Chapter 155. Through the Eyes of a Great Hero
Ever since I first saw the Indomitable Hero, I had repeatedly wondered whether that title truly suited him.
“Soft, soft Mallyangi~”
“Mallyangi~”
Looking at him now, happily laughing as he played with a slime alongside his daughter...
I even started wondering whether he truly was the master of Madness.
Perhaps the power of Madness did not belong to him at all.
Maybe, like the Fanatics, some unknown person had forced their sins onto him.
Seeing how strangely timid and gloomy he had become after returning from the Isolated Sea made me think that way too.
“...Uncle, we’ve already gathered this many fragments of the Hall. Why can’t I become a Hero yet...? Am I being lazy?”
“Everyone has their own threshold~”
Ingwang patted Aien.
“Someone like me, who normally did bad things and had barely any perseverance, gets called a Hero just because I’m living like this now.”
“But you were diligent and hardworking from the beginning.”
“That just means you have to work even harder before you can break out of your shell.”
He was right.
The greater a person’s natural talent, the more slowly their Mind Power tended to grow.
Unless they encountered some absurd fortuitous opportunity like I had, there was little way around that.
Still...
That child had the qualities of a Hero.
She moved forward with an upright heart.
Someday, she would surely achieve what she desired.
Aien, the Knight of Diligence.
When I first saw her, I thought she was no different from any ordinary knight.
Now...
She was completely different.
I couldn’t tell whether Ingwang simply had an eye for people...
Or whether he had a strange ability to make even impossible people succeed.
It was fascinating.
“...It’s unfair....”
“What can you do? That’s how the world works.”
Ingwang smiled.
“Still, when you become a Hero, your title will probably be worth more than mine.”
“Our Aien might even become a Great Hero someday and end up like Grandpa Aro, you know?”
“...You think so?”
Watching him pat the worried young knight’s back and encourage her...
There was no question that he cared about others.
...
If he had actually tried, perhaps he could have become the kind of person welcomed everywhere.
Which meant...
His current situation, where he had enemies everywhere, was entirely his own fault.
He could have behaved differently.
He simply hadn’t.
“You’re much more ordinary than I expected.”
“Huh?”
After I rammed a warship into Harmang City Hall, I joined Ingwang to collect the scattered fragments of the Hall.
His reasoning was simple.
We should deal with the annoying things first.
And during that time...
This was the impression I had formed.
He occasionally looked like he was about to lose control.
But the people around him managed him surprisingly well, so overall he seemed fine.
Whenever we traveled somewhere in a carriage like this...
They looked almost like an ordinary family.
“What, did you think I act like a lunatic every second of the day?”
Ingwang shrugged.
“I have a daily life too, you know~”
“I honestly thought you did.”
I laughed.
“The rumors about you among the nobles are truly incredible.”
If you only listened to the rumors, there was no villain in the world worse than him.
The basic assumption was that he had committed practically every crime imaginable.
Though...
Considering how experimental he was during missions...
And how curious he was about everything...
Maybe it was because he tried every possible thing on the spot just to see whether it would work.
For example...
The first village we visited after I joined them.
There, he dismantled a monster called an Explosive Ore Beast right in front of everyone.
Then he muttered—
“Hmm, I thought I could use this to make heated-floor houses. What a shame.”
Remembering the villagers’ horrified expressions still made me sigh.
There was also the time he tied a corrupt noble to the end of a chain and spun him around high in the sky until the contents of his stomach rained down below.
But he cleaned everything up afterward.
So let’s move on.
‘...Wait.’
‘Are most of those rumors actually true?’
“You always assume everyone else is a good person, but for some reason you treat me like I’m especially evil.”
“...Do I?”
Hmm.
Was I looking favorably at an evil version of you?
Or was I looking unfavorably at the ordinary...
No.
At the whatever-you-are version of you?
I had liked Ingwang from the beginning and tried to get along with him, so I wasn’t sure.
Maybe his better qualities stood out more now because I was surrounded by people whom Ingwang himself treated kindly.
“There’s an old story about a tyrant infamous for his cruelty who still adored his mother more than anything.”
Ingwang stared at me.
“That sounds completely unrelated to our relationship.”
“Is that Salvation’s perspective?”
“Haha. I hope so.”
Even the most vicious villain possessed human qualities.
I see.
It felt as though I had grown one step further.
From now on...
Even if a villain I pursued showed some humanity or inspired sympathy...
I should not go easy on them.
Until now, I had been far too soft.
As expected of Ingwang.
The man Insight kept beside him.
There was much to learn.
“Looks like I raised a tiger cub.”
“Then you better be careful.”
“?!”
Even now...
Under that startled, grumbling expression...
Maybe he was already planning how to eliminate me.
Haha.
Hmm.
If so, how should I respond?
Judging by his behavior so far...
A direct confrontation would probably leave the least resentment afterward.
“Where did you say we’re going this time?”
I looked out the carriage window.
“Aren’t we almost finished collecting the fragments?”
After the fragments of the Hall scattered across the world...
The aggressive intervention of the otherworlders resulted in most of the confirmed fragments being recovered in just over a month.
What remained now were several locations far from both the Empire and the Alliance.
Including Anaimere, the kingdom of the beastfolk.
“I’ve been seeing a lot of people with Hero titles lately.”
Ingwang tilted his head.
“They’re all the people collecting fragments, right?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“The fragments allow someone to become a Hero even without Mind Power.”
“Though strictly speaking, Hero was always an honorable profession and a title attached to achievement.”
“So originally, you didn’t necessarily need Mind Power to receive it.”
The frightening part was...
There were now more than ten Heroes in the Empire alone.
And more than twenty in the Alliance.
‘Before I crashed that warship into Harmang, we only had eight....’
The person who had bravely fought against me during that incident had been recognized for their merit and appointed as the new Mayor.
They had also received the title of Hero.
The Alliance was probably rushing to fill the gap I had created by promoting otherworlders.
Thinking about how badly the balance between nations could be disrupted because of just one person...
Maybe I had acted too emotionally.
“According to a recently discovered prophecy...”
The Village Chief adjusted his glasses.
“When one hundred different stars rise across the sky, land, and sea, a deep darkness will descend upon the world.”
Ingwang immediately nodded.
“So once there are a hundred Heroes, the Underground Kingdom opens.”
“Does that count NPCs too?”
One hundred Heroes....
Had there really been fewer than a hundred Heroes in this world originally?
Even though this continent was enormous and countless people lived across it?
Then again...
If too many people were called Heroes, the meaning of the title would naturally fade.
The current Heroes of the Alliance were already being criticized as Heroes in name only.
So perhaps there really was nothing good about having too many of them.
“The most peaceful era is probably one where Heroes aren’t needed.”
Ingwang leaned back.
“If there are a hundred Heroes running around, then yeah, something must be seriously wrong.”
A truly peaceful world would be one where nobody needed to be called a Hero.
As expected.
Despite everything, he could still say something worthy of a Hero.
It was not a thought that came easily to people like me, who had grown accustomed to the concepts of Heroes and Great Heroes.
“...So if we kill every Hero currently alive—”
“Let’s stop there.”
I immediately interrupted him.
“That joke went too far.”
“Okaaay.”
Why did he always start out so well...
Then suddenly go completely off the rails?
I genuinely couldn’t understand.
“Ingwang-ssi! We’ve arrived!”
“Ohhh, as expected of Mr. Coachman!”
Ingwang grinned.
“When it comes to getting the job done, nobody beats you.”
The moment we stepped out of the carriage...
A faint metallic smell of blood came drifting in on the wind.
That was hardly unusual in places where fragments of the Hall had landed.
I could feel the presence of something enormous above the clouds.
Apparently, the monster that had absorbed the fragment this time could fly.
Below...
A village had been devastated by that monster.
The surviving residents were huddled in corners, barely managing to continue living.
To people like them...
Were those who came to retrieve fragments truly saviors?
“Erol~ Please take care of it.”
The answer was no.
People were drawn to the power contained within the Hall’s fragments like moths rushing toward flame.
They tore the area apart...
Took what they wanted...
And calmly left.
Ingwang at least extended a hand toward the victims.
But even then, he did it because helping them interested him.
Not because he felt any especially deep sympathy for their suffering.
‘Still... compared to people who don’t care at all, doing even this much makes him practically a saint.’
In fact...
Places Ingwang visited to retrieve fragments usually suffered the least lasting damage.
When he accepted formal missions, he caused all kinds of trouble.
Yet when he found a place on his own...
He behaved almost benevolently.
What exactly was I supposed to call that?
Even the word hypocrisy didn’t feel quite right.
“Is everyone all right?”
