When it comes to transmigration, Eze doesn’t have many kind words to say.
The so-called “hero” sounds cool and edgy, but in essence, it’s just being a tool used at the whims of the divine realm, with no part of the transmigration process or mission assignment ever involving his consent.
One moment, he was an ordinary student; the next, he’s stuck with a half-broken cheat ability, forced to risk his life fighting all sorts of monstrous beings.
Might as well have just died under that truck.
Still, Eze isn’t the type to shirk responsibility and laze around.
Since he’s here, he might as well do something.
So, in the two years since arriving, Eze has barely rested.
Outside of battles, expeditions, and necessary meetings, he’s poured nearly all his time into various logistical and support tasks.
From burying himself in the library, studying books to understand enemy traits for planning, to coordinating with various factions to secure support and prestige for his team, to handling dirty but necessary tasks that can’t see the light of day.
In terms of sheer workload, Eze has pushed himself to the absolute limit.
In contrast, his teammates seem to prefer spending their non-combat time at social events, basking in the flattery and admiration of nobles.
As for this alone, Eze had no complaints.
Such title-based, superficial goodwill only makes him feel disgusted at heart and serves no practical purpose, so he’d rather spend that time on actual work.
At least that way, efficiency improves, and they might defeat the Demon King sooner, maybe even earning a bit of mercy from the divine realm to return to his original world for a better life.
Compared to that, his teammates in the same squad are the source of 90% of his stress.
Take Liya, for example.
Two years ago, she was gentle, humble, and understanding, able to listen to dissenting opinions—as long as they were reasoned.
Now? Eze can only shake his head and sigh.
He can’t fathom the reason for such a drastic change—perhaps she got lost in the flood of honors and lost herself.
So, at some point, Eze stopped arguing.
Whatever she says, goes.
No matter how unreasonable her demands, Eze does his utmost to fulfill them, at the cost of his already scarce sleep time being whittled down to nearly nothing.
Thankfully, with the hero’s blessing, he won’t drop dead even after years without sleep.
As long as it improves efficiency and resolves this world’s issues faster, it doesn’t matter.
Yet, the result is what it is now.
Silence, endurance, and burning himself out brought no rewards; instead, his teammates have grown increasingly extreme.
This time, Eze went into the battle with the resolve to die alongside the enemy, achieving a goal that was practically impossible, only to receive no praise and instead be blamed, as if he should take responsibility for Liya’s reckless decisions.
No matter how rational, calm, or focused on the bigger picture he tries to be, this has pushed him past his limits.
He’s tired.
Let it all burn.
Hurry up and end it.
So, for the first time, Eze put this thought out in the open.
This broken hero gig isn’t worth it.
His unexpected declaration left Liya, still in the midst of her tirade, stunned, her aggressive momentum faltering due to her own shock:
“…W-What did you say?”
“I quit. After all, physically speaking, I’m no longer a hero.”
As he spoke, Eze stood, placing his hand on the holy sword at his waist.
The weapon, which had just pierced the chest of a formidable enemy, now felt as if it were welded in place, refusing to budge no matter how hard he tried.
The sight made Liya’s eyes widen.
The holy sword, a divine weapon bound to a hero, unleashes immense power when resonating with the hero’s blessing.
Conversely, without the blessing, it’s completely unusable.
“That last hit… cough cough cough—it broke my blessing.”
“Your blessing…?”
Liya’s gaze shifted to Eze’s face.
His skin was pale as a corpse, his labored breathing accompanied by unsettling sounds, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth—no matter how you looked at it, he was in bad shape.
The hero’s blessing is a miracle of the divine realm, granting not only great power but also agelessness, immunity to disease, and rapid recovery from injuries, as long as they aren’t immediately fatal.
Hours after the battle, Liya, who was initially in no better shape than Eze, had mostly recovered, and the other two teammates, though still unconscious, were stable.
Eze alone not only hadn’t recovered but was in an even worse state than before.
Combined with the fact that the holy sword no longer responded to him, his hero’s blessing was, if not completely destroyed, at the very least in tatters.
The blessing is the source of a hero’s power; without it, a hero is no different from an ordinary person. For someone like Liya, who places immense value on her hero identity, abandoning the blessing is worse than death.
Yet, as the team leader, she only now noticed how serious his condition was.
Even Liya felt a pang of guilt, leaving her momentarily speechless.
Seeing his teammate stunned into silence, Eze sighed, casually unhooked his holy sword, and tossed it at Liya’s feet.
“I can’t use this anymore. Keep it for dual-wielding or take it back to the Holy Capital—your call.”
The sound of the sword hitting the ground snapped the blonde hero back to reality:
“…Are you serious?”
“Serious… cough cough cough—ha—serious.”
“Abandoning your duties as a hero!?”
Her brief moment of guilt was quickly overtaken by anger.
From Liya’s perspective, fulfilling their duties as heroes in this reborn world is their sole purpose.
She couldn’t comprehend what could be more important than that for Eze to make such a decision.
It couldn’t just be because she raised her voice a little, right?
That was for his own good, to push the most incompetent hero to try harder and not fall behind!
How ungrateful.
The injured hero merely shrugged:
“Can’t even draw the holy sword—guess I don’t qualify as a hero anymore, huh?”
With that, Eze unfastened his heavy armor, letting it fall to the ground, wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, and gave a faint smile:
“Anyway, a half-baked guy like me only stayed on the team thanks to this half-baked blessing and my plans. Now the blessing’s completely broken, and my plans, as you put it, are a mess. What reason do I have to stay?”
Liya had repeated similar words countless times, and Eze had never argued back.
Now that he’s admitting it, she should have nothing left to say, right?
“When you return to the Holy Capital, feel free to pin all the blame for this mission’s heavy losses on me. Say I fled out of guilt—doesn’t matter.”
If he didn’t say it, she’d probably do it anyway, and saying it himself makes him seem a bit more magnanimous—probably.
“With the hero’s blessing, I couldn’t even beat a top-tier adventurer. Now? I probably can’t even handle a mid-tier one. You could easily find a few locals who’d do better than me.”
That’s true—at least in terms of combat. Eze never denied it and even suggested recruiting some of this world’s heavy hitters to the team, only for Liya to refuse.
Not out of concern for Eze’s feelings, but simply because she thought non-heroes joining would tarnish the Goddess’s honor.
“Well then, goodbye.”
With that, Eze gave a slight nod, turned to lift the tent’s curtain, and prepared to leave.
Liya, finally snapping out of her shock, stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait! Think this through! With your body in this state, abandoning your hero identity and becoming half a cripple, you’ll have nowhere to go! You could die on the road!”
True enough.
This is the front line of the human-demon war, a chaotic place.
Even heading to the rear, there are scattered demon soldiers, wandering monsters, and bandits of all sorts.
In his current state, encountering anything remotely strong could mean dying without a grave—a fact he knows better than anyone.
Was this an attempt to keep him?
Eze turned with a sliver of hope, only to see a face with a smug smile, her gaze slightly upward, dripping with arrogance.
“Got it? Now hurry up and apologize for your crazy talk! When we get back to the Holy Capital, I’ll report to the Goddess on your behalf and find a way to fix your injuries.”
No matter what, a former hero surviving the battlefield only to die at the hands of random bandits would be too pathetic and absurd.
Even Eze wouldn’t accept such an end, right?
Liya thought as much.
She was certain he was just bluffing to scare her.
Treating him like an idiot, huh?
Eze was used to it. He sighed, scratching his hair.
Setting aside strength, her ability to read the situation was truly abysmal.
Two years of endless grunt work, watching countless teammates and enemies die before him—did she really think he still cared about his life at this point?
If he did, he would’ve run off long ago.
“It’s fine. Just assume I went down with the enemy. No big deal.”
With that, he gave her no further chance to respond, turning and walking out of the tent, ignoring the furious roars of his former teammate behind him.
Outside the tent, there was dead silence.
The argument had been so loud that the soldiers and knights outside heard everything clearly.
Understanding what had happened and the context, they all stopped what they were doing, standing silently on both sides of the path, raising their hands in unison to salute Eze, who had made up his mind to leave.
“You guys… thanks—”
Eze gave a faint smile to his former comrades and subordinates, said nothing more, nodded slightly, and dragged his broken body out of the camp, walking in the opposite direction of the battlefront.