“I’m sorry, but we cannot offer you work either.”
“It’s alright. No payment is needed. I just need a place to eat and sleep.”
Furenna responded innocently to the village chief’s refusal.
The chief helplessly shook his head.
Although he didn’t entirely believe the rumors of the Heroine being useless, such talk had already spread widely even in information-scarce villages.
The chief understood that people in the cities probably believed it by now.
Moreover… the incident involving the previous Heroine made it easy for people to believe such rumors. Because the Heroine was no longer a noble and perfect superhuman, but a potential bomb that might suddenly explode.
“Furenna, you don’t understand my meaning.
The eyes and ears of the Church and the royal family are everywhere. It’s not just money; we cannot provide you with food or shelter either…”
The chief sighed, stood up, took a book from the bookcase, and shoved it into Furenna’s hands.
He said in a low voice: “There are unused haystacks in the nearby abandoned pasture. Remember to read this book recording Heroine history, especially the story of the previous Heroine.”
“The previous Heroine?”
After leaving the chief’s house, Furenna went to the haystacks he mentioned. It seemed these few unused haystacks would be her residence for the foreseeable future.
The young girl didn’t complain, rolled up her sleeves, gathered the hay, and stacked them together into a spot that looked passable for sleeping.
Sitting on the haystack, Furenna found herself unable to think of what she should do for a moment. Her daily scheduled training was already finished.
“Hmm, even if I can’t get a job, that doesn’t mean I can’t help, right? As long as I don’t accept payment?”
The Heroine even wanted to provide help for free. She simply couldn’t accept doing nothing.
As for solving the food problem, hunting in the nearby forest wasn’t a bad method.
Heroine Furenna maintained a calm mindset, proactively offering help to the busy farmers in the village.
However, Furenna noticed that while they never refused and explicitly stated they wouldn’t give payment, they were always cautious, as if afraid she might suddenly lash out and hurt someone. Children were even more afraid to approach her.
Furenna attributed this phenomenon to the royal family and Church’s rumors and didn’t take it to heart.
Sleeping in the haystack at night, hunting wild beasts in the mountains when hungry, starting her daily training at sunrise—Furenna constantly worried the demons would make a comeback. After all, they had only retreated to the wasteland, not been completely exterminated.
In the wasteland where the demons lived, after thousands of years of development, it was full of danger. Moreover, magic received no assistance there; it was truly a god-abandoned land.
Furenna kept training. If humanity needed her, she would still extend a helping hand without hesitation.
Though food and shelter weren’t problems, and clothes could be washed in the river, wearing a single set of clothes back and forth caused them to fade badly and develop quite a few holes.
Furenna didn’t have a good solution and could only use her few remaining savings to buy a spare set of clothes for changing.
Furenna could foresee that she was very unwelcome. But what she didn’t expect was that in these months, the royal family and Church’s rumors had intensified, now even evolving into claims that the Heroine had nearly defected.
“Excuse me, sorry to bother you. I’d like to buy a set of everyday clothes.”
Entering the clothing shop, Furenna picked out an ordinary outfit under the clerk’s reluctant yet not daring-to-fully-show expression. After paying, she planned to leave. It was then that people in the shop who noticed Furenna lowered their voices and began carefully whispering among themselves.
“Look, it’s the Heroine.”
“What Heroine? If it weren’t for Prince William and Saintess Lilith, the demons would have occupied our land long ago. What use is this useless Heroine?”
“Useless during the war, even more useless during peace.”
“Don’t say that. Aren’t you afraid she might suddenly go berserk and kill people? Remember, the last Heroine was…”
Even though they lowered their voices, someone as strong as Heroine Furenna couldn’t possibly fail to hear their conversation. But the “innate defect” girl Furenna didn’t feel any hatred.
She even felt this was understandable. From the history book the chief gave her, Furenna learned about her predecessor—the previous Heroine who, after subjugating the Demon King, suddenly decided to slaughter the royal family and Church members and take their place, causing massive damage to humanity.
In the end, it was the Goddess herself descending to display divine miracles who destroyed the Heroine; otherwise, the previous Heroine would have ruled as a tyrant.
Walking back to her small residence—the haystack—people on the main street tried their best to avoid Furenna’s path. Except for one child. A little girl hopped along, running straight toward Furenna with a smile, her mother following behind.
“Heroine Sister! Heroine Sister!”
The little girl giggled and ran up to Furenna, opening her arms and lifting her rosy little face to ask for a hug. Furenna placed the bag of clothes on the ground and picked the little girl up.
“Sorry for troubling the Heroine again.”
The little girl’s mother walked up from behind. Unlike the hostility and aversion others showed the Heroine, she wore a sincere smile.
“It’s nothing. Thank you for your help these days,” Furenna held the little girl at her side, letting her sit on her right shoulder. Amid the child’s cheers, a smile finally bloomed on Furenna’s face. “But you really don’t need to send me food anymore. I can hunt in the mountains.”
“You have no seasonings, and it’s hard to process. Eating wild beast meat and wild vegetables every day isn’t sanitary, and the nutrition won’t keep up, right?”
“It’s not a problem. As a Heroine, my body can extract nutrients to the maximum extent and distinguish beneficial components. So basic vegetables and meat are enough.”
Furenna affectionately pinched the little girl’s cheek on her shoulder. This mother and daughter were people she had saved from a magical beast attacking the village when she first descended in “Falling Star Village.”
So even now, with rumors spreading everywhere and people avoiding her, they were willing to trust Furenna and scoff at the groundless slander.
“That won’t do,” the woman took Furenna’s left hand, pulling the Heroine toward her home. “I have bread for you.”
“I can’t. You know the royal family and Church have given orders. Helping me will only harm you. I cannot do something so selfish.”
Furenna refused the woman’s kindness. Finally, she gently pressed her forehead against the little girl’s head and handed the child back to the woman. Helping her would put them in danger.
The woman somewhat helplessly took the child back. She understood this reasoning too, but she couldn’t bear to watch the great hero who saved all of humanity live so miserably, exposed to wind and rain, suffering cold stares wherever she went.
“I’ll go now. See you, Ti Mo.”
“Okay! See you, Heroine Sister!”
The little girl named Ti Mo wore an innocent smile and waved goodbye. Furenna waved back to the mother and daughter, watching them leave.
The young girl continued on her way home. But after turning a corner, Furenna restrained her smile.
“Come out. No more hiding.”
This secluded path was empty at the moment. It was a pre-arranged trap, specifically meant to take Furenna’s life.
“Impressive as expected, Heroine,” a voice came from all directions of the small path, drifting unpredictably, deliberately interfering with Furenna’s perception. “But I’m no pushover either. Even a Heroine who can defeat the Demon King head-on has fallen into my trap.”
The voice’s tone carried a hint of smug delight, seemingly excited about the fact that Furenna had fallen into his snare.
“You’re the sixth person trying to kill me this week. Was it an order from the royal family and the Church?”
Furenna’s expression was calm, but her amber eyes held a trace of sadness. Even with her “innate defect,” she ultimately couldn’t suppress the negative emotions upon discovering that the royal family and Church wanted to secretly kill her.
“Since you are the Heroine, to show my respect, I’ll let you die knowing the truth. Though the bounty was anonymously issued through the Adventurer’s Association, it is indeed the handiwork of the royal family and Church.
“While I don’t fully understand why they insist on killing you, it doesn’t matter. The Demon King is gone; your existence is indeed insignificant now. After all, a monster this strong… if I were the ruler, I wouldn’t feel safe either, right?”
The voice’s owner hid within space itself, silently sneaking toward Furenna. He was, of course, confident that his disguise was flawless.
And this killing trap, his proud masterpiece, was something even someone as strong as Furenna could absolutely never escape. This small path was already covered with high-level alchemical arrays. Human perception would be distorted, entering a state of endless looping, never able to escape.
“Monster?”
Furenna hadn’t expected to be called that. The silent Heroine didn’t draw the sword at her waist. She simply stood quietly in place, as if waiting for something.
“Sorry, but I’ll be taking your head. Your skull is worth an estate in the capital’s prime district.”
The assassin suddenly leapt out from the space behind Furenna. The dagger in his hand, coated with hydra venom from magical beasts, reflected the light of death in the sunlight.
Even a shallow scratch would allow the toxin to instantly enter the victim’s body, corroding them into nothing.
“Success!!!”
The moment the dagger struck Furenna, the assassin seemed to see his wealthy future. But in the next second, the hard sensation transmitted back through the dagger instantly froze his half-formed smug expression.
“How?!”
This was refined steel, enhanced by alchemy to the highest level! How could it fail to even break the skin?!
Before the assassin could figure out why, Furenna turned around, extended her right hand, and firmly grasped the venom-coated dagger. Her left hand gently waved toward him.
The assassin was sent flying backward, crashing heavily to the ground. Pain made him curl up uncontrollably, feeling as if every part of his body was about to fall apart. Furenna’s right hand applied slight force. Under the assassin’s terrified gaze, the solid dagger was crushed barehanded into molecular form, dissipating into nothingness.
“No, no, no! Please don’t kill me! I beg you…”
The assassin had no time to feel fear; he scrambled and prostrated himself, begging Furenna to spare his life.
Under overwhelming power, he understood that his identity as the world’s fourth-ranked assassin was a complete joke. The Heroine before him truly was the Creator Goddess’s masterpiece, a pure monster, an unkillable terror.
“Go…”
Furenna’s tone was filled with exhaustion, telling the self-important assassin to leave immediately. Even in this situation, she had never harbored thoughts of killing a human.
“Th… thank you! Thank you!”
The assassin hadn’t expected Furenna to let him go so easily. Without another word, using all four limbs, enduring the inhuman pain surging from every part of his body, he escaped the small path and awkwardly squeezed into the vast crowd.
Furenna stood silently in place for a long time, murmuring to herself with self-mockery: “Monster…”
She had thought that honestly showing weakness would be enough, that not using her powerful strength would be enough. She had chosen to live in this remote mountain village.
She didn’t expect that starting two weeks ago, assassination attempts would come one after another. The royal family and Church feared her immense power, wanting to kill the girl to eliminate future troubles.
Perhaps because a peaceful era doesn’t need an existence that threatens the empire… their actions deeply disappointed Furenna in humanity. But the remaining warmth in her heart was still sustained by the kind mother and daughter.
Furenna believed that most humans were still kind people like the mother, daughter, and village chief.
This innocent belief lasted only until one stormy night not long after.