The Hero, Riel Ballenhart

The House of Ballenhart had produced Heroes for generations.

A single Holy Sword had been handed down through the family, and the few ancestors able to grasp it became Heroes and raised countless deeds in their name. By the time the world began calling them the Hero's House, the Valtein Kingdom had recognized that legacy and elevated the Ballenharts to a ducal house.

Head of that house, and the previous Hero, was Arden Ballenhart. Even among the many Heroes the family had produced, he was always counted the greatest. On the battlefield he cut down countless soldiers of the Demon King's army, and with the Holy Sword he took one arm from the Black Knight, one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

Could I ever become like Father...?

Young ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Riel revered that father, and she took fierce pride in belonging to the Hero's House. Like the other children of the family, she had grown up on tales of Heroes and nurtured a dream of her own. She never once neglected her training. Day after day she swung a sword, until, before she knew it, she had become the leading candidate for the next Hero.

Thwack.

A single swing of Riel's wooden sword dropped her opponent to his knees. He was a boy from a branch family, rumored to be quite skilled.

"I yield."

"Th-thank you..."

That was Riel's first spar. She stared down at her own sword, unable to believe it. A promising talent crumpling under a swing she had barely put any force behind felt too unreal to accept. Do I actually have a gift for this? The thought flickered through her, but she could not afford to grow conceited, and she quietly steadied herself.

"I lost."

"You've taught me something."

"I don't think I can beat you, no matter what I do. I concede."

"I'm no match for you. I admit defeat."

After that she sparred with the children of the house again and again. But neither the boy rumored to be the strongest of the branch families, nor the child of the main line who had never once tasted defeat, was any match for Riel at all. Size made no difference, nor age. She had already left the level of her peers behind.

"A talent truly sent down from heaven."

Everyone said it, as if with a single voice. The body she had been born with never tired, and it moved exactly as she willed. She could see an opponent's sword ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠path as clearly as if it were drawn in the air, and she could swing precisely as she imagined. To anyone watching, she was an overwhelming genius.

Only one step left.

The members of the house acknowledged Riel as the next Hero. Not one of them doubted she would become it. All that remained for her was to take the Holy Sword in hand.

Until that day.

"Th-this is strange. The sword won't come out."

On the day of the Holy Sword's succession ceremony, Riel felt that something had gone wrong. In the audience hall of the Ballenhart head, the Holy Sword stood planted in the earth by Arden Ballenhart himself, the previous Hero. No matter how she strained, no matter how she poured her strength into it, the blade did not so much as twitch.

"Riel. It seems you are not the makings of a Hero."

Disappointment was plain on the face of the family head, Arden Ballenhart. He pinched the furrow between his brows and let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Let me try once more. S-something is definitely wrong..."

"Enough."

When that grave voice stopped her short, the color drained from Riel's face.

"N-no, Father. I can do this...!"

Frantic, she looked up at Arden Ballenhart, and their eyes met. It was nothing like the gentle gaze her father usually wore. The eyes that had always watched her with expectation were nowhere to be found. What remained there was pity, compassion, and surrender.

The cold voice settled over her feelings like a weight. Only then did the fact of her failure begin, little by little, to sink in.

"Why... Why did it have to be me..."

Every promising talent of the house had lifted the Holy Sword and become a Hero. She, whose gift outstripped all the rest, had been certain she would grasp it too. But whether by some joke of fate, the Holy Sword refused to be taken into her hand. It was the first time someone of the main bloodline—not a branch family—had failed to draw it.

"Unprecedented, I'll grant you that."

"Yes..."

Her father's hand patted her shoulder, lightly. The touch was light, and yet it felt heavier than any weight she had ever known. The strength left Riel's arms, and her hands slipped from the Holy Sword she had been gripping. She looked down at them. The two hands that had failed to lift the blade were trembling, whether she willed it or not.

"......"

For a long while Riel stared at her own hands, as if she could not believe them.

Riel did not leave her room. For three days and three nights she wept. In a single moment she had gone from the genius everyone pinned their hopes on to a stain upon the house. Her face was swollen and flushed a raw red, a mess she could not bear to show anyone.

"Lady Riel, how many days has this been! Are you really going to shut yourself away like this for the rest of your life?!"

"Hic—I don't know, I said I don't know!"

A boy pounded on the door, genuinely worried. It was Kyle, the beggar she had picked up a few ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠days earlier after recognizing his talent. For someone whose very birth was uncertain, the attitude was rude—but Riel, sunk in grief, had no room left to care.

"My lady, if you keep this up, I'll have no choice but to force the door and come in."

"No, Kyle! Please, just leave me alone!!"

Creeeak.

The firmly shut door opened, and light leaked into the darkened room. Riel came into Kyle's view in a pure white dress. She sat slumped on the floor with hollow eyes, and spoke quietly through dry lips.

"I hate you, Kyle."

"What else am I supposed to do, my lady? You're the one who picked me up."

To Kyle, Riel was the only person he could rely on. She had been the first to reach a hand out to him, and she had given him a place to sleep and food to eat. He could not simply stand by and watch the girl who was as good as his savior waste away.

"Then I'm coming in."

"..."

The black-haired boy stepped carefully over the threshold. He looked far too neat for anyone to believe he had been a beggar only days before. There was something foreign in his face, a look one would never see in these parts, and it carried a strange air of nobility. He had borrowed the clothes the mansion's servants wore, and yet he did not look like a servant at all.

"Does it hurt that much, not being able to draw the family's Holy Sword?"

"Isn't that obvious...? Without the Holy Sword, I can't become a true Hero."

Riel remembered what she herself had said only a few days earlier.

What Hero? What subjugation of the Demon King? She had lured the boy here on grand boasts, and this was what had become of her. Overwhelmed with shame, she buried her face against her knees. The grief kept trying to leak out as tears.

"I'm sorry, Kyle. That a bitch like me dragged you here."

Riel said it through tears, her voice a broken sob, as if she might burst into full weeping at any moment. Kyle dropped down beside her and carefully patted her shoulder.

"Don't talk like that. Even without some Holy Sword, I'll follow you, my lady."

"...Really? Even if I'm not the Hero, you'll stay by my side?"

"Of course. If you want, I'll even bring you the Demon King's head."

He said it on purpose, half bluster and half joke, only to soothe her.

"You're weak, Kyle. It would be too hard for you..."

"Then you can do it in my place, my lady."

"Could I...?"

Riel, who had buried her face in her knees, lifted her head and looked at Kyle. Her pretty face was a mess of tear tracks, and even now the tears fell, drop by drop. Kyle drew a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped them away.

The Cursed Forest, after the succubus Lilith had gone. There, Riel sank into deep thought.

The Demon King.

The Hero's Party had faced the Demon King once, in the span when Kyle was away from the battlefield. At the time, confronting that thing, they had not immediately known it for the Demon King. They had only guessed as much, because the worst enemy they could imagine was the Demon King. Only now, hearing the succubus Lilith speak, had she become certain that the monstrous being they saw on that field had been the Demon King.

There's no way we could ever beat something like that...

The Demon King, the Hero's Party's final objective, was not a being they could dare to defeat. She had known it the instant she saw it. The moment they stood against that thing, they would all die before victory or defeat could even be discussed. Merely facing it had broken the hearts of everyone present in an instant. It was a being difficult even to look upon.

To Riel, the Demon King felt like a distortion in space itself. To Iris, it looked like an evil god that had crossed over from hell. And to Lapis Lazuli, it was something akin to an outer god—a thing that existed outside the laws of the world.

A sudden curiosity struck her. How would that being appear in Kyle's eyes?

Even so, she had no intention of letting Kyle come face to face with the Demon King. If it were Kyle, he would try to kill it no matter what form it took. She was certain of that. He was a man whose heart would not break under any hardship or adversity. He would never give up. He would throw himself at it, even if it cost him his life. He was a man who had run this far with his eyes fixed on the Demon King alone.

Riel knew, if only dimly, that Kyle was a person who had crossed over from another world—someone different from the rest of them. The only goal he had held since coming to this world, the subjugation of the Demon King, seemed to be what he considered the very meaning of his existence.

Kyle. I will never let you die.

The Hero's Party had sworn it. They would not allow Kyle and the Demon King to meet.

But he never gave up. In the end, he followed them all the way to the very doorstep of the Demon King's Castle.

With no other choice left to them, the Hero's Party decided on Kyle's exile.