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“Thank you, Hero.”

“Really, thank you!”

‘Is this not the place either…’

It’s been three months since I started traveling, following rumors of a strong demon appearing.

Of course, there were no whispers about Mirae among those rumors, and my anxiety, emptiness, and frustration just kept growing.

Fighting, winning, and chasing rumors again…

Right now, I was moving like a machine, lacking any emotions—only seeking a clear purpose.

I didn’t think I could find a demon like Mirae in this way, but I couldn’t bear not doing anything.

I went around the northern towns, defeating various demons and receiving thanks from the people, but I just couldn’t muster a smile for them anymore.

Was helping people not a joyful thing?

In truth, there were times I never even felt that it was pleasant.

I might have felt a spark of happiness seeing my companions smile, and perhaps felt some fulfillment when others were happy or relieved, but it was merely reassurance that I had accomplished something.

Looking back at the days I’ve lived, I realized that true joy or happiness only came when I was with Hop Harvey or pondering how to do something for him.

With his absence due to my shortcomings, it felt like my life amounted to nothing at all.

Despite how difficult and painful life could get, I had never resented anything. Yet, the past three months, I found myself constantly blaming the Creator as my eyes were opened to reality.

If Hop really was the reason I had to live, then why did he only let me taste that flavor before taking it away?

It would have been better if I never met him.

It would have been better to continue to break down, unknowingly unaware of what happiness was.

Having sacrificed everything for the world, my current state felt just like the first humans expelled from paradise for taking the sweetest fruit in the world.

I once thought that the three years I spent laid-up and broken were the toughest times of my life, but ever since Hop left, each day has grown more painful than those three years combined.

But in the end, this was something I had chosen for myself.

When I think about it, it’s almost laughable.

I had vowed to leave Hop behind and never see him again, yet upon learning of his death, my desire to see him only twisted me further.

Was the resolve I felt when I broke the farewell merely that shallow?

Maybe I was just throwing a tantrum.

When I realized that the words he told me were lies, what flooded over me was not betrayal but fear.

Fear that Hop’s feelings for me were utterly sincere, unlike my murky feelings.

I wanted to face him as an equal lover.

So, I hoped he would ask for forgiveness.

At the very least, when I left him, I wished that he would shatter because of me.

Only then would I feel like I could say we were equals.

But those twisted wishes came back as punishment for me.

The lover I wished to break down vanished without a trace, brutally shattered.

I walk the streets, engulfed by countless rising questions.

What did I do wrong?

What could my happiness have been if I had done something different?

Perhaps it was never meant to exist from the start.

This world is unreasonable and absurd.

The mission of being a hero I was forced to carry has become my shackles and my curse.

Because I was born a hero, I could have neither family nor friends, and I had to risk my life fighting through dangers and battlefields my whole life.

Even after saving the world, I was cast aside, broken, with nothing in return.

And the one happiness I faced in the end was snatched away by demons because I was a hero.

Despite being told I was loved by the world, I cannot possess even a single one of my desires.

Yeah, I won’t be a hero anymore…

– Uuuung…

‘?’

For the first time in my life, I feel the resounding presence of the Holy Sword, stronger than anything I’ve ever felt.

The waist where the sword is sheathed feels hot from its powerful resonance.

Chills run down my spine, and cold sweat pours down me.

Even when I faced the Demon King, I didn’t feel this resonance until I drew my sword; why am I getting this eerie feeling now?

It’s not just Mirae being nearby causing this.

This is definitely…

“……”

As I turn my head north, the sky is torn apart.

By an endless black pillar shooting up into the sky.

“A Gate… really? Why, why indeed…!”

The chill transforms into rage, and my hands are filled with rampant strength.

With the pressure from my clenched fists, it feels like my fingers might melt away from the pain they’re causing as they heat up.

This land is close to the Gate because I’ve been chasing strong demons.

Instantly, alarms ring through the village, and soldiers move northward.

I too draw the Holy Sword and head to the village border.

I just can’t stand the feeling of not cutting something down.

“Hero! What’s going on? The monsters suddenly…! And that sky… what’s that about?”

“I don’t know. Get lost.”

“What?”

“If you don’t want to get lost, just watch from there. I’ll kill them all.”

“……”

I immediately fly toward the monster approaching the village and slice it in half with the Holy Sword.

The monster disappears as ash, not knowing what hit it.

One, then another… I swing my sword at every monster I see, burning them with the Holy Sword’s light.

‘The Gate… the Gate…!!’

But no matter how many monsters I cut down, my rage only rises.

I lost him because of the lies Hop told me, but was that not even a lie?

Then for what… for what reason am I fighting…!

“Uaaaaaah!!!!”

My eyes feel like they’re bursting, and tears cloud my vision.

If I keep fighting in this state, won’t I get killed by the monsters?

But I don’t mind.

At this point, I feel like I could accept dying with this much misfortune.

I curse my fate.

I resent this world and the Creator who made me a hero.

If the price of saving the world is to bear all its misfortunes, then don’t I have at least the right to curse that fate?

If the Creator is the one forcing me to accept a destiny I can’t refuse, then don’t I have the right to resent them?

I won’t live as a hero any longer.

I hope this world, which forced misfortune upon me, pays its due too.

Thus, I’m not heading toward the Gate to close it.

I’m not going to defeat the Demon King either.

Only she has the power to cause this kind of chaos in this world.

If I head straight to the Gate like this, I might just be able to meet Mirae.

I will slaughter that damned bastard no matter what.

And the people living in this world would have no choice but to wish the Demon King would block my path to protect Mirae from me.

Whatever stands in my way, I’ll cut it down, so the only way for the world to be saved is through this path.

***

“Princess, look at the northern sky…!”

“I see.”

It’s slightly earlier than what Hop had predicted for the end of June, but the Gate has finally opened.

Once again, humanity faces a crisis of existence.

But we were prepared.

The story Hop told us was hard to believe, but I decided to trust his memory and, with all my effort, informed the nations of the situation humanity was in to prepare for it.

A prophecy that the Gate would open five years after the war ended. The fact that the rehabilitation expert Hop Harvey was the one to make that prophecy was so unexpected that it was hard to believe.

However, thanks to Duke Crofel, whom I met at the ball, and the Elven King Keineu, who has a personal relationship with Hop, I was barely able to persuade the leaders of the nations.

This is a personal feeling, but it seems to me that every little thing Hop Harvey did as a rehabilitation expert was connected to this world’s future.

He brought rehabilitation medicine from another world, allowing Zion and the world to overcome the scars of war, and not only warned us of this world’s crisis, but the measures to respond were also thanks to the ball he opened.

Even the elves, who had shown a passive attitude during the last war, were expressing hope to join the coalition and participate in the war.

He spoke of being an Aptitude Holder of Spacetime Magic— a traveler wandering through multiple worlds.

Was Zion’s and this world’s fate calling him here?

And now that the Gate has opened, it’s time to see how that fate will be shaped.

Therefore, it is imperative…

‘Hop Harvey. I have to somehow get him to the Gate. Zion must be there as well.’

I had to move Hop.

He had been holed up at home, living off Serin’s care for the past three months, doing absolutely nothing aside from his rehabilitation work after telling us about memories.

In this war, the most important things are Zion and Hop.

I, along with Hanamana, the only ones who have the connected Sphere to find Zion, couldn’t go looking for him because I had to prepare for the coming war, and Hanamana had to handle duties as the Director of the Sacred Law Country Rehabilitation Center.

Besides, even if we met Zion in our current state, I had no idea what to say to her.

But we couldn’t leave Zion and Hop in such a condition forever.

If the fate of this world is tied to them, I strongly sensed that as long as they stayed as they were, even if humanity won, the future could not be guaranteed.

I needed to somehow take Hop to the Gate.

What would happen if the two met? That was a matter to leave to fate, but bringing Hop to Zion was undeniably my responsibility.

“From now on, I’ll go to Noden, so if you look for me, just tell them that.”

What I had to do now was something more difficult and important than persuading the leaders of the nations.

I wasn’t someone who believed in the Creator, but if there was a fate he deemed proper, I could only hope he would lead me in that direction.

 

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