Chapter 22: 22

AN: Former Hero Party’s Point of View

“Martina-sama, you have a visitor.”

“Yes. Who is it?”

A female knight came into the room, stood up near the door, and said to me.

This is a knight’s quarters in the royal capital. This is the office prepared for the representative.

There are only a few people who come to this place, so who?

Did I have an appointment with someone today?

A female knight answered my question that I was tilting my head in my mind.

“Yes, It’s Touka-sama.”

“Oh, Touka? I understand. Let her through here at once, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As soon as the female knight heard my instructions, she immediately turned around and left the room.

After a while, a familiar face appeared.

“Long time no see, Martina. Hmm, you’ve grown quite a bit, Commander.”

“I’m going to return your words exactly as they are, Princess Touka, who became a hero in the Kamui Kingdom.”

“Stop it. I’m not the kind of woman to be called a princess.”

“Haha… that’s true. Well, since we’re not standing around talking, why don’t you take a seat on that couch?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

An exotic girl with waist-length black hair tied back.

No, I don’t think I’m old enough to be a girl anymore, and neither is Touka.

After all, we both turned 20 this year.

Realizing how fast time flies, I sat across the reception table and renewed old friendships with Touka for the first time in a while.

She seemed a little more mature than when we had last met, and she had become very beautiful.

I was being sarcastic earlier, but I think Tohka is a woman who deserves to be called a princess.

“But you look different. I’ve always thought you were beautiful, but I think you’ve made it even more polished, Knight Martina-sama of the Royal Capital.”

“My, you flatter me? I’m flattered. Thank you.”

“Your sarcastic and untruthfulness is just like the old days.”

“Looks are easy to change, but what’s on the inside doesn’t change so much.”

“You’re right… Really, you’re right.”

Suddenly, Touka’s expression darkened. Although she was smiling, there was a hint of melancholy on her face, as if she was remembering the past and thinking about it.

Just by looking at her expression, I could somehow guess what she was remembering.

At the same time, I felt a bitterness well up in my heart.

Even though I try not to remember as much as I can, I can’t seem to get rid of his face…

“In hindsight, it was a bit much, the way he changed.”

“Yes, it was. But we didn’t notice the impossibility. In the end, we were only looking at him superficially…”

So, no one, not even me, not even Touka, not even Sofia who is not here, could notice… that he was faking.

I am very angry.

I’m really pissed off at the guy who lied to me and… at myself for not realizing it at all.

“Moreover, that guy was doing most of the cleaning up after himself… Knowing that made me feel even more uncomfortable.”

“That’s right… Yeah, that’s right.”

Touka’s eyes narrowed.

I’m sure she’s remembering the past.

I remember that time too…

―――2 years ago.

Ares is a man who has earned himself a bad reputation as a rare scum hero.

Brawls in the inn and guild, sexual harassment of women, and selfish behavior in the weapon and armor shop.

The world’s opinion of him is that he is the worst person… With words and actions that are unbecoming of a hero.

Some people looked at us negatively just because we were in the same party as the heroes, but most people were sympathetic.

『 Poor you, being with that guy… 』

I remember being comforted many times.

In fact, I thought they were right too.

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I wondered why I had to travel with such a lowlife.

When I first met him, I thought I was showing him the image of a hero, earnestly striving to save the world, but before I knew it, he started saying that he was special and became arrogant.

I think it all started with something trivial.

At a meal at the inn, Ares said, “We are a group of heroes on a journey to save the world, so we would like you to give us a break on the cost of our meals here.”

I wondered what he was talking about all of a sudden, but at the time we were so short of money that we were struggling to even come up with the money to stay at the inn.

I thought that was why Ares had made such an absurd request.

The inn had no choice but to accept the request for assistance if the king brought out an official letter from him stating that they were on a journey to save the world.

I decided to accept the favor from the inn on the condition that I would repay the favor eventually, reminding Ares that it was only for this time.

That’s when it started.

It was then that Ares’ behavior began to visibly escalate.

He began to bring up the document at every turn and demanded excessive services at the inn.

It was right around this time that the sexual harassment of us began.

We were frequently touched on our breasts and buttocks, and our skin was peeped at in the bath…

Not only that, but he even got into a brawl with some adventurers in the inn.

Naturally, we were banned from the inn.

And when we went to the guild to earn money for our trip, he got into another violent fight with the adventurers inside, and demanded more money than what was written in the request.

Naturally, we’re banned from several guilds, and I couldn’t even take requests properly anymore.

At a weapon and armor shop, he once took items without paying for them.

In doing so, he beat up the store owner, which was completely the work of a robber.

I remember the manager was in tears when the store’s most valuable product was taken away.

And the best part is that he hardly fought at all, even though he was so forcefully equipped.

On the way to and from work, he would sometimes see villages being attacked by demons… but he would pass them all.

As expected, our anger reached its peak at his behavior.

We couldn’t let him get away with it, so we tried to head towards the village to be attacked, but he stopped us.

『 It’s not in our interest, so let’s just ignore him and move on. I want to get to the next town as soon as possible. I don’t have time to help that village. 』

He said something like that.

We were so angry that we almost lost our minds.

We were about to leave for the village, but Ares showed us a document.

It contains the words that the king entrusted to the heroes, giving them full authority over the journey.

It said something ridiculous about the party members having to obey the words of the hero.

He even threatened us with what might happen to our families back home if we didn’t obey.

However, when we joined the party, there was no such thing… so Ares had it prepared later.

Why did the king let Ares have such a thing?

No, before that, we were on the verge of dying of resentment as Ares’ actions churned our guts beyond their limits.

That’s what happened a month ago when we parted company with Ares.

I had reached my limit.

The three of us made up our minds to part ways with Ares in the Glaive Wilderness, our final destination.

If you want to threaten us with that sentence, you can.

That’s how I felt.

We were even thinking that if the royal family did any kind of action, then we would organize a volunteer army of people who were noticing Ares’ actions and attack the royal capital.

Ares’ reputation was at an all-time low, so we were confident that we would be able to gather enough people.

Besides, the area around the Glaive Wilderness, where we left Ares behind, is home to many dangerous demons.

I didn’t think that Ares, who had been hiding in the back and hadn’t fought much until now, would be able to defeat those demons.

If we are gone, they will die in the wild anyway.

That was also one of the reasons why we said goodbye to Ares there.

I can’t imagine going into a battle with the fate of the world at stake with that man.

I didn’t know where I would be dragged down, or worse, end up dead.

That’s why I didn’t challenge Demiurge together with Ares.

Rather, we thought that our odds of victory and survival would be better if we took on a better warrior with us.

And so, we finally broke away from Ares.

But we never dreamed that we would receive such a letter from Ares right after that…

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