「Hero? What is that? 」

The cat named Willis introduced himself as a hero. It seems they aren’t a cosplay group.

「Yes, I am the hero who will save the world! The world is doomed without me! 」

「Ha? Save the world? 」

「The Great Demon King has revived! No one can defeat him but me! Isn’t it natural to help the hero, who will save the world? 」

The Great Demon King is me, or so I didn’t say. It seems that I attracted the troublesome bunch again. However, those guys are the hero’s party. I wonder what skills they have.

Willis (Cat Tribe’s Royalty, 14 years old) LV6
HP: 8/49
MP: 14/14
Sword Arts LV1

Shera (Cat Tribe’s Royalty, 13 years old) LV5
HP: 30/38
MP: 10/16
Recovery Magic LV1

Amalia (Cat Tribe, 14 years old) LV6
HP: 24/35
MP: 4/17
Recovery Magic LV1

Yuriel (Cat Tribe, 15 years old) LV7
HP: 20/51
MP: 13/13
Liberal Arts LV1

……..Low! Far from being a threat, it is a miracle that they survived in the forest. Calling himself a hero with these skills……Are they naive or just idiots? Since they are the royalty, is it the former? Or neither?

「You managed to survive here. There are plenty of monsters in this forest」

「…..When I entered the teleportation magic circle, I ended up here」 [¹]

The cat named Amalia answered me. Teleportation magic circle? Is there such a thing? Where?

「…….It transferred us here and immediately disappeared」

The hell is that?

「Where is your house? Please guide us there for now. If there are villages or towns nearby, you can lead us there. I won’t ask for anything extravagant at this point. I’m counting on you」

The male cat named Yuriel said while approaching me. You think that you aren’t asking for anything extravagant, but you do.

「My house? Denied. If we are to talk about the villages, there is one in a day of walking from here. Of course, on adult legs. Do your best walking」

The hero’s and the princess’ faces froze.

「The great Demon King has revived! Everything will be destroyed if he isn’t defeated! No one can defeat him without me! 」

「Shut up」

I held back and released a LV4 fire spell. The snow melted and a part of the forest turned into scorched earth.

「If you can’t do at least this much, forget about the Great Demon King, you won’t be able to even leave this forest. Can you cast such spells? If you can’t you should have made a backup plan」

「Amazing! Rejoice, I will add you to my party! Come on! Protect our rear and let’s head for the Great Demon King! 」

…….As I thought, he is retarded. What kind of thinking pattern should one have to turn the conversation in this direction? Idiots are scary.

「I’m not interested in you, the Great Demon King or the destruction of the world. Even if the world is going to be destroyed, you won’t be able to protect it in any way. You guys, who requested you to slay the great Demon King? 」

Everyone became silent.

「You are just a self-proclaimed hero, right? The hero is something that should be recognized by others. Even 3-year-old kids can proclaim themselves as heroes. Picking a fight with the Great Demon King without being aware of your own ability, I’m getting exasperated just by listening to it. If you like playing hero so much, do it at home. Don’t involve the other people」

「Offender, I won’t forgive you!」

The self-proclaimed hero took out the sword.

「I told you that I will protect you! I told that I will save the world and this is your gratitude!?」

「I didn’t ask for your protection. All you do is just trying to 「forcing the good」. To be honest, it is a bother. Rather than that, you should thank me for accompanying you until now with this stupid conversation」

「You!」

The sword was swung towards me. I folded it. However, it didn’t break. Seems like it is a pretty durable sword.

「Fu, fufufufu. This is the orichalcum sword. A national treasure of our country. I won’t forgive a puny servant going against me, with this you will be split……gufuh! 」

Without listening until the end, I struck him in the stomach. Then, I punched that annoying face.

Willis flew away with blood streaming out of his nose, crashed into the tree and fell on the ground.

「Uh, uu」

「As I said, you are weak. You will die without a doubt in this forest」

「We apologize if we offended you. Please help us. At least, save Prince Willis and Princess Shera, please help them」

The cat girl named Amalia desperately begged for my help. Apparently, the conversation is possible with this girl.

After that, I asked Amalia about their circumstances. I could see a lot of things with my skills, but decided to ask myself before I came to know more than I should. [²]

It seems these cats came from the Piao Kingdom situated behind the sea, north of the Niza Duchy. Apparently, it is a country created by the evolved cats. It is not unusual for monsters to gather together and create a kingdom, but they adopted the human culture.

The self-proclaimed hero Willis is the fifth son of the King. Shera is his younger sister.

The evil aura that appeared several years ago reached all the way to the Piao Kingdom and they concluded that it was a sign of the resurrection of the Great Demon King. They decided to postpone any action until the Great Demon King revealed himself, but this idiot of a prince decided to subjugate him.

The prince, who didn’t pay any attention to his studies and martial arts, started to work hard towards his goal of subjugating the Great Demon King. Everyone was glad at first, but as this prince kept improving, he grew overconfident. Then, he stole the treasured sword and armor, took his sister and his subordinates and snuck out. Of course, the King wasn’t aware of this. He thought that as long as he slew the Great Demon King, everyone would forgive him. A nice picture that was drawn by an idiot.

「We have no food to return back and no place to stay. We will all die at this rate」

Desperately begged Amalia. I silently put the barriers on the four. It can retain the heat and protect them from danger.

「I cast the barriers on you. It should last until the night of the day after tomorrow. Do you best to reach the village until then. It is west from here. There is a river close by. Follow the river westwards and you will find the village. I bet you are hungry. I will leave some food for you. Bread and smoked meat. If you split it well, it should be enough to reach the village」

I took out the food from the infinite storage followed by a wooden water bottle. I poured the water produced by water magic inside and warmed it with a small fireball.

「Your body should be pretty cold. I will give you some hot water too」

Yuriel and Amalia stared wide-eyed at my actions. Amalia was afraid and timidly accepted the bottle with her head lowered.

I and Irimo took our distance from them.

「I’m tired. I’m really tired, Irimo~」

「It was such a surprise. I never expected them to behave like that. I became disgusted for first time in a long while」

「I can relate to that. Let’s go back and sleep」

Irimo spread her wings and flew away. The sky was full of stars. I hurried home while healing my heart by this scenery.