Bonus Chapter: Life of an Ex-Hero My name is Liriel De Grace. My father is a soldier and my mother is a weaver of silk in downtown. I am only seven and I am good. I like my mother’s fried chicken the best. I dislike green things. I don’t want to become green. I want to become golden just like the fried chicken. The old guy across our house said that what you eat is what you will become. So I will never eat green things. The war is still going on and it has been two years already. The old guy across our home said that the casualty is bad this time. They are fighting a dragon he said! How cool it is if I can ride one in the future? I think mother will praise me a lot when she sees how awesome I am. My dad has not sent a letter though. How rude of him. Mother is quite worried already and her cooking is already becoming weird. I don’t know what is going on already. The official said that the crusade has been defeated. How can that be? Father is there and he is the strongest man in the world! I think the official is just lying. Father will never be defeated by anyone. The whole reason is he just wants to have my mother. He was really a pig. I better start training to defend my mother from that pig. A year has passed and I found myself in an orphanage. My mother became so depressed and started to drown herself with alcohol. The pig kept on bothering us and brought men to forcefully take my mother away. I was dumped along the road like a chicken. I think the old man’s saying is right. I did become a chicken. I don’t know if it is good thing or bad but an old couple took me in. They work under a noble as a gardener and a chef. My new parents are good people. I think the best there is. They even gave me new clothes and fed me until I am full. Now I can resume training as to not let the past repeat again. When I grow stronger, I will personally skewer that pig and take back my mother. Years passed and I am now eighteen. The world is really big. I am like a frog that only managed to somehow get out of the well. The couple who took care of me is now both old. I don’t think that they will last longer. I did what I can in my grasp but the life of a human is out of my control. Like how I predicted, they only lasted for another month before succumbing to old age. They died happily together and I don’t think that they have any other regrets in life. As for me, I am now at Elder Magus or the ninth-tier since I am more like a warrior than a mage. My life is smooth and I am reaping good things in life. I manage to win this competition and now I am a bit popular in my hometown. I managed to hunt down a nightmare level beast last week and for now, the reward ceremony. I heard that there will be foreign nobles from far away. I heard there will be a beautiful lady among them. I heard from one of the servants of the noble took me under his wing that she was famous across the lands. Apparently, she was a daughter of a duke. That was three times higher than my current noble master. The ceremony went smooth aside from one thing. I think I am smitten with the lady. Her graceful way when she moves was really a sight to behold. Even though she is graceful, she was also a fierce little spitfire. Her mouth is really fond of cursing and she was not merciful at all with her words. She says what in her mind and yet she still maintains the elegant demeanor she has. I really like her. I learned that her name is Rose. She was the second daughter of the duke and she was about to marry someone else. It broke my heart when I knew the information but I can feel her reluctance. I am not supposed to hope something else but I still did. Rose came close to me due to certain events that lead to this point. It was a bit complicated but I managed to crush the assassins sent by the political opponent of her father. Due to that, she got to know me and I got to know her more. She was really ambitious wanting to change the world. She wanted to be ruler of it so that no one can force her to do anything she does not want. Her reason is quite bad and simple but I still like it. Change the world with your own hands. I like the sound of that. Time went on and I reached the eleventh-tier when I am just twenty seven. The years I spent working my way up is not easy. The only good thing that I got from it is that I grew closer to Rose. She confessed her feelings for me but our social standing is making things really difficult. I need to gain more strength and stand out from the rest. That is the only way that I can think of. The passage will definitely not be easy but what is the worst that can come? I beat a monster senseless and I think I can manage my goal. That was how it is supposed to go. Sadly things went downhill. The duke somehow got a wind of my relationship with Rose and he was really mad. He took Rose the same day he received the information and I am left alone once again. Things happened badly for me after that. The noble started to hate me and started to harass me any other way. The worst part of it is that the noble master of mine did not even help me. He disowned me and things went worse from there. Without the protection of a noble, other nobles started to harass me more and more. Soon the final blow was given by the duke himself. He branded me as a traitor and I became a slave. I killed the pig to rescue my mother which I have not seen for so long. It is just too bad that I did not come earlier. She would not be broken down like that. I felt like it was a waste in effort and now I am branded as a traitor to be sold to the slave market. A crime slave which do not have any chance for freedom again. My master changed as fast as the days go by since I am not easy to control. I am already at twelfth tier and I can easily endure a few minutes of damage due to slave collar to kill someone. People are warry of me going crazy so I don’t have a permanent master. It all ended though when the arena bought me. For that, I am forced to fight and defend my life from your worst criminals out there. Me being stronger than them, I knocked them down until they don’t see any daylight anymore. I refuse to kill them even though they are the worst of criminals. I don’t know their history and I know that information can be formed easily and be proven but the reasons behind their actions are not included. Just like how I mutilated that pig to save my mother is not included in the report that I betrayed the empire by killing a noble. Funny how that noble harassed me every day due to fear of me retaliating and he still ended up dead in my hand. Two years have passed and now I am twenty four. I live my life in the arena fighting others which seem to get my point. There are no more kill shots but the fight is truly flashy. The audience loved the flashy fights despite the absence of death. The arena beaten me black and blue and sent me to the arena the next day for my first time pulling up that trick though. So far the arena was satisfied with the results of their sales and there came less and less penalty and soon the battles in the arena became a flashy display of skills. Accidents can happen but the guys learned to minimize the damage and not cripple their enemy. Some are rebellious so other prisoners came to agreement to cripple them back the next match so no one dared to kill another. The arena tried to remedy the situation but all gladiators just stood in the middle and put down their weapons during a royal rumble fight. The audience was booing so the arena has no choice but to retract their decision. The arena tried many more ways to stop us from forming an understanding to regain the bloody scene in the arena and some guys really paid their life for it. It was thanks to them that the remaining gladiators inherited their will and there are no more deaths in the arena even how much the arena tempted the others to go for the kill. The arena gave up in the end and just stop. They are well off with the profit anyway and losing all the gladiators will not benefit them at all. Days like that continued for another year until our fates changed. A whimsical emperor decided to sneak out of his castle to watch the arena. He was immature at only sixteen years of age. He was captivated by the fights in the arena that he bought all of the gladiators at present with so much gold. The amount was enough to compare with the tribute of a dukedom for seven years. Seventeen of us left the arena and we were employed as knights directly under the emperor. We are crass and we all have merciless mouth so nobles tend to avoid us. There was a lot of dissatisfaction from pretty much everyone but the shield of emperor is too big for them to cross. We are given new names and new freedom since then. We served the emperor and went to the front lines of the war. In the frontline, our fighting style is really flashy and so many people noticed us very quickly. Our moves were not that polished but it was enough to decimate some mindless beings sent by the demon lord. We might not be experts in killing but we are expert in staying alive. We gained experience then and our styles slowly changed from flashy to deadly. Our basics are a mess but we managed to somehow survive and bring glory to the empire. The emperor is truly ecstatic when we went back to the empire bringing our rewards from the frontlines. A head of a mighty beast, a huge amount of gold and lots of medals adorning our worn-out armors are the souvenirs from the war. The emperor was having his time in his life saying how right he is with his decision of buying all of us slaves. Maybe he was too happy and decided to honor us with titles. He gave us title of chevaliers which was the lowest of the noble ranking but we were still a noble in a sense. We have no territory but we are quite happy with the rewards. We went to the front lines frequently and went home with huge merit in our bags. Us seventeen brothers formed a massive group tearing the demon lord’s army apart and opening the way for others to massacre the demons. We became famous and we received countless medals of achievement. We always came home victorious and the empire was shining like a light in the dark. Our merits kept on pilling and we were rewarded with higher noble rank and finally territories. Our advances did not stop there and we kept on going to the front line to gain more merits and more rewards. When we are finally on the rank of marquis, we decided to take a year of vacation to do our things. Our souls were tired of the constant slaughter and we asked for a breather from the emperor. He was happy to grant it to us and we all split to go to our hometowns of finish some business that we have left. Aside from murdering nobles, we were granted of freedom to do anything we wish. I remembered Rose instantly when I left the walls of the empire. She was on another empire and I don’t know what happened to her. I decided to journey towards her empire to see how she is doing. It feels just like yesterday. Before I knew it, it has already been seven years already. I wonder what she is doing now. Did she marry that noble son she talked about? I am kind of afraid but we can see what is what when I see it. I journeyed for about a month before I reach the empire Rose was in. The travel was relatively pleasant aside from little and weak magic beast along the road. Bandits are rare and I did not manage to meet them sadly. All in all, I am happy to arrive earlier rather than later. The empire is rather harsh as their residents were too poor. The lands were ravaged by war since this one is near the front line and sometimes war reach here every now and then. I even saw how beggars lay down in the streets begging for death to come to them already. This is the sad reality of war. Despite our efforts, the army of the demon lord seems an endless rain. I don’t know if we can even win this war. We are winning the battles but I feel like we are losing the war. The demon lord was cooped up in his castle while casually sending hordes of monsters. Even with mountains of mountains we were able to kill, it will not end if we are not able to kill the demon lord. The worst part is that he summoned an ancient dragon apparition as his main force. I don’t think anyone is capable of slaying that dragon in a frontal battle. I took an entire week until I finally arrived at Rose’ manor. I did not inquire about her status along the journey as I want to see with my own eyes what have become of her. If there is a chance for our love then I will gladly spirit her away from this poor empire. If she already married someone then it is just too bad. When I saw her, she aged quite a bit but her beauty is still there. The fierce light in her eyes and her elegant demeanor still shines as bright as the sun. It was just too bad I am late. She already married the son of the noble which she resisted so hard in the past. She had two kids already and her life is stable and quite peaceful. I did not ask if she is happy since she already has a life. I do not want to do things that will only complicate things in the end. I learned my lesson already. I bid her farewell with a teary eye. I did not expect that a day will come when I will shed tears again. The last time I cried was when the old couple passed away. I did not expect that it will still hurt this much. I prepared myself with the worst case scenario but it still felt like a knife was buried in my chest. It felt suffocating but I did endure it. I left the empire with a sad look on my face. The weather seems to be sympathizing with me as it rained constantly along my journey back to my empire. The demon lord is still alive and I needed to do something in this life. I failed at love but I can still do something. I am almost at the fourteenth rank and I can be on par with the demon lord if there is no dragon to join him. When I arrived back to the empire, only five people made it back. Some met their doom as they extracted their own vendetta. We are all criminals. The worst of the worst back there and we are given a chance by the emperor to fulfill our desires. I did fulfill mine and I think the others did also. I received seven letters indicating the success of their business but they are sadly mortally wounded as a result. The five in my place were the last of my brothers. The other twelve embraced the mother Mirth peacefully with their wish fulfilled. The six of us went back to the frontlines and started a mad slaughter once again. The forces of the demon lord are as vast as usual but we are still way out of their league. The Alliance finally decided to have an all-out battle with the demon lord as they assembled a crusade once again. The past crusade ended up as a failure due to the sudden appearance of the ancient dragon but this time humanity is prepared to give its all to end the war once and for all. The preparation for the crusade went on and I met new people. I met some shrewd and sly bunch. I learned quite a bit from them and I also met some good people. People with the ambition to march forward for peace. There I met a daughter of a duke on another empire. She reminds me so much of my mother. She was gentle and meek while also have the brightest smile out there. Her name is Jenifer Alison. Her name sounds weird but apparently, she changed her last name herself not following the last name of her parents. Her parents were also gone and she is managing the whole dukedom by her lonesome. Interest grew and before I noticed it, I was holding a ring and offering her a marriage. The marriage will need to wait since the preparation for the crusade is ready. I and my five remaining brothers will head out and lead the crusade. It was a bit sad but I have something that will push me to come back alive. I want to live and see my children grow up in the future. I want to be by Jenifer until I die of old age. I want a peaceful life after this. The crusade was harsh as we lost so much people. The battle against the demon lord was literally bitter. My five brothers sacrificed themselves as they took on the dragon head on. They all ended up dead but managed to cripple the dragon. It was enough to stop it from interfering with my fight with the demon lord. I lost so much soldiers and friends along but the fight with the demon lord was surprisingly easy. Mysterious people showed up and killed the dragon when it tried to interfere and I ended the life of the demon lord. I was ecstatic back then. Knowing that I survived and I will be seeing Jenifer again soon. My tears kept on falling in a mixture of both happiness and sadness. I mourn for the dead and I cheer for the living. We are all going back. We are victorious and we will be heroes to be recorded down the history. Suddenly, the world turned dark once again. I learned the sad fate of the heroes and the demon lords. That demon lord whom I killed is actually the past hero three hundred years ago. Like me, he was also the hero and managed to kill the demon lord. After the explanations and the reasoning of the shadows, I learned that all heroes must become the next demon lord. I asked myself why is it. I lived and I should be living my life in bliss. Instead I will become the monster to unite the human race. I need to become the demon lord just like that. The fate of humanity will rest into my shoulders until the day I perish. I wondered what will happen to Jenifer if I do not return. Will she also have the tragic fate as Rose? Forced to choose someone else? Is it worth being the monster? I don’t know but I still took on the burden. From then on, I became the thirty-first demon lord. Black sword Liriel. “Now Mirah of Valeria house. Let us decide the fate of humanity once again!” I raised my sword and started the battle for the human race once again. Thousand years of solitude is enough. I will leave this world with a heavy heart but I will not leave it as it is. Anyone, please answer my prayer. I offer you my all. I wish to end this suffering by us pawns. I wish for liberation. May God have mercy on me. I hear your pleas little one. Your life did not end in vain. I will be sure to reward you. Come, Jenifer has waited long enough for you Liriel.