We were walking down the street.

“Can you light mine as well?”

Seeing me light the cigarette with my lighter, Attendant Willis asked as he took out a cigarette of his own. Like mine, his cigarette was hand-rolled and a little crooked.

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

Leaning towards my lighter to light his cigarette, Attendant Willis gives me his thanks. After lighting it and taking a puff and blowing it out of his nose...

“So… are you sure about this?”

Attendant Willis looked at me and asked. 

“Yes. I’m sure. If he isn’t gone, then I can’t be at ease when I leave.”

Understanding what he meant, I replied immediately. Yulstein… is a sneaky and conniving fellow. To expand his influence, he’s made deals with people from the underworld, pressured government officials into marriage with his piece of shit son, shit, he probably even killed a few people he considered to know too much. He has enough power to potentially threaten King Paul’s authority.

But that’s not the reason I want to kill him. If it was just that, I’d leave him alone and go about my days as a freeloader. Although me and King Paul are friends, Yulstein was ultimately his problem, not mine.

Well, that was until he tried to assassinate me. 

I’m not necessarily the one who starts the fight but if such a situation lands on my front doorstep, I’m more than happy to oblige. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye.

I’m going to kill him before he kills me.

This feeling becomes even stronger when I think about what he could do to Alice and Kari if I'm unfortunately killed. Being a hero is all fairy tales. Like diplomats, heroes represent the country they are summoned in, everything they say and do will be interpreted as the will of the country.

Because of that, there are people they have to report to.

 This is to make sure the hero doesn’t slip up and make it disadvantageous for their country. There’s a reason why royalty is always a part of the heroes' party, it’s to monitor the hero and report back to the higher-ups.

However, this type of thing isn’t as pronounced as I make it be. It was only after Grace told me this that I understood. It turned out in the past that the hero of a certain country started selling national secrets to the enemy at one point, thus resulting in the nation being destroyed. Historians say that the downfall of that nation wouldn’t have happened if the king sent someone of royal descent to join the hero’s party but that wasn’t possible due to the king’s kids being too young, not even ten years old. After that, many countries made sure to implement a person of royal descent into the hero’s party to protect national interests. 

But this isn’t always the case, one’s interests sometimes take importance over a nation’s.

With Yulstein’s power, he could add someone to Alice’s party and that could make things dangerous. They could stab Alice in the back while fighting on a chaotic battlefield, they could botch a deal, making things extremely troublesome, or worse, they could kidnap Alice and Kari and turn them into slaves.

With Yulstein involved, the fate of those girls will always be bad.  

“Only after he’s dead can I know for sure that Alice won’t be suddenly backstabbed. A sudden dagger in the back hurts like hell.”

“Speaking from experience?”

“No, but let’s just say that boy whose village was pillaged finally got his revenge. After he was done, I even felt sorry for the dude he killed.”

Being burned alive while being run through with a stake isn’t the way I want to go. 

“...I see."

"It's not to say I've been betrayed, however. As you know, when I was a hero, my methods to achieve my goals were less than savory. Due to that, some people deemed me unworthy of being and tried to kill me. They wanted…"

"They wanted Alexander Orvis to be the only hero."

Cutting me off mid-sentence, Attendant Willis said.

"...Yeah. They said he was more honorable compared to the likes of me."

With a bitter smile, I exhaled a cloud of smoke and said. Alex would always fight his enemies head-on while I on the other hand would use cheap shots and dirty tricks.

Sigh, only if they knew.

"I heard about that. A few nobles gathered their army and banded together to take you out. "

"Yep. They lured me away in the guise of a typical monster subjugation. They said there were sightings of wyverns and that they needed help taking them out. I was strapped for cash so I said why not?"

The tools of a hero are not cheap. 

Maintenance and upkeep of weapons and armor are expensive. Before I had any dependable magic weapon, I went through weapons like clockwork. Swords, bows, spears, I used whatever was available. I even stole my enemy's weapons and used them against them. To me, weapons are tools to be used until its broken. And whenever they'd break, I'd get a new one.

Well, that was until I managed to obtain [Lillith], my precious dagger. I haven't used any other weapon after that.

"Little did I know that I'd be walking into an ambush…"

"But the result is obvious, right? You decimated them all."

"Not exactly, I killed them all except for maybe four, I can't exactly remember. Otherwise, how'd you even know about that incident?"

"You… used them as a warning!"

"Bingo! I don't have time to always worry about who's going to stab me or my party members in the back. So I decided to send a message."

The message was simple, don't fuck with me!

"Thankfully, this warning stopped the majority of attackers. The only ones that attacked me then were thugs I robbed and nobles I once sold for ransom."

"...I was sympathizing with you until you said that last part."

Shaking his head from side to side, Attendant Willis said.

"Pretty unheroic like right?"

"It truly is. However, the time ten years ago, was a time when humanity was on the brink of enslavement…"

Attendant Willis stops and looks at the people walking back and forth across the street. I stop alongside him.

"If it wasn't for you doing those unspeakable things back then… my grandkids wouldn't have been able to run around the house with carefree smiles on their faces. Nor would these people be able to shop so freely. Are we at war right now? Yes, we are. But compared to how it was a decade ago, where more than half of the human territories were controlled by devilkin this war is relatively peaceful. Mr. Marcus…"

"Yeah?"

Attendant Willis then stares into my eyes with a serious expression.

"You weren't the hero we wanted but the hero we needed. And for that, I thank you!"

"...I'll ignore that little diss and accept your thanks."

To ease my embarrassment at the sudden compliment, I said as I looked away.

I wasn't exactly expecting a thank you but I'll accept it regardless.

"Watch where you are going, peasant! Can't you see I'm walking here!"

"Wha-!"

All of a sudden, I'm forcefully shoved to the side with enough force to make me stumble slightly. I dropped my loosely gripped cigarette in the process.

"What the fuck! Hey, watch where you are going!"

A little angry because I was suddenly pushed, I shouted at the person. She was wearing a luxurious dress and was adorned in all manner of jewelry.

"Was there a need to shove me! All you had to say was 'excuse me' and I would've moved! Wait a minute, there's so much fucking space around, why couldn't you have moved around me?"

I wasn't even moving so the least they could do was go around me.

"Why should I, a noble, have to go out of my way to move around a peasant like you? Shouldn't it be the other way around? You should be grateful that I, the wonderful Merribeth even touched you. Get on your knees and show thankfulness."

Turning around and showing me her face, the woman said condescendingly. She had average looks and was heavily covered in makeup, so much so she almost looked like a clown. 

"Fuck no! Why should I bow down to a damn clown? You got me fucked up."

Bowing down to this bitch? Like hell, I would!

"How dare trash such as yourself call me that! Do you know who I am?"

"No I don't nor do I give two fucks! And besides, I will rather be trash than an ugly ass clown. Do you wear makeup because you know you're so ugly?"

"Marcus… that's enough. A crowd is being drawn."

Attendant Willis whispered as he surveyed the area. He's right, a crowd is being drawn.

"...You're right. It'll cause problems if I start a commotion here. Let's go."

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down and turned around, and said to Attendant Willis. I can't be compromised here.

"Hmph, quite the boorish person to leave after causing me trouble. I suppose your mother didn't teach you any manners?"

"..."

I stop in my tracks. Still facing forward, I suppress my anger and said to the woman.

"...You're lucky I got more important stuff to do. Otherwise…"

"Otherwise what?"

She said arrogantly.

"I'd kill you!"

"Aah!"

I glared at the woman over my shoulder and said with an extreme amount of killing intent. I'm so mad that I didn't even bother controlling it to where it was focused only on her, the onlookers experienced some of it as well. I saw a woman collapse and another man piss his pants. The rest were pale in the face and sweating.

"M-monster!"

The woman said as she fell to the ground in fear. She was shaking and sweating so much her makeup was starting to come off. Around her legs was a yellowish liquid.

"...Disgusting."

"..."

With a face full of disdain, I withdraw my killing intent and start walking with Attendant Willis in tow.

Dumb bitch.

***

Author's Note

• Welp looks like the navy isn't for me. Got DQ due to past eye surgeries. Quite a shame, sigh, guess life on the sea isn't meant for me. However, that won't stop me! Onwards to the army! I'm getting free college one way or another!