“It’s just a matter of inserting your name into a prepared identity, so there’s no need to worry too much.”
“Prepared identity?”
I couldn’t help but ask again. It was a natural reaction—after all, this meant there had been arrangements related to the goddess in place even before I was born.
“Yes. Since it was impossible to know who would become the hero, we prepared vacant identities for various dates. That way, if the hero returned, we could simply insert their name into one of them.”
“Is that why the date of birth on my ID doesn’t match the actual day I was born?”
“That’s correct.”
The pastor nodded calmly.
“We create various vacant identities for different age ranges, but no matter how thorough we are, we can’t make an ID for every single day of every year. Instead, we prepare IDs with approximate dates and find the closest match to the hero’s actual age when needed.”
As he explained, the pastor slid an ID card toward me.
Indeed, the ID listed an age up to three years younger than I was. Still, it barely kept me within my twenties.
But when I calculated the age based on the birthdate on the ID, none of it aligned with the ages of my party members.
Yet…
“They’re all resident registration cards…”
That’s right. Every single one of the IDs in front of me was a South Korean resident registration card. Given that all four of my party members appeared to be foreigners, I had expected passports or foreign registration cards instead.
“The ID needs to be functional. To issue a foreign registration card, we’d require cooperation from the corresponding foreign country. The same goes for passports—they require validation from the issuing nation every time they’re used. It’s far more convenient to resolve this within the country.”
His explanation made sense.
…After all, we had all entered this world under the pretense of speaking Korean. While I wasn’t sure how written communication would work, at least no one would suspect we couldn’t understand or speak the language.
And even if something went wrong, having Korean identities would be far more advantageous than foreign ones.
Although our appearances might be a bit striking to be considered “typical Koreans,” it wasn’t unheard of for naturalized Koreans to retain their original names. I’d heard of such cases before.
“But… does the hero really need to be Korean?”
I asked one final question.
After all, this world wasn’t inhabited only by Koreans. In fact, there were quite a few countries with larger populations than Korea.
Statistically speaking, wouldn’t it be more likely for the hero to come from one of those countries?
“I’ve heard that other countries have their own measures in place… But yes, it’s difficult to set up such systems in every single nation. There are nearly 200 countries in this world, and some of them lack the economic stability or public security to sustain such operations.”
The pastor spoke with a hint of regret.
“If someone from one of those nations became the hero… Well, as much as it pains me to say, we would have no choice but to rely entirely on the goddess’s methods.
Of course, we wouldn’t just sit idle—we would try to find ways to support the hero no matter what. But the fact that you were born in this country did make our job a bit easier.”
In other words, I was lucky.
The reason I could return to this world and receive some level of compensation was because I had been born in a place where such measures could be implemented.
“In that case… did my sister or my mom receive your help as well?”
I already knew from my sister, so I wasn’t asking because I didn’t know.
I just wanted to confirm whether it had truly been a coincidence or if they had deliberately sought out my family to assist them after I had passed away.
“How could I ignore the family of someone going through such hardships?”
The pastor smiled as he spoke.
“I only wanted to help as much as I could.”
“…Thank you.”
“Oh no, not at all.”
When I bowed my head to express my gratitude, the pastor also bowed deeply in return.
“It’s only fair that someone who saved countless lives receives appropriate recognition.”
“…”
It was something I had heard many times before.
And yet, I still didn’t know how to respond to those words.
If I thanked someone for their gratitude, it would inevitably lead back to comments about the “reward” for what I had done.
To be honest, I still felt a little overwhelmed.
Am I really someone deserving of this level of appreciation?
Was I truly the one who was meant to receive that holy sword?
Surely, if it had been someone nobler than me, they would have gladly taken up the sword.
A firefighter who had spent their life saving others, a soldier fighting to protect lives,
a volunteer dedicated to serving others, a human rights activist,
a lawyer offering free defense to the falsely accused,
a doctor sacrificing sleep to care for emergency patients, or even
a righteous soul saving lives through organ donation…
There were countless people far more deserving than me.
Not only in this world, but also in Irrelsia, there were such people.
Soldiers who had fallen on the battlefield, knights who fought valiantly at the risk of their lives.
As for me, I had simply… been given the chance.
I just happened to have the power to save others, and my hands were too burdened to flee.
“Hey, hey, hey!”
While I was lost in thought, someone started slapping me lightly on the back.
When I turned around, I saw Dana glaring at me with an annoyed expression.
“You were thinking weird thoughts again, weren’t you?”
“Weird thoughts…?”
“Hero.”
While I fumbled to respond, the pastor spoke to me kindly.
“There’s no need to dwell on ‘what ifs.’ Everything has already happened.”
“…”
“In the end, the one who received the holy sword was you, Hero.
You didn’t have to take on this responsibility, yet you accepted the request.
And ultimately, you were the one who carried it through.
Now that it’s all over, wondering if someone else could have been there is meaningless.
The person standing before me is the true Hero.”
“Exactly.”
Arna, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
“There’s no point denying it now. It was you who accepted the Prophet’s request.
Sure, maybe if you had refused, someone else might have taken your place. Or maybe…”
Arna snorted in disbelief before adding,
“Or maybe Irrelsia would have been destroyed.”
“I agree with that”.
“While it’s good to consider the worst-case scenarios, there’s no reason to spoil the outcome of something that turned out well.
If you can imagine someone better than you, then surely, you can also imagine someone far worse.
In the worst-case scenario, the person given the duty could have abandoned it and run away.”
But Kalia scoffed immediately after saying that, continuing.
“But do you think the Goddess would have failed to recognize the right person for the task? That’s why you were chosen. In the end, you were the one capable of fulfilling that mission,” Kalia said confidently.
“Exactly! The Goddess recognized Shihyun and sent them to us! The person who saved Irrelsia is Shihyun! No one else!”
“…”
…Hmm.
Okay, I get it, but…
Could you tone it down a bit?
It’s honestly pretty embarrassing.
“You have good companions.”.
“Yes.”
“…Truly.”
And this time, it wasn’t me, but the other four who found themselves blushing in embarrassment.
*
“So, this is what you call an identification card?”
Kalia said as she examined the resident registration card, her face clearly displayed on it.
…Honestly, I couldn’t help but wonder how they managed to get her fingerprints, but well, the Goddess must have had her own way of handling things.
“So, we’re citizens of this country now?”
“Not subjects, but citizens”.
“Even similar words can carry completely different meanings depending on their nuance,”
“You don’t have to worry too much.”
“I’m sure all of you will do just fine.”
They might make a mistake or two, but I trusted my companions. They were dependable.
Hearing my words, the four of them looked at me and smiled brightly.
Yes, it was because of these companions that I was able to carry out my duties to the very end.
I still didn’t know the exact reason why these four were here in this world now,
but I was sure that if it was them, they would handle it perfectly.
Come to think of it, even in this new life, I found myself placing my trust in them.
…Really, I thought, how fortunate I was to have met such companions.