This guy, he’s a [Hero]?

He did defeat the silver wolves in just two attacks, so he must be at least a powerful guy.

I should feel indebted to him but, I can’t. I won’t.

I don’t know if I’ve already said this, but I hate these guys. They’re too lucky and powerful for their own good.

Not to mention they all get the girls.

“Thank you very much!” Bridget’s eyes sparkled. T-,This is…

“H-Hero-sama, please touch my hands!” Sachiko, no!

Aaaah! This guy, I wanna kill him!

“Ahaha, I just did whatever anyone would do.” He smiled at us--, no, them. My companions continued to swoon.

Grrr…

“Well, my brother wouldn’t have been able to do that!” Sachiko pointed at me. I shrunk smaller while fuming.

“Yeah, he’s pathetic after all.” Bridget, guh!

I can hear my heart shattering into a million pieces… And you, stop staring at me like you’re looking at someone so pitiful, you bastard!

Go die in hole, ‘Hero’!

“Alright, you save us, thank you, now we gotta go. See you later.” I grabbed the two before they got too enchanted to the bewitching [Hero].

“Hey, Hiraku, are you getting jealous?” Bridget’s smile turned into a smug one. “Aw, you poor little thing. Maybe you’ll get to be as strong as Satou here a hundred years later.”

“I did hear him say once that he hates [Heroes].” Sachiko snorted, then showed me an upturned eyes. “Brother, I’m in love with Hero Satou… Please attend our wedding when the time comes, okay?”

Ahhhh! My heart, my heart! Nobody asked for a netorare* moment, Sachiko! How spiteful!

Without me noticing, my body was writhing on the ground from the phantom pain of my heart getting torn apart.

“So that’s the case. Well, want to be my apprentice for the meantime?” He’s grinning, isn’t he? He’s really grinning, isn’t he?!

I wanna punch this guy’s face. I probably had a feral look, but he just lightly laughed at me. To make it worse, even my two cohorts were giggling with him.

“Curse you!” I ran away from those three and over the corpses of the silver wolves. I might have been even crying. Not embarrassing at all.

=-=-=-=

After a few minutes of walking by myself, Bridget and Sachiko were finally here. And thankfully, the dream-guy of all girls was gone.

“Have you had fun talking to that guy?” I dryly asked them.

“Very!” They both yelled happily.

I was smiling, but my eyes were narrowed as small as slits.

“Good for you.” I sighed. I guess they’re theirselves. It’s not like I’m their parents.

Actually, why am I even getting jealous? It’s not like I have the rights to be jealous for anything.

I’m just a mere side character after all.

Without me noticing, I emitted a depressed aura around me. Bridget must have noticed it, since she was nearer to me than Sachiko.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Hey, you’re face look sourer than usual. You really look ugly that way.”

As I was about cry out a retort, she continued.

“It doesn’t suit you. Can’t you just grin like an idiot as usual?” She smirked at me, then looked away. “Stay strong.”

Is she comforting me or insulting me? You’re confusing, Bridget.

Somehow though, I feel a little bit better from that.

“Okay…” I stared at her while she was looking away. This girl, she actually cares for others, doesn’t she?

Come to think of it, everyone in the town likes her. I didn’t really believe it that time, but they did say she was a nice girl…

“Well, I can only expect so much to you being ‘strong’ though. I mean, my stats are stronger than yours.” She snorted.

Why is she so brutal to me though?!

=-=-=-=

After a few hours of walking and arguing, night has finally set in. We chose a spot for our temporary camp tonight. We found a place where there’s a convenient wall made up of giant boulders. If we camp near it, our behind will be guarded, leaving us to just guard the three remaining sides.

We had fresh apples for dinner. Not really appetizing, but we didn’t really had any other choice. The two surprisingly didn’t mind it too.

Now, we’re gonna choose who’ll stay up first and guard.

Sighing inside my mind, I know this two will unlikely volunteer. As I was just about to raise my hand, Sachiko suddenly stood up.

“I’ll stay up first. I’m not really sleepy yet.”

Eh? What?

I found myself sleeping on the comfy grass all of a sudden. That was unexpected. I thought she’d like for me to suffer again, albeit not verbally like she does usual. I glanced at her back secretly.

She’s yawning.

She lied about not being sleepy… I wonder why she did that… Ahh, I didn’t notice, by I myself am sleepy now too.

Goodnight, me.

=-=-=-=

“Mom… foun… …er … utsid… wha... sho… … do?”

“Aww, sh… …ute! But, …as she ab…n…?”

“Poor kid.”

=-=-=-=

I woke up to a light shaking from my shoulder. I groggily looked up to see Sachiko leaning near me.

“Your turn, lazy.”

“What… Ah, yes. Alright.” I yawned while rubbing my eyes. I looked up at the sky.

The moon’s already near the horizon. If I had to guess, I think it’s almost already five…

This girl.

Look, she’s even already asleep at the ground.

Though she offends me every day, she is a hardworking girl, just like my parents used to say.

She’s a diligent girl who, although always refuses my help on anything she does, she finishes her work even faster than mine. She’s my cute, independent little sister.

Whenever she does something better than me, she always rubs it on my face though.

I sat on a large stone. I don’t think Bridget would like it if I were to wake her up, so I’ll finish the remaining guard time by myself. I still have two hours left to burn.

Hmm… Oh, now that I think about it, we don’t have food for this coming breakfast. I need to hunt, but I can’t leave this girl here.

Wait, that flower over there…

=-=-=-=

I grinned at the couple of boars I caught. Earlier, I saw a wildflower called Ghestas, which is popular for its unique trait of attracting monsters with its extract.

Popular to hunters, at least.

With this amount, surely I can make some dried meat with the leftover.

I didn’t forget to pray to my lucky charm while roasting. I’m so lucky to have picked this charm off on the street!

Anyway, time to wake these two up. On second thought, I think I’ll let Sachiko sleep a little bit more…

“Bridget. Hey.” I tapped her forehead. It’s a pretty irritating and effective way for waking people up.

It worked. Now she’s glaring at me.

After some minutes, I asked her to keep her voice down as to not wake my sister up. I explained what happened last night for her to understand more.

“Are you sure you didn’t just force her to guard that long?” She raised an eyebrow.

I raised an eyebrow too. She completely lost the point that I didn’t wake her up for her turn.

Ungrateful brat.

“Next time I’ll specially catch a really small fish for your share…” I murmured.

=-=-=-=

Breakfast and bath time passed, and we’re already walking once again to this long road towards Follera. Like usual, I didn’t have anything to do, so I was planning on naming this sword of mine…

Every [Hero]’s weapons has their own name. Though I’m not a hero, it’s not like there’s a law that says I can’t name my sword!

Huh, it should be a cool name like those popular ones. Excalibur? Muramasa? Masamune? Chunch*maru? I can’t choose one!

“Hey, Sachiko, what do you think I should name this sword?” I made a slashing motion with my manly sword.

“A name huh? How about, ‘The Stolen Sword’?” She shot me a haughty look.

“I was stupid to ask you.”

Bridget chimed in. “How about, Forsaken--” Oh, sounds pretty cool! “toothpick. Forsaken Toothpick, has a nice ring to it, right?”

I was a real idiot to expect something!

“Oh shut up!”

Nevermind. I guess I’ll save the naming when I found an actually strong sword…

=-=-=-=

As I was walking forward absentmindedly, we saw what looked like a carriage ahead of us. It’s… oh, a merchant wagon. It’s basically a travelling store, if you don’t get it.

I wonder if there’s also a priest among them. That way, I can ask them to appraise me again… Something must have change this past one year, right?

“Excuse me!” I yelled at the guy in front of it. “Do you have a priest there?”

“Ahh, you want to appraise yourself, right? You’re lucky, I’m a priest.” He smiled at me.

He seems like a nice guy. Alright, let’s see how much I’ve grown!

“Hey Bridget, Sachiko, this’ll be the point where my true strength will be revealed.” I coolly glanced at them.

“Sure.” Bridget scratched her fingers.

“What? I didn’t hear what you said.” Sachiko blinked at me.

Heh, they’re so nervous that they’re acting like they don’t care.

I moved my wobbly legs near the priest guy. All of a sudden, I’m sweaty. And it’s hot now too… I’m blinking too fast… Butterflies inside my stomach… Ugh.

I can hear those two giggling behind me. You’ll eat your laugh after I’m finished here!

“Let’s see, you name is Hiraku, okay…” The priest muttered to himself while touching me in my forehead. “A screen will pop up in front of you, so don’t be surprised okay? It’ll be only visible to you too, but you can show it to anyone if you want to.”

Here we go!

Name: Hiraku Gender: Male Level: 9

Strength(STR): F…

Just from the strength stat, I already gave up.

“… Heh.” I looked to the side while thanking the nice priest. I walked lifelessly forward.

“… Heh.”

Bridget and Sachiko caught up to me.

“Nothing changed huh?” Bridge kept on nodding her head while grinning.

“Yep, nothing.” Sachiko patted my back.

“… Heh.”

Adventurer’s life is nothing but a dream for this pitiful guy, huh? Goddesses, do you really hate me that much?

… What did those [Heroes] do for them to receive blessings like that? Why are they the ones chosen?

Why couldn’t it be me?

“I guess, I’m really hopeless…” I looked down.

Both of my companions are silent. They must think I’m really pathetic. Hah…

“Hiraku, why would you want to be strong?” Bridget asked me.

“I want to be strong, so that I can protect those around me.” I answered truthfully.

Looking back, if I was a strong guy, I could have singlehandedly killed all of those bandits. Mom and Dad would be still alive if I was just stronger.

I really want to be strong someday…

“Hey, stop brooding.” My little sister called out to me. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world now, right?”

Well… ah, you’re right, Sachiko.

“Thank you. I’ll just forget that.” I motioned to rub her head.

Sachiko just stared at me, but not doing anything to stop my hand.

While we were close, Bridget tapped my shoulder.

“Hey, can I see your status screen?”

“Huh? Oh, sure.” I willed it inside my mind. Looking at her expression, I deduce that she can already see it. She’s shocked after all.

Eh… shocked?

“Is there something wrong in it?” I asked her.

“Hiraku, since when did your job turned into an [Evil Cultist]?”

Evil— what? Ehhh?