felt—no animals, no plants, no people. All that remained was a bone-chilling demonic aura. No doubt the demons and monsters that lived here made survival all but impossible.
Though even those seem scarce now.
Still, it was less terrifying than he had expected. The ominous energy was there, but the surroundings were nearly empty. The previous Hero, Lee Hansu, had already wiped out most of the demons, no doubt. Word had it that the moment you stepped into the Demon Realm you were supposed to be swarmed by demons and monsters—and in moments like this, Herald couldn't help but feel a grudging respect for his predecessor.
Not that it mattered much. Lee Hansu had still failed to kill the Demon King.
Besides, Herald had reliable party members at his side—the same ones who had traveled with the previous Hero. They would have come to the Demon Realm with Lee Hansu before. Bringing veterans of this place meant there was little to worry about.
"Everyone, we are in the Demon Realm now. Let us defeat the Demon King swiftly and return to the Empire. To that end—would you kindly tell me which way leads to the Demon King's Castle?"
"Um…"
Something, however, seemed to be wrong. At Herald's request for directions to the Demon King's Castle, the four party members only glanced at one another and said nothing.
"Is something the matter? You aren't about to tell me you don't know where the Demon King's Castle is, I trust?"
Surely not.
A flicker of unease stirred in Herald. They had spent a full year as a Hero party, coming and going from the Demon Realm countless times. They couldn't possibly not know the lay of the land. That would be absurd.
"Well… basically, the previous Hero, Lee Hansu, was the one who knew the geography here. We just… followed him."
"Yes. Lee Hansu handled strategy, so… we don't really know the terrain ourselves."
"…Hah."
Good heavens.
Why were his worst suspicions always the ones that turned out right? The party members looked faintly awkward as they admitted they knew nothing of the local geography. Strategy, they claimed, had been the Hero's job.
Herald pressed a hand to his forehead as a brief wave of dizziness hit him.
A Hero party that doesn't know the terrain?
From his perspective, the statement was almost insulting. Even when he had led a knight order, there had been someone in charge of strategy—but that was separate from the basic expectation that everyone entering a battle should know the ground they were fighting on. Knowing the terrain was the foundation of combat, the core of every viable tactic.
Ordinary low-ranking soldiers might be left in the dark, true—but Hero party members were not ordinary soldiers. They were the elite of the elite. For people like that not to know the geography was unthinkable.
And yet here they were.
Herald wanted nothing more than to tear into them over it.
"I see. Then we shall search for the Demon King's Castle together."
"Yes."
But he chose to accept the situation for now. They were already on the battlefield. On a battlefield, raging and regretting what had already gone wrong was less useful than finding what still needed doing—and what still could be done. An old knight commander knew that better than anyone.
They must have their reasons…
Since he himself had never led them before, there were things he simply didn't know. That was how Herald chose to frame it.
Think positively.
He decided this was a minor problem. Geography or strategy, these were still the party members Lee Hansu had led for a full year. It was possible they simply didn't know the Demon Realm's layout…
But is that really something they could just not know?
The doubt, of course, refused to go away.