I Became a Burden to the Conscienceless Party

Esmeralda was confident in her acting. She had been in the hero party for 3 years now. Hadn’t she endured all that time acting like a fool?
Her patience and composure were extraordinary.

“Die! Die! You pervert bastard!”

Yes, if she hadn’t been tormented by Jim, she could have endured longer.
Unfortunately, this was Esmeralda, the still immature hero.
Esmeralda, in a heated state, began to strangle Jim.
She was so excited that she couldn’t even think about reading Jim’s thoughts, and her face was flushed red as if it would burst at any moment.

“It, it was a jo… ke.”
“What?”
“I said it was a joke, Hero.”
“You make that kind of joke?”

The misunderstanding was cleared, but the anger wasn’t. She had already been exposed to Jim’s merciless libido recently.
She couldn’t help but overreact.

“No, what were you thinking? I’m greatly disappointed, Hero.”

Jim grumbled while adjusting his clothes as if feeling wronged.
But Esmeralda was just dumbfounded by Jim’s attitude.

[Note: He’s vividly recalling the sensation of your thighs when you straddled him while strangling him. He feels very regretful.]

“For you to say such things…?”

Feeling wronged. But the frustration of knowing but not being able to say. Esmeralda was almost in tears at her situation of unilaterally becoming the bad guy.

“…Then you didn’t do anything particular to me, right?”
“It’s not that I didn’t do anything at aAAACK…?!”

Jim desperately resisted, grabbing Esmeralda’s wrist as it approached his neck again.
This time was different from the previous action. This wasn’t just strangling, but had the force to break and crush.

“I was trying to wake you up! To wake you up!”
“…Really?”
“Yes!”

[Note: He’s thinking that if he knew he’d be strangled like this, he should have at least touched your chest.]

Esmeralda was at a loss for words.
It’s fortunate that he didn’t cross the line, but with his inner thoughts like that.
I wonder if killing him now might be the way to bring peace and tranquility to this world.
But she’s the hero. She endured with superhuman willpower.

“Ugh…”

She didn’t kill Jim, but for some reason, the shoulder he supposedly grabbed and shook to wake her up felt hot.
Esmeralda seriously wondered if she hadn’t unknowingly accumulated sexual desire during their journey.

‘How, how shameless…’

Because she couldn’t even think about such things related to him until now, Esmeralda couldn’t help but feel self-loathing.
By the time Esmeralda escaped from her self-loathing and Jim escaped from his breathing difficulties, the two were finally able to discuss the current situation with a serious attitude.

“What’s your last memory?”
“Well, for me…”

Jim traced his memories and laid them out in as much detail as possible.
And after hearing that story, Esmeralda could summarize all those actions in one word.

“So you went on a date? I see. It’s devastating to know that while I was unconscious with a syringe stuck in my neck, you were happily dating Irina.”
“Hero, you seem to be in a bad mood recently. Perhaps it’s the magical da…”
“That’s sexual harassment.”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”

[Note: He’s thinking it might be the magical day week that comes to women every month.]

“…”

Esmeralda let out a deep sigh. Even if you stop the mouth, you can’t stop the thoughts.
And she’s also responsible for failing her recent fool act and revealing her true self.
A persona riddled with lies from the beginning.
If she maintained that in such an urgent situation, it would be perfect for a date to the underworld right away.
It was horrifying just to think about dating Jim of all people.

‘Looking at the current situation, it seems Irina has done it after all…’

Just the fact that the two of them are imprisoned is enough.
This can’t be excused.
How on earth would she excuse the reason for confining the hero and Jim?
Of course, she would to other people.
But convincing herself is basically given up from the start.
That is, it means Irina had no intention of convincing Esmeralda from the beginning.
Anyway, once she realizes her plan, Esmeralda would become a holy relic of the Celestial Order.

‘But why on earth?’

She could easily guess what Irina was trying to do.
But she couldn’t think of any reason why she had to do it at this timing, even abandoning the mission to defeat the Demon King as a member of the hero party.
Did the Demon King suddenly get scared? Did she have some sort of conviction that this journey would fail?
Or…

“Ah, come to think of it, we had this conversation at the end.”
“What conversation?”
“Um… It was a question like ‘Do you think there are miracles in this world?'”
“What did you answer?”
“I said there probably are.”

Jim explained the incident at that time well.
Surprisingly, Esmeralda thought Jim’s idea was plausible.
If miracles don’t exist and everything is just coincidence, then consider the process of reaching that coincidence as a miracle.
The result doesn’t change and it’s just a difference in perspective, but that alone can change a person’s way of thinking.
Because it was a chronic problem that the Celestial Order had, Jim’s Zen-like answer was surprisingly plausible.

“So I said, isn’t it a miracle that an ordinary person like me joined the hero party?”
“Ah…”

But with Jim’s answer that followed at the end, Esmeralda understood.
Jim’s joining is not a miracle. It’s not even a coincidence.
A thoroughly planned event.
But when he heard that as an example, it’s not strange that the credibility of the plausible words he had rambled on before plummeted instantly.

“Mr. Jim… You’ve done it.”
“…Did I do something wrong? Is that why this happened?”
“Unfortunately, it seems you’ve touched Irina’s reverse scale.”
“Then what will happen to me?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure, but I feel like I’ll turn into a puddle of blood.”

The situation is what it is. Esmeralda finally laid out her guess about Irina’s thoughts to Jim.
She can’t do it alone.
This place is no different from the heart of the Celestial Order. If it were 1:1, defeating Irina wouldn’t be a problem, but if she turns the entire force of the Celestial Order into enemies, it would inevitably be a certain defeat.

‘I’m not sure why she imprisoned Jim like me, but for now, it’s certain that Irina is concerned about Jim.’

So she won’t try to kill Jim right away. Anyway, only she knows about the special power Jim possesses.

‘Jim can’t be Irina’s experimental subject. Maybe she just imprisoned him in case of any possible rebellion?’

Unfortunately, Esmeralda couldn’t guess at all what being a hybrid demon meant to Irina.
She doesn’t even know if being a hybrid demon is a problem in the first place.
She only knows about the unidentified characteristic called Blue Blood. Even that was only recently confirmed, so Esmeralda decided to use Jim lightly.
It was the moment Jim fell back into hell.

“Alright. You understand? Anyway, Irina won’t kill you, so it’s enough if you just run in a different direction to draw attention.”
“But Hero. Can I ask one thing?”
“We don’t have time, so ask as quickly as possible.”
“I don’t quite understand why you think the Saint wants to kill you.”
“…It seems she wants to use my corpse to make a holy relic for the Celestial Order. Because I’m, you know, the hero.”

There are various gods in this world.
And most of them are local deities or minor gods.
That’s why the authority of the Celestial God, who bestowed miracles on this world, was so powerful.
But now the Celestial God is gone. It’s disgusting to even imagine how much dirty politics went on for the Celestial Order to rise to this position again after collapsing once.
In such a situation, the hero appeared.
The hero is a ‘seed of miracle’ created by the aforementioned local deities, minor gods, and even the Celestial God joining forces.
Yes, it means her existence is almost half a divine apostle.
Irina’s plan is to grind her up to create a kind of ritual device to recreate the Celestial God’s miracle.
Esmeralda explained the current situation to Jim based on her assumptions and the information she had uncovered so far.

“Do you understand?”
“Hero, you’re smarter than I thought. You know all sorts of things.”
“…”

Esmeralda wanted to punch Jim’s mouth, which was laughing even though it wasn’t a laughing situation.

“But Hero is indeed Hero. I can’t believe you really believed such things. There’s no way that kind and pure Saint would do such a thing, right?”
“You son of a…”

The difference in the image created usually.
Esmeralda gritted her teeth but held back from throwing a punch, knowing the cause was with herself.

“Fine… Let’s say that. But we’re imprisoned right now. Let’s say Irina is kind and pure as you say. Then how would you explain the current situation?”
“Well…”
“No, fine. Let’s assume that point too. What if it wasn’t Irina who did this? Then someone else did it, but wouldn’t the conclusion be the same? That it was done in the Celestial Order?”

Esmeralda pointed to the scenery outside the iron bars as she spoke.
This is still inside the Celestial Order.
In other words, even if it wasn’t Irina, it means someone related to the Celestial Order did it.
And the reason why the Celestial Order would detain the hero?

“Whoever did it, the conclusion is the same.”
“No, Hero. There’s a fatal flaw in that.”
“Fine. Speak up. I’ll try my best not to throw a punch.”

Jim was momentarily intimidated by Esmeralda’s prickly attitude for some reason, but carefully opened his mouth.

[Note: He’s thinking that no matter how smart you try to be, you’re still an idiot.]

Esmeralda clenched her fist, ready to strike at Jim’s momentary inner thoughts, but Jim expressed his opinion faster than that.

“To begin with, a holy relic cannot be made from the Hero’s corpse.”

How do you know that?
Esmeralda couldn’t continue speaking at his too confident appearance.