Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 13
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The subjugation force led by the Imperial Crown Prince was following behind the hero’s party, so they would likely meet on the way back to the capital.
“By the way, once we’re out of the forest, where will you go, Lysian? Do you have a home somewhere around here?”
Kyle asked, far too familiarly for no reason, which made me suddenly pause to think.
Now that I considered it, I hadn’t really thought about my next destination. The only place I could call home was that lair I had first woken up in.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, a thunderous roar—KWA-KWA-KWANG!—shook the ground. It was unmistakably the sound of Gerard destroying my lair.
“…I did, but now it’s gone.”
“You don’t have a home to go back to?”
A fleeting look of sympathy passed over Kyle’s face.
“Then why not come with us? We’re going back out to search for the Black Flame Dragon anyway.”
“Yeah, come with us if you have nowhere else to go. None of us really have a place to return to, either.”
Kyle and Elonen offered their kind invitations, but to me, they were far from welcome. After all, I was the very one who had taken away the places they could return to.
“I have no intention of joining your party. Once we’re out of the forest, I’ll go my own way.”
“…Then tonight will be our last night together.”
Elonen replied with a look of regret at my firm, unwavering answer.
But I didn’t feel even a shred of regret about parting ways with the hero’s party. If anything, it would be a relief.
It was time to start planning what I’d do freely in the human world from now on.
As we walked slowly along the forest path, Gerard returned after destroying the lair and rejoined us.
“Where do you think the subjugation force is right now?” Elonen asked, addressing the back of Kyle’s head as he trudged ahead.
“Who knows. Maybe they’ve caught up to us by now?”
I recalled what I had seen in the mirror.
The Crown Prince’s subjugation force was trailing not far behind the party. But since it was a large-scale army, they were moving much more slowly than the hero’s group.
“I told you, we shouldn’t have trusted the Emperor’s word. He said we were the only ones he was counting on, and meanwhile, he was planning to send a subjugation force behind our backs. Creepy old man.”
Gerard openly criticized Kyle’s father, even with Kyle right in front of him.
To be fair, Emperor Ferosen—Kyle’s father—was both incompetent and a coward.
The Black Flame Dragon had begun its rampage about ten years ago, and in all that time, he had failed to come up with any real solution. In the meantime, the Black Flame Dragon had taken control of the western continent, causing massive losses of life and property.
That was when the seventh prince, not the first or second, but Kyle, stepped forward.
He set out on a journey to eliminate the Black Flame Dragon, and along the way, gathered his companions and formed the hero’s party.
Then, the day after the hero’s party held an official departure ceremony for the subjugation mission at the capital, Crown Prince Reynold assembled an elite force of knights and began to pursue them.
“Still, His Majesty will surely commend Kyle’s efforts. He was the one who found the lair and arrived first.”
Elonen said with a deliberately cheerful smile, trying to encourage Kyle. But Kyle didn’t seem all that comforted, replying with a bitter look.
“It’s not my effort that should be acknowledged. The whole party’s efforts should be recognized. Everyone deserves what they were promised.”
Hearing Kyle’s words reminded me that I hadn’t actually finished the original novel. I’d dropped it midway through one of the particularly frustrating story arcs.
Each member of this hero’s party had lost something to the Black Flame Dragon. And in return for eliminating it, they had each been promised something by the Emperor.
But Emperor Ferosen broke that promise. Fearing how powerful the hero’s party had become, he framed them as a criminal group.
It was one of those cliché subversions of classic hero stories—but I’d quit reading out of sheer rage.
“And before that, we have to find the missing Black Flame Dragon and defeat it. Then His Majesty will acknowledge us.”
I wanted so badly to tell Kyle the truth about what was going to happen.
That not only the Emperor, but no one would acknowledge or commend them. That they should abandon the Black Flame Dragon subjugation now and focus on simply surviving.
But I held my tongue. No one would believe me anyway.
“The sun’s setting. There’s nothing dumber than walking through the forest late at night. Let’s set up camp around here and take care of dinner.”
Elonen, who had suddenly stopped walking, looked up at the sky and spoke.
Just as he said, the sun was already dipping below the horizon. The party obediently stopped and began preparing to camp for the night.
