The End of the Adventure
The End of the Adventure
A story about a hero who slew the Demon King and lived happily ever after with the woman he loved.
It might be a story that's all too obvious.
A cliché story, one that nobody finds moving anymore.
The kind of obvious, trite story you'd only find in children's fairy tales.
...I longed for that kind of story.
I wanted to be the hero who would splendidly defeat the Demon King and bring salvation to all.
How many times had I dreamed of this day?
"Hero!"
Hearing the voice calling me, I grinned.
I will never forget the feeling of a thrill coursing through my entire body when I first heard the word 'hero'.
"Are you nervous! It reminds me of when I first met you!"
"What are you talking about, dripping with sweat?"
"Hahaha!!"
The middle-aged warrior, Hart, let out a hearty "Hahaha!" laugh.
The adventure I've shared with him until now is also coming to an end.
Of course, he wasn't the only comrade who had adventured with me.
"Hero-nim."
"Bina."
The female mage who cast buffs on me, her mouth tensed into a triangle shape.
She, who was nothing but a greenhorn when she first started following us, was now a proper adult.
"...You'll be able to get revenge for your master."
"...Yes!"
After encouraging her, I turned my head.
"Hero-nim......."
"Ria."
The saintess with white hair and blue eyes, Ria.
The woman who remained by my side from beginning to end.
'...If we win this final battle, I'll definitely...'
She was the woman I had a crush on.
"Let's go."
That's enough small talk.
Now, it's time to slay the Demon King.
We each took our stances.
After all preparations were complete, I threw open the door to the final space of the Demon King's Castle.
[I will not forgive you!!! HERO!!!!]
Simultaneously, a terrible roar like the shriek of the Demon King, furious as he watched his crumbling castle, rang out as if to tear our ears.
An obvious, all-too-obvious story of a hero slaying the Demon King and living happily ever after.
That story is what I so desperately wanted to see now.
When I came to my senses, I was face down on the ground.
"Haa... haa... Ugh."
A maddening pain was felt throughout my entire body, but.
The surroundings were nothing but silent.
The battle was completely over.
Just how many people had to be lost for us to get here?
We had lost far too many comrades.
The grateful mage who kindly joined the party when I set out as a greenhorn hero.
'Haha... a hole in my stomach....'
'I-I'll heal you right now...! Please, please don't go!'
The scene is vivid in my mind, of him refusing Ria's healing even as blood gushed out of him.
He probably made that decision because he knew that using Divine Power would shave off Ria's lifespan.
Turning my head, I looked at what he had left behind.
"Sniff... Master."
"......."
Bina.
She was an orphan who had been captured by one of the Four Heavenly Kings, the final treasure our righteous mage left to us.
"I've gotten revenge... Now, you can... rest in peace."
Seeing her sniffling yet smiling brightly, I grinned.
It was a smile I wore because the death of that great mage, my first comrade, did not seem to have been in vain.
Looking back on the path we took, we had really lost many others as well.
Before becoming the hero, I lost my parents and siblings to the Demon King's army.
After becoming the hero, in my first large-scale battle, thanks to the sacrifice of a friend who was a thief, I gave up one eye but managed to survive.
The kind villagers.
The kingdom's elite knights who became decoys to block the swarming Demon King's army.
The rice balls the villagers shared with us that day.
The face of the Knight Captain, who despite losing one arm, smiled brightly and gave his final salute, is still unforgettable to this day.
I had never forgotten them, not for a single moment.
As much as I'd seen in fairy tales.
The life of a hero was not glamorous.
Merely because I was a 'hero'.
Through the sacrifices of others, I managed to stay alive.
'...Did I fulfill it properly?'
Did I properly fulfill the hero's destiny, the reason they willingly sacrificed their lives?
Thinking that, I looked at my reflection in a stagnant puddle of water.
The youthful vigor and fresh scent of a greenhorn from when I first started my adventure had long since disappeared.
My unkempt hair was like a lion's mane.
Having become one-eyed, wearing a black eyepatch, and not having slept or eaten for days, I looked more haggard than usual.
Myself, with an appearance so unbelievable I could pass for the Demon King rather than a hero. Sensing the pain, I looked at my left shoulder.
It wasn't there.
What should have been properly attached was gone.
My right hand touched nothing, hovering in empty space.
"Got hit, huh."
It seems I lost my left arm.
The list of things I've lost had grown by one.
"......."
The Demon King, who took one more thing from me at the very last moment.
However, I only felt incredibly numb.
Perhaps because what I've lost up until now was too great.
Or perhaps because my duty and revenge were already over.
Just as I was wondering if I had properly brought it to an end.
"Hero-nim!!!"
"...!?"
I heard Bina's voice.
Hastily turning my head towards the direction of the voice.
"You did it...! If, if you make that face, Master will be sad too!"
"...Ah."
Bina smiled brightly, tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you...! Truly, thank you! You saved them...!!"
As I looked at Bina, a little dumbfounded.
-QUADDDDDEUDEUK!!!!
A hand shot up from between a pile of rubble.
A hand with the thumb held up.
"Hero!!!"
"...Old man."
"No, what's with that face after saving the world! That's not the face of a hero who has fulfilled the wishes of his comrades! The wishes of humanity!"
'He sure knows what to say to a guy who just lost an arm.'
Thinking that, I laughed and shifted my gaze outside.
The sky, which had been pouring down rain like crazy until just a moment ago, had cleared up without me noticing.
Had one wall of the ruined Demon King's Castle been hiding such a wonderful view?
Thinking that, I breathed in the pleasantly warm breeze.
'No time to be doing this.'
Thinking that, I hurriedly tore off a piece of my clothes to stop the bleeding.
I'm going to do it today.
A proposal that will go down in history.
With that feeling, I staggered as I got up.
"My fairy tale is... Cough...!"
-STAGGER!!!
I tried to get up, but.
A sudden wave of dizziness washed over me, and I almost fell over.
Taking another deep breath, I inhaled and then exerted strength to get up from my spot.
"My fairy tale is...!!!"
Then, looking at the gaping hole in the Demon King's Castle wall.
"It's absolutely a happy ending ahhh...!!...."
I roared.
My fairy tale absolutely has a happy ending, I said.
-PLOPS
Of course, right after that, I plopped right back down on the floor.
Even calling it a roar, it was just a very feeble echo that didn't even resonate throughout the space.
But my heart was beating like crazy.
Tears gushed out.
I did it.
I really pulled it off.
The revenge for my comrades.
I brought this adventure to an end.
Now, there will be no more people suffering the same pain as me.
No more will people tremble in fear of war.
Now, no more.
'I don't have to endure anymore.'
I don't have to endure anymore.
There is one condition for my happy ending.
Yes, traditionally, there's one condition in fairy tales.
The hero is united with the one he truly loves, and they live for a long, long time.
A very happily ever after ending.
Hart, who had popped out from the pile of rubble at some point, was looking at me with a sly grin.
"...Listen, I need to go to Ria... Gurk!"
"Well, well. What's this, spitting blood and everything."
"R-right! I'll cast a healing spell on you! First, emergency treatment."
Hart lay face down on the floor to become a chair.
Bina quickly cast a healing spell on my body.
"If we use Divine Power somehow for the severed arm......"
"No."
If we use that, Ria's lifespan will be shaved off.
Without me having to say it out loud, Bina smiled a bitter smile as if she understood.
"...I'll cheer you on! You have to succeed!"
"Yeah."
Grinning, I patted the head of Bina, who was still young, and made a request to old man Hart.
"Old man, move me over there."
"Alright."
Laughing heartily, Hart picked me up in a princess carry.
I felt disgusted and wanted to hit him, but I didn't even have the energy for that.
The girl Ria, who was chosen by the Goddess and became saintess to Hero Leon, setting off with him to slay the Demon King.
"...H-hero, nim......."
Such was Ria, and she thought.
Since when was it?
'Ria...!'
'What are you doing here, Ria?'
'Ria, when the adventure is over... I, um, never mind.'
'...I don't want to die, Ria.'
That her heart fluttered every time the Hero-nim called her name.
She resolved.
Once the Demon King was slain, she would propose directly to this frustrating man.
Even though she was knocked unconscious, flung away after being hit by the Demon King's attack during the battle.
Ria was sifting through the rubble, searching for Leon, not even realizing blood was flowing from her head.
"H-hero, nim...! Please... pleaase......."
More clearly than the feeling of blood flowing, she felt tears streaming down.
The skin of her pale hands was all scraped, and blood was slowly seeping out.
'I can't die... I can't die... I can't die...!!!'
We've come this far.
We've come all this way, I can't die here.
As she was thinking that, sobbing her eyes out.
"Ria...?"
"...!!"
From behind Ria, a familiar male voice was heard.
The sound of hurried footsteps running towards her.
Turning to look.
"Ah......."
"Ria...! There you are!"
Smiling brightly.
'You're safe... My, Hero-nim.'
Ria's own, solely Ria's Hero-nim was standing there.