A Hero’s One-Man Show

The air was thick with the distinct, cloying sweetness of plant sap. It mingled with the acrid scent of char from the recent explosion, creating a truly unpleasant aroma.

I dispelled the small Chaos Shield before me. My gaze fell upon His Highness Alexis, who stood poised with his sword, a look of righteous indignation etched across his face.

Below him lay the mangled remnants of the vampiric vines, dismembered and oozing sap across the ground.

I couldn’t help but sigh deeply in my heart.

‘How utterly filthy,’ I mused.

It wasn’t just physically dirty; it was the sheer crudeness and barbarity of his method that truly bothered me.

The vines had already submitted, meekly lying on the ground. They had even cleared a path for us.

As a rational, civilized person, shouldn’t one simply pass through with elegance?

To rush forward and blast them to smithereens, creating such a mess—was this truly the ‘royal demeanor’ he so prided himself on?

Alexis panted heavily.

He seemed immensely pleased with his heroic intervention. His azure eyes gleamed with a fervor that bordered on fanaticism.

“Ella! Eisen! What are you waiting for?”

He didn’t look at me, but rather called out anxiously to the two figures behind me.

“Come quickly! She’s a witch who can control monsters! She was just communicating with those creatures! If you don’t escape now, her evil magic will brainwash you!”

I raised an eyebrow.

‘Communicate?’

‘Brainwash?’

‘His Highness’s imagination is truly wasted if he isn’t writing bardic poems,’ I mused.

I remained silent, standing quietly in place.

I wanted to observe how the two ‘victims’ behind me would react.

In the original story, the heroine would have cried and run to the prince, seeking his protection.

But now…

“…Sheathe your sword.”

A voice, as sharp and cold as a winter icicle, cut through the air.

Beatrix Eisen stepped forward, positioning herself in front of me.

She did not look at the prince. Instead, her gaze was fixed on the unsheathed knight’s sword in her hand, her eyelids lowered.

Her voice was soft, yet it carried an anger suppressed to its absolute limit.

“Your Highness, please sheathe your sword.”

Alexis was stunned.

“Eisen? What are you saying? I was saving you…”

“Saving?”

Beatrix abruptly lifted her head.

The cold glint that erupted from her golden eyes made Alexis instinctively recoil half a step.

“Those corrupted plants had ceased their attack; they had submitted. In such circumstances, there was no necessary reason to draw a sword, much less to cause such… an aesthetically devoid, chaos-inducing explosion.”

She cast a glance at the surrounding wreckage, her tone dripping with unconcealed disdain.

“Your actions not only disturbed Lady Lilliana’s tranquility but also polluted the air here. Is this what you call ‘salvation’?”

“Wh-what?”

Alexis’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Submitted? They are monsters! How could they possibly submit? They were merely waiting for an opportunity to ambush us! Eisen, where is your knightly vigilance? Have you already been—”

“And another thing!”

Another voice cut him off.

Ella Smith peered out from behind me.

She still clutched the basket filled with moonpetal grass to her chest.

Her face, usually adorned with a gentle, sweet smile, was now flushed crimson. Her emerald eyes blazed with indignation.

“Your Highness! Please do not use words like ‘witch’ or ‘evil’ to describe Lady Lilliana!”

This ordinarily timid ‘rabbit’ was now shouting at the crown prince of the nation, all to defend me.

“Just now… if Lady Lilliana hadn’t released her aura, Ella and I might have been forced to fight those vines!”

“It was Lady Lilliana who protected us! And in the most peaceful, most gentle way possible!”

“Gentle?”

Alexis felt as though he was losing his mind.

He pointed at me, his finger trembling visibly.

“You call that suffocating, hellish dark aura ‘gentle’? Have you both gone mad? That’s chaos! It’s the sin that devours all!”

“That was tranquility.”

I finally spoke.

I truly had no desire to listen to this tiresome argument any longer.

I gently pushed Beatrix aside, who had been blocking my way, and slowly walked toward Alexis.

As I approached, he instinctively reached to draw his sword.

Yet, the moment his gaze met my calm, unruffled crimson eyes, his body froze, utterly unable to move.

I looked at him as one might look at a child who had loudly overturned a wine glass at a banquet.

“Your Highness, is the world in your eyes truly composed of only two colors: black and white?” I asked softly.

“Either an enemy or a friend; either righteous or evil. Anything that appears dangerous must be eliminated, and anything that doesn’t conform to your understanding is deemed heresy.”

I extended a finger and gently flicked a withered leaf that had been blasted off by his explosion, now resting on my shoulder.

“Those plants are also living beings. They attack out of instinct, and they also fear out of instinct. When they have already chosen to yield, as the stronger party, isn’t it only natural to offer even a shred of insignificant mercy?”

“In the moment you drew your sword, were you truly thinking of saving lives?”

I narrowed my eyes slightly, my gaze like a knife, dissecting his veneer of righteousness.

“Or was it… that you merely wished to savor the thrill of vanquishing evil, to play the role of an impeccable hero before these two ladies?”

Alexis’s pupils constricted sharply.

My words had precisely pierced the hidden corner of his heart, a truth he himself was unwilling to acknowledge.

‘Yes.’

When he saw the two young women surrounded by monsters, his initial reaction was likely not fear, but a surge of excitement.

An exhilaration that whispered, ‘Finally, it’s my turn to shine,’ and ‘At last, I can prove I am right.’

“I…”

He parted his lips, his face instantly turning ashen.

“No… it’s not…”

“Whether it is or not, this is the result.”

I no longer looked at him. Turning away, I gestured to the two behind me.

“Let’s go. The smell here is unbearable. Since we’ve gathered all the materials, it’s time to return.”

“Yes, Lady Lilliana!”

Ella responded cheerfully, clutching her basket and trotting to catch up.

As she passed the prince, she deliberately made a wide detour, as if he carried some infectious disease.

Beatrix, meanwhile, sheathed her sword and offered Alexis a cool, formal knight’s salute.

“Your Highness, I believe you need to re-examine the meaning of chivalry. True protection, perhaps, does not always require drawing a sword.”

With that, she turned and swiftly walked to my side, resuming her protective stance.

The three of us then departed, following the forest path.

Alexis was left alone, standing solitary amidst the ravaged forest.

The royal sword in his hand now felt incredibly heavy.

He watched her receding figure.

‘That woman, Lilliana.’

She hadn’t attacked him with magic, nor had she verbally insulted him.

She had merely… invalidated him.

Fundamentally, she had denied his worth as a hero.

“…Damn it.”

Alexis’s hand fell limply to his side, his sword sinking into the muddy earth.

An unprecedented sense of frustration, mingled with a twisted desire to prove himself, surged wildly within his heart.

“I wasn’t… putting on an act.”

He lowered his head, gazing at the scattered branches and withered leaves on the ground. The corners of his eyes were noticeably red.

“I will prove it… I am right. That power of yours… it will spiral out of control eventually, and it will harm them.”

“And when that happens… only I, only I will be able to…”

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Having emerged from the forest’s shadows, they were once again bathed in sunlight.

“Lady Lilliana, you were… so cool just now!”

Ella leaned close to me, her eyes sparkling like stars.

“Especially that line, ‘Granting mercy is the prerogative of the strong’… Waaah, I almost cried from how moved I was!”

“I didn’t say those exact words.”

I replied, a touch of helplessness in my voice.

“It means the same thing!” Ella chirped with a giggle.

She giggled, then, as if remembering something, looked at me with a hint of nervousness.

“Um… did any of that dirt His Highness blasted off get onto you? Should I help you check?”

“I’ll help too.”

Beatrix immediately chimed in.

“My dynamic vision is quite good; I can spot even the tiniest speck of dust.”

Before I could even refuse, the two of them began circling me.

Ella produced a handkerchief, meticulously dabbing at non-existent dust on my sleeves.

Her fingertips brushed my wrist, a faint, warm touch that carried a hint of fawning.

Beatrix, meanwhile, knelt down, carefully inspecting the hem of my skirt and my shoes.

Her breath ghosted against my calves, a sensation both ticklish and warm.

“…I wasn’t dirtied.”

I shifted uncomfortably, wanting to step back.

“No! We must check thoroughly!”

Ella was unusually insistent, her cheeks flushed, her eyes glistening slightly.

“Lady Lilliana is so pristine… she absolutely cannot be tainted by even the slightest bit of filth created by such a boorish man!”

“Exactly.”

Beatrix looked up, her golden eyes filled with unwavering conviction.

“It is our duty to protect your purity.”

Watching these two, who were ostensibly ‘checking’ but in reality were quite handsy, I suddenly felt…

‘Perhaps that prince wasn’t entirely wrong after all,’ I mused.

‘These two are indeed a little unusual.’