I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

17 – [With the Hero – 02]

“…….”

“…….”

Alex and Belita maintained their silence.

While something bad might have happened at the very end, they were now heroes, revered by everyone. Despite this, Alex and Belita’s expressions were utterly dark.

But the reasons for Alex and Belita’s darkened faces were surely different from each other.

“Is it possible… the hero is alive?”

Belita was the first to speak.

The hero, Olivia Reinhardt, was dead.

That’s what was known, but suddenly the holy sword had vanished.

And then there were reports of golden light seen in East Port.

“How…”

Bellita choked, her hand flying to her mouth, muttering.

The moment she was struck remained etched so vividly in her mind, a nightly nightmare.

Her eye had been ripped out, her heart pierced, an arm severed clean off.

Her skin, corrupted by the Reaper’s poison, she’d fallen from that cliff of a height.

Yet, not only had she survived, but somehow, in East Port, which would take days even by carriage, she had succeeded in making a contract with the holy sword again?

“This is serious, Bellita.”

“Yes…”

“It seems you’re not grasping the situation. Me, Reina, and you, we intended to assassinate the hero, and we did, in fact, carry it out. And not only did we fail miserably, we even announced our success to the world.”

“…”

“If Olivia manages to heal herself of the Reaper’s poison, it will be irreversible. We’ll be ruined.”

“She might have already healed herself of the Reaper’s poison.”

“No, she wouldn’t have been able to yet.”

“Why?”

Alex internally treated Bellita as an idiot for not understanding even this much, but he couldn’t openly insult a holy woman, so he kept those insults to himself.

“Being in East Port means she’s likely headed to the eastern continent.”

“That’s right.”

“That makes the objective clear. …Elvenheim, she must be heading that way.”

“Elvenheim. …The World Tree’s sap!”

“That’s right. It’s said to be able to heal any poison or curse.”

And there was data confirming that it had actually healed people.

If that was the case, then Olivia must have moved from East Port to the eastern continent and was trying to somehow obtain the World Tree’s sap in Elvenheim to heal her body.

‘Amazing, I didn’t think she’d know such things.’

He had no interest in anything but fighting, so he had a surprisingly lacking side in common knowledge, but was it possible that she knew this much?

No, that’s not what’s important right now.

What matters is that Olivia knows about the World Tree’s sap and actually reached East Port to act on it.

He never intended to underestimate the Hero’s vitality, but he didn’t think she’d be alive after suffering that much.

He was somewhat uneasy about not finding the body, but he thought at the very least she’d be collapsed and crawling on the ground. He never imagined she’d move her body to reach East Port.

‘She’s a monster.’

Alex sighed quietly, recalling something he’d thought several times during his journey.

“So, what should I do?”

“First, we’ll contact Reina. She wanted to return to Elvenheim.”

Well, maybe she just wants to run away from Alex.

He tricked her, who was innocent and naive, and put a leash of contract around her neck, so she had no choice but to follow Alex even if she hated it.

If she just acted obediently, he had no intention of treating her badly, and he had intended to use her to maintain a good relationship with the elves.

It was just an agreement made for the sake of contingency.

Besides, considering the current state of Elvenheim, the land of the elves, they had no choice but to bow their heads to Alex even more.

“Listen carefully, Ms. Bellita.”

“Yes.”

“Even if the Hero is alive, what we need to do doesn’t change. We just kill her again. No matter if she obtained the holy sword, the Grim Reaper’s poison will surely be killing her.”

The time limit was until Olivia, the Hero, could detoxify the Grim Reaper’s poison.

We must absolutely not let her get the World Tree’s sap.

Even if the Elves aren’t positive towards Olivia, and won’t even cooperate, in the worst case, if she forcefully takes it and manages to detoxify the Grim Reaper’s poison, that’s where we are doomed.

“We have to kill her before she’s freed from the Grim Reaper’s poison.”

“…….”

“Ms. Bellita, do you perhaps have any guilt?”

“I…”

Alex spoke as he approached Bellita.

“You don’t have the mark of the Saintess.”

“……!”

“What will happen if people find out that you, the Saintess, don’t have the ‘qualifications of a Saintess’?”

Admiration is born.

Bellita, who is not a Saintess yet produces power comparable to one, could be called a genius.

It’s only because Olivia, the Hero, is so far outside the norm that she doesn’t stand out, and the Hero’s party were all quite skilled individuals in their respective fields, and especially Bellita, who was maintaining the Saintess’s position without the mark of a Saintess.

That was something to admire, but in this kingdom, nothing was as important as legitimacy.

“Especially your family, the Bright family, which you alone are practically defending, if it comes out that the Saintess doesn’t actually have the mark of a Saintess… what will happen?”

“…….”

“Even for the family, we gotta keep it together, right? Ms. Bellita.”

“……Understood.”

“Good.”

Next is contacting Reina.

Reina looked to be in even worse shape than Bellita, but if she wanted to protect Elvenheim, she’d clearly want Alex no matter what.

“Let’s go first, we need to tell Reina and stop Olivia Reinhart from getting into Elvenheim.”

*

“Royce, it’s only been a day since I fell asleep.”

“That’s right.”

“But your arm’s healed.”

“It seems it was a minor injury, more than I thought.”

“……”

“……”

Silence stretched out.

Was my lie too clumsy after all?

Even for someone who has spent their life in battle, it felt like a lie that was too easy to see through. The Hero, who had been staring at me, finally turned away and said.

“It’s okay, if you don’t want to talk.”

“……Are you alright?”

“I’m not going to force it out of you. Just, when the time comes, when you see me as someone you ‘can share a secret with,’ then tell me.”

“……Do you really plan to be with me for the rest of your life?”

“Of course. In my life, the only person who’s had as much impact on me as you is my father. And even with him, when you consider the negative impact he had, it’s no exaggeration to say you’re the first person to have a positive influence on me in my entire life.”

It was a little embarrassing to be told so bluntly.

Did this man not have any concept of speaking indirectly?

He wouldn’t be cut out for politics.

“I have no intention of living in the Royal Capital.”

“Huh? Neither do I?”

“……Uh, what? You’re from the Reinhardt family of the kingdom, right?”

“All that’s meaningless. Whatever the legitimacy of the reason may be, do I have any reason to live in the kingdom that drove me to this point? I don’t want to go to the Royal Capital.”

“…….”

That was a more plausible reason than I expected.

Certainly, whatever the reason, he was thoroughly betrayed, and if I hadn’t been there, he would have literally died on the spot. The weight of his words was different. In many ways, it seemed like he’d let go of many things since he got the holy sword back.

Many of the obsessive thoughts seemed to have disappeared, and the cloudiness in his eyes had cleared somewhat. He now had a more human face. Above all, he didn’t even try to hide his affection for me, and not only that, he didn’t seem to feel the slightest bit embarrassed.

If he looked at me with that kind of ‘why should I be embarrassed to say I like what I like?’ upper-class man’s face, I wouldn’t know what to say.

“Personally, I think traveling and living with you would be enjoyable.”

“Is that so?”

“But that’s just my desire, so you don’t have to give me a positive answer yet. ……I’ll definitely make you say that you want to keep traveling with me too.”

“That confidence is the same as ever. If you become arrogant with that much confidence, even things that should work out will fail. You were actually betrayed that way.”

“…….”

Shit.

Was that a little rude?

The Hero looked at me for a moment, then smiled.

“You’re right.”

“……”

“So I’ll do my best. So this isn’t arrogance, but confidence.”

“……Couldn’t you maybe, I don’t know, *not* drop a confession so quickly?”

The Hero sat on the chair and grinned playfully at me.

“Look at that handsome face.”

“Huh?”

“Listen to that nice voice.”

“……”

“Kind demeanor, a rare spirit mage that can make a living anywhere, and you’re tall. You’re, all things considered, a good man.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I asked, and the Hero replied.

“If you liked me, then I figured I could take my time. If you saved me because I was ‘Olivia Reinhart,’ then I could afford to be relaxed, but…”

The Hero looked at me.

“That’s not it, is it? You would have saved someone like that even if it wasn’t me, you would’ve done your best to help anyone.”

“I heard that before.”

“Yeah, if you’re going to save anyone, then it seems impossible for me to receive a confession, right? If I dawdle, and another woman sees your value, then I won’t stand a chance, will I?”

His face, like he was speaking so logically, was somehow infuriating, but I just listened quietly.

More than that, I couldn’t figure out why he was so sure I was a good guy. Well, I guess I’m not *that* bad, but personally, it felt like his own personal feelings were really clouding the judgment here.

“Why can’t you win? If you could just do something about the poison, you’re a striking-looking person, aren’t you?”

“It’s the past.”

“The past?”

“I apologize for all the rudeness I showed you during my time in the Hero party. Come to think of it, I should have done it the moment I saw you… Even if I’ve changed my heart, the past doesn’t disappear. In your eyes, I’m someone who left you with nothing but bad memories, so you probably couldn’t possibly like me.”

“……”

“That past doesn’t disappear. So, even if my appearance is a little less than yours, I’m in a pretty unfavorable position. Understand?”

Hearing my own psychology spoken by someone else gave me a real strange feeling.

And the fact that it was pretty close to the truth was also somehow infuriating.

“But there are some things that are in my favor.”

“Let’s hear them.”

I was a little curious why *I* had to listen to this, but since he was going to say it anyway, I just gave up.

“Even looking like this, I’ve had quite a few guys hitting on me. Meaning, objectively, I don’t have a bad appearance. If I can just get some World Tree sap and an elixir to restore my looks, I won’t lose anywhere.”

“That’s true.”

“And along with my beautiful looks, I have two lumps of fat that most women don’t have.”

“……Please just move away from there? I was wrong.”

The Hero smiled and said,

“I never thought these lumps of flesh were convenient while I lived as a hero, but I might think so quite a bit in the future.”

“……”

“…….”

A moment of silence hung, then the Hero looked up at me and said,

“Want to touch?”

“No thanks.”

“An instant refusal is a little hurtful, can you pause a bit before saying no?”

“Such a troublesome woman…”

“You knew that when you picked me up, though.”

It was true that I thought the journey would be bothersome, and taking care of the Hero would be bothersome too, but the bothersome I envisioned wasn’t in this direction.

I checked the pocket watch I had for a moment.

“It’s almost time for the boat, let’s go.”

“Even if demons attack, the boat still leaves, huh.”

“Those people gotta make a living too.”