I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

4 – [The Hero Who Captured the Demon King – 01]

Sometimes, while traversing battlefields, you come across them.

People who make you wonder, *how the hell is this person still alive?*

I’d seen people charge forward with a hole punched through their lung, or someone keep running with one leg completely gone.

They say when faced with a life-or-death situation, people can exert superhuman strength, so I know better than anyone that you can’t let your guard down until their life is extinguished.

That’s why things like, ‘there’s no way he could survive that wound’ or, ‘how the hell is he alive?’ are unnecessary words to me.

Those who are meant to live, will live.

But this time, I couldn’t help but think it again. No, it’s more accurate to say I had no choice *but* to think it.

‘A third of his head is gone. And his heart’s been pierced.’

He should have died at this point.

Judging by the wounds, the head shot and heart piercing seemed to be from arrows, but his arm was severed by a blade.

The rough cut suggested it was done by someone not particularly skilled with a sword. Or maybe they did it that way on purpose, to inflict more pain.

Either way, he should have died at that point.

Even as I was treating him, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was just tending to a corpse. The hero’s condition was that bad.

He should have been dead already, so the fact that he was still alive wasn’t because of my skill, but because the hero was somehow enduring these injuries.

My healing isn’t particularly fast, but the fact that he was still breathing even during the treatment, that his life was being sustained, was absolutely astounding.

He’s supposed to be the same kind of ‘human’ as me, yet this absurd life force was hardly human.

More than that, how is he even alive when a third of his head is gone and his heart has been pierced?

‘The wounds are almost completely healed. That should stop the bleeding.’

That wasn’t the real problem.

“Ugh, 으윽…!”

The hero groaned, as if in pain.

That voice was the only thing that confirmed she was still alive.

If it takes this long to heal with spirit magic, she should have died before the treatment. That she survived isn’t because I’m amazing, but because the hero isn’t human.

‘This poison, could it be… the Death God’s poison?’

It was my first time seeing it myself.

But if it was the Death God’s poison, it made sense that the hero suffered this much.

The Death God’s poison forcefully paralyzes the mana nerves present in a person’s body.

It was a powerful poison, but more than that, it was incredibly difficult to make, and above all, it only worked on ‘living things’.

And the rumor was that in the end, it would always kill the person it poisoned, leaving not even a corpse behind, but somehow, the hero was enduring it, even in his poisoned state.

A single drop of this stuff was enough to kill a person.

‘Even I can’t do anything about this poison, I probably couldn’t cure it even with an elixir.’

It wasn’t like there wasn’t a method, but it wasn’t something I could think about right now. And it was a problem to consider after the hero opened his eyes, not before.

From the start, there was a chance he wouldn’t open his eyes and just die like this.

No, that was the most likely outcome.

If anything, the chance of him opening his eyes was even lower.

‘I can understand why they used the god of death’s poison. They must have decided that it was the only way to kill the hero, but the problem is, this is human territory.’

If this were monster territory, I could accept that the monsters made a plan to kill the hero and lured him into a trap to poison him with the god of death’s poison, but this was human territory, and the demon king was already dead, so the monsters were weakened.

How did this happen?

…He was attacked by another human.

‘That’s the most realistic thing.’

The hero had no mercy for monsters, so trying to catch him off guard to inject poison didn’t make sense, and in the worst case, he would have been able to protect his body with his blessing.

That means that the only way to give him the poison was if it was someone he was careless around, and that was only a human.

Someone very close to him.

Someone who could feed it to him naturally.

‘It’s best to assume it’s someone from his party.’

But at the same time, questions arose.

After I left, the hero’s party went on to defeat the demon king, and they succeeded. The hero was a somewhat aggressive person, but he wasn’t evil.

His personality was abrasive, that’s true, but his nature itself was kind, and he was, in his own way, gentle to those he was sure were ‘his people’.

Unfortunately, I never made it into the Hero’s circle.

‘If I’d returned with the Hero, I could have lived a life of luxury. Even killing the Hero carries significant risk if I fail. Was there a reason, a compelling enough reason, to take on that risk and kill him?’

That he even used the Reaper’s poison meant there was a definite intent to kill, and the Hero I knew wasn’t that bad of a person.

Besides, although he was somewhat eccentric, he ultimately saved a lot of people, and he saved the world by defeating the Demon King. Just because his personality was a bit abrasive and he got irritated easily, that didn’t seem like a valid reason to kill someone who saved the world.

Is this just some random delusion of mine?

Or is there a reason he had to be killed, a reason I don’t know about?

And judging by the Hero’s wounds, they aren’t that old.

Yet, even in this small village, rumors are already spreading that the Hero might be dead.

Unease.

“Regardless, if the Hero doesn’t open his eyes, this is all meaningless rambling.”

I sat down on a chair, gazing at the Hero lying on the only bed.

He wasn’t someone I had a good impression of, but it’s a fact that he saved many people, and it’s also undeniable that he’s a hero who saved the world by defeating the Demon King. I didn’t want to see someone like that die in this way.

If someone put in the effort, I wanted that effort to be rewarded accordingly.

I didn’t like the idea of someone who had strived to save the world and its people not being rewarded.

Even if she was the woman who kicked me out of the party.

‘I did everything I could.’

Now all that’s left is.

“It depends on your life force and your will, Hero.”

*

A sensation like sinking into the dark depths of the sea takes over me.

Even with some mistakes, I believed I’d done well, believed I’d given people hope.

I thought that after defeating the Demon Lord and saving people, many would praise me, would glorify me.

I thought the minor errors would be erased.

I imagined a future where, befitting the title of Hero, just the name Olivia Reinhart would bring reassurance, where monsters and criminals would tremble at the very sound.

I’d hoped that absolute power would become a deterrent, allowing many to live virtuously, a world where no one would be hurt.

I knew the world wasn’t perfectly clean, but was that a reason to kill?

‘Am I… am I really that wrong?’

Did I commit a sin that great?

I risked my life to reach the Demon Lord’s castle and together we defeated him.

No one could deny how large my contribution was, yet I didn’t think to criticize them, didn’t consider them anything less than comrades. I trusted them, and because I trusted them, I didn’t think I would be betrayed, and I let my guard down.

I don’t know.

Should I be despairing right now?

Or should I be angry?

Should I at least shed some tears out of sadness?

‘What should a Hero do in a moment like this?’

If I’m a Hero.

If I’m called a Hero.

A Hero.

What kind of decision should a Hero make in this situation?

What conclusion must I reach to be deemed a ‘hero’?

The unanswerable question continued to echo in my head, and as much affection as I held for them, anger and sorrow seemed to well up. I couldn’t fathom their reasons for going this far.

Just because someone isn’t an absolute ally of the kingdom, is that reason enough to kill them like this? Even someone with a kind of achievement of saving the world?

Disgusting.

“……!”

Everything, dyed pitch black, swirled and vanished, and then, finally, I saw a strange ceiling.

For a fleeting moment, I indulged in the happy thought that it had all been just a nightmare, but my vision was half-gone, and I couldn’t feel one of my arms.

The pain and heat that surged through my entire body told me that none of it had been a lie.

“Ugh, grkk.”

I tried to sit up.

Heavy.

Miserable.

Even breathing was painful, like my head would split.

I wondered myself how I was even alive, my broken body screaming in protest.

The visibly discolored skin quickly confirmed it was from some sort of poison, some kind of death god’s poison or whatever.

‘Someone must have saved me.’

Looking around like that, I saw someone lying on the sofa.

It seemed there was only one bed, so they’d laid the patient – me – on it and had fallen asleep on the sofa themselves.

“That, person…! Royce?”

The face of the sleeping person was clear from where I was, and I quickly recognized it as someone I knew.

Lois.

The sorcerer I’d banished.

Come to think of it, I think I saw Lois’s face before I blacked out. So, this is Lois’s house, and Lois healed me?

The realization scrambled my brain, and I grabbed my head without thinking.

“Ugh, um?”

In the meantime, Lois opened her eyes, slowly sitting up, and met my gaze.

Looking at the clock, Lois chuckled as if disbelieving.

“To be awake just three days after those injuries, I should still call you a monster… no, should I say you’ve become even more monstrous….”

Lois approached me, speaking.

“Do you remember me?”

“H-how… “

“Huh?”

Lois looked at me with that incomprehensible expression.

I couldn’t understand.