episode_0001

“Leon, no… Should I call him Leah now? Well, it doesn’t matter.”

You little shits.

“You are kicked out of the warrior party. Leah Nine Saber. The reason is… incompetence. Is that enough? Ha, you were originally not very talented, but now you have lost even your multi-talent. I will use the warrior’s power well, commoner. ”

Why did I become like this? I tried to save you and ended up like this, and now you’re abandoning me just because I lost my warrior powers. I thought of you as comrades, and I loved you… This is all I was to you.

“I’m sorry, Lady Leah. But… we are a party of warriors. It is difficult for someone who has lost all his strength to join. Rather, sending you away now is the only mercy the Goddess of Libra can give you.”

The saint’s beautiful voice also felt like a fake noise that scratched my eardrums. Why did I lose my strength in the first place? Thinking about the reason made me feel even more angry.

Leah’s empty eyes were fixed on the holy sword that she always carried, but which was now hanging on someone else’s waist.

I cried for so long that even the tears that were flowing from my eyes had dried up and even the tears of blood could no longer flow, so I couldn’t even cry anymore.

Until two days ago. Yes, until two days ago, everything was definitely going well…

How did it turn out like this?

*****

“Ugh… This time… I’m going to die like this… But… As long as the Life Vessel doesn’t get destroyed… I’ll be… immortal…! Soon… again…”

-Crunch.

The Holy Sword decapitated the Four Heavenly Kings, Lich Galvan.

It was really an instant, making the long battle and hardships of the past seem insignificant. Well, the Life Vessel would be in the Demon King’s Castle, so it was a short-lived victory, but with that short-lived victory, humanity would achieve a great victory on one front. The difference between the presence and absence of the Four Heavenly Kings was almost like the difference between heaven and earth.

“Ugh… I don’t have enough mana… I have no strength…”

“Everyone, thank you for your hard work.”

“Yeah. Everyone worked hard this time too. Belle, Ena, Gabriel, Nia, and Sudo.”

We were a party of six warriors, consisting of me, a saintess of the Libra Order, my childhood friend the wizard, a knight of the Imperial Knights, a thief who I met by chance in the underworld and was working with in an employment relationship, and an elf who came as a representative of the elven tribe to capture the Demon King.

Especially for me… I’m not bragging, but I was chosen as a warrior by the Goddess of Scales from a commoner background and became a warrior. Of course, I’m not the only warrior.

The Heroes are three people who have been given a mission by the Goddess to defeat the Demon King who appears once every 100 years, and the Hero Party is a group of powerful people who have gathered from all over the continent to help him.

If the Demon King cannot be stopped, the world will be ruled by the Demon King, so the mission was very important. Therefore, I also had a great sense of responsibility-

“Kuhhh…”

As I reminisced about my accomplishment of defeating the Four Heavenly Kings for the first time, Richie’s sinister laughter pierced my ears.

“Did you think Galvein would die like this? No! I will never die alone! One of you will go with me!”

Moment.

A single piece was created by splitting a second into hundreds or thousands of pieces, and the mana that leaked out from the skull split in such a short time formed a magic circle and aimed at the party.

If other people were to be hit by that dark magic that seemed to change their very nature…

His colleagues didn’t even notice, as their calm faces didn’t move at all.

The only one who could stop it was me.

Instinct overtook reason. I leapt to protect my comrades, throwing myself in front of them like a flying swarm.

-Crack!!

I felt something pierce my heart.

And then, the lights went out.

A state of complete unconsciousness came in an instant, with no sound of surprise from the people around me or even a faint figure visible.

…That was the last memory of that day.

And I woke up two days later.

*****

Ugh…

I woke up with a splitting headache and frowned.

Oh, that’s right. I… was struck by the magic of the Four Heavenly Kings and fell. So is this a temple?

For some reason, I had no strength in my hands.

Is it because the injury hasn’t fully healed yet? No, I didn’t feel any pain other than a headache.

No, it’s not that there is no strength. It’s just that the strength has disappeared, the evil spirit has weakened.

“Ugh…”

I got up with difficulty and looked in the mirror.

Swoosh, soft blonde hair flowed down her waist and onto the bed.

In the mirror, the calloused and bruised, ordinary-looking country boy was gone, and instead, a blonde, blue-eyed, doll-like beauty was there.

“…Huh?”

A nasal sound that represented the question that was leaking out of her throat without any room to stop it. Even that wasn’t the moderately thick voice of a man who had just passed puberty, but the voice of a cute and delicate girl.

“This… This, what is…”

I reached out to the mirror.

The pretty girl in the mirror also reached out to me with a dazed face.

Perhaps I have become a woman.

-Squeak…

“Be, bell…! Me… Me, my body…”

The sudden confusion of identity was accompanied by anxiety, and I instinctively reached out to Bell to calm my anxiety.

-Percussion!

…?

What the heck happened?

For the first few seconds, I just stood there dumbfounded, my red, swollen hands hanging in the air, not understanding the situation.

“Leon, no… Leah.”

“Be… Bel…?”

My childhood friend who always smiled brightly at me… Belle, with a cold expression… looked down at me and slapped my hand away as if she had seen everything about me.

“I’ll get straight to the point, you’re not a warrior anymore.”

“…What is that, so powerful- Huh?”

I couldn’t feel the warm, shining energy that had always been shining in my chest. No, it wasn’t to that extent, but without the energy, it was too hard to even move my rag-like body that could not even support itself.

The feeling of emptiness, as if the space where I had been so energetic had become completely empty. As soon as I realized it, the aura of sleep disappeared and I was instantly filled with emptiness.

“It seems like you need to explain the situation.”

Saint Gabrielle walked in, following Belle.

Yeah, can someone please explain this situation to me?

“First of all, Leon was hit by the final surprise attack of the Four Heavenly Kings Galvan and fainted. The exact method is unknown, but Leo transformed into his current form, perhaps due to the influence of the magic circle.”

“And? I can understand that Galvein has been working a lot with black magic, but… why is he qualified to be a warrior?”

“That is in line with the reason I mentioned earlier. Leon-sama, who had been fundamentally transformed into a woman and had a different body due to Richie’s attack, was judged by the Holy Spirit to be someone other than ‘Leon’ and so… left Leon-sama’s body.”

Gabriel was holding a vial in his hand, a vial filled with a pure white halo. I instinctively knew that it was the Warrior’s License.

“Well, then… You just put it aside to treat it for a while? You can use it again, right…? Thanks, Gabriel-”

“What does that mean?”

“…Huh?”

“This is no longer an ability that Leon can use.”

“…What are you talking about! Chosen by the Goddess… I fought for humanity, sacrificing my life…! Even as my body became crippled…!!”

As the anger surged to the tip of my head, my sense of reality disappeared. Like a butterfly dream, I couldn’t even tell if this was a dream or reality. I couldn’t even feel the texture of the bed sheets that I was holding tightly in my hands. No, to be exact, my head, which had turned completely white, couldn’t accept any information. It was as if I was moving under general anesthesia.

“Thank you for your sacrifice for humanity. Many people have survived at the price of your life.”

“That, yeah… You know. Gabriel… I, I practice while sleeping for 30 minutes a day…”

“But it’s not enough.”

“…”

“If the power had gone to someone better than you, more people would have lived. Some of those who have died in the war against the Demon King so far were killed by you, warrior. Do you know why your title is the versatile warrior?”

A versatile warrior, you know.

It was a derogatory term I always heard whenever I went out to the battlefield.

Maybe it’s because he’s a commoner with no talent or pedigree, but he writes about all sorts of things but can’t do any of them in depth, and he can only fight with the power of his holy spirit.

But… those words, even if they weren’t for someone else, shouldn’t they come out of your mouth? When I was suffering from that derogatory remark, you were the one who counseled me and comforted me, but… You say that so casually even though you know what that derogatory remark means to me.

While other warriors were only focused on growing and becoming the Demon King, who was the one who faced all that suffering alone as the first barrier to humanity?

“But now, as if by fate, the choice of the warrior has come to mankind. There is no need to give the title to Leon again. As it happens, the eldest son of the famous swordsmanship family, Smith, wants you to become a warrior… Leon’s holy weapon is also a holy sword. The warrior’s power will be used for a better purpose, so rest assured and give up now.”

Is what I just heard true?

So, you’re going to throw me… into the sand pit.

“…Bell.”

Blood flowed from his lips. His voice trembled with anger.

But, there’s no way my other colleagues would do that. Especially my childhood friend Belle… Belle, who I grew up with since birth, and who I promised to marry, calling her my wife and all!

“Sorry, Leon. I actually dated Smith. Since I was about 9. And, I’m saying this now, but I kept trying to please you because you were a hero… Your face is inferior to Smith’s, and your butt is smaller than Smith’s, and you even help the victims, what’s your heart like as a hero party? You donated money whenever you got it, right? I want to try some splurges, and I want to stop going on camping trips like a beggar because I’m always running out of money. Now that it’s like this, it’s neat.”

ah?

…

…I couldn’t understand the content because of the shock. It felt like each word Bell said was cut off and came across separately.

But I wish that this state could continue forever, but even that eventually led to my brain suffering from the symptom of understanding the poison called time.

Oh, my head felt like it was going to burst from the anger. Bloody tears flowed from my eyes, skipping even the tears. It was such an intense emotion that my head was dizzy.

I love you, I have no one but you. Those words were all fake… In that case, you shouldn’t have said them.

“Well… I didn’t want to fight with you over something like this, and I foolishly thought you’d let go after some time. I didn’t know you’d get so attached to me.”

…I don’t want to listen to those two’s nonsense anymore. Yeah… Surang, Anna, and Nia…! Those three will be different…

“Warrior, why aren’t those three here? As soon as the imperial order came down, Ena went to Smith, and as soon as Smith made the contract with money, she went there. And Nia… Think about it. Would it be beneficial for the World Tree to be with Leon, who has lost his power and will definitely be stripped of his warrior title? Or would it be beneficial to be with the new warrior, Smith?”

“…”

ha ha ha…

Those three didn’t even bother to visit me, they just ran right over to me…

Really, as if it was nothing.

Until just before I lost consciousness, they were fighting over who was the main wife and who was the concubine.

*****

In an instant, my world came crashing down.