The Hero's Banquet

The temporary base camp, hastily erected for the Hero Party to confront the Demon King's army, was filled with individuals considered elite even within the Imperial forces. Female knights clad in silver armor, mages maintaining concealment barriers, and burly soldiers gripping swords and spears—all were figures of some renown in their respective fields. Yet they understood perfectly well that they were not the protagonists of this operation, and they had joined the battlefield with that fact firmly in mind.

It was common knowledge, after all, that no matter how strong a human might be, they were utterly insignificant compared to the demon race. To fight the Demon King's army, one needed specialists with specialized training. Lydorphia, which had long been free of the Demon King's threat, was paradoxically quite outdated when it came to dealing with them. Nevertheless, the soldiers showed little concern for the impending war. In fact, an air of giddy excitement could be felt among the troops at the base camp.

It was the thrill of finally laying eyes on the Hero Party—the stuff of rumors alone.

For those who lived by the sword, encountering the Hero—who stood at the pinnacle of humanity—was akin to fulfilling a lifelong dream. Some even felt as though they had trained all this time precisely for this moment.

The only exception was the group of female knights, who curled their lips in clear distaste.

They were classmates who had graduated from the same knight academy as Jeanne. Back then, Jeanne had been far behind her peers in talent and was so timid that she would freeze up and faint at the mere sight of a slime. Everyone had teased her with the nickname "coward." The fact that such a girl had become the vanguard captain of the Hero Party—the eternal dream of every knight—was unbelievable. Still, by position, they were subordinates who had to obey the Hero Party's members without question.

When Atlas returned to the base camp with the Hero Party in tow, everyone gathered there rushed forward at once, bowing their heads in respectful greeting. With Lydorphia's fate hanging in the balance, they could not afford even the slightest mistake in front of the Hero Party bearing that burden on their shoulders.

The battalion commander with the impressive mustache knelt, hot tears streaming down his face. He was certain this moment of personally meeting the Hero would provide endless drinking stories for the rest of his life. In any gathering, the tale of having met the Hero would instantly capture everyone's attention. Every child on the Pangaea continent grew up reading stories of the Hero. Tough men who volunteered to become soldiers were, needless to say, die-hard Hero fanatics.

The roughly fifty robust soldiers grew wildly excited, each desperate to leave even a faint impression on the Hero.

Even the rough soldiers became as meek and humble as lambs before the Hero. Leonhart, thoroughly puffed up with pride, naturally took the seat of honor and demanded meat and alcohol.

'It'd be better if they actually fought once.'

Atlas, who had been observing the Hero and the surrounding soldiers with the sharp eyes of a hawk, felt a pang of disappointment ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inwardly. It would be good if they really fought. Then he could confirm the true nature of the anxiety gnawing at his heart.

'No matter how many times I look, it's [F] rank. Most of the surrounding soldiers are E or D... The veteran battalion commander with over thirty years of service is C rank. The soldiers actually come out stronger than the Hero. How the hell am I supposed to interpret this?'

Atlas's Status Eyes was a secret art passed down through his family for generations. His full name was Atlas von Gauss. His ancestor, Theodore Gauss, was a legendary mage who received a barony for his contributions in fighting the Demon King's army alongside the first Hero. Holding the firm belief that information decided the outcome of any war, Theodore had devoted his life to developing magic that measured an opponent's strength in ranks.

The Status Eyes—or SI for short—which he had only perfected after turning sixty, made an immense contribution to preventing unnecessary loss of military strength. It was the decisive factor in Theodore receiving the Tower of Magic's Mage of the Year Award. Theodore himself took tremendous pride in his SI. On his deathbed at the age of 120, just before succumbing to old age, he declared he did not want his Status Eyes to return to the earth and chose to transplant it into his son.

Theodore, now blind, looked refreshed—and even happy. Before his eternal rest, he left behind a will that would be passed down through the Gauss family.

The successive heads of the Gauss family faithfully followed the instructions of their revered ancestor Theodore. That was why the 177th Baron Gauss, Atlas, possessed the Status Eyes.

To put it coldly, Atlas himself did not have particularly outstanding talent for magic. However, the Status Eyes was not Atlas's own creation but the work of the great mage Theodore, who appeared in history books. True to its reputation, the Status Eyes had never once malfunctioned. Atlas's strong faith in it matched his respect for his ancestor.

'No matter how many times I check, the Hero's rank is only F. An F rank is basically the ability level of an average person who enjoys sports. Does this even make sense? If the Hero is F rank, that's the scandal of the century. It would cause an even bigger stir than the octopus-headed emperor incident.'

Although the Gauss family's Status Eyes was an S-class skill widely known throughout the empire, faith in the Hero ran far deeper. Atlas did not have the nerve to say something like, "The Hero seems like complete garbage—let's test him," in this setting. The Hero was the one and only true hero in this world, far more famous and revered than even Theodore Gauss. After all, Theodore's own fame had been built as a companion of the first Hero.

Leonhart laughed boisterously as he continued drinking. "Kwa ha ha ha! Bring more alcohol! And more meat! Mmm! This is delicious! But drinking with a bunch of men is really no fun. Aren't there any pretty girls around here?"

The sight of him kicking his feet up on the table, guzzling alcohol and meat while asking for women seemed to dampen the soldiers' earlier fervor somewhat. The Hero they had admired had been imagined as an ascetic seeker of justice, but this was just a lazy good-for-nothing. Still, there wasn't a single soldier brave enough to openly criticize the Hero. They could only keep their mouths shut, feeling that something was very wrong.

Meanwhile, the other party members were also gathered in small groups with their respective followers, receiving praise. Cynthia with the mages, Theresa with the saintesses, Jeanne with the knights. Only the elf Sharon was left alone, awkwardly smiling as she sipped her drink by herself. Overall, it was a scene completely devoid of tension for a base camp on the eve of war.

Among them, the power struggle between Jeanne and the knights she was supposed to cooperate with was particularly entertaining to watch.

The female knight, around the same age as Jeanne, answered politely but shot her a sharp glare.

"........."

The female knights exchanged uncomfortable glances before eventually kneeling on one knee before Jeanne.

Having been selected by the Imperial army for this critical situation, they were all outstanding elites among the female knights. Back at the academy, they had been the very people who had ignited Jeanne's inferiority complex. At the same time, they were the ones who had created and popularized the nickname "Coward Jeanne."

Jeanne felt a thrilling rush of happiness surge from deep within her chest as she forced her old schoolyard tormentors to their knees. This was practically the entire reason she had joined the Hero Party. This was what made the Hero Party so wonderful. Simply being a member meant no one could defy you. The pleasure of looking down on the world from the top of the pyramid! Once addicted to this taste, there was no escaping it. It was the reason she absolutely never wanted to be kicked out of the Hero Party.

That night, Leonhart and his party members received the utmost hospitality, drank themselves into a stupor, and passed out. By the end, even the battalion commander who had once declared meeting the Hero would be the pride of his lifetime had lost all affection and made an excuse about standing guard to slip away.

The sole reason the soldiers obeyed without complaint despite the Hero's rude behavior was simple. They believed he would defeat the Eight Protection Army for them. If the Hero Party failed to eliminate the Eight Protection Army, they would lose all justification to shield them. Especially after the Hero had invited the mages and female knights to his drinking party and committed all kinds of sexual harassment, the Imperial troops at the base camp were now united in a single desire: for the Hero to finish his mission quickly and disappear.