Part 1

“Jeez. Finishing off the demon and then instantly passing out. How lame Hero-kun.”

It was already night when everyone had made it out safely from the mines.

The adventurers were on their way back to Ferst Town.

Hero-kun was lying down in the back of a supply wagon.

Once the demon was defeated, he was so exhausted that he just fell to the floor asleep.

Being the good senpai she is, Adventurer-chan carried him out of the mines.

“Still to think he pulled it off. Maybe I’ll treat him because he did so well today. We’re getting double the reward, so I don’t mind. Hahaha!”

Some of the other adventures chimed in.

“Wait you’re treating Adventurer-chan? Please treat me too! All of our reward money is going to our debt!”

“Me too Adventurer-chan. I treated you last time. Please return the favor!”

“Gosh you guys are hopeless. I guess I’ll help you all out! Everyone tonight, dinner is on me!”

“Yeah!” x10

Adventurer-chan turned to Heroine-chan and her knight squad.

“Of course you guys are all invited as well!”

“Eh really Adventurer-chan?”

“Captain, what do you say?”

“...”

Adventurer-chan jumped in.

“Come on Heroine-chan. The more the merrier!”

Heroine-chan looked at all the eager eyes.

“... Fine do what you all want!”

“Yeah!” x9

Part 2

Yawn!

Ugh.. what happened?

I fell asleep right after we defeated that idiot demon.

One of the muscle heads saw me.

“Oi! The kid is finally awake!”

I sat up on the edge of the wagon.

Adventurer-chan came up to me.

“Jeez Hero-kun. You took a long time to wake up. All of the miners have already gone home.”

I looked around.

We are at the town gates.

All of the adventurers and knights were sitting around the wagon.

I guess they waited for me to wake up.

“Huh? What happened after I passed out? That stupid demon didn’t come back did she? God she was so annoying!”

“Don’t worry Hero-kun, once you beat the demon, everything went smoothly. The Miners all got out safely and aside from Slime-chan all the monsters cleared out of the mines.”

“Slime-chan?”

“Yeah our giant slime friend! I named him Slime-chan! He’s really nice as long as he gets to eat the magic crystals he likes so much. There’s enough of them in that cave to last a few years so we decided to leave him for now.”

(Slimes are genderless but Slime-chan is cute so it gets a -chan)

“Huh. Well it might become a problem later but someone else can deal with it when the time comes.”

Adventurer-chan held out her fist.

“I have to say Hero-kun. I’m impressed. To think after having trouble with some baby slimes, you would be able to defeat a demon. That’s pretty cool of you.”

Hehe.

I bumped her fist.

Everyone else around us was smiling.

They happily joined in on praising me.

“True. Hero-kun you’re short and lack any muscles whatsoever but you are actually pretty strong.”

“Yeah hero-kun even though you’re lazy, and a coward, you can be pretty reliable.”

“Hey! Try a little harder with your compliments you jerks!”

Grumble!

My stomach started growling.

Warrior-kun put his arm around my shoulder.

“Hahaha! Forget about that stuff Hero-kun. Let's go back to the guild and celebrate! It’s all on the house!”

“Really! That’s great. Let’s go!”

“Yeah!” x19

I hopped off the wagon.

Everyone was cheering ready for the feast, except for one person.

Heroine-chan started walking the wrong direction.

“You all go have fun. I’ll just go home.”

Adventurer-chan and some of the knights ran up to her.

“What? Cmon Heroine-chan! It’s tradition to celebrate after completing such a big quest!”

“Yeah Captain! Please come join us!”

“No it’s already late. You guys can have the rest of the week off, so party to your heart's content. I’m exhausted so I’ll be going home.”

Hm.

We saw it with out own eyes.

I was the one that defeated the demon.

I was the one that levelled up and even my adventurer’s card has earth demon under the monsters slayed tab.

With all of that, there’s no arguing that she lost our bet.

Is she really that salty about me winning?

So what if I’m not the hero anymore.

I wasn’t gonna do shit against the demon army anyways.

This quest was just a big fluke.

She’s also one of the four heroes so I don’t know why she’s mad at me.

If she wants to beat the demon army so bad, she should just pick up the slack.

Everyone started walking back to the guild.

Adventurer-chan walked with me.

“Hey I just called you a cool guy so why don’t you try acting like one. Go fix this.”

“What? What am I supposed to do about it?”

“Just figure something out. I don’t want any of my friends missing out on all the fun.”

Ugh.

How annoying!

I turned to everyone else.

“Hey guys, I'll meet you at the guild. I’m gonna go grab something important really quick.”

I started moving in the direction towards Heroine-chan.

Part 3

I finally found Heroine-chan walking through an alley.

“Hey! Hey Heroine-chan!”

I was running towards her.

She turned around when she heard my call.

Huh?

She’s crying?

When she saw my face, Heroine-chan quickly turned back around and started drying her tears.

I’m surprised to see someone who actually takes things so seriously in this world full of idiots.

I finally caught up to her.

“Hey. I uh… came to bring you convince you to go back to the guild.”

“No. Please leave.”

Although she wasn’t facing me, I could tell she couldn’t stop her tears.

“Hey. You know a hero would never cry over something like this. If a hero loses their spirit, who is gonna save the world? Of course I’m not gonna do it.”

She finally turned around to me and started yelling!

“I know you’re not! You’re lazy. You’re weak! You’re stupid! And you’re a coward!”

Hey!

Why are you mad!

I’m came to help you!

“Well You're right. That means you need to put in some extra work to compensate. I’m not going on any journey to fight more demons but you still are right? When do you plan on leaving?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

Of course I knew she was planning on going.

In “Light World” she joins the hero’s party permanently once we defeat the demon.

Plus, I think anyone who knows her would have expected something like this to happen sooner or later.

“Just call it instinct. After getting to know you, you seem like the type who would go and save the day.”

“Hmph. Well I’m not going. I can’t save anyone.”

“Am I missing something? You were so full of confidence during the quest. What happened?”

“While we were in the dungeon, I realized maybe it was cruel to force you to fight the demons. You are a weakling after all.”

I’m thinking about leaving you behind.

“I decided I would be the one to defeat the demon army, but now I know I can’t. When that demon transformed, I froze with fear. When I finally worked up the courage to fight back, I almost killed us all. None of my attacks did any damage. In the final battle, I was useless.”

“Uh… well you can’t let that discourage you. I’m sure you’ll do better next time.”

“There is no next time. I can’t do it. I’m too weak!”

I put my hand on her shoulder.

“Hey-”

“Just get out of here!”

She threw my hand away and turned her back at me.

Welp, I guess that’s that.

I’m out of here.

I’m sure she’ll feel better eventually.

I’m gonna go enjoy the party.

I heard some snuggling from behind.

I looked back at Heroine-chan crying again.

…

Ugh.

This girl is so troublesome.

I pulled out my adventurer’s card and started pressing some buttons.

I looked back and called to Heroine-chan.

“Hey!”

“I already told you to-”

“LIGHTNING”

Crash!

A huge thunderbolt went flying out of my hand past Heroine-chan.

It barely missed her face.

She looked at me shocked.

I ran up and started swinging my broken sword at her.

She quickly came to her senses and we started clashing swords in the middle of the alley.

“Hey what the hell are you doing!”

I ignored her and just kept swinging!

“OOF!”

Heroine-chan sent me flying across the alley with a kick.

I crashed into some crates.

Damn this hurts really bad.

As expected of a hero, her stats really are super high.

“Have you lost your mind you idiot!”

Pant-pant

I locked eyes with Heroine-chan.

I was barely able to stand, but still I lifted my arm.

Realizing I was serious, she did the same.

“LIGHTNING!” x2

Our two lightning bolts met in the middle.

The bolts were pushing each other back, but even after putting all of my mana into it, my spell was completely outclassed.

Crash!

Heroine-chan’s lightning veered off and explode as hit hit the ground in front of me.

I was sent flying against the wall at the end of the alley.

Smoke and debris covered the air.

When it all cleared, I was sitting up against the wall with Heroine-chan’s sword at my neck.

God she’s scary!

I just looked at her and started screaming.

“Ah! I give up! I give up!”

Heroine-chan put her sword away!

“Why did you attack me?”

“You were being annoying so I had no choice.”

“What are you talking about? Are you stupid?”

“No you are! You were crying like a little baby! You said you were weak. Well look! You just wiped the floor with me! I killed the demon but I couldn’t even put a scratch on you.”

“...”

“Look! You’re not weak! In fact, you don’t know but you happen to be one of the four strongest people in the world. That demon was strong but it wasn’t impossible for you to defeat her. There were also some unforeseen circumstances, that were probably no one’s fault by the way, to make that more difficult than it could have been. Your strength is definitely necessary if the kingdom wants to defeat the demons so stop crying already.”

“...”

Still no answer.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

Heroine-chan hit me on the head.

“Ouch! Don’t hit me you idiot! I was tossed around all day. Just feel better already so we can go eat!”

Heroine-chan hugged me.

“Thanks.”

Well this is a little awkward.

It’s hard to believe that such a cute girl was just about to kill me.

“Ouch Ouch Ouch! Let go. You’re welcome but you really did a number on me. Just cast heal on me so we can go celebrate."

“Alright. Hehe”

Part 4

After getting healed up by Heroine-chan, I felt a lot better.

We made our way back to the guild.

When we walked in, everyone was already partying like there was no tomorrow.

We joined up with Adventurer-chan and the others.

“Oh you two took longer than expected. Heroine-chan don’t tell me you fell for this idiot and allowed him to do unspeakable things to you?”

“What? Is it true captain? Did you really fall for Hero-kun?”

“Ah! I knew Hero-kun was a pervert ever since we met and he pulled out his little hero-kun and started swinging it around.”

“Hey! Shut the hell up you idiots! And you don’t just stand there! Say something!”

Heroine-chan just stood there and laughed.

What a troublesome girl.

Whatever.

Adventurer-chan brought me another drink.

“Don’t worry Hero-kun we were just teasing you two. We all knew you would bring her back. Although I didn’t know about you flashing people? Are you actually a pervert?”

“Of course not! That was an accident! Just forget about that.”

I turned over to Heroine-chan.

“Heroine-chan our last feast you were served so just sit back and have a good time. I’ll take care of everything.”

“What. Hero-kun you should serve you’re senpai too. I saved you so many times inside of that dungeon!”

“I also worked hard on that quest. Please serve me too Hero-kun!”

“Hero-kun I ate too much too move. Please get me something to drink!”

“Get it yourself you idiots!”

Heroine-chan kept laughing at all of us.

It’s good to see her actually having a good time.

The party continued.

It lasted till the dawn.

I’ve been working hard non stop since coming to this world.

It’s nice to finally just have a good time with all these new friends.

Maybe I’ll take my time getting back to my world.

This one is starting to grow on me.