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THE AFTERMATH OF THE HERO WHO DEFEATED THE DEMON KING

Treat me to a Ko-Fi to give me more motivation!!!

*****

It was on the return journey from his travels that Rob first learned of the bounty on his head.

While hurrying along a highway dusted with light snow, he was suddenly ambushed by a group of adventurers.

The skirmish itself was settled in a matter of minutes. As he interrogated them, grinding the muzzle of his gun against the bridge of an adventurer’s nose, his jaw dropped in sheer disbelief at what he heard.

Rob, the Hero who slew the Demon King, was a wanted man.

The one who had issued the warrant was the King’s younger brother, the newly crowned monarch.

「No, no... you must have the wrong person.」

The words he finally squeezed out were hackneyed and lacked any sense of wit, but the adventurers, pinned down against the cold earth, denied his claim.

Messily swept-back dark brown hair and two distinct scars running across his temple. A hooded combat suit, a gun belt, and strange shoes with a split big toe. Engraved upon the grip of the pistol housed in his belt was the mark of a 'ring fitted around a rifle barrel.'

And above all else, there was the "Hand Gatling gun" Rob was currently pressing against the adventurer’s face. One might be able to mimic his appearance, but there was only one person on this entire continent who possessed this weapon—a firearm that had yet to be successfully replicated.

「...Are you serious? Would that guy really do this? ...No, wait. He would.」

Recalling the personality of the King’s brother—the new King—and his past conduct, Rob found himself feeling a small sense of grim acceptance.

Rob currently resides in the western frontier, but the winters there are harsh. To escape the cold, he had set out on a journey under the pretext of mopping up the remnants of the Demon King’s army. In truth, he actually had been hunting down those remnants.

It was during this time that the deposits for his modest pension—his reward for subjugating the Demon King—had ceased.

At the time, the staff at the Adventurers Guild didn't seem to know the reason either. Naturally, he wasn't being attacked by other adventurers then, and since the amount was only roughly equivalent to a commoner’s monthly wage, he hadn't made an issue of it.

「...What a mess.」

However, a wanted poster changed everything. Now, his very survival was at stake.

While the mere thought of the den of iniquity that was the Royal Capital made him feel exhausted, Rob left the adventurers where they lay and began to walk.

He couldn't exactly return to the western frontier where he had spent the two years since the Demon King's defeat. With a look of profound reluctance, Rob turned his face toward the Royal Capital.

***

Unable to even board a public carriage, it took Rob seven days to reach a town near the Capital. He managed to slip inside under the cover of dusk, but when he recalled the cold, arrogant eyes of the King’s brother—the new King—he found himself unable to even gather information effectively.

If it were discovered that anyone Rob contacted had cooperated with the wanted Hero, they would be lucky to receive a death sentence. At worst, their entire extended family would be executed along with them.

Having maintained a tentative cooperative relationship with the man during the fifteen-year campaign to slay the Demon King, Rob could easily imagine such an outcome.

The man was a pureblood supremacist, the very personification of the class system. To him, the lives of commoners were no different from livestock—or perhaps the servants who managed the livestock.

Under these circumstances, his sources of information were limited to the aristocracy or the upper class. But with the new King already established, he couldn't risk contacting them without knowing the current state of the noble factions. If he played his cards wrong, there was even a risk he might be used as a political figurehead.

And so, he found himself in back alleys, straining his ears to catch information leaking out of nighttime taverns. What he learned was that the previous King and his heir had died one after another from illness. Furthermore, the nobles of the former King’s faction were being systematically ousted as their corruption was brought to light, while the Eastern nobles—who had previously lost their lands—were rising to power in their stead.

Rob looked up vacantly at the night sky.

Though his relationship with the royalty and nobility had been one of mutual exploitation, the previous King had acknowledged Rob’s wish for seclusion after the Demon King's defeat and had arranged things so that no one would bother him. This was on the condition that he never return to the public stage and never act as an enemy of the Kingdom.

That man was dead. Likely murdered, rather than carried off by illness.

He felt no desire for revenge, but it would be a lie to say he felt absolutely no sting of grief.

Gazing up at the three moons shining brilliantly in the night sky, Rob listened to the clamor of the tavern with an absent mind.

After some time had passed, Rob’s gaze suddenly shifted toward the back of the alley.

「—Pleased to meet you. My name is Arcelia Rigot, an investigator for the Investigation Department of the Interdimensional Alliance's Pan-Universal Agency. I take it you are Rob—the Rob who slew the Demon King? Am I correct?」

A woman dressed in white emerged from the darkness of the alley.

「I am... but are you an Elf? No, a Fairy?」

She had extremely pale skin that felt almost translucent and ears that were slightly more pointed than a human's. Her pinkish-white hair, which reached only to her shoulders, was tied in a small bunch at the back.

Standing no more than a hundred and thirty centimeters tall with an extremely slender frame, her features were nonetheless far from childish. Her eyes, larger than a human's, possessed a strangely intense gaze.

「To be precise, I am a Lyliless. In this world, I suppose I would be closer to a Fairy than an Elf.」

It was a race he had never heard of. Furthermore, her clothing was peculiar; it possessed a sense of uniformity, resembling a winter military uniform.

「Hmph. And what business does this 'Rigot' person have with me? If you’re after the bounty on my head, I’m afraid I can’t just let you have it.」

「Arcelia is fine. I have come today to offer protection, or rather, to recruit you. Rob-san, would you be interested in leaving this world and joining the Interdimensional Alliance?」

Faced with a term that was unfamiliar yet easy to grasp, Rob turned a suspicious gaze toward Arcelia—the kind of look one saves for a con artist.

「The Interdimensional Alliance consists of over a thousand worlds. As an organization directly under the Alliance, the Pan-Universal Agency’s primary duties involve the protection of summoning victims, the recruitment of Heroes who meet certain criteria such as the subjugation of a Demon King, and managing individuals with extraordinary abilities.」

It was true that Rob had been reincarnated and summoned into this world.

However, just because someone told him "other worlds exist," he wasn't about to simply say "Oh, okay" and believe it.

In the first place, receiving an offer of "protection" or "recruitment" only after falling into this predicament made him sense some ulterior motive.

Perhaps sensing Rob’s distrust, Arcelia stared at him intently and spoke.

「It may be difficult for you to trust me. However, I want you to believe. If you come with me, I am prepared to show you proof immediately.」

Deciding he couldn't deal with this any longer, Rob waved his hand dismissively and walked away.

In this continent, which was roughly the size of Canada and the United States combined, the Kingdom’s territory accounted for more than half. However, in the remaining half, there were dozens of small nations, as well as countries belonging to Elves, Dwarves, and Beastmen.

He couldn't entirely rule out the possibility that Arcelia was an envoy for the Elves or Fairies, attempting to use the "Hero" brand for their own ends in the current political climate.

And so, Rob declined Arcelia’s offer and headed for the Royal Capital that same day. However, he found himself perplexed by an unexpected development.

Arcelia had followed him.

He walked through the middle of the night along pathless terrain, took catnaps in the corners of towns like a vagrant, and moved again under the cover of darkness. She followed him along this far-from-comfortable path without a single complaint, repeating her recruitment pitch over and over again.

「I’d normally welcome the company if the situation weren't so dire... but she's either incredibly persistent or just painfully earnest.」

If Arcelia were truly an Elven envoy, she wouldn't go this far. Their pride, exclusiveness, and sense of purity wouldn't allow it.

That left him with little choice but to believe in the existence of this "Interdimensional Alliance," but at that point in his thoughts, Rob let out a sigh.

Deep down, he realized he still had lingering attachments to this world.

Upon reaching the Capital after about three days, Rob waited for sunset before sneaking inside. He had fought in this world for fifteen years; he knew a secret passage or two through the Capital’s outer walls.

Then, just as he had in the previous town, he moved through the back alleys behind the taverns, quietly listening. It was there that he had a chance encounter.

He ran right into a common city patrolman.

In the middle of the night, across the light of a tavern, Rob’s eyes met the patrolman’s for just a fleeting second.

Rob recognized the man.

He was a guy with a habit of slacking off, yet he was oddly sharp-witted. They had only spoken a few words to each other in the past, but he was certainly someone who had survived those fifteen years of war alongside him.

The patrolman seemed to recognize Rob in that instant as well, his eyes widening slightly.

However, the reaction that followed was different from what Rob had anticipated.

「...Tch, just a vagrant. Don't scare me like that. Seriously, dress in something more obvious or I might end up shooting you.」

With nothing more than a rattle of his "Magic Rifle"—the standard-issue equipment of the Kingdom’s army—the man walked past him toward the end of the alley.

He acted exactly as if he were just slacking off on his patrol, as he always did.

Rob exhaled a sigh of relief.

At the same time, he felt as though something had drained out of his body, and then he realized it.

He had clearly been let go. Since the bounty posters were in circulation, there was no way a patrolman wouldn't know.

But it was simple, really. For Rob, who had lived as an ordinary Japanese person, it was much easier and more natural to associate with the common soldiers—the friendly citizens—than with the upper class, who were obsessed with stifling formality, face, etiquette, and social status.

It was because he lacked connections with the high society that he had ended up a wanted man, but it was because he was close to the common people that he had been allowed to escape.

Yet, that also became his burden.

He had conducted this cramped information gathering specifically so as not to draw the new King’s ire.

The reason he didn't simply go to strike down the new King out of his deep-seated irritation was that he didn't want to kill the common soldiers who would be forced to act as the King's hands and feet.

He could never bring himself to hurt or kill people who had finally secured steady jobs and families in this world where the embers of conflict still smoldered, even after the Demon King’s defeat.

In the back alley of the Capital, Rob stood up with a distant look in his eyes and spoke to Arcelia in a near-whisper.

「...You mentioned protection, but what happens to me if I go to this 'Interdimensional Alliance'?」

「At the very least, you will be granted citizenship as a member of the Interdimensional Alliance, and sufficient support for self-reliance will be provided. If you wish to make use of your power, a path may open for you to become an investigator, depending on your aptitude.」

「I see. ...Is this 'Alliance' place just as much of a mess as here? No, I suppose it’s the same everywhere. Take me with you. I might not even be able to fight properly anymore, but if you’re fine with that... then okay.」

Gazing back at the days he had spent fighting, Rob made the decision to leave this world behind.

*****

Now that I finished Fresh Food Chronicle. I can finally move to this one here.
I like that instead of lingering on the betrayal, the mc here just moves on with his life.

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