The Bird That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (2)

{Announcement from the weekly magazine [Weekly Kingdom].

We are retracting the article ‘The Hero’s Secret Hobbies’ published last week as it was sensational false rumors.

The hero is said to be a very ascetic and diligent person, with hobbies only including reading and sword training.

Furthermore, the hero did not physically mingle with demons,

and when subduing the enemy commander Daemon, it was with dignified commands, not profanity.

We apologize to our readers of [Weekly Kingdom] for conveying incorrect information.

• This article was not coerced by anyone and reflects the will of [Weekly Kingdom]’s editors.}

“Hmm…”

“Tsk…”

“Th-that’s good…! Th-that strange false rumor was quickly corrected…”

A large notice posted at the entrance of the capital. Unbelievably humble news from a weekly magazine known for publishing sensational rumors. Lena and I were stroking our chins while reading the notice, and the hero was smiling while sweating profusely.

Ashuria seemed more interested in the man standing next to the notice than the notice itself. Next to the notice, a man was shouting while tied up with ropes.

“I! Wrote a malicious article about the hero! All the content is distorted false rumors that I made up! The hero is not a playboy! The hero is not a playboy!”

“…It’s the first time I’ve seen someone go this far.”

I nodded at Ashuria’s words and added:

“It’s the same for me. Successful media outlets in the country are usually full of pride and malice, aren’t they? To post such a large apology, issue a correction, and tie up a reporter to display at the entrance, there must be many people in the capital who care for the hero.”

“I-is that so? I-I don’t really know… I-I live in the countryside…”

The hero turned his gaze to the side and just smiled awkwardly. Whether she knew the hero’s feelings or not, Mille raised both hands and cheered for the hero.

“The hero is amazing! Getting treated like that means you’re really loved! I’m jealous. When there was an article saying elves stole from dead travelers, they didn’t correct it.”

“Was there such an incident?”

Ashuria looked at Mille with a start. Mille nodded with an aggrieved expression and said:

“Yes! Does it make sense to say we stole things from dead people? They’re dead. Since they’re no longer the owners, it’s clearly lost property that we found.”

“…I think opinions might differ on that.”

Lena joked with an awkward smile, and Ashuria, unable to defend Mille as a member of the clergy, turned her head. Ashuria mumbled her lips and read the notice article again. After staring at the article for a while, she suddenly made a gloomy expression and closed her eyes while leaning back on the backrest.

Lena said:

“Hero, what are you going to do when we arrive in the capital?”

“For now, I’ll represent us and give a report. The palace will cover the accommodation costs, so just let me know where you’ll be staying. I’ll just give the report and come back quickly.”

The hero answered Lena’s question, calming his bright red face. The hero going alone was more about consideration to make our actions more comfortable rather than separating himself from us. The palace had delicious food and luxurious accommodations, but we would have to stay confined in our rooms during the rest period.

Moreover, we had to greet people according to etiquette, and the procedures before meeting the king were tiring. Ashuria, I, and Lena were people who loved the real feel of the city more than the splendor of the palace.

That’s why everyone nodded at the hero’s words, and as the inspection ahead of us finished, we were able to enter the capital.

---

A party without the hero. We unpacked at a luxurious inn in the bustling area. The inn fee was neatly resolved as soon as we showed the paper the hero had given us, and even staff we hadn’t called came to move our luggage to the rooms.

As soon as we handed over the luggage, we sprawled out on the table, exhausted from the long journey. We all sighed deeply without anyone starting first, boasting breath control no less than a choir. Mille whined while scratching the table with a fork.

“I’m tired and hungry… Is there a way to eat while sleeping?”

“Want to try lying down? I’ll feed you soup.”

“You’ll get indigestion that way. Don’t do it.”

Ashuria shook her head and discouraged the foolishness. She pulled her chair back from the table, sighed deeply, and stuck her head out the window frame. The sunlight was shining down, making her face particularly bright.

Lena poked Mille’s cheek and said:

“Do you have something on your mind?”

“Religious people always have worries. Even things that others might pass over lightly can have great meaning for us.”

“So what’s the matter?”

Ashuria raised her head again. She pulled her chair closer and met our eyes. Black hair, black eyes. Her face, a combination of achromatic colors, along with her indifferent expression, exuded a gloomy atmosphere.

“I was originally a heresy inquisitor. I was engaged in judging those who worshipped demons or committed evil and religious crimes.”

Lena made a face like a thief meeting a guard and slightly turned her head. Mille said with sparkling eyes:

“I’ve seen heresy inquisitors before. They even did a touring performance in our village.”

“That wasn’t a performance.”

Lena’s hollow laugh and Mille’s tilted head. Between them, stories I had heard once before flowed from Ashuria’s mouth. Ashuria added a few words to the background I knew, then started to bring up stories I didn’t know.

“The reason I was demoted from heresy inquisitor to nun was because I was too violent. While other heresy inquisitors burned people at the stake, I beat them to death with my fists.”

Lena was insensitive to the word violence. She nodded with an expression as nonchalant as mine, then said:

“From my perspective, they’re both violent. If I had to choose, I’d prefer to die from some magical sleep powder. Around age 94.”

“That soon?”

Mille was startled by Lena’s words, then a beat later, realizing Lena wasn’t an elf, nodded.

“Oh right.”

“…You seem especially tired today?”

Lena smiled as if she found Mille adorable, caressing her cheek, and Ashuria looked at me this time and said:

“Actually, it wasn’t simply because I beat people to death with my fists that I was called violent. The problem was that I rode a knight. There was a report that I had beaten an innocent person to death, and the church had a hard time because of it.”

“Ah, I think I’ve heard about that incident somewhere.”

I didn’t know, but Lena seemed to have heard about it. When Lena pretended to know, Ashuria nodded.

“As a result of the church’s reinvestigation, that person was indeed not innocent. He was a demon worshipper. But as the incident grew, I couldn’t continue in the position of heresy inquisitor, and so I was demoted to the position of nun.”

“The church’s reinvestigations are famous for being thorough.”

Lena said, raising the corner of her mouth at Ashuria’s words. Ashuria closed her eyes gently as if understanding her words and replied:

“The reliability is higher than you might think.”

“Is that so?”

Lena said that and started playing with Mille’s cheeks again. Mille, who had been rolling around on the table with her face puffed up like rice cakes, was stretched out, letting her face be distorted by Lena’s touch. Ashuria said:

“Anyway, when I suddenly saw the article with the correction notice today, I had this thought. Why didn’t they do this for me back then? Isn’t it interesting? A religious person who told others to live righteously living with such narrow-minded thoughts, it’s worthy of divine punishment.”

“It’s okay. If I were to be punished for such things, I would have died at age 10.”

Lena offered comfort without even looking at Ashuria. Mille nodded and said:

“That’s right. It’s mean that they don’t clear our false accusations. It’s good that they cleared the hero’s false accusation though.”

Sympathizing with Mille’s words, I said this:

“Mille is right. The past is just the past. No matter what you do now, the past is something that can’t be erased or changed. If you get angry comparing it to what’s happening now, you’ll only end up feeling sad alone. I have nothing to say except don’t think like that.”

Ashuria was staring at me blankly. I dipped bread in the soup that had just arrived and added:

“It’s from experience.”

---

“Commander! Commander!”

Once again, a soldier came running to the commander who was sitting flicking his mustache. The commander, sitting with a relaxed face as usual, was touching his huge bull-like horns while looking at the blackboard. The hero’s face was on the blackboard, and below it was written the hero’s profile.

The commander was in the process of wracking his brains while looking at that profile.

“What is it?”

At his friendly and good-natured tone, the soldier felt the tension in his frozen body relax. After an awkward salute, he presented the information.

“According to our informant, the weekly magazine that posted an article saying the hero is a womanizer has issued a correction. It seems that the claim about him being a womanizer is not true.”

The commander, who received the weekly magazine, said with a rather stern expression:

“No, it’s too fast. If it were a groundless false rumor, they wouldn’t have stopped it. But someone responded immediately as soon as the rumor came out. This is proof that this rumor is real.”

The commander asked:

“What about the black society?”

The adjutant next to him flipped through some documents and said:

“It’s still being coordinated, but…”

“It doesn’t matter. Is there a member capable of using the beauty strategy?”

The adjutant nodded and said:

“Ah, yes. There is one.”

The commander said with a solemn expression:

“Prepare them as quickly as possible. They say the hero is heading to the capital. We’ll eliminate the hero while he’s in the capital.”