Shooo!
A golden aura of energy flew by me at breakneck speed with a long tail like a comet.
I wasn’t surprised because I knew what it was.
'She’s here.'
She headed to the opposite side of the mountain range, directly opposite from where Asher and I went. So how did she get here already?
It was good timing, though, because it saved me the trouble of looking for her.
In no time, the hero who had reached this place effortlessly landed on the ground.
The three were stunned, having never imagined that the brilliance was actually a person. Even the successor, who had been chattering away, looked at the hero with wide eyes.
“Uh...”
The hero looked at them, then at the demon that Asher had subdued, then at me, as if looking for an explanation.
I glanced at the successor and said with only my lips moving, “I think it’s her.”
The successor to the Holy Sword.
The final purpose, the hope, of the hero’s remaining life.
“...”
The hero’s eyes, looking at the successor, shook violently.
This must have been an emotional moment for her, incomparable to what I had felt. She had finally found the successor she had been looking for.
The hero took a slow step towards her, looking lost.
I called out to her because it looked like he might even summon the Holy Sword right in front of everyone if she wasn’t stopped.
“Hey.”
The hero stopped abruptly and then took a deep breath, as if regaining her composure.
I approached the side of the hero.
“Is she the right one? Do we need to confirm separately?” I pretended not to know, even though I already knew the fact.
The meeting between the hero and the successor in the game was a pure coincidence.
After getting a strange feeling from the successor, the Hero summoned the Holy Sword and gave it to the successor, and when the aura of the Holy Sword, which should only respond to the Hero, reacted, he realized that she was the successor.
So all that’s left to do was for the hero to give the girl the Holy Sword and make sure that she was the successor.
The hero answered my question.
“I’ll have to take the Holy Sword out and see for myself.”
“I see. Then we should postpone that for a little while.”
The hero nodded in agreement. We couldn’t just take out the Holy Sword and hand it over to the successor in this situation.
I looked around at people other than the successor. There were two middle-aged men who looked quite old.
The successor said she lived with her father alone in the mountains when she was young.
So I thought one of them might be her father, but I couldn’t tell which one it was.
I saw the successor whispering to the man on the left while standing close to him.
“Dad, another person has joined us.”
I looked back at the man who first mentioned my identity, realizing that he was not the successor’s father.
By the way, what’s this guy’s story? An academy professor?
The successor introduced the man as someone who came from outside the mountains.
By academy, was she talking about the Elphon Academy of Santea? I couldn’t figure out why such a person would be here.
...Anyway, it seemed like a good time to clear the air, now that everyone was here.
“We’re not enemies.”
I spoke to them in the softest voice I could muster.
It was to leave a good first impression on the successor and those related to her, as this was our first meeting.
To me, the successor was the most important figure alongside the hero. She was the only card that could defeat the final boss of this world, the demon king. I had to build a close relationship with her.
I had no intention of revealing my true identity at first, but it had already been revealed before I could even try to deny it.
So to get her to let her guard down, I had to give her a plausible reason for coming here. Luckily, there was a good cover-up.
“My purpose for coming here is because of that demon contractor. You have nothing to worry about, as it has nothing to do with you.”
“Yes, yes. Is that so?”
The professor, who was the most tense, answered hesitantly.
He seemed to have recognized my true identity, but not the hero.
Of course, it was natural since I had a lot of rumors about me, but the hero was currently in a state of polymorph thanks to the power of the Holy Sword.
At that moment, the father of the successor, who had been silently watching me, the hero, and Asher, opened his mouth.
“We received a great help. Thanks to you, no one was injured.”
Surprisingly, his first words were words of gratitude.
“Would you like to come in? It doesn’t seem like you’ll be leaving right away, so let me at least offer you a cup of tea.”
The man looked at the cabin behind him and asked.
What did he mean by not leaving right away? I said it had nothing to do with them, but did he notice something?
The successor’s father was an unknown figure with almost no information even in the game.
I looked at the hero, sensing something strange about the man. The hero nodded.
“Well then, if you’ll excuse us. I would like to hear what happened here.”
***
Our conversation over tea was uneventful.
First of all, the successor’s name was indeed Kaen, as I had known. With that, I could be certain that she was the successor.
The professor’s name was Rodiven, and he was indeed a professor from Elphon Academy.
He said he had come to the Ramon Mountain Range to obtain monster specimens for his research and happened to meet the father and daughter. In short, he was unrelated to the successor.
Upon hearing a detailed explanation, it seemed that the demon contractor was not related to the successor in any way.
It was the professor who first encountered him, and because of that, the father and daughter were involved.
'So that’s why you were in a fight.'
The successor’s father’s name was Ben.
I wanted to know his information as much as possible, so I tried to change the subject after we finished talking about the demon contractor. But...
“I’m just an ordinary woodcutter.”
“You seemed to have extraordinary magical skills, though.”
“I used to be a wandering mage when I was young. It’s probably not a very interesting story for the Lord to hear.”
As he didn’t seem to want to talk openly about himself and the successor, my probing failed.
However, it was clear that he was an exceptional person.
His level was high, and he didn’t seem to be ignorant of worldly knowledge like the successor, and there was also no sign of being nervous in front of me.
If you were in front of a giant like a Lord, it would be normal to react like the professor did.
After the conversation was over, I stood side by side with the hero in front of the hut and spoke to her privately.
“This is just a minor thing.”
“...?”
“That man named Ben, I don’t think that’s his real name.”
I raised my head in surprise at the hero’s words.
The hero had the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood in speech. It must have been a fact judged by that ability.
“Maybe he’s wary of us.”
“It’s more likely to be something else.”
“Hmm?”
“There is no clear black and white boundary between truth and falsehood. The man’s words were not entirely false.”
“What does that mean?”
“There is no absoluteness in names. For example, if a person abandons their birth name and lives for many years under a different name, it is not necessarily their true name.”
I pondered the hero’s words and soon understood.
So, the man named Ben could have used multiple names in his life, and Ben could be his current name.
I didn’t think much of it. Since I already felt that he was no ordinary man.
“I suppose we should check it out now.”
“Right. But shouldn’t we deal with that first?”
I looked at the demon contract who was still subdued by Asher in a place far from the cabin.
“He seems to have nothing to do with the successor, but we should definitely confirm it in case something unexpected happens.”
I approached the demon contractor with the hero.
The hero looked down at the man with a cold gaze and asked, “Tell me your purpose for coming here.”
The demon contractor twisted his body in agony, unable to resist the force, and obediently spoke.
The demon contractor’s story was nothing special. He was just a contractor of an ordinary demon, and coming to this mountain range was also just a coincidence.
The hero confirmed that everything the contractor said was true. The contractor had no relation to the successor, as expected.
“Please spare me, Seventh Lord... I’ll do anything you want if you spare me...”
I put my hand on the head of the pleading contractor.
I had heard everything I wanted to, so there was no need to listen more. The demons and their contractors were a nuisance that should not be kept alive.
With a thud, I used instant death skill, and the man’s body fell to the ground powerlessly. The hero looked at the scene with a slightly surprised expression.
“...That wasn’t magic just now, was it? Was it a Mystery?”
I didn’t answer the hero’s question and turned to look behind me. I felt a presence approaching from that direction.
The successor, Kaen, who came out of the hut, was walking towards us.
“Did you kill that man?”
She asked as she looked at the fallen contractor nearby.
I asked her, wondering if she had misunderstood something.
“Yeah, are you feeling sorry for him?”
“No. He almost killed my father. There’s no reason to feel sorry for him.”
She extended her hand to me.
“I’ll say hello again. Oh, that’s right. Thanks to you, my father is safe too. Thank you.”
“...”
A handshake?
I wasn’t sure how to react, but I still shook her hand. She smiled and shook it back.
“I just heard from Mr. Rodiven. So, a Lord of Calderic is one of the kings who rule the entire northern continent. You’re a really great person.”
“...Yeah.”
Asher next to me tried to intervene with a nervous expression. For some reason, I found this situation hilarious, so I smirked and waved my hand at her.
I knew that the successor had lived in the deep mountains since childhood, so I was aware that she might be ignorant of worldly knowledge. I just didn’t expect it to be to this extent.
Moreover, the current successor seemed much more lively than the one I knew from the game.
“So, are these incredibly strong people the Lord’s subordinates?”
“They are subordinates and comrades.”
Kaen changed the target and extended her hand to the hero and Asher, who also received the handshake with a slightly startled expression.
'Now, this is the right time...'
I looked towards the cabin in the distance. Rodiven and Ben inside the cabin still showed no signs of coming out.
It was a good timing.
The hero, who exchanged eye contact with me, spoke to the successor in a soft voice that I had never heard before.
“Can I ask you one favor, Kaen?”
“A favor?”
“Yes, it’s a simple one. Just hold my sword once.”
Kaen tilted her head in confusion before answering, “Okay. What’s the big deal? But where is the sword?”
Saaaah.
As the hero stretched out her hand in the air, golden light gathered and formed the shape of a sword.
Kaen’s eyes widened at the sword that suddenly appeared before her.
“Here, hold it.”
The hero pointed to the floating holy sword in the air. I could sense her voice trembling slightly.
Kaen hesitated for a moment, then brought both hands to the hilt of the sword.
And...
Flash!
The moment her hands touched the hilt, a brilliant light burst out of the Holy Sword.
