Chapter 305: Hero qualifications

There is one shadow running northeast from the Bueruko basin. The ident.i.ty of the shadow is Roy Buom, the hero of Pandora. On either side of him, you can see that he is carrying beastmen children. Roy had to take great care and hurry so as not to burden the children.

"Ku......painful......"

"Just a little more patience"

"R, Return......home......please............"

"You"ll get home"

The beastman children, whose consciousness was clouded, had deteriorated to the point where it was difficult for them to speak. Even so, Roy tried his best to keep talking to them cheerfully.

(Their condition is progressing fast. At this rate, before we reach the town....... I have to hurry. It"s okay, it"s okay. I"m a hero! I"ll definitely help these children!!)

Roy repeats the words in his mind, as he tells himself. Behind Roy――in the direction of the Bueruko basin, a large fireball that seems to be mistaken for the sun from earlier, a large-scale explosion sound and a sea of ​​flames covering the heavens make Roy"s skin feel heat running on the ground. Roy ponders Yuu"s body, perhaps due to the battle between Yuu and the Holy Knights of Jardalk, but now he wonders if the priority should be the lives of the beastman children. To speed up.

"That"s it!"

Roy"s eyes widened. A faint light can be seen ahead of him. It was a bonfire on the outer wall of Forhery Town.

"Look, you can see the town!"

With hollow eyes, the beastman children turned their gaze toward the town.

"Fa......Father will be............angry......"

In their muddled state of consciousness, the beastman children mistake Forhery for their own village and mutter.

"M......Mother............I´m sorr......y"

The other child muttered with tears in his eyes, thinking of his mother.

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A few days after the fierce battle between Yuu and the Jardalk Holy Knights in the Bueruko Basin, Roy was in the beastman village. He had traveled tirelessly to the beastman village. There were two small coffins at Roy"s feet, containing the two beastman children who had changed their appearance.

"Through the front!"

"My child, my child has come back, haven"t they?

"Wait"

"Get out of the way!"

"Lie......lie!! That............how could this happen!?"

Two women emerged from the crowd of beastmen surrounding the coffins, pushing their way through the crowd. These women were the mothers of the children. They must have been searching for their missing child for a long time. Their eyes were dark circles from physical and mental exhaustion and their cheeks were thin and gaunt. The coffins were covered with flowers to slow down the decomposition process and the beastman children were lying there as if asleep. The mothers cried out as they held their beloved children in their arms. The antidote hadn"t arrived in time. No, there was no such thing as a Liuget at the Mansonju Inn in Forhery Town. From the beginning, Jardalk´s Holy Order had no intention of letting the beastman children live. It was too cruel a punishment. But Roy forced down his anger and headed for the beastman village without eating or sleeping. He wanted to return the children to their parents as soon as possible.

"I"m sorry. I couldn"t help them"

Without making any excuses, Roy bowed his head in apology. He had no words to say to the parents who had lost their beloved child so unjustly. The mothers cried and the fathers cried aloud, 「Why my son......?」 Roy had explained to the village chief and some other influential people what had happened. The reason he didn"t explain to all the villagers was not out of self-preservation, but because he feared that the villagers would try to avenge the children and start a cycle of revenge. However, the villagers must have been somewhat aware of this. The eyes of the villagers on Roy were surprisingly cold. And so were the mothers.

"Why, why! Why must my child die!"

One of the mothers, her eyes swollen red, glared at Roy and asked.

"That´s......"

Roy couldn"t look the mother in the eyes properly.

"You know about it, don"t you,hero? It"s not right if you don"t! I"m sure you"ve left the village, but why would a hero like you take my......, my, my, my, ............child? Why would a hero who should have left the village show up with my child"s corpse!! I"m not sure what to make of this. I don"t believe in such a convenient story!"

The other mother questioned him in a strong tone, but Roy could not say anything and just kept bowing his head.

"Please return! Please give me back my child!!"

"It"s your fault, hero! My child is dead because you came to the village!!"

In the past, when he saved the beastman village who was suffering from the damage of the magic beast called the king of the forest, Roy left the village with words of praise on his back, but this time it was different. He left the village without being regretted by anyone, with the mothers cursing him with bitterness.

"It"s always like this....... Why can"t I save"

Roy mutters as he wanders through the forest.

Becoming an adventurer? Don"t do it. Roy is kind, but he"s not a fighter and he"s not cut out for rough stuff like being an adventurer.

He becomes an adventurer, not a farmer. When Roy told him that, his childhood friend told him that he was not suited for it. She was the same age as him, but she was telling him from above. Roy was so angry that he insisted that he would definitely become an adventurer. The girl then sighed loudly with a dumbfounded look on her face. However, she looked at Roy with a somewhat lonely look in her eyes. One day, the girl summoned him and gave him something wrapped in a cloth. As the girl hurriedly told him to check the contents, he found that it was a steel gauntlet.

If he wanted to be an adventurer, he had to have something like this.

The girl had bought it with the money she had been secretly saving up. She really wanted to give him steel armor, but this was the best she could do as a girl living in a farming village.

He can be an adventurer or whatever he likes and go wherever he likes. She makes him happy.

The other childhood friend said this without stopping Roy.

Why are you? I can make her happier than you!

Roy was bewildered by the boy who suddenly attacked him, but he later learned that he had confessed his love to the other girl and was rejected. Then, the day before Roy left the village, it happened. The day before Roy left the village, a demon king suddenly appeared in the idyllic farming village of Pandora. The demon king went on a rampage as if to ridicule Roy and devoured Pandora. Roy, who was helpless, was no match for the demon king and he was forced to watch as the villagers were killed one by one in front of him. Yes, only one person――Roy survived. Despair filled Roy"s heart as he lost his home, his family, his friends and the girl he had known since childhood. Still, Roy stood up. Ironically, on the day he lost everything, Roy awoke to the power of a hero. He was obliged to give up his dream of being an adventurer and live as a hero to defeat the Demon King. Whenever he heard that the demon king or his men were on the loose, he would head there, no matter where it was. Even if it was a dangerous place, he dared to go there in order to save the weak.

Dear hero, if you cross the Tonail Mountains, you will soon reach our home town. This is a dangerous mountain range ruled by a thunder dragon, but if you don"t force yourself to cross this mountain range, you won"t make it in time. Let"s hurry! The Demon King"s army has already engaged the knights protecting the town!

In order to save the town from being attacked by the Demon King"s army, Roy and his friends who were advancing through the Tonail Mountains with the guides to the town, were confronted by a thunder dragon. However, this thunder dragon is a dragon with a name. Most dragons that are powerful enough to have a name are also highly intelligent and can control human language. Roy tried to solve the problem by talking instead of fighting, but the thunder dragon Luo Gorenica attacked Roy without asking any questions.

What are you doing, hero! Please draw your sword quickly! The town and my family are waiting for your help!

As if to condemn Roy for not fighting the thunder dragon, the men guiding him persuaded him to fight. However, when the thunder dragon opened its big jaws and was about to swallow one of the guides, Roy finally pulled out his sword. The famous thunder dragon was too strong an enemy for Roy, who had just awakened to the power of a hero couldn"t afford to take it easy. As a result, Roy ended up defeating the thunder dragon.

As expected of a hero! That"s right! Let"s make a sword out of this thunder dragon"s horn. I"m sure it will be a great sword and the name of the hero will be known throughout the realm!

Despite the excitement of the men, Roy could not bring himself to do so. He is not sure why the thunder dragon, which understands human language, didn"t listen to his words. That was the only question that kept repeating in his mind.

Aah! H, Hero-sama, please take a look at this. It"s an egg, thunder dragon eggs! Oh, it"s a female. Is that why it was so temperamental? But it"s a lucky day. After all, it"s thunder dragon eggs. I"m sure you can sell it for a good price! When we save the town, let"s celebrate with the money from the sale of those eggs!

The man pointed at the thunder dragon"s eggs and happily reported to Roy. The thunder dragon was guarding the eggs. That"s why it didn"t listen to Roy"s words. This fact distorted Roy"s vision with nausea. When he staggers, Roy"s eyes meet with a thunder dragon, whose belly is torn apart.

I............I, that............. Child............rob............?

Roy noticed that despite the eggs, the thunder dragon"s mate did not appear when the battle began. No, thunder dragon――it had its partner killed by humans.

You............an......d......your tribe. Curse............ed.............

The thunder dragon breathed its last, muttering a curse until the end. Roy sat down on the ground as if collapsing. But he couldn"t stay like that forever. There were many people waiting for Roy"s help. Even though he was aware that his heart was getting worn out, he kept getting up and fighting. Even with the help of Joseph, the Great Sage and the saints, it was still the same. He continued to fight with the hope that he would find the answers he was looking for. And finally, he defeated the Demon King who had destroyed his hometown.

Hu, Huhahaa. Are you satisfied......now? I"m sure you"ll be happy to know that you"ve been lured into killing me by a bunch of idiots who don"t know what they"re talking about. We"re just convenient clowns, you know. What a hero. Have you ever been able to save anyone? No, you haven"t. I can a.s.sure you. You"ll never be able to save anyone. Hahaa. Ahahahahaa!!! Ah............funny. Why such a stupid guy............I............lost.............

――What was waiting there was despair, not hope.

"Why? I just――"

Roy kneeled on the ground and swung his fist down on the earth. Countless cracks appeared in the earth and the trees in the forest trembled from the impact. As he swings his fist down many times, the skin of his fist tears and Roy"s hand turns red with blood.

"What"s wrong with your face?"

Yuu was standing right in front of Roy. Yuu looked down at Roy with a stunned expression with ridiculous eyes.

"Why......are you here?"

"Did you think you could run away like this?"

"I have no intention of running away, but can you leave me alone now? I will definitely apologize again"

"Don"t say good things. You"re a fake hero for setting me up"

He wanted to deny Yuu"s words, but Roy himself understood it better than anyone else. He is not qualified to call himself a hero.

"Follow me"

The gate created by Yuu"s s.p.a.ce-time magic looked like a deathtrap to Roy. But Roy didn"t run away, he followed Yuu and went through the gate.