“It's Maxim, one of the 8 Heroes. Ah······ you’ve been asleep the whole time, so it makes sense you wouldn’t know.”
Then, realizing that Serengeti had been asleep the whole time, he changed what he was saying.
Serengeti had been sleeping ever since the great expedition to the Demon Realm.
There had been a brief moment when she woke up, but even then she had known nothing about any of these circumstances.
With a vaguely ominous feeling, she asked.
“Don’t tell me that ‘hero’ thing is a title that came about after the great expedition ended?”
“That’s right.”
“Not just the only hero, Wilhelm, but there are eight heroes?”
“······ One of the 8 Heroes is Knight King Wilhelm. Including Maxim.”
“What? What kind of nonsense is that? Maxim ran away right after the great expedition. He’s trash who abandoned all the mercenary members who followed him, just to save his own skin.”
“······ Wait. Is that true?”
Marquis Weiser’s eyes widened.
To think that Maxim of the 8 Heroes was actually a fugitive.
He felt like he had heard something similar before, but he hadn’t been sure it was true.
But Serengeti was his daughter.
The Marquis knew better than anyone how much Serengeti loathed lies.
So it must be the truth.
Serengeti glanced sideways at him and continued.
“The only one who reached the Demon King at the end of the Demon Realm was Lord Wilhelm. But Maxim is a cowardly fugitive who fled the moment he reached the entrance of the Demon Realm.”
“The other 8 Heroes too?”
“······ Who on earth are they? Eight heroes, seriously.”
Marquis Weiser swallowed hard and recited the names of the remaining heroes.
The instant he finished, Serengeti’s entire body began to tremble with rage.
“Shameless bastards who don’t know honor······! Two of them didn’t even set foot in the great expedition. How dare they?”
“Who didn’t participate?”
“Gracia, and Master. Those two didn’t participate at all. And even the rest of the names are all people far from being heroes.”
“······ If that’s really true, then this is······ a huge problem.”
Marquis Weiser also grasped how serious it was.
Of the 8 Heroes including Maxim, everyone except Wilhelm is fake.
They’re fake, yet they’re acting like the real thing.
The entire continent thought they were true heroes.
Everyone who could expose the lie was dead.
Only one person.
Except for Serengeti.
“We have to set it right.”
“No one will believe what you say.”
“······ Successor.”
“And you haven’t been fully freed from the curse yet.”
“Aren’t you angry?”
Angry?
I shrugged.
“What do you think will happen from here?”
“······ Ah.”
Only then did Serengeti take a moment to breathe deeply.
Then she let out a small laugh.
“······ They’re really idiots.”
Because they were idiots.
They turned someone they should never have made an enemy, into an enemy.
Serengeti knew Wilhelm better than anyone.
The most honorable Wilhelm in the world was a man who took whatever he wanted, no matter what.
A man who erased anyone who blocked his path, by any means.
That he was the most terrifying, the strongest, and showed not a shred of mercy to those who became his enemies.
Thinking about it, there was no need to worry.
“Get up. Hudson treated your body.”
“What are you talking abou—······.”
Serengeti reached out and hurriedly looked under the blanket.
Then her perfectly intact legs came into view.
“······ How in the world?”
“Hudson healed you with a top-tier elixir.”
I was the one who handed over the elixir, but Hudson was the one who treated her, so it wasn’t wrong.
Hudson looked at me with an expression so moved it was unbearable.
Feels like my face is going to get a hole in it.
“Hudson. You did this for me···?”
“The elixir was something the Successor got for you. All I did was sprinkle it drop by drop.”
“Even so, you must’ve barely slept······.”
“I did it for you. If you’re okay, I don’t care if I die.”
“Aah, Hudson!”
“Serengeti!”
They hugged with all their strength.
······ And Marquis Weiser could only stare at the two of them with a still-confused look.
“I get that it’s a touching reunion, but Serengeti, there’s something you need to do for me.”
Thud!
At that moment, Serengeti’s posture snapped straight.
Just like when she was a knight, her stance locked into place.
Serengeti stood, raised her right hand, clenched it into a fist, and placed it over the left side of her chest.
“Order me to do anything, and I will accomplish it.”
“I need you for my next trial.”
Main Quest 6.
For its solo run, I needed Serengeti.
Her ability.
The transcendent authority she gained from the “Stars.”
A light gathered in Serengeti’s eyes.
“You need me?”
“······ Yes.”
“Understood. When do we depart?”
“Just know that for now. I’ll tell you the schedule later.”
Seeing how her Stamina and drive were overflowing, her recovery seemed complete.
And besides, this was a touching reunion.
I had no intention of ruining that.
But Serengeti apparently thought differently.
“Why waste time? If it’s about smashing those bastards, I’ll lead from the front. I must cut the throats of those ridiculous traitors and fools, throw their heads into the abyss so they’ll be cursed forever. We must restore the tarnished honor and make all the people of the world know who the true heroes are, which means there’s no reason to hesitate even one second in executing those liars who only run their mouths—.”
Everything was ready.
And I remembered.
Every time I talked to Serengeti, I had memories of just mashing Enter all day.
She took up way too much of the dialogue script by herself.
At first I read carefully, thinking there might be hidden hints for quests in her words, but there was jack shit.
And apparently Wilhelm felt the same way.
‘······ PTSD kicking in.’
A memory brought back by the Stars.
When Serengeti got excited, she got talkative.
Maybe because she had practiced silence since childhood and only swung a sword.
Once her mouth opened, nobody could stop her.
Still, this was her “corrected” version.
“This is······ hmm.”
Marquis Weiser blinked, looking back and forth between me and Serengeti.
It was the first time he’d learned Serengeti was such a chatterbox, and my attitude toward her didn’t look like a first meeting either.
To avoid suspicion, I shrugged as casually as possible.
“It was written in Knight King’s memoirs. If you don’t cut her off properly, she can talk for an hour straight.”
“······ My daughter, you say?”
“Did you make her practice silence when she was young, by any chance?”
“Silence practice” meant not saying useless things, but “mute practice” meant literally not speaking at all.
Marquis Weiser nodded with a heavy look.
“······ It’s all my fault.”
“She doesn’t do it to just anyone, so don’t take it too hard.”
He seemed to be treating her talkativeness like a disease.
Well, for the daughter of a knightly house to talk too much was, in many ways, a fatal weakness.
Of course, the only people who made Serengeti talkative in this world were two.
One was Hudson.
The other was Wilhelm.
Maybe that was why.
Hudson was looking at me with a strange, probing look.
As if he’d never imagined Serengeti would show this side of herself to someone other than him.
“············ Ahem. I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn.”
Between them, Serengeti realized her mistake and bowed her head briefly.
She had twisted my words, “I need your help for my trial,” into “I need your sword to punish the traitors.”
It wasn’t wrong, but right now Main Quest 6 mattered more.
Anyway, the so-called 8 Heroes besides me were just dominoes on a sandcastle.
‘They’re overconfident that they have every player perfectly under control.’
Looking at how they were acting now, it was obvious.
Watching them stammer and make excuses in reality, I had a feeling it would be soon.
Those who were in seclusion, the ones I thought were named NPCs.
If they were truly players, there were plenty who wouldn’t be swayed by the 8 Heroes.
They just didn’t want to show themselves and were acting from the shadows.
‘Once we cross the critical point, they’ll move too.’
The moment that critical point is crossed, they’ll clash with the 8 Heroes.
Before long, Earth will become a chaotic arena of contention.
Maybe in that process, the truth that “Dimension Warriors” are really just “game addicts” will even come to light.
If cracks form in the Warriors’ prestige and fame, will the people of the world still trust and follow them completely?
Once doubt sprouts, it only keeps growing.
Not right now, maybe, but there are plenty of ways to bring them down.
It’s only a question of what’s most efficient.
“Talk to each other.”
I also left before useless suspicion could take root.
And it happened to be time to go where I needed to go.
***
When I stepped outside, Isaac was waiting for me with a slightly worried expression.
“You look like you’ve got a lot to say.”
“Honestly······ I’m anxious.”
“About someone coming after you?”
Isaac nodded.
There was only one reason he’d been holed up in Kramdel for so long.
To avoid pursuit by someone he’d made an enemy of.
“Don’t worry. For a while, nobody will pay attention to you.”
They can’t pay attention.
At least not for a while.
Because the continent will be in an uproar over Maxim and Duke Cyan.
And besides, the ones Isaac mainly made enemies of were named NPCs.
That is, players.
Most of them were connected to the 8 Heroes, and the 8 Heroes were too busy with Earth’s affairs to breathe.
Now with Maxim’s issue piled on top, there was basically no one who could spare a thought for Isaac.
“If you keep your promise, I’ll keep mine too.”
The promise to get him a top-tier appearance-altering potion if he served for a year.
The promise to let him be reborn anew was never empty words.
“······ I believe you.”
Isaac took a deep breath.
Star Bearer. Fifth Great Master. Successor to the Knight King.
He didn’t know how many faces this man wore, but one thing was certain.
‘There is majesty in his words.’
For some reason, he believed him.
The moment he heard that nobody would pay attention for a while, he felt strangely reassured.
His anxiety vanished as if it had been a lie.
And the promise would be kept felt strangely trustworthy too.
Why?
Isn’t he someone who deceives others with multiple faces?
Yet he has majesty, in his words and in his very existence.
Everyone who followed him was sincere toward him. Isaac had seen countless people, but he had never met anyone as mysterious, as convincing as the man before him.
Isaac had even met those called the 8 Heroes, but—
‘Compared to them—.’
Doesn’t this man look more like a true hero?
Looking at what he’s done and how he moves, the word “hero” comes naturally.
In Kramdel he sealed Ahram, the gatekeeper of the Demon Realm, and in the Garden of Knights he executed Maxim of the 8 Heroes, who had been tormenting the city’s people.
The process couldn’t be called clean, but it was a perfect case of using one enemy to kill another.
He had never imagined Maxim would be turned into undead to kill Duke Cyan.
By that measure he might not be a hero.
‘But if you ignore the process and look only at the result, he really is a hero.’
What on earth is he?
The more you know, the more you peel back, the more he’s like an onion.
Just then.
“Still, I’m a bit worried about your evil karma score.”
“My evil karma score?”
“Mm.”
He nodded.
Sure.
In Kramdel it didn’t matter, but in human cities, especially priests, would immediately see Isaac’s evil karma score.
Isaac’s evil karma score rivaled that of any “arch-villain.”
It was at the level of an executive in a massive criminal organization that ruled several cities.
At this level, it could even give ordinary citizens a sense of “oppression.”
If we were going to travel together, it could become an obstacle in many ways.
“Perfect timing. Let’s go erase it.”
“······ Pardon?”
What was he talking about?
Isaac doubted his ears for a second.
Surely he didn’t mean erasing the evil karma score?
“Follow me.”
***
Isaac stared blankly at Priest Andrew.
Priest Andrew, too, looked utterly unable to believe it.
“A, an indulgence······.”
Priest Andrew had clearly used all three indulgences.
All three had been given to the same person.
And yet.
A fourth indulgence appeared before his eyes.
When Andrew’s hands were washed with the Holy Grail, he immediately realized that he could issue one more “indulgence.”
And not for anyone else.
Only for the man in front of him.
‘So that’s why only priests can open Platinum Boxes.’
I smiled faintly.
Now it made sense.
The Platinum Box obtained after sealing Ahram.
But that Platinum Box had a restriction, it could only be opened by a high-ranking priest capable of reciting the “Prayer of Praise.”
And this was the reason.
‘To think indulgences could be duplicated.’
That was why he had used the third indulgence without hesitation.
Priest Andrew, still wearing an incredulous expression, said.
“I can activate the privilege of the indulgence one more time, but I don’t understand how this could be······.”
“I absolve your sins, Isaac.”
“H, hold on. If you use it that casually—······!!”
Fwoooosh!
When I placed my hand on Isaac’s head and used the indulgence, his evil karma score was washed away cleanly in a brilliant light.
I turned my head and asked.