kscans

Chapter 125 - The Heroine Gets Captured!?

"Wh-why meeee!?"

In a spacious stone prison cell. Enveloped in the dark, damp air, the crybaby hero Ares was crying again today. The reason was clear.

She had been traveling happily with a zombie from the Demon Lord's army, and upon entering the royal capital, she, the hero, was arrested on suspicion of treason.

"B-but… that person (the zombie) is so good at embroidery and so kind, and his tea smells so wonderful…"

"That testimony is only making it worse… are you an idiot?" Outside the cell, the soldiers were whispering.

"Just as I thought. I knew there was something off about that hero girl."

"To think she was in league with the Demon Lord’s army…"

"Nah, she’d just be used by them. She seems like a pushover."

Inside the cell, Ares sat huddled with her knees to her chest, trembling.

"…I knew someone like me couldn’t be a hero… I want to go home…"

Just then.

A suspicious person wearing a bucket on their head descended from a gap in the cell’s ceiling.

"…Yo, is this any time to be crying, hero?"

"Eh? A bucket?"

"Nah, it’s a disguise."

"Eh? Sensei!? Wait, not sensei! Not master, Coach!?"

"You’re too loud!! You’ll blow my cover!!" The man in the bucket was the Hobgoblin Mamoru.

Having heard that Ares was captured in the royal capital, he had disguised himself as a janitor with a bucket and mop and snuck in.

"What are you doing… If you have time to cry, you should be protesting. Fighting. Making your case."

"B-but… to not even be trusted by humans… I’m just…"

Mamoru placed a hand on Ares’s head, patting it gently.

"Listen up. ‘Allies’ aren’t determined by a banner, but by actions. Whether they’re human, or a zombie, or a Hobgoblin like me… if you have even one person who believes in you, that’s an ‘ally’."

With tears in her eyes, Ares gave a small nod.

"Alright, let’s break out."

"Eh!? Right now!?"

Mamoru pulled out, for some reason, a vinyl umbrella from his waist.

"It’s the ultimate equipment for deflecting the guards’ line of sight. Combined with the bucket, I’m invincible."

"In what way!?"

Their escape, acted out as a "newbie cleaning crew duo" with a bucket and mop while dodging the guards’ eyes, proceeded surprisingly smoothly, protected by the soldiers’ comments of "The floor is so shiny…"

But waiting for them at the exit was…

"You’re so slo~w♡ I was going to come get you, but I thought I’d be considerate and wait♡"

It was Zombie Count Robele.

Apparently, Robele had entered the royal capital on an invitation for an embroidery contest.

"H-how did you get in!?"

"For an embroidered dress exhibition♡ I won the grand prize for my ‘Queen of Roses Who Blooms Even in Death’♡"

"That’s way too amazing!!"

The three of them then boarded Robele’s "emergency princess carriage" and, unbelievably, broke through the main gate of the royal capital.

Mamoru spoke.

"You said something good back there, didn’t you. That allies are determined by actions. Robele here, he might look like this, but he’s been an ‘ally’ all along, you know?"

Ares smiled, her face on the verge of tears.

"…Thank you. Coach… And Robele-san, too…. I want to become stronger." Then she looked up at the sky and murmured.

"Being a ‘hero’… isn’t about your position, is it. It’s about your resolve."

Mamoru, embarrassed, pulled the bucket down further over his head.

"You say something good once in a while, don’t you."

The emergency princess carriage raced toward the setting sun.

"Tomorrow will surely be a happy day, ohohoho♡"

Robele surely winked, I think, with his skull side. Though he doesn't have eyelids.