— What kind of person is Ex?
Ask around the academy, and you'll get all kinds of answers.
“A worthless lowborn piece of trash who doesn’t know his place.”
“That weird guy behind half the rumors going around?”
“He’s actually nicer than you’d think. Pretty mature, too.”
In other words, there was no single, clear way to define Ex.
From the very first day of the entrance ceremony until now, he'd gone around dragging one storm after another in his wake. No wonder people had trouble figuring out what to make of him.
On top of that, he gave off the distinct impression that he deliberately avoided getting involved with other people. Even those who took an interest in him had a hard time finding an excuse to approach him.
Not long after enrolling, he'd dueled Circe, a Tier 4 mage, and nearly gotten himself expelled.
Then he'd picked a fight with the Sword Gang and somehow defeated Griphoc, one of its officers and a 5-Star martial artist, in a duel.
Then he'd gone missing after being attacked by demons while exploring a place called the Ancient Ruins, only to reappear later suffering from mutism.
Then the Imperial Princess had accused him of being a demon worshiper and put him on trial, only for Ex to turn the whole thing around by exposing the Imperial Princess herself as a demon.
And so on…
After causing one jaw-dropping incident after another, people had eventually reached the point where their first reaction was simply, “Ex again?”
But this time, even they couldn't brush it off with the same weary indifference.
He was claiming to be a Hero.
In the middle of the Tournament preliminaries, Ex had declared himself a Hero while unleashing the pillar of light said to symbolize the Hero's chosen status.
Everyone who witnessed it had been left utterly stunned.
And among them, there was one person whose excitement had clearly crossed the line into outright fury.
Bang!!
“This is bullshit!! How the hell is he a Hero?! No, forget that! How does it make any sense for there to be two Heroes in the first place?!”
The one slamming her fist against the table was Rosaria, a member of the Reincarnated Hero Party.
She was so furious that her mane-like blue hair seemed to tremble along with her as she launched into an impassioned rant.
“This is grounds for execution!! The charge is obvious: impersonating the Hero!! We need to grab that bastard right now and wring his neck! If we let him get away with a scam like this, every idiot in the world is going to start running around yelling, ‘Hey, I’m a Hero too~!’”
The other members nodded, finding her argument fairly reasonable.
Leon alone seemed lost in thought.
“Hey, Leon! You’re the one this actually concerns! Aren’t you pissed off? He’s strutting around claiming he’s the Hero!”
“Not really.”
“Whaaat?!”
As Rosaria stared at him in disbelief, Leon answered without so much as changing his expression.
“If Ex really was chosen as a Hero, that would be a good thing. It means there’s one more person who can help stop the crisis threatening the world.”
“But he’s scamming everyone! The entire human race!!”
“We don’t actually know whether it’s a scam or not. Right?”
Leon passed the question over to Frey.
She let out a long, heavy sigh.
“That’s true. He really did use divine power, and he also used magic and aura… At this point, the only thing left would be for the Holy Sword to choose him. But the Holy Sword is far away from here.”
“Grrrrgh-! I still refuse to accept it! That bastard, of all people…!”
Rosaria proceeded to list every atrocity Ex had ever committed, along with several he probably hadn't, while loudly insisting there was no possible way he could be a Hero.
“Circe being so quiet about this bothers me.”
That was when Diana, who had remained silent until now, raised a particularly sharp question.
“Why isn’t she saying anything? Circe definitely isn’t stupid. She should've seen through him ages ago if he really was lying about being the Hero.”
“Circe’s on Ex’s side! Of course she’s helping him! That petty, underhanded mage!”
“You know her better than that. Circe is just as serious about saving the world as Leon is. She’d never do something like this for no reason.”
That was enough to sober everyone up again.
Circe had once served as their sub-leader.
They'd survived countless crises thanks to her command and schemes. Since they knew her personality better than almost anyone, they couldn't simply dismiss whatever motives she might have.
That naturally left them with only one conclusion.
“So what? You’re saying Ex running around pretending to be a Hero is somehow supposed to help save the world?”
“Who knows? Maybe he’s pretending. Maybe he really was chosen…”
“One thing is certain.”
Leon narrowed his eyes.
“Something is happening.”
The instincts he'd honed as a Hero told him the same thing.
Leon reviewed the recent events in his mind, following the traces of something abnormal beneath the surface.
“Think about Imperial Princess Beatrice being exposed as a demon. Ex was the one who revealed it. There’s no way he could've done that unless he was already involved in something. Something we don’t know about is happening somewhere.”
“And Ex is at the center of it…?”
“Maybe not the center, but he’s definitely closely connected. I don’t know whether his intentions are good or bad, but if Circe is helping him, then at the very least, he probably isn’t doing this for some malicious reason.”
“Something important enough that he has to pretend to be the Hero… I can’t even guess what that could be… If he really doesn’t have bad intentions…”
Rosaria turned toward the arena where the Tournament preliminaries were currently underway, then frowned.
“…are we sure whatever he’s doing right now is actually well-intentioned?”
Up on the Tournament arena, someone's final preliminary match was taking place.
One contestant was a third-year mage famous for his expertise in Combat Magic.
He skillfully wielded Tier 4 wind magic, overwhelming his opponents with relentless storms until they could no longer fight.
His combat ability was impressive enough to challenge the common belief that mages were inherently disadvantaged in the Tournament, making him one of the more promising competitors.
As for the person standing across from him…
“Hahahaha! Weak!! You’re so damn weak!!!”
A dazzling suit of full plate armor.
A tower shield nearly as large as a person.
An entire collection of famous swords hanging from his waist.
An ancient grimoire floating near his shoulder.
Accessory-type artifacts covering his hands and neck.
And more.
There stood a first-year student covered from head to toe in magic devices and artifacts so expensive that even one of them could probably buy an entire castle in some remote border region.
Every single piece was practically a national treasure.
Naturally, no matter how skilled the third-year was in Combat Magic, there was no way he could put so much as a scratch on his opponent even while fighting at full power.
“…I concede.”
Before long, the third-year admitted defeat in utter despair.
His opponent had won without swinging a sword even once.
It was an absurd match.
“Ten matches, ten wins!! Gear is the best!!!”
That person was Ex.
“…He has good intentions, right?”
The Hero Party's sighs grew heavier, and their doubts only deepened.
***
There were several reasons Ex had borrowed treasures from the Imperial Family.
The first was to eliminate any unpredictable variables during the Tournament preliminaries.
Each Tournament participant fought a total of ten matches in place of a conventional preliminary round.
The more victories a participant earned during the preliminaries, the more favorable their placement in the main bracket would be.
So if Ex wanted to win the Tournament, taking all ten victories would give him a considerable advantage.
“Leon also went ten for ten in the preliminaries.”
「Then the bracket should be arranged so the championship favorites don't face each other too early. Naturally, the two of you will end up meeting in the finals.」
“And if I keep winning like this, then of course… Oh. Looks like word already reached the Imperial Prince.”
After finishing his preliminaries and returning to the competitors' waiting room, his Mana Phone began ringing.
The caller was Darius.
[The Tournament rules have been changed. Just like you wanted.]
“That was faster than I expected. I figured it would take at least a day.”
[One of the students you faced in the preliminaries was the child of a high-ranking noble family. Their family probably applied pressure.]
Ex had expected something like this.
The moment his preliminary matches ended, the Tournament supervisors had immediately called an emergency meeting.
Technically, the matches did allow unrestricted equipment, and every piece of gear Ex had brought into the arena had been approved beforehand.
But nobody had expected Ex, a mere commoner, to appear wearing fifteen different pieces of national-treasure-class equipment all at once.
No student had ever pulled anything that ridiculous before.
Even nobles who wanted to flaunt their family prestige wouldn't shamelessly drape themselves in every expensive piece of equipment they owned.
It was embarrassing.
“What a shame. It would've been nice if they kept the rules unchanged through the main Tournament.”
[You truly possess no sense of shame…]
In the end, the emergency meeting resulted in a new restriction for the main Tournament.
Each participant would be allowed to use no more than three pieces of equipment.
Creating the most equal conditions possible.
That was the second reason.
And then there was the third.
“Either way, I succeeded in making enough of a spectacle. By now, there should be more than enough of them gathered.”
[Yes. I understand. From this point forward, I have to begin the ‘selection process.’ Remember, my influence will no longer reach you once it begins. Whatever happens, you'll have to improvise and deal with it yourself. Are you sure you can handle that?]
The joint plan between Darius and the Chairman had finally reached its last stage.
Now it was Ex's turn to do his part.
“Doesn’t matter if I can handle it or not. I still have to do it. Besides, I’m not alone.”
「Don’t forget about me!」
[…Understood. Contact me immediately if anything happens.]
The call ended.
Ex took a deep breath and ran through the plan in his head again and again, rehearsing every possibility he could think of.
Then he remembered what he currently looked like and let out a long sigh.
“Why the hell am I this nervous over something like this…?”
「Of course you’re nervous. What you’re about to do is basically jumping into a pit of fire with a bundle of straw strapped to your back. Anyone would be nervous.」
Beatrice had discussed the plan with Ex countless times, so she knew exactly what was about to happen.
Naturally, she understood why Ex was uneasy.
「I agreed to take part in this plan too, but to be completely honest, I’m just as worried as you are. This is an incredibly dangerous gamble. We can’t control the risks, and we can’t control the rewards either.」
“But if we want the absolute best possible outcome, this is the only way.”
「…Then I suppose all we can do is pray for the Goddess's blessing and good fortune.」
Ex immediately stood up.
He gave all the national-treasure-class equipment covering his body one last inspection.
Then he stood in front of a mirror and carefully examined himself for anything that looked even slightly out of place.
Tiny details mattered here, so he checked everything thoroughly.
“Lady Beatrice, what do you think? Do I look like a Hero?”
「Honestly, your face is a little disappointing compared to Leon’s.」
“That’s because the bastard is annoyingly handsome.”
「Most people don't actually know what Leon looks like anyway. I think this is convincing enough to pass for a Hero. Approved!」
Ex opened the door to the competitors' waiting room and stepped outside.
At the far end of the narrow corridor, he could see the exterior of the Tournament arena.
He steadied his breathing.
Then, the instant he stepped out through the competitors' entrance…
“He’s here!! It’s Ex!!”
“Ex, look over here!!”
“We have questions for you!!”
Thousands of people.
As though they'd all been waiting for that exact moment, thousands of voices erupted at once.
A massive crowd filled every inch of the space before him.
Every single person there was staring directly at Ex.
All of them had been waiting for him.
“Is it true that you were chosen as a Hero?!”
Some had come to uncover the truth behind his claim that he'd been chosen.
“Hero! Please look this way!!”
Some had come merely to see the object of their admiration, the legendary figure known as a Hero, with their own eyes.
“…The target has appeared. Everyone, hold your positions.”
And some had come to carry out their own clandestine schemes involving the Hero.
Each person had arrived for their own unpredictable reason, and now the massive crowd had gathered to dissect every scrap of information they could obtain about this newly appeared Hero.
This was the third reason.
‘Now this is the reaction I should've expected.’
The crowd's frenzy was only natural.
When Leon had been chosen as the Hero, no one besides the students and faculty had witnessed it firsthand.
Everyone else had simply heard rumors passed from one person to another that Leon had become the Hero.
Ex, however, was different.
He had been chosen as the Hero right in front of everyone.
Then, dressed in a dazzling array of equipment, he'd swept every single one of his preliminary matches.
No matter how anyone looked at it, this had been a spectacular debut worthy of a Hero.
If someone asked which of the two, Leon or Ex, had left the stronger first impression as the Hero, there was no choice but to answer Ex.
Swoosh-
Ex raised one hand, signaling for the crowd to settle down.
From this moment on, he needed to become shameless enough to wear a hundred layers of iron over his face.
“That’s right. I am Ex, the one who has been chosen as a Hero. As all of you witnessed during the Tournament preliminaries, I can wield aura, magic, and sacred arts. That is the proof.”
No more testing the waters.
He gave the crowd exactly the information they wanted to hear, straight and unfiltered.
“Now, then.”
And in his capacity as a Hero, someone who would ordinarily be far beyond the reach of common people…
“I’ll take your questions.”
The crowd exploded.
–TL Notes–
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