Lady Hazel de Butler harbored an astonishing secret.
Lady Hazel de Butler harbored an astonishing secret.
"Hazel de Butler. Return to your territory and handle the situation."
In the end, the emperor, who had been observing the nobles' meeting, issued that command to Hazel. His gaze, which had shown no interest in the nobles' opinions from the start, now turned to me.
"Hero, it doesn't seem like something you need to get involved in, so stay in the capital."
I looked up at the emperor as he spoke. He clearly had no intention of letting me go until he confirmed the secret of my body. In the past, I might have argued against his words, but now I saw no need.
"Understood. I shall obey Your Majesty's command."
At my response, the nobles shot me lecherous smiles. They seemed to feel a strange sense of kinship seeing the goddess-chosen hero acting self-preservingly, just like them. The only one staring at me oddly from that spot was Marian.
"You're just going to stand by and watch?"
The moment we left the audience chamber, Marian asked me that.
"Why? The emperor himself said it wasn't something I had to do."
"B-but you're the hero chosen by the goddess's oracle."
Marian sounded flustered by my indifferent reaction. The reason she was acting so anxious about my response was simple. The hero's achievements were essentially the saintess who discovered him credited with them as well. Even if not everyone in the world saw it that way, Marian was the woman who had ultimately made it so.
'Hah, I have no intention of busting my ass just for you, you bitch.'
I thought that as I looked at Marian. Of course, if I didn't move, quite a few lives might be sacrificed to the Demon King's army. But over my twenty years as a hero, I'd gained plenty of experience, and I'd come to realize painfully that always giving your all didn't always yield the best results.
Even if I went to help the refugees outside the empire right now, with just one body, I couldn't save everyone. And even if I did save them, I might end up unable to enter the castle like before and watch them all get massacred.
'Wh-what is this? Why did you bring us here?'
'You're the hero, right? Do something, please!'
'Open up! Open the gates!'
An old memory flashed through my mind, and I smacked my lips with a bitter expression. That bitterness quickly turned to anger toward Hazel and Juan, who had locked the castle gates.
"...What's wrong all of a sudden?"
Marian flinched at the killing intent that had leaked out unwittingly and looked at me with a fearful expression. I casually dispersed the killing intent and answered her.
"Nothing."
"Oh, there you are!"
As I reassured Marian, I spotted someone waving at me and approaching.
'Aaron.'
I scowled again at Crown Prince Aaron, who approached with a friendly face. Aaron extended his hand lightly toward me, as if he'd completely forgotten what happened in the audience chamber moments ago.
"Let's shake on it. As you know, I'm Crown Prince Aaron."
"...Hero Allen."
I suppressed my rage and took his hand, even though smashing his face in would have felt satisfying. He was still useful in various ways, after all.
"Oh, and this must be the saintess of the Gaiana Church?"
"...It's an honor to meet you. I am Saintess Marian Delarossi."
Since she hadn't crossed paths with the crown prince yet, Marian responded politely to his greeting. Knowing how the two of them would later carve up the empire between them, I couldn't help but see that moment as a rather historic one.
"Father went too far. Ignoring the goddess so openly like that. And his attitude toward you, Hero—it's like treating a zoo monkey! You're someone chosen by the goddess herself."
Aaron glanced around slyly before saying that to me and Marian. If I didn't know his true nature, even I might have fallen for it—his demeanor was perfectly that of a jovial crown prince.
'Hmph, still using the same old trick of badmouthing others to get close.'
But I was one of the few who knew Aaron better than anyone. At his obvious ploy of subtly insulting his own father to approach me, I nearly snorted.
"Ah, sorry about what happened in the audience chamber. My position makes things tricky sometimes."
Was it because my reaction was lukewarm? Aaron subtly admitted his fault and tried to win me over again.
"I understand."
"Good. As expected of a man who'll do great things—your magnanimity is something else."
"... ."
When I showed no reaction, I could see a faint crack in Aaron's affable mask of a face. It seemed the crown prince didn't like that I dared to act this way even after he'd approached so casually first. He had plenty of uses, but I figured keeping my relationship with Aaron at this level was just right. Once he got something in his grasp, he'd treat it like trash; before that, he'd act like he'd rip out your liver.
"If you ever have any troubles or requests, come to me anytime."
Aaron burst into hearty laughter again and clapped my shoulder. I smiled back at him, intensely curious if he'd keep up that laughter later on.
"By the way, your family should arrive sometime today."
After parting with Aaron, I stared blankly at the saintess's words. Since regressing, the Marian I'd met again showed many sides different from what I remembered. She undoubtedly had her own schemes behind those actions, but considering her position in the church, it wasn't incomprehensible. Moreover, the sight of her masturbating while watching Jena and me have sex was something unimaginable from the saintess I knew.
But even with those changes in Marian, I couldn't easily forgive her. Everything else I could somehow understand, but hiding old man Ghetto's death until the end? That I could never forgive. She had no idea how tormented I was seeing his rotten, maggot-ridden head.
"Why tell me now?"
Was it because those old events resurfaced? I glared at Marian with a cold expression and asked.
The situations were different, but her delaying news about my family soured my mood even more.
"...You didn't ask."
At my suddenly icy reaction, Marian gauged my mood and replied. Irritated, I shot her a dirty look and quickened my pace toward the stables. I needed to wash away this filthy feeling by seeing old man Ghetto and Lina.
How long had I walked? As I headed to the stables on the outskirts of the palace, a shrill scream rang out.
"Kyaa!!"
'What the hell? Did that guy lose his mind?'
Rushing to the stables at the scream, I scowled at the unexpected scene. The first thing that caught my eye was Talion, grinning lecherously as he tugged at Lady Hazel's clothes with his teeth. He was clearly a young colt, yet he grinned like a human. Next, I saw Hazel desperately clutching her torn clothes.
Hazel was at the stables to return to her territory, obviously.
"What are you all doing just staring?! Help me!"
Hazel shouted at those around her with a flushed face, but no one lifted a finger. From the stable hands to her escort soldiers, everyone gawked blankly at her chest. And who could blame them? With Talion yanking her clothes, Hazel's massive breasts were jiggling as if they might spill out any second.
'...Pink.'
With my sharper-than-average eyes, I could even see the vivid pink nipple peeking between her fingers.
"Kyaa! Let go, let go I said!"
"Hiihing!!"
With no one coming to help, Hazel struggled desperately to push Talion away, but a woman's strength couldn't match a full-grown horse's. Moreover, Talion wasn't just any horse—he was a unicorn. Unicorns rarely tired, and he clung to her clothes with a grudge-like persistence, as if her breasts had personally offended him.
'But does this even make sense?'
I watched the absurd scene, racking my brain. Unicorns only liked virgins, that much was clear from how he'd treated his former owner, Jena, after evolving into a unicorn. Yet here he was, rubbing his face against Hazel like he did with Marian.
'No way... she's a virgin?'
I stared at Hazel, half her chest exposed, with a puzzled expression.