Akira was threw some distance, but he was able to defend, plus his artifacts helped with defense of his level. He received no damage besides social ones.

“Hey!”

The princess looked above again, she held back upon seeing the gigantic entity looking at her, there were no glowing eyes this time though.

[Don’t bother, she is like that. The peace treaty is more important.]

“... If you say so…”

The prince arrives and stands at the side of his sister, his expression is a little unsettled though, maybe he noticed he had to intervene here, but was too late as Vermillion had already warned his sister.

“Hero Akira... I apologize for not noticing you, and being unable to stop my sister.... I heard the story from the Knight Captain, and I was given the authority to decide on our Kingdom best interests.

Should we talk? I suppose that… princess Vermillion (?) over there will join the talks.”

“Sure. [Milly, it’s time for the talks.]”

Princess Ulrika seemed to have been startled when the Prince mentioned Vermillion joining the talks. Meanwhile, Vermillion suddenly corrected her posture and made an overly serious face that almost looked comical.

“I’m ready.”

The prince was startled for a moment, but seeing her response, he calmed down.

“You two seem to have a good relationship.”

The prince was able to make a friendly smile, that felt sincere, but his sister seemed to have been acting quite panicky as of now. The prince held her hand and with a look that Akira couldn’t properly see, she reluctantly stopped, her face was still a little blurred from her earlier crying.

Knight Anastacia came to her side, and after a small greeting, took something that looked like a napkin or a handkerchief and started cleaning the princess’ face. Vermillion seemed curious to what was happening down there.

“Should we sit too?”

The Prince signs for the knights to carry some chairs. Three chairs arrive, The prince and the princess on one side, and Akira right in front of Vermillion who is sitting cross legged.

“First, I will place this microphone in the center, this will allow Vermillion to hear our conversation and participate. Do you see any problem with it?”

“Simple but efficient artifacts as always, please, go ahead.”

Akira places the microphone in a stand in the center after Prince Orlando permitted, then sat in his chair. Some of the Knights were around for “safety”, but not many. They are to stay quiet and only act in case one of the sides starts acting violent.

“Then, Hero Akira. Correct me if I get anything wrong.

You were summoned in our Kingdom, was supported with our finances, refused to fight and one day was suddenly gone with just a small note saying that you would try to meet with the Demon King. It has been almost 4 months since then, and you now have appeared seemingly having accomplished your claims.

May I ask for details?”

“Yes, then let’s see, I was kidnapped from my world and forced into your Kingdom, then tasked with some ridiculous tasks like ‘save the world’ or ‘save us’ soon after I was robbed of everything I had.

Using my knowledge from my world, I tried to fix everything through the method constantly used in my world, and while certainly dangerous, I was able to talk with the Demon King who was a very reasonable person.

Was there a problem in my methods?”

“No, it’s certainly unexpected, my dear sister here is a big fan of Heroic tales. Sister, was there ever a hero like this in the past?”

“No brother, this is certainly an unorthodox case.”

“Sister, you say ‘unorthodox’, why did you use that wording?”

“Because the Goddess asked us to defeat the Demons, but the Hero did something unwanted.”

“I see… Hero Akira, I’m not sure how it was that you were selected by the Goddess, we don’t claim to know everything either. You said you were “kidnapped”, but to us, we found out we were to be attacked, received reinforcements, who then betrayed us. How do you see our side?”

“Prince Orlando, you ask me how do I see your side, but may I ask how do you see my side, and what are the benefits of siding with you?

If I may say so, the problem is your Goddess, isn’t it? Instead of selecting some random people, she should just give you guys cheats and stuff.”

“We may not understand the Goddess intentions, but as people protected by her, we only follow up on teachings-”

“So you people do whatever this Goddess asks? Even if you don’t know for what reason they are for?”

Vermillion interrupted the prince, obviously, with how loud her voice is, he could only leave her to talk.

“Princess Vermillion, I’m not sure how are things with the Demonic Gods or anything like that, but we survive thanks to the blessings of the Goddess, hence we do our part in worshiping and following her guidance.”

“I see, so this is why humans are weak, they are just pets.”

The one with a surprised face was Akira now, he looked behind him with a surprised faced to see what Vermillion was doing, but her face was serious. Once she noticed Akira looking at her, she could only return a wry smile on her face.

[Hey, Milly, what are you talking about, I told you to stop the whole weak stuff, that’s just your mother’s fetish.]

“Akira, sorry about that but it’s important, I had to confirm a few things for father after all.”

The prince noticed from Akira’s expression that he was surprised by this exchange.

“It seems that Hero Akira was also blinded, is the Demon King perhaps planning to use the Hero to defeat humanity then throw him out? Hero Akira said before fleeing that he couldn’t see sense in the war, hence his actions. Did you find the reason? Or maybe they told you a lie to get you on their side.”

“We never lied to Akira, but we did hold some truths. Those truths were passed to me. I’m Akira’s ally.”

The prince thought he had found an entry point, but Vermillion replied with a proud voice, however, the princess jumped from her chair.

“You thief! You stole our Hero, and now you call yourself his ally! Who are you!? You demon!”

Princess Ulrika shouted as high as she could, Akira and Vermillion were surprised, the knights kept their appearance, but even the Prince showed a shocked face for an instant, replaced by a tired face soon after.

“Sister, sit.”

“Brother, those Demons stole our Hero and now are planning to use him against us, we can’t-”

“Ulrika, sit!”

With Knight Anastacia leading her back to her chair, the princess returned to her chair, but her face was angry and constantly glaring at Akira.

A few seconds of silence.

“‘Our Hero’, is that it? Who am I, again?”

Akira noticed the way he was called.

“Hero Akira, I’m sorry for my sister’s outburst, as you probably know yourself, she is like that. Please, ignore her.”

The princess who was glaring at Akira suddenly had a shocked face upon hearing her brother, and lowered her face. It seemed that she was aware that it was a personal problem, and that she was wrong about something at least.

Akira returned to his conversation with the Prince.

“I understand, will do, however, this is something you mentioned before, I’m the one called for by that Goddess, and then I ‘betrayed’ you?”

“By ‘us’ I meant humanity, I’m sorry if I didn’t make myself clear enough. But yes, that was it.”

“Who said I had joined your ranks? What if I was on the Demon side all along and was just using you to get to the other side?”

“What you say doesn’t make sense, I’m sure you were summoned to the side of humans of this world, and a complete newcomer that didn’t even knew about Demons and Monsters from your reactions to the new information. You assumption is a lie.”

“Sure, it’s a lie, but can you tell me what I’m thinking? It’s not like I can’t lie, I’m human right?”

“What are you trying to imply with this poor argument?”

“What I’m saying is that you are trusting too much on your tradition. You thought I was a certain type of Hero, which I am not, your goddess took me from my home and family, and place me to try to fix your shit, which I ended up doing, but now you are telling me that my methods were wrong, and that I should have done the way you wanted.

Why did you need me if you already had a method then? Shouldn’t the people of this world fixed it themselves?”

The Prince went silent with those words, but the princess returned.

“The Goddess sends a hero to lead the humans to a new path, leading us to progress, prosperity and union, this is something only the Outworlder can do.”

“So you say I’m to lead humans? Here I am trying to lead to something, but the humans are saying I am wrong. Shouldn’t you be following my words?”

The Princess opened her mouth multiple times, but no sound came out of it. She then stopped and went silent too.

“So, either I’m right, the goddess is right in selecting me, and I’m trying to lead you to peace, but humans are making me out as some traitor, or I’m a fake hero, and your goddess was wrong in selecting me, which would mean your goddess may have made mistakes previously before too, and rather than being a traitor, the problem lies in the relationship between you two.”

Vermillion added with a serious voice.

“Shouldn’t humans try to grow up by themselves instead of relying constantly on their gods?”

The Prince remained silent, but then sighed.

“It’s weird, I agree with everything you said, and in a way, thinking logically about it, I feel like we are in the wrong when you put it that way. Our goddess gave birth to us humans, so it’s correct for us to resume our worship, but I do think that maybe we should rely less on her.

She summoned Hero Akira to defeat the Demons, so I would expect there to be a need to kill them like in the legends says… But maybe this ending is different this time?

Should we interpret the Hero as the guidance of the Goddess looking for peace with the demons? Or should we keep our traditions even if that may go against what the Goddess did. Right now, I’m leaning towards the Hero. Ulrika, what do you think?”

The princess sighed and closed her eyes.

“I agree, heroes had always been a moving force in history… Perhaps, this is just a new type of story that will be told in the future...”