Things turned a little different after I woke up. Considering it only took me two weeks to wake up and some two days to recover enough to walk around, it was almost too much change.

In the macro, the whole ultimatum and looming war was called out. I was sure there were movements happening in the shadows, but for now, it was peaceful. It wasn’t solely by my actions, though, and it wouldn’t hold forever.

Not that it was a problem. The cursed dagger I ‘brought’ with me was enough to help the people of the palace wake the hero up. And with the two champions wounded (yes, wounded, all that to get them wounded), the other countries wouldn’t be too keen on attacking.

In my eyes, this was the perfect chance to finish them off, but the king never called for a Divine Judgement. No idea what’s his reasoning.

Meanwhile, on the micro level, my condition wasn’t the best but I was alive. I still couldn’t move my left hand very well and one of my eyes was half-blinded, but everything else was fine.

In fact, some things got upgraded.

My hair, for example, now had some very cool-looking snow-white strands, and one of my eyes, the same half-blind one, turned yellow for some reason. Everyone I asked said it was some sort of side-effect from overdosing in mana potions and that they were impressed I was still alive, but I liked the new design.

I also had to add gloves to my outfit due to messing up my hand punching steel, but I’ll ignore this bit.

What I won't ignore is the fact that my name was spreading around like wildfire. That king was using all the PR he could get out of it, and to be honest, I quite like it. Not that I would be using this fame for much unless things went bad.

For now, I had to deal with making up with Elen. She was still quite a bit angry with me, but she was hiding it by keeping a close eye on me almost all the time. I knew how to deal with this sort of situation (a little more than I’d like to), so it was fine. Paying some freedom for this one wasn’t a problem, and I wasn’t that far from going back to the status quo anyway. And the status quo was my final goal.

Any more and I would be worried about overdoing the things the golden goddess showed me. I could very well read every single person I knew perfectly now that I had a good sample of their feelings. A very nasty skill that, if possible, I would like to not use at all.

Makes me wonder if I’m…

“What are you doing in there, Ms. Illia?” An annoying person with bad manners broke my inner narration by approaching the ledge of the castle’s tower I was sat at. The same annoying person who was the likely reason why all my little tricks didn’t blow up while I was knocked out.

“Just watching the city and wondering if I should ask for a statue.” I smiled at the stupid hero while turning my focus back to reality. “And don’t worry, I don’t have a reason to jump off this time. I’m even using my shoes still.”

“So you were really…”

“Stop pretending, Mr. Hero, you’re not that dumb.” I cut him off with the evil smirk still splattered on my face. “You know very well what I was doing back then.“

“That’s… Well… Yes, but it wouldn't be right to talk about it...”

He went on a very flustered speech, and for once, I couldn't hold myself from acting a little friendly with this guy.

“Hahahaha! You should go thinking more when you talk, Mr. Hero, but I guess you work best like this.” I left the ledge and then headed to the exit without looking to the buff guy. “And stop worrying about me, I’m fine. It won’t happen again, I’ll make sure of it. But this is meant to be your story, not mine, okay?”

“This is not a story, so it can’t be…”

“You don’t get it, Mr. Hero, but that’s fine.” I closed my expression and then stared at Hayato for a moment. “Just don’t forget that I’m not a hero and I won’t be trying to be one next time.”

I gave my warning and then went back to walking away. I said all I had to, so there wasn't much more here. In fact, if possible, I would prefer to not interact with the real hero. Even if it wasn’t his fault at all, he brought the worst in me just by being close by. And all because he knew ‘me’ instead of everyone else.

“Can you answer me something…” I stopped, a little annoyed, making a small nod to signal I was hearing without even turning my head back, making the guy continue with his inquiry. "I heard you can use artifacts, so why did you never take mine?"

He went for a very troublesome question. One that no one seemed to notice and that I would prefer to leave as that. Especially so when I wasn't feeling like just lying and being done with it.

"That's because I'm no hero. That's all." I answered without showing my face. "I could borrow your overpowered sword and the armor of bullshit and then go rampage. My mana would vanish and I would die in a while, but there would be no war. Even if I can't match you, those would be enough with my magic. That wouldn't be heroic if I did, though… It would be a massacre. You can see this much, right? For one, you could've ended that battle without ending in a coma if you gave up on not killing everyone."

"That... That's not true. Killing people isn't something I..."

"And that's why YOU are the hero and why you should stop thanking me for not being one." I put some extra focus on making my point clear, and I could feel he was getting it. "Those weapons are meant for a hero. It would be wrong to use them, even if I can."

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"But with all you did, how can't you say you are a..."

"I'll say it once more: don't call me a hero. I'm not one and the fact you can't see that is one of the reasons I really don't like you."

“And what are the others?" He asked against my straight rejection of his praise, going further to annoy me. "All I remember is having you save me, so I don’t think I ever gave a reason for it. And if I did, I would like to apologize for whatever I did…”

Talking about me saving you again, eh? I don't remember ever doing it. All I did was go for my own agenda, but I guess he'll keep considering dead parents as a saving. Unusual, but I don’t like mine too, so it seems fair.

"You know what, big boy?"

"What is it?"

“Lemme tell you a story, okay? One about a princess who could do absolutely anything, but only as well as anyone else. Nothing impressive, nothing genial, just good enough to be acceptable, which was the worst thing for everyone else in the castle...”

“I don’t think…”

“So, as it was unacceptable, the princess kept getting thrown around, going from place to place to train different skills and find her ‘real talent’ somewhere. It, of course, never happened. Even by adding other countries and other specialists to the fold, she never showed to be more talented than anyone else.” I ignored the disrespectful hero trying to stop my very obvious allegory and went on. “And since it never happened, she kept going, and going, and going, and going. At some point, she could do all arts like the average artist, she could do all sports like the average athlete, she could manage any business like the average office worker... You get the idea. She even got, like, some eight different blue belts and tactical training. Meanwhile, her siblings and relatives were the world's best or competing among themselves for the title at multiple different things at the same time…”

I was going for too long, but Hayato seemed to have the idea by now. He was just staring with a weird expression at me, one that made it very clear that wasn’t what he knew. Not that I could fault him on this, it wasn’t public knowledge anyway.

All he likely knew was that I was the weird foreigner at the rich people's school who, from time to time, would get in trouble. Maybe he even thought the many fights I got into were because I wanted to help someone instead of because I was looking for someone dangerous enough to deal with me.

“Eventually, she got too tired to keep going and tried to ‘leave’, if you catch me, but she failed at it too. Six times if you count the rooftop. And her failure, for once, brought some good and she actually managed to escape. However, even after she did so, there was someone who would keep on remembering her of what she left behind. A little someone who caused two of her earlier failures too.” I then turned around and moved on without letting him bring any answer to everything I said. “Now go back to your party, Mr. Hero, and I’ll go to mine. If possible, don’t ever meet the princess again.”

I tried to leave once more, but once more, the annoying hero didn’t let me.

“This princess still saved me, even if she won’t accept it. No matter who they were, I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t helped, and you had no need to help me there.”

As I said before, this guy had a very protagonist backstory. Very terrible parents, professional kidnappers even, who used him as a mule and all. If it wasn’t for their timely demise in a job that went wrong, he’d either be dead or still a slave to them. But it wasn’t as if his situation was anyone’s fault. He was just lucky, and that’s all.

One of them wasn’t meant to die instantly, and that was all.

“I’ll only tell you this, Mr. Hero...” I finally reached the exit of the tower but turned one last time before going back to normal. “No one saved you. I just missed.”

He could understand what I said, I could see it. The idea wasn't that hard too, it was only that my aim wasn't good at the time and my near miss to draw attention became a headshot. Another one of my failures.

Either way, my mood was down now, so I left without allowing any more conversation. I needed some eye candy to get back to 'normal' now, no time for Mr. Hero’s antics. And since they were sure to be close by, it was more interesting that I found them myself.

“Waited for long?” I asked no one, watching as the two people I was looking for turned the corridor right in front of me.

“Not much,” Elen answered, closing into me almost right away. “Though I’m still unsure of why you like ledges this much…”

“Both smoke and idiots like high places. Not much I can do about that.” I smiled at the princess looking at me with an annoyed expression. “Wanna do some sparing? I feel like moving my body a little today.”

“Oh? Feeling like getting beaten by me again?” Her expression turned into a smile almost right away, one that would usually look scary, but now had a different meaning to me. “I won’t hold back just because you became popular, okay?”

“Please, stop with this idea, both of you,” Eve called us out as both me and the princess seemed ready to have a go at it, even if just for fun. “Lady Illia is still recovering, and Your Highness was very wounded too. Sparing now wouldn’t be safe. Also, there were complaints on the fact Lady Illia never visits what should be her territory...”

"There's that, right? Maybe I should take a walk around there at some point... Or instead, I should spread some rumors that I'm such a leech I always have someone else take care of business." I answered while considering my options about the little stunt from some time ago. "It's almost the truth anyway, so it should go fine."

"Rumors about you seem to be in high demand lately, so it should go far and wide very fast," Elen added with a smile. "To be honest, some less-savory people have even tried to contact you. They don't really trust you with the way you played most of your partners last time, but I feel you can use this still..."

"Now that's an idea... Were you always like this or was it all influenced by me?"

"Who knows... And does it matter? It's more interesting if you're not sure, don't you think?"

“That’s fair…” I smiled back while thinking about what I still had to do and how I could play around from now on. "But I'm feeling like taking it easy for a while. It's still too soon to go having a second round of crackdowns..."

"That's a way to take it too." Elen resigned herself to not entering a fight right away but still didn't seem too keen on staying still. “Let us do something else instead, though… Something fun.”

“If I may, I did recover these during our escape." Eve took some battered papers from the inner pockets of her dress, papers full of old symbols and maps that felt very old. "And more than that, we received a contact from the Federation's envoy asking to meet you two. She seems to have caught wind of the fact Lady Illia woke up..."

"Oh? A treasure map, some weird runes, and another visit from master?" Elen answered with clear interest. "That does sound like something fun. What do you think, Illia?"

"I think we should go through it with some snacks and call this master of yours too. We're in no hurry now..."

The hero was nice and well now, so I had no need to overextend or do anything. In fact, it was better for both of us if I didn't do a thing and instead played around with my friends. Would hate to rob him of his job.

So, without a worry in mind for once in a good while, I went on to my hang-out spot with both a princess and a maid as escorts. My only plan now: enjoy being a royal leech fully for a while. Play around, do stupid things, and just enjoy a bit until my luck caught up again.

Otherwise, how exactly would I fill my new bucket list?