Chapter 11

Solon’s Story “He was no Hero. Merely a fool.” The man known as the Great Sage spoke in a derisive tone. His thin body is cloaked in a purple mage robe, and there is a sternness to his face that gives off the impression of a high-strung personality. He also has a rough and curt way of speaking, which all but signals “Don’t talk to me if you don’t have anything important to say.” Such is Solon Barclay. Hailed as a prodigy from a young age, he boasted magical prowess that exceeded his teachers at Falm Academy from the very beginning of his studies there. He is also credited for creating numerous spells and magical inventions in recent years, contributing greatly to our modern society. “Think about it: What is a Hero? A strong guy? Someone who can wield powerful magic?” How about a vanquisher of the Demon Lord? “So defeating the Demon Lord makes you a Hero? You can beat the Demon Lord because you’re a Hero? Ridiculous. That’s like asking what came first—the chicken or the egg. That guy didn’t have any strength or magical power. He had none of the qualities a Hero would need, but somehow, he was carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders. Insane. He didn’t do what a Hero should do, and everyone who left it to him to handle the Demon Lord was an idiot.” But he did defeat the Demon Lord. “That’s a matter of hindsight. He was just lucky… Actually, no. Anyone could have done it if they put in the same amount of work. People just overlooked that and pushed the whole achievement on him. We should have put in more work, too—Leon, Maria, and me. Anybody else was out of the question. All those fools who sat on their hands are alive now without a care in the world. They’re beyond help.” Leon said that Ares’s work ethic was unusual. “‘Unusual’? It got results, didn’t it? You think swinging a sword a thousand times a day will make you strong enough to defeat the Demon Lord? You think chanting a hundred spells would do it? Absolutely not. Defeating the Demon Lord requires a completely different level of effort from becoming a knight captain or a court mage. The conventional amount would barely put a dent in the Demon Lord. Of course you need to go above and beyond.” Like how you taught Ares magic. “Because he wouldn’t stop pestering me about it. He’d follow me around and ask me over and over. Apparently, the instructors in the mage course refused to teach him. Which made sense. You didn’t teach magic to warriors, both then and now. It’s inefficient and a waste of time. Hence why he came to me for a favor: ‘I want you to teach me magic. You know more about it than the teachers do.’” So you taught him. “I gave him a simple introduction. Just something to waste time. But I did discover a few new things through teaching the magic arts. It wasn’t a bad experience, I suppose. I can credit him for how I have an apprentice now. If not for him, I would have thumbed my nose at others until the end of time. I certainly wouldn’t have gone around teaching anyone.” Did Ares have a talent for magic? “Nope. In fact, he had the least amount of promise out of everyone I’ve ever met. You’ve talked with Leon and Maria, right? I bet they said the same thing—that he had no talent. He didn’t have any skill with the sword, magic, or summoning divine miracles. He was mediocre to the core.” But they say that Ares the Hero wielded magic. “He wielded…some amount. It would have been quicker for him to strike flint than for him to use a fire spell. That’s how basic we’re talking. And he only got that far after training himself to death. I thought his spells would be completely useless.” Were they useful? “Yeah, pitiful though they were. And it wasn’t just once or twice. He was good at using magic—or I suppose he knew when to use it. For example, he didn’t just fling a fire spell at an enemy. He would use oil to amplify the flames. When he was crossing swords with an opponent, he would throw a wind spell into their eyes. Depending on how you wielded it, a level-one spell could become a ten or a zero. “At my first battle at the Great Forest of Lozorof, I blasted the demon with my most powerful spells, but when they didn’t work, my mind went blank. Not my finest hour. It was then that he said to me, ‘You can use weak spells—just buy me some time. Focus on what you can do.’ “Under normal circumstances, I would never have let him order me around like that. But I was in a daze at the time, so I just did what I was told like a puppet. It worked.” Did that make you want to join Ares’s party? “I thought I was above parties back then. I was conceited enough to think I could defeat the Demon Lord all by myself. At best, I considered joining up with Leon and Maria. I suppose they were thinking the same thing. They pretended to be high-minded, but deep down, they were just as prideful and arrogant as I was. “It was only after I had my ego beaten out of me at the Great Forest of Lozorof that I considered joining his party. If not for him, we would have joined some other guy and gotten wiped out fast. Although we excelled as individuals, we wouldn’t have worked as a team without him.” Were you able to bring out your full power because of Ares? “Who knows? But I can tell you this: We could have defeated the Demon Lord if someone else stood in for Leon, Maria, or me, but we couldn’t have done it without him.” Would you say that’s what it means to be the Hero? “Don’t be stupid. I already told you he was just a fool. He wasn’t anything that fancy. He could have just lived his life quietly like an ordinary person. Sure, the rest of us had talent. We were scumbags who rested on our laurels. But he had nothing. He was a ridiculous fool who ended up being called the Hero while having nothing. It’s easy to get people to call you the ‘Hero.’ But what do they know about him? They assume he beat the demon because he’s the so-called Hero, but do they know the blood, sweat, and tears he poured into that? The world is full of people with more talent than him, myself included. And because we did nothing, he had no choice but to step up and become the Hero.” As the Sage, you fought the Demon Lord. Are you really saying you did nothing? “It’s only natural that I would fight the Demon Lord. I’m a genius, after all. Leon and Maria also fought out of that same sense of obligation. It was our duty. Our destiny, you could say. But he wasn’t like us. He didn’t have it in him. He fought the Demon Lord by twisting fate itself. Even if it’s what he wanted, I don’t want anyone calling him the Hero.” Why did the Hero die? “Don’t ask me. Is that all for your questions? Then pack up already. This interview is over.” What was the cause of Ares’s death? “Was that what you really wanted to ask?” Solon’s sour expression cleared up, and he let out an amused laugh. “It was a demon who killed Ares, just as we reported. There’s no mistake about that. But we didn’t witness the moment of his death.” How was an underling able to kill him when he defeated the Demon Lord? “Well, that’s just how it happened.” Why weren’t you at the scene? “Bad luck. That’s all.” Some would think that you and the rest of the party had the opportunity to kill Ares. “Interesting. I can see how people could think that way. But that’s impossible. We would never have been able to kill Ares. Even if we wanted to.” Because Ares was strong? “No, because it was literally impossible.” There’s one last thing I’d like to ask. What was Ares to you? “He was a friend. Just a friend. The only one I ever had. But I lost him in that battle. He was an average and modest guy in every way… Ah, but there was just one thing he fussed over.” What do you mean by that? “When we were setting out on our journey to vanquish the Demon Lord, the king had an artist paint our portraits. The Hero gave a lot of detailed instructions for his: ‘Make my nose a little longer,’ ‘make my eyes a little bigger,’ and so forth. The artist was already going out of their way to beautify him without any of us needing to say a thing, so we just laughed at his fussiness. At the time, we simply wrote it off as him having a complex about his average looks. Not very Hero-like of him, we thought.” Solon’s lips curled into a slight smile. “If you want to know about Ares, you should visit his hometown, Daris Village. If you’re trying to write down everything about the Hero, then you’d be remiss not to go there, wouldn’t you say?”