A bulky figure that looks like someone who has never exercised.
A face that seems to lack determination at first glance.
But he was, after all, a hero.
A hero chosen by the goddess! He even held the Holy Sword!
“Don’t judge by appearances, the nuns always taught us that.”
That’s right.
Esther was now throwing her last hope toward Raoul.
In any hero party, the strongest one is the hero.
It’s common sense.
It is said that Johannes, the first hero, was strong enough to face all four of the Demon King’s generals by himself.
After all, heroes are chosen to defeat the Demon King.
The hero’s counterpart is the Demon King, not the generals.
If it’s just one of the generals, the hero should be able to defeat them on his own.
And… and who is Raoul?
Isn’t he the hero with the best qualities, recognized by the Kingdom’s Protector, Zero?
Zero, who possesses the ‘Situation Eye’ , has thoroughly verified that Raoul is the real deal.
So even if his appearance is pitiful, he must certainly possess incredible strength.
It’ll be fine.
It will work out.
If Raoul is entrusted with this task, he will surely overcome this crisis.
With that hope, Esther shouted.
“Hero! Please defeat the Demon King’s generals with the Holy Sword! You’re our last hope!”
“Eh, huh…? Me…?”
A drop of cold sweat ran down Raoul’s face.
Esther started shouting even more passionately.
“Yes! You are the chosen one! You must have incredible power sleeping inside of you!”
“Re-really…? Well, I have felt an enormous power stirring within me recently… Could it be that I didn’t realize it, but I’m actually… quite strong…?”
“Yes, exactly! So please, fight!”
“Alright!”
Motivated by Esther’s support, Raoul awkwardly pulled out the Holy Sword and aimed it.
Of course, his target was one of the Demon King’s generals, Lesia.
Surprisingly, Lesia calmly waited for Raoul to strike a pose.
No, his gaze was fixed on the Holy Sword.
‘Hmm… That’s certainly a sword imbued with tremendous magical power. Could that be the Holy Sword? If I get stabbed by that, even I would have a hard time escaping without injury.’
‘Well… if I get stabbed, that is.’
“YAAAAH! Die, evil demon! Accept the power of my Holy Sword!!!”
Raoul rushed forward.
It was a straightforward, no-frills attack, just a simple line charge.
If it were a 100-meter dash, it would probably take about 18 seconds.
In other words, it was slow.
Considering Lesia’s reflexes, he could have easily dodged or countered in any direction, but the Demon King’s general waited.
He waited until the Holy Sword was nearly upon him.
“Die, then!”
“Heh. Cold, isn’t it? The magical power emanating from the Holy Sword.”
Thud.
“Huh?”
“If the person holding it wasn’t such a fool, that might have been dangerous.”
Thud…
Lesia struck Raoul’s wrist, making him lose grip of the Holy Sword.
It wasn’t a special spell or technique—just a simple self-defense move—but it worked perfectly on Raoul.
Instead of feeling humiliation, Raoul was simply confused.
His first thought was to pick up the Holy Sword.
“Th-the Holy Sword… I need it…”
“You won’t be needing that.”
Wham!
Lesia bent down and delivered a knee strike to Raoul’s abdomen.
It wasn’t a full-powered blow, but even a light strike was devastating to Raoul.
He had never been in a real fight in his life, and a physical attack from one of the Demon King’s generals felt like an enormous shock to him.
“Ugh!”
It felt like everything he had eaten was coming back up.
Or perhaps it was the sins he had accumulated over his life, being expelled as nausea.
Maybe it was finally his chance to atone for all that.
“Oww… Ahh…”
“How does it feel, hero? Do you think you can win against me? I’ll hit you with an attack a million times stronger than this one.”
“N-no… I… I surrender.”
Indeed.
Since his school days, whenever someone hit Raoul, he would immediately admit defeat and choose to be subservient.
That was his survival strategy.
His bad habit had resurfaced once again, even in this life-or-death moment for humanity.
“I… I lost, um… Lesia-sama. I-I’ll serve you. I’ll do whatever you tell me, so please, just don’t hit me anymore. Sniff… Ugh…”
His tone had already returned to normal.
It was proof that he had been pretending all this time.
When Esther saw this, she shouted in anger.
“Hero! What do you mean by this? The legendary hero is submitting to a demon!? There has never been anything like this in history! Even the second hero, who is considered the worst hero of all time, never begged to be made a subordinate of the Demon King’s generals!”
“W-what do you want me to do!? It hurts too much… my stomach hurts… damn it!! Why did you summon me in the first place!? I was way happier back on Earth!! Ugh… Send me back to Earth!!”
“Oh?”
Lesia, hearing the hero’s words, responded with interest.
“You were happier on Earth? Prove it in front of everyone.”
Lesia cast a cruel and wicked spell.
“Hell Memory!”
Hell Memory.
It was a magic that brought to light the most humiliating secrets the person wanted to hide.
Everyone present now saw Raoul’s dark past.
‘I… I like her… I want to go out with her…’
Raoul, wearing a school uniform, was confessing to a kind-looking girl.
But as soon as the confession was made, the girl’s expression twisted like a demon’s, and she began crying uncontrollably.
“Damn it… Ugh… W-what’s wrong with you!? You think you can just come up and confess to me!? You bastard… What a joke… I was just being nice out of pity, and now you think you can hit on me? This is sexual harassment, you know?!”
“…What?”
Raoul seemed flustered as the girl cried.
In reality, he had mistaken the girl’s kindness for romantic interest.
“It’s sexual harassment! That’s sexual harassment, you bastard!”
“Huh…? This, this can’t be…”
Raul, who had not only been rejected but also falsely accused of sexual harassment, had only one choice left.
To act cool.
“Ha ha ha! It was a joke! There’s no way I’d like you! I have a girlfriend named Miku-chan! Don’t take a joke so seriously! What are you, a loser?”
“What? What did you just say? You’re completely crazy!”
“I’m telling you, stay away from me! Don’t act friendly with me anymore!”
“Wow, you’re really crazy.”
Raul tried his best to maintain a nonchalant expression and bolted out of the room at full speed.
Watching his awkward retreating figure, the girl slapped her forehead.
She considered reporting him, but decided against it, reasoning that getting involved with someone like him would bring no benefit to her life.
As a result of this incident, Raul decided to drop out of school.
Or rather, he simply shut himself in at home.
“I should go to school… I should go to school, son!”
“Shut up, woman! Don’t interfere with me!”
Raul continued his life of lashing out at his worried parents, refusing to leave his room.
He didn’t work, but he continued collecting anime figures, his hobby, funded by his parents.
This lifestyle continued for over 10 years.
“Miku-chan… the world is all garbage… I want to kill everyone… really… I want to kill every last one of them… if only I had the strength, I would kill them all… Miku-chan is the only one who understands me…”
Even that day, Raul was whining while rubbing his cheek against a figure he had named.
Then, suddenly, a magic circle appeared in his room, and with a flash of light, it engulfed him.
Raul was summoned as a hero.
This was the life he had spent on Earth.
In short, it was the epitome of a pathetic, spineless burden.
“Oh… you miss this life? What a unique taste you have. If you want, I can give you a life where you can’t even leave your room in this world. After all, if you go outside, everyone will point at you and laugh… ‘The hero who surrendered to the demon army.’ There’s no other hero in the long history of heroes who volunteered to be a subordinate of the Four Heavenly Kings. Congratulations, you are the worst hero who surpassed the notorious Second Hero! The name of Raul Granger, the 99th hero, will be passed down through generations.”
This wasn’t what I wanted… This isn’t the life I envisioned… This is a nightmare… Miku-chan… save me…
“Please…”
“This is what I get for being a hero? Ha ha ha!! I wonder if humanity is going to be destroyed like this. Well… I’ve already turned my back on humanity, ha ha ha!! This has nothing to do with me, though!!”
At that moment, Esther collapsed in despair.
“How could this happen… How could the hero be such a pathetic person… This doesn’t make sense… This is… this is really a nightmare. The hero party I dreamed of wasn’t like this… No… logically, he’s too weak…”
From the moment they met, they felt that the hero lacked any magic or talent.
But since everyone else said he was great, they just let it go.
“The hero… the hope of humanity… turned out to be a pathetic coward. Is this the end of humanity…? The other party members have been wiped out… Ugh… my blessing magic doesn’t work… This is strange. Something’s wrong! Goddess Irene, what happened? Were our efforts all in vain? Were they meaningless? Why are we losing? Is it because of the Demon Lord, or just one of the Four Heavenly Kings?”
“Yeah… this is strange… Ha… ha…”
Cynthia spoke, struggling to catch her breath.
“Even if Resia is strong, there’s no way she’s stronger than all of us. We… we fought against the Four Heavenly Kings at the same time and even showed off superior skills.”
“Right…”
The one-eyed Jeanne added.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve fought Resia. But why… why are we being completely overwhelmed this time? We’re not even able to fight back. Nothing has changed, so why…?”
“That’s… that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Tiffany, whose ankle was twisted, agreed.
“Even if Hero Raul turned out to be useless, that’s the same for the previous hero, Victor. We fought the Four Heavenly Kings with only our strength, without the hero’s help. So how could we get wiped out by just Resia? Has Resia become incredibly stronger…?”
The hero party members, who couldn’t understand what was happening, spoke in despair.
Seeing them, Resia burst out laughing hysterically.
“Pfft… Ha ha ha! Hahaha!!! This is really hilarious! Your ignorance is like that of insects! It makes no sense that you and I are the same kind of being! There’s such a huge intelligence gap between us! Hahahaha!! Hahaha!!!”
“That bastard, Lesia.”
Cynthia gritted her teeth in fury.
“What’s so funny!! What’s so funny!”
“What’s so funny?”
Resia grabbed her stomach in laughter.
“It’s funny because you don’t know anything. Why is it that you, who were once so powerful, can’t even defeat me? Why are you losing so helplessly? Don’t you wonder why? Do you still not understand the reason?”
At that moment, everyone eagerly awaited Resia’s next words, but Esther, in particular, perked up her ears.
It felt like Lesia might reveal the “secret of the hero party” that Teresha-senpai had mentioned.