"This is…"
A curved ceiling greeted him when he opened his eyes.
"…?!"
The first thing he noticed was that he was tied to the bed. His fingers were also bound,
ensuring he couldn't move them to cast magic.
"Van!"
A small figure was clinging to his cheek.
"Lavender…"
The fairy's arms were tied with cord.
She couldn't hug him as she usually did, and so instead rubbed her little cheek against
his joyously. Van had never thought this before, but he found the warmth of Lavender's
gesture comforting.
"Oh, you're awake?"
Raising his head, Van saw Albert standing over him with a wooden tray.
"Water and a painkiller."
A cup and powdered medicine were on the tray, which Albert set at the bedside.
"Don't be stingy! Just let him use Healing Hands! What will you do if this leaves a scar?"
"It'd be a much bigger problem if he recovered completely and went on a rampage
again."
Casting Lavender a sidelong glance while she complained, Albert, with practiced ease,
helped Van swallow the medicine.
"I learned how to care for the wounded when I served Lady Esta on battlefields."
"Thank you."
Van's shoulders trembled when he met Albert's gaze. Albert smiled at that.
"You feel bad about what you did, don't you?"
"…Do you hate me?"
"Not at all."
Albert's expression stayed tranquil.
"But didn't it hurt?"
"Of course. Enough so that I was sure I'd die." Albert chuckled ruefully.
He stood and made to leave through the door, but stopped and turned around.
"But I won."
Albert stared at the stunned Van for a moment, then lowered his head and exited.
"What's his problem?!" Lavender erupted.
Van thought for a moment.
"Albert was right to act as he did. If he hadn't stopped me, I would have surely ceased
to be the Hero. And yet…" Van paused, trying to find the words for his feelings.
"Frustration? I feel frustrated at having lost?"
"Van…"
There was concern in Lavender's voice when she saw him looking troubled in a new
sort of way.
"Behaving yourself, I see. Good, good."
"What is this binding?! I can't break it even with all my strength! What's going on?!"
Lavender wasted no time raising a fuss when she saw me.
"It's a material made ages ago by a wood elf mage to tie a monster whale. It won't
break easily."
"Binding me with something like that isn't fair!"
Lavender had been fearsome when fighting Rit and the others, but now she
maintained her fairy appearance and personality.
It's because she knows Van isn't in any danger here. I guess that means we'll be all right.
"Lavender, I need to have a chat with Van, so could you wait in another room?"
"What?!"
"We need to talk, just the two of us, in order to clear up Van's confusion."
"Ugh…"
Lavender glanced at Van. After seeing him nod, she sighed.
"Fine… But you better not hurt Van."
"We've fought enough already."
Lavender hopped down from the bed, glared at me for a moment, and then strolled
out of the room like she owned the place, despite being tied up.
"You wouldn't know she was bound at all."
I was impressed by how grandly she exited before I closed the door.
"Now then." I set a chair next to Van's bed and sat down. "How are you feeling?"
"…Not great."
There was a sharpness to his tone, and emotion.
That's a good sign.
"I can imagine. Losing to someone you wanted to beat is never fun."
"Says the guy who won."
I laughed out loud at that, and Van smiled a little bit, too.
"That was dirty, Gideon."
"I wanted to win no matter what."
"…I want to fight again."
"We both managed to survive this time, but there are no rematches when it comes to
battle."
"…You're only saying that to get out of a rematch."
"I'm glad you understand."
Van laughed with me this time.
"I've never felt this sort of frustration before… Am I a failure as the Hero?"
"How are your impulses?"
"…They returned when I woke up. I won't try to destroy this village again."
Most likely, his rage had blocked his blessing's urges. Typically, that sort of thing was
impossible, but I knew of a similar occurrence with Ruti.
"Then I think you have your answer. So long as you possess the Divine Blessing of the
Hero, the role God gave you will remain. That's what the church teaches."
Van looked like he couldn't accept that. He'd always followed the church's doctrine,
but now he felt unworthy of his blessing. However, that was what it really meant to be
the Hero.
"Van, the Hero isn't something to just be. The true Hero is one who strives to live up to
the ideal."
"The ideal?"
Shisandan had mentioned something similar once. I didn't like borrowing an enemy's
words, but the original Hero had been an Asura demon. As a fellow Asura demon,
Shisandan knew the true Hero.
"You aren't a hero because you have the Hero blessing. You become a hero by thinking
for yourself about what it means to be one, by occasionally listening to the advice of
others, and even by doubting yourself many times. You do it all while pushing forward
to reach that ideal."
"Then what should I…?"
"I know what you lack."
"Huh?"
"A mentor."
Van was stunned. I bet he hadn't expected that answer.
"Your whole life has been focused on faith. You don't have enough worldly knowledge
or experience."
"Experience…"
"Superior swordsmanship is guided by a philosophy of one kind or another, yet your
blade lacks that. It's something that is nurtured through interactions with others,
through trying things and considering different ideas."
"A philosophy?"
"Your world is too small, and although your sword is sharp, it's shallow, too… That's
why you lost to me."
"…Shallow…"
"You only have one pattern—push through with brute force. A blade like that is easy
to disrupt with a counterattack."
"Mrgh?"
Van's boyish face grimaced with his obvious annoyance.
It was a hard expression, quite unlike his former constant air of detachment.
Losing his pure manifestation of the Hero blessing would weaken him for a time. But
as he gained more life experience, he'd grow stronger than ever.
In time, he'd probably become the strongest Hero, one in a similar vein to Ruti.
"In the future, you should listen more to what Esta tells you. Not just when it comes to
being the Hero, either. You should talk to her about all sorts of things. She has traveled
to many countries and seen things that no one else has. There are differences between
spears and swords, but it will at least be a point of reference."
"Esta… Is she still willing to travel with me?"
"If you strive to be a hero, then I'm sure she will accompany you. Because she is the
hero's guide."
"She's the hero's guide?"
"Not because of her blessing, but because that's what she wants to do. If not, she
would've abandoned such a troublesome hero long ago."
"…That's harsh. But you're probably right." Van went silent for a moment to consider
something. "Gideon… would you be willing to come with me?"
"I was Ruti's guide. I don't want to travel with another hero."
"I guess that figures." Van shook his head in disappointment.
A hero, huh…?
I wasn't sure whether to say what I had in mind. There was nothing left to do if I only
wanted Van to leave Zoltan. If he was willing to listen to Esta, then she could guide him
to become a proper hero.
But… I couldn't help feeling that remaining silent would be wrong, since he would fight
as a hero from now on.
"Van, I can't leave Zoltan, but… what do you say to a short adventure with me here?"
"An adventure?"
"Searching some ancient elf ruins."
"Wasn't the ancient elf stuff just made up to hide Ruti?"
"Always stick as close to the truth as possible to make a convincing lie. The bit about
an ancient elf creation guarding Zoltan was false, but there are ruins."
"What will we find?"
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
Van was dumbstruck. All of his previous undertakings had been thoroughly
investigated beforehand. His adventuring life had been about fighting powerful
enemies to raise his level or searching for magic items known to be in certain
unexplored regions.
"We'll be investigating in an area where we don't know what we'll encounter."
"Um…"
"It might be worthwhile for you. Those ancient elf ruins are linked to the Hero in some
way."
"Really?"
"You never got the proof of the Hero, right?"
"Oh, that treasure said to be sealed in the ancient elf structure near the capital of
Avalonia? I thought Ruti already took it."
"Yeah, she did… and I saw how the machine that supposedly sealed the proof of the
Hero presented that amulet to her."
"How do you mean?"
"It created the proof of the Hero. The item isn't the same treasure a previous Hero
carried, or the amulet written of in ancient legends. The device in the ruins generated
an entirely new one for Ruti."
"That's…"
Van was shocked. The proof of the Hero was a fabled treasure, an item that supposedly
strengthened the Divine Blessing of the Hero. Hearing that it was some massproduced object would've struck anyone speechless.
"Basically, the ancient elves had a deep connection with the Hero."
"…And you think there's something to be found in the ruins by Zoltan, too?"
"There is a section in the ruins called the Hero Administration Bureau."
"Hero Administration Bureau?" Van was understandably confused. "What in the world
is that?"
"That's what we'd be investigating. I think we might be able to uncover the link
between the ancient elves and the Hero—what Divine Blessings are."
"The link…"
After this, Van was going to risk his life fighting the demon lord's army for the sake of
the world. I wouldn't join him on that journey, but I still wanted him to set out with no
regrets about his decision.
That's why I continued.
"Van… you weren't born with the Hero blessing, were you?"
"?!"
He looked completely taken aback. There was a trace of fear in his eyes that the Hero
should have suppressed.
"How did you…?"
"I realized it by observing your ideals."
Van was pure. He had grown up in a monastery, and that was all he knew. Where had
that intense purity come from? The obvious answer was that he'd been a deeply pious
martyr type to begin with. However, his understanding of the Hero was still too naive.
"If you were always so true to your blessing, then why didn't you leave the monastery
the moment the demon lord's army arrived? No, the instant you connected with your
blessing? There are always troubled people in the world, after all."
"That's…"
"You didn't act, even as the demon lord's army destroyed your homeland. Why?"
Van looked down. I did my best to maintain a gentle tone as I went on.
"When I considered that, I realized why Ljubo believed you were the Hero."
As self-interested as Cardinal Ljubo had been, why would he risk his reputation by
trusting some nameless boy who showed up claiming to be the Hero?
"Ljubo knew you long before that, didn't he? Because your original blessing was
Cardinal."
"You're amazing…"
That was why a prince of Flamberge had been sent to the monastery in Avalonia.
"I connected with my blessing at the age of four."
"That's early. And I'm sure you had a high affinity with it, too."
Only people with the Cardinal blessing were allowed to become cardinals of the holy
church. So King Flamberge sent Van to the monastery in Avalonia, which was closer to
the Last Wall fortress.
"Cardinal Ljubo initially knew you as a future cardinal candidate, a potential recruit
for his faction."
"Mhm. I met Cardinal Ljubo twice before I became the Hero. I think that's why he
believed me."
"The Cardinal and the Hero are very different blessings. So when he saw you using
skills that Cardinal doesn't have access to, he knew you were special even though he
couldn't use Appraisal."
A change in blessing. That miracle was why Ljubo had believed that Van was the Hero.
"You lived as a priest, then suddenly had to change your worldview. That's why you
became a Hero who blindly followed your faith and your blessing's impulses."
Van's piety surely meant he'd felt great joy at God's miracle yet also been terribly
bewildered. Once cut off from the life he had spent living according to his Cardinal
blessing, he'd had to begin anew with a completely different blessing.
"I don't know what's waiting in the ancient elf ruins. But I do know that it's somehow
connected to the Hero."
"The Hero is a blessing created by God. That's all there is to it…"
"But the first Hero was an Asura demon."
"That can't be true! Asura demons don't have blessings!" Van shook his head.
"But it is."
"I don't know… God exists. God can't possibly be mistaken."
Van looked deeply troubled.
"I won't force you. I only told you because I thought it would be unfair to keep this
information from you, knowing that it might have an answer to what the Hero is."
My heart ached a little when I saw Van bite his lip with unease.
Can I really saddle him with the fate of the world?
Unlike Ruti, Van had chosen this fight for himself. It would be wrong to deny his
decision. If he intended to be a hero, then I'd support him. That was all there was to it.
"…I want to know what the Hero is, too, and if there's some special meaning to the
miracle that occurred."
"I see. Then that settles it."
I undid the ropes tying Van down. He put his right hand to his chest and used Healing
Hands.
"Whatever we find in there, try not to take it too seriously," I said.
"That's not really possible after you built it up so much."
"You are you. That won't change whether your blessing is the Cardinal or the Hero. As
long as you don't forget that, I'm sure you'll be fine. Oh, and while we're camping, I
want to teach you some basic swordsmanship."
"Swordsmanship… That sounds nice."
The purity in Van's eyes that had caused so many people so much trouble was gone.
The menace of Van the Hero had passed, and with that, our goal had been achieved.
I hoped he'd become a person who strove to be a hero and that his life would be one
without regret. And that was why I'd decided to stick around in Van the Hero's story
for a little longer.
Our next target was the Hero Administration Bureau.