Volume 6 - CH ss - 1

Gossip – Hero Party’s Problem

The people who had been accompanying Hero Party on their journey always had clear affiliations such as the Knights Order, the Magic Division, the officials who acted as liaisons to the royal castle, and the priests who acted as ties to the church.

Perhaps because of that, it was natural for them to move to maximize the profit of their own organizations without crossing each other’s territory, which means, it is rare for them to cooperate beyond that boundary.

This can be seen from how their treatment toward Eto began to change to discrimination since Hero Ronaldo didn’t acknowledge Eto’s power and took a blatant attitude toward him. There are even times when Eto asked the liaisons to the Royal Castle to give him the subjugation reward, as his money went into meals and lodgings.

Even so, the knights and the magicians who accompanied them didn’t move at all. Although some of them might do that following the Hero’s attitude, they were, in fact, just danced by a lie about Eto and eventually decided to act as if it was not related to them or act as if they had not seen anything.

Eto is the Sage chosen by the Oracle. In other words, he was originally someone who they had to help even if they had to risk their lives. Despite that, Eto ended up being treated unreasonably and eventually got kicked out of the party.

That act was reported by Eto, who returned to the Royal Capital, and became a big problem. Of course, the fact that Eto proved his ability by solving the Goblin Stampede was also one of the biggest reasons it became a big issue. Because that just showed how the Kingdom ended up letting go of such a powerful person because of their own mistake. And then, after Eto completely beat Ronaldo in the mock battle, the voices blaming Hero’s Party culminated.

Under these situations, the upper brass of each organization felt a sense of crisis. Not only have the value of their existences been questioned, even the value of the Hero, who is said to be the only one who can solve the crisis of the world, has been reduced. And if the Hero loses the support of the masses, no one can be the leader in an emergency and face the crisis.

For that reason, those higher ups planned to renew the people who accompany Hero’s Party. Influential people in the organization and next-generation executive candidates have been sent in as support members of the Hero’s Party.

The will to change themselves was also felt from the members of Hero’s Party. And the Sword Saint Lana was the one who showed the most change among them. In order to improve the strength of the Hero’s Party, Lana listened to the issues that exist in the Hero’s Party from everyone regardless of status, position, and occupation.

That act itself, however, may have been possible because before being the Sword Saint, Lana was a commoner. Because if it was the question asked by the Sword Saint, even a person with a status couldn’t ignore it. And someone with low statuses was also able to tell everything to Lana because she was the same as them, a commoner.

Then, Lana found that one of the issues about battle was that Ronaldo plunged into the enemy lines too much, causing the overall balance of the party to be disturbed. Depending on the situation, having Ronaldo in the back as a trump card would make the battle stabilize and also reduce the risk of being attacked by monsters from other directions.

In addition, other than the battle aspect, it was also found that there was an issue that there was not much cooperation with local forces in defeating the monsters. The local forces that are mentioned are the Knights of the Kingdom, the private army of nobles, and the adventurers dispatched to various places.

Of course, the situation where rampaging monsters that are running from their flock can easily be dealt with by the Hero’s Party alone. However, when there is a group of monsters nesting near a village or town, it is difficult even for Ronaldo and his party, who have extraordinary powers, to annihilate them all at once.

For that reason, they have dealt with such situations each time by requesting support from the knights in the area or hiring adventurers. Even so, even if that solved the problem, it is still difficult to maintain a medium to long-term surveillance system for monsters after the Hero’s Party leave the area.

Who is the person in charge? What kind of title will he get? Which organization will bear the cost? Who will bear the responsibility when a problem arises? Just like that, when the big existence called Hero disappeared, such issues became apparent.

As a result, the Hero Party often has to repeatedly subdue monsters on an ad hoc basis. Although they indeed might be able to do it by sharing some information, some felt that there should be a more efficient way to do it.

Lana made these opinions anonymous and consulted with those who were allowed to participate in the battle, starting from Ronaldo, Mirei, and then the knights and magicians. And since the discussion was held, the issue will gradually be resolved.

Firstly, Ronaldo began to refrain from plunging into enemy lines except when he really needed to. He started to take a high-angle view of the entire battle and become aware of how to use his strength as the Hero.

Regarding the cooperation with local powers, the group is trying to find a clue to the solution by building personal connections. Because if the Hero’s Party can play a role in connecting the local powers in each region, information sharing will definitely become more advanced than it is now. If that happens, Ronaldo and his party will be able to maximize their power with less wasteful movement.

And in the middle of such efforts, the Hero’s Party heard that the Acting Lord of the Margrave of Erven had barricaded himself in the southern fort, and rushed to the scene as soon as they learned that information.