Author’s Note: Time for a bit of explaining in the chapter.

About the witch, I didn’t really know how to properly express her way of speaking. It’s a bit of an older way of speaking as well as a bit of a laid back attitude. If I had to give an example, the idea of Shiroyasha from the anime/light novel “Mondaiji tachi ga Isekai kara kuru sou desu yo” comes to my mind. I didn’t want to use Shakespearean to express it as I thought it would be going to far. I also didn’t want to put it the way that I put it right now since it make it a bit ugly, but that was one of the ways I could think of to express her dialect for now. I will edit it if I figure out a way to do it better.

Well, anyway, here is the chapter, Enjoy.

The Preceding Hero’s Secret

The sacred sword that I grasped in my right hand seemed to blame me in some respects.



And that it should. My naivety summoned this situation after all.

If only I had not brought Lililuri no matter what, she wouldn’t have fainted.

It would have been better if I had drawn the sacred sword from the beginning.

If I did, it would have finished without Tre-san becoming afraid.

If I hadn’t taken this Basilisk quest, it wouldn’t have become like this in the first place…………

Even I knew that my thoughts were going in a bad direction but I just couldn’t stop them.

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Coming down from the Basilisk’s corpse, I took out my uniform from the remaining waist pouch type tool bag that had narrowly avoided being destroyed after being petrified.

「All because I didn’t fight seriously, ……I’m sorry, that you got scared.」

I placed the uniform jacket on Tre-san, who had tried to protect Lililuri by closely embracing her.

「……っ, …………I, I’m……I’m fine… It’s thanks to you, to Yuuya that we survived. …Th, though…it, was a bit, scary………, っ…ah………」

Saying that, Tre-san clung onto me and, together with her weeping, shed tears.

The last red Basilisk was outside of the standard.

It was so outside of the standard, knowing about their slyness from the beginning, that powerful Tre-san that would probably win against a Basilisk if it were one-on-one had “instinctively” recognized her loss and visualized her own end.

Her self-confidence having been broken, she exposed herself to the point of showing such disgraceful behavior in front of a man like me. Her self-respect was heavily wounded, and then a feeling of relief together with fear was called in.

It was scary. Mortifying. And embarrassing. While spitting out a voice that she couldn’t help but make, she cried within my arms.

…………What do you mean “within my arms”. ……Keep the jokes down, ……What, are you messing around for, me.

Together with shamefulness, my anger at myself was rising.

At that time, I heard her, Lililuri’s voice.

『N………Ah, Yuu.』

「Lililuri!」

Lililuri woke up in Tre-san’s arms.

「Sorry Lililuri……If I had done it seriously…you wouldn’t have gotten scared.」

「Ah」

As I tried to apologize, Lililuri ignored it and looked at my right hand.

No, she looked at my right hand’s sacred sword.

「……That light from, that time.」

And then, gently touching the sacred sword as if she were touching a fragile item, she smiled.

「”Again”, you saved me.」

Disappointedly, but delightfully.

The Elf maiden smiled.

「……*sun sun* (sniff, sniff)……, there’s a, weird smell. ……Pee?」

And then, she came throwing a landmine.

「!? っ, Wha……This, isn’t, what…!」

The usual Tre-san, with her face bright red, became fiercely flustered.

「I also, do that sometimes, so, it’s fine.」

「D, don’t put me together with some brat!」

Lililuri comforted her. But that had the opposite effect, you know? Ah, no, that’s not it. That Lililuri, she’s faintly laughing.

But still………peeing, huh……… In that erotic equipment, peeing……………Dripping from her butt, a golden――――

「What, are you grinning for, Yuuya!?」

「Ah, no, ……Just that it was ero-cute, kinda」

That erotic Tre-san was, like a childish girl, embarrassedly closed her thighs and fidgeted.

This is, ……Basilisk, Good Job!

「Right after saying stuff about being serious, you do this!? Wha!? H, how long are you going to be looking!」

「If, if it’s money, I’ll pay, so! So, please!」

As I persistently crawled closer on the ground, Tre-san, relatively seriously, hurriedly tried to run away.

But, too late. If I decide to fight, I decide to fight seriously. With all my power…!!

And as I pointlessly get heated up, the weight on both my shoulders increase.

Could it be!?

「Ecchi things are, not good!」

It was the little Elf girl that hated ecchi things, Lililuri. With her left hand grabbing my left ear and her right hand grabbing my hair, after gathering them in an instant, she pulled on them with all her strength.

「Idadadada!? (cries of pain)―――」

My ear and hair, receiving damage in both places at the same time, I screamed, but,

*Gatagatagatagata* (Rattle rattle rattle rattle), my ears catching a loud audible sound in the distance, I faced the direction the sound was being made in.

Still, making sure that I don’t make the same indiscretion that happened a little while ago, my paying attention to the surroundings is probably a blessing.

Though Lililuri was pulling on my hair and ear as usual, to be honest, it didn’t hurt enough for me to scream. This amount of pain, for someone like me who has felt even more terrible pain up until now, is easily――

「It hurts jeez I won’t do anything perverted so let go Lililuri-sa~n!」

「As long as you understand, it’s fine!」

Experiencing a number of wraths by Lililuri, who got down with a face that looked like she had just finished a job, I swore in my mind that I’d lightly pull on Lililuri’s ear next time.

「?…………Something is, coming?」

Lililuri’s pointed ears twitchingly moved.

She probably finally noticed the audible sound coming from a distance.

「It’s that. ……That’s, ……a carriage, isn’t it.」

Standing up while keeping her crotch closed, in the direction that Tre-san pointed, though it was small, just as she said, a carriage could be seen.

The fidgety Tre-san is seriously ero-cute.

「N?」

「S, sorry.」

Lililuri made the action of spreading open her hand and grabbing something. Unable to go against Lililuri who was obviously threatening me with “I’ll pull, you know?”, I apologized.

A few minutes after that, three carriages stopped in front of us. In regards to one of them, you couldn’t exactly call it a carriage.

Pulled by a six headed horse, it was a vehicle that had six wooden wheels.

This was, a wagon that was used in case a large monster was pulling it.

It’s a bit too big for a regular Basilisk to use. …………It was a correspondence that was as if they knew that an out of standard Basilisk was going to appear.

「Thank you for waiting, Hero Yashiro-sama」

The miko clothed busty beauty that came down from the lead carriage bowed her head towards me.

「Hero…?」

I can understand that Tre-san held her breath. She was just told that someone like me was a hero. Normally, it’s not unlikely that you’d stop thinking.

But more importantly,

「Both you coming here and you bringing a wagon, ……And also you calling me Hero, is it all because of your higher up?…………Receptionist-san」

It was the Busty-chan that was the receptionist when I first came to the guild.

I hadn’t noticed at the beginning but, maybe because she wasn’t being a receptionist, her sweet-looking expression had vanished and the other several miko-sans that appeared from the carriage also had the same coldhearted expression.

「Yes. We received Guild Master-sama’s command to go out and meet you as well as recover the subjugated Basilisks. Hero-sama and Lililuri-sama, please come this way first. ……Tre-sama, please come this way first for a change of clothes.」

「Wh, why do you know about that!?」

Busty-chan brought Tre-san to the second carriage.

……Immediately appearing after I defeated the Basilisks, correspondence that seemed to know that Tre-san had wet herself.

From the flow of how it were as if the future had been read through, I made a sigh about how I was correct on figuring out who had devised this time’s case.

「This is Baba-chan after all, she probably knew it would turn out like this…………Haa, so the one who got halved was me, huh…」

「?」

While patting Lililuri’s head which had tilted in confusion, I got on board the first carriage.

◇

What could be said as Japanese clothing with a western taste, having a western style despite being Japanese clothing and despite being garments that had a standpoint of being unfinished, it was a certain type of Elf costume that held a completed beauty.

That excellent item was said to have been led to completion when an Elf that originally wore Japanese clothes-like garments had intermingled with the outside.

Having her body wrapped up in that costume’s white yukata, Tre-san really was a goddess.

Her skin being subjected to the clothes, and then emphasizing Tre-san herself, her chest that was too much to be packaged pushed up the clothes and showed cleavage, together with the brown bare legs that peeked from the slit stimulated my lust――

「It didn’t! It didn’t stimulate, okay! So not the hair!」

Lililuri raised her hand at me, who was fascinated by Tre-san.

「……I, I also, have same, clothes!」

「Huh?」

Thinking she was being ignored, Lililuri only raised her hand.

Maybe because they were originally clothes made for Elves by Elves, they suited Lililuri very well.

「Please wear that again after ten years have passed.」

「U~, ! Why, is it always, Tre-san who peed!」

「D, don’t make me out be such a character!」

Lililuri stomped her feet and Tre-san shouted with her face turning red.

After that, for three days, we shook in the carriage that the mikos had rode in on until we got to the capital and then we were shown into a certain mansion in the capital.

We had stayed the night there, and then, today, we were invited to the “Guild Master’s” principal residence.

It seems that the mansion we lodged at was a villa.

Once we arrived at the principal residence that had boasted a size that was several times bigger than the villa, without much explanation, we were made to change clothes, and then were brought in front of a door of a section of the mansion’s interior.

Though I didn’t have much of a change, Lililuri and Tre-san were wearing Elven formal dresses.

Incidentally, on the way here, even though I tried to ask various things from the miko-sans, it seems that they were prohibited from having conversations with the opposite sex……in other words, men, and I was refused by Busty-chan, who seemed to be the most important one among the miko-sans, by being told, “Please don’t unnecessarily talk to us.”

The miko clothes wearing Busty-chan stood in front of the door and just as she had raised her hand to try and knock,

「Enter.」

a voice from inside the door was heard and Busty-chan opened the door without knocking.

Like a door of a wooden statue, the wood made a faint creaking sound together with the door opening.

Naturally, if you opened the door and went through, you’d see the inside of the room, but the furniture within the room was only a large bed with a canopy attached.

A bed attached with a canopy that was in the middle of a simply spacious room.

Emphasizing that bed, there was a large magic formation drawn on the floor.

Using spirit letters that began from the ancient Ishrel language, or maybe letters that don’t have an existing name, it was a single magic formation that was drawn that had possessed more than ten effects simultaneously.

Originally, magic formations could only be used for one magic.

It’s because if you tried to invoke several magics in one magic formation, the effects would conflict and become halved or maybe sometimes not even be invoked from the start.

And yet, to invoke a magic formation that has more than ten effects in one magic formation just because it’s big, there’s only one person among my acquaintances that would draw such an absurd magic formation.

As I thought, my idea was correct.

In the thin cloth hanging from the canopy, a shadow of a person could be seen.

「It certainly has been a while –jya nou, Yashiro.」

The shadow moved and a young lady’s voice was heard.

「Come now, get closer. Being that far away makes it difficult to talk –jyarou ga.」

The shadow beckoned. In accordance with that, I stood in front of the thin cloth that hung like a curtain.

「How far do you know?」

「Kaka, it certainly was that -jya. I had known up until your first tone with me.」

The young lady that was probably within the thin cloth laughed really pleasantly.

「I see. ……It has been a while, Baba-chan.」

When I said that, the young lady inside the thin cloth extended her arm and showed that white skin from the thin cloth’s gap.

「You imbecile disciple! I had told you to call me Norn, had I not!」

That white skinned arm removed the thin cloth as if trying to say that it was in the way.

What had appeared on the other side of the thin cloth was a young lady whose skin was so white and beautiful that it was abnormal and possessed eyes that were red like blood.

Her white hair that looked transparent was long enough to hang down from the bed to the floor.

Her long ears that were peeking from her beautiful hair made it known that she was an elf.

Just as she said, three years ago, I studied how to use my strength by her side.

And then, for Leezalion’s former Imperial Court Head of Magic Norn, she had a second name that only she was allowed to be called.

「Witch of Time, Norn-sama, you say?」

Witch of Time.

That’s right, the devilish woman that is able to manipulate time.

In accordance with that second name, she, Norn had stopped the flow of her own time.

Also, not only is she able to manipulate time, but she is also able to know the future. It’s the so-called future foresight thing. Even sending the carriages immediately after the Basilisk subjugation was also due to that ability.

This sequence of events, the person who set it up is without a doubt this woman. I also have an idea on what her reason was.

「The case this time, how far did you read it?」

「You wanted to recruit me into the war, right? And so, in order to take advantage of my misfortune of having ridden on the mood of being engrossed with peace while at the same time subjugate the group of Basilisks that no one knew when they would attack here, you sent me.

You had approved Tre-san’s accompaniment because you had originally intended to do that and that’s because by bringing Tre-san along, we would arrive at what you thought was the “very best” future…….Achieving several things simultaneously in one occasion. Something necessary to stand above others, was it? ……You’re amazing as usual.」

As I said that, she pleasantly smiled.

「It would seem that I have been seen right through –jya no. That is exactly it -jya, Yashiro. As I thought, allowing you to die once was for the best.

After all, since the olden days, you were not able to remember anything unless you were taught by letting your body meet with painful experiences.」

That’s right, at that time, I died once. Not as a metaphor, I was petrified, broken, and died once.

I died, but due to a certain reason, I revived in an instant.

By me dying and letting Tre-san and Lililuri face such danger, I finally became serious.

……Jeez, the preceding hero really is deplorable.

As I was self-deprecating myself, grabbing onto my cuff, Lililuri went up front.

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「You, died?」

From looking at her, she looked up at me.

「Hn? ……What is this, you had not told them on your way here? That you were the preceding hero.」

「Ah~, ……That, I told them.」

That’s right. In the three days until we reached the capital, I told them that I was a hero.

It’s because Busty-chan had gave them spoilers earlier.

Lililuri wasn’t interested, but when I told Tre-san who unexpectedly came to grips with it, she said “I can agree with that strength now.”

But, I had only told them that I was a hero.

But, I hadn’t told them that I had died once. Tre-san looked like she wanted to ask about it, but, reading the atmosphere, she kept quiet.

Right now, I’ll answer her.

「Tre-san. I, was petrified and smashed by the Basilisk, right?」

「……Yeah.」

When I asked, gulping, Tre-san nodded.

「At that time, I had died once. However, the hero that is me instantly revived.」

「……Yuu, ……are you, okay?」

With a face that looked like it would cry at any time, Lililuri looked up at me.

「Yeah. Since I was petrified, there wasn’t any pain so I guess you could call it a good thing I was petrified.」

As I answered Lililuri while patting her, Tre-san took one step closer to me.

「……So those called heroes were immortal?」

「Well, to be accurate, I’m not a hero.」

When I respond as such to Tre-san’s words, Tre-san made a face that seemed to say that she didn’t understand what was going on.

「Kakaka, that certainly is just like you -nou. ……Did you not want to be thought of as an immortal monster?」

Norn laughed. It was just as she said. That’s why, I didn’t tell them the detail that I was an existence called a hero.

「……The Hero is originally the one that they call when the people’s hopes meet and take form to become the symbol of righteousness “Sacred Sword Alto Vreede” and then the one who handles it, the “Sacred Sword’s Bearer” are out together –no jya.」

「Sacred sword?……」

I can understand why Tre-san tilted her head. Due to the efforts of the Second Imperial Princess and Baba-chan, even though the name of Hero had appeared in the world, things like my name and original official title were not well-known.

It seems that not even the Luxeria princess knew about that.

The summoning formation’s “Code” was the sacred sword that I hold, “Alto Vreede”’s, true name after all.

「In order to defeat the Demon Lord that is its extreme opposite, the sacred sword does not allow the human that is worthy of being its bearer to die. And then, the moment that the bearer possesses the sacred sword, the bearer becomes a bearer that is not human. …………At least until they defeat the Demon Lord.」

The sacred sword is the people’s hope, an aggregation of their prayers. And then, the Demon Lord is the people’s hatred, an aggregation of their envy.

The sacred sword’s bearer that had a complete opposite position and the Demon Lord, until they are defeated by each other, they will not be defeated.

The reason why we arrived at sealing the Demon Lord was because, unable to die from being killed just like me, the Demon Lord would revive no matter how many times he was defeated, and it was in order to put an end to this unending struggle, even if it had to be done forcibly.

For that sake, we lost a very important person……――

「Therefore, do not worry, o daughter of the same village. That fellow won’t die even if he does die.」

Kakaka, the Witch of Time laughed.