Hero's Coffin Chapter 19

Chapter 19

He had just learned about the existence of that tomb! And this terrible game didn't even provide him with a minimap, so how was he supposed to find the way? There were no special items given only to the player, and not even hidden skills had appeared yet!

Regardless of his internal struggles, Harenir smiled gently, his eyes crinkling, and spoke. In an extremely kind and affectionate tone.

"You'll probably have to work hard both in the process of entering the tomb and after entering. So eat a lot."

Ah, so that's why he was invited to dine with them.

Behind the dejected realization, he felt a surge of indignation. Usually, this kind of thing would be worth a separate quest, but they just included it under the theme of 'Help the Hero'. He had vowed to press reject the moment the quest appeared, but. Terrible game. Fucking terrible game.

He dejectedly tore into the meat as a self-reward. Sadly, it was delicious.

***

They traveled by carriage for a long time from the village near the southern Encroachment Zone. They had to change vehicles several times to avoid leaving traces.

They mostly used cargo wagons, and though he suffered from the uncomfortable ride at first, he soon adapted. The long journey could have been boring, but he just kept sleeping, so the days passed quickly. As if the fainting spell had been some kind of catalyst, he had become much sleepier since that day.

"...That bastard is still alive, right?"

Even Kalterik was concerned about his endless sleeping. He dozed like a sick chicken, and when he was awake, he just blankly stroked the cat. Though he knew it was an NPC, in his drowsy state, it was difficult to push away the cat that had naturally curled up in his lap. As if addicted to the warm heat, he repeatedly stroked the cat's back until he dozed off again.

After experiencing the scenery changing every time he opened his eyes a few times, he finally heard the news that they had arrived. The scene he saw as he staggered out of the carriage was markedly different from the previous village.

This place looked like a city.

Tall buildings stood densely packed, the roads were better maintained, and there were many people walking around the streets. It had the bustling atmosphere unique to prosperous areas. The previous village had seemed quite empty, perhaps because people had left due to its proximity to the southern Encroachment Zone.

"Here, everyone take one!"

As soon as they got off the carriage, Noi, who had quickly gone somewhere, handed each of them a round plate. Two thin diamonds embedded in the center of the palm-sized silver disc sparkled slightly. As he looked down at it curiously, Kalterik exclaimed in admiration.

"You brought silver badges? Grade 2 is just right. You managed to avoid the mercenary guild's surveillance well."

"Hehe. Who do you think I am!"

Noi raised his nose proudly. Hmm, so these were the mercenary badges used in this world. In a situation where they needed to travel to various regions, there was no better identity than this. In other fictional works too, wasn't it common to disguise oneself as a mercenary when hiding one's identity?

Names were also engraved on the back of the intricately made silver badges.

"Be careful when calling each other outside too. Sir Kalterik will be 'Derik', Lady Mela will be 'Mel', and since my name is common, I'll just be 'Noi'..."

He peeked at Harenir's badge. A large light shape was engraved in the center, which, considering Noi's reverence, was probably a higher grade. Grade 1 silver badge. As expected, Noi explained that since the knights might habitually call him 'Commander', they had registered him as the commander of this fake mercenary group. He had even meticulously prepared the documents.

However, the name engraved on the back of his silver badge was 'Haren'. Wait, wasn't that the nickname Noi was still using?

"Is it okay to use that name? Won't we be found out?"

"There are already plenty of mercenaries named 'Haren', so it's fine! Most people don't use their real names when registering as mercenaries, and it's extremely common to name themselves after their idols! How many people do you think want to be like the hero who is respected by all citizens of the empire? But since the name 'Harenir' is revered like a divine name and no one dares to use it exactly, they try to use something similar instead."

He was saying that many people used the alias 'Haren' out of respect for Harenir, wanting to become a great hero like him. There were even survey results showing that 'Haren' had become the most common name given to children born in the empire after he received His grace...

He nodded at Noi's explanation. It wasn't a bad strategy. Especially since there were even people who dyed their hair blonde and deliberately carried white swords trying to imitate the hero, they were hiding among them. The real one hiding among the fake Harens.

Even if someone was suspicious, well, they'd probably just think, 'That guy really copied the hero a lot'.

"So when I registered your name, they even sneered, saying 'Is he copying that guy?'"

"...Huh?"

"Ah, I registered you as 'Saiph'. They found it amusing to put names imitating both the hero and the villain in the same mercenary group. After all, you're quite famous too."

He blinked blankly. Were there people who imitated Isaph's name even though he was pointed at as unrighteous in the Holy Empire? He was about to ask why, but a very disgruntled realization came to him. Was it like a black dragon of the left hand, darkness of darkness kind of feeling?

Until his arrest, he had been a being feared and avoided by everyone, and even evaded the empire's pursuit while boldly using necromancy. Just the kind of person that people with such tastes would want to imitate. Ugh, he rubbed his arms vigorously as goosebumps rose.

Just then, conversations could be heard from various places.

"Hey, have you heard the story? They say 'that guy' has escaped..."

"How long has it been since that rumor spread!"

It seemed that not only the hero's death but also the news of Isaph's escape had spread, causing a commotion. Judging by Noi's quiet mutter of "The temple failed to suppress the rumors...", it seemed they had tried to quell the story initially.

They had finally caught Isaph, who had been evading capture and running around, thrown him in prison, and even sentenced him to death, but he had disappeared with the tower exploding the day before his execution. He wasn't just an ordinary death row inmate, but a being referred to with the modifier 'that', so it was natural for the empire's prestige to fall.

Moreover...

"I'm telling you, it was suspicious from the moment he was caught so easily. Wasn't he caught on purpose from the start? And now even the holy sword Piarus has disappeared!"

"Are you saying he deliberately got imprisoned in the capital to steal that holy sword? Come on, wouldn't that mean he predicted the hero's death!"

"The hero had left to scout several areas for a while, so he might have guessed then, or maybe he even set up the whole thing aiming for the holy sword. It's 'that' guy after all. So he might have just..."

"Oh, come on! I believe the hero isn't dead!"

He listened with interest to the conversation between two middle-aged men at a nearby shop. Just how great of a villain did the people here consider Isaph to be? In reality, Isaph had probably been lying on the floor, groaning at that time.

Inwardly sneering, he walked nonchalantly like Harenir had a few days ago. When the southern village was in an uproar over the hero's death, he had moved proudly through the crowd, so he imitated him as well, but...

"..."

Somehow, people's gazes began to converge on him one by one. His boldness yielded a completely different result from Harenir's boldness. Suspicion spread in the eyes of people looking at the figure in a pitch-black robe with the hood pulled down to cover even his nose, accompanied by a black cat.

What, is there really a formula of 'black robe + black cat = Isaph'?

"It seems we'll have to hide you after all."

"I'm already hidden..."

Harenir approached him and spoke in a tired tone, causing him to protest embarrassedly, but he agreed that his judgment was reasonable.

"As long as I'm not suspected of being me, right?"

Grumbling, he quickly scanned the nearby street vendors. In fact, simply wearing a robe of a different color would solve the problem, but having always worn black clothes in his previous life too, that didn't appeal to him.

So he found a new method to replace the robe.

"Hah! Isn't it creepy to treat a familiar like a real pet?"

He picked up a light purple ribbon from a street vendor's stand and tied it around the cat's neck. Ignoring Kalterik's sneers, he was trying to tie the ribbon carefully in his own way when, unexpectedly, the cat struggled violently.

–Meow! Meoooow!

"What's wrong? Stay still."

–Mrrreow!

Why is it making a fuss now when it's been mostly quiet until now? Are you trying to maintain the concept of being Isaph's familiar? It even abandoned its usual meowing and struggled noisily. It's a much more cat-like sound, but he was bewildered, wondering if it had been acting all this time.

Still, since it didn't scratch with its claws out, he stubbornly tied the ribbon on the cat. In fact, the cat's dislike made him want to do it more. It was a small revenge against the NPC that had forcibly assigned him a quest.

"Oh, that might work in its own way."

Noi marveled, saying it was exploiting a gap in perception. He said that since Isaph's familiar had never been seen decorated like this before, it would reduce suspicious glances.