I’m a Hero, but I Gave Up Saving the World

31 – Is mankind worthy of salvation?

I had a dream.

A dream of walking endlessly in the darkness cast by the veil of night.

all over

all over

I knew I wasn’t alone from the sound of footsteps coming from nearby, but I couldn’t even see the face of the person next to me because of the darkness.

As the solitary march continued, a glowing eagle flew in and cleared the darkness.

The moment I knelt down in gratitude and worship for the eagle, I heard a soft female voice.

“The time of despair is over. The real warrior has returned. The real hero has returned… ”

And the appearance of a beautiful elf and a standing warrior…

—People who woke up confirmed two facts and couldn’t hide their surprise.

One is that everyone living in Aurelia had the same dream.

Another was the news that the elf Tiffania was returning after resurrecting Lucy von Letlea.

Aurelia turned over.

“Hey, what was that dream about last night?”

“You mean Lucy was alive?”

“But he’s obviously dead… ”

“Has anyone seen the body?”

Everywhere I went since morning, everyone was buzzing with the same topic.

The people of Aurelia sympathized with the bullying of Faust led by Kwak Dong-soo, and were the ones who sent the letter containing slander.

So they were always in fear of Faust’s revenge.

To them, the news that Lucy was alive sounded as sweet as chocolate fondue.

Even if the basis is just a dream.

In particular, the person who was most enthusiastic about this news was former King Carlos de Aurelia, who worked in the stables.

He was exhausted physically and mentally from the severe contempt and persecution he received at work.

The same single-breasted tunic he had been wearing for months now smelled so badly of horse manure that it prevented him from sleeping at night.

‘Lucy… come back?’

Carlos’s brain started spinning rapidly.

If Lucy returns, somehow take out the holy sword, give it to Lucy, and change the hero from Faust to Lucy.

I’m sure there are many people who would agree to that plan.

Lucy and I got along very well.

‘He will reinstate me to the position of the king—!’

That day Carlos did not go to the stable.

Even the wardens who beat him with clubs when he skipped work did not touch Carlos that day.

Meanwhile, the academy was also in a crucible of excitement.

The cause is, of course, the dream I had last night.

They were excitedly talking about precognitive dreams when several people dream the same dream at the same time.

Everyone gathered in the auditorium to hold a meeting, avoiding Faust’s eyes, except for those who closed schools and went home, such as Petra and Lily.

The theme is “Is the content of the dream really true?”

The academy was already complaining about Faust not saving them from the beginning.

In such a situation, an unusual dream that seemed to herald the arrival of a new hero was enough to stimulate them more than necessary.

The great sage in charge of the meeting said that there seemed to be no reason to hide any more, and revealed the secret he had shared only with Faust.

“Whoa… I’ll be honest. In fact, Lucy von Letlea is alive. He was seriously injured and was just being treated. I told Faust… ”

People reacted violently to the great sage’s confession.

“This is absurd!! Why didn’t you tell me!!”

“If there is someone more suitable to be a hero than Faust, wouldn’t there be no need to cling to Faust?”

“Let’s call Lucy right now and put an end to Faust’s cursed age.”

The great sage wiped away a cold sweat and apologized at the rain of complaints.

“I thought Faust was more suitable for a hero than Lucy. I thought that appointing Faust as a hero on this occasion would benefit mankind. I’m sorry, I hid it… .”

It was his party members who reacted most excitedly to the news of Lucy’s survival.

First of all, Saint Beatrice let out a sigh of relief.

“I thought we would perish in Faust’s indifferent neglect, but if Lucy is alive, that’s fine. I somehow retrieve the holy sword and transfer the authority of the hero to Lucy.”

“Wait, that aside.”

The thief Dina received the words.

“Even if Lucy returns as a hero, isn’t the curse itself applied by the dragon still valid? How do you do that?”

“well. The purpose of the dragon is Faust after all, so if we sacrifice Faust, wouldn’t the dragon be forgiven for that?”

Beatrice said coldly.

After a while, Serena intervened as well.

“That’s a great idea! To do so, the most important thing is to take the holy sword from Faust and present it to Lucy! The buzzard beetle was so bad. Just ignoring me… You can’t play in the clutches of that madman any longer. Everyone agrees?”

““No Objection””

Usually meetings don’t end unanimously, but this time, to everyone’s surprise, everyone agreed to force Faust out of office.

Saint Beatrice, thief Dyna, knight Alice, wizard Serena, mage tower tower owner Giotto, and miraculous tower tower owner Helen all agreed to the plan to return to Lucy, and the great sage readily admitted that the trend had tilted.

“Good. Okay… I will give up all expectations for Faust now. Let’s reappoint Lucy as a champion and put our hope in him. By the way, how do we retrieve the holy sword?”

Yes. The absolute condition to become a hero is to own a holy sword.

Most of all, the success of the operation depends on forcibly taking the holy sword from Faust.

As if he had waited, heinous plans began to be suggested very easily.

“What if they all attack at once?”

“Would you like to accept applicants? A lot of people probably want to do it.”

“I’ll break the back of Faust’s head.”

“How about a strategy where the wizards use motion-stopping magic all at once and get them stuck and detained?”

“Shall I poison Faust’s lunch?”

“The elves who go with Faust are dangerous, so you better be careful.”

“Okay, you just have to be careful with the elves. Faust itself isn’t shit.”

“When hundreds of academy students and faculty surround and scramble, neither the elves nor the Faust can help it.”

As the discussion progressed to the point of killing Faust before I knew it, the voice I had heard in my dream last night rang again in my ears.

＜I am the elf Tiffania. I speak to the hearts of all of you who live on Aurelia.＞

Silence hung over the busy conference hall.

Everyone confirmed with their eyes that they were hearing the same sound.

Tiffania.

The elf of the warrior party.

He said he hadn’t shown up in the meantime, but was he treating Lucy?

＜Lucy has recovered from her injuries. We have now safely returned to Aurelia with Lucy.＞

＜But the position of the hero has passed to Faust＞

＜I think Lucy is a true hero＞

＜So, taking advantage of our friendship as fellow elves, I gave Misha a gift of tea brewed with dried twigs of the World Tree. If you feed it to Faust, he will like it.＞

＜In fact, it is a terrible poison that paralyzes the whole body for three days if you take even one sip＞

＜They’re not dead, but now they’re lying motionless in the room.＞

＜In the meantime, I brought the holy sword from Faust’s room＞

＜From now on, we want to hold Lucy’s reappointment ceremony, so everyone please gather in the plaza＞

A large plaza located in the center of the capital of Aurelia.

The crowds gathered so that there was no gap in the huge plaza that accommodated 100,000 people.

All the people belonging to the academy and the residents who had done something distasteful to Faust ran excitedly.

Only two people, an elf and a hero, were standing on the platform in the square.

Tiffania, confidently holding the holy sword in her hand, shouted out.

“Thank you to everyone who gathered. I now have a holy sword in my hand. There are two qualifications required to become a warrior. To come from another world and to have a holy sword. If I give the holy sword to Lucy, the power of the hero will move from Faust to Lucy again. Do you guys want that?!”

A resounding reply came back asking whether or not it was.

The heat was heating up as if it were at a concert hall.

“Come on, let’s turn Faust into an empty gangjeong!”

“That unlucky child! Little bastard!”

“There’s nothing going on because of him!”

Among the excited crowd, I saw Alquest, the butcher whose Misha was stolen by Faust.

He was cursing Faust in a louder voice than anyone else.

Tiffania glared at Arcest with contempt, then calmed the overheated crowd and said,

“Yes. It is true that Faust was cold towards you. But, please think of him a little too. He has been harassed unreasonably by you for years. Did you see the window of his house? There is no sound place. It’s all broken. You will know why. It’s because the kids here threw stones. Even if I replaced it with a new window, it broke again, so Faust just gave up.”

“Was it only the children? Children are said to be the mirror of adults. How were the adults? If you run into Faust on the road, don’t you tell the children ＜Don’t become such an adult＞ as if to listen? When Faust got angry, they all came together and lynched him. It is because you persecuted him that Faust, who was a professor at the academy, had to remove horse manure from the stables. Did you ever think about how hurt his ego must have been?”

“After he became a warrior, he didn’t completely reap the blessings, including the tea ceremony anyway. Could he still have a human heart? Could it be that he still has some sympathy for you?”

“Did we actually apologize to him once?”

“Maybe it’s no wonder he won’t forgive us.”

“In that sense, let me make a suggestion to you.”

“How about we return the holy sword to Faust and apologize together? I’m sorry for bothering you! I apologize for bothering you, who did nothing wrong! Then maybe Faust will forgive us?”

Tiffania examined the faces of the cloud-like crowd one by one.

Is there anyone who is impressed by his words?

Who is still reflecting?

Wouldn’t there be at least someone who would admit their guilt?

Tiffania briskly rolled her eyes, examining the people’s reactions.

“What are you talking about? what did we do wrong”

“Why are we apologizing?”

“Why is Tiffania like this, is she out of her mind?”

The atmosphere, which had been quiet for a while after hearing the elf’s words, confused whether it was a speech or a rant, began to regain vigor little by little.

However, in the direction of rebelling against Tiffania.

“Fuck the bullshit!!”

Crucially, public opinion surged as ex-King Carlos almost screamed in a frenzy.

“what?! Forgive Faust?! Don’t fuck up!! That bastard must be killed! Calm down, Elves! Now that rare trait! Are you advocating for the worst scum in human history?! Hand over the Holy Sword to Lucy right away, you Kampf bitch!!!”

Kamp.

It was a representative word of racial discrimination on the continent of Pangea.

Human discrimination against elves is very deep-rooted.

Traditionally, it was customary to treat only elves who entered the warrior’s party as semi-humans, but when Tiffania’s story did not suit their taste, they immediately ignored the custom and started making discriminatory remarks, showing the hypocritical human nature as it is.

“right! Get out of the dwarves!”

“Don’t meddle in what humans are doing!”

“You bastard. If you’re not a warrior, you’re bound to be a slave!”

“Quickly hand over the Holy Sword to Lucy-sama! hurry! hurry!!!”

“Why is Kampnyeon admonishing humans? do we apologize? That doesn’t even sound funny!”

“Faust paralyzed? Great! Let’s drag the baby right now and execute it! ”

“No no. Why don’t you give it as dragon food instead? The curse on the academy is lifted and kills two birds with one stone.”

“Now Faust will be of use to us.”

“If you paid a lot of money and brought it, you should be of that much help.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!!!”

The plaza was suddenly filled with laughter.

People showed off each other’s ideas proudly, as if they were happy just thinking about how to dispose of Faust.

They have to be sent to one shot with a guillotine, burning like witches is straight forward, peeling off the skin hurts the most, no, let’s just throw it in the forest where dragons live, etc…

In that bizarre forum, even the members of the warrior party were participating, but if you mute them and watch them, it looks like they are having a fun chat.

Swept away by the strange atmosphere as if everyone had attended a fun party, even the great sage was bursting into laughter.

The elf Tiffania gave up talking to humans who no longer paid any attention to her, and looked at the hero Lucy von Letlea.

“That is human. How are you, master?”

-what. Something was strange.

The first to feel a sense of incongruity were the members of the warrior party.

master?

Tiffania was an elf liberationist.

The reason she joined the warrior’s party was to improve the condition of the elves who were mistreated as slaves.

As such, she never used the title of master.

Even if the opponent is a warrior.

“… But, really, I was going to give it a last chance.”

Something is strange.

Everyone was rubbing their eyes.

Until now, the person standing over there was definitely Lucy von Letlea .

It looked like that.

Suddenly, someone other than Lucy was on the podium.

Even the face of the big-eared elf was not Tiffania, but chained by Alquest, walking the streets like a dog, and only looked like Mischa Greenwood, familiar to the locals.

“I really hated you guys, but as a human being, I wanted to give you one last chance. However, it is you who kicked the opportunity.”

not lucy

The tall young man who received the holy sword from Misha was Faust.

Since when… ?

No, maybe from scratch?

The crowd of 100,000 people became dumb as a group.

In Faust’s eyes looking down at the garbage under the platform, there was no longer even the slightest sense of sympathy or friendliness towards the same human being.

To him, human beings were no longer perceived as disgusting pests like cockroaches.

“—This has made it clear. I won’t save the world Humanity in this world is not worthy of salvation.”