Chapter 24: Being a Hero Is Hard

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“Hey, this is enough... isn’t it...?”

“No, sweep from the beginning again.”

“But... this is already the fifth time...”

After three hours of having Ferloche dress as a maid and clean the cathedral, she began to plead in tears.

“Please... my arms are about to fall off... Plea...”

– Frey, cooperating to ruin your life and eventually kill you.

“Urgh...!”

While staring at her in silence, I tapped the brooch and replayed her recorded words as she clenched her teeth and picked up the broom again.

“...Ouch!”

But she screamed and dropped the broom, then began to examine her palms as tears welled up in her eye.

“Ow, it hurts...”

Her soft hands, which were usually protected by the Church and had never done anything harsh before, were bleeding and riddled with scrapes.

– Rasp...

Ferloche, who was miserably examining her own hands, tried to concentrate her holy power in her hands while staring at me...

“...No need to heal your hands.”

“What?”

“Don’t heal your wounds, just clean it as it is.”

“.....Ugh”

Hearing my impassive tone, she trembled and grabbed the broom again.

After watching her for a while, I rose from my seat and headed towards her.

“...How can you hold it so lightly?”

“Wait... It hurts so much...”

“Shouldn’t you hold it tightly like this?”

“Kyaaak...!”

Arriving in front of her, I gripped her hand with a cold expression and brushed it against the broom, as the Saintess screamed and dropped the broom again.

“...Pick it up again.”

“I was wrong... Please forgive me...”

Ferloche fell to her knees and pleaded to stop this continued abuse, as I asked coldly, pointing to her hand.

“...When did I say you could heal your wounds?”

“So-Sorry... but it hurts so much...”

Before I knew it, I was observing her hand with my brows furrowed, as I picked up the broom again and handed it over to her, then opened my mouth.

“I see. Then clean until your hands are scraped again.”

“Ugh...”

When I spoke bluntly, the Saintess wept and began to clean the cathedral again.

After some time had passed in this manner, I noticed that the sun was setting, so I rose from my seat and told her.

“...Stop, that’s enough.”

“Sob... Sob...”

I moved close to her to check, and sure enough, her hands were just fine, not a scratch on them.

“...What are you doing?”

“I’m sorry...”

When I asked her coldly, the Saintess muttered dejectedly, and I whispered while stroking her head.

“Was it really that hard...?”

“Yes, yes... huh...”

“...Then, do you want to do some other work from now on?”

“Uh, what kind of work...?”

As she asked hopefully, I answered with a smile.

“...It’s an extremely simple job. All you have to do is embrace me at night. How about it?”

“......!”

Upon hearing this, the Saintess immediately looked at me with disgust and said.

“...I’ll clean.”

“Where? The cathedral? How will sweeping the cathedral be of any help to me?”

“I’ll clean your room...”

– Slap!!

“...I will clean the Master’s room.”

“All right, that’s good.”

The Saintess, who changed the way she addressed me after I slapped her, staggered towards the broom closet.

“From now on, you’re going to clean my room every evening. If you skip even one day, it won’t be fun.”

“...Yes.”

“And, if you change your mind, feel free to serve me at night...”

“Enough.”

“Hmm?”

“Please... just stop...”

Ferloche, who was listening to my sarcasms in silence while changing her clothes after putting the broom down in the closet, abruptly cut me off and began to speak with a disgusted look.

“Please... don’t say such vile words to me with that face of yours...”

“...Vile words?”

“Before the prophecy that I would become the Saintess came to pass... the words you said to me with a smile on your face... what was that all about...?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

When I desperately tried to avoid her words with an indifferent attitude, the Saintess’ expression turned bitter as she opened her mouth.

“Ha... I see. You don’t even remember what happened back then.”

“...What?”

“Even if you do remember it... it must have been a sense of superiority over a street orphan, rather than sympathy or compassion, wasn’t it?”Cheêck out latest novels at novelhall.com

“What are you talking about?”

“...Fine. As of today, I will completely stop expecting anything from you.”

With those remarks, Ferloche, who closed the closet, glared at me coldly and said.

“I believed perhaps I could make you repent. And when the moment arrives, when I have no choice but to kill you for destroying the Empire... I thought I would feel guilty.”

“...And so?”

“However, no matter how much of an idiot I am, at this point, even I understand that all those thoughts were wrong.”

“...So, what’s your point?”

“You are a monster, Sir Frey.”

Ferloche, who cursed me with a resentful expression, glanced at me on her way out of the cathedral and said.

“...From now on, I will do whatever you ask me to do. So, please don’t spread that recording to the world.”

“Then will you help me with that nightly activity as well?”

“...I’d rather take my own life than help you with that.”

Leaving those words behind, the Saintess staggered out of the cathedral and began to walk down the streets under the night sky.

“...Kania, can I lament for a moment?”

“...Yes, please feel free to do so.”

However, unlike Kania, who completely absorbs the alcoholic content, Frey, who began to be affected by alcohol to some extent, spoke with eyes that looked slightly more clouded than before.

“...I want to give up being the Hero.”

“Then give up.”

“...What?”

However, when Kania bluntly responded to his complaint, Frey raised his voice with a sobered expression on his face.

“No...!”

“Why not?”

“If I give up being the Hero, the Demon King will destroy this world...”

“Destroy rather than rule?”

“Yes, that damned bitch... doesn’t want to rule instead, wants to burn the whole world. Just... what the hell does that guy want to do?”

As Frey began ranting about the Demon King, Kania watched him for a while before opening her mouth.

“Then why did you say earlier that you want to give up being the hero?”

“...Ah, that?”

Then Frey, who was busy cursing the Demon King, opened a new bottle of wine, poured it into his glass and muttered.

“...Because it’s hard.”

” ...Yes, it is.”

As such, a silence passed between them for a while.

“...When I used to drink like this, Serena would hit me on the back.”

“Yes, I remember.”

Eventually Frey broke the silence, as he took a sip of wine and said.

“Even though I kept acting like a bastard... Serena was still worried about me.”

“Because she’s your fiancée.”

“...But, after all that happened... she won’t worry about me anymore, will she?”

“...Yes.”

Kania agreed unconsciously as she stared at Frey’s face

“...Kania, how much do you know?”

“...Pardon?”

Frey then questioned Kania with a sharp gaze.

“Your attitude towards me... outings that became more frequent these days... buttered rye bread... putting it all together, there’s only one conclusion.”

“......”

“You already know a lot about me. I’m not sure how you figured it out.”

“........”

As Kania kept her mouth shut, Frey quietly poured wine into the cup.

“...I went to the training hall this morning, and I found a slight trace of dark mana left behind. You seem to have tried to erase it, but... it’s way too familiar of a mana for me, so I noticed it right away.”

“...I see.”

“You’re training for the upcoming ‘Raid on the Commoner’s Dormitory’, aren’t you?”

When Kania nodded in silence at those words, Frey smiled and asked one more question.

“Yes, I guessed as much. So... Can you tell me how much you know?”

Upon hearing Frey’s question, Kania hesitated for a moment, then soon mumbled.

“...Everything.”

“...Ah.”

As such, the two silently clinked their glasses together in the air, as Kania took a sip trying to maintain her compose expression.

“...Young Master?”

However, Frey was staring at her blankly while holding a glass of wine.

“...Kania, do you know what your disposition is as seen through my ability?”

“...What is it?”

Then Frey lowered his glass and put it down on his desk as he spoke in a solemn tone.

“Aide.”

“........”

Having said that, Frey rose from his seat, extended his hand to Kania, and said.

“...I look forward to your kind cooperation, Kania.”

“...Likewise.”

Kania replied with a grieved smile as she quietly shook his hand and stood up.

Then, after staring at him for a while, Kania soon tilted her head and asked.

“...But why did you get up all of a sudden?”

“... I need to infuse life force into your body before I go to bed.”

“You won’t be drinking anymore?”

“...Drinking anymore won’t make me feel better, it will just make me feel miserable.”

Having said that, Frey quietly took Kania’s hand and headed for the bed.

“...Then, I look forward to working with you today.”

Soon afterwards, Kania quietly brought his hand to her chest, but...

“...Come to think of it.”

“...Yes?”

“I figured I could share life force through your back... since it’s uncomfortable from the front because of your chest.”

“...I see.”

Kania, who gave Frey a blank stare, nodded her head in understanding.

“Then I’ll start the infusion.”

“...Yes.”

Soon, as always, Frey’s life force began to be infused into Kania.

“......”

And Kania, with a slightly regretful expression, kept her head lowered, but when she spotted the cat doll on Frey’s bedside, her lips turned up to form a gentle smile.

This was the moment when her disposition, Aide, shone its light.

.

.

.

.

.

“Even though Irina told me not to interfere...”

Meanwhile, at that time... in the commoners’ dormitory,

“...I still have to help her somehow.”

Arianne, Irina’s childhood friend, gulped and looked down at the magic scroll she invested a month’s worth of her own tuition funds to buy

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