The Hero... Is Truly Remarkable
Rebecca had stepped outside during the banquet to look for the hero.
But right after that, she came face to face with the very last person she wanted to meet.
“E… Lady Elisa…”
One of the Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King’s personal guard, and the daughter of Legion Commander Ilios, who had once been her superior. The moment Rebecca saw Elisa’s face, she immediately bowed her head in respect.
“Um… your name was… Rebecca, right? The one serving as the hero’s adjutant.”
“Y-yes! That’s correct!”
Rebecca was surprised that Elisa recognized her so easily. Yet at the same time, a single sentence automatically flashed through her mind.
Damn it… I’m screwed. Out of all the people here, why did it have to be her…
Of all the Four Heavenly Kings, Elisa was the one Rebecca feared the most.
Although they had never interacted directly, Rebecca knew from various experiences that this smiling young lady from the royal guard was someone she should never get close to if she wanted to live a long life.
No matter how much of an enemy she is, she’s the kind of person who laughs maniacally while torturing humans to death. There’s no way someone like that is sane. And besides… when I think about what happened back then… ugh…
Even just remembering it for a brief moment sent a chill down her spine. Rebecca shuddered, lowered her head even further, and prayed desperately that the monster standing before her would go somewhere else.
But then…
“By the way, where are you rushing off to in such a hurry? The banquet has only just begun.”
“Ah… well, it’s because… the commander went off somewhere, so I was looking for him.”
“By commander… do you mean the hero?”
“Yes, that’s right, Lady Elisa. He’s one of the key figures of this war, yet he hasn’t shown up at all since earlier…”
“Hmm… I see.”
Caught off guard by Elisa’s question, Rebecca answered honestly without even having time to make something up.
And after hearing her words, Elisa gave a slightly mysterious smile and said,
“Very well. Then this Lady Elisa shall specially help you search for him.”
“Y-yes? N-no, there’s really no need for you to…”
Rebecca felt as if she had been struck in the back of the head with a hammer.
But Elisa, completely unaware of what was going through the younger woman’s mind, simply smiled with pure innocence and spoke to the ‘young’ junior before her.
“It’s fine. There’s no need to feel burdened. Despite how I look, I’m quite confident when it comes to finding people.”
“I-is that so?”
On the surface, it was nothing more than a casual boast about her abilities.
However…
If I refuse here, does that mean she’ll track me down no matter where I am and chop my hands off?… No, surely it wouldn’t go that far…
For some reason, Rebecca couldn’t hear Elisa’s words as anything remotely normal.
In the end, unable to reject this ‘kind offer,’ Rebecca ended up searching for the hero together with Elisa.
The two of them wandered around various parts of Antioch, checking places where the hero might be. Strangely, however, they couldn’t find any trace of him.
Ugh… where on earth did the commander go? He needs to show up soon so I can get away from this terrifying woman even a little…
While Elisa was calmly looking for the hero, Rebecca was experiencing something entirely different. Every second, the fear that one wrong move could spell disaster for her made her feel as if her lifespan was being snipped away bit by bit.
Just as the anxiety inside Rebecca’s heart was swelling to its peak…
“Now that I think about it, you apparently made quite a few contributions in this recent war, didn’t you? I heard you fought at the vanguard as the hero’s adjutant.”
“Ah… y-yes! Well… to be honest, it’s a bit embarrassing to even call them contributions…”
Rebecca answered while feeling intense tension from Elisa’s sudden remark.
Meanwhile, Elisa simply interpreted the younger woman’s nervousness as a natural reaction to her own status and continued speaking in a light tone.
“There’s no need to be so modest. I’ve already heard just how much you and the hero accomplished.”
“No… in reality, what we did was… we simply followed behind the commander and assisted him a little. Practically all the military merits belong to the commander alone.”
It wasn’t mere humility, nor was it the result of survival instinct born from fear that made Rebecca speak this way.
Just as she said, what she and her hundred comrades had done in this war amounted to little more than standing in the hero’s shadow.
The hero had instantly turned the rain of arrows and spells flying toward them into nothing. Then he had charged straight into the middle of thousands upon thousands of enemies and annihilated everything in his path.
Every time he swung his sword, dozens to hundreds of foes were reduced to ashes and vanished. Even after displaying such overwhelming power, he showed no signs of fatigue as he continued cutting down the swarming enemies without mercy.
Moreover, although they hadn’t realized it at first, Rebecca and her comrades had fought alongside him and found their individual combat abilities enhanced by the immense magical power he radiated.
It was truly an absurd performance. The hero had single-handedly played the roles of damage dealer, tank, buffer, and crowd controller all at once.
In that situation, all Rebecca and her comrades had done was safely ride on his coattails.
“Really… we barely did anything at all. Of course, the commander said even that was plenty of help, but I don’t think I have any right to boast about achievements or anything like that.”
Rebecca’s words came straight from the heart.
And at that moment, the scene she would never be able to forget for the rest of her life once again surfaced clearly in her mind.
The hero’s gallant figure as he blocked the enemies’ attacks for them and then carved a path straight toward the castle.
Then…
“Hmm… so you felt that way too.”
“!”
Elisa’s expression showed considerable interest as she listened to Rebecca.
Then she opened her mouth again. This time her voice carried a different tone—one that, from Rebecca’s perspective, sounded like it was filled with intense excitement, as if something was about to happen at any moment.
“Yes, the hero really is remarkable. I, too, received tremendous help from him during the attack on Rob.”
“D-did something like that happen?…”
Elisa began recalling once more the moment the hero had appeared to save her from danger.
That scene was still deeply etched into her mind.
She had been surrounded by powerful enemies from both sides and was already injured. At that moment of absolute crisis, the man had literally descended from the sky and stood before her.
For that brief instant, the hero had given her a sense of absolute security and relief, as if a strong, thick wall had appeared to protect her.
Remembering that moment, Elisa smiled warmly and said,
“To be honest, when I first saw him, I thought he was someone I couldn’t trust—partly because of what happened with my mother. But… after spending time fighting alongside him, I came to realize that this man is someone I can truly rely on.”
“Ah…”
Elisa was sharing a story very similar to how Rebecca herself had come to trust the hero.
Her cheeks were slightly flushed as she spoke, and through that expression, Rebecca began to feel a faint sense of kinship with the girl in front of her.
However…
W-wait… let’s think about this calmly. There’s no way someone like Elisa would trust another person in a normal way! Could this be… is she pretending to trust him so she can stab him in the back later…?
Unfortunately, that tiny spark of empathy was quickly swallowed up by the overwhelming fear she had always carried.
Since her original impression of Elisa had gone far beyond bad and straight into the worst possible category, changing it was no easy task.
Of course, Rebecca was somewhat aware that she might be interpreting the situation too negatively.
But still…
It’s that Elisa we’re talking about! Even if she’s saying warm and fuzzy things on the surface, it’s only normal to assume she’s secretly preparing to stab someone in the back!
Having actually witnessed Elisa’s actions with her own eyes, Rebecca’s thought process regarding her had already become quite firmly set.
And so, while Elisa felt a sense of closeness upon hearing that a junior had gone through a similar experience, Rebecca’s anxiety only grew stronger in a very strange direction.
That was when it happened.
“Hm? Ah, there he is.”
“Y-yes? Ah…”
At last, the hero came into view.
It looked like he was with someone whose face they couldn’t see from this angle. Both Elisa and Rebecca began walking toward him.
But then…
“**… Will you please start by becoming my lover?”
“!?”
“!!!!”
—
One of the reasons Rebecca couldn’t trust Elisa…
