I’m a Hero, but I’ve Given Up on Saving the World

A little earlier than when the king was agonizing over the horse dung-stained tunic before him, the sentries watching the sky from the top of the tower saw the gargoyles that had been circling like crows suddenly screaming as if they had been burned and flying high away.

After a short while, the gargoyles had flown so far away that not even their shadows could be seen.

“Could it be… the chamamak has been restored?”

A sky where white clouds flowed instead of demons. Humanity once again realized how great a blessing this alone was.

Water began to fill up again in wells that had been dry, and mills and factories that had stopped began to operate once more.

Everyone sensed it.

The hero had returned—

How difficult the past week had been. The size of preciousness matches the size of inconvenience felt when it’s lost.

Drinking water, farming, seeing a clear sky.

Everyone thoroughly realized through this opportunity how precious these ordinary, unremarkable, and unboastful daily lives were.

Having lost it once and regained it, it’s human nature to not want to lose it again even more.

Now, a world without a hero—it was the common feeling of all the people that they could no longer endure it.

At this time when everyone should be rejoicing and blessing the birth of a new hero, if someone appears who goes against the hero? If the hero becomes upset because of that person and withdraws his blessing? That person would be fuel for the stake.

——Even if that person were the king.

“Ugh…! I-I’ve already apologized and said I’m sorry. No matter what, is there really a need to go this far?”

“5.”

“Listen… we’re in the same boat now. Your activity funds! Don’t you know they all come from my pocket?”

“4.”

“The hero has been sponsored by the royal palace for generations! Surely you can’t ignore that tradition?!”

“3.”

“Listen, Faust!!! No matter that you’re the hero, there’s a line that should be kept!”

“2.”

“Ugh… Alright. Let’s have a talk. Let’s try to find a compromise. Don’t you think it’s too much to ask the king to clean horse dung, even in your opinion?”

“1.”

“…Are you really going to do this?!”

“0. End. I’m just withdrawing the blessing.”

The only thing that matters is the hero’s will.
If the hero’s heart leaves, the blessing disappears at that moment.
That’s how the system works.

The gargoyles that had disappeared came back snickering, wells dried up, and windmills stopped.

The cries of people wailing and hitting their foreheads resounded throughout the country. Of course, in the royal palace too.

“Ah! Just do as the hero says, please!!”

“?! Who just uttered such an outrageous statement!!”

It was probably the rash outburst of a young soldier. The words that everyone had been thinking but couldn’t say suddenly burst out.

The king tried to find the culprit with the intention of punishing them, but once ignited, public sentiment began to spread like a wildfire.

“What’s outrageous about it? It’s not like it’s something that can’t be said.”
“That’s right. Why can’t you just clean some horse dung?”
“Should we all die for the king’s pride?”
“Honestly, Faust has suffered a lot, so he probably wants to vent. I understand it, you know?”
“Sigh, apart from everything else, I’m disappointed by the political skills that create this situation right after the blessing returns.”
“Humanly speaking, if Faust had tried to kill the king, I’d understand, but cleaning horse dung isn’t a life-threatening task, so why can’t he do it?”
“He’s really selfish…”

The truth that penetrates human psychology is—”As long as it’s not me.”

If they could live comfortably and safely by having the king clean horse dung, there wasn’t a single person who wouldn’t be satisfied with that.

Rather, people disliked being caught up in the king’s trivial pride-saving.

“N-No… Listen. I am your king. You… you… are you saying it’s alright for me, your pride, to become someone who just cleans horse dung?!!”

“”…………””

“Say something!!”

“Ah, it’s really noisy.”

Faust scratched the back of his head and delivered the final blow.

“If Carlos doesn’t change into the tunic within the next 10 seconds, I’ll disappear like this and never come back. I’m not joking. I’m counting to 10.”

“Forget it! Who would wear such dirty clothes…!!”

“Just wear it, Your Majesty!!”
“Are you trying to kill us all?!!”
“Ah, just!! Forcibly put it on him!!!”

Dozens of people from the crowd rushed at Carlos.

The dignified Carlos de Aurelia. The supreme being whose body was a crime even to touch, punishable by severe penalties, was now having his clothes torn, his limbs grabbed, and the dirty tunic forcibly put on him by the crowd.

“Wait!! You… ! Where are you touching!! Do you know who I am!! You will all be severely punished!! You bastards!!”

So many hands passed over him that he couldn’t even identify who dared to touch the king’s body.

“You bastards… you bastards… how dare you to me… your faces… I’ll remember them all… surely… I’ll exterminate your entire families…”

With his coat stripped off and only a tunic covering his body, Carlos looked like a shabby middle-aged laborer. It seemed like he wouldn’t look out of place if put in a stable now. They say clothes make the man, but once you strip off a layer, even a king is just the same as any other person.

…That said, it was still worrying. Even though it’s come to this now, the king is originally a fearsome dictator wielding absolute power.

It wouldn’t be strange if he actually swung the blade of revenge at the people gathered here.

It was the same that one should be on good terms with the king, if not as much as the hero. However, Faust had no intention of allowing even that.

“Now. From now on, Mr. Carlos will officially be a stable cleaner cleaning horse dung for 6 months. Everyone remember, if Carlos refuses or rejects the work, I’ll withdraw the blessing at that moment. What I hate the most are bastards who are all show and no substance, you know? What I mean is, if Carlos is just physically in the stable but actually continues to act like a king, I’ll go crazy. Not just Carlos himself, but make sure other people treat Carlos as just a horse dung cleaner too. If anyone gives him special treatment, calling him ‘Your Majesty’ or anything like that… you know what’ll happen now, right?”

“What! You bastard Faust!!”

“You bastard Faust?”

“There’s a limit to insulting me—oof!!”

Faust kicked the approaching king’s pubic bone with the sole of his foot. Everyone’s mouths fell open at the terrifying sight.

“How dare a mere dung cleaner.”

“Oof!”

Another blow to Carlos as he tried to stand up.

“Speak informally to the hero,”

“St-Stop!”

He steps on and presses down on the fallen Carlos’s solar plexus with his foot.

The situation became one where he was looking down on the king lying beneath him.

“You fell, didn’t you? Are you crazy? Do you have no sense of hierarchy? Do you still think you’re king?”

“…………”

“This bastard doesn’t get it. He doesn’t seem to understand his position.”

To completely shatter Carlos’s pride and dignity, it was necessary to publicly humiliate him.

“Everyone gathered here, come forward one by one and say ‘dung cleaner’ to Carlos. Begin.”

“Dung cleaner!”

“Misha, you don’t need to do it.”

A nearby soldier was chosen first and approached. He looked at Faust with a very troubled expression and then sighed deeply.

“…Du-Dung… cleaner…”

“Okay. Good, next!”

The next person started being called one by one. Nobles and young ladies, officials and soldiers hurled vulgar insults at the king and returned to their places. The surprising phenomenon was that while there was an awkward or uncomfortable atmosphere at first, as time passed, everyone started calling the king “dung cleaner” to his face very naturally.

There were even people who added unsolicited comments like “Please do a good job cleaning the stable” or “Keep up the good work~”.

The king too, who at first glared with angry eyes as if he would take revenge later, eventually became a weak old man who looked 20 years older than his actual age, with all energy drained from his face. It’s said that the position makes the person.

“Hey Carlos. For the next half year, you are not the king. Understand? If you do a good job cleaning the stable for half a year, I might put you back on the throne…”

“Th-Then who will sit on the throne… hero.”

“That’s none of your business. Run to the stable right now.”

“……..”

“GO!!”

When Faust shouted, the hesitating Carlos was startled and tripped over his own feet. It’s said that many couldn’t hold back their sneers at seeing this disgraceful sight.

This is how the king fell. A new life starting from the stable was waiting for him.

While thinking this might be a bit too harsh, remembering the conversation I had with the king in this very palace years ago made such thoughts disappear.

During the time when Kwak Dong-su was starting to seriously bully Faust, I had asked for help from the king, who was still a powerful figure not inferior to the hero.

The king told me to wait a bit and called Faust a few days later.

“How did it go? Has the matter been resolved well? I don’t want to fight with Dong-su. I just want to travel around this world and do my own research. Please help me so that Dong-su doesn’t bully me.”

“Ah, about that… a conclusion has been reached. It’s your fault.”

“…What? My fault?”

I still vividly remember how annoying the king was at that time, smoothly stroking his Kaiser mustache and rolling his eyes pretending not to know.

“Well… yes. According to the hero, you’re jealous of the hero and hinder him at every turn. That’s not good, man. Even if you feel inferior and have nothing to do, still.”

“Me, feeling inferior to Kwak Dong-su? That bastard is an idiot who got cut off from his relatives for trying to scam them into buying phones, you know? He was kicked out of his house and had nowhere to go, so he kept whining, and I lent him money for a goshiwon room, but he didn’t pay it back, so I went to his house to ask for the money back, and that’s when we happened to be summoned together. Me, jealous of such a bastard? Please don’t joke.”

“Hmm… I don’t understand what you’re saying. It seems you’ve developed a grudge from idling around.”

“Idling around? Do you really not know why I became unemployed? It’s all because Kwak Dong-su at the academy…”

“Stop blaming others and reflect on yourself!!!”

When the king bellowed as if he had eaten a train boiler, even Faust was left speechless. It seemed the king had no intention of listening to this side from the beginning.

“It’s hard for us to feed two of you too! We’ve used up almost all the national budget to summon you!! You don’t work and just waste taxes like livestock!”

“Livestock?”

“Yes! Livestock!! You’re no different from livestock!! So take care of the same livestock and experience the hardship of humans. I’m assigning you the job of cleaning horse dung.”

“Listen, Your Majesty. Why was I called here? Wasn’t I the hero’s spare?”

“Hmm. So?”

“If the hero dies, I’ll become the hero. How do you plan to handle that when it happens?”

“Hahaha!! Are you saying you’ll take revenge? Such ambitious dreams. The hero is not even thirty years old yet. He’ll easily live another 50 years! Hahaha!!”

“Don’t be too confident about things you don’t know about the world.”

“Stop talking nonsense and go clean horse dung in the stable. You… are too arrogant. You need to learn about the world. What are you so proud of? Go and reflect while doing hard labor.”

“…The day may come when you regret this.”

“Hahaha! That day won’t come, so don’t worry and just clean the horse dung well!!”

—After that day, Faust couldn’t travel or do research as he wanted because he had to work in the stable. Thinking about that, today’s revenge was rather mild.

“It’s not over yet…”

Yes, it’s not over yet. When a new hero is born, the next natural step is the formation of the hero’s party.

Who

will be chosen

as the new party members?

The right to appoint is solely the hero’s.

Everyone’s attention is focused on the composition of the new party members, but to put new wine in new wineskins, the old wineskins needed to be thoroughly cleared out.

Faust had instructed beforehand to invite all the members of the party that Kwak Dong-su had formed here.

“Beatrice, Diana, Alice, Serena. All of you come forward. From now on, I’m going to hold a hearing to find out who stole my thesis.”