“Ugh... Kill me now...”
It was obvious from his extremely pessimistic statement that the guy in front of me, Masayoshi Date, was down in the dumps. We were currently in a carriage, leaving the Rising Sun Kingdom. It was rather cramped, so I would’ve liked it if he had kept his negative energy to himself. A day had passed since the party and his little dungeon duel. But, apparently, he hadn’t gotten over it yet. I exhaled, and then spoke up.
“Would you, like...cheer up already?”
He slowly raised his head to look at me. “Shut it, washboard.”
“Huh?!”
Here I was, trying to comfort him, and what did I get for my troubles? An insult. How dare he! I’d never forgive him for as long as I lived. However, I had a big heart. There was more than enough room in there for me to accept an immature guy who kept running his mouth off.
“Listen—flat is justice.” As soon as the words left my mouth, however, I felt like I’d shot myself in the foot. How pathetic was it for me to be the one saying that?
Date looked right at me, then dropped his gaze. “Heh.” He snorted with laughter. Meanwhile, my patience was really wearing thin. Screw you, blondie! I was ready to kill a man. Done relieving yourself? Said your prayers, wise guy? You ready to beg for your life while cowering in the corner of this carriage?
“Aida... Easy there,” mumbled Tanaka, a quiet guy with messy hair, as he held me back. And what the hell do you mean, “Easy there”?! I’m not some kind of animal!
“You should lighten up too, Date.”
“Hmph. Neither of you gets what I’m goin’ through.”
“All you’re bothered about is looking ‘uncool.’ There’s nothing to get,” I quipped reflexively. And it’s not like I was wrong. After all, he was the one getting down on himself for making himself look stupid with all that duel stuff. He was the one who’d wanted the duel in the first place, making all that fuss about being a hero, and now he was pissed about how uncool it had made him look. What a freakin’ narcissist.
“Okay, sure, you may have been twice as arrogant as usual, but that’s pretty much par for the course with you.”
“Nah. I’m always cool.” He said these words with neither a hint of hesitation nor irony. He deserved an award for being able to say that with a straight face.
It’d been a week since we were summoned to be heroes, which meant it’d been a week since the three of us started our lives here together. Out of the three of us, I felt like Masayoshi Date stood out the most because his name meant “justice in name alone,” which I felt both did and didn’t match him. In my mind, he wasn’t nearly as much an ally of justice as he seemed to think he was. All the same, both Yuichi Tanaka and I had been saved by this guy.
It had happened on the third day after we’d been summoned to the Republic of Ghrantze. The people there didn’t think very much of us. Historically, the republic had been summoning heroes just to suck up to the Maccad Empire. In other words, the citizens of the republic only begrudgingly accepted our presence.
They didn’t ask for us to be summoned. There was nothing they wanted from us. We were simply a nuisance. I’d like to take a moment to point out, however, that their feelings towards us were completely unjustified, because it’s not like we’d asked to be summoned either. How did they think we felt about the situation?
Of course, they couldn’t mistreat us either or they’d earn the ire of the very Maccad Empire they were trying to kowtow to. As a result, we were treated more or less fairly, and received a minimal but nonzero amount of support.
Upon being summoned, the three of us were each granted a Divine Blessing...which was just a fancy word for “cheat.” Date was granted Swordsmanship, mine was Light Magic, and Tanaka had Note.
Having the most battle-ready ability made Date the favorite of the republic, because the greater the contribution of a hero to the fight against the demon king, the more rewards their country would receive from the Maccad Empire. Additionally, it was just always a good thing to have a powerful ally. In light of all this, it was only natural that they treated him so well.
From what I’d heard, Tanaka’s Divine Blessing was “aberrant.” There were no records of his Divine Blessing in any other heroes, present and past. If there had been someone with a similar ability, that might have provided a clue as to how it worked. Also, it was typical for heroes to instinctively understand the nature of their Divine Blessing and how to use it. However, people with aberrant Divine Blessings would only receive that understanding in an epiphany at some undetermined time.
It was impossible to predict when that would happen, and there were some who never understood their Divine Blessing even up till the day they died. On top of that, the aberrant Divine Blessings were never strong. They were either useless in combat or so finicky that they were hard to use properly. Because his power was certain to be of no use in battle, Tanaka was not treated well.
In comparison, my Divine Blessing—Light Magic—was much more useful. It was pretty self-explanatory—I could use light magic at will. But because my magic was geared more towards healing, I didn’t get any special treatment from the republic.
To be clear, Light Magic wasn’t just about healing. You could also use Light Magic to attack—for example, by shooting arrows made of light. I was also able to do stuff like that, but because of my personality, I just had more of an affinity with healing magic. There wasn’t much I could do about it—that’s just how I was.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I genuinely believed in the necessity of healing magic. I had no doubt that the tide of a battle could be turned by a healer of my caliber. Somehow, though, the people in this stupid country couldn’t get that through their thick skulls. Now ain’t that something?
At any rate, that’s how we ended up with a huge disparity in how Date was treated and how we were treated. I wasn’t happy about it, but with Tanaka being shy and not very assertive, and me not being much help in a fight, we had no choice but to yield to the strength of the republic’s order of knights. Plus, Date was head over heels for the priestess that had summoned us. As much as that made me want to ask about his fidelity to the goddess, I refrained.
Things got worse on our third day in the republic. Their harsh treatment of us was even more blatant. They picked on us, belittled us, and pretty much just fed us scraps. They even hurt us. At this point, Date finally realized how we were being treated and brought it up to the priestess and the other higher-ups of the republic.
“You must understand—they are not suited to battle. Making them fight would be the same as sending them to be slaughtered. That would be a tragedy. If we were to treat them well, it would give them the obligation to fight. In order to avoid this, they must not be afforded any luxuries. There’s little that can be done about this,” the priestess had argued.
What a load of crap. Every last one of them was in on this horrible treatment. The priestess loathed me especially because I was an otherworlder who used Light Magic, which was the magic of their god. You were the one who summoned me, though! Not to mention she’d been blackhearted enough to have said something to Date that he could misconstrue as coming on to him, just to manipulate him. Oh, by the way, the priestess’s name is Lily.
“Lily, do you really think that violence is unavoidable? Isn’t that messed up?”
“I will forever keep them in my thoughts. However, there are those in this world who are even more unfortunate. You must keep your eyes forward, my lord. You must march on, in order to save this world with your justice.”
“I ain’t interested in your pretty words. I wanna know if that’s what you think.”
At that moment, everyone present could sense that Date’s attitude had changed.
“Y-Yes... After all, you’re—”
“Got it. So that’s your answer, huh? Then I’ve got no doubts left.” A wry smile spread across Date’s face as he drew his training sword from its sheath.
“Wh-Why are you drawing your blade?!”
“This inequality makes me sick. But I’d never attack someone who’s unarmed for any reason, no matter what kind of mental gymnastics I end up doing. That’s not justice. It’s uncool.” Date approached Lily, but knights moved to stand between them.
“You may be a hero, but you must know that retaliation can be either just or unjust.”
“Move. You’re in my way. Also, shut the hell up about justice. Everything I do is just.”
“Halt! One more step and—” Lily tried in desperation to stop him, but he ignored her completely, continuing his advance.
When he finally came close enough to actually threaten her, the knights drew their swords and surrounded him.
I finally spoke up. “What are you doing, you idiot?!”
No matter how skilled he was with a blade, there was no way that he could take on knights who were armed with real swords. Especially not when there were over twenty of them around him, wearing magic armor to boot. That armor put them in a different league. Challenging them with a training sword was nothing short of reckless.
“You may have grown stronger, but you’ve also grown overconfident. Look at your surroundings first and assess your situation. We’ve seen you use Swordsmanship, but even with it, you are no match for our numbers,” the knight commander warned Date through a grin.
Even so, Date did not stop his advance. He didn’t hesitate for a second. If anything, his smile grew even more ferocious.
“I’ve grown overconfident? Don’t get cocky just ’cause you’ve got a numbers advantage. Looks like I need to teach all of you your place.”
“You impudent little—” The knight commander flew into a fit of rage.
“Stop!” I screamed in desperation. I wasn’t used to these kinds of situations. I was scared.
“Also...” As the knight commander rushed him, Date went on. “Who said I’ve ever used my Divine Blessing?”