The Heroes Who Executed Me Are Obsessed With Me

“Shit, everyone get back!”

“T-the ground’s freezing!”

“Aaaaagh!”

The North.

In a scene where demons were fleeing in panic, only one person walked leisurely.

“It won’t be long now.”

Selimia gazed at the freezing land with a look of rapture.

“I’ll soon have a place prepared just for him.”

Crack!

The fleeing demons began to freeze, one by one.

As she passed among them, Selimia thought back to when she had met the Hero, Clay.

He had clearly seen through her identity. She was, by all rights, a target for extermination.

Even if Selvaro protected her, Clay had been the man who bore the hope of the entire continent. He embodied the will of the Holy Alliance, and no one had the power to oppose him.

And yet, he didn’t attack her.

Why?

“…Because he recognized me as his only companion.”

Aside from Selvaro, Clay had been the only one kind to her.

Even without knowing the details of her curse, everyone in the royal family found her behavior strange—how she could never stray beyond a certain radius.

Naturally, they avoided approaching her.

Except when they were ordered to escort her, no one spent time by her side.

What she felt then—was utter loneliness.

It wasn’t just because no one kept her company.

It was a profound solitude born from the fact that no one existed who could truly understand her secret.

Selvaro never realized— that what she wanted was a partner.

She wanted a life where she could love someone, but her body was too frail, and fearing she’d become a burden to her brother, she had voluntarily walked into the snowfield alone.

That longing defined everything she now was.

“He promised me.”

It felt as though Clay had read her loneliness.

He treated her gently, and promised they would walk together.

After the Demon King was dead, he said, he’d be able to do anything for her.

Selimia had asked him then—anything?

When he nodded, she asked him to become her mate.

He simply smiled.

He didn’t answer with words, but she understood what that smile meant.

“He couldn’t say it aloud.”

Because Selvaro had been watching.

Clay had responded not with words, but with action.

“Perhaps my brother wanted the Hero to die.”

He had always tried to confine her to a gilded cage. He despised the Holy Alliance. Maybe he would’ve preferred Clay to disappear.

That was something she could never forgive.

If it weren’t her brother, she wouldn’t have hesitated. But the remaining bond of family stayed her hand.

That was all it was.

Rumble rumble rumble…

Then, she felt the ground shake.

“…Hm?”

Something was charging from afar.

Looking closely, she saw demons riding quadrupedal beasts that looked like bulls.

“Trying to put up a fight, are they?”

Shhhk!

Arrows launched into the sky.

They rained down, infused with Magia—powerful enough to pierce stone.

Thunk! Crack crack crack!

Countless arrows embedded into the permafrost.

Each impact sent shards of ice flying.

Amid the dust and debris, Selimia furrowed her brows.

“Vulgar.”

She wasn’t even amused by the thought that they believed this could stop her.

Boom!

She stomped her foot.

From the impact, freezing energy surged outward and condensed into a single form—

RAAAARGH!

—an Ice Dragon: Freezing.

“Go and tell them.”

Though it was merely a soulless shell, Freezing fed on her power and roared like a beast gone mad.

“Tell the insects to get lost.”

At her command, Freezing soared into the air and rained down icy shards.

The charging demons were struck and shattered apart like splintered glass.

“Damn it!”

The one barely dodging the ice shards and screaming—was none other than the horned demon.

“How the hell are we supposed to get close?!”

After insulting Clay, he had been forced to take the vanguard. Now, seeing the others fall one by one, he went pale.

“She’s a complete monster!”

He had faced countless beasts before.

But truthfully, he had never understood what a Hero or Demon King truly was.

He understood now.

“Gahk?!”

“Gyaah!”

As the cries of the dying filled the frozen battlefield, the horned demon looked behind him.

There was the black reaper.

Now the Demon King, Clay, was walking forward slowly.

“Shit…”

There was no retreat.

Desperate, he screamed.

“Let’s go! That bitch who came to devour the North—let’s take her down right here!”

Driven to madness, the demons charged with him.

And the result—

“Guh… gahk.”

Was utter defeat.

Limbs torn off, heads gone, bodies crushed in half.

Amid a field of broken demons, the horned demon pushed himself up from the icy ground, coughing blood.

“D-dammit…”

It had been a hopeless battle.

Before they could even get close, they were struck down like bugs, crushed by ice.

Crunch, crunch…

Clay stepped forward, boots crunching softly on the snow.

“I commend you.” Clay looked down at the horned demon and spoke, “You're not entirely useless.”

“Cough… what?”

“I said I’ll let you live.”

His eyes, like the depths of an abyss, stared down at the horned demon.

“So don’t ever speak foolishly again.”

Step—

As Clay walked away, the horned demon swallowed dryly.

This wasn’t just punishment.

It was Clay teaching him the simplest law of the Demon Territory.

If you can’t correctly identify the one to follow—

You Die.

Even demons who lived like savages, closer to primal instinct than civilization, weren’t ignorant of the importance of a hierarchy of strength.

“…Merciful, aren’t you.”

Even if they knew it, demons seldom felt the weight of such hierarchy unless they experienced it firsthand.

Clay had given them a ‘chance’—something foreign to demonkind.

“I’ll follow you.”

It was a behavior unheard of from demons thus far.

And precisely because of that, the horned demon realized:

Clay had the overwhelming ability to rebuild and lead the demons anew.

He was ruthless, but he didn’t waste what could be useful.

KAWWWW!

Freezing, who had earlier crushed the vanguard demons, flew over Clay, preparing another attack—then suddenly stopped.

Crack!

It bit down and shattered the ice chunk in its mouth, then gently landed next to Clay.

“Trying to make peace now?”

Clay asked quietly, watching Freezing.

But the beast gave no answer.

It simply turned its head toward a woman walking from the distance.

Clay followed its gaze—and saw her clearly now.

The woman known as the Witch of the Snowfields drew closer, her figure becoming distinct.

“Ahh…”

She sighed in rapture.

“You really are alive…”

“…Selimia.”

“Yes! You remembered me~!”

Her face bloomed with joy.

But Clay’s response was calm—cold.

“You being here means the real Freezing is dead, then.”

“Huh…?” Selimia’s eyes widened at his words.

“Yes. I already knew.”

Clay had known that Freezing was binding her—constricting her power.

“But I left it alone.”

At the time, he hadn’t known whose side to take.

Even after speaking with her, he couldn’t simply conclude she was some malevolent Witch of the Snowfields.

Nor could he guarantee she wouldn’t be once unshackled— so he’d left it as that kingdom’s problem.

“From the Hero’s perspective, it was the wrong call. I should have determined good and evil and dealt with it properly.”

But he hadn’t.

Because he couldn’t know what the right choice was.

“I didn’t know back then my future would turn out like this. So maybe it’s not surprising I chose to do nothing.”

“You knew… and you still left me there?” Selimia’s face lost its joy, “You could have freed me…”

“You had your reasons for not telling me, didn’t you?” Clay’s voice was quiet, “You didn’t know how I’d react… once I learned you weren’t entirely human.”

She hadn’t revealed anything—because she didn’t know how he’d respond.

“In that sense, you’ve always been an emotional one, Selimia.”

Clay had respected that—at least, back then.

“I wanted to protect your heart.”

So he listened to her words, said kind things to her, even indulged her whims.

“But the way you are now… isn’t what I’d hoped to see.”

“…!”

Selimia flinched, surprised.

Clay continued.

“Of course, I’ve changed too. What matters now is whether you can be a controllable Calamity.”

“You want to use my power?”

“If possible.”

But if it was the old Clay she wanted… that part of him was already gone.

“So, Selimia—what do you think?”

Looking at what she was doing now, she clearly wasn’t sane.

But that didn’t necessarily mean she preferred this Clay over the old one.

She could still be chasing the Hero he once was.

“…Mr. Clay.”

At last, after a brief silence, she spoke.

“I was surprised—and grateful—to learn you were still alive.”

She brought her hands to her chest.

“If you’d freed me earlier, maybe you wouldn’t have been humiliated as you were. But… I didn’t want to show you who I really was either. My brother also wanted me to remain a normal human.”

“…”

“But I realized something too late. It wasn’t that you couldn’t decide what I was. Rather…”

Her eyes glimmered.

“You knew I was too similar to yourself—that’s why you couldn’t let me go. Unlike you, who could deceive yourself, I would have descended upon the world immediately as a Calamity.”

“Deceived… myself?”

“Yes. Just look at you now, Mr. Clay. You’ve become a splendid Calamity, haven’t you?”

She giggled softly.

“That’s right. You were always the perfect match for me. There’s no other reason—we were destined to become this way together.”

“Is that so.”

“So come with me, Mr. Clay.”

She extended her hand.

“I’ll guide you now—to a cradle no one else can touch. To the empire I’m going to build.”

“I can’t do that.”

Clay shook his head.

“I’m not a Calamity—I’m the Apocalypse.”

He was the revelation written for those who betrayed everything he was.

“You too must become a herald of the end. That’s all I want from you.”

“That’s not quite the same as the promise you made, Mr. Clay.”

A snowstorm swirled around her.

“This world belongs to us alone.”

“I’m sorry, but I carry another duty now. And if you can’t follow that—”

Clay drew the Demon Sword, Syltanaro, from his waist.

“Then you’ll need to leave my land, Selimia.”

“That sword…!”

Selimia’s expression twisted violently, “Let go of it. Right now.”

“It’s mine.”

Crack!

Selimia clenched both fists.

“Then I have no choice.”

A fierce chill swept around her.

“If I want something now—I’ll take it by force.”

Her foot stepped forward—

Toward Clay.

(End of Chapter)