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THE MAN WHO WAS ONCE A HERO

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*****

Rob, Saburo, Arcelia, and Berta arrived at the police station with the patrons from the entertainment district in tow. They finally grasped the situation thanks to information from the police and government officials waiting there, but the government's leadership and the situation on the ground were in utter chaos, with every response coming too little and too late.

Since Rob and Arcelia—the very people from the Alliance who could be called the cause of all this—had shown up, even the government officials who knew the circumstances looked at them with thinly veiled hostility.

「The top priority right now is how to bring this situation under control. Guide us to the command center.」

Saburo led them into a room where a command center had been set up, effectively separating Rob and his companions from the police and government officials. Ten minutes later, Saburo returned with those same government officials in tow. It had been decided that Rob and the others would evacuate to the Interworld Train, while Saburo—who had been retired—would return temporarily to quickly quell the chaos.

Saburo tried to inform Rob of this, but only Arcelia remained in the police station hallway.

「Did he go to the bathroom or something...?」

Arcelia, her expression stiff, gave a small shake of her head.

「He went into town. I have a message from Mr. Rob.」

At those words, the government officials behind Saburo began to murmur.

Doing whatever they want. This is why the Alliance is... Their whispers seemed aimed specifically for Arcelia to hear.

「And what is the message?」

Saburo had a vague idea of what Rob was planning to do.

「――'I'm going to beat the hell out of everyone.'」

Even if Saburo returned to duty and tried to manage the situation from the top, the rioters wouldn't quiet down immediately. People would get hurt in the meantime. If so, beating up the troublemakers beforehand would help calm the situation down. And if possible, he asked that they not punish him for this action as an extrajudicial measure.

「……I see.」

Saburo accepted the message as quintessentially Rob, but it caused the frustration of the government officials behind him to explode.

「Those outsiders are doing whatever they please!」

「What does he think this is, a country governed by law? Is this the Alliance's way of doing things?」

「Grand Marshal Fujita, this is interference by the Alliance. We must lodge a stern protest—」

「――SILENCE!」

The government officials, who had been loudly voicing their dissatisfaction with Rob and the Alliance, all jumped and trembled at Saburo's roar.

「Focus on taking action to resolve this situation and nothing else.」

With those words, everyone swallowed their complaints. Saburo glanced briefly at the city in the grip of chaos visible through the window, mouthed a silent apology, and immediately began issuing orders to restore order.

＊＊＊

It had happened right when Saburo went to the command center alone.

「……I'm going to go do something.」

Rob had whispered this into Arcelia’s ear.

「Then I'll—」

Arcelia had immediately grasped Rob’s intent, but Rob didn't let her finish.

「――It's hard to fight when there are people in the line of fire. There's a possibility Saburo-san might be attacked, so stay here. Plus, there's something I need you to tell Saburo-san.」

Rob quickly rattled off the message for Saburo and, without waiting for Arcelia's response, headed toward Berta.

「You might be punished for this!」

Arcelia could only manage to say that much; she couldn't even bring herself to follow him.

She knew she would just be a burden. She also knew Rob was being considerate to ensure she wouldn't be punished by the Alliance.

She said it because she understood it without being told.

As expected, Rob acted as if it were no problem at all, merely waving a hand behind him without looking back.

Having entrusted the message to Arcelia, Rob called out to Berta, who was staring vacantly out the window with a lethargic air.

「――Lend me a hand.」

Berta, who had been thinking it was about time to go home, looked at Rob with an annoyed expression.

「What are you going to do?」

「――Beat the hell out of everyone. That'll keep things quiet for now. Saburo-san should be able to handle the rest.」

The sheer boldness and brute-force simplicity of his statement left Berta dumbfounded for a moment.

「Why don't you just leave it to him? Besides, if you do something like that, the Alliance is going to get mad at you, aren't they?」

「They aren't the type to worry about things like that, are they? Besides, I'm owed for leaking my background to this country's government.」

「Are you still not going to pay back the favor for that armed passenger ship?」

「Then let's call this incident a wash. So, for this one, I'm one favor in the hole.」

「You have no way to pay it back. You're heading off to the Alliance, aren't you?」

「I don't know what'll happen when I get to the Alliance, but I don't think having a pipe with a Demon King Slayer, favor included, is a bad deal, do you?」

「……Why go that far? Because you're a Hero? Because we're from the same hometown? You're an idiot, you know that?」

Berta tilted her head, genuinely puzzled.

Rob gave a wry smile at Berta, who spoke her mind so bluntly about things that were hard to say.

「Because I was a Hero. That's one of the reasons, I suppose. But well, it's just sentimentality. ……The people running late over there? That's me. Or, well, me before I was reincarnated. If that's the case, I can't just abandon them, can I?」

Berta didn't seem entirely convinced, but after thinking for a moment, she nodded.

「Fine. You like devoted women, right?」

Berta glanced over Rob's shoulder at Arcelia, who was standing there looking lost.

「……Yeah, I do. Though I like your type too.」

Rob was attracted to women who walked their own chosen paths, whether it was the steadfast Arcelia or the free-spirited Berta.

「All talk. I'm not going to be some convenient woman for you, you know?」

Even as she said that, Berta was calculating.

The more famous Rob became, the higher her reward would be upon a successful recruitment. A pipeline to a Demon King Slayer with a favor attached wasn't bad either. It was a kind of advance investment.

Shortly after, Rob and Berta slipped out of the police station.

It was 1:30 AM. Between the red flashing lights of the sirens and the light spilling from the police station, the outside was surprisingly bright.

Trying to escape that brightness, the two ducked into the shadows of a building some distance from the station, and Berta summoned a dog-like magitech machine, roughly the size of a large motorcycle, which she had built when she pursued that armed passenger ship.

「I'm just giving you a ride, okay?」

Rob nodded at Berta, who was making it clear she wouldn't do anything but drive.

「Yeah. If you can, head toward where those rioters are.」

「Honestly, you're nothing but trouble.」

Berta complained but activated a search spell in her mind. Once she confirmed Rob was riding on the back, the magitech dog-machine took off without a sound.

It ran like a real dog, yet its power transcended any canine.

Berta drove the machine through the night entertainment district, literally running every which way toward the rioters. In narrow alleys, it kicked off the walls; when diving into buildings, it leaped from window to window.

Rob used the assault rifles in both hands to pick off rioters one after another.

*Tat-tat, tat-tat*—a rhythmic gunfire echoed.

Berta didn't slow down once, and Rob didn't miss a single shot.

Whenever fire arrows or electrical discharges flew at them sporadically, Berta dodged them or Rob shot them down.

In Nichirin, the sale of offensive magic tools to civilians was prohibited, and the magic tools that had flowed into the underworld were all obsolete models. Thus, there were almost no tools that posed a threat to Rob.

Furthermore, Rob occasionally jumped off the magitech dog-machine, stormed buildings or shops, swiftly neutralized the threats, and returned to Berta—mixing in hit-and-run tactics.

In addition, by intentionally not silencing his gunshots, he drew enemies toward him, saving the trouble of searching and shortening the time required.

In this way, Rob neutralized everything—from yakuza turf wars and clashes between rioters with different ideologies to looting and attempted assaults—without causing any collateral damage to the surroundings.

He didn't kill them. He simply shot out both their legs or incapacitated them with stun rounds, anesthetic rounds, or sticky rounds. He might have killed one or two, but Rob wasn't about to worry about that.

After repeating these sprints, shootings, raids, and interceptions many times, Rob suddenly leaped off the magitech dog-machine.

「I'll go again when I'm done. Wait here.」

「I'm already tired, you know?」

Berta immediately stopped the dog-machine, complaining and acting even more lethargic than usual. The faint sweat on her skin was alluring, but Rob didn't leer; he stared into the dim street.

Across a one-way street, there was a silent, old building district, and a chaotic drinking district where lights still remained.

It was already past 2:30 AM, and there were few people, but...

Suddenly, a building's window shattered.

Suddenly, a streetlight was severed halfway up.

Suddenly, the roof of a small izakaya with a red lantern collapsed.

There were no screams, but there was a palpable sense of frightened, bewildered people.

Rob narrowed his eyes.

Something was there. They were fighting.

Lost in the darkness and moving at high speeds, he could only catch glimpses of them in the split seconds they slowed down.

One was particularly fast: a lanky white man in a lab coat. His weapons were scalpels and kicks.

The other was a Nichirin man in a black *samue* work outfit and a Hannya mask. Though his speed couldn't match the white man's, he was parrying with a cane sword as if he were reading his opponent's moves.

Rob hid in the shadow of a parked car, strained his ears, and waited for an opportunity.

Then, the voices of the two men began to filter through bit by bit.

「――To seek strength by fusing humans with magic tools without training or self-cultivation... that is the work of a heretic.」

「――If reality does not match the ideal, then one should change reality. You should be happy that we have brought it closer to the ideal.」

If one were to believe the content of the conversation literally, it seemed this white man was the one who had created that abnormal muscle man.

The voices came in fits and starts, and only the sound of clashing metal echoed well through the night streets.

「――Only by achieving equality can peace arrive. A nation that spouts that poverty and disparity are the price of freedom and competition is evil.」

「――A sword cannot be forged without being struck. Equality that wishes for pipe dreams and lacks respect is mere nonsense that misleads the weak.」

「――We must lead this country, which is being deceived by monsters and oppressed by a privileged class, and lead the people of this country.」

「――The deceptive teachings of barbarians are unnecessary for this noble land of the gods.」

Now the foreigner spoke, and the Nichirin man retorted. It seemed they were both preaching their own justice.

This went on a few times, and just as the street had become a bit more ravaged, the moment their voices and presence crossed the road—

A thunderous roar echoed.

It was a gunshot that sounded like the rhythmic stomping of marching boots.

As the two who had been engaged in destructive combat dodged away, bursting apart at the swarm of hundreds of bullets, they glared in the same direction.

It was Rob, aiming his guns with both hands.

「――Can you two not do anything without preaching about justice? Take it somewhere else; you're disturbing the neighborhood.」

Wearing a hooded combat uniform, he held two Gatling rifles.

There was only one person who could stand here, carrying such an inexplicable thing.

「...Are you Rob? What does an Alliance dog want?」

Akao Takemitsu. A hitman and slayer for a certain high-profile politician. He had been ordered to take advantage of this commotion to secretly eliminate foreign operatives.

「So you are Fujita's fellow countryman... You seem to be an insolent man, just like Fujita.」

Iosef Stalgyn. He was an operative for a certain country, one of those who had performed the procedure on that muscle man and brought chaos to Nichirin.

Of course, Rob had no way of knowing any of that.

「I'll let you go if you leave now.」

They were skilled, after all. Better not to fight if they didn't have to.

But Rob's words were in vain; the two showed no signs of backing down, their fighting spirit only rising.

「Do not disregard the bigger picture and wave around your childish justice.」

「If you weren't a monster, we could have been comrades... No, it's not too late. Come to our side. I will guide that power to the right path.」

Rob rolled his eyes and snorted.

「Only proper conduct can be justice. Where is the justice in you two? I won't call you evil, but at best, you're just animals. If you're animals, act like animals and kill each other quietly in a place where no one is around.」

People must live.

Only after that is satisfied can one choose justice.

Justice is something one chooses; it is never something that resides within one.

The result of each action simply determines whether it is justice, evil, or neither.

Rob, too, wished that he might hold it in his own hands, and acted accordingly, but perhaps it wasn't so.

Even so, if it was a battle that involved no one else, it wasn't evil—it was merely the 'nature of the animal called human.' If so, that was fine.

The words "I may not be able to be good, but I want to be righteous," which he had once written in Harlequin's interview report, simply summed up Rob's way of life.

「I suppose I must erase you here.」

Akao had been ordered to eliminate foreign operatives. Rob, who was connected to the Alliance, was included among those operatives.

「The second monster. It will be a fine souvenir for my comrades.」

The two men, whose ideologies had been denied and who had been disparaged as animals, added Rob to their target list.

The slayer crouched slightly and readied his cane sword, and the mad scientist let his arms hang limp while gripping his scalpels, and the Hero put his fingers on the triggers of his two guns.

Then, in the instant of a blink, that might or might not have happened—

The sharp metallic sound rang out once, twice, three times.

*****

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