I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

0 – [Prologue – 01]

Being in the hero’s party is supposed to be a glorious thing.

You can live the rest of your life in leisure after defeating the Demon King, or even if not, just being a member of the party that defeated the Demon King means you can be taken anywhere.

I wasn’t one to seek out glory, so I never planned on joining in the first place, but I ended up joining the party out of obligation to the prince’s request.

He saw my power and believed I could handle many incidents and accidents, and I actually did save them from life-threatening situations a few times in the hero’s party.

But, those kinds of experiences have been non-existent relatively recently.

The biggest reason was the hero’s rapid growth, and while in the beginning, it felt like a party where everyone had their own role, now it’s just become a kind of one-man team supporting the hero who has become too strong.

If it was a normal party, that wouldn’t be a good thing, but this is a party with a clear goal to defeat the Demon King, so even if the hero is strong, it’s not a loss, and even if the rest of the members all become supporters, as long as the hero grows properly and defeats the Demon King, that’s enough.

The form didn’t matter, we just had to defeat the Demon King.

Soon, we’ll be leaving the human realm entirely and entering the demon realm, and the hardships we’ve experienced so far will be nothing compared to what we’ll face.

It was a pain in the ass, but I had to repay the prince, so I decided to at least stick with it to the end.

And then.

“You’re fired.”

“…….”

The hero suddenly said he wanted to meet me alone, so I was on edge wondering what was going on.

Of course, I didn’t think it was a confession or anything like that.

Unfortunately, the hero clearly didn’t like me and made it obvious, and I also tried to stay out of his way as much as possible.

I can’t even remember the last time we had a private conversation, aside from official business, and I even questioned whether we had ever talked before.

“May I ask the reason?”

“You’re useless, a waste.”

“…….”

Truth be told, coming this far, aside from the initial stages, I hadn’t participated in any direct combat, fulfilling a role no different from a porter.

The very fact that I joined this party wasn’t exactly through a normal route, so it’s no surprise they were displeased; I wasn’t particularly eager to be with them either.

“Honestly, reaching this point, everyone except me is practically a support character.”

I couldn’t deny it.

He attacks alone, defends alone, fights alone, dies alone.

Lately, the thought even crossed my mind: couldn’t the hero just go alone and defeat the Demon King? He was that strong.

Even in the beginning of the journey he wasn’t weak, but having accumulated various combat experiences, his skill had reached a realm that neither I nor any other human could possibly follow.

“You especially are like that. Up until now, I had to tolerate you because of the prince’s request, but from now on you’re even more useless. You’ll just end up a corpse and sour my mood.”

“……I see, but I too, came here on the prince’s request.”

“I’ll take care of that. And shouldn’t a commoner be thinking of ways to be happy? Don’t try to latch onto the hero’s party for a free ride.”

It wasn’t like I hadn’t entertained that thought, so what she said wasn’t completely wrong.

“If I leave, will you recruit a new member?”

Looking at it, the hero’s will seemed unwavering, and no matter what I said, she was, after all, the leader of this party.

Unfortunately, her personality wasn’t as good as her appearance, and what was okay today might not be okay tomorrow, depending on her mood.

She was far from calm, and occasionally she’d fall for low-level monster taunts and stray from the frontline, she was that hot-tempered and shallow-minded, making her prone to causing problems.

“That’s none of your concern.”

“…….”

She seemed even more upset today.

“Unilaterally expelling a party member can affect your reputation. And even if you’re amazing, firing me, who joined at the prince’s request, could cause big trouble…”

“I would’ve said something.”

The Hero scowled.

It was a look that didn’t suit that beautiful face, and I almost sighed without realizing it.

“It’s none of your business, even if we get a new one, they’ll be a noble. If we have a commoner, it’ll lower the status of our party. All the party members agreed.”

“Hmm.”

Indeed, was that the real reason?

For our Hero, born a noble and marked with the hero’s sigil, bound to the holy sword, it must have been displeasing to even share space with a commoner like me.

And since the party members were all nobles, perhaps they didn’t have a good impression of me either?

Was my incompetence the real reason?

Or was it just because I was a commoner? I had no way of knowing.

The Hero cautiously placed a hand on the hilt of the holy sword on her back and said,

“Or, should I create a reason for you to have no choice but to retire here?”

“…….”

How did she grow up to be so arrogant?

A noble with high authority, an only daughter, possessing the hero’s sigil – she’d lived a truly successful life, so everyone around her, including her parents, must have doted on her. No one would have ever scolded her, and she seemed to have grown up with a tendency to just get rid of or destroy anything she didn’t like.

Let’s think about this calmly.

Even if the Hero was like this immature brat, she was strong.

Even I had genuinely thought, and it wasn’t a lie, that she could probably take on the Demon Lord alone.

And the Hero’s party had to defeat the Demon Lord, and if they said that the Hero’s condition, who might be able to defeat him alone, was worsening because of me…

“I understand.”

“Yeah, good thinking. …I’ll tell the prince, so you don’t need to report to him. We’ll at least get you some severance.”

With that, he threw a wad of cash onto the ground.

You might say picking it up is shameless, but I’m not without sense, even if I’m shameless, so I decided to pick it up.

It was a lot for a normal adventurer party’s severance, but not much for a hero party. Still, it was definitely better than nothing, and enough to not worry about food for a while.

“May you slay the demon lord and bring peace to the world. May fortune be with you.”

“……”

The hero walked away silently.

Hmm.

“Sorry, your Highness…they threw it away over there so I did all I could, *sigh*.”

I gave a small sigh and said, walking in the opposite direction of the hero.

“Should I head home?”

I’m sure he’ll manage somehow.

I thought that if we caught the demon lord with the hero party, I wouldn’t have to worry about food, clothing, or shelter, but it seems the world isn’t that easy.

*

I spent about six months with the hero party.

For those six months, watching the hero fight, sleep, fight, sleep all day, I thought that wasn’t something a human could do.

Naturally, the companions following behind were all dying of exhaustion, but the hero was able to fight and defeat a dragon all by himself, so honestly, I wasn’t too worried.

Or so I thought.

“Huh? The demon lord has been defeated?”

“That’s what I’m saying! How can a young person be so slow with the news!”

It’s been a year since I was kicked out of the hero’s party.

Even though the demon realm is smaller than the human realm, its difficulty is on a whole other level. And yet, it only took them a year.

I expected it to take a bit longer, but they cleared it faster than I thought.

He might have a shitty personality, but his skills really were the real deal.

Well, I also figured it was possible and stepped aside without a word, but that fast…

Amazing.

“So, we’ll finally regain peace with this.”

“I guess so.”

“Ah, but there’s a strange rumor going around.”

“A strange rumor?”

The shopkeeper glanced around, then leaned closer to me and whispered.

I don’t know why he’s doing this when no one’s even listening in, but I didn’t bother questioning it.

“The rumor is, the hero’s dead.”

“What? No, no, what did you just say?”

“It’s just a rumor! They say no one’s seen the hero since the demon lord was defeated.”

I thought for a moment, then shook my head.

No, from around the time I left the party, there was already a gap between the party members and the hero, and no matter how much the other members grew, the hero grew even faster. That gap would only get bigger over time, not smaller.

If that hero was dead, there’s no way the other party members would be alive.

Or maybe they did a mutual kill with the demon lord?

If, just *if*, the hero was dead, that’s the most likely scenario.

“Well, it’s not my problem anymore.”

I let out a small sigh and said,

“It’s gotten so late already, I should be going.”

“Alright~ Come again~”

The old man liked chatting with customers, so he seemed a bit disappointed, but when the next victim, I mean, customer, came, he’d forget all about me and start jabbering again.

I’d just been living a simple life, gathering herbs and hunting monsters in the forest, but thanks to saving up most of the money I had back when I was in the hero’s party, I could live comfortably as long as I didn’t push myself too hard.

Well, sadly, I had to give up on things like wealth and glory, but it wasn’t a huge deal.

Isn’t this also a kind of life where you don’t have to worry about food, clothing, and shelter?

…Although, I do worry a little.

“Hmm?”

Drop, drop-drop.

As I entered the forest and started walking, raindrops began to fall, one by one.

The weather hadn’t been great earlier, so I’d expected it.

It was the day I heard the news about the demon king’s defeat, so it would’ve been nice if the weather had been clear.

“……”

As I moved my hand, a barrier formed above my head, and all the raindrops that should have hit my head were blocked by the barrier. If you asked if I learned barrier magic for this purpose, I guess these days, I didn’t use it for anything else.

The person who taught me barrier magic might get angry if they saw me, but this is the wisdom of daily life.

I was walking aimlessly like that when,

“Hmm?”

At first, I thought, who would come all the way into this forest to dump their big garbage?

But soon, I could tell that it wasn’t just rain soaking the dirt; there was blood too. It wasn’t some large piece of trash, but a person, and I ran quickly.

“Hey! Wake up! What the…!”

A chill went through me in an instant.

A third of their head was gone, and one arm was severed.

There were marks on their shoulder, as if they had been struck from above, and their skin was warped.

Is this thing even alive?

More like, how is it alive, at this level?

More than anything, it was easy to tell that whatever had warped their skin wasn’t just some poison.

‘No, wait a minute.’

I was so flustered for a moment, I didn’t recognize her, but I soon knew who it was.

Her hair was like a fall of fresh snow, a color so rare that I knew instantly who it was.

Then she slowly opened her eyes, and with a gasp that sounded like it could break any moment, her red pupils, unfocused and glazed, weren’t looking at anything, but somehow, I knew she was looking at me.

“Ro, is…”

“You remember my name, what an honor… but this isn’t the time for that, is it.”

I quickly lifted her up.

The hero.

Olivia Reinhart.

The woman who banished me.