The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

58 – EP4. Crossroads of Life and Death

I woke up early in the morning, as usual. Just like always.

I lay on the guest bed, gazing at Sein, who was asleep, and my parents in the main room. I stepped outside and began to stretch.

The dark sky started to brighten with the rising sun, casting the first light of dawn.

As the clouds parted, sunlight streamed through.

I inhaled the refreshing air and smiled.

“You woke up early.”

Sein came outside and said,

“Yeah. You have to die a few times in your sleep, right? Oh, of course, I’m just kidding.”

Saein flinched when I made a light joke. Why is she reacting like that? It was just a joke.

I shrugged my shoulders. It seems like I made a joke that I shouldn’t have.

“So, what do you plan to do now? Are you going back?”

I asked her while looking at her, and she hesitated before answering.

“…Actually, I’m not sure. I’ve already given up my position… I thought something would change after I apologized to you, but I still don’t know what I should do.”

From Noble mtl dot com

I stared at her intently. Honestly, it’s a bit surprising. She’s not the type to be lost and unsure of what she should do.

“Well… in that case, um…”

I thought about what to say next.

“Then it’s okay for you to stay here a little longer.”

She looked at me with a surprised expression.

“…Wasn’t it that you didn’t want me to be here?”

“Well, I thought you should go back to where you belong… but if you’re struggling like this, I just want to say that it’s okay to take a break. Taking care of an old colleague isn’t a bad thing, right?”

She stared at me as if she couldn’t find words and spoke.

“…You’re still calling someone like me an old colleague.”

After saying that, Saein nodded slightly.

“…Then can I stay a little longer?”

I smiled slightly.

“Oh, you know you still have work to do, right? You can’t just sit around and play all day.”

She nodded.

“Yeah, what can I help with?”

She’s more serious than I thought. Hm… what should I ask her to do? I don’t think she’s good at farming. I’ve seen enough times that she’s not skillful with her hands, except when she’s using a sword.

“Well… I don’t know? I’ll think about it. Let’s eat first.”

My parents woke up as the dawn broke, and I poured carrot and potato soup into a bowl and flew off.

After having breakfast, I headed towards the vicinity of the lord’s house today to patrol.

“Where are you going?”

Saein followed me.

“Oh, it’s the Lord’s house here. I’m a patrol member in this village.”

“Should I come with you?”

I cocked my head. Why would she?

“…There won’t be much meaning anyway. I do patrol, but I’ve actually set up a barrier around this village. Patrols are just for show, to be honest.”

Sein slightly lowered his head in response to those words.

“Well, even so… I could get lonely being alone.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“…If you really want to.”

Sein and I went to the lord’s house and reported that we would start patrolling again today.

“Oh, I see. Is this the person who is supposed to be your companion? I guess there was a reason why you weren’t interested in women. Your standards have become too high, haven’t they?”

…Honestly, the reason why I lost interest in women was not because of their appearance, but because of their mental age.

“hahahahaha, that’s not true, so don’t say that. Ah, and she’ll stay here a little longer. It seems like things aren’t going well for her in the Empire, so she wants to take a break.”

“Well, I heard that even though the Empire is magnificent, the people there are heartless.”

Well, it doesn’t seem important for the Empire’s strongest inspector to have a good heart.

“Yes, then we’ll be going now!”

“Oh, yes! If you have time in the evening, drop by once. I’ll treat you to a whole chicken because you patrol so faithfully. Bring that woman along too.”

“hahahaha, yes.”

I set out on the road.

After patrolling for some time, Sein cautiously approached me and spoke.

“…But why do we go on these patrols? You said we also set up a barrier.”

“They reduce the taxes by half. They also provide a salary.”

When I said that, Sein looked at me with surprised eyes.

“Why are you so surprised? It’s not strange to work and earn money to eat and live.”

Sein grimaced and spoke.

“But you…”

“What about me? I’m just a guy who was expelled from the Empire on charges of treason. I shouldn’t expect anything more. And honestly, I don’t even hope for better treatment. There was a time, long ago, before I came to the Empire and became a knight… when I chased after things like honor and success. But living, or rather, dying changes your perspective. Anyway, I came to think that those things were all illusions.”

Sein bit his lips hard. It might start bleeding.

“…I’m really fine. Honestly, even if I’m suspected like this, I have nothing to say. I hesitate to attack Granthis… I don’t want the Holy Sword to break… I don’t want the mark of the Demon Worshiper to appear as soon as the Holy Sword breaks… Honestly, I messed up. If I wanted to attack, I should have attacked decisively. If I wanted to say something, I shouldn’t have hesitated. Of course, it’s good that the Holy Sword broke. That damn sword.”

Sein looked at me quietly. And with a voice that almost sounded like he was going to cry, he asked me.

“Why did you hesitate to attack Granthis?”

For a moment, I searched for the answer in my mind before finally speaking.

“Because… because I’ve known her for a long time. I hesitated. In the end, I was unfinished. After engraving in my bones for almost a hundred years that I can’t have everything, I forgot, you could say.”

“A hundred years? Just now… did you say a hundred years?”

It was at that moment I realized that I had let slip unnecessary words.

I decided to push a little harder now that we had come this far.

“Well, there’s probably more that you can’t remember from the time you spent with me,” I said.

Sain had a somewhat shocked look on his face.

“…Let’s just go for now. I might have been a bit too harsh…”

That’s when it happened.

An enormous number of monsters were detected in the barrier.

“…What is this?”

I said that, and Sain closed his eyes and touched the ground.

“Suddenly so many monsters appearing?”

I looked at Sain.

“It seems like it’s time to pay the piper.”

Sain nodded.

I grabbed Sain’s hand and teleported to where the monsters were advancing.

“…More than I thought?”

Like the monsters that appeared in the city we visited on our way back to our hometown, these monsters were running excitedly toward the village.

I shot a gravitational force into the sky to get their attention. Gravitational force had the effect of attracting the monsters’ attention.

Next, I threw the bones I had kept in my bag into the air.

The bones clattered and reformed in the air, quickly becoming the complete bones of a single person, surrounded by darkness that formed into armor and a cloak.

“…What is that?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“You wouldn’t know. It used to be Countess Serindel.”

I looked at her next.

“Why, don’t you like her?”

“No, it’s not just that. I already didn’t like her, and I can’t dare to do it after seeing what you’ve become.”

I exhaled sharply, flicked my finger.

The black armor covered my body, and a black sword with amethyst inlays appeared in my hand.

The monsters started running towards me.

Sain let out a sigh and drew his sword.

And just that changed the atmosphere.

Instinctively, if you were a living being, you would know.

The woman was a natural predator.

No matter how feeble she seemed, it did not diminish the power she possessed.

She was the world’s mightiest swordsman.

With a swift horizontal slash of her sword, a tremendous whirlwind swept through the monsters, leaving them split in half and lifeless.

“…Incredible.”

It was a realm I could never hope to reach no matter how hard I tried.

The Death Knight swung a sword veiled in darkness.

I sheathed my sword and drew my bow.

It was an oddly peculiar situation, a sudden massive invasion of monsters. But my task remained unchanged.

Only to vanquish all adversaries.

I notched an arrow onto my bow. The absence of actual arrows didn’t matter.

Arrows of a bluish hue materialized, placed in my bow.

As I released a shot, the arrow cleaved through the air in a straight line, rupturing the monsters nearby, ending their lives.

I began notching my bow once more.

…

From Noble mtl dot com

In a dark room, a man was nervously gnawing at his nails.

“Why are the monsters dying in such large numbers?”

He gnawed at his nails repeatedly, then began examining a crystal.

“Former heroes and damned red sorceresses?”

He scratched his head. They couldn’t win.

“…Damn it. Still a long way from achieving my goal and suddenly getting tripped up like this.”

He averted his gaze. It was regrettable, but the demise of those monsters was inconsequential in the grand scheme.

Compared to the grand ambition, their demise was nothing at all.