I Picked Up the Abandoned Hero

146. End of the story – END

“Why don’t you follow what you’re told!”

“Why should I follow your dirty orders?”

“Dirty command?! What is dirty? All I’m asking is for you to finish what you’ve done so far. But you’re saying it’s dirty?!”

“Yes, it was dirty. “I was deceived by Hermod’s false legend and took a meaningless life.”

“Are you not thinking about those who died or were sacrificed in the process? They sacrificed their lives hoping that the demons would disappear, but how dare the hero insult them like that…!”

Insult, the queen said.

She was a queen who always maintained a relaxed and gentle attitude, but when Arcel finally removed her brainwashing, it seems that she was no longer able to maintain her composure.

The queen bit her lip so hard that it bled.

“The warrior just needed to do one thing. As a warrior, he annihilates demons from the world with his holy sword. Even though you have the power to easily pay for it, why don’t you do it and betray humanity until the end! Have you really given up on being human?!”

Arcel closed her eyes for a moment after hearing her queen’s words.

Her queen’s words reminded me of many things.

The life you have lived so far, the blood of countless people who have colored that life.

So now I can give a definite answer.

“…If you say that your way is truly human, then I will be ashamed of having been born as a human.”

That is wrong.

Her own life was also wrong.

Now is the time to correct that mistake.

“You are out of your mind. The warrior was truly possessed by the demon. “Could it be some kind of incubus?”

“Could you please stop comparing me to you and that succubus-like community center mop? You just crossed the line. “You should be good at jumping rope like me.”

“Ha, he seems very excited when we call him Satan.”

“Well, I didn’t like it at first, but now I like it because it sounds like the name of a hero who saved the world.”

“How can these so-called heroes…!”

Thump…!

But the queen did not accept that.

Once again, in a final struggle, he gathers all the broken pieces of the Holy Sword and the remains of the Demon King and begins to create something similar to the giant before.

“…Wow, do you still have the strength to do that?”

“It is not the queen’s natural power, but the power of the devil. “You are somehow gathering the dregs of the demon lord you summoned a moment ago with the remnants of yourself.”

Alfred frowned, saying he had already gotten tired of it a long time ago, but Arcel said it didn’t matter and held the holy sword.

“But there is no problem. Admit it, queen! “Your thoughts are wrong, and further resistance is meaningless!”

“How dare a hero who only cut demons with a sword and couldn’t even do that properly say that he knows something…!”

The light of the Holy Sword once again covers the world.

Sharp!

In the end, the giant the queen was trying to create collapsed before the body was fully formed, and this time, perhaps because she had used all her strength, the queen fell to her knees.

“uuu-!”

The queen who fell into the abyss glares at Arcel with fierce eyes, but that is all she can do.

“Haa…! Ha…!”

But Arcel was equally exhausted.

Arcel also let out a rough breath, dropping her holy sword.

Today, I have already fought a series of battles, and in the end, I have strained my body beyond its limits because I fought with the Demon King in both consciousness and reality.

“Wow, women’s fights are really fierce and persistent.”

Alfred, who had lost strength in his legs a while ago, can now just watch with a smile on his face.

“Are you going to give up like this… Hermod has spent thousands of years working on all of this…!”

“How can they say so proudly that they have not realized their foolishness for thousands of years!”

Nevertheless, the queen tried to stand up again, and Arcel again grasped the handle of her holy sword with her trembling hand.

That moment.

“Hmph, the more carefully a tower is built, the more difficult it is to admit that it will collapse. Even if it’s a tower built on a sandy beach.”

Phew!

“aaahhh…!”

With Clen’s voice, a scorpion’s sting rose from the ground, pierced the queen’s shoulder and bound her body.

Just enough to move again, Clen, who had regained her stamina, came to checkmate her.

“Yes, that is the scream that a proper human being should hear.”

Previously, she was a queen who did not change her expression even when a hole was pierced in her chest, but now she screamed in great pain, as if she felt her pain.

“Before, you invaded my territory and set it on fire… So what should I do? Should I poison your b*tch’s face with a poison that will slowly melt it?”

“Ugh…”

“By the way, it’s funny, this is the end for the queen of the kingdom who fought head-on against the demon lord’s army.”

“This disgusting… You talk as soon as you become a vampire-“

The Queen glared at Clen, but all she got back was a sneer.

“You are a more disgusting human being than a vampire like that.”

Of course, Clen did not forget her past work in her own domain.

Of course, at the request of Alfred and Arcel, she did not direct her revenge on the unrelated citizens of Hermod, but that did not mean that her anger disappeared.

“Originally, I would make you experience pain worse than death, but you won’t be able to go that far in a body like that. So I’ll leave it to you, the warrior. “Because you deserve it too.”

“…”

Thanks to this, Arcel was able to hold her holy sword again and approach her queen.

Arcel raised her holy sword high as if to behead the queen.

Tuk!

“…What are you doing now? “Are you saying you can’t cut because you don’t have enough strength in your hands?”

But instead of decapitating the queen with the holy sword, he plunges her holy sword back into the ground.

Clen couldn’t understand Arcel’s actions.

“The same goes for me. For Arcel, the Holy Sword is like a lifelong companion. But would you want to stain such a companion with such dirty blood?”

However, Alfred seemed to understand.

Alfred, standing in front of the queen while being supported by a skeleton, tapped his forehead with his hand.

“I don’t need it. You decide its end. As Alfred said, I don’t want Mistel to come into contact with that kind of blood.”

“Ha, hahahahaha…! Are you going to do this until the end?! So, even though he won against the devil, he lost his close friends. “If you show up incompetently at the most important moment, you lose everything!”

Arcel no longer even glances at the queen and she turns around.

The queen laughed at Arcel until the end.

“Oh, wait a minute. “I’m going to bite into his mouth and even the panties that the orc wore that haven’t been washed in five years.”

“Why on earth do you have something like that?”

“I deliberately placed several of them here for torture purposes. “If you want, can I give Grandma Clen one too?”

“You better stop before I throw it in your face… Damn, was there really anything left?”

Trug.

“…You’ve finally arrived.”

Just as Alfred, who had not heard, was about to gag the queen, Clen turned around, as if he had not expected her at all.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

She thought that the queen no longer had any strength left or any of her subordinates left, but there was still one person left.

“Oh no, I’m not scared normally, but now someone as scary as the devil has appeared.”

“Lord Karkal…”

This is Sir Karkal, the knight commander of the Kingdom of Hermod.

Although he did not fight the Demon King directly, he is a knight whose skills rival or exceed that of his former warrior colleagues.

It may not have been normal, but meeting Arcel, Clen, and even Alfred when they were all exhausted was beyond the annoying level.

“Lord Karkal, I will give you all the strength I have left. Let us deal with these disgusting creatures!”

Furthermore, the queen seemed to have been waiting and gave even the smallest amount of remaining power to Karkal’s sword.

Of course, given the queen’s current state, it wouldn’t last long, but a sword like that was enough to pose a threat to the current three people.

“Yes, I will follow your orders.”

Karkal looked for a moment at the black energy that began to surround his sword, then he bowed his head and accepted the queen’s orders.

Clen and Alfred were extremely surprised and prepared for battle again.

“…”

But for some reason, Arcel did not react at all and just closed his eyes as if he had given up.

“As ordered by the queen, I will deal with you, the most disgusting person here…!”

“What-“

Shut up!

And the queen was beheaded.

My head fell without even understanding what happened or what Karkal said.

The head of the leader who once led Hermod tumbles ungainly on the ground.

“This will be your final command that I follow. Her Majesty the Queen. Then… please don’t sleep well.”

Without even blood flowing anymore, the queen’s head turned into ashes and was scattered by the blowing wind.

The end of the queen of all evils was so vain.

It was truly vain for her, who was the queen of Hermod in name, to face the end of being beheaded by the knight who gave Hermod’s loyalty and her life.

“Uh… So we won’t touch it?”

“You can rest assured, Alfred. “It looks like Lord Karkal has already met your maternal grandmother.”

Arcel said with her wry smile.

Suddenly, a white crow flew in and sat on Arcel’s shoulder.

The reason Arcel did not react when she saw Karkal was because she felt there was no need to react.

“…I have no shame, warrior. “Please let me pay with death for my foolish sins of defaming the warrior’s honor over the past five years and following the queen’s orders.”

After confirming that the queen’s head was gone, Karkal knelt down to Arsel, bowed his head, and apologized.

Then, he begged that he please cut off his head with his own sword and not blame the other knights.

“I finally learned the truth after meeting a hermit. The crime I committed against you cannot be repaid with just my life… But please spare the other knights. “They just didn’t know the truth and didn’t even have the power to decide their own actions.”

Arsel listened quietly to Karkal’s words, then slowly opened his mouth.

“Is that really true? Did they really not have the right to decide their own actions?”

“Well, that is…”

“If he wanted, he could have disobeyed the queen’s orders even by abandoning his position. “Isn’t it their choice to do otherwise, and shouldn’t they also accept the consequences?”

Although Karkal was taken aback by Arcel’s words, he had nothing in particular to refute.

“Yes… What the warrior said is correct. Then I will handle my subordinates myself. “I will also cut off the heads of all of his subordinates and then take their own lives, so there is no need for you to get your hands dirty.”

Because everything she said was absolutely right.

That even includes yourself.

Although he had vaguely known for a long time that the culprit of all this was not the hero, he ended up labeling her as a witch and pursuing her for a whopping 5 years without being able to rest properly, just because of her burden.

If he had taken the hero’s side and clearly revealed to everyone that he was wrong, at least Arcel would have received better treatment than all the punishment he received at the time.

He was a warrior who sacrificed his life and his entire life for them, so even though he felt a great sense of betrayal in all of his actions, there was nothing he could say.

“…hahahaha, why are you saying such scary things? Lord Karkal.”

“Hero…?”

Still, Arcel smiled and put Karkal’s sword in its sheath.

“I’m joking. I’m joking. “Can’t I even joke?”

Arcel stretches lightly and smiles brightly.

“But everything the warrior said was right. “How dare we continue to live with this face…”

When Karkal saw Arcel like that, he cried even more.

How could they dare to do such a cruel thing to her, who was more than her lifelong benefactor?

“Yes, but not everyone has the courage to change the world. “It would have been even more difficult to disobey the order, especially if it came from someone in a high position like the Queen.”

Even if everyone is right, calling something wrong is wrong.

That is definitely a courageous act.

But does that mean we can blame all those who failed to muster up such courage, calling them sinners?

Of course, that is also a sin.

It was a very terrible crime, covering the truth with lies and trying to make lies the truth.

“So, live and pay for that sin for the rest of your life. “If you live your life working hard to rebuild Hermod’s collapsed capital and help those who were robbed of their lives by war to regain their homes, that’s fine with me.”

So, live your whole life in atonement.

So that those who suffered and were robbed of precious things due to war can live their lives again, and that we can correct the mistakes of the past and lead to a better future.

“And please don’t call me a warrior anymore. The Demon King died a long time ago, so there is no longer any need for heroes. “I’m just an ordinary person now.”

Arcel looked down at her Mystel, her own holy sword.

After that, as if he had made up his mind, he held his holy sword tightly in his arms and released it into the sky again.

Mistel turned into a brilliant light and returned to the sky, and the power contained within it came back down to earth and began to restore nature that had been destroyed by war.

Collapsed mountains, burned forests, dried up rivers, all these places began to overflow with life again.

“Well, then… It may be a shameless thing to say. By any chance, a warrior, no. Can’t you, Arcel, lead the kingdom of Hermod, which has lost its master? We need leaders. “We need a king to lead us.”

Carkal forgot his shamelessness for a moment and bowed his head again to Arcel and pleaded.

But Arcel shook her head.

“No, I would have been willing to do that. Unfortunately, I already have someone who has already made a reservation.”

Instead, he ran into Alfred’s arms and was hugged.

Alfred smiled with satisfaction and flew into the sky, ready to return to the castle.

“And you must go your own way. Even if there is no such thing as a queen or me, if you move forward without forgetting the mistakes of the past… You will definitely be able to head to a better future than now.”

And just like that, Arcel disappeared with Alfred.

After that, nothing is known anymore, at least in the human world, about what happened to the two people.

According to rumors, Arcel threw off all the shackles and restraints of this world and set out to find his own happiness, or it is said that the warrior ascended to heaven, saying he was now free.

But, what about the truth?

Still, one thing was certain.

The hero who defeated the devil lived happily with the prince who was with him, or something like that.

It was the end of a story involving a very common hero.