I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

95. The life of a warrior

My first start as a warrior was full of hopes and dreams.

Finally, the days of grueling training came to an end, and although it was a journey to defeat the Demon King, it was thanks to him that he was able to roam freely out there.

This is the moment I have been waiting for for a really long time.

The moment when freedom is given to a bird trapped in a cage.

Although it is a condition of defeating the Demon King, if the world is saved, the hope is that one can live freely and peacefully in the saved world.

With that alone, the dream seemed to never end.

-Hero, these are the ones who will help you on your journey. These are skilled people and advisors carefully selected from our kingdom, so we hope they will help you on your journey.

Besides, I didn’t go on that journey alone.

-Take care of yourself, warrior!-

-You are a hero, please take good care of me in the future.-

-Nice to meet you, warrior, let’s do well together in the future.-

-…Hello.-

Four reliable colleagues joined us.

This is a story where the hero originally has 6 companions including himself, but one joins later.

Before that, the four people were a saint of the church, a warrior of the kingdom, a wizard of a magic school, and a thief of the assassin group Sabaha.

Even though the warrior was a young girl, they treated her kindly and without discrimination, and the warrior also trusted them and moved forward together.

Alas, but could this young warrior have even imagined this?

A miserable ending awaits at the end of that journey.

The story goes that the only one standing on the hill of corpses holding the bloody holy sword is himself.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter because it’s a happy ending, but it’s questionable whether it’s a happy ending for you as well.

If the hero had died that day, he would probably have been respected far into the future as the hero who defeated the Demon King.

†††

“…It’s good to train, but how about taking a little rest?”

Alfred said, bringing a dry towel and cool water.

However, Arcel seems to have not heard Alfred’s words and continues to focus on training his body.

He supports his body in a handstand with just one thumb, and trains his body to the point where sweat pools on the floor.

The number that came out of Arcel’s mouth was over ten thousand, so it’s reasonable for Alfred to do that.

Just looking at their expressions, they seemed to be worried about whether it was okay to be like that.

“Give up, because when you’re concentrating on training your body like that, you can’t turn your attention away unless the Demon King appears.”

Stella, who was watching from the side, shook her head.

At first, I had a similar reaction to Alfred, but after seeing him like that for more than a few years, I got used to it.

“I couldn’t see much in the morning because I had work to do… But I never thought I’d been exercising like that since long ago.”

Alfred was amazed that Arcel’s body was like that of a pretty woman.

Honestly, if she trained like that every day, her body would become even more muscular than orcs.

“Whoa… Ah, when did you come back, Alfred? “Why don’t you at least tell me when you come?”

At that time, Arcel, who was trying to catch her breath for a moment, belatedly found Alfred.

“I came here a long time ago.”

“I see, I’m sorry. “When I’m concentrating on training, I’m a bit distracted.”

“It’s okay. Anyway, here’s a towel and cool water.”

“Thank you. “I was just thirsty.”

“I guess so.”

Arcel’s body was covered in sweat.

But despite that, her breathing did not suffer much.

“But how long has it been since the curse was lifted? Is it okay to do such strenuous exercise?”

“That’s why we’re intentionally making the intensity a little weaker. Even now, compared to the past, we are doing about half of that.”

“…Do you know that you woke up early in the morning and continued to do that for 6 hours?”

“I have other things to do during the day, so if I have free time, I should train my body then. “I’ve been resting for five years already.”

“Do you know why I told you to give up? “I did that the day before I went to catch the demon lord.”

“I hate to admit it, but I have to admit what that ogre said.”

Alfred shook his head and sighed.

I may not have been able to train like that for a while because my physical condition has not been normal for 5 years, but my body still feels like I have not forgotten such intense training.

“Anyway, I’ve prepared bath water for you, so go take a shower. There’s a change of clothes there too.”

“I understand. “Thank you, Alfred.”

With that, Arcel smiled and headed to wash up.

Alfred watched Arcel heading to the bathroom, then lay down on a chair in the courtyard of his castle.

“After the curse was lifted, I became a completely different person…”

It’s been a week since I visited the land of the elves.

And what I realized over the course of a week was that Arcel had changed significantly in a way that I could not have imagined before.

Even as we set out on our long journey, there seemed to be a big difference from just before defeating the Demon King.

“That’s what I want to ask, what on earth did you do to make her change like that?”

“You didn’t do anything particularly strange? “All we can do is feed them well, sleep them well, and dress them well.”

“…A person can change like that just because of something like that?”

“Why does it look strange?”

“No, I actually like it because my body looks lighter than before. Should I say that it has become too light…”

Stella also seemed to see that Arcel had changed greatly from her past.

“Humans seem like such an amazing race. They look similar to elves like me, but how can they be so different? Same goes for that one, right? “Neither of us are human anyway.”

Alfred often visited Arcel while avoiding the devil’s eyes, but Stella was next to Arcel for almost 24 hours.

“…I am also about 50% human.”

“Or maybe our hero is just a little special.”

If a change was seen in Stella’s eyes, she couldn’t simply blame it on her mood.

“I guess that’s probably right.”

Alfred lay down on his bench and looked at the sky.

After returning to the land of the elves, Arcel seemed to often go for a walk every morning, so the dark clouds cleared.

Thankfully, there was no heavy rain, but one side of the castle courtyard was filled with water.

While I was away, the castle was quite neglected and I couldn’t pay attention to maintaining it. I never would have guessed that every morning, I was here training myself, which was different from what I looked like on the outside.

Alfred changed his assessment of Arcel in his head.

To be honest, at first, I was worried that I might have messed with Arcel’s mind while lifting the curse.

†††

After washing off his sweat, Arcel headed to Alfred’s room.

There was Alfred, floating upside down in the air as usual, reading a book.

“Oh, are you here? “Was the bath water temperature appropriate?”

“Yes, it was warm yet cool, so it was good for cooling off a hot body.”

“I’m glad that’s the case.”

So, I turned Alfred, who was upside down, 180 degrees and continued the conversation.

No matter how familiar you are, it is better to make eye contact when talking.

This is because the conversation that follows is important in its own way.

“But what happened all of a sudden? “Why did she call us?”

“I don’t know, Grandma Clen is a vampire who only talks about important business in person.”

From Noble mtl dot com

That’s why Clen suddenly called them.

After returning from the land of the elves, I continued to stay at Alfred’s castle to get used to the curse being lifted, but it was surprising that he suddenly called me.

What on earth is happening?

“Of course, I’m going to chew it because it’s annoying. “I called you out a few times in the past, and that time it was to ask you out on a date.”

“Ah… Now that I think about it-“

“Yes, asking a grandmother who is much older than me on a date is a terrible thing.”

In fact, from a vampire’s point of view, Clen’s age was not the age she could call her, since she was her grandmother.

Right now, elves need to be 200 years old to be similar to human adults.

“Whatever, don’t worry. “If it’s something important to do, he’ll come find it on his own.”

However, Alfred seems to vehemently reject it, saying that she is his grandmother in his eyes.

“…Is this really okay?”

Arsel looked at the letter lying on the desk.

I think that’s a letter from Clen.

“Yes.”

The letter was written with such severe poison that an ordinary person would die just by getting close to it.

“Be careful. If you touch it wrong, you die, and the skeleton that received that letter melted, so it takes time to clean it up… Oh, you guess it doesn’t matter anymore?”

“It’s okay. “If it’s this much poison, it only stings slightly.”

It was written in the language of demons, but if you roughly translate its meaning, it means a threat to kill you if you don’t come running right away.

“I think it would be a good idea to go.”

Arsel looked through the letter.

There was also writing on the back.

“Didn’t you read the last part?”

“Would you read a letter coated in poison that melts your hands if you touch it, all the way to the back?”

“…I guess so when I think about it.”

Looking at the state of the letter, it seemed that Alfred had not read the contents on the back.

But as I read it, the contents of the letter seemed to be quite important.

“Alfred, I really think it would be a good idea to go.”

“If you want to go there again, there’s no problem with going there to have fun… but why bother?”

“This letter, to be precise, she is calling me, not you.”

Maybe it was because he didn’t read the back of the letter, but Alfred seemed to have concluded that it was simply a letter calling for them.

“Really? Surprising? “Why did Grandma Clen call you?”

“It is said that a human from the Kingdom of Hermod infiltrated the territory and was caught. However, that human is said to be looking for me.”

“Then just execute him. If he searches for you in that kingdom, it won’t be a very good thing.”

Alfred smiled broadly and pretended to slit his throat with his finger.

I was concerned when it came to the Kingdom of Hermod, but I thought it was too early to get involved right away.

It’s not like I haven’t thought about attacking the kingdom right now and finding out the truth about what happened that day five years ago.

“Anyway, isn’t the execution a bit different? “I understand that it is the right thing to do not to kill the Shinigami, even during war.”

“My name is a Shinigami, so I can meet a Shinigami, right?”

But that would eventually lead to an armed conflict, and I didn’t want to inadvertently hurt people.

The ones who actually committed the crime were other people, but it was always the unrelated people who got hurt and died.

Arsel did not want that.

“Hmm… Let’s finish looking at the contents first.”

I haven’t read the entire contents of the letter yet.

It is best to decide what to do after reading the entire letter.

As expected, most of the content that followed was full of cursing Alfred, but that did not mean everything.

“Is there anyone in the Kingdom of Hermod who wants to meet me?”

“Who is that?”

“I’m not sure about that. “It seems that the human who brought her letter was not the human who was captured by her.”

Of course, since the demons are hostile to humans, no one can go there unless their life is precious.

Especially if it is Clan territory.

I feel sorry for the person who brought the letter instead.

“Are you saying he sent it under an assumed name because he couldn’t reveal who he was?”

In addition, the fact that the contents of the letter were sent under a pseudonym also means that it would be difficult if his identity was revealed.

I guess they were preparing for the letter to possibly fall into the hands of others.

However, it is questionable why the letter was taken to Clan’s territory.

Did he mistakenly think Arcel was there?

“And the pseudonym is…”

Arsel was speechless for a while after reading the pseudonym written in the letter.

[Bird in a cage]

·

“Ha.”

And then he sighed deeply and crossed his eyebrows.

As a bird in a cage, I felt like I knew who the person sending the letter was.

“Then let’s give it a go. It looks like you’ve lost your scary head, so I’m going to make you lose your real head too!”

When Alfred heard that it was a bird in a cage, he smiled brightly and seemed fully willing to go see the bird.

Of course, I didn’t forget to pack a guillotine in my pocket.

Arsel wondered why there was a guillotine in the room, but soon remembered and understood that this room was Alfred’s room.

Because it is foolish to ask Alfred ‘Why?’ In the first place.

On the contrary, it felt too quiet to have only a guillotine.