The Hero’s Disciple Has Returned

The Hero Candidate Plan was, as the name suggests, hastily implemented by the Emperor who was too anxious because his life was too precious in the face of the Demon King crisis. In other words, it was only natural that there were many loopholes here and there. And it was also a natural flow that there were many who wanted to take advantage of those loopholes.

The true problem of the Hero Candidate Plan

It’s not that God comes down from heaven to select a hero.

If all the hero candidates die and only one remains, the Empire must recognize that one as the hero regardless of their ability. They might even package them as a hero, saying that maybe it was God’s will that only that one remained. Who knows, maybe at that moment, God might come down and give special powers to that sole hero candidate?

Befitting a plan that was a mess from the start, there were plenty of things that were nonsense in the middle and in the results. Therefore, it was truly foolish that dirty desires and hands were interfering even at this moment when the fate of the world was at stake, but because of that, truly human things were happening.

“It’s a request.”
“……”
“I hear there’s a girl who’s already making a name for herself as a hero candidate before it’s properly started. Eliminate her.”
“……”
“Answer, Number 5.”

Zzzzt!

“Ugh! …Yes.”
“You fool. No matter how much you struggle, your fate won’t change.”

In the underworld, there were groups that made a living by doing various dirty jobs, and among them, there was the most secretive group called 【Medusa】. True to its name, taken from the legendary monster that turns any living being to stone the moment their eyes meet, this group was famous for silently burying those who tried to find out about their identity. Therefore, only their name and the fact that they kill people for money were known, but nothing more was known about the group. In the case of the information guild ‘Dark Moon’, it was known that they didn’t accept any requests regarding 【Medusa】 at all, whether they truly knew nothing or just didn’t want to get involved.

And both the woman called Number 5 and the middle-aged man who was giving her orders and inflicting terrible pain on her when he was displeased belonged to this 【Medusa】.

The legendary monster 【Medusa】 was known to be a monster with a woman’s body. Perhaps because of that, all those who carried out the task of killing people as assassins in 【Medusa】 were women. And they were all victims who had been forcibly made into assassins by the 【Medusa】 group.

Number 5 was one of those victims.

But Number 5 couldn’t think of herself as a victim.

“You don’t even say ‘It’s not my fault’ anymore? That’s right, killing people to survive was your choice, wasn’t it? If you really had such a noble will like a saint, shouldn’t you have stabbed my neck with that dagger instead?”

As the man said, she killed people because she wanted to live. Even if the orders were forced and tremendous pain followed if she didn’t obey… In the end, it was no one else but herself who made herself see others’ blood and dirtied her hands with that blood because she wanted to live, because she wanted to escape the pain.

That’s why Number 5 couldn’t help but despise herself. As much as she resented the 【Medusa】 group that gave her unfair orders and inflicted terrible pain, she couldn’t help but hate herself madly. In the end, she had killed people for her own sake, so she was no different from the 【Medusa】 that she hated so much.

‘I could just stab my neck with this dagger…’

Why doesn’t she do it?

Why can’t she do it?

‘Do I still believe? That a hand will come down to save me from this hell…’

It’s a futile act.

When she was first abandoned on the street, she believed that her parents would find her and take her back after a few days.

It was a futile hope.

When she first entered 【Medusa】 and had to endure time that felt like dying, she believed that those great imperial knights or holy knights of the church would come to save her.

It was a futile wish.

When she first killed someone, she prayed with trembling hands. Please save her. Or rather, kill her and put her at ease.

It was a futile prayer.

Now she knows.

That this world itself is hell and no matter how much she pleads, nothing changes.

So it might be best to end her life with her own hands.

‘But even if I die, it will be hell in death too.’

Perhaps those she had killed while waiting for her own death might be waiting for her. That in itself was hell for her. Therefore, even death was not an escape route for her. If it’s hell whether she lives or dies… In the end, there was nothing she could do but go with the flow.

Yes.

She is not living with hope.

She merely exists, unable to make any choice because she has no choices.

And now she was about to kill even a hero candidate.

‘If it’s a hero candidate… Couldn’t they kill me?’

Number 5 soon erased that thought from her mind.

Even if they were a hero candidate, they were still a child. There was no way such a child could kill her, who could kill even those at the level of masters after unwillingly becoming too strong in that hellish training.

“Number 5, you must succeed. Don’t forget that you have no choice anyway.”
“……”
“Answer!”
“Ugh!”

Number 5 gritted her teeth. She had not yet abandoned her will to resist. There was nothing else she could do except express that. Even knowing it was trashy self-satisfaction, self-consolation, she still couldn’t give it up today.

♧♧♧

Hero Candidate Sera

It was known that she had been acknowledged by Mercenary King Balik, one of the ‘Hero Selectors’. As if that wasn’t enough, rumors about her were spreading rapidly as she had already been active in eliminating numerous villains while traveling here and there. It was as if it had been prepared in advance and burst simultaneously at the right timing. The important thing was that as she became too prominent, all other hero candidates were buried.

As a result, many people developed antipathy towards her existence. It wasn’t just those driven by lust for power. Even the superhumans and masters who had taken in disciples due to this Hero Candidate Plan came to view Sera as a thorn in their side. Just because one has reached a high level doesn’t mean their humanity has been verified. In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if there were those among the masters and superhumans who tried to use underhanded methods because they were upset that their disciples were overshadowed.

The important thing is that someone wanted her dead so much that they paid a large sum to 【Medusa】 to take on the request. That’s why the request was probably delivered to Number 5, one of the First Numbers.

First Numbers, the numbers 1-10 are given to the 10 most skilled assassins among the 【Medusa】 assassins. Only up to number 10 is selected… Numbers beyond that have no meaning. Therefore, unlike Number 5, those who were satisfied with living as 【Medusa】 were doing their utmost to enter the First Numbers. Unlike Number 5, other First Numbers were living lives that other assassins found truly enviable, taking sweet rewards.

While other First Numbers and assassins couldn’t understand Number 5, conversely, Number 5 couldn’t understand them either. What on earth could they enjoy with that money stained with blood? Don’t the faces of those stained with blood come to mind every time they spend that money?

It’s not that Number 5 hadn’t tried to escape from this hell. But none of her attempts succeeded. No matter what she did, their faces never left her mind. They never disappeared from her mind, and she couldn’t forget them either.

And

Surely today too

She won’t be able to forget the face of Hero Candidate Sera.

Whoosh!

She hesitates

But at the moment of killing

She didn’t hesitate.

Because she had been thoroughly trained to be that way.

She could hesitate when she hadn’t drawn her dagger, but once she drew it, she couldn’t hesitate anymore.

Approaching Sera’s back and aiming for her neck was so natural, so swift, and so precise. Extremely skilled techniques are no different from magic. At this moment, Number 5’s assassination technique was just that. Her skill shown in an instant was incredible, as if she had used spatial movement magic and several other magics at once.

“Resent me.”

With those words, her dagger, close to instantaneous, accurately aimed for Sera’s neck.

Her experience and instinct shouted that it was over. She sincerely thought it was over. That’s how perfect her technique was. The talent for killing, the talent she couldn’t deny no matter how much she wanted to, always thoroughly betrayed her and perfectly succeeded in assassination. That’s why she couldn’t help but think this time would be the same. Because she had used her technique more perfectly than ever before.

Whoosh!

“……?!”

That’s why she couldn’t help but be surprised.

Because her dagger had only cut through the air.

‘A magical illusion? No. There was definitely a person in my domain just now.’

There was only one thing she could think of.

The possibility that Sera had used the same technique that she had used to aim at her back in an instant, that was the only possibility.

‘Shadow Walking? Impossible!’

Shadow Walking

It was 【Medusa】’s secret technique that only 【Medusa】 assassins could learn, and Number 5 was holding the First Number position because she could use this technique more perfectly than anyone else. The only thing that could perfectly counter ‘Shadow Walking’ was ‘Shadow Walking’ itself… That’s why it was unbelievable. It was too nonsensical for a hero candidate to have learned ‘Shadow Walking’.

“You look like you’ve just witnessed something impossible with your own eyes?”
“……!”

Sera was right behind Number 5.

Number 5 immediately used ‘Shadow Walking’ to create distance.

But when she checked the position where Sera had been, Sera wasn’t there. As if she had never been there in the first place…

“Interesting. I didn’t know you could make such a face?”
“……?!”

Sera was right behind Number 5. It was simple. The moment Number 5 used ‘Shadow Walking’, Sera also used ‘Shadow Walking’ to immediately catch up to Number 5’s back.

Ting!

Number 5 quickly turned around and swung her dagger. Sera also defended. Unlike usual, holding a dagger instead of the sword Jade had given her as a gift, she…

Ting! Ping! Clang! Ting!

Easily responded to Number 5’s dagger techniques. As if she had learned the exact same dagger techniques, her movements were identical like twins.

Number 5 felt like she was having a nightmare.

Should I say it felt like an unbeatable strong enemy had appeared in a dream? In the dream, as set up, you end up unable to defeat that dream strong person, and just as their sword is about to fall on your head, you wake up from the dream. It felt like that. But this was reality. Nothing changed just because she felt that way. What was waiting ahead was only certain death.

Die?

Yes, dying.

Being able to die.

She…

“I want to show you a mirror.”
“……”
“Do you know what kind of face you’re making right now?”
“……”
“You’re smiling while crying.”
“…Kill me.”
“I don’t want to.”
“…Why?”
“Death would be happiness for you, right? I don’t have a good enough personality to give happiness to someone who tried to kill me.”
“……”

Number 5 couldn’t help but understand. Those eyes were pure sincerity. Hero Candidate Sera truly didn’t have even a speck of will to kill her. No, rather…!

Number 5 hurriedly tried to stab her own neck with her dagger.

Clang!

Everything but the handle of the dagger vanished.

Literally vanished.

Without leaving even a trace, very cleanly

Sera’s aura blade had erased it.

“It’s no use biting your tongue or taking poison. The Great Magician will heal it all anyway.”

With those words, Great Magician William revealed himself. He had been hiding himself with high-level magic and completely concealing his presence by not moving at all from there, so even Number 5, who had genius-level talent in detecting presences, couldn’t notice.

“From the beginning… You knew I was coming?”
“Of course. Because we put in requests to 【Medusa】 to make it happen that way. Moreover, we also put in requests that matched the specialties of other First Numbers so that you, Number 5, could come. So you came here as I wanted.”

Using poison to remove poison.

The 【Medusa】 members must be struggling with unwanted world contributions. After making all the First Number assassins fight for the world like that, they made it so Number 5 had no choice but to come to her.

Dealing with 【Medusa】 was familiar, so there was nothing difficult for Sera at all.

If there was anything difficult

This moment right now could be said to be the most difficult.

That’s because

She had killed Number 5 with her own hands every time.

Even the infinitely regressing hero couldn’t know how to save her. Because it was a path she had never taken before.

‘Shall we start properly repaying the favor?’