Assassinating the Hero - Chapter 2
“Good work.”
The king praised the three beautiful women for their efforts.
They had brought back the hero’s corpse and had an audience with the king at throne room. The assassination of the hero was a top-secret mission. To the populace, it was conveyed that the hero had fallen in battle against the Demon Lord.
“It was a difficult mission, but you all had persevered well. Now, peace will be restored.”
The king spoke in a regal manner. But, the expressions of the three women as they kneeling down were gloomy.
It was deemed forbidden to summon the heroes from another world. The reason for that was because the heroes were nothing but greedy individuals. Due to their combat abilities, they would often end up becoming the root cause of turmoils instead of being saviors.
The three women had grown up hearing the stories of the atrocities that the past heroes had committed.
At first, they had eagerly accepted the assassination mission. They had been taught that the heroes were arrogant. An enemy of women everywhere. It was only fitting for the hero to meet his end by a woman’s hand, they thought.
However, the Hero Daichi was different from what they had expected. He was a gentle, humble, and diligent young man who had earnestly studied the language, culture and religion of their kingdom. He dedicated himself to training in swordsmanship and magic despite being suddenly burdened with the mission to defeat the Demon Lord even though he had no prior knowledge and experience in fighting.
As the journey began, he helped people in need wherever he went. Yet, when he couldn’t arrive in time or had made a wrong judgement, he would lament at his own lack of strength or hypocrisy, shedding tears and offering prayers to the victims.
Before long, the three had ended up being truly enamored with Daichi.
It was not until after they killed the hero that they realized their true feelings for him. The three clung to the hero’s dead body and wept.
Their journey back home was depressing.
Urja, the youngest among them, was particularly distraught and had remained hunching over next to Daichi’s body throughout their journey.
“Bring the corpse of the hero here.”
Commanded a vassal of the king, as he pointed towards a platform with a magic circle engraved on it. The only people present were the select few who knew about the assassination plot.
The royal guards then carried the hero’s corpse and roughly placed it on the platform.
It was a headless corpse. A large amount of dried black blood was caked on the holy armor. Daichi’s head was then rolled out of the body bag. The three women turned their gazes away from the sight.
The reason that they had brought back Daichi’s body was to extract his equipment. The Hero’s armaments could only be taken off by the hero’s own will. The other method was to perform a magic ritual in order to forcibly take it away.
The court mages stepped forward and started the ritual. They infused their magic on the platform, making the magic circle engraved on it glow.
But then, the light from the magic circle suddenly faded.
The mages exchanged glances in confusion.
“What’s the matter?”
One of the mages answered the king’s question.
“We had successfully injected our power into the magic circle. But, for some reason it failed to activate. It seems that it was absorbed by something else… Ah.”
The mages gasped in surprise, drawing everyone’s attention back to the platform.
The corpse of the hero was glowing. From there, a necklace emerged from his chest, glistening with magic light.
Moira cried out.
“Urja, is that?!”
“The ancient artifact… Talisman of Sacrifice.”
Urja responded with a bewildered expression.
“What was that….”
The king groaned at Urja’s reply.
“Someone, destroy that necklace!”
Almost simultaneously with the king’s shout, the necklace shattered with a high-pitched sound, and at the same time, the hero’s body disappeared. With a clattering noise, the hero’s armaments scattered on the floor… And then, a terrifying voice echoed throughout the throne room.
[How dare…]
[How dare you all kill me….]
[I’ll be coming for you all…]
[That’s… a promise…]
No one in the hall could move until the reverberations of the curse had disappeared.
“Aaahhhhhh!”
The Saintess collapsed on her knees and sobbed. The Warrior Maiden trembled violently with a pale face. The surroundings erupted into chaos.
“You fools!”
The king, who had gone a dramatic change, berated the three women with a furious expression.
“To think you would all fail and make an enemy of that….”
The Demon Lord, who boasted overwhelming power.
And then, the one who destroyed that absurdity in a single-handed manner. The Hero Daichi.
There was no one who could match him.
“Ah ha ha ha ha!”
Suddenly, a maniacal laughter had echoed.
Everyone was startled, as they direct their gaze towards the owner of the laugh… the Witch, Urja.
“Urja…”
“Ahaha… This is karmic retribution! There’s no way our actions were just!”
“Urja, calm down.”
“Shut up!”
Moira tried to clam Urja down, but she was pushed away. Urja staggered towards the remnants of the talisman. Amidst her sudden outburst where no one else could react, Urja kneeled down and gathered the scattered fragments of the talisman. She lovingly held them to her chest, as she gazed up at the sky.
“Aahhh.. Daichi… My beloved.”
Urja laughed and cried at the same time.
“I will be waiting for you. Make sure to fulfill your revenge. Please kill me more brutally than anyone else.”
Silence descended at the King’s throne room, except for the deranged laughter of the Witch, that is.