The New Hero

The Fourth Princess of the Empire, and Crown Princess. Bella, the top student of the Department of Magic in her second year, was formulating a plan in her personal laboratory at the Academy.

Just a while ago, Ilia had suddenly visited her lab, saying she had received word from the Grand Duke of the North that they had found a spirit animal.

Bella, who knew the importance of spirit animals, was devising a plan to have Roel and Ilia head north and ‘coincidentally’ get caught up in an incident, allowing them to punish the evildoers.

Based on the information she had received from Modest and the investigation team, Bella was planning to implicate a family suspected of being a pawn of the altar in the north when she heard a knock on the door.

The knight Claire, with blonde hair and green eyes, opened the door and saluted.

“Your Highness, there’s a problem.”

“A problem?”

Bella, who had been writing on her planning sheet, looked up at Claire.

“It seems there was a surprise attack on the Sixth Prince’s villa. Currently, the Imperial Investigation Team and the Capital Defense Forces have been dispatched to the Sixth Prince’s villa.”

At Claire’s words, Bella narrowed her brows.

Bella, who had purchased information from Modest that the Sixth Prince was kidnapping children every day to sacrifice them as offerings, had been monitoring him with the intention of having Roel ‘coincidentally’ get involved and kill him, aligning with Roel’s schedule. But someone had interfered with her carefully laid plans.

With a deep sigh, Bella asked in a chilling voice.

“Hoo, what happened?”

“I also received urgent news, so I don’t have the details yet….”

Feeling frustrated by Claire’s answer, Bella rose from her seat.

“I’ll go to the scene myself.”

***

Upon arriving at the Sixth Prince’s villa on the outskirts of the capital, the knights of the Capital Defense Forces saluted Bella.

“You’ve arrived, Fourth Princess-nim!”

Bella, entering the villa’s entrance, asked.

“What happened?”

“It seems there was an assassin’s attack. It is estimated that 18 people have died, and it seems that the Sixth Prince is among them.”

The person who appeared to be the head of the defense forces approached Bella and answered diligently.

Bella glanced at the corridor stained red with blood and asked.

“Doesn’t the Sixth Prince have a monster named Locke by his side?”

Locke, who had placed second in the Imperial Knights’ swordsmanship competition, was a monster who wielded a massive iron club.

Of course, he had been defeated by Claire, who was next to her, but that was because there were rules in the competition. If it were an actual battlefield, Claire would not have been able to defeat the monster who could instantly recover from wounds and wield a massive iron club with strength surpassing that of humans.

“It is presumed that he was by the Sixth Prince’s side….”

At Bella’s question, the person in charge scratched the back of his head and answered in an unsure voice.

“Presumed…?”

Puzzled by the person in charge’s answer, Bella, along with Claire, was about to head down to the basement following the trail of blood when the person in charge stopped her.

“Well, we’ve cleaned up the pieces in the hallway…. But the investigation team is still investigating the basement… It might be a bit disturbing for you to see.”

“Bullshit.”

Ignoring the person in charge’s words, Bella went down to the basement.

After visually confirming the state of the basement, Bella finally understood what the person in charge meant by the word ‘presumed.’

The basement was filled with fragments of flesh and blood splattered everywhere on the walls and ceiling.

Except for the magic circles drawn on the floor and ceiling with unknown formulas and the corpses of children presumed to be sacrifices for the ritual, everything was covered in flesh and blood.

Stepping on the squishy flesh felt under her shoe soles, Bella gestured for the head of the investigation team, who was saluting her, to come closer.

“Report in detail what happened.”

“Yes. Since there are no corpses, it was impossible to confirm what kind of weapon the attacker used. However, considering that all the corpses were shattered into pieces, we are presuming that destruction magic was used. By using bloodstains scattered on the walls and detection magic, we have determined that there was only one attacker. Considering that everyone died from a distance, we are presuming that the attacker is not an assassin, but a high-ranking mage who has mastered destruction magic.”

Looking around the basement, Bella pointed to something that was a mixture of flesh and broken pieces of metal.

“What is this?”

Unlike the other small pieces of flesh, this was a ‘chunk of flesh.’

“It is presumed to be the knight Locke.”

At the head’s words, Claire, who was next to Bella, flinched.

“We are presuming that his body exploded along with his iron club.”

“Exploded with his weapon…?”

Claire asked back in surprise. Claire, who had directly clashed weapons with Locke, could imagine how strong the attacker was, and she felt a sense of fear.

“Yes, it seems he died without even being able to put up any proper resistance.”

Bella felt a headache coming on and asked the head.

“What about the Sixth Prince?”

“The Sixth Prince’s corpse…. is relatively intact compared to the others.”

“Relatively?”

Thinking that there were many guys making strange descriptions today, Bella asked back. As if answering her question, the head pointed to a long trail of blood leading to the wall.

“The Sixth Prince was tortured until just before his death, and then his jaw, heart, and genitals were torn off. He was hung on the wall and died from excessive bleeding.”

Bella, who looked up along the trail of blood and saw her younger brother hanging on the wall, wore a dissatisfied expression.

The death of a guy who didn’t know his place and engaged in ugly behavior was ultimately like this.

If he had died at Roel’s hands, his neck would have been cleanly severed and he would have died without pain. The Sixth Prince was truly unlucky.

Still, it was a sight to behold that the jaw of the Sixth Prince, who had been spouting dirty words and acting up in the Imperial Palace, had been torn off.

With a slightly satisfied smile, Bella was observing the Sixth Prince’s corpse when something strange caught her eye.

“What is that stuck in the Sixth Prince’s eyes?”

“It’s an acorn. Judging from the wounds, it is presumed that it was put into his eyes while he was still alive.”

At the head’s words, Bella scoffed in disbelief.

“An acorn?”

“Perhaps it is some kind of unique mark of the attacker.”

Was it an act with some great meaning? Bella imagined putting acorns in the Sixth Prince’s eyes, but she didn’t feel anything in particular.

She just wondered if her hands would get dirty and feel uncomfortable from the unpleasant Sixth Prince’s blood.

“And there is a witness. She is also the only survivor in the villa.”

“There’s a survivor?”

Even if he was trash, he was still an Imperial Prince of the Empire. The attacker who committed such an act wouldn’t be kind enough to leave a witness alive, would they?

As if answering Bella’s question, the head said.

“She was among the corpses offered as sacrifices. I don’t think they knew.”

Feeling intrigued by the head’s words, Bella ordered them to bring the witness.

A little while later, a girl with dull orange hair was carried in on the back of a knight.

The girl, who was hugging the corpse of a boy who had been drained of all blood and turned into a mummy as if it were precious like a doll, had both legs cut off.

When the knight placed the child on the floor, the child hugged the mummy tightly in her arms.

“What is the corpse she’s hugging?”

“It’s her twin brother who was kidnapped with her.”

The child’s tragic story was outside of Bella’s interest. She only had curiosity about the attacker who had interfered with her plans.

“Did you see who did this?”

Bella asked with a sweet voice as if comforting the child, and with a snake-like smile. Stroking the head of her brother whom she was holding in her arms, the child nodded slightly.

“Can you tell me what he looked like?”

The child, who had been looking at her brother with dead eyes, looked up, met Bella’s gaze, and said briefly.

“Hero.”

“What?”

“The one who killed the monster was the Hero-nim.”

Tears welled up in the child’s dead eyes as she said that.

Disappointed by the child’s answer, Bella let out a deep sigh, and Claire, who was standing next to her, said.

“It seems the child is traumatized. It’s hard for a young child to endure….”

At Claire’s words, Bella cut her off with an annoyed gesture.

‘Who doesn’t know that.’

Just as Bella was getting irritated by Claire’s frustrating personality, she heard the child’s scream-like voice in her ear.

“The Hero-nim punished the monster who tormented and killed my brother! The Hero-nim will kill all the other bad monsters too! He will definitely kill them-“

A golden flash shot from the end of Bella’s staff pierced the child’s chest.

The child, who had fallen to the floor as if facing her brother’s corpse, trembled for a moment, and then with a small murmur like a groan, ‘Hero…’, she limply stretched out her body.

“One Roel is enough as a hero.”

Bella, who put her staff in her arms, turned around and said to Claire.

“Let’s say that the righteous hero, Roel, killed the Sixth Prince who kidnapped children and sacrificed them as offerings.”

At Bella’s words, Claire asked back.

“Would Roel-nim… accept it?”

Bella scoffed at Claire’s foolish question.

“Roel is kind, not stupid.”

Roel already realized what kind of power fame wields. That’s why, even if he gets ‘coincidentally’ caught up in the incidents she sets up, he follows without objection.

“If the attacker simply killed the Sixth Prince to punish evil, he will remain silent. And if he killed the Sixth Prince for another reason, he will show himself somehow.”

If he showed himself, she would just kill him somehow. Someone had simply done the work she had to do for her. In the end, her plan didn’t change.

With this incident, Roel will be praised as a hero who wielded his sword for justice, even against a prince. He will take another step closer to becoming the hero who saved the continent.

Then naturally, ‘Hero Roel’ will become the most suitable spouse for the Emperor.

While Bella was thinking that and wearing a snake-like smile, Claire’s eyes did not leave the child’s corpse.