The god had been angry with Han Maru for years.
Even so, Han Maru offered prayers to the god every day.
Though there was no particular response, he never once skipped his prayers.
“…It is always an honor to receive Lord Belcran’s grace. Please do not forget me. Until the day Lord Belcran’s will spreads across the whole world, I shall continue my missionary work without retreat. As You have called me, I shall live worthily, in accordance with that calling.”
After quietly offering his prayer toward the bowl of water set atop a rock in the forest, Maru rose to his feet.
“That god again?”
Suddenly, a woman’s voice snorted from behind him.
“That nameless heretic god?”
Maru turned around.
Standing there was Natalie, a tall woman with a build so impressive that most men could not compare.
She was a warrior belonging to the same Hero’s party as him.
“He’s not a heretic god. He is Lord Belcran.”
“Belcran or whatever, you dumbass. Stop serving that shitty god and serve Lord Tairas, whom everyone respects. Seriously, you can’t even fight, and the god you worship is just as pathetic as you.”
Having just washed her face at the stream nearby, she walked away, water dripping from her face.
Being looked down on by her was an everyday occurrence.
“It’s not Belcran or whatever, it’s Lord Belcran. Belcran, Conqueror of the Stars… Lord Belcran.”
Lately, the atmosphere in the Hero’s party had been at its absolute worst.
Starting with Natalie the warrior just now, Lucy the mage and Yoris the priest always looked at Maru as if he were pathetic, and even his girlfriend, the Hero Kiera, seemed to be distancing herself from him.
Within the party, he was treated like nothing more than a burden.
And in truth, there was a reason for that: unlike his extraordinary companions, Maru had no power whatsoever.
Whenever combat broke out, he had trailed along behind his companions and been protected by them.
But outside of combat, the situation was reversed.
Maru fought every kind of chore alone.
In order to let his companions rest even a little more comfortably, he did the cooking, the laundry, the night watch as a matter of course, and carried every piece of luggage there was.
When they traveled, he even went out of his way to take the smallest bags from his companions’ hands, doing everything he could.
When they arrived at a village or city, finding a restaurant and an inn was also Maru’s job.
The food had to be delicious, the beds had to be comfortable without a single bug, and the prices could not be a rip-off. It sounded simple, but finding places like that was no easy task.
At the beginning of their adventure, his companions had understood Maru’s hard work, and the atmosphere had been good.
They had been no different from any other party, warm and noisy and overflowing with laughter.
But as the adventure dragged on, the atmosphere changed at some point.
His companions suddenly grew cold.
Later, even sharing the spoils with him seemed to feel like a waste to them.
“Maru didn’t really do much, so how about he takes only a little?”
“…Yeah. Honestly, you all did everything. I just ran away.”
And so, for the past three years or so, he had lived while being looked down on by his companions.
Even so, he endured.
And endured again.
For the smooth journey of his girlfriend, the Hero. Because simply being together with his girlfriend Kiera made him happy.
He did not like the way his companions mistreated him, but he had no desire to ruin the atmosphere for no reason.
‘As long as I’m fine with it, that’s enough. They’re members Kiera worked hard to gather, after all…’
Thinking of Kiera’s face, Maru headed toward the campsite where his companions were.
***
“Hurry up and make food. Damn it, I’m starving to death.”
Seeing Maru walking over from afar, Natalie snapped at him.
“You’d be worth more cooking than wasting time praying to that beggar god, idiot.”
“Hoho, Lady Natalie. You must embrace him with a generous heart.”
“Bullshit. If I cover for a useless bastard like him for a hundred days, will money come out of it?”
“We are companions, after all. Companions are more precious than anything.”
The middle-aged priest Yoris stepped in to defend Maru, but Maru knew what he was really thinking.
He was only pretending to be a good person.
Yoris usually said all the right things out loud, but whenever Maru got scolded by the other companions, he would snicker behind his back and mock him.
He seemed to enjoy this situation.
Enjoying the sight of himself being in a position where, as a priest, he could freely exude benevolence and pity.
“Sir Maru, please start cooking at once. I am hungry as well.”
“Yes. Today, I was thinking of making braised dried fish.”
“Ah, then please make mine less salty. Remove all the fish bones, cut off the head and tail, and remove all the scales so none are visible. You always do this, so it should not be difficult, correct?”
“Yes. The head has already been removed anyway. It’s dried fish.”
“Aha, I see. That’s good.”
It was always like this.
With a kindly face, Yoris often made troublesome requests.
Leave this out, that will not do. Put this in. He was fussy.
“You must use the silver bowl for mine.”
“Of course.”
Once, long ago, when Maru had been busy and simply served his food in a random bowl, Yoris had flown into a rage and thrown the dish right in front of him.
“I refuse to eat anything served in a bowl like this! I am a sacred priest!”
In any case, Maru went near the campfire and rummaged through the luggage containing their ingredients.
“Hey, mutt.”
Lucy, who had been sitting in front of the campfire, called out to him.
She was a mage about 160 centimeters tall, wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a pointed center.
She was the youngest in the party.
“……”
“Not going to answer?”
“I told you last time not to call me mutt.”
“A mutt is a mutt. No matter how much you struggle, a mutt is still a mutt.”
Maru let out a long sigh.
He was truly exhausted.
But he bit his lip and mustered his strength again.
All of these people had rotten personalities, but their skills were recognized throughout the world.
Kiera had to defeat the Demon King together with them.
He would endure only until that day.
“What does a mutt like so much about Kiera?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“I just thought it was funny how someone with no ability looks so high above himself.”
Holding the dried cod in his hand, Maru stood.
He walked past Lucy, who was idly poking at the campfire with a branch.
He went to where the drinking water was and poured water into a pot.
“What are you going to do if Kiera dumps you? Kill yourself?”
Maru stopped moving and glared at Lucy with a stiff expression.
“Don’t say bullshit.”
Soon, his gaze lowered.
He wavered for a moment, deep in thought, then looked back at Lucy.
“I’ll find some restaurant nearby and buy the roasted venison my adoptive mother likes.”
“Why?”
“Because what my adoptive mother said was right in the end. Because I’m sorry. Because I reflected on it. Because I realized it. I’m not going to kill myself. If I have time for that, I’d rather worry about my adoptive mother, who’s alone.”
“Hahaha. The mutt was a mama’s boy!”
“Lucy! Let that bastard cook! I said I’m hungry!”
Natalie shouted.
Even from afar, her voluptuous cleavage and firm abs exposed to the air stood out.
Maru turned his gaze back to Lucy.
“You’re in the way, so go. I’m going to cook.”
Lucy tossed the branch in her hand into the campfire and sneered.
“I thought you’d get pissed off at my question, but I didn’t expect you to answer so sincerely. Mutt, I’m curious what’s inside your head. What have you been thinking about lately?”
“Shut up. If you don’t want to eat bad food, let me focus on cooking.”
“For a guy with nothing going for him except the tear mole right under his left eye, you sure talk back a lot.”
Thirty minutes later.
Each of them sat gathered around the campfire, holding plates of cod seasoned brown.
Natalie tore into it with her hands as if it were not even hot, while Yoris carefully picked at it with a spoon, his eyes wary in case a bone appeared.
Lucy used magic to cut the cod flesh into pieces, then picked them up one by one with her fingers.
Maru covered Kiera’s portion with a cloth and set it down in a suitable place.
Natalie furrowed her brow slightly.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to give it to Kiera when she comes.”
“She’s not coming today.”
“She’s not coming? I didn’t hear that.”
“I heard it, mutt.”
Lucy cut in.
“She was invited by a duke, no less. How could she just come back? She has to bathe in warm water and sleep in a soft, fluffy bed. While being waited on by servants. Ah, I’m so jealous.”
At present, Kiera had been invited to a party held by the local lord and was attending as the Hero.
“What’s with her today? She isn’t usually like this. Going to a banquet alone. And even staying out overnight.”
Maru looked displeased.
“Without even discussing it with me.”
Natalie put down the plate she had been eating from.
Picking up a cloth dirtied with dried blood, she wiped her hands and looked at everyone.
“I have something to tell you.”
The words that came out of her mouth were quite shocking.
“As of tomorrow morning, the party will be disbanded. Everyone, go off and find your own lives.”
“…What?”
Maru’s heart sank with a heavy thud.
He was dumbfounded.
Even after suffering every kind of humiliation, he had wanted to keep the party together no matter what, and now they were suddenly disbanding?
No.
For Kiera’s sake, you all have to see this through to the end.
Hearing words he had never wanted to hear, his emotions surged.
“Why are you the one deciding that? Does Kiera know?”
“It’s already been settled with Kiera as well. She agreed.”
Kiera agreed too?
‘There’s no way.’
Up until that very morning, he had not heard a word from Kiera about disbanding the party.
She had not shown even the slightest sign of it before, either.
“What kind of bullshit is this out of nowhere? Are you putting on a show all by yourself?”
At those words, Natalie’s muscular arm moved.
She grabbed Maru by the collar and yanked him toward her.
“You fat bastard. Do I look like I’m joking right now? Watch your mouth. Unless you want to get beaten.”
“Cough! Cough!”
Natalie released his collar as if throwing him away and continued speaking.
“So keep that in mind, and when you wake up in the morning, leave on your own.”
“Wh-what’s the reason? I never heard anything like that from Kiera! Cough!”
“I’m the reason. Something personal came up, so I can’t travel with you all anymore.”
“If you leave, we can just find someone else!”
“Kiera has no intention of doing that. She said that since things turned out this way, she would disband the party.”
“That makes no sense!”
Even after the sudden news, Lucy and Yoris were unexpectedly calm.
“Ah, where should I go mooch off someone starting tomorrow? What a pain.”
“I should look around to see if there is a temple nearby. The scenery here is nice too, so I may stay in this region for a while.”
Maru was confused.
“You’re thinking of leaving only me and Kiera behind after coming this far? Aren’t you ashamed to waste everything you’ve built up until now? The Demon King is just a little farther ahead!”
When he shouted that, Natalie chuckled.
“Starting tomorrow, Kiera plans to follow another party for about two months. Once she finishes her mission there, she says she’ll come back to you. She said you should go back to your hometown and wait quietly.”
“What? I didn’t hear that either…?”
“She’s busy. She’s the Hero, after all. And I guess she felt bad bringing it up. Since it was obvious you’d cling to her.”
“Why is that clinging!”
Lucy frowned.
“Ha. Mutt, stop shouting. You’re hurting my ears.”