“Let’s go home, child. You lost, you lost. If you want to cry, cry at home. No matter how sad you are, you can’t disturb the normal work of the Adventurers’ Guild.”
Cresia didn’t have much comforting to say, speaking directly.
Her words were effective, immediately making The Hero of the Gale squirm like a worm before slowly getting up. Her face was full of dejection, her movements stiff as she advanced like a zombie.
The main reason was, she truly didn’t want to disturb other people’s work.
Although The Hero of the Gale hadn’t read many books, lacked emotional intelligence in her speech, and was a bit jealous, at her core, she was a good person. At least compared to people like Bemore and Close, she hadn’t done anything truly bad.
And so, The Hero of the Gale returned to the Regional Poetry Guild, back to her own double room. The Hero Sword Saint stayed inside with her.
A long time passed before she asked her first question:
“What happened to little Bemore?”
“Just mana exhaustion. She’s already automatically entered meditation and started recovering on her own,” Cresia replied.
“Elder, I’ve disappointed you.”
The Hero of the Gale sat on the edge of the bed, looking completely burnt out. Her once spirited white warrior’s clothes now seemed like a shroud of dead, grey ash.
Cresia felt she had seen this scene not long ago; last time, it was also her who came to console. But this time, she didn’t want to say much more.
She herself had just been beaten up; who was there to comfort her?
“Victory and defeat are common in a soldier’s life. Rest well; tomorrow will be busy again. Don’t sulk anymore. You’re a Hero too; you need to understand how to take responsibility.”
She herself was only around twenty-five or twenty-six, still very young. Facing defeat, her mood was equally low.
Even though everyone always called her an old woman, that really wasn’t the case.
The atmosphere in the entire Regional Poetry Guild was low, quite pessimistic about the future, but it wasn’t without a turning point.
After all, the First Guild and the Second Guild had already settled their cooperation matters; the two sides had even gone out drinking and eating barbecue together. It seemed they weren’t that upset either.
After Cresia left, closing the door behind her…
The Hero of the Gale slowly raised her head instead, not continuing to be dejected as usual. She took off her white swordsman’s attire and lay down to sleep directly.
For some reason, she slept very peacefully.
Even though she had lost the second match as well, there was none of the expected anger or resentment. Instead, her mind was blank, giving up on thought, as if she had shed some heavy burden. Her whole body felt light, and she quickly fell into a deep sleep.
This was exactly what Samimi had said earlier—defeating The Hero of the Gale was equivalent to shattering her “gentle Protagonist Halo.”
This thing, when you got down to it, was fundamentally a Curse, not a blessing.
Forcibly instilling a perfectly gentle heroic personality… that simply wasn’t The Hero of the Gale’s true self.
And now, that one strike from Samimi’s Disciplinary Stick had completely shattered this gentle protagonist personality.
Seemingly a crushing defeat, in reality, it was about finding oneself again, breaking free from shackles, a huge gain.
In contrast, Samimi, seemingly glorious and limitless, had actually gotten herself into a heap of trouble.
This was also what she had analyzed from the start—regardless of victory or defeat in this battle, she would end up losing big.
It was just that this “Miworm” would rather take a massive loss herself just to give The Hero of the Gale a good beating, purely to vent, with no talk of profit at all.
But even she hadn’t anticipated that after being beaten down, The Hero of the Gale would change instead.
That anxiety and contradiction that had been weighing on her heart dissipated with the defeat like mist.
She was no longer bound by so-called honor and began to admit and accept that she was just a bottom-of-the-class country bumpkin Hero.
From this moment on, The Hero of the Gale seamlessly switched to another protagonist archetype—
The Enduring-Humiliation-and-Bearing-Heavy-Burdens, Bottom-of-the-Class archetype.
Since she couldn’t beat anyone, what else could she be but the bottom of the class?
Even going all out, she couldn’t beat Samimi. Now she didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. Her dignity had been completely crushed. She was utterly a useless, pathetic Hero.
Wasn’t that exactly “enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens”?
The so-called bottom-of-the-class is the weakest, the worst, the dead last.
This kind of setup is one of the classic templates for the overpowered, wish-fulfillment protagonist.
Even Samimi, well-versed in all sorts of tropes, hadn’t anticipated this kind of transformation. It was just too fast.
One could only say, there are thousands of wish-fulfillment tropes; in desperate situations, there is always a way out. Even if there isn’t, a miraculous opportunity will be forcibly created.
The Protagonist Halo never truly extinguishes; it was just temporarily dimmed.
A righteous protagonist would never be easily crushed by the Villainess.
Even if she failed once, there would be a second, third, fourth time, even an infinite number of times.
The protagonist can fail infinitely, growing stronger with each failure, making a comeback.
But the villain can’t afford to lose even once; one loss means death.
—
“The weather’s nice.”
After resting for a day, The Hero of the Gale was fully recovered and came outside for a walk. There was none of the post-defeat dejection; it was as if everything was in the past.
She also went to the Healer’s Room to check on Bemore. Little Bemore was still meditating, asleep.
“Pay up now!”
“Give me back my sword!”
Early in the morning, the Regional Poetry Guild was besieged by adventurers causing a commotion at the entrance.
It turned out yesterday, the Hero of the Storm had used “Infinite Blade Works” and swept away everyone’s swords.
It was fun at the time, but now it was time to pay.
And since she had lost, no one was giving any Face, coming directly to their door to demand repayment.
“Brothers, line up properly!”
“One at a time, don’t make a racket!”
The Guild arranged for staff to register the adventurers with damaged swords, promising compensation.
The Hero of the Gale hid far away in a corner, peeking, not daring to show her face, and could only slink away.
At the same time, the Guild also dispatched a negotiation Team to the Yaoguang Guild to discuss the details of the Great Expedition.
But this was destined to be a difficult negotiation.
After all, they had been defeated and were at an absolute disadvantage at the negotiating table.
Even so, they could only grit their teeth and go.
The Hero of the Gale had nothing to do. She sat alone on the Mansion roof, chewing on the bread she was allotted, drinking milk.
After breakfast, she stood at the high point, feeling the flow of air, closed her eyes, and attempted to command the wind with her Qi, trying to summon swords.
But from now on, she couldn’t steal other people’s swords anymore.
Only wind, no swords… how was she supposed to command swords?
Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration.
In the Sea of Ten Thousand Forests, wasn’t that kind of thing everywhere?
She could totally use that.
Whoosh—whoosh—
The next moment, wind Battle Aura swept up countless leaves, swirling around her.
Under her control, every single leaf was like a sharp blade, full of killing intent.
But even if she grasped such a technique, so what?
After the defeat, she still had nothing to do, falling into a daze, without a goal.
“Why are you making a mess with leaves everywhere?!”
The cleaning lady downstairs yelled angrily.
“Sorry, sorry! I’ll clean it up properly!”
The mighty Hero of the Storm could only jump down from the roof, pick up a broom, and start sweeping.
The Third Guild and the Hero Sword Saint had been kind to her.
Although she had initially only seen the Guild as a stepping stone, they had repeatedly helped clean up her messes, filling her heart with gratitude.
‘I’ve already disappointed everyone twice. I can’t disappoint them a third time.’
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