“Aaaaaaah!!”
—Shnk!
At last, I drove the Holy Sword into the Demon King’s chest.
Before pulling it free, I twisted the blade one final time, completely destroying the Demon King’s core.
—Crack…
“He… ro…”
“Hah, hah…”
I collapsed backward without even realizing it.
Eighty years.
That was how long it had taken since the day I was suddenly summoned to this unknown otherworld to the moment I plunged a sword into the Demon King’s heart.
If not for the blessing of agelessness dwelling within the Holy Sword, I would have died from sheer wear and tear ages ago…
“Hero! You really did it!”
“What did I tell you! I said Hyeondo was the strongest Hero in history! Wahahahaha!”
“Ah~ If only I hadn’t run out of arrows…”
I heard the laughter of my companions, who had long since collapsed.
Silas, the elven archer. Vine, the dwarven warrior. And Alphonse, the priest and mage who used divine magic.
…For the record, every last one of them was male.
For the past eighty years, I had fought demons with those bastards every single day.
‘And that’s over now…! I can finally go back…!’
My beloved homeland, the Republic of Korea.
Back to the home I had missed until the waters of the East Sea ran dry and Mount Baekdu wore away.
“Ngh…!”
I grabbed the Holy Sword Hauteclere, which had been lying on the floor, and used it like a cane to stand.
But this damned Holy Sword, even when its master was so exhausted he couldn’t stand on his own…
“Aaang, Herooo~ If you grip me there like thaaat~”
“…”
The day I got used to this damned Holy Sword never came, after all.
In any case, this would be the last time I had to hold this idiotic Holy Sword that moaned in my head every time I so much as gripped its handle.
Well… in truth, calling it a Holy Sword was only half the story.
The Holy Sword Hauteclere housed the essence of the goddess, possessed a will of its own, and could change its form freely.
Of course, aside from that, it had just about every power you’d expect from something called a Holy Sword.
But the fact that such an incredible weapon started moaning the instant you touched it meant the goddess herself had to be pretty far gone, too.
At any rate, the moment I rose to my feet, a mass of white light descended over the Demon King’s corpse.
“You have finally done it, Hero. As the goddess, I offer you my sincere gratitude for saving this world.”
“You really can’t let a man speak of the devil, can you? I only had to think of you and here you are.”
“Aaang~ Hero, really now~ Even if you desire me so much, this body of mine cannot be embraced by youuu~”
“Tch…”
Normally, it was an unwritten rule that goddesses were beautiful.
But Pattis, the goddess who had summoned me to this world, was a winged ogre.
One could say her appearance perfectly erased any lingering attachment I might have had to this world, right up to the very end.
I opened my mouth once more toward the goddess whose name sounded like a hamburger patty.
“In any case, I have subjugated the Demon King. Now please keep your promise.”
“Okaaay~ The return ritual requires an absurd amount of mana, but if we use the mana of the Demon King’s Castle, there’ll be more than enough~”
Something about the words “more than enough” bothered me, but I pretended not to notice.
After all, the only being capable of sending me back home was that fat goddess.
I couldn’t afford to irritate her by nitpicking every little thing…
While I was thinking that, my body had already been enveloped in a cluster of white light.
Before leaving, I looked at the companions who had come this far with me.
“I’m off, you bastards. I can’t say I particularly enjoyed our time together, so let’s never meet again.”
“Wahahahaha! I was very happy to fight alongside the strongest warrior!”
“If it had not been for the goddess’s command, I, an elf, would never have associated with you. Consider it the honor of a lifetime.”
“Hero! Before you go back, could you beat up this useless, obnoxious long-ear for me?!”
Some Hero once said this.
A tearful farewell does not suit us. Because it would be embarrassing when we meet again… or something like that.
Well, now that I’d reached this moment, it seemed he had been right.
At any rate, I’d said my goodbyes…
‘Now all that’s left is to go back…’
Huh? Why does the flow of mana feel strange?
I don’t know much about magic that deals with dimensions or space, but even to me, this flow of mana was way too…
“G-Goddess?”
“Uh… I made a mistake…”
“What?”
“Because too much mana went in, the coordinates for your return got shifted…?”
“Hey, you fu—!”
You bitch!
Before I could even finish that final word, I vanished into yet another world.
Why is there not a single normal one among goddesses?