“Eh... it’s rare to see Vya this out of it...”

Jetri looked at the exhaustion on Vya’s face and thought that to himself.

“Breakfast.” He didn’t ask why. He just called Vya over to eat.

“Okay.” Vya answered softly.

They ate in silence.

Jetri finished first.

He wiped his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then said, “Vya, after Princess Victoria and Lilith come back, they’ll probably both have their own things to do, right?”

“Mm.” Vya gave a muffled reply.

“There’s no banquet in this world that never ends.”

“Mm.”

Or maybe... forget it?

It wouldn’t be impossible for the two of them to keep adventuring together a while longer...

Jetri looked at Vya’s gloomy expression and suddenly started wavering.

No, that won’t work. Without a rogue and a healer, adventuring is way too risky.

But... if it’s not something on the level of subjugating the Demon King, then maybe they wouldn’t need such a perfectly standard party setup...

Vya stayed silent, and Jetri couldn’t make up his mind either.

“I’ll go take a look at that book you mentioned. Until then, wait a bit,” Vya suddenly said.

“Huh?” Jetri froze for a second. “Oh, oh, okay.”

Vya stood up in a slight daze and headed for the kitchen with his tray.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’ll do it!” Jetri hurried over and snatched the tray from Vya’s hands.

Seeing Vya like this, he was a little worried.

Even though a level ninety-nine class holder probably wouldn’t get hurt even if the plate shattered.

In the middle of that motion, his hand completely wrapped around Vya’s.

So soft.

That was his first reaction.

Vya only glanced at him, then lowered his gaze.

He pressed his lips together slightly and said nothing.

But when that kind of lost, absent expression appeared on such a perfect face, even Jetri, who knew full well Vya was male, couldn’t help feeling his heart tighten.

It was captivating.

But! But!

Jetri, oh Jetri! How can you be falling for your bro?!

Vya’s a guy!

A guy!

Jetri sucked in a slight breath of cold air to calm himself down, gave a light cough, and turned into the kitchen.

Naturally, Jetri’s reaction was seen clearly by Vya. She hesitated for a moment, but in the end stopped herself from speaking.

Then she turned and left the house.

When Jetri heard the faint click of the lock behind him and the sound of the door opening and closing, he couldn’t help letting out a sigh of relief.

Heaven knew how he’d survived those days of fighting the Demon King.

Back then, they usually took watch in pairs. Victoria and Lilith were one pair. He and Vya were the other.

Naturally, when it was time to rest, they rested together too.

And every single time, Vya would just lie down beside Jetri and fall asleep with absolutely no guard up at all.

And because of a certain unspeakable urge, Jetri had tested several times whether Vya was really asleep.

From what he’d concluded, Vya really did sleep deeply.

God knew how, after confirming that Vya wouldn’t wake up no matter what he did, he’d managed to resist the temptation of that sleeping face, soft and beautiful like an angel, and that figure, far more slender and lean than an ordinary man’s, through sheer monstrous willpower.

The deadliest part was that once he lay down beside Vya, he could smell a faint, elusive fragrance.

For the first month, he barely got any proper rest at all.

Only later, when he was so exhausted that he’d pass out the moment his head touched the sleeping bag, did things improve a lot.

Maybe part of the reason he’d made up his mind to leave the party was because of Vya too.

He was a steel-straight man with absolutely normal sexual preferences, and after spending that long with Vya day and night, he was already showing signs of bending a little.

If his orientation had been even slightly less firm, then Vya probably...

For the sake of humanity, I’ve sacrificed too much.jpg

Jetri thought that while washing the dishes.

Meanwhile, after leaving the house, Vya wandered through her worries until she arrived in front of a bookstore.

Vya’s fame in the Delan Kingdom even surpassed the king’s, so naturally she drew attention all along the way.

Excited boys and lovestruck girls were all itching to approach her.

But because of the gap in status, they hesitated.

Normally, Vya wouldn’t mind whether she responded to them or not, but right now she wasn’t in the mood.

She walked straight into the shop.

The moment she stepped inside, the owner came out from behind the counter to greet her.

“Honored Valiant Hero, how may I help you?”

There was respect in his flattery, and admiration in his gratitude.

He was a miniature reflection of how the people of the Delan Kingdom viewed Vya.

“I heard there’s some kind of... party-leaving novel, is that right?” Vya asked with a gentle smile.

Her smile was warm, and her voice was very mild, but the content nearly made the shopkeeper want to commit seppuku on the spot.

The owner’s face stiffened. “Th-this...”

“Is there one?” Vya pressed.

“There... there is...” The owner gave a bitter smile and looked close to tears.

How was he supposed to know this great hero of humanity had come here just to ask about that?

The problem was, the problem was, that book had issues!

That was not something Lord Sword Hero should be reading!

Then again, the book really was pretty well written. Some of the “details” in it were especially the kind that made people brood over them late at night and let out creepy little giggles.

Sometimes he even had a disrespectful thought:

Could this book have been written by that Sage?

But it was only a thought. During the campaign against the Demon King, the members of the Radiant Star Squad had basically not been in the human kingdoms, and he’d heard that Lord Sword Hero and Lord Sage had a very good relationship.

And both of them were still single...

The owner’s thoughts drifted far away in an instant.

Vya’s voice pulled him back.

“Then could I trouble you to find it for me?”

The owner bit down and hesitated for a long time.

Ugh, whatever. If I die, I die!

It’s not like I wrote it!

“All right. Please wait a moment.”

Vya stood there and waited.

Only after a while did the trembling owner bring out a novel whose art style looked completely different from the current market mainstream.

What a flashy cover...

That was Vya’s first impression.

Then she noticed the “I” on the spine.

“Is it a series?”

“Yes.”

“Is the whole series out already?”

“Yes.”

At this point, the owner was in full answer-whatever-she-asks mode.

“All right, then bring me the whole set. I’ll buy all of it.”

“Oh no! I absolutely can’t let you pay! If you buy a set like this in my shop, I’ll sell thousands of copies tomorrow. I’m already taking advantage of you. How could I possibly let you spend money too?”

“All right, then I’ll accept your kindness.”

“As I should, as I should...”

The owner turned and went back in again.

When he came out, he was carrying more than ten books.

“This is the full set. Please have a look.”

“Mm...” Vya glanced at the numbers on the spines and nodded.

“Thank you. Then I’ll be going now.”

“Please take care, please take care...”

The owner’s expression was twisted with pain and conflict. Finally, just before Vya stepped out the door, he gave up and blurted out:

“My lady! I don’t know who wrote it either, but-but every bookstore in the royal capital carries it... Y-you...!”

“...” Vya paused. “Don’t worry. I won’t make trouble for you.”

After Vya left the bookstore, the owner slowly collapsed to the floor like someone had pulled out his spine.

He didn’t even have the mood to receive the endless stream of customers that came after. He just lay there on the ground, muttering to himself.

If you got close enough, you’d probably hear him saying:

“Not me, not me, I didn’t do it... grievances have their owner, debts have their debtor, wuwuwuwu...”

Meanwhile, back in her room, Vya opened the novel titled After Leaving the Party, They All Came Looking for Me with a serious expression.

What a weird title too...

That was what she thought.

She opened the first page.

Oh, he left the party.

Second page.

Hm? Why is the Hero in this story portrayed like this?

Third page.

Huh?!!

...

By the time she finished just the first volume, Vya was already pale and swaying.

There was a scene in the book where, after the protagonist left the party, his teammates suddenly realized how important he was. They also saw the true face of the party leader, and one by one they all went looking for him.

What the book wrote was a little absurd, but if she compared it...

If Jetri really left...

Would Victoria and Lilith go looking for him too...?

They probably would, right?

And as Jetri had been formally appointed a true Hero after the Demon King subjugation, he was incomparably noble even in the royal capital, let alone if he went to some remote countryside.

Th-then those “village girls” and “mercenary girls”...

She suddenly felt the world spin around her.

...

“Your Holiness, I heard Lord Sword Hero bought that book today.”

“Oh? What’s that got to do with me?”

“How does it not have anything to do with you? You wrote it.”

“Mm. And?”

“But why did you write that kind of book? Aren’t you afraid Lord Sword Hero will come knocking?”

“Not afraid.”

“But, but that would be a completely unnecessary conflict?!”

“You don’t understand Vya. That person wouldn’t fall out with me over something like this. Conflict is even more absurd. Besides, it’s just a fictional novel. Why are you making such a fuss over it?”

The Holy Maiden smiled pleasantly.

The two stood there in silence, one on the steps and one below.

From beyond the bright, airy floor-to-ceiling windows, the choir’s sacred hymn drifted faintly into the hall.

Inside the grand and holy sanctuary, a girl dressed as a cardinal stared at the Holy Maiden standing upon the sacred steps with an expression like she was about to suffocate.

The Holy Maiden of the Church ranked second only to the Pope, and since she was also the Pope’s granddaughter, she was practically guaranteed to become the next Pope.

And this posture of standing in attendance was not about serving some person. It was a bearing of “serving the gods.” In other words, it was a display of status and rank.

Yet from the crystal-clear, delicate lips of this Holy Maiden, who looked incomparably pure and beautiful, came nothing but shamelessly irresponsible nonsense.

“Y-you... where exactly did you even learn this kind of...” The girl had only recently risen to become a cardinal. In terms of talent and ability, she could be called the number one person in the Church aside from the Holy Maiden.

And she was very close to the Holy Maiden.

They’d been close since childhood.

Because they were sisters.

Blood-related.

“Mm... learned it from the protagonist in a novel, maybe?”

The Holy Maiden said that meaningfully.

The young cardinal looked at her own sister, who now felt so unfamiliar, her face full of despair.

And in her heart, she dismembered that wild brat who had led her sister astray ten thousand times over.

“Your—”

“No need to say more. We still have to attend the ceremony this afternoon. We’ll all meet then.”

The Holy Maiden smiled.

Like the warm sunlight outside the cathedral.

Like the holy choir singing in the distance.

“You can’t possibly still be planning to—during the ceremony—”

“Who knows?”

The Holy Maiden still wore that warm, gentle smile.

But the young cardinal didn’t feel warm in the slightest. All she felt was a chill run down her back.