The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

1 – EP1. Breaking Dawn

Forcing a story tends to make a mess of things.

I keenly felt that.

Amidst the madness, within the tempest of steel, and amidst the festival of blood, what came to my mind was a pathetic novel I had seen in my childhood, one that had been stretched to its limits for popularity, only to end up a ragged mess in a magazine.

And the reason it resonated with me was that it mirrored my own appearance.

I was a hero, entrusted with the mission of slaying the demon lord.

I had no special talents, but I possessed the ability to go back in time upon death, and I used that ability to battle the demon lord.

After countless deaths, I had finally succeeded in killing the demon lord and thought I could finally rest. However, I was once again reluctantly dragged into an unwanted war.

I gazed at the castle walls. The fortress of darkness loomed before me.

It was the stronghold of the demon lord’s general and the most fearsome witch, Grandis. Countless spires jutted out at odd angles, much like her sinister character.

Crows began to circle overhead, anticipating the feast of corpses, and the sky was tinged with ash.

I twisted my lips.

Then, someone behind me grabbed my shoulder.

“Are you staying focused?”

It was my comrade, the strongest swordsman on the continent, Sane Luderan.

“This battle will end once and for all when we take down that guy. Concentrate, Ainz.”

She said that and then brought her face close to mine, pressing her forehead against mine. Her crimson eyes met mine.

“It’s your job to deal with the one who escapes this time, right? During the demon lord’s army purge, you said you’d let the one who runs away get away.”

“Yeah.”

I had no choice but to answer.

“Even the Empire trusts you enough to give you the position of Supreme Commander. Don’t mess it up by breaking that trust. Got it?”

I nodded my head because I wasn’t dumb enough to lay out my thoughts on whether being appointed Supreme Commander by force could be considered trust.

Sane seemed satisfied, or something, and walked away, flipping her red hair.

As soon as Sane disappeared, I gripped my holy sword.

Amidst the drumming of the military band and the pounding of my racing heart, I examined the chain-shaped form of the sword’s light reflecting on my face.

As I scrutinized my own face, feeling a sense of alienation, my concentration vanished along with a metallic click.

With the clinking sound, figures clad in shimmering silver armor appeared.

They were the personal unit of the Elf King Terion Tirantus.

Damn tree-huggers. It’s embarrassing to think I was once captivated by their appearance on our first meeting. I didn’t know their true nature back then.

Anyway, regardless of my past impressions, they were beings with powers that surpassed ordinary humans, and this indicated that even the Elf King considered Grandis’s purge to be of utmost importance.

They stood before me and said,

“Greetings, esteemed hero of the continent. I’ve heard that you are the supreme commander in this war.”

The blond man standing at the front appeared to be the leader. And he was speaking politely to me, a mere mortal.

Perhaps he was trying to be on the good side of the person who brought them here.

“That’s enough.”

And then, she, who had brought them here, spoke up.

Lena Terentus, a princess of the fairies and the best archer on the continent, was also my comrade.

She spoke, with an imposing expression.

“He may be a hero, so we should treat him with respect, but don’t act subservient. I’m still angry with him for arguing with me about participating in this war.”

I bit my lip. It seemed like she still held a grudge against me for not joining her in this war.

Lena roughly ruffled the blond man’s hair and said,

“You, this time, make sure to defeat that woman. That’s the only way to regain the respect of a hero. It doesn’t make sense for you to lose. You’ve even brought in reinforcements all the way from Avamama. Understand?”

I nodded slightly with my head.

Because to me, respect didn’t hold much meaning anymore.

Moreover, at the moment, I was only the commander-in-chief, excluded from making military strategies, and when it came to displaying an impressive display of power, my comrades were even better at that.

Sensing my attitude, Lena instructed the fairies to take their positions and said,

“You, straighten up. So that people, and even my father, will start looking at you again. Show them the spirit to defeat those who treated peasants and humans with contempt. Stop acting so miserable. If the commander-in-chief has such a face, the soldiers will lose their morale.”

Upon hearing those words, I finally realized my duty.

I had become the commander-in-chief as a talisman to boost morale, and as soon as Lena disappeared to her own unit, I cleared my mind and used amplification magic.

“All soldiers here! Can you hear me?”

“Yes!”

“We stand here today to conquer the witches! Do you know why?”

I took a deep breath and shouted.

“Because our families, brothers, and friends do not want that! Because we fear falling into the clutches of the witches! We fear inflicting the same loss that the Demon King did on his army!

We might get hurt or even die at the hands of those witches! Humans die much easier than one might think!”

However, we accept that and we march onto the battlefield. Why? Because we hope our children don’t have to experience the anxiety we feel!

Killing Grandidis won’t make the anxiety and fear disappear. But if we kill her, people in the world can momentarily forget their fear, and those soldiers have gone to kill Grandidis for that brief moment of peace.

And it is I who must give them the courage to fight for that momentary peace, to survive.

Even if this war goes against my will, once a role is assigned, it is carried out. It has been my job since I took hold of the holy sword.

I took a moment to catch my breath and shouted one last time.

“The blood we shed will nourish the seeds of the children, and the flames of life we extinguish will become the driving force for a better world!”

I am bound to the name of a warrior and have no choice but to fight.

Behind me, dust and wind swirled as the gates of Grandis opened.

“…..I hope you can survive as much as possible, my lord.”

I turned around as I said those words.

The Black Witch was glaring at me.

The Black Witch, Grandis, walked towards me with confident steps, her shoes clicking.

I could sense the soldiers being captivated by her sensual figure in the black dress, but I paid more attention to the dangerous energy emanating from her.

We locked eyes for a moment.

“Sigh, humans really are foolish creatures, aren’t they?”

After a long silence, Grandis set a long flaming torch to the huge bear-like shield and spoke.

“Is there something you’re uneasy about even after killing the Demon King? Everyone seems quite fearful.”

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Then, she looked at me.

“Especially the area behind you, the warrior. Is it particularly unsettling, isn’t it?”

She raised one corner of her mouth.

“Sigh, if you’re that uneasy…..at least be on guard. Ah, yes. I’m not the one who’s uneasy, am I?”

“….?”

I didn’t understand her words and tilted my head, and she continued without a care.

“You must be fighting against me while thinking that you’ve already won…..well, fine. I’ll make you pay for your carelessness.”

She flashed a sinister smile.

From beneath her feet, hands grabbing the soldiers’ ankles appeared.

I was deceived.

Damn it, I should have known. It seems the staff officers overlooked the fact that Grandis couldn’t be confined within the castle.

The soldiers were being torn apart by the zombies.

“Snap out of it! Maintain formation and take care of the zombies one by one!”

I activated my voice amplifying magic and shouted, but the soldiers were still in confusion. There were even cases where they were killing each other.

In the end, only a few who had regained their composure were barely reducing the number of zombies.

And then, salvation arrived.

A massive light illuminated the battlefield.

“Is it Beatrice…..”

Grandis said.

The golden light, as if it had melted the hair of the protagonist, began to dissolve the zombies.

“To use a miracle of this magnitude, you must be a member of the party that killed the Demon King. However, it’s still not enough.”

Grandis took a deep breath.

“Everyone, plug your ears!”

I shouted when I realized what her action meant.

But the soundproofing magic had already ended.

A huge scream engulfed the soldiers, and some of them went berserk.

“Damn it.”

“Unbelievable, they couldn’t have been unaware of this technology, so did they fail to deal with it on purpose?”

Our allies were being massacred by those who had just been allies.

And she, who had created this scene, laughed and said, “No, it’s not that I couldn’t do it, I chose not to. They don’t trust the allies, do they? Or perhaps they only consider one side as allies?”

A puff of cigarette smoke was exhaled.

I furrowed my brows. Although I had known her for a long time, it was difficult to decipher what she was thinking or the meaning behind her casual words.

I gave up on deciphering her words and began to kill those who had been allies just moments ago, one by one.

Then, Sein grabbed my shoulder.

“What are you doing!”

“That’s dark magic that controls weak-willed individuals! If we don’t kill them now, our soldiers will all die!”

I shouted at her, and she frowned.

“Damn, is that a thing? What were the strategists doing?”

“I have no idea. Granis even told us about the technique in advance, so why is this happening!”

“Damn it! Hurry up and kill the crazed ones!”

Sein yelled, and I started to kill the crazed individuals one by one.

In the distance, I could hear Sein cursing at the strategists, and I couldn’t help but agree with him.

Even as we eliminated the crazed individuals, Grandis continued to cast dark magic.

“hehehe, how pitiful. You’re desperately eliminating those who were your allies just a moment ago.”

Grandis laughed like that, and whether we liked it or not, we had almost reduced the number of the crazed individuals.

Right at that moment,

“Well, now that we’ve more or less gotten rid of everyone we needed to, let’s get started for real.”

The sound of massive footsteps began to approach.