How To Leave The Hero Party- Chapter 7

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Her voice was strained, a far cry from the voice one would expect from the Hero who had defeated the Demon King.

I watched her for a moment, shoulders slumped, gaze fixed on the tips of her boots, then turned and walked away.

–Click, clack.

Claire’s boots echoed in the hallway. I ignored her, continuing down the corridor.

She followed me silently, saying nothing.

Even when we reached my door, she just stood there, fidgeting.

“Say what you need to say.”

She didn’t answer, just kept moving her lips soundlessly, searching for the right words. I decided not to waste any more time.

I entered the room, leaving her standing there.

Some time passed.

–Knock, knock.

I ignored it. Reviewing my plans for the future was more important right now.

–Knock, knock, knock.

The Princess’s tutorship, the S-Rank Adventurer achievement…

And then there was… Ah, the Casino Three-Time Jackpot. I still needed to do that. And the Maiden’s Ballad achievement.

–Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock.

–“H- Hyun-woo! Hyun-woo… Just a moment… Just a moment is fine. Please! Just talk to me. Please… I’m begging you. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please. Please.”

–Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang.

–“I- I have something to say. I really need to talk to you. Please. Please, I’m begging you. Just for a moment. Okay? Okay? Hyun-woo… Hyun-woo… Just let me see your face. Please? Just once is fine. Just once… please… Please… Pleeeeease…”

Her voice was laced with desperation, bordering on manic, but it didn’t faze me. My own tasks were more important than her pleas right now.

I continued to work, tuning out the sounds of her despair from beyond the door. Once I had organized my thoughts, I opened it.

“I…”

Lost in her despair, Claire hadn’t even noticed I’d opened the door. She was slumped on the floor, head bowed, her hand still moving as if knocking on thin air.

Her knuckles were raw and red, and the door itself had a small crack in it.

Even a rotten fish still has its bones, they say.

The Hero was still the Hero, after all.

“Hyun… Hyun-woo…”

As if the opening door was a gateway to salvation, Claire’s face lit up with a joyful smile. A smile I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Hyun-woo… sob… Um… I… I need…”

“Come inside. People are staring.”

I gestured down the hallway. Several officials and maids were watching us with bewildered expressions.

But Claire didn’t seem to care. Or rather, she didn’t have the capacity to care.

Neither did I, for that matter.

“Enjoying the show?”

It was quite a spectacle, actually. It wasn’t every day you saw the Hero who saved the world reduced to this state.

Understanding my implied message, the onlookers quickly dispersed.

“What are you waiting for? Come in.”

But Claire remained on the floor, unable to stand, her legs folded beneath her. She just stared up at me blankly.

“M- My legs… they’re numb…”

Seriously? I pulled her up. Her face was streaked with tears. She looked at me, then lowered her head again, sobbing.

“Th- Thank you… Thank you…”

“It’s nothing.”

I helped her to a chair. She slumped down, shoulders drooping, head bowed, muttering incoherently. A maid, who had been waiting inside the room, looked startled, then quickly prepared tea.

Two cups were placed on the table. Claire looked back and forth between the teacups and me.

What was she looking at?

Was it the fact that she could share tea with me?

A faint but definite light had returned to her eyes.

Hope.

That I would return to them.

A very misplaced hope.

“…Th- Thank you…”

After the maid left, Claire carefully cupped the teacup in her hands. The warm steam rising from the tea touched her tear-streaked face.

Claire always drank tea like this. First, she savored the aroma, then the warmth, and finally, the taste.

She had always done this, even during our journey, when she drank the tea I prepared.

“…Haaaah…”

A raspy sigh escaped her dry lips. I took a sip of my tea.

“…Delicious…”

“I figured.”

“…It’s my favorite flavor. Similar to… the tea you used to make.”

Even though the maid had prepared the tea, perhaps because she was sharing it with me, Claire seemed to be savoring the past rather than the present.

The past, huh?

That made sense.

“I remember all of your preferences. I put a lot of effort into it back then.”

“You did. You… you always did…”

“Although that effort never really paid off. Well, it’s fine. I didn’t expect anything in return.”

Claire flinched at my words.

As if to prove that the past between me and the Hero’s Party wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, the aftertaste of the tea was bitter, lingering unpleasantly on the tongue.

I savored the bitterness, took another sip, then set down my cup.

“Um… Hyun-woo.”

Hyun-woo.

Yoon Hyun-woo.

Before things became awkward after Chapter 5, Claire had called me Hyun-woo more often than Sage.

After Chapter 2, when I had helped alleviate her burden and stress,

The name “Hyun-woo” had carried a sense of intimacy between us.

The fact that she was using “Hyun-woo” instead of “Sage” now might be an attempt to express and maintain that closeness.

“…I… I… missed you. I really did. Truly… sniffle… Drinking tea… with you… it reminds me of the old days…”

I had no idea which specific memories she was referring to. So much had happened.

As I looked at her expectantly, Claire continued, her words tumbling out in a rush.

“A- Also… I saw… that the summer… um… the Summer Festival is about to start.”

“Ah, that?”

“Yeah. Remember? When we went to the Summer Festival. We walked around so much…”

To complete the Summer Festival achievement, we had to visit every shop and play every minigame to collect medals.

We had worked well together back then, easily achieving that goal.

As I reminisced, Claire watched me.

Or rather, she was looking at the past we had shared.

“It was… really fun. R- Right? We had such a good time. I was so full, and I said we should stop, but you, Hyun-woo, you grabbed my arm and dragged me along… B- But you know what? I- It wasn’t… annoying or anything. I just… I liked it when you… took charge like that.”

“Hmm. That’s right.”

Claire’s words were disjointed, tumbling out as if she couldn’t think straight, her desperation evident.

“Actually, you know… I… I was chosen as the Hero, but… it didn’t really feel real back then.”

I remembered. I knew.

Claire, a simple village girl, had become the Hero by drawing the Hero’s sword.

Etiquette, swordsmanship, magic,

And the horrors of battling monsters.

She had known nothing of these things. The fate of the innocent village girl had changed in that instant.

She became the Hero, and embracing her newfound duty, she embarked on her journey.

But even during the quest to defeat the Demon King, deep down, Claire was still that timid village girl.

She tried to hide it,

Masking it with her duties as the Hero.

“But… I realized it then. People… people praised me… and cheered for me.”

True, whenever we traveled together, people who recognized Claire often offered us special treatment.

It had made achieving certain achievements much easier.

“I realized it then. Ah, I’m the Hero. My existence gives these people courage. But…”

Claire swallowed hard and stared at me blankly.

Her eyes, rather than those of the Hero who defeated the Demon King, looked like those of someone intoxicated, unfocused and wavering.

“For me… it was… you. It was you. Only… only you gave me courage. You allowed me to move forward, to fight… sob… To think I only realized it now… I’m such a fool, aren’t I? I… I knew you were struggling… but I just… I just wanted to keep the party together… so I looked away… I pretended not to know. I’m such a fool… a fool… Someone like me… I- I’m not a Hero.”

Claire, who had been smiling happily as she reminisced, now gripped her arm with a trembling hand, scratching at the fabric covering her skin.

–Scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch, scratch.

She scratched relentlessly, muttering incoherently.

Oblivious to what I was about to say, she just kept pouring out her heart.

“You always worked so hard for us, you were always so dedicated, but we didn’t appreciate it. sob… I was nothing. Just a fool who didn’t know what she could do, what she should do. I could only fulfill my duty as the Hero because of you… but I was such a fool… an idiot… a moron… I didn’t even realize it…”

Head bowed low, Claire continued her rambling, the words flowing endlessly.

Her once sun-like eyes darted around, unfocused and lost. Her hands, no longer anchored by my smile, clenched at empty air.

Her shoulders slumped, her legs trembling against the table where the teacups sat.

Tears dripped onto the floor.

Unable to look at me properly, tears streaming down her face, she clutched at my robe, her voice choked with emotion, like a waterlogged, broken radio.

“I’m sorry… sorry… sorry… I’m so sorry… I’m sorry… I…”

She trembled, like someone coming down from a drug-induced high.

Like someone who had just been told there was no more medicine left for them.

–Burst!

Just as I was about to speak, the door suddenly flew open. Claire and I turned to see a cute girl in a red dress standing there.

Princess Lucille Ermeier.

Breathing heavily, as if she had run here, she looked back and forth between Claire and me.

“Your Highness? What is it?”

“Haah… haah… U- Um… T- Tutor.”

At the word “Tutor,” Claire flinched, looking between Lucille and me, confusion and disbelief swirling in her eyes.

Why was she here?

And more importantly, why was she calling me “Tutor” when I hadn’t even taught her anything yet?

The thought that things might progress smoothly from now on filled me with a sense of satisfaction.

The future was bright!!

Maybe I could even unlock this achievement in a month or two?!

“…Tutor. I- I… would like to… learn more about… what you taught me earlier… I- If you’re not busy… could you… spare some time…?”

“Ah, yes. Sure. Hey, Claire. Let’s talk later. I have something to do. Ah, and about your arm… Oh, perfect timing.”

A priestess, presumably the Princess’s attendant, was standing outside the door.

A priestess assigned to the Princess would have stronger healing magic than me.

I called her in and asked her to heal Claire’s arm, then approached the Princess.

Up close, it was clear that coming all the way here was a considerable effort for her, considering her low self-esteem and reluctance to leave her room.

Lucille was breathing heavily, her legs trembling like a newborn fawn. I gently steadied her.

“Your Highness, why did you come here?”

“Um… Well…”

She glanced at Claire, who was staring at us, her tear-streaked face frozen in a blank expression.

“Let’s step outside.”

Claire, lost in her misery,

And Lucille, nervously glancing at her.

I didn’t know what was going on between them, but I didn’t want to intrude.

I led Lucille out of the room. Only then, in a voice barely above a whisper, did she speak.

“I… I know about… your relationship… with the Hero… S- So I was worried… that she might… hurt you… or… or force you to… go with her…”

“Haha. That won’t happen.”

That would be crossing the line, making an enemy of me.

At my response, Lucille smiled shyly, a delicate, peach-colored camellia blooming on her face.

Then, as if realizing what she had done, she paled and swayed. I caught her before she could fall. She clung to me tightly, still breathing heavily, her condition seemingly worsening.

“S- Sorry… I… I barged in… and… and I was so… rude…”

“It’s fine.”

I escorted her back to her room. Finally feeling safe, Lucille relaxed, leaning against me slightly.

Just like those I was no longer connected to had leaned on me in the past, seeking comfort in their difficult times.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇