Now, shall we play?
Now, shall we play?
Meanwhile, Northern Grand Duke Derek was touring the outer castle with the Hero.
Lately, ferocious monsters had been spotted frequently, and strange phenomena had been manifesting among the barbarians wandering the Northern Highlands.
Groups of barbarians who had lost their human reason and were running wild like monsters.
Even though it was routine to defeat barbarians every year in the North, Derek felt something strange about the unusually high number of them.
On top of that, the Hero had appeared.
When a crisis befalls the world,
the Hero, who is said to appear with very rare probability, had been found in the North,
so Derek felt that something big was approaching.
"Ah!"
"Watch out!"
"Thank you, Derek."
"...Ah, right."
A date repeated every day for this purpose.
No, a search operation.
'...What am I thinking?'
Derek, who had momentarily forgotten his true nature, shook his head.
It had ended up being just the two of them, but this was strictly a matter of official business.
"Phew~"
He let out a deep breath, trying to pull himself together.
Seeing that, the woman walking with him spoke up.
"I'm sorry. Were you very surprised?"
Her name was 'Aila Rose'.
The Hero chosen by the gods.
With a beautiful appearance not befitting a commoner,
and a combination of black hair and red eyes that contrasted with his own.
Derek stared at Aila with a dazed expression at her delicate appearance that evoked a protective instinct.
"I'm sorry. I'm still not used to the snowy roads..."
Aila, watching his reaction, worried she might be blamed for her mistake.
But Derek's heart was different from what she judged.
A desire to take her into his arms and hold her right now.
The instinct he had been trying to suppress momentarily drove away his reason.
In an instant, Derek felt an affectionate emotion he couldn't feel from Northern women.
His heart pounding violently.
And from the moment he realized that, Derek unconsciously stared straight at Aila's face and slowly approached her.
"De...Derek?"
His gaze was so intense that Aila had to lower her eyes carefully, her face flushed.
But even in the midst of that, Derek's face came right up to hers, and soon, his eyelids closed naturally, demanding an answer from Aila.
Aila was flustered, not knowing what to do at his blatant desire for a kiss.
In her heart, she thought she should naturally accept it, but her body wouldn't move easily.
But at that moment.
"Heh~ doing cute things, are we?"
Someone's voice was heard.
A woman's voice full of playfulness.
"Who is it!"
As soon as the sound was heard, Derek grabbed the spear on his back and turned around.
Derek tried to protect her by becoming a human shield to guard Aila.
But the opponent was nowhere to be seen.
"Derek...."
A quiet snowy mountain.
Silence lingered in the place where the snow swallowed the sound.
Did he mishear it?
But Derek did not let his guard down.
This place, the North, is a place where it wouldn't be strange if anything happened.
And the one by his side is that rare Hero.
There were plenty of elements to be attacked.
Above all.
"You seem to have kept up your training, as befits a Northern Grand Duke. It won't be easy to take you down in one go."
"Which bastard is it!! Reveal your identity!"
He didn't know what the intention was, exactly.
Because the attacker kept showing off their presence by using their voice, Derek had to raise his vigilance even more.
"Phew...."
He raised his ki sense and scanned the surroundings.
But no presence was caught.
It was a signal that the opponent was a powerhouse on par with himself.
In such a situation, Derek said to Aila.
"Run away."
"Derek!"
"They're not an easy opponent. I'll try to block them somehow, so run back the way you came."
"But...!"
"It's okay. You... I will protect you no matter what happens."
Derek tried to send Aila away like that.
But the opponent took advantage of that opening instead.
━ Swish!
The timing when Aila turned her body.
In a split second, a spear flew in.
━ Clang!!
"Ugh!"
Derek, who caught it in an instant, blocked it with his own spear.
But that wasn't the end of the opponent's attack.
━ Whoosh!
The attacker grabbed the bounced-off spear and flew in lightly.
"Too slow."
She drew a line with the falling snow and attacked Derek.
━ Clang! Clang! Swish-shak
"Ugh, ughhh!!"
Derek couldn't collect his thoughts amidst the relentless attacks.
There was no time to think.
All he could do was block the incoming attacks.
But that, too, was not easy.
"Ugh!"
Unable to withstand the continuous attacks, Derek decided to retreat.
He jumped back with all his might to create an opening, but,
"I told you. You're slow."
"Hah! Ugh!"
Before his feet even touched the ground.
He had to grit his teeth at the spear tip that had reached right in front of his eyes.
And soon.
"Argh!"
He was blown away by the spear shaft that struck the center of his body precisely.
━ Thud.
His body, as if hit by a carriage.
Was embedded in a huge, thick tree.
"Hmm. Refreshing."
The attacker who did that to him turned her head toward the next target with a satisfied smile.
"Hi, hiiiik!"
The Hero, Aila, who made eye contact with the attacker.
She trembled at the approach of the attacker who had miserably crushed Derek, who was several times stronger than her.
She had a sword at her waist, but she couldn't bring herself to draw it out of fear.
"Hmm? I heard you were a Hero..."
The attacker looked at her as if she were strange.
She seemed to hesitate for a moment at her overly delicate appearance.
"Well. Doesn't matter?"
But soon, as if she had made up her mind, she aimed the spear tip again.
She had decided to attack, after all.
"Haa... haha. Hahaha."
At the attacker's approach, Aila gripped her weapon.
She had realized long ago that it was useless, but the fear that her heart would burst first if she didn't do at least this forced her to squeeze out her strength.
With the sword in her hand.
Aila trembling.
But the attacker, who had been approaching for a moment, stopped walking after seeing something.
And she lowered her spear as well, saying.
"My... I didn't intend to bully you this much... I feel kind of sorry?"
The attacker's gaze turned to Aila.
Aila, who had burst into tears out of terror.
Her pants were also being soaked by some liquid.
At that sight, the attacker.
No, Cecil sighed.
"...I'm going to get an earful from Derek, aren't I?"
It was a cold Northern winter.
My name is 'Aila Rose'.
I am a Hero.
I didn't become a Hero because I wanted to.
I just opened my eyes and I was a Hero.
Some might think it's nonsense, but it's the truth.
Because... I was a transmigrator.
"Phew...."
Soaking in the bathwater.
I recalled the past.
They said the place I was found was a cave in the Northern Highlands.
Found naked in the holy land of the North, along with the Holy Sword, the symbol of the Hero.
The one who found me was the Northern Grand Duke, Derek, and I was brought to this Grand Duke's castle in his arms.
Since then, I have been staying at the Grand Duke's castle continuously.
If you only hear up to this point, it was a typical prologue in a romance fantasy.
And I had become the heroine of that place.
"...But! Why did it have to be 『Northern Grand Duke Tactics in a Romance Fantasy』 of all things!!"
The problem was that I had taken on the most harsh role among the many novels I had read.
As far as I remembered, 'Northern Grand Duke Tactics in a Romance Fantasy' was not only an old novel but also unpopular.
I read it to the end based on my pride as a romance fantasy enthusiast, but,
From the narrative of the female lead who rolls around to an excessively harsh degree, to the war scenes that were unnecessarily verbose.
I remember it as a fashion romance fantasy where there were only a few pages of the freshness typical of romance fantasy.
And I'm the female lead of such a place?
No, how many 5700-character comments have I written so far.
I've picked fights with the author thousands of times.
If I had transmigrated into those novels, I would understand.
Why here, and why did I become the rolling female lead, when I hadn't left a single comment?
"Haa.... My life."
My head throbbed.
My future that is to be drawn.
Aila in the novel was rolled around enough to lack a 'suffering' tag.
Getting hurt while fighting and breaking bones is common, and having limbs torn off by monsters appears so often that it feels cliché.
On top of that, being imprisoned and left without even a drop of water to drink happens several times.
In the end, they say she even feels the pain of her soul burning as a sacrifice to the Demon God....
"I want to die."
I thought it would be better to just die now.
But the problem lies in the fact that I can't.
Even though there were several instances in the original novel where the Hero, unable to overcome the pain, attempted suicide... in the end, the Hero could not die.
No, she couldn't die.
Because the Hero's ability revealed by such descriptions is exactly.
"Immortality, huh...."
That it was a body that doesn't die.
It didn't just stop at not dying.
Because it also had regeneration abilities, even if limbs were cut off, they would heal in a few hours.
It did take a full day if the head was cut off, but still, she wouldn't die.
Even if torn to shreds, even if trapped as a lump of meat in something like a glass container, not losing consciousness and 'existing alive'.
That was the Hero that appears in the novel.
And me, Aila Rose.
"This is driving me crazy...."
Of course, I knew the answer.
If I follow the original protagonist's story as it is, and go through all kinds of adversity with Derek... I would be able to fully enjoy the happy ending of the original work.
But I didn't have the confidence to handle that process.
If I go according to the flow of the original work, I will go crazy before the ending.
Moreover, since I have to fight multiple battles with the resolve to die for the Hero's ability to manifest... even that was scary.
No... me.
I was an ordinary college student.
How am I supposed to hold a sword and fight, when I've never even held a gun?
If you're going to do that, at least give me proper abilities!
Or give me a status window like other novels!!
"Haa...."
All I could do right now was sigh every day.
Or... wet myself like this and wash my body.
"...It's miserable."
So, I entrusted my body to the water again today to forget the day.
It was a cowardly act of passing the responsibility to tomorrow's me, but I had no choice....
Because that was the only way I could do it right now.
It was like that yesterday,
and tomorrow, too, I will probably let it flow by like that.
However, today was different from usual.
Contrary to the expectation that I could end the day by washing up and changing clothes, the next trial given to me was another ordeal.
"Hi?"
"Ah... ugh..., ah, hello."
Black hair, red eyes.
It was a familiar combination that made Derek's face come to mind just by hearing it, but there was someone else with the same combination standing in front of me right now.
It was the woman who had attacked Derek and me a little while ago.
But she wasn't trying to attack me again.
"Derek's sister...?"
"Yeah. That's right. Cecilia Way, feel free to call me Cecil."
Did the original work have a setting like this?
I don't know if it's because I watched it roughly because I didn't like the story, but she was a character not in my memory.
Anyway, the fact that she entered the Grand Duke's castle confidently, and the reactions of the people around her.
The combination of black hair and red eyes that was clearly visible was telling me that her words were true.
"Sorry~ You were very surprised earlier, right? I was curious because I heard my younger brother brought a woman, and I played a prank to check how much Derek had grown, but I think I went a little too far."
"Ah, no, it's okay."
Furthermore, I had no choice but to doubt it when I even received an apology.
But something was strange.
It was because the clothes the person who claimed to be Derek's sister was wearing were a maid outfit.
"But... why is your attire...?"
"Ah, this? It's just comfortable."
Is she a slightly unusual person?
But that assessment had to be corrected not long after.
No, it wasn't even a level of correction.
At the same time as the greeting ended, a fleeting moment of silence passed.
An awkward atmosphere.
When I scanned the surroundings at the crisis signal sent by my intuition, I saw that a spear was already held in Cecil's hand.
She had empty hands just a moment ago, when had she grabbed the spear?
However, before that question was completed as a sentence in my head, extreme pain struck my brain.
"Uh...?"
The source of the pain was my left arm.
Since I had just finished bathing, my arm was moist with water.
But my arm.
Why is it falling to the floor?
━ Thud.
"Aaaaaaaah!!"
It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
I couldn't think of anything.
All I could feel was insane pain.
What is it? What happened?
Did she cut off my arm?
Why?
In the incomprehensible situation, I looked at Cecil.
I wanted to ask why she was doing this suddenly.
Why she was doing this to me.
But I couldn't.
"Augh... huff...!"
What was blocking my gaze toward Cecil was a sharp spear tip.
A blade hanging a paper's width away from my left pupil.
In the fear that my eye could be pierced by even a small tremor of my body, I had no choice but to freeze as I was.
And Cecil said to me, who was like that.
"But you~ isn't the Hero too weak? I heard you've never fought properly, right?"
It was a remark that stabbed like a dagger.
But I couldn't retort.
Blood flowing from the severed arm cross-section soaked my upper body, and since the pain was still paralyzing my brain, it was a struggle just to listen to her words.
"So I looked into it roughly, and the answer came out. The guy called the Grand Duke is in love with the Hero and is protecting her, and the cowardly Hero is holed up in the castle and not doing any special training. Right?"
"Ugh... ughhh!"
"No wonder... it was strange that information didn't come to me even though the Hero appeared. It seems Derek blocked the information because he was worried the Hero would have a hard time if news got out."
It was a story I was hearing for the first time.
And I didn't know what that had to do with my arm being cut off.
It sounded like Derek had cherished me.
Why was she telling me that now?
"That must be why the Head of the House sent me here. A person capable of correcting the Grand Duke's wrong behavior and training the Hero. That must be me."
"What does that mean...!"
So I tried to argue.
But I couldn't achieve my will.
A burning sensation.
A line drawn with a 'slash'.
What followed was.
"Aaaaaaaah!! Aaaaaaaah!!"
It was the heat and new pain felt in my left pupil.
Half of my vision was covered in a dark red color, and the remaining vision was also filled with tears, so I couldn't see well ahead.
All I could see was Cecil's silhouette.
"The Hero is a being that grows by feeding on death. That's why she's immortal."
"Hauk... ah... aa...!"
"So I will help you grow. Oh, don't worry. I'm an expert in this area. I'm also a case who grew up experiencing the threshold of death several times."
I hate it. I hate it...!
Why me?
I had to speak, but all that came out were groans.
"Since you're immortal, you'll be able to grow faster than me. Heh heh. I guess this is what the Head of the House meant by 'go and play'."
"Ah... aa...!"
"Now, shall we play?"
And what I heard was.
Terror itself.