IPDT 25

Although I had no choice but to send Yul to the human world to save him… I couldn’t stop myself from feeling regret. Just watching him from a place I couldn’t reach was too painful. And it was even more so because Yul did not look happy.

“You should smile a little. You’re pretty when you smile.”

I poked the area around the corners of Yul’s mouth with my finger. However, Yul’s lips didn’t know how to move, like those of a plaster statue. Yul was simply in his room, where not a single ray of sunlight entered due to the drawn curtains, thinking about something, and then thinking some more.

— Sir Hero, may I come in?

A voice came from the mirror. It wasn’t Yul’s voice, but it had been so long since I’d heard a voice at all that I snapped my head up from where it had been leaning.

— I’m coming in.

Someone opened the door and came in without even waiting for Yul’s permission. I narrowed my eyes.

Yul was not just any human; he was a human who was to become a hero. Yet someone dared to throw the door open without permission. That would never have happened if I were by his side. Because I would have struck them with lightning from a clear sky.

— I took the liberty of coming in to deliver His Majesty’s message. My apologies.

“You should consider yourself lucky. If I were there, you wouldn’t have even had time to make excuses.”

I shot a warning that the human couldn’t hear, then looked at Yul. Yul was just staring at the human with emotionless black eyes. I felt sorry for him and let out a sigh, huuu. I would have felt less frustrated if Yul had at least shot a word or two at that ill-mannered human. Anyway, Yul was too kind and pretty for his own good.

— His Majesty said he wishes to urgently discuss the matter of the expedition.

— …Discuss.

It was the first time I’d heard Yul’s voice from beyond the mirror. My eyes grew round and my heart, without my knowledge, began to pound. For some reason, I felt like I was about to cry.

— It seems the leaders here all walk around without their brains, don’t they?

“…Huh?”

— I’m sure I told you from the very beginning. Not to try and persuade me by using that trashy little head of yours.

“Huh?”

The tears completely vanished. Yul’s voice was still a pleasant low tone, but the way he spoke was not the way I remembered. Yul was definitely a pretty human who used a gentle tone…?

— If you have no intention of listening to my demands, then we should all die together.

Yul uttered in a monotone voice.

— Get lost.

“…”

Staring blankly at the mirror, I stammered, my lips moving uncertainly.

“Fleabag.”

“Master, did you call for me?”

Fleabag, appearing as if he had been waiting, knelt down on one knee. However, I didn’t have the energy left to praise his polite demeanor.

“I, I have to go to the human world.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m going to the human world!”

As I shot up from my seat, Fleabag’s tail puffed up.

“Master, why are you suddenly being like this again! You were enduring it so well while watching the mirror. It’s only been a few days, why are you acting like this again!”

“Something is wrong with Yul. Something must have happened.”

“What’s wrong with that human? He looks the same to me!”

“What do you mean, he’s the same? Do you know better than me? Anyway, I have to go. Something is clearly wrong…!”

Fleabag tried to stop me, and I insisted that I would go. While we were bickering for a while, another voice was heard from beyond the mirror.

— His Majesty, the Emperor, has arrived!

“Huh?”

I grabbed the scruff of Fleabag’s neck, who was clinging to my face, and pulled him off.

“Move it.”

“Oof!”

When I placed him roughly on the ground, Fleabag rolled around on the floor in an exaggerated manner. I didn’t even glance his way. It wasn’t the first or second time this had happened, and it was obvious he was feigning illness to get my attention. In any case, without letting Fleabag distract me, I focused on the scene in the mirror.

The emperor, who had entered middle age, approached Yul with confident steps. Yul watched the emperor with his unreadable black eyes. Then he took no action until the emperor sat down opposite him. The emperor swallowed dryly as he looked at Yul.

— I was told you dismissed the messenger, so I came to find you myself.

“Formal speech?”

Even though Yul was a hero, I didn’t expect the emperor of a nation to use formal speech with him. What in the world had happened while I was asleep, during the time when Yul was said to have been on a rampage? Either way, I was happy that Yul was being treated well, so I had no complaints.

Without thinking any deeper, I listened to the conversation between Yul and the emperor.

— I will accept the hero’s demands.

The emperor, with a grave face as if he had made a great decision, slowly moved his lips.

— However—.

— It seems you still don’t know me. Don’t keep testing my patience.

In that moment, Yul grabbed the emperor’s throat. Belatedly, the emperor’s knights pointed their swords at Yul, but Yul did not look scared. Rather, the hand gripping the emperor’s throat was tightening. The emperor’s face contorted in pain.

— The only answer that should come out of your mouth is ‘I understand.’

— Keuk, I under… I understand.

Yul sat back down as if he had never grabbed the emperor’s throat. Then, as if he had touched an insect, he wiped the hand that had held the emperor’s neck with a handkerchief.

The emperor’s knights watched the situation, then put away the swords they had pointed at Yul. I clenched my fists tightly. If I had been next to Yul instead of beyond the mirror, I would have folded their swords like books.

— As for the matter of the expedition.

— We have recruited support troops to accompany you, Sir Hero. In addition to a priest, a swordsman, and a healer, we have also gathered elite mages…….

— I don’t need stragglers.

Yul, cutting off the emperor mid-sentence, muttered in a cold voice.

— I’m going alone.

“Alone?”

My eyes widened. Alone? The oracle had clearly hinted at a world-ending disaster. That meant that at least chaos would leak out from the end of the world, or monsters would go berserk after consuming the power of chaos, or anyway, that trials and tribulations that a single human could not overcome would unfold. But he was going to walk that path alone?

“Absolutely not!”

As soon as I shouted, the emperor sitting opposite Yul raised his voice.

— That is out of the question!

“That’s right!”

— This is not a matter of Sir Hero’s safety. If you were to embark on the journey alone, we would be left as a nation that neglected its hero. This is a matter of the empire’s prestige. We can absolutely not allow it.

“Right!”

For the first time in a long time, I agreed with a human. I nodded my head vigorously and looked at Yul’s face. ‘How about it? After hearing such a logical argument, don’t you think you should make some companions?’ I looked at Yul with that meaning, but there was not a hint of change in his expression.

— I said I don’t need stragglers. Don’t make me say it twice.

The emperor’s body flinched. Moreover, it wasn’t just the emperor; even his knights’ faces turned pale. It was as if they were being crushed by an invisible force.

I looked down at my own heart. The half-shattered heart had an effect on me. Then what about Yul? Wouldn’t he have been affected too?

— …Then please take at least one attendant with you.

I blinked blankly, then belatedly understood the emperor’s words. Just a moment ago he was mentioning priests and knights, and now he was going to attach just one attendant? The sense of betrayal was beyond words. I pointed my finger at the mirror.

“You, you… You call yourself an emperor, but you have no guts, you human!”

As I was panting with indignation, my thoughts suddenly jumped in a different direction.

“Wait, take an attendant…?”

If only one attendant is going with him, then that attendant can stay with Yul all the time. They would be together when eating, together when sleeping, and they would even walk the road together. Gasp, wait a minute.

“I can be that attendant, can’t I?”

It was such a clear thought that I could have slapped my knee. If I became an attendant and entered the imperial castle, I wouldn’t have to bear the stigma of casting curses, and I would have a reason to follow Yul around.

Was that all? I had the perfect qualifications to be Yul’s attendant. Since this attendant would be chosen over priests, knights, mages, and healers, they would have to be versatile, and I could play all those roles for Yul except for a healer.

“As expected, the one with the most perfect qualifications to be Yul’s attendant is me.”

I, who had been counting on my fingers the reasons why I should become an attendant, clenched my fist and shot up. My heart pounded at the thought of being able to see Yul for real, not through a mirror. We would be seeing each other after only one season’s change, but I didn’t know why I was so happy.

“Fleabag, Fleabag!”

“Master only ever calls me when he needs me…”

I ignored Fleabag’s grumbling and clasped my hands together.

“I want to be an attendant.”

“Even if you say that now, pardon?”

“The emperor and Yul just agreed. He’s going to take only one attendant on the hero’s journey. I’m going to be that attendant. No matter how I look at it, I’m the right person for the job.”

“An, an attendant? You, Master?”

Fleabag, with a dumbfounded expression, began to rub his ears with his front paw.

“Perhaps my time to return to the embrace of nature has come, there’s a problem with my ears…”

“Fleabag, there’s nothing wrong with your ears. I’m going to be Yul’s attendant.”

As soon as my words ended, Fleabag flopped onto the floor.

“Master, you might as well turn this Fleabag into a mouse! I cannot grant you permission until I become a mouse!”

“Let’s do that.”

“Pardon?”

I reached out my hand to the blinking Fleabag. A wave of anxiety began to wash over Fleabag’s face.

“Ma, Master?”

“I don’t know how long Yul’s journey will last, and you can’t keep guarding the lair alone. You have to come with me. And to do that, being a mouse would be better for hiding yourself, wouldn’t it?”

“Master, wa, wait a moment!”

“It’ll be over in the blink of an eye!”

With a Poof! sound, smoke rose. When I waved my hand to clear away the hazy smoke, I saw a mouse with orange fur making a vacant expression. It was Fleabag.

After turning Fleabag into a mouse, I also reduced the size of my human form. That is to say, I changed myself from the form of a full-grown adult to the less mature form of someone around 17 years old.

At first, I thought about shrinking down to about 16, but I was worried I might be mistaken for an incompetent attendant if I looked too young, so I made myself a bit bigger. Then, when I changed the clothes I was wearing to those of an attendant working in the imperial castle, I looked quite like an attendant.

Satisfied with my transformation, I teleported to the vicinity of the imperial castle. I conspicuously fumbled along the castle wall and waited for a guard to come. However, even as time passed, not a single guard showed their face.