I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

25 – [With the Hero – 10]

The Death God Cult.

A religion that, literally, worships a Death God, blindly believes, and aims to resurrect it.

Naturally, it’s not an officially recognized religion, but strangely, it keeps multiplying, and crimes committed by its followers keep popping up everywhere.

Even when I was traveling with the Hero, we encountered crimes committed by the Death God Cult, and the Hero literally beat them to a pulp with his fists.

His reasoning was that these guys shouldn’t get an easy death by the holy sword.

They were conducting human experiments on children, and countless children had been sacrificed, so even I, who usually tried to stop the Hero from being overly aggressive, didn’t say a word.

It’s something else to say, but that moment was also the first day I truly shared the Hero’s feelings.

“What are the Death God Cult doing in the Half village?”

“What should I say, what they are doing, or what they are being subjected to.”

“Is it happening in real-time? Then, there should be evidence, so it would be good to speak with the guard. Even if there’s discrimination against Halfs, people who work in public service won’t ignore your opinions.”

Even more so, there were quite a few Halfs in the Eastern Continent, so most people who came here were either friendly to Halfs, or didn’t really think much about it.

Of course, people are all different, so it wasn’t as if there weren’t people who came all the way here to shout hatred toward Halfs.

Perhaps they shout their hatred because there are so many Halfs.

Anyway, they would listen, and if it’s about the Death God Cult, they would at least dispatch soldiers to the Half village to investigate.

“It’s not a direct form of harm. It’s hard to say, but, followers of the Death God Cult are being created in the Half village.”

“……What did you say?”

“But please hear me out! They aren’t the kind of people who would fall for a weird religion like the Death God Cult! Something is strange!”

“……Royce? What do you think?”

“If it’s mental manipulation, it’s not impossible, but I didn’t see it myself, so it’s hard to say.”

“People changed overnight. And it’s spreading, there are fewer people in Half Village now who aren’t followers of the Death God Church.”

“……”

Mental manipulation is a possibility.

Is there a reason to become so engrossed in a religion in one day?

I can’t say it’s impossible, but if it’s not just one or two people but spreading like an infection, the probability is quite low, and it’s more likely to be mental manipulation.

“And they seem to be becoming more and more, how should I say, violent. Our Half Village allows freedom of religion to some extent, but this seems too extreme……”

“Blind faith, infatuation… the typical behavior of a fanatic, and someone who’s been mentally manipulated.”

“It’s difficult to confirm this without seeing it firsthand.”

“My friend got me out of there. I wanted to ask for help somehow, but I can’t do it with the guard.”

“Why not?”

“As I said, Half-bloods are somewhat discriminated against. Even if it’s small, it’s not non-existent in the eastern continent. On top of that, if it’s said that I’m engrossed in the Death God Church… There’s a chance I might be targeted for elimination.”

“……”

If it is revealed to be mental manipulation, there may be room for leniency, but if I was active as a member of the Death God Church, it would be easy to get branded as a criminal just for that.

There have been no cases of being tried for being a member of the Death God Church until now, but members of the Death God Church mostly cause problems and get caught.

Therefore, even if I’m not arrested as a criminal for being engrossed in the Death God Church, to the public I’m viewed the same as a criminal.

Furthermore, if a Half-blood is engrossed in the Death God Church, depending on the discretion of the person in command, there’s a non-zero possibility of being eliminated on the spot.

“So, that’s why you couldn’t talk to the guard.”

“You two seem strong. I know it’s a nuisance. But I have nowhere else to turn……! Please help me!”

“…….”

“…….”

The hero and I fell silent at the same time, and he looked at me.

What should I say?

I pondered for a moment, then opened my mouth.

“This is your journey.”

“That’s right.”

“Luckily, Half Village is on the way to Elvenheim, so there’s no need to turn back, but I can’t say how long it’ll take to resolve this issue. And that lost time could have deadly consequences.”

“…….”

“And if they find out in Elvenheim that you helped a half-elf, we don’t know how they’ll take it. Worst case, the already bad impression might get worse.”

They might not be that prejudiced.

But I couldn’t say for certain they wouldn’t be.

I looked at the hero and said,

“I’ve told you the risks I see. …Now answer me, what will you do?”

No matter what, this journey was the hero’s journey, the journey to save his life.

The choice was the hero’s.

“If.”

“…….”

The hero was blank for a moment, then smiled slightly and said,

“Let’s say I refuse this request here, and I move forward trying to save my own life, and as a result, I do save my own life.”

“Yeah, that’s a relief.”

“Right? But then, after that, I went to Half Village and so many people were dead. Or wounded, it was literally bursting apart.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, even if I refused here, no one would blame me. On the contrary, some might even praise it as a wise decision.”

The Hero was smiling.

There was such a thing as an innate nature that no matter what, a person couldn’t change.

I had it too.

The Hero had it too.

“Even in this very moment, someone is suffering, maybe even dying. If I hadn’t heard from Sylphy, I could’ve just ignored such stories. …But I heard it, and it’s right here in front of me.”

“……”

“The future me wouldn’t forgive me if I abandoned this.”

“……”

“If there’s a tragedy that will happen, and if there’s a tragedy I can stop by going…I want to go.”

I just kept my mouth shut and listened to the Hero’s story.

When I was in the Hero’s party, I didn’t particularly like the Hero, but I didn’t dislike them either.

It seemed like I was seeing that reason again in this very moment.

“Am I speaking out of obsession right now? Or am I actually speaking with my own voice?”

“That’s not something I can judge. Would you really let my evaluation define your values?”

“……I don’t want to, I don’t want to become such a weak woman.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?”

The Hero mumbled a little, hesitant.

“Basically, you don’t have a reason to follow me on my journey. You’re only helping me out of pure kindness… Having you here, finishing things up quickly in Elven Heim is the best thing for you.”

“That’s exactly right. I don’t want you to die, after all.”

“Yeah… Sorry.”

“Then, let’s go quickly.”

“Huh?”

“Solving the problems of the Half-Village is the fastest way, right? Then, we should go.”

“……”

The Hero looked at me, a little startled, and then finally said,

“I, I need to raise my favorability with you…! Why do you keep raising my favorability!?”

“Excuse me?”

“Uhm, well…”

“Yeah?”

Come to think of it, I was so focused on the conversation that I forgot Sylphie was even here.

But there wasn’t any direct mention of ‘Hero,’ and their looks are probably different from the common image of a Hero, so they probably wouldn’t immediately realize who they are.

“From what I hear, you seem to have business in Elven Heim.”

“That’s right.”

“Are you hurt somewhere? No, you do look hurt, now that I see it…”

“S…”

I shut the hero’s mouth.

“I’m… not feeling so good, I need medicine they can get in Elvenheim.”

“I see. Perhaps you need the World Tree’s sap?”

At Sylphie’s question, I paused for a moment, then let out a small breath and spoke.

“That’s right, that’s what I need.”

“Perhaps… I might be able to help.”

“Huh?”

“No, don’t get your hopes up too much…”

Sylphie wore a very troubled expression.

Is this a sensitive topic to talk about?

“If you save my village… you risked your lives for me, someone you just met, right?”

“Extremely speaking, yeah.”

“Then I’ll help too. I don’t know if it will help, but there’s one way I can think of. I’ll risk my life to get the World Tree’s sap for you.”

Hmm.

From the way she’s talking, she’s not sure, but it sounds like there’s a ‘huh? maybe this is possible?’ sort of method.

I don’t know if it’s legal.

But getting it legally in the Elven country right now is difficult. Besides, we have no information, and we’d be lucky to not get turned away at the gate with a bunch of insults.

In that kind of situation, Sylphie says she knows a way to get the World Tree sap.

I don’t know what it is, or how likely it is, but it might be wiser than going there and begging on our knees.

“Alright.”

It’s good to have many options.

Even if I don’t choose the ones Sylphy prepared, the fact that I *could* choose them at any time brought a different kind of psychological stability.

“No time to dawdle. Let’s go.”

“But Royce.”

“Yes?”

“You broke the dishes earlier…”

“…I know.”

I’ll have to pay for them, right?

Gotta buckle down a bit when this trip’s over?

Money was just bleeding out of my pockets.