Is this Hero for Real?

[Act 5] Believe What You Want to Believe

Creak-

Essopresso tried to scream at the sound of someone approaching in her sleep.

“E-eep?!”

But she couldn’t when a sturdy hand shoved a piece of cloth in her mouth.

She tried to at least look at the face of the culprit, but even her vision was blocked when a sack was put over her head.

‘How could this be?!’

She thought everything would be over in the morning, but it felt like the world was crumbling around her.

The culprit threatened her in an eerie tone.

“Move quietly. You won’t see a pretty sight if you do anything stupid.”

“…”

Stupefied, Essopresso followed the orders without resistance.

Before long, a man’s voice, who seemed to be an accomplice, was heard.

“Everything good there?”

“Yeah, what's that cut on your hand?”

“…I got bit while covering its mouth.”

“I see, let’s go.”

From what the culprits were saying, it didn’t seem like she was the only fairy captured alive.

Step, step, step…

“Eek?! Oomf?!”

Although she couldn’t see anything, she instinctively realized something the moment she stepped onto the first staircase going down.

‘This is the chief’s house!’

Furthermore, she was heading towards the very basement she never wanted to be in again.

“Stay still.”

“Eek?!”

As she was getting dragged, Essopresso could hear the voice of the healer who treated her in the morning.

“…Crimson thought none of us knew. I guess there was no helping him from thinking that since we deliberately disregarded it after finding a new family and place to call home.”

The person who kidnapped her received a monologue from the healer.

“This is our karma for leaving a friend who cultivated our new hometown to fend for himself. We have no right to feel resentment towards him.”

Essopresso also heard the voice of the woman who had made her soup.

“I heard it in the restaurant this morning. These fairies detest humans. They’ll try to rob us from our families and steal our homes again if we leave them alive.”

This was followed by a report from the head guard of the village.

“I told the villagers to not go out outside during patrol hours due to the disorder in our village and persuaded the mercenaries to stay put as well.”

The villagers, all having said a word, had no conversation for a while.

The healer started to speak with a determined voice.

“Let’s begin.”

“…Alright.”

“Prayers to Crimson.”

“For our friend.”

Stab-!

The village head guard pierced a sword into Essopresso’s heart without warning.

“Kirk-?!”

She died in vain, as she was already quite weak before being brought back to the basement.

Stab! Stab! Stab!

The rest of the fairies that were dragged into the basement with Essopresso met her fate one by one.

“Now then…”

“One more left.”

“What do we do?”

“Hm…”

The four people gave each other a look and turned to the tied-up female fairy.

Unlike the other fairies, she didn’t have a sack over her head or a bit in her mouth.

It was courteous treatment comparable to that of a noble captured as a war prisoner.

The fairy spoke for the first time.

“…Don’t you have to kill me in order to fulfill your purpose?”

The fairy sounded composed, despite having seen her people slaughtered in front of her very eyes.

“The thing is…”

“Ah…”

“How difficult.”

“Hm…”

She was the fairy who insisted on recovering the body of her savior who jumped off a cliff.

Of course, she was kidnapped and captured in the basement as soon as she left and was neglected that whole time.

The reason being that she was the biggest of the big shots and couldn’t be killed in vain!

“I understand your motives. However, I am outraged that you would take the life of a savior for the sake of imposing silence.”

“But…”

“We apologize.”

Despite having that fairy’s life in their hands, the four people cowered.

Councilwoman Celebless…

Normally, they wouldn’t even have a chance to be face to face with her because of her highly noble status.

Let alone a kidnapping!

It wouldn’t just end in them getting massacred by the villagers the day they’d get caught.

“What are you hesitating for? You don’t have any other choice, do you?”

“Councilwoman.” 

“No.”

Celebless turned them down without even listening.

“…we will set you free as soon as you swear to not divulge this incident.”

Swearing…

It was worth more than a fairy’s life, who lived thousands of years.

Celebless gave a cold response.

“You think a swear made through threats has any effect?”

“That’s…!”

“Do you want to see for yourself if you can trust me?”

“Councilwoman Celebless. Why is it you are telling us this? If you had concealed the truth, we would have been relieved and let you go.”

The healer, who was the smartest in the village, questioned her.

Celebless laughed.

“Take this opportunity to learn: Fairies do not lie to merely spare their lives.”

But even as she spoke with confidence, she knew fully well that there were plenty of fairies who would lie to live.

There were also fairies who lied to redeem themselves with death like herself.

“…Then it looks like we don’t have a choice. Councilwoman Celebless, we will make it as painless as possible.”

Sling-

The head guard drew his sword, stained with blood from the fairies.

“…”

Celebless closed her eyes peacefully and waited for her end.

“Behind you…!”

“Careful!”

“Huh?!”

“What the?!”

Just then, the astonished and fearful screams of the four men sounded simultaneously.

Celebless watched as she slowly reopened her eyes.

Slash!

The sight of the decapitated head guard flying in the air…

Of course, that wasn’t the reason she was shocked.

“How…?”

“$#@ %@?”

The savior who had jumped off a cliff and allegedly died had returned.

* * *

* * *

“$#@%…?”

“What are you saying?”

I didn’t know what the wide-eyed female fairy was going on about, but I decided to think about that later.

First, I needed to clean up…

Stab! Slash!

I got rid of the villagers who had dragged the fairies to the basement.

Revenge on the fairies?

It was just the right time to create such a misunderstanding when I intruded, but I was planning to kill all of them the moment I followed.

The fairies who backstabbed me, the chief, and the villagers who were all on his side…

“%#@ spare me!”

“Oh! Something I understand!”

It was welcoming to hear what mercenary Misa had taught me, but it wasn’t enough reason to spare them.

Slash!

“Aaah?!”

I had to get rid of the muscular man who looked like he was the strongest of the four by ambushing him while he let his guard down to kill the female fairy.

The other three were easy.

If the fairies weren’t weakened, it wouldn’t have been easy to kidnap them like that in the first place.

“%# spare m- kirk?!”

Stab!

The situation died down as I pierced the blue dagger into the medulla of the middle-aged woman running for the exit.

The only survivor remaining was the fairy tied to the chair.

“$#@? %@# @$#.”

“We meet again.”

It was the female fairy I had tried to use as a witness.

She was still as thin as a mummy, but she was a little more like a ‘beauty’ after being washed and having covered her injuries with clean clothes.

I could also see her status window that I couldn’t see before.

[Name] Celebless

[level] 12

[blessing] Tamer A Life C Pure Heritage B

[curse] Noble B

“Ha…”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I read her blessings.

I was boastful with my single F rank blessing, but that fairy had three blessings with extremely high ranks.

However…

[tamer]

>All the abilities of the creatures you tame will slightly improve.

>chances of taming a creature with a high guard rises significantly!

Let’s call her a professional tamer, shall we?

It wasn’t an effect that made the individual stronger, so it was a little ambiguous, even if it was a high rank.

A useless blessing if you didn’t have a pet with you.

Besides that…

[life]

[pure heritage]

[noble]

From the looks of it, there wasn’t much to the other blessings and curses either.

Anyways, I could see why the fairy tied to the chair was showing me her status window.

“Celebless?”

“$#. @#$ Celebless.”

The fairy, Celebless, smiled at me without a trace of fear.

“…”

[outsider]

Although there was no change in my emotions thanks to being protected by the blessing, it was somehow a reassuring smile.

[A certain god is extremely uncomfortable.]

[A certain god emphasizes the outsider part.]

“Yeah, I get it.”

‘Always be an outsider.’

‘You will get divine punishment if you stop living the life of a lone wolf.’

“@$#?”

I cut the ropes that bound the fairy who was giving me an odd look as I talked to myself.

Dust, dust.

“What a lucky fairy.”

I had originally been going to kill everyone to prevent further trouble.

But I gave that up when she taught me her name through her status window.

I had a similar experience as well.

Gary, Cole, Misa…

I had tried my best to earn the favorability of the fantasy natives I first encountered by teaching them my name.

—Despite it being in vain.

I wouldn’t be any different from them if I killed that fairy there.

“Take care of the rest.”

I didn’t feel the need to stay in that bloody basement dotted with betrayal any longer.

It was right then, as I was turning around to leave…

“$#@…!”

Wobble~ grab.

I quickly caught the fairy, who was about to trip and fall as soon as she got up from the chair.

“You’re bothering me!”

“[email protected]# @# [email protected]#Kang Hansoo @#%.”

“You know my name, huh?”

“Kang Hansoo [email protected]#. #@#.”

“Hmph.”

I left the chief’s house after wrapping the scrawny fairy’s waist with my left arm and carrying her at my side.

It was as quiet as ever outside.

‘How interesting.’

In the middle of the night, fairies were kidnapped, numerous mercenaries were killed, and four villagers went missing.

It only made sense for there to be chaos.

“Dear respected outsider god, why is that so?”

[A certain god says they’re not in the mood to tell you.]

“Oh, alright.”

It looked like I had to get rid of that fairy for the god to reign in their anger.

But I couldn’t trust the villagers, and there were fairy-meat-loving gnolls infesting the forest.

What was I supposed to do?

I decided to think about that after getting out of the village first.

Step step step.

I lightly jumped over the fence as I stepped on the ladder placed within the walls of the wooden fence.

I don’t know how much more I ran after that.

Pull, pull.

“Kang Hansoo, #. #@$.”

The fairy caught my attention by pulling on my shirt and pointed at the sky.

“What is it?”

Flame~

A burst of hot air swept over my head.

Looking up, I witness a surreal fantasy creature.

“Phoenix…?”

 A peacock with red flames for feathers was coming after us over our heads.

What a bolt out of the blue!

Flame~

A wall of flames surrounded me with the flap of the phoenix’s wings.

[outsider]

“…this is gonna be difficult.”

I would be alright with my overpowered blessing, but the fairy with only weak blessings would get cooked to the bone.

“[email protected]#.”

“You want me to let you down?”

“#@.”

There was such a thing as reading the room even if you couldn’t speak the language.

She must have been telling me to leave her useless body and run away!

I didn’t refuse and gently let the fairy onto the ground.

Flame…

Then, the wall of flames gradually disappeared, and the phoenix circling us landed next to her.

“$. $#@.”

Flame!

“%@# #.”

Flame?

It looked like the fairy and phoenix were talking in a language that transcended species.

After seeing such an affectionate sight, I understood the situation.

[taming]

They must be the tamer and their pet bird(?)!

“Kang Hansoo, [email protected]”

“Huh?”

“$%#@. $# @# # Celebless $# [email protected]# #@ %#@ Kang Hansoo # %#@$ #@$ ^$# (*$.”

“What are you talking ab— oomf?!”

[A certain god is in horror at the unexpected turn of events.]

Flame-!

The phoenix, which was the size of an ostrich, was engulfed in flames and morphed into the size of a light airplane.

“Kang Hansoo %#$. %# #$.”

Flutter!

Celebless got on top of the giant bird’s neck and flew high into the sky.

And she left into the wind.

“…”

[A certain god nails it in that the outsider’s crime is clear.]

[A certain god is about to adjudicate the criminal.]

“No, hold on! That’s what I should be saying!”

I wiped my lips that were sexually harrassed by the female fairy and swallowed my rage.

“My first…!”

How dare she repay my favor with sexual assault!

‘I’m never going near a fairy agai… oh!’

[name] Kang Hansoo

[Level] 1

[blessings] outsider F fairy C

[curse] Hero E

[dividend] 4.85

‘It’s a new blessing!’

‘And its rank is high, too!’

My heart which was uncomfortable from getting kissed by the fairy was put at ease.

[A certain god glares at you with bleary eyes.]

[A certain god is uncomfortable.]

“…There are times when you must endure embarrassment while going through life.”

[A certain god is very uncomfortable.]

“Ahem, ahem!”

‘They sure have a lot to be uncomfortable about!’

‘I might as well check out my hot new blessing while waiting for the god’s anger to cool down.’