Hero Party's Porter - 3
"Haneul, are you okay?"
"Yeah, Oppa. I'm totally fine. Even though you helped me, I still couldn't pull off sword gang in the end."
"Ah…… That, your dream memories are fuzzy, right? The ones where you were a hero in your past life?"
"Yeah."
Haneul had been acting strange lately.
She spent a lot of time staring blankly out the window. Sometimes she'd suddenly start crying alone or wrap sword aura around an object and sink into some deep reverie. She'd always been the type who rarely showed her emotions, but now it felt like she was deliberately bottling them up inside.
It had to be because of those 'past life' memories.
No matter how eccentric Haneul was, I had to admit it at this point.
Is past life reincarnation…… really a thing?
If it was just a dream, no one would change like this.
Even if dreams felt like another reality—lucid dreams or spring dreams or whatever—they faded quickly once you woke up. And besides, she'd actually managed to use sword aura. It couldn't have been 'just a dream.'
Haneul really had been a hero in her past life.
It sounded like something straight out of one of those old-school fantasy novels.
"Um, Haneul……. We have to hit our guild quota soon, so we need to start raiding gates……."
"……Yeah, Oppa."
I hated saying this to a kid who was clearly struggling, but…… I was getting paid by the guild too.
And Haneul was earning a massive signing bonus and salary to work with us. As an S-class hunter, she had some leeway, but we still had to meet the minimum quota.
Thankfully, she nodded indifferently and got up from the bed.
Still wearing that dazed expression, she changed into her guild battle suit and glanced at her weapon—her magic staff. But instead of picking it up, she turned to me and spoke.
"Oppa, could you get me a sword?"
"……A sword?"
"Yeah. One for swordsman-class awakeners. A two-handed sword…… white if possible."
"Oh, sure! There should be some in the guild warehouse! I'll grab one right now!"
A white sword. Unusual, but not so rare that I couldn't find one. Some priest-class awakeners were picky about white ones.
Thanks to that, I quickly rounded up a few suitable ones. After a moment's thought on which might work, I snapped photos and sent them to Haneul.
The third one. A well-balanced longsword with a long kissaki and crossguard. The kind a holy knight might use.
Did Haneul, the 'hero,' use a sword like this?
I made a mental note and checked it out of the warehouse before heading back to the dorm.
"Here! This the one?"
"……Yeah. Thanks, Oppa."
Haneul took the sword, assumed a stance as if to swing it, then hesitated.
Obviously—she couldn't swing it indoors without causing a huge mess. Instead, she channeled mana into it, manifesting sword aura, nodded in satisfaction, and secured it to her battle suit's waist with the fixing strap.
"It's pretty close. I like it."
"Yeah. Glad to hear that."
"Alright, let's go. The gate."
"W-Wait, you're not bringing your magic staff?"
"Today, this is my staff."
The pure white crossguard longsword, fixed in the spot where she usually kept her staff.
She tapped it lightly as she spoke, her voice brimming with confidence that said this would be more than enough. No, confidence was an understatement—it was like, of course this was enough.
Like someone who'd cleaved through countless monsters with that blade.
And when a hunter got like this, a manager's job was to trust them.
"Alright. Then today marks the debut of Swordswoman Haneul!"
"……Yeah. Guess so."
……
It was a scene of such one-sided slaughter that even calling it a hunt felt wrong.
"Whoa……."
Haneul's action cam footage from her battle suit.
I was just reviewing the raid proof video through the camera feed, but I couldn't help letting out a gasp.
It was that overwhelming.
["……Still not enough."]
It wasn't like your typical swordsman-class awakener fight.
Most swordsmen focused on speed and mobility to cover their narrow attack range, but Haneul solved problems in a far more aggressive, flashy way. She unleashed massive waves of sword aura by swinging her blade. The overwhelming mana reserves of an S-class mage made that insane feat possible.
That blue sword aura destroyed everything in its path.
Its sheer violent power surpassed even sword gang through raw output alone.
["This isn't it. With something like this…… I can't save him."]
But Haneul herself didn't seem satisfied.
She'd used sword gang in her dreams, after all. A sword aura fueled just by pumping in mana probably felt lacking. What could I do? I couldn't help her dream…….
Maybe I should look into it.
Still, wanting to help even a little, I searched the internet. Dreams, lucid dreams, movies about dreams, long dreams, past-life dreams, dream interpretations—a flood of info, some dubious. My head spun a bit, but…… I spotted something common in those posts.
[To remember dreams clearly, keep a dream journal every day.]
[Record everything you saw and felt in detail.]
Dream journal?
Writing a dream journal. Apparently, as you write, memories sharpen and forgotten details resurface. It seemed plausible enough. And it was simple—just grab a notebook or diary and jot it down.
I should suggest it to Haneul.
……
"Hero. What're you thinking so hard about?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just…… feels like I had a weird dream."
"Weird dream?"
"Yeah. Hehe. It's nothing. Just, y'know, that dream from when we were kids? Where you, the porter, wanted to be a hero and practiced swordsmanship."
"Oh……."
"You were so cool back then. Puhuhut."
"What, even though you caught up to me in just a few days? I guess I just had no talent for it."
"Ehehe. Still, you were cool. The way you worked hard for your dream."
Yeah. Totally cool.
Sweating buckets, never letting go of that sword—I fell for you without realizing it. I learned swordsmanship myself because I wanted to be by your side even a little longer.
If I hadn't picked up a sword back then, would you have become the hero, porter?
Hmm. Probably not. There were plenty more talented than you—er, the porter. Someone else would've been chosen.
But you were always the bravest.
That's why you could join the hero on a journey to save the world. You lost your dream but never gave up. You said pretty words about protecting me…… but I know it was because you still clung to that dream.
You've always been easy to read…….
"Yeah, yeah. Hearing it from the great Hero makes it sound nice. Heh."
"It's praise from a hero, no less. Be happier!"
"What, even if you say I was cool, that's ancient history. I'm no hero-in-training now—just a porter. Not sure I can be happy about that……."
"You're cool now too."
"Huh?"
"You're cool now too."
"What're you…… A plain porter's got nothing cool about it."
"You're not just any porter. You're the hero's one and only companion porter, right? Puhuh."
My one and only companion. My one and only porter. My one and only childhood friend. And the one and only person I love. I wanted to save this confession for after saving the world, but my heart won't stay put.
Ah. My face is definitely red right now.
Don't look at my face too closely. It's embarrassing…….
"Ah, that's the Demon King's……."
Thankfully, the darkening sky hid my flushed face. We'd arrived at the end of the world, where sunlight never reached—the Demon King's Castle, forever shrouded in darkness.
Now, sealing the Demon King here would end our journey.
It wasn't hard. Anyone could do it with the holy sword. Just stab it into the Demon King's weakened heart, long sealed away.
Of course, the castle was crawling with traps and dangers.
"Hero. Check for traps—hang back a sec."
"Okay!"
Traps didn't scare me. I had the world's most capable, coolest porter.
The porter deftly disarmed the traps.
We made it here because she handled all the tough stuff like this.
"Layout-wise, this way should…… Ah, demons. Hero. Your turn."
"Okay!"
The porter clears the path, and I fight.
The world calls me the hero chosen by the stars.
But I could only be a hero because of you. Porter—to you, at least, I don't want to be the Star's Hero. I want to be your hero.