by Okina Baba
I lost her around the very same time the demons became active and I became the hero.
My father was grief-stricken at the loss of my mother, but as the king, he had no choice but to commit himself to his work while shouldering that grief.
Because of that, he became estranged from Shun and Sue.
I truly believe their familial bonds will surely heal with time, but right now, both my siblings are attending the academy.
My father will just have to bear it until they graduate.
Once those two graduate from the academy, I have no doubt they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.
I wonder if I’ll survive this war and get to see them again?
No, of course I will.
I can’t just die here.
“If we survive this war, betcha the rewards’ll be huge.”
As if trying to prevent the mood from getting too dark, Hawkin speaks up in the most cheerful voice he can muster.
“I would hope so. Our compensation for that battle with the Nightmare of the Labyrinth wasn’t nearly enough for the trouble we went through,” Jeskan chimes in.
“Yeah, probably ’cause Julius went and crushed the damn thing into dust. If the corpse had been even slightly salvageable, we could’ve probably sold it as materials.”
Hyrince glowers at me exaggeratedly.
Come on, what choice did I have?
“Really! I’m sure Julius did his best. Besides, I wouldn’t have wanted to carry a dead spider back home anyway.”
I can’t help but smile at Yaana’s offhand remark.
“You’re probably right that the remains of a monster like that could’ve earned a good price, though. Bet the silk and such could make some clothes with pretty high defense properties, don’t you think?”
Jeskan shakes his head in response to my banter.
“Not likely. Taratect thread is apparently generated by a skill. Even if you dissected a corpse, you wouldn’t find any.”
“Really? I didn’t know that.”
I instinctively reach for the scarf I always wear.
“Oh yeah, taratect thread. Y’know, I heard there was one time some adventurers brought back some taratect thread that weren’t sticky, ’bout ten years back.”
“I’ve heard that as well, when I was still just a young adventurer. They say a party burned down a taratect nest and found some intact thread inside. Apparently, it had ridiculously high magical conductivity and durability, so it fetched quite a bounty. And this part is only a rumor, but I’ve also heard they collected a dragon egg there. Dragon eggs are so rare, word is selling just one would be enough to allow you to live in luxury the rest of your days. As a fellow adventurer, I was rather envious at the time.”
“Yeah, and then there was a craze of capturing taratects to get more o’ that thread, weren’t there? But nobody managed to turn up one that could produce it.”
I froze during this conversation, still clutching my scarf.
Hyrince raises his eyebrows at me.
“Julius, you really didn’t know how valuable that thing is? You’re always wearing it…”
“I had no idea.”
I answer awkwardly.
“? What’s this, then?”
Overhearing our exchange, Yaana tilts her head inquisitively.
“The scarf this idiot’s always wearing is made from the same thread they’re talking about.”
Hyrince’s words turn all eyes toward the scarf around my neck.
Guess I’d better not tell them that Shun hatched the dragon egg Jeskan mentioned and is currently raising the product as a pet.
“Ho-ho! Is it, now?”
“I’ve never actually seen the material before. I did hear that some of it was even sold to a royal family, but I never guessed that family was yours, Julius.”
“So it’s that valuable? I always wondered about it, since you never take it off.”
“Oh, no, I only wear it all the time because it’s a memento of my mother…”
“Really? Ah, I’m sorry…”
“It’s all right. It was a long time ago.”
Shortly after she gave birth to Shun, my mother’s health declined, and she passed away.
She knitted this scarf for me not long before Shun was born.
I knew it was made from taratect thread, but I had no idea it was such a rare material.
“Don’t worry about it, Yaana. Julius just has an Oedipus complex.”
“Come on, Hyrince, isn’t that a bit much?”
I grin in response to Hyrince’s light teasing.
Seeing this, Yaana feels relieved of her anxiety about upsetting me and giggles.
This is how it should be. A hero shouldn’t be enveloped in a gloomy atmosphere.
I’m grateful to Hyrince for having my back. It’s so important to have a close friend who really understands you.
Although I do think he could’ve picked a better phrase than “Oedipus complex.”
True, I may have more intense feelings about mothers than most people, having lost mine when I was young.
That’s evident from the fact that I see traces of my mother every time I look at Shun, who never even knew her.
I still remember the first time I met Shun.
It was the day before my mother died.
I was surprised by his steadfast gaze, the intensity in his eyes so unsuited to a baby.
His expression looked just like my mother’s.
Mother was a strong-willed person, too.
She gave birth to Shun knowing full well that it could destroy her weak body.
“If anything happens to me, please raise your little brother right.”
As she spoke, the radiance in my mother’s eyes was just like the one I saw in Shun’s.
Intelligent, gentle, yet somehow dangerous.
Those eyes…
When I think about it, the moment when I became strongly aware that I was an older brother was also when I accepted my position as hero.
When I first took on the role, I was terrified.
The realization that I would have to fight shook me to my core.
But when I lost Mother and met Shun, I felt the powerful desire to protect him.
I am his older brother, after all.
Even if I can’t replace our mother, I can at least protect him as a brother.
That was the beginning of my story.
The origin of Julius the hero.
My thoughts are interrupted by telepathic communication from Hyrince.
Julius, there’s something strange about the way these demons are moving.
What’s strange about it?
It’s like they’re dispersing all their troops to invade human territory all at once, but we don’t know why they’re breaking up their forces like that.
You think there’s something behind it?
Yeah. It’d surely be better to concentrate on one front, so why divide their troops like that? It’s best to assume they have a reason.
Any idea what that might be?
Not sure. It’s beyond me right now. But we’d better not let our guards down.
Got it. Thanks.
I have a terrible feeling about this.
As if we’ve somehow walked into some enormous trap.
Like being caught in a spiderweb.
It reminds me of the fight against the Nightmare’s Vestige. I feel the same vague anxiety now as I did then.
But as a hero, I can’t run away.
Once again, I tightly grasp the scarf made of spider thread.
THE VOICE THAT ANNOUNCES RUINATION
“All right, class, today we’ll be talking about wyrms and dragons.”
Professor Oriza starts class with his usual disinterested tone.
Wyrms and dragons…
Hearing that, I can’t help but remember that incident.
Hugo’s attempt to assassinate me, and the wyrm’s attack on the school.
Several years have passed sinc
e then.
Although few were hurt in either assault, it was still a shock to the academy.
However, Hugo was never definitively punished.
Before anyone could render justice, he disappeared from the school entirely.
The running theory is that Spatial Magic was involved in his escape, but nobody knows for sure.
At the same time, Ms. Oka disappeared, too.
In retrospect, she wasn’t present for the fight against the earth wyrm, either.
Ms. Oka was strong enough to easily bring Hugo down.
If she’d participated in the subsequent battle, I’m sure we would’ve defeated the monster more easily.
So why wasn’t she there?
With her gone, we have no way of knowing.
That isn’t all that changed after the incident.
For some reason, Fei started devoting herself to leveling up, even though she hadn’t been interested in it at all before.
She quickly achieved the evolution she’d once dreaded and now lives outside.
Something about witnessing the death of the wyrm that may have been one of her parents must have changed her outlook.
My own perspective changed a little after that encounter, too.
Before the attacks, I constantly aspired to be like my brother Julius.
But because of what happened, I learned a small fraction of the difficulty of his path.
Even now, I can’t shake the fear lurking in my mind.
It may be due in part to the fact that I’m a reincarnation, but I’m afraid of killing—and of being killed.
But in order to live in this world, in order to walk by my brother’s side, I have to conquer that fear.
Still, even if I have to overcome it, I don’t think I should forget it.
Since then, I’ve had opportunities to participate in exercises and battle monsters.
These creatures are nowhere near as strong as the earth wyrm; they’re so weak that they fall to a single swipe of my sword.
Still, the weight of killing them is the same.
I mustn’t forget this weight. I mustn’t get used to it.
I have to master my fears and go into battle fully prepared to take a life.
If I forget the weight of that act and get accustomed to taking lives, then I won’t be me anymore.
Just a monster that happens to share my name.
It’s possible I’m just being naive.
But even if I am a peace-loving fool, I don’t want to feel any differently.
I want to respect and understand the weight of a life.
From there, I have to measure the balance between what I want to protect and the lives I must take to do so, and thus decide whether to fight.
It’s easy to put into words but much harder to do in practice.
But my brother must fight with such thoughts held close to his heart.
He’s far too kind to be oblivious to the value of life.
I hope to rise to the same heights as my brother someday.
But I’m not remotely prepared for that day yet.
It’s not something I can just achieve overnight. I have to cultivate it little by little.
Until I find that resolve, I’ll simply continue improving my strength.
That philosophy has helped me progress since that incident.
I’ve grown, and my physical stats have been enhanced accordingly.
My current stats are fairly well-rounded.
Thanks to my body’s development, my physical stats have caught up with my magic stats.
I’m happy to have rounded out like this.
But it no longer elicits the same kind of pleasure as playing a game.
The stronger I am, the more frightened I become of wielding that strength.
But even so, I have to get stronger.
With the demons becoming more active, there’s no telling when a war might break out.
If I’m not strong enough to act when that time comes, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.
I may not be able to fight by my older brother’s side yet, but I don’t want to hold him back.
If possible, I want to at least get strong enough to protect Sue, Katia, and the others close to me.
Sue’s been acting a bit distant lately.
She used to always call me “Brother” and follow me around, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore.
Since she’s becoming a young woman and all, it’s not unusual that she’d want to distance herself from me, but it’s still a little sad.
Still, she hasn’t pulled away completely, and I can tell she still looks up to me, so I can’t complain too much just yet.
My relationship with Katia has become a little strange, as well.
Ever since the incident, I’ve gotten the sense that she’s trying to put some distance between us, bit by bit.
She denied it when I asked her about it.
But she avoided eye contact and backed away while she did, so I’m not convinced at all.
When I grabbed her arm to press the question, I was surprised by how thin it was.
It was too thin. So thin that I thought it might break.
On top of that, she gave an unexpectedly cute squeak of pain, so I let go instinctively.
Watching her face turn red as she rubbed her arm where I’d grabbed it, I couldn’t hide my distress.
“S-sorry.”
I didn’t know why I was so flustered as I apologized.
But in that moment, even though I know Katia as well as I know myself, she looked like a total stranger to me.
Things have only gotten more awkward with Katia since then.
Yuri is just about the only one who hasn’t changed. She’s still as zealous about converting people to the Word of God as ever.
If anything, she may be getting more and more intense.
Whenever I see her harassing a student, I pull her away to let her prey escape, only to have her target me instead.
It’s become a routine for us.
If Sue and Katia are around, they’ll jump in to mediate, and we all get caught up in our familiar, friendly squabbling.
So even if there have been a few small changes, my life remains pretty peaceful.
Until a voice shatters that peace.
“Huh?”
Since we’re still in the middle of class, my confused mutter echoes through the classroom more loudly than I expected.
“What is it, Schlain? Is there some part of the lecture you don’t understand?”
Professor Oriza eyes me politely.
But his voice doesn’t register through the chaos erupting in my mind.
“Schlain? Schlain?! What’s wrong?!”
I’m sure the blood must have been draining from my face.
But how could I not be shocked?
The Hero title is only held by one human in the world at any time.
And I know very well who that hero is supposed to be.
Once you acquire a title, you can never relinquish it for as long as you live.
The title of Hero is no exception.
As long as you live.
So that can only mean one thing.
There’s no other explanation.
I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it.
But that title has undeniably been added to my status.
No. It can’t be.
This can’t be happening.
No, no, no no no no no no no no no!
That could never happen to my brother!
But that title obdurately reveals the reality.
On this day, a hero has died…
…and a new hero is born.
SPIDER DEMON LORD
The Demon Lord holds a white piece of fabric in her hand, examining it with great interest.
A white scarf that, until a sh
ort time ago, was worn by a hero.
“White, take a look at this. Apparently, it’s made of spider thread.”
The Tenth Army Commander of the demon army, known only as White, turns her face toward the scarf in the Demon Lord’s hand.
However, her eyes remain closed.
“I heard it traded at a high price among humans, but can you believe the hero was wearing it?” The Demon Lord murmurs sardonically. “Unreal.”
She fiddles with the white fabric absently, then suddenly becomes still.
Her expression contains the innocent glee of someone who’s just had a great idea.
At least, that’s how she sees it. To anyone else, it looks like a wicked smile.
“Wasn’t the hero’s younger brother a reincarnation? Let’s give this back to him, then.”
As she speaks, she imbues magic into the scarf in her hand.
“Yep, yep. A little present for the hero’s little brother, full of the Demon Lord’s divine protection. Pretty slick, don’t you think?”
White remains silent, offering no consensus.
“Ahh, I’d love to see the look on Yamada’s face when he gets this…”
Picturing it, a malicious grin spreads over the Spider Demon Lord’s face.
GOD LOVES SPIDERS
Looks like she’s taken a liking to Wisdom.
It’s so nice seeing a present well received.
One can’t help but be pleased by such a dramatic reaction.
We’ll definitely have to save the image of her setting herself on fire and flying into a panic.
Surely, our special little spider will put Wisdom to good use.
Even with your mind divided, you can stay surprisingly calm.
Since you have two Ruler skills, Pride and Perseverance, I’m sure you can manage one more.
And someday, I hope you’ll learn of my existence.
I have high hopes for you.
I’m sure you can entertain me for a long time.
For I am an administrator and an evil god.
Now then, what will you show me next?
How will you interact with this world?
How will you change it?
I’m very much looking forward to finding out.
AFTERWORD
Hello, everyone. It’s me, the probably, maybe, hopefully beloved Okina Baba.
It can’t be! You’re telling me there are enough brave souls out there who bought the first volume to justify a second?!