The Former Hero Begins to be Re-evaluated

“It’s really great to have a young person here.”

“Haha. It’s nothing.”

“Hans. Can you help here too? Can you move that over there?”

“Yes. I understand. I’ll move it right away.”

“Wow… you’re really strong.”

The next day, I diligently farmed following the village chief.

At first, the villagers looked at me with worried eyes, wondering if I could do well.

No matter how young, farming is never easy.

They were worried about whether a young man from the Empire would be good at farming.

But that worry was short-lived, I quickly became popular among the villagers.

Physical labor… a hero would be the best at it in the world.

Given the nature of farming that requires stamina and strength, I was bound to be popular.

As a hero, I had far better stamina and strength than dozens of ordinary adult men.

I was doing well, naturally receiving praise and food while doing the work the villagers asked me to do.

This peaceful life was the life I wanted, and I was quite satisfied with it.

‘Sigh. She’s still staring.’

But, it was still inevitable that something bothered me.

Stare…

A girl constantly staring at me from afar, wasn’t her name Ria yesterday?

Her gaze didn’t stop.

She kept staring at me since morning as if lasers would come out of her eyes.

Has she been staring for 6 hours now?

She was nothing short of a stalker.

‘I can’t even report this…’

If the person stalking me was a robust adult male, I would have resolved it with force.

I would have beaten them up badly, telling them to stop such creepy behavior.

If not that, I would have told the village chief and asked him to resolve it amicably.

But the one stalking me was just a girl who looked about 14 or 15 years old.

Therefore, I was quite troubled. I couldn’t resolve this with force, nor could I tell the village chief.

What should I do if she keeps stalking me in the future…

Looking at that intensity, it seems like she’ll keep staring for a week or a month.

It really felt like it would be quite annoying.

“Huh… Hero?”

“Let’s talk for a moment.”

It can’t be helped.

In the end, when I had a moment, I approached Ria first.

As I approached, Ria was startled.

I took Ria to my house.

Originally, I was going to ignore her because I thought it would be annoying if I responded to everything.

But thinking about it again, it seems certain that it would become more annoying if I left it like this.

It’s better to resolve it quickly.

“So what do you want from me?”

After bringing Ria to my house, I immediately asked the main point.

What’s the reason for following me around like this?

“As I said, you really are the hero.”

“I won’t deny it.”

These words of mine were acknowledging that I was the hero.

Ria was very happy at the fact that I finally acknowledged being the hero.

“I want to make a request to the hero…!”

And then she started to explain why she had been looking for the hero so desperately.

“I have a favor I really want the hero to do for me.”

It seemed that Ria wanted to entrust a request to me, who was the hero.

#

The demon realm where the Demon Lord lives.

That demon realm is called the land of death.

Because of the eerie demonic energy emanating from the Demon Lord and demons, it was impossible for most living beings to even survive.

For living beings, just being exposed to demonic energy causes considerable physical and mental pain.

“Let’s stop searching for today and rest for now.”

And it was the same for the hero party.

Of course, they weren’t ordinary people, so they had some resistance to demonic energy, but even so, it wasn’t perfect immunity.

In the hours-long search for the Demon Lord’s castle, they were inevitably exposed to demonic energy.

Although it hadn’t gotten dark yet, the hero party was quite exhausted.

They absolutely had to get sufficient rest.

In the end, although it was still early, they decided to prepare to camp here.

Herald told the party members to unpack, deciding to continue searching for the Demon Lord’s castle tomorrow.

‘Everything can’t go according to plan…’

As he prepared to camp like that, Herald couldn’t help but sigh.

Originally, Herald’s plan was to go straight to the Demon Lord’s castle and kill the Demon Lord without wasting time in the demon realm.

If they did that, they wouldn’t need to be exposed to demonic energy, and there wouldn’t be annoying things like camping like this.

But he didn’t know that the party members wouldn’t know the way to the Demon Lord’s castle.

To not know the geography of the demon realm after fighting against the Demon Lord’s army for over a year as the hero party, it’s… ridiculous no matter how you think about it.

Forget it. Forget it.

But what can you do about something that has already happened?

Herald sighed but tried his best to accept it.

“I’ll stand guard here, so please prepare the tents and meals.”

Unlike the party members who were taking off their armor one by one, Herald didn’t take off his armor.

And he gave instructions to the party members.

The hero stands guard, and the rest of the party members prepare the camp.

Herald’s judgment wasn’t particularly strange.

“Um. Hero Herald.”

“What is it?”

But the party members seemed quite troubled by Herald’s words.

Did I make some strange request?

Herald had such thoughts, but he couldn’t find anything strange about his words.

Why are they making such expressions?

“Maybe… we don’t know how to set up tents…”

“What…?”

A moment later, what Herald heard was quite shocking.

No… what did I just hear?

“And… we’ve never prepared meals before…”

“What did you say?”

And they can’t cook rice either?

Herald didn’t understand… no, he very much didn’t understand what he had just heard.

If the party members in front of him now were novices who had just started traveling, he could understand to some extent.

How much experience could they have setting up tents and preparing meals in their lives?

At first, they might not know, and it was something they had to learn.

But these weren’t novices who had just started traveling.

They were a veteran hero party who had defeated countless demons over the course of a year.

For such a hero party to not know the basics of camping, this situation made no sense at all.

“Then how did you handle meals and tents until now? This doesn’t make sense…”

Surely they must have camped during their year of travel.

Then how did they handle it each time?

Herald had no choice but to ask the party members.

“Well… Hero Han Soo did everything for us.”

And the answer he heard was shocking.

‘Huh…’

Han Soo, who wasn’t here now, had apparently taken care of everything.

From preparing tents to preparing meals.

And it seems Han Soo handled all other miscellaneous tasks as well.

So the party members were fine not knowing how to prepare for camping.

‘So Han Soo did everything?’

But even so, it wasn’t right for the hero to do everything.

As the Knight Commander, he heard some news about the hero party.

Usually, trivial tasks like sending letters to the Empire are often done by party members, but in the past, Han Soo had apparently handled all such trivial tasks.

So he expected that Han Soo had made a large contribution to the hero party, but he didn’t know it was to this extent.

Even so, to not know how to camp at all after traveling for a year…

Honestly, it was a bit of a headache.

Herald was full of desire to question them, but it wasn’t a situation he could do anything about.

“I understand. Then you all stand guard. I’ll make the preparations.”

He couldn’t teach the party members one by one at this point.

In the end, they decided to switch their assigned tasks.

It would be right to tell the 4 party members to stand guard now, and for him to prepare tents and meals for 5 people.

“Yes. Understood.”

At Herald’s words, the party members nodded and prepared to stand guard.

And Herald, left behind, prepared the camp alone.

‘Sigh… something seems wrong.’

Herald sighed as he ended up preparing meals and tents for 5 people.

They don’t know the geography of the demon realm, and they can’t prepare for camping.

He was confused whether he was leading a hero party or carrying around a bunch of luggage.
Thinking about it, it seems he’s only been disappointed in the party members so far.
Party members should be beings that help the hero, but far from helping, they’re only being a hindrance…

He felt like he wanted to just abandon the party members and go to the Demon Lord alone.

‘No… as long as they’re good in battle, it’s fine.’

But still, Herald endured it.

Even if they don’t know the geography or can’t prepare for camping, it didn’t matter much in the end.

After all, those were just secondary things.

The essence of the hero party was ultimately battle.

No matter how bad they are at other things, it’s fine as long as they’re useful in battle.

‘Surely they’ll be useful…?’

If they’re not even useful for that, then the problem becomes really serious.