Congratulations on Your Magical Girl Duties

28 – Crossing Point

How long had it been?

“That’s roughly it.”

Even though I’d only recounted a small portion, it felt like an hour or two had passed, perhaps due to the sheer volume of the content.

Of course, there was no way to confirm, as nothing around me had changed, but that was the feeling.

Meanwhile, the god wore a faint smile.

『A Champion, you say…』

“But I have no way to prove it.”

『Don’t you?』

It couldn’t be helped.

I’d left everything I owned behind in that other world.

At that moment, the god pointed a finger behind me.

『It seems you do have something to prove it.』

“Huh?”

Taken aback by the sudden response, I turned around.

“Ah.”

Behind me, where the god pointed.

There stood a sword.

I rose from my spot and drew the sword.

“It’s been a while. You too.”

The familiar sensation in my hand was unmistakable.

Not some phantom, but my true sword.

I was certain it had vanished, never expecting to see it here, like this.

Perhaps it was because this was the world of souls.

Well, whatever the reason, I was a little glad to see it again.

It was, after all, my sole companion on this journey through another world.

『What is that?』

“My Moonlight Blade.”

Moonlight Blade (月光劍).

The Moon Hero’s only weapon.

A single sword forged of moonlight.

A versatile weapon, capable of becoming anything.

And…

The symbol of my weakness.

『That sword…you believe it signifies your weakness?』

“Yes.”

It wasn’t an odd thing to say.

Because it truly was a sword I received due to my frailty.

“Back then, I was genuinely weak.”

A pitch-black night where no one offered aid, and even my howls of despair simply roamed and dispersed within the darkness.

As the creeping malice gradually tightened its grip on my breath, I desperately begged and pleaded one last time.

Towards the unseen moon, hidden behind the night sky.

To please, let me live.

If only for a little while, grant me strength.

Looking back, it was both laughable and utterly wretched. To be clinging to a distant moon, unseen and untouchable.

Indeed, everyone who came to kill me openly mocked my actions.

Saying my final words were pathetic.

Demanding to know who I was begging for my life from.

Claiming it was so pathetic they couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

But.

The moon, at least, did not laugh at me in the slightest.

“I was the weakest being imaginable. That was me.”

It simply responded in silence.

Faint moonlight descended upon my hands, stained with wounds and blood. And then, that moonlight slowly took shape, forming a single sword.

Literally, a single sword forged of moonlight.

To my feeble self, the first and last gift the moon bestowed.

“So, that’s how I came to possess the Moonlight Blade.”

That was the Moonlight Blade.

『So, after obtaining the Moonlight Blade, does that mean you became the Hero?』

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Actually, I wasn’t a Hero from the start.”

Obtaining the Moonlight Blade didn’t immediately make me a Lunar Hero, after all.

However, the deity refuted my words.

『Hmm. Still, seeing the Moonlight Blade coupled with… that… I can’t help but think you truly are a Hero. Am I the only one who thinks so?』

“Huh?”

『Look beside you.』

Instead, they pointed with a finger to my side.

Turning my head slightly, a massive circle that had appeared unnoticed filled my vision.

“Ah.”

『Isn’t that your Hero’s power?』

“…Indeed.”

『Perhaps, in other words, it’s called mana. Or something like that. That’s the word I seem to recall.』

The injuries I had previously sustained had apparently all healed, displaying a pure white circle without a single blemish.

However, it wasn’t a perfect circle.

『By the way, this is bound?』

As it was thoroughly wrapped in chains.

“I did that.”

『Why?』

“It was unavoidable if I wanted to win in the end.”

With the single-minded determination to win the final battle, I sacrificed everything I possessed, utterly.

And as the price, I became bound like this.

“At that time, the Moonlight Blade vanished with it, too.”

A regrettable choice, but a necessary one. If I hadn’t done even this, I most certainly wouldn’t have been able to kill that son of a b*tch at the very end.

Instead, I would have died.

『Even so, it’s more beautiful than I imagined. Like the moon, really. Surely, with this, one could call you a hero.』

“I agree it looks similar to the moon, but it’s not beautiful. And truthfully, this alone isn’t enough to call me a hero.”

『Why do you think that?』

“Because…”

It wasn’t a proper strength.

Not a power bestowed by a sacred being, nor one gained through a miraculous chance encounter, nor a strength awakened through love and friendship.

“It wasn’t a power obtained in the right way.”

A blood-soaked strength, earned through countless deaths, losses, and facing disasters alone.

『You think that because it’s a power built upon killing others and surviving?』

“Yes, that’s right.”

Back then, I wasn’t a hero.

Just a madman, desperately struggling to live, wielding a sword without hesitation, a butcher who chopped people apart day and night.

I was, at most, such a being.

『But if you hadn’t done that, you would have died several times over already. It looks like self-defense, no matter how I see it.』

“Still, you can’t call someone like that a hero.”

It is the hero’s power, admittedly.

After all, it was my power, and no one else’s.

But that doesn’t make me a hero.

『If you weren’t a hero from the start, how did you become the Moon’s Hero?』

“It started when I met a little kid.”

I still remember it vividly.

A faded, slightly tattered dress.

A single, humble evening primrose held in both hands.

Chopped-off, jagged-ended, grey bob.

Her pink eyes glistening with a mournful light.

『She didn’t have a name?』

“They said she was a nameless orphan.”

That girl pleaded with me, crying.

『So, what did she say?』

“She asked me to save her.”

She was a girl afflicted with a curse.

A curse that could only be cured by slaying the Demon Lord.

『So the source of the curse is the Demon Lord?』

“I think so. I lived in a remote village, and the Demon Lord suddenly appeared and cursed everyone, they said. I was the only one who survived.”

『A common tale, yet horrifying.』

It meant a death sentence had been issued to a child who was barely eleven years old.

A death sentence, execution only briefly stayed.

『But why did she ask *you*? You were a being hated by the people of this world. Was there no one else to ask for help?』

“She did ask others.”

The girl had sought aid from others as well.

A mercenary with a notorious reputation, but undeniable skill.

A knight commander, so noble he was an example to all.

A Sword King who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship with only a single blade.

All were figures of great renown. Superhumans who, one might dare say, had overcome the limits of mankind.

However, all had turned their backs on the girl.

“But in the end, they all refused.”

The reasons they gave varied.

Some had the practical reason that it simply wasn’t worth their while, others the principled reason that they couldn’t act without orders, and still others the personal reason that they only dealt with those who wielded a sword.

Well, the bottom line was that they wouldn’t do it.

『Was there no one else she asked besides them?』

“There was one more person.”

In the end, the girl set out on a journey to find the last person she could possibly ask.

Her lips chapped from lack of even a single drop of water, her shoes worn through, blood and pus festering on the soles of her feet—her body was in such a state that it wouldn’t have been strange for her to simply drop dead.

『And who was that?』

A being destined to kill the Demon Lord.

A figure positioned as the Demon Lord’s antithesis.

Yes.

“The Hero.”

The girl had sought out the ‘Hero’ and asked for help.

『The Hero? But you weren’t originally the Hero, were you.』

“Yes, that’s right. He’s a different kind of hero from me.”

He possessed a radiant holy sword, adventured with a hero party he could depend on, and was the ‘true hero’ hailed by all.

『And she asked you?』

“Apparently, the hero refused.”

Despite the girl’s desperate plea, the hero coldly shook his head.

The reason was simple.

『Why?』

“The reward was insufficient.”

What she offered in return was truly paltry.

Not glittering gold and jewels, nor overwhelming power to control the world, nor even a beauty so captivating one’s eyes would spin.

A single evening primrose.

That was all the girl could give.

Nothing else.

So, rejection was inevitable.

It was natural. Saving others without any recompense was merely a well-sounding story from a fairytale.

In this desolate reality, there were no fairytale heroes.

『But why did you grant her request?』

“She reminded me of myself.”

The girl was just like I was in the past.

Like me, desperately praying to the moon with no one to rely on, she was a girl with nowhere to turn, pitifully begging me for help as a last resort.

“Frankly speaking, there was also the fact that I didn’t like that son of a b*tch of a hero.”

In truth, there was also a personal reason.

Some were busy sticking swords into the bodies of others every day, while others were busy sticking their dicks into the hero party.

“I heard that’s how they get stronger by acquiring other people’s abilities, but it still pissed me off.”

『Is that all?』

And…

“Of course not.”

The very existence of a hero like that was disgusting to me.

“How can a guy who has everything refuse to do anything just because the reward is a little small?”

I simply couldn’t tolerate the idea that someone who hesitated to extend a hand to the weak was a hero.

Because I was so different from the heroes in novels.

And so, the moment I heard her request, I made a promise beneath the moon, pinkies intertwined with the girl.

That hero you spoke of.

A fictitious hero existing only in fairy tales.

That’s it, I’ll give it a try.

『So I guess that’s when you became a hero.』

“Actually, I didn’t think much of it at first, but she kept calling me a hero. So I figured I should call myself a hero, too, you know.”

The Moon Hero was also a name given to me by the girl.

Because I promised to become a hero under the moon floating in the night sky, she said that’s why she gave me that name.

And so, Moon Hero it was.

『Considering that, you introduced yourself as the Moon Hero rather confidently earlier?』

“She called me that so earnestly, it feels a little wrong to deny it now. I decided it’s better to just brazen it out.”

『You did well. Good thinking.』

After that, I ran and ran like mad.

I don’t remember this part very well.

I just killed a lot of things.

Among them were those called the Demon King’s underlings, others who were called the Four Heavenly Kings, and still others who were said to be the Demon King’s true limbs.

Most of my time was spent on the journey to kill the Demon King, and I took only the barest minimum of rest. And even then, I hardly ever rested properly.

『You overdid it. Reckless.』

“But I couldn’t help it.”

I was so afraid that the girl might die if I delayed even a little.

So I kept pushing myself.

Because I could never accept a futile ending.

Because I truly wanted to become the hero from a fairy tale.

Anyway, in the end, I personally slit the Demon King’s throat.

『After that, the curse must have been lifted.』

“I don’t really know.”

The curse probably was lifted.

I checked that the Demon King was dead countless times.

However, I couldn’t confirm it directly.

“Why?”

“I was branded public enemy number one, you see. I was too busy running away. Visiting you felt… risky. Like I might attract unwanted attention.”

Before, these otherworldly b*stards came to kill me, sure. The journey to slay the Demon Lord was never free from attack.

But after I killed the Demon Lord, it became much, much worse.

Rumor spread that I’d killed the Demon Lord, and a bounty was placed on my head. The frequency of attacks, naturally, became incomparable to what it was before.

Just who was it that did that?

Even now, I truly wonder.

“It was really strange. I just killed the Demon Lord, but everyone kept demanding I hand something over.”

“That is a bit strange, isn’t it. You didn’t touch any of the Demon Lord’s treasure, right?”

“I was just hungry, so I ate this and that.”

Well, this is all just an old story now.

Either way, I’m as good as dead, aren’t I?

“Anyway, that’s what happened. Though, looking back now, it’s just the ramblings of a dead man.”

“You’ve suffered a lot.”

The God gave a wry smile.

With a relieved heart, I opened my mouth.

“Where do I go now?”

I was curious about what my afterlife would be like.

I’d done so much in this other world, would I be dragged to hell? Or, would my efforts be considered and I’d be allowed to live comfortably in heaven?

Honestly, I’d prefer the latter. No matter what, I suffered a tremendous amount in that other world, couldn’t I at least hope for a little reward?

However, God’s answer was neither.

“What if there was somewhere else?”

“Where?”

“Where else.”

Not hell, not heaven, but another option.

“Your original world, the present world.”

It was the present world.