Chapter 16: Am I a Hero?

Motoyasu opened his eyes. The sunlight shone brightly through the windows of his room in the royal castle, bathing the chamber in a bright, warm honey color. It was a very nice day for adventuring.

However, the Spear Hero didn't have any interest in traveling or adventuring right now. What happened at the blacksmith's had been haunting him in his mind for five days straight, and whenever he closed his eyes to sleep, that nightmare immediately returned at full force, hammering his head so badly he couldn't even fall asleep.

He had had so much fun since the day he arrived in this "game". Slaying monsters and evildoers, doing quests, receiving the cheers and applauses of the NPCs, they were everything that he had always wished that he could do for real when he played the same game before he was murdered by his two yandere girlfriends. And he had slain a lot of enemies, animals, monsters, brigands, thieves, and gained EXP and money from them, just like he did in the game, without even a single thought. They just fell under his Legendary Spear quickly and easily, just like they always did in his game. After all, they were just mindless NPCs, beings made from bits of data, randomly spawning in front of him as obstacles on his way; no one would even care if he killed them for EXP to increase his levels.

But now… after that incident at the weapon shop…

The way that girl with the huge sword of the Sword Hero's party looked at him was downright terrifying. Motoyasu had always been adored by every girl he met before; he had never seen any girl looking at him with that hateful glare full of pure, genuine anger. No computer could simulate emotions that vividly and realistically, Motoyasu knew that for sure. It could only mean that whatever Shirou-san told him at the store was the truth, and he really did insult the death of an honorable man who sacrificed himself to protect the world.

And that also meant… the monsters, animals… and people… he had killed before since he arrived in this world… he had actually taken real lives. Of other human beings, no less. No matter what kind of legendary hero people hailed him to be, Motoyasu was still just a normal twenty-one-year-old student, and there's no way he's ready to face the truth that he's going to have to kill people, and had already done so a lot of times without even a blink of an eye. Because if he accepted that, it would mean that he's a murderer and a psychopath, just like Shirou-san had told him straight to the face.

The first time that dream appeared during his sleep, he had jumped out of his bed to puke everything he had eaten that day out. He didn't want to accept that truth. It's way easier to just think that he's still in a game. But no matter how hard he tried to force himself to think so, the truth was still there, glaring at him with its harsh, inquisitive eyes.

What should he do now…?

A knocking sound at the entrance of the room snapped him back to reality.

"Lord Spear Hero, are you awake? Breakfast is ready at the dining room; Princess Malty is waiting for you to join her."

Right. Myne. He still had her, and she was someone close to him… He believed in her…

"Okay! I'm coming!"

"Good morning, Motoyasu-sama~"

Myne greeted him at the breakfast table with her usual sweet and beautiful smile. Sitting on both sides of hers, as usual, were Lesty and Elena, who waved at him with their own smiles when he entered the room.

However…

"Hm? Where is Rino-chan?"

Rino was the last girl in Motoyasu's party. Even though she was neither from a noble family nor as pretty as the three other girls, her endearing personality was just so precious. And she's usually very punctual; missing a party gathering like this was so strange of her.

"Oh, she went home already," Malty waved her hand dismissively. "She said last night to me that she didn't think she would be able to go with you anymore because she's scared of how the Wave is, so I let her go."

"Oh…"

Motoyasu felt a stab in his heart. He knew that Rino was a really nice girl, so naturally, she wouldn't like this kind of brutal fighting. That might be the best for her, he guessed. Still, she could have told him about that before leaving.

He didn't notice that Elena gave the princess a really quick but meaningful glance upon hearing those words.

"Oh, by the way, Motoyasu-sama," Malty continued with an even brighter smile. She lifted up a roll of parchment, "Daddy is going to give you Ryute Village as a reward for your contribution during the last Wave! I got the royal decree here!"

"Isn't it great?" Lesty swooned. "You are going to become a Lord! It means you are going to become a noble yourself, Motoyasu-sama!"

Motoyasu's face brightened with those words. He remembered this event in the game; the player with the highest score during a boss raid is going to be presented with a fief of his own, in which he could do various activities such as building a house, earning money and even opening a guild of his own. Ha, take that Naofumi bastard! This clearly showed who did the most during the Wave!

Excited, he opened his status menu. And he was surprised when there was no Fief Management menu like in his game.

"Uhh… why isn't there any menu for me to manage it?"

Elena stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. "What menu? You do know what you need to do as a lord, don't you? Financial management, labor policy, diplomacy, everything?"

Motoyasu flinched. He remembered hearing those terms in the Economics class, but he had never bothered to study in that class properly. He was accepted to his college thanks to a baseball scholarship, not because he's good at studying! Sweats started rolling down his cheeks. "O-of course I know…! Th-that's just a child's play to me! Haha…"

Elena didn't look convinced at all by his answer. And it seemed even Malty and Lesty could see the nervousness in his voice, because the princess patted him on the shoulder and said with a cheerful voice.

"Don't worry, Motoyasu-sama! If something happens, I'm going to help you! Everyone has their first time doing something, don't they?"

Motoyasu looked at the princess in gratitude. However, there's still something he's worried about. "Have you ever ruled a village before, though?"

"Nope!" Malty said happily. "But it's just a mere village! What could possibly go wrong?"

"What is the meaning of this?!"

The eyes of the (now former) leader of Ryute Village widened in horror when he saw the royal decree, as well as all the policies and demands listed in it. The First Princess, the one who had just delivered it to him, stood before him with a haughty expression.

"Isn't it clear?" she said in her trademark arrogant voice. "You have overstepped your bounds so many times. Your job is now over. Motoyasu-sama and I are going to take over from now on."

The old man gritted his teeth. He didn't mind being stripped of his position; after all, if this were the decision of the citizens, it would mean that he didn't deserve to stay in the position anymore, and he would step down without any regret. However, this wasn't a decision of the citizens; this was two tyrants deciding that they wanted his village and robbed it from him without even considering what the people of the village would think.

And how did he know that? Just look at the list of demands that they had just shoved at his face. This village had just been ravaged by the Wave, and they wanted to take a 50-silver-piece toll on any citizens of the village who wanted to leave or enter?! Not to mention all the other ridiculous taxes listed in that list!

"But these taxes and tariffs are just absurd!" he protested angrily. "We have just gotten out of the Wave; where do you think the citizens can even get that much money to pay for just entering or leaving the village?!"

"Then do not enter or leave," the First Princess' mouth twisted upward into a cruel smile. Then she turned around, walking out of the room with Motoyasu tailing behind her, leaving the former lord alone with anger and disbelief clear on his face.

"Um, Myne… isn't that a little bit too much?"

Motoyasu didn't know shit about managing or anything similar. But even someone like him could tell that something was wrong here. Fifty silver pieces for entering and leaving meant one piece of gold for any trading activity, which required both entering and leaving the village. And a gold piece, as he knew, was enough to buy a rather good set of armor.

The worse thing was, he couldn't read shit on the parchment that Myne had just given the older man. He didn't know what else could be on that sheet of paper that could make that guy so angry and shocked.

The princess brushed him off. "With those peasants, sometimes you need to be a little bit rough. If we don't do that, how are we going to make them listen?"

Hearing that calmed his heart down a little bit. But…

"But a gold piece for a visit to the village is just too much, right? I mean, it's a gold piece. That much money could buy a lot of things."

Myne brushed her hand against his arm seductively. "It's nothing much if you consider how bad this village is right now. It needs a lot of money to rebuild, so even though it might be painful, we would need to do it… right, Motoyasu-sama~?"

Motoyasu breathed out in relief. There's nothing he needed to worry about anymore, then. After all, Myne was just worried about the state of the village; she only did that because she cared about them…

…right?

It had been a week since the First Princess and the Spear Hero took over the village. And contrasting what they claimed to be doing, they had done nothing but hurt the village in the worst ways they could.

The enormous toll that the Princess put on the village had effectively stopped all kinds of travel and transaction in and out of the place. People couldn't leave or visit the village even to get food, and material used for reconstruction couldn't even be transported to the village to complete the reconstruction.

And worse, the money they took from the villagers, which they claimed would be used to rebuild the village, instead was used to line up the Princess' pockets, as well as for the knights sent from the capital to enjoy themselves with all the alcohol that they took from the village inn. Those knights had done literally nothing since they arrived here except for drinking themselves to sleep and harassing women and children. And yet they dared to open their mouths to say that they were helping "bringing the village back to life".

"We cannot let this go on. We need to do something. If we continue letting them do this, this village is going to be destroyed."

The village leader, as well as the captain of the village's militia and some representatives of the citizens, were gathering at the leader's house. And the one who had just said those words was the militia captain. That cold statement earned him murmurs of agreement from the citizens.

"Please, Zarathus, do not do anything reckless," the village lord said tiredly. "We all know what kind of person that Princess is, and she has the Spear Hero backing her. If we're not careful, they might even murder all of us. Do you remember what that psycho did to Lord Shield Hero?"

Everyone flinched. The news about the "sacred duel" at the royal palace more than a week ago had spread across the country like fire meeting oil, and now everyone knew the Spear Hero as a psychopath who would murder even other Heroes without even blinking an eye.

"Then what do you say we should do now, Albus?" The captain, now named Zarathus, punched the table in anger. "The soldiers and that Demon Princess are extorting us of everything we have left. People are moving out. If more people run away, our village will die. If we don't do anything, we're still going to die anyway. Are you planning to sit here and wait for death to claim you?"

"I don't know, Zarathus," the village lord, Albus, groaned and held his head with both his hands. "I really don't know."

"If only we still had Lord Shield Hero here with us…" said a farmer miserably.

Naofumi had been here for a while after the Wave. He and his party had helped the village a lot in their reconstruction effort; his three special filolials with their herculean strength actually contributed the most. However, even the Hero couldn't stay there forever; two days ago, when the reconstruction had advanced to the point that it didn't need a lot of help anymore, Naofumi and his company had departed, saying that there might be other people who needed his help in this land, and every villager of the village had gone to see his departure with a heartfelt farewell.

"We can't rely on Lord Shield Hero forever," another villager shook his head. "He has done too much for us, for our village, and he was mistreated too badly by this kingdom already. If we keep exploiting him, we won't be any different from that demon Princess."

Albus stood up from his chair. "I will go to Castle Town to have an audience with the King himself. If he even knows how to rule a country, then he will listen. If not… then I guess not only this village, but this whole country is doomed."

Another week passed in a blink of an eye.

Motoyasu threw the document he was trying (in vain) to read down in annoyance. He could understand what the people in this world said, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't read any of the written documents. The only thing he could see when he looked at any piece of written paper was a bunch of unintelligible gibberish.

And yet, the stack of documentation pouring on his head just continued getting taller and taller on his desk.

The Spear Hero groaned. He was supposed to be here to have fun, not to suffer this kind of torture! Why had he even thought that it would be a good idea for him to stay here?!

A loud knocking voice disrupted his thought. Without even letting him answer the door, Myne came in with a glass of wine in her hand.

"Motoyasu-sama~! How is work?"

Motoyasu tiredly slumped down on his table, throwing the paperwork everywhere. "It was a nightmare," he moaned. "How do people even deal with this?"

The Princess traced her finger around his cheek seductively. "Don't worry, my Spear Hero. It's only a week, right? Everyone has his beginning! You will get it, sooner or later, and I will do my best to help you!"

She picked up a sheet of paper on top of the pile. It was the list of people who left and arrived at the village during the last five days. There wasn't a lot on the list; not many people could even afford to pay the toll to leave the village anyways. "For example, this one…"

Her face suddenly went as pale as the sheet of paper itself. She slammed the document down the table so hard paper flew everywhere. "Who!? Who let him get out of the village?!"

"What? What's wrong, Myne?" Motoyasu asked in confusion, but Malty didn't seem to remember that he was in the room with her. She walked around the room mindlessly, biting her fingernails while mumbling like a crazy hag. "No, no, no… this can't be happening…"

Motoyasu couldn't keep silent anymore. "Myne!" he yelled. "What's going on here?!"

Malty jumped in panic at the voice of the Spear Hero. She hastily turned and gave him a fake smile while sweating bullets. "N-no, nothing, Motoyasu-sama! There's no problem at all, haha…"

If that old coot manages to tell Father about this, I'm fucking dead!

Right at that time, the door once again burst open. A soldier rushed into the room with a clear fear on his face.

"Princess Malty! Lord Spear Hero! A fight has broken out! The villagers are revolting!"

"What?!"

An hour ago…

A dozen of soldiers dragged their feet out of the village inn. Obviously they were drunk off their asses, based on their drawling voice and staggering footsteps. This wasn't anything uncommon to the citizens of Ryute Village these days, but the only thing they could do was give them glares of hatred when they walked by. No matter how drunk they were, they were still soldiers holding deadly weapons in their hands, while most of the villagers were just weak, weaponless farmers without any way to fight back.

The drunkards strutted along the street of the village, completely ignoring (or maybe unaware of) the hateful glares aiming at them. They stumbled forward while clinging on to each other, yelling profanities and laughing like a bunch of psychos.

Then their eyes met something on the street.

In the village, Maria was one of the women that everyone loved and cherished. Even though she had gotten married once and had two children, she still looked as young and beautiful as a twenty-year-old young lady. Her husband had died three years ago from a sudden illness, and even though she had to take care of her son and daughter alone now, she still spent a lot of her time helping people. Everyone loved her not only because of her beauty, but also because of her endearing personality, and anyone who wanted to hurt her would suffer the wrath of the whole village.

Right now, she was walking on the street, carrying a basket full of food to share with the other people in her neighborhood. A lot of the food was in bad condition, but with careful preparation, it would still be edible. That was the best the citizens of Ryute Village could have now, within the reign of tyranny they were suffering from.

And her beautiful body had just caught the sight of the drunk knights. They quickly surrounded the poor woman, pushing her to the side wall of a house which was being rebuilt nearby.

"Heeey, baaaabe," one of the drunkards grinned at her with a lecherous smile. "Why -hic- are you alone? Do you want to -hic- come play with us?"

Despite being scared, Maria wasn't someone people could easily bully. "Please, restrain yourself," she said in a firm, albeit a little bit shaken, voice. "I don't want any trouble."

"Come now -hic- why so serious?" another one advanced toward her from the left side, his right hand grabbed her rudely at her arm while the other hand started crawling up the bottom of her dress. "We only -hic- want a little -hic- fun, so just calm -hic- down and no one would get -hic- hurt…"

"No!" The poor lady's eyes widened. She started struggling against the hands of the pervert to no avail. "Let me go you… bastard…" She punched his arms and chest, but her right hand just bounced off the armor of the drunkard. The bastard just gave her a disgusting grin; his left hand started reaching into her panties.

Suddenly something hit his head from behind. It didn't hurt, but was more than enough to make the pervert turn back in annoyance. It was a boy no older than six, and he had just thrown a rock at his head.

"Leave Mommy alone!" he yelled, and the knight's left eye twitched. He left Maria and started walking toward the boy, and the woman's eyes widened in fear; she knew what was going to happen.

"No, Leon! Run away! Don't…"

The drunk knight had arrived in front of the child. The boy looked up in fear, and started backing away, but before he could even move, the pervert had delivered a brutal kick at his stomach. Even though the knight was drunk, he was still a level 30, adult soldier with military training, while the boy was just a six-year-old, level 1 kid. The poor kid was launched away like a log; his head hit the stone wall of the well on the other side of the road, and he slumped onto the ground, not getting up anymore.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Completely forgetting that she was going to be sexually assaulted, the woman pushed the men surrounding her away with a strength no one could have expected that she possessed, then ran toward her child lying on the ground. She lifted him up from the ground, but the boy didn't seem to recognize her anymore.

"Someone! Please! Anyone! Please help my child!" Maria screamed in despair. Blood from the wound on his head started dying her hands red, but she didn't care; his body was getting colder and colder on her hands.

"Mom… my…"

The boy's tiny hand reached up toward her face, but only a second later, it fell down. The last bit of light disappeared from his eyes, and his body went slack in the hands of his mother.

The scream coming from Maria was more hellish than anything anyone on the street at that moment had ever heard. It seemed to snap the knights out of their drunken stupor; they whispered to each other in panic.

"Hey, what did you do that for!?"

"That little brat threw a rock at me! I just retaliated!"

"But he's just a kid!"

"Screw that, let's get out of here!"

They turned their backs, but they weren't running anywhere. Behind them, many citizens of the village had gathered since god knows when; on their hands were swords, pitchforks, knives, hoes, any kinds of weapons they could find around that could hurt people. On their faces, the same murderous expression could be seen. Leading the citizens was Zarathus, the militia captain, clad in his armor and his trusted sword unsheathed on his hand.

The furious growl coming from his mouth froze the spines of the soldiers.

"Going somewhere? Do you think you can run away after doing something like that?"

His sword drew a flashing arc in the air, and the head of the idiot who had just murdered Maria's child was separated from his body. Just like receiving an order, the citizens behind him let out a chorused battle cry and charged, drowning the knights in a rain of stabs from their weapons.

Zarathus raised his sword to the sky and yelled.

"Citizens of Ryute Village! We wanted to live in peace. But the more we want to stay in peace, the more they try to push us into despair, and this is the last straw! Today we're going to give them a message they will never forget. Anyone who loves this village, pick up your weapons and follow me!"

A loud cheer from the villagers rumbled in the air.

"FOR RYUTE!"

When Motoyasu and Malty arrived, the village was already bathed in blood.

The rebellion broke out so suddenly and quickly the knights couldn't even react. Most of them, at that time, had been lying wasted at the inn, or had been sleeping without any care about the world. None of them was prepared for such a sudden assault, and eleven among the fifty knights Malty brought to the village had perished or disabled under the weapons of the villagers.

However, as unprepared as they were, the knights were still professional soldiers who had been trained in the military. They were taught how to handle situations like this. And different from the villagers, they had access to better weapons, and most important of all, skills and magic, which the villagers had no way to have. After they managed to regain their balance, they started pushing the villagers back with an incredible vigor to protect their own lives, and soon, it was the villagers' turn to fall under their blades. The sound of blades slashing flesh open and screams of pain echoed everywhere around the settlement.

Motoyasu was horrified seeing the scene in front of him. There was no such event in his game when he got his own fief there, so why… why was this happening? Why were all these people killing each other?

"There you are, Demon Witch, Spear Devil. We were wondering when you would show up."

The pair turned toward the direction of the voice. The militia captain was advancing toward them, together with a dozen of his soldiers. All of them shared the same murderous glares on their faces. Malty shrieked.

"You! It's you who was the mastermind behind this!"

"Yes, I am," Zarathus answered her in a deathly calm voice. "So?"

"I'm going to have you all executed for this!" the princess screeched like a banshee. She drew the sword at her waist and charged Zarathus, but with a very simple movement, the captain stopped her blade dead in place with his own sword. He growled.

"You know what? We're already dying here, so at least before we perish, we should take some of your lives together with us into the grave!"

Then he swatted Malty aside as if she was just a fly. The princess flew a few feet into the air and disappeared into a bush nearby with a "thud", sending leaves flying everywhere.

"Forward!" Zarathus bellowed, waving his sword, and his soldiers responded with a cheer and started rushing toward the direction the princess had just been thrown to.

"Stop that!" Motoyasu jumped into the way. He brandished his Legendary Spear with his trembling hands. "Why are you doing this?! What did we even do to you? Lightning Spear!"

The bolt of electricity shot out of the Spear's tip toward the group of soldiers, but these guys weren't the same as the mindless monsters he had killed during the Wave. They were also soldiers trained to protect the village, and they had been through a lot of battles. Most of them perceived the skill being formed immediately and sidestepped it before it was even launched. Only the two youngest and least experienced ones were hit by the attack, and it didn't even do that much damage to them anyway; they just fell to the ground twitching and spasming, clearly winded but definitely not dead.

Zarathus closed the distance between him and Motoyasu in a single bound. His sword drew an arc in the air, aiming to split his opponent in half vertically, forcing the Spear Hero to withdraw his spear to block. The two weapons clashed against each other with a nasty "clang" noise.

"You ask what you did to us," the captain growled when putting more strength into his arms, trying to push Motoyasu down. "Then I'm going to tell you. It's because the only thing you've brought to us since you arrived here was misery!"

"What?!" Motoyasu couldn't believe in his ears anymore. "It-it cannot be! There's no way I would-!"

"That's right, you might not want to, because you are too much of a chicken to do it," the man didn't let him continue. His scathing voice sent fear into Motoyasu's spine, "but your companions did! They charged us a toll that they knew no one could pay. They didn't allow us to go out to work. They stopped us from getting the material to finish our reconstruction. They did not do anything to help us, except for sitting at the inn and drinking until they were wasted! The Princess said that the money from the toll would be used to rebuild the village, but none of it has gone to rebuilding; it is used instead to line her fucking pocket!"

He punctuated every word with a slash. Motoyasu couldn't find any word to retort; or more accurately, he couldn't retort because he was too busy to fend off the relentless assault from the captain.

"Oh, but that's not all. Among everyone, you are the one whose fault is the biggest."

Those words shook Motoyasu to the core. "What-?!"

"That's right," snarled Zarathus. "Your underlings are the ones who did all those atrocities, but you are the one leading them. And the fact that you didn't lift a finger to stop them from doing so proves that you are even worse than them!"

Motoyasu was so shocked his movement stopped completely. Not because those accusations were wrong, but because they're completely right.

The flat of Zarathus' sword struck him across the face. He stumbled to the side, holding his jaw in pain. Then a kick to the chest sent him sprawling on the ground. He struggled, trying to get back up.

And he saw the sharp tip of the captain's blade in front of his face. The man growled at him with a cold face full of disgust.

"You didn't protect us during the Wave. You left our village for the Wave monsters to destroy. You didn't help clean up the mess after everything was over. And now, you haven't even done a proper job as a Lord. You might be the one holding the Legendary Spear, but to us, you are no Hero. This world doesn't need a hero like you."

The other militia soldiers had also captured Malty. The Princess' arms were twisted backward in a painful way, and she was pushed onto the ground by a hand gripping the back of her neck. Zarathus yelled, his voice boomed across the village.

"Your leaders have been captured! Drop your weapons or they are going to suffer the worst consequence!"

And with that, the battle of Ryute Village came to an abrupt end. The knights had been the ones who were winning, but they all had to stop fighting when they saw the Spear Hero and their Princess on the ground, defeated.

"You lowlife peasants!" Even though she was being pinned down, Malty still had the audacity to screech out a threat. "Father is going to hear about this, and he's going to raze this village to the ground! Just wait for it!"

A soldier kicked her in the face. "You're not in a position to make a threat, Princess!"

"I believe that's enough."

Everyone turned toward the main gate of the village. The former lord, Albus, was standing there with a stern face, accompanied by a platoon of knights protecting him from behind. He raised a golden scroll that he was holding in his hand into the air.

"Royal Order here! What are all of you waiting for? Kneel!"

Everyone in the village hastily dropped to the ground. The Royal Order was something a level above a normal royal decree, only used when there was an urgent matter the King or the Queen needed to deliver somewhere. The Order itself was absolute; its appearance was no different from the arrival of the King or the Queen themselves.

"Hahaha!" Malty laughed like a mad woman on the ground. "See? You're going to regret turning on me! Prepare to face Father's wrath!"

The former Lord opened the golden scroll on his hand. He cleared his throat and read the content of the scroll up; his voice echoed around the field.

"By the power of the King, I, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, King of the Royal Kingdom of Melromarc, hereby: Retract the previous Royal Decree issued to Ryute Village, and reinstate the previous Lord of the village, Albus Vieth Wiegand, back to his original position. All policies and demands listed in the retracted Decree would be abolished, and all the taxes and tariffs taken during the time period the Decree was in effect would be returned to the citizens of the village. Any action the villagers have done against the royal force during the time period the Decree was in effect would be pardoned by the Kingdom. Princess Malty S Melromarc and the Spear Hero as well as his party will return to the Capital immediately, without any delay. Anyone who acts against this Royal Order is going to be executed on the spot, no exception. This Royal Order is in effect starting from the moment it is announced!"

Silence filled the air during the following five seconds. And at the sixth…

"What?! That's impossible! There's no way that can be right!"

That shriek came from no one else but Malty, obviously. The, now newly reinstated, Lord of the village said calmly; his eyes bore into the Princess'.

"Oh, but it's right, indeed. I believe it's about time you and your little merry band left our village, Princess Malty S Melromarc."

Malty shoved the guard holding her down away; the man didn't have any intention to pin her down anymore, anyway. She marched across the square and snatched the scroll from Albus' hand. Her face went paler and paler with each word she read.

"But- but—" she stammered in disbelief. Why wasn't anything going the way she wanted these days?

Hundreds of eyes were staring at her. Suddenly she felt like a deer in the headlights. Her face started turning purple. "You— you-!" she snarled in fury. "I'm gonna make you pay for this! I might have lost this time, but this is not the end! When I get back to the Capital, I will send even more knights to raze this place to the ground for daring to humiliate me like this! I will gather up all of those traitors and get them hanged on the gallows! I will—"

"That's enough, Myne!"

It was Motoyasu himself who had just raised his voice. Everyone was surprised to hear the voice of the Spear Hero; instead of his normal arrogant tone, he was speaking in a solemn tone full of depression and regret.

"But—"

Motoyasu shook his head before Malty could even say anything. "He's correct. What we did here really hurt the citizens of this village. I don't deserve to be a Lord. We don't have the right to stay here anymore. Let's go."

He lifted the Legendary Spear on the ground up and started walking away. On the way out of the village, he saw Maria, who was still holding the body of her deceased son in her hands. His heart felt a piercing pain when he saw her face; gone had the beauty of a woman whose warm smiles of happiness and energy always bloomed on her mouth. Now the only thing noticeable left on her face was a blank expression and a pair of empty eyes without any light.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. The widow looked at him and went into a fit of dry laughter without any hint of humor in it.

"You're sorry. Ha. Now you're sorry. Then give me my son back! Can you do it? Huh? Go die in the deepest layer of hell, you murderer."

He had braced himself to hear something like that, but what the woman said still dealt a brutal blow to his mind.

Now he fully understood what Shirou-san had told him in Erhard's weapon store. There's no way the scenery he was looking at right now, the haggard face and the glare full of hatred and agony of the woman in front of him, as well as of the other villagers, were something created by a computer. Even though he had been trying his best to deny the truth, there's nothing he could do right now but to accept it: he's not in a game. He had been acting like an idiotic, irresponsible bastard since the day he was summoned to this place.

He knew for a fact that that glare of the woman and her spiteful words were going to haunt him for the rest of his life.

I don't deserve to be called a Hero…

[Requirement met. Curse Series: Spear of Sloth unlocked.]

Even though Malty was still fuming inside, there was something that she hadn't ever thought that she would before, but right now, she was scared shitless of. Which was to step foot inside the audience chamber of the royal palace to face her Father. At that moment, there was nothing she wanted to do more than run away as far as possible from this place. But with the escorting knights walking behind her and Motoyasu, she knew there was no way for her to escape.

And sure enough, when they pushed open the entrance to the room for her and Motoyasu to enter, the very first thing she saw was her Father's face, which was bearing a grim expression hiding a cold fury in it.

"Your Majesty, the Princess and the Spear Hero are here."

The King stood up from the throne. He waved at the knights and the other people in the room. "Everyone, dismiss. Leave us alone."

The knights and the chancellors bowed deeply and walked out of the room. After the final door leading into the chamber had been closed, Malty started. "Father—"

"I don't want to hear any excuses."

Those cold words coming from the King's mouth seemingly froze the air in the room.

"The only thing I want to know," he continued while his eyes glared straight at his first daughter's face as if drilling into her soul, "is why the hell did you think it's a good idea to steal the Royal Seal and make a fake royal decree?!"

Motoyasu's head snapped toward Malty's direction in shock. "Myne! What the hell-?!"

"Do you know what I felt when that man barged into this very same room and announced in front of every member of the royal council that you were messing up his village with all those unreasonable taxes and tariffs, which I didn't even give any permission for?" The King continued yelling, ignoring Motoyasu. "What were you thinking, doing something like that behind my back?! Do you know that the best I could do to quell that flame before it started burning down the whole kingdom was to admit that I overestimated the Spear Hero's ability and retract that fake decree before you could ruin everything?! DO YOU?!"

Never before had Motoyasu heard the King snapping at his daughter that harshly and angrily. Right now, even he was afraid of the person that he once thought to be only a senile old coot.

"Because I just wanted to help Motoyasu-sama!"

Malty blurted out. She started crying. "Motoyasu-sama has been so nice to me… Seeing him bullied by that bastard Shield, I couldn't stand it!" she said between hiccups. "I just wanted… to give him… a reward… he deserves… to have…"

That was a complete lie, however. If anyone paid close attention to her, they would see that there was no tear coming out of her eyes, even though she was crying so loudly. She only wanted to make Motoyasu the village lord so that no one could get in her way of leeching that village to the last coin they had. And right now, she didn't feel sad or afraid; the only thing she wanted to do right now was to throw a fit.

"It seems I have given you too much freedom, Malty," the King said coldly. "No matter how much I love you, doing something like this is overbound. From now on, you're not allowed to go on adventures."

The Princess' eyes widened. "What?! But…!"

"There's no 'but'," her Father didn't let her finish the sentence. "Even though you are the daughter that I love, letting you run around ruining the whole country with your idiocy is not worth it. You're going to stay in this castle from now on."

Malty's face went as red as her hair in anger. That… that was just…! The audacity…! If she's locked inside this stupid castle, how is she going to move on with her plan to seduce the Sword Hero now?!

Suddenly, Motoyasu raised his voice next to her.

"Your Majesty, can I ask for your favor to forgive Myne this time? Even though she has messed up big time, she's still an important companion of mine; if she's locked up, how are we going to fight the Wave?"

The King's eyes narrowed. "Hmm… You got a point, but…"

"I promise I'll keep an eye on her from now on," the Spear Hero insisted. "I will make sure that she won't make this kind of mistake again. She's a companion that I cherish, and I can't stand seeing her locked up like that. Please…"

King Aultcray closed his eyes in thought. Then, he nodded.

"Very well then. But this is your last chance, Spear Hero. If something bad happens this time… you know that you have to take responsibility for it, don't you?"

Motoyasu nodded. "Yes, sir."

He knew he had messed up a lot. But he's not going to give up. He knew he had to make up for what he had done. From now on, he's going to act as a proper Hero, and do what a Hero needs to do.

Yes, this is a chapter about Motoyasu.

I have to say that I'm not really fond of the way the original author "redeemed" the Spear Hero. His personality did a complete 180-degree flip after he unlocked the Curse Spear, which, to me, is no different from having his mind completely broken, and it was actually true, because his mind was literally broken to the point he couldn't see women as humans anymore, and became a bloodthirsty and psychotic person who, while on Naofumi's side, knew no other method of solving problems except for brutally murdering them, as we all saw in the spin-off. And in my opinion, that wasn't "redeeming" at all; that's no different from brainwashing him to the side of good. Therefore, in my story, I'm going a different way, and you are going to see it develop fully in the future chapters.

And one of the first symbols of that change is the unlocking of the Spear of Sloth instead of the Spear of Lust like in canon. The sin of Sloth doesn't only symbolize laziness; it is also defined as a failure to do things that one should do. And in this chapter, Motoyasu had realized that he was a failure as a Hero, and that realization was the thing that pushed him over the edge of despair and unlock the Curse Series; that's why, the Spear of Sloth. And he was determined to fix that; however, whether he could actually fix it or not must still be seen.

Until next time.