I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

13 – [The Hero Who Defeated the Demon Lord – 10]

*Whoosh!*

*Whoosh!*

*WHOOSH!!*

The high-ranking demon kept punching away the incoming flames, hurtling forward.

Normally, direct contact would leave him charred, but the magical energy coating his body was anything but ordinary. Especially the amount of magic shrouding his fists – it was absurd.

One blow, and I’d be critically injured, no doubt about it. At worst, I could lose my life the instant I was hit.

It’d been a while since I’d felt this life-or-death struggle, and it was definitely unpleasant, but my heart was racing, and I could definitely feel myself calming down.

“A spirit mage, eh? Interesting.”

‘That magic power is ridiculous, but he’s not without weaknesses.’

The magic-enhanced physical strength was undeniably impressive, but other than that, he didn’t seem to have much else in the way of tricks.

He hasn’t used a single ranged attack since this started, just leaping directly into close combat.

He’d likely poured everything into maximizing his physical enhancement, so either he has no ranged techniques, or those he has are ineffective.

In other words, if I can create some distance, I’m not in immediate danger.

The problem is he’s fast and powerful.

As befitting a high-ranking demon, he’s using his ridiculous stats to compensate for his weaknesses.

If his weaknesses were that easy to exploit, he wouldn’t be a high-ranking demon. Not to mention, even humans with some training develop ways to deal with their weaknesses being exposed.

I fingered my chest.

‘It’s not like there’s no way out in the worst-case scenario…’

Honestly, I didn’t want to write this.

KWA-aaaNG!!

“Gah!”

“What’s wrong? There’s no one stronger than you in this East Port. If you die, the others will have to taste the fear of me, a higher demon, firsthand.”

“Demons are good at provoking, too.”

“Blood and slaughter are the laws of monsters, and the strong eat the weak, it’s instinct.”

“Yeah, right.”

They were just born that way.

That’s why humans usually categorize monsters as evil, but I treated them less as ‘evil’ and more as ‘incompatible beings.’

They don’t cherish their companions, are barbaric, and take on a truly malicious attitude, but that’s only from the perspective of human morality and ethics.

So, it was more reasonable to see them as incompatible life forms, rather than evil or absolute evil.

If a monster attacks a human, the human must kill the monster.

Even if it’s the cutest puppy, if it bites someone to death, you have to kill it.

That’s why they were incompatible beings.

They see humans only as food, and this fight might even be like a workout before a meal for this higher demon.

“Huuup!!”

*WHOOSH!*

‘Mid-level spirit, double.’

The flames scattered to both sides, then combined into one, engulfing the higher demon. *FWOOSH!!* A loud sound echoed.

The amount of mana concentrated in my fist was no joke, so I couldn’t really inflict damage with it, but in other words, I *could* inflict damage, just not with my fist.

The higher demon burst from the flames, fist flying.

*Whoosh!*

It grazed my cheek, and my skin split, spraying blood.

“Hot stuff. Yeah, this is what a fight should be!”

I wiped the blood from my cheek with a hand, forcing a clumsy smile.

“Reinforcements, please, get here soon.”

I hope the Hero’s okay.

No, I’m in no position to worry about anyone else right now.

*

“Eeeeeeek!!”

“Demon! It’s a demon!!”

“Mom! Where are you!?…Mom! Please answer me!!”

Screams.

Pain.

No.

Don’t let it in.

I don’t want to hear it.

I don’t have the strength.

I don’t have the power to save you.

Don’t shove your cries into my ears.

Don’t scream for help in my ear.

“Haa, haa……! Cough! Haa, ugh!”

Even running this slow, I’m out of breath, it’s agonizing.

My head feels like it’s going to explode, I can’t even breathe properly, and it’s like my legs are dragging lead, so heavy.

Even when I lost a lot of blood from excessive bleeding, it wasn’t this bad, and I could tell the poison was circling, literally killing me.

With every breath, the poison circled, and the Reaper’s poison tried harder to steal my life.

“Kyaa!!”

“Demon…!”

In the middle of running, a demon charged at me.

I had no sword, no strength, no magic, I could do nothing.

That same sensation, the numbness starting at my toes like when I met the Black Bear, felt like the fear of death was stopping me from moving.

At the same time, the words I’d heard for so long, telling me to die as a hero, conflicted and scrambled my mind.

“hhhup!!”

Clang!!

A man in armor shoved the demon that was rushing at me with his shield.

“Go now! Leave this to me!”

“T-there’s too many of them. You’ll die…!”

“That’s why I work here.”

“……!”

With those words, the soldier charged at the demon with his large shield and sword.

If it were just one or two, maybe, but when even the lesser demons reach those numbers, there’s nothing a soldier can do.

“Go now! Hurry to the shelter!”

“……Ugh, ghk!”

I bit down on my teeth and ran again.

The fact that I could only run was so wretched, and I was pathetic.

What kind of hero am I?

What kind of brave soul am I?

I have no courage, I have nothing.

Just a coward who was mistakenly caught up in the delusion that I was a hero, because of a strength I was lucky enough to be born with. Even the regular soldiers, knowing they were going to die, were fighting like that.

They fight even knowing it’s their fate to die helplessly.

Royce was the same.

Royce was never weak, but his versatile power was better suited for supporting those who fight, rather than fighting himself.

With a wide view and good judgment, Royce’s power suited him well, making him capable.

But that also meant that his power was difficult to use in a head-on battle.

He might be able to easily deal with a Black Bear or a lesser demon, what a beginner hunter might take on, even if he fought head-on, but there was no way he could win in a straight fight against a superior demon.

Knowing that, I ran.

The one who had saved me.

The one who tried to save me even after I abandoned him, I abandoned him again.

“Ah, ahh…!”

My head hurts.

It felt like so much inside me was collapsing.

“Haaah…. haaah…. cough, haaah.”

I was running, out of breath, and I couldn’t run anymore. I leaned against the wall, trying to breathe.

Smoke was rising.

And screams rang out, along with the sounds of weapons being swung and flesh being torn apart.

“Stop…! Please…! I have no strength, no courage left! So, please…!”

I can’t save them.

I can’t help them.

I’m…

Helpless.

“Hey! You, aren’t you the girl who was with Royce!?”

“…! M-Madam Florence.”

“So you call me madam too, but it doesn’t matter.”

Royce called her that, so I unintentionally repeated it. Luckily, she didn’t seem angry, just stared at my face.

With my mask on, she couldn’t possibly recognize me, but her deep eyes, eyes that spoke of long experience, seemed to see right through me.

Maybe it’s because they were the parents who raised him, but Royce had eyes like that too.

Eyes that knew everything, from one to ten, without needing words, and that made me feel even more intimidated than Alex, like she was some kind of sage.

“R-Royce told me to come find you…”

“Yes, if you’re a friend of Royce, I can’t ignore you. Follow me, your weapon… You wouldn’t be able to wield it, not in that state.”

“…….”

“Oh, sorry ’bout that. I get a little rough with my words. Guess the backlash is why Royce grew up so polite… Even if his words sometimes lack any sort of tact.”

Madam Florence laughed.

“I’m not sure, but don’t make that face. This whole mess isn’t your fault, or anyone’s really. Why are you wearing such a burdened expression?”

“I, no, *I* need to… protect everyone…”

*PAAK!!*

Madam Florence conjured a gust of wind with her magic, sending a lesser demon flying, and said,

“Even a hero can’t manage that! A person who can protect everything doesn’t exist! Now run!”

“……!”

Her words echoed with Royce’s, making my head throb.

“KRaaa!!”

Something barreled across the street towards us, and it wasn’t a lesser demon.

“Kuh!”

“Madam Florence! …Ugh, cough! Cough! Kahut!”

My mask fell to the ground as blood trickled from my mouth. Not just from my mouth, but from the old wound that had been stitched up. It throbbed with the exertion of running, and although it wasn’t noticeable yet, I could feel the wound reopening and bleeding.

I slumped to the ground, and Madam Florence, wounded by the intermediate demon, frowned.

‘Madam Florence is definitely not weak, but she doesn’t seem to have the magic to beat an intermediate demon…’

There’s a big difference between lesser and intermediate demons, and even if someone could obliterate a lesser demon in one blow, it doesn’t mean they can defeat an intermediate one.

Especially demons have a high resistance to magic, making them difficult to fight with it.

“It’s alright. If you keep going that way, there’s a shelter. You can make it, right?”

“…Why, would you go this far?”

Madame Florence smiled, blood trickling down her face.

“You’re the child my child was trying to protect, isn’t that reason enough? You don’t need a grand reason to save someone, little one.”

“…….”

“Go! Now!”

I ran at her words.

My legs barely worked, and the sounds behind me were horrifically cruel.

-You didn’t say you wanted to die, so that’s enough. With just that, a person can live.

Royce’s words echoed.

-Live as a hero! Die as a hero! My daughter! You alone are the hope of the Reinhardt family!!

My father’s words, slapping me even as he always said he loved me, reverberated at the same time.

The conflicting words made my head feel like it would break, and my running speed slowed, until I thought I was running, but was really moving no faster than a walk.

“Agh, ugh!”

I tripped on something and fell forward.

Just falling like that was painful, agonizing, I felt like I was bleeding.

I turned my head to see a soldier lying there.

“H-hey, cough! … H-hey.”

Blood was pouring out, and he wasn’t moving.

This person also died to protect someone.

The soldier who saved me earlier might be dead too.

What about Madame Florence?

‘Where’s Royce?’

Scared.

Scared.

I’m scared of dying.

I’m scared of dying like this, worthless.

I’m scared of all of me becoming meaningless.

More than anything.

‘I’m scared of my title as hero being denied.’

-Think of it as the world repaying the grace you’ve shown it.

A sword came into view.

It was a soldier’s sword, and judging by the demon blood on it, I could tell he had died fighting demons. The demon corpses scattered nearby confirmed it for me.

-If the role of a hero is to save countless people, to give hope to the despairing.

“…….”

-Who saves the hero, who gives hope when the hero is in despair?

Those words were hope.

They didn’t make me a hero, but turned me back into Olivia Reinhardt, you made me a person.

*Clench.*

“Why…… Me…….”

I gripped the soldier’s sword.

What was I going to do with it?

What can I even do with this body?

Going would just be a dog’s death.

Not even a glorious death as a hero, just a meaningless death.

A dog’s death, plain and simple.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Someone might recognize me, and even the honor of being ‘the hero who died with the Demon Lord’ might vanish.

‘And yet.’

Why.

Am I.

“……!!”

I bolted.

Creaking sounds echoed from my body, but I moved several times faster than when I’d fled, returning to the same spot.

I saw Madame Florence, a lieutenant demon was choking her, laughing.

A fiend, grinning as it tormented a person!!

This isn’t someone you can just abuse like that!!

*SHWACK!*

“Wh, what… you!”

“Cough!”

I coughed up blood.

I’m going to die.

I’m dying.

But.

These people, they could be heroes, even more so than me!!

They’re more like heroes than I ever could be!!

“Kiyaaah!!”

*Shwack!* *Shwack!* *Shwack!!*

The lieutenant demon roared and charged, and I dove in, hacking at him swiftly.

*Crackle,* a strange sound echoed from my body and at the same moment the lieutenant demon was sliced apart, falling forward and going still.

“You.”

I ripped off the mask I was wearing, threw back the hood of my cloak.

The skin on my face, exposed, and the bandages and the twisted flesh alongside them, caused Madame Florence to widen her eyes.

“Stop, you’re going to fight with that body? It looks like you’re going to die.”

“There were heroes.”

“What?”

“People braver than me.”

“…….”

“I didn’t want them to die.”

There was no other reason.

Only that reason.

That was the only reason my body moved.

The moment I leaped in and cleaved that Lieutenant Devil, for that instant, I could forget everything in my head – father, hero, world, all of it.

I don’t know what that means.

I don’t even know if it’s good or bad, but I knew what I had to do now.

“…….”

As I raised my sword, *shlurp*, blood dripped down.

My body was screaming, “I can’t anymore.”

It’s okay.

Figuring out how to do it, that’s what being a hero is about.

“I.”

My mind is blank.

Right now, I just.

“I have to do what needs to be done.”

For people far more heroic than I am, a coward.