#053. The Hero Party’s Fighting Unit is Too Kind (2)

#053. The Hero Party’s Fighting Unit is Too Kind (2)

True to his reputation as a Second Division member of the Hero Party, Pinky had managed to incapacitate a remarkable number of people in that brief span of time.

“Seventy-two people suffered minor to severe injuries at the hands of Pinky alone. We shouldn’t protect that traitorous scoundrel just because he’s a member of the Hero Party!”

“Beat him to death!”

“Kill him! Kill him!”

Teresa frowned at the outcry from all directions.

“Silence.”

As if they had never chanted, the crowd fell silent.

The captive Pinky sneered.

“Kill me. Or are you feeling a bit scared? If you touch a member of the Hero Party, it’s more important than touching a noble, which is scary, isn’t it? Then release me. You don’t have the guts to kill me.”

“He’s scared.”

“What did you say?”

“You’re afraid of being alive. Aren’t you?”

“…!”

Teresa saw right through Pinky’s heart.

“There’s no going back. Only despair in the future that remains. It’s better to escape into death now. That’s why you launched this ridiculous attack.”

“What do you know, you b*tch!”

“I, too, was swallowed by that weakness, locked away in my own room.”

Teresa revealed her past before everyone.

Those who had only heard rumors or vaguely knew were shocked by Teresa’s honest confession.

“The shock of being abandoned by my husband, I neglected my children. After being betrayed twice, I completely collapsed. I had no confidence to return home, no courage to live as I was. I resented everything and hated myself. A life unable to die continued.”

The atmosphere of the adventurers, the alley dwellers, the people of Sodom Village, all at once, became somber.

Teresa’s story was not someone else’s problem to them.

One misstep and anyone could fall into the abyss.

That was the end for those who came to the frontier village chasing dreams of sudden wealth, chasing freedom.

The frustration left behind for those who could not achieve their dreams was like a stain on the soul.

“Everyone in this village knows. What your despair is like. We have always lived, and continue to live, taking that risk.”

“…So what’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll let you experience the future you fear most. I’ll break the Manahart and turn you into an ordinary person.”

“No!!”

“You won’t die. You’ve committed too much violence to die peacefully. I’ll make you realize the most terrible despair we know, the despair of never being able to achieve your dreams again.”

Pinky lost her Manahart.

All of the rabbit-beastman fighting squad who attacked with her received the same punishment.

Now they were no longer a second-string fighter party for the hero, nor an exclusive combat squad following the hero.

Just beastmen.

Carrying the weight of an ordinary person’s ordinary life, stepping on the fragments of shattered dreams, sometimes bleeding from the pain, sometimes shedding tears, sometimes shedding sweat, they would have to live on.

“Ian. Do you think this mother did something wrong?”

Acting was exhilarating, but the aftermath was terrifying.

People were as quick to cheer as they were to be afraid.

It was good to spare them, but did it have to be this way?

Massacre might have been better.

It’s not too late to kill them now.

All sorts of voices were coming out.

Teresa was aware of this, and showed a weak side in front of her child.

How could the mind controller not know that weak heart?

Ian, and the player.

They had seen Teresa every time.

Her weak side.

Her collapsed form.

The bestial, miserable wailing.

In every regression, in every life, they saw it.

Teresa was besieged by doubt, by fear, now wondering if she’d done the right thing.

“I cannot answer.”

“Of course not. You’re still a child.”

“It’s not because I’m a child.”

Doubt clouded Teresa’s face that had been filled with disappointment.

Though her body was that of a child, her heart was not.

“It’s not for me to judge whether Mother’s work is right or wrong. My duty is to follow the path she walks.”

As the child of a mother.

As Ian, Teresa’s son.

He embodied the devotion of a child to their parent.

“The person I see before me now is a magnificent mother who cherishes children more than anyone.”

As a mother cherishes her child, the child follows their mother.

Blind love and blind faith.

Teresa reached out and ruffled Ian’s hair.

The brainwasher’s mental therapy calmed Teresa’s troubled heart.

A parent who takes responsibility for their child grows strong.

She felt powerful enough that the existence of the Hero Party no longer instilled fear within her.

* * *

“So, the village is destroyed, all the magical equipment is seized, your power is lost, and all your subordinates are useless?”

Ronove gazed down at Pinky, who was groveling before him, begging for mercy.

His indifferent gaze held no remaining interest.

“I’m good, aren’t I? I’m always at the front line even if it’s dangerous, doing a good job like a fighter, don’t I? Ronove is skilled at modifications, so you can rebuild the broken Mana Heart, can’t you? Huh?”

“Certainly, I have the skill. There’s nothing I can’t repair with Spirit Cores.”

“Yes!”

“But you are not worth the effort.”

“Ronove…? That’s not right, is it?”

“You have brought shame upon me. The name of the Hero Party, which should be invincible, is tarnished. Even those in the ‘First String’ have questioned whether the level of the Second String warrants entrusting them to me. Because of this, a proposal to transfer control of the Second String Party to martial arts-focused nobles has been formally raised in the Imperial Court Conference.”

Unbearable.

She’d never considered such a large matter.

The situation had grown to a scale far beyond what she had intended, utterly beyond her control.

Pinky wanted to weep.

But she knew that even weeping would be futile.

“Don’t abandon me. I can really do better. Please.”

Ronove lightly brushed off her hand, which reached out to clutch at his legs, by deploying a barrier field.

A distance arose, one that even her hands could not bridge.

“Take her away.”

“Where? Where are you taking me?”

She asked as the servants seized her arms.

“To the dungeons.”

“…!”

Ronoa’s Prison.

Pinky knew that’s where ‘specimens’ were kept.

Not ordinary experiments, either.

Unlicensed, illicit ones.

“You kept your place, but your performance quotas have increased. You need to repay the debt you gave me, even with that body of yours. You said you’d work hard, didn’t you? Work hard. In the role of a specimen.”

“Nooo!”

Pinky was finished.

She was no longer a member of the hero party, nor a fighter.

Perhaps not even human, nor a beastman.

Not even a sentient being.

She would cease to be a person with a soul.

* * *

Pinky’s assault ended in self-destruction.

But the repercussions of the Pinky incident were far from over.

The rabbit beastmen, delivered to the high-ranking inspector of the kingdom, who had ties with the Sodom Guildmaster from his days as a high-ranking public official.

One of them reappeared in Sodom Village one day.

Moreover, the place she visited was none other than the Teresa Clan’s private residence, provided by the Guild.

“She has no weapons. She revealed her presence herself. No mana, but she’s quite skilled. Enough to infiltrate this far undetected. Someone who built up her skills from the ground up.”

Not enough to deceive ex-assassin Shoa’s eyes, but the infiltrator, Subrea, vice-captain of the rabbit beastman fighting squad, was still formidable.

“I come to you, shamelessly, to ask for your urgent help. Please, I beg you, hear me as the words of a soul in distress.”

The clan members’ reaction was icy.

“Ian. It’s not even worth listening to.”

“Anna would have been in danger if it wasn’t for the beastmen guards.”

“I agree completely. There were quite a few of them. If we hadn’t been guarding, the situation would have been very different, wouldn’t it?”

Even Dapri, the black frog female beastman leader, Nina, and Gorgo shuddered at the thought of what could have happened.

A life without Ian.

What would they be like without Ian?

None of them could imagine anything good.

Pinky and the rabbit beastmen were the ones who might have stolen Ian from them.

It was only natural that they were filled with animosity.

“Speak.”

“Pinky and the members of the rabbit beastman fighting squad are being sacrificed as subjects in forbidden bio-experiments.”

“…!”

“It is not a situation to demand compensation for devotion, but at least death should have dignity. To see my kin, my captain, die such a meaningless death… I cannot bear it any longer…”

“Gorgo. Go get Ian.”

Only Teresa kept her vision wide, refusing to let fear narrow it.

She had seen it.

How Ian’s goodness had saved people’s hearts time and time again, and the things those whose hearts were saved had accomplished together.

Even if there were souls beyond saving, it didn’t matter.

Ian was also extremely intelligent.

Their end must have been wretched, for the rabbit-folk to seek aid on their own two feet in what was little more than a death-ground.

Considering the noble houses and royal family lent their tacit approval to the hero’s party, Teresa was the only soul in the kingdom who might help them—unafraid of nobles and willing to risk their ire.

The situation was understood.

And Teresa wasn’t the only one who understood it.

“I know I always end up saying this, but I truly loathe having to repeat myself. You’d have to be mad to help them.”

Nina stood firm against the idea.

“Remember the hardships Sodom Village endured from simply touching a noble? Trying to expose a secret the royal family condones will bring a resistance on a whole other level.”

“Nina is right. The Order alone would immediately brand you as potential heretics, seduced by the whispers of wicked prisoners.”

Inquisitor Maria, recalling the Order’s implacable nature, voiced her concerns.

Her superior was a good man; it was because of him that she had the chance to be with such good people, but she did not think even the higher-ups in the Order would be so benevolent.

It was the higher-ups who decided how they would be used, and those higher-ups were connected to power.

If things escalated, Maria would face a choice.

Stand with the Teresa Clan?

Or denounce them, and follow the Order’s will to smite heretics?

She hadn’t expected that day to arrive so quickly.

“The Beastkin Alliance will move in earnest, too. Not just those two Darkskin tribes, mere assassination squads of the Beastkin Revival Society, but the *entire* Alliance might be deployed.”

Even Dafri, the black toad beastkin commander, warned of the coming calamity.

She didn’t fear opposing the Beastkin Revival Society and the savage beastkin.

What she *did* fear was a future where they failed to overcome their immense power, and the Teresa Clan and Ian were all crushed to death.

“My opinion is different.”

Yet, even now, when everyone said to back down and close their eyes, there was a boy who could not.

The prodigy of Sodom Village.

Teresa’s son.

The Saint, Ian.

A boy who, despite his youth, had already stirred the hearts of many women.

He held a secret.

The secret that he was a player.

The knowledge he possessed screamed that to eradicate Chapter Boss Ronove, the bio-experimentation facility was an unavoidable step.

“If courage means not backing down from what must be done, then the Teresa Clan is the most courageous organization of all.”

Guilt gnawed at the boy, the feeling that he was manipulating everyone, twisting their hearts, using his knowledge of the game to lead them towards the mainstream flow.

His legs trembled, his hands shook with the dread of accumulating an unbearable sin, but he concealed his hands behind his back, clenching his wrist tightly.

He stubbornly fought to hide the desperate tremble threatening to overcome his legs.

Such effort.

Such a desperate display.

The boy’s earnestness, akin to a siren’s call.

Whatever the trigger, Gorgo and Nina sensed it before Teresa could even speak.

“There’s going to be another big mess, isn’t there.”

“Sigh. Guess I should stock up on arrows.”

Teresa, whether it was her will or not, the Teresa Clan would no longer back down.