The Former Hero Begins to be Re-evaluated

‘She wants to make a request to me…’
Objectively speaking, I’m quite a valuable person in this world.
Although I was exiled from the Empire, I was still a former hero.
Wouldn’t a former hero be much more capable than an S-rank adventurer?
In that sense, I could understand to some extent why this girl wanted to make a request to me.
It wouldn’t be easy to find someone like me anywhere.
If she had something she needed to resolve, I would be the best means to resolve it.
“Well, if you want to make a request, I can listen.”
However, the fact that I was capable meant that hiring me would inevitably be expensive.
I spoke bluntly to Ria who was requesting me.
Since she was a girl who knew I was the former hero, she probably wouldn’t say she didn’t know my value.
If she wanted, I could listen to her request. There was no particular reason to refuse.

However, I wanted a fair compensation matching my value.
“But do you have money? I’ll tell you in advance, I don’t intend to accept requests for mere pocket change.”
There’s no way a kid like this would have money…?
But the important thing was that no matter how I looked at it, the girl in front of me now didn’t seem to have the money to hire me.
I’m not sure about Ria’s appearance, but the clothes she was wearing were shabby clothes borrowed from the nunnery.
Moreover, wasn’t Ria an orphan?
No matter how I thought about it, an orphan staying at a nunnery in a village like this wouldn’t have the large sum of money to hire me.
If Ria and I were close or had that kind of relationship, I could do the request for a moderate amount of pocket money, but Ria and I weren’t that kind of relationship.
At best, weren’t we just acquaintances who met yesterday and had a little conversation?
In this kind of relationship, I would only follow a strictly financial relationship.
Therefore, I was actually going to refuse Ria’s request.
“Of course. The compensation to hire the hero is already prepared.”
But contrary to my expectations, Ria responded with a confident expression.
No… the compensation is already prepared…? How?
I honestly didn’t understand Ria’s words well, but Ria didn’t seem to be lying.
“What is it?”
Does she have something amazing?
I was a bit expectant about what compensation she was talking about.
“You can do whatever you want with my body.”
And I heard a really ridiculous thing.
Placing her hand on her chest, Ria said confidently.
That this was the compensation she was talking about.
“…?”
I could only be dumbfounded.
The compensation you’re talking about is your body…?
“What body is compensation… No, even if it’s compensation, there’s nothing to do with it in the first place?”
The compensation Ria proposed being her body, Ria’s proposed compensation was really ridiculous no matter how I thought about it again.
What is this kid who’s barely out of diapers saying…
Moreover, that body wasn’t even an attractive body.

Ria was objectively quite cute in appearance, but that was just her appearance.
Her age was at most 14 to 15 years old, and she had a body shape fitting that age, which was absolutely not a body shape that ordinary men would like.
Of course, some men with perverted tastes might go crazy for Ria’s current body.
They would accept it gladly like a horny pig saying [lolol]. There were quite a few such guys on the Earth where I lived.
But I don’t have such tastes.
Therefore, I had no choice but to treat Ria with a quite cold response.
“Hehe. You don’t know.”
But Ria treated my reaction as if I knew one thing but not two.
“Although I’m not very old yet so my body is still underdeveloped, later it will become amazing. You can eat me raw or boiled however you like then.”
“What’s the basis for saying that?”
“My mother had huge breasts.”
She said her future self would be amazing and asked me to wait until then.
What on earth is this kid saying…
Thwack.
“Ouch…”
In the end, I had no choice but to flick Ria’s forehead.
It’s not like she’s joking after calling me…
I was a fool for seriously listening to this little kid’s story.
Hit by the sudden forehead flick, Ria looked at me with tears welling up in her eyes as if resenting me.
I sighed and said to Ria.
“Stop talking nonsense and go study.”

#

“Let’s depart again now.”
Through camping, the hero party got sufficient rest.
Since both body and mind have recovered sufficiently, we should move to find the Demon Lord’s castle again.
The hero party led by Herald prepared to depart again to find the Demon Lord’s castle.
‘Sigh…’
But there was also someone who hadn’t recovered sufficiently.
Someone who was already sighing as if tired, it was Hero Herald.
Yesterday, Herald had to do all the camping preparations alone.
From cooking to setting up tents, he did everything alone.
Because the party members didn’t know how to do any of those things at all.
And it was the same today.
From cooking after waking up in the morning to collecting the tents again, Herald did everything alone.
Of course, Herald, who had taken charge of all the work yesterday and today, couldn’t help but be tired even before departing.
Although he was a hero, he was also an old man over 60.
Doing such chores was quite physically demanding.
‘Why on earth did Hero Han Soo bring these guys along?’
Why should he, the hero, expend energy from now on because of such tasks?
To be honest, Herald’s dissatisfaction was at its peak now.
Although he’s not expressing it in words, he feels like how can there be such party members.
The party members didn’t know how to do anything basic.

Moreover, they didn’t even have the will to try.
Even when Herald was working hard alone, not a single person helped.
Their attitude was as if it was natural for the hero to do it.
Of course, from Herald’s position, he couldn’t help but be angry.
He came into this party as a hero, not as some porter or housekeeper.
He desperately wanted to say something to the party members who weren’t treating the hero as a hero.
‘Right… let’s not get too emotional. They must be that much better in battle.’
But even so, Herald didn’t particularly say anything to them, and the reason was simple.
After all, these party members were ones that former hero Han Soo had with him for a year.
Even if they can’t do basic things, they will surely be helpful in the most important thing, battle.
That was something guaranteed by the former hero.
Thinking logically, what would be the reason for keeping party members who can’t even cook or set up tents?
They must surely have tremendous power.
Thinking like that, Herald endured and explored the demon realm.
As Herald was exploring while suppressing his anger like that, he discovered something blocking the hero party’s path.
“Wow… it’s a huge plant.”
“It’s a plant-type demon beast called a nepenthes.”
A carnivorous demon beast boasting a huge size.
It was a demon beast that looked dangerous at a glance.
“It looks kind of scary.”
“But there’s no need to worry. Apparently it doesn’t attack unless provoked.”
Of course, because it was a plant-type demon beast, it wasn’t particularly dangerous.
As the party members said, plant-type demon beasts, with very few exceptions, don’t attack first.
In this case, they just needed to ignore the demon beast and take another path.
Although it was a demon beast, there was no reason to provoke it at all.
Probably for this reason, former hero Han Soo didn’t bother to defeat the nepenthes here.
‘This is perfect.’
But Herald’s thoughts were a little different. Herald was thinking of fighting this demon beast.
“Let’s all fight that demon beast to warm up our bodies.”
“What? That demon beast? Do we have to fight it?”
Herald was preparing to confront the demon beast, drawing his sword.
And seeing Herald like that, the party members were a bit bewildered.
Why provoke and fight a demon beast that’s just staying still?
The party members asked Herald as if they didn’t understand at all.
“It would be good to synchronize our breathing once before going to the Demon Lord.”
Shouldn’t we see the party members’ skills once?
The reason Herald wanted to fight was because he wanted to see the party members’ power.
Herald had wanted to see the party members’ skills continuously since before becoming a hero.
He just hadn’t had the opportunity to see them.
Now that the opportunity has come, it wouldn’t be bad to see their skills once.
The plant-type demon beast called nepenthes was perfect as an opponent for that.
“I see. Understood.”
At Herald’s assertion, the party members also nodded and picked up their weapons saying they understood.
‘Let’s see how strong their skills are.’
The battle will start now.
Herald decided to check directly just how amazing skills these people had for Han Soo to keep them with him.