The Elf Who Was Exiled Still Lives
Lowell, the world's strongest elf, had been kicked out of the hero's party. This was supposed to be the hero's first proper deployment.
After kicking Lowell out, the hero sent a letter to the empire and the holy kingdom and every kingdom declaring that he had erased her reputation internationally. From that day on, everything flowed exactly as the hero wished, and he spent his days with a satisfied smile on his face.
This was until the empire made its official announcement regarding the elf Lowell.
Unlike other countries, the empire had not issued a wanted poster for criminal activity. Instead, they had placed a bounty on Lowell as a missing person. Moreover, they had issued a declaration of war saying that the ones who had harmed Lowell would face the emperor's wrath.
With this news, many bounty hunters and adventurers were scared off and pulled back, but the ones who were most terrified were none other than the nobles and royal families of each country.
Because it was a direct command from the emperor of the leading power nation, they were on edge, wondering if adventurers and bounty hunters in their own lands might dare to touch Lowell. Every guild was issuing strict warnings to avoid provoking her.
The hero and his home country, the kingdom of Grusun, kept sending protest letters to the empire, but all they received in reply was the emperor's command.
And today...
The hero, whose thoughts had not gone according to plan, left behind his unease and headed into the Kubera Dungeon for exploration. But without an all-rounder elf capable of long-range support shooting, scouting, exploring, and occasionally stepping in to assist in close combat even in place of the hero, the departure was extremely risky for the hero's party.
Thus, on the first day of exploring the Kubera Dungeon...
Despite entering the dungeon early in the morning, they had not yet left the first floor. As it was a high-difficulty dungeon, numerous high-level monsters appeared before the hero. Above all, without the elf Lowell who had always protected the mage Selina and the saintess Adelia during combat, the hero's workload had increased dramatically.
“Um... Hero-nim...”
In the end, unable to bear it any longer, Adelia approached the weary and wounded-looking hero and spoke softly.
“.....?”
“Why don’t we call Lowell back again?”
“Wha—?! Are you crazy?!”
Fearing that her voice might attract more monsters, Adelia spoke cautiously, but the hero could not control his anger and immediately roared.
“Are you telling me to go to that woman and grovel?”
“No... I didn’t mean that... The hero-nim seems to be struggling alone, so...”
Adelia had not spoken out of pity for the banished Lowell. She had spoken out of concern that they would be wiped out before even laying eyes on the Four Heavenly Kings, let alone the Demon King.
But...
“If I look that weak, then you should learn to protect yourself first!”
“.....”
Unlike Adelia’s intention of speaking for the sake of the world, the hero glared at her as if he wanted to kill her for stirring his pride.
The hero did not want to acknowledge the situation. A mere elf, weaker than himself and just one of the members he had picked, had been removed, yet the burden he felt was as if he were fighting alone. If he had to pick the biggest difficulty, it was that there was no one to assist him in critical moments.
Whether to retreat or not,
Where the monsters’ weaknesses lay,
Someone who had mapped out the dungeon structure that was hard to see even with a map,
And Lowell, who had always been his greatest pillar of support during battles,
None of them remained beside him anymore.
“Yo... Hero-nim... Don’t get angry. Haha. Adelia just worries about you, the hero-nim. Originally, Adelia is compassionate, so she was worried about the banished Lowell, I guess.”
“.....”
Finally, Selina stepped in to ease the hero’s anger. The hero rose from his seat without answering and quietly moved to another place.
“Adelia, why did you do that? You already knew his mood was bad because of the empire’s announcement a few days ago...”
“Sorry... Selina... But Selina, you know too. If we go on like this, we won’t be able to defeat the Demon King.”
“...Th-that... is...”
Selina, who had always blindly trusted the hero and would do anything to win his love, could not boldly respond to Adelia’s words.
After all, before deciding sides, the hero’s party was no longer the same as before.
The power she had longed for in the hero might be shaken now....
Even if the hero had received the goddess’s oracle and received recognition from all nations, if he could not defeat the Demon King, he would still be the flawed hero, but he would not be able to avoid people pointing fingers and criticizing him.
A powerless hero who had lost to the Demon King..
A hero who could do nothing..
A powerless hero..
If that was the kind of hero, even Selina could not guarantee that her current feelings would continue.
“Don’t... worry! Adelia! You yourself said it before. The hero is growing! Our hero-nim will grow to the point where he doesn’t need that Lowell anymore!”
“.....”
Still, Selina seemed to want to believe it to the end.
One day, the hero would become much stronger than now...
And when that day came, she would not need to say anything bitter about Lowell anymore,
And if she simply believed in the hero like this and tried to obtain his love, the day would not be far when her family, including herself, would swing power across the continent...
****
No matter how she thought, the goddess seemed to have betrayed her.
After defeating the thugs, she prayed again, but there was still no response from the goddess.
After a long while of praying, when she opened her eyes, Sophia, the princess she had rescued, was standing there staring at her blankly.
“L-Lowell-nim... right?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you very much for earlier! If it hadn’t been for Lowell-nim, I wouldn’t have been here.”
Sophia, unlike a princess, clasped her hands politely before Lowell and bowed her head as nobles do before royals.
An attitude rarely seen from proud royals...
Until now, the royals Lowell had met had shown no gratitude at all, standing proudly as if they had simply received what was due.
Among them, the hero, who was the prince, was the representative.
“Even our kingdom, and the empire, were looking for Lowell-nim.”
“Eh? Me?”
Her words that she had been looking for him with such a bright smile made Lowell momentarily forget that she was a wanted criminal.
“Yes. Don’t refuse. Come with me to the palace. Father will be delighted.”
“No. I have business...”
“Please don’t refuse. Lowell-nim is a hero to our kingdom. Don’t be modest and come with me.”
“Ah... no. I’m fine...”
Since Lowell had no good feelings about the politics or nobility of the kingdom, she had intended to refuse until the end, but Sophia raised her from the prayer chair with all her strength and forcibly pulled her toward the temple exit.
Before long, knights were swarming the temple courtyard like they would burst.
They were the knights who had rushed from the palace and nearby units after hearing of the princess’s assassination attempt.
The one who appeared to be their leader dashed toward Sophia in a flash the moment he saw her, quickly checking her body for injuries.
“Princess, are you injured anywhere?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“This is all my fault. As captain of the royal guard, I was negligent in protecting the princess. I will accept His Majesty’s punishment upon returning to the palace.”
“No. Since Lowell-nim, a member of the hero’s party, was here, I was able to escape unscathed. If you want to be punished, first thank Lowell-nim here.”
Even though all the surrounding knights were staring at her uncomfortably, with the palace royal guard captain and his subordinates approaching to offer greetings...
“Thank you truly, Lowell-nim. To protect the princess in place of us who are still inexperienced... It must be that Lowell-nim is indeed a member of the hero’s party.”
Having not received such treatment for a long time, she was not yet used to it, yet Sophia, the princess, was leading her by the hand somewhere.
“A carriage is ready right here.”
She pointed to a large carriage that stood there, which she had ridden in. It was a glittering silver carriage studded with jewels in places...
A carriage so flashy that only a royal would dare ride in.
On the way back to the palace in that carriage, people who recognized the royal carriage stopped on their path, bowed their heads, and paid respects.
Lowell, wondering if they might stare at her, pulled the curtains closed and continued toward the palace.
“Where have you been until now, Lowell-nim?”
“I entered the royal capital yesterday and stayed at an inn.”
“What? Why did you stay there! Not coming to our palace...”
“Well... there were wanted posters everywhere...”
Honestly, she still couldn’t quite figure it out.
After being backstabbed so many times by the hero and humans, including the goddess, she wondered if this princess would also try to capture her and lock her in some dungeon beneath the palace.
Well...
She wasn’t the type to simply be locked away, but when she looked at the face of Sophia, sitting across from her, smiling brightly with clear and innocent eyes,
She thought maybe she was just overthinking it.