After a while, the Dark Queen finally stopped crying and regained her composure.
“Come to think of it,” I said, “we’ve been traveling together for four days now, yet we barely know anything about each other.
Not even the basics—our ages, our backgrounds… in your case, Dark Queen, we don’t even know your name.
Now that Rigan has joined us, why don’t we all introduce ourselves?”
The Dark Queen frowned slightly, but before she could refuse, Zeke immediately answered:
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
I nodded and began.
“Then I’ll start.
My name is Christopher Ostrein. I’m seventeen years old.
Please call me Chris—though Zeke has been doing that from the beginning.
I served as the Captain of the Frost Knight Division in the Twylzaran Kingdom. I was the youngest in history to become a royal knight captain.
But compared to Zeke and the Dark Queen, I’m nowhere near their level.”
Rigan went next.
“I’m Rigan. I’m from the Baby Licant tribe on Mount Nishino. I’m sixteen.”
At the word sixteen, both Zeke and the Dark Queen burst into laughter.
Sixteen!? This childlike boy is only one year younger than me?
“H-hey! Don’t laugh at me!!”
Still chuckling, the adults let his introduction trail off naturally.
“Guess it’s my turn,” Zeke said.
“I’m Zeke Astrey. I’m nineteen.
I hate troublesome things. If possible, I don’t want to do anything at all.
On my days off, my ideal is to lie around doing nothing.”
…That is not something a hero should say. More like a full-time slacker.
But after traveling with him for four days, I realized he meant every word.
He is lazy. And irresponsible.
Back in Twylzaran, he apparently kept himself well-behaved only because he didn’t want to stir trouble in a foreign kingdom. But in reality, he’s hopeless.
Even during this journey, whenever monsters attacked, the Dark Queen or I handled most of it—easily ninety percent.
At meals, he gets food all over his mouth.
When he changes clothes, he often puts them on backwards.
The Dark Queen scolds him constantly.
Even earlier, when making camp, he was the only one who did absolutely nothing.
Aside from combat ability, he has absolutely no qualities of a hero.
That’s why I had to ask.
“Zeke… why did you become a hero in the first place?
Why go on a journey to defeat the Demon Queen when you hate troubling things and don’t want to do anything?”
“…My sister,” he said quietly.
“She died in a demon attack.
Our parents died when we were young, so she was my only family.
Back then, she was engaged to a man named Wynn—the knight captain of the country we lived in.
They were about to start a happy life together… and then the demon attack happened.
She got caught in the chaos and died.
Wynn went mad with grief. He immediately declared he would go slay the Demon Queen for vengeance.
Wynn… he was a really good guy.
He loved my sister with all his heart.
And I loved my sister too. Truly.
And because Wynn loved her so much, I loved him too.
So I didn’t want him to die.
That’s the only reason I went with him.”
Zeke gazed into the fire, his usual carefree expression replaced with sorrow.
“Wynn was strong—way stronger than some knight captains I know.”
(A jab at me!? …No, ignore it.)
“At first, he taught me everything—swordsmanship, magic, all of it.
But even he couldn’t handle the strength of the demons alone.
I often had to jump in to help him.
By the time I noticed, I had surpassed him, and after defeating many demons and monsters, people started calling me a hero.”
It was a rare moment—Zeke, looking genuinely sad.
“…Zeke,” I said softly, “you truly loved your sister.”
“Yeah. She was always looking out for me.
Even when I turned eighteen and still didn’t get a job, just lazed around every day, she never complained.
She cooked, cleaned, did my laundry… all of it.
Every meal was delicious. It was the perfect life.
And the one who made that perfect life possible… was my sister!!”
…This man is truly the worst hero.
Chris thought to himself.
…To be continued.
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