I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me - Chapter 38



37 – [In the Land of Elves – 05]

Reina Forest.

I remembered her.

She shot the bow well, and she always hated excessive, extreme choices. That’s why I couldn’t understand her choice, couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Among the hero party members, I thought Reina was the most like me.

When she wanted something, she’d see it through to the end, that determination to finish things, I definitely felt something similar to me, and we had similar personalities, so I thought we were close.

In the end, she betrayed me, so maybe that closeness was only something *I* felt.

“Reina.”

“You really are alive. …And, I didn’t expect you to be here either, Royce.”

“I didn’t think you’d remember.”

“…….”

The elves around us, with their bows drawn, were poised to shoot at any moment, and I felt their gazes were more on the person behind me than on me.

Reina was looking at me, but the other elves were looking at Silphy behind me.

Their faces clearly showed hostility, and it was probably because Silphy was a half-elf.

I’d heard from Royce that half-elves were despised in Elven Heim, so I wasn’t surprised, but seeing them display that hatred firsthand felt different.

They really do hate based on something you can’t change from birth.

But I had no right to criticize them for that.

I’d also exiled Royce for being a commoner.

I, who had nitpicked something Royce couldn’t change and banished him, shouldn’t just unilaterally pour out hatred and anger towards them for discriminating based on race.

“Even bringing along a half-elf, what are you thinking?”

“What am I thinking, or whatever…Livia?”

“Royce, sorry. I’ll speak.”

“…….”

Lois looked at me for a moment.

Maybe it would be better if Lois spoke.

Maybe that would make it easier to unravel the story, clear up misunderstandings, and end the story a bit more peacefully, but I thought that this much, at least, I had to do myself.

Lois’s half-closed eyes had an oddly calm feel.

I wished I had some of that calmness myself.

It’s often said that if you’re in love, you start to resemble the person you love.

If that’s the case, then I wished that Lois’s calmness, even just a little bit, would be given to me.

“Okay. I’ll leave it to you here.”

“Thanks, I feel like I just keep owing you.”

I smiled slightly and took a few steps forward, and then another elf, not Raina, spoke.

“Don’t come any closer!”

*Whoosh!* An arrow flew, but nonchalantly, I caught it with one hand.

“What.”

“…I didn’t come here to fight.”

I said, dropping the arrow I’d caught.

Cold sweat dripped, and I was aware that my physical condition was bad because of the Reaper’s curse.

Just a moment ago, it hadn’t been that bad, but suddenly it got worse, and it felt like pain was permeating my body. It was a sensation that you could hardly call pleasant.

Especially because it felt like my own body was sprinting towards death.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Bringing even a half-elf along, what are you scheming?! Wasn’t destroying our forest enough, Hero!”

“Raina.”

“…….”

Ignoring the words around me, I stared at Reina.

Reina’s eyes didn’t avoid mine, but her pupils were trembling.

She was prepared, her resolve was firm, but the look on her face, as if ashamed of her own actions, was so like Reina, and I knew that the Reina I had seen until now wasn’t a fake wearing a mask.

“I thought I’d be furious, I even thought up ways to calm myself, but I don’t feel much of anything. No matter how hard I try, I must be broken as a human.”

Royce had said.

That I fundamentally lacked the talent to hate people.

He was right.

Olivia Reinhart had forgotten how to become truly enraged even when someone wronged her. Clearly, after all of this was over, I’d first have to train to revive that.

Unable to distinguish between sins that should be endured with consideration and an open mind and sins that should not be tolerated, I forgive everything.

As if I were a saint.

Even I was dumbfounded.

But surely, maybe it was a slightly more selfish feeling.

Regardless, the hero party were comrades within my fence, and I’m weak with those I’ve opened my heart to.

I was aware myself that I had a habit of being somewhat devoted to people I’ve considered mine.

And so, it was clear that this habit, combined with my twisted way of life, had led me to this conclusion where I don’t feel anger towards Reina right now.

However, within the complex, spiderweb-like tangle of emotions, just touching a single thread would cause everything to unravel, and it felt like such emotions were swirling within me now.

My chest grew hot, and from this point on I wanted to determine if it was anger or not.

I still haven’t grasped the name of the feeling I have right now.

“Reina, I want to talk to you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Why bullshit? I just want to talk to you.”

“You’re too strong.”

“Hmm.”

I hesitated for a moment, then dropped the sword from my hip.

“What are you doing?”

Reina was surprised, but I stayed silent, letting the holy sword fall and embed itself in the ground.

Then, I slowly approached Reina, perched in the tree.

“How’s that? I don’t have any weapons now, lost an arm and an eye, and dying from something I don’t know if it’s poison or a curse. Can you see me sweat? Can you see my arm shaking?”

Actually, my body wasn’t in good shape at all, not even close to a joke.

My body had deteriorated so rapidly, it was practically half-corpse.

“Are you in the mood to talk now? I didn’t exactly come here to fight.”

“…….”

Reina, who had faltered a little, closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again, speaking.

“You’re a monster even with your bare hands, Olivia.”

“……I see, so that’s how scary I am.”

“…….”

“When we were traveling, I never thought you all held such fear towards me. My self-righteousness and stubbornness, the way I acted thinking I just had to be the righteous hero, all of it wasn’t wrong and actually saved a lot of people.”

So, I don’t regret it.

Even if it was a hero persona that was crammed into me, not really me, I saved countless people with it.

It couldn’t have been a wrong choice.

So even if I went back to the past, I would still save the people, and also casually defeat the Demon King.

Because saving people couldn’t have been wrong.

“But in your eyes, I looked like a monster, not a hero.”

“No!”

Reina shouted before she knew it, then touched her own neck.

Come to think of it, she had developed this habit of touching her neck at some point, though she didn’t know when.

“No, that’s not it… Ugh! Anyway, we have nothing to say to you, bringing even a half-elf and ruining our forest!”

“I have something to say. I want to talk just the two of us. …I’m fine talking here, but it might not be good for you, Reina.”

“…….”

The reason why the elves here were hostile to me was because I ‘destroyed the forest and brought back a half-elf.’

There was no other reason and they probably wouldn’t have brought up any talk of assassinating a hero.

If they had spoken of it, it would have been to Titania at most.

After all, if the entire elven race shared the idea of assassinating a hero, it would become a problem for the entire elf tribe, and to avoid the entire tribe being in trouble over responsibility in a hypothetical situation, it was better not to tell anyone.

Putting her personality and good and evil aside, the fact that she cherished her country was definitely not a lie.

So, I bet on that.

As expected, Reina’s expression changed quickly.

“It’d be easy for you to run at me even barehanded and choke me. The journey is already over, and I have nothing to say to you.”

“Why are you so scared? I didn’t do anything.”

“…….”

Was I really such a source of terror to my companions back when we were traveling?

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I was oblivious, still thought of them as comrades.

But to them, I was a monster, just waiting to seize some pretext, and brandish a sword in the name of justice at them.

That’s something I need to reflect on, and it’s something I’ll spend a lifetime correcting, but that doesn’t erase their sins.

“I want to meet Titania. I need the World Tree’s sap.”

“Nonsense! Nonsense! Nonsense!! The World Tree’s sap is a treasure of the elves, only bestowed upon a very few outstanding elves! Do you think we’d give it to you?!”

“That’s right! You’re not getting a thing, not after you’ve ruined the forest, and brought a half-elf along! Go back!”

“…So that’s how it is, Reyna.”

“……”

“Will you decide here? Do I tell them everything, embrace the chaos? Or will you talk to me alone? I’m fine either way, but time is short, so decide quickly.”

“Nonsense… why would I need to talk to you alone? Like I said, you could kill me even if you were unarmed.”

“I won’t kill you. …Do I seem like someone with that kind of flexibility? If that were possible, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“……”

Reyna’s expression grew even more pained.

She touched her neck again.

Her anxious, trembling eyes seemed to be looking at nothing in particular.

But finally, she tightened her grip on the arm holding her bow.

So that’s the way it is.

“Sylphie!”

“Yes!”

“Huh?”

I was startled.

Royce had shouted Silphy’s name, loudly.

At the same instant, Silphy shot an arrow, piercing the branch Reyna was on, and at that same instant Reyna plummeted to the ground below.

I happened to be quite close to the tree, approaching Reyna, so she fell almost right in front of me.

At that same instant, Royce dove in, saying,

“Spirit Barrier.”

Water swirled, encompassing me, Reyna, Royce, and Silphy, creating a barrier like a water prison.

This barrier, using nature’s power, grows stronger with the abundance of natural power, and this forest of Elvenheim, protected by the World Tree, is truly nature itself.

Moreover, the barrier made of water spirits had resistance to physical attacks.

For elves, who excel with arrows, it would take time to breach.

“I can’t hold it for long.”

“Haa, haa… My heart feels like it’s going to explode.”

“Well done, Silphy. You hit it precisely at the signal.”

“Please don’t do things like this… I told you, I’m not suited for combat.”

Silphy wore a face of surprise at the sudden real-world combat, but to my eyes, her reflexes and accuracy were no less than Reyna’s.

Royce seemed to have the same thought, smiling as he said,

“No, you have talent.”

“Ugh.”

“Thanks to both of you.”

I thanked them both and turned away.

The gaze still fixed on me, rooted to the ground, trembled.

Unease.

Fear.

A look laced with what felt like a jumble of every emotion, and I didn’t know what to say in response.

“Alright, Reina. You don’t have a choice anymore.”

“…….”

Reina frowned, her hand fidgeting at her neck.

“Let’s have a conversation, we’ll decide it with this conversation.”

“Decide what?”

I sat down in front of Reina, mirroring her position, as I spoke.

“How we’ll judge the actions you took… more specifically, the punishment for them.”