Is this Hero for Real?

[Act 8] Second Language

“$, %$?1”

“Oink?!”

I cut every single one in sight.

The red surge of power burst from the blue dagger’s blade like a horse-slayer sword.

A head was decapitated every time I swung it.

[Outsider]

[Fairy]

Thanks to the fairy’s blessing, I had more gross power, but it was mostly the result of continuous improvement from cutting green pigs.

Efficiency…

It was where I had to focus my technique since I always had the same amount of gross power.

“$#! Spare me~!”

“I… I don’t want to die! #…!”

On top of that, my Curse helped me out too.

[Slaughter]

> Friendly races will slightly fear you and find you appalling.

> The chances of them opposing your cruel actions increases a lot.

It didn’t work at all on the hostile green pigs, but there was quite an effect on the humans.

Without exception, every single human I made eye contact with became disoriented and trembled in fear.

“^#% spare me!”

“#& forgiveness &@^!”

“& die #& $~!”

The Curse didn’t have much of an effect when they thought they had the upper hand, but after getting raided by the orcs, they were much more expressive.

Stab!

Fear spread like a contagious disease every time I killed off one of their comrades.

Of course, there was some backlash.

“^#! I’ll kill you!”

I could see the man that seemed to be the head mercenary leading his gang in a single row, charging towards me.

Slash!

Stab! Cut!

A blue surge of power was wrapped around their swords like Lady B’s.

It was such a strong force that even the orcs, who showed a bold front through a successful raid and overwhelming numbers, took a step back.

But alas…

#^%di-”

Slice!

While cutting the orcs, I vertically sliced the mercenaries running at me from head to groin.

They were undoubtedly strong, but I was stronger.

That was all.

“#$ &#! Kill him!”

Kill him! #&^!”

The mercenaries were unfazed by their comrades' deaths and swung their swords.

They were attacking through time lags.

It wasn’t a bad decision, but it only felt ridiculous to me after getting chewed by countless gnolls.

[Outsider]

I drew power into my empty left hand and put up my nails.

Then… stab!

I stabbed the mercenary before his blade could touch my body.

“#…?!”

The mercenary was disarmed, hips collapsing from his penetrated spine.

Before I could make sure my target was dead, I had to face the next enemy.

And the third, fourth, fifth, sixth…

They came at me with coordinated attacks, which was quite a bother. And the head mercenary’s attacks towards my back were undoubtedly menacing.

Of course…

Pow!

“$, #…?”

That didn’t make a difference.

We all may have had a fair shot at each other, but that didn’t mean our Blessings were fair, too.

“Sorry I disappointed you.”

“…”

The dying head mercenary’s smile of victory after slashing my back turned into a look of terror.

Droop.

He must have seen my back, unscathed, through my ripped clothes.

On the other hand, the head of the mercenaries, who didn’t expect I would use my toenails as well, lost the lower half of his body and fell next to his subordinates.

Plop.

“What a shame. I bought these shoes yesterday…”

I liked those shoes because they was waterproof and comfortable, but there was a hole in them near the toes.

And the others?

Poof!

Pooof!

Lady A, the mage, was burning the entire field of humans and orcs with her flame shots.

It was too chaotic to see what Lady B was doing, but I was sure she was okay because the demon who thought of humans as pet animals was with her.

“It’s pretty busy.”

[A certain god complains you talk to yourself too much.]

“…For the outsider god!”

[A certain god compliments you for talking to yourself too much.]

“God, aren’t you happy it’s not boring?”

[A certain god says to hurry up so they can look at the picture books.]

“Ah, yeah. I’ll try.”

There were still plenty of fantasy savages and pigs to kill.

* * *

* * *

As the gods’ closest aid, the Saintess could not falter.

The perfect human being!

It was extremely rare for a Saintess to show her emotions and stay serious for long periods of time.

“This is the backpack in question, correct?”

“Yes.”

It was dirty from the gnoll blood and dirt and grime, but it was obvious it wasn’t a backpack that could be made with Fantasia’s tailoring technology.

So were its contents.

There were books full of realistic drawings that were identical to the actual objects. It was almost suspicious if the gods made it themselves.

—The printing technology from the world the Heroes were born and raised in.

“Isn’t it truly incredible?”

“…”

“Oh! I’ve made a mistake. It’s strictly forbidden for a knight to compliment a foreign country. Even though the Heroes’ home country doesn’t exist in Fantasia.”

“…”

But from how nonchalant the Heroes were about the world with this much technology, maybe it wasn’t that incredible…

“How many people besides you know of this backpack?”

The Saintess asked the knight after carefully looking through the books.

“Besides the hierarchs that were aiding you, the only people who know about it are me and the commander of the knights.”

“Any chance the commander reported it to Prince Alsus?”

“None. I ran straight to you under his command.”

“It was a wise decision.”

All of the Heroes’ personal items were stored in the Temple, including those who declared they were giving up being a Hero and were independent.

‘Then what could this be?’

The answer was simple.

“This is strictly a personal question, but what do you think of this? You found it.”

“…I think there was a hero who wasn’t summoned to the Temple.”

As she thought…

Anyone would assume that if they saw that backpack. 

A Hero that wasn’t summoned to the Temple…

It may not sound like much, but it couldn’t be taken lightly.

“Do you have any family?”

“My siblings all left home, and my parents manage a small orchard in my hometown.”

“Seems like you aren’t married yet.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll arrange for you to work at the Temple forever. Unless you would like to die with honor?”

“…I will work.”

“Don’t contact anyone, and stay secluded for the time being.”

“Okay,” The knight answered calmly.

He saw that coming the moment he thoughtlessly picked up an odd bag. He was lucky to not get silenced through death.

“You may leave now. I will send someone to your home.”

“Thank you for your consideration. For the prosperity of humanity!”

Salute.

The knight breathed again and left the Temple with orderly movements.

The Saintess watched him until he disappeared and looked at the name written on the back of the book.

“Hm…”

Obviously, she couldn’t read it. But she had to.

It would be simple if she asked any of the Heroes, but then there would be no point in keeping it a secret.

Scribble scribble.

She wrote the name herself on a piece of paper.

“…I’m sure you heard everything?”

“Yes, Saintess.”

“Learn the language from a naive Hero and figure out how to pronounce this name. They must not know of your intentions at all costs.”

“I will keep it in mind.”

Her subordinate that was always in her shadows respectfully took the paper and answered.

“And this backpack…”

“…”

“Nevermind.”

The Saintess hid the backpack under her coat.

God’s mistake.

It could not, and should not have happened. Her god was an absolute, perfect entity.

But the ‘suspicious phenomenon’ had occurred in real life.

It was easy to get rid of the evidence, but would that be enough?

She couldn’t come to an easy conclusion.

“Saintess. I sincerely apologize, for you must be uneasy, but I have a report.”

“What is it?”

“There was a big-scale massacre in the forest of the Hunter’s Village.”

“Do you mean the village councilwoman, Celebless, and the fairies were kidnapped? Didn’t we decide under the councilwoman’s request to keep it buried?”

Why would they bring up something that was over?

The attendant denied it.

“Besides the fairies and culprits, numerous mercenaries were also murdered. According to the villagers’ testimonies, they said it was revenge from a vindictive soul…”

“Soul?”

“They say the mercenaries killed a stranger that saved the fairies before the stranger’s soul came for revenge.”

“A stranger, you say…”

Usually, it would be ‘traveler’.

The word ‘stranger’ was rarely ever used unless their attire or impressions were truly alien.

Almost like the Heroes…

“Did you report this because you thought it was related to this backpack?”

“…”

“I apologize. I asked a spiteful question.”

She didn’t mean to get worked up. It meant that’s how much the backpack shook her composure.

The Saintess calmly spoke.

“A spirit, on holy grounds? That is ridiculous. The realistic approach would be that they didn’t die and got their revenge on the mercenaries. Investigate what the said spirit was wearing.”

“Yes.”

“…And if any heroes die during hunting, leave them in the morgue. I would like to rest today.”

“I will let them know.”

Clench.

The Saintess hugged the backpack tightly and left with grace.

***

It was a new morning!

There was the smell of blood amongst the fresh morning dew, but it was fine as long as I didn’t have trouble breathing.

Jiggle!

Jiggle!

The slimes were earlier than the birds and busied themselves cleaning the area.

Jiggle~

Jiggle~

Rapidly growing larger from eating the corpses of humans and orcs scattered across the field, the slime split in two.

The increased slimes would get eaten by orcs once again as beings at the bottom of the food chain.

This was the circle of life…

“Are slimes interesting to you? I’m telling you to listen to what I’m saying!”

“…what?”

“There’s too much luggage.”

Demon Kogmos was distracting my appreciation towards the fantasy world’s life cyle.

For such a mundane reason…

“There’s livestock to carry luggage all around you.”

“Mooo~”

“Neigh~”

A lot of livestock ran away overnight, but it wasn’t a problem because we had found the mercenaries’ horses.

The demon, frowning at my counterargument, gave another reason.

“There’s going to be more wild dogs if we have all these trophies.”

“Hm…”

That really was a problem.

I may have been stronger that time, but there was no promise that next time would be the same.

If I had more things than I did right then, stronger mercenaries would come for it!

“And these two ladies are exhausted. They’re past the point of being able to recover through rest.”

“Hm!”

Amputated fingers, scars on their face…

None of those injuries had occurred, thankfully, but they were sprawled on the horse saddles, exhausted.

No doubt that was dangerous.

It would be foolish to fight the green pigs in that state.

“Do you get it now?”

“Fine!”

For these inconveniences, we headed back to the city.

But we couldn’t rest right away.

Horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, armor, crossbows, swords, food…

We had too many trophies.

Kaching!

“I hear music from my money pouch.”

[A certain god scolds you for being a greedy outsider.]

“I should be able to buy lots of picture books with this money.”

[A certain god highly praises you for being a faithful outsider.]

It was thanks to selling enough livestock for the merchant to grumble that ‘the price of meat is going to drop even for the nearby cities for a while.

Next was the mercenary guild.

“#$!”

“# % #$?!”

“@# %!”

The mercenaries were shocked at the mounds of orc heads.

“Holy shit! Am I dreaming? Are they all real? You gathered a bunch! How can a level 1 do that?” “Is this mound for real?”

—Is what I assumed they were saying!

“Kang Hansoo#. Thank you.”

“Thank you. Kang Hansoo $#.”

The two ladies, leveling up as soon as I completed the task, smiled gleefully.

Lady B even went as far as to show me her status window that she had kept hidden the whole time.

[Name] Julia

[Level] 16

[Blessings] Noble D, Warrior D, Charm F, Student C, Mercenary B, Socialite D

[Curses] –

Level 16!

She had told me she was a level 14 knight when she first met me.

Even she didn’t seem to believe it.

It wasn’t just her…

“…I leveled up, too. I’ll give you a little thanks. Ahem!”

Demon Kogmos.

Even he had leveled up, despite being a higher level than the two ladies.

I looked at the demon’s status window that only I could see…

“You’re right.”

[Name] Kogmos

[Level] 20

[Blessings] Charm B, Secret D, Magic D, Warrior E, Disposition C, Trap F, Observation D

[Curses] Noble A

It was a compilation of various Blessings, like a written record of his experiences throughout a long life.

I could feel his tenacity to get strong and marry, but there wasn’t anything I could call covinous.

But even a demon like that was level 20.

It was better off than me.

[Name] Kang Hansoo

[Level] 1

[Blessings] Outsider F, Fairy C, Mercenary B

[Curses] Hero E, Slaughter E

[Dividend] 6.60

“This is driving me nuts!

I was still level 1!

That was odd. 

The Hero’s curses couldn’t affect the exp from mercenary tasks, right?

[A certain god looks at the faraway galaxies.]

[A certain god says there are a lot of stars like always.]

[A certain god drills in that they will turn down any kind of suspicion.]

“…Could it be?”

It looked like I had found the reason.