THE BOY HERO’S STRUGGLE
People are getting blown away before my eyes.
The sight of them flying through the air almost seems like a joke.
But of course, getting blown away like that isn’t going to end painlessly for those people.
It might look like a farce, but this is still reality.
Some of them hit the ground headfirst, snapping their necks at unnatural angles and killing them instantly.
But most aren’t so lucky, and their bodies fall down in a horrific state.
I’ve never seen a human burst open before.
The nightmarish scene continues before my eyes.
It’s hell on earth.
Beyond the masses of screaming, fleeing, dying people, I see the monster that’s creating this nightmare.
Forcing my shaky legs to move, I—
I wake up with a jolt.
Once I see that the scene in front of me is just the room I’m currently staying in, I breathe a sigh of relief.
It was just a dream.
I press a hand over my chest, where my heart is pounding intensely.
I have a pulse. That means I’m alive.
That in itself is a relief.
The shirt beneath my palm is soaked in sweat.
It always happens like this when I have that dream.
The dream that forces me to recall the time when I encountered the monster called the Nightmare of the Labyrinth.
It was terrifying.
I am still a child, but I’ve become the hero.
Which is why I was sent to participate in that battle as an observer only, so I could experience the battlefield as soon as possible.
It was a certain victory, I was told, so there wouldn’t be much danger.
But in actuality, my first experience on the battlefield turned out to be a terror.
I learned for the first time how easily people can die.
When my mother gave birth to my younger brother, Schlain, the physical toll took her life. With that grief in my heart, I first learned the true weight of death.
But on that battlefield, death was everywhere I looked.
People died one after another with horrible ease.
I was so terrified that my legs were trembling, but I knew I had to face my fear.
Because I’m the hero.
I don’t remember very well what happened after that.
I think I ran up to the Nightmare, only to stand there stock-still, unable to do anything.
But I’m told that my arrival distracted the Nightmare long enough to buy our people time to cast a big spell.
The spell burned the Nightmare up into nothing, and I miraculously survived.
I feel like someone protected me, but I don’t really remember.
After that, all kinds of people showered me with praise.
“You really are a hero.” “It’s thanks to you that the Nightmare was defeated.”
But I didn’t do anything.
I couldn’t.
And I still don’t know if what little I accomplished was right.
Looking out the window, I see the ruined walls around the town and the destroyed homes that still haven’t been fully rebuilt.
I played a part in creating this scene.
The people who live in this town were attacked by an army that I was allied with.
And the Nightmare I stood up against was fighting to protect this town.
Who was really in the right?
“Heya, Hero. How’s it going?”
When I return from my near-daily routine of monster hunting, I encounter a familiar face.
It’s Aurel, the girl around my age with the unusual manners.
Apparently, she’s from the Empire and is staying in this town due to complicated circumstances.
“I’m all right.”
“I have a reward for ya after all that hard work.”
Aurel hands me a fruit.
Looking around, I see men eating the same fruit.
She must have brought them as refreshments for the Empire people working on the wall.
“Thank you.”
Not wanting her kindness to go to waste, I accept the fruit and take a bite.
“There seems to be a lot of fruit in this town,” I remark, thinking about how often fruit seems to be included in meals here.
“Yeah. I guess there was this thing called a Divine Beast who liked ’em, so they were starting to get into cultivating more of ’em, right? And it happens to be harvest time for some of them now or whatever.”
I almost spit out the fruit in my mouth.
That “Divine Beast” must be the Nightmare.
That terrifying monster…liked fruit?
It’s a little hard to imagine.
But the people in this town really did worship the Nightmare.
I know this, because the townspeople sometimes accuse me of killing their Divine Beast and throw stones at me.
Looking at them, I start to wonder who the real villains are.
The Nightmare I saw was truly the stuff of haunting dreams, almost too terrifying to be real.
But to the people of this town, it was a Divine Beast to be worshipped.
“Sir Hero! There you are!”
As I think back on the Nightmare, a voice reaches my ears.
It belongs to a man in the uniform of a Word of God soldier, running up to me as he shouts.
“What are you doing? Were you not told that today is the departure ceremony?” The soldier frowns.
Today, the Ohts and Word of God soldiers gathered in this town are having a ceremony before they advance to the next town.
I was told I should participate. However…
“I thought I gave you my answer already. I won’t be participating, and I won’t be advancing to the next town, either.”
“Please don’t say such things. It’s quite concerning.”
The man really does look anxious.
More specifically, his expression is that of an adult perplexed by an unreasonable child.
But I’ve made up my mind.
I won’t participate in this war any longer.
I can’t stop the war, but I can certainly refuse to give my support.
I want to stay in this town and help them rebuild.
I won’t simply do whatever adults tell me to anymore.
I’m going to act on my own decisions and do what I believe is right.
“I’m staying in this town, no matter what anyone says. Please pass on that message.”
“That simply won’t do.”
Since he came to fetch me himself, I’m guessing this soldier is of decent standing. But right now, his expression is one of pure distress.
I almost feel a little bit bad, but I don’t intend to change my mind.
Just as I’m about to open my mouth to reiterate my decision, I hear a distant roar.
Recognizing it as the sound of people screaming, I start running toward the source immediately.
When I arrive, I realize I’ve come to the departure ceremony that I was so adamantly refusing to attend.
Full of soldiers, the place is in total chaos.
“What happened here?!”
“Sir Hero?!” The soldier I spoke to turns to me in a panic, spit flying everywhere as he shouts like a madman. “It’s the Nightmare! A Nightmare swarm is attacking us!”
As soon as I hear the word Nightmare, my body shudders involuntarily.
But what does he mean by a “swarm”?
The answer soon appears before my eyes.
“It can’t be…”
As I look on in horror, a swarm of white spiders comes charging at the gate.
“Close the gates!”
Shouts ring out through the chaos.
Terrified of the countless spiders coming toward the walls, the soldiers nevertheless know what they have to do, and they jump into action.
Immediately, they close the gates that were open for the departure ceremony.
At the same time, other soldiers climb to the top of the city walls and prepare to attack the oncoming spiders.
I try to follow them, but someone grabs my shoulder.
“Sir Hero, please run!”
Turning around, I see Sir Tiva, the Empire knight who’s often with Aurel.
“It’s too dangerous here. Take shelter somewhere in town.”
“I’m going to fight, too!”
Tiva’s grip on my shoulder indicates that I don’t have a choice, but I refuse anyway.
“No.” Tiva shakes his head. “You’re still young. Much too young to die here.”
The pressure on my shoulder grows.
In his eyes, I see grim determination.
Just like that, I know without a doubt: This man was at the battlefield that day, too.
He knows firsthand how terrifying the Nightmare is.
And because of that, he also knows that we have no hope of winning this fight.
“Even so, I have to fight!”
I can’t run away now.
I don’t know how or why, but I know I need to stop the oncoming swarm of spiders.
These aren’t like the Nightmare who protected this town.
For some reason, I can sense without a doubt that they intend to bring calamity on this town and all its people.
I shake off Tiva’s hand and climb up the wall.
Looking down, I see that the spider swarm is already closing in on the wall.
The soldiers are attacking with magic, arrows, and more, but to little effect.
There are simply too many of them. If one spider goes down, another simply takes its place.
How many spiders are there?
It looks like at least ten thousand to me, likely a great many more.
As far as the eye can see, the ground is covered in spiders.
The horrifying sight fills me with fear.
But behind me are the people of this town and that girl with the strange manner of speaking.
I can’t run away now!
I use Holy Light Magic, the magic I learned when I became the hero.
The handful of spiders hit by the attack goes down, but a flood following them simply tramples their corpses.
I keep using the spell, but it’s not fast enough.
There are too many of them.
The spiders at the forefront of the swarm soon reach the wall.
“Huh?!”
And then, without slowing down, they simply start climbing.
“G…gaaah!”
The soldiers try to fight back in a panic as the spiders close in.
The monsters in this area could never climb walls. But these spiders are speeding up it with no problem whatsoever.
The wall might as well not even be there!
“Down! Get down now!” shouts a man who seems to be a general.
But by then, the first spiders have already reached the top of the wall, and they bear down on us like a tidal wave.
One rises up right in front of me, baring its fangs!
I quickly draw my sword and try to block the attack, but my body is simply too light to stop the spider’s charge, and I tumble backward.
“Agh…!”
Thrown off the wall, I hit the ground below.
I manage to stand up despite the pain and see soldiers fighting off the spiders that have already crossed over the wall.
The soldiers hold their shields forward and try to push the spiders back, but more and more spiders keep coming, pushing ever forward.
A thread shoots out and hits one of the shields, dragging shield and soldier alike into the swarm of spiders.
“Aaagh! Help me!”
The soldier screams as he disappears into the endless wave of spiders.
The same scene is unfolding all over the wall.
Truly, the stuff of nightmares.
But I have no time to be shocked, because the spiders are closing in on me, too.
“Aaaaah!”
All I can do is swing my sword and try to fend them off.
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