My eyes wouldn’t open.
My body wouldn’t move either,
It felt something like, “I’m being pressed down by sleep paralysis… except my eyes won’t open, too”?
Maybe I was dead.
The reason I thought that was, first of all, I had no sensation in my body.
This had never happened to me before,
So it was a little scary.
Am I really dead?
If I died, shouldn’t I be floating around here and there as a soul or something?
Or seeing my collapsed body.
‘No idea. For now, let’s just stay like this. It’s not like I can do anything.’
I’d been running around the dungeon almost all day.
Just imagine if I woke up right now.
That Gordon bastard would probably tell me to go explore the third layer immediately.
You had to rest when you could.
Being too diligent was a problem in itself.
Those, too, were fairly famous sayings among mercenaries.
“Ugh…”
I stayed still like that, doing absolutely nothing,
—Tickle. Tickle.
When I began to feel something stimulating my skin.
It feels like wind…?
Where am I right now?
Wasn’t the place I collapsed in a cave?
—Rustle… swish…
After a little more time passed, I could even hear the sound of grass brushing in the wind beside me.
“Ugh…”
Unable to suppress my curiosity, I finally opened my eyes.
And I saw it.
The enormous shadow cast over me.
‘A familiar ceiling…’
For some reason, I ended up thinking something only a person who had been given a second chance at life for some mysterious reason would think.
Honestly, I should have stopped at just, “It’s familiar,”
But I don’t know why I thought that.
Anyway…
Whenever the wind scattered, a familiar scent brushed the tip of my nose.
A warm, cozy scent like sunlight.
The scent I had only ever felt from Bell was now here.
But,
“Are you all right?”
The voice I heard belonged to someone completely different.
“Ah…”
The moment I realized it was someone else, I couldn’t keep lying there like this.
For one, I didn’t want to keep inconveniencing someone I was meeting for the first time,
And when I thought back to my final memory before I collapsed, she didn’t seem like just a stranger, but my benefactor who had saved me.
I already owed her my life. I couldn’t accept help for even this.
So the moment I put strength into my waist to sit up,
“Urgh!!!!!!”
Pain sparked through my entire body.
“It will be difficult for you to move for a while. You were in a truly dangerous situation.”
The woman lightly pushed my forehead and laid me back down on her lap.
“Please lie down a little longer.”
—Pop.
I heard the sound of a bottle cap opening beside me.
“It’s a recovery potion. Do you think you can drink it? If it’s still too hard, you can wait a little longer before…”
“I’m fine. I think I can manage that much.”
The woman poured the recovery potion into my mouth.
“Then…”
—Gulp, gulp, gulp.
The red liquid flowed down my throat.
As soon as I drank the recovery potion, I could feel the pain that had spread through my body gradually easing.
“Haa…”
“Do you feel better?”
I smiled slightly and answered her.
“Thanks to you.”
—Slide.
The woman took something out from beside her.
Then gently placed something against the back of my hand.
Judging by the sensation, it was probably a sword.
“Do you think you can hold it? It has a function that assists with recovery to some extent. That’s okay, isn’t it, Fiat?”
—Hum. Hum.
The sword resonated on its own, as though answering its master’s words.
“Is it an ego sword?”
“Yes.”
She affirmed it as though it were nothing.
It seemed she had no particular intention of hiding her identity from me.
After all, there was only one sword in the entire world that was both an ego sword and had a recovery-support function.
“Fiat Lux. That is the name of the holy sword, Hero.”
When I said that in a calm tone, she instead looked puzzled and asked,
“You’re not surprised or flustered…?”
From her question, I could glimpse the life she had lived.
A life where countless people had relied on her and exalted her as they pleased.
A life where she had been given the title of Hero at a young age, despite never wanting it, and had been managed by the imperial family.
A life that seemed free, yet was empty and lonely.
A life where everyone kept a step away from her… or so I felt.
But,
‘I’ve never really thought of the Hero that way.’
I had never admired the Hero at my own convenience, relied on her,
Envied her, or gotten excited over her.
Then and now, the Hero was outside my interests.
Because I preferred mercenaries, who directly helped someone in everyday life, over a Hero I might not even meet a few times.
So I don’t treat her as special.
Well… everything I just thought about her might be wrong.
She might have lived a perfectly ordinary life.
But,
I’m just saying that’s how I’ll treat her.
“Well, we’re both people, aren’t we? People living as best we can. There’s no reason to be overly formal.”
When I said that, she looked blank for a moment, then let out a faint laugh.
“Ah…”
At that sight, my gaze was drawn to her.
‘Was I actually a little weak to people who smiled? Or did this person just have looks that transcended humanity?’
It had been the same with Bell, and it was the same now.
Both of them smiled, and I couldn’t take my eyes off them.
I have no idea why.
“So you really haven’t had much interest in me until now?”
“Yes. I probably even… forgot your name. It’s been quite a while since I last saw you in the newspaper.”
Maybe she was quite flustered, because she covered her mouth with her fist and gave a small cough.
“Ahem. It’s Veronica. My name. Veronica Cygnus.”
She said, looking down at me slightly.
“Would you… remember it?”
Of course, because of the tremendously large something that had intervened in the middle, I couldn’t really see her face well, but,
“All right…”
I ended up answering without thinking.
“Ugh.”
It still felt a little difficult,
But I somehow managed to sit myself up.
If I kept talking to her like this… how should I put it?
I felt like I would become a piece of trash who felt affection for multiple women at the same time.
Of course, it wasn’t as if I felt romantic affection for both Bell and Veronica, but still, something about it felt that way.
I deliberately didn’t look back.
In case things became even stranger.
Instead, I looked around, and this seemed to be the first layer.
Seeing that grass had already started growing, the dungeon’s self-repair function seemed to be working properly.
“Shall we start heading out…?”
“Will you be all right? Leaving now?”
“Yes. I should return before it gets any later.”
“…All right.”
Was it just my imagination that I sensed regret in her voice?
In any case, I left the dungeon together with Veronica.
***
After that, well… there wasn’t much to talk about.
Just that she happened to see me entering the dungeon alone and helped me.
Of course, there were details like how she had waited so as not to interfere with my growth, then helped when she thought I was truly in danger… but anyway.
Veronica asked me,
“Why did you go into the dungeon alone?”
“Old Man Gordon told me to. The imperial side doesn’t like me meeting with the Hero’s party.”
“Why is that…?”
“Because… I was hired to play the role of a disposable tool. There’s no way the Hero would just stand by and watch that.”
“Ah…”
It seemed Veronica had a rough idea of how mercenaries were used. Seeing her react like that without me explaining.
She just hadn’t been certain.
She lowered her head deeply, looking apologetic.
“It’s fine. It’s not like I’ve been treated like this only once or twice.”
“Please don’t think of it that way. Ev— no, Mercenary, you’re a precious life too.”
“It would be nice if other people thought like you, Hero.”
As we talked, the village of Gidson began to come into view in the distance.
“I’ll go in first. It’ll be troublesome if Old Man Gordon says anything.”
“All right.”
“Thank you for helping me. I hope I can repay you someday.”
“No. I only did what I should as the Hero.”
Before parting, I met her eyes so I could give her a light bow.
Then,
“Ugh.”
Just like when I had felt déjà vu before or seen a vision, my head began to throb.
‘That face… I’m sure I saw it somewhere…’
Yes,
In the vision I saw when I first met Bell, there had definitely been a woman similar to the Hero…
But I couldn’t remember in detail.
I had clearly seen her face back then,
Yet as though a hazy film had been placed over my mind, I couldn’t recall that face no matter what.
“Th-then, I’ll be going.”
—Tap, tap, tap.
Before my head could hurt any more, I fled into the village as if running away.
***
By the time I arrived in front of the inn, the pain in my head had gradually faded.
“Phew…”
After taking one more deep breath, I opened the inn door.
Perhaps I was lucky, because Gordon was sitting on the first floor of the inn.
Without delay, I approached him and said,
“Here is the information on the second layer.”
Gordon skimmed through the documents roughly, as before.
“Understood. I will make sure to deliver it.”
Leaving those words behind, he disappeared somewhere.
Whether Gordon did that or not, I hurried back to my room.
My mind was in chaos.
I had nearly died and come back to life,
And I had received a lap pillow, something countless men dreamed of, from the Hero, one of the most popular women among men.
Just that much alone meant many things had swept past like a storm,
And then there was the déjà vu I had just felt, and my partially erased memory of a vision.
My brain was hoping it would fail to withstand all this complexity and simply shut itself down.
‘Right. Let’s sleep first and think later.’
Without even washing, I lay down on the inn bed and fell asleep as if escaping.
***
—Click.
The door opened, and Veronica entered the building.
“Did everything go well?”
The mage of the Hero’s party, Signica Violet, was sitting in a rocking chair, reading some book.
The orange light placed on the desk filled the room,
And though it had a certain atmosphere, it didn’t seem like the best environment for reading.
“Yes. Thanks to you.”
“That’s a relief. So, are you doing this because you like that man?”
“Uh… huh????”
Veronica’s face flushed in an instant.
“No! It’s not like that!!!!! I was just… worried about him.”
“He was handsome, though. It must have been a feast for the eyes every time you looked at him.”
“H-he was, but. Wait, you saw him!?”
“Yes. I was curious. I wondered just who he was, to make the flower called Veronica, who was evaluated as unbreakable, sway like this.”
“Signica…!!”
“Sorry, it was a joke. A joke.”
Signica said, lightly waving her hand.
“Then, should I take him?”
“H-huh??”
“He’s my type. I think someone like me could seduce him well enough.”
It was true.
She was also popular with men,
And objectively speaking, she was very beautiful.
If Veronica was a woman like autumn sunlight,
Then Signica was a woman who carried some strange, mysterious air.
“T-that’s…”
“That was a joke too.”
“Hmph…”
Of course, there was probably some degree to which Veronica had been drawn to Evan’s appearance, but the reason the Hero had taken special care of Evan had begun from a trivial occasion.
Around the time Evan woke up on Mount Thusnis.
It was already about time for a sensitive period to approach, and just then, a black mage had escaped from a nearby city.
Veronica, who had arrived in Rotten earlier than scheduled, heard the news and, for the safety of the people just in case, set out to roam around Rotten and help people.
However,
There was nothing she could help with.
Because there was a man who had stepped forward before her to help people.
That was Evan.
She became curious.
Why he was doing this.
Whether he had always done this sort of thing.
From that day on, she began following Evan every day from a distance where he would not notice.
“Old man. Be more careful next time.”
“Kid. Listen to your parents, and don’t let go of their hands next time!!”
He was close with almost everyone he helped.
That kind of relationship could not be formed in a short period of time.
What that meant was that, over a long period, the man named Evan had helped them.
That was why everyone relied on him casually, each in their own way.
They were all used to receiving help from him.
Yes, as though he were a Hero.
When that thought occurred to her, something she suddenly wanted to try came to mind.
‘I want to receive help too. I want to rely on someone.’
She had always been the one giving help.
She had to be an unshakable pillar,
And a sword that knew no defeat.
But how could a person always be such a being?
Before she was the Hero, she was human.
So she asked Signica.
To cast disguise magic on her.
Without asking the reason, Signica cast the magic on her as though it were a bother.
After that, under the name Bell, she deliberately burst out of the bushes in order to build a closer relationship with Evan.
When she met him in person, he was, as expected, a good person.
A kind and considerate man.
He had saved her when she was surrounded by strange people and in trouble,
And he was a person who treated her like an ordinary person.
Until now, when it came to men, all of them either wanted something from her, or had vulgar thoughts upon seeing her appearance.
But he was different.
Of course, he did seem to have desires too, but he was aware of them himself and tried his best not to be blatant.
Besides that, the many small things she could sense from him… were incredibly precious to her.
That was why, for the first time in her life, Veronica felt dissatisfaction toward the imperial family, who had pushed him into the jaws of death.
‘This isn’t right.’
She steeled her heart.
“Signica. I need your help…”
“With what?”
“Come talk to Grandfather Gordon with me.”
She took action.
For the man who had helped her.
And for the man who had been dying for her sake.
Because she was the Hero.