I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me

8 – [The Hero Who Defeated the Demon King – 05]

“……”

“……”

“……”

The hero party will soon arrive at the royal capital, and they will be praised by the people of the world as honorable saviors.

But despite having attained such wealth and honor, the atmosphere was bleak, and no one even tried to speak, it was hard to believe that they were those very people.

Some had eyes red from shedding too many tears, and some had unfocused eyes, looking at something unknown.

Only Alex maintained his sanity.

‘He’s probably dead.’

I didn’t see the body myself.

I did go down and search the surrounding area, but he was nowhere to be found, and since it was raining, I couldn’t distinguish anything by bloodstains.

Even if I wanted to follow bloodstains, there wasn’t anyone among us who knew a tracking skill of the sort.

Maybe Rayna, as an elf, could have, but Rayna is hardly in her right mind at the moment.

‘That river goes all the way to the sea. If she went out to the sea, we’d never find the body.’

Alex shook his head.

A third of her head was gone, and on top of that, one eye would have been completely ripped out.

Her heart was pierced.

One arm was gone.

She was poisoned with Death’s venom.

And if she fell from that cliff on top of everything, death was inevitable. Whether she fell in the river or on the ground, dying was common sense, the only logical conclusion.

They couldn’t find her body on land, so they figured she must have fallen in the river and floated away.

‘Hoo, calm down.’

In the first place, poisoned by Death’s venom like that, even if she miraculously survived, her life wouldn’t last long.

Even if she survived the fall like the hero she was, it was reasonable to assume she would have died from the venom within minutes.

Death is a given.

Dying is the sensible thing.

But.

Throughout their travels, Alex had seen her defy common sense and win countless times, and had seen her recklessly charge in, take near-fatal wounds, and yet stand there as if it was nothing.

The possibility that Olivia Reinhart wasn’t dead kept surfacing, and he couldn’t get it out of his head.

‘There’s no way she could be alive.’

She’d lost her strength.

She can’t use her magic because of Death’s venom.

Her contract with the Holy Sword was severed.

“Alright, everyone, we’re almost to the capital.”

“…….”

“…….”

“Haaah.”

Alex sighed.

They had betrayed the hero, Olivia, for their own selfish desires.

If that was the case, wasn’t it better to keep lying to the very end, rather than feel useless guilt or remorse? If you’re going to tell a lie, you have to do it with the resolve to carry that lie to your grave.

Alex felt like weeping at their patheticness, but they were still his companions, and they were people with whom he would need to maintain a friendly relationship going forward.

Furthermore, the shared experience of committing a common sin meant they were more likely to trust Alex than others.

More than anything, now that the hero Olivia was dead, the saintess, Velita, was a potential next fiancé for Alex.

A sage and a saintess—that was a surprisingly good pairing, so people would love it.

“Everyone!”

“Huh? Oh, what did you say?”

“Sorry, I spaced out a little too.”

“…….”

He swallowed down the urge to sigh again.

“We’re almost to the capital. Use magic or whatever, and make sure you keep a decent face. You’re not seriously thinking of entering the capital looking like that, are you? Everyone in the capital is waiting for our return.”

“Ugh.”

“We know.”

“Olivia was killed by the demon king. She bravely killed the demon king, and she died as a result. It was a hero’s death, through and through. You understand?”

I should have killed her back when we were in the monster territory.

There were several reasons, but the biggest one was that I didn’t know Olivia had no intention of living in the kingdom.

If I’d known that, killing her in monster territory would have been much safer in many ways than killing her in the somewhat risky human realm.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Of course.”

“If you all do that well, then I’ll keep my promise too.”

There was a limit even to strength.

That thing isn’t human.

You shouldn’t call it human.

Putting it in the same category as ‘humanity’ is unfair to humans.

‘Uncontrollable monsters should be killed.’

At first, I thought Olivia, being simple and emotional, would be easy to handle.

I thought I could use the word ‘heroic,’ and surprisingly, I could easily make her a puppet that moved according to Alex’s words.

But, more than imagined, she was unyielding, principled, ideological, and a good being.

Saying she wouldn’t forgive evil sounded good, but her standard of evil was solely her own, so even if something wasn’t illegal, if it was evil by Olivia’s standards, she’d tear it down.

She saved people like she had an obsession.

She wouldn’t leave someone in tears alone.

Still, I thought that if we somehow got married, she would listen to her husband, me.

It became somewhat annoying, but I thought making her my wife and binding her with the chains of family was the best option, but even that became impossible, so there was nothing to be done.

When.

Suddenly.

Because I couldn’t know if Olivia would see the kingdom as the enemy.

“Well then, it’s the hero’s return. You need to smile and reassure the people.”

*

“No…!”

“Hey, seriously stop messing around and open your mouth…!!”

“How dare you mess with the hero!”

“A person who’s lost their contract with the sacred sword, what do you even think you’re saying…!”

“I, I can eat by myself!!”

We bickered like that for a few minutes.

The reason was simple.

No matter how amazing the hero was, she was still human, and the Shinigami’s poison was still killing her.

Frankly, I didn’t know why she wasn’t dead yet either, but what was certain was that the poison was definitely killing her.

You could even call it “nibbling away”, but it was still certainly leading towards death, and naturally she needed to eat food and take medicine.

But even though she had been treated, the hero’s insides were still a mess, so she needed to eat food that was easy to digest, and then take medicine.

And yet.

“You said you’d eat by yourself last time too, do you know how much time it took? You even spilled it everywhere, didn’t you?”

“T-that was…!”

Of course.

The Shinigami’s poison also has a numbing effect, so watching the hero move, even somewhat clumsily, my first thought was, “Is this person really the same species as me?”

The possibility even arose that his bodily structure might not be human.

It felt like all the world’s technology and the assumed common sense of human anatomy were about to be overturned by just this one Hero.

“Meals are important. In some ways, when it comes to healing the body, a meal holds the same value as medicine.”

“…….”

“So, open your mouth. What’s so uncomfortable about me feeding you…? Wouldn’t eating with that arm be more uncomfortable? Why do you dislike it so much? Is it because you feel like I’m treating you like a child?”

“……It’s just… embarrassingly awkward.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

It was too quiet to hear.

“It’s nothing, okay. …I’ll just eat, I’ll eat. Ah, aaah.”

“Well done.”

The Hero ate the food I gave him.

Actually, it was closer to the concept of drinking than eating.

I’d worried that in the worst case scenario he might just drink it all in one go, but thankfully, it didn’t go that far. It wouldn’t have been good to put all that food in at once.

“Livia, as you know, we’ll be heading to East Port from here and then onto the eastern continent.”

“To get to Elvenheim, right? I know, but I don’t know if the elves will help us.”

“Well, he’s the Hero who saved the world, don’t you think they’ll help?”

“…….”

The Hero looked away as if he’d been poked.

What’s that about?

Could it be that something happened at Elvenheim after I was banished?

I hadn’t heard any rumors.

But Elvenheim itself was a land of elves with little interaction with the outside world to begin with, so maybe that’s why rumors hadn’t spread.

Somehow I started to get worried, but I had barely managed to get her to eat, and asking now would probably just make things unnecessarily complicated.

There’s some time before we reach Elvenheim, so I’ll ask later.

‘…Honestly, it’s close to impossible.’

Looking at the progression of the poison, there wasn’t much leeway.

Even now, she’s only holding on because of the life force of the hero, Olivia Reinhart, it could be any moment, that’s what I thought.

“I finished eating.”

“You have. Now you have to take your medicine.”

“I can take the medicine myself.”

“……”

When I looked at the Hero, it seemed like her cheeks were a little flushed.

It didn’t seem like she was in pain though.

Hmm.

“……Ah, were you maybe just embarrassed?”

“……!”

Her eyes widened, and the Hero turned her head away, her face turning even redder.

She hadn’t reacted at all to any handsome men, men with great physiques, or powerful men who had come along the way.

Even to Alex, her fiancé, she hadn’t shown any reaction, only responding as a comrade. Because of that, I’d thought the Hero was completely uninterested or even oblivious in that way.

But, was it not that either?

“How should I put it, I’m sorry for not being considerate. …But, this is necessary. We don’t have much time.”

“Ah, I know… This is the first time I’ve ever been so helplessly assisted.”

“…”

I thought it was rational shame.

But, was it not that either?

He was such a confusing person.