The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

10 – EP1. Dawn Breaking

“Give up. No one can help you anyway.”

Black-haired humans were surrounded by blond elves. The man was on his knees.

“Shut up, you damn pointy-eared bastards.”

The man spoke with a bewildered and angry expression.

“…Killing you is merely a formality, but that will happen after the task is done. Be grateful that you still have time to utter such words in the presence of lesser beings.”

The blond elf man said, and the black-haired man replied.

“Hah, gratitude is overrated. There’s no hope. Aren’t you scared of the Demon Lord?”

“Heh, lesser beings like you think they can defeat the Demon Lord. If we were under his rule, it might be a different story.”

“So what now? What’s going to happen to me? Torture won’t mean much, will it?”

“If our hearts were in sync, I’d want to tear that mouth apart, but for now, I’ll spare you. I’ll render you powerless and imprison you in the darkness.”

The man with black hair burst into laughter when he heard these words.

“Oh, really? What can we do about it? It’s not my preference.”

“…Hmph, do you cling to even the most futile hope?”

“You’ll see.”

The man with black hair raised his head to the ceiling, and then he slammed his head into the floor.

Thud.

Blood splattered.

The fairies couldn’t say a word. They were overwhelmed by madness, without any intention of stopping him.

Despite blood streaming from his forehead, the man with black hair raised his head again, seemingly on the verge of tearing apart, and immediately collided with the floor once more.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Those who watched him forgot how to breathe.

And as the man who had been laughing as if about to rip apart finally struck his head down one last time,

With a squelching sound, brain matter began to flow.

The man continued to smile as if his lips would split apart until the very end.

…

“What the hell is with these nightmares?”

I got out of bed.

Maybe it was because I went to bed late, but my dreams were far from pleasant.

“…I’m getting worked up over old stuff again.”

Damn, just thinking about it is giving me a headache.

Ignoring the familiar phantom pain, I tidied up the bedding.

A white hair was scattered on the pillow.

I picked up that hair and examined it.

It was significantly different from its past color. To be precise, it was the exact opposite.

Well, it’s not that big of a side effect, really. I’ve got a tattoo now, and my hair turned white, but it’s not like it became a messy, silvery-white mane. Rather, if you disregard preconceptions and look at it, it’s quite lovely, shining like winter snowflakes bathed in moonlight.

Let’s think of it as Act 2 of life.

Unconsciously, I tidied up the bedding while pondering my dream. It’s time to leave this city. I’ve delayed long enough getting that black armor and sword.

I laughed heartily while thinking about the armor and sword stored in my personal dimension. No more worries about losing my divine and magical powers, that’s for sure.

I picked up my backpack and went outside after checking out from the inn.

Once again, the clear sky and the free wind were waiting for me today.

I moved forward, carried by the wind.

…

Sain gripped his sword. It was a familiar practice sword.

He had used this sword when teaching Angel.

She looked at the sword with regret.

She knew nothing. When teaching the sword, even if one was unskilled but steadily improved, it was a gratifying sight. The expression shown during the lessons was pleasing.

What kind of person was Angel to her?

His talent was not exceptional. Compared to ordinary people, he was better, but considering his position as a hero, his growth was unimpressively slow.

However, he steadily improved, albeit slowly. He couldn’t break through the barriers, but he faced them.

From Noble mtl dot com

Magic, miracles, archery, it was the same. He was not naturally outstanding in any field, but he aspired to reach the top.

He was always positive. After a fight, he would say, “I’m lucky to be alive.”

He always knew patience and overcame anger and fear.

Sometimes, he surpassed the moments he expected to naturally fall, using a transcendent mental strength.

He was a person with leadership. He always reached out his hand first and understood his comrades’ hearts even before the chief.

He never stopped offering a handshake, even if his hand was pushed away.

However, he admitted to committing numerous wrongdoings. Misusing his position as a hero, he committed threatening and reckless crimes, as the palace announced.

He colluded with enemies, kneeled before the Demon Lord, and became his subordinate. When the truth was revealed, people were in shock.

Everyone forgot the merit of killing the Demon Lord. She also forgot it.

She felt betrayed and sold him out.

However,

However.

He was a person who could be resurrected. No, he was a person who could return to the past after death.

He was a person who could turn a past filled with defeat into victory.

Lena said he might not have closed the door of his heart even when attacked by humans.

At first, she hoped this assumption was wrong. She didn’t want to think he had been ruined by hatred.

But now, she found herself hoping that he truly had fallen.

After going through countless deaths and changing a fate destined for defeat with his life, she hoped for some reward.

If that was the truth, she couldn’t bear it.

Please. Please call it corruption. Please say that you are not an unjust victim. Please say that you were not driven away and left to sacrifice in vain.

Please, do not make me feel guilt that pierces my heart, causing red blood to spill out.

Rather, it would have been better if he were not a noble hero. It would have been better if he were an evil person who committed all sorts of villainy as announced from the palace.

He was a pitiful existence, being rejected by everyone after sacrificing himself to kill the Demon King. Sein believed that such an existence should not exist.

She climbed the stairs.

The truth she did not want to know pierced her.

I did not want to see the sight of dying repeatedly in pursuit of life.

Why did I start looking at this record? Ah, right, to find out why he betrayed.

…Do I really have to find out why he betrayed now? Can’t I just let it be buried? What if I was wrong, if I was deceived? What should I do if he was truly unjustly driven away?

She twisted her face. The hatred of being betrayed by him had already withered away. Ever since she started looking at the hero’s record, her heart had been filled with only unease and fear.

Outside the training ground, she heard the voices of people amid the swirling dust. They were all voices cursing the devil and the hero who conspired with him, saying they should burn him.

Those who defended him had transformed into those who urged to burn him faster than anyone else.

She couldn’t say anything.

She was painfully selfish.

Sein sat down on the ground. What was the meaning of training?

After defeating the Empire, Grandis was confined within her own fortress. After all, she alone couldn’t overthrow the Empire.

The Empire also suffered some losses, but they focused on recovering their strength.

War was not something that would happen at this point, and Sein Luderan, the Red-haired Duchess, was already the strongest inspector in the world.

She threw away her training sword.

And then she stood up.

It was time to confirm the truth she did not want to know.

…

The Witch of the Black Fortress crossed her legs and lifted a piece of metal.

It was a fragment of the Holy Sword.

She read the remaining record on the fragment of the Holy Sword.

“…Was it because of this? The reason why that guy didn’t kill me.”

Anzell Leohnhardt was a source of fear among the demons.

He excelled in swordsmanship, magic, miracles, and archery, surpassing his comrades, but he slaughtered the demons while mastering all of them.

This was true since a certain war.

Apart from being a hero, there was nothing particularly unusual about him, but he changed after each battle ended.

When the sorcerer and the demons appeared, he laughed as if he could tear them apart, gouged out their eyes, severed their arms and legs, and then, abruptly, stopped laughing and slit their throats.

One by one, the demons he saw were slaughtered by his inexplicable hatred, and he became the incarnation of terror.

The demons, who had many superior qualities compared to humans, fled in fear of the single human they had once looked down upon.

He pursued the demons at a leisurely pace, savoring their fear, and the cycle of inducing them to lose their minds with terror before killing them continued.

However, Angel Leonhardt, when he first saw her, did not pursue her even when she tried to escape.

Instead, he looked at her with eyes filled with a longing for a time and identity lost.

In their second encounter on the battlefield, he hesitated to strike her.

Even as he was engulfed in inner conflict and his comrades were dying, he hesitated, and in the end, he attacked her.

…Perhaps he knew her.

Grandis learned much through the hero’s records.

She realized why the battlefields he had been on always ended in defeat, as if they were scripted for the enemy, and why the mighty demon lord had been defeated.

And the conclusion she reached during the time erased by death was that he and she were entangled in some kind of relationship.

…Close enough for him to hesitate to strike her, and for a long time.