The Replacement of the Sword Hero

Chapter Nineteen: Hero's Bane

After a few minutes, I stood up again. The surface of the road was overturned by Zaifa's earth magic, but there was no blood. I checked the legendary sword but it was also free of any bloodstains. I let out a sigh and took a step forward. The sword in my hand changed from the Lich King Sword to the newly acquired Communication Fragment Sword, I thought I had best equip it for a while to unlock its abilities. Almost immediately, I began to hear a faint noise, like radio static. Intermittently breaking through the static were clearly discernible words.
"...Lost contact...Failed......"

"Mr Wilkinson?" Atla called out. I looked around at my remaining party members who were following me. My feet had been moving unconsciously as I was trying to eavesdrop using the Communication Fragment Sword. When I turned to face them, the static noise ceased.
"Did you hear that?" I asked.
"I didn't hear anything." Answered Fohl.
Eclair shook her head. "Sorry, me neither."
"Never mind." I said, turning back along the path. "Come on, let's get going."

My companions fell into step beside me. Atla stuck especially close to my side, twirling her spear in merriment. Fohl walked quietly on Atla's other side, watching her fondly. On the other hand, Eclair looked rather subdued, as if something was troubling her.
"Is everything alright, Eclair?"
"Hmm? No, don't worry Sword Hero. It's nothing." She replied.
"Okay. Speak up if anything is bothering you." I said.
We carried on walking in silence for a few minutes before Eclair decided to speak again.
"Actually, I was just thinking about my father."
"I see."
"As you know, he died in the first wave which occurred near Lurolona village which was in our territory."
I nodded along and kept listening.
"I wasn't there at the time. I was in the capital, and my father and his soldiers fought and died without me. After I heard about the wave, I returned to find that everything had been destroyed. Not by the monsters, but by humans. Soldiers under the new knight commander were capturing and enslaving demi-humans. Seaetto estate had been looted and the mansion where I grew up had been burned down."

Eclair took a deep breath and shook her head, brushing her long hair to the side of her face.
"I started hunting down the soldiers responsible. I caught and punished a few of them, but the anti-demi-human faction had the backing of the king. When I was eventually captured I was dragged before the king, stripped of my knighthood and thrown into the dungeon. You know the rest of the story..."
"Would you rather have killed him yourself?" I asked.
"No, as I said, you were the most qualified to pass judgement. Besides, I didn't want to hear anything he had to say." She replied.
I thought for a moment before asking. "Does everybody get EXP from killing a person? It's not exclusive to heroes, is it?"
"Everyone can get EXP. Although it isn't as efficient as when killing monster."
I frowned. Efficiency. That's the only difference between killing a person and a monster in this world.

After a few hours of walking, we found the inn Zaifa had mentioned. The road had been clear until now, devoid of either humans or monsters. Now that the inn was in sight, we could see several carriages stationed outside and a filolial stable.

"What should we do now?" I asked. There was no sign of Zaifa yet.
"I'm hungry, why don't we get something to eat?" Fohl suggested. We entered the inn and ordered a meal. After eating there was little to do except wait for Zaifa to rejoin us. We got ourselves rooms for the evening and left our belongings upstairs, then the four of us found a table in the far corner of the inn, and passed the time drinking and telling stories about the world I came from.
"The world you come from; it sounds rather like Faubrey... I hear they have motorized carriages that run on hard roads there."
"Have you never been to Faubrey, Eclair?" I asked in surprise.
"No, although I would have gone there in search of the queen if I hadn't become your slave. I heard that she is embroiled in a diplomatic nightmare caused by king Aultcray's summoning of all four holy heroes to this land." Eclair let out a sigh. "My father always spoke highly of Faubrey, saying that it was the inspiration that we should be pursuing, a nation founded on the ideals of the four holy heroes where both humans and demi-humans coexist in peace."