Chapter 250: Outburst

"Was Warren actually a Hero...?"

Xiao Tao asked Warren timidly, his eyes wide with surprise.

"No, no, no! Absolutely not! I’ve never heard anything like this before! I don’t understand what’s going on either!"

Warren hurriedly rattled off his denial.

The kingdom’s dignitaries, who were just as blindsided by the revelation, also began raising their voices.

"How could such an absurd thing be possible!?"

Yet amid all the commotion, Prince Lucien was somehow smiling calmly.

"There is no doubt that he is the one chosen by the Divine Sword."

"Lucien, what exactly do you mean by that!?"

"Try holding the sword. Then you’ll understand."

At the prince’s words, the female knight Arana stepped forward and reached for the Divine Sword Velikorya.

Just as before, the sword immediately moved away from her hand as though deliberately avoiding her.

The older men stared in disbelief and began reaching for the sword themselves, but the result was exactly the same.

"That’s impossible!"

Then Prince Lucien reached out his own hand.

"It does not work even for me."

The sword lightly knocked his hand away.

Only then did the king turn toward Warren.

"Can you wield this sword?"

"Well... I suppose I can use it. Or rather, I can at least hold it."

Warren reached out his hand.

The sword immediately settled into his grasp as though that were where it had always belonged.

Everyone around them stared in astonishment.

"What in the world is going on...?"

The king suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Come to think of it, Saintess Sherria once said something about a Saint descending upon Coalora. Could it be that...?"

Oh no! That’s talking about him, not Warren! They’re getting the wrong idea!

Qiu Nuoya was just about to say, "That’s..." when Viktor quietly called his name.

"Nuoya."

His voice was gentle, but there was an unmistakable force behind it.

At the same time, Qiu Nuoya felt an overwhelming pressure from Viktor that clearly said, Don’t say anything.

Qiu Nuoya immediately fell silent.

Warren, for his part, apparently could not bring himself to offer Qiu Nuoya up as a scapegoat by saying that the king was actually talking about him.

Instead, he simply shook his head.

"That’s a misunderstanding."

"I... I am just an adventurer. There is no way I could be a Hero."

"But the Divine Sword chose you."

The king’s expression remained stern. Beside him, the queen quietly watched the scene.

"Hero Warren, I welcome you."

"...Huh?"

Although his expression remained serious, the king continued speaking.

"Our kingdom is currently facing a crisis. Prince Lucien may already have told you this, but the situation with the Demon King’s forces is becoming increasingly precarious, and the Monster Stampede could occur at any moment. There is much information we have kept hidden so as not to needlessly fuel the people’s anxiety, and we have been preparing countermeasures, but the situation remains dire. We summoned Hero Xiao Tao as a last desperate hope, only for him to disappear. I had already resigned myself to the possibility that the peace of our kingdom was hanging by a thread. But..."

The king turned toward Warren with a resolute expression.

"You are a chosen Hero who has been sent to us alongside the Divine Sword of our first king. I welcome you. Please, I beg you to help our kingdom."

The king bowed his head.

Warren could only stand there in confusion, unable to find the words to respond. But once the king bowed, the kingdom’s dignitaries followed suit and lowered their heads as well.

At that point, Warren had nowhere left to escape.

In a sense, this was a situation where a Hero had suddenly been presented to the kingdom as a substitute for Xiao Tao, the other-worlder who had been brought here as a summoned Hero. Even Xiao Tao’s face grew paler as he watched everything unfold.

Qiu Nuoya himself had also been pursued after coming to this world, with people calling him a saint, a sage, and all sorts of other things. But once someone’s escape routes were completely cut off like this, there was nothing the person at the center of it all could say in protest.

That was exactly why Qiu Nuoya had fled from such troublesome affairs back then.

Still, even in a situation where most people would be unable to talk back, there were always some people in this world who could argue without thinking twice.

"Are you guys idiots!? Xiao Tao wasn’t good enough, so now you’re pinning your hopes on the Hero chosen by the Divine Sword? Are you old men just going to dump all your problems on someone else and sit back to watch from a safe distance? Seriously, that attitude pisses me off so much!"

Shangguan Wan’er raised her voice and openly confronted the kingdom’s highest-ranking officials.

There was fearless, and then there was Shangguan Wan’er. Perhaps this was the kind of boldness that came from being young and not yet understanding how society worked.

Qiu Nuoya had spent most of his previous life being thoroughly taught about social hierarchies and the importance of respecting people based on their age and position. Because of that, Shangguan Wan’er’s behavior looked both terrifying and reassuring to him.

Standing beside Shangguan Wan’er, Prince Lucien wore his usual relaxed smile, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Qiu Nuoya had originally thought the prince was simply a slightly clueless young man, but there was something about his attitude that reminded Qiu Nuoya of Cassian, Viktor’s father.

For a moment, Qiu Nuoya wondered if Prince Lucien was actually one of those people who were far more shrewd than they appeared.

"Saintess Shangguan Wan’er, that was not my intention..."

"Then what was your intention!?"

"Well, that’s..."

"If you’re the king of this country, then protect your people and lead the fight on the front lines! Don’t leave everything to other people, throw some money at them because you’re in trouble, make decisions without their consent, and then force someone else to put their life on the line for you! You idiots!"