How peaceful. Max, the self-proclaimed voice of reason and conscience of the Hero’s party, felt deeply how peaceful the world was as he watched this scene. He hadn’t taken his own lack of common sense into account, though. Whew! I have to muster some courage!
A short time after the teasing between parents and son, an old man—Derry, Lara’s younger disciple under the same mentor—was headed to Falke’s house. He looked professional and determined under his hood, but he felt strangely young again on the inside. Lara was, of course, the cause of this.
As a boy, Derry had been a war orphan and had been left with no choice but to steal to live. By a twist of fate, he’d targeted a well-dressed girl walking alone—Lara, of all people—and tried to steal from her.
“Really?!”
Eep! Derry shuddered as he remembered Lara’s glare and threatening tone from that day. She’d been so strong-willed back then that even her mentor—who’d later taken Derry in—had given up on the idea of her ever getting married. Then again, the mortal races had been at a clear disadvantage during the great war, so the very concept of marriage had been on the verge of being lost.
Mr. Sazaki is one crazy guy. Derry had nothing but the deepest admiration for Sazaki for marrying that Lara, but he’d never say that out loud because he’d be blown away the moment the words escaped his lips.
Actually, almost the entire Hero’s party has reunited; that’s also really crazy. Derry shuddered again, but this time from excitement, not fear.
During the great war, Derry had just been a promising youngster who’d basically just handled odd jobs. Meanwhile, Lara had joined the front lines where she’d met two warriors who’d been doing strangely well—the young Ferd and Sazaki—and she’d started taking action to oppose the Great Demon King. However, Lara’s plan had been something the wise would laugh at: They’d crush the absurdity trying to end the world with even greater absurdity. This plan had been no different from Sazaki’s childish theory that the fastest was also the strongest, and it was also proof that the two of them had been on the same wavelength since their younger days. In any case, Lara and Ferd had actually gathered the absurdity they needed to crush that darker absurdity and succeeded.
Derry had resolved himself to visit Falke’s house, where almost all of those absurd people were gathered. Falke’s house, or more accurately Agnes’s, was a splendid two-story mansion with several rooms, befitting her status as a member of the Magic Council, though it wasn’t quite on the level of a noble’s manor.
“Oh dear, welcome.”
“Thank you for having me.” Derry was greeted by Agnes, who was putting up her facade. “Is everyone here? Hmm? Isn’t your face strangely red?”
“Yes... You honestly came at the perfect moment. Everyone is getting excited talking about our wedding, so my face got a bit hot...” Agnes explained.
“Ah, I see.” Derry could now understand why she was blushing like that.
Old people talking about the past was a universal thing, and the victims of those discussions were mainly people they’d known since childhood. And since Falke was Sazaki and Lara’s son, there was no end to the topics involving him.
“Phew, I’m so nervous.” Derry took a deep breath.
“You sound like Aldrick.”
“I’m part of the generation that lived through the great war. These people practically lived in a different world.”
“I understand.”
Just like Derry said, to the generation that had personally experienced the great war, the Hero’s party was like a godlike existence. Although he could address Lara since they’d studied under the same master, he couldn’t do the same with the rest.
“Excuse me, it’s Derry.” Guided by Agnes, Derry entered the room in the position of an underling, something he hadn’t experienced in decades.
“Oh, if it isn’t Derry! It’s been a while! I’m really glad to see people from so long ago, like Falke and Agnes,” Ferd greeted Derry; they knew each other through Lara.
“Hey, Derry. Long time no see.” Sazaki also welcomed Derry.
“Yes, it has been quite some time.” Derry, the chairman of the Magic Council and a mage of the Hadal layer whose name would undoubtedly go down in history, bowed deeply.
I’m saved! Falke was the happiest for Derry’s arrival, as he’d been the topic of conversation so far. They’d kept talking about stuff like the first times he’d walked or held a sword, when he’d gotten married, or when he’d had his kid. He’d gotten caught up in a typical conversation of elderly people, and he’d been thinking how he wished they’d give him a break for once, considering he was already seventy.
“Long time no see.”
“You seem to be the same as ever, miss.”
Setting Falke’s plight aside, Derry was greeted by the smiling Lara, the most important person in the room.
“So, about that bronze statue. Can’t something be done about it now?” Lara asked.
“No... Well...there is a lot of politics at play...” Derry immediately understood what she was trying to say, but it was quite the difficult task even for someone in his position.
“Right.”
The fact that Lara had helped rebuild Greer was the undeniable truth, so if there was no statue of her, there would be talks regarding the lack of a monument to such a distinguished individual. Also, there were several factions based around master-student relationships in the world of magic, and Lara and Derry’s mentor had also belonged to a systematic branch of mages, so the two of them couldn’t remain unrelated to those factions. As a result, if there was no statue of Lara, some of those related to her faction would clearly make a fuss even though they had no direct connection to her, which would cause various political issues.
“So you’ll have to give up on the matter for the next two or three thousand years, or even forever if you’re unlucky,” Sazaki said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Easy for you to say. I’d like to build a statue of you and make it as beautified as possible.” Lara glared at her husband.
“Bwa ha ha! I’d love to see that!”
Eep! Mr. Sazaki sure is incredible. With Derry’s trauma revived, he felt an odd sense of respect in his mind.
“Say, Max, I really doubt it, but even if there are statues of me, it would be at most one or two, right?” Ferd asked Max, igniting an unexpected spark in the conversation.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Max, who’d wandered all over the world, simply laughed.
“Hold up! That’s not an answer!” Ferd got increasingly more flustered, his speech reverting to that of his youth.
“Oh no, no, it’s too much for me to say. Ask Stein.”
“Don’t worry, Ferd. They’re all over the world, but they pretty much look nothing like you,” Stein replied with the simple truth.
“Hey, Stein! Are you being serious right now?!”
“Rather, it’s only natural,” Stein added. There was no way there wouldn’t be statues of the Hero who’d saved the world.
“My, my.” Elrica was curious about whether there were statues of her husband.
“There are also statues of you, Elrica. They fundamentally come as a set with Ferd’s,” Max pointed out.
“Huh?!” Elrica’s eyes went wide. It seemed that she hadn’t realized she was also involved in the topic.
“Being famous is really difficult. Right, Max?” Sazaki said with a grin.
“You can say that again,” Max replied, similarly grinning.