"...how cliché."

Surrounded by dozens of passed out mages, I quietly muttered this as I restrained my urge to sigh.

Sitting in front of me on a golden throne decorated with finely cut jewels and gemstones was a somewhat dignified older gentleman who looked to be in his late forties to mid-sixties. His gaze seemed to be firmly stuck on my figure as he appeared to evaluate me. Shifting my eyes a little to my right, I noticed a beautiful woman who sat with the king. Poised with such grace and finesse, she appeared to be a living sculpture crafted by an impossible artist. As I gazed at her visage, her eyes seemed unfocused as if she weren't really there. Seated to the left of the man, this woman was one of the few individuals who had managed to grab my attention throughout my entire life.

But that was all.

Pretty faces and seductive bodies mattered very little to me. I've seen most things that my previous world has to offer, and none of it was interesting. What I craved was something that no one will ever be able to give me, an impossible dream. A mere fantasy for a person like me. But, I do not despair over it, as I already knew from the beginning that it was hopeless, without a solution or way out. So when faced by this thing, I merely scoffed and returned my attention to the king, who seemed to be finished with his evaluation of me. But just as he opened his mouth to speak, I suddenly spoke up before he had managed to get a single word out.

"So, you all have performed a summoning ritual that was passed down to you, the royal family, to summon an otherworldly being in a desperate attempt to save the world from peril. But since the exact way to perform this summoning ritual was lost in translation, you then decided to incorporate your own understanding of the ritual and modify it to summon something an even more powerful being than the heroes of old, and with many failures, you finally managed to summon something that wasn't some kind of abomination or mangled homunculi-esque creature at the cost of a few dozen servant's lives, a handful of your best mages, and even your own daughter, who was but ten years old... Did I miss anything...? Oh! How could I have forgotten? You also planned on using me for the pathetic political struggle within your own kingdom, and had even planned on using me to attack the hostile kingdoms surrounding you, including your own allies in order to try and rule the world!"

As I finished my piece, a heavy silence echoed throughout the throne room as the king's gaze hardened as he swept his arm and barked out an order.

"Apprehend the traitorous scum at all costs! We must not let him leave the castle alive!!"

"WAIT!"

Just as the knights who protected the king had rushed to grab me, a woman's voice cried out at the last second.

"W-what is it?!"

As the king yelled in outrage, the once seemingly lifeless queen now stood with the dignity of a monarch. With all eyes on her, I alone spoke, breaking the silence of the room's inquisitive and questioning gaze. 

"The answer to your questions is no, no, and no. Jeez, why am I always caught up with these types of people...?"

As I heaved a heavy sigh, I saw the queen's shoulders tremble when she suddenly raised her face with a resolute expression.

"Then-!

"No, there would be no point in accepting-wait a moment... Ahh, so that's how it is...!"

As I suddenly started laughing, the surrounding knights tensed up as they raised their guards, wary of my actions. As I continued to laugh, the king's head had started to turn a bright shade of red, and in a fit of rage, started screaming for me to be executed immediately.

Just as the knights closed in on me, I quickly stopped laughing and as I looked back up at the queen, I snapped my fingers.

******

"Where did he go?!"

As the king jumped to his feet, he frantically scanned the throne room in search of the missing hero that they summoned. Immediately after, the king ordered everyone out, demanding the knights search the entire castle for him. Once everyone was absent from the throne room, the king fell back into his throne. Frustrated and spent, the king turned to his left, wishing to ask his queen why she had allowed the hero to escape.

But to his surprise, when he turned to his queen, he was met with the empty sight of an absent throne. His eyes bulging, teeth clenched, and his whole body trembling in rage, the king looked up and screamed at the top of his lungs. It was said that on this day, the entire castle's servants stopped what they were doing and looked up at the sky, wondering why someone was strangling an old goat.