Episode 227
"That child is my disciple."
"...Hmm?"
Frey, who was about to ask a question to the little one sitting beside him, turns his head at the voice coming from behind.
"So don't even think about doing anything strange."
"........."
Before long, discovering the Magic Tower Master behind him, Frey falls into silence at her words.
"Are you really going to stay there? You could follow me..."
"I want to watch from here!"
"Goodness, weren't you here to see the hero? What wind suddenly blew in..."
Meanwhile, the Magic Tower Master, who was saying that while looking at Glare, shook her head at the girl's bold words and moved on.
Though called a eccentric witch and odd wizard by those around her, she always weakened at her disciple's words.
"......."
Like that, as the Magic Tower Master left, Frey fell into silence again with a dark expression.
"Hey."
Glare, who was staring at Frey like that, pulled slightly to sit beside him and asked a question.
"Does it not hurt?"
Frey's shoulder was stained with blood thanks to the girl who had clawed at his shoulder earlier.
"...Mind your own business, kid."
But even so, Frey said that coldly to Glare, then focused his eyes on the verification ceremony.
"I ask you, can you swear in this place that it is true you received a revelation from the Sun God?"
"...Yes!"
In his view came the bishop asking questions with a solemn voice and Ruby answering with a serious expression.
"".........""
However, the gazes of the nobles, not Frey, were focused on him instead.
Of course, most were eagerly waiting for Frey, who sat with a sullen expression unable to run wild as before despite his shoulder being stained with blood, to show a slightly weaker appearance.
"I declare! This person's words are true!"
The nobles who had been looking at Frey for a while, when the bishop declared so, looked forward and sent enthusiastic applause.
"Ugh..."
Only then did Frey remove his gaze from Ruby, look down at the ground, and bite his lip.
"Hmmm....."
Glare, who was examining Frey carefully, cautiously reached out to him.
"What is it."
Then, Frey shrank like a cat with lots of wariness and pulled his body to the side.
That appearance looked quite funny and also quite pitiful.
"I won't hurt you, so come here for a moment."
"........"
Thanks to that, Glare approached Frey with an ambiguous expression, took out a crystal bottle from her bosom and poured it on his shoulder.
- Shaaa...
Then, his shoulder began to heal in an instant.
"Ugh."
Though she said it wouldn't hurt, perhaps it actually hurt quite a bit as Frey bit his lip slightly, and asked Glare, who was still staring at him, with a voice overflowing with wariness.
"Why are you doing this to me..."
"Huh?"
"...I'm asking why you're being nice to me."
Frey's expression as he said that looked like a haughty cat whose pride was wounded, making a hurt expression.
"Well..."
Glare, who somehow felt that puzzling feeling and tilted her head, then recalled the words her master had said.
"That guy was the most wicked scoundrel in the empire. He'll probably be stripped of his status today in this place, in front of everyone?"
"Ah, by any chance that 'Frey' family from the newspapers...?"
"What, you know too?"
Since Glare had decided to secretly help the hero, she naturally knew information about the villain Frey.
However, why was that? The person named 'Frey' she happened to meet today didn't look that bad compared to the newspapers' concentrated bombardment.
Rather, should she say he looked a bit pitiful?
"Hey, oppa. Apply this."
"...What is it again."
"It's an ointment. My master developed it, it's good for wounds."
Therefore, Glare took out the healing cream her eccentric master made and offered it to Frey.
"There, your arm doesn't look so good..."
As Glare said, the bandage wrapped around the arm stabbed by Alice was soaked with blood.
"What are you doing? Aren't you taking it?"
"........."
Frey, who was looking down at the cream Glare held out, soon turned his head with a cold expression.
"I don't need help."
"Huh?"
"I said I don't need your help."
And then, Frey spoke in a self-mocking voice.
"Don't try to pity me. It makes me feel bad."
"......."
"If you understood, stop minding me. Go somewhere else before the attention focuses on you."
"Oppa is like a cat with lots of wariness?"
"...Shut up."
"Puhuh..."
Glare, who was watching Frey being prickly like a hissing cat, burst into laughter without realizing it.
"What, really... huh?"
Frey, who was looking at her with absurd eyes, frowned seeing her face slightly revealed as her robe shook.
"I think I've seen it somewhere..."
And then, he scratched his head and mumbled like that.
- Swish...!
Glare, who suddenly applied the cream on top of Frey's bandage.
"Oppa, oppa is a bad person?"
Then asked that.
"...Yeah."
After thinking for a moment, Frey who answered like that, knocked away Glare's hand that was spreading cream on the bandage.
"So it's better not to get involved with me."
"You sound kind when you say that..."
"I'm a bad person."
"Hmm..."
Frey who said that, as if trying to ignore Glare completely, moved one seat to the side, but.
"Hey oppa, you attend the academy, right? Do you know this by any chance?"
Glare, who moved one seat to the side exactly the same, offered something to Frey like that.
"......."
"Hey~? It's very important..."
At first, Frey ignored her, but when Glare struggled and shook the button in front of his face.
"...It's a Sunrise Academy uniform button."
He answered in a sullen voice.
"Really? So it really was an academy button... That suspicious detective was right... After all, I need to somehow enroll next year..."
Then mumbled while looking down at the button in her hand with serious eyes.
"...I told you as thanks for earlier."
To Glare like that, Frey, who was still turning his gaze to the side, spoke in a low voice.
"Don't misunderstand. It's not that I'm particularly grateful."
Though still a voice full of wariness, since a timid gratitude was mixed in that voice, Glare was already smiling.
'Somehow he's a person I want to help...'
Was it because her nature was so kind? Or was it because of her uniquely sharp intuition that read Frey's nature?
Glare, who was receiving all the malicious gazes pouring from all directions but pretending not to care, was pitying Frey who was unknowingly trembling at the coming ruin.
"I read a small article in the newspaper distributed by the religious order."
Therefore, she gently held Frey's hand, which was perhaps trembling from nervousness, and casually said to him.
"That not a single direct evidence of your wrongdoing was found..."
"Because I hid it all."
"No, I mean, what if you actually didn't do any wrongdoing?"
"Shut up, kid."
Frey, who knocked away Glare's hand roughly once again.
"...Leave me alone."
He said that with a trembling voice.
"...Therefore, this imperial family and religious order declare!"
And at that moment, a solemn voice rang through the banquet hall.
"Sunrise Empire hereby appoints the commoner girl Ruby as the second hero!"
"...Thank you."
Ruby, who bowed slightly at that declaration and received the seal proving she was the hero.
"...Puh."
Smiled at Frey who was at the very end.
"Wow!!!"
And at the same time, cheers erupted in the banquet hall.
It was the moment the fate of the hero and the demon king was reversed.
"...Grrk."
".........."
In that situation, Glare, who was quietly grinding her teeth while pulling her robe down low, and Frey, who was similarly silent with his head bowed low.
".......?"
The two of them, looking at each other, tilted their heads.
"Oppa, why do you have that expression?"
"Why are you grinding your..."
The two who had been looking at each other for a while, when they asked each other such questions almost simultaneously.
"Then, everyone please rise from your seats! Please wait in the hall next door while enjoying dance and refreshments."
The attendant next to Ruby shouted loudly like that.
- Screech...
Then, the sound of chairs being pulled and noisy chatter heard here and there.
"...Phew."
In that situation, Frey, thinking he could catch his breath, quietly rose from his seat to disappear, but.
"Frey Raon Starlight-sama."
From beside Frey like that, a soft voice suddenly was heard.
"Why are you at the very end? It took me a while to find you."
Ruby, who had come down from the stage in front at some point, was asking that with a quite innocent expression while scratching her head.
"Puh!"
"Kkk..."
Since it was an amusing situation where Ruby, who looked like an innocent country girl to anyone, had gotten one over on Frey.
Among the people who were leaving and watching that funny scene, laughter burst out.
"I have something to discuss closely with Frey-sama... would you follow me?"
"...Me?"
"Yes, um... you see... advice about the hero party! You need to give advice about the hero party, ah and after finishing talking with me, about Frey-sama's future treatment..."
"...Hero-sama."
"Ah!"
In that situation, Ruby, who was speaking brightly, makes a flustered expression covering her mouth when the knight protecting her interrupts her.
"Th, this was a secret, right? I'm sorry..."
"...No."
The knight, who said that while bowing deeply to Ruby like that, soon looks down at Frey and speaks.
"After conversing with the hero-sama, it seems you need to meet with our side for a moment."
"Why?"
"...That's not for you to know."
The female knight who had guarded his mansion during the third ordeal, who firmly dismissed Frey's question.
"Then, have a good day."
Sneering like that while raising the corner of her mouth, she stepped out into the corridor with Ruby.
"......."
At those words, Frey, who couldn't even answer, fell into silence.
"How unsightly."
"What... unpleasant."
"To crawl in when invited. Doesn't know his place."
As nobles passed by his side and each said a word while slipping out to the corridor.
"...Ugh."
He gathered his hands on his knees and looked down with a pale blue expression.
Like that, quite a long time passed.
"...Disgusting."
An inexperienced new maid, who was cleaning up the place where the nobles had left, frowned seeing Frey still remaining, spat out those words, and disappeared.
"Tsk."
Then, Frey, who had been looking down with a pale and frightened expression, suddenly changed his expression and mumbled.
[This week's Villainy Point Settlement Complete: 300000 points]
"They'll regret it."
Saying that, Frey, who was looking at the point settlement window floating in front of him with an indifferent expression, soon rose from his seat to leave that place, but.
"Hey."
At the word 'hey' that he had heard so many times that day, he sighed deeply and looked to the side.
"Just go, kid."
And then, glaring at the kid who was looking at him with worried eyes, a kid who didn't know the ways of the world too much.
"As I said earlier, I have no intention of receiving pity..."
He closed his eyes and said that, but.
"...Hang in there."
When the kid said that, he stopped speaking and flinched.
- Clatter.
At the same time, the wound treatment creams tucked in Frey's arms.
"........"
Was it because it had been so long since a complete stranger showed him warmth?
Frey felt a choking sensation for some reason and stood blankly in that spot for a while.
"As expected, your eyes look kind... Just like that person. Quite..."
She, who was looking over Frey like that and mumbling, soon made a suggestion to Frey.
"W, if you become a commoner... come to the Magic Tower. Our master said she needs an assistant these days. Being our master's assistant is as hard as existing as an imperial punishment, so it should be possible."
"........."
"Looking at it, it seems like you'll be beaten to death if things continue like this, but that's better, right? You'll be beaten to death by our master, but you won't die. So..."
"...What's your name?"
Frey, who was about to slip out into the corridor leaving the little girl behind, soon asks casually.
"Me?"
"Yeah, so I can remember."
The little girl, who for some reason felt Frey was pitiful hearing his answer.
"My name is, Glare."
Tilted her head with a strange feeling.
"What?"
"Glare. It means shining light."
She said that while turning her steps.
"My parents, who I can't remember well now, gave it to me with the meaning that I should become a light that shines by myself in this dark world."
".....!"
"Then, goodbye."
Glare, who left those words, disappeared from the spot as if using magic.
"...Glare?"
Frey, who stood frozen in that spot for a while, barely opened his mouth.
"No way... that kid from back then?"
He mumbled with a surprised expression.
"Really?"
"What do you mean really?"
And at that moment, an arrogant voice from in front of Frey.
"Our frail and pitiful Frey..."
The innocent expression was completely gone, and.
"You didn't come so I came to find you myself...?"
Demon King Ruby, with only an arrogant and excited expression remaining, opened the main hall door and approached Frey.
"Shall we go have a dense and secret conversation, just the two of us?"
She wrapped his arm and whispered in a soft voice.
"Hmm~?"
.
Meanwhile at that time.
"Ah, hello..."
Rosewin, who was late for the verification ceremony because she was dressing up more splendidly than ever, had arrived at the entrance of the hero party's waiting room and was bowing her head.
"I'm a bit late, right?"
"Ah, no..."
"Then excuse me...!"
What should she do, being late for the verification ceremony meeting the hero. Was she perhaps marked by the hero - with such worry, she was restless and entered the waiting room without even listening to the knight's explanation.
"......Huh?"
Soon, she tilted her head.
"Is, is this the right place?"
Before long, she asked the knight next to her.
"There's no one?"
Surprisingly, the waiting room was completely empty.
"W, we don't know either..."
"Yes?"
"We need to check... they said only Rosewin-sama has come now..."
Rosewin's expression went blank at those words.
"W, what should I do...? They said the hero-sama is coming this way now? What on earth should I do about this..."
"F, first let's sit Rosewin-sama!"
"H, huh?"
The knight who grabbed her, took Rosewin's arm and went to the chair, and she was dragged along in bewilderment.
"Please don't go anywhere and stay still!"
"........?"
Soon the knight who sat her down left those words and disappeared.
"What in the world is this..."
Rosewin, who couldn't understand why no one from the hero party had come when she was definitely late, was mumbling to herself alone when.
"Wow!!!"
"...Heek!!"
A high-tension cheer came from beside her, and Rosewin, who was so startled she even shed a little tear, turned her head to the side.
"Hello!!"
"...Huh, uah?"
What came into her view was Ferloche, who had been pouring holy power on Ruby the whole way here and was resting for a moment.
"N, nice to m..."
"You are... truly an absurd person!"
"...Yes?"
Rosewin, who calmed her trembling heart and reached out her hand to Ferloche, made a flustered expression at those words.
"I welcome such you to become the eternal hero party!!"
Ferloche, who grabbed Rosewin's hand and was shaking hands intensely with a foolish smile.
"Sincerely!!"
She said that again while looking straight at the flustered Rosewin.
"...Absurd Rosewin-ssi!!"