I Picked Up the Hero Who Banished Me - Chapter 42



41 – [In the Elven Land – 09]

“……”

Reina remained silent, simply sitting quietly at home.

Olivia coming to Elvenheim was unexpected in itself, and the fact that she hadn’t rejected her mother, Titania, as much as expected was also unexpected.

Furthermore, allowing in a half-elf whom she disliked so much was unexpected but there was no other way to handle it.

Now, there’s no way to give her the World Tree sap, so Olivia’s going to die.

She wandered around as if even whether she was cursed by the Reaper was a question, but Reyna, who knew her old movements, could tell at once that she was weakened.

She was fast, but Reyna could see her, react to her, so at that point, she was already weakened.

Olivia’s movements when fighting the Demon King weren’t even visible, let alone reactable.

Truly swift.

Truly rapid.

Too fast to put into words, and there was no hesitation.

Olivia, who never asked the evil for a reason, was asking for a reason.

Reyna could see that the hero’s curse, which had been strangling Olivia’s neck since the beginning, was loosening. She didn’t know the exact reason, but it was highly likely that Royce was involved.

‘He’s been looking out for her since the start.’

It was Royce who looked out for Olivia, who was little more than a monster, trying to make her rest no matter what, and Reyna thought he was almost the only one who could stop Olivia’s actions.

So when she heard that Royce had been exiled, she thought it couldn’t be helped but felt a sense of regret.

He was capable, and the only one brave enough to say no to Olivia, the hero, right in front of her face.

‘What to do now?’

If left alone, Olivia will die on her own.

Isn’t it unnecessary to do anything unnecessary?

But.

Reyna touched her own neck again.

‘Royce seems to have noticed.’

I can’t get caught.

If I get caught, there might be no turning back.

Reyna, breaking into a cold sweat, let out a small sigh.

Knock knock.

“W-Who is it?”

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, and slowly, it opened.

They’d knocked, but hadn’t waited for permission.

The fact they’d entered without permission meant the knock was more likely a courtesy from the knocker. At that point, it was easy to know who it was.

“Mother.”

“…….”

The current Titania, and Reyna’s mother, was standing there, looking at Reyna with rather cold eyes.

*

“The green country, Elvenheim, huh.”

I murmured, looking around.

There were quite a few buildings, and the trees were tall. There seemed to be various ways to move around, with houses built in the trees, things like bridges existing between them, and even wires.

Generally, all the trees are huge.

They only looked small in comparison to the incredibly huge world tree.

“It’s said that Elvenheim was called the Forest of Giants in the past.”

“There’s no need to even ask why. All the trees are uniformly massive. The world tree’s so big, it could be mistaken from a distance.”

Intuitively, it didn’t feel like such a socialized village, but looking around like this, everything was prepared, just like in a human village: from restaurants to bakeries, places for clothing repair, vegetable stands, butcher shops, and all sorts of other things.

In human villages, even the smaller ones usually had at least one of these, and even though the elves of Elvenheim were fewer in number than humans, they still formed a proper society.

It wasn’t like everyone from one to ten held bows and fought.

Just like humans, most of them were living normal lives.

“Royce? What’s wrong?”

Royce placed a hand on a tree and stared blankly.

Or, I couldn’t really tell if he was truly blank, but Royce was intently observing the tree.

Was there something there?

“Royce, is something wrong?”

“……No, could I speak after gaining a little more certainty?”

“Sure, if you’ve decided it’s not necessary to say now, that’s fine. Is it something extremely troublesome?”

“If it’s real, it’s beyond the level of troublesome. …But this part is all within the realm of speculation unless I hear it directly from Titania.”

“Then we’ll have to listen.”

I wasn’t sure what it was, but Royce seemed to have discovered something ominous.

From noble mtl dot com

Unfortunately, I wasn’t wise enough to know what Royce was thinking or what he had realized.

Royce often used to tell me, ‘Your mind isn’t bad, just your thinking is short’.

But, thinking about various things with a mind that had never thought about anything but swords until now was far too complicated.

Frankly, the past, when I only distinguished between whether to cut with a sword or not, was more comfortable and pleasant.

Because it wasn’t complicated, and I didn’t have to carry the burden of thought.

But now, I know.

That it was simply giving up on thinking and running away.

“Olivia-nim.”

“Huh? Why’re you calling me?”

“Do you forgive Reina-nim?”

“Huh? No?”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Why’d you think that?”

Silphy, looking a little flustered, scratched her cheek. “Well, Olivia-nim, you don’t seem particularly angry.”

“I guess you’re right about that.”

“…….”

Silphy stared at me with a confused look, like ‘What the hell is she talking about?’

Hmm.

I can’t exactly explain this feeling myself.

“The reason I’m not killing Reina right this instant is because, unlike the Grim Reaper cult leader, she’s not caught red-handed.”

“Red-handed?”

“Yeah, if I don’t kill someone immediately, if someone’s in danger, I don’t have time to ask about the circumstances, right? I gotta kill them right then. She might have her own reasons, but if I listen to them, even if they’re legitimate, a lot of people would die.”

“Right.”

“That’s why I killed the Grim Reaper cult leader right away.”

“…….”

“If Reina had… um, like, taken Silphy hostage or something, I would have drawn my holy sword, but that didn’t happen, did it? No immediate problem came up, so I wanted to ask her for her reason.”

If I figured out the reason, maybe I could prevent the same problem from happening again.

Actually, if the situation wasn’t urgent, I was planning to ask Alex and Belita too.

Hearing their answers after Reina’s, I felt like I could choose my own path.

Well, that’s just my wishful thinking, and if things got too bad and we were in immediate danger if we didn’t move, I might have to fight them both, but I need to know the situation before I can do anything, right?

“If there isn’t immediate danger, then I have to bring the criminals to justice with a fair trial.”

“……You’re strong.”

“Not at all, I used to just hack them down without thinking. Haha, it was easy on the mind.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, too easy. I had an invincible shield that said ‘They were bad guys, after all.’ My actions had justice, good, and the goddess’ blessing. I was the judge who was punishing evil.”

Arrogance.

But I believed that’s what a hero’s role was.

I even believed that was the true image of the perfect hero.

“Truly self-centered.”

“But you saved the world.”

“Saving the world doesn’t mean I’m free to do as I please. Looks like I was too dictatorial. I couldn’t even earn the trust of my companions.”

They might have branded themselves as evil.

By my rules.

Sure, I wasn’t going to let evil slide just because they were my companions, but that wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that they didn’t see me as trustworthy or hero-like, but as just ‘something scary’.

If even Alex was afraid of me, then I must have seemed like a monster instead of hope in other people’s eyes.

That thought occurred to me.

“I don’t personally think there’s any reason for Livia to be suffering like that.”

“Royce, is the investigation done?”

“Let’s wander around a bit more. We just came out for a field investigation, but I think we need to look into it in more detail.”

“Okay.”

“Anyway, to bring us back to the point, I personally don’t think there’s any reason for Livia to be suffering that much.”

“That’s right too. I’m that kind of person.”

“……”

Royce closed his mouth for a moment, then gave me a smile.

That gentle smile.

It tickles my chest.

I had faith that if I was about to cross a line, he would use his own body to stop me.

Living my life, I never thought I’d ever want anyone.

I want this person to be by my side.

I want this person to walk with me.

I want him to be within reach.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No, I was just thinking you’re nice.”

“Livia, you do remember you’re dying, right?”

“Ms. Olivia, you’re so full of energy that I forget you’re a terminally ill patient.”

“I forget sometimes too.”

“Please, remember….”

It was gradually becoming normal to have one eye gone, one arm missing.

Elixirs weren’t as potent as the World Tree’s sap, and they were rare and expensive.

I was slowly healing, but it seemed like the completely lost parts were probably beyond help.

“S-so, shall we try talking to people…m-maybe?”

I said, trembling, and Royce laughed.

“Nervous Livia is quite a novelty.”

“I-I do get nervous too, you know! Will the elves accept us?”

I could tolerate bad talk about me, I was confident I could ignore it, but if they said something bad to Sylvie, I might snap without even realizing it.

“Where did the person who said this was an experiment by the elves, so we should be confident go?”

“Royce, there are lots of people in the world who are all talk.”

“But you defeated the Demon King with that ‘all talk’, do you think that’s persuasive?”

“Could you just let me have it?”

“Yeah, whatever…. Let’s start with an easier place. How about going to a restaurant for a meal?”

Of course, I still couldn’t eat proper food yet.

But it was mealtime for Royce and Sylvie.

“Alright, then…”

“Excuse me.”

“Huh?”

Everyone turned their heads together, and there he was – an elf in armor.

An elf with a sword, not a bow.

This elf was definitely.

The elf who had been beside Titania earlier.

Just by looking, you could tell he was Titania’s right-hand man, and you could feel a powerful warrior’s presence practically radiating from him.

He was quite large for an elf.

No, even by human standards, he was a big, burly male elf.

“Hero, Olivia Reinhart. And Sylphy, Lois too… Would you mind talking for a bit? I’ll treat you to a meal.”

No hostility.

His eyes were deep, and my gut told me I could trust him, but I didn’t know what Lois and Sylphy thought.

I glanced back and Lois nodded, seeming to think it was alright. Sylphy did too.

I answered for them both.

“Okay, let’s go.”