Where did it all go wrong?
Was it letting them meet the hero, Gis, and his party?
Was it my pathetic loss in the duel against the hero, Lorian?
I don't know.
Just as they said, I'm nothing but a stupid, incompetent fool blinded by a sense of justice.
But even I know when it all started to fall apart.
The first was Eri.
The party's wizard, a brilliant companion who planned our strategies for me, since I wasn't smart enough.
It was the night we were camping after taking down the Goblin Lord with Lorian's party.
Unable to sleep, I went for a walk and saw them.
Eri and Lorian, kissing in the middle of a wide-open field.
Bathed in moonlight, they looked like a painting. There was no way I could bring myself to interrupt.
In the end, I just left them and headed back to my tent.
Next was Ophelia.
A saint candidate from the Church of Iries, a woman with a kind heart.
She was inside the mill, locked in a steamy affair with Gis. The way she acted so coquettishly, with his cock buried in her ass, was a side of her I had never seen before.
Still... that much was bearable.
Who they chose to love was none of my business. It was their private life. My stomach churned a little... no, a lot, but I told myself it was fine.
But Neria.
You...
You, who helped me when I was an orphan in the village, who always gave me such a warm smile...
You, who said you'd become a knight just to protect me...
When I saw you on your knees, licking Gis's cock...
You'll never know what that felt like.
The feeling of every moment we'd shared crumbling to dust.
The feeling of my entire existence being rejected.
I couldn't take it.
Because even when my heart was torn to shreds, there was no one there to piece it back together.
It felt like I was that orphan again, from before I met you.
I wanted to die.
But I couldn't.
I'm the hero.
I have a duty, a responsibility to save people from the monsters.
But you know...
The duty of a hero, something I'd always been so proud of, started to feel unbearably heavy after that day.
It was like a massive weight I wanted to throw off but couldn't.
And that's why.
That's why I let myself be swayed by a suspicious old woman and am now performing this bizarre ritual.
If I sprinkle my blood on this strange magic circle on the floor, my existence will vanish, and a new soul will inhabit my body.
I feel sorry for whoever that person is.
But I'm just so tired.
Tired of being persecuted for being a commoner, of being looked down on for my lack of skill.
I could laugh it all off because I had all of you.
But you're not here anymore.
There's no one by my side now.
So I'm done.
I sliced my palm with a dagger and let the blood drip onto the magic circle. The circle the old woman had drawn began to glow ominously, and my consciousness started to fade.
Ah... so this is the end.
Feeling that peaceful rest approach, I smiled for the first time in a very long time.
To the new hero who will inhabit my body.
I pray you don't make the same mistakes I did.