"It's not fake!"

Erox said.

"How can we be sure?"

I asked him just to make sure I didn't hear it wrong. Even though it gave the feeling of a holy sword, the hero wielding it was too weak that it made me doubt.

"I was given that directly by king Hyrovan. Everyone saw me pickup the sword. Why would I lie?"

"You have a point..."

The sword always teleports back to a certain pedestal after the passing of the hero. A monument that holds the sword until the next hero shows up. This monument is displayed for all to see at the front of the king's castle.

"But there's no way you're this weak. So there must be something else!"

Thea still didn't believe Erox to be the real hero. She suspected there must be something else going on.

"Tell me what your secret is!"

Thea demanded to know. She was very stubborn on this point. Thea knew that Erox was not the real hero for one reason. Erox did not fit as a hero in her mind.

When Thea was in her original world, before she died, she was a lover of stories involving heroes. She was in fact a very big fan of the types of stories where the hero saves the world and gets the heroine. And in all of these stories, there is one thing that sets the heroes apart from others.

Of course, the heroes are strong and lucky. But the thing Thea always liked was that the heroes in the stories are extremely charming. Handsome, pretty, sexy and other adjectives are always used.

This Erox, was not handsome, to say the least. Combined with his nasty personality, he was more hateful than charming.

"I don't any such secret. How dare you assume that?!"

A red hot fireball appeared on Thea's hand as Erox refused to answer her.

"Don't worry, we have my ways of revealing secrets."

At Thea's words, Sophily quickly moved. Even though she was caught off guard by Thea's words, she somehow still produced a pair of scissors.

"NO! Stay away from me! Do you even know who's behind my back?!"

They moved closer to Erox. Evil laughs left their mouths. Sophily snipped the air with her scissors to produce an ear piercing sound. Thea's fireball raged and Erox could feel the temperature rise.

"Fine! Fine! It's because of my ability! Please stop!"

Finally, as Thea and Sophily were standing right next to the magic barrier, Erox spilled the beans. Revealing that he was indeed not the real hero. He was only able to act as the hero because he had an ability that allowed him to lift up any type of weapon.

"And there's no consequences. I can even pick up cursed weapons without getting cursed myself."

Erox sighed a relief after Thea put away the fireball and Sophily put away the scissors.

"Tsk, at least try to hold out a bit."

Sophily was a bit sad that she didn't get to do anything to Erox.

"I explained everything, now let me go."

"Wait a moment."

Thea and Sophily turned away from Erox so he couldn't hear them whisper.

"I was right, he really wasn't the hero."

Sophily had a smile on her face.

"Yes you were. So what do we do with him now?"

"I suggest leaving him here for the monsters."

"We can't do that! That's too cruel. He didn't do any harm to others, did he?"

"Well, if you count my mental...."

As Sophily was talking, she shifted her gaze to somewhere far away. And held up a dagger in her hand.

"What's wrong?"

Thea didn't know what was wrong, but seeing Sophily's cautious face did mean anything good.

"I thought I felt something."

"Do you still feel it?"

"I don't anymore. But we better be careful."

Sophily was taught the art of assassins for many years. She knew that there were people who were much better than her in the world. But there was no reason for them to be here.

She alone was sent to follow Erox in secret, so they wouldn't send another shadow to follow him. And only her master was stronger than her at the empire's shadow training facility. But her master would be too busy too do something like this.

Sophily put this feeling away.

"It must have been nothing."

She chalked it up to a mistake in her judgement. In the distance, someone was running away. They were moving fast and dressed in all green clothes.

"Okay, here's what we're going to do!"

Thea looked at Erox after discussing with Sophily.

"You're gonna forget we were ever here."

"What?"

Erox questioned Thea. He thought he misheard.

"I said! You're gonna forget you met us today. If you tell anyone about us, there will be consequences. Like really painful ones!"

Thea pointed her finger at Erox's face. Trying her best to intimidate him.

"This is not gonna do it, Miss Thea!"

Sophily walked forward. She pointed the sharp tip of her dagger at Erox's throat.

"We should deal with him right here."

"No, no. We can't do that!"

Thea was shocked at Sophily's sentence.

"Why shouldn't we? We can tell everyone that he gave him judgement for the crime of impersonating the hero. Or do you have another idea? Perhaps a magic that let's you monitor him from far away."

"Actually, I do have something like that."

Thea put her hands together. An expression like she just remembered something appeared on her face.

"Let me try. Stulte, haec lux est tibi."

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Sophily took a step back at Thea's words. Thea put her fingers on both hands together. In the center, a ball of purple light formed. The light swirled around and connected to her fingers. She then pulled her hands apart and the light stretched out.

"This is curse magic."

Thea threw the light towards Erox. It landed on him and wrapped around him like a snake before disappearing. Erox felt chills go down his spine.

"If you say a word to anyone about what happened here, it will kill you. Do you understand?"

Erox nodded his head. He was a fool, but he knew he wanted to live. He wouldn't go against Thea's words right now.

"Alright, before I let you go."

There was one thing that Thea really wanted to do. She put her hand around the holy sword, Requiem. Thea wasn't about to give up the chance to try picking up a mythical sword.

'I know this won't work, but I can give it a try at least.'

"Hah!"

Thea put her all into raising the sword. All of her physical energy was used, but the sword did not even budge. It was firmly planted into the ground.

"It's no use."

Sophily voiced her opinion.

"Wait, I'm not done yet."

Thea said to Sophily. After which, Thea's mana surged to her hands. And it immediately covered the sword.

"Huh?"

"What?!"

Sophily and Erox shouted. One was still processing while the other was shocked.

The sword had moved. It moved without any resistance and Thea fell backwards.

"What?"

Even Thea herself was flabbergasted. She did not expect this to happen. It was just a fun little thing to do originally. Like an attraction at a theme park.

No one expected her to actually lift the sword.

"How...how can you do that?"

Erox asked while his voices was wavering.

"I...don't know."

Thea answered.

"Does that mean you're the hero?"

Sophily, standing to the side, raised a question.

"No it does not. I'm not some hero."

Thea quickly refuted Sophily's claim.

"But you picked it up..."

Sophily tried to argue.

"So did this guy!"

But one point at Erox and Sophily understood.

"Do you have the same ability?"

"No, I don't. But I do have some special talents, so it could be that."

"I see. So what are you gonna do now?"

"Well..."

Thea looked at the holy sword in her hand.

"Wait..."

Erox felt something wrong.

"I'll take it with me."

"No you can't!"

"I don't have to listen to you. It wasn't yours to begin with."

"Yeah, don't tell her what to do. You wannabe hero."

Sophily defended Thea. But there was an underlying reason that nobody picked up. In Sophily's mind, Thea was the hero. So she should take the sword.

Erox felt it was unfair but he couldn't do anything. No matter how much he begged, he would not get the sword back.

"Alright, take your friends and get out of here. Stay safe."

Erox left while dragging the people who came with him. All of them had fainted for some reason and wouldn't wake up. I was a bit concerned, but Sophily said it was normal for them.

All the while Erox was complaining how he needs the sword.

"Did you really put a curse on him?"

Sophily asked me after Erox had left.

"Hmm? Like I said, I was just gonna pretend to curse him."

Thea and Sophily had come up with an act. They would scare Erox into not revealing any information to others.

"But that looked so real."

"It's just illusion magic. I'm not really good at it, so that was all I could do."

"Wow, it looked like real curse magic."

"Well, thank you."

Thea smiled at being complimented.

"What are you gonna do with this?"

Sophily pointed towards the corpse of the lindworm.

"I don't think it'll fit in my magic bag."

Thea's magic bag is a magical artifact from the magic empire from long ago. But even then, it didn't have enough space inside to fit the lindworm.

"Can the guild take care of it?"

"It'll be hard to give you the gold and kill credit."

Sophily was worried. The hero was set to kill the lindworm, so all the credit would go to the hero. After processing the materials gained from the monster, even the gold would go to the hero.

"Don't worry about that. I don't really care."

"Really? You're fine with that?"

"Yes, it doesn't bother me. Instead..."

"..."

"I'll take the core."

"But that's the most valuable part?! How do I hide the fact that someone took the core? I'm a guild receptionist, so they'll suspect that I secretly stole it."

The guild takes care of monster bodies. Monsters of one and two star do not require the guild's help. Starting from the three star monsters, the cores are fused into the body of the monster, unlike lower star monsters.

So when you try to take the core, if you don't know proper technique and use the correct tools, the whole body and the core go to waste. So the guild gives the options where they deal with it, or you take the monster body and sell it somewhere else.

It's written somewhere in the guild contract.

"I know. And I have a plan."

"What plan?"

"You can just say the hero took it."

"That..."

"They'll believe it. So don't worry."

"Fine. I'll tell them that. But can you take the core out?"

"How difficult can it be?"

"So you don't know how to do it?"

"Yeah..."

"Fine, just wait a moment."

Sophily moved quickly after taking out a knife. Carefully cutting the monster up. It took something like fifteen minutes, and Sophily was sweating.

In her hand was a green gem with black veins growing inside.

"Here, take it."

"Thanks."

Sophily's face blushed at Thea's words of gratitude.

"But there's something strange."

Sophily commented.

"I know already."

A normal monster core was a gem with only one type of color. It has been like that for all of history in this world.

"The black veins..."

But inside this gem, there were veins like tree roots growing.

"Do you know what it is?"

Sophily curiously asked.

"It's my first time seeing it in person, but I've found traces of it in the past."

"Is it something dangerous?"

"You don't need to worry about that. No matter what happens, I'll keep you safe."

Even though it was a simple sentence, but it made Sophily feel relieved.

"You better get going. The guild's people should arrive soon."

"Alright, alright."

Thea returned back to the orphanage, leaving Sophily behind to deal with the monster body.

"Miss Thea! You're back."

"Unnie!"

I was greeted by Su and Leaf.

"Where's Nem?"

I didn't see Nem or Gwyn.

"They're in the back."

Leaf said, but there was an apologetic look on her face.

"What happened?"

"Come and look."

Walking to the back of the building, Leaf told me to look through the window at the back.

"Oh."

Looking through the window, I saw both of them. Playing around outside. Covered in dirt.

"I looked away from them for only a moment."

Leaf said.

"It's fine."

"But I didn't take care of them..."

"It's not your duty to take care of them, Leaf."

Usually, Thea doesn't leave the three kids alone for long. She went out to meet Su only for about half an hour. She would have been back in time to look after the kids. But the stuff with Sophily came up so she asked Su to look after them.

So actually it was the duty of Su to look after them. But really, Su wasn't that fit to look after others. Her mind sometimes goes a bit blank. A trait of elves in this world, perhaps because of their longer life spans.

'I'm sure she was talking to Leaf about plants and got distracted.'

"Oh..."

Leaf looked sad. In Leaf's mind, she had thought that when Thea was not around, she would have to be the big person in the orphanage and take care of Nem and Gwyn.

Hearing that she was not supposed to do that made Leaf feel like she was being a burden to Thea. Her dejection did not go unnoticed by Thea however.

"Of course, it's not your job to do it. But it's very kind of you to take care of them on your own. You did great."

Thea patted Leaf's head which, along with the praise, made Leaf feel euphoric. A smile appeared onto her face.

"Yes, Unnie. I'll keep doing my best!"

Leaf said in high spirits. As a parent, one would feel immense happiness if they heard these words from their child. For Thea, it felt the same.

"Just keep being yourself."

I just wanted Leaf to grow up and live a good life.

"What about them?"

Su asked. She was pointing at Nem and Gwyn.

"Ha...it's going to be a struggle once again."

"I'll help you, Unnie."

"No, no need. I'll deal with this."

What am I dreading that is going to be a struggle? Well...over the past two weeks that that Gwyn has been around Nem, there have been a few difficulties. I discovered something in that time.

A few days after Nem and Gwyn became friends, they were playing in the backyard area just like right now. They were covered in dirt also, so I asked them to clean themselves.

That's when I found that Nem learned a very bad habit from Gwyn.

Both Nem and Gwyn required me to wash them, they were too small to do it themselves. Nem should be able to do it himself, but for some reason he doesn't want to. And Gwyn is less than a month old, he barely knows how to do anything.

The bad habit of Gwyn was an aversion to water. He hated his fur getting wet. But it was necessary to clean him using water since the dirt would get stuck in his fur.

And Nem had somehow also picked up this. I had to physically hold him down until he was clean. But I'm not physically strong, so I was exhausted afterwards. At times like this, I wish I had someone to help me.

But not Leaf, I didn't want her to catch any germs from those two playing around in the dirt.

"Let's get them inside first."

"Nem! Gwyn!"

After getting them inside, the whole floor was dirty.

"Get inside the bath, right now!"

The floor me and Leaf work so hard to clean was full of dirt. And Gwyn also sheds his fur. So it requires constant cleaning.

After I told them to get in the bath, they just stood there. Hesitant about getting in the bath.

"Are you two being serious?"

Nem and Gwyn looked at each other. And then ran away, all the while laughing.

"Get back here!"

I chased after them. These two were very agile and kept jumping around. Even if they were caught, they would slip out of my grip. It was so exhausting.

"Ugh, my clothes. Stop playing around, you dirty pups!"

To the two of them, this was like playtime. They were laughing while getting chased, having a lot of fun.

'Ugh, they're also making my floor dirty.'

While running around, dirt was falling off from them everywhere.

'I might have to clean with magic.'

I personally liked to take things slow. I don't use magic for much, unless it's a situation that requires the usage of it.

For cleaning, I like to sweep the floor.

It's also a good way for me to build a bond with others. Leaf likes to accompany me with cleaning.

"Stop right now. Or no dinner today!"

The two of them stopped immediately. This was my final attack move. It was undodgeable by the two.

"Good, now get to the bath."

While the two were disgruntledly waking to the bath, a knock was heard at the door.

"Who's there?"

I asked myself. Since I was the closest to the door, I went to open the door.