The Former Hero Begins to be Re-evaluated

On Earth where I originally lived, when a celebrity visited their hometown, many people would gather around.

For people living in the information age with social media, everyone knew the faces of celebrities.

If you were a celebrity, unless you hid your face, it was natural for many people to recognize you.

‘No, how on earth does she know my identity?’

But this situation was a bit strange.

I am a celebrity in my own right.

I was the only hero on this continent, after all.

Although I was exiled from the Empire, if you were to name the most famous person after the Emperor, Princess, and Saint, it would surely be me.

However, there was nothing like social media in this world.

Therefore, it was a bit strange for someone to recognize me even if I was a celebrity.

It was quite surprising that a mere village girl recognized me.

Who on earth is she to recognize me?

Have we met before? I’m a bit curious…

“Oppa, you’re the hero, right?”

“Um… no, I’m not. What hero am I?”

However, I decided to deny being a hero.

No matter how I thought about it, I had never met this girl before.

So, I thought it would be okay to deceive her a bit.

When I said I wasn’t a hero, the girl looked at me as if I was saying something nonsensical.

This girl seemed convinced that I was a hero, but I was planning to deny it from now on.

Right now, I’m a person who came here to live peacefully and farm in this village.

I was planning to be a bit forceful because if I said I was a hero, there was a 100% chance of things becoming troublesome.

For the sake of my peaceful daily life, please believe my lie…

“That’s a lie. You are the hero.”

“I’m telling you I’m not.”

But geez… she’s persistent.

However, the girl didn’t back down easily.

I don’t know how she knew, but she was sure I was lying, and still convinced that I was the hero.

It’s not like she’s mindlessly hero-obsessed, but it felt quite annoying.

“What are you saying, why would I be here if I were a hero?”

“That’s…”

“I’m just a person who came to do ordinary farming. I must just look similar.”

Hey, logically speaking, would I be a hero?

I logically explained to the girl who was judging me to be a hero without any logic or evidence.

Logically, if I were a hero, why would I be trying to farm in a place like this?

Well, do you think a perfectly fine hero would be exiled from the Empire for no reason and start farming?

This isn’t some novel, there’s no way that could be a plausible story, right?

I persuaded the girl that I wasn’t a hero with very logical and correct reasoning.

“Ugh…”

And the girl couldn’t say anything to my words.

As I thought, it was too logical.

I was admiring myself when.

“You are… the hero…!!!”

However, this girl didn’t know how to give up.

She kept insisting that I was the hero even without any logic.

She’s really persistent.

As I was sighing, wondering how to deal with this girl who kept saying I was the hero no matter what.

Knock knock.

“Mr. Hans. Are you there? Ah…! Ria. So you were here.”

Just then, someone appeared who would end this situation.

With a knocking sound, a woman entered this house.

The village nun wearing a nun’s habit, her name was probably Ah… something, anyway that’s not important, what’s important is that she was this girl’s guardian.

When the nun discovered Ria, she spoke as if she had finally found her.

It seems she had been searching for Ria who had disappeared in the middle of the night.

Looking at Ria, she showed an expression of relief, and shortly after, an expression full of anger.

“Ria. I told you not to wander around in the middle of the night…!!!”

“Ah… that… Sister Adel. I’m sorry.”

“You really won’t do this again? Do you know how worried I was?”

“Yes…”

Ria couldn’t say anything in front of the angry nun.

It seems Ria is scared of the angry nun too.

For a kind-looking nun who doesn’t seem to get angry often to be this angry.

And it’s understandable for her to be silent because of the reason that she was worried about her.

In the end, Ria stepped back and nodded to the nun.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Hans. I hope she didn’t bother you?”

“No, not at all.”

“That’s good. Then have a peaceful night.”

With that, the nun apologized to me and left with Ria.

‘Phew… Now I can finally relax.’

Watching them leave, I finally felt relieved.

It was quite annoying when a girl suddenly came at night calling me a hero, but now it should be over.

Now I should wash my feet and go to sleep. As I was taking a breath of relief, Ria, who was leaving, suddenly turned her head and looked at me.

And waving her hand, she shouted.

“Oppa. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

No… she’s coming again tomorrow?

It seemed this matter wasn’t over yet.

Rather, it felt like something quite troublesome had just begun.

#

The hero party newly formed with Herald at its core immediately departed for the demon realm where the Demon Lord was.

The party members wanted to rest more in the capital, but Hero Herald had no such thoughts.

He wanted to defeat the Demon Lord as soon as possible, and the party members eventually followed Herald’s words.

“So this is the demon realm…”

And now, the hero party had arrived at the demon realm.

The land in the north of the Empire where the Demon Lord was said to live, Herald had heard about the demon realm but it was his first time actually visiting.

As a place where no life could be felt, no animals, plants, or humans could be seen at all.

The only thing there was an eerie demonic energy, probably because of the demons and demonic beasts living here, it would be impossible to live here.

‘Even that, well, there’s not much left now.’

However, it wasn’t as scary as he thought.

Because although there was an eerie energy, there was almost nothing around.

Probably because the former hero Han Soo had already dealt with almost all the demons.

Originally, as soon as you enter the demon realm, it’s said to be teeming with demons and demonic beasts, at times like this, Herald felt that the former hero Han Soo was really amazing.

Well, even so, he couldn’t defeat the Demon Lord.

Moreover, Herald had reliable party members.

The party members who the former hero Han Soo had with him, they must have come to the demon realm with Han Soo before.

Since he came here with people experienced with the demon realm, there was no need to worry much.

“Everyone, from now on it’s the demon realm. Let’s quickly defeat the Demon Lord and return to the Empire. So, could you tell me where the Demon Lord’s castle is?”

“Umm…”

But it seemed there was a problem.

At Herald’s request to guide them to where the Demon Lord’s castle was, the four party members just looked at each other and couldn’t say anything.

“What’s wrong? You don’t mean to say you don’t know where the Demon Lord’s castle is, right?”

Surely not, right?

Herald was wrapped in slightly uneasy thoughts.

They must have gone in and out of the demon realm countless times while being active as the hero party for a year, surely they couldn’t not know the geography of this place?

No matter how you think about it, that would be an impossible situation.

“Well, basically Han Soo, the former hero, knew the geography of this place… we just followed him.”

“Yes, since Hero Han Soo was in charge of strategy… so we don’t really know about the geography of this place.”

“… Huh.”

Good gracious…

Why are uneasy thoughts never wrong?

The party members made slightly troubled expressions and told Herald that they didn’t know anything about the geography of this place.

They made excuses that it was the hero’s job to be in charge of strategy.

Seeing this, Herald rubbed his forehead and felt dizzy for a moment.

‘The hero party doesn’t know the geography of this place?’

From Herald’s perspective, that was an incredibly ridiculous statement.

As someone who had led the knight order, Herald also had people in charge of strategy.

But, separate from being in charge of strategy, if you were going into battle, everyone should know at least the geography of the place.

Knowing the geography was the basics of battle and the core of various tactics.

Of course, there are cases where they don’t bother to tell low-quality soldiers who aren’t knights, but the hero party members aren’t such insignificant soldiers.

They are the elite of the elite. It was nonsensical for such people to not know the geography.

But now that situation was happening…

Herald wanted to vehemently question this issue.

“I see. Then let’s all look for the Demon Lord’s castle together for now.”

“Yes.”

However, Herald decided to accept this situation for now.

This was already a battlefield. On a battlefield, rather than getting angry and regretting things that have already happened, you should find what needs to be done, what can be done, and do it.

The elderly Knight Commander knew this all too well.

Well, there must be circumstances…

Herald thought that it was because he hadn’t led them in the past, so he didn’t know well.

‘Let’s think positively.’
Herald brushed this off as a minor issue.

Whether they know the geography or not, whether they know the strategy or not, these are clearly party members that Han Soo had with him for a year.
They might not know the geography of the demon realm…
‘But really… is it possible they don’t know?’
However, it was inevitable that doubts kept arising.