Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside - Volume 1 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

Never-Ending Night

“This morning, we received a warning from Rit the hero. Apparently, someone connected to the Thieves Guild was after her. Over the next few days, the guild chief is probably going to be questioning me and the other higher-ups about it. It’s got nothing to do with me, of course, but a few favors are going to have to be called in to clear any suspicions. This has been a fiasco.”

Bighawk scratched his arm with his thick fingers. Dir was prostrate on the ground in front of him, not daring to say a word.

He couldn’t even if he’d wanted to, since he had been gagged. On top of being tied up, every last one of his fingers had also been mercilessly broken to ensure he couldn’t use magic.

Dir was crying from the pain and fear, but no one showed any hint of concern for the poor man.

“You probably thought I wouldn’t kill you because of whatever valuable secret you know about Rit, but you’ve got it wrong. You don’t understand your position at all.”

Dir was trembling, but Bighawk’s eyes were cool and merciless.

“That thought is proof you underestimated me. And however valuable that secret you know is, I don’t forgive those fool enough to underestimate me.”

The large half-orc was the most-feared man in Zoltan. Dir was hit by the realization that he had naively misjudged Bighawk as merely the leader of a bunch of no-name rural thugs, a revelation that had come far too late.

“Take him away.”

“Yes sir.”

A man lifted the bound Dir over his shoulder.

“Nrgh!!!”

Dir desperately resisted, his frantic eyes pleading for his life.

“Still, everyone makes mistakes. I won’t hold it against you forever,” Bighawk said with a broad smile.

For just a second, a glimmer of hope shone in Dir’s eyes.

“But that will be easy, since I’m never going to see you again.” Having said his piece, Bighawk rose and left the room.

“Ngggggggh!!!”

The half-orc did not turn back at Dir’s gagged screams.

“What a pity,” the man carrying Dir whispered in a sympathetic tone. The thief still did not hesitate to carry Dir down into the blood-spattered room that was the manor’s basement.

After that, no one ever saw Dir in Zoltan again.

It was late. The Hero, Ruti, was sitting in her tent, eyes closed as she continued thinking.

Immunity to Sleep was one of the many various immunities and resistances granted by the Hero’s blessing. Ruti no longer needed sleep. She could not feel the least bit sleepy. She could maintain a perfect condition twenty-four hours a day without ever having to rest. However, the same was not true of her comrades. She understood that camping for the night was necessary for them.

Still, this is so boring.

The time she spent just sitting there doing nothing was dismally dull.

According to her pet theory, standard resistances and immunities were entirely different things. Standard resistances granted a strength in the face of something, but immunity meant the loss of something. She’d lost the ability to sleep, so her nights were spent like this.

It was better when Big Brother was here, though.

She never felt bored when she could watch him as he slept. Just placing her hand on his chest and feeling his heart beat… She genuinely believed she could endure an eternity if she sat like that with him.

Well, not that she hadn’t occasionally snuggled up to him…or maybe nibbled at a finger or his ear or his stomach from time to time. But that was all just trivial playfulness… Yes, that’s what she believed.

Ares…

By all rights, even tearing him to pieces would not be enough to satisfy her. However, so long as he did not bear any malice directed at her, she could not lay a hand on a comrade because she was the Hero. The Hero would never injure an ally because of a personal grievance. Her Immunity to Berserk quelled her rage to nothing more than a slight ripple of emotion. Ruti had been robbed of the majority of human emotions and pleasures because of her blessing.

The girl thought back to that time…

“Ruti, please hear me out. Your brother has left the party.”

That was what Ares had said when he’d visited her room early that morning. Because of her Immunity to Confusion, she’d absorbed what he’d said in a coolheaded manner. The Hero’s Immunity to Despair meant she could not be shaken by his words. That was why her response had been just a single word.

“Why?”

“Gideon was self-conscious about his lack of ability and said he would be of more use fighting the demon lord’s forces through espionage and guerilla actions than by staying with us. I tried to stop him at first, but he was determined. Eventually, I came to accept the logic of what he was saying. In the end, I decided to see him off with good graces. He left behind his equipment, which we might get some use out of it. He was an admirable man.”

“Why you? Why didn’t he tell me himself?”

“Probably because he didn’t want you to see that side of him, I’d guess. Even though he is far weaker than you, he still tried to comport himself as an older brother to you. A charming bit of conceit. I can certainly understand the sentiment.”

I see, so you pushed Big Brother out.

Bursting through the various immunities, Ruti’s emotions wavered just a bit.

“Eep?!”

Even that small amount of emotion was enough to elicit a shriek from Ares. The overwhelming pressure Ruti released subconsciously triggered the man’s survival instinct. Even so, spurred on by his blessing that he would never hesitate to tell anyone who would listen that he was the most capable of all, he’d taken the action he had decided was best.

Ares gritted his teeth as he put an arm around Ruti’s shoulder and hugged her. His heart pounded in terror, and a cold sweat poured down his back. He read back the script he had practiced so many times. The Sage was superior in all ways. No matter the goal, he would accomplish it. The Sage was wise. That was Ares’s role.

“I understand the anxiety you might feel at your brother not being here anymore. Before you were the Hero, you were still just a young girl. Compared to the lifetime you’ve spent with Gideon, our time together has been short, but I will always be your ally.”

Even when Ares so clearly overstepped, Ruti could not push him aside. She’d just looked up at him with a cool, fixed, reproachful gaze.

At that moment, though, she sensed someone’s presence.

Big Brother?! He was just looking at me! He was just looking at me!! He was just looking at me!!!

The impulses of Divine Blessings resided at the level of thought. But in that moment, Ruti had acted on her human impulse, which occurred preconsciously. Before her brain had processed the information, every inch of her body cried out in despair, and she leaped into action.

“Ugyhhhhhh?!?!?!”

Ares’s body bent. The noise was less a human voice than the sound of air leaking out of a balloon. The strongest fist in the world had slammed into the man’s stomach, pulverizing bones, smashing internal organs, and shredding blood vessels.

The Sage’s body slammed into the wall, causing several more bones and organs to lose their shape. Had the VIP room not been reinforced with magic, then even though it had been hit by something as soft as human flesh and blood, even the wall itself would surely have been demolished.

Ares the Sage slumped to the floor, looking like he had been stomped on by a giant dragon.

“Big Brother!”

Ruti wanted to chase after him. To clear up the misunderstanding immediately. But her gaze was focused on Ares, who was on the verge of death. The Hero could not abandon her comrades. Even if the fate of the world was not in the balance, she could not ever abandon anyone, even a truly loathsome person.

Her teeth ground together. The figure disappearing into the distance burned at her nerves. Yet she still falteringly approached Ares.

With the vestiges of consciousness he had left, Ares watched in terror as Ruti approached. She held her hand over him. Thanks to her Healing Hands, Ares, who was at death’s door, was restored in the blink of an eye. His broken body had been repaired.

She could no longer sense the presence of her beloved brother. He had run someplace far away. Through her blessing, all the girl could manage to say was…

“I’m sorry.”

The Hero gave an apology to the Sage that was completely devoid of feeling. Ares’s teeth had chattered as he shuddered in terror.

Remembering that moment, the quiver in her heart gave her the slightest bit of pleasure.

It was a memory of one of the few times she had rebelled against the Hero’s blessing. Even though it had been only the mildest bitter wave of emotion in her heart that had slipped through all her various immunities, it was a pleasant recollection to her now. Especially because the night provided her with so much free time.

After that day, Ruti had wanted to chase after her brother as soon as possible, but the role of the Hero was to save people in need. Defeating Taraxon, the Demon Lord responsible for so much suffering across the continent, was the top priority.

The Hero’s journey had to go on. Because that was what it meant to be the Hero.

“But I need my brother,” Ruti whispered softly.

Daybreak was still a long way off.